Wei Xiao didn’t go downstairs until half past 12.

Brother Cai disdained him. “Stayed up late again?”

Wei Xiao cleared his throat, “No.”

Brother Cai had already finished eating. He stared at him as he put slices of watermelon on his plate one after another, “If you didn’t stay up all night, why’d you get up so late?”

Wei Xiao’s hand paused. “I woke up quite early.”

Bai Cai: “Then why’d you only come down to eat now?”

Wei Xiao’s face heated, and he turned his head to snap at him, “None of your business!”

After that, he slipped away guiltily with his plate.

Brother Cai: “???”

Who’d triggered him so early in the morning? Oh wait, it was noon.

Wei Xiao had ‘played around’ while the sun was out and ate a little more than usual.

He was also filled with energy during the training match in the afternoon. After it ended, he left Lu Feng a message, “If we do it before a game in the future, I can guarantee we’ll get 2:0.”

Lu Feng, who saw this message when he woke up, “……”

In the dark room where the sunlight was blocked out by the blackout curtains, the man’s long, pale fingers rubbed at his brow: Wei Little Xiao was really still very young.

At about ten o’clock in the evening, Chen Feng had just finished reviewing the training match when Wei Xiao jumped up. “I’m going to the bathroom.”

Chen Feng glanced at his cell phone.

Wei Xiao stood up straight, his attitude bold.

Chen Feng waved his hand. “Go quickly.”

Ning Zhehan got up as well. “I also…”

Chen Feng stared at him. “Are you a primary school student? Do you need to go to the toilet together?”

Ning Zhehan: “…………”

Chen Feng stopped him. “What happened with your ice mage in the game against 3U just now?”

Ning Zhehan’s expression was bitter. “It was a mistake.”

Chen Feng smiled coldly. “Three hours of ice mage training tonight. If you can’t freeze people properly, then don’t eat tomorrow morning.”

Little Ning: “……”

Wait, could he go to the bathroom first?!

Wei Xiao called Lu Feng as soon as he slipped outside.

He wanted to know the results from the check up. It was something that had remained firmly on his mind.

He’d calculated the time and figured that the results should be out by now. Wei Xiao wanted to hear the good news too badly.

He counted the days daily, and his biggest wish was to learn that the captain’s shoulder was gradually recovering.

He didn’t request that the captain would come back early, but he had to come back healthy.

The singles competition, doubles competition, team competition.

So many, many wonderful games and competitions were waiting for them!

The call connected. Wei Xiao’s eyes were curved with his smile. “Captain, how’d it go?”

There seemed to be a slight pause on the other end of the phone.

Wei Xiao’s heart inexplicably clenched tight.

Lu Feng spoke before he could say anything, “It went very well.” His voice sounded the same as usual, a magnetic sound with a slightly cold metallic undertone, sounding as though it could carry the current over the microphone.

Wei Xiao was delighted. “You scared me, I thought that something had happened.”

Lu Feng’s voice was calm. “What could’ve happened?”

Wei Xiao didn’t say it, “Nothing unexpected will happen!”

Unlucky words couldn’t be said out loud. The captain would definitely come back healthy, and his shoulder would certainly recover until it was in a better state than his own!

Lu Feng’s eyelashes dropped as he looked down coldly at the report in his hand. “Little Xiao.”

Wei Xiao always had the feeling that something wasn’t quite right, “Hm?”

Lu Feng covered up the report and said gently, “Do you want to solo?”

Wei Xiao: “!”

Lu Feng glanced at the time, “I’ll be back at the hotel in half an hour…”

It was now a little past ten o’clock, and it would be around 10:30 by the time he was home. This wasn’t yet the time when Wei Xiao would go to sleep.

Wei Xiao thought he’d misheard. “Solo?”

Lu Feng: “Yes, didn’t you want to practice nine light arcs?”

Wei Xiao’s heart leapt, and he was almost bewitched, “No way! The doctor said that you can’t touch the game for these two months.”

Lu Feng paused.

Wei Xiao continued quickly, “Captain, don’t be anxious. It wasn’t easy for the physiotherapy to have some effect, don’t give up.”

Lu Feng said patiently, “The examination results were very good today. The doctor said that we can play for a while.”

Wei Xiao was relieved, but he still refused to allow it. “Even if you can play, it should be low intensity. You can’t solo!”

No matter how much he wanted to solo with Lu Feng, this was the most critical time for Lu Feng’s shoulder, and Wei Xiao would never take any risks with it.

Doing something like accompanying him to brush out nine light arcs was even more impossible.

Just like how he had to put in 120% of his effort in order to stimulate Moonlit, Lu Feng would also have to work hard in order to force him to use nine light arcs.

It hadn’t been easy for his shoulder to start its recovery. How could they mess around with it?

Lu Feng didn’t say anything.

Wei Xiao thought that it was because his hands were itching from not touching the game for a long time. He coaxed him softly, “Well, your recovery will be complete in another month at most. After that, we’ll solo every day and every night and make up for everything that’s accrued!”

Lu Feng’s thin lips moved slightly, his voice a little hoarse as he called out to him. “Little Xiao.”

Wei Xiao couldn’t bear to hear him call him that. He clutched his cell phone tight, “What?”

Lu Feng: “…… Go rank.”

This period of time was for free training. Generally speaking, the players would go play ranked games on their own.

Wei Xiao’s heart was still uneasy. He couldn’t help but ask, “Captain, were the check up results really alright?”

Lu Feng dropped his gaze. “There’s no problem.”

Wei Xiao believed every word he said. His eyes curved again, “Then don’t worry. I know you feel bad, but you have to persevere. We can’t give up all our previous achievements.”

He thought about it. If he was the one who wasn’t allowed to touch Glory for a month, he would’ve started banging his head against the wall a long time ago.

Lu Feng replied, “Alright.”

Wei Xiao: “Then, I’ll hang up?”

Lu Feng: “Go ahead.”

Wei Xiao’s heart settled back down, and he slipped back to the training room quickly.

The game against HU was tomorrow. He wanted to be in the best state and have a good time winning!

When it came to things like face-slapping, it should be done from the beginning to the end, slapping the other party until they didn’t dare to lift up their face or stir up trouble ever again.

After Lu Feng hung up the call with Wei Xiao, he took a breath and dialed another number.

Xiang Liu picked up very quickly, “Yeah.”

Lu Feng: “How’s it going with the contacts?”

Xiang Liu was a little nervous. “The regular season has just started. The active players can’t be considered, and those in the second teams have all been evaluated, but none of them stand out…”

Lu Feng: “What about newcomers.”

Xiang Liu was shocked. “Could a newcomer handle it…”

Lu Feng: “The team is gradually taking shape. Bringing in a newcomer won’t be a problem.”

Xiang Liu hesitated. “Then, then I’ll contact more people tomorrow and see how it goes.”

Lu Feng: “Yes.”

Xiang Liu’s heart was unsettled after he disconnected the call.

Two weeks ago, Lu Feng’s first phone call had scared him into having several sleepless nights.

Lu Feng had asked him to find a substitute, a top-lane substitute.

FTW hadn’t had a substitute for many years.

In Glory competitions, six players would be registered for the team competition. Five starters and one substitute.

Most of the time, the substitute in the team would be a player who focused primarily on the singles or doubles games. On one hand, they could substitute in for the 5v5 games, and on the other hand, they could also compete for the title in the other two competitive arenas.

FTW used to have a substitute. It had been Tang Chen, but everyone knew that Tang Chen was a real substitute, and Yuan Ze wouldn’t give him a chance to play.

Later on, the Team of Gods had disbanded, and FTW couldn’t even pull together enough starters, so they hadn’t had the extra manpower to have a substitute.

Last year, they’d won the domestic championship and had a chance to arrange for a substitute.

But Lu Feng had refused.

His reason was––it didn’t make sense.

5v5 relied too much on the team. If one person was upset, it would affect the final game in the arena.

There was only one substitute spot, meaning that only one position could be replaced.

And having a substitute for that person would more or less still have an impact on their state.

Was it that the team didn’t trust them? Did it mean that there was a possibility that they’d be replaced? Was the substitute better than they were?

Lu Feng didn’t want the starters to have this kind of mentality, so he hadn’t wanted to arrange for a substitute.

But now…

Xiang Liu didn’t dare to ask for the reason.

Was it that the treatment results weren’t good?

Was this substitute for Tang Chen or Lu Feng?

Or… was he cultivating a new top-laner?

No matter which possibility it was, it still filled Xiang Liu’s heart with worry.

Wei Xiao got up early after a night without dreams.

He sent Lu Feng a message, but Lu Feng didn’t reply.

Wei Xiao saw that it was still early, and Soybean kept butting at him with his head. He thought about how he’d given Brother Soy the cold treatment recently and simply went to pull on some clothes, taking it downstairs to run some laps.

It was March, and spring had already begun. Many cherry plum trees had been planted in the yard downstairs. When the tree wasn’t in bloom, it had purple-red leaves that looked like gorgeous, cascading flaming clouds. After it bloomed, it’s appearance would change. Large white flowers would cover the colorful red leaves, looking like layers of fluffy clouds that rolled with the spring breeze.

Wei Xiao was in a good mood. He found a tree that was in full bloom and took pictures of it with Brother Soy.

Brother Soy was extremely perfunctory and didn’t even want to look at the camera.

Wei Xiao had a plan in mind. He clicked open his screen saver––

Brother Soy instantly settled down and even wanted to pounce on the phone.

Wei Xiao scolded him, “Face con!” He took a photo as he spoke.

His screensaver was naturally a photo of the captain. It was a photo he’d taken secretly when he and the captain were on a video call.

The photo was a little blurry, but that wasn’t enough to affect the captain’s handsome face. Especially when it came to this type of close-up photo; there was really nothing that could be done when one’s facial features were so exquisite.

Wei Xiao himself looked at it for a while, then tsked and said, “He’s really handsome.”

Black hair framed pale skin, sword eyebrows over star-like eyes, long eyelashes, and a high nose…

––He’d scolded the dog for being a face con, but he wasn’t much better.

Wei Xiao sent the photo he’d just taken to Lu Feng and added a note, “Brother Soy misses you a lot.”

He hadn’t sent out the following message that said he missed him even more when Soybean broke away from the leash and started running around wildly.

Wei Xiao no longer had time to pay attention to sending out the message and rushed over to catch him.

This doggy thing was more familiar with the environment in the base than Wei Xiao was. It ran very quickly and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Wei Xiao ran around in a few circles but couldn’t find the silly dog.

“Damn it…” The Brother Xiao who hadn’t exercised for a long time was out of breath from running around.

He stopped to catch his breath, but he wasn’t actually panicking. In any case, everyone in the base recognized Brother Soy, and he couldn’t run off.

While Wei Xiao was taking a breather, he unexpectedly heard voices talking around the corner.

One of them was Xiang Liu, and the other person seemed to be an outsider.

Wei Xiao didn’t walk out, afraid of disturbing others when they were talking business.

On the other side, Xiang Liu was saying anxiously, “There’s no need for a jungler position, we’re just looking for a top-laner.”

This one sentence made the Wei Xiao who was preparing to slip away freeze in shock.

The other person said, “Finding top-laners isn’t easy. You should already know this. Newcomers always want to play flashy positions.”

Xiang Liu: “Try your best to contact some. It’s okay if they’re newcomers. As long as they’re good quality, we can bring them back and polish them slowly.”

The other person couldn’t help asking, “This… who are they substituting? How can FTW be short on top-laners?”

Xiang Liu laughed, “Just preparing for the unexpected.”

Wei Xiao, who’d originally worked up a thin layer of sweat from running around, now felt cold all over. His fingers curled and flexed uncontrollably.

The other person left.

Xiang Liu sighed, then headed back. He ended up face to face with Wei Xiao.

Xiang Liu: “!”

Wei Xiao stood under the purple cherry plum tree covered with white flowers. His face was even whiter than the cloud-like flowers, “Who is the substitute for.”

His voice was as cold as a recently melted winter glacier.

Xiang Liu’s brain emptied out. He was flustered, “No, it’s not…”

It was over. He’d actually been overheard by this little ancestor!

Something major was going to happen!

Xiang Liu was very anxious, but the more anxious he was, the less he knew what to say. After all… he didn’t know the details of the situation, either!

Wei Xiao didn’t say anything else and turned to leave.

Xiang Liu rushed to catch up with him, “Quiet, don’t worry. Things may not be like what you think…” F*ck, the more he said, the messier the situation became…

Wei Xiao’s eyelids flickered. He said quietly, “Mm. I’ll go ask the captain.”

Xiang Liu: “………………………………”

God damn it, was it too late for him to cut open his stomach to atone for his sins now?!

The author has something to say:

It’s okay, don’t panic.

xiin: T_T *cuddles the little lunatic*