陶轩 was not alone. With him was Cui Li, the manager of the Excellent Era Club.

These two were undoubtedly the two most powerful figures in the Excellent Era Club. Ye Xiu was quite surprised to see them both here. Today was Excellent Era's away game, and a crucial moment that would decide whether they would fall into the relegation zone. Yet, these two powerful figures had not gone with the team. The game had just ended, and they were here for a late-night snack. This was quite abnormal.

Cui Li was sitting facing the entrance. He saw Ye Xiu and gave Tao Xuan a look. Tao Xuan turned around, and they both looked at Ye Xiu.

"What a coincidence, running into you like this," Ye Xiu greeted.

Chen Guo was still busy choosing seats and didn't notice. After hearing Ye Xiu speak, she turned her gaze over and quickly recognized the two. Tao Xuan and Cui Li often appeared in the media, and Tao Xuan had personally visited the internet café. She recognized them both.

"Oh!" Chen Guo suddenly felt the scene was a bit awkward, but as she looked at the three of them, she realized that the people involved didn't seem to mind at all. The three of them calmly dealt with a situation that definitely wasn't comfortable for them. Looking at the friendly smiles on their faces, anyone would think this was just a chance encounter between friends and would never suspect the complex entanglements between them.

Chen Guo felt that she still needed to improve her cultivation when someone on the other side spoke. It was Cui Li responding to Ye Xiu: "Yes, what a coincidence!"

"We won't disturb you, carry on," Ye Xiu clearly wasn't planning on having a deep conversation with them.

Cui Li, however, seemed very interested in their group, and said with a smile, "Not at all, not at all. Are these your new team members? Perhaps you could introduce them; we will have opportunities to interact in the future."

Chen Guo, as the owner of an internet café, was used to dealing with people. She immediately sensed that Cui Li's words had a hidden meaning and was about to respond, but Bao Rongxing reacted even faster and jumped out ahead of her: "Ah! Are you also an industry professional? Nice to meet you, my name is Bao Rongxing. Close friends call me Steamed Bun. What's your name?"

"Hehe," Cui Li said with great poise. "Cui Li, the manager of the Excellent Era Club. In some teams, I might be called the team leader. This is our big boss."

"Oh, oh, oh, oh!" Bao Rongxing "oh"ed four times in a row, then asked, "What's that?"

"Hahahaha!!" Chen Guo laughed so hard that she startled one of the waiters. Tang Rou was better at controlling herself, but she was also trying very hard to hold it in. Only Ye Xiu was still explaining to Steamed Bun with a straight face: "The manager is generally in charge of the club under normal circumstances. The boss is the real owner of the club, who is in charge behind the scenes."

"Oh, is it big?" Steamed Bun asked.

"Of course, bigger than all of us," Ye Xiu said.

"Age?" Steamed Bun looked at the two of them and asked.

"You were asking about age?" Ye Xiu was having a little trouble following Steamed Bun's train of thought.

"Pretty much!" Steamed Bun said.

Even Ye Xiu couldn't quite grasp what "pretty much" meant, but Ye Xiu's strength was that no matter what you meant, he would continue according to his own understanding. He calmly replied, "In terms of age, yes, they are older than us."

"Amazing!" Steamed Bun praised. This was another mysterious train of thought. Judging from the previous conversation, was he praising their age? But what was so amazing about being old?

Cui Li's expression was no longer calm, and he was clearly embarrassed. He absolutely didn't believe that this was the other person's true nature. He felt that this must be coordinated with Ye Xiu to deliberately mock them. It couldn't be said that Cui Li was being petty for thinking this way; Steamed Bun's eccentricity was beyond what normal people could understand. Cui Li's thinking only proved that he was still a normal person.

As a result, Steamed Bun had no idea about any of this. He sincerely went over and patted the manager on the shoulder: "We're all on the same side, take care of me in the future!"

The words meant "please take care of me," but his actions made it seem like he was the one who would be taking care of others. Chen Guo couldn't help but laugh and pulled Steamed Bun back: "What are you talking about? How are you on the same side?"

"Aren't we all in the industry?" Steamed Bun said. "Oh right, what team did you say you were from?"

"Excellent Era!" Cui Li clearly enunciated, repeating it in a loud voice, with an expression that clearly said, "Keep pretending! Just keep pretending!"

As a result, Steamed Bun immediately realized, "Excellent Era! Is that the team that lost miserably on TV just now?"

"..." Cui Li.

"Yes," Chen Guo nodded.

"Oh dear!" Steamed Bun looked at Cui Li with great regret and said in a very sorrowful tone: "You shouldn't have lost!"

"..." Cui Li didn't dare to respond this time, fearing that this was another trap. If he followed up, he would be ridiculed again. In his eyes, this guy who called himself Steamed Bun was terrifying, very terrifying.

"Steamed Bun, come sit over here!" At this moment, Ye Xiu had chosen a seat and was already sitting down with Tang Rou. He called out to Steamed Bun to come and sit with them.

Steamed Bun glanced back, thought the seats were very spacious, and presumptuously said to Cui Li and Tao Xuan: "Do you want to come over and join us?"

"Hehe, no need..." Cui Li's smile was already very unnatural.

"It's okay to lose, don't be so down," Steamed Bun comforted him. "As long as you work hard, you will definitely have a future."

What in the world was he talking about! Cui Li almost slammed the table, but he saw Tao Xuan give him a look and didn't act rashly. He just didn't want to pay attention to Steamed Bun anymore and sat down without replying.

Steamed Bun saw that no one was paying attention to him and happily ran back to sit with Ye Xiu and the others.

"Amazing!" Tang Rou gave Steamed Bun two thumbs up, praising him.

"That's a must," Steamed Bun said happily, but did he really know what Tang Rou was praising him for?

"Bao Rongxing, is that your name?" Chen Guo asked.

"Yes, yes! How did you know?" Steamed Bun asked happily.

"I heard it when you were introducing yourself to them," Chen Guo tried to adapt to interacting with Steamed Bun.

"Yes, yes, that's my name. We're all so familiar, you can just call me Steamed Bun," Steamed Bun said.

"Okay, let's order something to eat first!" Chen Guo nodded, while Tao Xuan and Cui Li stood up, seemingly ready to leave.

"Enjoy your meal, we'll be leaving first." Before leaving, Tao Xuan nodded to the four of them as a greeting, but his tone lacked the polite and courteousness of small talk and was somewhat cold.

"Take care, take care, go back and work hard! You guys can do it!" Steamed Bun didn't mind at all, standing up to see them off and loudly cheering them on. Chen Guo almost choked again from laughing.

Afterward, the ordered food arrived. The four of them ate and chatted casually, without any serious topics, until Chen Guo suddenly realized, "Huh, today is Excellent Era's away game, right? Then why aren't those two with the team?"

"Yeah!" Ye Xiu nodded.

Although Chen Guo was a bit slow to react, she realized that this indicated some problems.

Excellent Era's performance was so bad, but the club's two giants didn't seem worried. They didn't even follow the team for such an important game. If this wasn't because they were incredibly confident, then it meant that they didn't care about how Excellent Era performed this season.

Given Excellent Era's current terrible performance, they shouldn't have any overconfidence. So, were these two big shots from the Excellent Era Club not expecting anything from this season? But no matter what, once they were relegated, even if they immediately fought their way back the following year, the economic losses from not playing in the professional league for a year would be quite staggering. No matter what, they shouldn't be so indifferent that they didn't even care about being relegated, right?

Chen Guo analyzed these issues in a very logical manner, and Ye Xiu nodded in agreement.

"Could it be that they know you're forming a team to fight your way up from the Challenger League, so they deliberately got relegated to the Challenger League to go against you?" Chen Guo suddenly said.

"Wouldn't that be too much? Do they think that highly of me?" Ye Xiu laughed. If that was really the reason, then it would be purely out of spite. Tao Xuan had been managing clubs and teams for so many years and was already a mature boss. He wouldn't really do that for this reason. Ye Xiu clearly didn't think so.

"No matter what, Excellent Era will definitely make big moves next season," Ye Xiu said.

"What do you mean?" Chen Guo asked.

"This season is already like this. If they don't make any moves next season, if they don't make any changes, is Excellent Era trying to go bankrupt?" Ye Xiu said.

"Then why aren't they making moves now?" Chen Guo asked.

"Maybe they just can't clean up the mess they're in right now!" Ye Xiu said, looking at the empty seats where the two had been sitting.

Back at the Excellent Era Club, Tao Xuan and Cui Li returned and went to Tao Xuan's office together. Tao Xuan casually took a bottle of wine from the liquor cabinet, poured two glasses, and handed one to Cui Li.

Cui Li took it, sipped it, and immediately said, "Do you think that guy is really stupid or just pretending to be?"

Tao Xuan sat down in his large boss's chair, looked up at the ceiling, and after a long while, said, "I don't know."

"This Ye Qiu, I don't know where he found those guys," Cui Li said.

"Let's not worry about him for now. How did your negotiations go? We didn't get to finish talking about it earlier," Tao Xuan said.

"Smoothly, everything went smoothly." As soon as Cui Li mentioned this, his face lit up with excitement.

"Did you explain all the possible scenarios?" Tao Xuan asked.

"I explained everything."

"That's good." Tao Xuan nodded.

"Then what's next?" Cui Li looked at Tao Xuan with a questioning gaze.

"Well, Sun Xiang shouldn't play for now," Tao Xuan said.

"Okay." Cui Li didn't seem surprised at all, as this was clearly a pre-arranged plan. The slight hesitation on his face was due to something else: "In the Resurrection Tournament, we might really run into Ye Qiu's new team."

"That would be great too!" Tao Xuan said with a smile. "It will be more interesting!"