Blind date

The dessert shop’s front desk called out a number.

Xue Wei glanced at his reservation number, but then the person in front of him reached out and took his slip.

Wen Man went to the front desk, picked up the items, and returned to ask him: “Want to sit here for a bit, or head straight to the restaurant?”

Xue Wei thought for a moment: “Head to the restaurant.”

He held the food in his hands to warm them, and the two walked out of the dessert shop together.

The eggette was very hot. After holding it for a while, he had to switch hands.

Wen Man reached out and offered him the milk tea: “Hold this.”

Xue Wei: “No need. You drink it.”

“I don’t like this; I bought it for you,” Wen Man said, looking at the road.

Xue Wei was stunned for a moment.

Wen Man had practically made this trip for nothing; he hadn’t bought anything for himself at all.

Xue Wei said: “You didn’t buy ice cream.”

Wen Man: “Mm, suddenly didn’t want to eat it. Thanks for accompanying me; this milk tea is for you.”

On the 《Fire》 All-Star Game official event discussion page, a new set of pictures quickly appeared.

A few days into the tournament, many people had already bumped into various players in the esports park, and everyone would take pictures and post them online.

The title of this new post was: [National team resting today, caught a picture of God Wen! Didn’t recognize the other little brother in the picture, but the scene is so beautiful]

In the picture, the man was tall and handsome, wearing a black national team windbreaker, long pants, and short boots. His fingertips casually held the four corners of a milk tea cup, while his other hand hooked three colorful balloons.

The young man beside him had become familiar to many over the past two days—EGT’s new practice squad member, Now, a member of next season’s National Team Two.

As always, he was thickly bundled up, wearing a mask. He held a piping hot strawberry eggette in his hands, not eating it, just holding it, looking down at the road, his dark eyelashes visible.

The two of them stood out the most in the snow.

“So good-looking, devastatingly handsome. Both of them are so good-looking.”

“Ahhh, the little brother is so pretty and cute. Who is he? Little P God? Can’t see his face with the mask.”

“So scary, why do I see a bit of CP vibe… So sweet, to someone who doesn’t know, it looks like they’re on a date.”

“No, no, it’s Now, the newcomer this season.”

“Parachuted in?”

“Right, right. Seems like no one has heard of him before. It’s so magical; this person seems to have appeared out of thin air, but he also seems to be very familiar with the national team crowd.”

“His playstyle is too distinctive; feels like a complete newcomer, right? Because if he wasn’t a pure newcomer, he would have been famous long ago.”

This was true.

Wen Man was the one who brought the 《Fire》 professional league into China. He had always stood at the pinnacle as the world’s number one sniper, which meant that 99% of people playing sniper would emulate his playstyle.

The M82A1 armor-piercing large sniper rifle remained the weapon with the highest appearance rate in the league and the most used weapon in public matchmaking.

But this mysterious newcomer, Now, had a completely opposite playstyle, which could be said to be very rare.

A netizen suddenly gossiped: “But I still remember, before entering the league, God Wen had a fixed squad, and they went to play in the European Championship together.”

“Right, right, I remember too… I don’t remember the ID, seemed to be Snow something Ice something. He was God Wen’s only fixed partner at the time, and played incredibly fiercely.”

“That must have been… how many years ago? Unlikely, considering his age.”

“If Now is eighteen this year, he would have been fourteen four years ago. Fourteen is also a normal age for a youth trainee, right?”

“Four years ago, fourteen years old. What parents would let such a young child go abroad to play in a league? Absolutely impossible.”

After a wave of discussion, there were no more voices, but the picture still hung in the trending section, with likes and shares soaring.

The distance of a hundred meters was covered in two minutes.

The restaurant had been booked out. The players and the coaches who came to mooch a meal had all found their seats.

Wen Man pushed the door open first. Alan called out to him: “Captain Wen, come here, we saved a seat for you.”

They had a large long table that could seat seven or eight people. The members of National Team Two were all sitting there, all staring at him uniformly, like elementary school students seeing their dean.

“No, I’ll squeeze in with EGT,” Wen Man waved the balloons, “Today is their home turf.”

A small portion of the team members breathed a sigh of relief.

Eating with the coaching and training staff was like torture, especially with Wen Man present. They didn’t even dare to breathe heavily at the dining table. Having lost their matches these past two days, they didn’t even dare to look up when they saw Wen Man.

At the dining table, however, there was another young man who looked up in the direction of Wen Man, and Xue Wei behind him.

Pandora, Little P God. The reason he was able to quickly become popular without ever playing in the starting lineup, besides his M82A1 armor-piercing sniping inherited entirely from Wen Man, was partly due to his face.

He was the team member Wen Man had mentored the longest, with the closest relationship in Team One, and it was Wen Man who single-handedly promoted him back then.

A trace of gloom flashed across his eyes, but it vanished in an instant, and then he lowered his head to eat appetizers.

Xue Wei walked slowly, looking around in the back before finding the EGT four’s location.

The EGT members were seated in a small booth further inside, with long bench seating for four. One seat was empty, exactly for him.

“Can you fit?” Wen Man glanced over, “Let’s change to a bigger table, five people including me.”

“There are no larger booths available. If you want to change, there’s only a large table outside.” The waiter reminded him nearby, “Mr. Wen, would you like to change?”

Wen Man glanced over there. That large table was near the door, far from the central air conditioning, very cold.

“We won’t change.”

“Then let’s just squeeze in!”

Dangdang was sitting alone on one side. He moved further in, freeing up the remaining space, barely enough to squeeze in two more people.

Xue Wei glanced at Wen Man, his steps hesitating a bit. Wen Man said softly beside him: “Go in quickly, Naonao.”

He then sat down inside first, and Wen Man followed, sitting down beside him.

The heating was on, making it very warm inside. Wen Man took off his jacket and handed it to the waiter, then asked him, “Jacket.”

Xue Wei sat alone in the middle, staring at the eggette in front of him, sandwiched between the two, with his two hands resting on his legs, looking very well-behaved.

Xue Wei “oh”ed, lowered his head to take off his hat and earphones, then unzipped his down jacket, took it off, folded it, and handed it to Wen Man, who then handed it to the waiter.

Inside, he wore an off-white high-neck sweater, a bit loose and oversized on him, making him look small.

But he was already small, of high school age.

His face hadn’t changed much from before, just his hair color had changed, dyed a cool tea color, making his skin look even paler. His lip color was very light, yet it couldn’t hide his delicate good looks.

His broken hair was trimmed into a suitable shape, and when he lowered his head, his slender neck was visible.

The restaurant lights were bright. Compared to their previous encounters, this was the closest.

So close… sitting pressed together, he could directly feel body heat, and the fragrance on his body.

The scent of lime on Wen Man, upon closer approach, turned into a fainter, clean fragrance, slightly cool, yet strangely carrying a certain warmth.

Xue Wei lowered his head to look at the menu on his phone.

The other guys had already ordered what they wanted. He didn’t have anything to add, just ordering a bottle of mineral water. Just as he was about to place the order, Wen Man suddenly nudged him: “Wait a minute, let me see.”

Xue Wei handed the phone to him.

He didn’t take the phone, as if too lazy, just tilting his head and leaning over. His dark eyes, framed by thick eyelashes, were very close, his warm breath condensing on Xue Wei’s fingertips.

Wen Man casually ordered two more dishes and submitted the order.

The waiter confirmed the menu and left, leaving the door half-closed for them.

Xue Wei was very silent.

The other three were all very excited. From their initial awe and curiosity, they gradually became bold enough to chat with Wen Man. The atmosphere was very cheerful.

Wen Man was surprisingly approachable, unlike the style that would make national team members so afraid of him. He answered any questions they had.

“Why did you turn our EGT into a practice squad back then?” Wanshi asked. He harbored resentment. Although it had dissipated somewhat these past few days, it remained a lingering question in his heart.

Wen Man seemed to find this question a bit cute. He smiled, his peach blossom eyes showing an extraordinary calmness: “Do you think the practice squad isn’t important?”

“It’s not that it’s not important, but just…” Had it been someone else sitting before them, Wanshi would have thought it was just comforting nonsense. But the person before him was Wen Man, and he was inclined to believe him. He said, “The practice squad is very important, but why us?”

“If one day my abilities are no longer sufficient to keep me in the leadership position of the national team, I will also go play in the practice squad,” Wen Man said.

He lightly pressed his wrist, then smiled, “Are there any other questions?”

His words were enough to silence everyone present. Wanshi remained silent for a while, then said: “…I understand. Thank you, Captain Wen.”

“I have a question,” Xue Wei suddenly said.

His voice was still a bit stiff, as if he wasn’t used to speaking face-to-face. His youthful voice was cold and clear, surprisingly pleasant, like jade striking together.

Wen Man looked up at him, his peach blossom eyes narrowing slightly.

“Why haven’t you led the team to become world number one?” Xue Wei asked.

“Because our team is not strong enough yet; we can’t win,” Wen Man said softly. He smiled again, “I will work hard.”

“Oh.” Xue Wei thought for a moment, then after a while said, “Then you really do need to work hard.”

Zhao Xiaoyi: “…”

Wanshi: “…”

Dangdang: “…”

Xue Wei, he was a f*cking absolute talent.

Xue Wei didn’t seem to realize anything wrong with this statement.

The restaurant started serving dishes. Wen Man stood up to make room, casually answering a phone call: “I’m stepping out for a moment, be right back. You guys eat first, don’t wait for me.”

Steaming hot stone pot dishes were served, the double pepper fish head sizzling.

Everyone simultaneously looked at Xue Wei: “Brother Nao, do you know what you just said?”

Xue Wei looked at them, then at the food on the table: “Can I… eat first?”

“Fine, fine, okay, okay.”

They lost their temper too, all picking up their chopsticks to eat. Zhao Xiaoyi ate while sending Xue Wei a message: “Naonao, look at this post I saved.”

Xue Wei clicked into it and saw it was a post from the 《FIRE》 forum two years ago, but it had already reached tens of thousands of floors and remained highly popular.

The title was: [The Global League has changed rules several times, just short of directly targeting CHN.Pretty. How are we supposed to win with these changes?]

The original poster’s words were fierce: “First limiting the number of throwables, then banning tactics, and the latest wave is to nerf the M82A1’s penetration damage. Pretty scared them in the World Championship, and they urgently changed the rules a month later. Truly something. To prevent trolls, I’ll say this first: no one benefits from the new rules, teams from other regions are also affected, but the one affected the most is the Chinese national team. No one disagrees with this, right?”

There were tens of thousands of replies below.

When the professional league first entered, Wen Man and the team he led primarily played in championships and international round-robin tournaments. Only after securing the qualification as regional representatives did they start playing in the World Championship, which was a matter of the past two years.

Under these circumstances, the national team’s own tactical playstyles and personnel configurations were still slowly taking shape, not to mention that the league itself lagged behind other regions by several years.

Pretty was the player with the highest global ranking points, and his dominance was too terrifying—always first individually in round-robin and championship matches, able to carry three teammates and win awards until his hands went soft. In this game, for the enemies, Wen Man himself was the highest risk factor.

Xue Wei roughly skimmed through the post, chewing on his yogurt straw. The group of people looked at him with smiles: “Young man, do you think what you just said was a bit outrageous?”

“Objectively, it is very difficult.” Xue Wei’s eyes were dark, “But we still didn’t get first place, so we still need to work hard.”

The group was stunned for a moment, then held back their laughter: “Naonao, don’t go saying these words outside.”

Otherwise, it’s guaranteed you’ll be the top trending search the next day, and forever hunted by various fans.

“Understood.”

Xue Wei continued eating his fish.

Wen Man’s phone call lasted quite a while, returning only after more than twenty minutes. Xue Wei ate very fast; he was almost finished and was currently drinking soup to wrap up his meal.

Alan was near their table. Seeing him return, he smirked and said: “What’s up? Another call from some pretty young lady? Talking on the phone for so long.”

“A call from home,” Wen Man casually put his phone back in his pocket, his tone relaxed, “Urging me to go on blind dates.”

“Really?” Alan looked at him, his eyes a bit hesitant—no one could tell when Wen Man was being serious and when he was joking; he always had that careless, indifferent attitude.

“Mm.”

Wen Man sat down beside Xue Wei again. He didn’t look at him, carrying a slight coolness from outside. He leaned back, smiling, under the gentle lights, as if illuminating the colors of spring, yet faintly exuding a dangerous oppressive force.

“Everything else is secondary. I don’t know where it came from, but they spread what type I like—”

“Say you like?” Alan leaned forward and asked, “What type?”

He suddenly felt this topic was somewhat familiar, but couldn’t remember where he had heard it.

Xue Wei’s motion of drinking soup paused. He held the small soup bowl with both hands, his eyes staring into the bowl—a small bowl of golden-yellow and jade-green chicken soup, extremely fragrant, steaming hot.

He was listening attentively.

“A big-breasted—female nurse,” Wen Man said nonchalantly, “I don’t know who did it.”