Let Me Sleep a Little Longer [Esports] - Chapter 13

As soon as Su Heng returned to the internet café, Xie Hui approached him, clearly showing a hint of anxiety in his eyes. “Why didn’t you say anything when you went out? The boss has been looking for you everywhere and couldn’t find you.”

Su Heng couldn’t help but be surprised. “Did my dad come back?”

Xie Hui nodded. “He just returned this afternoon. He thought you went to the supermarket to restock and went out to look for you.” He then took out his phone and pressed a series of numbers. “I’ll call him and tell him to come back.”

Su Heng waved his hand, his mind already clouded with thoughts. “I can’t hold on anymore; I’ll look for him tomorrow.”

With that, he went upstairs without looking back, leaving behind a puzzled expression on Xie Hui’s face.

In the end, Su Heng was unable to see his father. After learning that his daughter had returned safely, Su Yuanjun hurried to Beijing overnight, without a moment to catch his breath.

Perhaps due to his lingering worries, Su Heng woke up extremely early the next day and immediately called Su Yuanjun.

Feeling a bit nervous, he hadn’t seen his father in a long time, and this was a good opportunity for him to talk to Su Yuanjun about pursuing a professional gaming career.

The phone was answered shortly, and a deep male voice came through. “Hengheng.”

Su Heng smiled lightly. “Dad, are you at the shop? I’ll come down to find you.”

There was a moment of silence on the other end before Su Yuanjun replied, “I got back to Beijing last night. The shop here just opened, and there are still many things that need to be sorted out.”

Su Heng felt a lump in her throat, unsure how to respond.

After a long pause without a reply from his daughter, Su Yuanjun asked, “I came back yesterday to get some documents. I originally wanted to meet you… By the way, where did you go yesterday?”

Su Heng sat up on the bed, hesitating. “Dad… do you know about the game League of Legends?”

Su Yuanjun chuckled. “Of course, how could anyone in the internet café business not know about LOL?”

Hearing this, Su Heng spoke again, a hint of impatience in her tone. “Then you know that there are professional players in this game? I went to an esports club yesterday.”

The voice on the other end became somewhat hesitant. “Hengheng, do you want to go out to work? To play professionally?”

Su Heng fell silent for a moment before softly saying, “Yes, I want to play professionally.”

Although her tone was gentle, it was also firm enough to momentarily halt Su Yuanjun, who was about to object.

As he opened his mouth to speak, Su Heng continued, “A professional player contacted me a few days ago, saying they wanted me to join them. They don’t mind my illness, they don’t mind my irregular schedule, and they don’t even mind that I’m still a novice.”

Su Heng got out of bed and pulled open the curtains, sunlight flooding in.

She squinted at the brightness but didn’t want to close her eyes and miss this rare morning.

“I… want to give it a try. I also want to understand their world.”

After what felt like an eternity, Su Yuanjun finally found his voice, filled with an unfamiliar sense of uncertainty. “You… well, if you want to go, then go. Just… your illness… you need to be careful about everything.”

After receiving Su Yuanjun’s approval, Su Heng let out a sigh of relief, quickly packed a few clothes and personal items, and went downstairs.

She didn’t know how long her enthusiasm would last, but this was likely her only chance to indulge in the recklessness and self-indulgence she had held onto for over twenty years.

As she passed the bar, Xie Hui noticed Su Heng carrying a large bag and hurriedly asked, “Where are you going?”

“Going to fight,” she replied with a pleasant smile, “Call me if you need anything.”

Xie Hui stared at the rare smile on Su Heng’s face, momentarily speechless.

By the time he came to his senses, Su Heng’s figure had already faded into the morning light.

The sun was just right, and the breeze was gentle.

The girl set sail, finally embarking on her journey.

*

“Let’s not stream before the match on Friday, and we must keep Su Heng’s situation a secret. She’s only practiced with two champions, and if they get banned during the match, we’ll be in trouble.”

Sun He spoke to the few people who had just woken up. The topic was serious, but his expression was relaxed.

Wave looked a bit dissatisfied. “It’s almost the end of the month. If we don’t stream these next few days, what if we don’t have enough time?”

Sun He raised his eyebrows, glancing at Wave, who was clearly still groggy, and then at Zhou Lingxing, who looked half-asleep. “Your ‘Brother Ling’ hasn’t complained, but you’re making a big deal out of it.”

Wave, intimidated by Sun He, still mumbled under his breath, “That’s because Brother Ling’s already given up. He never manages to stream enough hours every month anyway.”

Zhou Lingxing squinted at him, his voice thick with sleep. “Hmm?”

Just as the words left his mouth, a knock came from the door.

Wave let out a quiet sigh of relief and hurried to open the door, gratitude swelling in his heart for whoever was outside. But the moment he saw Su Heng standing there, the smile he had just plastered on his face collapsed.

Su Heng ignored him, walked right past the entrance, and carried her bag inside.

Sun He, noticing it was her, quickly stepped forward to take her bag and led her upstairs. “Come on, I’ll take you to your room.”

The second floor had three rooms. Before Su Heng’s arrival, Sun He had his own room, while Wave and Lao Yu shared one, and Zhou Lingxing shared another with Shen Sinian. To accommodate Su Heng, Sun He had spent several days tidying up his room for her, moving in with Zhou Lingxing instead.

On the second floor, Sun He showed Su Heng her new room. It wasn’t too big or too small—just right for one person—and even had its own bathroom. The room’s tidiness reflected the care Sun He had put into preparing it.

Seeing Su Heng’s calm expression, Sun He suddenly felt a bit awkward about having her live with a group of men. “Living together with teammates helps build camaraderie, but I’m sorry you’ll have to stay with a bunch of guys. I’ll make sure they’re more mindful going forward.”

Su Heng gave a small shake of her head. “It’s fine. Thanks for the trouble.”

Sun He finally smiled and set down her luggage. “You can unpack and come down to train when you’re ready. I’ll head down first.”

After a quick look around the room, Su Heng took a deep breath, unpacked her belongings piece by piece, and then slowly made her way downstairs.

The training room was quiet, the only sounds being the game effects in the background.

Wave and Lao Yu were playing duo, Sun He was analyzing match data, and Zhou Lingxing still sat with drooping eyelids, half-asleep.

Though everyone was focused on their own thing, the atmosphere felt surprisingly harmonious.

Su Heng silently walked to her computer and opened the game interface. While waiting for it to load, she glanced at Zhou Lingxing, who was slacking off nearby, and felt the urge to laugh.

To her surprise, the man suddenly opened his eyes and looked directly at her.

Caught staring, Su Heng quickly averted her gaze, a wave of embarrassment washing over her.

After a while, when nothing else happened, she couldn’t resist glancing at him again out of the corner of her eye.

Zhou Lingxing was still staring in her direction, but upon closer inspection, his pupils weren’t focused—they looked cloudy and vacant.

Su Heng let out a quiet breath of relief and asked Sun He softly, “Aren’t you going to practice together?”

Without looking up from the match data, Sun He replied, “No rush. Play a few games by yourself first. Old Zhou needs at least an hour after waking up to fully come to his senses.”

Realizing this, Su Heng no longer tried to hide her gaze and openly observed Zhou Lingxing.

Sure enough, the man had closed his eyes again, his brows slightly furrowed, giving him a somewhat childlike appearance.

After watching him for a moment, she turned her attention back to the game and started a ranked match.

When Su Heng played, she was fully focused, quickly pushing all other thoughts aside.

The game went smoothly; she avoided aimless farming and actively joined team fights.

The enemy team surrendered as soon as the 20-minute mark hit.

When the game ended and Su Heng looked up again, Zhou Lingxing was already staring at her—and had been for quite a while.

The man seemed to sense Su Heng’s gaze and curled his lips slightly. “You’re improving fast.”

Su Heng blinked. “You’re awake.”

A random and pointless statement.

Zhou Lingxing chuckled—sometimes, this woman was surprisingly cute.

Seeing that everyone was finally free, Sun He slowly spoke. “Let’s start training. There are only three days left until the match.”

They logged into their alternate accounts and entered the matchmaking interface.

Old Fish glanced at the eager Wave and Sun He, feeling a bit sorry for the random solo queue players they were about to encounter.

A few seconds later, Old Fish excitedly locked in Thresh.

He had to admit—crushing weaker opponents felt pretty good.

They rampaged through solo queue for the entire day. When it was time for dinner in the afternoon, Su Heng unsurprisingly felt drowsy.

She looked at the others, who were also a bit exhausted, and tried to stay alert. “I’m feeling a bit sleepy. I might need to nap for a bit. You guys go eat first, and wake me up before the scrim.”

Sun He looked at her with concern. “If you’re not feeling well, maybe you should skip tonight’s scrim. We’ve already been playing games all day anyway.”

Su Heng shook her head lightly. “I’m fine. I probably just got up too early today. Just wake me up later.”

Zhou Lingxing observed her calm expression and said in a deep voice, “Forcing a narcolepsy patient awake is dangerous. Go get some sleep—it’s just one scrim.”

Su Heng was surprised at Zhou Lingxing’s understanding of her condition, but the growing headache left her no time to dwell on it. She simply nodded at him and hurried upstairs to her room.

Downstairs, Wave and Old Fish exchanged glances, unsure what to say.

“Just one scrim?”

Just??

How were they supposed to scrim with one person missing? If Su Heng didn’t participate, it meant the whole scrim was canceled.

Everyone had their own plans—both the main team and the secondary team. The coach, manager, and assistants all revolved around these plans, and now, because of one person, everything was disrupted. Just like that??

Zhou Lingxing glanced at them nonchalantly. “Accepting her means accepting everything about her, including her condition.” Standing up, he added, “I’ll let the coach know. No complaints—just make sure to stream extra hours tonight.”

That night, the cancellation of the scrim gave the GI team’s social media account some breathing room.

Three days before Su Heng’s debut match, GI’s official account released a post that stirred quite a reaction online:

**”Due to pre-match misconduct, our team’s jungler, Shen Sinian, has been officially suspended for one year. The new jungler, Sleeping, arrived at headquarters today. The substitute jungler will be Xiao Ban from the secondary team. Sleeping’s streaming schedule will begin after this Friday’s regular-season match, and the stream link will be announced on Friday. We hope for your enthusiastic support.”**