C3 Part1

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Chapter 3: A Sudden Heartbeat (Part 1)

Qiu Ying wore a helmet and a life jacket, legs hanging midair. Trembling, she looked down at the sparkling swimming pool beneath her and swallowed hard.

She looked toward Ji Xiangkong at the answering table. He gave her a harmless smile, but his smile made her back grow cold.

They were currently recording the “You Ask, I Answer” segment. Four groups of players, two people in each team; one person at the answering table responded to the question, and the other sat above the pool in an adjustable ejection seat. When a question was answered incorrectly, the teammate on the chair would be raised up one level, and correct answers resulted in the opposite. When all four groups finished answering, the teammate in the highest position would receive a punishment.

At present, the other three groups had finished answering and it was now Ji Xiangkong and Qiu Ying’s turn. They were at a large disadvantage, as he already answered two questions wrong. Qiu Ying glanced at the positions of the other players out of the corner of her eyes and couldn’t help but clasp her arms together, trembling.

“Next question, please listen. What is the title of your close teammate, Cris god, the No.1 in China? A. Piano player, B. Scissors player, C. Electric guitar player, D. Salted pig player.”

Qiu Ying clenched both hands into fists. They would get this question right!

Ji Xiangkong calmly opened his mouth. “D.”

There was a burst of laughter on set.

The host used both arms to form a large X in front of his chest. “Wrong answer. The correct answer is A.

“Next question, please listen. In a regular competition, can you achieve a second retreat without being shut down in a small black room?”

Ji Xiangkong shook his head. “You can’t.”

“Wrong answer.

“Next question, please listen. Is the laser skill of the hero ‘Tinker’ fired using the left or right hand?”

Right hand! Qiu Ying almost screamed.

When she was playing double queue with Ji Xiangkong that night, that was the hero that that dog Pei Xi used to kill her until she had a mental breakdown!

That scene of the hero raising his hand became her psychological shadow!

Qiu Ying’s position rose to the same height as Qiao Xin’s. The two looked at each other, their expressions both colorful.

Seeing as Ji Xiangkong hadn’t answered yet, Qiu Ying’s heart rose into her throat.

Right hand, brother! You don’t know the answer even though you’ve seen so many games?!

By her ear, she heard Qiao Xin let out a smug laugh. Qiu Ying almost gave up. She turned her head, desperately blinking her right eye; her false eyelashes almost fell off with the amount of force she used. Ji Xiangkong seemed to understand and winked at her. Then he picked up the microphone confidently and replied with clear articulation—

“Left hand.”

I want to call the police!

“Wrong answer.” The host’s voice clanged.

With a boom, the ejection seat launched Qiu Ying and threw her into the pool.

A huge wave of water splashed up.

Qiu Ying struggled to put her head above the water, covering her mouth while coughing, and smiled jokingly for the camera.

When the camera moved away from her direction, Qiu Ying immediately glared fiercely at Ji Xiangkong, who was at the side of the pool. She covered herself with a towel that a staff member handed her, her makeup runny, drops of water falling down from her hair. Viciously, she twisted the hem of her towel. Pathetically, her mind was willing, but her body was weak.1

This guy was doing it deliberately!

From the beginning of the program recording, she only had this thought. There seemed to be a thin, invisible, wire at the smiling corners of his lips, and when he pulled gently on them, her nerves grew tight and her scalp became numb.

It was like Ji Xiangkong was wearing a mask that prevented people from being able to see what he was thinking.

**

There were eight guests total in this episode, split into four groups. Each group was composed of one active professional player and one popular female game streamer. Together, they went through a series of minigames to determine a winner.

On the stage, the host introduced, “This time, the four players we invited are all the visuals of their respective teams. We have—

“Legend’s offlaner, Void — Ji Xiangkong!

“VPG’s mid, Summit — Pei Xi!

“Dragon’s support, Laser — Ke Sheng!

“Position 1 of the team that just advanced into the ranks of the strong, Newland, ty— Tao Yu.

“Please clap as we welcome our guest female streamers, Youxing’s Qiao Xin and Qiu Ying, Hupu’s2 Shen Lin, and finally, Tuya’s3 Wei Wei!”

Qiu Ying sat down next to Ji Xiangkong and he raised his chin to greet her. Across from them were Qiao Xin and Pei Xi. Pei Xi was handsome and indifferent, his back straight, lips pressed into a straight line. When she heard the host call him an ‘iceberg god,’ she sneered fiercely. Excuse me? A dog man, well, almost the same thing.

The program was divided into five parts. The first two parts were indoors, and each group would fight each other on a custom map of Conquer.

Originally, Qiu Ying was still looking forward to it. Since Ji Xiangkong had misunderstood that she was a master who didn’t need help last time, this time he would realize that she was still a newbie and needed a hero to dutifully save the beauty, right?

Unfortunately, absolutely not.

Qiu Ying and Ji Xiangkong’s cooperation was almost nonexistent. The two of them would use their stun skills on their opponents at the same time, then neither would fight at the same time, both staring at the enemies as they escaped under their eyes.

After this happened a few times, Qiu Ying couldn’t keep herself from educating the professional player. “I already stunned him, don’t stun him! Keep your stun skill until he runs and then activate it!”

Ji Xiangkong nodded his head. “Ok, ok, it’s my fault, my fault.”

After a while, Qiu Ying slapped the table. “Stun him this time!”

Ji Xiangkong lazily replied, “I thought you would move first.”

“Then, should I give you a signal before I move?”

“Alright.”

After yet another time, Qiu Ying flipped over her keyboard. “I signaled you for half a day, it’s your move!”

“Skill CD.” Ji Xiangkong seemed to be in a good mood, his face about to overflow with a smile. “Ah, don’t be grumpy, it doesn’t look so pretty.”

(CD: cooldown, meaning that the skill was previously already used, is currently cooling down, and cannot be used immediately.)

Qiu Ying muttered under her breath in annoyance and looked elsewhere on the screen. The strange thing was, Pei Xi and Qiao Xin didn’t have any tacit agreement either.

What? Hadn’t they been cooperating intimately when they killed me the day of the livestream?

She raised her head to look at their direction. Qiao Xin was tugging on Pei Xi’s sleeve, talking to him coquettishly. But Pei Xi’s eyebrows were indifferent, his expression unmoved, and it seemed like he didn’t even return one word to her.

Qiu Ying was a little happy for no reason, a gossipy aunt’s4 voice sounding within her heart. Oops, was the young couple having a conflict?

Blood suddenly splattered on the screen. Qiu Ying restrained her smile. What qualifications did she have to gloat? She couldn’t even take care of herself!

“Hey, how did you die again?” Her pig teammate who had just been sitting on the sidelines the whole time looked over, like he was quite surprised.

Qiu Ying gritted her teeth and resisted the impulse to raise her hand and smash Ji Xiangkong’s face into the display.

I can’t control myself with you! In the end, are you even a professional player?!

They survived the first two parts and reached the outdoors portion. In order to demonstrate the physical fitness of professional esports players, the program team arranged a three-legged race and obstacle course. Qiu Ying and Ji Xiangkong’s tacit understanding was zero. She took a step with her left leg and he took one with his right; she moved forward and he moved back. The whole process was miserable. She frequently suspected that he was deliberately working against her.

It wasn’t until they finished the “You Ask, I Answer” that she came to a final conclusion.

**

After they finished recording the program and Qiu Ying finished packing up her bag in the dressing room, she headed out with the intention of finding Ji Xiangkong. Just as she reached the staircase, she saw a person leaning against the wall, playing with a phone in front of her. As she was quickly passing by their side, she heard Pei Xi’s cold voice.

“Do you know where Qiao Xin is?”

Qiu Ying turned her head and faced Pei Xi with calm eyes.

She thought of that evening, when he caused her to lose her dignity, and a fire emerged in her heart. Not to mention, he was Qiao Xin’s…

The hostility on her face was probably too obvious, because Pei Xi frowned slightly. Qiu Ying didn’t change her expression and responded even more coldly than him. “If you don’t know, how could I know.”

When she finished talking, she raised her head, straightened her chest, walked forward on her high heels, and left.

Qiu Ying looped around the TV station and still couldn’t find Ji Xiangkong. Without realizing, she returned to her original location, went around a corner, and spotted a man and a woman standing opposite each other in front of her.

Why was it these two again!

Just as she was about to back up, she saw Qiao Xin throw herself into Pei Xi’s chest, using her characteristic sweet and greasy voice to say coquettishly, “Meanie, how can you talk to me like that.”

Qiu Ying hugged her arms abruptly, goosebumps rising up. Remembering that before, Qiao Xin had cheated a rich second-generation out of several hundred thousand yuan and then kicked him away with one foot, but he was willing to guard her silently and be her spare in the hopes that one day she would return to him, she couldn’t help but feel sympathy for Pei Xi.

Pei god was really quite unfortunate. Although he was a bit like a dog, he was handsome and was good at games. How come he had fallen into that woman’s hands?

She was in the middle of lamenting when a voice sounded in her ear.

“Gee, you’re all really the same kind of tricky.”

Qiu Ying quickly turned her head. Unexpectedly, Ji Xiangkong had been standing behind her silently for a long time. She didn’t need to ask to know what he was implying. Her face flushed suddenly and she shook her head vehemently. “Her and I are not the same!”

Ji Xiangkong raised an eyebrow and laughed like a roguish evil spirit, “Right, she’s already in his arms. You should learn from her.”

Qiu Ying was embarrassed and annoyed, but remembering that she herself wanted to find him to settle their accounts, she dragged him to a place where there were no people and began her attack. “Say, are you deliberately messing with me?”

“Hm?”

“During the question-answer segment, I was blinking to signal you that it’s the right hand!”

“Oh.” Ji Xiangkong suddenly realized and nodded his head. “Your right eye looks like it’s on the left to me, that’s my bad.”

“Do you think I’m braindead?!” Qiu Ying glared furiously at him, unable to keep acting like Lin Daiyu.5 She straightened her neck. “Last time’s livestream was the same! Why are you deliberately messing with me?”

“Don’t be angry.” Ji Xiangkong didn’t seem to be at all affected by her aggressive attitude. He leaned down closer to her black pupils, which became slightly panicked due to his approach. “We shouldn’t talk here, let’s move, okay?”

His fingers unintentionally brushed the tip of her nose, and she felt an electric current run through her face, heat burning from her ears. It was like a fire extinguisher quenched out her previous anger with a puff. She blinked and heard her own slightly stupid voice.

“Uh… hm.”

**

The lights at the crossroad blinked on and off; the shops on the street side passed by one after another. They turned left and then turned right — Qiu Ying didn’t know how long she followed Ji Xiangkong for after they left the TV station. Once they got on the road, he kept on telling her silly stories about his teammates. His low voice was lovely to listen to, and his pair of peach-blossom eyes hooked her in like magic. Qiu Ying stared at his moving mouth and her mind buzzed. It wasn’t until twilight approached, when the surrounding environment gradually became unfamiliar and the road ahead became narrower and narrower, that she finally, faintly, realized that something was a little strange.

Ji Xiangkong suddenly stopped. “Before, you said that I didn’t look even a little upset after losing the competition?”

Qiu Ying blinked. “Yeah.”

“Do you think that people’s emotions should be written all over their faces?”

“No… not completely.” Qiu Ying didn’t know what he wanted from this question. “But there should be a little.”

Ji Xiangkong smiled playfully. “Try to guess what I’m thinking right now?”

Qiu Ying shook her head cutely. “I don’t know.”

“But,” he suddenly caught hold of her wrist and pulled her closer, making her feel like she was being suffocated from the oppression, “I know what you’re thinking.”

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Footnotes:

1 心杀贼无力回天 the last words of Tan Sitong, a Tang Chinese politician, before he was executed (he would be seen as a martyr in the pursuit of reform): wanting to kill thieves, but lacking the strength to change fate

2 Pouncing Tiger

3 Rabbit Teeth

4 广场舞大妈 square dance aunts. Many older Chinese people enjoy gathering in public places to dance together, also giving them the opportunity to bond as a community. However, with an increasingly urbanizing age, this practice is slowly disappearing.

5 a character from the Chinese classic Dream of the Red Chamber. An intelligent and beautiful, but emotional, young woman who was jilted by her lover Jia Biaoyu

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