CH 65

Yu Hao looked at Jiang Min, who still had a calm expression, and couldn’t detect any emotion.

“Sugar, did you… see it?” Yu Hao asked tentatively.

“Mm,” Jiang Min nodded slightly. “That girl seems pretty good. You should be fine with her…”

“…” Yu Hao didn’t know what to say for a moment. After a while, he sighed deeply. “Sugar, do you really not feel anything when I’m with someone else?”

Jiang Min hesitated for a moment.

Of course, it was false to say he felt nothing. He couldn’t ignore the uncomfortable feeling he had when he saw Yu Hao with Yun Ning during the day.

But he didn’t understand what kind of emotion this was exactly.

This ambiguous feeling had never been clear to him in his interactions with Yu Hao.

“Um…” Jiang Min pondered for a while. “I guess… I still feel something.”

Yu Hao’s originally despondent heart was rekindled with hope. He quickly asked, “What do you feel?”

Jiang Min said seriously, “Just… I feel like I might not get used to it if you have a girlfriend in the future. After all, we’re together every day…”

After saying this, he looked at Yu Hao and saw that the big guy, like a large dog, quickly lost interest again from the enthusiasm he had just raised.

Yu Hao was completely disheartened.

The road to pursue his wife was long and arduous.

After all this time, Sugar still hadn’t noticed his feelings.

However, gradually getting Sugar used to having him around and subtly influencing each other, there should be a successful day in the end.

But for now, the first thing to solve was Sugar’s misunderstanding about himself and Yun Ning.

“I… have a girlfriend?” Yu Hao looked utterly dejected.

Jiang Min was still clueless, “Huh? Isn’t it? Weren’t you chatting with Yun Ning during the day? Or did she come to you first? I heard she asked you for WeChat.”

Yu Hao shook his head gently, “No, I didn’t add her.”

Jiang Min was puzzled, “Ah? Why not?”

In Jiang Min’s impression, Yun Ning was a very good host for WPL, both in terms of professional ability and appearance.

As far as he knew, many professional players regarded Yun Ning as a goddess.

Of course, he was not one of them.

Sugar was single-mindedly focused on winning tournaments and had no interest in girls.

Yu Hao asked suspiciously, “Why are you so concerned about her, Sugar?”

Jiang Min replied, “Because I care about you. You’re our team captain, isn’t it natural to care about you?”

Yu Hao said, “You don’t… have feelings for Yun Ning, do you?”

Seeing Jiang Min so concerned about Yun Ning, Yu Hao had a foreboding feeling in his heart.

Yun Ning did indeed have quite some appeal to men.

But Yu Hao, who was only attracted to Jiang Min, had no intention at all. He would never have a girlfriend in his life, but he did have one boyfriend who was currently pursuing him.

However, this prospective boyfriend hasn’t woken up yet.

Jiang Min raised his right hand and waved dismissively, “How could that be? I have no interest in her.”

Yu Hao breathed a sigh of relief, “…That’s good then.”

These words didn’t sit well with Jiang Min.

What did “that’s good” mean?

Was Yu Hao really involved with Yun Ning in some way? But maybe for some other reason, he hadn’t added her on WeChat?

And was the purpose of him coming up here today to confirm that his teammate had no feelings for Yun Ning, so he could make a move?

Jiang Min’s mind started to run wild.

The more he thought about it, the more it hurt.

It wasn’t just the fear that there might be distance between him and Yu Hao once Yu Hao had a girlfriend. It was more of an indescribable feeling, like something of his had been taken away by someone else.

Jiang Min felt like he must be going crazy.

“…If there’s nothing else, I’ll head down first,” Jiang Min decided to leave Yu Hao and calm his own emotions.

But Yu Hao grabbed his wrist.

Under the dim streetlights of the rooftop garden, Yu Hao’s eyes remained bright.

At this moment, those sharp eyes were filled with emotions that Jiang Min couldn’t understand, staring intently at him.

“Sugar.”

“Hmm?”

“I won’t get a girlfriend, ever.”

“…”

“So, I won’t have anything with Yun Ning, either.”

“…” Jiang Min didn’t understand why Yu Hao suddenly said these things to him, but the statement about never getting a girlfriend was too absolute.

Jiang Min couldn’t help but ask, “Why not get a girlfriend?”

Yu Hao lowered his eyes slightly, smiling faintly. There was bitterness and sweetness in that smile, as he couldn’t help but rub Jiang Min’s head affectionately, “Because I have someone I like.”

Jiang Min reacted and then said indignantly, “I’m older than you, can you stop treating me like a child and rubbing my head?”

Yu Hao still smiled.

“Little fish!”

Yu Hao then withdrew his hand, muttering, “But sometimes, Sugar is like a child, always needing me to take care of… Oh right, aren’t you curious about who the person I like is?”

“…Why should I know?” Jiang Min pretended not to be curious, although he was dying to find out.

“Because it’s important,” Yu Hao smiled.

“…Fine, I’ll listen if you tell me,” Jiang Min pretended to be reluctantly coerced.

“Well… today’s not the right time. I’ll tell you another day!” Yu Hao teased.

Sugar still hadn’t faced their feelings head-on. Acting rashly might ruin even their friendship.

Yu Hao resisted the urge to confess.

“…” Jiang Min fell for the trick.

He walked towards the exit of the rooftop garden without looking back, “Forget it, I’ll go play some ranked games.”

He didn’t say anything, but just mentioning ranked games reminded Yu Hao of Jiang Min’s duo queue with Cen Yu.

“Wait, Sugar.” Yu Hao caught up, “Didn’t I say not to add Cen Yu with your main account? Can’t you just find a less-used smurf account?”

“It doesn’t matter. We usually play together anyway, and occasionally playing with others isn’t bad,” Jiang Min said.

“No,” Yu Hao insisted.

Jiang Min looked up slightly, puzzled.

“What if that Neptune guy, Cen Yu, lures you away?”

“…,” Jiang Min was speechless.

What did “lure away” mean? What was going on in Yu Hao’s head?

“I still have half a year left on my contract with JW. I won’t leave before the end of this season. Don’t worry,” Jiang Min thought Yu Hao was concerned about him leaving halfway.

“That’s not what I mean. What I mean is…”

Before Yu Hao could finish his sentence, he was interrupted.

A staff member from the operations department, Xiao Li, stood at the exit of the rooftop garden, waving, “Hey, you two are here! I’ve been running around the whole base! Captain Yu! Qige says there are a few documents he needs you to confirm, so he wants you to come down!”

Yu Hao’s mouth twitched.

Damn it, every time it’s a critical moment, someone always comes to disrupt things.

But he had to go.

Because lately, the club had been busy registering for the new Global Point Series sub-tournaments. There were a lot of documents to prepare, including team and player data. Shen Qi was also working overtime on these matters. As the captain, there were some things that he had to confirm, so Yu Hao had no choice but to go.

“Anyway, Sugar, don’t duo queue with Cen Yu for now, and don’t think about duo queuing with others. Wait for me to come back!” Yu Hao reminded, then followed Xiao Li downstairs.

Jiang Min stood still.

This little fish, the master of this fish pond, was too domineering. Was this a signal that he would no longer allow him and the fishes in the pond to play happily?

———-

Poor Cen Yu, he had just started the duo queue with Jiang Min, and now he was forced to get off the car.

When he came back to his senses, Jiang Min’s main account had already shown that it was duo queuing with “Old Driver Carry Me.” The Old Driver Carry Me was Yu Hao, the captain of JW.

Cen Yu pursed his lips, looking resentfully at the screen.

In this season, he had worked hard to build a relationship with Sugar, hoping to lure Sugar away during the next transfer window.

However, now it seemed that this goal was quite difficult to achieve.

The biggest obstacle was the JW captain who constantly monopolized Sugar’s time.

Couldn’t they just play their training games together as JW? Wasn’t the mid-lane the best place to hone individual skills in solo queue?

Why were they together in duo queue every moment of every day?

Cen Yu couldn’t understand.

Damn it! This damned Yu Hao had ruined his plans!

Yu Shen mentally made a note of this.

However, tonight, the most talked-about topic online wasn’t about Cen Yu successfully adding Jiang Min as a friend and duo queuing. It was about the conflict between the JW second and fourth position players.

Many people shared the animated GIF of Yu Hao pulling Jiang Min away from their seats, speculating about what might be going on between JW’s 2nd and 4th positions.

“Didn’t they play well during the day? What happened in the evening to make them like this?”

“At the scene, Sugar really looked confused when he was dragged away.”

“Even though Yu Hao is the captain, is it right to treat teammates like this?”

“Yu seems really angry. What happened?”

“Could these two have gone outside the training room to argue?”

“Sugar seems to have a good personality. Why was he marginalized in CC and now has a conflict with the captain in JW?”

“Hey, you upstairs! That trashy CC team. Sugar being moved to the second team is still not clear, so don’t make baseless accusations. What do you mean by marginalization?”

Unconsciously, the internet erupted in quarrels again.

The next day, Shen Qi found that the rumors about “JW’s 2nd and 4th positions not getting along” were becoming increasingly uncontrollable online, so he had to call Yu Hao and Jiang Min to his office.

“What’s going on with these rumors online? Did you two really have a fight? Or is there some conflict?” Shen Qi looked at the two players in front of him.

“No, there isn’t,” Yu Hao and Jiang Min said simultaneously.

“Really?” Shen Qi had dealt with conflicts between players before, even though he wasn’t from the WOC division, he had some experience.

“No,” Yu Hao and Jiang Min shook their heads at the same time.

Shen Qi glanced at his phone Weibo and said, “Now the public opinion is spreading like wildfire, saying you two are not getting along. Even several esports authoritative media outlets have come to me for verification. It’s not good for such rumors to spread when only a small part of the season has passed, and our team’s performance is just starting to take off.”

“But Qige, this is a groundless rumor,” Yu Hao said.

Jiang Min nodded in agreement.

Shen Qi pretended to be helpless, “Without evidence, just saying it, who would believe it?”

Yu Hao and Jiang Min exchanged a glance.

Based on their previous understanding of Shen Qi, it seemed that Manager Shen was up to something again.

Seeing that the two players didn’t respond, Shen Qi continued, “Recently, the club has decided to launch a new series program to document everyone’s lives.”

Various esports clubs often shoot small programs during the season to promote themselves and consolidate popularity.

The time wasn’t long, probably ranging from a few minutes to a dozen or so, and they would play some small games for players to experience or record their daily lives.

JW’s WOC division was established not long ago and had never shot such small programs before.

With the team’s popularity rising rapidly this season, the operations department came up with an idea.

Shen Qi clasped his hands together and said, “To dispel the rumors of discord within the team, the first episode will focus on you two!”

—

Author’s note: Little Fish & Sugar look bewildered: What? Discord within the team? Us???

1TL: YSIAD “You can support me if you like my translations by leaving a comment below, or by sending me a Ko-fi. Thank you ️”