Liu Hao's Relief  

Sleep Admist Joy realised he couldn't afford to provoke Chen Guo and quickly chose to retreat with his tail between his legs. With Chen Guo's power and connections, what could he possibly do otherwise? In the Realm of Gods, the Moonwheel Guild was just a small guild with a few dozen members. If they angered Chasing Haze, she could easily wipe out the Moonwheel Guild with a small team from Jia Dynasty.

Chen Guo was also tired; her eyelids began to droop. She wasn't used to staying up late, so she pulled out her account card and was about to go upstairs to sleep.

Liu Hao was about to follow Chen Guo when he received a friend request from Lord Grim.

After a slight hesitation, Liu Hao clicked to accept and immediately saw the message from Lord Grim.

"Hey, little brother, nice play. You handled the Hundred Blossoms style beautifully. Your idol must be Zhang Jiale, right?" Lord Grim said.

"What's up?" Liu Hao didn't answer Ye Qiu's question.

"Oh, playing it cool, huh?" Ye Qiu laughed, "How about we team up for a dungeon run?"

"No thanks, someone's trying to sleep here, so I'm logging off too," Liu Hao replied.

"..." Ye Qiu was speechless. As an adult, he knew precisely what couples log off together to do. Although he still wanted to observe more and confirm if Grieving Haze's real identity was Liu Hao, under the current circumstances, he decided not to press further.

"Let's team up for a dungeon another time then." After saying this, Liu Hao logged off.

...

Chen Guo glanced over, "Lord Grim? Did he add you as a friend? What did he want?"

Liu Hao nodded, "Dungeon invite, but I refused because I have something more important to do."

"What's more important?" Chen Guo didn't immediately catch on.

Liu Hao chuckled, and Chen Guo instantly understood. Blushing, she said, "Not tonight... I have to go to the airport to pick up my best friend early in the morning!"

Hearing this, Liu Hao felt a bit disappointed but compromised, saying, "Then I'll just hold you while we sleep tonight; I promise I won't do anything."

Chen Guo was sceptical. She was 26 years old and knew better than to believe such a line from a man. That kind of talk might fool a naive girl in her early twenties, but she was no such girl.

...

The Next Morning

Chen Guo climbed out of bed, pulled open the curtains, and looked out at the snowy world outside, sighing, "The weather's nice today!"

She glanced back at Liu Hao, who was still sound asleep and smiled at herself. Liu Hao had really restrained himself; he said he wouldn't touch her, and he didn't... But as she thought about it more, something seemed off. Could it be that Liu Hao didn't find her attractive enough?

On such a beautiful morning, Chen Guo started to feel troubled.

"What are you thinking about?" Liu Hao had woken up by now and saw Chen Guo standing by the window with her arms crossed, looking troubled.

"Tell me, am I not attractive enough? Is that why you didn't touch me last night?" Chen Guo questioned.

Liu Hao twitched his mouth, thinking, *What do you mean? Weren't you the one who said we shouldn't do anything because you had to pick up your friend? Now you're blaming me?* 

Women really are contradictory creatures! 

"Aren't you going to pick up your friend?" Liu Hao checked the time; it was already past nine. "What time is her flight?"

Reminded by Liu Hao, Chen Guo remembered her task and hurriedly checked her phone, only to see a message from Tang Rou.

"Sorry, Guoguo. I just got back from abroad, and my dad wants me to go home first, so I'll visit you another day. I also brought you a gift, and there's something for your boyfriend, too." Tang Rou even added a couple of heart emojis at the end.

Chen Guo sighed. So she didn't need to get up early to go to the airport after all.

"What's wrong?" Liu Hao asked, seeing Chen Guo's disappointed face. She immediately told Liu Hao about her friend going home first. Instead of comforting her, Liu Hao just grinned wickedly.

Not having to go to the airport this morning meant...

...

Two hours later, Liu Hao and Chen Guo, freshly washed and dressed, went downstairs and ran into the internet café's night shift girl.

"Thanks for your hard work. Go rest in your room," Chen Guo said.

The girl yawned, "Thank you, Sister Chen. I'll go take a nap now."

After that, the girl ran upstairs to sleep. Watching her retreating figure, Chen Guo couldn't help but feel sorry. Working the night shift was tough, and staying up late was terrible for a girl's skin. The girl had asked to work the day shift before, but with no one to cover for her, she had to stick with nights.

Wait! Chen Guo suddenly remembered the new network administrator she had just hired, Ye Xiu. She looked over at the smoking area and saw a silhouette, fingers flying over the keyboard in a cloud of smoke...

Liu Hao and Chen Guo walked over together.

Chen Guo held her breath to avoid the smoke, patted Ye Xiu on the shoulder, and said, "Still playing? Aren't you tired?"

Ye Xiu glanced back at them, not surprised to see Chen Guo and Liu Hao, and responded flatly, "I'm fine."

But just as he said that, Ye Xiu yawned, clearly reaching his limit after playing nonstop from midnight until now, just past 11 a.m.

Chen Guo, afraid that her newly hired employee might collapse from exhaustion, urged him, "Still playing? Are you trying to kill yourself? Go to bed now!"

"Just a bit longer; I'll go after I finish this dungeon," Ye Xiu yawned again.

Liu Hao took a closer look. It was the Spider Cavern, level 17. The levelling was fast; they must be the highest level in the Tenth Server. And those four teammates' IDs looked familiar... Sleep Admist Joy, Tian Qi, Qian Shengli, Mu Yunshen.

So, Ye Qiu did end up teaming up with Xiao Yue... Liu Hao quietly asked, "How many first kills?"

"Three," Ye Qiu replied calmly.

Getting three first kills in one night was impressive, but Liu Hao wasn't too shocked because he had expected it. Chen Guo wasn't too surprised either, having already secured the first kill in the Tenth Server herself.

Finally, Ye Xiu, along with Sleep Admist Joy and the others, used an infinite stun strategy to take down the dungeon boss. After bidding them farewell, he logged off.

Ye Qiu yawned again and said, "Boss, I'm going upstairs to sleep now."

"Sure, when you wake up, you can take a shower, but tonight, you'll officially start your shift at the front desk!" Chen Guo replied.

Ye Qiu acknowledged and went upstairs to the storage room, where he immediately fell asleep.

...

At that moment, Chen Guo's phone suddenly buzzed with a notification. She had followed Excellent Era's official Weibo, and now Excellent Era Club was holding a press conference to announce that Captain Ye Qiu was retiring today.

Chen Guo froze. She looked at Liu Hao, confused. Liu Hao was the vice-captain of Excellent Era, so she thought he might know the reason...

Ye Qiu was playing just fine. Why would he suddenly retire?

Chen Guo had been playing Glory since the fifth season and had been a fan of Excellent Era from the start. Her favourite player was Ye Qiu, apart from Su Mucheng.

To fans, idols are a kind of faith. Even though Liu Hao was her boyfriend, her idol was still Ye Qiu. Now that her idol had suddenly announced his retirement, Chen Guo was struggling to process it.

Most of the customers in the Xingxin Internet Café were also watching the press conference. Only two people were on stage: Tao Xuan, the owner of Excellent Era, and Sun Xiang, who had just been named the new captain of Excellent Era.

Tao Xuan, a shrewd businessman, was ostensibly holding a press conference to announce Ye Qiu's retirement. Still, in reality, he was using the attention of Ye Qiu's retirement to promote Sun Xiang.

Tao Xuan praised Ye Qiu to the skies, even squeezing out a few fake tears as he talked about Ye Qiu's contributions to Excellent Era, leaving the fans watching the live broadcast deeply moved.

Chen Guo was moved to tears, caught up in the emotions of the moment.

Liu Hao was helpless. Chen Guo was still unaware of the dark side of Excellent Era's management. Ye Qiu had been forced into retirement by Tao Xuan, and Liu Hao had played no small part in it... But this was not something he could tell her. He knew how vital faith was; when it shatters, even something you once loved becomes unbearable to look at.

Liu Hao couldn't bring himself to tell Chen Guo the truth. He could only gently stroke her shoulder, holding her close as she let out her emotions.

On the day of Ye Qiu's retirement, the Internet café wasn't bustling. In the lounge, Chen Guo played highlights of One Autumn Leaf's most spectacular moments on the big screen; I am bidding a final farewell.

As time passed into the evening, Liu Hao remained at Xingxin. Originally, Liu Hao was supposed to attend the press conference, but Tao Xuan hadn't informed him. This omission meant that Tao Xuan didn't trust Liu Hao, fearing he might say something inappropriate at the conference.

"What happened?" Ye Xiu, freshly awakened and with his face washed, came downstairs and noticed the low spirits of the customers in the Internet café, prompting him to ask.

Chen Guo glared at Ye Xiu, "And you call yourself a former Excellent Era player? Your captain retired, and you didn't even know?"

Upon hearing the laughter, Chen Guo became even more annoyed. "Ye Qiu's retirement doesn't make you sad, but now you're laughing? What's that about?"

Ye Xiu noticed that Chen Guo's expression wasn't good, so he quickly waved his hand and said, "Actually, I'm unfortunate..."

"I don't see it," Chen Guo questioned.

Ye Xiu was at a loss and looked at Liu Hao for help, "You know, Ye Qiu's retirement, the saddest person is definitely me."

Liu Hao chuckled, "Sorry, I didn't see how sad you are either."

"..." Ye Xiu's face darkened as he thought, Liu Hao, you're too mean. Chen Guo doesn't know who I am, but you do, don't you? Who could be sadder about Ye Qiu's retirement than Ye Qiu himself?

"Have you eaten yet?" Chen Guo suddenly asked.

Ye Xiu shook his head.

"Never mind. Let's eat something. After dinner, you'll have to prepare for your shift," Chen Guo sighed.

Today was Ye Qiu's retirement day, and Chen Guo wasn't in the mood to go out to eat. So, she casually ordered three takeout meals to be delivered to Xingxin. After eating to his heart's content, Ye Xiu went to the front desk to start the night shift, not forgetting to ask, "Can I play games?"

Chen Guo nodded somewhat irritably, then snuggled back into Liu Hao's arms to watch a highlight reel of One Autumn Leaf's performances.

Liu Hao smiled helplessly, "Aren't you afraid I'll get jealous acting like this?"

Chen Guo was taken aback, realising she had been so focused on her sadness that she had neglected Liu Hao's feelings. Any boyfriend would feel uncomfortable seeing his girlfriend cry over another man, right?

Chen Guo quickly apologised nervously, "I'm sorry, I was just a bit upset."

After a pause, Chen Guo said, "Liu Hao, I haven't told you my story, have I?"

"I never met my mom; I was raised by my dad alone. My dad loved playing games, and his favourite was *Glory*. He was a fan of Excellent Era, and his favourite thing was watching One Autumn Leaf compete."

"Whenever Excellent Era had a match, he would always pull me along to watch, bragging about how amazing One Autumn Leaf was and how invincible he was. The player he admired was the best in the entire league, the only three-time champion in the league!"

"But at that time, I hadn't gotten into *Glory* and didn't like games. When my dad dragged me to watch One Autumn Leaf's matches, I would walk away after just a few glances... Later, the dad who raised me passed away from a heart attack, and then I took over this internet cafe."

"The internet cafe was left to me by my dad, and I didn't want the cafe he worked so hard to build to go under, so I dropped out of school and started learning how to run Xingxin Internet Cafe. After that, I started getting into *Glory* and paying attention to that player my dad always bragged about."

"*Glory* is really fun, and I quickly grew to love it too," Chen Guo said, her face full of nostalgia and longing. "I don't like Excellent Era just because it's so powerful, but because my dad used to be so passionate about it. Captain Ye Qiu was my dad's idol, the symbol of his faith, but now that Ye Qiu has suddenly retired, that symbol of faith is gone..."

"The spiritual connection between me and my dad suddenly broke, so that's why I became so sad." Chen Guo said softly, "So I didn't mean anything else, and I definitely don't want to make you jealous."

Liu Hao sighed. Chen Guo really cared about him; otherwise, she wouldn't have explained so much. He could actually understand how she felt.

"If, and I'm just saying, Ye Qiu didn't want to retire and was actually kicked out by the team, would you still like Excellent Era?" Liu Hao probed.

"Yes!" Chen Guo affirmed, "Because you're in the Excellent Era, I'll definitely like the Excellent Era."

Liu Hao suddenly felt moved and wanted to hug her and kiss her, but he restrained his feelings and asked the question he had been wanting to ask:

"If one day, the retired Ye Qiu suddenly came to you and told you he wanted to form a professional team and re-enter the *Glory* Pro League, would you support him?"

"How could that be? How could the great Ye Qiu possibly come looking for me?" Chen Guo waved her hand and laughed.

"But what if it really happened?"

Chen Guo looked at the serious Liu Hao and sensed the gravity of the question, so she began to think about it.

After a long time, Chen Guo looked into Liu Hao's eyes and answered, "I might choose to help Ye Qiu and help him fight his way back into the *Glory* Pro League. But if you really care and don't want him to come back and be your opponent, I'd choose to listen to you because between supporting Ye Qiu and you, of course, I'd choose to support you."

Hearing Chen Guo's answer, Liu Hao finally felt relieved. Since Chen Guo was on his side, he didn't care whether Ye Qiu returned or not.

Liu Hao stroked Chen Guo's hair and whispered, "Ye Qiu isn't all that amazing. Even if you support his return to the league, he won't win the championship because the championship is mine!"

Ye Qiu's return? At this moment, Liu Hao didn't care anymore. Even if Chen Guo really helped Ye Qiu form the Xingxin team and return to the Glory Pro League, Liu Hao would lead Excellent Era to crush Ye Qiu. He refused to believe that fate would insist on letting Ye Qiu win the championship! 

(End of chapter)

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