Chapter 20 "You weren't made at the WD base..."
“My seat in the audience is particularly well-placed; it’s right next to Stone, the manager of CG.”
“During the interview just now, Stone was extremely nervous. Especially after the microphone was in Yux's hands, every time Yux raised the microphone, he looked like he was about to jump up, as if he was afraid that Yux would reveal some shady secret—how many bad things must someone have done to be so guilty?”
Song Baiyu leaned close to Nan Zhiyi's ear and excitedly shared the latest gossip he had just heard.
The first day of the All-Star Game has come to an end. The meeting in the arena had just ended, and he had to lower his voice as he walked around among people from the industry.
Nan Zhiyi listened absentmindedly and casually replied, "I know."
"You know? What do you know?"
"Stone has done so many bad things."
"What?!" Song Baiyu's ears perked up immediately. "Quick, quick, tell me! Please!"
Nan Zhiyi remembered something and came back to her senses, saying, "He said he couldn't tell you. Because if you knew, the whole world would know."
"Who said that?"
“yux”.
Song Baiyu's face showed an expression of betrayal from the whole world.
“Good, very good…” he said slowly, “Nan Zhiyi, I declare that I have seen through you. You are the legendary fickle, treacherous, and fickle person who values women over friends…”
"Wait a minute." Nan Zhiyi raised her hand to signal him to stop. "What do you mean by 'prioritizing romance over friendship'? Yux and I—"
"Hmph, we're just good friends." Song Baiyu said sarcastically, "What? Isn't this the time when Angel Yi is the one who loves Yux the most in the world, and is willing to be scolded on Weibo to vote for the best player? Or are you just a little scumbag who doesn't cherish what he has now?"
Song Baiyu knew absolutely nothing about the inside story, yet he had been obsessed with gossiping about the two of them for a long time. According to him, he had a secret Weibo account that he used to lurk in the couple's supertopic, and would suddenly post something in front of Nan Zhiyi every now and then to startle him.
Nan Zhiyi knew he was talking nonsense, but she felt inexplicably nervous. She looked around to make sure no one was listening to them before whispering, "Don't talk nonsense."
"Oh, see, see, feeling guilty now." Song Baiyu, completely oblivious to his strange behavior, interrogated him, "Tell me honestly! What were you and Yux doing together the other day? You used to tell me everything that happened to you, but this time you didn't tell me a single word? Tell me, are you hiding something—"
"Small surprises?"
The two stopped tugging at each other. Nan Zhiyi turned around and saw Zhang Li walking over from behind, followed by Xiao Lingdang and another anchor.
"We're planning to have dinner together," Zhang Li said. "Want to come along?"
Nan Zhiyi thought for a moment and said, "I'm a little tired today and want to go home early. I'll just take a taxi later."
Zhang Li: "Okay, then you go back and get some rest."
As she spoke, she seemed to remember something and beckoned to Nan Zhiyi: "Wait, I have something to tell you..."
The two reached the corner. Nan Zhiyi saw Song Baiyu standing there, his face full of curiosity, wishing he could fly over and eavesdrop.
"What's going on between you and Yux?" Zhang Li asked him in a low voice. "What did he mean when he said you forgot your things at his house?"
Nan Zhiyi felt that she had misunderstood something: "...Actually, we've known each other for a long time, but we had some conflicts later. A while ago, I ran into him while I was out having fun, and we...made up. My ID was stolen back then, so I stayed at his place for a while."
Zhang Li looked at him suspiciously: "What conflict?"
"It's a minor conflict," Nan Zhiyi said. "It's something in our daily lives...not serious."
Zhang Li was skeptical: "Is that so? No wonder I always felt there was something strange between you two."
A woman's intuition is always so terrifying. Nan Zhiyi chuckled awkwardly, "Don't worry, Sister Li, I won't get myself into any trouble lately."
Zhang Li once managed a livestreamer with tens of millions of followers. At the peak of his career, the livestreamer was exposed by his ex-girlfriend for cheating, soliciting prostitutes, and gambling. He was a complete scoundrel. Under public pressure, he eventually deleted his account, quit the internet, and ran away.
Having learned from past mistakes, she couldn't help but feel uneasy about the popular streamer she managed.
Fortunately, Nan Zhiyi is quite well-behaved; she never goes to shady drinking parties and doesn't seem particularly interested in beautiful women, so she doesn't seem like the type to mess around...
After Zhang Li and the other two anchors left, Song Baiyu came over again: "Please, tell me what Stone has been doing."
"No." Nan Zhiyi shook him off and walked forward.
"Just say a little bit. Please..." Song Baiyu caught up, but stopped abruptly halfway through his sentence.
He grinned and nudged Nan Zhiyi with his elbow: "Hey, look, who's that?"
Nan Zhiyi witnessed for the first time what it meant to have "eyes gleaming" through Song Baiyu's vivid and detailed explanation.
—At the end of his gaze, You Xin stood alone at the entrance to the ground parking lot.
"Hurry up, hurry up, they're definitely waiting for you..." Song Baiyu slyly pushed Nan Zhiyi forward.
“…” Nan Zhiyi truly regretted coming out with him. “Don’t push me…you’re so annoying…”
The two of them pushed and shoved each other as they passed by.
"Uh, hello." Nan Zhiyi asked while fighting with Song Baiyu, sticking her head out.
As soon as he finished speaking, he felt that his opening line was incredibly stupid, so he could only bite the bullet and continue, "What are you doing here?"
You Xin glanced at the two people huddled together.
"I'll wait for you," he said.
Song Baiyu's face clearly said, "See what I told you?"
"……wait for me?"
You Xin raised an eyebrow: "Didn't you say you were going to treat me to dinner?"
"Oh, right!" Nan Zhiyi slapped Song Baiyu on the head. "I almost forgot... should we eat at the same place we agreed on last time?"
"Anything is fine with me," You Xin said. "Want to ride in my car?"
Nan Zhiyi released Song Baiyu: "Okay."
He turned to say goodbye to Song Baiyu, wishing he could get rid of this troublesome person immediately.
But at that moment, Song Baiyu looked left, then right. He suddenly felt a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity was right in front of him, and grabbed Nan Zhiyi's hand: "Xiaoyi, you still owe me a meal!!"
Nan Zhiyi: "?"
Upon hearing this, You Xin frowned: "Didn't they cook for you at the WD base?"
Song Baiyu had already gone all out, and pretending not to hear the other person speaking, he said, "I don't care, you've stood me up so many times... Nan Zhiyi, tell me! Are we still brothers?!"
-
Five minutes later, Nan Zhiyi and Song Baiyu got into the back seat of the black Bentley Flying Spur.
"Wow!" Song Baiyu looked around and exclaimed, "Your car, Little Wanderer, is so cool. I've never seen you drive one before."
"From home," You Xin, sitting in the front row, answered succinctly.
Song Baiyu secretly gave Nan Zhiyi a thumbs up and whispered, "I want to be reborn into a better family in my next life."
The driver in the driver's seat turned around and greeted Nan Zhiyi in the back seat: "Xiaoyi? It's been a long time since I've seen you."
Nan Zhiyi replied with a smile, "Uncle Wang."
Song Baiyu's gossipy nature was reignited, and he whispered, "You know this too?"
Nan Zhiyi ignored him and pointed to Song Baiyu, introducing him to Uncle Wang: "This is my friend."
"You're all good friends who play games together, right?" Uncle Wang started the car with a smile. "Fasten your seatbelts in the back too—let's go, let's go."
Nan Zhiyi had booked a Chinese restaurant not far from the venue. When the food was served, Song Baiyu kept saying he had a day off tomorrow and that she was going to rip him off today, so she added an expensive bottle of wine to the menu. You Xin had a solo match tomorrow, so it was just the two of them drinking.
With Song Baiyu at the dinner table, there was never a dull moment. He started by recounting the story of how last week, their team's tank and captain went to the balcony to smoke late at night, only to lock himself out and end up sleeping on the balcony, almost freezing to death. He then went on to tell the scandal of someone from the neighboring HYG team flirting with his online girlfriend, getting so engrossed in playing games with girls that he neglected training, only to find out in the end that the person he was playing with was a burly man.
Nan Zhiyi was overjoyed. At this moment, Song Baiyu took a sip of wine and suddenly said, "Last week, HYG's youth training program recruited and received more than a thousand resumes... There are so many kids who want to go pro these days, but in the end, very few of them can make it."
"You can make money and become famous at the same time," Nan Zhiyi said. "Of course I want to go for both."
"I really have to thank this thing for giving me a way to make a living," Song Baiyu said with a grin. "Otherwise, with my level of education, I don't know how many years I would have to work after graduation to earn what I earn in a year now... For people like us, this is a kind of leapfrog development, right?"
Nan Zhiyi listened and suddenly burst out laughing.
"why are you laughing?"
“I’m not laughing at you…” Nan Zhiyi said, glancing at You Xin, “Um, Yux, can I say something?”
You Xin's expression said, "Do as you please."
“Yux wanted to play professionally, but his dad disagreed,” Nan Zhiyi said to Song Baiyu. “His dad canceled his credit cards and confiscated all his allowance. I even bought his train ticket to youth training…”
He laughed as he said, "Then I often joke that this is a kind of class leap."
— He successfully went from being a wealthy person with no worries about food and clothing to a laborer at the youth training base with a monthly salary of two thousand yuan, including room and board.
Song Baiyu nearly choked on his water.
"Damn, no wonder Little Wanderer was so low-key back then." He wiped his mouth. "Old Xu even thought he was having financial difficulties and asked me about him!"
Nan Zhiyi smiled. Lao Xu was the manager of the CG youth training team at the time. For a while, he kept finding various excuses to treat them to late-night snacks and milk tea, which made them all very confused. Later, they found out that he wanted to secretly subsidize the talented players who seemed to have some financial difficulties from their families.
Later, by chance, he bumped into You Xin's older brother who came to deliver something to him. Old Xu was a shrewd person and immediately realized that the other party's outfit was definitely expensive.
Upon returning and inquiring, it turned out that the teammate he thought was "so poor that he had to share a cup of milk tea with his teammates" was actually a genuine rich kid. He only wanted to drink the same cup of milk tea as others. Old Xu was so angry that he chug a bottle of mineral water on the spot, slapping his thigh and saying that he had "misplaced his trust."
As Song Baiyu spoke, he thoughtfully stroked his chin: "Now that you mention it, you two came together during youth training... How did you two meet back then?"
A note from the author:
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P: (Stands up) (Head held high, chest out) (Adjusts clothes) (Starts to power on) (Glowing light)
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