TuxedoTranslations

Chapter 94

Xia Xiaotong’s words were shocking.

But unlike before, this time his ridiculous phrasing didn’t make the Polaris team laugh. Everyone present was a veteran of holographic esports—they weren’t foolish. Exchanging glances, they all sensed that something strange had happened.

“Dylan… threw the match on purpose? Faked it?” Bo Yu probed, giving voice to the suspicions everyone was feeling. “No way, what benefit would he get from that?”

“Isn’t Sabretooth known for judging players harshly? Could he have a grudge against Yoyo? Maybe he wanted to take her down?” Zhou Yanjun questioned skeptically. “But has he ever argued with Yoyo privately?”

“But I heard Sabretooth has dozens of trainees and substitutes internally. They’re not like us—they focus on individual performance, and one match can directly affect their status. Even if Dylan did it to target Yoyo, the cost is huge! He gave away first blood to the team—by this logic, he gains nothing.” Shi Ya reasoned thoughtfully.

“That’s true too,” Zhou Yanjun said, pinching his chubby chin with two fingers. “Could it be… he likes the little short one? So he used two casualties as a ‘pledge’ to win her favor?”

Xia Tong’s eyes went wide. “Huh????”

Lin Mingfei immediately grabbed a fork from the table like a dart and threw it, cursing: “You’ve watched Return of the Temptress one too many times!”

Zhou Yanjun tilted his head to dodge, feeling wronged: “Can you come up with a better explanation? Dylan’s move doesn’t seem to benefit him in any other way, except maybe giving the little short one some perks.”

Everyone looked at each other.

He Youjin tapped a small silver spoon on a glass, the “ding ding clang” catching everyone’s attention.

“Alright, whatever it is, it’s just Sabretooth’s internal conflict, right? You all worry about it like it’s our problem. Are you downstairs neighborhood committee ladies? For us, their infighting is a good thing. We should be toasting to it.” With that, he raised his glass appropriately: “Come on, cheers!”

The table went silent for two seconds, then everyone laughed, suddenly enlightened, raising their glasses with grins.

“Manager He is absolutely right!”

“Come on, clink them! Maybe next year we’ll win the league without even fighting?”

“Winning without fighting sounds boring. I still want a proper rematch with Sabretooth in the league.”

“Little short one, raise your glass! You’ve been gnawing on that drumstick while everyone else is already toasting!”

“The crispy chicken cartilage is so good too, mmm—” Xia Tong’s cheeks moved as he nibbled, looking like a happy little hamster. After swallowing, he licked his fingers, then saw everyone had already raised their glasses to the center.

“What does this mean? Are we competing to drink more?” he asked, puzzled.

“No, it’s just a celebratory ritual,” Shi Ya smiled. “You can think of it as everyone making a wish together.”

“Oh, I see!” Xia Tong realized, copying the gesture. He raised his glass of milk and clinked it with the other five people, then solemnly made a wish: “I hope the snow falls heavier later, maybe all night, so I can build snowmen tonight and during the day tomorrow too!”

“Wow, can’t you make a bigger wish?” Zhou Yanjun sighed. “At least wish for something grander!”

“A bigger wish… okay,” Xia Tong thought for a couple seconds, then changed it: “I wish we could all go build snowmen together later!”

“That’s a slightly bigger wish…” Zhou Yanjun complained. “That’s all he’s capable of.”

“I think making a wish that can actually come true is good too. Contentment is happiness! After we eat, let’s all go play in the snow! Let’s fulfill the little Christmas Eve wish for us Polaris players.” Shi Ya smiled: “Cheers, to victory in next year’s league! Let me give the award speech; I even have a draft ready.”

“No one’s competing with you. After all, you’re the face of Polaris, right?” Lin Mingfei said with a low chuckle. He bent his head, gently holding Xia Tong’s hand under the table. The little omega noticed, tilted his head, looked up at him, and didn’t pull away, eyes sparkling with a smile.

Lin Mingfei gradually squeezed the soft, delicate hand in his palm, playing with it, then meaningfully said: “And here’s to our rare chance to be together. Cheers.”

—

Compared to the warm, festive atmosphere over at Polaris, things on the Sabertooth side were far less optimistic.

The result of the scrim match was automatically calculated by the system. After Xia Tong voluntarily exited the arena, the three remaining Sabertooth players secured the win without much effort. Yet when they left the arena and saw the result posted as “3:2,” none of them felt good about it.

The cocoons slowly opened. The five of them finally met again in the real world. The unexpected events from the match replayed in their minds—Goblin, Yoyo, Molan, and the others all had a lot they wanted to say. But because of Dylan’s status within the team, none of them knew how to break the stalemate. No one wanted to be the first villain to start the confrontation, so they all waited for someone else to lose their patience first. The atmosphere was painfully awkward.

Yet Dylan, the one at the center of the storm, appeared unusually calm. He pushed himself up from the armrest and sat up in the cocoon, gave a yawn, and stepped out. He didn’t even make eye contact with the others, let alone speak. His reaction made Yoyo extremely uncomfortable, and he blurted out:

“Dylan, what do you mean by this? Aren’t you going to say something?”

Dylan stopped walking. He turned his head and looked at Yoyo with a face full of surprise.

“Say something? What do you want me to say?” he asked mockingly. “Don’t tell me after winning a match like this you want me to congratulate you and say ‘good job, keep it up’?”

Yoyo’s eyes widened slowly. Anger and humiliation surged together, and Dylan’s sarcasm made his breathing uneven.

“What the hell! Who asked for your congratulations? Are we idiots? Can’t we tell whether this match was actually a win or a loss?”

“Oh, so you’re not idiots after all.” Dylan said coldly. “Since you’ve already put it that way, I guess I don’t need to spare anyone’s feelings anymore. Turning an easy winning game into a losing one—and nearly getting reversed—has a lot to do with the tactic someone came up with, doesn’t it?”

The moment everyone had been dreading had finally arrived. Goblin looked as if he’d been struck through the heart. His face gradually turned pale, then flushed with a bluish-purple tinge. Unable to endure it any longer, he stood up and growled:

“In the end, it was you who decided on your own to take Yoyo and go after Blink! If you hadn’t gone, neither you nor Yoyo would’ve died! We wouldn’t have ended up in this situation!”

“Please, I was testing your strategy for you. Isn’t the whole point of a scrim to scout the enemy and test tactics?” Dylan let out a strange laugh. “Besides, I thought all five of us were alive and the other side only had one Blink. We should’ve had an easy win. Who knew the plan you came up with would be so brilliant—so terrible that we still lost five against one. Seriously, how does your brain even work? Coming up with a piece of crap like that… I’m honestly impressed.”

Goblin couldn’t argue back. He nearly ground his teeth to pieces.

“You—!”

“What, still not convinced?” Dylan sneered. “Perfect. When Manager Zhao gets back later, let’s call him over and talk it out. Let’s see who should take the blame for getting reversed in a five-versus-one.”

After saying that, he ignored Goblin’s furious curses and clenched fists, and walked out of the training room alone as he pleased.

Silence fell over the room.

Goblin panted heavily in anger. With bloodshot eyes, he turned his head and met the complicated gazes of Molan, Robin Wang, and Yoyo.

“You… do you all think the same as him? That this is all my fault?” Goblin’s voice was hoarse, his expression somewhere between a laugh and rage. “Deep down, do you all find me annoying too? That I should just get out of this team and make room for someone else?”

By the end he was practically hysterical, roaring like a wounded beast.

“I think it’s best not to bring this to Manager Zhao. We should just review the match ourselves,” Molan said in a deep voice. He was the most objective and straightforward among them. “First, if we really talk about that last part, you were in the wrong. Second, it’s a fact that Manager Zhao favors Dylan. He won’t punish Dylan for your sake.”

“Why the hell won’t you answer my question directly?!” Goblin demanded, furious.

“What’s the point of answering your sentimental nonsense right now?!” Molan snapped back impatiently. “You’re about to lose your position! Shouldn’t you be thinking about your backup plan instead—”

Before he could finish, Goblin cut him off in a rage.

“I don’t want to hear any of that! Do you think I don’t know what matters more? I need you to find me a backup plan?!”

Molan: “…Damn it. You ungrateful idiot! And blind too! You can’t even tell who’s trying to help you and who’s screwing you over!”

He slammed the armrest and jumped out of his cocoon, rolling up the sleeves of his team uniform.

“I’m going to beat some sense into that wooden head of yours today! Damn it!”

Goblin had completely lost his mind. He roared back,

“Come on then! Hit me! You’ve wanted to do this for a long time, haven’t you?! Molan, screw you!!”

Seeing the two about to start fighting right there in the training room, Yoyo and Robin Wang panicked and both jumped out of their cocoons to break it up.

“Holy crap, what’s wrong with you two?! At a time like this we should be united against the outside—why are you fighting each other?! Are you crazy?! Want to get fined?!”

“Goblin, calm down!! Can’t you tell Brother Lan is trying to help you?!” Yoyo shouted anxiously. “Do you really want to give your position to that Ping Shuai?!”

That sentence was like a small iron hammer striking Goblin’s sore spot with a bang. Goblin froze instantly—and Molan ended up yanking out a clump of his hair.

“Ow!!”

Goblin immediately crouched down on the spot, clutching the patch of scalp where the hair had been ripped out, trembling.

“I think this idiot really does want to give his spot to Ping Shuai. He’s hopeless!” Molan cursed loudly. “Do you see even the slightest sign that he wants to improve?!”

“I was doing it for the good of the team… I’ve always been thinking about the team…” Goblin muttered weakly in defense. His eyes had turned red. “All these years of feelings… all wasted… wuwuwu—”

His legs gave out and he simply sat down on the floor, bursting into loud, uncontrollable sobs.

Molan: “……”

Robin Wang: “……”

Yoyo: “……”

Goblin was crying like a two-hundred-pound baby, wailing as if thunder and lightning were crashing together. Yoyo was the first to snap out of it. He hurried over and shut the door of the training room.

“Um… well…” He rubbed his palms together in confusion, as if struggling internally. But seeing how miserably Goblin was crying, Yoyo couldn’t hold back.

“Actually… I think there’s something wrong here—”

Goblin: “Waaahhh—”

Goblin’s crying made Yoyo so irritated that he stepped forward and clamped a hand over his mouth. Then he blurted out rapidly:

“You guys were all too far apart on the map earlier so you didn’t see it, but I really don’t think this round can be blamed on Goblin. Dylan’s actions in front of Blink were really strange!!”

The moment he said that, Goblin immediately stopped crying. He even sniffed hard and sucked his runny nose back in.

Molan’s gaze sharpened slightly.

“What do you mean?”

Yoyo bit his lip. He had always been the most mild-tempered and gentle person on the team. He rarely contradicted teammates, let alone spoke badly about someone behind their back—especially not someone with Dylan’s supreme status in the team.

“I…”

It took him a long time to gather the courage.

“What I’m about to say might be a bit subjective… but at the time Dylan really didn’t do any effective damage output. He kept blocking my line of sight the whole time. From beginning to end I never saw him activate Stealth. I thought he was saving his skill, so I used all my big heals on him—but he still died in the end! Honestly… it even felt like he was sent by the enemy team to trick me into wasting my skills!”

The moment those words came out, the other three were stunned.

“Actually, I also felt something was off at the time…” Robin Wang said quietly. “With Dylan’s skill level, he should be able to solo kill Blink. Even if the tactic itself wasn’t reasonable, he had Yoyo with him—a healer at that. That should at least double the margin for error. So why did they both end up dying together?”

“…”

Molan’s expression grew extremely serious. He didn’t easily say that dangerous word out loud. Instead, he asked:

“But why would Dylan do that? What benefit would that bring him—or our team?”

“Maybe he’s always disliked me and just wants to use this chance to kick me out,” Goblin said, pushing Yoyo’s hand away and shouting miserably.

“Come on. Even if he doesn’t like you, there’s no reason to mess with the outcome of the match,” Molan replied impatiently, arms crossed. “Our wins and losses are directly tied to our salaries. Dylan isn’t an idiot. Doing something that hurts the enemy but also damages himself isn’t worth it. Unless you dug up his family’s ancestral grave—then I might believe he hates you that much.”

This time Goblin fell silent after being scolded by Molan. After a while, he asked in a muffled voice through his sniffles:

“Then… what should I do now?”

Molan pinched his chin thoughtfully.

“If you really get kicked out, the substitute replacing you would be that Ping Shuai. That guy hasn’t properly played on stage for two years. Coordinating with him would be a nightmare. At that point, it wouldn’t just be your problem.”

“I agree,” Robin Wang said. “If we lose, we all share the blame anyway. Compared to that, I’d rather keep playing with you, Goblin. At least we know each other well. It’s safer.”

The sudden words of recognition from his teammates struck Goblin right in the heart. A warm current rushed from his chest to his throat, and he choked up.

“You guys… all of you… actually value me this much.”

“Don’t overthink it. We just don’t have a better choice,” Molan said with a straight face. “If we did, who’d bother with an idiot like you?”

Yoyo laughed softly, then asked,

“So when we do the match review later, what exactly should we do to make sure Goblin stays?”

Molan replied, “Simple. We all fight to take the blame. He can’t replace all of us.”

Goblin: “…What if Manager Zhao really replaces all of you too?”

Molan: “…Then I’ll beat you to death.”

Goblin sniffled hard twice, then suddenly jumped up and lunged over, hooking an arm around Molan’s neck.

Molan: “Holy crap—let go! Let go! Get away from me! That’s disgusting!!”

Goblin ignored him completely and bawled loudly while hugging him.

“MOLAN!!! I MISJUDGED YOU!!! You’re the person who treats me best in the whole world!! Waaaaahhh! I love you!!”

—

After the entire Polaris team finished dinner, they followed through on their promise and went out to play in the snow with Xia Tong.

What a sight. Earlier at the dinner table they had all acted extremely reserved, putting on an air of “We’re used to snow already, it’s nothing special to us.” But once they got outside, every single one of them ran wild like horses breaking loose from their reins.

Especially Zhou Yanjun—that Alaskan pig even stripped off his down jacket and rolled around crazily in the snow wearing just a wool sweater, kicking up clouds of icy powder everywhere.

Lin Mingfei didn’t participate in this down-to-earth activity. He stood to the side with Xia Tong building a snowman.

Xia Tong quietly worked on the snowman without saying a word, not even asking for help, completely absorbed in his task. Meanwhile Lin Mingfei idly scrolled through Weibo.

He noticed that everyone from Sabertooth except Dylan had posted a statement on their personal Weibo pages. The main content was apologizing to him. Among them, Goblin’s apology was particularly detailed—even specifically addressing the rumor about Lin Mingfei supposedly sleeping with fans.

Lin Mingfei clicked his tongue softly.

Judging by the number of comments, this had clearly caused quite a stir.

His Weibo inbox was flooded with unread messages—fans apologizing, comforting him, confessing their love.

The same old things.

All of it belonged to the past now.

Lin Mingfei didn’t really care what attitude the fans in the comments section held. But from this incident, he at least understood one thing:

Xia Tong truly kept him at the very tip of his heart and protected him there.

That alone was enough to make him happy for a very, very long time.

Meeting Xia Tong had become the greatest compensation for everything he had endured before.

Xia Tong had only wanted to quietly build a little snowman. With Lin Mingfei accompanying him, he had finally managed to stack it together after a lot of effort. Just as he was about to look around for a small branch to stick into the snowman as arms, he bent down and looked back up—

—and the snowman’s head was gone.

That head had taken Xia Tong tremendous effort to shape. He had even secretly molded it to resemble Lin Mingfei. The little omega’s lips immediately trembled into a wavy line as he cried miserably:

“Where did my snowman’s head go!!!”

Meanwhile, Zhou Yanjun was holding a huge snowball and throwing it in a perfect baseball-pitching pose. Full of energy, he shouted:

“Xiao Bo! Take this!!”

The snowball drew a perfect arc through the air.

Xia Tong’s eyes followed it—and he recognized the source at once. The snowball’s surface had delicate indentations forming facial features… features he had carved out himself, modeled after Lin Mingfei’s face!!

The little omega exploded in anger and rushed toward Zhou Yanjun with claws out.

“AAAAHHH Fatty, I’m going to fight you!!! Give me back Zero’s head!!!”

Zhou Yanjun: “???”

Lin Mingfei, who had been standing nearby scrolling on his phone: “?????”

Xia Tong used all his strength to slam Zhou Yanjun to the ground, instantly joining the snowball fight. Soon the whole group was wrestling and shouting in the snowdrifts, creating an incredibly chaotic scene.

Lin Mingfei watched expressionlessly for a moment, then lowered his gaze back to his phone.

Forget it…

Tong-style nonsense, Tong-style innocence. I’m already used to it…

His innocence, his head, his body—whatever it is, it all belongs to Xia Tong now anyway. He can do whatever he wants with it.

Feel free to buy me a coffee/show your support on ko-fi! Thank you ❤