Chapter 27

Shen He stayed with Chen Yuchuan for two more days.

They didn't do anything, nor did they mention the game again, since they both knew the truth. The two of them lay on the sofa playing some casual online games, living a quiet and comfortable life. Shen He rarely felt completely relaxed, both physically and mentally.

ASG has a training match on Thursday, and Shen He has to go back. Chen Yuchuan insists that he has "something to do in City A," so Shen He can only let him take him back to the base.

ASG played two matches that day, winning one and losing one.

Although they didn't achieve a perfect record, the overall rhythm was much smoother than before. Shenhe felt it went well, with good performance in terms of rhythm, communication, and coordination.

He took off his headphones, preparing to go back to his dormitory to rest, when the manager called him back at the door.

"Do you have time to chat for a bit?"

The manager sat upright on the other side of the table, his smile official and his tone gentle, but his face clearly said, "I want to give you a way out, but I have to say something."

"Don't be nervous, there are three things, let's talk about them one by one."

Chen He leaned back in his chair, his expression neither warm nor cold.

"In the last game, you didn't listen to the coach's instructions on hero selection." The manager said politely, "The coaching staff had a general idea of ​​the tactics for that game after the opponent picked their first hero, but when it was your turn, you picked a different hero, and the coach was completely confused."

He paused, then softened his tone, "Although we won, this kind of thing has a bad influence. The team is a disciplined place; it's not a place where one person can change the plan at will."

Shen He's expression remained unchanged as he asked, "What if we lose with a different hero?"

Management: "If you follow the coach's instructions, you can still win."

Shen He smirked: "Yeah, we won because of the coaching staff's tactics, and we lost because of me, right?"

The manager was momentarily speechless, then sighed and changed the subject: "And about the debriefing. You might think the coach was wrong, but you confronted him to his face and embarrassed him. Don't let that happen again. Whether you listen or not is one thing, but you have to give him face."

Shen He gave a curt "Oh," his tone unreadable. The coach, at first glance, seemed very gentle, rarely losing his temper, and considerate of the players' opinions. But Shen He could tell at a glance that his gentleness was conditional on things being under his control. Now, having been humiliated, instead of trying to solve the problem, he allowed pressure from above.

Shen He almost laughed, and actually chuckled.

The air was silent for a moment before the manager coughed and said, "Secondly, relax. I think you can take some time to do a live stream, play a few simple games, and generate some buzz. If you win the game, the team's popularity will rise, and your attention and discussion will also be high. It would be a waste not to do a live stream now."

Shen He nodded; this was something that was going to be done anyway.

"Okay, I'll have my assistant schedule a time for you later." The manager continued, opening his phone, "One last thing."

He changed his tone: "An investor wants to meet with you."

Shen He's eyes twitched slightly, already showing some impatience: "I'm not going."

"Let me finish," the manager quickly interjected. "It's not one of those drinking parties to solicit investment. The other party is quite young, about your age, and he also plays this game. He really likes your playstyle and is a fan. He was interested as soon as you made your official announcement, but it's only just been finalized."

Shenhe didn't reply.

The manager had to add, "He really just wants to meet, have a meal and chat, nothing more. If you don't want to go, I can help you avoid it, but he seems quite sincere."

Shen He tapped his fingers twice on the table. If it was just a meeting with investors, he could refuse directly, because he only needed to continue playing well and doing his job, and he wouldn't owe anyone anything.

But the person claimed to be a fan, which made things complicated.

It's not that fans are more special than investors, but the combination of these two identities changes the whole thing.

Investment is just a transaction, and Shenhe only needs to provide the same value as a return. But once the reason is changed to "because I like you", it's like pushing all the causes, processes and results onto him. No matter how well he plays, he will always feel that something is missing.

Shen He didn't want to deal with this kind of goodwill that had no boundaries and no tangible form. Achievements can be quantified, and contracts can be equivalent, but fans' investments cannot. These things can't be put into practice. He didn't want anyone to make "special" decisions for him, and he didn't want to be burdened with this kind of favor.

He neither immediately agreed nor refused, only saying, "I'll think about it."

Then he asked, "Is there anything else?"

"That's all. Just let me know when you've made up your mind. The other party has said they respect your personal wishes and don't want to put you in a difficult position."

After hearing this, Shen He felt that the matter was even more subtle, but he was too lazy to think about it any further.

In the fourth round of the competition, both ASG and VLG were in City A, and both matches were on Sunday. After sending Shenhe off, Chen Yuchuan disappeared for half a day. On Friday afternoon, he went to Shenhe's dormitory and refused to leave, insisting that he was too tired to go back to his apartment and needed to rest. Shenhe was playing ranked games and didn't care about him. He really did nothing, lying on Shenhe's bed playing on his phone, not caring whether it would affect his performance in the game.

On Sunday, the A City stadium was unusually lively, because apart from the home team ASG, the other teams were also teams with both strength and popularity.

VLG played their match first. Shen He had nothing to do, so he watched the game in the rest room for a while. Chen Yuchuan seemed to be in a good mood today, with a faint smile on his lips. He was also in a pretty good state in the game and gave a lot of resources to his teammates. The chat was full of people saying that he had encountered good things, and some people joked that it was the power of love, because he was still wearing the "bracelet given by his sister-in-law" on his wrist, and he would often unconsciously run his hand through his hair during the game.

Chen Yuchuan's team won decisively, VLG was substituted, and ASG players were preparing in the corridor. Shen He stood against the wall wearing headphones, not looking at his phone, his posture somewhat lazy.

Chen Yuchuan walked over and paused in front of him. The two looked at each other for less than two seconds before Shen He looked away.

Chen Yuchuan smirked, said nothing, shoved something into his hand, and left.

When Shenhe opened it, it was still the same kind of simply packaged candy. He had casually stuffed the last one into his bag and forgotten about it. This time, he saw that it was a local specialty of F County. He hadn't encountered the same thing anywhere else outside that small county.

Shenhe tore open the packaging paper, put it in his mouth, and the taste was still the same as before.

In this round, ASG's opponent, HOS, is a typical system-based team with good individual skills and excellent team coordination.

During the ban/pick phase, as usual, some overpowered heroes were banned. The coach instructed, "We must pick a jungler for the first pick in this game. If the opponent gets a strong jungler, it will be difficult for us to deal with them. In addition, the opponent's jungler is the center of the rhythm. As long as we can keep an eye on him and not let him have too much of an easy time, the opponent will not be able to make a good start."

"Choosing a jungler means giving up the option to select two strong heroes, and the ADAP heroes released today are all quite strong," Zhou Yifan reminded.

“I know,” the coach interrupted him, “but we must have absolute control of the jungle in this game. We should take it first, and the other lanes should be filled according to the team composition. The ADC can just pick Firefly as a utility champion, and let the mid laner take the counter pick.”

The draft phase ended quickly, and ASG got the strongest jungler in the current patch, but at the cost of a strong top laner and a disadvantageous laning phase for the enemy.

The game started smoothly, even for the first 15 minutes. Zhou Yifan successfully invaded, took two dragons, controlled the Rift Herald, and had vision of both the red and blue zones on the map. He firmly controlled all the resources and even got the first blood in the jungle.

HOS's mid laner started to give up the lane, and the support gave up lane pressure and went around the jungle to place three sets of wards for the jungler, thus securing vision even without resources.

Fifteen minutes later, the enemy bot lane immediately dropped their tower to allow their jungler to farm gold.

The top laner was ganked and killed two or three times under the tower, but got a breather in the jungle.

Their teamwork wasn't flashy, but they were very cohesive, with everyone doing their job and not being passive at all.

Shenhe silently rated this team as an "enhanced version of ASG." They also revolve around the jungler to create tempo, but the team is more complete, unlike ASG's playstyle which is biased towards the advantageous lane and prone to fragmentation. Once one lane falls behind, the other lanes will actively fill the gap, and the overall operation is like a precise machine, without any mistakes.

One powerful sword isn't enough to fight this kind of team.

As expected, the opposing team always looked for opportunities to initiate team fights when they were behind in economy. ASG often couldn't keep up with their sudden pace, and the mid lane was heavily targeted, causing the situation to begin to tilt in favor of the opposing team.

At 36 minutes, HOS took control of the game, and after several team fights, pushed into the high ground and ended the game.

Shenhe found this game quite interesting; the opposing team executed flawlessly. If he could get the counter pick, he might be able to find a breakthrough. Unfortunately, the coach, to be on the safe side, locked him in as the third pick.

The second draft phase began, and as expected, the opposing team first picked the only remaining strong jungler. The coach emphasized, "We'll pick top and mid first, and jungler third. If we pick any later, we won't have any heroes left to pick."

Shen He didn't turn around, only saying, "Get me the Ranger first."

Before the coach could say anything more, Shen He turned to Zhou Yifan and said, "Help me get it."

Zhou Yifan glanced at him, remained silent for a second, and finally locked the button.

This lineup is much more reasonable, with a ranged hero paired with a strong laner, a mid laner with crowd control and buffs, and a tanky jungler added by Zhou Yifan, making it look quite solid.

The bottom lane secured lane priority at the start, controlled the river, and Zhou Yifan's hero was weak, so they simply gave up map resources and launched three consecutive waves, which the opponent couldn't handle.

Their jungler reacted quickly, taking the mid and support into the jungle to establish vision control and securing three major resources in succession.

However, too many towers were left in the middle lane, and Shenhe used the Ranger's high mobility to force a push through the middle.

The rhythm changed just like that.

Shenhe developed very smoothly, taking down two towers and two lanes of minions on his own. His equipment was even similar to that of the enemy jungler. Moreover, the mid and support players revolved around him the whole game. Although HOS jungler developed very well, he still had some difficulty breaking through the three-man defensive line. In each team fight, he could only trade up the mid and support players, which was insignificant and he couldn't find a breakthrough.

In the mid-game, both sides got into a stalemate, testing each other's rhythm, and HOS also began to choose to drag the game into the late game.

At 30 minutes, ASG abandoned their dragon control and instead took advantage of the gap when the opponent traded dragons to engage in team fights. Zhou Yifan pushed forward, preventing the opponent's jungler from entering the fray, and Shenhe's positioning for damage output was almost perfect.

The match ended in thirty-six minutes.

This game was a great win. Shenhe felt that playing against this kind of team was very interesting. You have to think about the direction of the game and make quick judgments and decisions in order to have a slight advantage in the pace of the game, rather than just relying on your skills, awareness and the coach's ideas.

The atmosphere was very tense in the final decisive game.

The coach also realized that against a team like HOS, they could no longer put all the resources and tempo on the jungler alone. They first filled the mid and support positions, which were strong, and then said to Shen He, "You pick a scaling champion, play it safe, help relieve the jungler's pressure in the mid and late game, and the mid laner will go to the bottom lane in the early game to create a development environment for you."

Before he could finish speaking, Shen He had already selected the Archangel from the pre-selected options.

The coach frowned: "You'll play the gunner this round."

Shenhe's voice was not loud: "Gunners can't develop without Angels."

The countdown ended, and the lineup was locked. Zhou Yifan inexplicably picked a farming mage jungler as his last pick, and the coach's face turned completely dark.

Archangel is known as a late-game carry, almost invisible in the early and mid-game, and the entire rhythm depends on teammates.

Not long after the game started, the opposing team played extremely aggressively, relentlessly pushing the bottom lane and trying to break the rhythm of the game. Although ASG held on for a while, their resources were gradually eroded. The outer bottom tower was destroyed at 12 minutes, the mid-lane high ground tower was under threat at 15 minutes, and both lanes were breached at 20 minutes.

He drowned four times, but never even got a head.

However, the opposing team had a strong mid-game composition, making them increasingly passive as the game progressed. After Baron Nashor spawned, they attempted several pushes to end the game, but ASG's three area-of-effect damage heroes stubbornly cleared the wave, leaving HOS just one step away each time.

The opposing team initiated three team fights in a row, but their rhythm was disrupted each time due to the lack of minions.

After thirty minutes, the Archangel's Staff three-piece set was complete. At this point, with the support's protection, it already possessed full damage output capabilities.

When Baron Nashor spawned, HOS tried to force ASG to engage in a team fight, but was countered and blocked from the front. ASG's top laner, who had been quietly farming and pushing lanes throughout the game, also neutralized the team's tower-pushing rhythm.

Forty-five minutes in, a final counterattack succeeded, with Shenhe cleaning up the remaining enemies and destroying the crystal. The camera panned across the players' bench; he showed no expression, while Zhou Yifan had a sly grin on his face.

The commentator was still a little excited, and after calming down, he began to speak:

"To be honest, I thought this game was over... Two lanes of high ground were destroyed in twenty minutes, Styx had zero kills, the support died more than jungle monsters, and the enemy team had magic resistance. You're telling me they could turn this game around?"

His partner laughed beside him, "We can't win, but we can't kill them either. We spent half an hour clearing the lane. I'm not kidding. It's a good thing ASG picked two mages this game, otherwise it would be hard to say."

"Believe it or not, they actually managed to drag it out until Styx got his three core items... Did they have any teamwork? No. Did they have any rhythm? No. They didn't even have a decent strategy. HOS is pretty helpless too. They played perfectly in every game, but inexplicably lost."

"Both teams played brilliantly, and the audience thoroughly enjoyed the game. Tonight's matches were truly exhilarating."

As soon as Shen He returned to the lounge, Chen Yuchuan was already leaning against the door waiting, looking rather lazy, as if he had been waiting for a while.

They randomly picked a restaurant, sat down by the window, and before all the dishes had been served, Chen Yuchuan, staring at his phone, suddenly sighed: "What happened to you in the rest area corridor today?"

"What's wrong?" Shen He leaned back in his chair, completely relaxing.

"You didn't even glance at me, pretending you don't know me, huh?"

Shen He was speechless: "With so many reporters and cameras around, do you really want to be trending on social media?"

Chen Yuchuan raised an eyebrow, looking completely nonchalant: "What? It's just creating a CP (couple pairing) thing, are you scared?"

Shen He opened his phone, too lazy to look at him anymore: "You seem to be enjoying this?"

"How can you be so dismissive of your brother?" Chen Yuchuan laughed. "You have no idea how many people want to create a CP (couple pairing) with their buddies."

“I’m afraid of losing face,” Shen He said flatly, “because my dancing is terrible.”

Chen Yuchuan was taken aback, but then found it amusing that Shen He said such things with a cold face: "You know all this?"

Shen He didn't reply. Actually, it was Gao Mingyuan who sent it to him again. The people who shipped him and Chen Yuchuan as a couple and the people who shipped ASG Brother and Dog as a couple were arguing and accusing each other of making their relationship seem far-fetched.

Chen Yuchuan looked at his phone for a while and suddenly said, "You're really getting a lot of attention today, two MVPs." He added, "But you probably just picked random characters, your coach's face was as black as the bottom of a pot."

Shen He picked up a piece of food and said in a calm tone, "It's only reckless when you lose; when you win, it's all about tactics."

Chen Yuchuan looked at him, half helpless and half amused: "Aren't you afraid of getting scolded by management when you go back?"

Shen He said nonchalantly, "Just tell me whether we won or not." He chuckled and added, "Besides, they had no reason to insult me."

"Isn't it an excuse to disobey the coach's instructions and randomly pick heroes?"

“The contract doesn’t say ‘you have to choose heroes according to the coach’s wishes.’” Shen He glanced at him and said slowly, “The contract I signed only requires me to abide by the team’s rules and obey the management system. I’ve read the rules, and there’s no clause about obeying the coach’s management.” Shen He still had an indifferent attitude.

"...the logical consistency part."

“This isn’t logical consistency; it’s outcome-based,” Shen He said. “In a match, only the result matters. Nobody cares too much about the process. The same goes for signing contracts. I abided by the contract terms, and my contribution far exceeded that of their previous AD carry. They won’t care what I did.”

Chen Yuchuan looked at him, then suddenly smiled, as if he was genuinely amused, and softened his tone: "As expected of Styx."

No wonder it was called Shenhe.

He spoke casually, but a long-lost sense of familiarity welled up inside him.

Shenhe has changed a lot, but his untamed spirit has never changed.

She used to seem very gentle, even easy to talk to, but she always stubbornly left behind things she didn't like, without even bothering to put on a show.

He will do what he feels he should do perfectly, and he can stand still without moving an inch, even if the whole world says he should do what he doesn't want to do.

It's not that he's willful or rebellious; it's just that he never treats "standards set by others" as constraints.

He only agrees with his own part of the principles.

I don't argue, I don't quarrel, and I'm too lazy to explain too much.

It's like walking on a road that no one can stop, quiet yet firm, unaffected by anyone or anything.

At that time, Chen Yuchuan thought that Shen He was someone who could drive people crazy, but was also really... very cute.