Chapter 46

Rong Yi was stunned.

The shock of this information was quite intense. He repeated like a parrot, “I… married Yin?”

He glanced at Green’s expression, suppressing his confusion with a calm demeanor. He asked steadily, “Who did you hear this from?”

“Is it true or not?”

Green was probing his reaction, somewhat testing him. “I heard it from someone.”

“Hmm… more or less.”

Rong Yi replied calmly.

Boyfriend and married, isn’t that more or less the same?

However, he still needed to find out, just in case it was Lin Yi spreading rumors everywhere and leading the fans to ship them. It would be bad if it annoyed Xiao Yin.

With a composed expression, he asked again, “Mind telling me who told you?”

“Not telling.” Green smiled, giving him another glance. “You two… are quite interesting.”

Rong Yi: “…”

He didn’t say much to Green. After taking the milk tea, he headed to the lounge area.

He raised his wrist to check the time.

Fifteen minutes exactly. The wait for the milk tea and small cakes took some time.

Xiao Yin was leaning on the sofa in the lounge area, looking down at his phone.

The air conditioning in the League Building was on full blast, making it quite cool. Xiao Yin had a pure black suit jacket draped over him, giving off a slightly chilly aura.

His dark eyelashes hung low, like resting black butterflies.

Today, Xiao Yin was indeed excessively cold, looking quite intimidating.

Rong Yi walked over, handing the large bag of milk tea to him with a smile, “I’m back. Boss, want to pick first?”

Xiao Yin’s gaze paused on the bag he brought, then he said, “I don’t really drink sweet things.”

He stood up, took the bag from Rong Yi’s hand, helping him carry it, then said, “Let’s go.”

Rong Yi initially wanted to grab a White Peach Milk for himself, but seeing Xiao Yin take it first, he silently withdrew his hand and followed him.

Drinking it in the car would be the same.

The others had already left. Xiao Yin drove the second car himself, letting Rong Yi sit in the passenger seat.

The busiest time downstairs had already passed, and the media and fans had mostly left.

Xiao Yin opened the car door for Rong Yi, who got in and casually said, “Give it to me. It’s hard for you to hold.”

Xiao Yin was still holding the bag with seven or eight cups of milk tea. Rong Yi extended his hand, expecting Xiao Yin to pass it to him, but Xiao Yin didn’t move.

Xiao Yin looked at him and after a moment said, “Can I throw it away?”

Straightforward.

Rong Yi was stunned.

“I’ll order more for you. Green bought these. I don’t want you to drink them.” Xiao Yin’s tone was very restrained, very calm, even somewhat tentative.

Rong Yi found it a bit novel. It was the first time he heard Xiao Yin so clearly and directly express his aversion to someone.

He thought for a moment, then smiled, “That’s fine, but if we throw it away, wouldn’t that be…”

“Let someone else drink it. I don’t want you to. Is that okay?” Xiao Yin continued.

His tone was very restrained, gentle yet aloof, but he was already starting to sound a bit stubborn. The visible irritation in him became even more pronounced.

He was calmly seeking Rong Yi’s opinion.

Rong Yi was in a daze for a moment, recalling how Xiao Yin had been in a bad mood all day. He nodded and said, “Okay, that’s fine. Put it in the mini fridge in the back seat and take it back for them.”

He didn’t really mind. His relationship with Green had cooled anyway, so he didn’t care how Xiao Yin handled it.

“Okay.” Xiao Yin nodded.

The oppressive irritability emanating from him seemed to vanish instantly.

Rong Yi watched as Xiao Yin got into the car from the other side, then leaned over to fasten his seatbelt for him.

Rong Yi was slow to react, but Xiao Yin’s hand had already reached over to buckle his seatbelt. Rong Yi leaned back slightly, looking up to see Xiao Yin’s tense jaw and perfectly calm profile.

Rong Yi quietly waited for him to finish fastening the seatbelt.

The car started moving, the windshield wipers flicked away the barely visible dust on the window.

Rong Yi asked, “Do you and Green have some sort of conflict?”

He should have realized earlier. Xiao Yin didn’t get along well with others when he was in the youth training team. He had irreconcilable ideological differences with the Main Team and Coach, and under these circumstances, he might not have been able to get along with other team members either.

Xiao Yin had his own strong opinions. Five years ago, he was even more uncompromising, far more arrogant and unyielding than he is now.

“Nothing much.”

Xiao Yin clicked his tongue lightly, then adjusted his tone, speaking casually.

“I just don’t want to see anything related to that person.”

Rong Yi: “…”

So that’s what he meant by “nothing much.”

Understood.

The two of them drove in silence, but Xiao Yin gradually returned to his usual demeanor on the way, as if his casual agreement of “okay” had smoothed over all his previous agitation.

Upon arriving at the Club, Rong Yi waited for the car to come to a full stop before looking down to unbuckle his seatbelt.

“I’m very sorry.”

Xiao Yin said.

Rong Yi looked up at him.

“For being a bit out of sorts in front of you today.”

Still that raspy, strangely appealing voice, with a hint of directness that seemed to come from a foreign turn of phrase, indifferent yet grave, serious yet elegant.

Rong Yi couldn’t help but smile slightly: “It’s fine. Really, it’s fine.”

He actually found it kind of cute.

Rong Yi got out of the car, went to the back to open the car fridge, and took out the milk tea to distribute to everyone.

Of course, he didn’t take any for himself.

The few oblivious idiots in the team didn’t notice such small details. Hydralisk and Grey Cat divided the milk tea among themselves and shared the extras with the Operations Team.

One of the Xiao Jiejie from the Operations Team received a milk tea and was quite pleased: “It’s White Peach Milk. This brand is really good.”

The Xiao Jiejie looked at Rong Yi, who was changing his shoes nearby: “Captain, aren’t you having any? Don’t you like White Peach Milk?”

Rong Yi made up an excuse casually: “I do like it, but I don’t feel like drinking it right now. You guys enjoy it.”

“Captain likes such girly flavors?”

Hydralisk rubbed his chin, “We always thought you only drank soya milk. Every time we order takeout, Captain never drinks anything.”

“I know.” The Operations Xiao Jiejie said, “I’ve seen it. Back in the day, there was a favorites list for esports players in the scene. It was originally for a column show, but they canceled it later, so you can’t find it now.”

“Green is quite thoughtful, buying it especially for the Captain?”

The Operations Xiao Jiejie added, “He always said he was a fan of the Captain. Turns out he wasn’t lying.”

Rong Yi smiled casually, “We used to know each other.”

Green knew because they used to hang out a lot.

Rong Yi used to have a heavy taste, loving especially sweet drinks with various fragrances. Later, as he started to focus on health, his tastes became lighter.

Xiao Yin stood by silently, saying nothing.

With the evening free, Rong Yi forgot about the milk tea. He went to the Training Room, opened some software, and practiced his mechanics and reaction time.

Wednesday nights were special, dedicated to Q&A and heart-to-heart talks within the team.

After post-match analysis, Grey Cat and Hydralisk would take turns submitting their reflections and current issue summaries. This summary used to be submitted to Xiao Yin, but after Rong Yi joined, they went directly to him.

Rong Yi practiced last hitting while chatting with the two team members in the Training Room.

They discussed reaching a bottleneck with certain champions, which mechanical habits were more suitable, and so on.

This session typically didn’t include Xiao Yin or Wu Daogu. Wu Daogu watched documentaries in the living room.

Xiao Yin was in the Training Room but wasn’t doing personal training. He waited on the side, looking down at his messages, not speaking, his attention elsewhere.

Rong Yi noticed out of the corner of his eye that Xiao Yin seemed to be chatting with someone.

“That’s right, Yin-God, Green did pursue Easy before.”

“Today, he also asked me to apologize to you. He said those words weren’t his intention; he was just passing them along and hopes you won’t hold a grudge.”

“Yes, yes, they were all young back then. He was immature. But it was RO and RS who were more involved in your and Easy’s business. Green was just mixed up in it. Please don’t take it personally.”

“We’re really sorry about this. We were originally passing a message from Captain Rong’s team member, but we didn’t expect you to misunderstand it as Easy’s words.”

Xiao Yin frowned and clicked his tongue again.

He hadn’t replied to the other party’s messages until now. Finally, he sent a line back.

“You used his personal WeChat to tell me that staying in the domestic League would affect his career and reputation.”

“And you’re telling me that was a message relay?”

The person on the other end clearly sensed his anger and quickly retracted their message.

“No, no, that’s not what we meant. We were just saying that there might have been some communication issues back then…”

The other person continued to explain, but Xiao Yin didn’t even look and blocked them immediately.

On the other side, Green and the Manager exchanged uneasy glances.

The Manager, who had some connections with Xiao Yin not in the Esports Scene but in the investment circle, had thought he could mediate and put in a good word. But now it seemed to have backfired.

“You shouldn’t have provoked him. If he didn’t want to remember this matter, he might not have come after you.”

The Manager started to feel the situation was tricky.

Green took a sharp breath.

“I didn’t think it through.” Green admitted, finally showing signs of panic, “I thought Easy had fallen out with RS and was now with Xiao Yin. At least he should know about this, but it seems Easy doesn’t have a clue.”

Back then, everyone had heard about Rong Yi and Xiao Yin dating.

RS’s people were recruited by Rong Yi, and the core Jungler position was still undecided. At that time, RS’s current Jungler, Lang Bai, was still on the waiting list.

The RS higher-ups didn’t like Xiao Yin. He was hard to control, and given his background, if Xiao Yin joined, the actual power within RS might shift.

RO, seeing that they couldn’t keep Xiao Yin, didn’t want him to join RS either. So, the two sides reached a tacit understanding. While they didn’t openly break up Rong Yi and Xiao Yin, they did engage in some underhanded tactics.

Xiao Yin, young and arrogant, was driven by his temper, both his strength and his weakness. Five years ago, this temperament could be manipulated, but now, no one could control him.

Someone like Yin, you absolutely shouldn’t provoke his wrath.

The night deepened.

Hydralisk and Grey Cat finished their questions and asked Rong Yi for their personal training goals for the next week. Yawning, they then went off to wash up and sleep.

Wu Daogu had long since disappeared from the living room, leaving only the TV, which was still playing a documentary on loop.

Rong Yi squinted, yawned, and turned to save his training files before shutting down the computer.

Rong Yi looked up and saw Xiao Yin still sitting there.

He stood up, stretched, and asked, “Not resting yet? It’s late.”

Xiao Yin looked up, put down his phone, and stood up as well. “Yeah.”

“When’s the post match analysis tomorrow?” Rong Yi asked, “RVG’s mid lane strategy this time is quite insightful, especially their coordination.”

He paused, not mentioning Green’s name. “Their Jungler’s style is indeed aggressive.”

“Whenever.”

Xiao Yin took a light breath, realizing that his words sounded indifferent and weary. He quickly adjusted himself. “Let’s do it at 9 AM. I’ll handle the post match analysis.”

His adjustment was so apparent, like a robot switching to “polite mode” at the press of a button, instantly flipping his demeanor.

Rong Yi observed him.

Xiao Yin said, “I’m sorry, I’m in a bit of a bad mood today. I didn’t want you to see me like this.”

Rong Yi replied, “It’s okay.”

He tilted his head slightly, not asking for specifics, and only inquired, “Is there anything I can do to help?”

As he tilted his head, his hair shifted slightly with the movement. His almond-shaped eyes were bright and serene.

He was like the wind, the breeze of a summer night, gentle and radiant, capable of soothing everything. The once fiery and outspoken Captain had grown into this tranquil figure.

In a soft voice, Xiao Yin said, “I’m very irritated.”

His upbringing and strict self-discipline had never allowed for such vulnerability. Everything was supposed to be dignified, everything under his control.

But even he had things he couldn’t control.

Xiao Yin repeated, still expressionless, his voice low, “I’m very irritated.”

“That person pursued you, which irritates me.”

“Seeing him reminds me that I lost you for five years.”

“I’m very irritated.”

“He understands you better than I do.”

“He knew you five years ago; he knows what you loved to drink.”

He stepped closer, gently took Rong Yi’s hand, holding it in his palm, rubbing it back and forth, his voice devoid of any emotion, “I want them all to disappear.”