C4 Part2

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Ch 4: Players Underestimated by the Public (Part 2)

In the blink of an eye, it was the day of the celebration. Qiu Ying arrived early and was soon engaged in a nice talk with a staff member. In addition, she was recognized by a young reporter.

“Wow, you’re a Youxing celebrity, but do you really want to change over?”

Qiu Ying’s back stiffened, afraid that she would say words like whatever “four green tea b*tches.”

Unexpectedly, the girl ran over to her side, shaking her hand excitedly, with a pair of large eyes that shone like there were stars inside. “I’m your fan, Lu Yiyi, I’ve followed you for a long time, and I especially like your voice!”

“Thank… Thank you…” Qiu Ying breathed in relief. Really, once bitten, twice shy.

When she found out that she was only invited as an observer, Lu Yiyi, who was also a fellow newcomer, volunteered to be her guide, as she would hate it if she couldn’t spill out all she knew.

“There are many different divisions of work at the forefront of the esports circle and behind the scenes. In addition to the club senior directors, leaders, data analysts, coaches, and players, there are also major TV’s event managers, planners, commentators, hosts, online news sites’ journalists, and editors, and so on. Of course, there are also the livestream platforms, since the major competitions are generally broadcast on the platforms.”

Qiu Ying took out her notebook and wildly scribbled down what she said, for fear that she would forget a single word.

In the afternoon, it was time for the major teams to take promotional pictures for their sponsors. Qiu Ying went with Lu Yiyi to wander around the studio, watching makeup artists on the sidelines patting the faces of the young men. She couldn’t help but imagine what Ji Xiangkong would look like, obediently sitting on the chair and letting anyone play around with him, but unfortunately she didn’t bump into Legend’s members the entire time.

In the evening, there was a buffet inside the hotel’s banquet hall; the dining tables full of fine wine and delicacies formed a ring around the middle. On the very left was a red carpet leading straight to a stage at the front.

Qiu Ying was speaking with Lu Yiyi when the lights of the ballroom shut off with a snap. The Conquer logo appeared slowly on the stage’s large screen, a surge of intense music beginning when the light changed into darkness. In the next scene, the game’s Frost Archer faced the audience, pulled back her bow, and released an ice arrow that fired with a hum.

Accompanied with ear-piercing sound effects, the screen shattered, and the pieces of rain-like fragments gathered together to form the name of the first team that had contributed to the celebration budget—

“Newland!”

A dozen spotlights flickered to life within the hall, finally focusing on the red carpet to reveal the silhouette of a team, followed by a roar of applause.

Unexpectedly, tonight’s feast would be this lively; Qiu Ying covered her mouth in surprise.

After six or seven teams had been introduced in this way, the applause of the entire audience was becoming more enthusiastic and the music built up to a climax.

Seeing Qiu Ying looking all around dazedly, Lu Yiyi reminded her, “Just now, those were the primary teams. The next ones will be the three big giants!”

On the big screen, the lithe figure of the Wuju Bladesman raced across the battlefield, the light and shadow of his sword cutting three huge letters—

“VPG!”

Lu Yiyi introduced on the side, “The team with the strongest offensive power is VPG. They have a fierce playing style, fire-like aggression.”

Qiu Ying looked curiously at the red carpet. The five people were lined up; the person closest to her wore dazzling red, with spiky hair, and rebelliously raised his chin up as he walked.

“Yue, Qi Yue.”

The boy next to him had golden hair, wearing silver-colored earrings, his long side bangs slightly covering his eyes.

“Poker, Chen Yue.”

The person in the middle was slightly older, with extremely short hair, ruthless eyes, and an aura rather like a gang boss.

“Captain, Lion, Lu Sheng.”

Looking to his other side, there was a dark, tall, and burly man, nearly 1.9 meters.

“Scar, Tong Wu.”

The person on the very right was someone Qiu Ying finally recognized. He wore a white shirt and khaki trousers. The other four people stood together with an intimidating manner, but they served to contrast against his demeanor of a noble gentleman as warm as jade.

“Summit, Pei Xi.” Lu Yiyi worked hard and continued to speak. “Don’t look at his beauty, this master is VPG’s most fierce and ruthless player. When he catches the enemy, he just rubs them on the ground.”

Qiu Ying nodded fiercely, supplementing within her heart, and not only was he a perverted mutt, he had bad eyesight.

VPG crossed the stage and took a seat at the dining table. Then, the large screen changed; the Tidecaller summoned up immense raging waves, the seawater roaring as it struck enemies along its path, and splashed on the reef—

“Dragon!”

Five uniformly dressed people came onto the red carpet. They were all wearing a pair of black-framed glasses, the same buzzcut, and seemed more like a scientific research team that had achieved fruitful results than an esports team.

“The king of defense, Dragon. The team with the lowest number of mistakes per game, their play style is calm and methodical. They won’t expose even a slight flaw to give to their opponents.” Lu Yiyi didn’t forget to introduce them in detail.

The tide receded, the entire screen pitch black. The petite Dark Child summoned up a gigantic bear, dancing maniacally among the flames, and from the ashes emerged—

“Legend!”

Qiu Ying’s heart jumped up with a thud.

In comparison to the previous VPG and Dragon, Legend was even more like a sunny and handsome idol group. They all wore casual clothes— Lin Yixuan’s t-shirt even had a big startled cat with its mouth open printed on it; his straightforward marketing of cuteness was almost shameful.

“Legend is also known as the male models team, everyone always mocks that the boss chooses people based on their faces. Their play style is flexible with wide and changing tactics. This time, Captain Cris is busy and can’t come, but from the left is Lin Yixuan, Lu Feng, Huo Yao.” Lu Yiyi wasn’t aware of anything unusual with Qiu Ying and continued to say, “The tallest and most handsome is Ji Xiangkong. Probably half of Conquer’s pseudo-esports female fans came for him.”

Qiu Ying had already put all her attention on Ji Xiangkong. His hands were in his pockets, long and slender legs moving forward with the same rhythm as the music. The light and shadow rendered his facial features especially handsome and complex.

“Oh, right, you already know…” Lu Yiyi seemed to realize what she was saying. She scratched her head, then said as if she was thinking carefully about her words, “Uh… are you still in contact now?”

Qiu Ying lowered her head like a deflated ball, saying dully, “No.”

When the entrance ceremony finished, it was finally back to open activities. As she saw Ji Xiangkong and two strangers coming face-to-face with her, Qiu Ying took a deep breath, arranged her thoughts, and waved at him with a sweet smile while pretending to be calm.

“Hey.”

The other two people looked at her and politely returned her greeting, but Ji Xiangkong did not respond. He passed by her side, not even sparing her a glance.

Qiu Ying’s raised arm stiffened midair, stuck there for several seconds. In the end, she lowered her arm unnaturally, unsure what to do with it for a while. Until Lu Yiyi carefully tugged on the hem of her clothes, she returned to herself, scalp tingling.

Not far away, a group of reporters caught the scene and softly discussed it.

“Did you see, there was ‘awkward’ written all over Qiu Ying’s face.”

“Oh, people like Ji Xiangkong obviously end a relationship ambiguously.”

“She’s also quite pitiful, before, her popularity even dropped because she was involved with him.”

Qiu Ying took two doughnuts from the dining table and hid in the corner, swallowing them in a few bites. She forced herself to keep a cool head.

Don’t mind it, she thought, he probably didn’t see me, or maybe he was thinking about something, he wouldn’t ignore people.

Sugar could really boost a person’s mood. After she regained her confidence, Qiu Ying found another opportunity to accost Ji Xiangkong, who was leaning alone against the wall, and went to his side.

She heard her own dry voice: “Long… long time no see.”

Seeing Ji Xiangkong lower his head to play on his phone, the intense anxiety within her heart dissolved silently. Qiu Ying could only carry on stumbling over her words: “That, I don’t know if you look at your WeChat, I… I sent you a lot of messages, I didn’t think that you would post that kind of statement on Weibo… I was obviously… I… uh, and also, thank you for sending me the invitation…”

God, what am I saying!

At the critical moment, her acting ran away from her.

Ji Xiangkong was finally willing to look up on her. There was no smile on his face in the slightest, and he said chillily, “Instead of wasting your time with me like this, it would be better to do something beneficial. Don’t forget your original intention in coming here.”

It was like someone had fiercely hit her over the head with a club. Qiu Ying froze, unable to say a word.

It was during this time, when the atmosphere had dropped to the freezing point, that a woman who had long been watching from the sidelines came forward. She spiritedly made some meaningless chatter about the recent dazzling newcomers of the secondary team with Ji Xiangkong; it was a long time before she somewhat apologetically asked, “Am I interrupting you two?”

Ji Xiangkong glanced at Qiu Ying. “It’s fine, you can keep talking.”

So Qiu Ying was hung to dry like this. She looked at Ji Xiangkong once more returning to his flippant appearance, looked at the woman with heavy makeup laughing as she talked with him, who then glanced at her with a surprised expression of “how come you still haven’t left yet.”

Someone grabbed her wrist; Lu Yiyi appeared like she was throwing a life-saving branch.

“The Conquer commentators are all over there, I’ll take you to meet them.” After they had walked a few steps, she drew closer to Qiu Ying and softly whispered, “How come you went to find Ji Xiangkong again? You two’s circumstances aren’t easy to unravel, but don’t let people grab onto something they can use to catch you into trending.”

“Caught into trending?”

“It’s just making it into the big news. Have you forgotten when there was crazy gossiping and dirty water all over your chat when you livestreamed?”

“No…”

Qiu Ying’s legs seemed to be filled with lead. She let Lu Yiyi drag her away.

From the moment she had seen Ji Xiangkong today, she had an incomparably strange feeling, like there was an insurmountable wall in between them. It was as if his previous easy teasing of her was fake, as if his protection of her behind him in the alley was fake, as if the open and heartfelt conversation in the garden that evening was also fake, as if they had never known each other from the beginning. Her chest felt like it was being smothered.

After she had chatted with the professional commentators for a while, the downcast Qiu Ying was a little hungry once more. When she went to the dining tables to grab some food, she sensed that the person next to her was being somewhat strange.

He was tall and slender, with a straight back, entirely concentrating on carefully and cautiously picking up the food to put on his own plate. Some sauce accidentally splashed on him, and his whole body immediately flinched severely.

When she saw that expressionless whiteboard face clearly, Qiu Ying felt even worse. The dishes that she wanted to get were exactly next to him. She had just stretched out her arm when she heard his voice.

“Sorry,” Pei Xi faintly said. “I don’t like it when people get too close to me.”

Qiu Ying instantly took a step back. She thought of Qiao Xin plunging into his arms and rolled her eyes in her mind.

Faker.

Qiu Ying went to a different side of the dining table to get her food and walked back. Her steps were too anxious, and staggering, she bumped into a passing person. Seeing that her full plate of food was on the verge of scattering all across the ground, she twisted her body beautifully into the shape of an L and safely set the plate down.

Perfect.

Before she got too happy, she realized that she had left a distinct lipstick mark on the other person’s white shirt.

Qiu Ying raised her head, trembling, to look at Pei Xi’s face, which had already turned stone-gray.

“I’m really sorry.” She pursed her lips and said softly in an attempt to pacify him, “If you use the bar’s sparkling water, you should be able to wash it out. I can help you…”

“No need.”

Pei Xi attempted to directly wipe off the lip print, and Qiu Ying instinctively stopped him. “Don’t do that, you’ll make it even worse.”

Looking at his wrist caught by her, Pei Xi’s expression became even more gloomy. He wanted to keep moving, but she gripped even tighter. After a few back-and-forths, he shook off her hand with a slap.

Qiu Ying was dumbstruck. Heat flamed on her face until it hurt, as if he had just now slapped her face instead.

Why was today like this, were people lining up one by one to embarrass her?

Realizing he had been a little out of line, Pei Xi dropped his eyes. “Sorry.”

At the same moment, on the other side, the four people of Legend were surrounding a table to sit down.

“How come you didn’t say hello to Qiu meinu1 just now?”

In the face of Lin Yixuan’s curious inquiry, Ji Xiangkong didn’t answer.

His reputation was not considered good. If Qiu Ying wanted to start anew as a commentator, it would be better if she did not get involved with him.

“Didn’t she specially come find us at our door before?” Lin Yixuan pinched his fingers together to form lenses and put them on top of his eyes. “When you two were having your youthful scene in the garden, inseparable mutual feelings, these brothers could see it clearly through the telescopes!”

Seeing that he wasn’t giving up, Ji Xiangkong causally answered, “I was dumped.”

Lin Yixuan froze for a while, then placed his right fist in his left palm. “Most of the time, it’s because your crazy female fans are sending out blood books to a thousand people, oh! Otherwise, it’s because you’re attracting too many bees.”

Ji Xiangkong shrugged. “It’s just as you say.”

Diagonally ahead were Qiu Ying and Pei Xi; they didn’t know what was going on with the two of them, but they seemed to be stuck to each other. Watching this, Lin Yixuan couldn’t help but exclaim, “She’s forgotten you so fast and got hooked onto that little white face of Pei Xi’s?” After speaking, he shook his head sorrowfully. “Gee, women really are fickle.”

Huo Yao and Lu Feng, across from them, passionately took up the fight too.

“If you don’t believe it, look up! Who will heaven show mercy to!”

In cooperation, Ji Xiangkong sighed sorrowfully.

Lin Yixuan threw out a wink and bumped him with his shoulder. “Don’t mind it, you still have me.”

He still wanted to continue teasing Ji Xiangkong, but the other person grabbed his hand in advance, immediately making goosebumps rise up on his skin. “Hey, you rogue, taking both men and women! Let go!”

After shaking off his gossipy teammates, Ji Xiangkong walked to the bar counter, smiled, and greeted the woman wearing professional work clothes. “Wen jie.”2

The other person turned her head, revealing a face that was full of wealth and a mature charm.

VPG’s female CEO, Shu Wen, one of the heads of the Chinese Esports League, was smart, capable, had strong financial resources, and had the title of “Esports Wu Zetian.”3

Shu Wen used her chin to gesture in Qiu Ying’s direction. “Was the extra invitation you asked me for, for her?”

“Yes, to give her an opportunity to learn about the esports circle.”

“Oh?” Shu Wen raised her brows suspiciously.

Ji Xiangkong said deliberately, “The esports circle is still not yet fully mature and inside the country, there’s a lack of excellent female game commentators. Her image and temperament are both above-average, which should be from her dance background. Her articulation is also very clear and she likely went through professional broadcast training. Afterward, I looked up her livestream data, and as an amateur streamer, she has maintained three hours of uninterrupted streaming every night for the entire year. She’s earnest and works hard, but just used her strength to go in the wrong direction. Before, the video editing she did of the competition was very precise in the clips she selected. If she expends some effort toward game comprehension, she will likely become a great talent.”

Shu Wen heard it and smiled. “The outside world all says that you have a good life, with the most powerful rookies always by your side. But in fact, it is the opposite.” She turned around her glass and asked, “How do you know her?”

—My English isn’t too good. I don’t have a car, and I’m not too familiar with the roads… Can you take me there?

Qiu Ying’s appearance during their first meeting emerged in his mind; she’d pretended to be seductive but could not hide her tension. Ji Xiangkong raised the corner of his mouth slightly. “We met by chance and chatted.”

After speaking, he casually leaned on the counter, gazing at the crowd of young women who were chatting and moving around. “When there’s a pretty girl, I always have to look twice.”

Not far away, Qiu Ying was exchanging contact information with a few people she had just gotten to know. When she tilted her head and saw Ji Xiangkong, she lowered the phone in the palm of her hand.

Until the end of the event, she was completely unable to exchange a single word with him.

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Footnotes:

1 beautiful girl. Kind of awkward to translate it like that, so I left it.

2 older sister. Again, a way to indicate closeness with someone.

3 Wu Zetian was most famous for being the only female in China’s history to rule as an emperor. She rose from a concubine to an empress consort, eliminating her female rivals and the previous empress. Although many statesmen opposed her elevation to the empress of the emperor Gaozong, as she had been the concubine of his father, Taizong, she used her authority to defeat all who opposed her. Emperor Gaozong was often too sick to attend to state affairs, so supreme power was practically in the hands of Wu Zetian. After Gaozong died, he was succeeded by their son, who was as weak and incompetent as he was, and whose wife also sought to gain the power of Wu Zetian. Within a month, Wu Zetian had deposed him and placed her second son, Ruizong, on the throne. Once he was on the throne, she was the voice in his ear instructing him on what to do. Later on, her son removed himself from the emperor position, thus leaving Wu Zetian to take the throne as the only empress regnant. Her governance of the Tang empire during her time in power was quite proficient, and her skill, courage, decisiveness, and ruthlessness earned her the respect, if not love, of the court.

***

(9/16/20) I was checking back on my posts and realized I gave the titles but never explained the champions they were associated with (many thanks to the people over at r/leagueoflegends for the translations lol, I would’ve never figured them out on my own). Here the champions are referred to by their titles or nicknames, rather than their actual names:

Wuju Bladesman: Master Yi

Tidecaller: Nami

Dark Child: Annie

On that note, while Conquer uses League champions, Ji Xiangkong’s position, solo offlaner, is actually from Dota 2. They also call it “suicide solo.”

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