Chapter 39
Gu Yesheng, who lived alone in a single room, was scanning the web pages in a bored manner when he received the message. He glimpsed the source of the message and reached for the communicator.
He remembered the conversation during the day but he hadn’t expected the child’s execution ability to be so amazing. He said to contact him and Yi Jiamu actually did so. This was being much more proactive than him.
As for the answer to this question, there seemed to be no negative options at all.
Gu Yesheng: [Should I contract a lot of free time?]
Yi Jiamu: [It isn’t necessary…]
Gu Yesheng found a comfortable position and started to type slowly: [Why are you so polite to me? You can talk to me about anything…]
Here, he paused for a moment. Then he pressed the undo button to delete all of it and continued writing.
Gu Yesheng: [But I need it.]
Gu Yesheng: [Tomorrow is the preliminaries. You know that our Sublime Star didn’t perform well last year. I don’t know what will happen this year.]
Gu Yesheng: [I heard that many schools have updated their tactics. What if we fail to do well and don’t even get into the second half of the competition?]
It was the first time Yi Jiamu tried to use his social account to talk to someone so much. Originally, he learned from Sang Bei’s appearance but he didn’t know how to open a topic. Unexpectedly, Gu Yesheng replied a lot in one breath.
Yi Jiamu looked at the words on the screen and his eyelashes shook slightly. The moment the league was mentioned, Lu Zexiu’s resolute expression appeared in his mind. He had never known a person could be so resolute for his goal. He might not be able to understand it but it deserved absolute respect.
The corners of his mouth slightly lowered and he replied without hesitation: [We will definitely win.]
Gu Yesheng hadn’t expected such a reply. In his impression, Yi Jiamu had never been a person with a strong desire to win. At this moment, he could imagine the child’s serious expression across the screen. It was a bit cute.
Gu Yesheng couldn’t help chuckling as he slowly typed: [However, I’m a bit nervous before the competition. Do you want to coax me?]
Yi Jiamu, “……”
He silently looked at the last words before finally typing: [How to coax you?]
Gu Yesheng sank into the soft pillow and the smile on his face was a bit uncontrollable. [It is especially simple. Just talk to me more, just like this.]
***
The next day, the Sublime Star team got on the space car to go to the venue.
Looking to the side, Yi Jiamu could see that the other schools had also come to the lobby one by one to take their respective vehicles.
Zhou Ming was chewing on gum in a bored manner. He inadvertently noticed the drowsy Yi Jiamu and walked over to pat him on the shoulder. “Mumu, what’s the matter? Is it the competition? Didn’t you sleep well last night because you were nervous?”
Yi Jiamu couldn’t help glancing at Gu Yesheng as he muttered, “Very nervous.” However, the nervous one wasn’t him.
Last night, in order to appease someone who was under too much pressure before the game, he unexpectedly talked until midnight.
Yi Jiamu was usually a person with very high sleep requirements. Recently, he had been busy with league affairs during the day and slept too late at night. Naturally, he had to be a bit sleepy when he lacked sleep.
In comparison, Gu Yesheng who needed to participate was very energetic after staying up late. This also made Yi Jiamu feel reassured. At least it showed that he ‘coaxed’ his nervous senior before the match.
Zhou Ming heard Yi Jiamu’s words and nodded with understanding. “I was the same as you when I first came to participate in the league. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it and it will be better soon.”
“Thank you, Senior.”
The first half and second half of the College Abilities League were completely different.
There were more and more colleges being established and this meant too many participating teams. In order to reduce unnecessary time, the organizers made the rules of the preliminaries extremely simple.
Based on the grouping situation of the draw, the four groups would play a total of three elimination rounds within a group. The team with the highest score in each group would directly enter the second half of the competition. Then according to the overall score, the two remaining teams with the highest total score will be selected to obtain the final qualification.
The so-called total score was the final sum of multiple components such as the elimination ranking, the number of effective attacks and the number of eliminated people. The specific statistical methods had been continuously improved in previous leagues and it was now a very complete evaluation system.
Gu Yesheng drew Sublime Star into Group B but there were two strong teams in Group A, namely Perpetual Full Moon and Burning Wood. It was worth coming to the venue in advance to inspect the situation.
After arriving in the lounge, the first thing Lu Zexiu did was to debug the spectator projection system in the room. Yi Jiamu stood by but his eyes were always on Lu Zexiu’s body, eyebrows twisted in an uneasy manner.
There might be no strong teams in Group B but it was a melee system after all. He didn’t know if there would be any situation where intense use of the ability was required after Lu Zexiu came to the field.
Yi Jiamu was busy thinking about these things and didn’t realize that his gaze was too explicit. Although no one said anything, some gazes had started to shift back and forth between Yi Jiamu and Lu Zexiu.
Lu Zexiu finished the debugging and happened to notice the little assistant’s expression. He was silent for a moment before ordering, “Yi Jiamu, come out with me.”
Yi Jiamu didn’t say anything and obediently followed. Once the two of them walked out of the room, Zhou Ming finally couldn’t bear it. He lowered his voice and asked, “Do you think that Mumu’s eyes toward the president are different?”
Xu Yi heard the words and his mind was full of the words ‘a good match’. He looked up at the ceiling in a complicated manner. “It really is different.”
Zhou Ming didn’t know that he and Xu Yi were on completely different brain circuits. He thought he was acknowledged and was a bit excited. “Right! So you also think that Mumu likes the president?”
Xu Yi had been taking a sip of water when he heard this and he almost spat it out as he choked and coughed. “What are you talking about? Mumu likes the president? It is impossible!”
Zhou Ming disappeared. “The president is the male god in the minds of many omegas. Why is it impossible?”
“Impossible is impossible!” Xu Yi couldn’t directly say that Yi Jiamu was a CP fan of the Ye Ze combination. He just happened to glance at Gu Yesheng and instantly thought of a statement that was very convincing. “Let me tell you this. The possibility that Mumu likes the president is the same as the possibility that he likes Gu Yesheng—indefinitely close to zero.”
In order to show his seriousness, he added, “At this stage, it is absolutely true.”
Zhou Ming sneered and rolled his eyes. Xu Yi was surprised that this guy wasn’t in a hurry to refute it. Then he saw the gradually weird smile on Zhou Ming’s face and felt that something was wrong.
Then his back gradually became cold and he realized something. He turned his head and met Gu Yesheng’s ‘spring breeze smile’. He froze immediately. In the end, Xu Yi forced himself to remain calm as he reminded seriously, “The preliminaries are about to start. Gu Yesheng, you absolutely can’t attack me at this time!”
Zhou Ming had the attitude of watching a good show. He almost looked like he was about to wave a flag and shout ‘Fight!’
However, Gu Yesheng didn’t attack as they thought. He just gave an extremely contemptuous look. “Can’t you be a bit more boring?”
Then he turned and walked out of the lounge, closing the door.
Zhou Ming was shocked by this overly calm response. “Is he still the Gu Yesheng I know? Why is he leaving?”
Xu Yi thought for a moment and guessed. “….Probably to go and block a person?”
***
Yi Jiamu had guessed what Lu Zexiu wanted to talk to him about. He was aware that his attitude was a bit too obvious but as the only insider on the team, he always felt that he should do something.
On the way back, Lu Zexiu was called by the organizers to do an interview before the match. Yi Jiamu came back alone and saw Gu Yesheng leaning against the wall of the corridor. There was a cigarette in his hand but it wasn’t lit. He played with it casually between his slender fingertips with an undisciplined and sloppy appearance. He seemed to hear the sound of footsteps and glanced sideways. There was something vaguely deep in his expression.
Xu Yi hadn’t guessed incorrectly. Gu Yesheng really had come out to block a person. After he saw Yi Jiamu, words lingered in his mouth for a long time but he couldn’t ask.
Thus, the two people stared at each other from a distance, each with their own thoughts. The surroundings were completely silent. After being silent for a while, Gu Yesheng took the lead to ask, “Your chat is over?”
There seemed to be no big difference from his usual attitude but if someone listened carefully, they could tell that the voice was slightly more depressed. His fingertips moved and he threw the unlit cigarette into the trash can nearby.
‘Do you like Lu Zexiu?’
It was a very simple sentence. He didn’t know why but he wasn’t able to ask it.
They chatted very well last night and the child was patient when coaxing him. Moreover, in the course of the chat, there had been no mention of Lu Zexiu at all. This made Gu Yesheng subconsciously agree with Xu Yi’s statement.
Based on Yi Jiamu’s previous actions, he really didn’t seem to like Lu Zexiu. Even though he was so ‘certain’ in his heart, once he wanted to ask, he still…
“Yes, it’s over.” Gu Yesheng didn’t ask about the specific content so Yi Jiamu was naturally happy not to mention it. He walked over to Gu Yesheng, only to suddenly stop and ask. “Senior, according to the previous tactical meeting, you should be acting with the president in the team battle, right?”
Gu Yesheng raised his eyes. “Yes, what about it?”
“Senior, can I request something from you?”
“What is it?”
“I just hope that when the match starts, you can pay as much attention as possible to the president. If you can, it is better not to let him use his ability too much.” Yi Jiamu tried hard to consider his words while making his expression as sincere as possible. “I am mainly responsible for the logistics of the association so I can see it more intuitively… these days, the president has been a bit too tired. It is best to let him have a proper rest.”
This was the most euphemistic way Yi Jiamu could think of to say it. After speaking, he looked at Gu Yesheng expectantly. “Senior, can you promise me?”
In his opinion, Gu Yesheng was trustworthy. Out of all the people in the association, he subconsciously trusted Gu Yesheng the most.
However, there was no reply for a long time.
The expression on Yi Jiamu’s face gradually filled with doubt. Just as he thought he wouldn’t get an answer, Gu Yesheng slowly responded. “I know.”
The look in his eyes was light and it was hard to distinguish the emotions. “I promise that no matter what, I won’t let anyone approach Lu Zexiu.”
Yi Jiamu heard this and he smiled slightly. “Thank you, Senior.”
It was just that seeing such a smile, for the first time, Gu Yesheng found that he was unable to smile. Judging from the child’s concern, Zhou Ming’s guess might not be that impossible.
The author has something to say:
Night Narcissus: I never thought that my rival in love would be you.
Lu Zexiu: ?
Yi Jiamu: ???