Chapter 2 A Carefully Designed "Encounter"

The winter of 2022 seems to be too cold. Even southern cities like H City have experienced heavy snowfall that is rare in decades.

Ye Xiu exhaled a breath of cold air and left the Excellent Era Club where he had stayed for more than seven years, under the tearful gaze of Su Mucheng.

Thinking of the experiences of more than ten minutes ago, even though he was mentally mature, he couldn't help but feel a little panicked.

An account that had been used for ten years could be given away just like himself, a veteran with seven years of service, who could be kicked out at will.

It was too embarrassing. He smiled to himself.

The snow was getting heavier and heavier. Ye Qiu was wondering whether he should find an Internet cafe or something to take shelter and play with that "trump card" at the same time.

At this moment, a slightly surprised voice came from behind: "Mr. Ye Xiu?"

Ye Xiu was stunned. Who was this person who could recognize him when he never showed his face and even call out his real name?

He slowly turned his head and saw a man who looked to be in his early thirties, dressed casually but with outstanding appearance and temperament. He had a slightly surprised smile on his face and strode to catch up with Ye Xiu.

Ye Xiu had seen that overly handsome face before. After all, this face frequently appeared on major TV stations and in self-media news, and its influence was significant. Even a pure otaku like Ye Xiu had heard of it.

Among the top five of China’s richest list is Pei Yunteng, the new Internet king who has risen rapidly in the past decade and the president of Tenghai Company.

But...why would he come to H City in person? Ye Xiu was puzzled.

Ye Xiu wasn't too surprised to run into someone from Tenghai Company.

After all, these days, the two most important tasks for the entire Jia Shi Club are: one is to kick Ye Xiu out, and the other is to negotiate sponsorship issues with Tenghai Company.

About a week ago, Tenghai Technology suddenly announced its intention to enter the e-sports field and test the waters of sponsorship.

The initial sponsor selected is naturally the only dynasty powerhouse in the Glory Professional League - Excellent Era.

Naturally, Excellent Era's boss Tao Xuan was ecstatic about this. With a giant like Tenghai as its backer, wouldn't Excellent Era be able to take off right away?
So throughout this week, all the staff of the club have been busy just to give Tenghai's inspection team a good impression.

In fact, the reason why Jia Shi was so eager to kick Ye Qiu out and let Sun Xiang take over was also to let Tenghai see their "enterprising" side.

Ye Xiu knew that Teng Hai's inspection team arrived today, but he didn't expect that it was President Pei who led the team himself.

A super-rich man with a net worth of hundreds of billions leads a team to inspect a small shrimp with a scale of barely over 100 million and a profit of barely tens of millions?

"Um...are you Mr. Pei from Tenghai Group?" Even someone as thick-skinned as Ye Buxiu couldn't help but feel a little restrained when facing a big shot of such a high rank.

You know, even the Ye family behind him, which spans both the Z and S worlds, dare not put on airs in the face of such a super behemoth with business all over the world.

"Hey, why are you so polite? If you don't mind, just call me Brother Pei!" Pei Yunteng acted very familiar and put one hand on Ye Xiu's shoulder.

"Brother Pei... do you know me?" Ye Xiu asked tentatively, feeling a little uncomfortable with Pei Yunteng's closeness?
"Two years ago at a cocktail party, I met your brother Ye Qiu, and he complained to me at that time!" Pei Yunteng laughed heartily.

"He said that he originally wanted to run away from home, but his bastard brother stole his luggage and used his ID card to become a professional player. He was so sad and angry at the time!"

Ye Xiu smiled awkwardly. His dark history was exposed by the guy in front of him without any concealment, which made him feel a little uncomfortable.

"Brother Pei, are you coming to H City this time to discuss cooperation with Excellent Era?" Ye Xiu quickly changed the subject.

"Yes, after all, this is our first time to get involved in the field of e-sports, so it's only right for me to come and take a look in person."

"But I'm not very good at negotiation, so I'll leave it to our company's experts. I'll come out for some fresh air." Pei Yunteng did not hide his thoughts at all.

Suddenly, he thought of something and asked curiously, "How about you, Xiaoye? Why don't you come with Excellent Era to attend the meeting with us? After all, you are also the absolute core of Excellent Era, right?"

Absolutely... core?

Ye Xiu, who had finally let Pei Yunteng's jokes dispel his sadness, was brought back to reality by these words. The corners of his mouth slowly raised a helpless bitter smile: "Not anymore."

"what?"

"I am no longer the absolute core of Excellent Era."

"I have terminated my contract with Excellent Era."

Calmly revealing his scars, Ye Xiu slowly turned his head and wanted to smile at Pei Yunteng, but what he saw was his distorted expression of shock.

The atmosphere was silent for a long time in awkwardness, and Pei Yunteng finally spoke tentatively:
"Xiao Ye, although apart from you and Miss Su Mucheng, the other members of your Excellent Era are indeed a little lacking."

"But you just abandon them and walk away. Isn't that a bit against the moral code of the underworld?" Pei Yunteng had a look of persuasion.

"I abandoned them?" Ye Xiu was stunned, feeling a little amused.

In the eyes of Mr. Pei, the reason I terminated the contract with Excellent Era was because I thought Excellent Era was too bad?
Do you think too highly of me?

"Brother Pei misunderstood. I don't have the qualifications to look down on them." Ye Xiu smiled self-deprecatingly.

"It was Excellent Era that hid me and forced me to terminate my contract with them."

Pei Yunteng's expression became even more distorted.

"……what?"

After a long time, his face suddenly changed to a look of deep pain, and he hugged Ye Xiu and said in a low voice:
"Xiao Ye, you didn't... do something wrong, did you?"

"Committing a crime? What crime?" Ye Xiu was confused.

"That's all. The usual shit in the entertainment and sports circles, like match-fixing, dating, PC, C fans, cheating, playing T, etc."

"Xiao Ye, you are still young and have a bright future. You can't treat yourself like this!" Pei Yunteng said earnestly.

“…What the hell is going on?” Ye Xiu’s mind went blank for a long time. Even though he was a calm and composed man, he started shouting in frustration.

He is a professional player, why would he do such disgusting things!
"Huh? Weren't you hidden by Jia Shi because you committed a crime and caused a scandal?" A big question mark slowly rose on Pei Yunteng's head.

"of course not!"

"why?"

"…Because I never accept commercial endorsements and have no commercial value, I am naturally an outlier in this commercialized league."

"Since I'm preventing Jia Shi from making money, of course Jia Shi will kick me out." Perhaps because he was furious, Ye Xiu actually revealed the truth.

Then he saw Pei Yunteng standing there in a daze.

After a long time, Pei Yunteng, who had just woken up from a dream, quickly took out his cell phone and started dialing under Ye Xiu's gaze.

"Brother Pei, what's wrong?" Ye Xiu asked.

"I have to call Lao Zhang and ask him to take the people back." Pei Yunteng dialed the number without hesitation.

Lao Zhang refers to Pei Yunteng's right-hand man, Zhang Yuanfang, department manager of Tenghai Company, who is in charge of negotiating the cooperation with Jia Shi this time.

While dialing the number, Pei Yunteng couldn't help but sigh as Ye Xiu looked at him in bewilderment:

"It's bad, we've run into a makeshift group, the wind is blowing!"

(End of this chapter)