WCG Chapter 107

Jiang Lele was stunned for a moment and mumbled a few confused words, clearly not having reacted yet.

Yu Hui glanced at the team room on the computer screen. Time had already logged out.

He also let go of Jiang Lele and explained to Xie Xu, “Someone just mistook Jiang Lele and me for a couple, and he got too shocked to explain properly.”

Jiang Lele, who was always stubborn, only focused on the second half of the sentence and didn’t find anything wrong with the word “boyfriend.”

Xie Xu looked at Jiang Lele’s stunned expression and said calmly, “Although the team doesn’t prohibit dating, I still hope you focus on the game first and only consider these things after you’ve achieved results.”

There was no criticism in his tone, just calm advice, but it brought Jiang Lele back to his senses. Before he could say anything, he heard Yu Hui respond in the same calm tone, “Captain, I understand.”

Jiang Lele fell silent.

He didn’t know why, but he felt a little unhappy.

And he really didn’t know why he was unhappy. 

–

After the second match, Yuan Yang didn’t conduct a review and gave them a short night off.

Even though three new players had joined, their teamwork had already started to show results. Xu truly deserved to be the ace support of the league. He could work well with any type of shooter. Back was also a promising new player and had good synergy with Lele, the top laner.

Yuan Yang smiled and said, “Training has been intense lately. Let’s relax tonight.”

After the others left, Yu Hui turned his head to look at Jiang Lele.

Jiang Lele was still sulking. Noticing his gaze, he muttered, “What are you looking at?”

Yu Hui asked, “Want to duo queue?”

Jiang Lele swallowed the words he was about to say and replied stiffly, “No.”

Yu Hui nodded and walked into the training room by himself.

Jiang Lele got even angrier.

Then he gritted his teeth and followed Yu Hui into the training room.

Yu Hui queued seriously, while Jiang Lele watched a livestream.

He originally planned to watch Time’s stream, but the guy said it was the one-month anniversary of breaking up with his ex-boyfriend and was too sad to stream.

So Jiang Lele had no choice but to browse other streams on Little Bear TV.

Yu Hui could hear the constant mouse clicks beside him and felt distracted by Jiang Lele’s occasional glances.

When the game ended, Yu Hui received a phone call and went downstairs.

After everyone had left, Jiang Lele was the only one left in the training room.

He took an angry sip of water. He had looked over so many times — couldn’t that guy take the initiative to talk to him?

After a while, Yu Hui came back from picking something up at the gate. He placed a bag with milk tea and cake on Jiang Lele’s desk.

Jiang Lele was still watching the stream intently, but his nose twitched suddenly. He turned and saw the desserts, looking stunned. “For me?!”

Yu Hui hummed in response.

Even though his tone wasn’t the least bit coaxing, Jiang Lele was completely appeased and overjoyed. He forgot all his earlier annoyance and clung to Yu Hui’s arm, wailing, “Waaahhhhh, Back is the best person to me~~~”

“I declare that you are my one and only beloved jungle baby!”

Yu Hui was already used to Jiang Lele’s sweet-talking and calmly pulled his arm back. “Are we playing now?”

He had been watching him for half an hour.

Jiang Lele shoved a cream puff into his mouth and quickly typed on the keyboard. “I almost forgot. I’ll ask if we can add one more person.”

Yu Hui didn’t understand what he meant at first, so he leaned over to look—and froze.

On Jiang Lele’s screen was a curvy bunny girl making a heart gesture at the camera.

The message Jiang Lele had just sent was:

[Mind adding me as a brother?]

The bunny girl replied sweetly, “Of course! Le-gege, Tutu[mfn]Tu means rabbit, so she’s just speaking in 3rd person cutely[/mfn]’s all yours tonight~” 

Jiang Lele, a true otaku, had never experienced such a direct approach before. He almost choked on his puff, his ears turning red.

Yu Hui glanced at the livestream stats. Jiang Lele had already spent over 3,000 yuan in gifts.

All within the five hours he had gone to get takeout.

Eventually, the two queued up with the streamer in a trio.

The mic was filled with the anchor’s sweet voice: “Le-gege, I ended up in the same lane. Want me to support?”

Normally stubborn about defending his lane, Jiang Lele hesitated. “No, I’m strong in top lane too.”

Since Jiang Lele was the sponsor, the anchor gave him special treatment — after clearing her lane, she came top to help him, taking down the enemy several times.

“Le-gege, you’re amazing! You could totally go pro as a top laner!”

“Wow, what a flash! You’re incredible, Gege!”

Jiang Lele was floating from all the praise.

Even though it was a trio, Yu Hui felt invisible. He wasn’t talkative to begin with and just listened to their interaction expressionlessly.

The frequent support from the mid-laner made the opponent’s top-laner unhappy, so he started typing in the [All] channel. 

[All] I Understand Now: Buddy, your mage has build a home in the top lane, yeah? How can you play in the top lane like this?

[All] Pay Attention to Me: Mage, don’t come. The enemy’s gonna say I’m bullying.

[All] Pay Attention to Me: I want a real man-to-man showdown with him.

After that, Jiang Lele smiled and said, “Jungler, come gank top for me later.”

Yu Hui didn’t respond. After clearing the blue jungle, he went straight to the bot lane and killed the enemy mage in one combo—

So fast that the female anchor didn’t even have time to assist.

“Wow, Le-gege, your friend is super strong too.”

At that moment, Jiang Lele was being ganked by the enemy top laner and jungler. His screen went dark. Hearing the anchor praise Yu Hui, he felt a little uncomfortable.

He didn’t respond, but instead asked Yu Hui, “Why didn’t you come gank for me?”

Normally, when he asked, Yu Hui would come right away, even abandoning his own jungle.

But now, he didn’t even glance over and went left instead.

Yu Hui looked at the female anchor who had already gone top to help Jiang Lele block minions and said, “Don’t you already have someone helping you?”

Jiang Lele asked back, “So you’re just going to ignore me?”

Sensing the strange tension, the anchor quickly tried to mediate, “Don’t be mad, Le-gege, come quick, I’m guarding the minions for you! Jungler-gege, I’ll follow your lead on the left lane too!”

Jiang Lele wasn’t hard to please, so he figured the situation would blow over.

In the next game, he got his lane, and the anchor played The Cat. He even took the initiative to assign her to protect Yu Hui.

After all, it was normal for the support to follow the jungler’s rhythm.

However, when he instinctively headed to the blue zone to ask Yu Hui for the buff, he saw the blue hanging at the feet of the female anchor.

The Cat sat steadily atop the jungler’s head, paws raised, clearly delighted. Her voice was full of girlish charm. “Look, there’s a fool here!”

Jiang Lele didn’t know why, but he felt like she was talking about him. He frowned and said, “Tutu, come down and follow me.”

Though the female anchor was clearly unhappy, she still obediently stopped following Yu Hui.

Yu Hui said nothing and passed by the lane without stopping.

Jiang Lele didn’t get a single blue buff that night, and Yu Hui didn’t initiate a word with anyone.

After the game, the female anchor said, “Le-gege, add me on WeChat? Let’s play together next time when we’re free!”

Jiang Lele responded absentmindedly. When he finally finished exchanging contacts, the door of the training room opened — then slammed shut.

Yu Hui had left.

This time, Jiang Lele didn’t chase after him. He was angry too. But when he looked at the half-finished milk tea and desserts on the table, his frustration deflated like a punctured balloon.

One more bite of that puff, and his anger completely vanished.

What was this guy even mad about? Was it really such a big deal to ask the bunny girl streamer to stop clinging to him?

Getting upset over some random anchor he’d only known for a few hours—what nonsense.

After finishing the milk tea, Jiang Lele grabbed his favorite cakes and went to knock on Yu Hui’s door.

No response.

He knocked for so long his knuckles began to ache. There was still no sound from inside, though the lights were on. Rubbing his sore fingers, Jiang Lele eventually walked away, grinding his teeth.

---

A few days later, the once-inseparable mid-laner and jungler were now separated by Xie Xu at mealtimes.

It didn’t affect their gameplay, but the rest of the team noticed.

Yuan Yang looked at the two and felt a headache coming on. “What’s going on with them?”

Jiang Lele kept his head down, eating silently.

He’d knocked for nearly half an hour that night, and Yu Hui never opened the door. He had a temper too.

Yuan Yang glanced at Yu Hui’s cold poker face. He hadn’t expected him to speak first anyway.

So, Yuan Yang tried another angle. “Lele, didn’t you say before that you wanted to keep a pet at the base? Want to go pick one out after the spring tournament?”

Having a pet around might lift the mood a little.

Jiang Lele finally looked up from his rice bowl.

He’d brought it up several times, but Yuan Yang had always dismissed it, saying the shedding would be a hassle.

Just as he was about to respond, Yu Hui spoke up, “Do you want to keep a rabbit?”

Yuan Yang blinked. “A rabbit?”

Yu Hui hummed, “The kind that blows kisses and sends hearts.”

That one line made Jiang Lele blush.

If Yu Hui hadn’t ignored him and spent all his time gaming solo, would he have ended up in that bunny girl’s stream? Besides, what was so wrong with tipping a cute girl and inviting her to play a game or two? It wasn’t illegal! Why was Yu Hui being so weird about it?

The tension escalated. Their cold war dragged on for a full week.

Eventually, Xie Xu stepped in. He cleared out a meeting room and called the two of them in.

As soon as Jiang Lele opened the door and saw Yu Hui inside, he instinctively turned to leave.

Xie Xu tapped the table with his knuckles and said calmly, “Come back.”

Reluctantly, Jiang Lele returned, heading for the seat farthest from Yu Hui—

Only to have Xie Xu kick a stool in front of him. “Sit here.”

Xie Xu had the final say on the team. The command, flat but firm, left no room for disobedience.

Jiang Lele sat beside Yu Hui, head lowered.

“Talk it out yourselves.”

The two looked at each other in silence.

“I don’t even care about this,” Xie Xu said neutrally, “Yuan Yang dumped this on me. I’m just tired of watching you two throw silent tantrums and speak in code every time we train. So make it clear today — if this keeps up, you’re both going to the second team for a month.”

Both heads snapped up.

Yu Hui immediately said, “I’m not going to the second team!”

Jiang Lele echoed, “Neither am I!”

Xie Xu leaned back lazily, “Then settle it here.”

He grabbed a candy from the table. “I’ll check in half an hour.”

Then he left.

Silence settled over the room again.

Jiang Lele stared at his toes, then the table, then the plate of candy. Eventually, he couldn’t help himself. He turned to Yu Hui and mumbled, “Back…”

His voice was aggrieved.

“You’re really gonna ignore me forever? Just because of that female streamer? It was just a coincidence I visited that stream. She seemed nice, so I sent her some gifts. Why are you so mad?”

The more he spoke, the more wronged he felt.

“Is it because I didn’t let you duo in The Cat game? Don’t be so mean. I paid for that anchor.”

How could he just stand by and watch his own teammate snatch his rightful blue buff?

Yu Hui looked at him, and Jiang Lele’s eyes turned red.

Yu Hui’s eyelid twitched. He reached over, unwrapped a candy, and shoved it into Jiang Lele’s mouth. “Don’t cry.”

Mouth full, Jiang Lele mumbled, “This is mint? It’s so cold. I like soft candies. Don’t give me the wrong one next time.”

Yu Hui: “…”

Seeing that his expression had softened, Jiang Lele dragged his chair closer and tentatively nudged his arm. “Back, don’t be angry. I was wrong.”

As the older one, he figured it was right to apologize first.

He felt very magnanimous.

Yu Hui glanced at their touching arms and linked pinkies. “What exactly were you wrong about?”

Jiang Lele froze, then sighed. “You still care?”

He reluctantly pulled out his phone. “That bunny girl is sweet, but you’re not seriously still thinking about her, are you?”

Yu Hui’s face darkened.

Jiang Lele didn’t notice. He was still scrolling for the contact. After a brief struggle, he said, “Here’s her WeChat. I’m sending it to you.”

Yu Hui’s phone pinged.

[Lele has shared Tutujiang’s contact with you.]

Jiang Lele took this as his peace offering. “But since you’ve ignored me for so long, from now on you can only play with me. No one else.”

Yu Hui looked at him, then reached out, pinched Jiang Lele’s chin, and tilted his face toward the phone.

Under Jiang Lele’s puzzled gaze, Yu Hui deleted the contact he’d just been sent—and then blocked Jiang Lele’s number, too.