C9 Part1

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Chapter 9: Years, Don’t Push Me, I Will Not be Moved (Part 1)

After the ceremony, Pei Xi’s diehard fan, Xiao Xi, was still indignant.

“Summit’s teammates were too weak! They left him alone at the very end! Would it kill them for just one person to survive and help him?”

“If he didn’t have his four teammates escorting him at the cost of their lives in the early- and mid-game, would he still be so strong?” Qiu Ying helplessly smiled. “If one person wears all of the good equipment during a fight and the others are unarmed, of course they’ll be weak.”

Xiao Xi stomped her foot: “I don’t care, don’t care! Anyway, our Emperor Pei did his best, so it was an honorable defeat!”

What, the several times the Legend had become disadvantaged were all because Pei Xi had ignored his teammates’ fates and went solo. Just because he was strong, it didn’t mean he was blameless! Qiu Ying thought about speaking, but Lu Yiyi stopped her. “Hey, anything can be the truth when it comes to the fans.”

As the three people chatted and laughed, an STV staff member hurriedly ran over to look for Qiu Ying. The original reporter in charge of the after-game interview had a conflict come up, so the boss decided to get her as a replacement. Apparently, the person in the exclusive interview was Legend’s Pei Xi. Xiao Xi and Lu Yiyi were green with envy, grabbing Qiu Ying’s arms and crying out:

“Help me ask him what his favorite song is? What brand of clothes he wears? Team sweet or team salty?”

“When will he break up with Qiao Xin? Does he think he’ll change his taste? Is my type okay?”

Qiu Ying rolled her eyes at both of them.

This was not some sort of beautiful assignment; an interview with Pei Xi was quite difficult. Ji Xiangkong’s previous summary was pretty accurate: talking to him was like talking to a wall. Fortunately, Qiu Ying cleverly added the question— “Do you have any players you especially like in the professional circle?” And the iceberg finally opened up a chat box. In front of the other four people from Legend, he sincerely expressed that Ji Xiangkong was his ideal teammate and also the reason why he had transferred from VPG to Legend in the first place.

Speaking up to this point, the corner of Pei Xi’s mouth pulled down slightly. “I didn’t think that Legend actually would make Ji Xiangkong leave the team.”

His reply was too straightforward and none of his teammates’ faces could hold back their embarrassment. Qiu Ying froze for a long time before forcing out a laugh.

The livestream room chat exploded.

“Love confession love confession!”

“What is this dog-blood plot just passing by?”

“God! The esports social flower’s popularity is unbelievable, even the number one mid has to surrender!”

They got through the interview with great difficulty. Afterward, as Qiu Ying packed up her things to get ready to leave, Pei Xi stopped her.

His expression was cold, and his voice was also chilly. “Can I talk to you alone?”

Lu Yiyi’s words “I suspect he has a crush on you” awkwardly sounded within her mind. Qiu Ying’s heart jumped, and within her extreme surprise there was also a bit of sheepishness… could it be… did he want a showdown?

She followed Pei Xi’s through the lobby and glimpsed Ji Xiangkong surrounded by girls, signing autographs and taking photos. He stood there lazily and casually, beautiful girls to his left and right, looking like a winner of life. When he met Qiu Ying’s eyes, although his electric peach-blossom eyes were still curved, she felt that he was slowly collecting himself into a smile. His entire face was clouded.

Seeing the heads of the female fans almost resting on Ji Xiangkong’s shoulders, Qiu Ying’s heart ignited with a blaze.

You don’t let me talk with whomever you don’t like, but you’re womanizing everywhere!

She stepped forward to walk by Pei Xi’s side, showing a brilliant smile to Pei Xi in Ji Xiangkong’s direction.

A scream suddenly rose up from that direction — a girl who had wanted to take a picture grabbed Ji Xiangkong’s arm. He did not push it away. The other girls immediately put their hands up to their faces and pleaded, “Me too, me too!”

Qiu Ying’s fake smile stiffened on her face. Then she turned her head away from him.

She did not see that Ji Xiangkong had been looking at them without blinking until they completely disappeared from his eyesight. Then, finally, he calmly pulled his arm away from the female fan’s hand, lips pinched into a straight line.

Pei Xi took Qiu Ying to find a secluded corner where they could sit down face to face. On the way, Qiu Ying’s mind was running at full speed.

Although she’d also had her doubts before, why did Pei Xi keep on appearing whenever the atmosphere between her and Ji Xiangkong was good?

According to Lu Yiyi, he’d looked at her from afar multiple times, so they were not chance encounters, they were intentional sabotages.

He said that he had no relationship with Qiao Xin. Could he have chased and killed her during that duo-queue in order to catch her attention?

Qiu Ying invested quite a lot of thought into it as she supported her chin in her hand to look at his handsome face. Pei Xi looked at her until she grew a little uneasy, then finally spoke. “I hope you can stay a little further away from Ji Xiangkong.”

Qiu Ying’s heart tightened. Was he actually going to confess? Would his next sentence actually be “If you are with that type of playboy, you will be hurt”?

Like she’d finally found the last piece of the puzzle, she sorted out her thoughts clearly and quickly drafted a mental strategy. Then she got up and sincerely gave him a 90-degree bow. “I have someone I like. I’m sorry.”

She couldn’t keep herself from reminding him, well-intentioned, “I’ll give you some advice. The way you pursue girls is a little too awkward, so a normal person usually wouldn’t be happy about it.”

Pei Xi frowned. “What are you talking about?”

Qiu Ying blinked. Had her refusal been too indirect? Did he not understand?

Pei Xi reiterated, “I hope that you won’t disturb Ji Xiangkong in the future, and stay a little further away from him.”

Qiu Ying finally identified where something didn’t seem right. “…Disturb?”

Pei Xi patiently explained the whole story. “From the beginning, the person playing duo-queue with Qiao Xin wasn’t me. It was my VPG teammate Qi Yue using my account.”

“What?”

His eyes exuded frost. “Ever since Qiao Xin became involved with Qi Yue, for a while, he only ran around outside the entire day. He was preoccupied, his heart wasn’t in training, and no one could persuade him otherwise.”

“So you’re saying, after the variety show finished that day, you were looking for Qiao Xin to…”

“I wanted to warn her to stop delaying Qi Yue, but I didn’t think she…” Pei Xi seemed to remember something and his face twitched.

Qiu Ying smiled, unkindly. “You didn’t think that she would actually flirt with you and even take the opportunity to spark some rumors.”

Pei Xi’s eyes glanced over her, so chilly that she shivered.

Qiu Ying uneasily asked, “Why did you dress up as a Dream Traveler waiter and keep on going into our box?”

“I wanted to explain to Ji Xiangkong that it wasn’t me who asked Legend to fire him.” Pei Xi pursed his lips slightly. “I hadn’t been able to find a good chance to start a conversation.”

“Then when you appear while Ji Xiangkong and I are alone again and again…”

“Ji Xiangkong is a player I greatly admire. I don’t want you to keep using him.”

“I’m not using him!” Qiu Ying flushed. Although her thoughts had been corrupt when she originally started, she was honest now!

Pei Xi was silent. He had always thought of Qiu Ying as an eyesore. During the time when they were at Dream Traveler, she would often be surrounded by all sorts of boys, all smiling at her attentively.

On occasion, he could hear their discussions—

“Qiu meinu asked A’Wu more questions than last time.”

“A’Wu plays well, he’s a thigh.”

“I think I’m special, too, she always smiles at me really sweetly!”

So it turned out that she wasn’t bothered by them, but rather enjoyed it.

Every time they met each other alone, she would always have a flushed face and shining eyes. She’d talk haltingly, looking at him with complex emotions. Pei Xi was baffled, and when he thought it about it later, this should be that “deliberately pretending that you’re special” that those boys talked about.

He couldn’t help but sneer. This trick was useless on him.

Until one day, he witnessed Ji Xiangkong and her going into a private box. The rumors on the internet and later signs all indicated that this ill-intentioned woman had entangled with his ideal teammate.

Remembering up to this point, Pei Xi faintly said, “STV doesn’t easily recruit intern commentators without a gaming background. The person who recommended you was VPG’s CEO Shu Wen. But you should already know clearly who it actually was.”

Qiu Ying was at a loss. She had always thought that she was able to enter STV due to her outstanding commentating on Tanuki; she’d never thought there was also this kind of secret. Shu Wen and her were neither relatives nor friends. Who else could recommend her other than Ji Xiangkong?

“Youxing kicked you out. For you, he even looked for my brother,1 one of Tanuki’s shareholders.”

Qiu Ying was dumbfounded. When Tanuki had thrown her an olive branch during her most spiritless period — so it had never been a coincidence. Ji Xiangkong looked casual, but she didn’t know that he was so delicate and meticulous in his thoughts, silently helping her so much…

“During the game, I also heard VPG’s people complaining that he stepped out several times for no reason during evening training.”

“Are you asking around about me, how do you know about all this?”

Pei Xi ignored her question and said solemnly, “The period of time before a battle is very precious. It’s extremely selfish to delay him like this.”

“I’m not!” Qiu Ying shook her head vehemently. “Qiao Xin and I are different. I seriously want to become a commentator! If you don’t believe me, you can look at videos of my commentary…”

Pei Xi had no interest in her explanations. In the midst of her stream of words, he turned his head and focused on his feet, seeming to indicate, “I’m not interested and I don’t care.”

“You can change your target.” His voice was clear and cold without any inflection. “As long as it’s a man who you can use, isn’t anyone fine?”

Qiu Ying nearly snapped the pen she was holding.

From small to large, the love letters she received could be compiled into several copies of Three Hundred Tang Poems.2 But this was the first time she had been warned by a man to stay away from another man with the reason not being jealousy nor possessiveness, but— “Don’t delay my male god, can you go away?”

Bro, you got the wrong script for second female lead!

**

After Qiu Ying returned to the hotel, she said nothing of this piece of dark history and plunged herself into busywork to help tie up the end of the competition. After the Fall Season was over, while some media began to praise Ji Xiangkong’s tactical ability, there were also many voices who expressed that VPG’s championship was the result of the other four gods “reawakening.” Ji Xiangkong had only hugged the right thighs; after all, the esports social flower was always able to join the giants and reap their successes.

At this moment, D Company suddenly released player cards. After every round of the game, there was a probability that a card pack would drop. Players could randomly draw a card from it and collect their favorites.

Printed on each player card was the professional player’s picture, current team, all of the positions they played, and a radar chart.

There were six corners on the radar chart: Battle Engagement, Multitalents, Gold Farming, Support, Damage per Second, and Kills. This could somewhat reflect the professional players’ abilities on a data level.

When she drew Ji Xiangkong’s golden card, Qiu Ying couldn’t help but hold her forehead. The great D Company was so ruthless, Classmate Ji’s radar chart slightly hurt her eyes. Other than Battle Engagement and Multitalents, which were near the top, the others… it wouldn’t have been so harmful had there been nothing to compare it to.

Unsurprisingly, discussions erupted on the forums and Tieba. The happiest were probably Pei Xi’s fans. Except for Summit’s support corner being a 0, his other corners were all near the top. It was practically typical of his 1v9 on the field, and what about the champion team’s Ji Xiangkong?

Naturally, the Ji fans were dissatisfied with the clamor of the Pei fans, so the two houses began fighting once more.

“Facial paralysis Pei took the initiative to say that he he wants to be teammates with our family’s Kongkong in an interview, and Kongkong ignored it! The roles are reversed!”

“That’s scum man Ji who doesn’t know what good or bad is!”

At the same time, another piece of news was released: Lin Yixuan, Legend’s original genius support who had challenged the higher-ups over Ji Xiangkong and been demoted to the secondary team as a substitute, had officially terminated his contract with Legend and entered Newland’s primary team!

Qiu Ying let out a sigh of relief. It seemed good things came in pairs. Ji Xiangkong’s worries should now be resolved.

She looked up at the out-of-print signed Firework album she’d won and remembered that she still hadn’t found a chance to give it to him. Just as she opened up their chat window on WeChat, he sent over a new message.

Ji Xiangkong: Are you free this Saturday?

Qiu Ying: I’m free. Have you guys gone on break yet?

Ji Xiangkong: Yeah, there’s a rest period after the competition starting on Friday.

Qiu Ying had some faint expectations. Was he going to invite her out?

Ji Xiangkong: I’ll take you to see my idol.

Firework’s posters and the image of Ji Xiangkong waving a lightstick appeared within her head. Qiu Ying tilted her head and thought, I haven’t heard any news recently that they’re having a meetup.

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1 Probably referring to Pei Xi’s older male cousin, Summer. If you remember from Chapters 6 and 7, he’s the first retired Conquer World Champion and the ex-captain of VPG.

2 Exactly what it sounds like, a collection of (slightly more than) 300 different poems from the Tang Dynasty, and it’s about as thick of a book as you would expect.

***

this translator has something to say:

In which the love triangle suddenly goes the wrong way

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