Chapter 44 Happy Birthday. Twenty-two years old. ...
"Xiao Yi is a good person in every way, except that he tends to overthink things." Old Xu glanced at the person in the back seat through the rearview mirror while holding the steering wheel with one hand. "You always want to take responsibility for a lot of things and a lot of people, even if most of them are not your responsibility at all."
Nan Zhiyi sat upright in her seat, with her hands and feet together in front of her, stretching the seatbelt out a bit.
His face was still red, but it was a little better than before. When he came out of the restroom, everyone thought he was drunk and his face was flushed from the alcohol. Old Xu was shocked and said, "Such a little bit of alcohol can knock you out? It can't be that bad, can it?"
Of course not.
Nan Zhiyi's mind was still blank, the conversation from earlier playing on a cruel loop in his head like a phonograph.
"I...I was just rambling. I was talking about things from the past...we were talking about the past. Yes, the past." He explained hastily, "Please don't take it to heart."
"Hmm." His tone was clearly unconvinced.
"I really, really only see you as a good friend." She made an urgent promise. "I absolutely, absolutely, have no ulterior motives towards you, otherwise I wouldn't have agreed to live with you... Believe me, okay? Just believe me this once."
"……Um."
"You know, I tend to talk nonsense when I drink..."
"It's alright." His voice was devoid of emotion. "Let's go back."
Nan Zhiyi was somewhat surprised by You Xin's reaction. Although he was unsure of You Xin's opinion of him deep down, he remembered how You Xin reacted the last time something similar happened.
Of course, he didn't think You Xin would pounce on him recklessly like she did when she was sixteen, nagging and pestering him to agree to be together.
You Xin once gave him his heart, but later he felt it was not appropriate and tried to return it to its rightful owner.
Unfortunately, it was a heart that was too strong and easily broken. It could not accept the ending of being possessed and then abandoned, so it shattered.
But in his mind, You Xin should behave in a more extreme way.
Whether it's positive acceptance or negative aversion, he won't show those emotions in his eyes, but they will be expressed through his every move.
Instead of casually ending the topic like this, he went back to the private room with him as if nothing had happened, nodded goodbye to everyone who was going home, got into Lao Xu's car who insisted on taking him home, and said, "Nan Zhiyi and I are going together, we're living together now," which surprised the people who had already walked away and made them turn around to look.
Rational, calm, and perhaps a little too calm.
It's like pulling the pin on a bomb and then carelessly leaving it aside.
The red light turned green, and the vehicle started moving again.
"Hey, speaking of which, you two are living together now? Your relationship is so good now?" Old Xu started a new topic. "Actually, my memory is still stuck at the end of 2021. You two had a fight for some reason, and it even came to my place. After that, I didn't see Xiaoyi much, and I thought you two had broken up. Xiaoyi was in school at the time and didn't want to bother you. As for Xiaoyou, I didn't dare to ask him, after all, it's between the two of you... So? You've made up now? You're not angry anymore?"
Nan Zhiyi: "..."
He knows how to bring up the most sensitive topics.
"Hmm... I was too naive back then," he chuckled sheepishly, avoiding a direct answer to the question. "I'm sorry for causing you trouble."
"See? I told you you're too responsible. What's so troublesome about this? It's just a phone call." Old Xu waved his hand, then looked at You Xin sitting in the passenger seat. "So, You? Aren't you going to 'say something' too?"
“I’m not angry,” You Xin said. “It’s not like we’ve fallen out.”
"Oh, what's wrong? I don't think Xiao Yi comes to watch your matches anymore! She used to come whenever she had free time."
"He's very busy with school."
"Wasn't Xiao Yi still making videos back then? He didn't seem that busy. Also, I saw that he invited quite a few contestants to his videos, so why didn't he invite you?"
"...I'm very busy with training."
"Wasn't Meng in your team back then? How come he had time? Or was it that CG had flexible training back then, and whoever played well got to practice more?"
"..."
You Xin didn't respond or make any further movements, but Nan Zhiyi noticed a vein bulging on his arm that was resting on the center console.
Old Xu was busy driving and looking ahead, still smugly pleased with his "keen observation skills": "You're so stubborn, you can't fool my eyes anyway."
This man is, after all, HYG's current manager, a figure who holds the power of life and death over all the players and coaches of HYG's first and second teams. Nan Zhiyi was worried that he would appear on the list for the "Award Ceremony" or "Khan's Grand Military Review" next time, so she quickly smoothed things over, saying, "Brother Xu, don't tease him. I was really too busy at that time, it wasn't that we really fell out or anything."
That's not a big problem, after all, it wasn't just an ordinary argument or a falling out.
Instead... they broke up.
It's best not to tell this overly avant-garde love story to this burly northern man.
"Hmm." Old Xu finally gave up on his entertainment activity of "teasing the two of them".
Out of the corner of her eye, Nan Zhiyi saw You Xin's tense arm relax again.
Old Xu drove them all the way to their destination. Outside cars weren't allowed inside the residential area, so they got out of the car one after the other at the gate.
Old Xu got out of the car too. He walked around the front of the car, stood next to You Xin, and patted him on the shoulder: "Think it over carefully, and let me know whenever you make a decision."
You Xin hummed in agreement.
Old Xu then turned to Nan Zhiyi, patted him on the shoulder, and lowered his voice: "If you also think it's appropriate, do me a favor and persuade him."
He grinned at Nan Zhiyi: "Your words have the most effect on him."
-
Over the next week, the offline competitions of the Juxing Cup were held one after another.
As expected, the loser's bracket final was a match between Songshi Team and Xiaolingdang Team. On the day of the match, Nan Zhiyi gathered her teammates in the training room to watch the game together and brainstorm ideas for the final on Saturday.
In the first game, both sides traded blows, and everyone was chatting and laughing while seriously analyzing the game. However, in the second game, everyone in the room fell silent.
Finally, You Xin asked the question that had been bothering him: "You really didn't buy it?"
The Songshi team seemed to have collectively lost their minds, staging a series of performances including "sleepwalking in the hall," "buying the box and returning the pearl (opening the box but forgetting to take the gold coins)," "Calabash Brothers saving their grandfather," and "jumping off a tree to commit suicide." The barrage comments were all saying that they would save this match for New Year's Eve.
In the third game, trailing 0-2, their respawn point was destroyed by the opponent at the 9-minute mark, causing the third game to end in just 13 minutes, setting a record for the shortest game in the Juxing Cup offline tournament.
On the large screen that He Zhou had specially installed for them, the players from both sides shook hands and bowed. All four members of the Songshi team remained expressionless and silent.
"It seems our final opponent is the Little Bell team." After a long pause, Song Meng spoke, and the camera gave a close-up of the Little Bell team's training squad. "If they are still at the same level as in the group stage, I think we should have no problem beating them. But the problem is..."
“We’re having trouble figuring out their skill level right now,” Nan Zhiyi chimed in.
Team Little Bell has swept its opponents multiple times since entering the offline competition, and its strength on paper seems very formidable. However, in Nan Zhiyi's opinion, analyzing the content of the matches alone doesn't really show how well Team Little Bell has played; instead, their opponents have been incredibly anthropomorphic.
After entering the playoffs, their team stopped playing scrims with other teams. This was partly because most teams had already gone home, and partly because they won almost every scrim. Song Meng insisted that "Scrub God of War" was an ominous title. The root cause was probably that winning too many games made people arrogant.
Since they couldn't possibly arrange practice matches with their final opponents, they simply trained on their own.
The week without matches passed quickly, and everyone devoted themselves to training.
On the morning of April 12, Nan Zhiyi woke up earlier than usual.
After getting up, he habitually checked his WeChat and found that Sister Li had sent him several messages.
[Sister Li: Happy birthday, Xiaoyi!]
[Sister Li: [Images][Images]]
[Sister Li: These are gifts from your fans. The company is holding them for now, so please come and pick them up later. If you have some free time today, could you please film a short video and post it in the fan group to express your gratitude?]
The picture shows a large number of gift boxes, plush toys, handmade items, and a whole stack of handwritten letters.
Since the start of the Juxing Cup, Sister Li has been very cooperative and hasn't contacted him as frequently as before. In addition, she also helped him write an application to the platform to waive his live streaming time in April and May - "There might be a deduction of some money, but it won't be considered a breach of contract. You can stream if you want, or you can not stream if you want to focus on training."
[Xiaoyi Xiaoyi: Thank you, sis! [starry eyes]]
Nan Zhiyi's mind was so full of training and competition that he completely forgot that today's final day was also his own birthday.
No wonder he suddenly received a call from his mother last night. She said she had just landed at Hongqiao Airport and planned to go to watch his game tomorrow. She asked if he had any spare guest rooms at home. He was so startled that he repeatedly said that he had a roommate at home and it was inconvenient, so he eventually sent her to a hotel.
Nan Zhiyi left the room, washed up, and went downstairs.
The first floor was quiet; You Xin didn't seem to be home.
He thought to himself, "He probably went out to buy breakfast."
Nan Zhiyi sat down on the sofa, intending to record a thank-you video first. He turned on the front camera and found that his hair was all messed up from sleeping, and he couldn't flatten it no matter how many times he tried to press it down with his hands. He simply gave up, casually filmed a short close-up video, and then opened his long-unused fan group chat and uploaded the video. His moderators would help him forward it to other group chats.
Just after posting the video, there was a noise at the door. Nan Zhiyi went to open the door and found You Xin standing there, holding a large box in her arms.
"Happy birthday," he said. "Twenty-two years old."
After a while, Nan Zhiyi realized that this was a birthday gift from the other party.
"What...did you buy?" he asked uncertainly, watching You Xin walk past him and place the box heavily on the dining table where he usually kept odds and ends.
"Hmm." You Xin thought for a moment, "Shall we open it and take a look?"
Nan Zhiyi punctured the plastic seal on the cardboard box. The first thing that caught his eye was the invoice placed on the beautifully packaged box.
You Xin saw it too and tried to grab it quickly, but Nan Zhiyi was faster. He grabbed the receipt, looked at the shopping list on it, and found that it was a complete set of live streaming equipment, then glanced down.
After seeing the price, Nan Zhiyi almost fainted.
He nearly jumped up on the spot, exclaiming in horror, "Why...why did you give me something so valuable?!"
One, two, three, four, five, six.
The price of the camera alone is a whopping six figures.
You Xin pursed her lips and said casually, "It's not expensive."
"...Do you know how much this camera I'm using costs? Four thousand yuan." That camera was bought two and a half years ago. The image quality is so-so and it's prone to breaking down. Fans have been asking him to change it, but Nan Zhiyi likes to use this as an excuse to be lazy and not turn on the camera. "You...you bought a two-hundred-thousand-yuan one? Are you crazy or am I crazy..."
You Xin blinked.
"Then you can use it more often?" he said. "That way, it won't be expensive on average."
"………………"
“Take it,” You Xin continued, his gaze somewhat unfocused, and he stammered for the first time, a rare occurrence for him. “These are compensations for you… all these years.”
He paused, then said, "I broke my promise back then."
It took Nan Zhiyi a while to understand what he meant by breaking his promise.
After You Xin ran away from home and his family cut off his financial support, for a long time, the meager wages of the youth training team members could only cover his extremely frugal daily expenses.
Fortunately, he didn't have any of the bad habits of a spoiled young master. He would eat in the cafeteria if asked, and he could wear clothes that cost 100 yuan or 10,000 yuan. Nan Zhiyi had never heard him complain about his lifestyle.
So much so that when he suddenly asked Nan Zhiyi what she wanted for her birthday one day, Nan Zhiyi was stumped: "My birthday is in April, but that's still several months away."
You Xin reasoned, "I need to prepare in advance."
Nan Zhiyi thought he was going to make a pop-up book or something like that from the photos of the two of them, just like those online bloggers. She was about to laugh at him for "going to such lengths" when she saw him hold up three fingers.
"This is all the budget we have right now," You Xin said.
Nan Zhiyi: "Three hundred? That can buy a lot of things, do whatever you want..."
“Thirty thousand,” You Xin interrupted him.
Nan Zhiyi's smile froze on her face: "...?"
“I’ll be playing for the second team next month. My base salary is 15,000 yuan a month, with bonuses on the side.” You Xin calculated with him very seriously, “So by April, 30,000 yuan is a pretty safe figure.”
"…………"
It seems that he's not entirely without a spoiled brat mentality.
Rather, the condition develops proportionally to the wealth of one's wallet.
For a long time afterward, Nan Zhiyi was filled with anxiety about this bombshell birthday gift. She racked her brains every day, wondering how she could reciprocate if the other person really gave her something so valuable, given that she was still a student and had the financial means to do so.
Although the gift was never given in the end, over the years, that inexplicable feeling has returned to his heart.
Nan Zhiyi no longer had the courage to unpack the remaining microphones, lights, capture cards, and other related items.
He slammed the cardboard box shut, took a deep breath, exhaled, and asked with difficulty, "Where...where did you get the money?"
As far as he knew, You Xin's family had cut off contact with him for a long time. CG did pay him some wages, but in order to terminate the contract with them some time ago, that money had already been returned to them intact.
"My brother gave it to me," You Xin said frankly.
"...Your older brother?"
“Yes. He believes in brotherhood,” You Xin said. “After my dad had a stroke, he took over the family business, so he gives me some pocket money every month.”
Nan Zhiyi had a premonition that it might not be the pocket money he had imagined: "How much?"
You Xin thought for a moment: "One hundred thousand? Two hundred thousand? Sometimes more, sometimes less."
Nan Zhiyi: "………………"
Sometimes I really want to compete with these rich people.
He felt his head starting to spin and held his forehead with one hand.
Reason told him that this was not a very valuable thing for You Xin, and if he really wanted to return the favor, he was no longer the rich man he used to be who could afford to take out two thousand yuan from his pocket.
But his emotions told him that he shouldn't accept such an expensive gift from an ordinary friend who hadn't seen each other for three years and had only recently reconciled.
Just as he was pondering what to do with this hot potato of a gift, the doorbell in the entryway suddenly rang.
Nan Zhiyi nearly fainted again: "There's nothing else, is there?!"
“No, that’s all.” You Xin was also a little confused. He walked towards the door. “I’ll go check. Maybe I went to the wrong place.”
Nan Zhiyi was already somewhat traumatized by him. He followed him with great concern.
Then, I watched helplessly as You Xin opened the door, revealing a middle-aged beauty with big wavy curls, sky-high heels, manicured nails on all ten fingers with different designs, and large sunglasses on her face.
"Mom got up early this morning, thinking I'd come see you first," Ms. Nan Kui said loudly, shoving the bag she was carrying into Nan Zhiyi's arms, who was standing closer to the front, and casually taking off her sunglasses. "I just saw that short video you posted on the bus. You seem to have a lot of free time, why won't you let me... come over here?"
Her voice suddenly faltered.
A moment later, she slowly raised her head and met the gaze of You Xin, who was standing behind Nan Zhiyi, holding the doorknob and wearing casual home clothes.
"Hello, Auntie," You Xin greeted calmly.
Ms. Nan Kui blinked her newly applied American sweetheart false eyelashes.
"Ah...it's Xiaoyou. Hello, hello." She immediately dropped the air of arrogance she had just displayed when she took off her sunglasses, trying her best to hide her demureness. "Auntie didn't know you lived here now, haha, I just wanted to come and visit...I hope I didn't bother you in any way?"
As he spoke, he gave Nan Zhiyi a subtle look that seemed to ask, "What's going on with you?"
"..."
Nan Zhiyi now truly felt like she was about to faint.
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