【Zhou Xiang】The Tropic

1.

The hour hand passed the twelve o'clock position and continued to move backwards.Because the city skyline is already quiet, the starlight seems to be denser than when it first fell into the night.

It's a pity that no matter how bright they were, they were not enough to meet Sun Xiang's needs—he was worried about Zhou Zekai's night blindness, so he insisted on keeping a wall lamp—so that he could finally lean on the piano with peace of mind and lazily, listening to Zhou Zekai's words to himself. Play that particular song.

Anyway, this is part of Zhou Zekai's "birthday gift" to himself, and it must be received with care and care.

The slender fingers danced on the black and white keys, and time slipped away quietly with the flow of the melody.

"How is it?" The last voice disappeared, Zhou Zekai withdrew his hand, turned to look at him with a faint smile on the corner of his mouth.

Sun Xiang said "um" in a daze, and slowly broke out of the immersion state: "It's the first time I know that birthday songs can be played so well! Zhou Zekai is amazing! To be honest, when I first moved in, I thought this station The piano is just a decoration... I didn't expect you to hide such a hand!"

While speaking, he subconsciously avoided Zhou Zekai's eyes—these eyes were extremely beautiful, and when they looked at each other recently, they always made him flustered for no reason, and made his heartbeat fluctuate frequently.

In order to hide his guilty conscience, Sun Xiang bowed his head for half a second, then jumped up as if waking up from a dream, and rushed to the table to dig a spoonful of cake.After regaining his rhythm, he triumphantly signaled Zhou Zekai to open his mouth, but no matter how he looked at the direction of the spoon, he seemed to be smearing someone's nose or cheek.

Zhou Zekai had no choice but to grab his wrist and grab control of the cake plate.

Sun Xiang stuck out his tongue, pulled his hand away like lightning, turned his back and walked two steps away, and took out his phone.

"Huh?" Zhou Zekai wiped his mouth, walked over, and tilted his head casually.

Sun Xiang reflexively wanted to hide it, but halfway through it, for some reason, he took it out again: "It's nothing, I just posted on Weibo."

It turned out that Sun Xiang not only listened to the birthday song, but also recorded it.

"Extraordinary birthday style. Feel it. Yeah. jpg" He posted the audio and attached this paragraph of text.

Zhou Zekai glanced at him: "So easily satisfied?"

"Why," Sun Xiang countered pretending to be dissatisfied, "I wanted to flatter the landlord, but ended up flattering him? Or I delete it." As he spoke, he pretended to edit Weibo.Knowing that Sun Xiang wanted to play around again, Zhou Zekai simply snatched the phone while he was unprepared and hid it behind his back.

Sun Xiang sullenly said, "It's too much—" As soon as he finished speaking, because he found that Zhou Zekai's sleeve was stained with cream, he broke his skills and laughed.

Zhou Zekai reluctantly returned the phone, then turned to look for a tissue.Sun Xiang moved relatively quickly, he crossed the coffee table and drew two, and ordered: "Raise your hand."

"..." Zhou Zekai was speechless for a while, then raised his hand obediently, acquiescing to Sun Xiang's childish behavior.

After wiping his sleeves, Sun Xiang finally stopped making trouble.The cake that Zhou Zekai brought seemed to be thoughtful, one piece and a half was just right for one person, which was suitable for supper.It didn't take long for them to finish eating.Sun Xiang took the initiative to get up to clear the plate, patted his head one last time, and said regretfully, "Damn, I forgot to take a picture before eating!"

"WeChat." Zhou Zekai pointed to the phone.

Sun Xiang lowered his head in doubt.It turned out that someone had passed on a complete top view of the cake.

"Marvelous!" Sun Xiang happily collected the picture and saved it, "I can remember all of this. It's you!"

Zhou Zekai didn't speak, leaned on the sofa and looked at him quietly.

Sun Xiang didn't know who to send the message to, and he raised his head after a while, his eyes full of sincerity: "Thank you, Zhou Zekai! I am really happy for this birthday!"

2.

After eating and drinking enough, Sun Xiang rubbed his stomach, but he was still unwilling to wash up.

Zhou Zekai asked him, "Aren't you sleepy?"

"Physically sleepy, mentally hyperactive, unable to sleep!" Sun Xiang shook his head, quieted for a while, and suddenly suggested, "Can you hold on... If possible, let's chat?!"

He lied.The reluctance to sleep was not because of high spirits, but because of his intuition that Zhou Zekai might be happier in this way.

"What are you talking about?" Zhou Zekai had no objection.At this time, apart from dragging him to run naked in the street, he would probably agree to whatever Sun Xiang asked.

"Well, did you see if I sent you the link?" Sun Xiang thought for a while and said.

"Of course." Zhou Zekai nodded.

From there, they naturally transitioned to more serious topics—the transformation of old and new glory.

The reason is that Sun Xiang denied Zhou Zekai's speculation: "Ten-year contract? I haven't signed with He Xi for five years. It's renewed every two years, and he can change jobs at any time."

"Why?" Zhou Zekai was a little surprised, "Isn't the team—"

"Isn't it very insecure?" Sun Xiang interrupted him plainly, "Oh yes, you may not know the details—times have changed. The team has long been incapable of talking about security."

"How to say?"

"It's not like before, silver equipment is used as bait, and a god-level account deceives a player."

Zhou Zekai was taken aback: "New Glory obviously has—"

"Obviously there is a silver equipment system, right?"

"Hmm." Zhou Zekai pondered for a while, "So it's weakened?"

"Almost." Sun Xiang nodded, "Weakened in disguise. Remember Yu Wenzhou?"

"Ah."

"That guy Yu Wenzhou did it! After the reform, the players are very happy, but some team bosses probably want him to die soon." Sun Xiang stuck out his tongue and said with emotion.

3.

This is actually a problem that the old alliance has been criticized for a long time——

As we all know, the grinding of account cards is not a matter of money, but of time.The giants who entered Glory earlier received bonuses, and they have formed their own system and emphasis in this regard, which can be compared to the unique cheats of martial arts schools-that's why a team is led by a certain profession.For example, Samsara's team emblem is a bullet, and Blue Rain is a six-pointed star and a sword...

A top-level account card that has been polished for more than ten years, and its attributes in all aspects are obviously much better than a new team that struggles and starts from scratch.The accumulation of technical soft power by the new team is as powerless as human beings in the face of the superluminal expansion of the universe.Even if the same profession and the level of operators are evenly matched, they will lose embarrassingly in the game due to the natural weakness of the account card.This also led to the fact that even if rookies make their mark in a new team, they will eventually choose to switch to the old giants, and would rather wait in line to wait for the "strongest account card" belonging to their profession.

There have been countless debates surrounding this point in the e-sports circle.Some people ran around shouting, some thought they were smart, and tried to encourage Ye Xiu and other first-generation gods to speak out, but they all forgot one thing: in a mature capital environment, it is almost impossible for heroes who change the rules by themselves like in the early years to exist.Only absolute interests can drive rule changes.

That's right, as time goes by, the mobility in professional leagues is getting smaller and smaller, and the surprises and topics are getting less and less-the audience is not interested, and they naturally flow to other e-sports events.Reality forces those with vested interests to start thinking about change.

When Feng Xianjun was still in power, although he had such thoughts, he was constrained by human feelings, and he had already arranged to leave his post, so he didn't want to lose face and be this bad person.

In Yu Wenzhou's place, the player's good day has finally arrived—the foresighted tactical master on the field still sees the situation clearly.What Feng Xianjun threw to him was a mess that seemed brilliant but was in decline. He knew that if he wanted to stay in the position for a long time, he had to show enough courage.

Not long after the launch of the New Glory project was announced, the alliance deeply intervened in the reform with a long-prepared plan.

First of all, the concept of silver equipment is retained, and the attribute improvement is capped.Although this upper limit is still as difficult as the sky in the eyes of ordinary players, it is much simpler for clubs. It takes one year, and if you are lucky, half a year, you can create an account card with the peak value.

In this way, in the competition, the number of "crushing rounds" is less and less, and the probability of random events is greatly increased, which meets the audience's requirements for freshness, surprise and topicality.The league is very satisfied, because only when the game and the event are alive can they continue to profit from it.

Therefore, compared with the account card, the importance of the account card manipulator is naturally enhanced.When a victory is achieved, the public opinion will almost only praise the players for their performance.

The third happy one is the developer.In addition to the reform of silver equipment, they added the concept of fashion—won't it be high-end operation?It doesn't matter.You can get a rich and colorful appearance by recharging.Relying on this move, the developer got out of the outdated single business model of selling point cards, and added a new source of income-a large number of casual players who do not pursue winning or losing did not hesitate to jump into the pit, playing New Glory as a collection game.

Everyone is happy, except those who are depressed, probably only a few teams and their fans.

"Look at this video." Sun Xiang handed the phone to Zhou Zekai.

Zhou Zekai clicked to play.The screen is almost filled with the back of the black head.The whole camera shakes like Parkinson's.After a burst of noise, the crowd suddenly parted from the middle.Leading by the man with the badge, three or four guys in the same costume came together.Immediately afterwards, all kinds of eggs and tomatoes smashed at them violently.

"This is... Yu Wenzhou?" Zhou Zekai silently returned the phone.

"Haha, he hasn't changed much, right?" Sun Xiang yawned lazily, "At that time there were rumors that the old league was going to be revised, and the day after the news spread, Yu Wenzhou was surrounded by radical fans. Yes, I heard that reincarnation is also inside."

"Only in the reform of the new alliance, the resistance may not be light." Zhou Zekai shook his head.

"You're right," Sun Xiang answered, "so the old clubs are more unhappy. But I'm happy, this is great news for me-compared to allocating half of my energy to Silver equipment, It’s better to concentrate on developing the team.”

Zhou Zekai took a deep look at Sun Xiang: "He Xi has caught up with a good time."

Sun Xiang laughed and thumped Next Zhou Zekai's shoulder: "Are you serious? We may not have benefited from the mechanism back then."

Zhou Zekai was not polite: "As an afterthought."

"You..." Sun Xiang choked, and smiled, "Okay, it's an afterthought. We were all kids when we planned to enter Glory, who would think so far."

Zhou Zekai thought about the surroundings of those Kamen Riders, and smiled, but did not speak.

"What is the reason for you to join the alliance?" Sun Xiang asked suddenly.It's funny to say, looking at the Glory Alliance, the two of them may be the best partners for the latest communication on this matter.

Zhou Zekai recalled for a while: "Because of my classmates."

In the self-study class, the boys in the back row were arguing fiercely whether "One Autumn Leaf" was better or "Sweeping the Floor and Burning Incense" was more powerful, and Zhou Zekai couldn't memorize the book because of the chatter.

"Then you made up your mind to surpass them?"

"No," Zhou Zekai shook his head holding back a smile, "I just want to know... who are they."

"Hahahahahahahahaha," the answer was beyond Sun Xiang's expectation, he laughed for a long time before recovering, "And then?"

Then... Zhou Zekai was discovered by Ye Mingkang just after he started researching.He was very curious that Zhou Zekai would be interested in things other than studying, so he ran to the nearest magazine stand and bought a copy of all the glory-related magazines.

"What did you research?" Sun Xiang asked enthusiastically.

"Sharpshooter is the most handsome." Zhou Zekai concluded, "I decided to play."

Sun Xiang opened his mouth, unexpectedly he didn't smile, and didn't answer immediately.

At that moment, when Zhou Zekai said the word "sharpshooter", the light in his eyes was exactly the same as before.But at the same time, there is also an unmistakable sadness hidden there.It's a pity that Zhou Zekai concealed it too well, and disappeared in a flash. When Sun Xiang went to look again, he had already disappeared.

Right now was the moment when Sun Xiang was most relaxed and willing to reveal his innermost thoughts, but Zhou Zekai still had reservations.This gap makes him unhappy, but it is more of a kind of sympathy and distress after "empathy".

Looking at a certain wall in the living room, he couldn't help but think of a certain "[-]-year commemorative certificate" that was placed in the guest bedroom behind it.Due to the violent ups and downs of his emotions, his Adam's apple rolled involuntarily.

It was the first time for Sun Xiang to feel such a deep sense of powerlessness—because he realized that the past could not be changed, and that he knew nothing about Zhou Zekai’s most difficult moment, let alone helping him...it quickly dilutes the birthday song bring joy.At this moment, besides "what the hell should I do", Sun Xiang's mind is filled with only "I can do something".

A thought suddenly formed in his mind.

Sun Xiang took a deep breath, and then let it out slowly.He tried to organize a speech that was as objective as possible and without emotion: "Well, have you ever, um, thought about using a third-party company to bypass your family...to vote for a team or something?"

4.

To his surprise, Zhou Zekai reacted very quickly: "Vote for a team? Like Mercury?"

"Mercury is not good!" Sun Xiang refused without thinking.After a few seconds, I realized what I just said, and hurriedly explained annoyedly: "I'm not kidding you... I was definitely asking seriously just now, and there is a reason for the refusal."

He was terrified of being interfered with by management.Even an expert like Zhou Zekai cannot have the same way of thinking.He will be worried that in the future, due to disagreements, there will be a collapse, which will not only affect the team, but also affect the relationship between the two.

"Affecting the relationship?" Zhou Zekai slightly hooked his lips.

"That's right," Sun Xiang didn't see his expression, "I've seen many cases of couples doing business together and then quarreling and breaking up, let alone us. You are my very important friend, and I don't want to see you from a rational or emotional point of view. Losing you."

This overly ambiguous but unknowingly remark made Zhou Zekai's eyes fluctuate emotionally: "Yeah."

Sun Xiang struggled with himself for a while, then hesitated and said, "Well, it's not absolutely impossible. If you really like our team, when you look back at round C..."

"I'll be your priority in Round C?" Zhou Zekai stared at him.

Sun Xiang's eyes flickered, and he said guiltily: "Yes, but there are conditions, cough, you have to sign an agreement to guarantee not to interfere in the management."

Zhou Zekai couldn't help but laugh: "Just kidding. I don't vote for Mercury."

"Oh..." Sun Xiang breathed a sigh of relief, to be honest, just now he didn't know why, when he heard that Zhou Zekai's tone was not right, his position frantically wavered.If Zhou Zekai insisted, maybe he would really break the principle and agree to it.

"But there is one thing." Sun Xiang had just let go of his heart not long before Zhou Zekai said, "I'm not kidding."

"what's up?"

"I do intend to do something." Zhou Zekai blinked, conveying the meaning of "you understand", "And—"

"What else?" Zhou Zekai's method of breaking the news a little bit made Sun Xiang anxious, "Don't breathe, bro!"

"Hehe, and," Zhou Zekai paused, "I'm temporarily homeless."

Sun Xiang was caught off guard by this news, and it may also be because his brain is turning much slower than usual because it is close to the sleeping point of the biological clock.After a long time, he stammered and said, "Last week, did you quarrel with your family and get kicked out?"

"Almost." Zhou Zekai looked at him with soft and earnest eyes, "I can only live here temporarily, do you have any objection?"

"How is it possible!" Sun Xiang was actually a little angry, and replied without thinking, "I don't care how long I stay!"

5.

The next day, Sun Xiang woke up with a slightly strange fragrance.He confusedly discerned for a while, and suddenly his expression changed drastically. Before he even had time to find his slippers, he hurriedly jumped out of bed and rushed to the kitchen.

"..." In the morning light, the handsome man is holding a spatula in his hand, only looking at this part of the picture is very harmonious - if you don't pay attention to the burnt sun eggs in the pan.

What made Sun Xiang even more speechless was that after hearing the noise, Zhou Zekai's first reaction was to dump the eggs into the trash can as if nothing had happened to destroy the evidence.

"I, saw, got it." Sun Xiang glared at Zhou Zekai, "...it's not the first time, please call me next time."

Zhou Zekai looked at him silently, slowly untied the apron, and handed it to Sun Xiang.

...Is this still aggrieved?Sun Xiang was so angry that he wanted to scratch the wall.

Half a minute later, the two of them switched positions, and Sun Xiang turned the shovel skillfully, deliberately making Liuxin like a show of skill.And Zhou Zekai looked on expectantly, and brazenly asked: "Add cheese. No shallots."

Sun Xiang complied one by one with a blank face, and suddenly regretted that he had agreed to someone's cohabitation request so easily last night, wasn't it a bit too hasty.

But after thinking about it again, the house belonged to someone else, and he didn't seem to have any reason to drive the landlord out.

Or three chapters?In order to avoid things like making yourself angry happen frequently?

As soon as he had this thought, he turned his head to look at Zhou Zekai's smiling eyes, and was dazzled by the joyful light inside again, he lost all thoughts.

Forget it, one day I really can't take it anymore, so I'll quarrel face to face again.

6.

In fact, the adaptability of human beings is much stronger than Sun Xiang imagined, and it is also possible that there are not many "serious" differences between him and Zhou Zekai.

One day passed, three days passed, and one week passed, and Sun Xiang realized that the addition of a long-term resident in the house did not actually change his life much—he was exaggerating about Zhou Zekai coming to live together.

If we have to talk about changes, it means the expansion of their "common activity range".

Their interactions no longer primarily take place at work or in apartments.

On the first weekend of Zhou Zekai's "settlement", he invited Sun Xiang to visit the art exhibition hosted by his second uncle Ye Mingbei's friend.At the exhibition, through introduction, Sun Xiang got the business card of the avant-garde photographer he had always wanted to make friends with, and successfully asked him to take a concept poster for Mercury.

Also that weekend, and the following second weekend, they went to the supermarket twice to buy daily necessities and food.Of course, Sun Xiang would not ask such boring questions as zucchini or radish.Zhou Zekai also seems to have memorized his various preferences quickly - the scene where the two "grab" the same product at the same time is interesting and warm.

The only thing that frustrates him is that Zhou Zekai always stands closest to the cashier whenever he needs to pay the bill.The amount of money is not large, but after accumulating several times, I always feel that I owe Zhou Zekai a favor.

For this reason, Sun Xiang complained when he met Ye Mingkang.Ye Mingkang hinted that Sun Xiang could pay Zhou Zekai back by buying a gift.The implementation of this proposal was simple, and Sun Xiang immediately agreed.Afterwards, he went on a business trip to other places, and gradually developed the habit of picking out souvenirs for Zhou Zekai alone.

Zhou Zekai didn't seem to give up on the matter of cooking.One night, Sun Xiang was about to cook supper, but he stopped him and insisted on trying the milky mashed potatoes that he "recited the steps of the recipe".

In the end, I somehow burned my hand while frying butter.

Sun Xiang admired Zhou Zekai's ability to create chaos.With a dark face, he hurriedly helped Zhou Zekai take cold water and apply medicine, while he angrily accused the other party of doing things beyond his ability, and he wanted to save face and suffer.

Zhou Zekai lowered his head and lowered his eyes, obeying the instruction obediently.It was obviously painful to be touched by the blisters, but the corners of his lips were slightly raised.

During this period, Zhou's mother called Zhou Zekai, and was heard by Sun Xiang once.

Turning his head after answering the phone, Zhou Zekai sighed and smiled apologetically at Sun Xiang's worried, hesitant eyes: "It's nothing."

"...Forget it, you can do whatever you want." Sun Xiang was so irritated that he was a little dazed, he threw away this lie and hurriedly got up to pour water for a drink, but because he couldn't control his emotions, he knocked on the ice maker when pouring ice cubes .

He wanted to say, I thought we were friends, you could trust me enough, why are you still unwilling to explain everything clearly, even if it can't help, it's better to say it than to keep it in your heart.

Of course, this "willful speech" was eventually held back by him.Too strange.He thought uncomfortably, he is obviously not such a entangled and sensitive person, but it seems that when he meets Zhou Zekai, he behaves less and less like himself.

However, his displeasure ended there - because after that, Zhou Zekai seemed to have figured out some things, and finally decided to share "those things" with him.

Zhou Zekai said that because he officially expressed his unwillingness to inherit the Ye family, the talks with the family collapsed.In order to avoid suspicion, he simply moved out completely.

Zhou Zekai also said that the situation in the Ye family is complicated, some people are happy, some people are angry.Like his mother.

Zhou Zekai also said that Ye Wanyi originally hoped that she would stand out and use her outstanding performance to win Ye Hongyuan's favor and squeeze out Ye Mingkang's position.

Sun Xiang was dumbfounded after listening to this rich family secret, and his first reaction was: "Then she doesn't know you're working on a game project outside, does she?"

Zhou Zekai smiled: "I don't know. Otherwise, I'm going to blow up again."

Sun Xiang asked Zhou Zekai worriedly, would his mother's body have any major problems because of this?

Zhou Zekai understood that Sun Xiang was actually worried that he would be kidnapped by his family again, so he shook his head and said that she had been in good health for the past two years.Let Sun Xiang rest assured that he knows everything.

"Don't worry." Sun Xiang wanted to say something, but Zhou Zekai stopped him. "It was a decision made very early on."

He never cared about inheritance rights or anything.He is now secretly running his own business, just to leave the Ye family completely one day sooner or later.

"Disagree?" Zhou Zekai looked at Sun Xiang's frowning brows, and resisted the urge to rub them away, and asked.

"How come?" Sun Xiang's expression became more and more serious, he stared at Zhou Zekai, "You can do what you like, live for yourself, I'm not too happy!"

In order to strengthen his sincerity, he even endured his shame, got up on his own initiative, and gave Zhou Zekai a big hug.

He was very impulsive when he stepped forward to hug, but he calmed down after hugging, and felt quite embarrassed.

But he soon forgot about the embarrassment.Because after this heart-to-heart exchange, he obviously felt that Zhou Zekai's attitude towards him became more and more casual.

Cough, although sometimes he gets a little too close, and the behavior he makes is awkward, such as worrying that his hair is not dry, he just touches the broken hair behind his ear with his thumb without saying hello; or he watches himself playing games , after a while, he fell asleep leaning on his shoulder; oh, and one time, he made a new glass of wine, and triumphantly talked to Zhou Zekai.Before he could wait for himself to adjust a new glass, the man had already picked up the glass and took a sip very crisply, his lips touched almost exactly where he had just touched.

... Forget it, what a mess.Zhou Zekai has too much time to spare, and he is a tough man, no matter what he thinks, there is no need to worry about himself alone - he ignores the inexplicable emptiness in his heart and convinces himself.

Anyway, overall, things are going in a good direction.

Ye Guiren finally went online again, and started to shamelessly rub the dungeon car again.It turned out that his disappearance a while ago was due to poor test scores, and he was stared at by the tutor hired by his parents. Unfortunately, this friend was too slow, so far he didn't realize that it was Zhou Zekai and Sun Xiang himself who were called "big brother and sister-in-law" by him.

The NFC project is advancing steadily, and there are more opportunities for Sun Xiang and Ye Mingkang to meet each other.After the two got acquainted, occasionally Ye Mingkang would go to the Mercury Club to play when he was free, and asked Sun Xiang to arrange children from the youth training camp to accompany him to PK.He emphasized that "don't show mercy, the game is exciting".So in every "Friendly Match", "Big Fried Butterfly" will always be tortured to death.

On days when it doesn't rain in winter, Zhou Zekai developed a new hobby under the influence of Sun Xiang - assembling bicycles and riding together on weekends.Protected by helmet glasses, no one could recognize them.Zhou Zekai likes this sport very much, saying that only at this time, he can feel "freedom like the wind".

Three days before Christmas, Ye Mingkang and Sun Xiang needed to go abroad for a trip at the invitation of the Asian Electronics Association.After getting the news, Ye Mingkang sent a message to Zhou Zekai immediately, saying in a half-joking tone: Kaikai, borrow your Sun Xiang to go out to play.

Zhou Zekai didn't seem to have the intention of correcting his words at all, and replied quickly: take good care of him.

Ye Mingkang narrowed his eyes and watched the news for a long time, his expression gradually cooled down.

He hesitated for a while, frowned, and typed into the input box word by word:

--What do you mean?Planning to settle?

TBC