Chapter 19 – The Past That Belonged to Solve
The second floor of the Avg base housed the players’ training room and dormitories, while the third floor contained the staff offices.
When Yin Sijue arrived at the manager’s office, Xu Shaoqiu was watching a replay.
Knock knock.
Xu Shaoqiu heard the sound at the door and looked up from his screen.
“Why are you here?”
Yin Sijue closed the door and said, “I wanted to watch the replay.”
Xu Shaoqiu looked puzzled. “Since when are you so enthusiastic? I just told the group we’d review the game together tonight.”
“There’s something I’m concerned about and want to check right away.”
Xu Shaoqiu shrugged. “Okay, come over and see. I’m watching yours.”
Yin Sijue pulled up an empty chair and sat down. He dragged the progress bar to the battle in P City and began watching carefully.
Xu Shaoqiu cracked open some sunflower seeds. “I was just about to ask—why did you pick up a sniper rifle?”
Solve used to use one. His legendary one-on-four kill in Jedi three years ago had been achieved with a sniper rifle. But as tactics evolved and the team members developed more specialized roles, he mostly relied on a rifle or a shotgun now, ensuring quicker close-range finishes.
“I just picked it up. Wolf was supposed to be the sniper, but he died.”
Xu Shaoqiu chuckled. “Well… lucky for you it was a good sniper rifle.”
Yin Sijue played until 17:36, when he was shown on the rooftop, landing a single headshot with his M24 that took down Dragon—who had come to provide backup.
The next moment, he tried to finish off Unique but missed. The opponent quickly determined his position, and the return shot narrowly missed him.
Dragging the progress bar back to rewatch the scene, Yin Sijue thought for a moment and asked, “Do you have the second team’s video?”
Xu Shaoqiu, still replying to work messages on WeChat, glanced up. “Yeah. Why?”
“Let me see it.”
Xu Shaoqiu raised a brow and pulled up the second team’s latest video. “You’ve never asked me for their practice footage before. Who’s got you so hung up on it?”
Yin Sijue smirked. “Guess.”
Xu Shaoqiu: ?
Rolling his eyes, Xu Shaoqiu scooted closer to watch.
“Tsk, this Wolf is so inexperienced. He even got tricked. I’m going to give him a good scolding tonight!”
“How did Da Shu throw those two grenades? He’s completely forgotten everything I taught him! Unique must’ve been laughing his ass off while crouching there, right?”
Yin Sijue sped the replay up to 1.5x, found the part where he was on the rooftop, and watched carefully.
Xu Shaoqiu wasn’t idle either, continuing to tease Yin Sijue:
“You chose a good position. You can set up a gun there, and it’s not easy to spot.”
“Poor Dragon. He’s the only one on the team with a level 2 helmet, and you still sniped him.”
“Unique’s level 3 helmet shouldn’t have been that easy to get… wait.”
Xu Shaoqiu frowned, grabbed the mouse, dragged it back, and rewatched the scene. “He found cover so quickly. How did he know where you were? Is he really that good at tracking by sound?”
Yin Sijue shook his head. “After I killed him, I immediately turned to attack. All I caught was a shadow flashing by. Rather than sound recognition, I’m more inclined to believe it was a conscious tactical reaction.”
After a pause, Yin Sijue hesitated, then added, “It felt like he could guess exactly where I was.”
Xu Shaoqiu’s expression froze. “You mean he’s cheating? Impossible. The base computers can’t be hacked.”
Yin Sijue frowned in thought. “No. Later I realized—I did have a habit of picking this rooftop when sniping in P City, but that was ages ago. After our base shifted to G Port, I stopped doing that.”
“This time, since we moved to P City and I happened to have a sniper, I just went up here again.”
“Huh?” Xu Shaoqiu thought for a moment, then suddenly lit up.
“Oh, so he’s your diehard fan! He must’ve heard about it somewhere. Probably watched your replays a hundred times over! No wonder he guessed you’d be there.”
Yin Sijue pressed his fingers against his brow but didn’t confirm.
Early matches weren’t very formal, and it wasn’t certain whether recordings could even be found online. Besides, fans nowadays usually only watched the big matches or the most recent ones.
Who would bother digging through those old games? And memorizing all his habits?
But there didn’t seem to be any other more plausible explanation.
Xu Shaoqiu asked again, “If he knows you so well, he should be able to cooperate with you, right? Have you played games with him before?”
Yin Sijue nodded slightly. “A few times. I didn’t feel anything special… just that he played better than I remembered.”
Xu Shaoqiu spread his hands. “Okay, don’t overthink it. Maybe he’s just particularly sensitive to sound cues. You should be happy our new junior is performing so well, hahaha.”
Yin Sijue sneered as he stood up, leaving his seat. “Yeah, he even tricked my senior brother into killing him. How could I not be happy?”
Xu Shaoqiu’s neck shrank. “I know, I know. I’ll tell him later.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Xu Shaoqiu continued, “Are you a little dissatisfied with Wolf? After all, you’re on the same team now, and you’ll be playing together in the summer season. Will that affect your performance?”
Yin Sijue raised his eyebrows slightly. “Not really. I just think it’s a bit ridiculous that you mistook him for Wei.”
Xu Shaoqiu hadn’t expected him to still remember that. “Do you really care about this person? You two haven’t been in touch for a long time.”
Yin Sijue glanced at him, lips pressed tight. He tilted his head and exhaled slowly, the line of his jaw forming a sharp, distinct curve.
After a long silence, he finally spoke.
“Not being in touch doesn’t mean I don’t care.”
Xu Shaoqiu sat frozen in his chair, staring at Yin Sijue in a daze. The scene suddenly overlapped with a memory from three years ago—Yin Sijue standing in front of him in almost the same way.
…
Back then, Yin Sijue wasn’t the Solve he was today. He looked younger, his hair a little longer, and he stood stubbornly before the desk, demanding an answer.
“Why isn’t he here?”
Xu Shaoqiu had been just as frantic at the time. “I don’t know. I called but couldn’t get through. The person who answered said he was his deskmate, not him. He asked for my number but refused to give me his. Then he blocked me. What kind of person does that?”
Yin Sijue was only seventeen, yet already a head taller than Xu Shaoqiu. Standing in front of the desk, his presence was overwhelming.
“Didn’t you leave any other information? A photo? Your name?”
Xu Shaoqiu held his forehead, regret heavy in his voice. “We hadn’t been in touch for ages. On the last day, the manager was desperate for the documents. When I finally got through, he said the photos hadn’t been taken yet, so I told him to just fill it out for now and complete it later. Who knew it would end up like this? I already got chewed out at the meeting yesterday… and this month’s bonus has been docked.”
Yin Sijue kept his face stern, lips pressed into a thin line. He said nothing, but his clenched fists betrayed his state of mind.
Xu Shaoqiu was honestly afraid he might throw a punch.
After a long pause, seeing him remain silent, Xu Shaoqiu cautiously offered, “Why don’t we wait a few days?I was his contact person before, and he often drops out of contact. Maybe something urgent came up. If we wait, he might show up. While missing the youth training report and being late could cost him his spot, if he performs well, we can work something out. I’ll report to the manager later.”
Hearing this, Yin Sijue’s tense shoulders eased slightly, and he gave a small nod.
Xu Shaoqiu said, “If there’s nothing else, go back. I still have to write the weekly report and prepare for the assessment.”
“Got it,” Yin Sijue replied. He turned and closed the office door behind him.
However, a week passed, then a month, and Yin Sijue signed a contract through the youth training program, becoming an active professional player for AVG. His former teammates never showed up, and he gradually stopped mentioning them.
On the day he registered his player account, Xu Shaoqiu told him, “No need to re-register. I’ll just report it to the league, and we’ll simply change the ID and team name.”
But Yin Sijue didn’t think twice and said, “I’m not using that account anymore.”
Xu Shaoqiu was stunned. “Huh? Why? What about your skins?”
Before coming here, he’d noticed that [SJUE] had the largest and most complete collection of skins among all the youth training players. He even owned many rare skins that veteran players didn’t have.
Yin Sijue didn’t answer directly, only saying, “I’ll give you the new account after I register it. I haven’t decided on an ID yet.”
“Okay then.”
…
Snapping out of his recollection, Xu Shaoqiu looked at the now-taller Yin Sijue and realized he was probably more than a head taller than him.
Can men still grow taller after adulthood?
As someone who hadn’t grown a centimeter since graduating high school, Xu Shaoqiu felt a little sad—and angry. He waved him off irritably: “Alright, I know you care about him. I’ll help you look into it another day. Go back to training.”
After Yin Sijue left, Xu Shaoqiu stared blankly at his computer for a while. For some reason, he opened his Penguin account, which he hadn’t touched in ages.
Since switching to WeChat for work, Xu Shaoqiu had never logged in again. It took him quite a while to verify all the information before finally gaining access.
The account name was still AVG Xiaoxu. He hadn’t changed computers, so his chat history was still there.
Nothing seemed to have changed. Three years had slipped away, leaving no trace.
Wei’s chat box sat right next to SJUE’s. The two often mentioned each other when talking to Xu Shaoqiu. The last message Yin Sijue had sent from this account was asking Wei if he had submitted the form.
But everything had changed. Xu Shaoqiu stared at the chat records with quiet melancholy.
In the past three years, the former manager resigned, and Xu Shaoqiu worked his way up from being “Xiao Xu” to becoming the current manager of AVG.
Only Yin Sijue never got the chance to see what his very first teammate—the one who had once fought by his side—was really like.