“You seem pretty energetic!” Chen Guo said, walking in. Hearing Fang Rui making all this noise, she suddenly felt much better.

“All you guys crowding around me, and no one brought me breakfast?” Fang Rui said indignantly.

“Brought you a newspaper.” Chen Guo held up the paper in her hand so that Fang Rui could see the headline.

The title was very eye-catching, so Fang Rui saw it immediately. His eyes lit up, but right after, he pretended as though it were nothing. With an expression of “this brother has seen the big stage” he dismissively said, “Tsk, that’s nothing.”

Fang Rui wasn’t lying on the bed. After all, esports competitions were carried out while sitting in front of a computer. Even though they could still be exhausting, they weren’t so exhausting that a player would be unable to get out of bed. Chen Guo casually tossed the newspaper toward the bed, and then carefully studied Fang Rui. He didn’t seem any different from normal.

Before she’d come here, the others had already spoken with Fang Rui. It was a bit of a tight squeeze, so many people in this one room, so after a greeting, they began to disperse.

“Do you need me to call breakfast for you?” Chen Guo asked Fang Rui.

“No, it’s fine, I’m gonna take a walk in a bit, I’ll get something to eat then,” said Fang Rui.

“Alright, then I won’t bother you any longer.” Chen Guo didn’t ask Fang Rui anything like “how are you, can you make it.” She followed everyone else out of the room.

Fang Rui stood by the window. The newspaper lay face-up on the desk next to the table, and the rays of light streaming through the window shone down upon it, illuminating the words, dazzlingly bright. Fang Rui lowered his head and looked at it, but he didn’t pick it up. He only laughed a little, then turned to look outside the window. Today’s weather really was quite good.

Happy didn’t have any plans in the morning. After such an intense battle, they wanted to rest up as much as they could. They scheduled a strategic meeting for the afternoon. It wasn’t any high-intensity practice, it was just a review of the match that they just played. This was something that pro teams would do after every match. And in the playoffs, where the matches were at a higher level and teams would play the same opponent multiple times, review became a highly effective method of adjustment. Summarize the successes and failures of the previous match, take the chance to plan strategy and tactics for the next match, it was a very focused method. Compared to the regular season, these reviews held greater significance during the playoffs.

And so, at 1:30 in the afternoon, Happy’s members gathered in the conference room they booked at the hotel. Ye Xiu had of course organized the match recordings beforehand, and when everyone arrived, he didn’t waste any time with unnecessary words, and began playing the recording.

“Let’s watch the team competition first!” Ye Xiu said, as the screen displayed this match’s team competition.

“In this team competition, to put it briefly, I believe that Samsara lost largely to surprise. Too many unexpected situations happened, messing up their plans. This meant that their strategies did not completely come into play,” said Ye Xiu.

“Take the beginning, for example, with Samsara’s advance.” Ye Xiu pointed out Samsara’s initial formation, with Zhou Zekai, Jiang Botao, and Sun Xiang advancing first, while Lu Boyuan stayed behind to protect Fang Minghua. “Clearly, this formation was to take advantage of the map’s high points.”

“The changes afterward were really quite simple. As for the surprise that happened during this point, I don’t think I need to go into detail,” said Ye Xiu.

The surprise here referred to Ye Xiu holding off Zhou Zekai, Jiang Botao, and Sun Xiang all by himself. This was Ye Xiu’s accomplishment, but during the review session, his tone was neither humble nor bragging. He simply told things as they were.

“In this part of the match, we can take another look at the cooperation between these three Samsara attackers. This is something that we have studied many times before,” said Ye Xiu.

Of course it had been many times. It wasn’t just Happy, any team in the Alliance that was aiming for the championship would definitely treat this as a crucial topic of study. Regarding this content, they couldn’t say that they had a thorough understanding, but they at least analyzed it to the best of their ability.

Ye Xiu said that they were looking at the attack coordination between these three, but in reality, they focused more on how Ye Xiu countered the attacks that the trio set up. As Ye Xiu was the player in question, he of course knew everything the most clearly. But right now, he was sharing the thought process with everyone. Because everyone played different characters with different class skills, they would all use different methods to deal with the same situation. Only by understanding the fundamental thought process could they learn from this 1v3 situation and apply it to their own class and character.

Ye Xiu would talk about what happened, someone would raise a question, someone would express an opinion, discussion, debate…

Chen Guo quietly stood to the side.

She always attended Happy’s strategy meetings. In the very beginning she would happily talk, ask some questions, express her point of view. But gradually, she began to just quietly stand to the side and listen, just like she was doing now.

Compared to the beginning, Chen Guo’s experience had increased dramatically, and if she gave her opinions now, she would probably be correct more often than not. But Chen Guo didn’t talk anymore, because no one had ever left out a point she wanted to make.

Look at Tang Rou. Two years ago, she was a complete noob, but now, Chen Guo sometimes couldn’t even keep up with her reasoning.

She would be lying if she said she wasn’t saddened at all. In her heart, Chen Guo still wished that she could be a pro player as well, that she could fight onstage alongside all of these partners.

But unfortunately, that was reality. All she could do was make their lives offstage a little better.

It was a bit disappointing, but it was nothing to hang her head about. Because Chen Guo understood very clearly that she was a member of this team as well. While they fought toward their goal, they had never left her behind, they were still tied together…

The final match was in two days. Everyone, good luck!

Chen Guo stood to the side and silently cheered everyone on. Right now, she wasn’t thinking at all about whether or not Fang Rui would be able to play. Because, just like Ye Xiu had said to her that morning, whether or not he could play, their goal wouldn’t change. Victory. Champions.

The review continued.

Chen Guo just stood to the side silently, all the way until the end.

“Tonight, does everyone have their own plans, or do you want to get dinner together or something?” Chen Guo asked.

“This… I feel like if we had a celebratory feast right now, that wouldn’t be too good. If the media found out, what would they say about us?” Wei Chen said.

Chen Guo glared at this old man. Even though he was saying nonsense, he did express his meaning, that he would prefer free time.

“Everyone, you’re free to do whatever! If you want to obey our boss’s plans, then just follow her,” said Ye Xiu.

Chen Guo gave him a glare as well. What kind of statement was that! Free, obey, weren’t those antonyms? How come he just put them together?

Mo Fan left first. He was always very uninterested in these sort of group gatherings.

Luo Ji was discussing something with Qiao Yifan, and An Wenyi joined them as well. The three of them, still in discussion, left together. Steamed Bun was prepared to join them too, but then he was caught by Wei Chen, who said something to him. Steamed Bun was instantly cheerful, and went along with Wei Chen.

“Boss, you know… Last match was very tiring for me, I’m heading back early to rest.” Appearing to be very meek and obedient, Fang Rui came over to let Chen Guo know.

Chen Guo couldn’t say anything except “go.” In the end, it was just her, Tang Rou, Su Mucheng, and Ye Xiu – three girls and one guy. Ye Xiu was organizing data, and clearly had no intention of “obeying” her plans. Chen Guo had long given up on the hope of a big get-together, and after saying goodbye to the others, she and Tang Rou left together.

Just two of them were left. Su Mucheng stood behind Ye Xiu, watching him reclassify the recordings, articles, images, etc. from before and save them.

“How do you feel?” Su Mucheng suddenly asked.

“How do I feel? You mean about Fang Rui?” Ye Xiu said, without turning his head.

“No, I’m talking about you… how are you?” Su Mucheng asked.

Ye Xiu, in the middle of busily organizing the files, visibly stopped.

“I’m… alright,” he said.