E-Sports Boss Wants To Post Messages With New Players Every Day Chapter 73

2.

After accepting Li Huanbin’s friend request, Shen Xiao sat bolt upright, staring intently at the screen, looking as if he were bracing for battle.

Bai Chen’s seat was next to his. After getting in the car, he glanced at Shen Xiao, who was looking sternly at his phone. “What are you looking at?”

Shen Xiao didn’t even spare him a look, still focused on his phone. “Waiting for a good, old-fashioned shouting match.”

“…”

Bai Chen found another spot and sat elsewhere.

Unfortunately, after waiting for a long time, the shouting match never came. All he received was a cute cat emoji.

Shen Xiao stared blankly at the little cat rolling back and forth on the screen with a complicated expression. It took him a moment to realize that Li Huanbin’s polite tone and phrasing when sending the friend request clearly indicated he wasn’t here to demand an explanation for being blocked earlier.

…He had judged a gentleman with the heart of a petty man.

Since Li Huanbin hadn’t initiated trouble, Shen Xiao couldn’t respond with harsh words. The energy he had built up for so long hit a wall of cotton. He leaned back against the seat, typing out a question in a very displeased tone: “Why did you add me?”

It was common knowledge that he disliked Li Huanbin, and Shen Xiao was too lazy to hide it. If he hated someone, he was straightforward about it.

Li Huanbin seemed to be free at the moment. Almost as soon as the message was sent, the words “The other party is typing” appeared above the message bar.

Li Huanbin: It’s nothing important, I just wanted to chat with you.

A big question mark popped up in Shen Xiao’s mind.

Chat?

What did Li Huanbin have to chat about with him?

He carefully recalled how he and Li Huanbin interacted before the whole gummy bear incident.

Although he hadn’t explicitly shown his aversion, Shen Xiao had adopted a policy of avoidance—if he couldn’t provoke him, he could at least hide from him.

So, almost every time the two had an exchange, it was Li Huanbin who initiated it.

At first, he asked him to Duo Queue, which Shen Xiao naturally refused.

Later, seeing how firm Shen Xiao was, Li Huanbin gave up on Duo Queue and occasionally shared interesting anecdotes and gossip with him.

For these trivial topics, Shen Xiao would still reply to be polite, but he also subtly interspersed his refusal and coldness in his messages. Unfortunately, Li Huanbin was oblivious; as long as Shen Xiao replied, he would inevitably send another message next time.

…Until the day Shen Xiao blocked him.

A wave of guilt washed over Shen Xiao, quickly covered by even more shame and indignation.

He picked up his phone and typed furiously.

Seamy: There’s nothing for us to talk about.

Li Huanbin: Actually, I wanted to ask you to Duo Queue.

These two messages were sent almost simultaneously.

Shen Xiao froze.

…Duo Queue?

His only Duo Queue with Li Huanbin was the gummy bear incident.

Damn it!

Shen Xiao ground his back teeth. Now he was certain: it wasn’t him being petty; Li Huanbin was here to rub salt in his wounds!

He typed angrily: “No need. My skill level isn’t worthy of queuing with Captain Li.”

This time, the “The other party is typing” from Li Huanbin’s side displayed for a long time, but no new message appeared in the chat box.

Just as Shen Xiao thought he would send a long essay, a new message popped up.

It contained no text, only an emoji of a kitten staring tearfully at the camera, looking utterly wronged.

Shen Xiao’s mouth twitched.

How could a Top-Tier Alpha, a man taller than himself, use such cute emojis?

He moved his fingers but ultimately didn’t reply. Putting down his phone, he looked up just in time to see Qu Qingyue and the Coach walking onto the bus together.

Qu Qingyue happened to look over as well. Their eyes met, and both felt a little awkward.

But Shen Xiao was surprised to find that the frustration he had felt from unrequited feelings had dissipated significantly compared to before. Even now, there was only the hurt of being kept in the dark, and beyond that, only calmness remained.

Oh, and his dissatisfaction with Li Huanbin.

Shen Xiao licked his left canine tooth, shifted his gaze first, and looked out the car window, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the phone’s volume button.

He tried hard to shift his attention away from the brief conversation, lest it seem like Li Huanbin had a significant impact on him.

But in the end, as the car started, Shen Xiao couldn’t help but wonder: What had Li Huanbin been trying to say after that long pause?

—

Qu Qingyue ultimately left TWG, and Ice took her place, becoming a Main Roster Player Medic for TWG’s A-Team.

Though childish, Shen Xiao had once believed that their TWG was different from other teams, that the four of them would play together until retirement, with no personnel changes.

Perhaps that was true when they were young, but as they aged, Shen Xiao, the youngest member of the team, had unknowingly become an “older player” in the scene.

For a team to continue, new blood was essential.

Moreover, the newly joined Ice was strong enough, and his personal style was sharp and aggressive. Even if Shen Xiao wanted to find fault, he couldn’t.

TWG eventually entered the playoffs as the top seed in the standings.

The pre-season point matches concluded, and then came the New Year.

Shen Xiao had left home and joined the team at a very young age. He was constantly away and rarely returned home except for the New Year, so he wasn’t particularly homesick. As he packed his luggage, he only felt relieved that he could finally rest for a while—it was hard-earned.

However, he had too many miscellaneous things to bring, and his home was in T City, thousands of miles away, making every move a hassle.

After finally checking his luggage, Shen Xiao confirmed his flight and habitually picked up his phone, where he saw a new message from Li Huanbin.

He opened the chat box and found that Li Huanbin had sent a photo today.

In the photo, under a dim streetlamp, a tabby kitten lay by the roadside, exposing its belly to the person taking the picture. The toe beans on its four paws were pink and round, making it look docile and adorable.

Shen Xiao’s heart skipped a beat.

Lately, since they re-added each other as friends, Li Huanbin had been sending interesting pictures or daily snippets almost every day, just like before. Shen Xiao saw them but never replied, waiting for the other side to get bored and back off.

But this time, he couldn’t resist.

Since childhood, Shen Xiao’s favorite animal had been cats. Unfortunately, both his parents were allergic to cat fur, and he didn’t have the energy to care for one at the base, so he could only “cloud-raise” cats with other netizens on video sites.

Shen Xiao could barely ignore the cat emojis Li Huanbin sent before, but this photo, where the actual cat was clearly nearby, made it hard for Shen Xiao to look away.

He held back again and again, but finally couldn’t resist typing: “Is that a stray cat?”

Li Huanbin: Yes, it lives downstairs from our base.

Seamy: It’s that friendly with people?

Li Huanbin: I feed him often, so he’s friendlier with me.

Li Huanbin: Do you like cats?

He had sent so many messages diligently, all of which sank without a trace. He hadn’t expected a casually taken photo of a stray cat to draw a response.

Li Huanbin held his phone, glanced at the tabby kitten nearby, which had buried its entire head in a can of food, narrowed his eyes, and then laughed.

Why was he comparing himself to a cat?

Shen Xiao was very conscious of his image. When asked about his favorite animal during interviews, he always answered with fierce predators like “lions” or “tigers.”

Being suddenly asked if he liked soft, cute kittens made him a little embarrassed. He felt it contradicted the tough-guy persona he had cultivated, but trying to hide it now would only make it more obvious.

So he deliberately replied fiercely: “Yeah, got a problem with that?”

Li Huanbin smiled when he saw the reply.

Li Huanbin: I’ll take more pictures for you in the future.

The gentle and accommodating attitude of the other party clearly pleased Shen Xiao. He rolled over and didn’t ignore the message as he usually did. He even answered Li Huanbin’s question about his exact time of return home openly.

The two chatted intermittently about trivial matters until late at night. Finally, Shen Xiao was too sleepy and called it quits first.

Li Huanbin, having been given the cold shoulder for so long, was content and tactfully said, “Good night, sweet dreams.”

Shen Xiao mumbled a reply of “Good night.”

The next morning, he stared at his bird’s nest of hair and then at the two words he had sent last night, spacing out for a long time.

Looking back at the chat history, he wanted to bang his head against the wall.

Had he been possessed last night? How could he have talked so much nonsense with Li Huanbin?

And looking back, at least half of the conversation was him being half-coaxed and half-guided by Li Huanbin. It was exactly like the time Li Huanbin pretended to be a gummy bear to trick him, and he had acted like an idiot, running around at Li Huanbin’s command.

Damn it!

Shen Xiao clicked on Li Huanbin’s profile picture, his finger hovering over the block option, but he hesitated for a moment and didn’t immediately press it.

After a while, he angrily withdrew his finger.

…It wasn’t that he didn’t want to block Li Huanbin.

He was just curious about the tabby kitten’s situation.

Shen Xiao convinced himself, put down his phone, and went to wash up.