Chapter 50

When Su Yuanjun received Su Mang’s call, he was still discussing a collaboration with others. He initially thought of hanging up directly, but after seeing the caller ID, he changed his mind. He casually greeted the others and went to the hallway to answer the phone.

“Mang Mang?”

Despite the distance of thousands of miles, Su Mang’s voice was urgent. Without even a greeting, she went straight to the point, “Dad, do you know about my sister going pro?”

Su Yuanjun was taken aback. “I know. What’s wrong?”

There was a moment of silence on the other end, and he could even hear Su Mang’s shallow breathing. After a while, Su Mang spoke again, bombarding him with a series of questions.

“Why aren’t you trying to talk her out of it? Is Mom really going to change her mind just because she’s entering this circle? Why does she have to disturb the peaceful life we’ve finally managed to have? Can’t we live quietly like before?”

Su Yuanjun paused, his heart sinking. He had always known that Su Mang harbored resentment towards him, but he hadn’t realized that in her mind, he and Su Heng had become a quagmire.

Since the divorce from Sun Ling, Su Mang had not contacted him once. He never expected that her first call would be filled with endless complaints. While he felt sad, he also felt a wave of disappointment towards Su Mang.

“Mang Mang,” Su Yuanjun said in a deep voice, “no matter what your sister is doing, it’s for herself and not for anyone else. She doesn’t intend to disturb your life, so I hope you won’t disturb hers either.”

Su Mang fell silent, taken aback that her usually lenient father would speak to her in such a tone.

A person came out of the meeting room and made a gesture indicating the time to Su Yuanjun. With an apologetic smile, he nodded at that person and succinctly ended the conversation.

“Mang Mang, it’s only because of work that I haven’t had the chance to see Heng Heng since you and your mom left. Your sister has never contacted you either. Don’t put all sorts of malicious assumptions on us; just live your life well.”

Su Mang felt a bit annoyed with her tone earlier and was about to explain when she heard Su Yuanjun’s voice again.

“And from now on, don’t come to me about your sister. If there’s something, go directly to her. You’re both adults now.”

When the cold busy tone came from the other end, Su Mang realized that Su Yuanjun had already hung up. She blinked slightly, a wave of unease rising in her heart.

Besides her mother’s affection, almost everything she experienced growing up was overshadowed by Su Heng.

Su Heng was prettier than her, had better grades, and received all the attention from teachers due to her cleverness at school. In the same school, almost every teacher who knew Su Heng was her sister would look at her with complex expressions.

The unspoken implication seemed to say, how could the sister and the younger sibling differ so much?

But heaven was fair; after Su Heng fell ill in high school, she had to drop out.

Her mother’s attention increasingly shifted to Su Mang.

In the end, during the divorce, it was Su Mang who was taken away.

It was as if everything had turned into the shape she wanted.

She became the true apple of her father’s eye and received love from Du Qifeng and Du Ruo in her new family.

But just as life was getting better day by day, Su Heng quietly reappeared in her world.

How could her heart, which had just been re-secured, settle down again?

Perhaps immersed in her own thoughts, she didn’t even notice Sun Ling approaching her from behind.

Sun Ling casually patted her, “Mang Mang, Uncle Du said we’re going out to eat tonight. Hurry up and get ready.”

Su Mang was startled, quickly furrowing her brows to conceal the flicker in her eyes, afraid of revealing the turmoil within her. “Why suddenly go out to eat?”

“It seems that your brother’s team has made it to the finals again. Plus, the competition he organized recently went well, so he wants to celebrate in advance.”

As Sun Ling spoke, she walked to the dressing table, applied some hand cream, and lazily rubbed her hands. “I don’t know what’s worth celebrating; hasn’t their team made it to the finals every year for the past two years?”

Hearing this, Su Mang could no longer contain herself, with only one thought in her mind.

She had to stop Du Ruo from telling Sun Ling and Du Qifeng about these matters.

She absolutely couldn’t let anyone know about their connection to Su Heng.

Her life must not allow Su Heng to meddle again.

Thinking this, Su Mang glanced at her mother, who wasn’t paying attention to her, and quietly walked to the balcony, dialing Du Ruo’s phone number.

“Brother, can you do me a favor?”

“It’s about Su Heng.”

“Can this matter be kept confidential for now? I’m worried my mom will overthink…”

After hanging up, Su Mang still felt it wasn’t enough.

How could someone who was clearly unable to take care of themselves after getting sick casually enter this circle and easily disrupt her life?

After all, you can’t hide fire with paper. Su Heng was now half a public figure and had already gained some fans.

Even if they could keep it a secret for a while, there would eventually come a day when people would find out about their relationship with Su Heng.

When that time came and the divorce issue was raised again, public opinion would inevitably lean towards the weaker party, and it would be too late to explain then.

It was better to break her still-developing wings before that happened.

With this thought, Su Mang re-registered a new Weibo account, entered the private message interface of the big V who had retweeted the post, and slowly began typing.

【I know some things about the esports female player you retweeted earlier.】

*

As a manager, Shen Jianian received the news just a few hours after the incident occurred.

Although this matter had little impact on Su Heng and GI, considering Su Heng’s relationship with Du Qifeng and others, it couldn’t be ignored.

Finding the first big V who had retweeted the post, Shen Jianian logged into the official account and sent the blogger a private message, essentially asking the blogger to delete the retweet.

He thought this non-scandalous issue would be resolved quickly.

However, to his surprise, the blogger did not respond for a long time, so he had to reach out to the original poster.

The original poster was a fan of Su Heng and agreed quickly, deleting the Weibo post immediately and promising to say nothing if anyone asked.

Seeing that the source was gone, Shen Jianian didn’t intervene further but kept a lookout, always monitoring the big V who hadn’t responded.

He felt that this person must have some special reason for retweeting the post, and perhaps there was more to come.

Indeed, he wasn’t disappointed. In the evening, this gaming blogger published a headline article.

【Let’s talk about who Sleeping really is.】

The article expressed three main points.

Sleeping was a solo player from an internet café, illustrated with records of the previous day’s Weibo post and screenshots of GI’s official Weibo asking him to delete the photos.

The text condemned the behavior of misleading the public, speculating about Sleeping’s identity:

【It’s clear that GI is extremely protective of its reputation; the way they treat Sleeping is completely different from how they treated the previous jungler. Who is Sleeping that earns such favor from GI?】

Next, it listed several criticisms about Sleeping during the competition, including wearing a mask, praises from Ling and Sun for Sleeping, and fainting during the match.

【I won’t comment on this player’s performance, but just the fact that she interrupted the match for personal reasons raises some concerns. Which professional player can remain unharmed after such an incident, and the team didn’t issue any punishment while other players praised her? It’s hard to believe there isn’t an element of showmanship involved, as evidenced by her wearing a mask. Is she relying on maintaining an air of mystery because her skills aren’t sufficient?】

At the end of the article, it provided a fan’s private message record. Although it didn’t mention Sleeping’s real name, the context hinted at a close relationship with Sleeping.

From their chat records, it was clear that Sleeping dropped out of high school, grew up in a single-parent family, and that her parents’ divorce was primarily due to Sleeping. A diagnosis with the name obscured was also attached.

【According to insiders, Sleeping has suffered from a rare disease called narcolepsy since high school, which causes her to fall asleep regardless of time or place. This provides a reasonable explanation for the previously puzzling events. The reason she is called Sleeping and wears a mask is probably that she doesn’t want to be recognized and expose her condition, and her interruption of the match wasn’t due to fainting but rather a flare-up of her illness. Therefore, she said on her personal Weibo that she couldn’t disclose details.】

The blogger also thoughtfully educated everyone on the symptoms and treatments of narcolepsy, concluding:

【This disease is not easy to treat. Here, I’d like to ask Sleeping, after experiencing a health crisis during a match, do you really think you are suited for the esports industry?】

Before Shen Jianian could respond, the comments section on Weibo exploded with various reactions.

【So the match was interrupted because Sleeping fell asleep???】

“Today really opened my eyes. Why play a professional game if you’re not going to treat your illness properly?

What the hell? I specifically went to search for this, and there really is such an illness!?

Okay, dropping out of high school, leading to your parents’ divorce is one thing, but then to come out and scam GI? That’s really something.

Whether you believe it or not, I do believe it.

It’s terrifying to think that last time Sleeping was live, he also fell asleep halfway through.

I remember!!! I was there that time! LING even carried Sleeping upstairs!!

Haven’t I mentioned before that there’s nothing good when a woman plays professionally?

Impressive, impressive. Because of her, I’ve now started following GI, just to see how they continue to screw things up.

Sleeping’s fans, recalling what happened in the previous livestream, want to explain but feel they have no confidence.

Even they believe this article.

Among the hundreds of pages of comments, not a single person stood up for Sleeping.

After reading the article and the comments, Shen Jianian’s frown deepened.

If the exposure of the incident was just to give everyone a laugh, now it has turned into serious dirt. The situation has escalated to the point where deleting one or two Weibo posts won’t help.

He thought for a moment and dialed Su Heng’s number.

If GI comes out to explain, it will probably make things worse. It would be more appropriate for her to address it herself.

The phone rang for quite a while but was never picked up.

Shen Jianian sighed, resigned to his fate, got dressed, and prepared to head to the base to find someone.

About half an hour later, he stood at Su Heng’s bedroom door and knocked.

The door wasn’t locked and opened slightly with the force of Shen Jianian’s knock.

Peeking through the crack in the door, his pupils constricted.

There were obviously two figures under the covers on the bed, one male and one female.

The man’s muscular arm was bare, tightly holding the girl in his embrace.

These two people???

Are they the mid-laner and jungler from my team???”