บท 85: CHAPTER 85
Qing Dynasty's official announcement created another small earthquake in the esports circle.
Everyone knew that the Qing Dynasty relied on Xu Tailun to win matches. Xu Tailun was the team's engine, without their jungler the team would at best struggle to stay as a relegation team, but was more likely to drop back into the junior league…...The decision to ban him from any matches was like carving out a big piece of muscle out of the team.
The announcement shocked the majority of the fans who thought all Chinese esports clubs would place their interests first. Most people thought that the Qing Dynasty would just give a superficial punishment to Xu Tailun, such as "giving him a demerit and delivering corrective measures" or a "pay deduction." They didn't expect the Qing Dynasty would go so far as to ban their Korean help for the entire season.
In general, most of the responses to the announcement were supportive of the Qing Dynasty. Even the media was reporting positively about it, say how the team was setting a good example for the esports business-- --
[What goes around comes around. The club has made an example out of Xu Tailun. In any case, we support the Qing Dynasty in their decision.]
[The team is used to playing relegation games and not used to being third place in the major league at the time being. So they banned their carry so they could go back to being a relegation team! -- --That's how the Qing Dynasty's management rationalized their decision.]
[Even a small team can make such a bold decision, some of the major teams in the league should take heed.]
[I hope everyone can support the Qing Dynasty with their actions. It's not enough to just give them praise. The team will actually suffer some real losses ...]
[Oh, come on. A good reputation is also very important to a club. Next year, when the team finds a suitable jungler and forms an all Chinese team, as long as they can stay in the major league, they'll be guaranteed to attract even more fans. You think management is full of idiots? At least I would become a fan!]
There were numerous similar comments. One famous esports forum on Tieba was flooded with related posts. Some were earnestly analyzing the current status of Chinese esports clubs, some continued to expose Xu Tailun. After careful research, they found out that Xu Tailun had more affairs with his fans, other instances where he insulted his teammates, and threatened not to play matches if the team wouldn't follow his wishes. It was common practice of him to ask for luxury items from his fans-- --
The post about Xu Tailun already had 5000 replies. Towards the end, most of the people posting were young fangirls of Xu Tailun who were usually much more active on these types of posts. Some of them posted [I was blind before, already not a fan]. Some posted [Very sad, don't @me anymore, thank you]. There were a small group of them who remained silent from beginning to end.
Xu Tailun had officially become the public enemy in China's LoL pro league.
…...
In an empty room, a cell phone which had been discarded on the bed, was exploding with notification sounds from incoming messages and phone calls-- --
The only young lady in the room, who had pulled her hair up and was wearing slippers, was stuffing the remaining clothings into the suitcase-- --She didn't seem to hear the constant chiming from the phone.
The room was a little messy, like someone had gathered everything inside the room in a hurry. The walls in the room were rather mottled; there were traces everywhere on the walls where posters or pictures had been torn down from where they used to be pasted…...Some of the corners of the posters or pictures were left on the walls. On top of the mirror, there were several banners hanging over it with the slogan "Go, Qing Dynasty" on them. There were some player signatures on the banners...
The banners looked like they had been carefully preserved.
The young lady closed the suitcase, stood up, and coldly surveyed the already emptied room…...Finally, her eyes landed on a huge trunk behind her-- --Inside the trunk, there were several mobile hard disks on the top of the stack. Those disks were full of videos of streams by Qing Dynasty players in the past half year. Under those disks were all the pictures she had just taken down from the walls. In those pictures, there were five young men wearing the same colored uniforms; they were laughing, hugging, bowing on top of the stage, sitting behind computers, celebrating their victories, dejected from their losses...
These pictures had been taken carefully by a single-lens reflex camera, then picked out, photoshopped, and finally printed out.
Then they were treasured.
-- --But now, they were all wrinkled and dumped at the side together with some wallpapers.
The cell phone on the bed was still ringing.
This young lady's Weibo username was "Guoguo." She went over to the trunk and lifted her foot ready to close the back of the trunk. Her eyes caught the sight of a thick scrapbook…...She paused and bent over to take out the scrapbook. She opened the first page. It was the picture of the current public enemy of the esports circle wearing a Qing Dynasty uniform and smiling brightly-- --
The picture was taken when Xu Tailun won his first match after he joined the Qing Dynasty.
At the bottom of the picture there were phrases written in three different languages: Chinese, English, and Korean in highlighter: Tailun Ge, happy birthday!
She flipped through pages of the scrapbook. There were various pictures each with more sentences in different handwriting-- --[Xu Tailun is the best : )] [Thank you for coming to be with us] [Our little angel Tailun, go for the summer season] [Thank you for bringing me into the wonderful LoL professional scene. I've seen many pro scenes and in the end I've decided to stay with you always]...
On the last page, [I'll be at your side no matter what-- --Guoguo]
The last picture was dated August 31 of this year, a date in the future. This scrapbook was put together by many of Xu's fans as a gift for Xu Tailun's birthday. They had started compiling the book since February this year. The scrapbook had been carefully sent to forty some cities through express delivery, collecting numerous handwritten wishes from fans all over the country. The book eventually came back to Guoguo…...A thick scrapbook filled with the expectation that it would be delivered to the hand of their most favorite player.
But, there was no use for this scrapbook now.
Guoguo put the book back into the trunk. Another notification chime reminded her of her cell phone…...She hesitated for a moment, then turned to pick up the phone and read through hundreds of unread messages which had came in the last dozen of hours-- --
[Guoguo, are you alright? qaq]
[You cleared out your Weibo. Are you going to leave us? Don't, wuwuwuwu...]
[Don't understand why you have to do this.]
[Didn't we agree not to make these things public? Didn't expect that the person to betray Xu Tailun in the end would be you…...You also betrayed us. You're a traitor.]
[Xu Tailun got banned.]
[Thanks a lot.]
[You're really an evil woman.]
[He's a jerk. Not worth it. Guoguo, let it go. If I knew in the beginning that he's this kind of person, I wouldn't have become his fan in the first place, I wouldn't despite the fact that he plays great games.]
...
[This week is his last match. Are you coming?]
Guoguo's eyes rested on the last message.
After a long while, she opened WeChat as if she had finally made up her mind and went on to a ticket sales app-- --Her finger on the cell phone was trembling. It suddenly reminded her the first time when she decided to go watch a pro-league game in person. On that Monday morning, she had gotten up early to shower and put on makeup. Afterwards, she went to a Starbucks to meet with some friends and waited there until noon. Then they, each with a cell phone in hand and quick heartbeats, opened the ticket buying app and ordered front row seats for the match scheduled that week...
Qing Dynasty's match against Huawei was on Thursday and it was already Wednesday. When Guoguo went to the ticket purchasing page, there were only a few tickets in the back rows left. Guoguo randomly chose a seat in the very last row. She clicked confirm and paid for the ticket.
Her thoughts went back to that Monday again. She remembered how she excitedly hugged her friends after they all got front row seats. She didn't know how to describe the joy she experienced at that time. All she could think of at the time was-- --What am I going to wear that day?
I'm going to put on nice makeup!
It doesn't matter if he won't be able to see me. I have to be beautiful that day!
Xu Tailun, I'm really, really, happy I'll be seeing you.
On Thursday, the day for the match between Qing Dynasty and Huawei, Tong Yao received an interview assignment that morning about Xu Tailun and the current Korean help in the esports circle. Though ZGDX didn't have any matches that day, Tong Yao had to get up early to get ready. She was going to take the club's van to go to the arena which she was quite familiar with now. Unfortunately, it was quite the distance away from the club's base.
…...Before Tong Yao left the club, Lu Sicheng gave her his blessings: "...It's Xu Tailun's last game. The audience is probably going to go crazy. Aren't you afraid of being attacked by his fans when you show your face at the interview?"
"Well said, thank you for your blessing. Aren't you going to come protect your team's mid?"
"I'm not going." Lu Sicheng said while holding his cup of coffee expressionlessly: "I'm afraid of dying."
…...This old internet addicted bachelor didn't know what a romantic action was.
Tong Yao rolled her eyes and left for the arena. She arrived at the arena too early for the interview, so she put on a face mask and sat in the audience to watch the match between Qing Dynasty and Huawei-- --She didn't know whether Xu Tailun was actually in a bad condition or he was doing it on purpose, but Li Huanshuo did hit Xu Tailun badly as expected. The match went exactly like a traditionally strong team against a traditionally relegation team. Including the intermission, it took only an hour and a half for the two teams to finish the best of three.
After the game was over, the area for the Qing Dynasty fans was dead quiet, so quiet it felt kind of eerie-- --If felt like it wasn't just Xu Tailun's personal last game but the last game for the entire team.
As the winning side, Huawei's players went to shake hands with Qing Dynasty's players and moved to the front of the stage to bow and thank the audience. While bending over, Li Huanshuo saw Tong Yao sitting in the corner with only her eyes and half of her nose showing. He smiled widely and waved at her...
Qing Dynasty's players quietly left the stage.
Tong Yao noticed that it was almost the time for her interview but she felt hungry. So she decided to get something to eat before the interview. When she walked outside, it had started to rain. She had to come back in to borrow an umbrella from a staff member before heading out to the next building by herself.
She was afraid that some fans would recognize her, so she chose to leave from the side exit. She had to make a big circle in order to reach the other building-- --There wasn't anyone on the path. When she circled to the back of the arena, she saw a young woman squatting under the eaves of the building.
Startled, Tong Yao almost threw her umbrella away-- --Until she got closer, she noticed that the drenched person was not only alive but also someone she knew.
"......Hi?"
Tong Yao stopped next to her, tilted her umbrella a bit to shield her from the rain, and asked after hesitated a bit-- --
"Are you alright?"
For a short while it was very quiet, she could only hear the pouring rain.
After quite a while, long enough that Tong Yao thought the young woman wasn't planning to respond. Tong Yao looked at the umbrella and as she was making up her mind to give the umbrella to the young woman, the young woman moved-- --She looked up at Tong Yao, her whole face was wet, it was impossible to tell if it was from the rain or her tears…...She slightly squinted her eyes, looking at Tong Yao. After a long, long while, she said in a low and hoarse voice: "Have I destroyed him with my own hands?"
...
Ten minutes later, Tong Yao, soaking wet all over, sat in a bakery by herself, chewing bread while looking at Weibo. She was planning to see how Qing Dynasty's fans reacted to Xu Tailun's ban. As she was looking, she saw a new Weibo post.
She carefully read it through.
Then she stopped swallowing the bread, not knowing how she felt about it. It seemed that for a moment she suddenly felt sad about the whole situation…...It seemed to her that sometimes it wasn't a simple black and white when liking or hating a person like she had imagined.
After a few hours, almost everyone who paid attention to the esports circle had also seen the same Weibo post-- --
[In your name:
Humans are greedy.
In the beginning, I just wanted to take one more look at you. Gradually, I wanted to be with you. I tried hard to control my possessive desires but sometimes I wanted to have you all to myself. Then I became dissatisfied and critical. Because my wishes couldn't be fulfilled, I became irritated, anxious, and hysterical...
Without being aware of it, we had kidnapped all the morals and emotions in the name of love. I should have thought about that in the very beginning. I was only standing in the crowd hoping you would gently give me one more look.]
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