【Zhou Xiang】The Tropic

1.

That night Zhou Zekai returned home—yes, he had already called this place “home” on his own initiative—and found that the most comfortable seat on the sofa had been taken by Sun Xiang.

A small patch of orange was illuminated by the wall lamp.In the brightest orange position, a blond young man with long arms and legs curled up in a blanket in an awkward position, his chin resting on the pillow, motionless, as if he had fallen asleep.

This is an illusion.

The first time he heard the sound of the porch, the young man opened his eyes suddenly, moved forward nimbly... almost fell off the sofa.

When rushing to rescue someone, Mr. Zhou thought distractedly—the house that really belongs to them in the future must have thicker and softer carpets.

2.

"I really don't have a fever." The young man sat upright like a primary school student who made a mistake.

Zhou Zekai had experience, so he didn't believe it easily, so he pressed the back of his hand to his forehead: "It's still hot."

"I've already taken the medicine. Hey, don't be so nervous." Sun Xiang dodged Zhou Zekai's hand, his heart fluttering for no reason, "I was just attacked by a foreign virus, and after a few sleeps, I can be full of blood and demons."

"Oh," Zhou Zekai stared at him, "then why don't you sleep?"

"Because..." Sun Xiang choked, and later realized that this time he was really ill and lost his IQ. He dug a hole to bury himself, "Oh because I have something to ask for you! What is it?" He rubbed his eyes, After drinking the water that Zhou Zekai poured, and rubbing his face twice, he finally remembered, "...I'm sorry Zhou Zekai, I, I forgot to leave a ticket for you!"

3.

According to the schedule, Mercury will face ARK tomorrow night.

The sixth challenge match VS the fifth challenge match, the smell of gunpowder is already strong. The gimmick of "the first show of a rookie element blaster" added to the excitement of the game.It took only 3 minutes to issue tickets, and all seats for ordinary audience tickets were sold out in seconds.It's hard to get a ticket even for the related seats, so you need to call the ticket office in advance.

In Sun Xiang's concept, He Xi is the "seed" that he and Zhou Zekai dug and sowed together. Now it's finally time to test the growth of the crops for the first time. Even if Zhou Zekai doesn't mention it, he will take the initiative to help the other party get tickets.What's more, Zhou Zekai even mentioned it himself.

... In the end, he was busy for a whole week, and he should never have done it, and he forgot about it!

"I was a long time late with Andy, and he said that all the tickets have been given away! I'm sorry! I'm an idiot!" Sun Xiang pursed his lips and looked at Zhou Zekai, feeling extremely guilty.

"It's okay." Zhou Zekai comforted him, and took advantage of the situation to pull him up, "It's like watching a live broadcast."

Where is the same!Sun Xiang wanted to refute, but he did it himself. Since Zhou Zekai made it clear that he didn't want to mention it, he could only shut up obediently.

"...Well. Then I'm going to sleep. You should go to bed early too." Sun Xiang returned to the room hesitantly.

After the friend left, Zhou Zekai sighed and took out a ticket from the inner pocket of his suit.

Wednesday 7pm MercuryVsARK

How could he not get the ticket he wanted.Zhou Zekai thought, originally planned to explain on the spot, but seeing a certain friend's dizzy reaction, let's wait for him to wake up tomorrow, and then give him a surprise.

4.

I don't know who came up with the neurotic trick of pushing the wall to relieve pressure. Anyway, when Zhao Yaoyao and the others discovered it, it had already become a popular "pre-match exercise" for the entire team.

Sun Xiang worried about He Xi in all kinds of ways, reminded him ten thousand times, and thought of every detail, but just like missing Zhou Zekai's ticket, he missed it by accident.

So the moment he and Fang Minghua walked into the Mercury lounge talking and laughing, the nerves near his temples twitched three times.

All sounds are silent.

Qian Jin and a group of other team members clapped their hands in the air while counting; while He Xi and Wu Yue were also stuck in the middle of their push against the wall.

"...Is this how you teach children?" Sun Xiang didn't bother to roll his eyes, "And how many times have you said that you have to lock the door when you do this kind of thing. Don't you worry about some media rushing in and clicking?"

"Report Brother Xiang, Wu Yue said that he will be more energetic and imposing when he goes on stage." He Xi is very good to everyone else, except when he sells Wu Yue, he is very merciless.

Wu Yue was so angry that he jumped up: "No, didn't you call my brother first? Then you encouraged me? Then, then—" Then he was so angry that he couldn't speak.

Sun Xiang silently turned his face away: "..." He finally understood what He Xi meant by "Wu Yue's painting style is wrong".

Fang Minghua laughed so hard that he almost lost his breath.

5.

Of course, being funny is just one of the countless characteristics of the Mercury team.With 5 minutes left to play, the entire waiting room is already in another serious and passionate painting style.

"Everyone come here—the formation is in a circle!" Qian Zhu's face was serious, full of the captain's majesty.Everyone, including the most naughty minors, immediately surrounded him obediently.

Fist against fist, boys with fire in their eyes: "What do we want?" "Victory!" "What else?" "Only victory!"

Sun Xiang and Fang Minghua eavesdropped openly across the door.

"It's outrageous." Boss Sun muttered, "It's not vulgar."

"But no matter how many times, someone will never get tired of listening to it." Fang Minghua punctured mercilessly, "Admit it, if it wasn't for New Glory's age restriction, you probably would have given yourself a chance to fight."

Sun Xiang snorted.

6.

Because they underestimated the difficulty of parking in the surrounding area, Zhou Zekai and Ye Mingkang found their seats only before the opening.

At that time, the entire arena was completely dark except for the players' entrance and the competition platform in the middle.Zhou Zekai lowered his head all the way to identify the signs in each row, and wearing a mask, the probability of being recognized was almost zero.

Just under such circumstances, Sun Xiang stood up and stretched himself, glanced back casually, and suddenly found the suit that Zhou Zekai was wearing when he went out today out of thousands of spectators.

At this point, the big screen has started the countdown to the entry of the players.

As soon as the number "00:59" appeared, it immediately seemed like water drops fell into a frying pan, pushing the already boiling scene to an even hotter climax.All of a sudden, the world was filled with wildly waving fluorescent sticks, light signs, Ipads, and hand banners. Many excited audiences stood up and shouted, and any action of changing seats became extremely difficult.

Sun Xiang hesitated for less than half a second.

He patted Fang Minghua on the shoulder, and whispered a few words into his ear.The latter immediately showed a "fuck" expression on his face.

"Hurry up." Sun Xiang's mouth seemed to be urging.

Fang Minghua struggled for a while, then silently took off his coat and handed it to Sun Xiang.

Then Sun Xiang magically took out a hat and a mask.Relying on these three props, he disguised himself tightly, bowed his body and squeezed out of the VIP area in the blink of an eye.

"Brother Minghua, where is Brother Xiang?" Zhao Yaoyao, who was out of the situation, was excited for a while, only to find that Sun Xiang had disappeared, and—"Hey, where are your clothes?"

"It's hot, take it off." Fang Ming Huasheng had nothing to love, "He went to greet customers."

This client is quite special, the kind who will make the headlines if he is photographed.Now that things have happened, he can only pray that someone will do what he says, "be careful and keep a low profile."

7.

If he could communicate, Ye Mingkang would definitely say that his mood at the moment was comparable to that of Fang Minghua.

He deliberately turned down the dinner party tonight, and covered up the handsome face of the "national husband", just to watch the game with his nephew and repair the relationship between the two.After making so many sacrifices... the result?

As a result, as soon as Sun Xiang appeared, he chatted with Zhou Zekai for two or three sentences, and he... was "kindly presented" with the VIP seat identity card, and was thrown into the relationship area of ​​Team Mercury?

Although there are many familiar players sitting in the relationship area, it is not without gain to be able to explain to him professionally, but this still has a great deviation from his original intention of "watching the game happily and repairing the relationship with his nephew"!

It's a pity that Zhou Zekai is destined not to hear his voice for the time being——

After sending Ye Mingkang away, Sun Xiang lowered his voice, leaned into Zhou Zekai's ear, and asked impatiently, "How did you get the ticket?"

Zhou Zekai looked at the competition stage in front of him, calmly said: "Guess."

"Damn, I can't guess! The VIP ticket that Ye Mingkang gave you? No..."

"Hehe," Zhou Zekai suddenly turned his head, his black and white eyes were full of his shadow, "Because I wanted to come." So he came.

"You..." Sun Xiang choked, his mind went blank, he forgot what he was about to say, and just stared at him blankly.

Don't blame him, blame Zhou Zekai for being too ambiguous.Inside the words, there is an arrogance that regards other audiences as non-existent, as if this competition venue is his private domain, and he can come and go at any time.

It's so fucking dead.Is this blatantly playing handsome and provocative at Brother Xiang's home court?

Sun Xiang's throat suddenly became dry, and the urge to hold his heart down with his hands to keep it from beating too hard came back again.Looking at each other for two seconds gave him the illusion that it had been a century.Because of the inexplicable cowardice, he couldn't help but staggered his gaze, warning himself not to over-interpret it, but it didn't take long before he turned back unconsciously.

As soon as his eyes met, Zhou Zekai raised his lips in embarrassment: "Well, what's the matter?"

When he was speaking, Zhou Zekai's long eyelashes flickered, and the color of the field patrol light belt was reflected in his eyes, intertwined with his smile, clear and dazzling.Sun Xiang was in a daze for a moment, and suddenly realized that Zhou Zekai hadn't smiled like this for a long time.

Of course, this is not to say that Zhou Zekai's smile is not sincere enough when he and Zhou Zekai get along with each other on weekdays, but how to put it... It seems that only in the competition scene, under this special atmosphere, Zhou Zekai's smile has something that doesn't usually exist. , more breathtaking concentration and calmness, became complete, and finally approached the "Reincarnation Zhou Zekai" he first knew who would only smile shyly after the game.

At this moment, Zhou Zekai stood up suddenly, stepped over Sun Xiang, and helped him pull the hem of his clothes stuck between the seats.

Because of their posture, the distance between their bodies was pulled closer, and Zhou Zekai's breath seemed to rub against the back of Sun Xiang's neck.In an instant, Sun Xiang's heart beat like an unknown warmth.

The on-screen countdown enters the final 10 seconds.

The movement and movement of the surrounding environment was also at its peak - the noisy crowd, the deafening sound and the dazzling lights that crazily crossed and swept across the audience were all interfering with Sun Xiang, causing his adrenaline to be secreted crazily, blood pumping continuously into his brain, and the whole body He fell into a strange dizzy state, and almost forgot the topic of his trip today——

For a moment, he almost thought that he was at the Grass Music Festival in summer, with his closest partner beside him, because his emotions were so high that he couldn't help but grab the other's hand.

fortunately.

"Are—you—ready?" Fortunately, the host turned on the mic at this time.

The warm-up chat not only quickly calmed down the venue, but also made Sun Xiang quickly regain his composure.

He didn't dare to look at Zhou Zekai's reaction, so he quickly straightened his back and put all his attention on the front: "It's nothing, nothing, just focus on watching the game!"

Zhou Zekai hummed for a moment, the corners of his mouth slightly raised, and he also focused his gaze on the screen of the competition stage with gorgeous light and shadow effects.

8.

There was no suspense in the first half of this game.

In the singles competition, He Xi was not scheduled to play.Both sides are familiar opponents, they know the basics, and they play very normally.At the end of the game, Mercury was slightly behind ARK by 1 head—as long as the team can score one more point, there is not much pressure to come back.

But soon, with the start of the team competition, the voices of the Mercury fans on the field gradually weakened—they still couldn't expect too much from the newcomers—even though He Xi's personal skills were good, it was obvious that half of the The running-in period of less than a month is still too difficult for him to adapt to the overall rhythm of Mercury.

Once again, the intention of stealing heads was seen through, and ARK rushed forward violently.The Mercury Five formed a sector, retreating while fighting back.This kind of tactical retreat is the foundation of the foundation in daily training. He Xi is in the formation and is well protected. As long as he is clear-headed and keeps up with the rhythm, there is no danger—but at this moment , Just after he released a round of small skills, He Xi turned around suddenly, the staff shook, and the magic light on the head of the staff flowed, pointing at the ghost swordsman of ARK who was closest to him.

"What is the newcomer going to do?" Before the commentary finished speaking, the audience already knew the answer.

With the red obsidian's light bursting suddenly, a level 70 ultimate move caught off guard and smashed into ARK's formation.The rain of fire covered the sky and covered the sky, not only burning off a portion of Ghost Swordsman's blood, but also igniting the vegetation around him.According to Glory's game design, the fire in the burning area would spread at a speed of 15 yards per second, so before the three team members next door could react, they were more or less affected, with the burning debuff hanging on their heads.

"Starting a group? Now?" Commentator A was stunned, "Is Mercury's newcomer crazy?!"

"Tsk tsk, you're very ambitious, kid, you're so eager to show off!" Commentator B retorted coldly.

Their reactions were not exaggerated at all.He Xi's Huoyu skill seemed to be 20, and the terrain was mastered very delicately, but after the ultimate move was released, the other 50~[-] main skills were still cooling down, and it was impossible to make up the next wave of combos.What's more tricky is that if they want to fight against ARK while the iron is hot, it means that Mercury and the others have to venture into the densely vegetated area.He is not the only one who can use the terrain. Didn't you see that Feng Fa on ARK's side has raised his wand and is preparing to counterattack?And the other two melee classes are also approaching at high speed?

"???" Qian Chen's perspective was off, and his first reaction was to place three question marks on the screen.

"Fuck! Are you out of your mind?!" Wu Yue was the closest to He Xi, and He Xi was the first to help him out of emotion and reason, but this did not prevent him from yelling.

Since he typed instead of spoken, his reaction was faithfully shown to everyone present.

"Oh, Wu Yue is angry!" "Normal, let's see what he's going to do next. He rushed up, is he planning to help the newcomers open fire, no, how did he go around the back of the formation? Could it be—— "Is it possible that you plan to take your teammates and take a head and leave, and the newcomers will give it to ARK for education?" The commentator discussed fiercely.

"Stupid, you cheated on my husband as soon as you came up! @#$%^&&..." The girl next door to Sun Xiang exposed her status as a fan of Wu Yue's girlfriend, perfectly expressing what it means to be a fan like a real master, and it's impossible to scold someone Not panting.

Sun Xiang's expression was not so tense. Fifteen seconds had passed, and the two sides had begun to reconnect. He and Zhou Zekai looked at each other, and found another judgment from the other's eyes.

—— "Wu Yue has no intention of giving up on He Xi."

8.

It turned out that He Xi only said two words in the headset just now: Brother Yue!

Wu Yue understood this endless speech in an instant—it was a plea: just like in training, He Xi entered the state and was unwilling to waste it. He wanted to take advantage of the momentum and use this as a harvest point, so please cooperate with him.

Others don't know, but he knows how terrifying the speed of He Xi's hands will explode when he enters the state-can't connect with consecutive moves?It doesn't matter.With more small skills with zero CD, He Xi can survive until the cooling bar recovers!

But there are pros and cons in everything - He Xi still can't fully grasp the control method of hand speed, and it is very likely that he will be injured due to unrestrained explosion.

That's why he scolded He Xi—not because of anything else, but because he was simply worried about this idiot—compared to his partner, he already regarded He Xi as his younger brother!

"Damn it!" There is no way, the matter has come to this point, it is unrealistic to insist on stopping, so what else can we do?Go directly!

He knocked on the mic and yelled frequently in the team: "Listen to me! The captain is in the sixth position, just watch He Xijia, and give him all the status! The magic gunman is frozen and ready, wait for my signal——"

Only he is most familiar with He Xi's rhythm, no matter how adventurous he is, he believes that under his temporary command, Mercury has the ability to withstand the impact of ARK.

Half a minute later, the audience was surprised to find that the expected scene of He Xi being quickly "sieged" did not appear. On the contrary, Mercury survived the 70 big moves of ARK's three DPS in a decent manner.

Another half minute...

At this moment, even the commentator was so shocked that he needed to take two sips of water to speak coherently.

"Wu Yue! Awesome! Fortress! Glory Weekly has always said that he has an unstable temper. Who would have thought that in such a difficult headwind situation, he would continue to maintain the most calm position. It is absolutely amazing!" "Don't forget to give the newcomer Thumbs up, being able to rely on small skills until he recovers from 70 big moves, his hand speed, control and precision are all terrifying! No wonder Mercury didn’t let him take part in personal battles, it turned out that he was really caught off guard waiting here!”

"Take away the devil!" "Catch another person!" "ARK's priest, the priest is dead!" "The boxer is entangled with Wu Yue, but the blood volume is really desperate!" "It's not very desperate, it's cleared directly! Beautiful !" The commentator slapped the table excitedly, "Congratulations to the Mercury team, it lasted 46 minutes and 27 seconds-the Jedi came back!"

The moment Glory popped up on the screen, the girl beside Sun Xiang couldn't help crying.Of course, she wasn't the only one who was excited, almost all the audience around had stood up and were shouting Mercury's support slogan.

In the dark crowd, Zhou Zekai and Sun Xiang seemed a bit awkward to continue to sit.They stood up silently.

"Win!" Sun Xiang's first reaction was to turn his head to look at Zhou Zekai. His voice was hoarse with excitement, and his eyes were as bright as if he had just stepped off the player's bench.

"Yeah." Zhou Zekai seemed to have expected this reaction, and gave a thumbs up with a smile, "Boss has vision."

Sun Xiang's face became hot instantly - he thought it was because of pure excitement, the corners of his mouth raised high: "That is."

9.

Post-match interview.

Unexpectedly, as soon as the contestants walked out of the backstage, the flashing lights were so crazy that they could blind people.

Countless excited guns and short guns are aimed at the protagonist tonight-the new core of Mercury, the two partners who have just dominated the miracle.

"Prepared for a long time? Very calm?" He Xi scratched her head in embarrassment, "How is it possible, after I set off the first fire rain, I was thinking that it was over, Brother Yue wanted to scold me, I was really panicked!"

"Hey, why don't you panic and scold you? If you don't make it clear, I will write it later on e-sports online—the rookie makes a miracle by mistake, and the essence is that he needs his teammates to carry." Wu Yue complained fiercely on the surface But in fact, everyone could tell that he was defending He Xi.

"Hey," He Xi said with a smile, "Oh oh. Well, I panic because—Brother Yue will be worried that I will get hurt and get angry. He is super scary when he gets angry, you must know it! I was wrong about Brother Yue."

After speaking, he looked at Wu Yue sincerely.

"..." Wu Yue obviously didn't expect this guy to behave in front of the media, "Cut."

After he finished pretending to be cool, he seemed to realize that the media was still waiting, coughed, and said seriously: "Because this guy had a similar 'surprise' in training before, and then rolled over badly, I'm afraid he not only lost his hand In such a state, he was cheated of his skills." The trick of skills refers to not mastering the rhythm well, and because of being too excited, he released the big move that he had saved so hard in advance.

"It's because of you." He Xi stuck out her tongue, "Besides, it's been two weeks. Didn't Brother Yue notice my hard work and progress?"

Wu Yue was blocked for the second time.

He finally knew the reason why Sun Xiang rubbed his head immediately after being blocked by them every time.

Because at this moment, he also wanted to do the same to He Xi.

But for the sake of the team image, he finally held back.After he regained his composure, he regained the cold and handsome state that the media is familiar with: "Huh, to be honest, I actually have no idea. But everyone has the first time when they are on the field and can't control themselves. This state It is a double-edged sword. If you succeed, you will increase your confidence. But once you fail, you will definitely have a psychological shadow-the next time you come back to the state, you may subconsciously suppress it. This is a waste of your talent."

He coughed, avoiding He Xi's shining eyes, looked to the left, and found that Qian Chi and other old team members were looking at him teasingly, and his cheeks turned red.At this time, I am especially grateful to the makeup artist for applying the foundation thickly: "I am a brother, and I promised Brother Xiang to cover you, so what if I try to make you feel good."

"It's very similar to you." Sun Xiang listened intently to the speeches of the contestants, suddenly, this sentence came to his ears.

When he turned his head, Zhou Zekai still had the same calm expression, but there was a smile in his eyes: "They all look like you."

"No, isn't it more..." Sun Xiang almost subconsciously wanted to add "their love and calmness for glory are more like you", but this sentence was interrupted by a sudden phone call.

"Om—" Zhou Zekai's phone vibrated because the pocket of his trousers was pressed against the seat, and Sun Xiang felt it too.

He bowed his head together with Zhou Zekai, and looked at the lit screen with a message reminder.

"Mother: Call me back right away."

Sun Xiang's brows twitched, and a certain long-delayed worry instantly filled his heart: "Zhou Zekai——"

"It's okay." Zhou Zekai mouthed him, then squeezed out of the crowd with his mobile phone in hand.

TBC