Wei Xiao looked at this line of words in a daze. He felt like there was a wall blocking his heart, suffocating him so much he couldn’t breathe.
He refused to accept it. “There’s no past! The current FTW is new!”
The captain wasn’t wallowing in the past. He’d already set it down a long time ago. The current FTW was a brand new one, and although it didn’t have the same strength as the Team of Gods, no matter whether it was him, Ning Zhehan, Yue Wenle, or Bai Cai, they were all working hard for that final trophy. They would definitely send FTW to the altar again!
He might think this, but there was a tiny voice that popped out from a small corner of his brain––was that all it was?
Yan Jiang had already said so much and didn’t plan to continue being vague about the topic. He gave Wei Xiao the most straightforward sentence, “More than FTW.”
Wei Xiao’s hand froze.
Yan Jiang: “The 17 year old Close ran away from home. I don’t know about his family situation, and I don’t want to embarrass him.”
This was the last sentence. He’d already said all that could be said.
Yan Jiang quit the game and left the training room.
Time in a foreign country was different from time in the motherland.
It was 10PM in China, but here, the sky was filled with the setting sun, reflecting off the slow-moving river like a ribbon of light.
Yan Jiang lit up a cigarette, set his elbow on the railing, and looked coldly at the slowly setting sun.
Three years ago.
In the rising FTW, the half grown youth who had dreams in his heart had passed a sleepless night after learning that he was about to be sold like an object.
The peak was fleeting, and profits and interests always reigned supreme.
It was better to stop at the right time than let the Team of Gods become a bubble that popped in the next season. The maximum benefit that FTW could obtain would be to sell the players who’d just won the world championship.
Kim Sung-hyun’s contract had expired, and he’d decided to go home a long time ago. Yuan Ze, as a mixed blood, didn’t care which competition zone he was in. Only Yuan Ze, Xie He, and Close hesitated when faced with this disaster.
Their contracts were all in FTW’s hands, and it was difficult for them to do anything.
Xie He hated Yan Jiang the most in the team. If it wasn’t necessary, then he could go without saying a single word with him for a whole month, but that day, he’d taken the initiative to find their captain and asked him, “What should I do?”
Yan Jiang: “……”
Xie He bowed his head. He was holding a cigarette that had almost burned down to his fingers despite the fact he hadn’t even lifted it to his lips. “I want to stay in China.”
He didn’t care about something like the Team of Gods, and he didn’t care if they separated or not. Their relationship had never been anything special and being opponents might be better than being teammates.
Yan Jiang was very straightforward. “FTW won’t let you stay in China.”
The China competition zone couldn’t afford such a high price. FTW just wanted to sell them for the best price, no matter which competition zone they ended up in.
Xie He didn’t realize that the cigarette butt was burning his fingers. His black eyes were fierce when he looked up. “Then what’s the point in transferring myself!”
He couldn’t stay in China anyway, so what was the difference between getting sold and leaving by himself?!
Yan Jiang looked at him. “At least it’ll be your own choice.”
Xie He: “……”
The world’s number one support, the world’s number one mid-laner, the world’s number one top-laner, the world’s number one ADC…
Behind this infinite glory was boundless darkness.
The development of the domestic e-sports industry had been slower than that of foreign countries, especially since various aspects of their society and ways of thinking had led to contempt and disdain for e-sports.
China competition zone’s clubs, which hadn’t achieved any significant results at the time, were far from being able to attract the attention of anyone with sufficient capital.
Domestic clubs couldn’t afford such a high price, but foreign teams were scrambling to put in high bids.
FTW didn’t care about how the whole competition zone was doing, and even had the mentality that they could hit the jackpot again: Even if they sold the Team of Gods, they might still be able to dominate in China, and they might even be able to cultivate a new team.
Why not?
Other than the Kim Sung-hyun whose contract was expiring, the other people’s contracts were all in FTW’s hands, and they only had one way left to go.
They could either be sold or take the initiative to contact the right team in order to fight for what was left of their final rights and interests.
As long as the price was right, FTW would still respect their wishes.
Yuan Ze had lived in North America before and went to a region he knew well.
Yan Jiang and Xie He went to Europe.
Yan Jiang went to WP, a place that only treated him as a cash cow.
During those stormy, turbulent days, even someone like Xie He who never bowed to anyone had gone to seek out Yan Jiang, but Close never showed any vulnerability or helplessness.
Yan Jiang had taken the initiative to go and find Close.
In fact, of the whole team, Yuan Ze and Kim Sung-hyun had the best relationship with Close.
Unfortunately, Kim Sung-hyun and Yuan Ze found it difficult to understand how the other three felt.
What they were going to face wasn’t only leaving FTW, but also leaving their home country.
Pulling up their roots and leaving home wasn’t easy.
Yan Jiang had always had a cold temperament. When faced with Close, who was the same as him, they could live broadcast in the same room and double queue together for three hours without saying a word.
At the time, the fans had come up with all sorts of guesses, and their little articles proved, one after another, that they didn’t have a good relationship. They even thought that Close’s arrival was the root cause behind FTW splitting up.
Because he was too similar to Yan Jiang.
One mountain couldn’t hold two tigers, not to mention two tigers from the Team of Gods.
If Close was a lively younger brother, he might be able to neutralize the atmosphere, but Close was even colder than Yan Jiang and more independent than Xie He. How could he neutralize the situation?
This was just exacerbating the conflict.
But, in reality, Close had used soloing to accompany Xie He to train up a unique thousand layers of clouds.
Kim Sung-hyun had also used his time soloing with Close to make him into a thief that all ADCs feared.
Yuan Ze’s death knight and Close’s hidden thief used to be Glory’s best top-jungler combination. They’d played out many wonderful operations and abused countless teams until they were bleeding all over.
There was also Yan Jiang…
Was there anyone who knew that Close’s nine light arcs had been mastered during the time spent double queueing with Yan Jiang?
The Team of Gods couldn’t play in the doubles competition.
They couldn’t let go of their pride and couldn’t cooperate with each other.
But they’d obtained an uncontestable 5v5 team competition championship.
Yan Jiang went to find Close.
At the time, Close was only 17 years old. His birthday was on Christmas Eve, so he would only turn 18 after Christmas.
17 years old was a very young age, but looking at the youth in front of him, it was hard for him to feel any sense of tenderness and immaturity from him.
He was born with impeccable features, but he never laughed.
His upbringing was obviously superior compared to that of ordinary people, and it made him seem even more out of tune with his surroundings.
He was silent and didn’t speak, and he never showed his happiness or anger. How was he anything like a young teenager? There were many adults who weren’t even as calm as he was.
Yan Jiang didn’t like him very much.
It was hard to like someone who was very similar to oneself.
“What are your plans for the future?” Yan Jiang asked him.
Close was silent for a while.
Yan Jiang’s voice was even as he told Close all about the current situation and what was going to happen. Although he felt that Close understood it all, as an older adult, he still made sure that everything was explained clearly.
At least for this moment, Yan Jiang had to regard him as a 17 year old youth, a minor.
Close listened quietly without interrupting him from the beginning to the end. He didn’t ask him anything.
It was rare for Yan Jiang to say so much, and he also felt a little irritated after talking: Close understood it all already, and he’d spoken of everything in such detail like an idiot.
“Me and Xie He are going to Europe. What about you?” Yan Jiang tossed this question at him.
Close suddenly raised his head. His pair of black eyes that had seemed to be forever unshakable showed a hint of anxiety.
Yan Jiang’s heart sank.
Close’s thin lips opened and closed, and he only said a single word after a long time, “Mm.”
It was an ambiguous response. There wasn’t a followup comment, statement, or expression of his own thoughts.
However, Yan Jiang wasn’t just anyone else.
Regarding something that even Yuan Ze could suspect, how could he not have thought of it?
Yan Jiang took a breath and asked him, “You aren’t thinking of buying FTW, are you?”
Close: “……”
Yan Jiang only felt that his breath was blocked in his throat, cooling down the words he spoke, “It’s not necessary.”
Like before, Close’s response was still a cold “Mm”.
Those words gushed up to his mouth, but Yan Jiang was ultimately still unable to say it out loud.
––It’s not necessary. No one is worth you paying out so much for.
Getting away hadn’t been easy, why go back?
Yan Jiang signed a transfer contract with WP more quickly than anyone had expected.
At the end, he sent Close a message, “There aren’t any endless feasts in this world.”
It took a long time before Close sent him back three words, “See you later.”
The FTW team loved soloing.
Every time someone lost, they would say ‘see you later’ to the other party.
These words filled up the WeChat message boxes for the four people, Yuan Ze, Xie He, Kim Sung-hyun and Close.
Only Yan Jiang never soloed with them, so he’d never received this message before.
See you later.
How would they see each other again later?
Yan Jiang stubbed out the cigarette butt and returned to the training room amidst the falling night.
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