Desire to Lure [Esports] - Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Perhaps because he had drunk some wine that evening, Yu Wenzhi had acted on a sudden whim, but he hadn’t expected Sheng Xu’s reaction to be so adorable; it turned out the gift was actually worth the money.

However, he didn’t stick around to see how chaotic the stream became; as long as the goal was achieved, it was fine.

Exiting the stream, he changed his name back.

“I smell like seafood; I’m going back to take a shower.”

Yu Wenzhi patted Xu Rui, who was busy cracking melon seeds on the spot, and turned to go upstairs.

Xu Rui swallowed a melon seed kernel fiercely, savored it for a long time, then turned and offered one to Zechuan: “Want some?”

Zechuan waved his hands hurriedly: “Thanks, but no.”

Sheng Xu, however, was not nearly as calm as Yu Wenzhi. He stood by the corridor windowsill and smoked two cigarettes in a row, yet it still didn’t feel like enough.

Throwing down a 100,000-yuan gift and leaving behind an earth-shattering “(Your Support),” Yu Wenzhi had tossed the explosive bullet chat behind his back and sauntered away.

Sheng Xu picked up his water cup and wiped the lid, feigning composure to demonstrate his professional streamer poise: “Thank you, Yu…”

Who would have thought that at the crucial moment, his throat suddenly went hoarse. The word Yu didn’t come out; he only made the mouth shape. At first, he didn’t think much of it, but the bullet chat applied a magnifying glass to every detail.

…This is too much. Did he just blow a kiss?

He really doesn’t treat the fans like outsiders, but my Lord Sheng’s persona has collapsed.

Sheng Xu: “…”

The more anxious he got, the more his voice failed him. In the end, he simply gave up and shut down the stream.

Then he went to the corridor to smoke.

There were no stars tonight. The zenith was a thick, syrupy black. The wisps of smoke drifted out and vanished into the night like steam escaping a boiling cauldron.

But his eyes were strikingly bright. The fireworks that had bloomed in succession followed the light-axis of time, spreading to this very moment and illuminating his gaze.

Only when the cigarette pack was empty did Sheng Xu pull his focus back from the entanglement of light and shadow. He found a trash can to toss it, rinsed his mouth at the sink, and let the cold water soothe his inexplicable internal fever.

Back in the room, Sheng Xu pulled the promissory note from his pocket. His finger pressed down on a curled corner as he handed it to Yu Wenzhi with forced nonchalance: “Here.”

Yu Wenzhi gave him a puzzled look before unfolding the paper. Then, Yu Wenzhi smiled, saying with some surprise: “Your handwriting is quite good.”

Sheng Xu’s calligraphy was completely at odds with his history. A kid who ran away from home at every turn and treated fighting like a routine actually had the patience to practice such a hand.

“It’s alright.” Sheng Xu replied airily, his hands in his pockets, deliberately suppressing the corners of his mouth.

Yu Wenzhi read it while saying: “Don’t stream this Saturday; it’s the MSI Grand Finals.”

“Oh.” At the mention of the disastrous tournament, there was no need to suppress his mouth anymore. Sheng Xu grabbed his towel to go wash up.

While Sheng Xu wasn’t looking, Yu Wenzhi used his phone to snap a photo of a corner of the note the kind where you could see a few words clearly but couldn’t read the full content.

He sent it to his mother, saying: “Care to evaluate?”

Soon, a reply came back.

Yan Qin: Not bad. The foundation is quite solid, and it was written very earnestly. It looks like the Yan style, but the writer is likely very young there’s no artistic conception to speak of yet. However, for everyday use, it’s quite pleasing to the eye.

At the end, Ms. Yan sent a voice message asking: “Whose handwriting is it?”

Yu Wenzhi: “A hot-tempered, rebellious, and unruly nineteen-year-old kid.”

“Oh my, then teaching him must be very hard work,” Ms. Yan guessed.

Yu Wenzhi thought about it: “It’s okay.”

Ms. Yan said resentfully: “Certainly not as hard to teach as you were. When you were little, you’d rather draw puppies on the paper than write. My father’s copybooks were the one thing my son refused to learn.”

Yu Wenzhi laughed: “It shows I’ve loved animals since I was a child.”

After a bit of small talk, Yu Wenzhi mentioned another matter: “I might not be able to come home for this break. I need more time to build synergy with the AD, and there’s a wedding to attend.”

Ms. Yan sighed but wasn’t surprised. Yu Wenzhi was always very busy, especially after becoming the Captain.

“Take care of your health.”

“I know.”

What must come will eventually come. The next day, Zou Kai intended to conduct a review of the semifinals.

Even though they lost, they needed to know how they lost and how to improve.

This crushing defeat was no less than a public execution. Everyone came with a heavy heart except for Sheng Xu.

Sheng Xu hadn’t played; he was completely “clean.”

Zou Kai’s attitude toward Sheng Xu had indeed improved significantly, just as Yu Wenzhi had said.

He even took the initiative to talk to Sheng Xu, pointing to a chair near the front and saying gruffly: “Kid, sit up front.”

This actually didn’t make much sense. Sheng Xu’s height was nearing 1.9 meters and his vision was 2.0; there was no issue with him being unable to see.

In reality, Zou Kai felt guilty but didn’t know how to express it. Especially when he remembered how he almost made Sheng Xu open his bag for an inspection, he’d wake up in the middle of the night, roll over, and think, “I really deserve to die.”

Sheng Xu knit his brows and gave Zou Kai a confused look. He hooked a chair with his long leg and sat at the very edge.

It wasn’t that he was deliberately going against Zou Kai; it was mostly because places with a lot of people were too hot, and he wasn’t used to it.

Zou Kai, snubbed, rubbed the bridge of his nose and opened the first game.

Zou Kai tapped the screen.

“Without Wenzhi’s initiation, you would have lost the first game too. What does that mean? It means a clean sweep was entirely possible.”

“Ware, you always forget to check the brush here. Did you forget the game against FOX in the Spring Split where you got caught backing here?”

Ware shrank his neck, grabbed Zechuan’s arm next to him, and said in a small voice: “My bad. I didn’t think of it at the time.”

Zou Kai snapped: “You shouldn’t have to ‘think.’ This needs to be muscle memory.”

Ware nodded repeatedly.

“At the 14-minute mark here, the Herald is about to spawn. Ware and Zechuan are tanking the mid-lane tower, and the tower hasn’t fallen yet. Maoyi, why are you rotating lanes?”

Maoyi said weakly: “Chuan-ge said he wanted to back, and the tower only had half HP left, so I rotated.”

Zou Kai: “Against V6, we must shut down ZZY. You still rotate? If anyone rotates, it should be Ever. Ever, why aren’t you in mid-lane farming after the laning phase ended?”

Ever felt guilty and short of breath: “I… I… I was afraid the Tier 1 bot tower would be taken by Tristana.”

Zou Kai: “You weren’t afraid of the Tier 1 mid tower being taken?”

Yu Wenzhi said calmly: “We didn’t gain an advantage in the bot lane and couldn’t break the deadlock, which led to a passive state for the whole game.”

Yu Wenzhi’s one sentence hit the nail on the head, leaving Zou Kai unsure of what to say.

Ever’s explosiveness was still considered decent in the LPL, but in front of V6 or QZ, it really wasn’t enough.

It wasn’t that Ever’s peak had passed; it was that his personality was very cautious. He would only use his ultimate or flash when he was absolutely certain, which caused him to lose many opportunities invisibly.

Zou Kai couldn’t say this was bad, but for the peak Team TEA wanted to reach, it was indeed a bit short.

Sheng Xu was the complete opposite of Ever. “Caution” didn’t exist for him. If you didn’t pull the reins, he would charge in.

When it worked, he was invincible; when it didn’t, he dragged the whole team down.

Zou Kai’s tooth ached, and he took a sharp breath: “Let’s look at the second game.”

“Maoyi, this wave shouldn’t have been pushed. Pushing it was worse than pulling it back to pressure the opponent.”

“From the top lane onward, their advantage radiated throughout the map. Ware helped top, so there wasn’t enough manpower bot. We couldn’t force a team fight. Ever, you even took some of Maoyi’s resources; what were you thinking?”

Ever buried his head even lower.

In these semifinals, he truly hadn’t performed at the level he should have. Perhaps because it was his first time framing someone, he was internally tormented and anxious, so during the match, Zou Kai’s unfinished sentence kept replaying in his head.

If Zou Kai had said it, he might have succeeded.

“Third game.” Zou Kai paused and sighed. He stopped staring at Ever and instead asked Yu Wenzhi, “Wenzhi, think about it if we had picked Draven and Karma, would we have a better chance of winning?”

This hypothesis wasn’t meaningless. Zou Kai was actually asking in a roundabout way whether they would have had a better chance of winning if they had put Sheng Xu in for the last game.

Yu Wenzhi naturally understood. Not just the coach—he had also thought about this many times.

“I discussed this with Yan Tingyu as well. It certainly wouldn’t have been a passive beating like it was now, but whether we’d win depends on performance.”

Zou Kai nodded slowly, still deep in thought, when he heard Sheng Xu’s cold, sudden words: “I could win!”

Zou Kai’s jaw twitched in surprise as he looked crossly at Sheng Xu, thinking to himself: How can this powder keg hear the subtext now?

Sheng Xu added another sentence: “Let me play, and I can win.”

Ever felt a blockage in his chest. Regardless, he had lost when he played, so Sheng Xu could say whatever he wanted now.

Ever said unwillingly: “The one playing Lucian was Eity. You say you’d win just like that?”

Sheng Xu asked back righteously: “Is Eity that strong?”

Ever: “…”

Zou Kai pressed down on his aching tooth, his guilt nearly extinct. He took a deep breath: “I know you’re good at soloing; you’ve beaten many people. But a match isn’t a solo. It’s not just about the laning phase. You have no experience fighting against top-tier teams; you have no idea how strict their training is.”

“And regarding the bot-lane duo, do you understand Captain Yu? Do you know what playstyle he excels at, what habits he has, or his familiar champion pools? Is it possible that in the future, Captain Yu will only be allowed to coordinate with you, compromise for you, and change to adapt to your needs?”

“I can change too!”

Before his brain could even process the thought, it sprang from his heart. After shouting it out, even Sheng Xu himself was stunned.

The “Best Rookie” who had appeared out of nowhere had always been arrogant and solitary; when had he ever considered changing for someone else?

After Sheng Xu finished speaking, he pressed his lips together tightly. His back was like a taut bow, and his fingers rubbed restlessly inside his pockets.

He didn’t know if Yu Wenzhi believed him.

Yu Wenzhi looked over against the light, his palm propping up his chin, eyeing Sheng Xu with great interest.

“Change, my ass,” Zou Kai rolled his eyes, cutting off the topic.

Actually, when Sheng Xu said that, he was quite surprised; it was just his habit to snap back.

“I can, anyway,” Sheng Xu muttered to himself with a cold face.

The review ended, and everyone was dismissed.

The screen turned off, and without the interference of the ghostly blue light, the sunlight spilled in recklessly.

Sheng Xu felt a bit annoyed that he had only thought about getting familiar with Yu Wenzhi’s style today. As people were filing out one after another, he hooked a cigarette out of his pocket.

His thin lips skillfully gripped the filter. His eyes lowered, landing on the tip as he prepared to flick the lighter.

Two long, fair fingers reached over, their destination seemingly his lips. The cute little crescents on the polished nails flashed into his vision.

Sheng Xu’s finger slipped; the flame flickered out, but his heart skipped a beat.

Yu Wenzhi slowly pinched the cigarette but didn’t pull it away. He just blinked and said with a faint smile: “Little brother, your support doesn’t really like the smell of smoke. Can you change that too?”

For the first time, Sheng Xu discovered that sunlight could be intoxicating. Amidst the brilliant rays, he felt completely lightheaded and quickly let go with his lips.

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