Chapter 10. From a long time ago, yux…
WeChat's efficiency is pretty good. When Nan Zhiyi woke up the next day, she found that she could log in to her beloved account.
He has many friends. In the short time I hadn't checked, his contacts were already filled with all sorts of greetings, mostly asking if he had landed safely.
The last message Song Meng sent him was: "Actually, I asked Yux to pick you up. You don't mind, do you? He's the only person I know here."
Unfortunately, his phone was stolen before he saw the message. Otherwise, if he had been mentally prepared, he certainly wouldn't have acted so helplessly.
Among the numerous messages, the dozens of greetings sent by Song Baiyu stood out.
[Pigeon: Are you okay, bro? I heard from my brother that your wallet got stolen. Bad luck!]
A few hours later.
[Pigeon: Holy crap, yux's back from the dead!!!]
[Pigeon:. . . . 】
[Pigeon: ? You're with him now?]
【Pigeon:? ? ? ? 】
[Pigeon: Mr. Angel, how many things are you hiding from me? Are we still brothers??]
Besides these, there was another person whose news caught people's attention.
[Qiu Cheng: Xiaoyi, did you go on a long trip? I don't think Daodao is home either.]
[Qiu Cheng: I wasn't online for a few days, that's when I saw all that mess. How are you doing now?]
Nan Zhiyi blinked slowly. Ever since the last spying incident, his relationship with Qiu Cheng had inexplicably become somewhat strained.
Qiu Cheng said he was going back to his hometown to relax, but he actually returned home soon after. However, he hasn't dared to stream since. He tried streaming once right after the World Championship ended, but the chat was flooded with messages so many that even setting up nearly a hundred censored words didn't help. His moderators were so busy banning accounts that their hands cramped up, and in the end, they could only continue to play dead.
Nan Zhiyi replied to their messages one by one.
While washing up in the ensuite bathroom in the master bedroom, he received a reply from Song Baiyu.
[Pigeon: Do you know how agonizing these past ten-plus hours have been for me?]
[Pigeon: What's the situation between you two now? Are you living in his house? Have you made up? Does he already know about that video? Why don't you two discuss how to resolve this? Give those bastards a good thrashing!]
Song Baiyu fired off a barrage of questions.
Nan Zhiyi thought for a moment and replied, "I think he doesn't know yet; he definitely hasn't seen Weibo."
[Pigeon: You even know if he's checked Weibo?]
Nan Zhiyi knew, of course. You Xin had stopped using Weibo a long time ago. The content on his account with millions of followers was all posted by the account's administrators, and it often had a strong artificial feel to it, which his fans jokingly called "pseudo-human literature."
As for the reason, it is somewhat unknown.
[Xiaoyi Xiaoyi: You know You Qing really likes acting in idol dramas, right? These dramas love to buy marketing, and they're always trending on Weibo. He really dislikes his brother; he finds him annoying, so he never looks at Weibo.]
Song Baiyu sent another long string of […].
When Nan Zhiyi left the room, she discovered that You Xin had gotten up even earlier than her, completely deviating from the sleep schedule of e-sports players.
Besides him, another young man was sitting on the sofa in the living room, looking down at his phone.
"Meng Ge!" Nan Zhiyi exclaimed in surprise, "Why did you come here?"
Song Meng was still wearing a coat and a scarf, clearly indicating that he had only just arrived.
"I came over as soon as the car was fixed." He put down his phone and gestured for Nan Zhiyi to sit down. "How was it? You weren't scared yesterday, were you?"
Nan Zhiyi recounted her amazing experience from yesterday in detail. After listening, Song Meng laughed and said, "You'll have plenty to talk about next time you do a live stream. It's a pity I didn't film it, otherwise I could have made a vlog."
While the two were chatting, You Xin was fighting with Ken Ken, who was tearing apart a brand new towel in a whirlwind.
Nan Zhiyi glanced over there and thought to herself, "This is nothing."
The impact of "Angel Yi being stolen from and robbed on the street" on fans is probably only about one percent that of "Angel Yi being picked up by Yux on the street and Yux personally cooking three dishes and a soup for her".
When three people who play video games get together, there aren't many entertainment options available.
Given the current special circumstances, even going to an internet cafe to play a game of mahjong has become a problem—in the end, everyone unanimously decided to have lunch at the nearby Haidilao Hot Pot restaurant.
"It's actually quite a coincidence. I only got in touch with Xiao You a few days ago." In the private room, while You Xin went out to get some snacks, Song Meng said to Nan Zhiyi, "Last week I logged into my EU server account. That account was the one I used for training when I came out for a competition. At that time, I was still in CG, and I added him as a friend. As soon as I logged in, I found that he was online. After chatting for a few minutes, we got in touch."
Nan Zhiyi was a little surprised.
After all, according to Song Baiyu, Song Meng had not logged into ROE for a long time since he announced his retirement.
This game, which once occupied his entire life, seems to have cast a shadow over him, making it difficult for him to even log into his account again.
"Meng Ge, have you been playing on the European server lately?" Nan Zhiyi asked tentatively.
"Yeah. I haven't played in a long time, I'm rusty, and I'm still stuck at Platinum." Song Meng's tone was a little helpless.
Just then, You Xin returned. He was holding a condiment dish in one hand and a cell phone in the other, hanging up the caller ID on the screen.
"Hey." Song Meng noticed. "Xiao You, aren't you answering your phone?"
You Xin put his phone on silent and put it back in his pocket.
“Yang Lei,” he explained.
Song Meng immediately understood.
"Yang Lei?" Nan Zhiyi repeated curiously, "Is he the manager from CG? Stone?"
“Yes, it’s him,” You Xin said.
The conversation naturally turned to this point. Nan Zhiyi's question was on the tip of his tongue, but Song Meng finally asked it for him: "Xiao You, what's the situation between you and CG right now?"
You Xin sat down and washed the dishes with the tea. He said succinctly, "CG card my contract."
"What?!" the remaining two people in the private room exclaimed in unison.
“I signed a three-year contract with CG at the end of 2022, a child labor contract. This year is the last year,” You Xin said. “What I mean is that I can play for another year and accept the original roster. But Yang Lei wants to loan me to MTT.”
His tone was very calm, as if he wasn't talking about something that had happened to him.
Nan Zhiyi was practically jumping out of her seat: "But MTT was at the bottom last season?! Is this guy crazy?"
“He’s not crazy,” You Xin said coldly. “He negotiated a loan price of 13 million with MTT. I didn’t agree, so he put me on the bench.”
"I figured since they didn't want me to go to school, and I was just idling around anyway, I might as well go to school."
"…………"
Nan Zhiyi was both angry and amused, and she simply didn't know what to say.
The CG manager's scheme was so cunning that it could be heard throughout M City—he had initially signed Yux to a three-year contract as a child laborer for 4.5 million, but now he was going to sell him for 13 million. Not a single penny of the 13 million rental fee would go to You Xin; instead, it would all go into the CG boss's pocket.
CG could have chosen any team to loan out their players, but instead it was MTT, the bottom-ranked team in the entire league, where making the playoffs would be considered extremely lucky.
Isn't this clearly a way of making him, Yux, take on three responsibilities and become the director of an orphanage?
While being sidelined in the esports scene is not uncommon, this is the first time Nan Zhiyi has seen it done to this extent.
Of course, You Xin is no pushover either. Looking across the industry, he's probably the first person to dare challenge a powerhouse team like CG.
Song Meng didn't seem as surprised as Nan Zhiyi: "Didn't you talk to them about terminating the contract?"
“We talked, but it was no use,” You Xin said. “They’re not willing to release him.”
“That’s true. How could they possibly let you go for a million or two?” Song Meng sighed. “CG assembles championship-contending teams every year. If you go to a top-ranked team, the threat you pose to them will be far more than a million or two.”
That's why they thought of demoting him to the bottom team, so he could make money, annoy people, and prevent Yux from leading the team to take away the championship trophy that CG had in the bag.
Nan Zhiyi sat there, feeling a vein throbbing in her forehead.
"So what are you going to do now? Just keep dragging this out?" Song Meng continued, "They probably won't let you off so easily."
“He just called and threatened me, saying he would sue me if I didn’t return to the team,” You Xin said, looking nonchalant. “Let him sue me if he wants, it’s not like I can’t afford a lawyer.”
"You... sigh." Song Meng couldn't think of any solutions either, and could only offer a token consolation, "If it really comes to that, public opinion will definitely be on your side. Those people from CG won't want to publicly break ties with you."
"Who knows? Anyway, they've long since lost all shame."
At this point, both former core members of CG fell silent.
The atmosphere was broken by a "plop." Nan Zhiyi dropped a shrimp into the pot.
Song Meng then noticed that the usually talkative and chatty anchor, who could sit at the same table with his gossipy younger brother, was unusually quiet just now.
For some reason, Nan Zhiyi's hands were shaking, and she couldn't catch a shrimp even after three attempts.
You Xin glanced at him and said, "I'll do it."
He used his chopsticks to steadily pick up the slippery shrimp, but instead of handing it to the other person, he put it on his own plate.
Next, she put on gloves, quickly peeled the shrimp, and then placed the shrimp by the tail into Nan Zhiyi's bowl.
Nan Zhiyi was caught off guard by the shrimp. He paused for a moment, then subconsciously said, "Oh, actually, you could have just scooped it out for me..."
You Xin ignored his politeness: "You eat yours."
"……OK."
Nan Zhiyi readily complied and popped the shrimp into her mouth. You Xin then scooped a second shrimp out of the pot.
“Actually, there’s no need to worry too much.” He ripped the shrimp head off and tossed it aside. “CG thinks they can control me just because they have the contract. But a contract is just a contract; people are flexible. I have plenty of ways to deal with them.”
As if speaking specifically to someone, he paused, then added, "But it's not the right time yet. We need to wait a little longer."
"…………"
Song Meng watched this scene from the side, his eyebrows subtly raised.
If I remember correctly... Yux has had a rather severe case of mysophobia since a long time ago, right?
A note from the author:
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My former employer! Damn it!
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