GTRSH Chapter 60

The car wasn’t well-lit, but Yu Xinche’s eyes sparkled in the dim light, radiating a light that He Ci couldn’t ignore.

More than one of his previous teammates had said similar things, tentatively and casually, but none of them were as straightforward and innocent as Yu Xinche.

His eyes were so clear, or rather, He Ci could only see his own reflection in those pupils.

For a moment, some images flashed through his mind, and he was momentarily stunned.

He quickly snapped out of his reverie, his expression unchanged, Yu Xinche was still looking at him expectantly.

Actually, it doesn’t really look like a rabbit, He Ci thought. Rabbits were soft and cute, while puppies were the ones that stare intently at others.

He was adept at refusing, but this was the first time he said yes.

His Adam’s apple bobbed, and he said in a very natural tone, “Okay.”

Yu Xinche smiled, moved back to a normal distance, and continued to discuss: “Let’s move tomorrow? I’m tired today.”

“Okay,” He Ci said.

“Should we inform Brother Xu?”

“Let’s go find him together tomorrow.”

“Okay.” Yu Xinche found a comfortable position. “Then I’ll take a nap.”

It was quite late when they arrived at the base. The intensity of today’s competition was quite high, so the team members didn’t do any extra training. They went back to their rooms to wash up and went to sleep.

The next day, the bottom lane team informed Xu Le and his team during the post-game review meeting that they would be staying in the same room.

Originally, Yu Xinche wanted to get up early to talk to Xu Le, but he felt it wasn’t a big deal and there was no need to make a big fuss by going to Xu Le’s office with He Ci. It was too much of a show.

Moreover, the noise of moving things will definitely alert the other teammates. Rather than having them come over one by one to ask, it’s better to tell them all at once during the debriefing meeting when everyone is there.

“Either is fine.” He Ci had no objection to this.

“Okay, let’s just mention it during the meeting. It’s only a matter of a single sentence anyway,” Yu Xinche said.

“Really?” He Ci glanced at him, seemingly intrigued.

“What do you mean? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“It’s nothing,” He Ci shook his head. “I just think you’re very cute.”

Yu Xinche: “?”

That didn’t sound like a compliment.

He was completely confused until the debriefing meeting, when he finally understood why He Ci had laughed at him.

It turned out he were saying that he was adorably silly.

There were many points to pay attention to in the game against WING, and they spent more than two hours reviewing it.

When Yu Xinche was caught while adding vision, the other team members gave him a pep talk, sharing their own mistakes from their rookie days and telling him to relax and take it slow.

As the meeting was about to end, Yu Xinche asked everyone to wait a moment. Then he pointed to He Ci and said calmly, “We’re planning to share a room to build some rapport. We’ll probably move out tonight. I just wanted to let you all know.”

Apart from the two individuals involved, everyone else’s expression went blank for a moment.

“Did I hear that right?” Xiao Ou and BURN exchanged bewildered glances, repeating incredulously, “He just said he’s going to live with He Ci, right?”

“That should be right.”

CONTROL’s gaze swept over the two of them twice, before he made a quick eye contact with He Ci.

“New treat for ‘Saying goodbye to the old year and welcoming the new!’”

“No need to tell the fans,” He Ci replied. Having been teammates for so long, they knew each other’s personalities inside and out. Kong Zhiyi could guess some of He Ci’s feelings, and He Ci had no intention of hiding anything from him.

“Living together is definitely an option, I’d love to! But there are two things I want to confirm with you both.” Xu Le, having recovered from his surprise, held up his index finger. “First, who’s planning to move in with whom?”

The two of them had never actually discussed this issue.

The rooms in TZ’s dormitory were all quite large, so it doesn’t matter who you go to. Therefore, Yu Xinche quickly decided to move himself, since it was his request and he didn’t want to trouble He Ci to move the rooms.

Before he could speak, Xu Le added, “Why don’t you all move to the room on the left corner? That room is bigger than your current rooms, and it already has two beds.”

BURN said, “I think it’s a good idea. We’re currently living in the one on the right corner, and the balcony is quite comfortable.”

“Okay.” He Ci turned to ask Yu Xinche what he thought.

“I’m fine with that too.” Yu Xinche nodded.

Xiao Ou: “Wait, wait, wait! If you move in, I’ll be left alone on the second floor, right in the middle! All the neighbors are empty, I’m afraid it’ll be haunted at night!”

“Then don’t sleep,” He Ci said.

Xiao Ou glared angrily at He Ci, then suddenly remembered something and asked Yu Xinche, “Xiao Che, what did you say to He Ci? Do you have some tricks for controlling He Ci?”

Yu Xinche wasn’t sure what he meant. Was it really that difficult to persuade He Ci to live together?

He hesitated, then said, “I was just saying it normally. What’s wrong?”

“I don’t believe it. He’s never shared a room with anyone else. Didn’t we say he was homophobic during our live stream before? Have you forgotten?”

He vaguely remember something like that.

During the live stream, He Ci was not happy when the topic of CP (couple pairing) came up, and it wasn’t entirely unfounded to say that he was homophobic.

Yu Xinche spoke before thinking twice, asking He Ci without hesitation, “So, are you uncomfortable?”

“I’m not.” He Ci didn’t think twice, then looked at Yu Xinche for a moment and asked him, “What about you?”

“Ah.” Yu Xinche shook his head. “I’m not uncomfortable either.”

“En.”

After He Ci looked away, Yu Xinche belatedly realized that no one around him had spoken. They had fallen silent ever since Yu Xinche asked the question.

There was a strange feeling in the atmosphere, as if everyone else was watching their interaction.

Yu Xinche quickly racked his brains, then looked at Xu Le, trying to change the subject: “Brother Xu just said there were two things, what’s the other one?”

“Oh, right. The second thing is that the club has been filming short videos of your room recently.”

Yu Xinche: “Huh?”

He Ci also looked up: “No one notified us.”

“I’m informing you now,” Xu Le explained. “CONTROL and BURN filmed first, so I haven’t told you yet. If you don’t want the fans to know, you can wait until you’re done filming before moving the photos. It won’t be long; it’ll probably be your turn to film in the next couple of days. The same goes for Xiao Ou.”

Yu Xinche and He Ci exchanged a glance. He knew that He Ci didn’t like people shipping him, and while he himself didn’t hate it, he hoped that the audience could focus on his performance on the field.

“Okay, let’s film it and move it then,” Yu Xinche said.

During the days leading up to filming, the two continued to stay in their own rooms.

Yu Xinche’s dedicated brawl account had also been applied for, but BURN and CONTROL said they would not play this in the future, as they want to give up the opportunity to the bottom lane to cultivate synergy.

Occasionally, when Xiao Ou feels like slacking off, he’ll ask Yu Xinche to play a game with him; otherwise, it’s soley for the two of them in the bottom lane.

Every night, He Ci would play with him, sometimes it was the brawl mode, sometimes it was the clone mode.

The reason He Ci “led” him around was because He Ci would often demonstrate various combos to him, as well as all sorts of useful and useless easter eggs.

Some heroes’ combos could trigger effects not mentioned in the skill descriptions, such as immunity to crowd control or invincibility. These were too difficult for Yu Xinche to discover on his own, but with He Ci’s guidance, he could achieve twice the result with half the effort.

Moreover, the gaming experience with He Ci was excellent, so Yu Xinche moved this activity from 8 PM to 12 AM.

With this arrangement, you can go to sleep in a good mood after the game.

A few days later, the video was finished, and they gradually moved their belongings into the new room.

Since they had kept the old room anyway, they weren’t in a hurry. After gathering their usual belongings and making the bed, they decided to sleep there for the time being.

That evening, the two finished their last game together, turned off the computer, and returned to their new room.

The bathroom in this room was also bigger than the previous one. When Yu Xinche was about to wash up, he realized that he hadn’t took his toothbrush, shower gel, and other toiletries over yet.

He Ci was still waiting to shower, so he went back to his previous room to shower and wash his hair.

After gathering a batch of odds and ends, He Ci was already leaning against the bed when he entered the room.

The two beds were arranged similarly to those in a standard hotel room, side by side, with an aisle in the middle, and small cabinets placed above the headboards of the two beds.

Yu Xinche didn’t say much after coming in. He lay down and then He Ci turned off the light.

“Good night?” He Ci said.

“Good night, sweet dreams,” Yu Xinche said.

That night, He Ci actually had a dream.

In his dream, Zhu Siwan, also known as Swan, leaned against his bedroom door, quietly watching him.

“Young master, you are really naive.”

“You want your support to protect you wholeheartedly and be in perfect harmony with you. But you don’t allow that person to have feelings for you.”

“Don’t you find this contradictory?”

“People are selfish. How can someone devote themselves to you without reservation and yet expect nothing in return?”

Zhu Siwan probably found it funny even as he said it; he lowered his head and laughed self-deprecatingly.

The laughter was jarring. He Ci saw his 18-year-old self, his face ashen, and he remained silent.

The scene in the dream was hazy and indistinct, but He Ci could easily recall the feelings of that year.

He was convinced by Zhu Siwan.

His unwavering passion for playing professionally cracked at that moment. Yes, can anyone truly be that pure? Is a perfectly compatible support player ever possible?

He Ci encountered one new partner after another with questions in mind, and the tiny crack in his heart deepened with each setback and frustration.

Really… not possible?

The door opened and closed, partners came and went, and when he was disheartened and decided to leave, he opened the door only to find someone standing there.

Yu Xinche stood there with his hands behind his back, smiling. His pure and bright eyes were the clearest image in the entire dream.

He Ci could only see himself in his eyes.

 

---

For advanced chapters, visit our Patreon: