Annoyed to the point of speechlessness

"You really can't be here?" Yitian asked. Huobai looked at his surroundings and at his mother sitting next to him and sighed.

"Nope, I'm still…" he stopped, remembering there were other people there, not only Yitian. 

"I'm still away. I need to do it like this. But don't be afraid I have my own hotspot and I've already got the hang of the surroundings. The mouse is good and so is the laptop. It shouldn't be a problem," he said, and his mother chuckled. 

"Of course it's not a problem. I paid a small fortune for it." She put her hand to muffle her speech, but they could still hear it.

"Was that your mom?" Yitian asked, and Huobai rolled his eyes.

"Yes, she said she needs to observe me. Saying gaming might excite me too much." His mother rose gracefully from her position on the couch and walked to him. She leaned over to Huobai and smirked. 

"I never said something like that. He begged me to stay here with him. He is such a mommy boy," she said loudly enough that all of them could hear it. 

"Was that revenge for me wanting a laptop?" he asked, totally ignoring the giggling from the other side of the microphone. That was definitely Chao. 

"Yes. Hi, mamma boys' friends. Nice to meet you all. Thank you for taking care of my stupid son," she said after nodding to Huobai. And the only thing he could do was groan and shush her away.

"What do you think I am? A chicken that you can shush away with this?" Song Fei smirked once more and Huobai knew he was damned. 

"Give me your Weibo or WeChat boys. I will send you some amazing pictures of Huobai. I have many of them from when he was a kid. Especially that one… remember? The one I use to threaten you with?" She smiled evilly at him, and Huobai groaned, trying to get her away. But Chao caught up really quickly, and he was soon exchanging IDs with Huobai's mother. 

"Can you please leave? Why haven't you taken the headset too?" he asked, a bit irritated.

"If I had taken it, I wouldn't be able to listen to what you guys are saying. I've always been curious about what you talk about with your friends." She grinned at him and moved the chair next to him, to his left side. 

Huobai wanted to tell her off, but she strategically placed it the way she would see his screen. But at the same time, she wouldn't be in his way. So he had no chance to get her out. 

It was scary when your mother started making research about the things you loved and your hobbies. He had no way to counter her because sometimes she knew more than he himself knew. 

"So, guys, what is your strategy? Lan da hai is fairly strong. They rely on their brawler and healer. They always put the healer last, so it's hard to get to him." She started talking, and Huobai just stared at her in disbelief. She even pressed something on the keyboard. It was just the agreeing dialog that he wanted to enter the arena. But still...

"Do you want to play instead of me?" he exclaimed, his patience reaching the higher level. But his mother just grinned at him.

"I would love to try it, but I doubt I'm as good as you are. I saw you, you are quicker than most magicians when casting." Huobai stared at her and there was an admiring silence from other team members. 

"You have my admiration, Mrs. Song," Chao said and earned mom's approving nods. But Huobai shook his head and couldn't believe what he just heard. Not even Yitian heard the words like this from Chao. He turned to his mother.

"You are scary!" he said with his eyes wide open. But she said nothing back. 

"You want me to die?" he heard Yixing from afar, almost lost in the sounds of the game. Huobai jerked when he hurt his voice and had to take a deep breath to compose himself.

"So that's him, huh?" his mother asked, with one of her brows raised. Huobai had no idea what he was thinking, but he decided to ignore whatever she had in mind.

"Yes, that's our guardian. He lives in the room next to me. I guess they put the table before his door again. He always trips over it." He just shrugged and had one last check of his inventory and equipment. His mother leaned towards him. 

"Do you need money for a bigger flat?" she whispered into his ear, but he shook his head.

"From what I know, they had something in mind already. And… They don't know who my family is. Or at least they let me think that. I know who Jin Chao is, so I guess he did a background check on me already. As you did on them…" His mother said nothing and just leaned back to her chair again while smiling mysteriously.

"So we are all here, let's talk about what strategy we will use." Chao took the lead as always. 

They made him the team captain because of it. Not that Huobai didn't want to be captain, but even he had to admit that Chao was just a genius with strategies and everything around the game.

"As Mrs. Song said. They place enormous emphasis on their brawler and healer. Because we agreed to 5v5, it's better for the strategy I want you to do." Chao carefully explained what he wanted them to do. And Huobai's mind was once again blown away. And not only his, because when Chao finished his mother gasped and clapped. 

"If it works out, you will be known for an unusual approach… Nice job," she said as she applauded them. Huobai turned to her and begged her with his eyes to stop. But she was just like a child. She just grinned at him, but stopped talking.

"Let's see which map we end up with, but let's try to implement this. I predicted it from all the gameplays of Lan da hai until now, so I should know all their bad habits." Huobai was speechless because even Yitian was this huge, hardworking vice-captain that helped Chao so much. 

"Yixing, can you cover Huobai?" Chao asked, and Huobai winced again. His name and Yixing's in the same sentence still hurt. But he had to wake up. 

As soon as he thought about that. His mother gave him a big smack over his back that made him jump up. He turned around, not sure what it was for? 

"Just to wake you up. This game is pretty important, so don't mess things up for everyone." She nonchalantly folded her arms on her chest and put her legs crossed up on his bed, resting them. Huobai just shook his head, speechless, and turned to the game. 

"Okay. The game is soon starting. Lan da hai is in the arena too, and they have the same players as we thought. So let's do this. If you win, I will buy you whatever you want." Huobai heard someone had breathed in ready to say something but Chao cut him out again.

"Moderately expensive. I won't buy you a building, a car, or something similarly idiotic you have thought of Yixing..." Huobai chuckled, but then held his laughter back. But when others started laughing again, he laughed too. It relaxed the atmosphere and made Huobai relax. He wasn't as nervous as before.

"I see," His mother mumbled and Huobai didn't know what she meant but he didn't care. The countdown of the game battle was starting.