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Chapter Text

Fang Rui was screwed.

Absolutely world-shakingly screwed. And not in the fun way he would shamelessly, endlessly, (pointlessly?) hint to Ye Xiu (and cry about to Lao-Wei).

No. He was the – Woke up to find that I regressed to before my Pro debut, what should I do? Extremely urgent. SOS – kind of screwed.

He was so desperately grateful for all the hours he had spent watching dramas and donghuas like these with Su Mucheng, Boss Chen, An Wenyi, and Luo Ji. Hopefully he learned enough because he was now deep in the fucking exam.

-

All he knew was that at one moment he was on his Happy dorm bed absorbing the fact that in the span of a few weeks he had won the GPA Season 10 Championship with Happy, said an abrupt goodbye to Ye Xiu, wallowed in the growing alarm that he might actually never see him again (because the pioneer generation really gotta be Like That), got drafted into the National team for the Glory World Championship, shipped himself off to Beijing with Su Mucheng, had Ye Xiu drop disrespectfully back into his life, trained until it felt like they'd puke blood, freaking won the first ever Glory World Championship (!!!!!??!???!!!!!), flew back to Beijing, had a wild celebration party, said goodbye to Ye Xiu again , and then arrived back in Huangzhou to wallow in the fact that he still didn't know when and where Ye Xiu might pop up. He wanted to tell his Captain…former captain…second, no, third (??) former captain…to take responsibility for his premature heart burn, wishing that they could have just had a little more time.

And then suddenly he woke up in his Blue Rain training camp dorm.

As an enlightened man of the modern age, Fang Rui did his due diligence and accomplished the Time Traveller/Regressor/Isekai MC checklist. He checked the date, photos, and other documents on his phone and laptop (cringe passwords are memorable and thus effective), searched through his room and bathroom, and (to rip the bandage off in the face of mounting panic) checked the mirror. And yup, younger.

 F**k! F**k! F**k! F***********************@&#@@$##&@$#&!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-

‘So…that was that’ , Fang Rui thought as he lay in bed. He was back in time. Younger but with clear memories of his future.

But what for?

Couldn't he at least have a guide? A prompt? A voice from above? Was his system broken? Was this a mistake? Was he The Chosen One? Chosen for what? And by whom? What was he doing back here?

‘Some help would be nice’, he thought acidly at the ceiling. He gave the ceiling (and everything the poor thing represented) a few minutes to answer before screaming his frustration into his pillow at the continued silence.

‘Well’ , he thought, after exhausting himself, ‘until the world gives me a sign I'll just lay low. Go with the flow for a bit’.  

-

He was checking his calendar for his training schedule when he remembered. 

This was the day he got an email from Wind Howl inviting him to their training camp. In the future, Ye Xiu had told him that Excellent Era had also been keeping an eye out for potential Qi Masters, the slot having stayed empty during Season 4 after Wu Xuefeng’s retirement. Heart in his throat, he checked his email.

And there, sitting right above Wind Howl's email invite was something that hadn't happened in his last life.

An email from Excellent Era.

‘Well’, Fang Rui took a shaky breath, ‘sign received, I guess.’

-

“Captain Ye Qiu will be here in a few minutes. He's just coming from training,” Manager Cui Li said.

“Okay, understood.” They had already finished discussing everything that would be expected of Fang Rui should he be hired so there was nothing left to do but to wait politely. He couldn’t help but think back to when Wind Howl had asked him to come AND change classes AND be part of the starting lineup for the coming season. It was crazy looking back on it now. He desperately wished that whoever would stand by Lao-Lin’s side would be good for him and the team. He was trying not to think about what it was going to be like to not be able to greet him as a friend when they eventually encountered each other. Damn it…

“Hello, sorry to keep you waiting.”

Fang Rui shivered and rushed to stand. Gods was it okay to be this happy to hear someone’s voice? But wow Lao-Ye sounded so-

Ye Xiu moved to stand in front of him.

‘Young!’ Fang Rui thought as his heart stuttered. ‘If it was before Season 5 then he must be…’ Fang Rui rolled back the years as his eyes traced over this beloved face. ‘22! Wait, 22? Then…I’m one year older than Ye Xiu now…?’ He didn’t know how to feel about that. He couldn’t help but read the life that Ye Xiu had lived by noticing the absence of it now on his younger self. Ye Xiu always behaved like what you saw was what you got and in some way that was true. But he was also so, so closed off. Fang Rui and his teammates talked once about how little they knew about their Captain. It was easy to believe that Glory was his everything. But then, after Season 10, he just left it all behind for a life none of them knew anything about. His default provoking facial expression might as well have been a poker face from how little it let slip. But apparently, those who had privilege of knowing him personally through the years and bothered to pay attention could see the marks of it on his face. This face was less jaded, less detached, less tired, less…sad. There was also a brighter spark of pride there too. This Captain had three championships under his belt and had only lost once so far.

“Wow, I know seeing what I actually look like is one of the top things new hires are most curious about but this reaction’s gotta take the cake,” Ye Xiu said drily.

Fang Rui jolted out of his reverie. “Ah! Sorry! I’m Fang Rui, twe- seventeen! Seventeen years old. Birthday is November 20, Scorpio. Aside from gaming I like watching dramas and donghua.”

Ye Xiu raised an eyebrow and looked meaningfully at his outstretched hand, “You know this is a job interview, right, and not a speed date?”

‘Fang Rui you Useless Dimsum. You’re making regressors everywhere look bad! You’re supposed to be all smooth and collected with all your future knowledge aaaaaaah.’ Fang Rui coughed. “Ah. Sorry. I got nervous. It’s nice to meet you Captain Ye,” he said as he shook his hand.

“Well, since you’re done discussing your contract with Manager Cui, how about we burn that nervousness away with a few rounds of PK?”

Fang Rui agreed. ‘Finally some familiar ground.’

-

‘Okay too familiar.’ Fang Rui thought ruefully as he looked at the defeat screen. ‘I’m an All-Star regressor with a World Championship to his name. Aren’t I supposed to be a cheat code?’ He sobbed in his heart. But still, even he knew why he lost. One, some of the moves he used were from levels that hadn’t been released yet. Two, he might have all his memories but there was no muscle memory to accompany it. This body was at the level of the Blue Rain training camp of 5 years ago. The basics he’d ingrained, rhythm he’d developed, the streamlining he was continuously improving, it was all very rough at this point. There was nothing for it except practice, practice, and practice.

“Were you holding back?” Ye Xiu asked with suspicion.

“No,” Fang Rui answered honestly.

“Hmmm, then there’s a disconnect between the speed and accuracy of your mind and the ability of your hands. Just regular practice at a more intense level than the training camps and you’ll be a force to be reckoned with. You don’t seem to have the same physical limits as Yu Wenzhou.”

And there was the other reason he lost, Fang Rui thought as he stared at that sharp, bright gaze that pierced right to the heart of the matter. It was a common joke in the Pro League that Ye Xiu was a time traveler. Years ahead in tactics and technique since Season 1. But here was Fang Rui, an actual time traveler who hadn’t dumbed down his skill on purpose but Ye Xiu had kept up . Every step of the way. Every time he pulled out something unique to his dirty thief style, Ye Xiu would absorb the data and re-calibrate in record time. It was terrifying but also exhilarating and Fang Rui never wanted him to be anything less.

“Your playstyle…it’s very different compared to the Challenger League.”

“Uh yeah, I uh, experimented a lot.” In the future. Should he have tried to pretend to play like how he did before? But aside from the fact that it was hard to remember all the way back to his Challenger League days, Ye Xiu was very sensitive to people not playing with their all. Case in point.

“It’s a very sneaky playstyle. I’ve never seen it with the Qi Masters and other Fighter types but it’s quite common with the Nightwalker classes. Have you ever mained one of those?”

Fang Rui’s heart clenched. ‘See? He’s doing it again. Being all amazing. Pull yourself together Fang Rui!’ “Ah yeah, I played thief for quite a while.”

Ye Xiu hummed while looking at Fang Rui with that all-seeing stare of his. Then he nodded decisively. “Well! I must say I’m very satisfied with the ability you’ve shown today. Qi Breaker and a spot on EE’s starting lineup for the coming season is yours if you want it and will work hard for it,” he said, holding out his hand.

Fang Rui grinned and shook his hand. “I would love to be part of the team. Thank you.”

His new (former) captain looked at him intently. “You know, that sneaky Qi Master style would have been right at home in Blue Rain and an irritating problem to deal with.” He grinned his fox grin. “I’m glad we’ve stolen you away to Excellent Era.”

Don’t kiss your Captain, Fang Rui. Don’t kiss your Captain, Fang Rui. Don’t kiss your Captain, Fang Rui. 

Don’t kiss your Captain after just one day back in his presence, Fang Rui. You haven’t even signed the contract.

Chapter Text

“This is Xia Ming, our sharpshooter, Spring Heaven…” Ye Xiu gestured to the tall smiling lady who waved. 

“...Yin Xiong, our cleric, Woven Shadow…” the quiet man nodded.

‘First gen Excellent Era!!!’ Fang Rui squealed in his heart.

“...Song Yi, our elementalist, Emotionless Magic…” the guy with a beard waved with a cheerful “Hi!”

“...Su Mucheng, our launcher, Dancing Rain…” Su Mucheng waved at him politely. Fang Rui blinked to stop his eyes watering at such an distant greeting from one of his closest friends.

“...and this is Liu Hao, our new spellblade, Total Darkness. You’ll be debuting together.” 

At this Fang Rui had to stop himself from stepping back in alarm because Liu Hao was reaching out to him with a bright smile and a, “It’s nice to meet you! It’s a relief to have someone in the same boat as me here,” he finished with a bashful chuckle.

Fang Rui shook his hand. “Ah yeah.” He let out a laugh. “They’re so legendary here, I hope the pressure doesn’t get to us!”

Liu Hao laughed in commiseration. “You get it! Su Mucheng is like family to them so she doesn’t feel it. Not like us lesser mortals.” 

Was that a dig at possible nepotism? From someone like Wei Chen, Fang Rui would laugh it off and maybe rib Su Mucheng too. But that was with the comfort of years of friendship with Mucheng and a well known reputation for harmless shamelessness from both him and Wei Chen. This was Liu Hao.

In his time, Fang Rui and Liu Hao had never had much reason to closely interact. The few in-person interactions they did have, though polite, gave Fang Rui the feeling that this wasn’t a person he’d really mesh well with. As for the 5th gen chat group, most of them were very casual there but Liu Hao had always had very…curated responses? The few times he let loose were to join conversations with gripes about their teams. Though they’d keep it to the funny complaints, his had an underlying sharpness to them. Everyone had real problems with their own teams that weren’t appropriate for an inter-team GC so those topics were eventually avoided for safer waters.

“We’re all here to play Glory together as teammates. There’s no need to stand on any pretenses,” Ye Xiu said levelly.

“Ye-shen how could we dare?” Liu Hao laughed self-effacingly.

‘Ah shit,’ Fang Rui winced internally, ‘that’s exactly the kind of fawning shit that Ye Xiu hates .” And sure enough, he glanced surreptitiously at Ye Xiu and saw a coolness to his gaze.

And how could Liu Hao, with his hypersensitivity to social cues as a means to ingratiate himself, miss something like that?

Thankfully Song Yi and Xia Ming smoothly continued the welcoming remarks and the meeting wrapped up soon after. Now they could begin training.

As he started setting up his station to his preferences, Fang Rui thought about the Ye Xiu he’d come to know as both an opponent and a teammate. He’d seen Ye Xiu be indifferent to this kind of fawning from lesser known players in the League. Those trying to use it to ingratiate themselves with him, Ye Xiu just distanced himself completely. But if it was coming from a teammate…that kind of distancing would be catastrophic.

Which explained a lot, really.

In the chaos of the Glory servers this kind of worship was even more rampant but it happened to every Pro Player who dropped in. He’d seen Ye Xiu just laugh it off because soon enough, they’d all be howling for his blood anyway. Everyone who’d gotten to know Ye Xiu and his shamelessness, his irritating competence, AND his irritating tendency to be right all eventually treated him with a mixture of exasperation and begrudging respect. Being able to insult him to his face softened the blow of his…everything.

And Ye Xiu truly preferred that since he did it on purpose. It was a kind of tactic (which Fang Rui could admit was something he shamelessly did too) of annoying people until they blew a fuse so they could then have a baseline of how far that person could be pushed. However, this method of breaking down walls didn’t work for everyone. For example, it backfired spectacularly with Mo Fan. Fang Rui had been told of the whole hunting that had happened to “convert” the kid to joining Happy. Only that kid hadn’t blown up at Ye Xiu, just kept his distance. And then Ye Xiu didn’t feel like he could push him any further. And that led to the weirdest, most indirect kind of coaching ever (using even Tiny Herb as helpers!), complete with a red card due to not even knowing the rules , and just a lot of months of awkwardness.

This tactic most definitely didn’t work with someone like Liu Hao who was trained to maintain appearances no matter what. He’d never blow up in someone’s face but that inevitably led to growing resentment and complaining behind their back.

Call it personality, call it family values, call it being two-faced versus blunt. At the end of the day, it was a terrible match-up of people.

Fang Rui sighed. He had his work cut out for him. Being the Time Traveler Extraordinaire Without A Specified Mission that he was (aside from an email pointing him to Excellent Era), he’d just try to do everything he could to prevent their internal problems from exacerbating. He’d do his best to root out the causes of resentment but people’s actions were still their own. He’d talked to Su Mucheng. He knew of all the sedition and mutiny that Liu Hao had actively done and used others to do, with silent approval of the management. Whatever justified resentment he may or may not or thought he had, all the actions he’d done in response were decisions he’d freely made. And there was only so much Fang Rui could do about that.

- 

And so the daily training began. Morning’s were reserved for individual training whereas afternoons were for group training, and then the day was capped off with a summary of everyone’s progress and further points of improvement. The next day would start with a quick huddle taking off from the previous day’s progress plus anything else Ye Xiu might have thought up during the night and then the cycle would repeat.

Team synergy was…a work in progress and couldn’t be rushed. Things like not blocking each other’s line of attack, not messing up each other’s skill usage, getting used to predicting what a teammate was likely to do in a given situation and moving to support them. These all took time and careful observation of each other. 

Fang Rui couldn’t help but reminisce on just how good Ye Xiu and Qiao Yifan were at this. Even pros like him, Wei Chen, and Su Mucheng needed a lot of time to work on team synergy but those two were especially gifted at it. Like they had a finger on the pulse of the team. Though in Ye Xiu’s case, he was both the heart that moved them but also the water that conformed to them. Especially bad at it though had been Mo Fan, Tang Rou, and Steamed Bun when Ye Xiu wasn’t actively holding their hands and giving them step-by-step directions. Fang Rui smiled ruefully. Darn. There he went missing everyone again.

Individually speaking, Fang Rui’s seventeen year old hands were getting better at carrying out the movements his twenty-three year old brain wanted them to do. Surprisingly, what he was struggling with was-

“There, it happens most often when you’re in high pressure situations.” Ye Xiu rewound the phone video. “Either you and your hands freeze for a second or you keyboard spasm on random keys. Walk me through what’s going through your mind.”

“Ah those are…habits from playing a different class…”

Ye Xiu frowned. “Are you still practicing on different side accounts while we’re training for the upcoming pro season?” he asked sharply.

“No!” Fang Rui waved his hands, “it’s a remnant from before.”

“How recent? The training camp?”

“Um, yes.”

“It’s been a few weeks and you still haven’t let go?” Ye Xiu asked, incredulous. “Are you not able to isolate moves between classes and they’re just all mixed together in your head? That’s an Unspecialized playstyle.”

“It’s definitely not that. ” 'It’s more like they ARE moves within the Qi Master class but from the future. And when playing against you, I default to old thought patterns but my new body doesn’t have those memories so it freezes. Or it tries to replicate and it just spasms because those moves don’t exist yet.'

“What Thief moves are these even supposed to be? I don’t recognize these inputs. Not just Thief, but any of the classes,” said the All-Class Expert.

The regressor broke out in cold sweat. ‘Hey Universe? System? A little help here?’

The two stared at each other in silence.

Dammit Universe. “I’ll fix it,” Fang Rui sighed.

Ye Xiu watched him with that all-seeing gaze for a few seconds longer before relenting. “See that you do,” he said. “Being familiar with the other classes is useful and I of all people can’t blame anyone for practicing on them every now and then. But it should never come at the cost of your main class. If your base isn’t solid, it all falls apart. We’ll revisit your progress on this in a week. Go take your lunch break.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Fang Rui said and left the training room.

As he walked to the cafeteria, Fang Rui thought about two things. First was about how truly amazing Ye Xiu’s mental compartmentalization was to behold. Given that Fang Rui was now able to personally see the truth to the stories of him running off to the training camp and guild to help out while using all manner of different classes without ever slipping up with One Autumn Leaf.

Second was the dawning realization that just because he had been sent back in time and given this position in Excellent Era, it didn’t mean he couldn’t lose it. If he didn’t get his act together, there was a very real possibility of being benched if not traded completely. Which would mark him as a poor investment to the company. Which would reflect badly on Ye Xiu who gave the green light after testing him. Which would worsen his relationship with management. Which was counter productive to Fang Rui’s (assumed) mission!

Fang Rui groaned in the face of mounting stress.

-

From what Fang Rui remembered, the Season 5 playoffs Semi-finals had been Excellent Era vs Hundred Blossoms and Tyranny vs Tiny Herb. And then the finals had been the showdown between Hundred Blossoms and Tiny Herb with the latter going on to become overall Champion and the third team in the whole alliance to finally have a Championship to its name.

So for Excellent Era to win the championship, they’d have to beat Hundred Blossoms first and then Tiny Herb (assuming things played out the same way). In this upcoming 5th Season, Sun Zheping had bowed out mid season due to injury and Zhang Jiale had led his team through sheer grit and desperation to the finals only to fall at the end.

It had been heartbreaking to watch but also, he'd never admired Zhang Jiale more. Lao-Lin had followed it very closely as a fellow Season 2 debutant. Of course Tiny Herb's journey of Wang Jiexi sealing the Magician in order to harmonize fully with his team had been moving too.

Was he…supposed to…sabotage them…?

He imagined just how furious Ye Xiu would be if he ever did such a thing and quickly, thankfully, put that idea to rest.

He'd heard the stories from Lao-Lin about how it was rumored that Ye Xiu had been giving away prize money to fellow retired pros who'd fallen on hard times. Some say he had a bleeding heart. Others who'd been faced with his irritating personality assumed he had money to burn. The ones who knew him well, with his three taobao outfits, cheap cigarettes, and almost shut-in way of life knew that he was kind but not necessarily nice . They assumed then that the charity was some combination of that and the hermit-like detachment from money.

These people might be their competitors but they were also friends. Meeting each other at their best was their highest form of respect.

Now that he thought about it…was there? Something to be done for Sun Zheping…? It’s not like he’d been told (anything) to only help EE…maybe he could…

“Fang Rui!”

Fang Rui jolted back to the present with a Dragon Breaks the Ranks to Qi Breaker’s face. He immediately rolled to recover and sprinted away. 

“If you can’t be bothered to play the game in front of you then you will be benched.” Ye Xiu snapped.

Fang Rui gulped. He looked at the screen and realized he had no idea what was going on. He didn’t know what direction to go and or where his teammates even were. He could only run away from One Autumn Leaf’s attack. His chest tightened in dread.

[Spring Heaven] QB guard EM [xxx,yyy]. Target DR. TD on WS. I’ll support.

Fang Rui got moving.

-

“For Su Mucheng, you don’t have a problem following the plan. However, once the battle becomes more fluid and chaotic, and tactics are updated on the fly, you lose your awareness and control over the whole field and focus only on supporting me. Though I through One Autumn Leaf will be directing the flow of the battle more often than not, you still need to raise your awareness and cover of the whole team. Tomorrow we’ll practice with you and I on separate teams. That is all. Fang Rui and Liu Hao, stay behind. The rest of you may take your lunch break.”

Fang Rui looked at Liu Hao who looked slightly peeved. The rest of the team filed out with some comforting pats on the back for both of them.

Ye Xiu put Su Mucheng’s file away before sliding their two folders to himself. “Liu Hao, Fang Rui, both of you keep losing focus during the team battles putting you out of sync with the rest of the team. This is the Pro League. Your opponents are more skilled than anyone you’ve ever encountered in the Challenger League, more so than in game dungeons and boss fights. These opponents can capitalize on even a moment's distraction and cost us the match. Explain yourselves.”

The two sat in silence. Fang Rui at least knew he was in the wrong. He couldn’t believe he was being chastised for something like this. It was such a rookie mistake. He was twenty-three with six years worth of experience in the Pro League. This was mortifying.

Ye Xiu sighed, pulling a hand down his face. “That wasn’t rhetorical. I really need to know what you’re thinking. This can’t continue. I can’t field either one of you like this. Much less at the same time.”

Liu Hao frowned. “I… was thinking about the battle.” 

He looked slightly glum. But it wasn't yet the gritted teeth of deep-seated resentment of the future. At this point, Liu Hao had been on the receiving end of Ye Xiu’s unfiltered coaching as both a reserve player and a trainee. If he didn’t yet understand what was wrong then he’d just feel like the kid always picked on by the teacher.

Fang Rui thought back to his original world's Liu Hao’s playstyle. It had been a little hard to pinpoint what was wrong with it at first. He was conniving, sure. But what were black-hearted tactics among pro-players? Ye Xiu certainly was the king among kings in that regard. The problem was that he tried to do convoluted mind games for their own sake when certain situations didn’t even need them. And when there was already a team plan in place, he’d still be upping the complexity to make himself look good. Like a tight-rope walker removing their safety net so that the audience would be even more on the edge and their safe crossing would be even more lauded.

It was also like a person who’d use extremely flowery words to explain something to an increasingly confused audience just to make themselves look smart when simple words could have done the same. (Another reason why Ye Xiu had taught both the audience and the media not to take his bullshit seriously during interviews).

“Fang Rui?” Now both Ye Xiu and Liu Hao were looking at him askance, amazed by his nerve to space out again in the present situation.

“I-” Fang Rui was kind of starting to scare himself now. He’d never been like this before. “I’m sorry I…got lost in thought…”

If Ye Xiu had been irritated before, now he looked more pensive. “I didn’t take you to be the type to be honest. Though it’s not like we’ve known each other that long. Is this something that happens often?”

“No…or at least, it didn’t used to be. It’s just now, after all the,” Fang Rui waved from himself to the general surroundings.

“Hmm,” Ye Xiu considered. “Alright. For now, let’s chalk it up to an adjustment period. I’d still like to have a more detailed idea of what you guys were thinking.” He brought up the recording of their four-on-three skirmish. “Liu Hao, you go first. Heaven gave the order for you to focus on Shadow. Here you move stealthily toward Woven Shadow’s position – good – but then you stop between my position and his.”

They watched Total Darkness hover awkwardly some time, enough for Spring Heaven to send a “TD?”, before suddenly attacking One Autumn Leaf.

“And then suddenly attack me,” Ye Xiu continued. “I wasn’t even giving chase to Qi Breaker to avoid breaking formation. So it can’t have been to take the heat off of Fang Rui so he could regroup with Magic. Why didn’t you focus on taking down Shadow but instead try to do a one-on-one with me and leave Heaven to take him down alone?”

“I would have died before being able to take down Woven Shadow.” Liu Hao argued. “Stopping you from protecting him gave her the best opening.”

“So that long pause was you reaching that conclusion and then changing plans?”

“I was...waiting for you to move closer to Woven Shadow so I could CC both of you in an ice boundary…” Liu Hao replied, staring off to the side.

“You wanted the main DPS to regroup with his healer while standing conveniently close together when we knew we could be facing a spellblade?” Ye Xiu asked in disbelief. “And what were we going to do? Go to our positions obediently like we were taking a class photo?”

“That's why,” Liu Hao said, through gritted teeth, “I decided to focus on distracting you so Senior Xia could freely attack Woven Shadow.”

“Ah but then you got so caught up in fighting me that you didn’t realize that I led you far enough for me to switch to attacking Heaven and you while being supported by a healer at a safe distance. You might have a very clean plan in your head but remember that your opponents can also reverse the situation very easily.”

“If you had focused your attacks on Shadow while judiciously dodging my attacks as best you could, you would have died, yes, but you and Heaven together would have been able to take Shadow down and then she would have been able to quickly regroup with the others who might’ve already taken Dancing Rain down, leaving me alone. I can comfortably 1v2 most players, Liu Hao, but three would be a tall order. Especially with the balance they’d have of short, mid, and long range players. Your team could have won.”

Liu Hao frowned sullenly down at the table.

Fang Rui wondered if Liu Hao would consider a plan where he wasn’t one of those left standing at the end. But was it a bad plan though?

“Was it a bad plan though?” Fang Rui asked with his hand raised. “Like if Liu Hao was a more powerful player or if the opponent wasn’t Ye X- Qiu .” Fang Rui kept his face mildly curious as his heart stuttered in his chest, not missing how Ye Xiu’s eyes had flashed. ‘Stick to ‘Captain’.

Ye Xiu watched him for a few seconds before his gaze drifted down to where his thumb slowly rubbed the nail of his middle finger. “It’s a classic Box-1.” he shrugged. “Yes, it's a viable tactic. But once you start with hypotheticals of what if it was not these two players, or a different combination of classes, or different terrain, then all tactics are fair game. Weighing a tactic in the face of exactly who is carrying it out, who is the target, and the where, how, and when of a situation is vital. Liu Hao couldn’t 1v2 me and Woven Shadow but I could 1v2 him and Spring Heaven in melee combat with Shadow supporting me from a safe distance.”

“However, I do get your point. In a different setup it would have been a viable plan and only experience will guide you on what’s more appropriate. But as rookies, experience is the greatest advantage your opponents have over you.” 

He looked at Liu Hao. “It is good that you’re thinking for yourself and not just blindly following orders. And though it did take a while, you did eventually take action rather than wait for your perfect setup. As the quote goes, ‘A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.’ The problem, Liu Hao, is that you did have a plan, set by Heaven, the point person of your team. There was enough time that you could have sent a message to relay your new plan. She, with her years of experience and familiarity with me, might have found a better way to support you. Next time, communicate with your team better. And speak up during our meetings on tactics for the coming season. We can weigh the merit of your ideas and give feedback.”

“I-. Yes, Captain Ye, understood.” Liu Hao said, now slightly chagrined that he had just been doing that exact thing – thinking up the perfect rebuttal that would probably only be ready when the whole conversation was over – but also baffled that Ye Xiu wasn’t actually mad at him personally but was just calmly discussing his performance even though his attention had been called.

‘(Butterfly meme) Is this communication?’ Fang Rui thought. ‘Baby steps.’

“And now you, Fang Rui.” Ye Xiu switched the video to One Autumn Leaf’s pov to show how Ye Xiu had been able to see Qi Breaker hiding behind a bush for a solid two minutes without checking any angles or having a skill ready to deploy. “Explain.”

Fang Rui tried to remember what his train of thought had been at that moment.

“I was…thinking about all the announced roster changes so far from the different teams…” Wu Yuce. Zhou Zekai. Yongbin. Who'd take my place in Wind Howl… “Which teams are probably going to be in the playoffs. How we would face them. What are their weaknesses…will they patch them…and uh…longevity of players and who might be retiring…”

Ye Xiu looked dumbfounded. “You…oi, rookie, you haven't even played your first official pro match and you're already thinking about the playoffs?”

“Whaaaat, it's good to be forward thinking!” Fang Rui shamelessly defended himself, not noticing Liu Hao’s faint look of shock at his brazenness. “Manifest! And all that. Aren't you always planning with the playoffs in mind?”

The three-peat Champion's jaw dropped. “How- forget official pro matches. How many playoffs - no - finals matches do you think this grandfather has attended?!” he asked incredulously.

Fang Rui laughed weakly. “Ahaha…all of them?”

“And you think you have the luxury to daydream about the playoffs when you can't even play a proper practice match with your own teammates?”

“I was wrong. I was wrong.” The newbie sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.

Ye Xiu sighed. “I don't think you understand how serious this is. Like I said a while ago, Pro matches are a completely different beast to what you've faced in the Challenger League. Every minute outside of matches will be devoted to training, studying our next opponents, fixing the gaps in our teamwork, improving our technique, creating new tactics, and practicing those tactics. While every second during a match is spent in a state of hyper awareness. Your breathing, your hearing, the slightest twitch of your hand, your available skills, your position, the environment sounds, the light, your teammates, their position, available skills, and habits, your opponents. There will be an overload of information fighting for attention and you'll have to keep everything on a tight leash of control.”

He looked at Fang Rui. “It’s happened more than once that a rookie just completely froze up because they were overwhelmed by it all. Liu Hao has at least had exposure as a rotating second stringer. You're going into the first string right off the bat because of your individual skill and the utility your class provides to our team tactics.”

“However,” his gaze hardened, “your utility to the team depends on the effectiveness of your participation. The goal is to move and breathe as one unit. If you can't focus enough to respond immediately to the changing situation then you'll only be dead weight. Might as well consign you to individuals or the group arena and have the second stringers appear more frequently in team matches. They might be less individually skilled compared to you but if they can reliably keep up with the team tactics then we'll be better off fielding them. Do you understand, Fang Rui?”

Never mind a bunch of professionally trained second stringers, Fang Rui had seen the kind of miracles Ye Xiu had pulled off against Excellent Era in the Challenger League. That Happy had been a hodgepodge grocery bag of one mutineered captain, two long retired pioneer generation pros with physical handicaps, one player who's team had stagnated in the Challenger League, and six rookies - only one of which had formal training camp experience. The only things Ye Xiu needed from his teammates were whole-hearted dedication, single-minded focus, and a burning love for Glory.

‘I know this,’ Fang Rui thought. ‘I should know this.’ In all the confusion of being sent back to the past, he had somehow forgotten just how demanding, grueling, and punishing the Glory Pro League season was. It was going to take all his focus and effort and then some. Like Ye Xiu had said to a crying Song Qiying,

“Effort alone can’t win you everything. Don’t be so conceited!”

“On this Glory stage, effort is the last thing you should brag about, because it’s a given, it’s something everyone will put in, it’s the lowest and smallest thing. Recognize this and keep climbing!

“Keep working hard!”

‘“Keep working hard!” Fang Rui echoed in his heart. ‘ I’m not a rookie. I shouldn’t have to wait for my captain to tell me something like this.’

The six-year veteran player looked his captain steadily in his eye and said, “I understand Captain, I'll do better.”

Ye Xiu tilted his head, noting his change in demeanor. “See that you do.”

-

‘Wow, I had a lot of guts thinking that I was sent here to save everyone,’ Fang Rui thought to himself later as he lay in bed. ‘Who knows, maybe the whole point of this is to just play the best Glory I’m capable of.’

He stared at the ceiling for a bit.

‘And the friends we make along the way,’ he continued. ‘Maybe there's still something that can be done for Lao-Sun.’

And who better to ask than the player who lasted the longest in the league at peak performance?

And had the most beautiful hands to boot.

Chapter Text

Fang Rui knocked on Ye Xiu’s door. “Lao-Ye!” he called, "Do you have some time? I wanna ask you something.”

A faint ‘come in!’ sounded from inside.

He entered to see Ye Xiu gaming on his PC with Su Mucheng seated beside him. “You've got a lot of guts calling me old, punk,” he said without taking his eyes off the screen.

Fang Rui laughed, “I've been raised to respect my elders,” he said as he closed the door. “Hi Su Mucheng.”

“Hi Fang Rui!” She smiled. “I hope you don't mind that I'm here too?” she asked with a knowing look.

He chuckled. ‘Don’t forget that Su Mucheng is just as perceptive as Ye Xiu. Especially in his blind spots.’ He had missed them as best partners. “It's no problem. I…” He looked around but there was nowhere else to sit.

“Just sit on the bed. It's fine.” Ye Xiu said carelessly.

Su Mucheng looked at their poor newbie with a rueful smile but notably didn't offer to switch. His friend would have laughingly offered up her seat in favor of lounging on the bed and eating melon seeds. But this Su Mucheng didn't feel safe enough in his presence for that kind of casualness. She couldn't risk any bad rumors between her and Ye ‘Qiu’. It was easy for cute stories of her being Excellent Era's ‘Little Sister’ to spiral into talk about favoritism, nepotism, illicit relationships, and the like.

Fang Rui sighed internally. There were only so many times a guy could bury his face in his pillow to have a bit of a cry before it got tiring. He missed his friends. However, he would like the Universe to note that he had gotten in touch with his parents, thank you very much. Not to say anything about time traveling of course. Just to check in and see how they were and facilitate his transfer to Hangzhou and Excellent Era.

He took a seat on the bed and watched as Ye Xiu finished a 20-player dungeon on an elementalist smurf account. He didn't recognize any of the other players.

“Being a good neighbor?”

Ye Xiu took his headphones down and shrugged, “Staying in practice, testing ideas out. They needed to fill some slots and I got some good equipment out of it too.” He leaned back in satisfaction and turned to Fang Rui. “You wanted to ask something?”

Vague plan of action in mind, Fang Rui jumped in. “What hand care routine would you recommend to prolong a professional gamer’s career as much as possible? As in, not the exercises to maintain technical skill in Glory. I'm asking about physical hand care.”

Ye Xiu hummed, looking at his hands. “Not just playoffs but also thinking about player longevity? How forward thinking indeed,” he chuckled. “I just follow standard ergonomic wrist to elbow posture and stretches.”

“I also got him to moisturize,” Su Mucheng added, “to prevent injuries like cracked skin.”

“Mm. Especially during the winter. The dry weather and constant exposure to hot water can even lead to skin so cracked it bleeds. Even tiny injuries can affect your performance in-game.”

Su Mucheng nodded sagely but Fang Rui sensed there was something more to it. She caught his eye and did a hand flourish as if to showcase the beauty that was Ye Xiu’s hands.

Fang Rui nodded sagely back, appreciative of the hard work done to preserve such treasures.

She grinned.

“Is that all you wanted to ask?” Ye Xiu asked, amused.

“Ah well…no…,” this next part was going to be tricky. “Would you be willing to share this? Like, outside our team? With the general public?”

Ye Xiu peered at him. “Yes? But there's no need. Like I said it's all just basic hand and wrist care. It's easily searchable on the internet.”

“No, I mean…yes.” Fang Rui scratched behind his ear. “I know it's easily searchable on the internet but a lot of people don't take it seriously until they're already in pain.” It took Sun Zheping’s career ending injury for the teams to take preventive measures seriously and start investing into in-house physical therapy.

“That's true…” his captain watched him carefully. “And a lot of repetitive strain injuries are a culmination of years of improper posture and repetitive movements. By the time there's pain it means the damage is pretty bad. Getting college aged kids to take that seriously is like warning them that they might have hypertension in their 50s if they keep eating junk food.”

“Exactly! And the more acute the pain, the more time will be needed avoiding the activities causing strain. Which isn't even a guarantee that you'll ever be the same again. A lot will just power through because they think they can't afford to take that break but it's only killing their professional lifespan faster.”

All three nodded in agreement.

…

…?

‘Ah. Eh…Now what?’ Fang Rui blinked at the awkward silence.

“So you…want me to remind the other pros to take care of their hands…?” Ye Xiu asked dubiously.

“Uhhhhh…” Fang Rui’s brows furrowed. ‘ Was that enough? Was it cringe?’ “Yeeeees…?” 

Su Mucheng hummed in disagreement, “I don't think that will be very effective. That kind of chat message will probably be shrugged off, if not drowned in jokes asking why Ye Qiu is suddenly being so caring.” She looked at their Captain sidelong. “They might ask if you're dying. Or maybe been replaced or something.” Her eyes twinkled with an inside joke.

She turned to Fang Rui. “Are you asking Ye Qiu to do this because of the ‘Power of Cool’?”

“I am pretty amazing.” Ye Xiu said smugly.

Fang Rui rolled his eyes, glimpsing the elementalist on screen doing an idle animation as the tall grass danced in the wind. “He's respected. And despite him being a shameless, aggro-inducing bastard, he's still well liked. None of us would say it to his face but to us he's still the coolest in our hearts. No matter what class we might play.”

A boar was idling a little close to Ye Xiu’s elementalist but when Fang Rui opened his mouth to tell him, he noticed that the other two were staring at him in taken aback silence. He thought back to what he just said.

…shameless aggro-inducing bastard…

…the coolest in our hearts…

“UUUHHHH. THAT. THAT. UM.” Rude, overly-familiar, AND KINDA REVEALING???? If Fang Rui ran out of the room fast enough could their memory of the last few seconds be blown away too???

“WELL!” Su Mucheng clapped, with an overly bright voice. “That's uh. I've been thinking. Maybe you. Couuuuld, um, do a guide! A video guide!”

Ye Xiu winced. “You know I can't-”

“Nothing with your face!” She quickly added. “Just your hands and voice. You can talk about the proper elbow to wrist positions, how to keep hands relaxed to avoid fatigue, the stretches you do and how often, ways to massage them after strain, plus moisturizing to prevent dryness! It'll be like when you used to make guides. And I know you miss making those.”

“If that's the case, why can't I just post written guides with pictures like I used to?”

“X-Ye Qiu, you know that's nowhere near the same. This is the age of douyin and bilibili. If you want to actually get reach with your intended audience, those are the platforms to use.”

“It'll just be a video with hands. Would anyone even want to watch that?” he argued weakly.

Yes. Fang Rui answered fervently in his heart.

“One,” she raised a finger, “as much as it pains me to say this. They're a very nice pair of hands. Enough to make even girls jealous. Finely boned and smooth but still masculine. You're lucky all your smoking hasn't stained them.”

Fang Rui nodded along.

“Two,” she raised a second finger, “they're your hands. You don't even have to worry about growing your audience because your fans have been camping in the empty wasteland that is your Weibo and living on shadowy figures in the stadium tunnels and 5x zoomed in grainy photos of random guys in masks. They might actually faint from over exposure.”

The recently self-exposed Ye Xiu fan imagined himself in their place. Imagined finally being able to attribute real actual footage of a pair of hands – gorgeous hands – to the hazy idea that was Ye Qiu, shadow captain, Battle God, God of Glory, Three-peat Champion, Master of all classes, the Glory Textbook…

He nodded harder.

Ye Xiu looked faintly alarmed. “You…this is a lot of hype for one short video…you guys are putting way too much-” His eyes narrowed in suspicion at Fang Rui. “What brought this on anyway? What's the goal and is one video even enough to achieve it or is there a longer plan at play here?”

'Well that was sudden . ' Fang Rui blinked. “Old Ye, you make it sound so shady!” he laughed, trying to ease the sudden tension but Ye Xiu’s stare didn't let up. Whelp. “It's…I don't know what kind of plan you'd call it but…so much of the pioneer gen is gone in just 4 years, some just playing for 2. So I thought…um…that's pretty short. I don't think the companies running the teams and the games are taking us seriously yet. As athletes competing in a sport that requires conditioning to prevent and treat injury and stuff…” Fang Rui rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. After all, Sun Zheping wasn't the only one this had happened to, just the most prominent. L*L, D*TA, and other esports were already establishing regimens regarding player health. But getting Glory recognized as their equal to justify the investments needed...

“You…” Ye Xiu’s eyes widened before he ran a hand down his face, sighing. “That's a big project. The kind of facilities you're thinking of…we're talking millions of yuan. The performance of the rookies last year drew a lot of positive attention so things are changing but…your dreams are truly lofty, Xiao-Fang.”

The ‘rookie’ could only give a helpless laugh. He knew it was coming. The only question was if it could come sooner.

Ye Xiu continued to study their newest member, eyebrows furrowed as if reevaluating. Reevaluating ‘what’ remained to be seen. Their captain tilted his head to Mucheng. “And you?”

“Me?”

“You said ‘I’ve been thinking’ about the video guides. Don't think I forgot.”

“Ah. Well. I was- I've been thinking-” She took a breath. “I think it would be good for fans to get to know you more. Personally. Have a direct line. ” 

Ye Xiu’s frown deepened. “We're athletes. We're here to play Glory. You know my views on this.”

She sighed. “Yes, of course I know. We're not here to do fan service. And the only fans you care about are those who are here for Glory. We shouldn't be required to be more than athletes. It's just that your fans think they know you by the games you play and Official EE statements but the games we win and lose don't rely on you alone and Management-” She stopped, glancing at Fang Rui and then back to Ye Xiu.

Fang Rui watched them silently not talk about him but need to talk around him which kinda felt like the same thing.

“Should I…” he pointed a thumb at the door awkwardly. It was this bubble again. The one only the two of them were originally part of but that Boss Chen and Xiao-Tang seemed to suddenly gain access to where the rest of the pro-league had failed.

But that was Ye Xiu. Friend to (a begrudging) many yet hardly any of them knew anything about him. Sure, everyone had their own teams to focus on but if Ye Xiu, on a cold winter night, knocked on his door and asked him if he could crash for a bit, he would have let him in in a heartbeat. Many in the League who would. But no. He hadn't asked any of them for help. Not even Mucheng. Only Huang Shaotian had actually been directly messaged and that was because he was conveniently in town. For the sake of clearing a dungeon. Like, bro, priorities??

Really, thank the heavens that Boss Chen and Tang Rou were exactly who they were. Forthright, kind, and protective. Standing by this guy who'd dropped into their lives with all his baggage come hell or high water.

(He missed them)

Maybe it was stupidly simple but what if the only way to be part of Ye Xiu’s inner circle was to ask for it? Fang Rui would accomplish absolutely nothing if he walked away from them now. He put his hand down.

“Can I help? Does it have something to do with you refusing any appearances and advertising?”

The Best Partners looked at each other and then Ye Xiu sighed. “No point in hiding it I guess. Any staff or trainee could piece together what our situation is. Yes, there is tension between me and Management because I refuse to show my face and do advertising.”

Su Mucheng nodded. “That's why I want fans to have a direct line to him that's not tied up in our performance as a team or filtered by how the company chooses to portray him. It'll hopefully increase the number of people who'll take his side in case things get ugly".

“About that…is it that you can't do advertising because you can't show your face? Or are they separate issues? You don't want to do advertising but you literally can't show your face? Or is it also a ‘don't want’ rather than ‘can't’ for showing your face?” 

Armed with future knowledge, Fang Rui knew that after Ye Qiu suddenly changed his name to Ye Xiu in the Challenger League, he also suddenly had no problems showing his face. But even then, he'd only appear on stage for the matches and attend press cons. He never did advertising and Boss Chen had never forced him to. So from what he could tell, not appearing was a ‘can't’ but not advertising was a ‘don't want’.

Ye Xiu watched him intently. “If they're both a ‘don’t want’ rather than a ‘can’t’ what will you do?”

Fang Rui inhaled slowly. “Weeell…if I have to do any stupid toothpaste ads, I'll never let you hear the end of it. And if I start hating the taste of mint chocolate I'm going to make you buy all my ice creams for the rest of my life.”

The other man chuckled. “The rest of your life huh?”

“Buuuut,” their rookie continued, “I'd ask that you at least attend the press conferences.” He looked at his captain earnestly.

Said captain looked dismissively to the side. “Eh, the game is the game. Why spin gold out of hay just to please reporters? They saw the game, how will that change if the Team lies and says there was some deep meaning?”

Fang Rui thought back to Happy press cons. As Happy’s captain, Ye Xiu sometimes answered directly, a lot of times spun a whole load of nonsense. It really depended on the sincerity of the reporter. He certainly taught them to always be on their toes. But he had a feeling that his captain was deflecting. 

“Lao-Ye, not all reporters are brainless. Talk shit to reporters that are spewing shit but be real with those who respect the game as well.”

“It would be pretty shameless of me to refuse to do any good publicity for EE and then behave unrestrainedly during presscons,” he said lightly.

Fang Rui looked at Su Mucheng. “So it's that he knows that Boss Tao’s patience is thin with him not making any appearances whatsoever but he doesn't want to compromise on his opinions and play nice. So he decides to skip the process entirely?”

Her smile looked closer to a grimace. She looked at her partner who was busy staring off to the side. “Yes…but…or well…that's not…” She kept watching him, waiting for him to stop her. “That's not…the whole story…” she continued when he didn't.

Ye Xiu exhaled shakily and lit a cigarette.

They sat in silence as he smoked, arms crossed, brows furrowed, and gaze turned inward.

Seeing an opening, Fang Rui decided to press forward. “It’s also a matter of moral support,” he said softly.

Although he hadn’t been moving, something in Ye Xiu seemed to still.

“Lao-Ye, your teammates have always been the ones facing the aftermath of the match. When EE wins, it’s fine but if EE loses, it's much harder. You’re the captain, shot caller, and tactician of the team, the one who would normally be fielding most of the questions. But you’re not there, so everything depends on how well your team understands your directions. It'll only get harder since the team that forged friendship in the wilds of Glory’s open world is nearly gone.”

He shifted on the bed, trying to gauge Ye Xiu’s mood. The guy was still not looking at either of them. He didn't want to come down too strongly and be completely shut out. Then again, Ye Xiu wasn't the type to mince words either. He pressed on.

“I’m not sure if you watch the interviews but when EE is victorious, a lot of the praise falls on you even though you’re not there. But when EE loses, your teammates face it without you and it translates as how they failed to follow your orders.”

Fang Rui tilted his head in thought. “Actually, no. Even when you guys won, a lot of brainless fans would still get mad at Wu Xufeng interrupting your combos. Senior Wu never protected himself from that and he never sang his own praises. Your teammates definitely tried to explain but they're not you. What they say still doesn't hold that much weight three whole championships later. Many people still think of EE as you and a bunch of replaceable people who just got lucky.”

Ye Xiu blew out a puff of smoke with a huff. “None of us have ever spread that kind of idea. If they still can't see the matches for what they are then can they honestly call themselves fans of Glory? If we keep caring about what they think, we can explain ourselves until our throats go dry but people will always find something to find fault in. It's never going to stop. At the end of the day, it's only victory or defeat that will judge if our actions paid off.”

‘Another day, another reminder of why Ye Xiu and Liu Hao were so incompatible,’ Fang Rui thought drily. ‘And after years of butting heads they probably pushed each other to double down on opposing ends of the spectrum.’ He sighed.

“Lao-Ye, not everyone is that...uh,” he had to think of the specific word, “...malicious. I mean, I won't be naive. A lot of people are just waiting for people to mess up so they can swan in and be high-handed and stuff. But I think it’s still the majority of fans that get defensive because they're trying to think of what's best for the team they love. It's like any relationship really, you can't always expect to be perfectly understood. Misunderstandings happen all the time between friends and family but refusing to explain and talk about it snowballs the problem. The resentment just builds and builds until it explodes.”

And what went down with EE was a whole clusterfuck of epic proportions. A can of worms. Shit hitting the fan, a whole shebang, etc etc.

“In your original team you were kind of the baby of the group that everyone was protective of even if you out-performed all of them. But we’re not your original team. You’re not our ‘Little Captain'.

Also, the league was so much rougher around the edges back then. Now, a bunch of gamer nerds in hoodies and jeans are being stuffed into fancy clothes and taken to fine dining restaurants to represent the team. Even Yin-ge and Xia-jie are having a hard time fitting in and they’re Glory Pioneers with three championships to their name. Plus they're not Captain or Vice-Captain so it's really hard for them to add weight behind what they say. Most of us don't like the ads and the schmoozing and I know you can run a team out of an internet cafe with no funding-” No wait that was Happy. Shit. Wait. No that was EE too. Ok. “-but it's also important that the team, the second stringers, the guild staff, the tech department, and everyone else get a proper living wage so this game can provide viable professions. I know you'd rather the team's achievements speak for themselves but...” He looked his Captain square in the eye. “It's a heavy burden to ask your teammates to carry when you can't even give them a good reason as to why.”

The two winced. Faces a really complicated mix of thoughts that Fang Rui couldn't parse out. Some directed at the floor, at each other, at Fang Rui himself, and ending with a ‘ It's your call’ look from Mucheng and Ye Xiu taking a bracing inhale to stare at the ceiling while he thought.

Silence once again stretched out.

Fang Rui tried not to fidget, tried to be as inconspicuous as possible. What time was it? How long had he been here? The bed creaked a bit when he shifted. The boar on screen had wandered slightly farther. The carpet was grey. He suddenly wondered if Sun Xiang had gotten Ye Xiu’s room when he transferred. Did they rip up all the carpets? The exhaust system was pretty good. Lao-Wei had bought his own apartment in their building after retiring so Boss Chen had been pulling her hair out getting their old room cleaned for-

“It's a ‘ can’t’.“

Fang Rui’s thoughts scrambled to a halt. “What?”

Ye Xiu sighed. “I can't show my face. If I could I...still wouldn't want to do advertising.”

Okay, uh, glad that that was clear but “May I know why you can't show your face?”

Ye Xiu outright glared at the floor in a surprising show of frustration.

Okay, scratch that. Ye Xiu apparently wasn't going to let him in just because he asked. So something happened between when Ye Xiu retired as Ye Qiu that meant he didn't have to keep hiding anymore…

Understanding that nobody goes to the lengths Ye Xiu did to keep a secret for eight (currently five) years (no matter how much Ye Xiu had dismissed it as a whim), Fang Rui stood up, prompting both of them to watch him warily.

Under their gaze he turned his phone off and placed it on the desk between them, placed his room key beside it, got the candy trash out of his jacket pockets, removed his jacket, and placed both on the bed, and then turned out all four pockets of his pants.

“Listening devices are pretty advanced nowadays, you know. The things you see in movies are only what are outdated by military standards,” Ye Xiu said blandly.

‘I’m wearing boxers.’ was Fang Rui’s first thought at that. ‘Su Mucheng is a young lady’ was his second. ‘Do I strip in front of my crush and his younger sister?’ was his third.

“Ye Qiu,” Mucheng said with a bit of reproach.

His expression tightened briefly before it quickly smoothened out once more. Not taking his eyes off of Fang Rui, he said, “My family and the circles they are part of despise frivolous things like gaming. Making a career out of it is not an honest profession but a shameful embarrassment that would tarnish the family’s honorable name. Even if they pretended not to know me if I ever showed my face, I have an identical twin brother and he would never be able to live in peace with all the attention my reputation would bring him.”

Fang Rui stood in the middle of the room, gobsmacked.

“Also I signed up for the pro league using his identity, Ye Qiu, and my real name is actually Ye Xiu,” he rushed.

Su Mucheng choked on a too quick inhale.

Fang Rui plopped back down on the bed and reeled internally. Family honor??? Twin brother??? Identity theft??? “What kind of dog blood drama…?” He slapped a hand over his mouth when he realized he had said that out loud.

“You're…really that surprised?” Ye Xiu said with a complicated expression on his face.

“Uh, yes???” Fang Rui said incredulously. “I think this is a pretty normal reaction to a reveal like that??”

Ye Xiu looked like he was rapidly evaluating his life choices.

‘Why is he surprised that I'm surprised?’ Fang Rui thought with mounting confusion. But he tabled that thought for now because Ye Xiu really looked like he was regretting getting him involved and he couldn't have that.

“Hey, it's okay,” he said gently. “I still want to help in any way I can. It's just that ‘Family Honor’, ‘Identical Twin Brother’, ‘Identity Theft’... it's like something straight out of a light novel.”

“Don't forget Runaway-High-School-Dropout!” Su Mucheng piped in.

Fang Rui choked.

Ye Xiu just snorted. “Wow Mucheng, don't spare my dignity or anything,” he said, looking faintly embarrassed. But his shoulders were slowly relaxing. He looked  at Fang Rui. “It's a bit ridiculous.”

Su Mucheng giggled, “It's so hard to get him to watch dramas. Either they can't hold a candle to his life or they're too similar.”

They all chuckled weakly, the tension dissipating into a more relaxed, more friendly silence.

Fang Rui clapped his knees. “Okay. Let's brain storm solutions. Maybe there are things we can do know that you couldn't do four years ago. Taking a fresh look at everything could be good."

“Sounds good,” Su Mucheng agreed cheerfully. “But can we please move your elementalist back to the city? I've wasted valuable brain space keeping track of that boar.”

“Please,” Fang Rui seconded with vehemence.

Ye Xiu laughed and teleported away before logging out.