[Esports] Team Leader Xie, your mid laner is causing trouble again.

What happened afterward is not entirely clear in Kurichi's memory.

He only remembered some fragmented images: the pheromone detector at the base entrance suddenly started screaming like a madman.

People were shouting and running; the sounds came from all directions.

Li Zhi stood in the very center of that chaos, and the world before her eyes began to shake violently.

Lights, shadows, and sounds were all mixed together, creating a chaotic mess that was neither visible nor audible.

The moment he closed his eyes, he saw Xie Jichuan lying a few steps away, and Shi Kai running towards him with a look of terror on his face.

Everything that followed seemed to be fast-forwarded.

When Li Zhi woke up again, the first thing she saw was the white hospital ceiling.

Shi Kai sat by the bed, looking at him with a hesitant expression.

The messages kept coming in, like dull knives cutting me bit by bit.

The QW training base was taken over by another big boss, the youth training team was disbanded on the spot, and all the players had to find their own way.

Xie Jichuan was poached by the foreign team Ashes and boarded a plane to go abroad before Li Zhi woke up.

"He left in a hurry," Shi Kai said, without looking Li Zhi in the eye. "I didn't even get to see him. He flew away that very night."

Li Zhi listened blankly, her face empty, and gave a wooden "Oh," as if she didn't care.

During his three days in the hospital, he kept dialing Xie Jichuan's number.

As his phone's battery level turned from full to red, he continued playing while it was still plugged in to charge.

But all I ever heard was that cold, mechanical female voice repeating the same sentence in the same tone.

"The user you dialed is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later."

The act of dialing is quickly becoming a somewhat neurotic, stereotypical action.

Like a stray cat licking its wounds by the roadside, it always has to do something to slightly fill the emptiness in its heart.

On the day he was discharged from the hospital, Li Zhi stood at the hospital entrance, the sunlight shining on him, warm and comforting.

He looked down at his phone, which he couldn't dial no matter what he did, and suddenly smiled.

It was like self-mockery, or perhaps a final farewell to something.

He threw his phone into the medical waste bin and turned to leave.

Shi Kai bought him a train ticket home.

Li Zhi accepted it, ignoring his invitation to join the second team, and said thank you.

He boarded that green train and gradually returned to where he started.

In the days that followed, there were other opportunities.

Many team coaches contacted him through various channels, including phone calls, private messages, and some even came to his door in person to meet with him.

Li Zhitong refused, his tone polite but firm, like a door that was tightly shut.

The windows of the rented room were small, but just big enough to see the moon.

Sometimes, Li Zhi would sit by the window, doing nothing but watching the moon slowly move from one end of the locust tree to the other.

He doesn't think much about the past or the future.

Days passed by like this, one after another, like a slow-flowing stream, calm and undisturbed.

Only occasionally.

Very occasionally.

He would think of that lychee-flavored lollipop and that vague, hazy, and undefined teenage affection.

Therefore, Kurichi thought she had already forgotten.

But the moment she saw Xie Jichuan, memories from two years ago came flooding back like a burst dam.

Too clear.

The hidden pain that had been dormant for two years resurfaced at this moment, like an old wound being torn open, with festering flesh still underneath that had not yet healed.

The cold, mechanical female voice seemed to echo in his ears again.

The intense pain triggered the brain's protective mechanisms.

Li Zhi's pupils contracted slightly, and her gaze slowly refocused.

The man in the audience was still staring intently at him.

Li Zhi took a deep breath to calm herself down.

She tilted her head slightly and deliberately gave Xie Jichuan a flirtatious look.

From his eyebrows and eyes to his shoulders and back, to those hands that he once knew so well.

I've grown taller, gotten a tan, and broadened my shoulders.

It's the same as I remember, yet different.

But what does that have to do with him?

Li Zhi's lips curled into a mocking smile.

Omega's smile is beautiful, almost blindingly so.

His gaze, however, seemed cold and sinister.

He raised his hand and gracefully gave Xie Jichuan the middle finger.

His expression was so indifferent, as if he were visiting someone's grave.

Some people in the audience noticed and began whispering among themselves.

Li Zhi didn't care at all.

He silently mouthed the words, his dimples appearing and disappearing, as if they held some alluring poison:

"Long time no see, Captain."

Offstage, Xie Jichuan did not look away from the Omega's provocation.

Instead of being discovered, he openly licked Li Zhi's body with his eyes.

She has such a beautiful smile.

"Brother, you're done here. If you have something urgent to attend to, you can go ahead."

Chi Lie is currently the starting jungler for the UUC team. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and patted Xie Jichuan on the shoulder.

But then he noticed that the person who had just been impatient and in a hurry to leave patted the shoulder that he had touched with a hint of disdain, and then found a seat nearby.

Chi Lie: ?

"What do you mean? Didn't you just say you were in a hurry to find someone? Why did you just sit down like that?"

While wondering what was going on, Chi Lie sat down in the seat next to Xie Jichuan.

He had just helped Shi Kai with some physical labor, and some of his Alpha pheromones were released uncontrollably.

Xie Jichuan subtly shifted to the other side, his gaze still fixed on the stage, his voice slightly hoarse:

"Take off that dog smell."

Chi Lie felt deeply insulted!

He turned the bracelet up two levels, feeling wronged, and looked incredulously at his good friend whom he hadn't seen for two years:

"My pheromones are among the top ten most popular orchid scents among Omegas, so stop making baseless accusations."

Xie Jichuan scoffed, "Oh, where did this unofficial ranking come from? It smells awful to me."

Chi Lie said angrily, "Of course you, an Alpha, don't like the smell of my pheromones, especially since you can't even tolerate the pheromones of an Omega..."

He realized he had said the wrong thing halfway through his sentence and dejectedly stopped talking.

Xie Jichuan didn't seem to care, casually pointing to the Omega who was already seated on stage and wearing headphones:

"Is this the new mid-laner your team is planning to sign?"

Chi Lie looked up and was immediately shocked: "How is this possible?"

It seems Xie Jichuan has been away for too long and doesn't quite understand Li Zhi's current reputation.

His reaction was so extreme that Xie Jichuan, unusually, spared a questioning glance from Li Zhi.

Chi Lie chuckled: "Our team's marksman has a blood feud with him. I'm worried that the moment Lychee moves into the base, the two of them will start fighting over peripherals."

Upon hearing this, Xie Jichuan frowned. "What deep-seated hatred?"

In his memory, Li Zhi had always been a pretty little rascal who, even when she was being naughty, would never really hurt anyone, just like a kitten stretching out its claws.

Any conflicts are always someone else's fault.

Chi Lie sneered, "Because one day, our marksman was matched with Lychee in three consecutive Masters matches, and he killed us a total of 27 times."

Xie Jichuan, who was just about to defend Li Zhi, was speechless.

He slowly shifted his gaze back to the people on the stage.

Omega was undergoing a pre-match check-up. His small face was scrunched up in a serious expression, and his rosy lips were slightly pouting, still glistening with the water he had been drinking.

Xie Jichuan's Adam's apple bobbed slightly twice.

Chi Lie, who was standing next to him, was still vehemently criticizing Li Zhi's behavior of humiliating professional players:

"Our poor little archer only sent a resentful smiling emoji when Lychee first killed his dance, and then suffered 26 targeted assassinations!"

"It hurts! It really hurts!"

Xie Jichuan didn't hear a single word.

All that remained in his mind was that rosy glow; the Omega's fair skin made him feel somewhat dizzy and mesmerized.

After a three-second pause, he asked, "Didn't they get matched with anyone else after that? Was killing them 27 times enough to vent his anger?"

Chi Lie: "...?"

He followed Xie Jichuan's gaze to the stage, then sniffed the pheromones in the air that even the highest-end bracelet couldn't suppress.

His expression became indescribable:

"Bro...stop looking. Your pheromones are telling me you're about to drool."