Sweetest In The Universe Chapter 14

Zhou Tian finally woke up after sleeping for an entire afternoon.

The two bottles of drip were just about to be empty when she woke up. Xie Yi, because of his guilt, was looking after her the entire time. He just went out to call the staff so that they could pull out the needle and left Guang Bo Niang behind to watch over her.

Guan Bo Niang was very excited, seeing that Zhou Tian's consciousness had returned: "Little Tian, you're finally awake! How are you feeling right now?"

Zhou Tian was a bit confused, "This place is… The hospital?"

"Yes, because you had a fever." Guan Bo Niang immediately explained, "Xie Ge found you, and we came with you to the hospital. The doctor said that you came just in time, otherwise, your fever could've gotten worse."

"Oh." Zhou Tian tried to remember after hearing her words and finally thought of how she heard Xie Yi knocking in her dreams, "…So, it really was him…"

Just as she was mumbling softly, Xie Yi came back with the nurse.

The nurse measured her body temperature after seeing that she was awake.

"How is she?" Guan Bo Niang was the first to ask.

"She hasn't completely recovered yet," The nurse said, "But she's definitely much better. Have a good night of rest, and make sure that you are under the blanket at all times. You will recover soon."

"Does that mean that she shouldn't go back today?"

"Mhm, she should, of course, return when she's completely fine." The nurse answered, as if it was common knowledge.

Guan Bo Niang didn't know what to do, because YYg had already organized their two weeks of schedule accordingly to when the Summer Compet.i.tion's dates came out.

And according to their schedule, the entire YYg team would be flying to Guangzhou tonight, and prepare for the match that was going to happen in three days.

TL Note: Guangzhou, well, is a city in China.

Zhou Tian also knew the schedule and immediately shook her head, "No, I still have a flight to catch tonight."

The nurse didn't stop them either. She just reminded them to be careful afterwards, and to not have a fever again because of exhaustion.

Zhou Tian scratched her face: "This is not the first time I have a fever, and I feel like it's not that big of a problem. I won't drag the team behind schedule, if I can help it."

Xie Yi, standing beside her bed, frowned, "You would be dragging us behind if you go to a match with a fever."

Xie Yi's voice was already very deep for his age group, and now, because of his anger, his voice was even deeper. His tone sounded very icy and hard.

But Zhou Tian already knew his true personality, so she wasn't afraid. She pursed her lips and raised her head to look at him, "I won't go to a match with a fever. Aren't there still three more days?"

Xie Yi: "…"

At last, Zhou Tian still decided to leave the hospital.

Before she left, she wanted to show her determination to recover and had a conversation with the doctor while noting down everything the doctor said.

The doctor said that her fever was caused by many reasons and not just because of the cold.

"Aren't you from Chang San Jiao, right? Being acclimatized when you just move here is normal." The doctor told her, "And you must stay up late a lot. Your schedule doesn't have a regular pattern, so these are all big problems. You need to take care of your body, don't go looking for death just because you're young."

TL Note: not like literally looking for death, but more of doing reckless things. 

Zhou Tian couldn't find a way to explain to the doctor that this was something that she had to get used to because of her job. 

Just as she started to speak, Xie Yi spoke for her and said that she wouldn't stay up late again.

Zhou Tian: "???" Wait a moment, so he's not going to call me down to duo rank in the middle of the night ever again?

She tentatively asked Xie Yi when the group of three got onto the taxi that was heading back to their base.

And Xie Yi, not even hesitating a single bit, nodded and said yes.

Zhou Tian: "…To be honest, it's actually unnecessary. You know, we still need to practice."

Xie Yi said that they could practice during the mornings.

"But it's slow to get into a server during mornings." She said without thinking, "There are only around a thousand people that are in the high-ended bureau of the Korean server, and only nine hundred or so log on during the afternoon or during midnight."

Although the game was right there, and you could play it whenever you wanted, things like ranking games were different without the system giving you opponents and teammates that were about your level.

Xie Yi, as a professional gamer who has been playing in the Korean server for many years, of course knew this.

TL Note: This was really confusing, but like I think the point is that because there are only 100 players in the morning, it's harder to get into a server. Correct me in the comments if I'm wrong.

But he thought that it wasn't a problem. First of all, professional gamers played rank only because they want to sustain their skills or to just practice using new heroes. Secondly, Zhou Tian had been really good at cooperating with her teammates ever since she joined. Even if they didn't rank outside of training, it still wouldn't really affect them. And even if it would be much slower to get into a server during the morning, they would still only be getting into a few games.

TL Note: So like, since there are less people in the mornings, it's slower to get into a game.

"It's fine that it's slow." He said with a tone that didn't allow anyone to object, "We'll do it during the mornings."

Zhou Tian considered it and said, "Then you will have to sleep earlier from now on too. If you sleep late and wake up early, then you won't be able to play well. If we wake up early and lose a lot of points, then it'd be unbearable."

Xie Yi: "…"

Guan Bo Niang, who was sitting next to the driver, saw her cruely saying bad things about Xie Yi, and saw that Xie Yi had nothing to reply with. She almost laughed, but of course, she resisted doing so.

When they got back to the base, the other teammates had already returned. So the group packed their luggages for half an hour, and then were ready to go to the airport.

Yin Yuanxia and the others learned that Zhou Tian had a fever and went to the hospital, so they came to find her.

"How are you now? Are you feeling better?"

"You still look pale. Are you sure you're fine?"

"It's going to be cold on the airplane later. Make sure to wear an extra layer."

Zhou Tian answered them one by one, and then got on the bus heading towards the airport with the rest of the group with her luggage.

On the bus, the staff who went with the team took a few photos and said that it was for tonight's official Wei Bo posts.

"We don't have to worry now. These photos should be enough for today's advertising, and tomorrow we can put out the edited version of the voice recording at the compet.i.tion."

Zhou Tian, who was sitting in the corner and who was probably still sick, had to take a moment to react before she heard 'the voice recording at the compet.i.tion', "Wait, the microphone recording is going out?"

TL Note: A bit confusing for me, but I think she means that a recording of what they said during the matches is going to be released to the public

Guan Bo Niang, sitting in the row in front of her, immediately turned around, "Yeah, we edited it during this entire morning. We need to put all your highlights in it, but sometimes we'll still have to crop out what you say during the highlighted moments." 

"This, I know." w.a.n.g Ren said, "Every single time we team fight, Han Ziliang always curses. When we lose, he curses. When we win, he curses. It really would be inappropriate if we put it in the edited version."

"f.u.c.k, you're such a jerk. So apparently you curse less than me?"

"It's actually okay this time, since there isn't much content with cursing in it." Guan Bo Niang said with a tone of 'I'm already used to it', "Mainly, you guys were just saying that SF's new Top player played too bad, when you won during the second round. If we directly put those recordings out there, then the fans of both teams will start fighting, and we don't want that. We have a pretty good relations.h.i.+p with SF right now."

Yin Yuanxia also reacted: "Oh yeah. We also complimented Boss Su and Bone. SF's fans always cursed at Boss Su and Bone last season and kept on complaining about how they were so bad. Now, SF changed to two new players who are the ones that are really sucky. I wonder how their fans feel right now."

TL Note: Boss Su and Bone are the previous players of SF that now left.

Zhou Tian sensed the smell of gossiping, "So these two players left the team because they were being blamed for something they didn't do?" 

Yin Yuanxia nodded: "Mainly, they had nothing to do with losing the Spring Compet.i.tion, but in the end, they were still blamed. The day after they lost to tSD at the finals, there were people going over to SF's base and swearing at them for dragging the team behind. And SF's management didn't do anything about that. I don't even know what they were thinking."

Zhou Tian: "…" That really was too awful for them.

Maybe it was because he was afraid that these pieces of gossip would scare her, Yin Yuanxia quickly added: "Ah, just hear some old news and forget about it, don't mind them either. There are crazy fans all over the place."

Zhou Tian, of course, understood this. But she couldn't resist but think that Boss Su and Bone took the blame because they weren't old members of SF and instead joined halfway. But if you put this situation for YYg–

When he saw that she was thinking randomly, w.a.n.g Ren interrupted: "And our fans don't care about these kinds of things."

Zhou Tian couldn't resist but looked at Xie Yi, who was sitting in the other corner, when she remembered the crazy comments online when YYg lost during the semifinals.

Because after they only achieved third place in the compet.i.tion, he, without any worries of insulting anyone, had talked about their failure in the semifinals during an interview.

At that moment, a journalist had asked him how he would comment on YYg's result during the Spring Compet.i.tion. He said that it was obviously a failure.

When the journalist heard the answer, she was too slow to react and almost forgot to continue the interview.

At last, Xie Yi, who was used to being silent and aloof in front of others, took over the microphone and initiatively continued, "This failure would be my fault."

The journalist, who was about to pull herself back together, was shocked again after hearing this sentence. She said without thinking, "How could it be your fault? During the fifth round of the semifinals, you clearly–"

During the fifth round of the semifinals, it was Song Chu, the old captain, who was first to go off strategy and wander around the jungling area. And then, it was Han Ziliang who got killed three times on his path. They were getting worse and worse in that round, Xie Yi, with an AD hero that only became powerful in the second part of the game, couldn't even get the equipment and do his job before the round ended. n.o.body could really blame him.

Everyone thought so, but he didn't.

He interrupted whatever the journalist was saying, "I have the highest salary, it would, of course, be my fault if I can't carry my team."

Zhou Tian still remembered that his words stunned the entire eSports industry.

n.o.body could say that they hadn't seen anyone who felt  strong responsibility for the entire team, but people like Xie Yi were really rare.

And he was also pointing out some cla.s.sic logic that was in the eSports industry, that was never pointed out, but everyone knew–You make the most money. You're the most famous star. The team lost, whose fault is it if it's not yours?

Because of these brief short words that he said, YYg's fans and Xie Yi's own fans didn't curse any team member later on even when they lost the Spring Compet.i.tion.

This situation, compared to Boss Su, Bone, and the SF's officials who kept on getting cursed at by their fans, really was different.

So it wasn't actually 'YYg's fans don't care about these kinds of things', Zhou Tian thought, but that it's actually because there is always a person like Xie Yi, who's standing in front and blocking out all the wind and rain attacking.

TL Note: Like, there's always a person taking the blame (in this case) and s.h.i.+elding the team.

Zhou Tian thought. She didn't even realize that she was staring at Xie Yi for a few minutes.

Until Xie Yi felt a bit weird and couldn't resist but raise his eyebrow at her, when she finally pulled herself back together.

…And then, without knowing why, quickly looked away.

credits: Sydney & Katimu

Enjoy!