C6 Part3

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Chapter 6: When Reality and Dreams are Enemies (Part 3)

After over an hour had passed, Ji Xiangkong was leaning back on the sofa to rest while Qiu Ying rested her head on her hand, diligently reading the update material for the newest version. “Look at this—” Qiu Ying pointed to the screen and turned her head; Ji Xiangkong happened to be leaning forward, and her soft lips brushed across his ear. His fair ear immediately flushed. Ji Xiangkong jerked back, unconsciously pulling on Qiu Ying’s arm. Thrown off balance, she fell on his chest in a panic.

They were too close. Both of them could clearly hear the sound of the other person breathing.

Qiu Ying straightened, embarrassed, and instantly sighed. “Oh, your clothes…”

Ji Xiangkong lowered his head to see that she had left a lip print on his collar.

“It suits you pretty well.” Qiu Ying froze, then grinned. “Did you know? Last time, when I accidentally bumped into Pei Xi, his face was blue. He’s obviously able to hug Qiao Xin closely, but when it comes to my hand, it’s like I’m infected by something unclean. What do you think, isn’t it pretty humiliating?”

Ji Xiangkong stared at Qiu Ying, eyes lowered. She seemed to realize something interesting, and when she spoke, her eyelashes fluttered, much like butterfly wings. “Maybe Pei Xi is just that type, treasuring his own girlfriend and treating all other women like grass? If you think about it, it counts as a strength…”

Ji Xiangkong’s eyes sank and his mouth tightened. Gradually, his expression became more dignified. He watched Qiu Ying stop talking after receiving no response, looking at him in confusion with large misty eyes. He suddenly braced a hand on the table and drew closer to her face…

“Your milk tea.”

The door abruptly opened once again. Pei Xi lifted up the tray in his hands, coldly looking at the ambiguously-positioned people inside the room.

Qiu Ying moved a little sideways like she’d received an electric shock. She heard Ji Xiangkong say, like nothing had happened, “Why didn’t you knock?”

“I knocked.”

Pei Xi put down the milk tea. When he left, he turned back his head, still without saying anything.

The box became quiet again. Qiu Ying unconsciously gathered both sides of her long hair together, trying to cover her red face. If Pei Xi hadn’t come in, had he wanted to…

She stole a glance at Ji Xiangkong out of the corner of her eyes and saw him dial a number on the phone on the desk. After the phone was picked up, he casually crossed his legs and spoke idly, “Hello, is this the manager? Why does your waiter randomly come in without permission each time? What he looks like? He’s a young man who’s wearing a hat even indoors. Our experience was pretty bad, I suggest that he be transferred to dishwashing, toilet cleaning, or something like that.”

In the evening, Ji Xiangkong sent Qiu Ying home. Before they separated, she couldn’t help but ask him, “Can I add your main WeChat?”

“What?” Ji Xiangkong looked uncertain.

“…Ah, you know, uh…” Qiu Ying blinked fast from the nervousness. “If I have any places I don’t understand…”

“No need.”

Qiu Ying’s smile froze, and then the corners of her lips twitched with some grievance.

Ji Xiangkong curled his fingers to knock on her head. “If you have any questions later, just give me a call. If I’m busy then, I’ll return the call after I see it.”

Oh?

The flame that was about to go out once more ignited. Qiu Ying felt like her whole body was fluttering, and even up until she returned home to sit in front of her computer desk, she still hadn’t recovered.

“This kind of thing is a subtopic on Douban and Zhihu!”1

After Qiu Ying related this afternoon’s experiences to her cousin, Gu Jiayi, on WeChat, the cousin who extensively read romance novels cried out over her stupidity and naivety. “With a single man and a single woman are in the same room, it’s very easy to generate an ambiguous atmosphere. Many men would just go with the flow and kiss you, even the other person isn’t someone they like.”

Like a bucket of cold water had been splashed on her face, Qiu Ying’s heart instantly felt cold.

“What’s more, a beautiful lady like you gave him a hug. As a straight man, he has no reason to refuse!”

Qiu Ying dropped down her head.

“Jie, are you okay?” Seeing that she hadn’t responded for a very long time, Gu Jiayu didn’t neglect to feed her a spoonful of chicken soup. “There’s nothing wrong with a girl actively pursuing love. You should stand in a dazzling enough position to draw him to you!”

Qiu Ying took in a deep breath and gave her a smile.

It wasn’t that she hadn’t probed into his intentions. When they were in the box during the afternoon, she had pretended to casually ask him whether or not he thought it was troublesome to be swept up in gossip all day long.

“You might as well find a fixed girlfriend, or else they’ll keep on making baseless accusations.”

“My current condition isn’t suitable for dating.” Ji Xiangkong lowered his eyes, his pitch-black pupils seeming to cover up any emotions. He slowly said, “There needs to be a good start to a relationship, otherwise it would be too irresponsible.”

At the time, she had looked at the beautiful lines of his profile and suddenly thought that she was very far away from him.

As for why she didn’t courageously open her mouth to say that she liked him; did she really understand him?

A few days later, various large websites posted the news: Confirmed! Esports social flower enters the giants again! After being kicked out by Legend, Ji Xiangkong joins VPG!

The comments sections exploded once more. “VPG will collapse! This year, Legend will become the world champion!”

“Ji Xiangkong really harvests the giants, next year I reckon it’ll be Dragon’s turn! Dragon’s players, I’ll ask you if you’re scared or not!”

In September, the CPL fall season officially launched.

CPL, the Conquer Professional League. Although there were countless large and small esports competitions held across the world each year, Conquer’s official competitions were still the symbol of authority, composed of CPL, three special championships, and the Global Finals. CPL was divided into spring and fall competition seasons; each season’s champion would receive the ticket to go directly to Seattle.

Ever since Ji Xiangkong joined VPG, the achievements of this giant team suddenly plummeted. All of the fans pointed to Ji Xiangkong as the cause, criticizing him for using his improper relationship with VPG’s female CEO Shu Wen to enter the team, polluting the environment of the esports circle, and destroying the former ace of China’s Conquer!

Qiu Ying stayed up for two nights to write down Pei Xi’s analysis of Ji Xiangkong, along with her own understanding of what she had learned during this short period of time. When she posted it to the forum, the audience who was furious due to VPG’s downturn attacked her as Ji Xiangkong’s water navy and brainwashed dog. Wave after wave of personal attacks and abuse struck her; her livestream room was all filled with unintelligible comments for days.

Qiu Ying cried. It was not because she had never before seen this kind of battle, nor was it because she felt like she was being wronged. She had just hoped that she could spread out her arms to block some of the damage for him, just like he had done for her.

When they called in the evening, Ji Xiangkong was very open-minded. “Don’t worry about it. As long as our results in later competitions are good, there’s naturally no problem.”

Qiu Ying couldn’t leave it at that. It was obvious that VPG’s defeat during the game was due to their support, but because of the misleading commentary, most of the people who didn’t understand the game at all only criticized Ji Xiangkong.

The more she spoke, the more passionate she became. “The lineup you selected in the last round wasn’t bad! But there were too many mistakes in the early stage and they didn’t use your tactics well. Qi Yue didn’t go to help several times. His playing is so problematic!”

“We lost the game, so of course the audience has to vent out their emotions. It’s fine if it’s me. Otherwise, if my other teammates would be criticized, it would probably impact their mood, which would affect their playing.” On the other side of the phone, Ji Xiangkong smiled mockingly. “Anyway, I’m already used to it.”

“But…”

“Don’t you remember what I said to you before?” Ji Xiangkong’s low and gentle voice melted in Qiu Ying’s ears, like feathers brushing against her heart. “Most people only want to hear the things they already believe and don’t care about the truth. So, why waste time on them?”

After the phone call, Qiu Ying stood on the balcony, remembering her past lonely and helpless self who was sinking in the deep dark pit of public opinion. Her heart panged. The cold wind blew onto her face, but it was like a fire had been ignited within her, burning hotter and brighter.

If she could sit in the commentator’s seat, if her voice could be enough to move public opinion, if she could be a little stronger…

She clenched both hands by her sides into fists. That day would eventually come!

The next day, reality slapped her dream in the face.

Because Qiu Ying no longer danced and sang or sold cuteness and conversations, instead concentrating on being a true game streamer, her popularity ultimately could not reach Youxing’s requirements. Her contract was forcibly terminated. The administrator in charge of her disclosed to her that originally, the ratings issue had turned around for the better. But Youxing’s top executives decided to devote all their resources to promote Qiao Xin into an esports star, so they abandoned her.

During the same prime time, Qiao Xin’s most recent Conquer technique was much higher than Qiu Ying’s. Her sword skills, positioning, and even movements were all done beautifully. At every turn, she showed off remarkable operating across the entire field. The voices of “both strength and beauty” became louder and louder. Adding in the title of “the top mid Pei Xi’s rumored girlfriend,” her streaming room’s popularity was at its height. In the face of this result, Qiu Ying was speechless.

After the news that Youxing and Qiu Ying terminated their contract spread out on the internet, under the lead of Qiao Xin’s management agency’s water navy, people continuously boosted Qiao Xin while trampling Qiu Ying. They shouted, “drive out the vase for a clean esports circle!”

Qiu Ying chose to disconnect from the internet.

Although she’d barely managed to pay her tuition fees with her previous savings, the idea of a down payment for a house was now a pipe dream. Qiu Ying sat cross-legged on the floor with a pot of instant noodles that she’d added an egg to, reflecting on life as she faced the wall.

Unexpectedly, the currently-popular livestream platform “Tanuki” threw her an olive branch at this moment. In order to get rid of her former bad reputation, Qiu Ying decided to delete her account and start over again as a small, invisible, streamer, and slowly gather fans once more.

On the day she signed the contract, she hummed Fukuhara Miho’s song: “Losing and finding things in the middle of this long, long road, there are days where we feel alone and we feel like crying, but…

“Change these tears and this pain into stars, turn on the light that will shine on tomorrow.”2

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Footnotes:

1 Forums where you can post questions or issues, think of it like a subreddit

2 This song is the second ending of the anime Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. I used the translation off the FMA:B wiki instead of my own, as it’s probably truer to the original Japanese

***

in conclusion, both Ji Xiangkong and Qiu Ying both seem to be weebs

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