Accompany You Ch 10.3

Chapter 10: Flowers that Bloomed at Seventeen (Part 3)

While Ji Xiangkong was on break, Qiu Ying adjusted her streaming schedule to finish at 9 so that she could wait for him at her door. Ji Xiangkong kept his promise; as long as he was free, he drove her to eat delicious food.

In the evening, they strolled around the night market. Full of food and drink and an abundance of confidence spilling over, Qiu Ying felt as if perhaps this was a good opportunity to clear up her doubts. Ever since she saw the clues on Miya’s single, she spent every night thinking it over and over until her hair fell out in clumps. If she didn’t figure it out now, then maybe she would become bald.

When they passed the street park near her neighborhood, Qiu Ying suddenly signalled for Ji Xiangkong to stop the car.

The better half of a year before, it was at this very place that he helped her break free from the traces of those people and asked, when she was at her most frustrated and disappointed, “If you want to keep making money through Conquer, have you thought about relying on your ability and doing serious commentary?”

Her life began to change from that moment on. Like a screw that had been hidden in the mud for a very long time that had grown rusty and mildewed from the rain, until finally it poked its head out from the dirt beneath your feet to feel the overwhelming splendor of the sun.

“I don’t want to go back home just yet. Let’s walk around here for a bit.” Qiu Ying bit her lip and said softly, “I want to stay with you a little longer.”

These words echoed within the car in the middle of the night very ambiguously. Her eyes shone, her eyelashes trembled, and it was only after she finished speaking that she realized it seemed a bit improper. Her entire face burned.

“Alright.” Ji Xiangkong parked the car at the side of the road and turned to look at her. He whispered warmly, “I’ll go with you wherever you want.”

His peach-blossom eyes were electric, carrying with them a certain affection even while he was not smiling. Qiu Ying’s heart missed half a beat, unable to resist his gaze, and was thrown into a senseless mess.

They found that corner where they had previously bared their hearts. Ji Xiangkong sat down on the steps, legs spread out, leaning forward so that both elbows rested on top of his knees. When he saw that Qiu Ying was still standing in front of him like a wooden pestle, he raised his eyebrows. “Are you worried the ground isn’t clean? Well, do you want to sit on my lap?”

Then Qiu Ying returned to herself, wet her lips, and sat down next to him.

Ji Xiangkong turned to lift his chin up at her. “I haven’t given you a thank-you gift yet for the album you gave me. Do you want one?”

Qiu Ying shrank back nervously and tentatively probed, “Maybe… tell me about your love history.”

Ji Xiangkong startled. He finally spoke after a long time. “Which parts do you want to hear?”

“All of it.”

Ji Xiangkong smiled askance at her. “Greedy.”

Qiu Ying pretended to throw a bright wink at him. “Unless it’s so long that it takes three days and three nights? It’s fine, just tell me about one of them, my favorite thing to do is follow serials.”

She had no confidence in her words, and he didn’t say anything. Just as she was about to give up, he slowly began to speak.

“This experience… You probably wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” He lowered his gaze and collected himself into a smile. “It was probably in middle school when I started to be interested in a girl. She wasn’t considered the prettiest at school, but she had a warm personality. She was like the sun and it made me want to get closer to her.

“Later on, we entered the same high school. Because I had a good relationship with her, she often invited me to eat at her house. My dad had left the world early on, but my mom was so good to me I didn’t feel like I was any different from everyone else. But it was just that at that time, when I looked at how warm and happy their family was, I grew aware of what it was that I had lost. And it was something I’d never find again in this life.

“The more we people can’t get something, the more we want it. I ran over to her house so many times like I’d be able to fill up the gap in my heart if I did that.” Ji Xiangkong stopped for a moment, the expression in his eyes extremely soft. “She might’ve been something like a goddess to me when I was in my school days.”

Qiu Ying’s lips tightened, her hands slowly curling up.

Later on, she went to Korea as a trainee and he also went to Korea to study abroad and then entered a professional esports team. His professional career in Korea was extremely bumpy because he wasn’t talented. When he often couldn’t keep going, it was his goddess’s existence that gave him hope. After she trained for one year at a large company, she was unlisted because she seemed not to have any prospects, thus she subsequently went to a small company.

“It was snowing in the winter and she was still wearing thin clothes to dance, even though it was so cold. The ground was slippery, she climbed up and continued to dance when she fell, and there was a hopeful smile on her face.”

Ji Xiangkong would go to see her perform after his training ended. They encouraged each other, and quite naturally, they fell in love. During the darkest and most helpless moments of their professional careers, they were the other’s only light.

The first time she held a fanmeeting, it was raining. Including him, there were only seven people there below the stage.

She said, “Even if I fail, even if I’m mocked, even if it’s hard — as long as I have you alone to support me, I feel like I have the courage to move forward.”

Their new song still went unnoticed. On that night when the company issued their ultimatum, she sobbed in his arms, tears staining his lapel, unable to stop herself. At the time, he had nothing and was wandering in the ruthless arena with nowhere to go. He couldn’t even rely on his next dinner being in front of him. The only thing he could do was use his words to comfort the girl he liked, desperate from his powerlessness.

“You probably know the rest of the story…” Ji Xiangkong looked down at the ground, his expression devoid of any emotion. “I was the one who uploaded that fancam video.”

Qiu Ying moved her lower lip, her throat dry. The answer she was looking for was right there in front of her, but she couldn’t say a word.

The heroine of his story was indeed the idol of countless teens, Firework’s Chinese member, Fu Miya.

The song that she wrote when she was seventeen was for him. The monsoon blows toward the sea, beyond the sky. Carrying with it all the naive love of her youth.

Firework blew up over night; Miya became synonymous with “miracle.” But after that, the distance between the two of them grew larger and larger. Ji Xiangkong felt like his stagnating self had no right in the least to stand next to his goddess, and so he returned to China to develop himself. Even until now.

Seeing Ji Xiangkong fall silent, Qiu Ying cautiously asked, “Is that the end of the story?”

“That’s the end.”

Qiu Ying thought, You don’t seem even a little upset.

As if he’d heard her thoughts, Ji Xiangkong said, “Are you unsure as to how I can be so calm?”

He laughed wryly, once, then shrugged his shoulders loosely. Qiu Ying saw the light in his eyes dim bit by bit as he lowered his head to look down. “After we broke up, I felt like a sunflower without its sun… I once thought that I’d never love someone again.”

The dim light of the streetlamp enveloped him so that his shadow stretched long. The contours of handsome facial features grew dark and unclear. As she saw his sorrow, her heart hurt.

Qiu Ying’s face stilled, her lips pressed in a straight line, and she stared at him unblinkingly.

“What’s wrong? Weren’t you moved?” Ji Xiangkong suddenly turned, loosened his brow, and smiled cynically. “They say that it’s easy for a man to make a good impression if he tells a woman about his bitter past.”

He stretched out his languid back and mindlessly patted Qiu Ying’s head. “Let’s go back.”

In a daze, something broke through the dam in her heart, and an enormous throbbing pain made Qiu Ying feel as if she couldn’t breathe.

After she realized the secret of that Chinese single, she searched long and deep online for tabloid gossip regarding Miya. Korean agencies were extremely strict with their artists. There was someone who broke the news that she had once abandoned her boyfriend during the wild period on the road to becoming a star, and also, after they broke up she was quickly involved in gossip with the leader of the most talented boy group in the circle. There were all sorts of versions of this news, the authenticity of which was only known by the parties involved.

Qiu Ying didn’t dare imagine what on earth Ji Xiangkong must have felt when he heard Fu Miya tell the entire world, “I haven’t yet had my first love” and “I’ve never liked someone before,” and completely wipe clean the past between them.

Qiu Ying didn’t dare imagine how he must have felt when after all those years, he peacefully said, “I’m her fan.”

They walked side-by-side toward where the car was parked. The night wind was cold, the tree leaves swayed against each other with a rustle. Not far away, a few drunk boys passed by, perhaps brokenhearted, loudly singing Joker Xue’s “Actor”.¹

“I should do my best to match your performance, like how the perfect guests in those emotional shows do. If you could see the part of me that loves you, please cut out those scenes to make me look nicer.

“But you used to love me so much, so why act out all these details? This carelessness is my final act.”

Qiu Ying pushed back her hair that the wind had scattered onto her face away and heard the people next to her subconsciously hum.

“It’s because I loved you, I chose to perform with this in mind.”

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^{1 Song with English translation here. The MV shows that the song is about a couple who used to be in love, but the girl now wants to break up. She acts as if she doesn’t want to, but the boy can see that she’s tired of the relationship. In order to make her feel better about leaving, the boy pretends as if he also no longer cares about her. Fairly fitting for Ji Xiangkong and Miya’s relationship, or at least that’s how it goes in Qiu Ying’s mind.}

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i’m going be busy with packing this week… there may or may not be an update on time next week but i should have some more time to translate and build up a buffer after everything settles down :)