AWM: PUBG - Chap 41
Chapter 41
Unedited
Qi Zui put down his phone and went to eat.
Father Qi had gone out earlier on, and Mother Qi had already eaten half of her breakfast. When she saw that Qi Zui had come downstairs, she raised her eyelids, then turned her head to the side to instruct the auntie to reheat the leftover food on the table.
Qi Zui smiled, “This treatment… it’s not even as good as when I’m at the base.”
“Who would have thought that you could wake up early,” Mother Qi watched the news as she negotiated with her son, “When will you move back in? It’ll be a good time to find someone to properly look at your hand.”
Qi Zui used He Xiaoxu’s words to deal with her, “I retired, but I didn’t retire from the team, there are too many matters, I can’t leave.”
Qi Zui smiled at Mother Qi, “Even if I come back here, I have to stay alone too, right? Do you and Dad have free time to accompany me?”
“How old are you? Do you need us to accompany you?” Mother Qi did not force him, “You can do whatever you want, anyway, your Dad and I can’t control you anymore, but what about your hand?”
Qi Zui took a piece of bread and took a bite before slowly saying, “I’ve already looked for all the possible doctors, the strain is too serious. It’s impossible to completely recover, it’s better to treat it conservatively… Fortunately, I won’t need to train now, so it’s quite relaxed.”
“You can’t bear to leave it, right?” Mother Qi quietly stabbed a knife, “In the past, I told you that this is something you can only do while you’re young. It’s easy to pick it up, but hard to put it down. You didn’t listen. You had a good university to go to, but you didn’t, and dropped out of school to play games…”
The auntie at home could not help laughing, and Qi Zui corrected her, “It’s playing eSports professionally.”
Mother Qi did not care, “Whatever, your age now is not too old but not too young, if you retire like this…”
Qi Zui corrected her again, “This is called retiring from the game1.”
“Is there a difference?”
Qi Zui was unable to refute it, “No.”
Qi Zui gritted his teeth and wanted to tell those people that scolded him by calling him an old hooligan, his ability to pour cold water on the atmosphere to dampen was really not a personality thing, it was due to his family genetics.
God-Qi who had retired was unable to experience the warmth of his family and was instead being forced to transfer to another job.
Mother Qi’s tone was calm, “When your grandmother retired in her fifties, she was hired back to a university to continue teaching. You are only in your twenties, what are you going to do? Continue going to school?”
Qi Zui was so angry he laughed, “Please let me off.”
“I didn’t think that you would go either…” Mother Qi took a napkin and pressed the corner of her mouth. “I heard that the biggest shareholder of your club has recently liked something… I forgot, it seems to be a company doing projects on data.”
Qi Zui raised his gaze.
“There’s news saying that that company is going to be listed. Your boss lacks heart… he wanted to go along for the ride and be an investor,” Mother Qi put down the napkin and said calmly, “I had nothing to do and helped him calculate it. He probably has quite a large gap in funding.”
Qi Zui’s eyes shone slightly.
“The value of your little group that plays games has reduced by half without you. The thing he is most likely to want to get rid of now is…”
Qi Zui held back his laughter, “That’s called an eSports team.”
Mother Qi nodded, not really caring, “Your father heard the news. He had always wanted to buy it, but if you have enough money…”
“Don’t look down on me too much,” Qi Zui drank half a cup of water and smiled, “I can’t compare to you two, but these few years, I’ve saved up a bit of money.”
“I hope so,” Mother Qi said coolly, “I definitely won’t help you, I’ve already told you the news, you can deal with it accordingly.”
Qi Zui smiled and said sincerely, “Thank you, Mom.”
“There’s no need, it’s not like I’m helping you with anything. If you really take over the club… you’ll be busy.” Now that she was done informing him about official matters, Mother Qi picked up a cup and drank from it, beginning to chat about family matters, “I heard that your Dad and I helped you raise a child bride?”
Qi Zui choked on his saliva and started to cough violently.
Mother Qi’s motherly love was limited, she got irritated after keeping Qi Zui at home for two days. It was also true that she could not find time to accompany Qi Zui, so Qi Zui returned to the base on Monday.
Qi Zui had just entered his room when Yu Yang followed him in.
“You’re taking the initiative?” Qi Zui removed his jacket, “Close the door, I want to change.”
Yu Yang was stunned for a moment before he subconsciously said, “I…I’ll go out.”
“There’s no need.”
While they were talking, Qi Zui had already removed his T-shirt. Yu Yang hurriedly turned his gaze away, helping Qi Zui close the door. He faced his back toward Qi Zui and only turned around after Qi Zui was done changing.
“What are you doing?” Qi Zui smiled, “Didn’t you come over to look at my tattoo?”
“Yes,” Yu Yang felt unspeakable guilt in his heart, “It’s all my fault…”
Qi Zui smiled, “Why is it your fault? It’s not like I tattooed it because of this matter. I thought of doing it ever since I saw your tattoo, but I had no time until now… come here.”
Qi Zui saw that Yu Yang was moving around awkwardly. He smiled and said, “Are you sure you want to see it?”
Yu Yang hesitated for a moment before nodding.
Qi Zui made a sound of acknowledgment, “Alright.”
Qi Zui unbuttoned the button on his pants and Yu Yang shut his eyes.
Qi Zui smiled, “You don’t want to see it anymore? Nevermind then… I find it a little weird too.”
Yu Yang hurriedly shook his head, “No, I… I want to take a look.”
Qi Zui leaned on the table and unzipped the zipper of his pants and pulled his underwear down a little, smiling, “Take a look.”
Qi Zui’s tattoo had recovered very well. It had only been two days, but it no longer had blood or tissue fluid. The skin next to it was also clean and had no traces of swelling. The tattoo had yet to scab over, and it looked like it had been tattooed for a long time.
Yu Yang knitted his brows together and could not help but question him, “You… Why did you get such a large tattoo?”
Five letters, each was about two inches in size and they were all made up of thick lines. It was twice as big as the two tattoos on Yu Yang’s shoulder.
Qi Zui smiled as he looked at Yu Yang, “Does it look good?”
Yu Yang’s heart ached inexplicably.
Yu Yang frowned, “Does it hurt?”
Qi Zui smiled, then nodded his head.
How could it not hurt?
But thinking about the scene of when Yu Yang knew that he was about to retire and avoided everyone to go and get tattooed himself, this bit of pain was nothing much.
Qi Zui thought about the news he got from Mother Qi and said softly, “Don’t worry… The matter with the team, I won’t let you carry it alone.”
Yu Yang was completely focused on Qi Zui’s abdomen and did not notice anything from his words.
Yu Yang asked anxiously, “Did you eat painkillers?”
Qi Zui shook his head, “I ate it on the first day, When I eat painkillers, I get drowsy, so I was too lazy to eat it.”
Yu Yang was frantic, “It must have been very painful!”
Qi Zui smiled, “How about you blow on it for me?”
Yu Yang was stunned momentarily, his face turning red.
Yu Yang hesitated for a moment and took two steps forward. Qi Zui laughed and avoided it.
Qi Zui turned his back towards Yu Yang and wore his pants, pulling open the curtains, “Don’t test my self-control… take it as a debt to be paid later.”
Yu Yang finally realized what the action of “blowing air on it” looked like and his cheeks instantly flushed.
Qi Zui did not want to let Yu Yang feel troubled and guilty, so he changed the topic and said, “Thanks to those anti-fans, my Dad and Mom finally know about you.”
Yu Yang raised his head suddenly, “What do they know?!”
“They know about our relationship,” Qi Zui chuckled, “The Internet is spreading such things all over, how can my Dad and Mom not know?”
Yu Yang instantly felt nervous.
Qi Zui hurriedly said, “Don’t overthink things, I came out to my family a long time ago.”
“My family didn’t agree when I dropped out of school to play eSports professionally,” Qi Zui sat down and said lazily, “Although my Mom did not say a word, she refused to let me leave the house. Even my Dad, who has a very good temper almost hit me, and when I saw that I really could not get through to them, I did not want to cause them to be angry, so I thought of trying to divert their attention…”
Yu Yang was stunned at Qi Zui’s ingenious godly actions, and he said, uncertainly, “So you came out of the closet?”
“Yes,” Qi Zui sighed, “The fact that I wasn’t beaten to death that time… I was really lucky.”
Yu Yang did not speak for a long time, thanking Qi Zui’s parents in his heart silently for leaving Qi Zui alive and letting him meet Qi Zui,
“At that time, I thought too simply. I thought that if I found something else that would cause them a headache, they would not care about me playing eSports,” Qi Zui sighed, “I wasn’t an adult at that time, I was really young… I was even able to something so idiotic.”
Qi Zui could not help wanting to laugh but also felt his heart ache at the same time.
“It was alright, one explosion detonating all the bombs. After fighting for two years, we got over it,” Qi Zui raised his eyebrows and laughed, “Thankfully, I had some results in eSports. At that time, my temper was not good. During Chinese New Year, I withdrew all the money I earned and took a suitcase back home and gave it to the two of them. I angered my Dad so much that he drove me out completely during the Chinese New Year.”
Yu Yang hesitatingly said, “What about the money?”
Qi Zui said, “My mom kept everything.”
Yu Yang had a stomach ache from holding back his laughter.
“I was considered alright. Lao Kai was the number one student of his school for the college entrance examination. Coming to play eSports professionally with those grades, he completely angered his family and he was unable to return home for a whole two years. He was only able to ease the tension in their relationship last year and that’s why he keeps contacting his family this year,” Qi Zui looked at Yu Yang, testing the waters without leaving a trace, “What about you? When you just entered eSports, I’m talking about before the Goblet of Fire, how was it?”
Yu Yang was silent for a moment and said, “It was alright.”
Qi Zui smiled faintly, understanding in his heart that Yu Yang did not want to say.
Practically every professional eSports player had experienced fighting with their parents, but Yu Yang did not, he had no way to fight.
When other people chose to play eSports, they were giving up a stable career and exploring. Yu Yang was not, he had no choice, he was here to find a way to survive.
“When I started to play eSports professionally, the environment was already much better and the competitions were very frequent, the prize money was a lot. The bosses that deducted money were fewer, compared to in the past…” Yu Yang did not continue speaking and only said, “The time before the Goblet of Fire, when I played in competitions every year, I could still earn more than 100,000 RMB a year. After the Goblet of Fire, I had a little game and more people came to find me to play in competitions. After I came over here, it was even better.”
Yu Yang was still thinking about how he owed Qi Zui money and said softly, “Wait till the end of the year, I’ll be able to earn quite a lot of money.”
Qi Zui smiled. He did not tell Yu Yang that perhaps, at the end of the year, Yu Yang’s money would be given out to Yu Yang by Qi Zui himself.
Someone was knocking on the door outside and Qi Zui frowned, “Enter.”
He Xiaoxu pushed open the door and was stunned when he saw Qi Zui, “You, you two…”
“If you have something to say, say it quickly,” Qi Zui was extremely annoyed at He Xiaoxu, “Are you from the family planning unit? Do you specially wait till others are talking to interrupt them?”
He Xiaoxu got angry, “Who are you scolding! It’s because I have something that I need to ask you about! Youth said that you got a tattoo too?”
Qi Zui nodded his head, “Don’t ask me to let you see it, disgusting.”
He Xiaoxu exploded in anger, “I’m disgusting?!”
Qi Zui laughed, “Are you done?”
“I’m not done! It’s such a large public relations matter, don’t we need to discuss it?!” He Xiaoxu was indignant, “Don’t act so sleazily! Come out! Let’s have a meeting!”
In the meeting room, Qi Zui sat at the head of the table and He Xiaoxu sat next to the head of the table, following that was Yu Yang, Bu Nana, Lao Kai, and Xin Ba in that order, and Lai Hua, who had been pulled over at the last minute.
Xin Ba was excited and nervous, “I…I can attend the high-level meetings in our team now too?”
Bu Nana generously waved his hands, “That’s right, you can.”
He Xiaoxu knocked on Bu Nana’s head and said with a cold face, “Everyone is here. Don’t joke around. This is the first internal high-level meeting of HOG in this quarter, I’ll be the host, and Xin Ba will do the note-taking.”
Xin Ba felt extremely honored and quickly found a notebook and a pen, looking at everyone in anticipation.
“The focus of this meeting is,” He Xiaoxu’s expression was solemn and his tone cold, “How can we naturally and inadvertently show our ex-Captain’s tattoo that is on a sensitive spot on his abdomen to the public healthily and positively.”
There was a snapping sound from Xin Ba who had broken the pencil.
