C17 Part1

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Chapter 17: Journey on Fire (Part 1)

The New Year’s holiday hadn’t yet ended when Qiu Ying and Ji Xiangkong went back to the base ahead of him. In the empty villa, the only people there were the two of them.

As she helped Ji Xiangkong put away his things in his room, Qiu Ying looked up to see him slip open his collar, revealing a row of teethmarks on his shoulder. He casually raised his eyebrows: “Your masterpiece.”

Unable to keep the scenes that happened when the two were alone that would make anyone’s hearts thump from floating up in her mind, Qiu Ying’s ears flushed. She pretended to be calm as she glared at him: “You asked for it.”

They cleaned the house for an afternoon and showered after finishing their work, then watched TV in the living room.

The large screen was streaming a dance show from a new girl group. Ji Xiangkong was just about to change the channel when Qiu Ying stopped him. “Let’s watch, they’ve been really popular recently.”

Ji Xiangkong tilted his head, lightly laughing. “Look at what? They’re not as beautiful as you, they don’t sound as good as you, and they don’t dance as well as you either.”

With these words as sweet as honey, Qiu Ying’s heart blossomed. She jumped up to stand in front of the TV and proudly raised her chin to him. “Then should I perform for you?”

Ji Xiangkong raised his eyebrows and turned off the TV.

Before, when Qiu Ying was streaming, she for the most part liked dancing to Firework’s songs, which had a primarily youthful energy and didn’t have movements that were too hot. Now, as she connected her phone to the speakers, as soon as the melody sounded, the atmosphere exuded a hormonal scent.

She spread her hair out, palms brushing from the top of her head to her neck, moving down along with the music, sexy and enchanting.

Ji Xiangkong was half-reclined lazily on the sofa, head held in his hand, watching her calmly.

The song was ambiguous, her dance hot, and the temperature in the living room seemed to have risen by a lot.

When Lin Yixuan opened the front door to the villa, he discovered a few pairs of shoes set in the foyer. “Did someone already come back?”

He was followed by Xia Ling and Pei Xi behind him, now dragging their suitcases on their way in.

“This is Ying meimei’s shirt.” There were no people in the living room and the sofa pillows had fallen onto the ground. Lin Yixuan picked up the clothes to inspect it, asking with suspicion, “Huh, how come the buttons are all broken?”

Xia Ling seemed to understand something, patting Lin Yixuan on the shoulder like a mature youth. “A’xuan, could it be that you’ve been single up til now?”

“F*ck your A’xuan, I told you to call me Lin ge!” The corners of Lin Yixuan’s lips drew downward. He made a fist and placed it next to his mouth. “Ahem, in fact, it’s like this. There’ve been a lot of girls who have confessed to me, but this gege’s career is very important to him and I can’t let myself be swayed by young love, so… hey! What’s with that look in your eyes?”

Xia Ling scoffed. “Such bullsh*t, couldn’t you just respond straight with ‘Yes’?”

“So what if someone’s been single up til now?” Lin Yixuan stuck out his head to retort. He suddenly pointed at Xia Ling and rushed up to the top of stairs to shout, “Pei Xi! He’s mocking you!”

Xia Ling snorted disdainfully. “Don’t grab at a teammate. With Pei ge’s looks, how could he be like you.”

Lin Yixuan strode over, blocking Pei Xi off with arm stretched horizontal. He asked aggressively, “Pei Xi! Have you ever dated a girl?”

“……”

Lin Yixuan’s expression turned even more ferocious: “Yes? Yes or no?1 Yes — or — no?”

Pei Xi cast a light glance at him. “No.”

Immediately, Lin Yixuan’s eyes lit up, smile delighted, and he bounded over to Xia Ling. “Hear that? Even he doesn’t have one!”

Xia Ling shrugged. “Not wanting to date and not having anyone who wants to are two different things.”

“Is that so…” Lin Yixuan froze, then shucked off a slipper to hold it in his hand, roaring, “Stinky brat! Who are you saying doesn’t have anyone who wants to!”

Across a door in the training room, Qiu Ying was once more so scared that her heart was about to jump out of her chest.

Dammit, why did they all come back early?

It was good that they’d already finished by the time they heard the sound of the key turning in the door lock, otherwise it would probably be seriously embarrassing.

Ji Xiangkong loosened the hand wrapped around her waist, put a jacket on her body, and brushed back her messy hair. “It’s alright, I’ll lead them outside.”

Two days later, Sun Zeyi returned to the base as well. Once the entire team was gathered together, the painful and happy dorming life of the team began once more.

“A’xuan! Your ult missed!”

“Aiya! My hand was too fast just now, the computer didn’t react in time!”

“A’xuan is finding a random reason again. Ji ge, you believe him?”

“What’s the use in you asking Xiangkong? When has he experienced such blessed troubles?!”

In the training room, Lin Yixuan was performing a comedy routine with Xia Ling again. Qiu Ying was sorting out training materials while browsing the largest online Conquer news portals. Today’s headlines were particularly eye-catching—

Conquer’s China head had been dismissed.

Besides the crimes of harmful operations, embezzling event funds etc, his private life had also been exposed quite ferociously.

Qiao Xin who had previously been the Hua Dan of Youxing and expelled from their ranks due to the “substitute” incident, had had a long-term affair with a married man. It was only because she had such a solid backing behind her that Qiao Xin dared to rely on “substituting” to firmly occupy the position of their First Jie, grab a seat as an STV game commentator, force Youxing to terminate their contract with her potential opponent Qiu Ying. And other streamers who were aware of this were angry but didn’t dare to speak out, all the way until the furious public opinion changed the direction of the wind.

The other piece of information that had been sealed off by layers and layers—

Qiao Xin and Youxing-related staff were the culprits behind last year’s Seattle Global Finals’ VPG ‘Recording-gate’!

The wiretap had long been installed in the VPG training room, after which someone led Qiu Ying through the door at the right time, and then they forged her identity to send a recording from that time to an earnest new reporter. They left it to him to manufacture big news, thus completely eradicating her and suppressing Tanuki Streaming Platform.

Although she’d long known in her heart the conclusion of the black hands behind the scenes, when the truth was finally confirmed and made public, Qiu Ying still couldn’t keep back the indignation in her heart. For their own personal gain, these people treated the hard work of professional players and commentators and countless gamers’ feelings like nothing!

Qiao Xin deleted her Weibo and completely disappeared without a trace from the esports circle, while raging crowds crammed around Youxing’s official account, flaming them so much that they didn’t dare to comment. Youxing’s reputation plummeted, with a large number of well-known streamers falling into Tanuki’s arms. For a few days, Qiu Ying’s streaming room was spammed with gifts from endless audience members expressing their guilt in previously wronging her and wishing that she and Team Phoenix would be able to go even further.

As she saw this, Qiu Ying couldn’t keep herself from reading the news aloud for the members who were currently in a practice match. At the end, she asked, “Do any of you know how Qi Yue is doing with Qiao Xin now?”

Ji Xiangkong’s response was very quick. “After he got heartbroken, he drank a lot and threw up for a whole night.”

“You probably won’t believe it if I say it, but I heard that Qi Yue was serious about Film Empress Qiao.” Lin Yixuan shook his head, index finger drawing several loops on his temple. “Is he stupid?”

Qiu Ying shrugged. “Maybe it’s just because cowards and bastards are two of a kind.”2

After going through nearly half a year of life living together, Qiu Ying had become more adept in her work as their manager. The notebook that she carried with her was densely backed with all sorts of data about each member, like height, weight, blook type, birthday, clothing types, foods to avoid, daily hobbies…

When she showed off the results of her hard work to Ji Xiangkong, he only looked at her with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile, using a finger to pinch a section among them. “Are these just me?”

Qiu Ying nodded. She didn’t expect that the next day, Ji Xiangkong would give her an extremely thick notebook: “This book is specially used to record things about me, don’t mix them together with everyone else.” He paused, smiled, and continued. “You need to finish it before the year ends, that’s your task.”

Qiu Ying looked at him disbelievingly. “It’s so thick, can I finish all of it?”

Ji Xiangkong hooked up the corner of his mouth. “It’s really easy, just pay a lot of attention to me normally. In the evenings, come to my room and I’ll tell you the details.”

Qiu Ying looked at his ill-intentioned expression and immediately wanted to give him a roundabout kick. “Who are you to assign me a task? C ge’s the one’s who’s boss, I listen to him.”

Ji Xiangkong raised his eyebrows, reached out to slip the loose hair next to her cheek behind her ear, and smiled. “C ge said that for team affairs, you should listen to me.”

With that said, he rubbed her head and continued to practice, leaving her alone to debate between “smash him with the notebook” and “don’t smash”.

He was giving her a stumbling block to her work!

When they finished playing two practice games, Ji Xiangkong went to the kitchen to get a cup of water. When he returned, he discovered that Qiu Ying was standing behind Lin Yixuan, helping him massage his shoulders. Seeing Ji Xiangkong smile as brilliant as the sun as he went through the door, Lin Yixuan felt chills up his back. His feet slipped, making his rolling gaming chair slide diagonally from one corner of the training room to the other.

Qiu Ying explained, “A’xuan said that his shoulders have been hurting recently and it just so happened that I didn’t have anything going on, so…”

“Where do your shoulders hurt?” She hadn’t yet finished speaking when Ji Xiangkong put his hands in his pants pockets and walked leisurely toward Lin Yixuan. His peach-blossom eyes were curved into crescent moons. “Qiu Ying isn’t strong enough, let me help you massage.”

Lin Yixuan shook his head like a rattle. “It… it doesn’t hurt…”

“You’re my good brother, no need to be polite.”

“Ahhhh!”

As she listened to Lin Yixuan fill up the house with a ghostly cry, Qiu Ying’s face grew anxious. It was a manager’s duty to look after the team members’ bodies and conditions; Ji Xiangkong was obstructing her work again…

And after he finished teaching a lesson to Lin Yixuan, he even sauntered over to sit down and ask her to massage his own shoulders. The rest of the team was even watching!

Back when the team was first established, they even took special mind in maintaining a distance on the outside to take care of the single dogs’ feelings!

After something like this happened many times, Qiu Ying resolved herself to talk it over with Ji Xiangkong.

“I’m the manager, I need to treat everyone equally. I can’t use special treatment.”

“Don’t be too close with the members, pay attention to propriety. For something like massages, we can just invite a professional in.” Ji Xiangkong stood up and put both arms around Qiu Ying, enclosing her between the desk and himself.

His shoulders were very broad, and he was tall, with a frightening sense of domination when he leaned closer. “Of course I’m special, you’re mine.”

A warm sweetness spread in her chest. Qiu Ying was no match for his affectionate and occasionally-electrifying gaze and was defeated, turning her head to make a light hum of acknowledgement.

Afterward, the other Phoenix members had a very tacit understanding. Though they still had a good relationship with Qiu Ying, they also constantly paid attention to the etiquette between men and women.

**

In March, the new CPL Spring Competition officially started. As a new team that had fought its way up from the tryout competitions, Phoenix finally needed to face the most elite teams in the country, testing the results of their training from this past half year.

Two weeks later, Phoenix’s disastrous match broke their previous facade of “invincible”. Reality dumped a ruthless basin of cold water on the audience’s beautiful yearnings. After inspecting Phoenix’s competition recordings, all of teams decided to use the youngest, most inexperienced, newcomer Xia Ling as a weak point with which to tear Phoenix apart.

Xia Ling was lacking experience in large competitions and was caught into a loss as for what to do after being madly targeted; Pei Xi who hadn’t yet transformed for long also gradually exposed a gap in awareness between himself and other junglers.

Their most sensitive thing was that Pei Xi had once been hailed as China’s number one mid of the new generation, and now the unknown Xia Ling seemed to be in a diminished state. It made everyone feel that this position change was even more inexplicable. Their long-standing grievances that had been accumulated, bit by bit, exploded like a volcano.

“Who is Xia Ling to replace Pei Xi?!”

“Why are you making the number one mid of the new generation serve as a foil to a newcomer?”

“Give the 1v5 Summit back to us!”

There were even people who viciously attacked Xia Ling’s body. “Lame dog! Hurry on back to the nursing home for the disabled!”

After the competition, Ji Xiangkong gently consoled Xia Ling at their team meeting and patted his shoulder. “You’re already really good. We never met any strong teams before and it’s very normal to lose at the beginning.”

Xia Ling’s head was lowered. He was biting hard on his lip.

After they finished training, Ji Xiangkong told Qiu Ying, “Take care of that child’s heart, and try not to let him look at the opinions online.” He laughed self-deprecatingly. “He’s still so young, unlike me who’s been online for a long time.”

Although Ji Xiangkong’s face was calm without a single ripple, Qiu Ying could feel that he was very worried about Xia Ling.

Early the next morning, Ji Xiangkong posted an announcement on Weibo: Having Xia Ling serve as mid and changing Pei Xi to jungler was the decision he’d made as captain.

This sentence successfully transferred the hatred and had him stand at the forefront of the public storm once more. The people who’d previously attacked Xia Ling quickly changed their targets, berating him for not giving Pei Xi a suitable position and delaying Pei Xi’s best professional years.

When she saw this Weibo after she got up from bed, Qiu Ying’s heart immediately seized up. He was trying to bear everything by himself again…

She was about to go to Ji Xiangkong’s room to find him when she suddenly saw Lin Yixuan’s forwarding message: “This is the decision we made after the entire team discussed it.”

What was even more out of her expectations was that Pei Xi actually specially registered a Weibo account and followed behind Lin Yixuan with a short “Mhm”, far better than a thousand words.

That was closely followed by two posts—

Xia Ling: “The person who didn’t play well was me, you can’t bear this blame.”

Sun Zeyi: “Xiangkong is a captain with strong leadership and strategic decision-making skills. Please, everyone, give us some time.”

Qiu Ying opened the door to discover that everyone was already gathered in Ji Xiangkong’s room. She couldn’t help but rest on the wall and let out a sigh of relief.

Xia Ling put both hands in his pants pockets, leaning back slightly. “Captain Ji, I’m not so fragile. I’m still growing up, you know, I’m very rebellious. The more they insult me, the more enthusiastic I become.”

Lin Yixuan followed up with, “That’s right, this brat has recently always been grabbing me and Pei Xi to practice our early battling. In a bit, we’ll show it to you so you can examine it.”

Pei Xi’s lips slightly opened and then closed again, but he finally nodded in assent.

Sun Zeyi smiled warming as he said, “Xiangkong, Conquer is a brothers’ game. If we lose a competition, everyone faces it together.”

Qiu Ying hurried forward and sat next to Ji Xiangkong. She took his arm and said, very, very slowly, “Xiangkong, don’t carry everything by yourself. Everyone believes in you, so you have to believe in everyone.”

Ji Xiangkong had been looking at the floor somewhat unnaturally ever since they’d come in up until now. After a good while, he raised his hand and pressed it to his temple, the fog in his eyes gradually dissipated, and he revealed his usual smile to everyone. “I understand.”

For a very long time, because he didn’t want his mother who’d raised him all by herself to worry, he was used to hiding away everything that was in his heart. He would speak of his happiness to others but not his worries, and even as the loneliness in his heart grew stronger with each passing day, he built a barrier between himself and others.

Yet without his even realizing, everything had changed.

He remembered that after Phoenix’s success at the tryout competitions, he’d said something to the reporter during their interview.

“We’ve seen multiple times during key rounds that would decide the outcome of the game that you’ll always scout out the road alone. If you take a wrong step, you would lose everything. Are you afraid when conducting such a dangerous move?”

“I’m not afraid, because my teammates are behind me.”

He was already — no longer alone.

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1 Originally in English.

2 Somewhat of an untranslatable pun, but the slang she uses for both can also literally refer to turtles; so, turtle suits turtle.

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