Published at 25th of March 2019 9:37 pm

Chapter 718: The Golden Generation

"Internet Cafe?" Gao Yingjie was puzzled at Qiao Yifan’s reply. He even thought he had heard wrong. When Qiao Yifan confirmed it with a nod of his head, Gao Yingjie noticed that he had finished packing his belongings.

Qiao Yifan only had one suitcase, stuffed with his clothing. The other things had been provided by the Club. New players didn’t have the qualifications to request anything. In comparison, many famous players bought their own residences. The Club provided them with a room, but it was used more as a rest stop. However, since pro players often moved around quite a bit, they would one day move to a different city, so not all players bought their own homes.

"Where did you say you were going?" Gao Yingjie still had his doubts towards Qiao Yifan’s reply.

"I’m going to a place, so I can continue practicing and improving." Qiao Yifan smiled, "Don’t worry. I’ll come back."

"Oh..."

"But I’m afraid that when we meet again, we won’t be teammates. It’s too bad that we never got the chance to play alongside each other in a match." Qiao Yifan said.

"That’s okay. We’ll always be friends!" Gao Yingie said.

"You’re right." Qiao Yifan smiled.

"I’ll send you off?"

"Sure."

The two youths walked out of the Club together. After exiting through the main gate, one of them got on a car, while the other stayed. They waved goodbye and from then on, the two would walk different paths.

City H, Club Excellent Era.

The welcome ceremony for Xiao Shiqin went on for the entire morning. It ended at around noon.

The fans left, filled with hope and excitement, while Xiao Shiqin’s understanding of the Club Excellent Era had only just begun. He met with the pro players and the employees of the different departments, which took up the afternoon. Excellent Era was very content with Xiao Shiqin. Xiao Shiqin found no issues receiving such courtesy either.

Dinner that day was nothing out of the ordinary. There were just more people than usual. Tao Xuan personally attended it too. However, at this moment, the main character was no longer Xiao Shiqin. Sun Xiang had transferred last winter, arriving half a year before Xiao Shiqin. He was also someone who Tao Xuan valued greatly and couldn’t be treated coldly just because of Xiao Shiqin’s arrival. In Tao Xuan’s heart, Sun Xiang was the true core and ace player of the team.

At dinnertime, Tao Xuan sat between these two, chatting cheerfully with them. The other team members couldn’t help but be envious. In reality, Team Excellent Era wasn’t so harmonious or stable. They were a relegated team, after all. With so many players in the team, how could they not have any plans for themselves? Some were willing to bet on Team Excellent Era’s future, while others weren’t. However, they didn’t need to make their decision on July 1st. The transfer window opened between July 1st and August 31st. During these two months, there was time for them to survey the situation first.

Especially for the players in the main roster. Who didn’t want to have a few offers? Relegated teams were often shopped around by the other teams as if they were supermarkets. However, most relegated teams were crappy, so the supermarket goods were of limited quality. Excellent Era was different though! Excellent Era’s relegation could be considered a miracle. No one ever doubted the skill level of Team Excellent Era’s players. When Excellent Era was officially relegated, who knew how many Clubs contacted Excellent Era or their players.

Inviting Xiao Shiqin to join the team was not only to appease the fans and give them confidence in Excellent Era’s future, but also to tell the other Clubs: Excellent Era isn’t finished yet. Don’t think of us as a supermarket. In fact, we’re only growing stronger! Did you see? We were even able to grab an All Star player like Xiao Shiqin despite being relegated!

Inside the team, Sun Xiang and Xiao Shiqin needed to be won over. As for everyone else, preparations had been made. Xiao Shiqin’s addition to the team could be used as an opportunity too. However, you cannot get fat with only one mouthful. There was an order that needed to be followed. Work had to be completed step by step. Right now, winning over Sun Xiang and Xiao Shiqin was most important.

Tao Xuan chatted with these two core members, while also being mindful of the other players in the team. From time to time, he would say a few things to everyone and even talk with a few one on one. He didn’t leave anyone completely out.

However, there was one person who was difficult to deal with.

Su Mucheng.

These days, even though Su Mucheng participated in everything the Club required, her heart wasn’t there. When Tao Xuan talked to her for a bit, her only replies were "Oh", "Mm", "Ah".

"Ha ha. Why are you like Zhou Zekai all of a sudden, Mucheng?" Tao Xuan joked. Everyone laughed at the joke that their boss made. As for how Su Mucheng would react, everyone had their own thoughts. Only Xiao Shiqin was a bit puzzled. He and Su Mucheng weren’t strangers. Both of them had joined the competitive scene in season four. The rookies from that year were considered as the Alliance’s golden generation because a huge number of the rookies from that season ended up becoming All Star players.

Apart from Su Mucheng and Xiao Shiqin, there was Team Blue Rain’s Yu Wenzhou, Team Blue Rain’s Huang Shaotian, Team Tyranny’s Zhang Xinjie, Team Misty Rain’s Chu Yunxiu, Team Void’s Li Xuan, Team Royal Style’s Tian Sen, and Team Tiny Herb’s Li Yibo. All of them were now famed All Star players and all of them started in season four. In addition, all of them immediately became core members of their respective teams. Zhang Xinjie even helped Han Wenqing end Team Excellent Era’s consecutive championship victories, becoming the first rookie in Glory history to win the championships as a part of the main roster.

The golden generation was not just in name.

These players even created their own chat group called "The Golden Generation". They weren’t really being arrogant. It was named in a joking manner. In reality, the rookies each year always created their own group to talk to each other. That year, they just happened to call it "The Golden Generation". The other difference was that the majority of rookies had difficulty standing out. However, their golden generation immediately came out as talents in the main roster. That topic wasn’t as prominent for them.

They happily chatted together in the group chat, so their relationships with each other were naturally quite good. There were two female players in their group too, and Su Mucheng was an extremely pretty one at that. When they were bored, they would tease her. They didn’t act any differently from normal people. The players from the golden generation were on good terms with each other. Xiao Shiqin and Su Mucheng could be considered as friends. When he came to Excellent Era, he thought of how apart from Yuwen Zhou and Huang Shaotian, no one else from the golden generation was on the same team together. Now, he would be with one through his transfer to Excellent Era. But when he saw how Su Mucheng didn’t seem to have her heart here, he felt a bit puzzled.

With his understanding of Su Mucheng, he didn’t think she was acting this way because of him. After seeing Su Mucheng reply with simple ahs and ohs to Tao Xuan, he could see that Su Mucheng might have some conflict with the team. It seemed like there really were internal issues in the team. And with the problem being on Su Mucheng, Xiao Shiqin immediately thought of the rumors related to Ye Qiu’s retirement.

Just when he was about to get up and talk to her, Tao Xuan’s attention switched to him and Sun Xiang: "I’ll bring you guys to a place in a bit."

"Ah?" Xiao Shiqin was surprised: "Where?"

"It’s very close." Tao Xuan laughed.

Xiao Shiqin glanced at Sun Xiang. Sun Xiang shrugged his shoulders, indicating that he didn’t know.

"Let’s eat, let’s eat." Tao Xuan smiled as he said to everyone. In reality, he was quite angry at Su Mucheng.

Truthfully, he originally didn’t plan on keeping Su Mucheng. He wasn’t worried about not getting a good price for her. However, Su Mucheng herself refused. It wasn’t possible for another Club to purchase a player without the player’s approval. As for a player trade, Su Mucheng only had a year left in her contract, making it a big obstacle. No one was willing to trade a valuable player, who could leave the next year. So even though Excellent Era could trade players, it would be hard to negotiate any good deals with Su Mucheng’s situation. And the problem was that Su Mucheng refused to extend her contract with Excellent Era. She also refused to be bought or traded to another Club. All of this clearly indicated that she planned on leaving on her own once the contract expired.

Tao Xuan was depressed at this issue! Such a valuable player couldn’t even be sold for money. Even worse, for a player like Su Mucheng with incredible business value, the sponsors required her to appear on stage a certain number of times or else their sponsorship money would be reduced. But for the current Excellent Era? They were relegated… The Challenger League matches didn’t count. The amount of money that Su Mucheng brought through sponsorships would certainly be significantly reduced. The sponsors wouldn’t be happy either! But there was nothing they could do. He hadn’t expected Excellent Era to have been relegated. It was a big miscalculation on his part!

Such a profitable player would only remain for the Challenger League. After the team returned to the Alliance, she would just wag her tail at them and leave. It didn’t fit in with Tao Xuan’s plan at all. There was nothing he could do though. He couldn’t sell her even if he wanted to, but leaving her in the team was a problem too. Su Mucheng made it even worse by pretending to be like Zhou Zekai and keeping silent. Tao Xuan was at wit’s end. He knew very well that Su Mucheng was just waiting for the contract to expire. Afterwards, she would go look for Ye Qiu. Who knew if Ye Qiu had told her to make this move!

Ye Qiu!

Tao Xuan was about to go and pay a visit to their former team captain. He was bringing these two new core members of Excellent Era along with him too. He really wanted to see just how confident Ye Qiu would be, when facing them.

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