As the saying goes, to do a good job, one must first sharpen one’s tools. If you want to try the extra expenses, you should at least wake it up; otherwise, it’s impossible to try.

Yu Zhaohan checked the instruction manual again and said, “Please make it rise.”

At such a critical moment, shouldn’t the atmosphere be ambiguous, faces blushing, and heartbeats racing, with even the temperature of the air rising? Why did it feel more like conducting a chemistry experiment?

Shi Du and Yu Zhaohan looked at each other with big eyes, “Do you think it’s a crane, lift it when you want to?”

Yu Zhaohan held the plastic bag and reasoned with his boyfriend: “Shi Du, you’re eighteen this year. Eighteen-year-old boys should be able to lift it when they want.”

“Nonsense. According to you, is it as simple as drinking water? Besides, it’s an independent entity, not under my control. What you say to me is useless; you have to talk to it.”

“It doesn’t understand what I say.”

Shi Du raised an eyebrow, “How do you know if you don’t try?”

After some thought, Yu Zhaohan said, “I’ll still talk to you, and you can convey it—Good evening, husband. Husband look so handsome when you’re playing, I like husband so much.”

Shi Du: “…”

The three affectionate “husband” calls from the aloof beauty could make not only an eighteen-year-old but even a twenty-eight-year-old man rise.

Yu Zhaohan stared at Shi Du’s sweatpants and poked them, “Look, isn’t this good enough?”

Shi Du covered his face in despair: “As expected of you.”

Yu Zhaohan tore open the package and said expressionlessly: “Relax, I’ll help you put it on.”

Yu Zhaohan put in 100% research spirit and strictly followed the operating steps according to the instructions. He also paid special attention to avoid touching the fingertips to avoid scratching the plastic with his nails.

“There we go.” Yu Zhaohan admired his masterpiece, “It turns out it’s so easy to use this.”

Shi Du supported his head with his hands and said helplessly: “Are you done playing? Let’s wash up and go to bed.”

Yu Zhaohan looked up at him: “Of course not, you haven’t tried it yet.”

“Not tried?” Shi Du chuckled, “What do you mean… What are you doing now?”

“Right now, I’m just getting ready,” Yu Zhaohan said without much thought, “You’re the one who needs to try it on me.”

Shi Du thought he misheard, mumbled in confusion, “No, what do you mean… tonight? Now?”

“Yes, we don’t have training tomorrow, so it doesn’t matter even if I’m not comfortable.” Yu Zhaohan lay flat on the bed, closing his eyes. “Come on.”

Shi Du: “.”

Yu Zhaohan looked so resigned to death that without his face, Shi Du would have been afraid that he would wither again, although in fact he had never withered once.

Saying that he might wither was just him talking big. There was no way he could wither when he was with Yu Zhaohan.

In the warm yellow light, Yu Zhaohan lay on his bed, eyes tightly closed. Although visibly nervous, with his eyelashes trembling, and his fingers tightly interlocked, his face remained expressionless, like a gaming character model.

Most people don’t dare to post pictures like Yu Zhaohan’s, because it’s too unreal, and others will think it’s fake when they see it.

Looking at him, Shi Du gradually blushed and felt his heart pounding, sensing that even the temperature of the air was rising.

Yu Zhaohan waited for Shi Du for a long time. When he was about to open his eyes, he felt the bed sink, and the familiar breath of the boy approached him.

Yu Zhaohan’s chest tightened, his heart almost jumping to his throat.

It was strange. In his understanding, reaching this stage in a relationship, just like the post-game analysis they would do, was something natural. He had prepared himself for it long ago, but why, when it really came, did he still feel so nervous?

Shi Du’s voice sounded in his ear. Although deeper than usual, the tone was still familiar, “Don’t be nervous. When you’re nervous, it makes me nervous too.”

Yu Zhaohan mustered the courage to open his eyes and reached out, grabbing the boy’s shoulder. “I’ll do my best, and you don’t need to be nervous either.”

……

An hour later, Yu Zhaohan and Shi Du were huddled side by side on the bed, with their heads lowered and each scrolling through their mobile phones. The air pressure in the room was extremely low, but no matter how low it was, it would not be enough to overcome the air pressure on his body.

Yu Zhaohan completed his research and said, “Shi Du, I asked anonymously on the Internet.”

Shi Du looked ashamed, “Oh, you really asked.”

“Don’t worry, many couples are like us. They failed on the first try, and some succeeded after trying more than a dozen times.”

Shi Du raised his eyes: “Is that true?”

“Yes,” Yu Zhaohan comforted his little brother by patting his grey hair, “couples of all genders go through this. It doesn’t have to succeed in one night, especially for us. Don’t worry; this doesn’t mean we’re a foolish couple.”

Shi Du scratched his hair irritably: “The main reason is that as soon as you said it hurt, I didn’t dare to move. I was afraid of causing you more pain.”

Yu Zhaohan thought to himself that Shi Du was really good at shifting blame to him. It hurts in the first place, and if Shi Du were in his shoes, he’d also say it hurts, and even a tough guy would feel pain.

But he understood that his little brother was young and inexperienced, so he said, “You can ignore whether I hurt or not.”

“No,” Shi Du said without hesitation, “there are still games to play, and I can’t mess you up at this time.”

He also checked online; if not handled properly, such matters might cause fever and serious consequences, possibly requiring a hospital visit.

Yu Zhaohan sighed, “Shi Du, what do you think we should do?”

Shi Du remained silent for a long time, and Yu Zhaohan stayed silent with him. Suddenly, Shi Du sat up straight.

“I’m so unwilling.” Shi Du took a deep breath and rallied, “No, we’ll try again.”

Yu Zhaohan agreed and suggested, “How about we change positions? You try the back; maybe it’ll be simpler.”

Yu Zhaohan quickly realized that it had nothing to do with positions; it would hurt regardless.

He couldn’t help but call out softly: “Ah.”

Shi Du held Yu Zhaohan’s waist, innocently asking, “It didn’t even touch you. Why are you ‘ah-ing’?”

Yu Zhaohan turned to explain, “Because when it comes later, I’ll definitely feel pain, so I ‘ah’ in advance, to build up the mood.”

Shi Du looked at him with a complicated expression for a while, then suddenly laughed: “Pfft—”

Yu Zhaohan, feeling the weight on his back, found Shi Du laughing uncontrollably, pressing him down.

“We really seem like two idiots,” Shi Du laughed, “This is killing me…”

Yu Zhaohan frowned, “Shi Du, can you be a bit serious? This is not funny at all.”

“Damn it, forget about trying, we can have a lifelong spiritual romance.” Shi Du changed to a sitting position, picked up Yu Zhaohan and carried him into his arms, “I feel so bad when I see Yuyu’s little face turning pale in pain. Let’s not bother trying this.” Lowering his head, he fiercely kissed Yu Zhaohan’s lips, almost turning it into a bite. “Let’s try something else today—don’t you need to give commands these days?”

“No, I don’t.”

After brushing their teeth and coming out of the bathroom, Shi Du placed Yu Zhaohan on the bed and said, “Wait, I’ll get you some pizza.”

After two hours of turmoil, the pizza had long gone cold, so Shi Du reheated it in a pan.

Although the recent experience was stimulating, Yu Zhaohan still felt a bit regretful. Wearing gloves, he held the pizza in his hands, took a bite, and then passed it to Shi Du’s lips. “It’s okay if you break me after the finals.”

“Sure.” Shi Du swallowed the remaining pizza in one bite, “Or, like a first kiss, I’ll make it unexpected.”

Yu Zhaohan asked: “How come it was unexpected?”

Shi Du half-seriously said: “For example, if I drug you and attack you while you are asleep, you won’t cry out in pain. What is this called? Oh, adultery.”

Yu Zhaohan’s eyes lit up: “This is a good idea, then you can do it.”

Shi Du: “… Just don’t call the police.”

On the second day off, everyone in R.H had a good time relaxing. Except for Lu Youshan, who persisted in reviewing, even Yu Zhaohan did not have additional training.

In the past few days, he had been under pressure preparing for the Lawman match, facing the possibility of a long-distance relationship with his boyfriend. Shine was still a human, and humans needed rest.

Yu Zhaohan accompanied Shi Du to sleep until noon. After a simple cleanup, they planned to stroll along the Champs-Élysées, visit the Louvre to see how “Louvre” it was, and the Notre-Dame Cathedral to see how “Notre-Dame” it was. Shi Du also wanted to buy two bags for his mom that were not available in China

Shi Du knew that his mother cared about her son and would not give him a hard time like his father. It was easy to make his mother happy. Once his mom compromised, other things didn’t matter. As for his father… who was he?

After spending half a day lightly exploring Paris, they returned to the hotel. Suddenly, Yu Zhaohan asked, “Shi Du, are you still upset? Upset because the first night failed.”

“I’m fine. After all, there are still matches to play, and it’s not good to be distracted at this time. But…” Shi Du looked around to make sure no one else could hear their conversation. “We can’t let others know that we’re so dumb that we can’t even get into bed, understand?”

“I understand. I won’t tell anyone.” Yu Zhaohan assured him. “I just wanted to say, if you still feel upset, we can find Cheese to vent.”

Shi Du: “…Hmm?”

There was no ready-made training room in the hotel, so Old Tan rented a small meeting room for them to review and train.

Yu Zhaohan’s promise to help Cheese with training wasn’t just a casual remark. In the previous matches in the Eastern Division, despite being targeted due to having two powerful C-positions in his own team, Cheese’s elimination rate still remained at a relatively low level.

Now, in the Western Division, there were snipers with a headshot rate similar to Shine and assassins who easily pulled off triple kills. Targeted by them, Cheese had to rely on strong protection from teammates or practice elusive movements to survive as a support.

In the game, there were ten support heroes for Cheese to choose from. His solo opponents were none other than their own double-C, who was also a candidate for the regular season MVP.

If he played violent support like Jiang Di, there might be hope for a one-on-one against a mid-to-low-level C-position, but they were Timeless and Shine.

It would be impossible to win in this lifetime. Yu Zhaohan didn’t expect Cheese to win. His request for Cheese was: “When Timeless comes to kill you, he should able to survive one more second. When it comes to the real match, those extra one or two seconds may be enough to wait for teammates’ help.”

So, in this seemingly ordinary lounge, Cheese experienced the darkest time of his life.

He was killed by a ninja behind him, smashed to death by a gladiator descending from the sky, and tortured to death by the sudden appearance of a virus…

He was blown up by a bomb, beaten to death by a hammer, crushed to death by a trap, shot to death by a laser…

He wasn’t playing a designed game; he was playing a horror game.

Cheese practiced with all ten heroes, ten lives for each hero—he was solo-killed by Timeless a hundred times.

On the one hundred and first time, he profoundly experienced what despair truly meant.

Cheese huddled weakly in the corner, thinking he had escaped the assassin’s sight. Little did he know that the next second, the female assassin’s voice echoed in his ear, “Nice to see you again, dear.”

A chill ran down Cheese’s spine, and he jumped into the river without thinking, drowning himself.

Shi Du said: “What are you doing? Are your hands slipping?”

Cheese looked numb: “I would rather die while holding the fragrant branches than wither away in the cold northern wind.”

Shi Du understood and turned to Yu Zhaohan, saying, “Captain, we have someone messing around here.”

Yu Zhaohan walked over and glanced at Cheese. Cheese shrank his shoulders and, bowing his head, admitted, “Captain, my mistake.”

Yu Zhaohan said, “Timeless, take a break, let me take over.”

Facing Timeless alone was a horror game, it was like a Resident Evil or similar zombie game. At least, you could see the monsters. However, facing Shine alone was an indescribable fear.

You didn’t know who he was, where he was, and you couldn’t even see him. You only saw the red dot on your head, and then—bang!

[R.H.Shine killed R.H.Cheese]

Killed with one shot, he didn’t even have time to jump into the river.

Yu Zhaohan calmly said, “You think you’re hiding well? In my sniper scope, your head is quite large. Does wiggling help?”

After Cheese discovered the red dot, he moved around frantically in an attempt to hide his head. A sniper with unstable hands might not be able to get a headshot.

Cheese said weakly: “I’m sorry…”

“But your reaction time is much faster,” Yu Zhaohan should scold or praise, “Not bad, there’s progress.”

Cheese couldn’t count how many times he was shot on the head. He was almost in a trance. After being praised by the captain, he was instantly resurrected with full health: “Continue, Captain. I think if you shoot me another 100 times, I might…”

His words were interrupted by Old Tan who opened the door and came in.

“Everyone,” Old Tan said with a smile on his face, “Look who is here.”

A long-haired man walked into the meeting room behind Old Tan. He had a slender figure, tied with a wine-red ponytail, and smiled with curved eyes.

“Xianxian?!” Cheese suddenly stood up and rushed over to hug Qi Xian. “Wuwuwu, Xianxian, you finally came! You have no idea how I’ve spent this day!”

“I know. I heard from Old Tan. It’s said you’ve died more than two hundred times, and your head is about to explode from being shot by the Captain,” Qi Xian consoled Cheese briefly, pushed him away, and walked towards Yu Zhaohan and Shi Du.

“When did Brother Xian come?” Shi Du and Qi Xian bumped fists, “You didn’t tell us in advance.”

Qi Xian smiled and said, “I wanted to give you a surprise.” He looked at Yu Zhaohan and said, “Captain.”

Yu Zhaohan smiled slightly: “Welcome back to the team, Clown.”