Jiang Lu tapped his foot annoyed, listening to the beeping sound coming from his phone.
Slouched on a bench next to him Yu Qingyu yawned, looking up with his eyes half-closed. "Don't be so nervous, there's still 15 minutes left before the training," he tried reassuring his friend, rubbing his eyelids, still heavy and sticky from sleep.
Yu Qingyu has never been an early bird. If possible, he would have stayed in bed until noon. Today, however, despite being the weekend, he had to drag himself to the basketball training before 9 AM. But it had to be done, so he didn't complain. He just made a promise to himself that once he's back in his world, he will stay in bed all day every weekend.
"The number you're trying to call is currently…" The mechanical voice of the automatic secretary came from the speaker.
Jiang Lu clicked his tongue and ended the call, turning around to Yu Qingyu. "Yeah, yeah, technically there's still time, I know. But he's always here one hour earlier, to do some training alone!"
"But that's something he does on his own, just because he wants to. Calm down, maybe he just changed his schedule. Have you tried texting him? Maybe he's somewhere and cannot pick up the phone."
"I've tried! Multiple times! And he left me on read!" Jiang Lu only kept getting angrier. "Look!" He shoved his phone right in front of Yu Qingyu's face.
Yu Qingyu lifted his eyebrows, looking at the screen. There was a string of angry messages, nagging and asking about the other person's whereabouts, sent mere minutes apart. And of course, all of them were sent by Jiang Lu. Being spammed like that, there was no wonder that someone might get annoyed and ignore it.
Before he said anything, however, there was a ping, and a new voice message popped up at the bottom, sent by Ye Chaodan. Jiang Lu immediately took away the phone and slammed his finger on the screen to play it.
"On my way, be there soon," deep and mellow Ye Chaodan's voice calmly announced.
"See? I told you there's nothing to worry about!" Yu Qingyu smiled.
Jiang Lu rolled his eyes in response. "Whatever," he said curtly, his brows still frowned. His shoulders, however, visibly relaxed. He sat down on the bench next to Yu Qingyu.
A few minutes later, the door to the gym opened, making Jiang Lu spring right back to his feet. He was about to walk over, probably to scold Ye Chaodan who has just entered, but stopped, taken aback, as soon as he saw him. "What's up with you?"
Curious, Yu Qingyu leaned forward, glancing from behind his friend.
Ye Chaodan indeed did look different. Underneath his usual training attire, shorts and a tank top, he wore an extra layer, long sports leggings and a top with long sleeves. Moreover, he was clean-shaved, and his hair where tied in a high, slightly messy ponytail. But the big difference was his eyes. Instead of warm and bright, they were tired, dark, and cold, with visible shadows underneath them, indicating lack of sleep.
"…Is there something wrong?" Yu Qingyu couldn't help but ask.
But Ye Chaodan just waved his hand dismissively. "It's nothing."
If he didn't want to talk about it, then Yu Qingyu wouldn't press.
Jiang Lu, however, wasn't about to let it go so easily. He loomed over Ye Chaodan, who was changing his shoes, with his arms crossed. "No, seriously. I need to know. If it's something that can affect…"
Ye Chaodan lifted his head and glared at Jiang Lu. "It's family issues. I don't want to talk about it."
"Hey, hey, there's no need to argue." Seeing the rising tension, Yu Qingyu cut in between the two. "You just look very tired, so we're worried about you. But, of course, if you don't want to talk about it, we'll respect your privacy!"
Ye Chaodan turned his eyes to Yu Qingyu. For a while, he observed him with a dark, piercing gaze, before relaxing and returning to tying his shoes.
Yu Qingyu sighed with relief, and dragged Jiang Lu away. "Give him some space. I know that you're worried about the game, and he's our best player, but you cannot demand him to report everything to you. Remember that we're all here voluntarily. If you attack him like that, he might just decide to leave."
Jiang Lu clicked his tongue, but gave up on pestering Ye Chaodan, at least for now.
But Yu Qingyu had one more thing on his mind. '520, do you think Ye Chaodan is the other transmigrator?'
[Might be. His behavior does indeed differ from the norm. However, at this point, it is impossible to tell for sure. He might still be the original Ye Chaodan, and the change in his behavior might be the result of the family issues he mentioned.]
'Do you know anything about those family issues then?'
[No. According to my data, Ye Chaodan is very close with his family, and he cares a lot about them. There are no indications of any arguments, nor of any health or financial problems.]
Yu Qingyu frowned, confused. 'Then is he lying?'
[That might not necessarily be the case. All of my information comes from before Host entered the world, and once the mission begins, the database is no longer updated. This means that the only way to find out about the changes in the lives of the people from this world is for Host to learn it on your own.]
'Then what would you suggest I…'
"Fu Zhiren! Are you just going to stand there the whole time!?" Jiang Lu's annoyed voice interrupted Yu Qingyu's conversation with 520. When he was busy discussing things with the system, everyone else had already started warming up.
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Yu Qingyu sighed and rushed to join them.
[For now, just observe him carefully, but try not to get noticed. Otherwise, if he really is the other host, he might suspect you as well.] 520 advised him, knowing what Yu Qingyu wanted to ask about.
'Alright,' Yu Qingyu nodded lightly, glancing at Ye Chaodan. Thankfully, Ye Chaodan served as their trainer. As he led both the warm-up and the training, demonstrating all the exercises, it was normal for the other members of the team to look at him constantly. Yu Qingyu could watch him without coming off as weird.
Ye Chaodan also paid a lot of attention to everyone. It was not necessarily weird in itself. He had to observe them in order to point out their mistakes, after all. However, Yu Qingyu felt that Ye Chaodan was watching him and Jiang Lu far more than the rest, although it might have only been his imagination.