-Damn, that was so satisfying to hear… Xiao Shan, is this the real you…?
-Are you crazy? With the production team’s team formation rules, it’s normal for teams to have varying skill levels, with strengths and weaknesses. Why get angry at teammates for losing a game??? What kind of prince syndrome is this, does everyone have to pamper him?
-Do you not have ears or a brain? Don’t hate Jiang Nan’an too much. The ADC was clearly slacking off, not practicing heroes, not listening to instructions. As the captain under pressure, can’t he say a few words? Who really has prince syndrome?
-I feel so bad for him 5555 Xiao Shan is also filling a position!! He switched to jungle for the team, why doesn’t anyone mention that? You think the mediocre ADC is under pressure? Isn’t my baby under pressure too?
-To be honest, as a captain, doesn’t he have any tolerance? Fire is 18, the perfect age to be team-spoiled. Is it necessary to be so harsh to a child? Just educate and guide him. What’s the point of making him cry? Is it really appropriate to say such hurtful things and make the kid lose face?
-Those above with their savior complex, can you be less hypocritical? When your Teacher Jiang was 18, the entire internet was mocking him as the “little resource prince” and spreading vicious rumors. If you didn’t defend Teacher Jiang back then, don’t defend this mediocre player now [heart][heart][heart]
-LOL our “difficult to be at peace” teacher finally can’t keep up the act anymore, Liang Cheng’s unjust treatment is vindicated. It must have been so hard for our little one filming with such a harsh “senior.” Don’t worry baby, karma will come around~
-Stupid Liang Cheng fans go back and whitewash your master, aren’t three “sisters-in-law” enough? Instead of wasting time attacking your Father Jiang, why not go play “find the sister-in-law” and see how many more you can find.
…
The hashtag #JiangNan’an Fire# exploded across the internet within half an hour. “Magic Girl Monica’s” personal livestream recording was cut into countless versions by drama-hungry audiences and sent in all directions. Out-of-context malicious edits paired with deliberate guidance immediately triggered a new round of cyberbullying.
But Jiang Nan’an knew nothing of these things.
He went straight back to his dormitory, washed his face with cold water in the bathroom, and with nothing else to do, sat on the floor leaning against the bed, looking at the blue sky and white clouds through the floor-to-ceiling window while absently rubbing his wrist.
After a while, he heard the door lock make a soft “beep” sound. Thinking it was Sheng Yujia, he didn’t turn around, but moments later, footsteps approached, and a familiar voice sounded above his head:
“Mr. Hang?”
Jiang Nan’an was startled for a moment, looked up, and indeed met Yan Jie’s smiling face.
He frowned slightly: “How did you get in?”
“Oh, weren’t you unwilling to acknowledge me, unwilling to talk to me? Keep up the act, keep treating me like air?” Yan Jie crouched beside Jiang Nan’an, tilting his head to look at him provocatively.
Jiang Nan’an couldn’t be bothered to engage: “You’re so dramatic? Is the next season of actors ready? Do you need me to recommend you?”
“Who told you to ignore me?”
“Is paying attention to you my obligation? Should I kneel and kowtow when you approach, shouting ‘long live’?”
“Wow, that’s really hurtful.”
Yan Jie clutched his heart and sighed, then sat down beside Jiang Nan’an, holding up a key card between two fingers and waving it in front of him: “Here, borrowed it from Teacher Sheng.”
“…What exactly do you want?”
“Nothing. You’re upset and I came to check on you-is that not allowed?”
“I’m not upset,” Jiang Nan’an emphasized.
“Fine, fine, not upset, not upset. Is your wrist still hurting?” Yan Jie nodded perfunctorily and asked.
Hearing this, Jiang Nan’an was slightly taken aback:
“How did you…?”
“I’ve seen you rubbing your wrist since yesterday. You’re so pampered-practicing so much every day is definitely too much for you. It must hurt.”
“?” Jiang Nan’an looked at him:
“I’m not pampered.”
“Sure, sure, okay. This hand hurts, right? Let me massage it for you.”
Yan Jie didn’t seem to be asking for Jiang Nan’an’s opinion. After saying this, he directly took his right hand and skillfully found the acupressure points, pressing with his fingertips.
“You…” Jiang Nan’an hadn’t quite reacted yet and instinctively tried to pull his hand back, but Yan Jie held it firmly:
“Be good, don’t move. I’m skilled at massage. You’re lucky today, Mr. Hang-I wouldn’t do this for others even if they begged!”
Yan Jie boasted while massaging Jiang Nan’an’s wrist, chattering away:
“Esports is just like this-stay in it long enough and you get all sorts of occupational hazards: neck, back, wrists, all problems. The production team brought you here to experience the life, but did our Mr. Hang have to experience the occupational hazards too? But yours is probably just from practicing too hard these past few days, not a major issue. Come on, watch and learn my technique, so you can massage yourself regularly…”
Jiang Nan’an was a bit tense. He looked at Yan Jie, then at his own hand in Yan Jie’s grasp, and only after a long while did he relax slightly.
Yan Jie’s hands were very warm, his movements slow and careful. Jiang Nan’an’s wrist, which had been aching for the past two days, seemed to actually get some relief from the massage.
“Is the pressure okay? Does it hurt?”
“A little.”
“Then bear with it.” Yan Jie lowered his eyes, watching as Jiang Nan’an’s pale, thin hand turned slightly red from the pressure:
“It’s supposed to hurt.”
“…” Jiang Nan’an immediately didn’t want to respond anymore.
He relaxed a little, shifted his gaze, and continued looking at the blue sky outside the window.
Later, he noticed from the corner of his eye that Yan Jie seemed to have glanced at him secretly several times. Jiang Nan’an had initially planned to ignore it, but the man became increasingly brazen with his glances. Just as Jiang Nan’an was about to ask what he was up to, Yan Jie suddenly moved closer and said out of nowhere:
“You are angry!”
Jiang Nan’an was often shocked by this person’s overly jumpy thought processes.
He stated again:
“No, I’m not.”
“Come on.” Yan Jie smiled and glanced at him:
“Let me tell you, Mr. Hang, I’ve figured out your little game. If you really weren’t angry, you wouldn’t have paid any attention to that kid today. You’d have let him rant and rave while you remained calm and unbothered, training and reviewing as usual, then just left. Why bother with all that?”
Jiang Nan’an snorted lightly: “Don’t think you understand me so well.”
“Right, right, I don’t understand, I don’t understand.” Yan Jie nodded with a series of “mm-hmm”s, then very naturally continued his previous train of thought:
“Look, let Master Spring analyze this for you. It’s not that you’re not angry-you just don’t understand why you’re angry. Because you haven’t found a suitable reason for yourself, you can only keep telling yourself ‘I’m not angry, I’m rational, I’m calm.’ Think about it, isn’t that right?”
“…”
“What are you really angry about? You’re angry that the kid isn’t serious, isn’t working hard, doesn’t know how to reflect on himself. You’re angry that even though teammates are all striving for victory, trying to pull him out of the danger zone, he doesn’t care, doesn’t listen, doesn’t try, and can even casually say such defeatist things about giving up on himself and looking down on himself.”
“I don’t.” Jiang Nan’an emphasized again:
“How he thinks and what he does is his business, it has nothing to do with me. Why should I be angry?”
“Right, right, right, yes, yes, yes, no relation, not angry.”
Yan Jie placated him perfunctorily, then continued:
“Since it’s not about that, let me give you a reason! Look, follow my logic-you’re the captain, you’re responsible for the team, but now a teammate’s poor condition is affecting the team’s interests. You have every right to be angry! Right!! You should be angry, you should be properly, thoroughly angry. Our Mr. Hang has worked so hard, why should you suffer eight consecutive losses because of him? Why can’t you win no matter what? Isn’t that right?!!”
“…” Jiang Nan’an thought about it and found the logic sound. Under Yan Jie’s encouraging gaze, he hesitantly nodded.
Yan Jie struck while the iron was hot:
“So what should we do now? Shouldn’t we solve the problem and then walk hand in hand on the right path?”
“Haven’t I been doing that all along?”
“Have you? Your way of solving problems is to practice alone every day, trying to compensate for team weaknesses with your own efforts, practicing until you’re nearly dead, practicing until your wrist hurts without saying a word? Let me give you an analogy-it’s like your swimming pool has a big hole, water keeps leaking out, and your solution is to keep adding water. Is that right? It’s not, is it? How hard would you have to work to add water faster than it’s leaking? What should you do instead? Shouldn’t you fix the hole first?”
Yan Jie observed Jiang Nan’an’s expression as he spoke.
Jiang Nan’an lowered his eyes slightly, seemingly taking his words to heart, but after a moment, he suddenly looked up at him and said:
“I don’t have a swimming pool.”
Yan Jie couldn’t hold back.
He was both amused and exasperated:
“My swimming pool! My swimming pool is broken! Now I cordially invite you to be the repairman, okay?”
Jiang Nan’an nodded thoughtfully.
After a moment, he said:
“I didn’t understand the meaning of teamwork.”
Yan Jie nodded: “Right.”
“How my teammates think and what they do has nothing to do with me, I have no obligation to correct them, but now he’s affecting the team’s and my interests. As the captain, I need to be responsible for the team and myself.”
“Mm!”
“Now that Fire has a problem, for the sake of the whole team, I should indeed step in to correct this issue. I need to find a solution from him.”
“Exactly!”
Yan Jie mentally pumped his fist.
Yes! Success!
Jiang Nan’an’s thoughts were too convoluted. Yan Jie felt like he was entering a maze just trying to follow them, unable to understand what exactly was troubling him, let alone trying to correct it. Moreover, Jiang Nan’an was proud and high-strung-even slightly disagreeable words could set him off. If Yan Jie couldn’t smooth things over this time and Jiang Nan’an ignored him for another ten days or half a month, he couldn’t bear it.
After pondering for a long time, Yan Jie only discovered that Jiang Nan’an seemed unable to understand-and didn’t want to understand-things like “human sentiment.” Since that was the case, Yan Jie stopped trying to explain or make him understand. Instead, he directly used Jiang Nan’an’s own logic to explain the problem. If human sentiment didn’t work, he’d use logic, and if Jiang Nan’an figured it out himself, everyone would be happy.
Yan Jie thought he was a genius! He could write a book called “Jiang Nan’an Psychology” and debut as Master Spring right on the spot.
“So has our little Captain Jiang figured out how to solve the problem? Of course, as the team’s teaching assistant, you can ask for my help anytime. I’m good at this!” Yan Jie eagerly tried to sell himself to Jiang Nan’an, but Jiang Nan’an wasn’t very interested.
He only said:
“No need, I can solve it myself.”
“Really?”
“Mm.”
“You don’t need my help at all?”
“Mm.” Jiang Nan’an withdrew his hand.
“Feeling better?” The conversation was finished and so was the massage. Yan Jie stretched lazily:
“Take it easy with practice from now on. You don’t rely on this for a living-it’s not worth developing chronic problems.”
As he spoke, he felt his jacket pocket and took out a pair of black wrist guards, handing them to Jiang Nan’an:
“Just to be clear, these are new, unopened but I removed the packaging because it was a hassle. Here, take them. Wearing these will make your hands feel a bit better. If it still hurts later, come find me. I have ointments and muscle tapes-I’ll use everything on you.”
Jiang Nan’an looked at him but didn’t take them: “No need, I’m not that delicate.”
“You are delicate! Mr. Hang is the most delicate in the world! Take them.” Yan Jie put the wrist guards in Jiang Nan’an’s hand without further discussion. He was about to leave but paused, as if remembering something:
“By the way, I still have one question. Didn’t you act in an esports drama before? The character was called… Zhou Yan! Right? Wasn’t he a team captain? Since you rely on personas for external communication, and this one’s professional background matches so well, why not just act as him? He has plenty of experience in this area! Why bring in Dr. Gu who’s from a completely different field?”
“…”
Hearing this, Jiang Nan’an shook his head:
“Have you watched that drama?”
“No,” Yan Jie admitted honestly. “Haven’t had the chance yet. After I finish watching Mr. Hang’s high school version, it’ll be his turn.”
“Oh.” Jiang Nan’an explained:
“Zhou Yan’s persona is too far from me.”
“What do you mean by ‘too far’?” Yan Jie didn’t understand.
“It means this person has no similarities with me at all. Others would immediately know it’s not Jiang Nan’an. And also…”
“And also what?”
Jiang Nan’an gave Yan Jie a somewhat strange look:
“Also, I don’t particularly admire his personality and way of handling things. I’ve thought before that if he were a real person, we’d likely never associate with each other. So even though his professional background matches, I wouldn’t consider him.”
This statement made Yan Jie increasingly curious.
He smiled, revealing his canine tooth at the corner of his lips:
“Oh? What kind of person is he? Isn’t Zhou Yan the male lead? He shouldn’t be that bad, right? How annoying must his personality be to make someone say they’d rather never see each other again in life or death?”
“…You don’t know?”
Perhaps feeling a bit guilty, Jiang Nan’an quietly looked away:
“He was partially based on you.”
“…”
“.”
“?”
—
(advanced chapters available on kofi)
Lmaoo, thank you for the chapter!