SITS CH56

Chapter 56: Zero Distance

With a guest visiting, everyone headed out for lunch at noon, inviting the team manager along as well.

What Zhao Rui found hardest to accept was that, upon learning he was dating a man, the team manager reacted even more nonchalantly than Liu Shishi, merely saying, “Oh, so last week you ate two ultimates straight to the face from UN’s Mid Laner because you were fighting with your boyfriend, right? Don’t fight this week, okay? Catch another ultimate, and I’m docking your pay.”

Zhao Rui was rendered utterly speechless.

Over lunch, curiosity got the better of everyone, and they asked when the two had gotten together.

Chatting for a bit, they realized Zhao Rui and Meng Qizhi had been together for quite a while, since last year’s Summer Split.

Always adept at catching key details, Shen Man chewed on a piece of beef and casually tossed out a question: “So that’s who you went to meet in person back then?”

Not expecting Shen Man to still remember that incident, Zhao Rui let out a startled “Ah.”

“Pretty good,” Shen Man remarked.

Meng Qizhi appeared to be a very quiet person. He didn’t speak much, yet never let a conversation drop awkwardly to the floor, radiating a comfortable sense of grace and tact. His long hair was tied up simply, with a few loose strands framing his ears; looking at him like this, he truly possessed an ethereal, androgynous beauty.

One quiet, one lively; the chattering Zhao Rui actually paired with him remarkably well.

After lunch, Zhao Rui walked Meng Qizhi home, while Shen Man and Xu Zhouye decided to stroll back to the base to walk off their meal.

“This Meng Qizhi has some serious background,” Xu Zhouye said.

Shen Man asked, “How so?”

“That thumb ring he’s wearing,” Xu Zhouye noted. “It’s no ordinary piece.”

Shen Man didn’t know much about such things; he lived entirely according to his own whims and knew virtually nothing about luxury goods: “Expensive?”

“Extremely expensive,” Xu Zhouye said. “Zhao Rui… is going to be alright, right?”

Shen Man: “…” Whether things went smoothly or not wasn’t up to him to decide.

Scratching his head, Xu Zhouye mused: “Zhao Rui really is impressive, managing to land someone like that through online dating.”

Shen Man said, “Yeah. Seven online relationships, and he finally struck gold.”

Xu Zhouye couldn’t help laughing. He rarely saw such a helpless, exasperated look on Shen Man’s face, resembling a parent at their wits’ end over a rebellious teenager.

Still, those were someone else’s affairs; worrying on their behalf wouldn’t help.

Having introduced his darling sweetheart to everyone, Zhao Rui finally unloaded the weight on his chest and recovered his competitive form.

Regarding this, the coach announced that from now on, anyone dating someone was free to bring them around openly. Romantic preferences were free, and as long as nothing illegal was involved, the club welcomed it. The unspoken subtext was simple: date whomever you please, so long as match results didn’t suffer.

Zhao Rui felt deeply touched by the coach’s open-mindedness, though before his emotion could last two seconds, the coach scolded him, asking why someone who had held the title of “HCC’s #1 Gay” for nearly three years still had such fragile mental fortitude, questioning why coming out was so difficult.

Everyone around the room nodded in enthusiastic agreement.

Zhao Rui: “??? I’m not gay… no, wait, I am, wait no…”

“Alright,” Liu Shishi said. “Enjoy your romance properly, we all support you. By the way, are you the top or the bottom? That’s what they call it online, right, top and bottom…”

Zhao Rui shrieked: “SHUT YOUR MOUTH!!”

Everyone burst into uproarious laughter.

Jokes aside, matches still had to be played with full seriousness.

The two teams slated on their schedule next week weren’t particularly strong, posing minimal pressure.

Currently, sitting atop the league standings at first place was surprisingly UN, with ACE and TKR trailing at second and third respectively. Joining UN had proven to be like a fish returning to water for Luo Zhile; sweeping through rival after rival, he had knocked down both powerhouses ACE and TKR, remaining completely undefeated so far this split.

“He and OI really are a match made in heaven.” Reviewing VODs of their matches, even the coach couldn’t help marveling. “Look at their synergy! It doesn’t fall behind you and Zhao Rui after three years of grinding together!”

Chemistry between teammates was truly an inscrutable art.

Some duos trained together for years without matching the seamless intuition of teammates paired for a single month.

Yet such synergy could only be stumbled upon by luck, never forced; out of countless players, nobody knew beforehand who would click best with whom.

“UN already had a solid core, lacking only a strong bot lane. Bringing in Luo Zhile was like handing a pillow to someone nodding off,” the coach sighed. “Just wonder what Zhang Chaoyun is thinking right now.”

Having decent rapport with Zhang Chaoyun, Shen Man suggested: “Want to invite him out for dinner tonight?”

“Sounds good!” Rubbing his hands together, the coach grinned eagerly. “We can ask about Luo Zhile while we’re at it.”

As Luo Zhile’s former captain, Zhang Chaoyun undoubtedly knew him inside and out.

With UN now standing as a formidable rival, gathering extra intel on Luo Zhile was certainly beneficial.

That evening, at a street-side barbecue stall.

The coach and Zhang Chaoyun chatted animatedly while Shen Man and Xu Zhouye sat nearby, quietly munching on dried grilled squid. Dipped in wasabi and soy sauce, the chewy squid passed the time nicely; eating slowly, they listened in on the conversation and occasionally chimed in with a few words.

“I definitely have a sharp eye; spotted the kid’s potential the instant he came in for tryouts.” Having had a few drinks, Zhang Chaoyun opened up about Luo Zhile, sighing wistfully: “He’s introverted too, barely dared speak to anyone. In that respect, he’s actually quite similar to Shen Man…”

The coach blinked: “Shen Man doesn’t dare speak to people?”

Zhang Chaoyun corrected himself: “Oh, right, people don’t dare speak to Shen Man.”

Introversion came in different flavors, though the essence remained identical: one was afraid to approach others, while others were afraid to approach him.

The coach said, “You have no idea. When I first joined ACE to coach, I noticed Shen Man spoke fewer than five sentences a day to teammates outside essential in-game comms. Since he was young back then, I even pulled the manager aside asking if the kid had suffered some trauma that warped his personality.”

That had been right after Qin Yixing poached Yang Shanhe, forcing ACE into a massive roster rebuild.

Xu Zhouye perked up in curiosity: “Warped his personality? For real?” He shot a glance at Shen Man.

Chewing on a strip of squid, Shen Man’s expression didn’t flicker in the slightest: “Listen to him spout bullshit.”

Sure enough, the coach continued: “Then the manager told me to relax, explaining Shen Man was simply too lazy to talk. It wasn’t that he was being isolated; it was that he had isolated everyone else…”

Shen Man said, “What is there to talk about with strangers?”

Coach: “Hmph, you just love giving people the cold shoulder. Total scumbag!”

Shen Man: “…”

Xu Zhouye nodded sagely: “Scumbag!”

Shen Man turned a slow glare onto him.

Xu Zhouye threw both hands up in surrender: “Just kidding.”

Everyone was having a great time chatting.

“Luo Zhile is genuinely cracked,” Zhang Chaoyun said, setting aside any lingering awkwardness to praise his former rookie. “Staying at MIN held him back. Moving to UN suits him well, and OI meshes with him seamlessly.”

The coach asked, “How deep was his Hero pool during daily scrims?”

Zhang Chaoyun said, “Put it this way: he’s a hardcore Shen Man fanboy. Every Hero Shen Man pilots well, he plays pretty solidly too.”

The coach scoffed: “Now you’re exaggerating. Even I haven’t figured out the full extent of how many Heroes Shen Man plays well.”

Zhang Chaoyun: “…Fair point.”

The coach added: “Though we can clearly see his Belinda is genuinely sharp.”

“Sigh, ‘sharp’ barely scratches the surface.” Zhang Chaoyun downed a glass. “MIN’s Support was simply too weak, otherwise we wouldn’t have lost so miserably last year…”

The Support role carried immense weight; a well-matched bot lane duo could easily dismantle even the top Marksman paired with an average Support.

Though Shen Man constantly teased Zhao Rui, Zhao Rui’s mechanical prowess as a Support ranked easily near the very top of the league, otherwise Shen Man would never have partnered with him in the bot lane for years without asking for a swap.

“Luo Zhile is a promising kid, I’m rooting for him,” Zhang Chaoyun said. “What about that inner… you guys played against him already, how did he feel?”

Shen Man said, “In a pure 1v1, Luo Zhile might not beat him. Paired with OI, though, it’s hard to say, since TKR’s Support is weak.”

Zhang Chaoyun laughed: “Isn’t that your fault? Industry insiders all say that if you had signed with TKR back then, OI would have joined too.”

Shen Man said, “What a joke. My style doesn’t mesh with OI at all.”

Having met OI offline, Shen Man knew the guy had an explosive temper; clashing with Shen Man’s detached, indifferent personality wouldn’t strike sparks, it would trigger a detonation.

Xu Zhouye teased playfully: “Then whose style does mesh with yours?”

Shen Man glanced at him: “Yours, obviously.”

Meant purely as banter, Shen Man’s completely candid reply right in front of company caught Xu Zhouye entirely off guard.

The coach waved a hand in disgust: “Alright, alright, we get that you two are close, stop making me nauseous.”

Zhang Chaoyun, however, cast a thoughtful, measuring glance toward Xu Zhouye.

After chatting a bit longer about trivial matters, Shen Man checked the time, mentioning he was sleepy and heading back first.

The coach didn’t stop him, though seeing Xu Zhouye stand up right behind Shen Man, he asked in puzzlement: “Shen Man is going back, why are you leaving too?”

“Well, I’m sleepy too,” Xu Zhouye replied aggrievedly.

“He’s only nineteen, he needs plenty of sleep,” Shen Man defended his cub immediately. “What, should he stay up past midnight wandering into the garden to stare at the moon like you?”

Coach: “…”

Shen Man added: “Next time, tell security to check whether someone is our own staff before throwing hands…”

This was a classic ACE legend incomprehensible to outsiders.

When the coach had first taken the job, immense stress ruined his sleep; unable to fall asleep one night, he wandered into the courtyard to gaze at the moon. Coincidentally, extreme stalkers had been attempting to infiltrate the base around that time, prompting security to conduct strict night patrols. Spotting a suspicious figure crouching in the corner of the garden, the guards charged in with a full sequence of military combat strikes, nearly sending the coach straight to the afterlife.

Beaten black and blue for no reason, the sole silver lining was that the coach slept like a baby that night sporting two bruised eyes, a classic perk of a mild concussion.

ACE possessed countless running jokes, yet this incident easily ranked near the top.

Coach: “…Go, go, hurry up and get lost.”

Giving a casual wave, Shen Man headed out alongside Xu Zhouye.

Watching their retreating backs, Zhang Chaoyun wore an intrigued expression, remarking: “Shen Man and Xu Zhouye have a really good relationship.”

“Yeah, two kids getting along nicely,” the coach said between bites.

Zhang Chaoyun murmured: “Mm… Shen Man’s attitude toward him feels a bit special.”

The coach blinked: “Special? How so?”

Zhang Chaoyun said, “Didn’t you notice earlier? Xu Zhouye peeled shrimp for him just now.”

The coach froze.

Zhang Chaoyun added: “And Shen Man ate it.”

Coach: “…”

Peeling shrimp wasn’t unusual in itself, as waiters occasionally did it for them, yet what stunned the coach was that Shen Man had actually eaten it. If his memory served right, unpleasant experiences from his youth had conditioned Shen Man never to eat food touched by someone else’s hands. Yet Shen Man had casually eaten shrimp peeled by Xu Zhouye without blinking?! And it didn’t even look like the first time…

The more he thought about it, the faster memories of their daily interactions flooded back, leaving an expression of sheer horror spreading across the coach’s face.

Zhang Chaoyun asked: “What are you thinking about?”

The coach whispered in dread: “I’m wondering who I follow if they break up.”

Zhang Chaoyun: “???” When mom and dad divorce, the child suffers most, right??

Coach: “Haha, just kidding.”

Zhang Chaoyun: “…” Bro, not to call you out, but your face looks nothing like you’re joking.

Some things truly couldn’t withstand closer scrutiny.

Shen Man loved spring.

Compared to scorching summers and bitter winters, spring always carried an extraordinary gentleness.

Even the night air felt lightly intoxicated, the breeze soft as sheer silk draping over cheeks and shoulders.

The hour had grown late, leaving the streets largely deserted. Walking slightly ahead at first, Shen Man felt a gentle tug at his cuff from Xu Zhouye; catching the silent cue immediately, he turned smoothly and slipped his hand into Xu Zhouye’s.

Fingers tightly interlocked, the two strolled down the quiet avenue.

The walk back to the base took roughly twenty minutes, though in no rush, they strolled even more slowly.

Chatting idly about everything and nothing, Xu Zhouye brought up stories from his family, giving Shen Man another glimpse into his world.

Xu Zhouye hailed from a quintessential large northern family with more relatives than one could count on two hands, a family tree that quickly bewildered Shen Man, who asked in confusion: “What’s the difference between a great-maternal-grandfather and a maternal-grandfather?”

Xu Zhouye explained: “My great-maternal-grandfather is my older sister’s maternal-grandfather.”

Shen Man: “Then why don’t you call him maternal-grandfather?”

Xu Zhouye: “Because she’s my maternal cousin, so her maternal-grandfather isn’t the same person as mine.”

Shen Man: “…”

Wrestling mentally with the genealogy for several seconds, Shen Man ultimately surrendered: “Fine, keep going.”

Xu Zhouye continued: “Anyway, he’s already over eighty, right? While doing plaza dancing, he met a seventy-something-year-old lady, insisted on romancing her and even getting a marriage certificate, stirring up drama for over three months.”

Shen Man asked: “Did it work out?”

Xu Zhouye said, “He passed away.”

Shen Man: “…” Fuck.

Xu Zhouye went on: “After he passed, the drama wasn’t over. He died too suddenly without leaving a will, so the family started fighting over inheritance…”

Shen Man thought to himself that big families sure were complicated.

“After arguing back and forth, they discovered his most valuable apartment had already been mortgaged out, and he’d spent every penny himself,” Xu Zhouye said. “Instantly turned into a hot potato nobody wanted…”

Shen Man asked: “So how did they settle it?”

Xu Zhouye shrugged: “No idea, didn’t bother asking.”

Shen Man reflected that having a small family certainly had its perks.

Xu Zhouye had an endless supply of colorful relative anecdotes. Approaching the street near the base, Xu Zhouye had just wrapped up the epic saga of his great-grandfather and the plaza-dancing lady.

Abruptly, Shen Man halted in his tracks, his expression turning razor-sharp as he glanced back over his shoulder.

Noticing the sudden shift in his demeanor, Xu Zhouye asked: “What’s wrong?”

Shen Man said, “Someone is following us.”

Following Shen Man’s gaze, Xu Zhouye indeed spotted a figure lurking furtively in a shadowed corner not far behind. Past eleven at night with scarcely any pedestrians around, the skulking silhouette stood out starkly.

“I’ll go check it out,” Xu Zhouye said.

“Don’t,” Shen Man stopped him. “Don’t go over.”

With no way of knowing if the man carried a weapon, Shen Man refused to risk a scuffle where Xu Zhouye might end up injured like he had.

“Do you recognize him?” Xu Zhouye asked. “Is it one of those extreme stalkers who used to follow you?”

Shen Man shook his head: “Too dark to tell.”

Yet even without them approaching, the figure stepped out on his own.

Realizing his cover was blown, the man walked toward them. Likely wary of getting beaten up again, he stopped at a cautious distance, calling out: “SLOW, long time no see. Came to check up on you.”

Under the dim glow of the streetlight, Shen Man made out his face clearly. It was the exact stalker who had trailed him previously, even following him into the men’s restroom.

Shen Man spoke coldly: “Haven’t had enough of a beating yet?”

“You hit me because you like me; otherwise why wouldn’t you hit anyone else?” the man argued brazenly, casting a disdainful glance toward Xu Zhouye. “I don’t like Xu Zhouye, though. Stay away from him.”

That entitled, matter-of-fact tone set rage ablaze instantly. Had Shen Man not held him back, Xu Zhouye’s fist would have already flown straight into the man’s face.

“Stay away from him?” Blocking Xu Zhouye from lunging forward, Shen Man tilted his chin upward, his expression a mix of a faint smile and icy mockery.

The stalker said, “Yeah. He’s no good. The way he looks at you hasn’t been right from the start… you…”

Before the man could finish his sentence, Shen Man abruptly turned his head, slid a hand behind Xu Zhouye’s neck, pulled his face down slightly, and pressed his lips firmly against his.

It was no chaste, fleeting peck; lips and tongues intertwined deeply, faint, intimate sounds echoing softly in the quiet night air.

The stalker’s eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets, letting out a furious, horrified roar: “WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING?!”

Breaking the kiss, Shen Man’s breathing was slightly uneven, yet his tone dripped with cutting ridicule: “Can’t even understand something this obvious? I’m kissing him.”

The stalker: “…”

“We’ve even slept together,” Shen Man stated icily. “Is this distance far enough for you?”