The teammates were all in the room, and Yu Zhaohan was carried back to the room by Shi Du using a koala hug. Yu Zhaohan lay quietly on Shi Du’s shoulder. Since Shi Du couldn’t free his hands to open the door, Yu Zhaohan still remembered to take the initiative to help.

Shi Du said: “Okay, there are only two of us now, do you want to turn into a Yuyu?”

Yu Zhaohan said: “I have changed a long time ago.”

You’ve turned into a fish and still talk so little? This was a bit difficult to coax.

Shi Du carried Yu Zhaohan and walked to the bed. According to usual practice, Yu Zhaohan should have gotten down by himself by now. However, Yu Zhaohan didn’t say anything; he just held Shi Du’s neck tighter.

Shi Du smiled and asked, “Don’t you want to come down?”

Yu Zhaohan said despondently, “I don’t want to, but your hands… I should get down.”

Shi Du hugged him tightly and didn’t let him move: “If you don’t want to get down, just stay here.” He shifted his position, sat down on the edge of the bed while still holding Yu Zhaohan, and handed the rubber duck on the bedside table to him. He sat on the bed, and Yu Zhaohan sat on his lap, facing each other.

Shi Du examined Yuyu’s face under the soft light – he hadn’t cried, nor did he show much emotion, but he gave off an air of sadness.

Professional players had a high turnover rate, and transfers and retirements were common. When he transferred from IPL to R.H, he did so smoothly. Although his IPL brothers were reluctant to see him go, they hadn’t reached the point of shedding tears yet.

But Qi Xian is different. Being forced to retire due to injury was the worst way for a professional player’s career to end. Moreover, for Yu Zhaohan, Qi Xian was not only Clown but also a good friend who had fought alongside him since the Wan Feng era.

Yu Zhaohan whispered: “When Qi Xian retires next year, R.H will no longer have long red hair, and will only be able to open his eyes with his eyes wide open – but it doesn’t matter,” Yu Zhaohan comforted himself, “R.H. still has the silly and sweet Cheese, the macho Xiao Jiang, the socialite Old Tan, the anxious Lu Youshan, the newcomer Shi Tou, and…”

Yu Zhaohan thought of something, lowered his gaze, and didn’t continue.

Shi Du asked, “You don’t want Qi Xian to retire?”

“…Yeah.”

“But Brother Xian’s hand cannot be cured. Whether he only practices four hours a day according to the doctor’s instructions and is left behind by his opponent who practices eight hours a day, or if he practices extra and worsens his wrist, his decline in performance is inevitable. It’s better to give it one last push, to shine brilliantly and retire at the peak. I guess that’s what he’s thinking.”

“I know all of this, but I’m still sad.”

Yu Zhaohan felt this way not just about Qi Xian but also about Wan Feng, who had introduced him to the world of esports. When Wan Feng left… Yu Zhaohan was only eighteen at that time.

Shi Du thought about it and couldn’t help but ask: “How did you survive when Wan Feng left?”

Yu Zhaohan’s body trembled.

“Sorry Yuyu,” Shi Du patted Yu Zhaohan on the back, “If you don’t want to talk about it, you don’t have to.”

Yu Zhaohan shook his head. There was nothing he didn’t want to say to Shi Du. “…It was with Little Dinosaur and my mom.”

Shi Du chuckled: “I actually forgot about this. Do you wear dinosaur pajamas every night, hide in bed, and call your mother while crying?”

Yu Zhaohan defended himself, “Not ‘every night,’ maybe only once every two days. Sometimes I was too tired, and I fell asleep before I could cry.”

The dinosaur pajamas were too big and inconvenient to carry, so they only brought light decompression props.

Shi Du regretted not bringing the dinosaur pajamas to Korea. “But what can we do? There’s no Little Dinosaur here. Why don’t you just cry and cry in a beautiful way, and give me a feast for my eyes?”

“Shi Du, why are you like this?” Yu Zhaohan said dissatisfied, “Are you really trying to comfort me?”

Shi Du just laughed. “Well… Isn’t that what I’m doing?”

“The male protagonists in novels never comfort like you.”

Shi Du raised an eyebrow. “Then how do they comfort? Is there a documented technique? Show me.”

“I haven’t compiled a document, but it’s definitely not like what you’re doing,” Yu Zhaohan recalled scenes from novels. “They would say things like ‘Baby, don’t be sad.'”

Shi Du deliberately teased, “I won’t say that; it’s too cheesy. How can grown-ups call each other ‘baby’?”

Yu Zhaohan felt that he should be angry at this time, but his stinky brother who was against him was so handsome that he couldn’t get angry. “It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to say it. I don’t blame you. Just hug me.”

Shi Du smiled and said, “We didn’t bring the dinosaur pajamas, but we have something else. How about I play some ball games for you to watch?”

That sounded much better than “Baby, don’t be sad.”

Yu Zhaohan happily peeked his head out of Shi Du’s embrace. “Sure, thank you.”

Shi Du politely replied, “You’re welcome.”

In the end, Yu Zhaohan agreed to Lu Youshan’s tank-centered tactical arrangement.

On the weekend, the game came as scheduled.

The match between R.H and Sakura was scheduled as the second game. The first match was played between Guangzhou ZC and the tenth-ranked team in the Eastern Division. After four rounds, ZC secured a relatively easy 3:1 victory, marking their second win of the season.

“ZC’s performance is getting better and better. Right now, they might not even lose to Cobra,” Old Tan sighed. “It’s a pity they rose too late.”

Even if ZC wins all the remaining games, their points will still not be enough for the playoffs.

“It’s not too late.” Qi Xian said, “They still have next year.”

ZC came to greet everyone in R.H after the game, and they stayed to watch the next two games.

Before going on stage, Yu Zhaohan specifically confirmed with Qi Xian about his condition. “How are you feeling?”

Qi Xian smiled and replied, “I’ve never felt better.”

Yu Zhaohan nodded but was still concerned. “Don’t push yourself too hard. There are many different tactics.”

“But this tank-centered one is unique,” Qi Xian joked. “I should take advantage of this opportunity to gain some more fans. Who knows when the next chance will come?”

Cheese appeared out of nowhere and draped an arm over Qi Xian’s shoulder. “I understand Qi Xian very well. With double C’s like the captain and little brother, it’s hard not to doubt that fans won’t notice us at all.”

Shi Du thought for a while and couldn’t refute: “Indeed.”

Cheese blinked: “I really want to hit you.”

When they were about to go on stage, they came face to face with members of the Sakura team. While there was no obvious enmity between the two teams, a few of the Korean players seemed to have some reservations about Timeless and didn’t give them friendly looks. Timeless, however, was even more indifferent, not bothering to acknowledge them, and played with his own phone, treating these people as if they were invisible.

Kaoru was a typical hot-blooded Japanese boy. When he saw Tokiwatari, he pointed at him and said “You.”

Shi Du looked up from his phone: “?”

“Timeless,” Kaoru said in somewhat broken Chinese: “Please, fight to the death with me!”

It was clear that he had practiced this sentence specifically, even using inverted word order.

Shi Du smiled: “I declined.”

Kaoru couldn’t understand Shi Du’s words and tilted his head with a confused expression.

Cheese whispered: “Compared to others, Little Kaoru looks quite cute.”

In today’s match, R.H’s starting lineup consisted of the most common Shine and Timeless as the double C, with Clown and Cheese as the tank and support. The Sakura team also used their favorite 3-1 split lineup, with the “1” being the Japanese “genius” assassin, Kaoru.

Many viewers were looking forward to the first showdown between Timeless and Kaoru this season, including Kaoru himself. However, in the first two maps, R.H stuck together as a group of four, and Kaoru never had a chance to face Timeless one-on-one. Clown alone was enough to give him a hard time.

Clown used the most mobile tank, and the entire R.H team revolved around him, with Cheese providing healing and damage reduction buffs exclusively to him. Timeless and Clown worked together as the tank and C, leaping into the Sakura team’s backline recklessly, causing havoc. The Sakura team’s support was repeatedly caught out of position.

Kaoru attempted to flank several times but couldn’t find anyone to assassinate. He was also caught and killed by Shine twice, forcing him to follow the main team into front-line team fights. This was where the drawback of having a mixed lineup became apparent. Kaoru and his three Korean teammates were not on the same page, and when they were low on health, there was no one to heal them. It was even more frustrating than being imprisoned. Judging from Kaoru’s stats alone, it was hard not to ridicule “the genius of the generation” for not performing well.

Seeing that the Sakura team had saved up four ultimates after losing three consecutive team fights, Stone, sitting on the substitute bench, became nervous. “The next team fight will be difficult to handle.”

Lu Youshan said: “Sakura Team’s occupation progress is only 0%, and we are already at 70%. We can afford to lose a wave of team battles.”

In a situation where they were at an energy disadvantage and had a deficit in ultimates, some team fights were unwinnable. The players were aware of this and didn’t use any ultimates during the inevitable team fight, saving them for the next attack.

The damage from the four ultimate moves was poured into R.H.’s back row, and Cheese couldn’t even heal them even though he had eight healing lines. After the Double C died in battle, Cheese used his ultimate ability to increase defense and damage for Clown.

Cheese regretted his decision as soon as he used his ultimate. All four members of the Sakura team were still standing, and no matter how hard Clown tried to hold his ground, he couldn’t win against all four of them alone. The ultimate he had painstakingly built up should have been saved to coordinate with Timeless’s ultimate.

Cheese quickly said, “My bad.”

“Why is it suddenly your fault?” Shi Du calmly replied. “Chances are, Brother Xian can hold his own.”

The cold air in the arena was turned on sufficiently, but Qi Xian’s forehead broke out in a layer of sweat, and he smiled and said, “It’s so touching that little brother trusts me so much.”

Yu Zhaohan said: “Hold on.”

It was impossible for the tank to kill all of them 1V4, but as long as the tank was not dead and was still on the target point, the Sakura team would not be able to occupy the target point.

Qi Xian only took half the damage from the enemy with the tank boosted. He used his shield to block a quarter of the damage and skillfully avoided another quarter with his positioning.

The Sakura team was growing anxious. They only needed to kill the last remaining player to capture the objective, but Clown just wouldn’t die. Tanks were big and had large heads, making headshots seem like an easy task. However, the Sakura team’s sniper rifles were rendered ineffective as Clown relentlessly fired back at them from point-blank range. Bullets flew in every direction, and they couldn’t even find the right moment to aim.

Qi Xian held on, enduring the damage from four opponents and even managed to kill the Sakura team’s sniper.

This was the limit of what he could do.

When the time was up, the effects of the hormones wore off, and Qi Xian’s health bar rapidly depleted amidst the hail of bullets. With just a sliver of health remaining, Kaoru could have taken his life with a single skill. At that critical moment, a bullet from R.H’s resurrection point, traveling through numerous obstacles, found its mark on Kaoru’s head.

His team captain was holding a sniper rifle at the distant resurrection point, providing him with the greatest support.

Timeless resurrected for the second time, rushed to Qi Xian’s side, and swiftly killed the Sakura team’s support. The last to arrive was Cheese, and upon seeing him, he frantically fed Qi Xian heals, steadily filling up his nearly empty health bar.

In this way, he held onto the target point, dragging the game until his teammates returned.

“He defended it!” Lu Youshan pinched Old Tan’s arm and shouted, “Qi Xian defended it! He actually defended it!”

Old Tan was also screaming, and he didn’t know whether it was because he was excited or because he was being pinched.

The Sakura team failed to seize the target point, and the target point was captured by R.H with a 100%:0% occupation advantage.

This was playing a match with the most optimal strategy, and it felt fantastic. A round that could be won in just ten minutes, who would want to waste another ten minutes dragging it out?

In the end, R.H won the match 3-0.

After three short rounds, Clown carried the whole game, rightfully earning the title of MVP. The fans’ cheers for Clown even surpassed Shine and Timeless, who had been dominating the scene for years.

Aside from the outstanding performance of R.H’s tank, Alligator saw something deeper. He asked Old Tan, “I heard that Kaoru taunted Timeless before the match?”

Old Tan rubbed his arm and said, “Sort of, but Timeless didn’t even pay attention to him.”

“Timeless has become much more stable in his playstyle since transferring to R.H,” Alligator marveled. “If he were still in IPL, he would have retaliated with his skills during the match. He wouldn’t have willingly let the tank take over as the C.”

Old Tan proudly said, “That’s because our team captain taught him well.”

As soon as Cheese came off the stage, he couldn’t wait to log on to Weibo.

[Clown is going crazy! Do you even remember you’re a tank?]

[Terrifying, this is not normal human play.]

[I’ve been saying Clown is a top-three tank in the league]

[Although, Brother Xian’s own image is really very different from the heroes he plays]

[The longer the hair, the fiercer the hammer swings.]

Cheese said excitedly: “Xianxian, you’re definitely going to trend without even trying. That 1v4 defense of the objective point was so cool—Xianxian?” Cheese couldn’t find him and turned around to see Xianxian’s expression. His face turned pale all of a sudden. “Xianxian! What’s wrong?”

Qi Xian’s face was pale, his left hand clutching his right wrist, which was trembling uncontrollably. He managed a weak smile. “I’ve been practicing pretty intensely these past few days… I’ll be fine after some rest.”

“How can it be fine?” Cheese exclaimed. “Your hand is trembling!” He had been in esports for two years and had a certain understanding of the professional hazards of their line of work. Qi Xian’s hand trembling like this couldn’t be resolved with just some rest.

Cheese’s first reaction was to look for the captain: “Captain! Captain, look at Xianxian!”

Yu Zhaohan was chatting with Alligator about today’s match. He heard Cheese’s shout, rushed over, and was stunned by Qi Xian’s trembling hand.

He forced himself to stay calm, suppressing his worry and fear, and said: “Jiang Di helped Qi Xian to sit in the lounge. Old Tan, please call Qi Xian’s attending physician and ask for emergency measures for this situation. Stone, have the driver get the car ready… Timeless, go for the official interview. Cheese, come with me to get some ice.”

Cheese didn’t want to leave Qi Xian at this time: “Captain, I…”

Yu Zhaohan knew what he was going to say: “Listen to me.”

Everyone followed the team captain’s instructions. Qi Xian kept his head down, his face mostly hidden by his long hair. It was difficult to discern his expression. “I’m sorry for causing trouble for everyone. I’m deeply sorry.”

Yu Zhaohan brought Cheese to the staff and explained his needs in simple English. The staff asked them to wait a moment.

Cheese was so anxious that he kept talking: “Captain, what happened to Xianxian? I think his hand looks very serious… Has he been like this for a long time?”

Yu Zhaohan was silent for a long time before nodding slightly.

Cheese’s eyes turned red instantly: “Captain already knew?”

“Um.”

“Why didn’t you tell me…” Cheese’s voice was filled with tears, “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

Yu Zhaohan said: “If we told you, you’d cry. Qi Xian doesn’t want to see you cry.”

Cheese was taken aback, hugged Yu Zhaohan, and sobbed, “Captain…wuwuwu…”

“Don’t cry. Qi Xian is already going through a lot; don’t add to his burden, and don’t keep asking him questions,” Yu Zhaohan said while letting Cheese hold onto him. “You’re already 21; be more mature.”

Cheese gradually calmed down, then muttered, “Captain, can Qi Xian continue to play?”

Yu Zhaohan calmly stated the facts. “I don’t know.”

Cheese sniffled again and released Yu Zhaohan.

It must be said that Cheese looked both cute and unsightly when he cried. His mouth was so big that he could even produce bubbles from his tears.

The staff brought ice packs for cooling, and Yu Zhaohan asked Cheese to take them to the resting room while he waited for Timeless to arrive.

Shi Du was not in the mood to be interviewed, so he said a few perfunctory words and hurriedly walked off the stage.

Yu Zhaohan stopped him: “Timeless.”

“Captain,” Shi Du walked towards Yu Zhaohan, “How is Brother Xian? Is he okay?”

Yu Zhaohan said: “Please accompany me to the bathroom first, and we will go see him together.”

Shi Du looked at Yu Zhaohan’s world-weary face and pulled him away to a deserted location without saying anything.

When there was finally no one around, Yu Zhaohan couldn’t bear it anymore and threw himself into his boyfriend’s arms.

“Shi Du, Qi Xian’s hand was trembling so badly, and he must be in pain. What should we do? What if he doesn’t recover? That last game might have been the last one we played with him.”

Shi Du touched Yu Zhaohan’s head: “It’ll be fine, the doctor will definitely find a way.”

“I want to cry, Timeless.”

“Don’t cry, Yuyu, Brother Xian s already going through a lot. Let’s not make him feel even more guilty.”

Yu Zhaohan insisted, “I want to cry.”