Chapter 40

Days passed after Yan Zhun sent the contract, with no response. He said nothing more about it, until two weeks later, when his mother called to ask how to add someone back after blocking them on WeChat.

It was the weekend when she called, and Yan Zhun was still asleep at the base. His first reaction after answering was to look beside him. Empty. No one there.

Yan Zhun had never unblocked anyone he had blocked. He closed his eyes again. "I don't know. I'll look it up for you."

"Okay," his mother said. "Your dad blocked you, and he's been looking for ages without finding the button to add you back."

His father's voice came faintly from the other end. "I told you to look it up online for me! Why did you call him?!"

Yan Zhun: "..."

So that was why there had been no reply for so long. His father had blocked him.

At first, Yan Zhun was speechless. A few seconds later, he couldn't help letting out a short laugh.

His mother laughed too, then asked, "Have you thought this through?"

"Yes," Yan Zhun said.

"What about school?"

"I can manage."

His father said something else in the distance that Yan Zhun couldn't make out. A few seconds later, his mother said gently, "This isn't a small matter, after all. Find some time to come home, and we'll talk it over properly."

After a quick wash, Yan Zhun went downstairs and saw Pei Ran sitting at his station playing a game, apparently in a duo with Lin Xuhuan.

He had told the coach about his intentions that day, and the two had discussed it in greater depth. All that remained now was a contract.

Although nothing counted until it was down in black and white, a new computer had appeared in the training room the very day they finished talking. Yan Zhun hadn't officially joined training yet; he only occasionally played squads with the team.

He pushed open the training room door just as Lin Xuhuan was knocked down. Lin Xuhuan yelled that the opponent was a god-tier hacker and told Pei Ran to shoot.

Pei Ran was hardly capable of slaying a god. From his angle, he couldn't even see the enemy. Catching sight of Yan Zhun coming in out of the corner of his eye, he hurriedly said, "Stay in cover. I'll get Yan Zhun to play..."

Pei Ran was about to get up and give him the seat when a gentle pressure settled against his back.

Yan Zhun bent over and took his mouse, just as he had when teaching him recoil control before. Only this time, he was closer, and Pei Ran could smell the mint from when he'd washed up.

"Position?" Yan Zhun asked.

Lin Xuhuan froze for a moment too, then quickly recovered. "Behind the tree at seventy-five. I got him low. He's probably healing."

Yan Zhun calmly opened fire and dispatched the god-tier hacker cleanly. Just as he was about to let go of the mouse, he noticed something.

Although the character he was controlling still wore Pei Ran's usual outfit, the ID above his head had changed.

"111Believer," Yan Zhun read aloud.

"Here," Pei Ran answered.

Yan Zhun lowered his head and laughed, his voice still husky from sleep. He asked a question he already knew the answer to. "What does the English mean?"

"..." Pei Ran was quiet for a few seconds. "It means I want to be your fan."

"Then you're my first fan," Yan Zhun said. "I'll give you some private perks."

"Fuck... ah, no, I wasn't swearing at you, bro," Lin Xuhuan said from beside them, unable to take any more. "Can you revive me first? I'm begging you two."

Pei Ran had woken up late that day. When he went downstairs for water, Lin Xuhuan had caught him red-handed and, without another word, grabbed him to fill the other slot in a duo.

Yan Zhun pulled over a random chair and sat beside Pei Ran, watching him play as he woke up properly, until his phone gave a brief chime.

[Mimi: Hi there, Mimi recently had kittens~ Their coats are all really pretty. The dad is a chubby little orange tabby. You've graduated by now, right? If you're interested, you can take one home.]

Yan Zhun opened the picture and took a look. Several kittens had their eyes closed.

Mimi was a stray cat he had looked after for a few months. "Looked after" wasn't quite accurate: his father was allergic to cat fur, and the base back then was too small, so he had never taken the cat home. He had simply brought it food every day after school. Later, when the cat fell ill, he took it to a veterinary hospital, had it treated, and found it an adoptive home.

Yan Zhun suddenly remembered that the first time he had seen Pei Ran had also been because of Mimi, that little mixed-breed cat.

That day, he had gone to feed the cat as usual. Just as he rounded the corner, he saw Pei Ran crouching on the ground, feeding it a ham sausage.

The sausage lay on the ground. Pei Ran crouched with his head lowered, a person's width between him and the cat, one hand hovering in midair as he hesitated over petting it. He looked a little comical.

Seeing that someone was feeding the cat, Yan Zhun turned to leave, only to see Pei Ran take a pack of wet wipes from his bag.

One stroke of the cat, one wipe of his hand. Another stroke, another wipe...

Returning from his thoughts, Yan Zhun lowered his head and typed unhurriedly.

[Zhunle: No, my boyfriend's a clean freak. We can't keep one.]

Time always flew as finals approached. On the day winter break began, Mancheng happened to receive its first snowfall of the year. Overnight, the world turned white.

But no one at the base was in the mood to admire the snow. They were either bent over their training or holding their phones and scrolling through Weibo.

That day, TZG officially announced the team's new flex player and in-game leader-"TZG-GOD." They also stated that he would officially take the stage in the opening match the day after tomorrow.

For the nation's top team, a sudden change of in-game leader was undoubtedly a major event, especially when the replacement was an unknown new player. The community immediately erupted, and the comments under the official announcement were filled with question marks.

The scene was so intense that Lin Xuhuan and the others were all distracted. Only Yan Zhun, the person at the center of it, was still practicing his aim in the Training Ground, until his phone rang.

"You've already signed a contract with that club?! Do you have any regard for your mother and me at all?!" His father, who had just received the match tickets his son had mailed him, was furious. "And you had the nerve to send me tickets!"

"Mom agreed," Yan Zhun said.

"..." His father said, "I didn't!"

"That's enough already," Yan Zhun said. "You've had people check the contract several times."

"Of course you have to be meticulous when signing these things!" his father said. "Even one mistake or omission can have very serious consequences..."

"Are you coming to tomorrow's match?" Yan Zhun interrupted. "There are a lot of seats at the venue. It's hard to find your way. If you're coming, I'll have someone meet you."

The other end went silent for a full half minute.

"We'll see!" With that, his father hung up.

Yan Zhun tossed his phone aside and stood with his water cup, only for Lin Xuhuan beside him to catch hold of his clothes.

"Bro, those people on Weibo are all talking nonsense. Don't get angry," Lin Xuhuan said.

Back when Yan Zhun had played esports, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds hadn't yet taken off as a competitive title. He had only played a few small internet café tournaments, without even any match recordings, so naturally, few people recognized him. Later, when "111GOD" appeared in the Asia Server rankings, people had even suspected him of cheating.

As a result, beneath both TZG's official Weibo account and Yan Zhun's newly created account, it wasn't just haters crying that they were doomed. Even the team's fans were full of complaints, saying they would be better off fielding someone from the second team or youth academy.

"What do I have to be angry about?" Yan Zhun asked.

"You're really not angry?" Lin Xuhuan asked. Even he wanted to swear when he read some of the comments.

Yan Zhun gave a hum and pulled his clothes out of his hand. "I just have to beat them into accepting it."

Yan Zhun went to the break room for water. Rather than hurry back to training, he took out his phone and walked toward the balcony.

Pei Ran had finished his exams the previous week and was out of town attending an art exhibition with his parents.

Their messages ended with last night's exchange: a screenshot of Pei Ran's flight booking, followed by the notice that their video call had ended.

[Zhunle: Little fan.]

[Pei Ran: I'm here]

Yan Zhun didn't know what he wanted to say either. He had never been good at small talk. It was just that whenever his hands were free, he wanted to reach out to Pei Ran.

After a while, he finally typed out a stiff sentence: It's snowing here.

Before he could send it, his phone buzzed twice.

[Pei Ran: [Image]]

[Pei Ran: It snowed today.]

Yan Zhun opened the snowy picture again and again, gazed down at it for a while, then long-pressed to save it to his album.

[Zhunle: Yeah, here too]

[Zhunle: I miss you, Mr. Pei]

Match day.

When Yan Zhun woke up early that morning, he saw a new message on his phone, sent two hours earlier.

[Pei Ran: ...The flight I booked was canceled]

Yan Zhun replied quickly, but by the time he had washed up and changed, there was still no response. When he called, he only got a busy signal.

As a direct result, his expression was thunderous when he got into the vehicle to head to the venue.

When TZG's vehicle arrived, quite a few team fans were waiting outside, both to cheer the team on and to get a look at the new in-game leader.

The vehicle stopped, and the first three veteran players got out, waving cheerfully to the fans. Before the fans could respond, they saw another young man emerge.

He wore TZG's black-and-red uniform and a baseball cap pulled low. Taller and leaner than the other players, he looked, standing among them, like some celebrity who had wandered into a gathering of shut-ins-

The new flex player walked fast. He took only seconds to get from the vehicle into the venue, looking down at his phone the whole time. His expression was even sourer than those of the fans who had come prepared to protest their dissatisfaction with the team's arrangements.

The fans: "..."

Once backstage, Yan Zhun checked again. Pei Ran's flight really had been canceled.

"All right, put your phone away for now," the coach said. "There are some changes to our strategy for game one. I'll go over them with you."

There were some pre-match adjustments before almost every match. The coach got carried away explaining, giving everyone a pep talk along the way, and only stopped when a staff member came in to remind them to enter.

Yan Zhun zipped up his team jacket and handed his phone to the coach before leaving. "If Pei Ran calls, answer it for me."

"Got it," the coach said. "Your parents are both here. Third row."

"Okay."

Yan Zhun walked through the passage. Just as he was about to step into the arena, he suddenly seemed to sense something and turned toward the emergency exit.

Then he stopped short.

Lin Xuhuan, who was standing in front of him, heard only, "Back in two minutes."

Pei Ran, wearing a white down jacket, was still panting slightly. Stopped outside the emergency exit by security, he was holding his phone and about to make a call when someone caught his wrist.

Yan Zhun greeted the security guard and led Pei Ran away.

With limited time, Yan Zhun took him into a nearby empty storage room.

"Why didn't you reply?"

Seeing that he had made it in time, Pei Ran let out a very soft breath of relief. "I was on the high-speed train. There was no signal, and my phone died along the way. I had to borrow a charging cable from the taxi driver."

"There were still high-speed train tickets?" Yan Zhun asked.

It was winter break, and the Spring Festival travel rush was approaching. Tickets were hard to book.

"Yes," Pei Ran said. "Standing tickets."

Yan Zhun's throat bobbed. This storage room was the closest to the arena. The audience's cheers sounded outside the door, and they could hear the commentators too.

With ten minutes until the match began, the commentators started introducing the teams competing that day.

Pei Ran heard them bring up Yan Zhun.

"TZG's new player, GOD? I've heard of him. Apparently, he trained with TZG's youth academy a few years back, but he left early, so not many people know about him."

"I've been matched with him in-game. He's good. Very good."

"Have TZG's players not entered yet? Wait, that's not right. Doesn't HUAN love coming in early to interact with the camera...?"

Pei Ran listened quietly for a while, his heart beating a little faster for no apparent reason.

He realized that he really liked hearing other people praise Yan Zhun.

"They're talking about you," Pei Ran said. "You should go in."

Yan Zhun hummed. "I'm not ready yet."

He raised a hand and ruffled Pei Ran's hair, already mussed from running, into an even greater mess, reminding him softly, "Mr. Pei, give me a BUFF."

The storage room was rather cramped. The two young men standing there almost filled it.

Pei Ran blinked several times in quick succession and said okay.

A beam of golden stage light accidentally shone through the storage room window. The commentators were still discussing the exploits of "111GOD" as the other teams entered one by one.

Pei Ran stepped forward, tipped his head up slightly, and kissed Yan Zhun on the lips amid all the bustle.

-End of the main story-