[The King's Avatar] I Actually Got Married After Retiring

Once the Glory champion of ammunition experts, Zhang Jiale was the soul of Team Hundred Blossoms. In Season 7, Hundred Blossoms once again fell just short of the championship. Amidst a storm of criticism, Zhang Jiale chose to retire.

Heartbroken, he returned to his hometown, only for his family to arrange a blind date.

"Hello, I'm Zhuang Yi."

The girl across from him was very cute, and she recognized him at once. Zhang Jiale gave a bitter smile. He'd only planned to humor a fan, sign something, and leave, then go home and report back to his parents.

But Zhuang Yi didn't ask him for anything. She simply sat there quietly, listening as he made small talk. When the conversation stalled, the girl struggled to find the words, then finally said in a tiny voice:

"Even if you don't play competitively, you're still Zhang Jiale."

He froze.

He'd thought that after retiring, he'd be nothing. But this girl told him his worth had never needed a championship to prove it.

Whether it was a sudden impulse or something he'd planned for a long time, he asked, "Would you marry me?"

Zhuang Yi just smiled, as if she'd been waiting for him to ask, then nodded earnestly.

They got married on impulse, without telling anyone.

Their married life was quiet but warm. Sometimes Zhang Jiale would stare into space at his Hundred Blossoms memorabilia. Zhuang Yi noticed, but said nothing. She simply installed Glory on his computer.

"Want to play together?"

When the new server opened, he created a new character called Charming Flowers, while Zhuang Yi chose the ammunition expert class and named her character Silent Blossom.

"Why did you pick an ammunition expert?" he asked.

"Because that's your class," she said, as if it were obvious.

Zhang Jiale scoffed. "Ammunition experts are hard to play. Your clumsy hands will never learn." But he'd already opened the tutorial.

From Aerial Shot to Explosive Shot, from positioning to combos, he guided her step by step, and she studied earnestly. She wasn't especially talented and often practiced the same move dozens of times. But her character's name, Silent Blossom, was like her promise: she never said a word, yet never wavered.

Later, they helped Hundred Blossoms fight for bosses in the online game, with Zhang Jiale calling the shots and Zhuang Yi backing him up. His long-lost passion flared back to life, and this time, he had someone by his side.

Then Ye Xiu appeared. With his sharp eye, he recognized Charming Flowers at once and invited him to join Team Happy.

Zhang Jiale hesitated again. He'd chosen to leave once before, and now he was afraid of making the same mistake.

Zhuang Yi took his hand and encouraged him firmly. "Go give it a try. This time, I'll be with you."

Suddenly, the championship didn't seem so far away.

After Team Happy's Challenger League run, a new thread appeared on the forums: [818: What Has Zhang Jiale Been Doing Since He Retired?]

Thread starter: Hundred Blossoms Honey Pomelo Tea

Girls, I really can't hold back anymore. I have to make this thread.

First, some background: I've been a Hundred Blossoms fan for seven years. The day Zhang Jiale retired, I cried so hard I lost a contact lens. We all know how Season 7 ended. Given his state back then, honestly, we thought he'd never touch Glory again.

And then???

When he showed up in the Challenger League, I almost licked my computer screen clean. How has this guy gotten younger?? When he retired, he looked like life had sucked out his soul. Now look at him in the Challenger League, smiling like that, in such great shape. I'd believe he was in his early twenties.

So I have to ask: what did Zhang Jiale do while he was retired??? Any locals from K City willing to share???

[1F] First! I want to know too! I screamed through his entire first match back. How does he seem even faster than before he retired?

[2F] You're not alone, OP. The Glory forums have been digging for three days. The most credible rumor so far is that he got married.

[3F] ?????

[4F] ?????

[5F] You two above, stop spamming question marks. A friend of a friend is in K City. Apparently, Zhang Jiale went home after retiring, his family arranged a blind date, and then... he got married on a whim.

[6F] Married on a whim??? Zhang Jiale??? The Zhang Jiale who said in an interview, "Glory is my girlfriend"???

[7F] I'm dying. In the end, the Goddess of Glory was the one who got stood up.

[8F] Wait, the important question is, who is his wife??? Someone in the scene???

[9F] She's not in the scene. Apparently she's a civilian, but supposedly a die-hard fan of his.

[10F] ...A fan makes it to the top??? I'm jealous.

[11F] So after retiring, Zhang Jiale stayed home and played Glory with his wife???

[12F] What kind of retirement life is that? I'm crying with envy.

[13F] Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap! So he was fighting for bosses in the online game with his wife, then Ye Xiu caught him and lured him over to Team Happy???

[14F] You found the key point. Apparently, the two of them were fighting over world bosses in Server 10 and causing chaos for all the big guilds. Ye Xiu happened to be on Server 10 then and recognized Zhang Jiale as Charming Flowers at a glance.

[15F] And have you noticed his interview style changed after he came back? He used to answer one question out of three. Now he's always smiling. Once, a reporter asked why he was in such good form, and he said, "Someone's waiting for me at home, so I can't afford to play too badly."

[16F] ??? He's showing off his relationship, right??? He absolutely is, right???

[17F] As an old Hundred Blossoms fan, I'm really happy to see how he's doing now. The pressure was too much at Hundred Blossoms. He carried the whole team by himself. Now at Team Happy, he's got Ye Xiu and his teammates, plus his wife by his side. It feels like he's finally playing Glory for himself.

[18F] So, to sum up:

Zhang Jiale retires → goes home for a blind date → marries a fan on impulse → takes his wife to play online games → Ye Xiu recruits him → brings his wife to Team Happy → gets ten years younger.

[19F] This story teaches us that retirement isn't scary. What's scary is retiring without a wife to play Glory with.

[20F] Well said. I'm going to camp out in Glory and find myself an ammunition expert wife.

[21F] Wake up. First, you'd have to be Zhang Jiale.

[22F] ...That hurts.

[Reader's Guide]

1. Zhang Jiale with an original female character, one-on-one pairing

2. Everyday life in the early part, career focus later

3. Zhang Jiale joins Team Happy

Theme: Never give up lightly