Chapter 48

Qiao Yanzhou sometimes really felt that he was mentally ill. He would cry at any damn thing; wasn’t the slightest bit like a 1.8m tall man approaching his 20s.

But Qiao Yanzhou had this shortcoming since he was young. His most profound memory was when he was in 2nd grade. At that time it was Qiao Yanzhou’s turn to clean the blackboard. Because Qiao Yanzhou would earnestly wipe the blackboard during every break, the teacher in charge of the class at the time rewarded him with a small red flower after dismissing the class. 

It wasn’t actually a small red flower, it was actually just a red flower shaped toy that was stamped on his forehead. According to Qiao Yanzhou, he described himself similar to Erlang Shen.  

Erlang Shen is a Chinese Deity, usually portrayed as a very noble and heroic warrior. He has a third eye in the middle of his forehead. 

But at that time, he didn’t feel that way. Excitedly, he rushed home with his flower only to be told by the granny next door that his parents were out and wouldn’t be home till late. They probably wouldn’t be able to see his small red flower. 

Hearing this, Qiao Yanzhou went back to his room, sprawled on his bed and cried. Even Qiao Ai, who was 5 at the time, could remember it clearly. It was obvious that this scene was very traumatic that it could even give his younger sister an intense shadow in her mind. 

But it was more of a sense of frustration rather than a psychological trauma, as Qiao Ai felt that she wouldn’t cry like her brother. 

Afterwards, in order for his parents to see the flower, he didn’t even wash his face at night. He persisted until morning time to finally show his parents the faded color of the flower.

Honestly, Qiao Yanzhou himself didn’t know what he was thinking at the time. It wasn’t that he wanted to show off to his parents and it also wasn’t because he wanted his parents to reward him for the flower. Afterwards Qiao Yanzhou thought about it carefully. It could purely be because he wanted the people who cared about him to see his accomplishments. 

Ai? Someone who cared about him….

Qiao Yanzhou suddenly didn't want to continue thinking about it.

**

It was 3PM by the time all the tests were done. Qiao Yanzhou didn’t have much to do afterward so he returned to his room to sprawl on his bed and look at his phone. 

Gu Zixing disappeared somewhere after talking with him and he didn’t see him until evening. 

Qiao Yanzhou lazed around on his bed and felt like taking a nap when Liang Dong’s phone call came over. 

“Hello?” Qiao Yanzhou casually put his headphones on and talked to Liang Dong while browsing Weibo. 

“Brother Zhou brother Zhou! How was your competition today?!”

“Ok ba… the person I fought against was Gu Zixing’s substitute,” Qiao Yanzhou smacked his lips, “we tied.”

“Bro you’re f*cking awesome!” 

“The most awesome is my private coach.” Qiao Yanzhou laughed. “I was going to call you at night. Aren't you working today?” 

“As long as it doesn't interfere with work, I can give my good brother a call ah!” 

Liang Dong had just finished speaking when immediately afterwards you could hear someone calling his name from behind him. And it seemed to be a rather strict sounding female voice.

“Liang Dong! The customer at table 8 has been calling, you can't hear?!”

“Coming coming coming.” Liang Dong was scared and hurried to reply. 

Qiao Yanzhou listened in on this and laughed. “Doesn’t interfere ne?”

“Sudden situation, sudden situation! The woman at Table 8 always comes and sits at one of my tables then tries to quarrel with me!” From Liang Dong’s tone, Qiao Yanzhou could pick up a hint of annoyance. 

“Could it be because she’s interested in you, you handsome little brother?”

“Don’t say that, if Lingzi hears that she’ll kill me with her own hands.” Liang Dong shook his head. “Forget it, I didn't have much to say besides to wish you success in the competition.”

“Thank you!” 

“Wait for when I have time to come visit you, I'm busy so I’ll get off first ah!” 

“Ok,” Qiao Yanzhou spoke as he took his headphones off, “Bye bye.”

After hanging up the phone Qiao Yanzhou stretched. 

In fact, Qiao Yanzhou knew that recently many people knew that he was participating in the EG selection competition and came to hug his thigh. Acquainted or not, they all came. Not to mention, more than half of them were women and their goals were not all the same. For instance, some people wanted Qiao Yanzhou to boost them, some also wanted Qiao Yanzhou to find all the players of EG and get their autographs, but the majority of them wanted him to take a picture of Gu Zixing’s room. 

Qiao Yanzhou, of course, didn’t agree to any of them. 

Only Liang Dong treated him a bit more normally. That might be why Qiao Yanzhou and him were sworn brothers for many years. 

Hanging up the phone with Liang Dong, Qiao Yanzhou fell asleep. It wasn’t until Gu Zixing came back at 9PM did he wake up.

“Why were you out so late…” Qiao Yanzhou stood up, rubbed his eyes and left his room, “I even took a nap.”

“Team training, was also testing a tryout.”

“Testing? Didn’t you pull out the ‘I’m-too-important’ card and back out of the tryout?” Qiao Yanzhou frowned. He looked a bit upset. “You didn’t even do the test with me ne.”

“Shen Yinan.”

“What about Shen Yinan?” Shen Yinan was that famous streamer from Ivory Cat, Xiao Nan. His actual name was Shen Yinan.

Qiao Yanzhou’s tone made Gu Zixing distracted for a moment, then laughed.

“What are you laughing for.”

“I'm only doing a test, not having an affair. Why are you so aggressive about it?”

“Even if you were cheating on me I wouldn’t be aggressive.” Qiao Yanzhou turned and sat on the sofa. 

He didn’t know if he was just grumpy from waking up or if it was because he had a dream about a chicken leg but couldn’t eat it because Gu Zixing’s door woke him up. In any case he was not feeling very reasonable at the moment, it was like he had menopause. 

“Come come, I'll give you a treasure.”

Qiao Yanzhou had wanted to turn his head up and ask what it was when Gu Zixing tossed over something to him. He caught it and carefully examined it to see it was a piece of candy. Paying closer attention, he also saw that the writing on top was in Korean. He couldn’t understand a single word.

“One of the testers who came today is Korean. Before leaving he gave me a bag of candy.”

“Wow, what a big bag ah,” Qiao Yanzhou looked at the single piece of candy the size of a fingernail in his hands. He lifted his head to laugh. “I’m afraid I can’t eat it all.” 

“Qi Chen and the others snatched it away,” Gu Zixing laughed along with him. “Try it.”

Qiao Yanzhou didn’t continue to speak, opened the candy and threw it in his mouth.

En, extremely sweet. 

“Xiao Nan has some connections to the higher ups, so they asked me to test him.” Gu Zixing leaned against the railing of the balcony. “I act as your private training partner every night, what are you still unsatisfied with?”

“Then your hand injury ne?”

“Hurts. As soon as I come back my roommate even tries to be upset with me.” Gu Zixing walked up, reached his hand out and used his finger to lift Qiao Yanzhou’s chin. “Come on, smile for a bit.”

As a result he was slapped away by Qiao Yanzhou’s palm. 

“So how did Xiao Nan’s test go?” Qiao Yanzhou stood up from the sofa and walked towards Gu Zixing’s side. He took his left hand to take a look and it looked a little swollen again. 

“It was supposed to be fine in a few days.” Qiao Yanzhou sighed, “Serves you right.”

Gu Zixing was not angry. He simply smiled at Qiao Yanzhou. 

Frustrated, Qiao Yanzhou walked over to the shelf to grab the ointment for Gu Zixing’s hand as he kept nagging, “Did Shen Yinan get the spot?”

“Don’t know,” Gu Zixing extended his hand in front of Qiao Yanzhou, “Why are you so concerned about him?”

“I’m scared that you got beat up by the other” Qiao Yanzhou spoke and couldn't help but laugh. “I heard that Shen Yinan is really fierce recently. I heard he's about to break into the top ten on the Korean server soon.”

Gu Zixing didn’t utter a word, lowered his head to watch as Qiao Yanzhou put ointment on his hand. His gentle and cautious demeanor was a bit cute. 

“If it hurts, tell me. I'll be more gentle.”

“It doesn’t hurt.” Gu Zixing leaned against the railing of the balcony and turned his head. There was a beautiful panoramic view of S city. One could even see the boats on the river and on the other side of the river were the skyscrapers and the lively night market. 

The last time he calmly looked out the window was when Qiao Yanzhou and his friends were visiting the night before GML. When Qiao Yanzhou called him, even though he was talking on the phone he still felt a bit bored, or perhaps it was loneliness. 

But this time, that feeling was not as prevalent.

“Xiao Qiao.”

“Speak.”

“Why were you crying after the test today?”

“Who is crying!” Qiao Yanzhou suddenly lifted his head, flatly denied it. 

“Ridiculous.”

Gu Zixing clicked his tongue. He already knew that Qiao Yanzhou would definitely not admit it. Seeing him pause, he gently shook the hand that Qiao Yanzhou was rubbing ointment on. 

Unlike Gu Zixing whose hands were cold all year round, Qiao Yanzhou’s hands were always warm. Massaging it was very comfortable. 

“What are you doing…” Qiao Yanzhou was distracted for a moment. “Did I hurt you?”

“No.”

Gu Zixing’s tone was languid as always. Qiao Yanzhou also did not let go of the hand he was holding. He also didn’t know if he was a bit addicted to the feeling of the ice cold hands. 

Qiao Yanzhou flipped his hand over and lightly touched Gu Zixing’s palm. 

“Thats right Xiao Qiao, tomorrow don't forget to come in to take part in the 2nd round.”

**

After the first day of tests was over, the second day was a battle between the official members of EG and the ten people who made it out of 50 from the trials the day before. 

The ten people were then further split into two teams to compete against the official members. It was a best-of-one competition. But the results of the games were not an important factor to the higher ups for recruitment; it only served as a reference. 

It was a bit nonsensical to think that a random team of people would beat the official team in this competition. 

When Gu Zixing told him last night that he'd been selected as part of the ten, Qiao Yanzhou was so excited he didn’t sleep all night. He was so ecstatic that when he finally closed his eyes, he was immediately blasted with images of the EG pennant and uniform.

This was the first time he was so close to playing on a professional team, but he wasn’t sure if he could grasp it or not. 

Gu Zixing had disappeared early in the morning again. He didn’t see him until they were in the training room with the rest of the official members. 

The five official players of EG were already there and had all switched to the official uniform. Coach Chen was also standing in the middle. It was unknown what he said to them but the feeling was exactly the same as if they were doing an official tournament in the SPL.

Right after entering the room, Qiao Yanzhou felt that he could suddenly feel what it was like to be on the opposing team against EG from all those past professional matches. 

Merely seeing Gu Zixing, sitting there and chatting, was enough for people to feel the oppression pressing down, causing them unable to breathe.

At this moment, Gu Zixing was completely different from the Gu Zixing last night who obediently let him rub ointment on his hand. 

The big devil king. 

Qiao Yanzhou’s mind only had these three words. 

Forget it, it should be 7 words ba. 

A kind-of-handsome-big-devil-king.  

JADE: Ahhh I realize I've been on hiatus for the longest time. Life has just been happening so I'm sorry to anyone who followed this story. I'll try to continue to update what I can. Im hoping if this year isn't terrible, I want to try and finish the novel this year.