Time flies. The past two months of training, competing and dating have passed very quickly. Even though I once felt that the final battle was still a long way off, that day was still pushed towards us by the long river of time.
At this time, Shen Yanming was sitting in the backstage lounge of Haicheng Stadium. He was about to go on stage in more than an hour. The phone in Shen Yanming's trouser pocket rang. He took it out and saw that it was a message from an unexpected person.
Professor He Yue sent it to tell them to cheer up, not to be nervous and to perform well.
Shen Yanming stared at the message in a trance.
Two or three months ago, he went to He Yue's school and cleared up some misunderstandings. He also added He Yue as a friend. However, this friend just stayed in the list and the two of them hardly ever talked. So when Shen Yanming received the message today, he was quite surprised.
Is He Yue watching the game? Do you want to show it to He Changkong
Although He Yue said encouraging words, would this affect his mentality
Under normal circumstances, Shen Yanming might not hesitate like this. However, this was the finals.
The world championship finals.
In the playoffs, TMM performed well and got a ticket to the World Championship. After that, they also made it to the finals.
He Changkong came over: "What are you thinking about?"
Shen Yanming hesitated for a while.
He thought that his brother Kong was not that fragile after all, and he still had to say what he needed to say.
But the lounge was noisy and it was not suitable to talk about this, so Shen Yanming stood up and said, "Come on, brother, let's go for a walk outside."
They said they were going out for a walk, but they were just wandering around the area from the backstage to the stage. The two of them walked past the busy staff and strolled to the bottom of the stage.
The stadium, which can accommodate tens of thousands of people, has not yet started checking tickets. It is now empty. Shen Yanming turned to the rows of empty seats and said, "It will be filled with many people soon... I used to be one of them."
In his previous life, when Shen Yanming entered the World Championship for the first time, he was eliminated early in the group stage, but he still came to the finals to watch He Changkong and others compete.
Shen Yanming pointed to a faraway place: "At that time, I was sitting on the top of the mountain... It should be that position. I was staring at the screen the whole time. When I saw you guys playing, I was more nervous than when I played myself."
He Changkong also recalled that the same game in the previous life seemed to be the beginning of TMM's decline.
At that time, Pudding's shoulder injury flared up and he played poorly. After the fight, the mage LAN in the team left again. The whole team fell apart and went from bad to worse.
Now… now it’s completely different.
Lan left earlier, in an undignified way. He should have known that TMM was different after the injection of new blood, but he still insisted that he understood TMM's playing style, so as to get a seat in the new team. However, this was just a last gasp. When they met in the group stage, he was almost beaten into a pig's head by TMM, and finally bid farewell to the field in disgrace.
Shen Yanming is also a ruthless person. He had previously caught evidence of Lan secretly stirring up trouble for his former teammates, but he kept it to himself until he had beaten him to death before posting all the evidence on the forum. He directly used his forum account to play, and at the end he said in a sarcastic tone: Don't do anything crooked, welcome to face it head-on... Hey, it seems like today's game is a head-on confrontation? No wonder he had to do something crooked.
Because players cannot directly mock other players, Shen Yanming did not finish his words. However, everyone in the forum is an experienced Onmyoji and they all knew what Shen Yanming was implying at a glance.
During that period, the forum was flooded with posts because of Shen Yanming's actions. The title of the post was: This Samoyed is a black one!
From then on, the troubles with my former teammates came to an end.
He Changkong glanced at the seat that Shen Yanming pointed to, and in an instant it seemed as if time and space overlapped, and he seemed to be able to see the child sitting in that seat that year, staring at the stadium.
What would Shen Yanming be thinking at that time? Excited? Unwilling? Longing
Shen Yanming seemed to understand the doubt in He Changkong's eyes: "At that time... It was my first time playing in a competition. I actually thought that being able to enter the world championship was a very good result. I wasn't too disappointed. I just thought that I must stand on the finals stage the following year. But I didn't make it the second year, nor the third year. If there was a third or fourth year, it probably wouldn't happen. Everyone even gave me a nickname, saying that I was a professional runner-up."
He Changkong put his hand on Shen Yanming's shoulder.
"I also fantasized about meeting you in the finals and playing a match with you, but my performance at that time was also very bad, hahaha," Shen Yanming said, "I didn't expect that this wish would come true now, and we would be teammates."
He Changkong asked: "Are you nervous?"
Shen Yanming shook his head: "I thought I would be nervous, but after coming here I found that I was so calm."
This was also the truth. Shen Yanming had imagined many times before how he would feel if he could stand on the finals stage. Would he be so excited that he wanted to run wild? Or would he be so excited that he couldn't speak? Or would he be so nervous that he could only sit in the lounge and take deep breaths
But when it really came to this moment, his mood was like the surface of a lake without wind, with no ripples.
Although it was a bit arrogant to think so, he vaguely felt that this was what he and his partners deserved. After working so hard for so long, what was supposed to come would eventually come.
Therefore, there is no need to treat this game with any special emotion.
What's more, there will be many more such competitions in the future.
There were still some remaining words that Shen Yanming didn't say.
Shen Yanming wanted to say to He Changkong, maybe it’s because you are here, as long as you are here, I can exert 200% of my strength.
Neither lack of confidence nor insecurity.
The two stood in silence for a while, and He Changkong asked again: "So you called me out, there should be more to say than just this, right?"
Shen Yanming never missed any opportunity to flatter others: "How come you are so smart?"
Shen Yanming didn't keep it a secret and took out his phone to show He Changkong the message, saying, "It's from Professor He."
After saying that, Shen Yanming carefully observed He Changkong's face again. His expression didn't change much, and he didn't seem to be in any emotional state.
Shen Yanming breathed a sigh of relief, and then heard He Changkong say again: "Thank him for me?"
So Shen Yanming typed a line on the screen and sent it over.
An imperceptible smile appeared on He Changkong's face: "Xiao Luan is very worried about me."
Shen Yanming: "Of course."
He Changkong touched Shen Yanming's head: "Don't worry."
Shen Yanming thought so too. He was thinking too much and there was really no need to worry too much.
His brother Kong was much more powerful than he thought.
A few days ago, Xu Jun called again, and they were still noisy and noisy. Shen Yanming was right next to He Changkong at the time, and he was furious. He thought that the finals were about to be played, but this cheap mother still didn't stop.
However, he heard He Changkong calmly say to Xu Jun: "Mom, I still call you mom now, I hope you can stop while you are ahead. I also know about you and my dad, please don't use this matter to hold me hostage. As for me and my lover, you can go out and tell others about it, I don't care. The e-sports team only looks at the results and nothing else. I will not be expelled because of my sexual orientation, and I don't feel ashamed. Even if you don't say it, I will say it myself in the future. If you feel ashamed, you will be the only one who will be embarrassed if you tell others about it, so it's up to you."
At first, after hearing what He Changkong said, Shen Yanming thought that he might be pretending to be calm. However, after asking again and again, Shen Yanming finally confirmed that He Changkong didn't care about this matter.
He Changkong said: "It's definitely a lie to say that I've let it go completely. I've been trapped by this for many years. It was hard to think about it before, and it's disgusting now. But I have everything now, there's really no need to be sad for someone who always hurts me... Of course, if I can get your comfort by saying I'm unhappy, then I'll pretend to be unhappy every day."
In the end, the matter came to an end with He Changkong, who pretended to be unhappy, being comforted by Shen Yanming for a long time.
Shen Yanming touched his nose and said, "Let's not talk about this anymore."
Shen Yanming turned around and looked at the stage. In order to accommodate this competition, the stadium had added many temporary decorations, and the entire stage was dressed up as a corner of a throne map. In the center stood a real throne, and the championship trophy had been placed on the throne in advance.
After the game, the winning team can directly hold the trophy on the stage.
Shen Yanming has seen countless times the scene of others holding up trophies, some cheering, jumping around on the stage, some crying, and the cheers of the audience were so loud that they shook the sky.
He hopes he will be the protagonist this time.
Shen Yanming pointed at the trophy and said, "We will carry this thing later."
He Changkong grabbed his hand, and seeing that there was no one around, he held his fingers tightly together: "If the audience hears you say this, they will say that you are arrogant again."
Shen Yanming smiled and said, "I have the confidence."
With confidence, just do your best.
The two didn't know how long they had been hanging around outside. It was probably when the ticket checking started that spectators began to enter the stadium one after another.
Several ticket gates were working simultaneously with high efficiency, and soon the stadium, which was originally so quiet that you could hear the echo of people's voices, became lively.
The two stood there for a while and saw an audience on the top of the mountain holding up a long banner with a very earthy blessing written on it: Sweet boy, fly with confidence, the little snacks will always be with you.
It was pulled by the fans who have been supporting them.
It was getting late. Shen Yanming stared at the banner for a while, then scratched He Changkong's palm and said, "Let's go, my sweet boy. Let's go back and do some preparations before moving the trophy."
He Changkong squeezed his hand: "Yeah."
Before leaving, Shen Yanming looked back at the audience and looked at the seat where he had once sat as a spectator.
He walked a little further and suddenly stopped.
One of his hands was still clasped with He Changkong's, and the other hand was slowly raised at this time.
He swung hard at that position.
Let’s go, let’s go, to a brighter future.
(End of text.)