Chapter Text
Chapter 1: The Conversation That Changed Everything
Everything was going to hell, and she could only watch helplessly as it all unfolded. Excellent Era was sabotaging her brother. They wanted to get rid of him, she knew it, and she couldn't do anything about it. She felt so powerless that she wanted to scream in rage until she was hoarse. Stupid Excellent Era. Stupid Tao Xuan, stupid everyone who thought they could mess with the people she loved with impunity.
Ye Xiu wasn't her real brother. But after the death of Su Muqiu, her real brother and Ye Xiu's best friend, he was the one who took care of her. To Su Mucheng, Ye Xiu, or Ye Qiu as everyone knew him, was her brother, and she wasn't willing to hear anything different.
And Excellent Era, the club that her brother and Ye Xiu had once loved, was sabotaging him more and more, wanting to get rid of him. She knew it, Ye Qiu himself knew it.
Tao Xuan, someone they had once considered a close friend, someone she had once called Brother Tao, was now just a CEO. Someone only interested in money, and Ye Xiu was like a mountain of gold that couldn't be exploited due to his refusal to do advertising. The Battle God, the textbook of Glory, just wanted to play; publicity was not something he cared about. But to Tao Xuan, if he wanted the money he could earn with it, he wanted it all.
And between the two, a rift had formed, an insurmountable difference no matter how much Su Mucheng did, it was no longer enough. The Club had turned its back on Ye Xiu, and with the club, most of the players had too, too many idiots from Excellent Era. They no longer respected him, they did the opposite of what Ye Xiu told them, consequently, teamwork was a disaster, this season they were a complete joke, they were almost halfway down the table and were as far from the playoffs as a mid-rank team touching low rank.
That day they had a match against Tiny Herb. For some "unknown" reason, despite asking for help and giving their coordinates in the group chat, Excellent Era decided, under Liu Hao's orders, to abandon their captain and follow Tiny Herb's knight, Angelica.
Ye Xiu wasn't surprised, he knew his team no longer listened to him except for the faithful Su Mucheng. Abandoning their captain and their gunner for the highly resistant knight of Tiny Herb was not really the best idea, but apparently, the people from Excellent Era were idiots because that's exactly what they did.
Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng fought bravely, putting on a complete show, but a 2v4 was always doomed, in the end, they were killed.
And after the fall of the gunner and the captain, the rest didn't take long to fall, they couldn't even finish off Angelica, the knight of Tiny Herb for whom they had abandoned their captain. Excellent Era was completely crushed in that team competition.
---
-Su Mucheng- Wang Jiexi's voice made the beautiful gunner from Excellent Era turn. It wasn't her whom the Tiny Herb captain was seeking, but catching Ye Qiu had never been an easy task. Su Mucheng looked at him, a bit startled from beneath her scarf and cap in which she hid, but upon seeing that it was only Wang Jiexi, she relaxed and gave him a smile. She gestured for him to follow her to a place where they wouldn't be recognized, and the Tiny Herb captain complied.
"Senior Wang," the girl greeted him. He nodded in return.
"I was looking for Senior Ye," he said directly.
"He's already gone," she sighed dejectedly. Wang Jiexi put his hands in his pockets and was silent for a few moments before speaking.
"What's going on at Excellent Era? Why are they sabotaging Ye Qiu like this?" he asked directly to the girl. Su Mucheng was startled. Had the Magician also noticed?
"Don't you think he's just getting old and declining like everyone says?" she asked tentatively.
Wang Jiexi narrowed his eyes, and in his mismatched eyes, the gesture was quite noticeable.
"Nonsense from people with no brains. You just have to look at his performance to see that he's still at his best. It's that team that's dragging him down, not the other way around," he said simply, and Su Mucheng nodded in complete agreement. The girl looked at the starry sky before daring to speak. She couldn't do anything, just simmer in her own helplessness... but Wang Jiexi... maybe he could do something or at least give her an idea of what to do.
"They're sabotaging him, Excellent Era wants to get rid of him," she confessed.
"Get rid of their best player?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at the illogicality of doing something so stupid.
"Yes, for someone who can generate money for them like Zhou Sekai does for Samsara." With those words, the intelligent captain of Tiny Herb understood everything. "Ye Qiu and I don't believe they'll even let him finish this season," she confessed with a sigh.
"Then let him cancel his contract, any professional team would kill to hire him even if Excellent Era refuses to sell One Autumn Leaf, with his skills, any club would invest in creating a new Battle Mage for him," he assured.
"He can't... Brother Ye... he doesn't have the money to pay for the cancellation of the contract, and Tao Xuan knows," she sighed.
"Come on, Senior, he's the best player in Glory, his salary must rival mine or even Han Wenqing's," he said. Everyone knew that the captain of Tyranny was the highest-paid player in the league.
"He's not. My brother's contract hasn't been updated even once since the first season of the League," she confessed, if she had already started, what did it matter to tell the whole truth. "His salary is the lowest in all of Excellent Era and probably in the league. I'm not an expert, but I think it's possible that even the rookies on the teams earn better than him," she sighed.
"How much is his salary?" he asked with a bad feeling.
"A quarter of a million a year," she said, and Wang Jiexi almost choked on his own saliva. That was ridiculous for the best player in Glory. Han Wenqing earned 10 million RMB a year, he himself earned 8 a year. How was it possible that the three-time champion didn't earn even half of what they did?
"That's completely shameless," he said, frowning. Su Mucheng nodded.
"But Brother doesn't care, he only cared about playing. Having a roof, food, and being able to play was more than enough for him. He never cared about money, even what he earned, whether it was a lot or a little, he used it to help all those first-generation players who failed. Brother is bankrupt," she confessed, "and he'll never accept my money for canceling the contract," she said, frustrated. "I fear... I fear that Excellent Era will force him to retire. They won't sell him; they're too afraid to give him to another team. They won't let him be the captain and keep One Autumn Leaf for much longer; I fear they'll force him to retire knowing that he can't pay for the cancellation of his own contract," she was so frustrated that she could feel the tears welling up in her eyes.
"We can't allow such stupidity. Glory needs Ye Qiu," the "magician" of Tiny Herb frowned.
"And what can we do?" the girl said, frustrated. She dared to have a small hope.