C3 Part2

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Chapter 3: A Sudden Heartbeat (Part 2)

In an instant, she was dizzy. Qiu Ying shoved Ji Xiangkong’s strong chest, but he slipped his arms around her waist.

Her breathing became short and fast. Before she could calm down, he held her chin and lifted it up.

“Do you think that you can play with people’s hearts just by selling your smile and acting flirty?”

She was frightened; this person was obviously smiling, but the surrounding atmosphere made her shudder in fear.

Qiu Ying desperately tried to break free, but he held her tighter.

“That night in Seattle, as a single girl, you wore light clothes and talked with men you didn’t know anything about. In the middle of the night, you got into another person’s car alone. You were even in a foreign country. Weren’t you scared something could happen?” His warm breath lingered in her ears. “Want to lure someone? If something like this happened, would you be able to break free?”

Qiu Ying’s eyes were red, anxious. “That time I thought you were a player of an ace team, everyone’s idol!”

Ji Xiangkong grasped Qiu Ying’s hands high above her head, pressed her to the wall, and trapped her roughly between the wall and his body.

“Oh? Then? How much do you know about me?”

He turned his head slightly sideways and lifted his other hand to pull his collar ambiguously.

“I’ll give you a lesson. Men, no matter how honorable they look on the surface, will become beasts in a matter of a single moment.”

“What… what do you want to do?”

Ji Xiangkong dropped his eyes down to look at her, slowly raised the corner of his mouth, and said quietly, “What else can I do?”

Qiu Ying’s entire body was trembling, and she cried aloud, “Don’t, don’t… don’t joke around… I, I… I didn’t mean…”

But Ji Xiangkong seemed to not know the meaning of pity. He used his knee to hold her leg in place and leaned over like he wanted to kiss her. Qiu Ying didn’t lift her face, but he used his fingers to clasp her chin and imprison her firmly.

His strength was so large that her struggle to resist was only futile. The immense fear and humiliation made her unable to breathe. She could only watch him approach closer and closer with her eyes wide open.

She wanted to scream in fear but wasn’t able to make the slightest sound.

The tip of his nose pressed against the tip of hers. There was a sudden warmth on her lips.

A hot liquid slipped down her cheeks. Qiu Ying clenched her jaw. Tears dropped down with a patter.

Yet the touch was a little strange. Recovering, she discovered that Ji Xiangkong’s hand was on top of her mouth.

He had kissed the back of his own hand.

Ji Xiangkong separated their faces and backed away a bit. Qiu Ying felt the oppressive sense of suffocation ebb in an instant. Her breath fought through layer upon layers of obstacles to return to her.

He quietly looked at her, who was sobbing like a panicked rabbit, and shook his head with a smile. “You’re really so unprepared.”

Qiu Ying still hadn’t calmed down, frozen in place.

“It’s good that you know how to cry, at least you still know how to be afraid.” The wind swept against the red wrist that she held against herself. Ji Xiangkong said softly, “Meeting me this time can serve as a lesson. In the future, don’t do dangerous things like that.”

The taut strings in her body finally loosened; the gates of the accumulated grievances of the last few days seemed to be opened by the panic she had just felt, overwhelmingly flooding her. Qiu Ying’s legs were weak, her nose sour, and in the end she sat on the ground sobbing. She was crying so badly her shoulders couldn’t stop trembling, as if she had already endured it for a long, long time.

Ji Xiangkong was stunned. Her posture did not seem to be acting. He had originally thought that she was well-experienced in the field, but had poor acting so just attacked harder. He didn’t think her reaction would actually be one of a girl who had never seen the world. In contrast, he felt like he was a stinking rogue.

He hadn’t yet had time to feel guilty before he saw Qiu Ying climb up from the ground and wave her hand at him fiercely.

I let you watch other people chase and kill me across the entire map during the livestream!

I let you throw me into the swimming pool!

I let you into my thoughts until I couldn’t even sleep!

I let you take advantage of me! I let you put your arm around my waist! I let you hold my chin!

I even thought that towards me, you… you…

Qiu Ying’s eyes were completely red, her behavior practically driven by instinct. Ji Xiangkong didn’t avoid her, letting her treat him like a sandbag under a loud slap.

Qiu Ying’s reason also returned with the ringing sound of the slap. Her palm burned with the pain, the heated blood in her head drained away. She took a few steps back, covered her face with both hands, and waited for him to retaliate.

She waited for half a day, but there was no movement. Through her fingers, she saw Ji Xiangkong casually brush her red cheeks, with a warm smile in his eyes like he was looking at a small noisy cat. “Not angry anymore?”

Qiu Ying shrunk back. Her motives originally weren’t pure and she also didn’t have any right to blame others. She picked up her bag from the ground and brushed off her clothes. “It was wrong for me to provoke you in the beginning, but now that you’ve messed with me, we’re even. In the future, let’s not get involved with each other. You take the easy path and I’ll take the hard one.”1

Ji Xiangkong crossed his arms and seemed to look at her thoughtfully. “Ah, you all are streamers. In one month, the worth of the gifts your fans send you isn’t cheap…”

Qiu Ying guessed that he was trying to ridicule her, and turned around and ran out of the alley without looking back. She hadn’t ran far before the tears started to unwillingly fall again.

What lure, what light clothes, what getting into a stranger’s car, it was also my first time!

Stumbling through several intersections, Qiu Ying became dazed and short of breath. It was only until her messy head finally started to work again that she stopped running. Pale, she looked at the dancing wild demon graffitied on the wall in front of her, two black eyes.

Where was this…

She looked around in all directions and became aware of her own situation: lost, and also in a dead-end alley.

Hearing a cluster of footsteps behind her, Qiu Ying’s heart thumped. The light at the entrance of the alley was shrouded by darkness, locking her within a shadow.

“Hey, we’re really in luck. That guy, Ji Xiangkong, brought you out here. We were just going to follow you, didn’t think you would be delivered right to us.”

Like a cold needle was piercing her spine, little by little, Qiu Ying hugged her arms, trembling uncontrollably.

She slowly turned around, her movement like a malfunctioning robot. The entrance to the alley was blocked. She glanced at them quickly; the other group seemed to have seven or eight people. They were led by a man whose face was full of acne, like someone had splashed a bowl of red bean soup on him. His salivating face neared, and he maliciously rubbed his hands together. “Ying meimei, these brothers have dreams of seeing you.”

The men behind him rowdily echoed, “Yeah, every time you stream we watch for the whole entire night!”

Qiu Ying’s temple jumped as she remembered that before, she’d posted a Weibo about filming the program at the TV station today. It seemed like it caused some attentive people to ambush her.

The red bean soup man reached out with wandering hands,2 his small eyes shining. “How about you come with us to karaoke?”

Qiu Ying slipped sideways. “I’m sorry, I still have things to do…”

Red Bean Soup didn’t let her off. “These brothers have given you so many yachts, can’t we taste some of the sweetness?”

“I’m sorry, I think you have a misunderstanding.”

“What, both a b*tch and a pretend good girl.”3 The smile on his face was gone. “If it weren’t for your beauty and big breasts, who would still watch you play games at your low level?”

Today was just filled with blood!

Qiu Ying trembled while reaching for her coat pocket. Usually, she carried around pepper spray, but this time her pocket was unexpectedly empty. A biting chill suddenly climbed up her spine uncontrollably.

Perhaps she had dropped it in the dressing room while changing…

She wanted to call the police, but before she could do so, a rough and greasy hand snatched away her phone. Nausea struck her right in the face.

“You think you’re so pure? You’re still a white lotus, don’t you sell yourself across the screen?”

Seeing their discordant facial features all twist twist together, their vulgar abuse like a flood of rancid water, Qiu Ying felt like someone had struck her head with a blunt object. She forcefully dragged over his arm and fiercely bit on it.

“I’ll kill you!”

His slap neared her face. Qiu Ying shut her eyes, but the imagined pain did not come.

A tall and large figure was already in front of her, blocking her from the group.

The thumping of her heart jumped wildly.

“Oh, hey, Ji Xiangkong?” Red bean soup man raised his chin and squinted at him. “We’re looking for Qiu Ying, what does this have to do with you?”

“She doesn’t know you.”

A little brother behind him spoke a soft reminder: “Song ge, it was trending on the forums a couple days ago that they’ve been together for a long time. Qiu Ying is his new girl…”

“What does that mean?” The red bean soup man who’d been called Song ge turned around and kicked the little brother. “This guy has so many girls, why is it that all of the good-looking chicks have been stolen by this bastard?!”4

After he finished speaking, he reached out aggressively and pointed at Ji Xiangkong’s nose, threatening viciously, “Get out of the way! I’m telling you, we still have people nearby. Once you hear them, you’ll want to get lost fast.”

“Then call them over.” Ji Xiangkong’s arms were crossed, without giving a single inch.

“I’ll ask you again, are you going to get out of the way?”

“I won’t.”

“So it’ll be like this.” Song ge narrowed his eyes slightly and then spat viciously on the ground. “Aren’t you just a professional sh*t player? This year you played a sh*tty game and still want to be an idol!”

He twisted his head and ordered the people behind him, “Break his hand for your boss! I’ll see if he can still compete then!”

Seeing Ji Xiangkong being surrounded by several burly men, Qiu Ying’s head roared with the sound of war drums — no! He couldn’t get injured due to his involvement!

Hot blood rushed to her head and she rushed forward. “Weren’t you looking for me? What does it have to do with him?”

Seeing those malicious people stop moving and turn their gaze to her, Qiu Ying straightened her neck, raised her head high, and said righteously, “This great-aunt will accompany you!”

She knew that she must be very ugly right now, eyes popping out and lips clenched, but only like this could she suppress the tears that were about to come out. Life was like a play, all acting. Her fearless manner was entirely fake, and her heart had already long been frightened into a mess.

Next, if they took her to a place with a lot of people, she would think of a way to make a break for it. If there weren’t a lot of people, she would find an opportunity, and if that didn’t work… before death she still wanted to take off her high heels and smash a hole into their heads!

One after another, scenes of girls killed on the TV shows she’d watched in the past emerged in front of her eyes. Qiu Ying sucked in a breath and forced herself to calm down. The last scene she saw was a headline of a bloody massacre above a picture of her own mosaic-ed face.

As she watched the hooligans approach step by step, heat suddenly touched her wrist. Ji Xiangkong dragged her behind him once more. He swung straight at the face of the man at the very front and twisted the other person’s hands neatly behind his back. Then he raised his leg and kicked at the other person who had just arrived to help out.

Seeing they were really fighting, Qiu Ying took off her high heels and held them in her hands, trembling. Just as she was thinking about helping, Ji Xiangkong glanced at her and called out, “Stay there and don’t move.”

Qiu Ying obediently backed away.

“I said,” Ji Xiangkong nimbly dodged a punch, held onto the other person’s neck, and twisted his head, “You’d better stop.”

His words had just been spoken when a shrill whistle sounded from far away to close by, endlessly dragging into a long, harsh echo into the ears.

Qiu Ying blinked in disbelief. She saw a man’s raised fist stopped right in front of Ji Xiangkong’s handsome forehead. His bangs had been blown up by the wind, exposing his beautiful eyebrows.

Ji Xiangkong raised his mouth and said, word by word, “I’ve already called the police.”

Whether on the stage before a competition or the crisis just now, his face was always the same.

After the storm subsided, Ji Xiangkong turned around and walked back to Qiu Ying. When their eyes met, her mind was temporarily blank, and the words of World War II’s British Prime Minister Churchill sounded in her ears.

“I like a man who grins when he fights.”5

“After we left the TV station, I felt like there was someone following us, so I took you the long way. This group of people really have a lot of courage.”

Seeing that the woman next to him was still silent, Ji Xiangkong spoke again. “In the future, if you’re not travelling with other people, it’s better to make sure you don’t reveal your own location easily.”

Qiu Ying’s eyes were red. She said softly, “Thank you.”

When the police finished taking their testimony, Ji Xiangkong was worried about still-dazed Qiu Ying and insisted on sending her back home. It hadn’t been long since she’d gone through that series of incidents. Her heart was full of a multitude of feelings. The entire way back, she didn’t say a word.

When they reached a park at the heart of the city, Ji Xiangkong suddenly said that he couldn’t walk any further, and the two of them found a corner to rest in. The sky grew dark. The sound of aunts chatting as they walked a dog not far away echoed nearby, and a group of children on their skateboards, playing together, passed in front of them.

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Footnotes:

1 你走你的阳关道，我走我的独木桥. You walk on your Yangguan, I’ll walk on my single-log bridge. The road through Yangguan, the Southern Pass of the Silk Road, refers to a wide open road, a bright future. A single-log bridge is a difficult path.

2 咸猪手. a man who gropes others in public

3 from the idiom 既要做婊子，又要立牌坊, which means to lead the life of a whore while expecting a monument to your chastity

4 from the phrase 好白菜都让猪拱了, thanks to a commenter for pointing this out!

5 originally in English

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