Chapter 78: Volume 2 - CH 36

Playing Fish Trapped in Secret Room

Book 2: You’re Beautiful

Chapter 36

It was the summer of 2003, she was waiting outside the train station for Solo’s return from a competition in Guangzhou.

It was crowded.

Because she had used up all her minutes on her cell phone for that month, she was reluctant to call.  In order to save money, they used text message to communicate with each other until he brought a young man dressed in all black in front of her and stretched out two arms to her.  She jumped at him, circling around his waist.  She also took a peek at the beautiful and aloof young man meanwhile.

Later, they became comrades after playing 20 CS games.

Solo told her that Gun was a non-professional player he met during the tournament in Guangzhou.  He was great and had a promising future.  Because he wanted to play esports but his stepmother wouldn’t support him, so he returned to China by himself.

“Return to China” was a novel term to her at the time.

A young man who grew up in a foreign country, with English as his mother language.  He didn’t seem to have come from the same planet as Solo and herself.

Solo shared a small apartment with other tenants at the time.  Gun slept on the floor in Solo’s room.  So she and Solo had little time alone together for a very long time because of Gun.

Gun was with them when they ate.  Gun was with them when they had fun.  Gun was with them even on Valentine’s Day.

Sometimes she really had enough and asked Gun,  “Do you want me to introduce a girlfriend to you.  Please let us be alone……”  Gun rolled his eyes at that time.  He had no interest at all.

Later, Solo won the championship in a tournament but he didn’t receive the prize he deserved because the organizer was withholding it.  He almost couldn’t afford to pay the rent.  It was then that an internet reporter interviewed him, curious about the emerging esports industry.  Solo prepared for a very long time.  He reviewed every question repeatedly, but in the end the reporter only used several of his short answers with only one sentence about his sincere feelings when the two chatted after the interview.  “Isn’t there a popular saying on the internet?  At the age when one is the least capable, but you fall in love with a girl who you want to take care of for the rest of her life.  Now I have the same feeling of powerlessness.  I don’t know how to give her a future.  I can’t even tell her about tomorrow.  She’s so young.”

This conversation showed up on the web page of the interview.

She was very young at that time.  She didn’t quite understand his sadness, she was very much touched more than anything else.

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This was Solo’s first and the only time where he talked about his love for her.  Though it was through a strange channel.

She, Solo and Gun didn’t know back then where the end of their road was.

Solo started to think about organizing a team.  But every time the investors merely toyed with him.  He travelled for several days full of passion to visit investors only to return disappointed.  Then Gun left for quite a long time.  When he came back again, he brought back their first investment and his Chinese citizenship with him.  He cut all means of retreat and used whatever means he could find to get the money from his family.

At this point in the story, she thought Dt should be well informed about what had happened later.

The money Gun wrestled from home was how they were able to bootstrap a team.  They were able to have their own place to train.  It was a turning point for everyone.  Then they won various prizes from tournaments.  It improved their living conditions. The prize money in the early days of esports wasn’t anywhere near the tens of millions of US dollars that exist now for the top three teams. Yet, since they played in many tournaments, they could keep the team running as long as they kept winning enough championships.

“Then the team disbanded. Solo and I were both responsible for it.  You know very well how hot the esports market is now.  If Solo’s team didn’t disband then, everyone definitely would’ve won a large amount of prize money and have infinitely better living conditions than back then.  So, I agreed to join Solo after I considered it for a very long time.  Only by returning to this circle and joining SP, I can use my specialized skillset to win the reward that’s higher than other ordinary professions.  Then I can do things I always wanted to do.”  She was a bit emotional.  No matter how many years had past, that team and that place had carried nine passionate people for two years.  “At the time, I reached a verbal agreement with him.  We will use our power to make it up to the others.”

Though she knew it very well that Solo was just trying to convince her to come back to this circle again when he made the proposal. In the end, he would be the one who took on the responsibility for any consequences.

But that wasn’t her plan.

Dt was quiet.

She was a little bit bashful.  “You probably don’t know.  The people of our group, except your cousin, are all from ordinary families.  Xiaomi and All and several original alternate players all come from very ordinary families.  Or you may even say poor families, very poor families.  Their academic performance is pretty poor too.  It was very difficult for them to find any opportunity to develop themselves in another industry……”

She paused.  She didn’t know how to continue.

“I understand.”  Dt stopped her.  “I want to add that Han Shangyan[1] doesn’t need any compensation.  In these two years, though K&K is still losing money in China, they still have good profits worldwide.  His family was always against his involvement in the esports business and they haven’t changed, even now.  So all the money belongs to him.  You see, things aren’t so bad.  He was forced to get into investing in clubs and he lives pretty well.”

She chuckled.

She could tell that Dt was comforting her.

But Wu Bai, you were only twelve or thirteen years old at the time.  How could you have any idea what the name Gun represented in the esports world back then?

[1]: Gun’s actual name.

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