Call before the game

In the end, Lili's parents and Lei's father had met once more with Lei and Lili being there and agreed that when Lili was ready, they would start to plan the wedding.

After that, Lei's father went back to Hong Kong and Lili's parents to Germany, leaving Lei and Lili together in their home. They did a bit of sightseeing with Lei in Prague, Brno, and then in Znojmo, which was close enough to Lili's house.

"We should take Zhu Long here. It would be an awesome team building for them. I think they plan to hire new players." Lei was looking around, sitting at the remains of the castle walls. The valley and the river that was running through it made a stunning sight very romantic for the two of them.

"Maybe we could… My cousin has a small pension and he could take them in. But I'm not sure they would be… they would go through the tie here unscathed." Lili chuckled when she recalled the drinking match between her father, Lei, and Weiwu. She had to carry three people that were totally wasted from slivovice. And her mother refused to help because, as she said, she warned George not to do it, but he still did it.

"True, I think my liver just became stone after that drink. I have no idea what it was, but you should use it as fuel for space shuttles. I believe they would fly a lot easier." Lei shivered, recalling the morning after, and it made Lili laugh.

It was early in the morning and almost no one there was around them. The two of them snuggled together and laughed before they got a call from Dylan.

"Just watch…" he whispered and the video call showed the meeting room, full of people, members of Zhu long. And they were strangely tense, looking ready to fight.

"We don't know if we should try so hard to win," Yinli said after a while, looking behind Chao. Yitian got up from his chair, walked to Chao, and placed his hand on Chao's shoulder, calming him down.

"Why would you think that?" he asked and Lei closed his eyes trying to calm down too.

"It's a charity event. The crucial point is to collect money to help people. Not winning." Lili bit her lips and winced. Now they both knew what this was about.

"Oh, but what really attracts more viewers? Isn't it a thrill of the game? Nice tactics? Awesome performance of the players? The players themselves?" Chao asked cautiously. Lei was strangely proud of the progress of his brother.

"Isn't it the possibility of helping someone?" Yuhuai asked innocently, and Lei had to really try not to bark with laughter.

"That's so innocent to think like that," Yitian finally said. Lei looked at Lili, surprised that it was Yitian who said that it was strangely… realistic for someone like him.

"People have their own problems. It's sad, but most of them don't care about others. They just want to have fun and run away from their own unpleasant sides of their lives. They would donate so that they wouldn't feel bad." Yitian continued, and Chao and Yixing were nodding simultaneously.

"If you don't make the game interesting enough, no one would care. No one would watch. That's why Chao uses risky and flashy stunts in his strategies. He is using the mentality of the people for our popularity. And it works. It would work the other way if you were streamers. You would learn it the hard way," Huobai shared his thoughts.

"Is that true?" Wuchen said, his eyes widened in surprise.

"Well," he started, but then he paused for a moment. "I use psychology sometimes. Those tricks are normal in marketing. And Lei helps me sometimes to make bigger uproars. If we are popular enough, it means more sponsors, more fans, and more money. The more money we have, the better we will get and go on and go on," he finished after a while.

Lei could hear Dylan's giggles to himself and watched the exchange. But Lei was now pissed. He wasn't using people. Well, he didn't like that, especially when they said before he used Lili. He looked at her before speaking up.

"Did you just say I'm using people?!" Lei thundered from the phone, scaring the hell out of everyone and from Chao the most.

He grabbed Yitian's arm and his behind him from the source of the yell.

"No, you just heard the static on the phone," Chao said, and Lily had a problem holding back her laughter. Lei only shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Dylan connected the phone to the laptop and projected the video call onto the big screen.

"Enjoying your holiday?" Yitian asked and smiled.

"Of couuurse," Lili lengthened and slurped her drink more, to show how much she meant it. Yitian and Chao chuckled, but they saw Lei's frown and stopped immediately.

"Are you really arguing about winning or not?" he asked, looking straight into their souls. Lili was looking at their reactions and tried really hard not to react to their scared faces. Lei was just a teddy bear. Why they were so scared of him was a mystery to her.

"It was just a minor dispute," Wuchen stated and waved back. She could no longer hold back her laughter, and she started doing all sorts of grimaces and gestures behind Lei. It was really impossible to take him seriously.

"You know that I still manage the finances of the team? Your salaries?" Lei said again, with a menacing tone in his voice. But Lili kept clapping her thump against the other fingers, gesturing that he was talking too much, with her eyes rolled upwards.

Finally, when they couldn't hold it in anymore, almost tearing up from the effort, Lei noticed her. He turned around, and she quickly put her hands behind her back and whistled.

"What were you doing?" he asked her, but she shook her head, looking around.

"I was just saying how beautiful it is here," she said and smiled brightly at Lei. At that moment, a group of older people that were probably tourists came from behind the old rotunda and were coming closer to them.

Lei could only sigh and turn back to Lili, him speaking Cantonese and switching to English was obviously an uncommon thing there, because one of the older ladies, who was standing behind them, stared at the couple with her mouth open. Just like that, with her hand halfway up to drink the water she had.

Lili looked behind her and smiled at the old lady and asked her whether she needed help. In two languages, because apparently, the woman was from Austria and not Czech.

That and the comical performance of Lili was enough to send all of them over the edge, and they just erupted with laughter. The tense atmosphere that hung around just a while before just disappeared.

"If you don't win, I will cut your pay in half!" Lei said his last words and without saying goodbyes, he hung up the call.

"Your boyfriend is really handsome," the lady chuckled, telling Lili in German. Lili thanked her and nodded. While Lei turned around too, looking quite pissed. The tourist lady got scared and took a step back. Lili had smacked him over his back lightly and smiled at the lady. Then turned to Lei.

"You may scare others, but you know that I'm the one you need the most and if you don't smile at people, there will be no games in bed and you will get your ass back to Hong Kong right this evening…" she said in Cantonese so that no one else would understand her threats.

Needless to say that the entire day, Lei was smiling from ear to ear and even sent a selfie like that to the team, getting all sorts of laughing emojis. But one answer was the best.

"It shows that love makes idiots from people." And it was Huobai who sent it… as if he was any better.