Chapter 45 – Wrong Room
Jiang Ranan and Zhuang Bai covered their eyes, too embarrassed to admit that the ridiculous mess on the ground was one of their own teammates.
Shao Zhan stood a little farther away, completely uninterested in the fat man’s meltdown. If it weren’t for the guests being present, he would’ve already kicked that idiot out of the base.
Yang Sa, as always, stood quietly alone—calm and cold, keeping his distance from everyone.
The members of LAP were used to his personality. One in white and one in black stood with arms crossed, watching their own Blue Fatty with a shake of the head—once, then twice.
Worried that Yang Sa might feel awkward about the “wrong room” situation, Shao Zhan deliberately didn’t speak to him, only stealing a few glances at the silent figure from the corner of his eye.
All of this didn’t go unnoticed by Qin Chuan, who was leaning against a pine tree, the needles jabbing into his back. His head throbbed with pain. As he silently prayed for that old bastard not to stir up any trouble, he heard Shao Zhan inviting LAP’s guests to breakfast—even though it was nearly noon.
He had already gotten the full story from Jiang Ranan earlier that morning. Bringing the LAP members back to the base had been a last resort. But was it really unavoidable? They’d dumped drunken teammates at nearby hotels plenty of times before.
Fine. Maybe it was for the sake of international relations—they couldn’t just leave foreign guests passed out in the street. But did the entire team need to be dragged back too? As for someone’s little scheme… Qin Chuan couldn’t even be bothered to guess at it anymore.
Tch. Disgusting.
He already felt something was off when he caught the two of them napping on the sofa last night. This morning’s events had only made his soul half-fly out of his body.
A perfectly good team manager, now reduced to a housekeeper dealing with this nonsense every day.
Thankfully, Yang Sa was still sane. He politely declined the invitation, then left with the white-and-black duo, carrying the dazed Blue Fatty with them.
That’s more like it. The two teams weren’t even close enough to sit at the same table for a meal. If he’d been there last night, he would’ve risked life and limb before ever bringing those people back.
He was irritated, but appearances still had to be maintained. With a fake host’s smile plastered on his face, he led the Xinghai team in seeing the LAP members off.
But as they walked, something still felt off.
The more he thought about his own thoughts, the more he felt like… he was acting like a jealous housewife trying to chase out the mistress.
He silently cursed Shao Zhan’s entire ancestral line—twice—and nearly ground his molars to dust.
With a tangle of emotions churning inside him, Qin Chuan kept walking, fully aware that a whole mess of vibes were floating in the air around the team.
Fat Tangyuan and Blue Fatty were like soulmates—constantly clinging to each other, practically glued together. It was downright nauseating how they acted, gazing at each other with syrupy eyes, just one step away from kissing.
Zhuang Bai and Jiang Ranan, with dark circles under their eyes from lack of sleep, were the only two remotely normal people left in the team. Or so he thought.
Then he paused—why had he left himself out of the “normal” category?
He clutched his chest and looked up at Shao Zhan. Good. Not a flicker of doubt, just pure, unfiltered rage boiling off him.
He silently congratulated himself for standing firm as a straight man and maintaining his professional integrity as team manager.
The LAP team was about what he expected—though he hadn’t guessed that the goofy Little Blue would be part of the same ridiculous squad as Fat Tangyuan. Now, with some of the polish worn off, he looked even dumber.
Little White, as usual, was completely absorbed in his idiom word game, as if the chaos around him didn’t exist. But when it came to matters involving the LAP members, he hadn’t missed a single detail—a surprisingly meticulous and observant guy.
As for Little Black… forget it. He was just too dark. You couldn’t see anything clearly at all.
Qin Chuan touched his own increasingly chubby cheeks and sighed. Yep—black was definitely the best camouflage. He was probably too fair and too good-looking, which is why his emotions were always so easy to read.
After walking a while, they spotted two old men playing chess at the entrance. It was Coach Du Changcheng and Uncle Zhou, the gatekeeper.
Most of the team members had gotten up late, since their main training and activity hours ran from the afternoon till the early hours of the morning.
But Du Changcheng, who slept less now that he was older, often came to play chess with Uncle Zhou to pass the time.
Their chess skills? Well, somewhere around below-average among hobbyists. But of course, they had more enthusiasm than talent, often playing from early morning until the younger folks woke up.
Today’s scene, however, seemed a little off. After all, it was common knowledge that Du Changcheng had recently undergone hemorrhoid surgery—there was no way he could sit down.
Qin Chuan squinted his slightly puffy, sleep-deprived eyes. As expected, his instincts were spot on: Du Changcheng wasn’t sitting at all—just holding a sitting pose. His rear hovered above the chair, and his legs, visibly strained, were trembling from the effort.
Something’s wrong, Qin Chuan thought. If Du Changcheng had rushed back, it definitely wasn’t for nothing. No… it couldn’t be… His eyes darted across the group, searching for clues.
Du Changcheng also looked up from his game at the entrance and, recognizing someone, held a chess piece midair with surprise on his face. “Xiao Sa?”
Yang Sa didn’t know how likely it was for someone who hadn’t seen him in three years—and only spent a few days with him total—to recognize him at a glance.
But with Coach Du Changcheng’s elder-like affectionate gaze locked on him, it didn’t seem like he was going to get away easily.
Sure enough, Du Changcheng immediately started scolding Shao Zhan for being a terrible host—letting guests travel all the way here without even offering them a meal, sending them off with empty stomachs, lacking even the most basic manners.
Shao Zhan bowed his head respectfully. A rare sight: him looking obedient.
“Alright, enough standing around. You all listen to me—we’re going to eat,” Du Changcheng said, knees clamped together, his voice full of vigor.
“Coach, I…” Yang Sa tried to object.
“I know, I know,” Du Changcheng cut him off, giving the boy’s slender back a hearty slap. “We’ll talk over breakfast.”
“Listen to the coach, listen to the coach!” Fat Tangyuan waddled forward, belly-first, waving his stubby arms as he called out to the group. “Let’s go to that breakfast place on County Back Street—the crab soup dumplings there are amazing!”
Team manager Qin Chuan leaned in close and whispered into Fat Tangyuan’s chubby ear, “Fatty, the coach just had surgery—he can’t eat seafood.”
Yang Sa supported Du Changcheng by the arm, his bright eyes scanning him with concern. “Coach, you’re sick?”
“Don’t listen to those little brats making things up,” Du Changcheng replied awkwardly, shaking his head as he slowly shuffled forward with Yang Sa’s help. As they passed the entrance, he called back, “Lao Zhou, come along!”
Uncle Zhou tried to decline, but Jiang Ranan and Zhuang Bai didn’t give him a choice and practically carried him off.
“That’s what I’m saying,” Fat Tangyuan rolled his eyes at Qin Chuan, “you’re such a buzzkill. So what if the coach can’t eat crab soup dumplings—he can still eat steamed buns, right? Shouldn’t we let our guests from afar enjoy themselves properly?” He turned and called out to his not-so-biological-but-still-brother Little Blue, and the two chubby balls bounced ahead like conjoined twins.
“This way, this way, this waaay…” At the entrance of the breakfast shop, Fat Tangyuan greeted everyone like a host, waving them forward.
“Hurry up, hurry up—Ranan, you got a tail back there or what?” Hugging and hopping alongside him was Little Blue, legs kicking, mumbling something in gibberish Mandarin that somehow came out sounding like alien language.
“This is…” Fat Tangyuan tapped open the built-in translation app on his phone. “Arabic?”
As his pupils quaked in disbelief, Little Blue next to him lifted his face in a shy smile. “This meal’s on me.”
Fat Tangyuan dragged him through the entrance, pointed at the menu above the counter, and summoned all his energy from his dantian: “Boss, stir-fry a book.”
Zhuang Bai helped steady the coach, while Jiang Ranan enthusiastically introduced the local culture of Jiangling to Little White and Little Black. They all made plans to visit the Bund together.
Yang Sa walked behind them with his hands in his pockets, listening quietly. The sights they mentioned felt both familiar and strangely distant. It had only been three years, yet walking these wide streets now felt like a lifetime ago.
As usual, Shao Zhan brought up the rear of the group. His attention was drawn by the swallows nesting near a store’s surveillance camera, but his peripheral vision kept drifting toward the middle-back of the group.
A pointed gaze shattered the peaceful moment.
Shao Zhan turned his head and caught Qin Chuan’s eyes practically welded to him—blatantly suspicious, clearly disapproving.
This guy wears his whole thought process on his face, Shao Zhan sighed inwardly.
And he’s the team manager? He might as well tattoo “Don’t even think about flirting” on his forehead.