Who Would Be the One to Lose?

Inside the waiting room.

Unlike yesterday's lively scene with dozens of people, only the four competitors were seated there today.

Mu Yun had crossed paths with the other two besides Zhang Zichen, but with the match ahead, no one was in the mood to chat.

Mu Yun stayed in his seat and quietly waited for the match to begin.

"You two got matched up!"

As two portraits locked into place on the big screen, Lü Jiayi cried out beside him.

"It's earlier than I expected."

Liu Hesheng slowly rose and walked over to Mu Yun. "You're Jianhao's friend, so I don't want one match to crush your spirit. You have almost no chance of winning this one. I hope you're prepared and won't take it too hard."

After saying that, Liu Hesheng seemed to feel it wasn't enough and added, "If you lose, it won't be because you're weak or because I'm strong. It'll be because my surname is Liu. The gap isn't between you and me. It's between the families we were born into."

Liu Hesheng's voice remained gentle, and there was no condescension or mockery on his face.

He seemed merely to be stating something he considered inevitable.

"Hey, the match hasn't even started! How do you know Mu Yun's going to lose?"

Seeing Liu Hesheng launch into pre-match trash talk, Lü Jiayi spoke up indignantly.

She didn't think Mu Yun could win either, but if he lost, that was when you comforted him. Who tried to crush someone's morale before the match?

Wasn't that just awful?

Duoduo, I'll protect your sweetheart myself!

But while Lü Jiayi was fuming, Liu Hesheng thought for a moment, realized something was wrong, and said with a hint of apology:

"Sorry."

"?"

Lü Jiayi's expression froze.

Wait, why is he apologizing?

Mu