Pretend to hate you [eSports]

"Midlane dad, please don't kill me in the promotion match, give me another chance!"
"Have you researched the new hero thoroughly? Master, are you willing to accept me as a disciple? Please take me with you!"
"You dare to use scripts at the King level? Go report me and wait for your account to be banned."

There was a buzzing sound from a cell phone on the table. Cheng Yu glanced at the caller and took off one of his headphones to answer the call.
"Hello?" He sounded lazy.

"Are you still sleeping? I heard that Awei gave you an eight-figure signing fee? Is that true?" His friend He Si's excited voice was mixed with the whistling sound of the wind, and it didn't sound clear.
'Awei' refers to the AW team. Because of the popular term AWSL on the Internet, people in the circle simply call them Awei.

The AW team is the most popular team in the League of Legends professional league in mainland China, also known as the LPL division. They can be called the LPL endorsement harvester. Last year, they renovated the entire club, which was very luxurious. When it was being renovated, passers-by thought they were going to open a new luxury shopping mall.

Cheng Yu: "Well, there is such a thing."
He drew aside the curtains. It was snowing heavily outside. The branches of the trees in the green belt were all leaning to one side. There was no snow on the branches as it was all blown away by the strong north wind. The situation looked so bad that it seemed as if the wind wanted to uproot all the trees.

He Si: "That's outrageous. You refused eight figures? Why? Didn't your uncle and aunt agree to let you play e-sports?"
"I didn't refuse." Retracting his gaze, Cheng Yu flexibly operated the mouse, dodged the five enemies besieging him, and easily won a pentakill. "I didn't agree either."

"Awei is sincere enough to give you eight figures, and their training environment is the best in the entire LPL. It is said that the team doctors are all veteran doctors. Your uncles and aunts will feel more at ease if you go to Awei." He Si persuaded like an old mother, "You should go to Awei. They are also the team with the best chance of winning the S League championship this year."

Cheng Yu: "If I don't go, they won't have a chance to win the championship"
He Si: "That's why we signed you for eight figures!"
The computer screen showed victory and Cheng Yu prepared for the next game. He was too lazy to pay attention to He Si.

Seeing that Cheng Yu didn't reply, He Si lowered his voice and asked tentatively: "Cheng Yu, you don't still have hope for that team that has already fallen, do you?"
Cheng Yu opened the friend list and wanted to find someone to play duo with, but his hands were shaking and he dropped the shrink button.

The game interface is hidden, revealing the desktop wallpaper, which is a high-definition photo of a person holding the trophy on the league stage.
It is obvious that the wallpaper owner loves this photo so much that there is not even an icon on the desktop.
"Don't bother yourself." Cheng Yu hung up the phone, got up and went to the living room to get some water.

Half a month ago, he won the LPL youth training selection championship. In the past, this competition did not receive much attention, but this year is different.
Cheng Yu's performance this year was too outstanding. Compared with other contestants, Cheng Yu stood out from the crowd and the difference in level was not just a little bit.
On the day the game ended, his game ID 'unique', meaning unique, along with the title of genius mid laner, was directly pushed to the top of the hot search list, shocking the entire LPL.
Almost all LPL teams extended olive branches to him, except for Team Yuhuo.

"It's true that Yuhuo was a strong team before, but look at what has happened in the past two years with the replacement of players. This year, they didn't even get a ticket to the S League, and their training base is not even half the size of Ah Wei's. Why do you take the initiative to suffer?"
He Si sent a message on WeChat. Cheng Yu glanced at it, didn't reply, and continued to the next game.

Just ten minutes into the game, he pushed down the opponent's second tower, picked up his phone and replied to He Si: "Yuhuo lacks a strong mid laner, and has been lacking it for the past two years."
He Si: "Awei is also in need. May I ask why you didn't choose Awei who has a big house, but the poor Xiao Yuhuo instead?"
Cheng Yu: "I didn't say I wanted to go to Yuhuo, I just said Yuhuo was short of a mid laner."

Mr. He was "typing" for a long time, and finally sent a sighing emoticon.

He Si: "Forget it, I'll just ask someone to help ask Yuhuo what's going on. I guess they don't have the money. I know I can't afford it, so I saved the phone bill."
Cheng Yu: “No need.”

He Si: "The news will come soon. We will know it today."
Cheng Yu: “No need.”

He Si: "Okay then, I'm going to have dinner now, I won't say any more."
Cheng Yu glanced at the weather outside the window again and replied to He Si: "Only an idiot would go out today."

"Master, please duo row, please lead us!"
"I can do both the loli voice and the mature voice, take me with you!"
"Give me a friend seat, let's talk."

Cheng Yu glanced at the game chat box and found that he was matched with someone from a professional team.
He didn't reply to anyone, and kept glancing at his phone in the second half of the game.

The cell phone was right next to him, but it hadn't been turned on since He Si said he wanted to eat.
Game victory.

Cheng Yu ignored all friend requests and picked up his phone to type.
Cheng Yu: "If you are curious about Yuhuo, go check it out yourself. You don't need me to be the lead."

He Si kept saying "typing" for a while, and finally just replied with an ellipsis.
After staring at the phone for a while and making sure that He Si would not send any more messages, Cheng Yu threw the phone on the table and scratched his hair impatiently.
He went to the living room to get some water again. He put the cup under the water dispenser and found that there was more than half a cup left. He didn't know how many times he walked around the living room. When he finished the third cup of water, he heard a slight vibration from his cell phone in the bedroom.

Cheng Yu strode into the bedroom, and the water in the cup splashed out and wet his shirt.
He Si: "The Fire Team has found something fishy. The new person in charge insisted on getting a formal invitation letter. He didn't know where you live, so he mailed it to our school. I'm impressed by the brain circuit of this person in charge."
The school that He Si mentioned is Shencheng No. 2 High School. The two of them just finished the college entrance examination in June this year. He Si went to college, and Cheng Yu took a leave of absence to prepare for professional play.

Cheng Yu: "Who cares to know."
He Si: "Okay... I conveyed it, you figure it out yourself, I'll continue eating."
The wind outside showed no sign of stopping and the snow was still heavy. The neighborhood downstairs was covered in white and not even a single person could be seen.

five minutes later.

Cheng Yu stood on the side of the road, wearing a pure white down jacket. The white breath he exhaled was blown away by the strong wind before it could even form a ball.
It's quite cold.

The taxi app showed that the ride would arrive in fifteen minutes, but the weather was bad and there were few drivers out.
Did he come out too early? Cheng Yu saw the driver driving at a snail's pace, and then looked at the gate of the residential complex across the road. Would it be better to go home and wait?
The phone vibrated, and He Si sent a new message.

He Si: “[Screenshot]” It shows what Cheng Yu said not long ago.
"Only idiots go out today."

Cheng Yu: “…”
Too lazy to pay attention to him.

The wind was so strong that it hurt Cheng Yu's face. He pulled up the collar of his down jacket and put on his hat, leaving only a pair of eyes exposed, staring at the driver of the taxi app.
The journey usually takes 20 minutes, but today it took 40 minutes to get to school. Cheng Yu asked the driver to wait for a moment and he would be out soon.

At the guardhouse, Cheng Yu knocked on the window.
The security guard has been working here for 40 years. He leaned closer to the glass and immediately recognized Cheng Yu.

"Cheng Yu?" The old man picked up the glasses hanging around his neck and put them on, then yelled at him through the glass, "Why are you here, bastard?"
"Get something." Cheng Yu held his hat with one hand and pointed at the glass with the other, signaling the old man to open the window.

The old man had just opened the window a crack when the north wind almost knocked him over.
"Bang", the window closed, and the old man continued to yell through the window: "What are you taking?"

Cheng Yu pointed at himself: "My letter."
The old man tilted his ear and asked, "What's yours?"

Cheng Yu raised his voice: "Letter!"
Uncle: "Heart? You came here specially to see me? You came empty-handed?"
Cheng Yu: “…”

The driver, who was not far away, was rubbing his arms. Seeing Cheng Yu staggering several times in the heavy snow, he had already imagined the annual drama in his mind: "He thought he had failed the exam, but actually performed exceptionally well and came to pick up the admission notice so excitedly that even the security guard was surprised."

The communication was finally successful. The old man opened the window and quickly handed Cheng Yu a courier bag. He took it with both hands and held it tightly in his arms.
A strong wind blew and mercilessly blew the hat off his head.
The driver thought he was seeing things, so he took off a white hat and found another one inside?
After everyone got in the car and closed the door, the driver confirmed that Cheng Yu had all white hair.
At first glance, his hair looked as if it was dyed white by the snow outside. But upon closer inspection, there was a faint golden hue among the hair strands, as if the winter sun was hiding among the white snow, and it did not look like it was dyed.

"Please go back to the neighborhood we were in just now." Cheng Yu opened the express package and took out the invitation letter inside.
The invitation letter has a red background with large gold-plated characters, and the gold powder on it will fall off if you touch it.

The driver was quite disappointed that it was not an admission letter. Well, dyeing his hair white doesn't look like a good student.
"Are you going to attend an elder's birthday party?" The driver turned the rearview mirror and aimed it at Cheng Yu, taking a closer look at his hair. How did he dye it?
Cheng Yu's face darkened. He took the invitation letter and looked out the window: "No." They were in the same city, so why not just make a phone call or come to the door to discuss it? Why did he have to get an invitation letter, which delayed him for half a month.
Yuhuo E-sports Club is located in Shencheng.
Cheng Yu's home is in the west of the city, and the Fire Squad headquarters is in the south of the city.
Baocai is in charge, the Fire Squad is really lucky.

After returning home, Cheng Yu held his finger over the trash can and wanted to let go of the eye-catching invitation letter several times. Finally, he took a deep breath, walked to the bookcase, casually took out a book called "The Must-Read Guide for Successful Business" and put it in the trash can without even looking at it again.

He had already memorized the phone number of the contact person on the invitation letter in his mobile phone, and with his fingers covered in gold powder, he called.
The conversation was very brief. When the person in charge of Yuhuo heard that it was Cheng Yu, he could feel the curve of his mouth from ear to ear through his voice. He was so happy that a talented mid laner was coming that he suspected he was dreaming.

Since the Yuhuo Zhan team was founded two years ago, it has always lacked a strong mid laner. Except for the captain ADC, the other players have been replaced one after another, and each time the mid laner has been weak, missing the opportunity to get into the S League again and again.

Cheng Yu's signing is like timely help.

"Well, we'll discuss it in detail at the club tomorrow."
As soon as Cheng Yu hung up the phone, He Si called him immediately.

He first washed the gold powder off his hands, then wiped his phone clean before calling He Si back.
He Si got straight to the point: "Did you get the invitation?"

Cheng Yu strolled back to the bedroom, and said in a relaxed tone: "I happened to be there to do something, so I picked it up by the way."
He Si laughed softly and asked, "You will definitely meet Shen Zheng when you go to the Fire Team. What are you going to do?"

Shen Zheng, captain of the Yuhuo War Team, joined the e-sports industry as a talented ADC at the age of 17. He swept all individual awards within a year and broke one record after another. So far, no one has been able to surpass his personal myth.

In the bedroom, the computer monitor was on, and the person holding the trophy on the desk seemed clearer than before he left.
It was a handsome and recognizable face.

Under the short black hair, a pair of cool almond-shaped eyes occupied most of the screen. The owner of the eyes was kissing his left hand, holding his global SOLO championship trophy in his right hand. He looked upwards without any emotion, as if the trophy in his hand, which was coveted by LOL professional players all over the world, had no weight at all.
He completely ignored the people cheering and celebrating in the background, standing apart from the fiery atmosphere like an inviolable god standing alone.

Cheng Yu stared at the person in the picture for two seconds, then quickly looked away as if he had been caught.
He ruffled his hair and fiddled with his bangs. "What can I do? We should get along normally. I will take away his position as captain of the Fire and kick him off the altar of the global SOLO champion. From now on, I will be the only legend of the LPL region."

He Si: "You call this a normal relationship?"
Thinking back to what Cheng Yu did when he was in school, this was really a normal way of getting along. He and Shen Zheng were not from the same school, but they could still fight over a long distance on Tieba.

It’s hard to say whether their relationship was good or bad, but that’s how we spent high school.

He Si: "What a great ambition! I wish you all the best tomorrow. Also, please help me get an autographed photo of Shen Zheng. My sister likes him very much."
Cheng Yu: "Shen Zheng can't do it, but mine can."

He Si: "My sister only likes Shen Zheng, I leave this matter entirely to you!"
Just as Cheng Yu was about to say "get lost", He Si hung up the phone accurately.
Cheng Yu: “…”
He threw his phone onto the bed, lowered his eyes and stared at the person on the computer screen for a few seconds, then slowly raised his hand, tapped the other person's forehead and whispered, "I'll surpass you sooner or later."

-

The next day, Cheng Yu arrived at the Yuhuo E-Sports Club half an hour earlier than the agreed time.
The person who opened the door for him was a young player from the Yuhuo Youth Training Team.

When the other party saw Cheng Yu, he seemed dumbfounded, saying "you you you" for a long time without uttering a complete sentence.
"I made an appointment with your person in charge yesterday," Cheng Yu said, "to discuss the contract today."
The young player nodded his head and ran upstairs. His excited voice spread throughout the Yuhuo Club: "Fuck! Cheng Yu is here to discuss the contract with our team!"

Cheng Yu glanced around the club's lobby. It was his first time here, but he was familiar with all the items inside.
He could remember the placement of every trophy on the trophy wall facing the entrance, and most of them belonged to Shen Zheng.

The coffee table and sofa in the middle of the room, which had been used for two years, and the half-dead money tree in the corner, were things he had seen countless times in the Fire Squad videos.
The young general who had just run upstairs came down again, pointed upstairs and said cautiously: "Brother Yu, please go to the meeting room and wait for a moment."
"Okay, thank you." Cheng Yu followed him to the meeting room.

In the conference room, Cheng Yu waited for less than five minutes before the person in charge came rushing in.
The person in charge was called Li Hong, who was in his early 30s and dressed in formal attire. When he met Cheng Yu, he treated him like a sponsor and was very enthusiastic.

"Hello, please take a seat. What would you like to drink, tea, juice, or cola?"
Cheng Yu wanted to laugh, he never got up from the chair.
"I'm not thirsty, let's talk about the contract directly."

Li Hong focused on explaining the salary and benefits to Cheng Yu, and boasted about the achievements Yuhuo had made in the two years since its establishment.
All in all, the only achievements that can be shown off are Shen Zheng’s personal performances; the team awards are far from enough.
Cheng Yu had already understood all the information about Yuhuo. He even understood the growth process of Yuhuo Team better than Li Hong.

Li Hong said: "After all, you are a new player selected from the youth training competition. You need to play as a substitute for a period of time. Although you are a substitute, you are also in the first team. This has never happened before."
He said this carefully, but it was also the biggest concession Yuhuo had made. Other teams had him play for the youth team first, and he could only become a substitute based on the team's performance.

The scale of the youth training team's games and the external attention it receives cannot be compared with those of the league team. Yuhuo has given Cheng Yu enough face in terms of money and status, which is enough to prove his sincerity.

"Shen Zheng." Cheng Yu looked through the contract and spoke lightly.
Li Hong: "Shen Zheng? What's wrong? He is the captain of the team. Don't worry, he is a very nice person."
"The last player who was selected to play for the first team was Shen Zheng." He paused on the signature page and tapped it lightly. "He has never been a substitute."
Shen Zheng reached the peak of his career as soon as he debuted. In this respect, no one has ever surpassed him.

Li Hong opened his mouth, revealing an embarrassment: "It takes time to join the club, and being a substitute is just a matter of getting used to it, you see..."
Before he could finish his words, he saw Cheng Yu pick up the pen and sign directly.

Li Hong: "As long as you can adapt quickly, the team will try to arrange more games for you."
Afraid that Cheng Yu would regret it, he quickly took back the contract and held it tightly in his hand.

Now is the time when major teams transfer and join personnel. Cheng Yu can officially become a member of the Yuhuo team by signing up.

Considering the level of the current midfielder of the Yuhuo team, and then considering Yuhuo's habit of frantically selling players during the transfer period, Cheng Yu estimated that he would be a substitute for at most half a month.
He was not far behind Shen Zheng and was within his acceptable range.

Li Hong: "I'll take you to familiarize yourself with the environment. From now on, you will eat and live in the team."
Li Hong opened the door of the conference room, and the people who were originally gathered outside dispersed at once. They pretended to be nothing and just passed by, but they were intently glancing at Cheng Yu.
He is even more handsome in person than in the photos, and he is so white, with almost transparent skin. Combined with his signature white hair, he looks even better than any white European man.

Cheng Yu followed Li Hong and, with a bunch of sneaky little followers, got familiar with the environment. Then, he officially became a member of the Fire Team.
"I'll ask someone to set up a machine later. You should get familiar with everyone first." Li Hong opened the door of the training room and almost bumped into Shen Zheng who was about to come out.

It was as if the wallpaper in the computer came alive, and Cheng Yu suddenly bumped into the pair of almond-shaped eyes that he looked at countless times every day.
The owner of these eyes was currently staring at him, cold and focused.

Cheng Yu subconsciously held his breath and for a moment forgot the opening remarks that he had rehearsed countless times before coming here.
After a while, he looked away, pinched his slightly itchy earlobe, and asked the other person like an angry little lion: "What are you looking at?"

Shen Zheng was dressed in pure black casual clothes, as cold and solemn as he was.
He stood in front of Cheng Yu, with a slender figure, a head taller than Cheng Yu. He lowered his eyes slightly, and said in a hoarse voice, "I'm looking at you."

(End of this chapter)