Shi Ya was a master of the internet, and similarly, his close friends were all millennials who loved to browse instant messaging on all the major media platforms. Shi Ya's social network was incredibly extensive, with a constantly busy feed, allowing him to be the first to know about any gossip or development.
Therefore, although this post about Polaris' former team manager Du Yongbai's bullying was quickly forgotten, someone still captured the "highlight moment" and took an accurate screenshot, which was then passed to Shi Ya's WeChat not long after.
When Shi Ya received the message, the five people from Polaris were working out in the gym on the first floor of the hotel where they were staying.
The schedule they drew was tight, and they played four games in one go, which gave them a more complete rest period than other teams. This was a good thing, but it also had certain drawbacks. They had to maintain optimal physical condition during this rest period, which was very easy to cause slackness.
Fortunately, fitness has become a part of their daily life, and they don’t feel uncomfortable even when they go out. There happens to be a gym on the first floor of the hotel where they are staying, so they made an appointment to go to the gym together.
In addition to strengthening the body, fitness is also a relaxing and entertaining activity. In the gym right now, Lin Mingfei was jogging at double-digit speeds on the treadmill, Shi Ya was walking on the elliptical machine, Bo Yu was lifting weights, and Zhou Yanjun was taking an open Latin dance class with a group of aunties in skirts. Everyone was having a fulfilling time in their own way. Xia Xiaotong found two mini-sized barbells and lifted them for a while. Then she dragged a yoga mat over, lay down on it and started doing stretching exercises.
Since leaving the Zheng family and joining Polaris, he'd embraced a high-quality lifestyle "prescribed" by Lin Mingfei, characterized by good food and plenty of exercise. Though he hadn't grown much, Xia Tong's physique had noticeably changed. He still looked sweet and innocent, but compared to his previous frail frame, prone to falling and illness, his body had become more upright and flexible. Standing like a sprouting willow branch, he exuded the youthful energy of youth. He used to be so easily overwhelmed by Zhou Yanjun's sprinting while riding a bicycle, but now he could even hold himself up on the horizontal bar.
These changes were also reflected in the game competitions. He became more resilient than before. Although he was still not as strong as those Alphas with thick skin and flesh, overall, he was still more powerful.
Today, Xia Tong is Polaris's trump card. As a C position player, he has high output and high sensitivity. Most importantly, he is damn handsome.
Shi Ya finished scrolling through the screenshots on his phone while sitting on the elliptical machine not far away, then glanced at Xia Tong from afar. The little Omega was sitting on a yoga mat, trying hard to hook his toes with his fingertips, but he couldn't reach them because he wasn't flexible enough. So, he used his signature doggy smile to grab a lucky aunt in the crowd to help him. The aunt was willing and excited to go around behind him, squatted down, stretched out her palm, and pushed hard -
Xia Tong burst into tears: "Ahhhhh it hurts!"
Shi Ya: “.”
The little fool is still the same little fool.
Shi Ya curled his lips, and he suddenly felt that if he were Du Yong, he would definitely go to buy two kilograms of regret medicine now.
Then, he shared this screenshot with Lin Mingfei.
On the other side, Lin Mingfei was running at a speed of 25 and a slope of 6 without changing her expression, and she even had enough time to free up her hands to look at her phone.
Damn it, he still? He sent Shi Ya a message back.
At first, Shi Ya thought he had pressed the wrong button.
He glanced at Lin Mingfei's reply and saw that this bastard was actually teaching him a lesson seriously.
Polaris_Zero: Don't join in the fun before the game is over. Don't forget we still have a game with Shadow the day after tomorrow.
Polaris_Timer: What do you mean by "joining in the fun"?
Polaris_Zero: This includes but is not limited to reposting or sharing posts. Please let this post sink.
Polaris_Timer: Nonsense? How can getting slapped in the face be considered joining in the fun?
Polaris_Zero: We've been getting too much attention lately, especially Xia Tong. We should be more careful and play it safe before we reach the quarterfinals. Don't draw any negative attention to him.
Shi Ya let out a soft "tsk" and felt that what Lin Mingfei said made sense, so she deleted the screenshot from the album.
However, Shi Ya rarely stayed away from trouble, but his friends were not idle. When they saw that the screenshots they sent out did not receive the recognition and praise of Master Shi, they thought that Shi Ya was not satisfied, so they all joined in the fun and pushed up the posts.
It was this wave of top posts that made the title of this post stand out briefly in the vast discussion topic and was captured by Du Yong.
Du Yong has been feeling very upset these days.
As mentioned in this post, the more Polaris's fame grew, the more depressed and regretful he felt. He even secretly followed Polaris's current manager, He Youjin, on Weibo, and discovered that He Youjin would occasionally post some photos of their Polaris team's daily life. He Youjin was very good at taking pictures, and the moments he captured were full of life, either funny or beautiful. Even through the screen, one can feel the simple and pure team spirit of the Polaris team.
Du Yong couldn't help thinking sourly that when he tasted this soul, He Youjin was still there. He didn't know where he was.
However, now he can no longer replace He Youjin.
Du Yong sat in the room, looking down at the game schedule at hand. The day after tomorrow, Shadow Team will have a head-on confrontation with Polaris, and his face became increasingly gloomy.
Somehow, no matter how Ping Shuai persuaded and comforted him, he still did not have 100% confidence in the Shadow Team.
He had a hunch that if he didn't do something, the Shadow Team would definitely lose.
But what can he do?
Du Yong's five fingers tapped the table in turn.
It may not be easy for Sabretooth to reach the top again without Dylan, so Shadow Team is the most likely candidate to win the championship. He must maintain Shadow's position. He and Shadow Team are now tied together. Only by maintaining Shadow's position can he protect his own interests.
Since he has no way to replace He Youjin, he must not let Polaris replace the Shadow Team and take that position.
Du Yong was thoughtful, took out his cell phone and called Ping Shuai.
After a while, Ping Shuai knocked on the door of his room.
"Brother Yong, do you have something to talk to me about?" he asked with a smile.
"Yes? Something's up." Du Yong nodded and pointed to the chair in front of him: "Sit down."
Ping Shuai sat down flattered.
"You know that too." Du Yong crossed his legs and smiled, "When Ah Xiao left the team, there were actually a lot of vacant substitute spots, and people were vying for them. I gave it to you purely because I trust you."
Axiao was the substitute for MMdou in the original Shadow Team. She left for personal reasons, leaving the position vacant temporarily.
"Yes? Brother Yong, I know it very well." Ping Shuai said sincerely.
"Now that you've joined Shadow, you're a member of Shadow. Shadow's honor is your honor. If Shadow wins the championship, you can still say you were a substitute on the championship team, just like when you were in Sabertooth." Du Yong said slowly, "Do you understand what I mean?"
"I understand." Ping Shuai nodded.
"So, Shadow needs you now, so don't retreat. Otherwise, you'll be of no use to him." Du Yong said patiently, "You know, Sabretooth has a new Hunter player, and it might take a while for them to get used to each other. Now, Shadow's biggest enemy isn't them anymore, but Polaris."
Ping Shuai opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Du Yong pressed it back.
"You don't have to rush to belittle Polaris's level. In fact, Polaris is our old team. You and I are both very clear about their true level. If they continue to develop at this rate, they will sooner or later become a threat to our Shadow's championship." Du Yong said.
Ping Shuai's face turned slightly pale.
"You might think that even if Polaris wins, it won't matter. Shadow will still be runner-up, just like last year, neither good nor bad." Du Yong added coldly, "It might not matter to others, but for you and me, a Polaris victory would be a slap in the face and a scolding. Everyone would laugh at us, saying we were blind and blinded by greed, and laugh at us for running around the world looking for something to regret."
What he said was so true and believable that Ping Shuai could truly empathize with him and veins on his forehead bulged.
"I don't regret it at all!" He gritted his teeth and said, "Even if they begged me, I wouldn't want to go back to that damn place."
"Me too." Du Yong said calmly, "So I hope you understand the seriousness of this matter."
"So what should we do now?" Ping Shuai frowned and asked, "What measures can we take to create distance between Shadow and Polaris—"
"Actually, it's not that difficult to create distance." Du Yong held his chin with one hand and said quietly, "Polaris' strengths are obvious, but their weaknesses are also obvious."
"What?" Ping Shuai's face showed a bit of confusion.
"Their team has no substitute." Du Yong said word by word, with a faint light flickering in his pupils.
Ping Shuai slowly widened his eyes, as if he had been enlightened, and suddenly woke up.
Really? Ah, the Polaris team pieced together and finally got five people together to qualify for the competition. They didn't have time to recruit any young trainees or substitutes!
With such a rigid yet fragile team configuration, if any one of the team members encounters an accident, they will definitely not be able to play in the game again, and winning the championship will become the most unattainable thing.
After figuring this out, he and Du Yong looked at each other and smiled, and a plan came to mind.
At noon, the Polaris group went to a very famous local Hong Kong-style tea restaurant and ordered dishes at a large round table. While eating, Lin Mingfei found that Zhou Yanjun was particularly abnormal.
That fat guy is always talkative and impatient. Every day at the dinner table, he has a lot of irrelevant topics to talk about, rambling on and on. Even when no one pays attention to him, he can still rant for a long time about a comment that he just saw that makes him unhappy.
But today, he was so silent that people wondered if he had become a gold miner. He was holding chopsticks in one hand and grinning foolishly at his crotch.
Xia Tong has been thinking about new tactics recently. All the tactics that have just been put forward have to cooperate with Zhou Yanjun, the vanguard. Xia Tong often thinks of something and then tries to talk to Zhou Yanjun several times at the dinner table, but all her attempts fall on deaf ears.
Xia Tong was a little anxious and tried her best to wake up Zhou Yanjun's attention. However, shouting was useless. Even using chopsticks to pick up the meat in Zhou Yanjun's bowl was useless. After returning empty-handed, the little Omega finally got angry.
"You fat bastard!!" He slammed his chopsticks on the bowl, stood up angrily, and said with his hands on his hips, "Is there something growing under your table?! Why don't you pay attention to me for a moment!!"
Zhou Yanjun didn't even raise his head: "Hehehe..."
This "Hehehe" was obviously not a response to the little Omega.
Xia Tong was furious.
On the other side, Lin Mingfei squinted her eyes, stretched out her long legs under the table without any expression, and suddenly hooked Zhou Yanjun's ankle with her heel.
Zhou Yanjun screamed, "Oh my God!" The cell phone that was placed on his crotch fell to the ground the moment his legs split.
At this moment, Fatty Zhou suddenly woke up from his dream. He raised his butt to push the chair away and crawled under the table to look for his phone: "Hey, where's my phone! Where's my phone!"
"Is the cell phone your wife or something?" Lin Mingfei raised her leg and kicked him in the butt again: "It's taken your soul away!"
Zhou Yanjun twisted and turned under the table, making a particularly annoying "tsk" sound, but did not refute.
Shi Ya was sitting across the table and was instantly amused.
"Oh, look at this scene, is there really a wife in the phone?" He held his chin with one hand, and said with a half-smile: "He has been grinning foolishly at the phone since morning and even skipped his meals. I have no reason to suspect that Fire has fallen in love for the first time——"
"Go away!" Zhou Yanjun finally picked up the phone from under the table and dusted it off with his chubby little hand, looking rather distressed. "You're just beginning to fall in love, and I'm just chatting with my fans..."
"Fans?" Several people asked in unison.
"What?" Zhou Yanjun was a little annoyed by their reaction. His face turned stern and he said angrily, "I can't have fans anymore?"
"Yes, didn't you say? No, but you don't either? It's your first day with fans, right?" Lin Mingfei didn't buy his rhetoric at all. She rolled her eyes and asked, "Why is this your reaction today?"
"Because..." Zhou Yanjun was at a loss for words after being confronted by Lin Mingfei. He hesitated for a while and said, "Of course it's because this fan is special?"
"Omega?" Shi Ya's follow-up question was even more pointed: "Omega girl?"
Zhou Yanjun: “…”
The fat guy's face turned red with embarrassment.
"Ahhhh, I'm so fed up with you guys!" He jumped up and down in anger, almost throwing his phone away. "Really? So what if she's a cute Omega girl? I met her at the door yesterday when I was shopping at the supermarket!"
Shi Ya was stunned: "What a coincidence?"
"Of course not!" Zhou Yanjun shook his head. "She must have come all the way from the competition venue to chase me, so we reluctantly exchanged WeChat contact information..."
"Can we chase them here from the competition venue?" Lin Mingfei narrowed her eyes and asked, "Yes? No? Our address has been leaked? Is the organizer's confidentiality work so poor? I'll call Lao He."
Zhou Yanjun: "...Fuck, are you guys just jealous of me? You've turned my romantic, heaven-sent fate into this!"
"I also hope that this is your romantic destiny, but now is a sensitive period, and it never hurts to be cautious." Lin Mingfei glanced at him, stood up and made a phone call.
Zhou Yanjun rolled his eyes, and then the little Omega next to him pulled his sleeve.
"Fatty, you ignored me no matter how I called you just now." Xia Tong raised her face and stared at Zhou Yanjun with serious and solemn eyes, like a serious chief judge: "Will you treat me like this during the competition?"
Zhou Yanjun was stunned.
"That—definitely not!"
"What if? During the game, I tell you to change your target or retreat, but you just stand there and say 'hehehe', and then we lose the game, what are we going to do?" Xia Tong asked relentlessly.
This little guy has been with Lin Mingfei for a long time and has actually learned to be aggressive. Zhou Yanjun was speechless for a while, and then scratched his head in confusion: "...Oh, I told you I won't do it anymore! Can't you hope for something good from me, little dwarf!" Obviously, Xia Tong was very dissatisfied with this answer. He turned his head away angrily, "I won't talk to you anymore, I'm going to find Xiao Bo, Xiao Bo~~~~" Then he sat next to Bo Yu and went to discuss tactics with Bo Yu.
Zhou Yanjun did not improve because of the little incident at lunch. On the contrary, he didn't even show up during dinner. When asked by message, he said he was shopping outside. The four people left at the table looked at each other in confusion.
"Now Pangpang even skips us after dinner!" Xia Tong held her chin with both hands and said worriedly, "What if he skips us on the day of the competition too?"
"There's something fishy going on, definitely something fishy." Shi Ya frowned and said, "Even if it is? There should be a limit to how you interact with fans!"
Lin Mingfei thought for a moment and glanced at Bo Yu: "Xiao Bo, do you know anything about that female fan?"
Bo Yu sighed, recalling, "I didn't see it clearly that day, but I remember the girl suddenly appeared from the supermarket, brought Fire a big bouquet of flowers, and held up a sign, claiming to be a fan of Fire. But Fire had little experience with the opposite sex, so he indulged her a bit... He was completely compliant with the girl's requests and even bought her a lot of snacks to take back."
"Zhou Yanjun, this innocent fat guy, don't let others cheat you out of your money and your body." Shi Ya said.
"And how can there be fans like that!" Xia Tong complained. "Aren't fans supposed to be the ones who want to see Pang Pang win the most? Why would they delay Pang Pang's work at this time? If Pang Pang loses the game because of this, she, as a fan, won't be happy either!"
"I don't think it's necessarily a fan... maybe it's a honey trap." Lin Mingfei touched his chin with one hand and pondered.
"Scam? What does that mean?" Xia Tong said confusedly.
"A honey trap means... for example," Shi Ya said, "you pretend to sleep in the same bed with Zero, then take photos of you both sleeping in the same bed. Then you use them to threaten Zero, saying, 'If Zero doesn't meet your demands, you'll post the photos online.' To prevent the photos from spreading online, Zero will agree to your requests without restriction."
"Oh, really? That's how it is." Xia Tong suddenly realized.
"When you mention the 'honey trap', I think it's really possible. After all, Fire looks like the kind of guy who is stupid and has a lot of money." Shi Ya frowned and said, "The competition is the day after tomorrow. We must not let anything go wrong at a time like this. We have to persuade that fat guy Zhou Yanjun to come back." As he said that, he lowered his head to pick up his cell phone and was about to call Zhou Yanjun.
Lin Mingfei quickly pressed his hand down.
"Don't call yet," he said. "Do you think Fire would believe you if you told him this now?"
Shi Ya was slightly startled, then shook her head and said, "Yes, he definitely won't believe me. His IQ now is probably as low as mine was when I was eight years old and had my first love."
Bo Yu: "...Brother Shi Ya, you already knew how to fall in love at the age of eight."
Shi Ya: "...Xiao Bo! Isn't that the main point?" He paused and held his forehead with his hand. "Anyway, at that time, I felt that everyone who opposed me dating was standing against me."
Lin Mingfei nodded: "That's right."
"Then what should we do?" Shi Ya said, "Just watch him continue to rebel? Wow! He's almost thirty and going through another wave of puberty is too much for him to handle!"
Lin Mingfei lowered her eyes and thought for a moment, then suddenly said, "If I can't make Fire change his mind, I can at least make him give up, right?"
Shi Ya: "? What do you mean?"
Lin Mingfei hooked her finger at him mysteriously. Shi Ya leaned closer and Lin Mingfei whispered in his ear for a while.
"You should be able to act according to the situation easily." After saying that, Lin Mingfei smiled slightly.
"Fuck, that's so wicked!" Shi Ya retracted her neck, her face numb: "And I'm so unlucky..."
"Isn't that immoral? You're trying to save Fire from a life that's about to go wrong!" Lin Mingfei said, "And why are you crying out for the criminals who set up a honey trap?"
"What I'm saying is that you are immoral and I am unlucky." Shi Ya pointed at him, then pointed at herself, and said viciously.
Xia Tong looked left and right, and nudged Bo Yu's arm in confusion: "Little Bo, have they come up with any good ideas?"
"It may not be a good idea, it may also be a bad idea." Bo Yu said faintly: "Based on their description and reaction, the captain may want Shi Ya to seduce the heroine of the honey trap."
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