1061 I’m Back

"The income situation? I'm not sure." Tang Rou didn't show any sort of confusion, merely saying this calmly.

The reporters took a moment to react. This answer really wasn't what they were expecting. They might have asked such a question, but this was just to set up the following discussion. The income of a pro player was something that any normal Internet cafe player would drool over for half a day. Yet Tang Rou had replied with "not sure". This sort of answer was setting things up in the wrong direction!

Some veterans who heard this response from Tang Rou all sent meaningful stares at Chen Guo. They thought that this was a plot by the Happy boss, to keep the players ignorant and naive so that they were easier to control. But unfortunately, when they went to scrutinized Chen Guo, they found that she didn't seem at all unsettled or nervous at Tang Rou's answer, and instead smiled happily and that was the extent of her reaction.

What was going on?

Now the reporters were confused. Never mind pro players, no matter what job, who would go in completely blind to the income situation? Was this pretty lady messing with them on purpose?

The reporters looked around doubtfully until the press officer asked to rush them again, "Are there anymore questions?"

All these hold ups in the press conference today was causing him to get a little impatient.

"Could you guys leak a little information on the treatment Team Happy's players are getting right now?" The reporters kept at it, but they no longer focused on Tang Rou, throwing the question at Chen Guo instead.

The reporters did have a rather keen judgement. This question striked at Happy's heart. Chen Guo answered a little stutteringly, "In the Challenger League, we all gathered out of our love for Glory. Now that we're going to be a pro team, we're going to begin discussing the contracts in detail. We have yet to start, so there's nothing to leak, yet."

The reporters were thunderstruck.

If this was a tourist team that a few players created just to have fun, then this sort of circumstance would be definite. However, Team happy was the winner of the Challenger League who defeated Excellent Era and had God Ye Xiu. Chen Guo seemed to be saying, that with their lineup and circumstance, they didn't seem to have any sort of income; it was all out of joy.

"So what you mean to say is that, until now, Team Happy's players aren't earning an income?" Someone finally asked carefully.

Chen Guo felt a little awkward, but she wasn't the kind of person to hide things and would never tell a blatant lie in such a situation. She could only nod and say, "Yes."

A cacophony rose from the crowd at once and someone immediately pursued the issue. "Even God Ye Xiu?"

"Um… yeah." Chen Guo hesitated for a moment. It was probably better to not talk about the income he gained as an employee of the Internet cafe...

Nothing needed to be mentioned about the chaos that erupted then. Happy's situation was truly too shocking. Even disregarding the no income thing, Chen Guo's words suggested that they had yet to talk about contracts. That was something they definitely had to report on.

You had to keep in mind that they already had the qualifications to attend the Pro League next season and everyone was about to become real pro players. Were they waiting to have a big sale of players upon entering the Alliance or something, still not ready with the contracts to ensure the players stayed? With the performance Happy's players had in the Challenger League, the reporters knew that a lot of pro teams would show interest. Hadn't a lot of gossip come out when the Challenger League?

Speaking of, there were teams who were interested in Happy's players even back then, but now, Happy's lineup was still whole and none of them had been moved by what the other teams said. Yet, from what the boss had said, there had been no incentive given for the players to stay. Happy's players formed a team and stayed true to it of their own volition?

That was unscientific...

The other teams probably knew how strangely Team Happy operated and therefore didn't make any moves on their players. If this information was released… Team Happy wouldn't be immediately dismantled, would it?

The reporters even started worrying for Happy about this. However, they knew that this would most certainly get out. There were so many reporters here and they couldn't be certain that everyone was willing to keep this information to themselves, so the thought of helping them hide this information out of sympathy was childish and illogical. Someone was probably already organizing this information into a draft to publish.

Overall, Happy really was a new experience for the media! They actually leaked something so important in a press conference. The reporters lamented over this, gradually having the suspicion that Happy was acting nonchalant after gaining something big.

The conference was a little chaotic and, looking at the time, the Alliance press officer realized it was late, deciding to announce that the next question was going to be the last one after discussing with Happy.

The reporters had gotten a lot of information from today's press conference. They couldn't pry too much for the last question so any experienced reporter wouldn't ask anything too complicated. There was little point in ending this on low-spirits.

"After being apart from the Alliance for so long, is there anything you want to say right now?" The last question was still directed at Ye Xiu.

"Hahaha." Ye Xiu chuckled and then said, "I'm back."

I'm back!

This simple sentence displayed immense determination. Although a surplus of interesting information had been dug up in the press conference and even though everyone had started drafting out their articles on this information during the press conference, in the end, the media stands all chose this one sentence as their headlines.

Ye Xiu: I'm Back.

Apart from that, the media groups all did did their best to compile, collate and express, reporting the other contents.

A year of preparations was what gave Happy the win. Opportunity smiles only upon those who are prepared!

Excellent Era's ex-captain strikes in the press conference, condemning Excellent Era's boss, Tao Xuan, for abandoning Excellent Era!

Happy, brought together by love!

...

This news all had plenty of substance to it and were written in whatever way that would elicit the best reactions. Yet this was nothing more than leaking the information from the press conference. The true value of this discussion was in using the information to guide the people.

Those reporters that liked Excellent Era used Ye Xiu's speech and the best of their writing capabilities to segregate Excellent Era from Tao Xuan. All the dirt on Excellent Era's name was shifted onto Tao Xuan. The other neutral reporters didn't point them in a different direction either, faced with the clarity of truth.

It isn't the team's fault, but a specific person!

With this description, everyone found it reasonable after reading! All these incidents were created by a single person, the boss, who had ordered this. It was his control that had brought the team down with him.

Thus, in an instant, the winds changed.

Many Excellent Era fans had already disbanded. They couldn't tolerate all the shocking situations that Excellent Era had revealed and were giving up on Excellent Era. However, with the freshly printed articles, their sorrow and disappointment all turned to anger. They gathered once more to protect their Team Excellent Era. They wanted to exorcise the real malice behind all this.

Get out of here, Tao Xuan!

Within the day, signs like these were all over Club Excellent Era's walls, their grounds and in the hands of the players. Beg for Excellent Era to not be sold? No such player ever appeared again. They had already realized that the sale of Excellent Era wouldn't cause it to collapse, but if they let Tao Xuan continue his ways, then Excellent Era's name would be forever tarnished.

Excellent Era belonged to all of them, but it was nothing but fixed assets in Tao Xuan's hands. That was Excellent Era's physical form, but not its soul.

Where was its soul? Its soul was in the hearts of all its fans.

The loyal Excellent Era fans condemned Tao Xuan while at the same time began to call out, asking for someone who truly loved Glory and Excellent Era to take over Team Excellent Era.

In that instant, Excellent Era was revived.

The fans were always the greatest wealth a team had.

No one was willing to take Excellent Era in full because all the things that had happened with Excellent Era had caused them to lose the support of their fans. This sort of mess wasn't something that anyone was willing to deal with. Yet now, the fans had saved themselves. They realized where the problem had occurred and found a way to solve it. They came out to support Excellent Era once more. This was something everyone noticed.

This sort of Excellent Era could stand on its own once more. However, there was a requirement to that, and that was that Tao Xuan had to leave. He could leave with all his possessions, but he couldn't take a single fan with him. Even if there was nothing here any longer, the fans would stand guard here. With their protection, Excellent Era could rise again from nothing and be reborn.

How did this change happen? It started from the words Ye Xiu had said to the reporters. They awakened so many fans.

Ye Xiu was their captain forever!

No Excellent Era fan would ever doubt that again. Even though Excellent Era had been sent out of the Pro League by him personally, that was a match and that was all there was to it. Wasn't this always their captain's attitude on the field?

After departing for a year, their once captain officially announced: he was back.

It was just unfortunate that he didn't return to Excellent Era. Though some people were already calling for Ye Xiu to come back and lead Excellent Era again, most of the fans couldn't ask that of him anymore.

It was too selfish.

Ye Xiu had done enough for Excellent Era. They had no reason to relentlessly demand him make any more contributions.

Ye Xiu didn't owe Excellent Era anything. It was Excellent Era that owed him too much.

Disregarding everything else, this was true from just looking at the contract he had signed. Han Wenqing, who had slaughtered his way through the Alliance from the very beginning alongside Ye Xiu, had the heftiest contract in the Alliance. As for their captain? All these years, he still held the contract that had been signed at the beginning of the Alliance, a contract that gave him a pitiful income in these times.

Talking about money was somewhat blunt, but Excellent Era owed their captain this bluntness. However, he had never expressed anger about it because he had never cared.

All he wanted, all he ever wanted was one thing: victory. This was something that would never change for him, no matter where he was. All the Excellent Era fans could do was give him their blessings.