Chapter 41

Shen He has been sleeping quite well lately, and those chaotic thoughts seem to have lessened. The beads on his wrist feel cool; he doesn't know where Chen Yuchuan found them, or perhaps it's just psychological, but wearing them does give Shen He a sense of peace.

After thinking about what the doctor said, Shen He decided not to contact him for the time being. Anyway, he figured Chen Yuchuan was also hurt by him, so he didn't contact him again.

It wouldn't be too late to have a proper talk if there's a suitable opportunity, provided that Chen Yuchuan is still willing to come to him.

After getting better sleep, my focus on the game improved a bit. Although I still can't muster the energy, my ranked game performance is alright.

Before the match, Gao Mingyuan brought Zhou Yifan to find him and said they wanted to have dinner together.

Zhou Yifan seemed preoccupied throughout the meal, picking at his rice with his chopsticks while his eyes darted around.

Gao Mingyuan couldn't help but ask, "Are you heartbroken?"

"No." Zhou Yifan shook his head, paused, and then sighed, "It's just... I want to win."

"Nonsense, who doesn't want to win?"

“No.” Zhou Yifan frowned, as if struggling to find the right words. “I mean, I really, really want to win. If we lose this time, I’m afraid…”

Shen He took a sip of his drink, thought for a moment, and then asked Zhou Yifan:

"what's on your mind?"

"Huh?" Zhou Yifan was taken aback.

Shen He spoke calmly but seriously: "Personally, I think your own judgment is the most important. Don't keep thinking about what the coach is saying, and don't keep thinking about whether to play around me. You're the jungler, you need to know how you want to play."

Zhou Yifan stared at Shen He, his eyes filled with a complicated expression: "I thought you didn't want to talk to me for a while."

Shen He casually said, "When you're not in good form, the coach puts pressure on me. It's really annoying."

“You really are my brother.” Zhou Yifan looked at him for a while and suddenly exclaimed.

Gao Mingyuan was speechless: "Brother? Don't make up relatives randomly, or Chen Yuchuan will scold you."

Shen He felt that his girlfriend had recently become a fan of another couple.

“I’m serious. He-ge is right. I was always afraid of making the wrong decision, but in the end I couldn’t make any decisions at all.”

Shen He didn't reply, but just kept eating with his head down.

Gao Mingyuan looked at him with his chin in his hand and clicked his tongue: "You're clearly not even older than me, so why do you look like you've seen through everything?"

"Really?" Shen He looked up.

“Yes.” Gao Mingyuan smiled. “But sometimes I feel that you’re still a child, just occasionally.”

"It's probably your protective instincts kicking in," Shen He commented.

Gao Mingyuan was amused, and the atmosphere became much more relaxed.

On the way back to the hotel, Gao Mingyuan leaned close to Shen He and whispered, "I was worried about you before, but you seem to be doing quite well these past few days."

"It's alright," Shen He said. "I was just a little annoyed before."

"Come on," Gao Mingyuan patted his shoulder. "Don't keep everything bottled up inside, it's kind of scary to watch."

The weekend's games were tough.

A narrow 2-1 victory.

The final game lasted 35 minutes, with both sides locked in a tight economic battle. Zhou Yifan spent two minutes lurking around the enemy's vision range, finally managing to open up the game when he spotted the enemy support providing vision.

In the post-match interview, Zhou Yifan was unusually happy and thanked Brother Shenhe.

Shenhe felt he played rather haphazardly in this match. In several crucial team fights, his teammates were the ones tanking the damage while he was just dealing damage from the back. Although his stats were decent, anyone else could have done the job.

Sure enough, when I opened the forum, I saw many posts discussing him.

Why did the top AD carry in ranked matches disappear from the scene?

[Did it overhype or flop? Why did Styx perform so poorly?]

[Is Styx still not adapted to ASG's system?]

The river continued to flow downstream.

To be honest, has Trump been acting a bit strange lately?

Shen He stopped clicking on the screen.

The original poster shared a bunch of screenshots, all close-ups of VLG's recent matches. Chen Yuchuan sat on the player bench, his expression as cold as if someone owed him money and wouldn't pay it back.

"Seriously, isn't the Sichuan dog a bit scary these past few games?"

"He always has that deadpan face; he looks so irritating."

"Your performance in the game isn't great either; you've made quite a few mistakes in the last two matches."

"The main reason is that VLG's overall strength is there, so no one would notice if he was in poor condition."

"He was definitely playing a bit recklessly. Could it be that he's been affected by love like Styx?"

"...Why bring Styx along? He's always spreading rumors about him being in a relationship."

"I felt like I was being lectured by my sister-in-law, but everyone knows who my sister-in-law is."

"I recognize that expression. It means he was kicked out by his sister-in-law, hehe."

"On another note, didn't Styx have a deadpan face before he went pro?"

"I've gotten hooked again..."

"But that deadpan face from before is completely different from what it is now!"

"Yes! Before, they looked down on everyone; now they want to kill everyone!"

"Hilarious, what's wrong with these two brothers? Styx always has that deadpan look on his face too."

Another post even included screenshots of the two players' match footage.

[Two top-tier deadpan faces in the Rift, anyone know what they mean?]

Clicking into the post, I found that the poster had shared many pictures, all close-ups of recent matches.

Shen He stared at the screenshots for a while, then couldn't help but chuckle.

His face did look a bit stiff on camera, and he felt inexplicably awkward looking at himself. Chen Yuchuan was even more exaggerated, with his brows furrowed, his jawline taut, and a suppressed rage in his eyes. Shen He wanted to laugh, but then remembered that Chen Yuchuan's state might be because of him, and he instantly couldn't laugh anymore.

"This strange sense of compatibility."

"Shenhe: I don't want to talk to him.jpg"

Chen Yuchuan: I want to kill someone.jpg

"My son's handsomeness is amazing (drooling)."

"They're such a good match! I'm so curious about how these two cold-faced, pretentious guys get along in private!!!"

"Who remembers the last time we did a duo live stream... It's obvious that Trump's cold face is only for others."

"So what about the second phase of our 'Walking in the Fog' series?"

"Comparing the previous matches and recently... I hope they didn't actually have a fight (thinking)."

"No way! They were so sweet in their Weibo posts before!"

"Dog's sister-in-law begs for reconciliation (tears welling up)"

"Seek reconciliation."

...

Shen He looked at the string of "plea for reconciliation" messages, his expression unchanged. Although it was indeed he who unilaterally ended the friendship, it was impossible for him to make up with them.

Thinking about Chen Yuchuan's feelings for him still made him feel a little awkward, like a thorn stuck in his throat, something he couldn't say or swallow. Shen He simply stopped caring.

The next three games at the end of the season were quite thrilling.

In their first match against a mid-tier team, ASG was completely overwhelmed and lost decisively 0-2. The coach finally lost his temper and lashed out in the locker room. Shen He, sitting in a corner drinking water, found his outburst somewhat comical.

In the second match against the team currently ranked third in the league, ASG narrowly won 2-1. Shenhe's performance was decent, holding his position in several key team fights, but overall, Zhou Yifan was still the carry.

The final match is a do-or-die situation. Their opponent is TMG, a veteran powerhouse ranked in the upper-middle tier. If they lose, ASG's season will be over.

The atmosphere in the pre-match locker room was tense. Zhou Yifan sat expressionless in his seat, tapping his fingers on the table; he seemed a little nervous.

Shen He was sitting at his desk looking at his phone when the manager came over and patted him on the shoulder: "Play well."

Shen He looked up at him but didn't say anything.

In the first game, the first fifteen minutes were very close, with neither side gaining an advantage. Shenhe played a late-game hero and his early game development was decent without any major problems, but he didn't have any standout performances either.

Later in the game, TMG's lineup became more solid, and ASG couldn't find any opportunities to initiate team fights when the five players grouped up and pushed. Within thirty minutes, TMG secured the first game.

In the second game, Zhou Yifan had a good rhythm. He capitalized on TMG's early invasion mistakes, not giving the opponent many chances to recover.

Shenhe had a very comfortable development in this game, and hardly had to exert any effort to output damage. ASG crushed and won the second game.

The third game was the real life-or-death battle.

For the first twenty minutes, both sides played cautiously, neither daring to make any rash moves, and the economy remained very close.

At 25 minutes, TMG found an opportunity in the river on the top lane, initiated a perfect team fight, and directly achieved a 3-for-1 exchange.

The commentators were getting anxious: "ASG has blown up this time! If TMG handles it well, they can win in one fell swoop!"

Shen He looked at his teammates' grayed-out avatars on the screen and tapped his fingers lightly on the keyboard.

"We can hold on," he said calmly in the voice message.

"Go and cover the rear lane and the top lane minion wave." Shen He's tone was completely calm. "They only have two waves of minions. I can clear them."

Are you alone?

"Um."

Zhou Yifan nodded: "Okay."

Shenhe stood alone beneath the high ground tower.

When the second wave of minions arrived, the TMG support was at the forefront, while the marksman, with his shield, cautiously took a step forward, trying to chip away at the tower.

Shenhe glanced at the skill bar. His ultimate skill had seven seconds left, Flash was active, Purify was available, the enemy mid laner had just used their dash, and Heal was on cooldown.

If you can dodge the enemy support's ultimate and use Purify on the enemy mid laner's key crowd control, you'll have a chance to clear this wave of minions.

TMG's support kept using skills to force him to reposition, trying to find an angle to engage. He used a barrier-breaking skill and then unleashed a crowd control skill without hesitation.

Shenhe used Flash almost simultaneously, but only managed to withstand the slow effect. Seeing this, TMG's jungler immediately engaged, using his maximum mobility to finish off the enemy.

Shenhe used his skill to interrupt the enemy jungler's movement, preventing him from being instantly killed. TMG's mid laner then followed up with crucial crowd control, which Shenhe immediately removed with Purify, and his ultimate skill was ready again.

He immediately unleashed his ultimate, dealing maximum area damage. With only one minion remaining, the enemy AD finished off the remaining damage, and he used all his skills in the river.

The opposing support, who was tanking the tower and initiating the fight, was almost out of health and fell down at the same time as Shen He. The mid and jungle players were also not in good health.

"My teammate is about to respawn! There's only one minion left! The enemy's three squishy heroes can't take it down! There's still a chance!" The commentator was very excited.

At 28 minutes, ASG won a team fight where two players traded for three.

At the 32nd minute, Zhou Yifan secured the Baron Nashor.

At 35 minutes, ASG pushed down the level in one fell swoop.

Everyone in the locker room was cheering after the game. Zhou Yifan hugged Shen He and said a lot of things, but Shen He didn't hear a word.

He just felt very tired.

Back at the hotel that evening, Shenhe lay on the bed browsing forums.

The top trending topic was: [ASG narrowly advances! Styx's solo defense of the high ground was so cool!]

The comments below are full of compliments:

"Holy crap, Styx's move was absolutely divine!"

"Why isn't the ASG coaching staff coming out to kowtow to Styx?"

"Is this the true value of being the best AD carry in ranked matches?"

"Where is the person who said he was invisible?"

"River God! Eternal River God!"

Shen He scrolled down expressionlessly and saw a comment:

"To be honest, although this play was very cool, Styx's overall performance was not as good as before. He was completely invisible for the first 20 minutes."

"I can only say that after being depressed for half a season, he finally stepped up once."

"I'm just a fan. I've been looking forward to it for a long time, but this season started strong and ended weak, which is a bit disappointing."

"What's wrong with him? Does he seem to have lost all his spirit after being scolded just once?"

These people are actually right. He's been very tired in recent matches, not physically, but mentally.

Just like going to work, Chen He thought.

In the past, every successful clutch play in ranked games would make his heart race. Now, nothing does. That high ground defense, which was clearly the highlight of the match, just left him feeling exhausted.

You've completed a difficult task, and then what? There's no sense of accomplishment, only a feeling of relief that "it's finally over."

It's not just games; life is the same. Every day I wake up, train, eat, and sleep. Occasionally I go for a run, and that's it. There's nothing in particular I want to do, and no one I particularly want to see.

Shen He rolled over and stared at the ceiling. Psychotherapy had indeed relieved his mental stress, but the lost enthusiasm was hard to regain.

There will be a fairly long rest period after the playoffs.

He thought he could take advantage of that free time to travel and improve his condition. Otherwise, he might not even be able to cope next season.

He's getting paid by ASG, so at the very least, he needs to perform well next season before considering anything else.

As I was thinking this, my phone suddenly lit up.

Shen He picked it up and saw that it was a message from Chen Yuchuan.

"Can I meet you before the playoffs?"

Shen He stared at that line of text for a long time, unsure how to reply.