When he was a teenager, Qin Jue left his hometown for the first time and came to the unfamiliar Shanghai to avoid his brother who was released from prison.
This is the legendary e-sports capital of China, which can give him more opportunities to get in touch with professional e-sports, but it also leaves him alone in it, forcing him to grow up overnight.
Compared with the small city where he was born, this place was too prosperous. Every row of high-rise buildings made him amazed and inexplicably disappointed. Even if he was just standing in the somewhat old train station, he felt that he was wearing fake clothes. Wearing sneakers and holding an old brick machine are incompatible with the sophistication here.
In order to survive in this southern metropolis, he has made sufficient preparations, such as carefully purchasing a brand of sportswear that he thought could not be seen as pirated, such as shaving half of his originally delicate eyebrows, and also spending his only savings. He got a tattoo on his arm - even though he had been afraid of pain since he was a child and couldn't sleep well for several nights, he was still quite proud when he saw the scarred face in the mirror complementing the black pattern on his arm.
With such appearance and height, no matter how powerful someone is, they would not dare to mess with him.
Back then, he was prepared to be excluded, looked at, and disliked by his teammates. He eagerly planned to be a cold and vicious troll like in the game. So as soon as he moved to a new team, the first thing he did was Without saying a word, he occupied the spot on the bed that he thought was the best, and he had to stretch his arms out of the quilt when sleeping.
Several teammates from the south are half a head shorter than him, and they have not had any communication with him outside of games for many days. There is only an older brother from the northeast who is similar in stature to him, and occasionally chats with him.
Qin Jue is the youngest in the team, but he is also the most withdrawn in the team. He was always unwilling to go out with them to have sex in the middle of the night, until one time, the most vicious guy from the Northeast called him: "I'm not talking about you. , why are you so unsociable?"
Qin Jue couldn't afford a smartphone at that time. The current in the microphone was messy, which made him startled and a little at a loss. But two seconds later, another voice came from the other side: "I'll grill you an elbow, do you want to eat it?" hot?"
Qin Jue was stunned, and all the jokes came pouring in from the other end: "I have nothing in common with people who don't eat spicy food", "Go away, you will break up if you eat spicy food", "Fuck, are you from Hunan, son?"
"I don't want to eat..." Qin Jue was so nervous that he almost stuttered, meaning that he didn't need their roasted elbows. However, several teammates misunderstood something and brought him two large boxes of late-night snacks, saying, "No. If you want to eat spicy food, I won’t put it aside for you.”
Although Qin Jue was stubborn and didn't say anything, he was still forced to move two steps by the scent.
After chewing two skewers, he still remembered and asked: "Who paid..."
Several teammates at that time did not answer him directly. Instead, they looked at him with a smile and said, "Anyway, next time we go out, you can treat me."
That late night that was so ordinary that it seemed like it only took half a second for the young Qin Jue to stop holding back his ferocious expression - he really didn't expect that living together for the first time in his life was not as terrifying as he had imagined in his mind. . It was also a place where men gathered, but strangely, no one expressed disgust towards him, and no one started to bully or laugh at him.
Even though he attributed this to his acting skills, the teammates he met at most knew that he was avoiding his brother and never knew that he was gay, but he could still feel that there were still three or two thoughtful people who noticed during the process. Got some clues.
He had been worried about this, but they had never exposed it. Except that they didn't touch his limbs as carelessly as before, everything was the same.
—Why is this happening? He was puzzled and continued to move from several short-lived small teams to today's wealthy IS team, continuing to play his straight man role, but to this day, he has not been able to get an accurate answer.
***
"What's wrong with you these past two days? They asked you to go out and have sex but you didn't go?"
In the IS team base, in the early morning of a rare day off, Liu Ze saw Cui Xuezhi and Shen Ye taking a few young men from the youth training out. Qi Ji also left early because of a cold. Qin Jue was the only one left in the training room. , he became a little curious, "Have you not left the base gate for two or three days?"
When Qin Jue heard this, his hands on the keyboard stopped suddenly, and he joked with him for a long time: "He... they are just going out for prostitution. I won't go out if I have free money."
Yanagisawa smiled, walked over and patted his head with a notebook: "Didn't you realize that our little sister is capable? Our business ability can reach a professional level at such a young age?"
Qin Jue grasped the mouse nervously and said, "It's not bad, 50 minutes... which is about the same level as me."
"50 minutes? You?" Yanagisawa laughed, "It starts with sending private messages to girls to chat about sex?"
The small talk in the training room was just the usual exchange of flirtatious remarks, but Qin Jue felt his breathing was confused from time to time and was a little unable to answer.
Because the figure that appeared outside the gate of the base two days ago would suddenly rush into his mind, causing him to forget what he was talking about in the last scene for half a second. He could only feel his heart beating rapidly and his mind going blank.
Even though he hadn't seen each other for many years, his instinct engraved in his bones told him that it was his half-brother Lu Yang, and he was also the nightmare he had been hiding in the game for so many years, trying to escape.
He believed that in the five or six years since he had been away from home, the other party must have come to him with resentment.
Resenting him for liking men as much as his scumbag father, resenting him for not being considerate and grateful, resenting him for forcing his mother to become disheartened and move away from home.
Qin Jue is hiding among the vast number of gamers and has not been seen for five or six years. As long as he can still earn a living, he plans to continue to do so. He does not want dreams or a future, and just wants to stay within his own safety range. No more scabbed scars on the skin being roughly opened.
However, the disbandment of the DP team forced him to use the strength of the IS team to appear in the arena where he should have appeared long ago.
From that moment on, he was ready to face this day and face the nightmare that would overturn his body again.
—The worst he can do is to be dragged back into the darkness by his brother. As long as he proves his innocence and that of his team, he will be able to live up to the game's rescue and companionship for him over the years.
But everything here was warmer and more beautiful than he imagined. If he wasn't careful, he would have a new weakness. He no longer wanted to go back to the darkness, and he didn't want this day to come so quickly.
The only good thing is that my brother still has some self-awareness and did not force his way into this heavily guarded building. I am afraid he just lingered around every day, like a patient hunter, waiting for his prey to appear.
He knew that it was only a matter of time before he faced the opponent directly, but he had been hiding in the base. He neither had the courage to step out, nor dared to tell everyone where the shameful scar on his abdomen came from. He could only harbor a flustered and lucky heart. , I thought I could avoid it for one day, just one day.
Just as he was in a state of confusion, Yanagisawa next to him pulled up a gaming chair and sat down. He crossed his hands under his chin and held a cigarette: "... What's the matter, Qin Jue? Still feeling nervous about playing an international competition? In the last round in the afternoon, my hands were shaking so much that it was like having sex, but I thought it was just a round of abnormal performance, so I didn’t mention it separately and will analyze it tomorrow.”
Saying that, Yanagisawa also joked: "Be prepared for me to criticize you so much that you will throw yourself into Xiaoqi's arms and cry~"
But at this moment, Qin Jue was agitated, his eyes hurriedly turned to the chaos between the light and darkness outside the window, and he denied it: "I, Qi Ji and I don't have that kind of relationship."
"Ah?" Yanagisawa was confused and couldn't understand what happened to him suddenly, "Why don't I understand what you are talking about, Yanshen?"
"Just...it means I have nothing to do with him." Qin Jue frowned, not knowing what he was talking about.
And Yanagisawa couldn't help but giggle: "Wow, you and Xiaoqi have used up a damn bottle of lubricant, does it still matter?... Oh, by the way, don't just throw it in the trash next time, Cui Shen said he did this The innocent young woman felt embarrassed when she was cleaning her room."
However, Qin Jue's nervous eyes were still trembling in the darkness, and he blurted out: "No...it doesn't really matter, he is as good-looking as a girl, can't I just play with him?"
Yanag Zequan took it as a joke and took two puffs of smoke without hesitation.
It was not until a while later that Yanagisawa was a little confused when he saw that he was still repeating this argument with a serious expression: "...What do you mean, brother? Don't scare me?"
After all, in his understanding, Qin Jue was indeed in a straight relationship. If in the end, Qin Jue just couldn't resist Qi Ji's offensive and chose to get together with him for the sake of freshness and convenience, then they would end up breaking up. If you continue to lick the little sister, the team's interpersonal relationships will become more awkward than usual.
However, Qin Jue actually covered his forehead and said something that almost frightened him so much that he dropped his cigarette.
"It means that I, I'm not a fucking homosexual. I've never been serious and just played with him. What's wrong with this?"
The air in the training room crackled and exploded with a bunch of small sparks. After Liuze was confused for several seconds, Qin Jue opened his closed eyes and tried to look at Liuze.
However, the moment he turned his head, there was a figure standing at the door. He suddenly burst into Qin Jue's field of vision, causing his heart to skip a beat and his pupils to be stunned as if they could not focus.
The flow of air seemed to stop.
The light shone on the cold, boxy bodies of all the machines. Qi Ji, who had appeared there at some unknown time, also gently pushed the ajar door and walked in.
As for Liu Ze, it took several seconds to realize that there was someone behind him. When he saw it was Qi Ji, he was even more frightened - and then, the conversation between the two young people unsurprisingly made him feel as if he was suffocated. Huddled in the seat and frozen, the whole person looked weak, helpless, and pitiful.
He heard, in the quiet air, Qin Jue's voice seemed to be squeezed out: "Did you... hear what I just said?"
Qi Ji lowered his eyes and took the spring limited-flavor gummies on the table, and replied in a low voice: "Yes, I heard it all."
The crinkling sound of the plastic packaging pierced Yanagisawa's eardrums, making him so nervous that he dared not move. He even wanted to play a song by Adu's "I Shouldn't Be Here, I Should Be Under the Car" - based on his experience, the next plot It will be like a pot of blood, mixed with questioning, crying, and hysteria. In extreme cases, as long as the two people chase each other out, the April sky will immediately hit thunder and rain, and a wave of e-sports beach giants will be staged. love.
However, until the subtle silence spread to the corner, Qi Ji just took a few packs of gummies and turned away, as if he didn't have the energy to say another word.
That back figure was suddenly filled with a coldness that was rarely seen on weekdays. Liuze's jaw trembled when he saw it. When he turned to look at Qin Jue, he was even more shocked by the ashen look on his face.
This made Yanagisawa resume his identity as coach for a second, and he quickly became anxious and reminded him: "Why don't you go chase me soon?"
But in the calm night, it seemed that heavy rain was falling on my head in advance.
Qin Jue in front of him just closed his lips and looked at his knees, as if his whole body had been drenched by a heavy rain. He made no move except clenching his fists to stop their trembling.