…
Chen Jing complained about being hungry since they hadn't had dinner yet. The three of them left the stadium and hailed a car to a nearby hot pot restaurant.
Even though it was almost nine o'clock, the hot pot restaurant was still packed. The three of them waited by the entrance for about ten minutes before a waiter finally cleared a four-person table for them. Sudaan Novel Network
After they were seated, Chen Jing scanned the QR code with his phone and was about to hand it to Sheng Kuang to order when Sheng Kuang's phone rang.
It was Xiao Mo, the current mid-laner for GDT.
Sheng Kuang answered, and through the phone, he clearly heard Yang Sinian's voice on Xiao Mo's end: "Waiter, bring us a pitcher of beer first."
"Kuange," Xiao Mo quickly said, "We're celebrating our victory. Brother Yu asked if you're coming?"
Sheng Kuang replied, "No."
Xiao Mo said, "Alright, then I'll see you at the base later."
After Sheng Kuang hung up, Chen Jing scrolled through his phone screen, ordering dishes, and asked, "Xiao Mo?"
Sheng Kuang responded with a casual "Mm."
Chen Jing continued, "He invited you to the celebration banquet?"
Sheng Kuang remained silent.
After Chen Jing finished ordering, he pushed his phone over to Sheng Kuang, "See if there's anything else you want to add."
Sheng Kuang didn't look at it and directly told them to place the order.
While waiting for the food, Chen Jing browsed Weibo. After only a few minutes, he couldn't help but curse, "Fuck, GDT is truly disgusting."
Lan Bowen ended a call with his girlfriend checking up on him and asked, "What's wrong?"
Chen Jing explained, "Kuai's fans went to GDT's official Weibo and cursed them, saying GDT deceived their fans. GDT's explanation was that Kuai wasn't feeling well today, and then GDT shamelessly bought another trending topic for that Yang Sinian guy, hyping up how amazing his jungle play is, surpassing Kuai from back then. GDT is so shameless, just to promote their new star players. How long has Yang Sinian been getting this much attention, and he still can't stand on his own? He always needs to be tied to Kuai to generate buzz."
Chen Jing grumbled for a while, then looked up at Sheng Kuang, "Kuai, the spring season is ending, and the new transfer window is starting. If you miss this year, you'll have to wait another year. Is GDT still preventing you from transferring?"
Lan Bowen let out a knowing cold laugh, "Does that even need to be asked? Even after not playing for over a year, Kuai's popularity is still the highest. GDT won't let him go until they've squeezed every last drop of his value."
Chen Jing exclaimed, "Damn it, if only there was evidence for what happened back then. If there was, we would have fought them to the death by now."
Compared to Chen Jing's explosive anger, Sheng Kuang appeared completely indifferent.
Chen Jing, unable to stand it, kicked his shoe under the table, "Kuai, you can't keep living like this. This professional career is a young person's game. Your prime only lasts a few years; you can't afford to waste them. Anyway, you're a good student. Why don't you go back to university?"
Sheng Kuang didn't even lift his eyelids. "No."
Chen Jing pressed, "Then what do you want? You can't just keep sitting on the bench and watching the water dispenser, can you?"
Sheng Kuang didn't respond to Chen Jing's question and turned to Lan Bowen. "How's your back injury?"
"Still the same," Lan Bowen poured himself a glass of water. "If my back really couldn't take it, maybe the number one mid-laner position in KPL would still be mine."
…
After finishing the hot pot, Sheng Kuang returned to the GDT base. It was already midnight.
Everyone had gone to the celebration banquet for the semifinals, so the base was empty, with hardly anyone around.
Sheng Kuang went back to his room, took a shower to wash off the smell of hot pot, pulled out a chair, played a few games, and then went to bed.
Before sleeping, he checked Weibo again. Just as Chen Jing had said, the online buzz was raging, with talk that Yang Sinian was the true number one jungler in KPL and Sheng Kuang was a thing of the past.
As Sheng Kuang scrolled, he somehow ended up on the Weibo page of @甜甜甜甜同学.
What Chen Jing had told him before the match flickered in his mind. He thought for a couple of seconds and then navigated to @甜甜甜甜同学's profile.
Sheng Kuang fell asleep while browsing Weibo.
The next day, when he woke up and unlocked his phone to check the time, the first thing he saw was a stimulating and sensual image.
He blinked in surprise, then flipped his phone over. Seeing the word "miracle" carved on the back, he confirmed it was indeed his phone.
After a few seconds of processing, he finally understood what was happening and couldn't help but curse himself internally for being crazy.
It was one thing for others to draw him like that, but he had even started studying it.
If that wasn't crazy, what was?
Sheng Kuang tossed his phone aside, picked up a T-shirt, put it on, and walked into the bathroom in slippers. After taking a shower, as he was squeezing toothpaste onto his toothbrush, there was a knock on the door.
Holding his toothbrush in his mouth, he lazily ambled to the door and opened it.
It was Xiao Mo.
"Kuange, you're awake."
Sheng Kuang didn't say anything and stepped aside.
Xiao Mo glanced around the hallway to make sure no one was there, then quickly slipped into Sheng Kuang's room and closed the door.
He stood by the bathroom door, looking at Sheng Kuang, who was slightly bent over, brushing his teeth with his hair still damp. After a moment of hesitation, he took a few steps forward. "Kuange, there's something I want to tell you."
Sheng Kuang gargled, spitting out a muffled "Speak."
Xiao Mo hesitated for a moment, then closed his eyes and blurted out in one go, "Kuange, last night during the meal outside, I accidentally overheard Yang Sinian suggesting to Brother Yu that you play in the KPL finals exhibition match. So that everyone would know that your skill has declined and you're like an entertainment player now, only able to play exhibition matches. Then, Yang Sinian also told Brother Yu to have you be the commentator for the finals."
Sheng Kuang paused.
Xiao Mo mumbled, complaining, "He's participating in the finals, and he wants you to commentate for him? Isn't that basically saying to the outside world that you've retired and can only be a commentator for the new generation of professional players..."
Upon hearing this, Sheng Kuang suddenly let out a laugh. "It's actually quite interesting."
As he spoke, Sheng Kuang tossed his toothbrush into the cup, grabbed a few tissues, wiped the water from his face, and threw them into the nearby trash can. "It's really quite interesting."
Xiao Mo slipped away after delivering the gossip.
Sheng Kuang fiddled with his hair in the mirror, put on his team uniform, and went downstairs for breakfast as if nothing had happened.
As breakfast was almost over, Yang Sinian woke up and entered the dining hall with messy hair. He saw Sheng Kuang and was taken aback. He greeted him, "Kuanshen."
Sheng Kuang moved his eyelids slightly and slowly pulled out a tissue to wipe the corners of his lips.
Yang Sinian stood by the water station, pouring himself water, and with a harmless smile, called out again, "Kuanshen, I'm really sorry about yesterday. I got a bit carried away, and so did the coach. We all forgot about you. You came to the venue yesterday and stayed until the end. In any case, you should have been given a chance to play."
Sheng Kuang rolled up the tissue in his hand and looked at Yang Sinian without speaking.
After finishing his glass of water, Yang Sinian smiled and added, "Yesterday, it was both the coach and I who were negligent. Kuanshen, please don't take it to heart. It's almost the end of the month, and I need to make up my streaming hours. I'm going to stream now."
Sheng Kuang didn't stop him.
It wasn't until Yang Sinian disappeared that Sheng Kuang lowered his head and chuckled. The next second, he stood up, kicked aside the chair behind him, walked into the training room, and turned on his computer.
He hadn't streamed in a long time. Less than a minute after logging into his streaming channel, quite a few people had already flooded in.
As he logged into his mobile game, he casually responded to a few comments from the chat.
"Why are you streaming all of a sudden?"
"It's not a stream, it's a PK match."
"Who are you PK-ing with? With our very own famous KPL number one jungler, Yang Sinian."
"No wonder Yang Sinian is also streaming. Was it arranged in advance? Of course, it was arranged in advance."
As Sheng Kuang spoke, he changed the name of his stream to: "1v1 PK match, one game lost is ten thousand yuan."
-
He's still crazy, our Kuai.