Mr. Duan turned and left after saying this. Xue Lan suddenly came back to his senses and stood up quickly.
"I'll go with you!"
This sudden reaction made Duan Wenzheng and his father stunned. Duan Wenzheng's father smiled and said, "No need, you just wait here. Old Li is not here today, I will ask someone to take a look and get a candle for emergency."
Xue Lan hurriedly turned on the headlights and followed closely: "I'll light the way for you."
Duan Wenzheng raised his eyebrows slightly and looked at the man who was so shy just now that he didn't know how to answer, but now he was unusually attentive, and slowly followed him.
Father Duan felt that he and Duan Wenzheng had quarrels every day and every three days, and when had he gone to find a candle and followed him? For a moment, he forgot to decline Xue Lan's kindness, and walked up the stairs, looking back every few steps.
Duan Wenzheng followed Xue Lan at a leisurely pace. Looking at the figure in front of him who was always looking at him, he tilted his head and whispered to the person beside him, "So enthusiastic?"
"..." Xue Lan cleared his throat unnaturally, thankful that the light was dim at the moment so that his embarrassed expression could be hidden by his little brother: "It's so dark during a power outage, I definitely can't let my dad go to look for things alone."
With the faint light from Xue Lan's phone, Father Duan turned around and said, "Look at Xiao Xue!"
Duan Wenzheng didn't feel like he was being scolded at all when he heard this. Instead, he smiled even more complacently, as if he was the one being praised.
He leaned over to the person who was carefully lighting the way, lowered his voice, and chuckled in his ear: "Xiao Xue, you were in such a hurry to come here. I thought you were... afraid that I would eat you."
Xue Lan, who was already nervous, slipped when he heard the words and nearly fell down the stairs. Fortunately, Duan Wenzheng, who was beside him, was quick to pull him back. Xue Lan finally stood firm again without any more shock.
"Is Xiao Xue okay?" Father Duan, who was standing in front, whispered, "Be careful."
Xue Lan managed to stand firm, and couldn't help thinking that it would be really embarrassing if he fell down the stairs because of such a sentence.
Thinking of this, he quickly distanced himself from Duan Wenzhen.
But just when he heaved a sigh of relief and was about to put on a serious expression to warn Duan Wenzheng not to joke like that, he suddenly heard a strange sound of wood breaking above his head. Duan's father cried out and seemed to have missed a step and fell down the stairs above them!
Xue Lan was shocked when he saw this, and subconsciously reached out to stop him. Although he managed to grab the person falling in front of him in the chaos, he was still pushed backwards due to inertia.
Everything happened too suddenly. Even though Xue Lan was paying close attention to Father Duan, he was distracted for a moment and did not anticipate this sudden change. He fell down the stairs with the impact!
The plane, which was the only source of light, rolled down the stairs in the panic, and the stairwell fell into darkness and chaos again.
While stumbling down the stairs, Xue Lan stretched out his arms and subconsciously tried to grab the fence beside him, but it was pitch black all around and he couldn't grab anything. He could only subconsciously protect the person who fell down with him while stumbling and tumbling.
Xue Lan rolled down the stairs with the momentum. Although he was grimacing in pain, he didn't care about himself. Thinking of Father Duan beside him, he struggled to stand up and asked, "Uncle, are you okay?"
"It's all right."
Father Duan stood up shakily with the help of his father. The accident just now happened suddenly, but when he fell, he was firmly protected by the people behind him. After the false alarm, he turned around and asked, "How is Xiao Xue? Is he injured?"
"I'm fine."
Xue Lan breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Mr. Duan seemed to be fine and could still stand up.
But remembering that in the original text, Father Duan fell down the stairs and was seriously injured, I wanted to take a closer look at whether he was injured. However, as soon as I helped Father Duan to stand up, I was pulled aside, and when I raised my head, I met a pair of angry eyes.
"Why don't you look at yourself before you shut others out?"
Under the dim light from the newly turned on camera, Duan Wenzheng's face was dark. Seeing Xue Lan still sitting on the ground, he calmly tried to reach out and pull him up.
Xue Lan was just about to say that he was fine, but he felt a sharp pain in his wrist, and he subconsciously took a deep breath. Duan Wenzheng froze, and quickly let go of him and looked down at his wrist.
"It's okay, maybe I just twisted my ankle a little bit."
Xue Lan took the opportunity to withdraw his thoughts, thinking that fortunately Duan's father was fine, and the matter was resolved without any major problems. However, he had never seen Duan Wenzheng like this before.
He usually looked like he didn't care about anything, but at this moment, there was no smile on his face at all.
Xue Lan looked at his expression with fear and trepidation, holding his wrist while wondering what he had done to make him unhappy. However, although Father Duan had some superficial injuries, he was not seriously injured. Isn't this a happy ending for everyone...
Duan Wenzheng squatted in front of her with a gloomy face, and checked her wrist with the help of the camera light.
"It's really okay." Xue Lan said as he tentatively moved his wrist, indicating that his wrist was not injured: "It's really okay."
Duan Wenzheng's expression did not ease, and his eyes turned from her wrist to her legs under her long skirt: "Can you stand up?"
"Sure." Xue Lan looked at the skirt that was now wrinkled like a rag and wanted to stand up awkwardly.
But just as he was trying to stand up, he felt a sharp pain in his ankle again. He moaned in pain and sat back down.
Father Duan took a breath of cold air: "Xiao Xue, are you okay?"
Duan Wenzheng's face became even colder, and seeing this, Xue Lan wanted to say again that he was fine, but before he could say anything, he let out a low cry of loss due to a feeling of loss, and was unexpectedly picked up by Duan Wenzheng around the waist!
Xue Lan took a breath of cold air.
Why did Duan Wenzheng hug me like this in front of my father? But I am a man... Oh, I am a woman now.
Xue Lan was choked by this "self-awareness", and the blush that had just appeared on her cheeks disappeared in an instant, gradually turning into... a fearless look.
Duan Wenzhen placed her gently on the sofa beside her in the dim light, and then he squatted in front of her and carefully lifted her ankle with his hand.
"Does this hurt?"
Xue Lan's ankle was held in his palm. He held his breath awkwardly and shook his head in panic.
"How about this?"
After this happened several times, Duan Wenzheng's expression eased a little. He gently put his foot down and asked seriously, "Are you injured anywhere else?"
Xue Lan opened his mouth, then quickly closed it.
Yes... I just rolled down the stairs, and my back was numb and now I was starting to feel a slight pain. But seeing Duan Wenzheng's attitude of checking all the injuries, I was tactful and hurriedly shook my head: "It's gone."
Duan Wenzheng stood up after hearing this. Just when Xue Lan thought everything was fine, he heard her say, "I'll take you to the hospital."
"No need! It's really okay!"
Xue Lan's back stiffened when he heard this. Although the hospital had become a daily routine for him, he finally left now and didn't want to have anything to do with that place anymore...
Duan Wenzheng didn't listen to his explanation. He handed the phone to him and picked him up again and carried him out without saying anything.
"We must go to the hospital for a full-body checkup!" Father Duan hurried over, completely losing the attitude he had just shown when he was chasing me at the table. He said nervously, "I'll go with you. Xiao Xue is trying to save me. Is there something wrong..."
"Uncle Duan, I'm really fine..." Xue Lan waved his hand awkwardly: "Indeed, it's better to wait and check it out carefully."
Father Duan was even more moved when he heard this: "Little Xue, now... you actually locked me up first..."
Duan Wenzheng didn't want to listen to any more nonsense, and walked out of the door quickly with a tense expression.
After putting some distance between himself and Father Duan who was chasing after him, Xue Lan clutched the material on the front of his clothes and whispered nervously, "You, you can't see anymore, please put me down quickly, I can do it myself."
"Do you think I'm acting?"
Duan Wenzheng's face remained expressionless, and Xue Lan was choked by his serious gaze and couldn't utter a word.
But... isn't it
Fortunately, the hospital's examination was not an exaggerated full-body examination, and the result was indeed as Xue Lan said, it was just a slight sprain and nothing serious. At Xue Lan's insistence, Duan's father also followed suit and did the examination, which made Xue Lan completely relieved.
Although Duan Wenzheng didn't say anything, Xue Lan knew it clearly, and he was extremely worried about whether his father was injured. Seeing that both of them were fine, the worry in his heart seemed to finally fall, and his tense expression gradually relaxed.
The doctor prescribed some topical medication and told me to spray it on time every day and then I could leave.
The thrill of this night finally came to an end. Xue Lan and Duan Wenzheng sat on a bench outside the hospital for a while. Seeing that his expression had eased a little, they took out the medicine that he had been holding tightly in his arms.
"I told you it's not a big deal." Xue Lan opened the medicine and said, "I also spray the medicine on time, but I'm fine. I'd better go see Uncle Duan..."
Duan Wenzheng took the medicine from him and carefully pulled up his sleeve: "When he fell just now, he was still far away from me. Why did you reach out to stop him?"
Xue Lan was stunned.
The stairs in Duan Wenzheng's house were not narrow, and Duan's father had slipped and fallen just now, and it was indeed not far from him.
The situation was chaotic just now. Although I wanted to go upstairs because I was afraid that the things described in the original text would happen, it happened suddenly and I really didn't think much about it. Everything was not just based on instinct.
"You said you wanted to be a professional player, but you don't know how powerful a professional player is?"
Xue Lan smiled and said nothing.
Duan Wenzheng didn't seem to want an answer. He raised his wrist and sprayed the medicine carefully, his movements carrying a gentle meaning that was completely different from usual.
His other hand was also resting in his palm, his lowered brows casting a hazy shadow under the dim street lights.
Xue Lan's legs were out of rhythm without him noticing, and he subconsciously tried to retract them.
The hand that was held in his palm tightened slightly, and in turn, he grasped the hand that he wanted to withdraw.
If the situation just now made him feel a little unnatural, then at this moment Duan Wenzheng's slightly clenched five fingers were like pressing a switch of a certain command, making his already unstable body even more tense.
Duan Wenzheng seemed to notice nothing, lowered his head and continued to spray the pesticide carefully: "The old man is peeking, don't move."
Xue Lan froze and tried to withdraw his movement, as if he was under a spell and dared not move an inch.
Duan Wenzheng's tightly pursed lips curled up slightly again, and his fingertips gently stroked the place where the medicine overflowed, as if he was gently pushing the medicine into the wound. He didn't use any force at all, but instead felt a strange slight itch.
Xue Lan didn't dare to look back, nor did he dare to pull back his eyes. He just glanced at the hospital gate behind him.
“Are you still there?”
"kindness."
"… Are you still there?"
"kindness."
"..." Xue Lan was thinking with tears in her eyes, why didn't Uncle Duan come out directly when he came, why did he have to hide behind...
It was unknown how long it had been, so long that the medicine on his wrist gradually seeped into his body and only the scent of medicine remained. It was so long that Xue Lan began to secretly doubt the truth of Duan Wenzheng's words... Suddenly, the voice of Duan's father came from behind him -
"Xiao Xue, luckily it's nothing serious this time, otherwise I would really..."
Xue Lan seemed to have finally grasped a life-saving straw when he heard this. He quickly pulled his chair out of the chair that Duan Wenzheng seemed to be playing with and sat up straight.
"This time... Thank you." Father Duan walked over to the two of them, seeming to remember his bad attitude just now and felt embarrassed. He pursed his lips and said seriously, "From now on, our house will be your home. Come and visit us often when you are free."
"Wait a minute, have you forgotten that I'm still away from home?" Duan Wenzheng has regained his composure, looking at his father in front of him with a slightly raised eyebrow: "Don't say that I haven't caught up with this person yet, even if... I don't come back, what will you do..."
When Xue Lan heard him bring up this again, he hurriedly wanted to pull his clothes to stop him. This man always said that he didn't want to say that there was someone he couldn't pursue, but why was he talking about this now
But before Duan Wenzheng understood his hint, he heard his father spit: "You are too disappointing! Xiao Xue, I have always wanted to have a daughter, but you don't like this brat, so why not give her to me..."
Duan Wenzheng suddenly felt that something was wrong. The old man was getting more and more outrageous. However, someone who was not very good at dealing with people around him suddenly had his eyes light up when he heard the words...
He quickly interrupted his father and said, "It's getting late. The youth training camp has urged us to go back several times. Since you are not seriously ill, we will go back first."
When Xue Lan heard the club urging him to leave, he quickly followed Duan Wenzheng and stood up.
After saying goodbye to Mr. Duan again and again, the two finally said goodbye under Mr. Duan's instructions and left the hospital together.
Upon hearing that it was the Youth Training Camp that was urging him to come, Xue Lan quickly put the matter behind him after leaving the hospital, and asked seriously: "The Youth Training Camp is urging them to come? Is there an extra game?"
Duan Wenzheng looked at her serious expression, raised his lip and was about to say something, but a quick phone ring suddenly interrupted their conversation. Xue Lan picked up the phone, and after a while -
"What? The first team match is moved up?!"
***
No one expected the first team match to be brought forward.
After Xue Lan received Qi Siyu's call, he and Duan Wenzheng hurried back to the youth training camp. Before they even entered the door, they heard complaints from the training team in the training room about having been waiting for a long time.
As soon as the two entered the door, Qi Siyu ran towards them.
"Where have you been? Why did you come back so late? You were waiting for us to scold you..." He said halfway, his eyes fixed on Xue Lan's limping steps supported by Duan Wenzheng: "What happened?"
"It's okay." Xue Lan smiled apologetically, "I'm fine. I'm not talking about training. Come on."
Qi Siyu heaved a sigh of relief when she heard that. She was about to take the two of them into the training room, but Duan Wenzheng said with a bad look, "We can't train now."
Qi Siyu was stunned, and even Meng Weiran and Su Yiyu, who were standing up and looking over in the training room, were also stunned.
Su Yiyu noticed that the atmosphere was a little awkward, and her eyes fell on Xue Lan. Seeing that something seemed wrong, she hurriedly asked in a slow voice, "What happened?"
Xue Lan saw this and said hurriedly: "It's okay, it's just a minor injury. We've been waiting for a long time, let's get started."
But just as he finished speaking, Duan Wenzheng said in a cold voice: "Your wrist is injured and you can't play. We still want you to play in the game two days later, so let you go back and rest now."
"Wrist injury?" Su Yiyu took a breath and exclaimed in a low voice.
"It's not that exaggerated." Xue Lan hurriedly explained: "It just twisted a little bit just now, it's really not tight."
"Go find someone to make up for it first." Duan Wenzheng said to Meng Weiran without questioning. Seeing that he turned around and ran towards the lounge, Duan Wenzheng retracted his gaze and said, "If you don't let go, I'll just watch from the side."
Wrist injuries can be serious or minor, but for an e-sports athlete, even a minor injury is a serious matter that needs to be taken seriously.
Duan Wenzheng was never a rigid person and never said anything in a commanding tone. His words at this moment were like an order. Not only did Meng Weiran subconsciously follow his words and call for help, but even Xue Lan, who was thinking about taking part in the practice match just a moment ago, could not help but sit down in his seat obediently and did not dare to utter a word.
Although Qi Siyu looked unhappy, she didn't say anything else and returned to her seat to continue debugging the equipment.
Xue Lan knew that he had left the youth training camp without permission when he should have been practicing well, and that it was his own fault that he came back with an injury. Although his teammates did not blame him at the moment, he still felt unhappy, and his heart was hanging on the practice match that started hastily after the preparation.
Fortunately, Wen Zheng performed exceptionally well in every practice session, and was able to create an extremely smooth tailwind right from the start each time. Although the coordination of his teammates was a little immature, each of them had extremely solid practical skills. With a little running-in, the results should be more stable and ideal.
During this period of training, Xue Lan gradually calmed down the tension in his position.
Although their current performance is the worst in the youth training camp, apart from the two high-scoring picks Qi Siyu and Meng Weiran, and removing Duan Wenzheng, the chosen one who never makes any mistakes in major matters, Xue Lan is more worried about Su Yiyu and himself.
But after a few days of training, Xue Lan discovered that although Su Yiyu's performance in the last individual competition was extremely low and his playing style was conservative, his personal level was still very high. There were even some micro-operations that made Xue Lan secretly admire him.
Now... I just hope I won't hold everyone back.
After that day, Xue Lan felt that his injury had almost healed, so he caught up with the progress of training again. However, Duan Wenzheng didn't know why he suddenly changed his nature that day, and stayed in the training room all day. When it was time to rest, he would always rush Xue Lan back to the dormitory.
On the third night, seeing that the first team match was about to begin, Xue Lan tossed and turned and couldn't fall asleep. He simply got up and sprayed some wound medicine on himself, planning to go to the training room to practice secretly.
The lights in the training room were dim, and there were still people who hadn't left at this late hour.
Xue Lan thought that Deng Ruiqiu probably hadn't gone to rest yet, so he didn't pay much attention to it. But when he approached the training room, through the transparent glass wall outside the training room, he could clearly see that the person who was still sitting in front of the computer late at night was actually...
Duan Wenzheng.
Xue Lan's legs skipped a beat. The steps that should have calmly moved forward or left seemed to have taken root, and he stood blankly outside the training room.
It was not until the end of the game that Duan Wenzheng sat back in his chair and rubbed his brows. Only then did Xue Lan come back to his senses and go into the training room.
Duan Wenzheng was startled when he heard the footsteps, then turned around and looked behind him: "Why haven't you slept yet?"
Xue Lan came to his side, looking at this person who was secretly trained by him without sleep and who was "the wicked person complaining first", he couldn't help but think of what he said before, and smiled: "Come and get some water."
Duan Wenzheng raised his lip when he heard that. He didn't chase after this person, wondering why he came to the water dispenser next to the training room to get water in the middle of the night. He took off his headset consciously, turned off the phone quickly, and stood up.
"Just now Fatty said that he hadn't seen you recently and wanted me to help him say sorry to you."
Xue Lan paused for a moment after hearing this, and it took him a while to remember what this "I'm sorry" meant.
"That's not your fault, please don't put it on me."
"Yes." Duan Wenzheng said, tidied up the desk, and followed Xue Lan to the dormitory upstairs.
They have walked along this dim corridor together many times now, the only difference now is that the roles of the practitioners and the pick-ups are reversed.
Duan Wenzheng seemed to be in a good mood. He followed Xue Lan leisurely, looking sideways at the man who got up at night to drink water.
"You like this game so much?"
"kindness."
Xue Lan's eyes were calm, and he did not express too much surprise at this sudden question, nor did he delve into whether Duan Wenzheng suddenly asked this on a whim, or whether he discovered that he was not here to get water but to practice secretly.
Duan Wenzheng paused and asked again seemingly casually: "Why do you want to play professionally?"
"I don't know either." Xue Lan also stopped and said with a squinting look: "Maybe it's because I suddenly found that I have the opportunity to do something that I couldn't do before. I used to feel that I couldn't do anything well, but now I find that I'm not so useless after all?"
Duan Wenzheng's eyes were fixed on her for a long time before he suddenly smiled and said, "Is that so?"
Xue Lan hesitated slightly, then nodded.
Duan Wenzheng put his arms behind his head and walked casually along the corridor: "It's been long enough since we were last. Why don't we try to be first tomorrow?"
Xue Lan was startled and then chased after him. As if he was infected by his smile, his lips unconsciously curved into a shallow arc: "Maybe Deng Ruiqiu heard this..."
"What do you care about?" Duan Wenzheng said as he put his arm around the person's shoulder and glanced at his wrist with his lowered eyes.
I have seen Duan Wenzheng's abnormal behavior today, and I also know that Duan Wenzheng is not as indifferent as he acts. He treats every friend around him very seriously. Today, because of my injury, I was kicked off the plane by him every day when it was time for training, but he... sat in this seat in my place.
Xue Lan stopped again.
"Thank you, reset."
Duan Wenzheng raised his lip and looked at her: "Why do you like to say thank you so much? What are you thanking me for this time?"
Xue Lan was slightly surprised. Did he always say thank you
"You should show some sincerity when you say thank you." Duan Wenzheng still looked at Xue Lan's slightly red cheeks with a frivolous look, and the hand on her shoulder also slightly tightened while he spoke: "Are you saying it?"
Xue Lan lowered his head when he heard that and carefully took out a candy from his pocket.
Duan Wenzheng raised his eyebrows: "I am a three-year-old child?"
"No, then I'll owe you first."
Xue Lan said this embarrassedly and wanted to turn the candy over and eat it himself, but as soon as he peeled off the candy wrapper, the person next to him snatched the candy away.
"What kind of candy do children eat at night?" Duan Wen Zheng said as he threw the candy into his mouth.
"..." Didn't you just say no
Duan Wenzheng showed no remorse for changing his mind, and said lazily: "Whatever you say is true, your injury is also due to me. If I ask you for any reward, wouldn't I be too cruel?"
Duan Wenzheng said as he stood in front of a room under Xue Lan's stunned gaze. He stretched out his hand to pull up the uninjured leg and gently pressed the fingerprint lock on the door. The corner of his lips still had that flirtatious smile:
"Call me brother and I'll take you flying all day, ok?"