SITS CH64

Chapter 64: Mutual Disdain

Inside the hotpot restaurant, the six of them sat around a single table.

Qin Yixing insisted it was his treat, immediately ordering an entire table full of dishes and alcohol.

“Shen Man, it’s been ages since we had a meal together.” Raising his glass, Qin Yixing offered a toast: “Here’s to you.”

Since the man was paying, Shen Man gave him a bit of face, clinking glasses and taking a polite sip without finishing the drink.

“Your UN roster is looking really sharp this split,” Zhao Rui remarked. “Luo Zhile, you’ve been hiding your true power.”

Smiling bashfully, Luo Zhile glanced over at Zhou Yao: “It’s mostly because he’s strong.”

Zhou Yao responded calmly: “Just average. Our playstyles happen to match.” His personal playstyle was intensely aggressive, forcing most Marksmen to get dragged along at his frantic tempo. Luo Zhile, however, hadn’t been overwhelmed; on the contrary, he anchored the bot lane with remarkable stability, explaining why UN had dominated the standings this split. The two complemented each other seamlessly.

“Hahahahaha!” Qin Yixing laughed heartily. “If tonight’s meal happened to be poisoned, half of the HCC’s competitive landscape would collapse overnight.”

The core superstars of the league’s top three teams were all seated right here.

The moment those words left his mouth, every single pair of eyes turned squarely toward him.

“Just joking, just joking.” Prickling under the collective glare of five pairs of eyes, Qin Yixing added hurriedly, “If you guys are worried, just boil the ingredients a little longer…”

As fate would have it, his joke turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Driving back to the base, Shen Man already felt a vague wave of nausea churning in his stomach. The second he parked the car, he bolted straight up to his room at top speed.

Seeing his pale complexion, Xu Zhouye and Zhao Rui hurried right after him. Left wide open, the bedroom door let out the unmistakable sounds of violent retching from inside…

That wasn’t even the most horrifying part. The true horror arrived when Xu Zhouye and Zhao Rui exchanged a glance, catching the exact same panicked expression in each other’s eyes.

Zhao Rui whimpered: “What do we do? I feel like throwing up too.”

Xu Zhouye spun on his heel and bolted.

A short while later, having emptied their stomachs completely, the three lay sprawled across their beds messaging in the team group chat:

— Are you guys done throwing up? I puked everything clean out. — Done. Ge, how are you holding up? — Not great. — Seriously, did Qin Yixing actually poison the hotpot?! — Crap, another wave is coming, running back to throw up again. — Stomach cramps. — AAAAAAAHHH my stomach is cramping too AAAAAAHHH!

Reading the messages, the rest of the ACE roster looked thoroughly baffled, asking what on earth the three had been up to. Weren’t they supposed to be filming a variety show? How had they come back suffering from severe food poisoning—had the production crew poisoned them?

— Not the crew, it was Qin Yixing. He treated us to hotpot tonight, and everything started the second we got back. — …

A few minutes later, the team manager dropped a message into the chat:

— Rest easy, Qin Yixing didn’t poison you guys. — Manager, how do you know? — TKR’s manager just called me asking what we did tonight. — He still has the nerve to call us?! — Tell me about it. An ambulance just hauled Qin Yixing away—apparently he was lying flat on the floor unable to stand when paramedics arrived.

Shen Man, Xu Zhouye, and Zhao Rui: “…”

Thoroughly defeated.

Wracked with vomiting, diarrhea, and spinning vertigo, the three were promptly prescribed medication by the team doctor at the manager’s frantic insistence so they wouldn’t perish inside their bedrooms.

Fortunately, they hadn’t eaten much at dinner, sparing them from Qin Yixing’s severe condition.

Word later spread that Zhou Yao and Luo Zhile hadn’t fared much better either, both getting rushed to a clinic in the middle of the night for IV drips.

After taking medicine, Shen Man’s symptoms eased slightly. Xu Zhouye had it noticeably worse, curled into a tight ball clutching his stomach on the bed. Yet his spirits remained lively enough to complain mournfully that it was all Shen Man’s fault for insisting on eating with Qin Yixing just to make him jealous.

Feeling a twinge of guilt, Shen Man lay quietly beside Xu Zhouye, burying half his face in the pillow and murmuring weakly: “Sorry. I’ll definitely stay far away from him next time.”

“So what did I even do to make you mad earlier?” Xu Zhouye asked. “Ge, you were already in a bad mood from the very start of filming today.”

Shen Man stayed silent—not out of stubbornness, but because he felt slightly petty himself. Getting jealous over something so trivial felt a bit embarrassing to admit aloud.

Xu Zhouye coaxed: “Say something, ge.”

Shen Man: “…”

“I’m practically dying here and you’re still ignoring me,” Xu Zhouye whined pitifully. “Not even answering when I ask.”

Seeing the kid genuinely sulking, Shen Man held out for several seconds before finally squeezing out a soft mumble: “Didn’t like watching you laugh and chat with other people.”

Xu Zhouye: “…”

Shen Man: “…”

Locking eyes for a beat, Xu Zhouye burst out laughing.

Suddenly showing zero signs of weakness—unclear whether from stomach cramps or sheer laughter—he rolled back and forth across the mattress clutching his belly, grinning from ear to ear: “Ge, were you jealous?!”

Shen Man: “…”

“Tell me, hurry and tell me!” Pressing his face right against Shen Man’s until the tips of their noses touched, Xu Zhouye beamed with pure bliss. “You were jealous, weren’t you? Jealous!”

Shen Man let out a quiet, low “Mm.”

Landing a loud smack on his cheek, Xu Zhouye kissed him joyfully: “Ge, you’re so adorable! Unbearably cute…”

Keeping a deadpan expression while the tips of his ears flushed bright red, Shen Man buried his face deeper into the pillow and refused to utter another word.

Shen Man got jealous over him. Realizing this swept away every trace of gloom from the entire day, leaving Xu Zhouye beaming like a sunflower.

Having no idea what Xu Zhouye was so ecstatic about, Shen Man asked: “Doesn’t your stomach hurt anymore?”

Xu Zhouye: “It hurts.”

Shen Man: “Then what are you laughing at?”

Xu Zhouye grinned: “Laughing at how cute you are.”

Shen Man: “…” Fine.

Jealousy truly served as a delightful spice in romance. Previously, Xu Zhouye had struggled to sense any possessiveness from Shen Man toward him; today marked the very first time.

Realizing with crystal clarity that Shen Man cared for him just as deeply as he cared for Shen Man filled Xu Zhouye with utter contentment.

Still, Xu Zhouye was the sole person rejoicing that night. Not a single one of the six who ate that hotpot escaped unscathed, tossing and turning all night until finally recovering the next morning.

Seeing all three looking as green as grass, the coach granted them a full day off.

Feeling his own condition had stabilized decently, Shen Man booted up a livestream in the afternoon.

The instant the broadcast went live, the chat flooded with enthusiastic greetings, asking whether Qin Yixing had poisoned them and been hauled away by police cars at midnight.

Shen Man: “…Where on earth did you people hear that?”

[Everyone’s been talking about it!]

[My friend lives right next to TKR’s base and heard sirens blaring in the middle of the night!]

[Right, right! They even saw Qin Yixing subdued and carried out on a stretcher!]

Shen Man: “…” The most absurd quality of rumors was how they possessed an internal logic all their own, miraculously piecing together every loose end.

“No,” Shen Man corrected; much as he wished Qin Yixing could spend a few days locked up, he still debunked the rumor. “That was an ambulance.”

[Oh…]

Shen Man added: “Food poisoning.”

[So is it possible he slipped poison into the food?]

[Poisoned the food and then ate the most himself?]

[Honestly, wouldn’t put it past Qin Yixing…]

[When is your variety show airing? Super excited! Did Zhao Rui perform well?]

[According to staff leaks, Zhao Rui and Qin Yixing were the two standout performers.]

Reading those comments, Shen Man thought to himself that the production crew clearly knew how to edit entertainment, banking on comedic contrast. Fair enough—without those two shrieking nonstop in their ears, half the show’s comedic value would have vanished.

Shen Man queued up for ranked.

Having played heavily this split, he had already climbed into the top 100 on the CN super server. Queue times started at a minimum of twenty minutes, during which he killed downtime playing Plants vs. Zombies or single-player games.

When matchmaking finally popped, he unexpectedly ran straight into a familiar face: Zhou Yao, playing under the CN server ID Bot, which rivaled Shen Man’s own 4th Floor in sheer absurdity.

Bot: You didn’t collapse?

4th Floor: Collapsed, crawled back up.

Bot: .

4th Floor: How’s Luo Zhile doing?

Bot: Still lying in bed.

4th Floor: Oh.

Unaware that Shen Man was streaming live, Zhou Yao typed: Do you think he actually poisoned us?

4th Floor: I’m streaming.

Bot: .

4th Floor: Probably not. Looked like he ate the most out of anyone.

Bot: Makes sense.

4th Floor: What are you playing?

Locking in an engage Support with a hook, Zhou Yao asked: Why is your ID ‘4th Floor’?

4th Floor: Because I’m SLOW.

Zhou Yao: “…” What a terrible pun.

High-elo matchmaking consisted of barely a hundred regulars, cycling through the exact same familiar faces—streamers, one-trick specialists, and pro players who virtually all knew one another.

Loading into the game, the two headed down to the bot lane.

Pundits had long speculated that pairing Zhou Yao, the strongest Support, with Shen Man, the strongest Marksman, would create an unstoppable bot-lane duo.

Yet team chemistry was never as simple as one plus one equaling two.

Both Shen Man and Zhou Yao possessed hyper-aggressive playstyles, pushing the wave deep under the enemy turret. After getting ganked twice by the enemy Jungler, Zhou Yao lost his temper, abandoning Shen Man alone in the bot lane to roam across the map.

Refusing to indulge him, Shen Man simply farmed on his own; he didn’t care about losing a few ranked points anyway.

Viewers who had eagerly anticipated seeing the dream duo in action were left completely dumbfounded.

[Where’s the promised ‘strongest bot duo’?]

[These two clash this badly and didn’t throw hands filming the variety show yesterday?!]

[Laughing my ass off.]

[SLOW’s face turned pitch black.]

[Come on, SLOW never gives anyone a pleasant face when he’s on the clock.]

Unlike other roles, queueing solo as a Marksman felt like serving a prison sentence—and worse, matchmaking seemed determined to pair you with the most bizarre cellmates imaginable. Zhao Rui had once joked that high-elo solo queue came down to whichever side had fewer autofilled players; on an unlucky roll, the system handed you five Jungler mains who spent three days and three nights arguing over roles before minions even spawned.

Twenty minutes in queue, fifteen minutes in game—this game was pure torture.

Waiting a short while before requeueing, Shen Man hit play again.

As if haunted by a ghost, he matched straight onto Zhou Yao’s team a second time.

Staring at each other’s IDs in champion select chat, both fell into dead silence. Happening to walk past holding an ice cream bar, Xu Zhouye was promptly flagged down by Shen Man: “Xiaoye.”

Xu Zhouye: “What’s up?”

“You play this match,” Shen Man said.

Looking baffled, Xu Zhouye blinked: “Aren’t you live streaming?”

Shen Man said, “Take over. Hand me that popsicle to cool down.”

Before Xu Zhouye could protest, Shen Man grabbed him by the shoulders and shoved him straight into the gaming chair, ruthlessly confiscating the chocolate ice cream bar Xu Zhouye had barely taken a single bite out of.

“I’m playing Marksman?” Xu Zhouye had no idea Bot was OI.

Shen Man replied: “Play whatever you want.”

Biting off a chunk of the crisp chocolate coating, Shen Man glanced down at the wrapper in approval: “What brand is this? Pretty good.”

Xu Zhouye said, “New flavor this year…” Suddenly remembering Shen Man’s webcam was live—meaning the entire chat had just watched Shen Man eat an ice cream bar he had already bitten into—he whipped his head toward the monitor.

Sure enough, they had been caught red-handed.

A torrent of question marks scrolled rapidly across the chat screen:

[Am I hallucinating, or is SLOW eating an ice cream bar FEST already bit into?!]

[Is eating an ice cream bar your boyfriend bit into supposed to be weird?]

[The nauseating stench of young love.]

[Can’t take it anymore, disgusting gay couple!!]

Finding it thoroughly amusing, Xu Zhouye locked in a random Marksman and noticed his Support asking what he wanted in chat:

4th Floor: Anything works, play whatever you feel like.

Bot: Okay!

“This Support has a pretty nice attitude,” Xu Zhouye remarked, glancing at Shen Man with a questioning look as to why he didn’t want to play. Naturally, he didn’t buy the excuse that Shen Man simply wanted to eat ice cream.

Equally puzzled by the sudden politeness, Shen Man raised an eyebrow without answering: “Let’s see once we load in.”

Of course Bot‘s attitude was pleasant—seated at the computer right now wasn’t Zhou Yao, but Luo Zhile.

Quietly slurping noodles beside him, Luo Zhile had abruptly been hauled into the chair by Zhou Yao, who barked: “Play a game for me, I need to use the bathroom.”

Letting out a compliant “Oh,” Luo Zhile glanced at the monitor and spotted a familiar ID: “Shen Man is in this game too.”

Zhou Yao thought to himself, That’s the exact reason I’m leaving, saying nothing as he walked off.

Taking a sip of water, Luo Zhile asked Shen Man which Hero he wanted, and Shen Man replied that anything was fine and told him to carry the match.

Mm… true to my idol, Luo Zhile thought admiringly, so humble.

Xu Zhouye was indeed playing humbly. Glancing at stream chat and roughly piecing together what had transpired earlier, he couldn’t help chuckling. Having gone ages without playing Marksman, his mechanics felt slightly rusty, while OI’s prowess as a Support was universally acknowledged—so Xu Zhouye decided to simply sit back and let OI shine.

Consequently, an absurd display unfolded in the bot lane as both Marksman and Support deferred politely to one another, exchanging messages like “You carry this game” and “No, no, you carry”—utterly nauseating the stream audience.

[Did I tune in to watch the streamer and his teammate exchange polite pleasantries?! I came here to watch the streamer tilt!]

[The wholesome atmosphere is making me sick.]

[Never mind FEST subbing in, did OI take the wrong medicine too?!]

[They’re literally thanking each other back and forth, I give up.]

Executing a clean play to secure first blood—with Luo Zhile deliberately handing over the kill—Xu Zhouye flashed a friendly emote in gratitude.

Watching with misty eyes of admiration, Luo Zhile felt deeply touched: Shen-ge is truly kind and gentle. Even though I’m supporting so clumsily, he didn’t complain once and even thanked me after getting first blood… though why is his CSing missing so many minions?

While Xu Zhouye possessed sharp mechanics, last-hitting minions was another story entirely. Shen Man farmed with metronomic precision, consistently hitting a hundred CS by ten minutes, whereas Xu Zhouye…

At twenty minutes into the match, he had scraped together barely a hundred and forty CS. Still, minor flaw, nothing fatal.

Stumbling politely through the laning phase, each convinced the other was a god-tier player, they played with utmost caution and humility.

Having finished one ice cream bar and fetched a second, Shen Man returned to find Xu Zhouye sitting on three kills, duoing the dragon alongside his Support.

“How’s it going?” Shen Man asked.

Xu Zhouye praised enthusiastically: “Worthy of being OI, the #1 Support in the league!”

Shen Man: “?”

“Look,” Xu Zhouye murmured quietly. “He even body-blocked an ultimate for me.” Even though blocking it got both of them killed when he could have escaped alone without blocking, what mattered wasn’t the tactical outcome, it was the gesture of camaraderie!

Shen Man: “…” Listening to Xu Zhouye’s description, something felt profoundly off. This was OI? The notoriously grumpy OI who glared at everyone?

Wearing a skeptical frown, Shen Man peered into the in-game chat box, catching their latest exchange:

4th Floor: Thanks for blocking the ult for me.

Bot: You’re very welcome, it’s my duty!

4th Floor: (^▽^)

Bot: (⊙o⊙)

Shen Man: “?” Suddenly, he understood why the livestream chat was flooded with rows of vomiting emojis.

Inside the toxic, blood-soaked cesspool of Heart of the Wasteland, watching these two exchange cute emoticons felt like abruptly feeling a wave of warmth inside a giant septic tank—leaving you unsure whether the sun had come out, or if someone had just taken a fresh dump.

Warm enough to strike terror into the soul.

Shen Man: “…” OI, it’s one thing for me to lose my mind, did you take the wrong meds too?

Paying zero heed to horrified onlookers, the two blissfully oblivious stand-ins had a grand time, closing out the victory in an atmosphere of serene harmony and even sending each other friend requests afterward.

4th Floor: Let’s play together again next time!

Bot: Mm-hm (●0●)

Returning from the bathroom, Zhou Yao: “…”

Chewing on a wooden popsicle stick, Shen Man: “…”

With tacit synchronization, both clicked the red X to close the chat window, pretending those final two lines had never existed.

Disgusting. Who on earth would want to play together with him?