“What’s wrong? Did someone bully you?” Huang He, seeing his sister-in-law cry, immediately got angry and glared fiercely at the contestants.
“No, it’s not like that, Mr. Huang, you misunderstood. Zhi Ruo is crying because our teammates lost!” Pei Le quickly explained.
It turned out that some of the Chinese contestants had lost their first matches, which made Leng Zhi Meng unable to bear it and cry.
Huang He and Leng Zhi Meng had arrived late and spent over an hour playing games with Alan Adhan, and then chatted for another two hours. By the time he came out, the first day of the competition had already concluded.
In the end, half of China’s sixteen contestants were eliminated in the preliminaries. Only the contestants in the Empire Age II, StarCraft, and FIFA events remained on the field.
The contestants in these three events all cast subtle glances at Leng Zhi Meng, clearly not forgetting her previous promise to make the first champion her boyfriend.
Alas, the e-sports players of this era were not like those ten years later, who were as fat as pigs and had internet celebrity girlfriends. These professional players were truly miserable, with no one to love them except their computers.
Not to mention how beautiful and cute Leng Zhi Meng was, and how she shed tears for them. She was truly a good girl who loved e-sports. In just one afternoon, they had fallen deeply in love with this beautiful girl.
Indeed, these guys were getting ideas. One of them said, “Mr. Huang, and Miss Leng, it’s not easy for everyone to be in a foreign country. Why don’t we find a place to have dinner together? I heard Korean food is quite distinctive and looks delicious in TV dramas! Our treat!”
“Brother-in-law?” Leng Zhi Meng looked at Huang He. Huang He smiled and said, “It’s better to accept your kind invitation. Then, Zhi Meng and I will impose on you!”
“Hooray!” everyone cheered, and then they gathered together. A large group of people set off from the venue and walked towards the restaurant.
“Have you booked a restaurant already?” Leng Zhi Meng asked curiously.
“No, it’s a restaurant downstairs from where we’re staying!” Deep explained. “It’s closer to our place, so we can go back to sleep after eating, and it’s quite distinctive!”
“How far is it from here?” Leng Zhi Meng asked again.
“I don’t know!” Deep scratched his hair. “We don’t know how far it is, but when we came here for the competition this morning, it took us about an hour to walk!”
“It takes an hour to walk!” Leng Zhi Meng was stunned. She was now “Meng Zong,” and she was always driven by a special car. Even in Korea, she traveled by taxi. Now, she was asked to walk for an hour, and she was extremely unwilling.
“Brother-in-law, we…” Leng Zhi Meng was about to suggest they take a taxi, but Huang He gently pressed her head and smiled, “That’s great. It’s a good opportunity to exercise. We haven’t exercised in a long time!”
Then, Huang He whispered in Leng Zhi Meng’s ear, “Since we’re out with them, don’t act special. Otherwise, what’s the purpose of you being with them?”
After Huang He said this, Leng Zhi Meng immediately gave up the idea of taking a taxi and walked with everyone. Midway, Huang He curiously asked, “Why did the organizing committee arrange such a distant hotel for you? Shouldn’t it be closer?”
“The place we’re staying isn’t arranged by the organizing committee!” mty on the side shook his head. “We found the place ourselves. The organizing committee doesn’t provide accommodation. Our expenses are all provided by China. The amount isn’t much, so we can’t afford rooms near the venue. We can only find a place further away!”
“That’s right, and it’s not a hotel, but a temporary rental. We rented it for a week, which saves over twenty times the cost of staying in a hotel. It’s very cheap. This is all thanks to the students studying here who helped us find such a great place!” Deep said with a smile.
“All sixteen of you are staying in one room!” Leng Zhi Meng was stunned.
“Strictly speaking, it’s nineteen of us. There’s also a team leader, a translator, and Pei Le, who came with us at his own expense to play!” Deep said with a chuckle. “Although it’s just one rental, the house is very large, and the living room is empty. We let the team leader and the translator, the two girls, stay in the only room, and the more than ten of us big men sleep on the floor in the living room. We chat and sleep together, it’s really fun!”
“Seventeen men sleeping in the living room…” Leng Zhi Meng, who had initially planned to visit their accommodation, immediately lost the urge and impulse to watch.
Deep and mty and the others seemed to sense Leng Zhi Meng’s change in attitude, and their demeanor became a bit dejected. Thinking about their current poor conditions, it seemed they had no right to fall in love with a beautiful girl like Leng Zhi Meng.
“It’s okay. Once we win the championship and get the prize money, we can stay in a hotel!” Deep said with a smile.
“But this is, after all, a matter for a minority,” Boss Huang said with a smile. “However, you don’t need to worry. Every profession is difficult when it first starts. Once everyone bravely carves out a new path, the entire professional environment will improve! In the future, e-sports players will have the same treatment as athletes!”
“Yeah!”
“Yeah!” everyone agreed, and then they fantasized about the beautiful scene where e-sports would be treated like professional athletes. They just didn’t know that just as the pioneers were often the sacrificed, those who rushed to the forefront would quietly disappear after opening up the path. It was the later ones who followed the opened path who enjoyed the glory of e-sports.
After walking for a solid hour, everyone finally arrived at the dining place, which resembled an outdoor food stall in China. The group sat in an open-air environment to eat. The food was just traditional Korean tteokbokki, budae jjigae, and kimchi. Leng Zhi Meng found it very unpalatable after a few bites. On Huang He’s suggestion, she directly ordered a bowl of fried instant noodles and then exclaimed how delicious and satisfying it was.
Hearing this suggestion, everyone followed suit and ordered instant noodles, all praising it as the most delicious food in Korea.
“Mr. Huang, we actually don’t know your name yet!” Halfway through the meal, everyone remembered that they didn’t even know Huang He’s name.
“My name is Huang He, and I am the chairman of Jiangnan Group in China!” Huang He didn’t play the role of a weak person pretending to be strong. He directly introduced his identity.
“Chairman…” Hearing this high-sounding title, they felt that Leng Zhi Meng was getting further and further away from them.
“So, Mr. Huang also likes e-sports very much and specifically came here to watch the matches?” mty felt that this question was particularly stupid. Of course, they came here to watch the matches. Could it be that they came here for them, the scummy gamers?
“No, I came for you!” Huang He showed a brilliant smile. “Actually, I have a proposal that I’ve been wanting to tell you. Since you brought it up, I’ll be direct. Little Xu, bring out the customized uniforms!”
Then, Little Xu, acting as the translator, took out a uniform from his backpack. The front was printed with the large Jiangnan Blind Box logo, the back had the advertisement logo for oo Communications, “Starting from the heart,” large Chinese flags on both sleeves, and the words “China” on the chest.
“I designed a set of Chinese team uniforms for you. I wonder if you’re interested in trying them on!”
[Ok, the update for today is complete. As for how much will be updated tomorrow, it depends on how many first subscriptions there are after 12 o’clock tomorrow!]