What happened next was true to the head coach’s expectations—Club JQ’s fans went into full-out ridicule mode.
By the end of it, the situation had turned into “The presumptuous new member of Club HS is competing with Jimy over academic qualifications!”
This was despite the fact that they had started the argument first!
It was just a shame that Club HS couldn’t clear the air even if they wanted to because Cheryl had personally made those outrageous claims.
In the end, the head coach had no choice but to implement a new rule—uninstall Facebook!
All of them uninstalled Facebook for a period of time. Once the whole thing blew over, they would download it again… Their accounts were managed by club staff anyway.
Cheryl had no choice but to do the same. She had always been an obedient girl, so she also did as told and uninstalled Facebook.
“Starting from tomorrow, you and Zac will team up in ranked matches to build up a rapport with each other.”
The head coach said to Cheryl.
Zac, who happened to exit his room at this point, nodded when he heard him.
Zac was the jungler and ganker of the team. By having the two of them play together, the head coach wanted to let Zac have a look at Cheryl’s play style and habits so that he could work with her to take down opponents.
After all, the jungler was the one in control of the overall pace in a game.
“Okay. We’ll try a ranked match at eleven o’clock tomorrow morning.”
“Okie-Dokie!”
After bidding goodbye to the others, Cheryl entered her room.
Everything in the room had been tidied up, so she only needed to unpack her belongings.
Cheryl spent a bit of time unpacking and then washed up. Then, she lay on the bed and picked up her cell phone.
There were a lot of messages in the family group chat.
Her brothers and father were asking her how her new club was, whether she was lonely living in a villa all by herself, and whether she wanted them to find her a caretaker.
Cheryl glanced at the cramped room and then, with a guilty conscience, replied: ‘No, it’s fine! I like being by myself!’
As soon as she sent the reply, she received a video call from Justin.
Cheryl: “…”
She answered the call and pointed the camera at the ceiling.
The room layouts in the two villas were similar. After all, both had been renovated before they were handed over to their owners…
Justin’s voice was low, and the beauty mark at the corner of his eye was as alluring as ever. As Cheryl looked at him, she couldn’t help but wonder why her father seemed like he simply didn’t age at all.
People would believe him even if he stood next to her brothers and claimed that the three of them were brothers!
“Show me the room,” Justin said.
Cheryl’s guilty conscience immediately took over. “No, I just took a shower, so I can’t right now!”
The little girl was already fifteen years old, so Justin did have to watch himself.
He kept quiet for a while and then handed the phone to Nora. “Then show your mom the room.”
Cheryl: “!!!”
She stared at the sleepy Nora on the screen…
Her mom looked even younger than her dad. Even after so many years, she still looked like a 20-year-old… Of course, this was taking into consideration the fact that she was only 35 years old that year.
She yawned loudly and asked in a low voice, “Must you?”
She was talking to Justin.
Justin replied, “Check whether she is living in the villa next door. A girl mustn’t stay by herself in the same house as a group of boys.”
“…”
Cheryl felt even guiltier now.
Then, she saw Nora’s lazy eyes glance at the phone. It was as though she could see right through her through the screen.
Cheryl immediately gave her an ingratiating smile. “Mommy, you seem to have become even prettier after a few days of separation! It’s Hollywood’s loss that you didn’t become an actress! It’s humanity’s loss that they can’t see you on the big screen!”
Nora: “…”
The obvious flattery clearly indicated a guilty conscience.
She glanced sideways. When she saw Justin’s head leaning over, she immediately switched the video call to voice only. She sounded as lazy as ever, and she spoke like a big boss as she said, “What are you looking at? Cherry says it’s inappropriate.”
“… Okay.”
Her arrogant and domineering CEO of a father was like a little kitten right now.
Cheryl secretly giggled.
Mommy was the only one in this world who could do something about Daddy!
After chatting with them a while more, Cheryl hung up.
Then, she saw a message from Mia: ‘Cherry, you’re so daring.’
Little Mia did not have an insanely high IQ like her, but she was very hardworking and diligent, so she had also skipped a grade. Thus, even though she was fifteen years old, she was already in her second year of high school.
Cheryl called her.
Mia picked up quickly. The gently speaking girl was no longer the pushover she used to be, but she had such a frail temperament that it made one want to protect her.
Her face was still pointed and oval-shaped like before, except that she was even prettier now after growing up. She had combined the best features of Joel and Tanya, so she was also well-known for her beauty in the New York circle.
On the other hand, Cheryl didn’t like appearing in public, so few people knew her.
Mia asked slowly, “Aren’t you afraid of not performing well?”
“How can that be?” Cheryl replied sweetly, “Even if I can’t get a perfect score like Pete, I’ll still score at least 1500!”
At the mention of Peter, Mia paused and changed the subject subtly. “How I wish half a month could pass when we wake up tomorrow! Then you could’ve slapped their faces with your score!”
“D’aw, time flies by anyway! By the way, what are you doing?”
“Studying,” Mia replied.
“You have good grades, so you definitely won’t have any problems in the college entrance exam. Why are you still working so hard this late at night?”
Mia was briefly taken aback. Then, she replied, “Mm, I want to do better on the exams.”
So that you can go to Pete?
However, Cheryl held herself back and didn’t say it out loud.
As Mia and Peter grew up, their relationship gradually became unfathomable. Mia was his younger cousin, yet Peter had gradually put distance between him and her.
This was the same for Mia. She stopped sticking to Peter whenever the two families got together and started sticking to Cherry instead.
Both their parents were busy with various things and didn’t notice this, but Cheryl had.
“Alright, I’m cheering for you,” said Cheryl.
—
After hanging up, Cheryl threw everything to the back of her mind.
The next morning, after waking up and playing a ranked match with Zac, Cheryl felt some long-lost pleasure!
She always had to carry her teammates in the past, but when she played in the ranked match with Zac, she felt the capabilities of a professional player. Zac seemed to know what she wanted to do all the time. Whenever she wanted to rush forward, he was already lying in ambush in the bushes at the side.
And whenever she wanted to retreat, Zac would retreat even faster than her…
This made Cheryl’s eyes light up more and more!
As expected, professional players were different!
Immersed in the training, Cheryl didn’t even realize that a whole week had passed.
A week later, when the head coach held a routine meeting with Zac, he asked, “How is C?”
The corners of Zac’s lips curled into a smile and he replied, “She’s great.”
He seldom had such high praise for anyone, especially a teammate.
Therefore, the head coach could tell that Zac was very satisfied.
He had also studied the recordings of Zac and Cheryl’s ranked matches.
Zac’s skills were at a much higher level than what he showed. However, Lionel and the other teammates couldn’t keep up with him, so he could only lower his level to cooperate with them.
After all, they played this game as a team, not as individuals.
As a result, this severely limited Zac’s performance.
However, the head coach found out that God C could keep up with him!
It was as though the two of them shared the same brain. No matter what Zac did, Cheryl could always react quickly and keep up with him. Sometimes, she even reacted earlier than him…
To be honest, before God C joined the team, he’d had a lot of doubts about the decision!
Not only was God C a girl, but she was also only fifteen years old. Could she really do it?
But after observing her for a week, he realized that she really could!
In fact, with her in Club HS, the team had become even stronger. The combination of God C and Zac had demonstrated exponential results!
The head coach felt as if the champion trophy of the new season was waving at Club HS right now!
He let out a delighted laugh.
However, the next moment, he frowned and said, “Sigh, God C’s gaming capabilities are undeniable, but so is her ability to stir up trouble!”
Upon hearing this, Zac’s expression darkened. “Is that incident still not over yet?”
“No, it’s not!”
At the mention, the head coach became even angrier. He said, “The situation had originally calmed down, and there weren’t many still mocking her. But during Jimy’s live-stream last night, she made insinuations about the situation again, bringing it back to people’s attention… I initially thought that after the incident died down, everyone would forget about it by the time the college entrance examination results came out. But she’s gone and reminded everyone that the results will be out in a week now, which revived the topic… Club JQ is so shameless when it comes to leeching off others’ popularity and hot topics!”
Zac stayed quiet for a while before he asked, “What did the boss say?”
He was referring to Chester.
Chester was very protective of the club members. A couple of years ago, when Lionel had a small accident, Chester had immediately paid to get the heat off him and suppressed the incident.
He was sure that the boss would step forward and defend her this time too…
But as soon as the thought formed, the head coach frowned and replied, “Come to think of it, the situation is rather strange this time. Usually, the boss would ask how things are whenever the club met with even a bit of trouble, but he hasn’t said even a word this time. In fact, when I approached the boss about this matter today—so that he could do something about the Facebook activity—he actually said… to let it be!”
Zac was taken aback. “Let it be?”
“Yeah.”
The head coach was so troubled that he was close to having insomnia. He said, “To be honest, being insulted or mocked a little is not a big deal. I’m mainly just concerned that the young lady won’t be able to take it, leading to her frame of mind being affected… That’s exactly what Club JQ is doing this time—toying with the young lady’s frame of mind. They are so insidious!”
Zac frowned and kept quiet.
He thought of the kid’s seemingly inexhaustible energy whenever she was gaming. Even if there were rumors flying about, surely it wouldn’t get her down, right? Besides, the boss had always been reliable…
With this in mind, he said, “Then let’s do as the boss says.”
The head coach nodded. “Maybe we should see this as a chance for the newcomer to train her mental resilience. If she can overcome it, nothing will get her down in the future. If she can’t, it won’t do her good if we are overprotective of her anyway.”
Amid the few people’s anxiety, at last, the college entrance examination results were released.
