PNG had already prepared two copies of the contract and placed them neatly on the desk.
Chen Chen, smiling, looked at Sui Ning as if he were a sparkling golden doll. “Come, sit. Have you gotten used to staying at the club these past few days? Is the training too tiring?”
“No, I’m used to it.”
“That’s good.” Chen Chen nodded, not asking how he had gotten used to it, then gestured toward the contract. “You’re nineteen, so you don’t need a guardian’s signature. I’ll give you this copy first.
“If you feel you need to discuss it with your family, you can take it home. Just mail it back after signing.”
“What you’re signing now is an intent contract.” He flipped open the first few pages and explained, “If you agree, the formal contract will be signed again once the summer transfer window opens.”
The HPL league had two hard requirements for certifying a rookie as a professional player: first, they must be at least 17 years old; second, contracts could only be signed during transfer windows.
But with both the winter and summer transfer windows combined lasting less than three months, and with only so many “golden dolls” available, all the teams naturally wanted to secure them first. Intent contracts were very common in the professional scene, so Sui Ning wasn’t surprised.
Signing an intent contract wasn’t just legally binding—it was also a gentleman’s agreement between player and team.
If a player signed and then broke it, it would completely disrupt the club’s transfer plans and damage the player’s reputation in the industry. Neither side would come out well. Even veteran players didn’t dare break them lightly.
The only breach case in recent years dated back two years ago, when Cpyhc, unhappy with Navic’s coaching staff, prepared to leave the league for another powerhouse, Star.L. He was persuaded to stay before the transfer window closed, and the club bore all the penalty fees.
The case was full of unresolved questions, even involving Cpyhc’s injuries, but online haters still mocked him for a long time, calling him “the gold-devouring baby,” “mama’s boy mid,” and “fragile little princess.”
Pausing for a moment, Chen Chen continued sincerely, “As PNG’s head coach, I really admire you. To be shameless, I’ve already started thinking about how our tactics would shift once you joined.”
“But on a personal level, I must be honest with you—even now, you can still back out. Signing will have a big impact on your future, so think it over carefully.”
Chen Chen had his own sources and knew that a few other teams were also reaching out to Sui Ning. PNG wasn’t the only option.
“Of course, don’t worry about retaliation if you change your mind. I can guarantee you that won’t happen. You don’t need to be concerned about that.” With those words, he handed Sui Ning the contract, already stamped with the club’s seal.
The coach’s clear gaze and heartfelt words left Sui Ning a little moved, a faint sourness welling in his chest.
The man’s appreciation for new talent was undeniable. For a fleeting moment, his calm yet still-youthful face overlapped with that of the mentor-coach who had discovered him in his past life.
Sui Ning’s throat felt inexplicably dry. He lowered his gaze, avoiding Chen Chen’s eyes, and flipped through the contract.
When he reached the compensation section, even Sui Ning was stunned.
PNG was offering a monthly salary of 25,000 and a signing bonus of 100,000—sincerity written across their foreheads.
For a newly registered HPL rookie, this was almost absurdly high. Just last winter, the average rookie contract had been barely over 10,000 monthly, with a signing bonus of 20,000–30,000.
Noticing his surprise, Chen Chen tilted his head playfully and winked.
Sui Ning immediately realized—the head coach’s personal willpower must have heavily influenced how much the club was willing to pay.
The young man fell into silence again, slender fingers brushing against the paper.
If he was honest with himself, PNG was definitely above average. The daily environment was solid, the coaches capable and supportive, the teammates friendly, the double C and jungle-mid synergy close in playstyle. Aside from the team’s current underwhelming results, everything else was excellent.
…So, was PNG the choice?
The thought popped into his mind, and Sui Ning’s heart raced, surging like a freed bird.
He wasn’t the type to leverage multiple transfers just to inflate his price. If possible, he would rather be like a paradise bird—settling in one place for life.
And when a professional team aligned with his dream of a resting perch, the pounding storm of his heartbeat and the boiling fire in his blood reminded him of one undeniable truth—
No matter the world, he could never say no to “returning to the professional stage.”
——
When Sui Ning left the office, Ji Yunyu was leaning against the wall. As soon as the door opened, their eyes met.
The boy immediately stood upright.
Sui Ning raised a brow. “What’s wrong?”
“Uh, waiting for you.” Ji Yunyu scratched his face. “So… how was it?”
“How was what?” Sui Ning asked knowingly.
Having been teased often, Ji Yunyu had grown bolder. “Your, uh… contract.”
Sui Ning’s face remained unreadable, devoid of joy. He quietly looked at Ji Yunyu.
A strange silence filled the hallway.
The boy panicked under Sui Ning’s wordless stare.
…Damn it, no way. Did it fall through? Didn’t Chen Chen say this was guaranteed?
“Why? Do you want to think it over again?” Ji Yunyu blurted out, his words tumbling over each other. “Didn’t you think it was good before? Why the sudden change? Wait—you didn’t see those videos of mine and—cough, no, I mean, if you don’t like my jungle style, I can change—”
“Pfft.”
Sui Ning suddenly laughed.
The black-haired young man glanced at him twice, trying to press his fist against his lips to stifle it, but couldn’t stop the slight trembling of his shoulders. Laughter spilled out, even bringing a tear to the corner of his eye. At first Ji Yunyu was confused, but seeing how happily he was laughing, he gradually caught on, as though the clouds in the sky had suddenly cleared away.
“Damn, you’re teasing me again.” He grumbled, but then couldn’t help laughing along with him.
After a while, Sui Ning took a deep breath, steadying his mood.
The gentle smile still lingered in his eyes as he lightly patted the boy’s face with his right hand, almost affectionately. “Train hard.”
The featherlight touch was gone in an instant, and Ji Yunyu’s pupils contracted, his whole body tensing.
“See you in the summer,” Sui Ning said with a smile.
——
With the trial over, Sui Ning packed his things, ready to return to Shencheng with Xu Hexuan.
At the villa entrance, the coach and a few starters came to say goodbye. Ji Yunyu stood farthest away, waving his right hand while shaking his phone lightly with the left.
Sui Ning waved back, then flipped open his own phone.
[Xiao Yunduo] : See you in the summer. Cat peeking.jpg
The young man chuckled.
[Go With the Flow and Be at Peace] : Cat rolling.jpg
Dragging his suitcase, he prepared to leave. The other tryouts—blond-haired youth and Aeria King—were also heading back to their cities, clinging to Sui Ning and insisting on getting his contact information.
Xu Hexuan clicked his tongue in amazement. “As expected of you, my Feng-bao. Just a few days in, and you’ve turned enemies into fans?”
Sui Ning looked a bit helpless. “They’re just too enthusiastic—and besides, we weren’t enemies to begin with.”
“So you’ve decided? PNG?”
The black-haired youth nodded.
Xu Hexuan said, “Amazing. Really amazing. If you’d asked me last month, I’d never have thought I’d be asking you this question.”
Then, with a hint of regret, he added, “So that means you’ll have to turn Navic down, huh?”
“Of course. I can’t just string them along.” Sui Ning gave a wry smile. “Do you like Navic that much?”
“Ah, it’s just… how do I put it? It’s Navic, after all! Refusing them feels like a minor civil servant turning down a state leader—that kind of feeling, I guess. But it’s your choice which club to join.”
He paused, then hesitated, glancing carefully at Sui Ning. “By the way… do you want to tell Uncle and Aunt?”
Having long cut himself off from the idea of family, it took Sui Ning several seconds to realize he meant the original body’s parents.
He fell silent for a moment, curious. “Do you have their contact info?”
“Should… yeah. If they haven’t changed it.” Xu Hexuan was speechless. “You’re kidding me, you even deleted your parents’ contacts?”
Sui Ning: “…Seems like it.”
Xu Hexuan gave him a dead-fish stare, then rattled off two numbers. “One’s your mom’s number, the other’s the home phone.”
Sui Ning acknowledged softly, saved them into his notes, but didn’t dial right away.
…He wasn’t ready to handle the original body’s family ties yet, especially under the assumption that “their son had run away from home.” But if the original was their only child, he couldn’t just ignore his parents forever.
The black-haired youth sighed, troubled.
——
With PNG’s intent contract signed, the next steps were clear. The summer transfer window opened on April 27, and Sui Ning would officially register as a professional player that day. But Chen Chen had agreed with him that it’d be best to arrive a week early to join warm-up training.
In the meantime, PNG had to endure the torment of their “old regime leftovers.”
Honestly, Sui Ning was very dissatisfied with He Yaohui’s professional attitude. Even during the tryouts, PNG’s second team occasionally came to watch and learn, but after the first day, He Yaohui never showed up again.
Sui Ning had discreetly asked Chen Chen about it. The head coach’s reply was, “For the spring split, there’s no time to worry about this.”
…In plain words: This rebellious brat is a pain, but nothing can be done. Blame the second team and academy kids for not being good enough.
It was truly frustrating.
After two days of rest in Shencheng, Sui Ning reopened his stream on the Little Shark Streaming platform.
Fans who had been camping out immediately swarmed in.
[Yo, look who’s here! Is today’s stream just for me, or is everyone else invited too?]
[Your Majesty, you still remember your humble concubine?]
[Granny, the streamer you follow is finally live again—you can rest in peace now!]
[Nice, I liked this streamer in my past life, and in this one I’ll keep cheering!]
Sui Ning felt a little guilty. “Uh, anyway, I’m back streaming now. First, let me apologize to everyone.”
[‘Anyway’? How many thousands of words of self-reflection did you just skip? Out with it!]
[Mom doesn’t want apologies—Mom wants to know where you’ve been these past days. Which wild woman were you fooling around with?]
[Even the “male mom” doesn’t want to listen, the “male mom” just wants to see the streamer’s face, slurp.]
[? So you’re an lsp, huh.] a dirty old man
[Let me put it this way, today we must get kisses, hugs, and be lifted up^^, otherwise we’re leaving.]
[Otherwise, we’re leaving.]
[Otherwise, we’re leaving.]
Sui Ning gave a little shiver, and the Diamond Walnut on the screen also seemed to warp: “Uh… I was going to pick a lucky viewer to rank up with. You’re not coming?”
[?]
The scrolling comments froze for a second. The next moment, the direction of the chat practically did a 180 flip.
[Who just said they were leaving? Get lost!! Feng-bao pick me pick me pick me!]
[The one above isn’t thinking clearly, let me splash him awake!]
[Wait, important question first: what rank?]
Sui Ning blinked: “King-rank matches.”
[Heh, men.]
[LOL, do you think I don’t play King-rank because I don’t want to? Do you think I’m not at Peking University because I don’t want to be?]
[I’m just curious how many King-rank players are actually in this chat? Isn’t it less than 0.011% of all players? So this room is basically one in ten thousand each?]
Seeing this comment, a bunch of King-rank viewers immediately began spamming their IDs. In seconds more than a dozen different ones popped up, each followed by Sui Ning’s signature “^^”.
[…Well damn, my bad.]
[I thought everyone here was Bronze and Silver loafers, turns out the only loafer is me^^, goodbye!]
Meanwhile, the blond-haired youth also camping Sui Ning’s stream instantly dropped a message in the group chat.
[Feng-bao slurp slurp slurp (3)]
[Ecas]: @Fenglan, brother, pick me pick me pick me! I’m King-rank!
[Aeria King]: You’re a mid-laner, pick you for what? @Fenglan, pick me brother!!
[Ecas]：？
[Ecas]: ?
[Ecas]: Aren’t you also a mid-laner?
The two refused to give way to each other in the group, almost starting a fight.
Sui Ning glanced at the messages and twitched the corner of his mouth.
[Fenglan]: …Three mid-laners, really unnecessary. Cat sweating.jpg
[Aeria King]: It’s okay, I trust you.
[Ecas]: It’s okay, I trust you.
[Fenglan]: ?
Seeing their determination, Sui Ning could only helplessly change the stream title to [Streaming Carry 3+2, Low-Star King-rank Matches], then pulled the two clowns into the team room.
The chat fell silent for a moment.
[......?]
[What is this?]
Although blond-haired youth and Aeria King weren’t streamers, their IDs were still pretty well-known among players — after all, one’s the #1 Oracle in the nation, the other’s the #2 Aeria (and often appears on-screen with Feng-bao getting destroyed), their skill level was guaranteed.
Logically, such a three-national-server team queuing in low-star King-rank should be like a tank rolling over ants — the two fans they carried would only need to last-hit a few minions to get a free win. But the problem was—
They were all mid-laners! Wake up!
[…What are they even trying to do??]
[The First Ever Triple Mid-Lane Summit??]
[Got it — from now on all three lanes of the Rift are mid-lane. War of Glory enters a new era. The three shall be honored as the Three Pure Ones.]
[I’m dying of laughter, where are the viewers who said they’d leave? Come on! Don’t chicken out!]
“No one wants to come?” With the plan now set, Sui Ning also felt mischievous, his voice innocent. “If you come, you can have all three of us as friends at once. Isn’t there any unlucky… lucky soul who wants to try?”
“You can just add me directly.” His tone lifted slightly, like he was acting cute.
[Unlucky soul — you were definitely about to say unlucky soul!]
[Honestly, I’m tempted.]
[Let me be clear, I only want to play a game with my idol, it’s definitely not about the friend slots.]
[Friend slot, hehe my friend slot.]
The chat flew by, and Sui Ning’s friend list kept going ding ding ding with new friend requests.
He casually accepted the first two and invited them to the team.
System: [Feng-bao’s Bootlicker] has joined the team.
System: [I’m Feng-bao’s Dog] has joined the team.
[?]
[Insane.]
[I knew you guys were outrageous, but not this outrageous.]
[Do you have no shame left? Please don’t embarrass yourselves in front of the entire nation, thanks!]
Sui Ning: ?
Even he choked a little at those two shameless IDs, and the chat instantly flooded with question marks.
The two verified WeChat-adding bootlickers grew wary: rivals have appeared?
Ji Yunyu, watching the stream while eating dinner: …?
----------
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