Accompany You Ch 16.3

Chapter 16: A Brothers’ Game (Part 3)

The CPL Fall Season once again drew its curtains with the strong newly-promoted Newland obtaining the championship, lurking in the allusion that the three titans would be overtaken by the waves of the new generation. In the rest period after that, Team Phoenix continued to train, only going on break a few days before the Spring Festival. Qiu Ying was originally planning to go to her cousin, Gu Jiayi’s, house for the New Year as she had done before, but unexpectedly, Ji Xiangkong suddenly invited her to come back home with him.

Qiu Ying’s heart skipped half a beat. For a very long time, she couldn’t speak a word, haltingly saying, “Th… this quickly?”

Seeing that she was so nervous the top of her head was smoking, Ji Xiangkong lazily laughed as he said, “There aren’t many people in my family. When the New Year comes, it’s just my mom, my maternal grandmother, and me. If you come, it’ll become a bit livelier.”

Qiu Ying’s fingers tremored. Incoherently, she said, “What kind of girl does your mom like? I… you… she…”

Ji Xiangkong brushed against her nose. “Someone like you.”

Qiu Ying searched up countless strategy guides online, prepared many gifts, and even dreamed at night of the commonly-seen tropes in romance novels where the mother-in-law breaks up the male and female lead. Only when the day truly came did she discover that meeting the parents wasn’t as frightening as she’d imagined at all.

Ji Xiangkong’s beautiful peach-blossom eyes were inherited from his mother. Although Mama Ji was advancing in her years, her charm was still there. Her brows curved as she smiled, dimples at each corner of her mouth, as she affectionately took Qiu Ying’s hand. “For many years, Xiangkong has always lived together with a group of boys. I was truly afraid that there’d come a day when he’d bring a beautiful boy home.”

Ji Xiangkong was a child from a single-parent household, growing up with his mom and his maternal grandmother. He made a lot of money after playing professionally and wanted to buy his family a large house, but his mom and grandmother were accustomed to living to their old house and weren’t willing to move.

When they ate their New Year’s Eve meal, Mama Ji put a lot of food into Qiu Ying’s bowl, voice sincere as she said, “Yingying, don’t worry. Our family’s Xiangkong is an honest child, he’s not popular with women at all, and he’s never lied.” 

Qiu Ying nearly spit out the soup in her mouth.

Later on, Ji Xiangkong’s mom would say the same thing while being interviewed for an esports documentary. After the movie broadcast, every time Ji Xiangkong played his tricks and displayed his acting skills in a competition, the people in chat would spam at the same time— 

“Mama Ji: Our family’s Xiangkong has never lied.”

In the evening, Ji Xiangkong’s mom left early to play mahjong with the neighborhood. The only two people left in the apartment were Ji Xiangkong and Qiu Ying. As Qiu Ying didn’t want to watch the New Year’s Gala,¹ they went into Ji Xiangkong’s room to play on the computer. The room wasn’t large, with only one chair, so Ji Xiangkong held her on his lap as usual, one hand around her waist and the other operating the mouse.

When he browsed onto a certain page, Qiu Ying pushed him with her elbow. “Look, Conquer came out with a new update, a big one for the New Year. We’ll be busy after the rest period.”

Ji Xiangkong had his worries about Qiu Ying’s mood and was originally going to find a movie for them to watch, but unexpectedly the young girl had the same thoughts as him. She pressed him to look at the update, so he opened up the long announcement about the newest update and read it, point by point.

Qiu Ying concentrated on looking at the screen, occasionally looking back to exchange a few words with Ji Xiangkong. He tangled her hair between his fingers and gradually lost the will to study the game.

He remembered that the first time he saw her, two years ago in Seattle, in the noisy sea of people in the audience, he recognized her at first glance.

There was always a group of boys surrounding her. When she asked a casual question, they scrambled to be the first to answer, unconcerned with whether they looked bad and their entire faces overwhelmed from receiving her favor.

At the time, he had a very bad impression of her. For this type of person who positioned herself as a pretty face from the very beginning, games were nothing more than a tool for them to gain fans. What gave him even more displeasure was that she especially liked imitating Miya. Because she was particularly “famous” on the internet, he clicked onto her streaming room out of curiosity several times. He discovered that not only was she imitating her, she’d also learned it extremely closely to the real thing. She had likely watched the videos many times, acting out every single detail to the highest degree.

It was just a pity that this smile was false.

She’d hidden it deeply, and maybe she’d practiced it for many years, but he still discovered it.

It was a cautious, like walking on thin ice, instinct to please. An overflowing smile that came from the inside out due to love and a smile that came from empty compromise were fundamentally two different things.

He really hated that with this sort of false smile, she danced Miya’s dance.

Later on, after the finals, she took the initiative to strike up a conversation with him. She wasn’t at all good at acting in front of real people, and he didn’t even need to guess to know the intentions behind her. He was originally going to ignore her, but for some reason he changed his mind.

When she got on his car, something fell outside. She leaned over to pick it up, revealing part of a small, snow-white, waist.

He turned his head awkwardly, the smile on his face disappearing and the curve of his jawline tightening.

Was she this unprepared? Late at night in a foreign country, she was alone and her clothes were thin. What if the person in the car right now wasn’t him, but someone with other intentions?

An unnamed feeling spread densely in his chest. For no reason, he was slightly annoyed.

She left a tube of lipstick in his car, as well as a card with her phone number written on it. He threw away the lipstick, but when he was about to throw away the card he stopped. After hesitating for a while, he put it away and closed his eyes. In his mind emerged those apricot eyes of hers that glanced around as she spoke.

When his teammates watched her stream next to him, words in the vein of “Pay 500 yuan to watch her dance” and “If we spend some money, could we ask her to change clothes” made the fire that was building in his chest burn even more fiercely.

He made a decision. Since she wanted to play, then he would accompany her in playing.

After being in contact with her several times, he discovered that she had a small habit. Every few words, she unconsciously stopped and raised her eyes to quietly observe the other person’s reaction.

He suddenly had a sly idea. He wanted to see her true expressions behind her mask, the panic and fluster, shame and anger, happiness, sadness. He wanted to see all of it without missing a single one.

Only after a very long time would he understand that this type of unnamed, stifling and irritable, feeling, was what was sung in the song as: Your shadow has flashed into the room of my heart.²

Afterward, what happened made him accidentally discover that she looked to be so clever, but in fact she was often a foolish girl.

She was very hardworking, as well as very smart. He pointed to a road for her and she walked out the crooked road. When he was at his lowest time of loss, she had him look at everything about him that she’d gathered, grew angry for him, and as she hugged him she said that she wanted to be together.

At that moment, it wasn’t that he didn’t know of the sincerity beneath her joking facade. It was just that at the time, he’d just been kicked out of Legend, betraying what Captain Cris had entrusted to him before he retired, and the best of his brothers was iced out because of him. With many factors combining together, he truly wasn’t in a good state to begin a new relationship. Besides, he didn’t understand what the feelings he had for her were, either.

She didn’t shout the phrase “like” emptily. He watched her change, watched her awkwardly yet steadily run toward him. A girl who wasn’t a professional player was actually able to walk on top of the highest stage of game commentating within one year. What she had experienced was the darkness that ordinary people could not bear. 

Feelings were like two ends of a balance. Only if they were evenly matched could they turn into each other’s light.

Unconsciously, he was deeply fascinated by her. Even during the most critical period of their competition schedule, he still always wanted to see her.

When he encountered Fu Miya again, he was extremely calm.

It was just like a book. A certain page had once been dampened with tears, blurring the text, but now it was already turned to a new chapter.

When he was with Fu Miya, he didn’t have very many desires. He even thought that no matter where Fu Miya was in the future, or who she was with, as long as she was happy he would wish her well. Even if she separated with him, even if she fell in love with someone else.

But with Qiu Ying, it was completely different. He wanted to make her smile, wanted to make her angry and then coax her into happiness again, wanted her emotions to fluctuate because of him, wanted to make her his, and no one could take her away.

Now, there were more and more truths that made him completely understand that what he felt for Fu Miya was a teenager’s attachment to and thirst for warmth, while what he felt for Qiu Ying was love toward a woman.

“Do you regret that you aren’t a commentator and that you make much less money than before because of me?”

“No, I think that the feeling of working hard with everyone right now is really great!”

Halfway through scanning the contents of the update, Qiu Ying saw Ji Xiangkong’s interest waning and began to read it aloud for him. She hadn’t yet read a few words before she heard the sound of a kiss, especially loud and clear in the quiet room. 

The close kisses spread all the way from the back of her neck downward. As the air conditioner was turned on in the room and Qiu Ying was only wearing a thin top, his kisses made her entire back moist. Ji Xiangkong said with a low voice, “If you want anything, just tell me. I said that no matter what request you make of me, I’ll satisfy them all.”

“Then… loosen your hand first, you’re making me itchy…”

She hadn’t yet finished speaking when the arm around her waist tightened. Qiu Ying heard Ji Xiangkong’s low laugh, buried in the crook of her neck. “This type of request doesn’t work.”

He thought of the last CPL Fall Playoffs, when there was a night that he took advantage of a breaktime to run over to the place that she often appeared to find her. He discovered that she’d fallen asleep on the sofa in the corridor, beautiful silky hair spread out, long eyelashes dense as a fan and occasionally trembling, ears so pale they were nearly transparent and slightly flushed. She was really very cute.

Because she would grow cold if she kept on sleeping like that, he thought of bringing her back to her room. He bowed down to look for her room card. She didn’t have a bag, her arm was blocking her pockets, and he grasped her wrist to move it up and explore her pocket. It wasn’t there.

He looked down and saw a corner of a card peeking out of the pocket of her skinny jeans, so he pinched it with his fingers to pull it out. After several unsuccessful attempts, he finally used a slight bit of strength and accidentally bumped into her body.

He heard his own heartbeat, chaotic and hard. Every beat jarred his temples into tingling slightly.

After a moment, he laughed at himself. He was actually nervous.

He carried her toward the elevator. Along the way, her head rubbed against his chest from the disturbance, the fragrance filling his nose until finally, he couldn’t keep himself from lightly parting her bangs and kissing her forehead.

He had never before experienced feeling his heartbeat like this.

He’d previously learned elsewhere that Qiao Xin was hotly engaged with a certain high-ranking STV executive behind Qi Yue’s back and was likely not in her room right now.

After he helped her take off her shoes and put her on the bed, he sat next to the bedside. Even his breathing was very careful for fear of waking her up. He focused on her fast-asleep face and reached out. They were a very short distance away. Little by little, he traced her delicate and beautiful facial features, lingering to and fro. Her warm nose kissed against his fingertips, his throat tightened, and he unconsciously swallowed.

Finally, he forced his gaze away, took in a deep breath, and quickly stood to go off.

If he took another glance, he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to leave.

As he thought up until here, Ji Xiangkong suddenly pressed her on top of the table, his other hand winding around to her front to knead her full chest. He leaned over her back and slowly kissed downward.

“Hey…you… I’m doing business!”

The sound of resistance was stifled by his lips, closely followed by even more shameless bullying.

He held her earlobe. “We’re already in my room, this is business.”

“I…I’ll finish reading the update and then you…”

“That’s fine, keep on reading, I’m listening.”

“The Necromancer’s…second skill’s cooldown has changed from ten seconds to…oh…”

The following words were once more swallowed between his lips and teeth. For candy that had finally reached his hands, he constantly wanted to eat it full.

Without her realizing, she had been pressed to the bed. He would bite her when the kissing was at its most intense, then appease her with a lingering peck after she was hurt. Qiu Ying was tossed around so much she could hardly breathe, gasping for breath as she gave him a hard push, but he captured her wrist in one motion.

Ji Xiangkong’s beautiful peach-blossom eyes were slightly lidded, gaze deep as he looked at her. And then, as he looked straight into her eyes, he turned his head slightly to kiss her palm.

Instantaneously, her heart slammed in her chest. Qiu Ying’s entire body went aflame…

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^{1 A Chinese New Year special variety show broadcast on CCTV, one of the most-watched TV programs in the world.
2 From Zhou Xuan’s song Pour Our Your Heart.}