C18 Part1

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Chapter 18: Accompany You to the Top of the World (Part 1)

Overcoming all obstacles on their path, valiantly winning the CPL Spring Season Championships, Team Phoenix sent Pei Xi to take an interview.

The female host was Pei Xi’s fan and had always played close attention to him ever since his debut. Now that her idol had finally won the laureates, her whole face was full of unconcealed joy, voice trembling from excitement. “As the most-watched mid of the country, in the early stages of Team Phoenix when Ji Xiangkong decided to have you transform from a mid into a jungler, did you struggle within your heart? Was there any pressure? In the end, how did he persuade you to accept this decision?”

“No.” Upon seeing the host still looking at him with great expectation, Pei Xi thought about it. “No struggle, no pressure, no need for persuasion.”

Your thought process is too short, isn’t it!

The host was going crazy on the inside, but she still had a smile on the surface as she continued to search for something to talk about. “At their core, every team has their own unique style. How is it that you guys make your lineup look completely random?”

Pei Xi pursed his lips, light flashing at the bottom of his eyes. “Because Ji Xiangkong is very amazing.”

In the spectating stands, Ji Xiangkong and Pei Xi’s “CP fans” screamed again and again.

“The team doesn’t discuss tactics during training?”

“I listen to commands.”

“Which heroes do you normally like? Are there any you’re particularly fond of?”

“None.”

In spite of the tall and handsome Pei Xi standing up straight with both hands behind his back, he would politely dip his head when listening to the questions in concentration. But the host’s excitement and expectation was like a balloon that gradually deflated after having had a hole poked into it.

After drily dragging this back and forth a few times, the host was at her wits’ end. “Finally, please use four words to describe your teammates.”

Pei Xi made a light sound of agreement.

“Ji Xiangkong?”

“Military strategist of old.”

“Sun Zeyi?”

“A pillar of strength.”

“Xia Ling?”

“Boundless future lies ahead.”

“Lin Yixuan?”

At this, Pei Xi, who’d been expressionless through the entire process, finally curved the corners of his lips downward. “Like he’s intellectually disabled.”

The entire arena exploded with bursts of laughter. Below the stage, Lin Yixuan glared with bloodshot eyes and nearly took off a shoe to throw it up toward the stage.

Just as Pei Xi was about to go off the stage, the female host suddenly asked another question: “Emperor Pei, many fans are very curious. You have the greatest individual ability in the nation in the field of professional esports, so why did you choose to participate in a team competition at the beginning rather than a solo event?”

She didn’t know if she had seen wrong, but Pei Xi’s figure shook acutely.

He still didn’t speak even after a very long time passed.

Countless voices intertwined in his ears, cold, disdainful, hateful, scary…

“Pei Xi doesn’t even talk and he’s so hard to get along with, he acts like I’ve got a plague whenever I bump into him.”

“With his looks, he doesn’t even think of us as anything.”

“We’re going out to eat barbeque, should we call Pei Xi to come with?”

“Don’t take him, it’s so boring with him there.”

“I said at the beginning that we have to do four-protect-one, but even when I’m playing a late-game hero that needs to be protected I have to use up my ult to cover for him.”

“Genius, you don’t even need to work hard. You’re different from us common people.”

……

Pei Xi remembered fully how he’d excitedly run to the court when he was a teen, only to discover that the moment everyone’s gazes landed on him, their smiles collapsed.

Instead of waiting until he was deserted, it would be better to take the first step away from the crowd.

There were some dusty things at the bottom of his heart that he deceived himself into saying were unimportant, because he couldn’t attain them. As if he’d believed that time could dilute all longing, all the way until dull pain turned into numbness.

Why participate in a team competition?

Pei Xi looked toward a certain direction.

Below the stage, the Phoenix members were standing in a row chatting with each other. When they realized Pei Xi was looking at them, they laughed and waved at him.

For a moment, the scenes in his memories overlapped with reality. A boy sat alone on the steps in a corner, drawing on the ground with a tree branch, as the setting sun stretched his shadow long.

Pei Xi lowered his eyes and in a daze heard his teenage self raising his head, making a cold and lonely sound.

“I want… I want to play with everyone.”

**

In the afternoon, the double-elimination round over the third ticket for the Global Finals also came to an end. In the end, Dragon, who endured hardships, introduced fresh blood, and transformed their inherently defensive setup defeated Legend, completely settling the final lineup.

Newland, Phoenix, Dragon, were about to set forth to represent Chinese Conquer!

When Team Phoenix left the arena, the fans were already so crowded around the entrance that not a single drop of water could penetrate. With difficulty, Qiu Ying and her teammates carved out a path toward their bus, and she was surprised to discover that a large amount of couples had brought their children to watch the battle.

As gaming fans gradually grew older, the age range of esports lovers also continued to expand. And their idol was naturally the great ancient titan, Sun Zeyi.

When they defeated Legend, the moment they were declared the champions, Sun Zeyi slammed on his keyboard in the glass room.

How much unwillingness and humiliation had he suppressed behind his back to make this 30-year-old man, in front of so many audience members, beneath all of the lenses of the cameras, cry like a child?

When he faced the passionate fans from afar, Sun Zeyi stopped walking, and he took a group photo with them.

“Sun god, you once said that your youth was Conquer. For us, our youth was watching you play Conquer.”

“I can’t count how many times I’ve found my courage again from watching your competitions. It was you who told me that ordinary people can also create miracles, it was you who taught me to keep on going until the very last second, and to not give up until the tower is demolished and I’m killed!”

“Year after year, endless familiar players left the stage one after another. We were regretful, but even more helpless. Time, after all, is cruel and merciless.”

Several men who had already become fathers had red-rimmed eyes, their voices carrying tears: “But now, standing here watching the glorious stage that you returned to, step by step, watching you play incomparably brilliant game after game, we don’t have any words to describe the feeling of our passionate blood surging. It’s like you’re still that Sun god from ten years ago, like we had never grown old at all!”

“Sun god! Good luck!”

Sun Zeyi reached out his hand, clenched it into a fist, and pounded it onto his heart.

**

After the competition ended, Team Phoenix entered a short break period again.

In the live competition recordings, during times that the battle situation was deeply worrying, Ji Xiangkong’s calm, ripple-less, face would often appear. Qiu Ying rued again and again that this dude didn’t show his joy or anger, as if he was wearing a mask, so just how thick had his skin been polished?

Thinking back on how he always had a wicked smile tugging on the corners of his mouth normally and that easy posture he had when he was bullying her, Qiu Ying was unwilling to accept it. When she saw him now sitting on the sofa idly eating apples, she suddenly grew angry, took advantage of the absence of everyone around them, and snuck over to tickle him.

Ji Xiangkong hooked an arm and easily dragged her into his arms, then fed a bite of an apple to her. He smiled as he asked, “What is it?”

Qiu Ying didn’t respond. She held his cheeks between both hands, doing her best to stretch them out to either side. He took a breath in pain and then pulled her over.

The two of them tussled for a bit, neither one knowing whose mouth the sweet apple had entered in the end. Finally, Qiu Ying was defeated and begged for mercy with a thready voice. After he heard about her inexplicable reasons for making trouble, Ji Xiangkong startled, then smiled, shaking his head.

“I’ve just covered it up well, so you don’t know,” he looked straight into Qiu Ying’s eyes, “you don’t know how nervous I get sometimes in front of you.”

Qiu Ying’s heart missed a beat. As she looked at his handsome face within easy reach, she couldn’t return to her senses for a very long time.

Ever since she’d heard that sentence, Qiu Ying’s entire body was fluttering. Whenever she had free time, she thought of ways to “expose” Ji Xiangkong. Purposefully bumping into his chest in the aisle and then tenderly raising her head, purposefully curling her fingers through the tips of her hair when she spoke with him, body restlessly moving back and forth in a variety of “heart-pounding” styles.

Again, for example, right now.

Qiu Ying moved over a chair, sat next to him, and leaned over with both hands supporting her head as she stared unblinkingly at him.

She maintained this posture all the way until her arms were nearly stiff, but Ji Xiangkong didn’t move at all the entire time, focused on looking at the screen: “Be good, don’t lean so close during working hours.”

Qiu Ying purposefully leaned forward a bit and slyly batted her eyes at him. “Will you get nervous like this?”

Ji Xiangkong turned his head to look down at her. He suddenly hooked her collar with his index finger, pulled it outward, and slowly said, “I’ll want to do bad things.”

The corners of Qiu Ying’s lips twitched downward.

Nervous, hell! This expression was fundamentally one of an old expert!

Seeing that two more people were coming into the training room, Qiu Ying slapped away Ji Xiangkong’s hand with a red face, even glaring at him when she left.

Ji Xiangkong raised his eyebrows and laughed lightly as he looked at her back.

**

On the weekends, Qiu Ying opened up her streaming room again to stream the casual daily lives of the team and interact enthusiastically with their fans.

In the training room, Pei Xi was properly sitting in front of the computer watching replays. Ji Xiangkong slid a chair over behind him, chin nearly touching his shoulder.

The chat was spammed one after another with—

“Heads-pressing-together squad, let’s move!”

“Kiss! Kiss…”

After they finished playing basketball, Lin Yixuan hooked an arm around Ji Xiangkong’s shoulder, quite naturally, and moved his head close to his ear to say something to him. Pei Xi drank a sip of water and silently walked behind them.

Chat: “Emperor Pei’s face is looking dead.”

“Emperor Pei’s heart is being stabbed with a knife.”

In the kitchen, Ji Xiangkong was watching Sun Zeyi cook a new dish. After stir-fry tossing the pan, Sun Zeyi picked some up with pair of chopsticks, other hand cupping it as he moved it to Ji Xiangkong’s mouth. He warmly said, “Want to taste?”

Ji Xiangkong ate from his hand and smiled. “Everything Sun ge makes tastes good.”

Chat:

“Lin Yixuan is trembling.”

“Emperor Pei is going to leave the house.”

At the dining table, Xia Ling obediently said, “Ji ge, same time tonight?”

“CPL is already finished, why are you still doing special training for him every day? Do you understand what it means to treat both rain and dew equally?” Lin Yixuan crossed his arms, posing like a vixen. “In accordance with order, you must bestow your favor on me today!”

Pei Xi coldly interjected, “It should be me.”

The chat was screaming that this relationship chart was too messy!

“I was standing with Void and Xuan in their Newland days, got that?”

“Have you guys seen the GIF where Xia Ling hugged Captain Ji after the competition acting all cute?”

“You’re too naive! The GIF of Captain Ji hugging Sun god after the match came out even earlier than that!”

“This stream is called the daily life of Captain Ji and his harem… I stand with Pei-Ji!”

“Hold it right there! Ji-Pei is irreversible!”1

……

As the genuine girlfriend, Qiu Ying looked at the chat fighting to their deaths about who Ji Xiangkong’s “true love” was and suddenly felt quite tired.

As the sky gradually darkened, Phoenix’s daily stream came to an end.

“After this, I’ll invite our team members to perform a special segment for everyone.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Qiu Ying turned her phone camera toward the five Phoenix members on the couch. Then, Mayday’s Stubborn2 sounded within the living room.

Once the melodious prelude ended, Pei Xi sitting on the furthest left of the sofa lowered his eyes and began singing: “When I am different from the world, then just let me different. For me, persistence means strength to overcome the strong.”

His voice was cold and he didn’t look at the camera, but it was enough to make the chat explode with enthusiasm. Qiu Ying could almost imagine how incomprehensively crazily those fans were screaming in front of their screens.

Sun Zeyi followed with the next verse, slowly nodding his head along to the melody. “If I were to compromise with myself, if I were to lie to myself, even if other people forgave me, I could not.”

“The most beautiful desire may be the most crazy.” Lin Yixuan put away his unending smile of the past. His raised right hand gradually clenched itself into a fist and he swung it down, hard. “I am my own god in the place where I live.”

After the chorus passed, they entered the refrain again.

“You don’t care about my past, just look at my wings.” Xia Ling looked at Ji Xiangkong, the rims of his eyes gradually reddening. “You said that only when they’re burned by fire will the phoenix appear.”

“Going against the wind, it’s perfect for my flight.” Both of Ji Xiangkong’s hands were clasped on his knees. A fire was burning within his eyes. “I don’t fear how many people resist me, only that I’ll surrender.”

Everyone shoulder to shoulder, they sang in unison—

“Me and my last stubbornness, I grip it with both hands and never let go. Is the next step heaven? Even if I’m disappointed, I can’t despair.

“Me and my proud stubbornness, I sing it loud to the wind. This time I’ll go crazy for my own sake, just this one time, me and my stubbornness.”

Qiu Ying hummed along. Her nose was sour and her line of sight gradually grew blurry. Along with their singing, some scenes swarmed together.

Once upon a time…

Pei Xi walked alone behind four laughing and joking teammates.

Xiaa Ling clung to his injured leg in the spectator stands of the basketball court as he wept with despair.

Lin Yixuan sat on the cold bench with a strong smile as he watched his teammates compete.

Sun Zeyi failed to make an impact in the qualifiers once more and he covered his face with exhaustion and frustration.

Ji Xiangkong dragged his suitcase away from the VPG club amidst the curses of the crowd around him.

……

The number of people in the streaming room shot up crazily, making it reach the top of the homepage. Endless scrolling chat messages covered the original image.

“Ahhhh! I’m crying!”

“The five of you have got to do well!”

“Captain Ji! Everyone owes you an apology!”

“Only when they’re burned by the fire will the phoenix appear! We are Team Phoenix!”2

Holding a scalding dream within their hands, struggling to chase it, falling down and once more climbing out of the valley, patting off the ashes from the clothes, continuing to run forward. In this world, there were forever and always only a few people who could succeed. They had never feared deadly winters once in their lives, they had never extinguished the blazes in their chests once in their lives, they stood firm amidst the rejection and questioning of this world.

They were strong.

Unafraid of how many people resisted them, only that they would surrender.

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1 In BL culture, at least so I hear, the order of the names can also refer to the positions of… haha. Hence why they say it’s “irreversible”.

2 Mayday is a famous Taiwanese band who has 5 members, just like Phoenix. The song’s original title is 倔強 and you can listen to it here. Apologies if I butchered the translation because I just translated it straight rather than try to break my mind over making the lines sound like song lyrics lol

3 Second sentence originally in English.

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