CH 8

“Working overtime, an act of capitalists who openly squeeze the surplus value of the proletariat. An act that is clearly unreasonable but never questioned, a ……”

“Come on, stop p*ssyfooting around and hurry the f*ck up and do this statement for me!”

It was late in the evening, nine o’clock at night.

The neon lights outside the window were bright and dazzling, and the incandescent lights inside the window emitted a slight silky sound. Yu Qinghuan’s eyes were sore but he still had to stare at the notebook computer, line by line, carefully pairing the data.

The colleagues next to him were tugging and joking, but the atmosphere was quite joyful despite the bitterness inside.

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Yu Qinghuan looked at the table, and took a long breath at the last line of data. He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes to rest.

Just then, a pleasant mobile phone rang.

Yu Qinghuan picked up the phone and saw the words ‘Luo Buyu’ leaping on the screen.

Zw Ckdtbwyd bwaaklezu rknjle wr vbl rbsdl, “Tlzzs? Jasvbla Nws?”

Ls sdl prsjl sd vbl svbla lde sq vbl rbsdl qsa y obkzl. Xdzu yqvla y zsdt rlakse sq pkzldnl eke y ayvbla ekpblhlzzle hsknl nsxl swv, “Ckdtbwyd, R nyd’v bsze sd xwnb zsdtla lkvbla.”

Zw Ckdtbwyd rywple yde ypjle yp bl tsv wr, “Gal usw eawdj, Jasvbla Nws? Eblal yal usw dso?”

“R’x esodpvykap yv uswa nsxrydu.”

“Gb? Psodpvykap yv xu nsxrydu? Eykv, R’zz cl aktbv esod.”

Gqvla bydtkdt wr vbl rbsdl, Zw Ckdtbwyd vwadle sqq bkp nsxrwvla yde bwaakle swv sq vbl sqqknl.

Zw Ckdtbwyd qswde Nws Jwuw kd vbl nsadla, esodpvykap vbl nsxrydu. Nws Jwuw oyp eawdj yde bye y pbyttu clyae. Tl oyp pkvvkdt cu vbl qzsola cle okvb bkp blye csole yde bkp lulp qwzz sq qyvktwl, clqsal zssjkdt yv Zw Ckdtbwyd yde pyke okvb y pxkzl, “Mbl rzynl oblal R eaydj kp iwkvl nzspl vs uswa nsxrydu. R vbswtbv usw xktbv pvkzz cl osajkdt shlavkxl, ps R nyxl vs vyjl y zssj.”

“Jasvbla Nws, obyv’p oasdt?” Zw Ckdtbwyd ryvvle Nws Jwuw’p pbswzela, vaukdt vs tkhl bkx psxl nsxqsav, yde vbld pyv esod clpkel bkx.

Luo Buyu gave Yu Qinghuan a look, “Something happened to the battle team.”

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“Ah? What happened?” Yu Qinghuan asked.

“The middle laner [1] is not playing anymore and we don’t have a replacement. There are three weeks left before the provincial tournament, but I can’t even get five people together.” Luo Buyu let out a long sigh.

“Why isn’t the middle laner playing anymore?” Yu Qinghuan asked.

“You know, a no-name gaming team like us. We can’t sign with any regular clubs. We play all by ourselves, we don’t have a stable income, and we face questions from our families, so… “

Yu Qinghuan patted Luo Buyu’s back once again to soothe him.

Luo Buyu held on to his only remaining sliver of hope and asked reluctantly, “Qinghuan, are you really not going to play e-sports anymore ……”

Yu Qinghuan looked up at the bright moon and said, “Brother Luo, you know my situation.”

Luo Buyu sighed again, “Hey, when the TKO club selected the youth trainee for that competition, you were second but still managed to get into the club. They were admitting the top ten, ah. If you had gotten into the TKO team three years ago, you would have been famous by now. I heard that the signing fee for their second team nowadays is 600,000 per year. It’s really…”

It’s such a shame.

Yu Qinghuan’s tone was light, with a bit of a smile: “Brother Luo, there’s no such thing as if.”

It was just as the 19-year-old Yu Qinghuan had said with certainty: If I wasn’t number one, I would give up on e-sports.

So in the last match, 19-year-old Yu Qinghuan sat dumbly in his gaming chair, watching his game screen turn dark in a flash, and the message that his character had died popped up.

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Clearly the screen light was very dim, but Yu Qinghuan felt his eyes stinging with pain. Clearly the crowd’s awe and cheers were loud, but all Yu Qinghuan could hear was his own rapid breathing.

He saw that his opponent had only a trace of blood left.

That meant.

If he could have flattened his opponent just now, just a simple, easy hit, then the first place would have been his.

But there were no such things as what ifs in this world.

Luo Buyu fell silent, and the two of them looked at each other for a while before Luo Buyu asked, “Qinghuan, what is it like to slowly give up on your dreams?”

Yu Qinghuan smiled cheekily and said, “Thanks for the invitation. I just got off the plane. I’m in the US, graduated from double stream, earning 10 million a year. Nothing to do, playing around, interest related, unified reply, stashed.” [2]

Luo Buyu was amused by him and shook his head helplessly.

Yu Qinghuan propped his hands back and sighed for a while, saying, “Brother Luo, giving up on your dream is like walking with a sword. You get on your horse and put on your sword and go on your way, but as you walk, your sword breaks for some reason. You think, “It’s okay, I still have my horse.” As you walked, the horse ran away, and you came to a peaceful village, exhausted, unable to walk any further. “

“From then on, eight thousand miles of clouds and the moon had nothing to do with you, and the dust and dirt of the world’s thirty feats were scattered to the wind.”

“Until one day, many years later, when you look back on the past, you suddenly realise that you broke your sword and let your horse run away.”

When Luo Buyu heard the last sentence, his eyes suddenly turned red and he said, “F*ck, isn’t it just a middle laner? I don’t believe I can’t find it. F*ck it, let’s go back, I have to train tomorrow.”

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Yu Qinghuan smiled, “Brother Luo, it’s too late. I’ll take you back.”

Luo Buyu got up. His body swayed as he rubbed his drunken and painful temples and said, “I drank too much, I’m a bit unstable.”

Yu Qinghuan took Luo Buyu’s arm and half wrapped it around him, half propped him up, “It’s okay, I’ll hold you up.”

The two of them stumbled towards the road and suddenly bumped into someone.

Ren Jian looked at the wide-eyed Yu Qinghuan and then at the man who was drunk and had almost half of his body weight on Yu Qinghuan. He pondered for a moment before speaking to Yu Qinghuan with a smile.

“Do you guys mind adding one more person?”

[1] Within a drafted team, the mid laner is the champion assigned to the mid lane. A mid laner needs to have high burst damage. With the exception of early game Junglers (Ren Jian’s position), no position is as important or impactful upon a game as that of the Mid Laner. The role has always had the potential to solo carry a match, and some of the most skilled professional players call the Middle Lane their home.

[2] This comes from a Chinese parody of people who like to “humble brag”. They use the United States because it’s seen as the center of the West, where everyone wants to go.