Chapter 38
“Ai, what are you doing? Didn't you say you were going to the infirmary?”
Gu Zixing was dragging along Qiao Yanzhou. He didn't even turn his head around as they left the training room. They continued walking from the east wing to the west wing without ever seeing the infirmary sign before he finally stopped.
“Why'd you stop? Didn't you say you were going to the infirmary?” Qiao Yanzhou was baffled and looked at Gu Zixing as if he was waiting for him to give a reasonable answer.
“Xiao Qiao.”
“En?”
“Currently in this hall, I’m going to give you your first lesson after joining the team.”
“Say it.”
“There's no infirmary in the building.”
“....” Qiao Yanzhou choked a bit, “Then what about just now!”
“I already said that my hand hurt. I needed to have a reason to leave.” Gu Zixing forced a smile as he waved his hand in front of Qiao Yanzhou twice. “Hurts.”
“But you still need to find a reasonable excuse….”
Qiao Yanzhou had orignally thought that Gu Zixing was making something out of nothing again, but after Gu Zixing waved his hand in front of him a few times he finally realized that his joint was already a bit inflamed, and it looked kind of serious.
“F*ck!”
“Be a bit more reserved.”
“....”
Suddenly Qiao Yanzhou felt that he admired Gu Zixing a bit. His hand was already swollen like this but he could still crack jokes.
“If you continue like this, you won’t be able to attend the semifinals.” Qiao Yanzhou attempted to speak and seemed as if he wanted to remind Gu Zixing the seriousness of it, but Gu Zixing remained unmoved.
“Then what to do ne?” Gu Zixing’s tone was full of indifference.
In comparison, Qiao Yanzhou seemed like he couldn’t compete anymore because his hand was injured.
Gu Zixing laughed, “How about Xiao Qiao substitute for me ba.”
“Substitute for you against STG?” Qiao Yanzhou snorted as he grabbed Gu Zixing’s hand, “You might as well just stab me now.”
Gu Zixing’s hand was a bit cool but it was also soft, unlike the hands of a man. In addition, after experiencing great strength training his palms didn't even have a drop of sweat. His fingers were very long however his knuckles were very swollen. Sometimes if you weren't careful and accidentally bumped the knuckles, they would make cracking sounds. It seems that this ailment wasn't something achieved in 1-2 days.
“Is it that hard?” Watching as Qiao Yanzhou fiddled with his hand, Gu Zixing also didn’t refuse him. Instead he used his other hand to stroke his chin and propped himself on the nearby windowsill, then turned his head to look at Qiao Yanzhou.
“Don’t you know better than me if it’s hard or not? Afterall, the one who almost got beat up by STG before wasn’t me.” Qiao Yanzhou smacked his lips, eyebrows suddenly knitted and looked at Gu Zixing, “Tenosynovitis?”
“En, you guessed correctly Godly doctor Qiao.” Gu Zixing nodded his head, letting Qiao Yanzhou flipp his hand over to look. As a result, he didn't expect that after he just praised Qiao Yanzhou as a godly doctor, he accidentally hurt his hand. In pain, Gu Zixing hissed and subconsciously retracted his hand. He retracted halfway then threw his hand back at him.
“Sorry sorry sorry, it wasn’t on purpose. “ Qiao Yanzhou was also frightened, cautiously received Gu Zixing’s hand again and his tone was a bit worried. “I heard that if this condition is serious enough it requires surgery.”
“Yep. Why do I feel like if you keep playing with it you can just do the surgery.”
Seeing that Gu Zixing still kept joking around with a face that said he was making a fuss over nothing, Qiao Yanzhou was full of zeal.
“You don’t believe it? My aunt played the Guzheng and contracted this condition and can no longer play!” Qiao Yanzhou’s tone was a bit too loud. It seemed as though he wanted to use a sincere statement to move this insufferable person. “Usually this condition is found in the elderly. You are currently still young and you've already gotten this condition, then what are you going to do!”
“Marry a wife to take care of me.” Gu Zixing smiled, “The kind that can sit on top and move themselves.”
“You pervert, if you’re like this I’m calling the police to arrest you.”
“If you know I’m a pervert, why are you still playing around with my hand?” Gu Zixing used his facial expression to indicate at their hands that were still tangled together.
Hearing this Qiao Yanzhou without any objection, let go of his hand, making Gu Zixing hiss in pain again. This time, he even sounded like a snake.
But even though Qiao Yanzhou looked at his hand injury, he still understood clearly. He couldn't help but admire the org’s ability to keep secrets. This serious form of tenosynovitis was kept oblivious to the outside world. If one day someone’s hand got amputated, the team wouldn’t say anything for 1-2 years.
Maybe Gu Zixing’s other hand was fake, otherwise the speed wouldn't be that fast.
“I remember in the past that when my tenosynovitis would flare up, someone would massage me.” Gu Zixing extended his hand to put it in front of Qiao Yanzhou, then started to use his left hand to gesture towards it. “Take a look. This is the Hegu point, this is the Yangxi point, this is the Quchi point, this is …”
Acupuncture points on the hand
“Who massaged it for you, your girlfriend?” Qiao Yanzhou, who was on a different frequency, asked.
“Forget it ba.” Gu Zixing smacked his lips, “It was the person you just saw.”
“The person I just saw.. Qi Chen or Yao Le?” Qiao Yanzhou was distracted for a moment, then suddenly opened his eyes wide. “It can't be Coach Chen!?”
“My left hand.”
Qiao Yanzhou couldn't stand it and raised his leg to kick Gu Zixing.
___
Gu Zixing didn’t do any training for the rest of the day. During their training time, he somewhat took a look and listened, then at the meeting at night he just merely listened for a bit then left.
Today’s afternoon training content and tonight’s meeting content was to touch upon Tuesday's competition on EG’s tactics, strategy, as well as lineup. As a result, to avoid suspicion Qiao Yanzhou went to the pet store by himself to buy Wotou cat litter, cat food, cat scratcher, etc… After buying everything, he streamed for the entire afternoon.
It was his first time streaming from inside the EG dorms so Qiao Yanzhou still felt a bit nervous.
When Gu Zixing came back at night, Qiao Yanzhou happened to be playing “Outlast”. It seemed like the game wasn't even open for ten minutes yet, but the game already scared Qiao Yanzhou witless, frothing at the mouth.
“What are you doing ne?” Gu Zixing saw that Qiao Yanzhou’s room was half closed, and from within there were sounds of hollering. Therefore he curiously walked over.
“Ah ah ah ah! You’re finally back!” When Qiao Yanzhou heard Gu Zixing’s voice, it was like he heard the sounds of his own dad instead. Head didn't even manage to turn around yet when he stood up. 3 seconds didn't even pass when he closed the game. Just before closing his stream, he faced the webcam and said, “Then today the stream will end like this, bye bye to my viewers!”
Regarding the viewers urging him to stay and hearing Gu Zixing’s voice, Qiao Yanzhou decided to turn a blind eye.
Contrarily, Gu Zixing’s head was full of question marks.
“Why are you acting like a dog is chasing you…”
“It’s nothing.” Qiao Yanzhou’s smile showed a bit of embarrassment. However he was more embarrassed to realize that he forgot to save the ten minutes of the game he played.
The smile on his face turned from embarrassment to forced. He has to f*cking start over.
Gu Zixing didn’t continue to say more. He turned around to sit on the sofa in the living room. Qiao Yanzhou also followed after him.
“How is your hand?”
“A bit better.” Gu Zixing closed his eyes.
Although Qiao Yanzhou knew that during the afternoon he didn’t really practice, he could sense how exhausted Gu Zixing seemed.
This also wasn't surprising. Even though his hand was injured so he couldn’t practice, he couldn't stop his brain from working for a minute. The command of the team for the competition was still on his shoulders.
Sometimes Qiao Yanzhou felt that if EG didn’t have Gu Zixing, they wouldn't be able to continue to function.
How is it still called Team EG, Team Zixing sounded better.
“You were talking about the acupuncture points on the hand today. How did it come about?” Qiao Yanzhou sat by Gu Zixing’ side and asked.
Don’t know when it started, but Qiao Yanzhou’s nervousness from when he first met Gu Zixing was completely gone. It could be because Gu Zixing was never arrogant and very down-to-earth. Or it could be because Qiao Yanzhou got familiar with him.
“What for? You want to massage it for me?” Gu Zixing’s face that was full of exhaustion, perked up a bit and smiled. He tilted his body and looked at Qiao Yanzhou, propping his elbow on the back of the sofa to hold his head up.
“I just feel that it's a bit pitiful.” Said Qiao Yanzhou, “If you trust me then I’ll massage it for you.”
Gu Zixing didn’t even think about it and just gave his hand to Qiao Yanzhou, “Just massage however you want ba. As long as you don't make it painful it's fine.”
The hand of a world champion, how could he randomly just treat it like clay. Qiao Yanzhou saw Gu Zixing extend his hand over, suddenly felt like he was overwhelmed with favor.
In fact when Qiao Yanzhou’s aunt had this condition, he watched as his uncle would massage her hand. Although he didn’t remember clearly where to massage, he could remember bits to some extent.
“Xiao Qiao.” Gu Zixing squinted at him.
“Speak Lord Zhou Yu.”
“Nothing, just wanted to call you.”
“Mental.” Qiao Yanzhou sneered, then slightly moved his body back.
Although the words from his mouth seemed indifferent, the tone was a bit playful. But only Qiao Yanzhou himself knew that the tone of his voice just now made the right side of his body tingle. The thing most scary about it was that this was not the first time he felt this feeling.
Perhaps it was because Gu Zixing had this kind of disposition. When he spoke it was very velvety, especially when he was tired. Along with his smile that was a bit mischievous and warm, it made people feel the itch to do something, a feeling that couldn’t be spoken.
Sometimes Qiao Yanzhou rejoiced that he wasn't a woman. If he was a girl, every single time he faced Gu Zixing, his heart would have a little bit of adoration and good feeling. He wouldn’t be able to bear the teasing and at minimum, his face would be red.
Gu Zixing might not actually be aware that he was teasing other people, maybe he even thought he was as pure as a white lotus flower.
“Why is your face red?”
“Because it's too hot.” Qiao Yanzhou didn’t even think about his reply, “Don’t always look at me. The more you keep looking the hotter I become.”
As soon as Qiao Yanzhou said that he regretted it. It seemed as if Gu Zixing’s line of sight burned his body.
He wasn’t actually hot, merely the heart was a bit itchy, that's all.
As for why his face was red?
How the f*ck would he know why his face was red!
Qiao Yanzhou didn't dare to lift his head to look at Gu Zixing and Gu Zixing also didn’t continue to say anything.
In an instant, the quiet room exposed Qiao Yanzhou’s thumping heart.
The mood seemed to become even more ambiguous.
***