#wuye

—

“this afternoon, excellent era announced that its team captain, ye qiu, has decided to retire.”

wu xuefeng watches the live broadcast on his laptop with something akin to utter disbelief. his breakfast lies on the table, all but forgotten as he narrows his eyes at the spokesperson, suddenly paying rapt attention to what he had initially thought was a random esports news broadcast.  

“ye qiu declined other positions offered to him and has left the club,” the spokesperson continues on. he suppresses a snort. of course he would. ye qiu lives and breathes glory — and he definitely would not be interested in positions that did not let him play glory professionally, which only served to make this whole situation all the more wrong.

he’s known ye qiu for years, fought alongside him during some of excellent era’s toughest matches, and he definitely, definitely knows that the other would not get up and leave like this. su mucheng’s unusually strained smile in the face of the press all but cements his decision.

he books the next flight to city h.

time zones are a bitch, he thinks as he rubs the sleep from his eyes at the airport. he hasn’t been back to china in years, and now here he is, chasing after someone who was once known as the alliance’s most elusive player. now, he thinks bitterly, they’ll know him as an old god, a fallen legend, but what they don’t know is that—

— ye qiu wouldn’t go down like this without a fight.

the first thing he does is pay a visit to club excellent era.

“brother wu?”

su mucheng is the first person to recognise him as he stands, somewhat awkwardly, at the reception. he can’t help but glance at the championship trophies on display, a sudden wave of nostalgia hitting him straight in the gut. how long has it been since he’s last stepped foot into this place?

she appears well, he notes with visible relief, but he can see the fragileness in her gaze, and the way she’s struggling to hold everything in by the seams. wordlessly, he draws her into a hug, watching her hold back the tears she won’t allow herself to shed.  

“su mucheng!” a harsh voice barks out “practice is starting, stop dawdling!” he frowns at that, even more at her stiff posture and the urgent shake of her head when he tries to speak.  

“i’m sorry, i really have to go, but i heard that there’s an… interesting internet cafe across the street,” she manages to whisper to him as she heads towards the practice rooms, before her teammate came out to look for her. it’s as good a hint as he’ll get.

“thank you,” he says, “and good luck.”

she flashes him a sardonic smile, “thanks, i’ll need it.”  

—

of all the things he was expecting, he most certainly was not expecting to walk to into happy internet cafe and come face to face with the man he’d spent the past twenty four hours worrying about.

ye qiu looks just as surprised to see him, “brother wu? weren’t you supposed to be abroad?”

“weren’t you supposed to be across the street?” he shoots back, taking care to keep his voice down.  

“eh, you know… seasons change,” ye qiu smiles, resigned, like he’s been waiting for it.

“you knew this was coming.” it was a statement.

“you know how commercialisation works. i wasn’t cooperative when it came to the media, wasn’t racking in the wins, wasn’t able to lead the team — what more reason do they need to let me go?”

“then… what now?” wu xuefeng is no fool. they both know that it is far, far too early for ye qiu to stop, “you can’t play professionally for the next year, and by the time you’ll be able to, there will be very few teams that would be willing to take you in, given your age.”

ye qiu smiles, barely looking up from the screen as lord grim solos a dungeon boss, the myriad manifestation umbrella seamlessly transforming into a spear as he unleashes a series of seemingly impossible combos.

“it’s a new beginning.”

—

wu xuefeng hasn’t touched glory in years, but he’ll be damned if he sits by doing nothing while excellent era drives out the very person who built them up from scratch.   

“excuse me,” he turns to the sister at the counter, “could you get me an account card for the tenth server?”