Chapter 72

Just then, the director also moved the camera to the Blue Team. The on-stage host, wearing a plaid shirt and skirt, sat on a high stool with her legs crossed to one side. Her mouth was slightly agape. “Is the Blue Team going on the offensive?”

Beside her, the commentator watched the Blue Team’s perspective and analyzed in a deep voice.

“Everyone is very familiar with Wilson’s playstyle—North America’s number one entry fragger. As for Ji Wei, I have a vivid memory of his thirty-three kill video. He’s very good with single-shot snipers. Deng Mao hasn’t played many matches and doesn’t have any standout moments, but he has no shortcomings either.”

[Listening to Teacher Wang, as a Zhao Yue fan, I’m starting to think we have a shot at winning. Someone, please wake me up.]

[God E is really strong. He usually plays solo vs. squads and wins in his streams. I haven’t seen Ji Wei’s videos, so I don’t know much about him.]

[I heard FOX’s management is interested in contacting him. Not sure if it’s true or not, but he’s pretty amazing anyway, at least to an eternal Bronze player like me.]

[Raises hand. An eternal crate here. I’ve never experienced what it feels like to win.]

Because the chair was too high and tiring to sit on, the female host shifted her angle slightly and asked the commentator, “So, Teacher Wang, are you optimistic about the Blue Team?”

Unexpectedly, the commentator shook his head and changed his tune. “A competition is still different from a casual game. The four members of the Red Team are all rising stars in the Alliance. Although they haven’t practiced together, you can see their positioning and coordination are on a level that other teams can’t match. I’m more optimistic about the Red Team.”

The female host listened attentively to the commentator’s words and smiled at the camera. “I wonder if the Blue Team can survive this attack. Let’s wish them good luck.”

[They’re already getting wished good luck? As a Ji Wei fan, I’m bursting into tears.]

[It’s mainly because the Red Team’s strength is too insane. They’re just toying with the other teams.]

[Go for it, Blue Team.]

Shooting a moving target was worlds apart from shooting a stationary one, especially when the opponents were professional players. Wilson’s breathing slowed a beat. “Are you confident?”

Because Deng Mao’s English wasn’t very good, he used simple English to make it easier to understand.

Deng Mao crouched behind a large rock, the corner of his eye twitching. This wasn’t a question of confidence; it was a question of pointlessness.

It wasn’t that they couldn’t fight.

They could.

His captain never missed a shot on a moving target, but if it wasn’t a headshot, the other three teammates could immediately revive the downed player. It would also expose their position. This wasn’t the final circle; it was far from the time for a close-quarters engagement.

“Eighty percent,” Ji Wei said softly.

Wilson nodded, ready to provide support.

He actually believed him?

Zhao Yue had attached a rifle suppressor and was also eager to try, which made Deng Mao sigh. He prepared himself to be the lone wolf after his entire team was wiped out.

[Ahhhhhh, I’m so nervous watching this!]

[Same here! I was about to go to the bathroom, but now I’m not going. I’m just waiting for this fight to be over.]

[You should probably still go. It’s only been ten minutes. A full match takes at least half an hour.]

[I can’t bear to watch. I’m going to scroll through Weibo to calm down.]

Ji Wei, however, wasn’t nervous at all. His heart was unexpectedly calm. Watching the figures appear in his scope, he silently estimated the distance and calculated the angle to control the recoil.

He was looking for an opportunity.

An opportunity for that person to stop.

He couldn’t be hasty.

He couldn’t panic.

[Why isn’t he shooting yet? The Red Team is about to cross the hill.]

[Maybe it’s better not to shoot. Just survive until the final circle. There are still so many people left.]

[That scared me. From the way Ji Wei looked, I thought he was going to attack. Although he has the high ground, it’s really not a good time. They should go for an airdrop and gear up first. How can a Kar98k be as good as an AWM?]

The bullet comments were all offering advice to Ji Wei’s team, the consensus being to gear up first and not engage in a direct firefight, as they couldn’t win. Just as they were heatedly discussing, Ji Wei moved.

He seized a ten-second pause.

Predictive shot.

Fired.

A fatal blow.

[Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap! Forgive me, I’ve forgotten how to speak like a human. Ji Wei is so damn good! That was a professional player!]

[I’m so excited I sat up in bed!]

[Ah, you really can’t let Ji Wei get his hands on a Kar98k.]

Hahahahahahaha, the director has a sense of humor. Chen Zi’ang took off his headset, completely bewildered. Who shot me? And headshot me!

The other three members of the Red Team were stunned for a moment. They truly hadn’t expected Chen Zi’ang to be instantly headshot. Although they were relaxed for this charity match, they still had the necessary vigilance and shouldn’t have been picked off like a stationary target.

They reacted quickly, pinpointing the sniper’s location to the hill on their right. They swiftly found cover, the entire process taking no more than ten seconds.

The commentator recovered from his shock.

“A professional player was headshot with a single shot… The Red Team was a bit too careless. However, the other three reacted very quickly. They didn’t loot their teammate’s crate but immediately found cover. The Blue Team’s position has been locked down; it will be difficult for them to fire again.”

The female host asked curiously, “With the Red Team down one member, in a four-versus-three situation, does the Blue Team have a chance to win?”

The commentator couldn’t help but chuckle. “Zhao Yue’s combat power is approximately zero, right?”

“So you mean the Red Team still has a better chance of winning?” the female host asked again.

“Theoretically, yes,” the commentator said teasingly. “Why do I get the feeling you really want the Blue Team to win?”

The female host tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and said shyly, “Actually, I’m a fan of little brother Ji Wei. He’s just so adorable.”

The commentator chuckled. “Esports is all about skill.”

[This commentator… is bold. Ji Wei must have a lot of fans, right? For him to say that is pretty brave.]

[He’s Teacher Wang, after all, a veteran commentator. He used to cover LoL. He even dared to say Zhao Yue’s combat power is basically zero.]

[Quick, switch the camera! I want to see the Blue Team get wiped out.]

[…Damn, you’re even bolder than Teacher Wang.]

Wilson threw the smoke grenade he had prepared into the grass on the opposite side, while also tossing two hand grenades over.

Deng Mao had just recovered from the shock of Ji Wei’s fatal shot. Seeing Wilson throw his projectiles in such a manner, he was plunged into deep confusion.

It was only when two people scrambled out of the smoke that he finally understood.

[Holy crap! There were two people hiding in the grass! But wouldn’t throwing grenades have been enough? Smoke grenades are very useful in the final circle.]

[It was probably to attract the Red Team’s attention. See? The Red Team is already shooting, forcing them into a direct firefight.]

[This… is so dirty. What did the Yellow Team, who were just lying in the grass watching the gods fight, do wrong?!]

Ji Wei crawled to a different rock. He definitely couldn’t stay in his previous position; he wouldn’t underestimate a professional player’s sensitivity to the source of gunfire.

Down the slope, it was an almost overwhelming victory.

The two members of the Yellow Team were being completely suppressed. During this process, the three members of the Red Team never exposed themselves from behind cover, leaving no openings.

Deng Mao suggested, “Why don’t we retreat for now?”

Not long after he said that, Wilson changed his position and threw another grenade down the slope.

Deng Mao: …He’d better just watch their rear.

[What the hell? There are more people? I suspect my eyes are failing me. I’m watching this on my computer in Blu-ray quality!]

[Relax, bro, you’re not blind. There’s no one there.]

[No one?! Look how scared the Red Team is! Wilson plays so dirty. That must be how he became North America’s number one entry fragger.]

[Should I say that streamers are more imaginative?]

The three members of the Red Team weren’t as scared as the bullet comments suggested. They were simply focused on eliminating the two Yellow Team members, but now they had to divide their attention to keep an eye on the smoke spreading to their left.

If they were facing any other sniper, their actions would be perfectly justifiable.

But they were facing Ji Wei.

The Blue Team’s voice chat was completely silent, because Ji Wei had already raised his gun.

This shot was even more difficult.

But it was fine.

He was waiting for an opportunity.

[Damn, I’m so nervous watching this, ahhhhhh!]

[Do I still have a chance to change my bet? I feel like the Blue Team is coordinating really well.]

[Wilson has played with Ji Wei before. One is close-range and the other is long-range, they complement each other perfectly.]

[The smoke is about to clear, why isn’t he shooting? If he misses this chance, he won’t get another one this good. A four-on-three in the final circle will be tough.]

[Uh… is this something you can just shoot whenever you want? Of course he has to wait for an opportunity.]

While the bullet comments were still flooding the screen with discussion, Ji Wei fired.

It was a predictive shot.

The player from the Red Team probably didn’t even realize he was nervous, peeking out from behind cover to look at the smoke on the left every five seconds.

The bullet comments were instantly stunned.

[Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap! How did he do that? It felt like a twitch shot!]

[Why do you sound so weird? This is an official Alliance match, there’s no way he’s cheating.]

[Captain Shen’s expression in the audience looks pretty grim. The guys from the B-team are probably going to get chewed out by their captain when they get back.]

[Of course they’ll get chewed out. Their attitude at the beginning wasn’t a competition attitude at all. They treated a charity match like a low-rank match. If they don’t get scolded now, when will they? During the league matches?]

Not only did the captain in the audience look grim, but when the camera switched to the commentator, his expression wasn’t much better either.

And at that very moment, the female host had to ask, “The Red Team only has two people left. What’s your take on this situation, Teacher Wang?”

But the commentator had to remain calm. “As I said before, theoretically, the Red Team should win, but their performance has been a bit weak. The Blue Team’s chances of winning are greater. That’s how PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is; you never know who will win until the next second.”

[Thanks for saving face, Teacher Wang.]

[Does he even remember saying ‘esports is all about skill’?]

[Hahahahahahaha, doesn’t the commentator care about his reputation?]

[What reputation? His face has been slapped so hard it’s almost gone.]

With four people having taken care of two, Wilson led Deng Mao straight down the slope.

Zhao Yue hesitated for a moment about whether to go, but then figured that death was inevitable, so he might as well trade one for one. He went down too.

Wilson, armed with a fully-kitted M416 and a DP-28—both heavy firepower weapons—laid down suppressive fire on the remaining two Red Team members, while Deng Mao provided covering fire with single shots.

As for Zhao Yue, he leisurely walked down the slope.

In less than two minutes, he was knocked down in the middle of the road.

The spot where he fell was too conspicuous. Ji Wei could only say to him, “Rest in peace.”

Wilson’s health was also critical, but his tone was still cheerful. “I’m so jealous you get to log off and rest so soon.”

Zhao Yue: …I really shouldn’t have come down.

A two-on-two was not easy. The dense gunfire also attracted many other players. After Ji Wei dealt with the enemies on the periphery, he was finally free to handle the Red Team, greatly relieving the pressure on Wilson and the others.

Deng Mao also breathed a sigh of relief. If he had felt a bit of disdain for Ji Wei at the beginning of the game, now all that was left was amazement.

Ji Wei wasn’t a well-rounded player who was brilliant in both mechanics and awareness; he needed someone to create opportunities for him.

But he was an exceptionally outstanding specialist in mid-to-long-range shooting, so outstanding that even Deng Mao couldn’t help but envy his talent.

Ji Wei reloaded his bullets.

Five minutes later, the Red Team was completely wiped out.

[Where’s the guy who said the Red Team would be wiped out! A prophet has appeared!]

[That was me, but I bet on the Red Team before the stream started. My feelings are very complicated right now. How did a team of professional players get dominated by non-professionals?]

[Not all non-professionals are on Wilson and Ji Wei’s level. Ji Wei was truly the MVP today. He was so cool when he fired his gun, I’m about to become his fan.]

[The rest of the match has no suspense. I can finally go to the bathroom.]

Fifteen minutes later, he looked at the victory screen.

—Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner!

Ji Wei took off his headphones and rubbed his wrists, which were sore from prolonged, focused operation.

One of his takeaways was that competing was truly exhausting. It was different from his usual game streams; it required complete concentration, as any single mistake could be fatal.

It was draining not only mentally, but also physically.

No wonder they said esports was a career reliant on youth.

Ji Wei stood up.

The subsequent entertainment segments had little to do with him. He was only called on stage during the final charity donation, where he and Zhao Yue, as representatives of the Blue Team, completed the donation ceremony.

Zhao Yue was familiar with this kind of thing, but Ji Wei disliked the feeling of the scorching lights on him.

To his surprise, Xu Sheng also went on stage to donate.

He donated ten million.

Zhao Yue discussed it with him in the audience. “Who is this Xu Sheng? He’s so rich, isn’t he?”

His tone was a little envious.

“Don’t celebrities earn more?” Ji Wei couldn’t help but ask back.

“You earn a lot, but you spend a lot too,” Zhao Yue lowered his voice significantly. “Fans can like you today and like someone else tomorrow. Once you’re not good-looking anymore, no one will like you. You never know how long you can keep earning.”

Ji Wei didn’t know how to comfort him. He thought for a moment, then took out the preserved fruit that Huang Bo had packed for him that morning and handed it to Zhao Yue.

The lights in the audience were dim, and Zhao Yue was turned away from him, so he couldn’t see his expression. He only heard him say, “Sometimes I really envy Senior Lu.”

Ji Wei was taken aback.

His idol.

He was indeed an anomaly in the entertainment industry.

He didn’t need fans and refused to expose his private life to the public. In his eyes, fans were more like an audience.

A few months ago, Ji Wei would never have imagined that he would participate in a variety show.

“Is it because of his acting skills?” Ji Wei asked.

Influencers all faced the struggle of transitioning, and very few succeeded. It couldn’t be said that it was all due to a lack of effort; acting required both talent and hard work, and his idol had shown promise in his very first film.

“It’s more than that,” Zhao Yue said, suddenly glancing at him.

Just as Ji Wei was about to ask more, the charity match ended. The crowd began to move outwards, and he stood up as well.

To avoid being swarmed by fans, Zhao Yue left through the back door. After bidding Zhao Yue farewell, he walked towards the exit. At the entrance, he saw Xu Sheng talking to someone.

When Xu Sheng saw him, he smiled and greeted him, “We meet again.”

“You played very well today,” he praised.

“Thank you,” Ji Wei replied politely.

Xu Sheng didn’t say much more to him. After smiling at him, he continued walking and chatting with the other person. The moment he turned, something fell out of his pocket.

It was a small bottle.

It rolled to Ji Wei’s feet.

He bent down to pick it up and was stunned when he saw the words on the bottle.

—Sulpiride.

A traditional drug for treating mental illness.

He walked a few steps forward and called out to Xu Sheng, “Mr. Xu, I have something to say to you.”

Xu Sheng turned around, startled, but still smiled apologetically at the person beside him and walked back to Ji Wei. “May I ask what you need?”

Ji Wei handed the medicine bottle back to him.

Xu Sheng’s eyes, which had been smiling, became nervous and uneasy the moment he took the bottle. He quickly put it in his pocket.

“I won’t tell anyone,” Ji Wei said.

Xu Sheng said to him dryly, “Thank you.”

Then he took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and said in an extremely low voice, “I’m not sick. I just don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

He seemed to be defending himself, frantically seeking Ji Wei’s approval.

“Have you ever felt like it’s not you painting? Like a pair of hands is dragging you into another world, and looking at the finished painting makes you feel terrified and uneasy, needing medication to stop yourself from vomiting?”

Ji Wei clenched his hands and forced out two words: “I haven’t.”

“That’s great,” Xu Sheng sighed and left.

But Ji Wei’s back was trembling faintly, and many images flashed through his mind.

Suddenly, someone patted his shoulder, pulling him back to reality. Wilson put an arm around his shoulders and asked, “Want to go out tonight? I’ve looked up a lot of really good restaurants.”

“I promised my partner I’d go back early.”

The moment Ji Wei thought of Lu Shenxing, those images vanished without a trace. He smiled shyly, revealing two faint pear dimples.

“You can ask him. I’m sure he’ll agree,” Wilson pleaded. “After dinner, we can go to an internet cafe and play some games. Wouldn’t that be great?”

Ji Wei: …So traveling abroad just means playing games in a different place?

But Wilson kept pleading, so he had no choice but to send Lu Shenxing a message on WeChat.

[Ji Wei] Would you be okay with me coming back from Shanghai tomorrow? I want to hang out with a friend.

Ji Wei hoped Lu Shenxing would refuse.

But Lu Shenxing didn’t reply.

It was a short while before he sent a message back.

[Lu Shenxing] I accept.

He also sent over a Shanghai guide.

He looked at the guide. No matter how he looked at it, it seemed like his idol had written it, because at the end, there was a dessert guide attached, detailing the dessert shops in Shanghai worth visiting and their recommended desserts.

“He agreed,” Ji Wei said, turning off his phone.

***

Lu Shenxing was sitting in the living room reading a book. He looked up and saw that the clock on the wall already read twelve.

He hadn’t actually been able to focus on reading.

It was the first time he couldn’t get into a book.

He was the one who had told Ji Wei he could come back tomorrow and had even written a guide.

He just wanted his little one to be like others his age, to have many friends and be a bit more lively.

He had spoken with Professor Guan from Yan Normal University, who suggested it might be autistic tendencies, not ruling out the possibility of high-functioning autism. Everything would have to wait for a diagnosis after meeting with Ji Wei.

He had also been reading psychology-related books these past two days.

Constructivist psychology holds that people continuously replace old, incomplete constructs with new ones, and that it’s necessary to find a balance between socializing and solitude.

He could only control his own thoughts.

—The thought of wanting Ji Wei’s world to contain only him.

Just then, the elevator doors opened.

The young man in the blue shirt appeared before him, holding a lot of things in his left arm and carrying a suitcase with his other hand.

Lu Shenxing’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He asked in a low, raspy voice, “Didn’t you say you were coming back tomorrow?”

“I wanted to see you sooner.”

Ji Wei walked over with his head down and placed the things in his arms on the coffee table in front of the sofa.

After having dinner with Wilson and playing a couple of games with him, he had gone straight to the dessert shops recommended in the guide. Although many had already closed by the time he got there, he had still managed to buy some by taking a taxi all over Shanghai.

He sat on the sofa and started taking out the desserts. “These are for you.”

“This is the soufflé recommended in the guide. I asked the staff to put it in a harder box, but I didn’t expect it to get a little crushed.”

“And this donut.”

“And the syrup waffle.”

…

Ji Wei took them out one by one, not noticing that Lu Shenxing was quietly watching him, his dark eyes filled with complex emotions.

The man sat down beside him and suddenly asked, “It must have been tiring going to so many places.”

Ji Wei quickly shook his head. “Not tired.”

The air was quiet for a few seconds.

He held up the syrup waffle in his hand and asked, “Why don’t you try it? Is it sweet?”

Lu Shenxing suddenly leaned in closer to him. The distance between them instantly became extremely close, so close they could feel each other’s hot breath.

Ji Wei still had the waffle in his hand and offered it in Lu Shenxing’s direction.

But the man didn’t take it. Instead, he leaned in even closer, slowly licked his lips, and replied with his eyes half-closed, “It’s sweet.”