Full-time master: I have a spirit behind me.

Chapter 962 Extra Chapter: Zhang Jiale's Retirement Life

The room was simple yet slightly messy; the only decoration on the clean walls was five photos.

Each photo was meticulously framed, each bearing a date and label, from the Ember Team's championship photo in Season 9, to the Ember Team's two-time consecutive championship photo in Season 10, to the national team championship photo in the first Glory World Invitational Tournament, to the Ember Team's dynasty being established in Season 11, and finally to the Ember Team's four-time consecutive championship photo in Season 12...

A red-haired youth lay sprawled on the single bed, scratching his stomach in a very unladylike manner, fast asleep.

"Lele, Jiale? Zhang Jiale!" From gentle to fierce, the door was flung open, and Jiale's mother angrily pushed it open: "How many times do I have to call you?! Get up right now!"

Zhang Jiale opened his eyes groggily and slowly sat up: "No, Mom, I've retired, can't I sleep a little longer?"

"Is retiring an excuse for laziness?!" Jiale's mother grabbed a wet towel and wiped Zhang Jiale's face haphazardly. "Don't forget what I told you last night!"

Zhang Jiale's mind started working. What had he been told?

Ah... a blind date.

Zhang Jiale sighed helplessly: "Isn't there a need to be in such a hurry, Mom? I'm only..."

"What do you mean 'nothing'? Xiao Wen is already engaged, and you, as her older brother, don't even have a girlfriend? How can that be?" Jia Le's mother scolded, pulling back the curtains to let in the sunlight. "Hurry up, wash up and get out of here. Don't come back until you've met all three girls today!"

"Okay, okay..." Zhang Jiale subconsciously blocked the light and walked out hesitantly. In the living room, her father was reading the newspaper. Zhang Jiale looked at her father for help, and her father pulled the newspaper up, pretending not to see anything.

There's nothing I can do to help.

Zhang Jiale sighed, dawdled as she brushed her teeth and washed her face, and was then dragged out of the house by her mother after she dressed her up.

Well, what can we do? Of course, we should go back to the club.

Zhang Jiale sighed and got on his beloved little motorcycle.

I won't go on blind dates, I won't even bring anyone along!
Ember Club Underground Parking Garage

"Hey? Lele, what brings you here? Didn't you take the day off yesterday?" Lü Liang, dressed in a suit and tie, was holding a folder and seemed to be planning something.

"My mom forced me to send the leave request yesterday, and she made me come out for a blind date today. What are you doing here? Do you need me to give you a ride?" Zhang Jiale asked weakly.

"I'm the manager of our Ember team now. It wouldn't look right for me to take you along to discuss cooperation. I'll drive myself. Bye, good luck on your blind date!" Lu Liang said cheerfully, opening the car door.

Since Chu Xiong was dragged back to his family for a blind date, he has never returned. After all, his boss's wife said that everything should be left to her younger brother and that she didn't need it anymore. Chu Xiong would have to inherit a lot of things in the Chu family. After playing around for two or three years, it was time to settle down. Naturally, he lost his position as the manager of the Ember Club. After a shareholders' meeting, the position of manager fell to Lü Liang.

After all, given the current situation of the Ember Club, the most educated person is still the club's owner's wife, followed by Bai Shu and Lü Liang, who are tied for second place.

Soon, when the second half of the year starts, Zhang Jiale will also be going to study at Chuncheng University.

Zhang Jiale stretched and cheerfully returned the greetings to every Ember staff member who greeted him.

After Ember team won an unprecedented four-peat, Zhang Jiale's professional career has indeed come to an end. He simply can't keep up anymore. The remaining glory of Ember has been squeezed to the extreme, and it's time for him to give way to other great young men.

Of course, Zhang Jiale still had no intention of leaving the Ember Club. He held the position of head coach of the youth training camp within the club, responsible for testing the level of the children in each stage of the training camp. Those who could advance to the next stage were given special training, while those who could not...

There's nothing that can be done about it; after all, esports is a sport that heavily relies on talent.

Sometimes, what you perceive as extraordinary talent is merely the threshold to meeting the true geniuses.

This is reality.

Zhang Jiale has seen too many children enter the youth training camp with hopeful eyes, but some even cry and refuse to leave because they can't even pass the entrance test. He has also seen too many children promise to work harder in the future and achieve results.

However, this is useless.

Sweat and tears are the most basic things on this field, and they cannot become your capital for the future.

Zhang Jiale glanced at the children in the youth training camp who had gotten up early and were focused on training. He wondered how many of the students from this training camp would be able to stay.
"Brother Jiale? What brings you here?"

"It's all because of you..." Zhang Jiale turned to look at Li Xiaowen with a resentful expression.

Li Wen paused for a moment, glancing at Zhang Jiale.

"Getting engaged too early, and the wedding is supposed to be next year, now my family is putting a lot of pressure on me..." Zhang Jiale said irritably, "How can someone treat their good older brother like this?"

"Um, this..." Li Wen scratched his head sheepishly, "Eh... Eh-heh?"

"Hey, you big dummy!" Zhang Jiale rolled her eyes. "What are you doing?"

"I went to deliver your and Brother Lin's college applications. You can go directly to school in the second half of the year. Brother Jiale applied to the art college, right?" Li Wen said with a hint of envy.
"Look at me, this outfit clearly gives off an artist's vibe." Zhang Jiale smiled. "I don't know why my mom's in such a hurry. Once I'm in college, I don't need to worry about finding a boyfriend..."

"That's what Chu Xiong said back then." A cold voice rang out, and Chu Xue casually exposed her younger brother's secret: "There are quite a few girls in the club, but I haven't seen any of you guys have any contact with them. Auntie has mentioned it many times."

"Uh, hahaha..." Zhang Jiale laughed awkwardly.

The aunt the proprietress was referring to was naturally her own mother. Not long ago, when Xiao Wen got engaged, in addition to the people from the team and Su Mucheng who came specially, her own parents, her eldest grandson's parents, and even Ye Xiu's parents came to attend.

Then, Chu Xue added quite a few people from her husband's family...

Zhang Jiale sighed.

"So... you can't be like the rumors, can you?" Chu Xue asked with a hint of curiosity in her eyes.

"Huh? What rumor?" Li Wen and Zhang Jiale were both taken aback.

"It's what they say online, you actually..."

……

conference room
"Outrageous! Absolutely outrageous!" Zhang Jiale slammed his fist on the table in anger. "This is slander against me! Slander! I strongly protest! What do you mean I actually like Da Sun?! Outrageous, absolutely outrageous!"

"These things are all normal..." Chu Yunxiu's eyes showed a slight guilty look.

"I feel... hiss..." Bai Shu looked at Chu Yunxiu suspiciously, but soon felt a pain in his calf and immediately shut his mouth.

"Speak less and watch the show! Old Lin, got any sunflower seeds?"

"If you say that again, Old Zhang is about to slap you across the face," Lin Jingyan said speechlessly.

Qiu Fei kept his eyes down, noticing that Lao Wei and Fang Shijing were busy with guild matters and hadn't come. As for the other new members who had just joined in the last two seasons, they didn't dare to say a word, keeping their heads down, but their ears were perked up.

“I agree.” Sun Zheping nodded.

"Right, this kind of thing has also affected Da Sun, right?" Zhang Jiale nodded. "Yeah, my girlfriend told me about it a few days ago," Sun Zheping said calmly.

"Look, wait a minute, what did you just say?!" Zhang Jiale stared wide-eyed in disbelief at Sun Zheping, who still maintained a calm expression: "Your girlfriend?! When did you get a girlfriend?! I don't believe it!"

“Look, look, stress response…” Chu Yunxiu stroked her chin and nodded thoughtfully: “A classic stress response.”

"No, Lao Chu, don't say anything yet, let me sort this out... I just can't figure this out! How could you have a girlfriend before me? It's a lie, it must be a lie, right?! It must be a lie, right, Da Sun! Tell me quickly!" Zhang Jiale's eyes were filled with jealousy, his whites were bloodshot, and he was gripping Sun Zheping's collar tightly.

Sun Zheping picked up his phone without a word, unlocked it, and showed it to Zhang Jiale.

She is a very intellectual woman with a gentle smile on her face, giving people a sense of approachability.

“It’s a picture from the internet, 100% a picture from the internet, right?!” Zhang Jiale shouted.

Sun Zheping opened the photo album, which contained pictures of the two of them eating together, shopping, and going to the aquarium...

Not only was Zhang Jiale a little confused, but everyone else was also stunned. Chu Yunxiu even ran over and said, "It doesn't look fake. You're really lucky, Da Sun! Who is this girl? Why don't you introduce her to us?"

“I’ve known her for about two years. She’s the granddaughter of the doctor who treats my hands. She’s also a psychologist and runs her own clinic.” Sun Zheping’s face was unusually flushed, and he coughed twice. “We only recently started dating, so I haven’t had a chance to tell you yet…”

"Indeed, psychologists actually have the highest regard for someone with a personality like Da Sun's..."

"Oh? You sound like you know a lot about this?"

"Me? I made that up..."

Zhang Jiale stared at Sun Zheping for a long time with red eyes before angrily shoving the phone into his hands and sitting to the side, sulking.

"Come to think of it, it shouldn't be like this. Lele isn't bad-looking either. If she really wanted to find girls from the club, her fans, and the professional league... there's no way she wouldn't have trouble finding someone, right?" Chu Yunxiu raised an eyebrow. "Why don't you ask Aunt Sun to take a look at your psychological issues later?"

“I’ll ask her to give you a discount.” Sun Zheping nodded.

"You son of a bitch..." Zhang Jiale raised his middle finger: "Can't you just give me a free meal?"

"She's somewhat hostile towards you..."

"Can you please just get over this meme already?!"

Zhang Jiale stood up unsteadily: "I'll go to the youth training camp and keep an eye on the kids. You guys have fun..."

"Eh?"

"Wait a minute, let's chat a little longer..."

Actually, Zhang Jiale also wants to find a girlfriend, but this is something that really can't be rushed.

There are indeed many outstanding girls who want to get to know Zhang Jiale, but... they just don't feel anything for him!

Zhang Jiale sighed.

Let's get back to work first; once we're working, we won't feel tired anymore.

"Wait a minute, Jiale!" Lin Jingyan chased after her. "Since you're here today, Xiao Zhao came over earlier wanting to do a retirement interview with you, but he went back when he saw you weren't here. Why don't you arrange a time with him yourself?"

Zhang Jiale was taken aback: "Okay, I happen to have some free time. I can go to his place and have a couple of cups of tea to kill some time."

Esports Home K City Branch, Editor-in-Chief's Office

"Hey, Jiale, you could have just told me the time and I would have sent someone over. Why did you have to make the whole trip?" Little Zhao had been promoted to the head of all the reporters in K City. Dressed in a sharp suit, he looked quite like a successful person.

"Sigh, I came here to sit and hide for a while..." Zhang Jiale sighed helplessly.

Xiao Zhao raised an eyebrow. His reporter's intuition told him there was some gossip to hear. While getting water, he casually asked, "Oh? What's going on, Brother Jiale?"

"I'm being pressured by my family to find a partner," Zhang Jiale sighed.

“My family is the same…” Xiao Zhao said with a sigh, “But this is something that can’t be rushed. If I just find someone to appease my family, it just doesn’t feel right.”

"Hey, you're right, Lao Zhao!" Zhang Jiale perked up, just as he was about to have a good chat with Xiao Zhao, when there was a knock on the door.

"Editor-in-chief, I've compiled the documents that need to be processed..." A natural, unpretentious voice rang out. Zhang Jiale, who was sipping her tea, glanced at it casually and then froze.

Watching this girl earnestly answer Xiao Zhao's question.

"Alright, Xiao Li, you can go back now... Jia Le, shall we continue? If you ask me, finding a partner can't be rushed..."

"It's urgent." Zhang Jiale's eyes were fixed on the closed door.

"Right... ah?" Xiao Zhao finally came to his senses, looked at Zhang Jiale who seemed rather absent-minded, and paused for a moment before realizing what he meant: "Oh, Brother Jiale, you wouldn't... "

"Ahem, Xiao Zhao, you know there's a saying called love..."

"Love begins with lust at first sight and blossoms into affection over time?" Xiao Zhao chuckled.

"You don't understand, in this world..."

"There are about 20,000 people in the world who can make you fall in love at first sight, but you might never meet one in your entire life?"

"I……"

"Do I really like this?"

"talk……"

"You've already said everything, what am I supposed to say? Do you still want me to do the interview for you?" Xiao Zhao smiled and took a sip of tea: "Ah, this interview, actually I'm not really thinking about doing it anymore. I'm planning to have Xiao Li follow up on this issue, what do you think? It's about that girl from earlier."

"Good brother, don't say anything more!" Zhang Jiale gave a thumbs up.

Xiao Zhao chuckled happily.

Consider this compensation for my past misunderstandings of you. Xiao Zhao recalled that morning, and Zhang Jiale's disappointed and pained expression under his questioning.

You will always be the best ammunition expert.

　Yes, the rest of the story will appear in other people's side stories, so please look forward to it!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)