Accompany You Ch 15.1

Chapter 15: Phoenix¹ (Part 1)

As the profession of esports gradually standardized, the work division of teams also became more and more detailed: manager, coach, financial manager, interpreter, psychological consultant, data analyst, publicity manager, business relations, customer service…

The preparations to establish a team were complex and cumbersome. Qiu Ying stopped streaming in order to rush about everywhere with Ji Xiangkong in all directions. They were so busy they were nearly bruised and battered.

“You’ve been working hard, I really feel so sorry about it seeing a popular commentator doing all these trifling little things over here.”

In the evening, Ji Xiangkong bought a late-night meal to Qiu Ying’s house. Seeing that she was eating as she continued to look at the computer, he bowed down to hug her from behind, his chin on her shoulder. He said softly, “What if you be part of the team just in name? I’ll recruit someone else.”

“The manager is a babysitter-like job, I won’t be able to relax if other people take care of you.” In response, Qiu Ying grasped the hand of his that was on her waist, bending her fingers to poke in his palm. “Who told me to like you?”

Ji Xiangkong didn’t say anything, just hugged her even tighter. The beautiful girl in his arms was always like this. She unconditionally supported him, unconditionally believed in him. Even if she fell into a deep bog full of heavy misunderstandings, what her heart thought of was not to cry nor throw a fit, but… not to affect him.

Even though he’d been at the center of the whirlpool of public opinion from beginning to end for so many years, his professional career full of ups and downs, been given the label of “trash” for innumerable times, and also once been deeply hurt by the one he loved; he never demanded, never defended. But God finally cared for him, and gave him the best.

Qiu Ying searched for listings on rental websites for several days, finally deciding on a suitable place. It was a six-bedroom, three-bathroom villa with two stories. The first story was a large hall, open kitchen and dining room; the second was six rooms. There were flowers set in the front yard and a large swimming pool in the back. The location wasn’t bad, with the surrounding living amenities completely fulfilled as well.

Qiu Ying found a expert to block off a space in the large hall and install a sliding door. Inside it she put a large, long table with three computers placed on each side, put together with a projector and a whiteboard, to form a training room.

After everything was completely ready, the team members moved into the base to assemble for offline training.

Unexpectedly, the first day they lived together, Qiu Ying slipped into a somersault.

She’d always found it difficult to get up in the mornings. Her brain needed a long time before it could get moving, and add on the fact that she was long used to living alone; after being screamed awake by the alarm clock, she went down the stairs to the kitchen to get some water to drink. She’d just gotten a cup and drunk half of it before it hit her that something seemed to be wrong. When she turned to take a look, there were — five big men sitting at the dining table. Her head immediately woke up, with an incomparable bang.

Right now she was wearing a silk-suspender nightdress. Below the dress was a pair of two bare legs, round and slender, making her exquisite figure extremely obvious. The left strap was slipping down, resting loosely on her arm and revealing an expanse of porcelain-white smooth skin.

Sun Zeyi looked away calmly; Pei Xi turned his head a little unnaturally; Lin Yixuan covered his face with a “Woww” and by the way, also covered Xia Ling’s eyes next to him.

Qiu Ying’s face went shades of red and white. As she was so panicked she lost her mind, Ji Xiangkong had already quickly stepped forward to block her off and taken off his jacket to cover her body. She ran up the stairs without even turning her head back. Just before she got to the top floor, she heard Lin Yixuan say with incredibly good timing, “Damn, Pei Xi, your face can actually turned red, I even thought you don’t have any feelings for girls.”

Luckily, professional players were always used to living together. The newcomer, Xia Ling, didn’t have the bad and difficult personality he’d had the very first time they met. Often when he smiled, his face was full of brilliant sunlight, which made others realize that he was just a young boy who wasn’t yet past his teens.

When it came to iceberg Pei Xi, while he was indifferent, it wasn’t like he was autistic. At the very least, on the left, there was Ji Xiangkong with a smile on his face taking him by the shoulder to advise, “Remember to say something after practice games. If you don’t want to say anything, you can write something down too.” And on the right Lin Yixuan would occasionally assault him with a visit: “Let’s all start with deepening our friendship, let’s say, like washing each other’s backs during showers…”

The team’s work and rest were extremely disciplined. Everyday, they assembled at 10 o’clock in the morning and began with four rounds of Best-of-2 training games, then they focused on watching competition recordings, summarizing their experiences, and conducting specialized training. After training finished, they respectively returned to their rooms or individually trained, in time to go to bed by 12 o’clock.

Through their close contact during this period of time, Qiu Ying became profoundly aware that professional players’ daily training and “playing games” weren’t a single concept at all. For a small operation, they turned on the standalone map and repeated it for countless times, practicing until it became complete muscle memory. For one set of tactics, they endlessly practiced it back and forth to refine it. These day-by-day processes were extremely dull to the gazes of outsiders.

Just like all other sports, what sustained them to keep on going on was a determination greater than ordinary people’s, a love for the sport, and a heart aimed at victory with the hunger to become stronger.

After living together for two weeks, Qiu Ying got a rough estimate of the members’ habits. As the manager, she needed to look after their clothing, food, housing, and the necessities. In the kitchen, she reminded the cooking auntie to make a balanced and nutritious meal, then she went to the training room to look over the members’ training and supervise them to make sure they weren’t procrastinating.

Because the team uniform was still in development, normally Pei Xi always like wearing a white shirt and casual pants, a very clean appearance; and Lin Yixuan was just like a walking color palette with a patterned T-shirt paired with camouflage shorts. When the two of them stood next to each other, it was a completely clashing feeling.

Not only that, their two seats were right next to each other. One side was spotless and the other side was like the scene of a robbery. When he saw the snacks, notes, mouse, keyboard, and headphones all thrown together, Pei Xi’s OCD made him unable to keep him from saying, “Can you clean up your desk?”

Lin Yixuan quickly agreed and obediently did it, but the second day the ashes of evil lit once more.

After training finished, Lin Yixuan begged Pei Xi to demonstrate his operating. Then he saw Pei Xi move far away from him as if he was carrying the plague, even putting a tissue below his hand when he was using his mouse. Lin Yixuan curled his lips and got closer to him. His index and thumb, which had been scratching against the table for half a day. pinched his face. Then he made his great escape before he could attack in return.

Ten seconds later, Qiu Ying heard Pei Xi coldly grit his teeth and say, “Manager, I want to change seats.”

During an intermission, Sun Zeyi and Pei Xi went to the backyard to exercise. Xia Ling couldn’t, thanks to his leg, so Lin Yixuan played a motion-sensing game with him in the living room. Qiu Ying carried some food from the kitchen to the dining table, happening to pass by Ji Xiangkong who’d come forward to help. His elbow accidentally bumped into her, and her lips pursed slightly, her heart like it’d been gently stroked by feathers.

In order to mind the feelings of all single dogs, Ji Xiangkong’s behavior was very disciplined while in front of everyone. From beginning to end, he maintained a certain distance from Qiu Ying, looking like a pure captain-manager relationship.

Now that the beautiful young woman’s gaze was looking at him clearly, Ji Xiangkong raised his eyebrows and smiled at her. Then he casually walked forward. Qiu Ying’s heart immediately dropped down and she unhappily wrinkled her nose.

Unexpectedly, he quickly circled back, took her by the waist, and carried her over to the side.

Qiu Ying’s heart prickled. With a voice as thin as a mosquito’s hum, she reminded, “They… they can see.”

“The floor’s dirty.” Ji Xiangkong loosened his hand to pinch her ear. With a low voice overflowing with a laugh, he said, “What are you thinking of?”

When he saw Qiu Ying glaring at him all puffed up, Ji Xiangkong laughed even more happily. “We’re under the same roof, we’ll have many more days to come.”

**

After the meal began, everyone was sitting around the dining table. Like a loving father taking care of his children, Sun Zeyi put vegetables in everyone’s bowls one by one. He laughed when he saw the two young men whispering to each other from time to time. “A’xuan and Xiao Ling get along pretty well.”

Lin Yixuan wiggled his eyebrows. “Of course, we don’t even forget to share adult magazines together.”

“…You’re the one who was hiding in the room looking at them and I accidentally caught you,” Xia Ling supplied with a calm voice.

Lin Yixuan used a mocking hand to poke at him. “So you didn’t take advantage of when I was gone to page through it? Oh right, Xiangkong, this brat said that his ideal type is someone like Ying meimei.”

Xia Ling’s face instantaneously turned the color of pig liver. “Hey!”

Lin Yixuan vigorously patted the shoulder of his young friend. “What’s there to be shy about? I get you, it’s every man’s lifelong dream to date a hot and sexy but soft gal who’s a lot older than him!”

“Shut up! There aren’t any men who have a dream like that, you pervert!” Xia Ling overturned the table in anger, hurriedly glancing several times at Qiu Ying, his ears slightly red. “Don’t say bull like that in front of Ji ge!”

These words scared Qiu Ying so much she was in a total mess. This beautiful young man was the person in her younger cousin’s heart, it absolutely couldn’t develop into a dog-blood plot. Yet the subject of the conversation, Ji Xiangkong, casually shrugged his shoulders and gave a thumbs-up to Xia Ling. “Your eyesight’s not bad, young man.”

While everyone was fighting, a cold wind suddenly blew over from her side. Qiu Ying noticed that Pei Xi had been staring at Lin Yixuan beginning from just a little while ago. Just as she was wondering, she saw Pei Xi suddenly get up, expressionlessly walk to Lin Yixuan’s side, and then grab his collar!

…Now where did this one come from?

Beneath everyone’s gazes as they held their breaths, Pei Xi’s hand rose and fell like a knife. He pulled out a black thread from Lin Yixuan’s collar, then released a breath and nonchalantly return to his own seat to keep on eating.

As if a cold wind had blown over, the tree leaves drifted down. Everyone around the table was so silent not even a bird’s song was heard.

**

The tryout competition for CPL would be held in two months. When that time came, the top eight teams would be selected from over a thousand of them across the whole country to fight against the two lowest-ranked teams from the CPL Fall Season to determine who would be promoted to get listed into the CPL Spring Season.

After a brief breaking-in period, Ji Xiangkong stewed for many nights over the team situation and every player’s individual characteristics to draw up a detailed training plan. The team officially entered their war preparation phase.

When Qiu Ying entered the training room, Lin Yixuan and Xia Ling were gossiping about why Sun Zeyi was so handsome and also a master of all housework, but was still single thus far.

Lin Yixuan grabbed Sun Zeyi’s hand and felt it for a bit. His voice was full of regret. “Where else could you find a craftsman like Sun ge? Unless girls nowadays don’t love warm men, they just like cold icebergs?”

Xia Ling chewed on his gum. “Girls always think that boys who don’t talk a lot are cool and hot, but in most cases they’re just boring and don’t know what to say.” With that said, he patted Lin Yixuan’s shoulder. “So there’s still a market for chattermouths like you.”

Lin Yixuan slapped the table and turned his head to shout, “Pei Xi! He’s insulting you, he said you’re boring! If it were me, I wouldn’t be able to bear it!”

Pei Xi was wearing headphones. Without saying a word, he picked up the mug on the table and slowly took a sip of water.

Qiu Ying was just about to intervene when Ji Xiangkong opened the door and came in. With a gentle but deterring “Let’s begin the meeting”, he rescued the drily-smiling Sun Zeyi, an older and matured man, from gunpoint. Pei Xi took off his headphones, and Lin Yixuan and Xia Ling immediately stopped moving around to sit properly.

Ji Xiangkong turned on the projector and asked with a smile, “Everyone knows that the path of playing professionally is steep. So why do we often fail to produce results?”

Xia Ling raised his hand to answer. “Because solo and professional competitions are different. Professional teams have a mature tactical system, tacit cooperation, as well as extremely strong team execution. Playing alone, solo, it’s hard to match against them.”

Ji Xiangkong nodded. “Strong team execution is the ability to transform tactics into actual results. When the commander gives their orders, the team members immediately react to carry them out.”

In other words, during competitions, unconditionally obey his commands.

There were many times that the failure of a team lay in the disagreements of everyone at a key moment. They all judged using their own experiences, they distrusted each other when the wind was blowing against them in competitions, and so the more they played, the more they collapsed.

Only five people working as one, as if a well-trained, well-oiled army, could elevate their combat strength to its utmost.

Ji Xiangkong collected himself into a smile and then bowed seriously. “Please, everyone, believe in me.”

Then everyone stood up and replied, equally seriously, “We believe in you.”

And then, Ji Xiangkong announced the arrangement of the positions. “In the future, Xia Ling will serve as mid, Pei Xi will change to jungler.”

As soon as these words sounded, everyone was astonished.

Conquer was split up into its three top, mid, and bottom lanes. Offlaner and mid each had a lane; support generally had to protect the ADC so they were in one lane.

And jungler was a fairly unusual position. He wouldn’t stand stably at a line of troops to fight against his opponent, but would be in the “jungle”, the large nest that neutral monsters came out of near each group’s base. When they destroyed the monsters, they gained experience, gold, got buffs and so on.

The essence of jungler was gank.

Gank, Gangbang Kill, was a common tactic in MOBA games. During an opportune moment, one person or more deliberately passed through their opponents’ blind spots to carry out ambushes, outflanks, and sieges on their enemies.

While the jungler guaranteed his own development, he wandered in between the lines of troops on the three roads, coming and going like a ghost and cooperating with his teammates on the same lane to gank the opposing players. Thus they increased the deterring strength of their own side, suppressed their opponents, and accumulated an advantage.

Now, Ji Xiangkong was deciding to have Pei Xi, who was used to being four-protect-one’d, transform into a jungler?

Have a son who was used to being well-supplied with food and drink to grow up, transform into a father in charge of taking care of those in the other three lanes?

Under everyone’s surprised eyes, Ji Xiangkong slowly drank a sip of coffee. “The jungler’s existence needs to constantly strike fear into the hearts of the enemy. If he suddenly appears at a certain lane, it’s time for the other person to die. This suits Pei Xi very much.

“Also, Pei Xi developed as a mid before and is used to playing with enough gold, only leaving the mountain after he’s bought strong equipment. But the resources a jungler can get while in the jungle are limited. He needs to gank with other team members to gain an economic advantage. We won’t be able to use our previous way of thinking to fight.”

Qiu Ying understood what Ji Xiangkong meant. Gamers had always jokingly called Pei Xi “shut up listen to songs 1v9”, meaning that during the early game he would turn off his microphone to listen to songs all by himself.² If you wanted a person like that to completely give up his habits, just persuasion wasn’t enough. It’d be better to drop him into a position far away from his “comfort zone”, drop him into a position where he would crash if he didn’t communicate nor cooperate so he’d have a sudden breakthrough amidst a challenge.

After they finished listening to Ji Xiangkong, Pei Xi faintly said, “I understand.” Immediately afterward, he began looking over the jungler heroes that needed training.

Qiu Ying couldn’t keep herself from lamenting, no questions, no hesitations, he really obeyed unconditionally…

After the meeting broke up, the other three people left the room one by one to go to the dining room. Sun Zeyi was at the door when he turned back around with a worried face. “Won’t transforming in such a time be too hard for Pei Xi?”

Ji Xiangkong shrugged his shoulders with a laugh. “No, I’m just afraid that I’ll make his training too easy for him and he’ll think it’s boring.”

Sun Zeyi thought it over for a while. “A newcomer is replacing the top mid in the country. The pressure on Xia Ling is greater than we imagined.”

“Yeah.” Ji Xiangkong nodded, his voice slow as he said, “But he’s not alone. He still has us behind him. Besides, this pressure was nothing ten years ago.”

As Sun Zeyi heard this, the expression in his eyes gradually became dignified, like he’d fallen into endless memories.

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^{1 The title of this chapter is 凤凰 (fenghuang), which roughly translates to “phoenix”, while the name of our new team is Phoenix (in English). In Chinese culture, fenghuangs represent virtue and grace, and in some traditions appear as a sign of the beginning of a new era, much like how Western phoenixes also symbolize rebirth.
2 In case it isn’t clear “shut up listen to music 1v9” is a meme saying originating from the Chinese DOTA community (?) meaning that the person in question doesn’t talk, doesn’t listen, and fights everyone in the field by themselves no matter if it’s friend or enemy.}

***

Anyone here for Pei Xi’s unconditional trust in Ji Xiangkong +1