Off-season "double travel"
On the first morning of the offseason, Lin Yu, carrying two large and one small suitcases, stood waiting for Su Ran downstairs. The sun shone brightly over the plane trees on the corner, landing on Su Ran. He wore a light gray hooded sweatshirt and clutched a neatly folded travel guide, which they had worked on together two weeks earlier. With different colored pens, he'd marked it with "Must-See Erhai Lake Bike Ride" and "Must-Try Flower Cakes." He even drew a small heart for the "hidden rice noodle shop" recommended by the B&B owner.
"Don't forget anything," Su Ran said, checking his backpack before getting in the car. "Charger, camera, and that notebook you said you'd bring last time." Lin Yu smiled and pulled him into the car. "I've brought everything. I even packed two bags of your favorite strawberry-flavored gummy candies." The scenery outside the car window gradually changed from the familiar city streets to rolling green hills and rice fields. Su Ran leaned against the window, looking at the clouds in the distance, and suddenly sighed, "Finally, I don't have to watch game videos every day. It feels easier on my eyes."
Lin Yu reached out and rubbed his hair: "On this trip, we don't want to think about anything, just relax."
Their first stop was Dali Ancient Town. Instead of choosing a popular online homestay, they found an inn with a small courtyard by the Erhai Lake. Bougainvillea grew in the courtyard, and the shimmering Erhai Lake was visible from the window. The first thing they did after unpacking was rent an electric scooter. Lin Yu chose a light blue one, and Su Ran sat in the back seat, her arms gently wrapped around his waist.
"Slow down, don't go too fast," Su Ran said, a little nervous at first, her voice emanating from Lin Yu's back. "Look at those clouds over there; they look like cotton candy." Lin Yu slowed down. The wind, carrying the moist scent of Erhai Lake, blew over, ruffling Su Ran's hair and tickling Lin Yu's neck. They rode slowly along Huanhai West Road, passing ridges covered with geraniums. They encountered locals leading horses and even stopped to watch the seagulls sunning themselves by the lake.
"I used to always think about winning the competition, about winning the championship," Su Ran suddenly said, his voice full of relief. "Now I realize that riding slowly like this, feeling the wind, is also very happy." Lin Yu parked the bike on the grass by the lake and turned to look at him. "From now on, every off-season, let's go to a new place, okay? Yunnan this year, see the sea next year, climb snow-capped mountains the year after, and visit all the places you want to go."
Su Ran nodded vigorously, put her arms around Lin Yu's neck, and pressed her face against his back. The sun shone on the two of them, the water of Erhai Lake shone with golden light, and the Cangshan Mountain in the distance looked like an ink painting. Time seemed to slow down at this moment.
While in Lijiang Old Town, they encountered a group of students in school uniforms. That afternoon, Lin Yu and Su Ran were selecting postcards at a cultural and creative store when a young girl with ponytails pointed at them and whispered, "Are you Captain Lin and Captain Su from Team AY?" Soon, seven or eight children gathered around them, notebooks and pens in hand, their eyes filled with anticipation.
"Can we have an autograph?" the little girl nervously grasped the pen, "I especially like your cooperation. Your 'Lan + Wang Zhaojun' in the last finals was amazing!" Lin Yu and Su Ran did not refuse. They took the notebook, wrote down their names carefully, and drew a small Han Xin and Wang Zhaojun next to them.
"Do you guys play Honor of Kings, too?" Su Ran squatted down and chatted with the kids. "What heroes do you usually play?"
"I play support!" "I play marksman. I want to be as good as Captain Su!" The children chattered, their eyes sparkling. Lin Yu looked at the lively scene and suddenly suggested, "Would you like to play a fun game together? We'll play with you guys using our trumpets."
The children cheered instantly and dragged them to a nearby internet cafe. Lin Yu played Han Xin and Su Ran played Wang Zhaojun, coordinating with the children's Lu Ban and Sun Bin. They deliberately slowed down the pace and "accidentally" gave the blue buff to the little girl playing the mage. In the last team battle, Su Ran's Wang Zhaojun deliberately missed a big move, allowing the children's Lu Ban to get a pentakill. Watching the children hugging each other and cheering excitedly, Su Ran whispered to Lin Yu: "If only there was someone to play with us like this when we first started playing games."
Lin Yu held his hand, and felt the warmth on his fingertips: "We had no one to accompany us back then, but now we can accompany more children like them, which is also good." Before leaving, the children gave them the "Han Xin and Wang Zhaojun" cartoons they drew. Su Ran carefully put them into his backpack and said he would take them back to the base and stick them on the wall of the training room.
On the last day of the trip, they went to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. Fearing altitude sickness, they didn't climb too high and stayed at a guesthouse at the foot of the mountain. At night, the two sat on the carpet by the window, turning on a small lamp, flipping through photos on their phones. Su Ran pointed to a photo of Lin Yu by the Erhai Lake and laughed so hard she couldn't straighten her back. "Look at this one. The wind blew your hair all over the place. You look like a little lunatic, so silly."
Lin Yu grabbed the phone and clicked on a photo of Su Ran. In it, Su Ran was sitting on the back of an electric scooter, her hair blown by the wind, blocking her eyes, but she was smiling. "You're still blaming me," Lin Yu said, smiling as he set the photo as his wallpaper. "I'm going to keep this photo of you with your hair messed up by the wind for the rest of my life. When we're old, I'll take it out and laugh at you."
Su Ran leaned in Lin Yu's arms, watching him open the memo on his phone and write, "Next year during the offseason, let's go see the sea - Qingdao or Xiamen, and take Su Ran to eat seafood." He leaned over and added, "With Lin Yu, and bring a camera to take lots of photos," and drew a small heart.
Moonlight streamed through the window, casting a shadow on the two of them. The gentle chirping of insects drifted past the guesthouse, and the snow-capped mountains in the distance loomed in the night. There was no clatter of keyboards in the training room, no tense teamfights during matches, no arguments during debriefs. Only the sound of each other's breathing and the occasional soft laugh drifted through.
"Time flies," Su Ran yawned softly, "I feel like I just came out and I have to go back."
"It's okay," Lin Yu covered him with a blanket and patted his back gently. "We still have a lot of time and a lot of travel in the future. After we go back, train well. We'll go to the next place during the next off-season."
Su Ran nodded, closed his eyes, and gradually fell asleep in Lin Yu's arms. Lin Yu looked at his sleeping face, his fingers gently running through his hair, his heart filled with tenderness. He thought back to when he first met Su Ran, the two of them met at a professional selection competition, later became teammates, experienced failure together, lifted the championship trophy together, and together went from being young and inexperienced to becoming the people who depended on each other the most.
This journey lacked the glory and applause of the canyon, but it was filled with the most ordinary tenderness and companionship. Lin Yu knew that compared to the victories on the field, the scenery he had walked through with Su Ran and the time he had spent together were the most precious "trophies" in his life.
The stars outside the window were very bright, just like the stars in the canyon. Lin Yu hugged Su Ran and said softly, "Good night, Su Ran. Next year, let's go to see the sea."
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