The night club was bustling with crowds of people walking to and fro, lights flashing brightly and mildly vulgar music playing so loud he could barely hear the sound of his own thoughts.
He looked over, watching his best friend flirt with the female DJ, and resisted the urge to walk to where they were standing and punch his stupid looking smirk right off of him.
Instead, he simply downed another drink, the hard alcohol burning his throat as he chugged it, and he wiped his mouth with a napkin lightly afterwards, the pinnacle of poise even while drinking himself silly.
His friend seemed to notice his fiery gaze, one that made him look more like an angry puppy than anything threatening, and he slowly sauntered his way back over to the bar.
“Hey, handsome, can I buy you a drink?” His friend asked, winking.
“Sorry, you’re not my type.” He curtly refused.
“Fuck, Zheng Shun, humor me,” the other sighed, slumping down on the chair next to him, “I just left my almost-date for you.”
“She did not want to go on a date with you,” Zheng Shun shot back, “if anything, she was going to beg to go back to your room, then steal your wallet.”
“You’re so damn cynical,” his friend huffed, “seriously, dage, can your brain even comprehend the meaning of the word positive?”
He knocked lightly on the CEO’s head to further his point, and Zheng Shun swatted his hand off, “I’m being realistic.”
“Oh yeah, so realistic, mister playboy Zheng,” his friend scoffed indignantly, “you should try to have fun once and a while, it’s good for you.”
“I don’t think I need to take pointers from the bottom of our grade, 59 point Liang.” He shrugged.
“Fuck, you really still remember the score?” Liang Enlai cried, “you’re such a bastard.”
“It takes one to know one.”
The two sat in a comfortable silence as Zheng Shun ordered another of the specialty drink, some sort of fancy red wine he didn’t care to remember.
“Seriously though,” his friend leaned against the counter, “what’s got you so mopey today? Is it Jiang Zhiqiang again?”
Zheng Shun’s expression went cold, and Liang Enlai was reminded once again that his cute little friend was once considered the most terrifying xueba of B academy, so cold and indifferent no one dared to go near him.
“Did he contact you?” He asked, frowning.
His friend shook his head, “Nope. Haven’t heard a word since, well, you know.”
Zheng Shun hummed, “right. Then it should be fine. I just need some stress relief.”
Liang Enlai perked up at that, smirking, “oh? Does that mean you won’t turn them down if I send someone to accompany you tonight?”
He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, and Zheng Shun narrowly avoided the natural urge to sock him in the face, “Don’t you dare. I told you it’s useless, I’m not that type of person.”
His friend sighed, “I know, I know, but you haven’t gotten any action in forever. Like, who can survive over a full year of abstinence? Not me, and certainly not you.”
“I’m not interested in that stuff,” he replied, “it was just easier to find hookups than people actually willing to actually date me.”
“That’s rough buddy,” Liang Enlai joked, patting his back hard, “but what’s your plan? Stay single forever?”
Zheng Shun paused, thought back to that cutely embarrassed face he’d seen on Wu Biaoqing during his livestream, and smiled for the first time that evening.
“No,” he shook his head, “I have a plan. Trust me.”
“A plan?” His friend echoed, intrigued, “and what, pray tell, is the magnificent Zheng Shunshun planning?”
The CEO punched his arm lightly, “quit it with the nickname. I’m going to trap someone… someone cute.”
Liang Enlai stared at Zheng Shun’s odd smile and shivered, “Damn, I feel bad for the poor bastard. Who was unlucky enough to catch your attention?”
“Someone handsome,” he shrugged, “with an adorable personality. I feel like if I were to kiss him, he would squeak, and maybe run away, but then come back and ask for more. It’s so cute.”
“You’re such a weirdo,” his friend sighed, laying completely on the bar counter, “so how are you going to trap him?”
“I’m pursuing him,” Zheng Shun explained, making the other gasp, “he’s too, well, everything to pass up.”
“Everything?”
“Like, you know,” he gestured with hard arms slightly, face flushed under the flashing bar lights from the amount of alcohol he’d drunk, and he got slightly lightheaded as another drink was set in front of him, “he’s just so perfect. He’s so cute, and sweet, and he’s a bit mean but in the good way, and he’s smart, he’s talented, he’s great at gaming, he’s nice to listen to, he—”
Noticing his friend’s gaze, he went quiet for a moment, “I’m talking too much, aren’t I? Fuck, but I’m not even drunk.”
Liang Enlai listened to his whining as he took away the drink in from of him, “that’s what a drunk person would say.”
Upon getting a kick to the shin, he merely replied, “you’ll thank me in the morning.”
By the time he returned, Zheng Shun was half sitting, half laying at the bar, staring off into space with a dazed expression.
“You alright dude?” Liang Enlai asked worriedly, “We should head out.”
“…Lailai,” Zheng Shun suddenly called out, “I think I might end up falling in love with him.”
“Oh,” his friend replied, as if he hadn’t just received the shock of his life, “o-oh.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Yeah,” he let out a small, drunken giggle, blond hair falling his face and sticking to his flushed, sweaty skin, “I didn’t expect it. I totally thought he’d get tired of me, or the infatuation would fade or something. But after we started talking, it just grew and grew, and now I’m not sure what I feel. Some days I just want to run to him and beg him to date me. Some days I want to cry, because I think of bastard Zhiqiang, Jiang Meilin, Jiang Wei, and the company, and I wonder how the hell I could even try to love someone right now. I’m worried that things are going to end horribly when they haven’t even really started yet.. I’m- I’m so scared…”
He promptly burst into tears, with Liang Enlai rushing to try and comfort him.
His mind was swirling, and he looked up between tear blurred eyes only to catch a glimpse of a familiar figure, and then slumped back down on the bar defeatedly.
“It’s over,” Zheng Shun whined, “I thought I saw someone from his team. I guess I really can’t get him off my mind.”
“Fuck,” his friend gasped, “you really are falling for him. Better make him catch you.”
The two of them laughed together, sharing the moment, inappropriate music and sour mood be damned.
—
“Is Chang Hui really running so late?” Asked Men Wu as he made his way into the training room, “I thought he’d be back by now.”
“Well, he did say that his grandma was having issues,” Xi Zhe shrugged.
“Still, the competition is only a few weeks away, and we need time to practice as a team.” Wu Biaoqing frowned.
“Let’s wait for him to get back, and re-group from there,” Xi Zhe advised, “we’ve been doing nothing but team and solo practices for weeks, we can pause for a day if he needs it.”
Wu Biaoqing sighed, and Men Wu ruffled his hair comfortingly, “I know you’re worried, dude, but think about how he feels. He had to take time off right before a competition because of his grandma’s condition.”
Isolation nodded, “It’s hard. I want him to rest, but we can’t really afford to rest right now. This was all poor timing.”
At that moment, the door to the training room opened, and an exhausted looking Chang Hui came bouncing through it, smiling a bit less than normal but still as excitable as always.
“Welcome back!” Men Wu greeted with a wave, “Did it go alright?”
Their friend noticeably dimmed, smile faltering for a moment.
“She’s… uh, she’s not doing very well. But they said she’d get better with the proper treatment, so I’m holding out hope,” He explained, sitting down at his computer, “I’ve just got to keep working hard, and hope for the best!”
Wu Biaoqing hummed, “let me know if you need anything.”
Chang Hui scoffed, “I can take care of it myself, Wu-ge.”
“Mn,” he replied, “I know. I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Do you feel up to another team match?” Asked Xi Zhe, trying to change the topic, “We haven’t been able to practice that new technique- I want to have it more refined before the tournament.”
“Right,” Chang Hui nodded, “I’m ready if you are! Don’t complain if I’m a bit rusty, though.”
Rusty proved to be wrong term—
He was more like completely rejuvenated, as they won almost ten games in a row thanks in kind to his good performance.
“Shit, Chang Hui, are you sure you didn’t get a brain transplant?” Men Wu gasped.
“Take that back!” Chang Hui exclaimed, chasing him around the room as Xi Zhe and Wu Biaoqing watched on helplessly.
“Do you think…” the captain hesitated.
“Something must’ve happened,” isolation replied, “but it’s not our place to ask, I think. He’s never been the type to share it when he’s down.”
“But—”
“To be honest, it’s hard for me to tell how he’s feeling,” Wu Biaoqing shrugged, “So unless he’s open about how he’s actually feeling, I’m going to treat him the same. I can barely tell when people aren’t being genuine, anyways. So while it feels like something’s weird, I’m not going to stress over it.”
“Oh,” Xi Zhe noted, “I guess that’s a unique way of looking at it.”
His teammate laughed, “really?”
“Yeah!” Xi Zhe exclaimed, “I really think something is going on, and I want to ask but… thinking about it, I guess you’re right. It’s not our place to intrude.”
“Mn,” Wu Biaoqing hummed.
—
The car door slammed shut, a loud clicking noise echoing through the parking garage, and Zheng Shun sighed, before slamming his face into the steering wheel.
The horn sounded out, a loud, shrill noise that cut through the silence of the late night hour, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care.
He was exhausted, and the problems he’d been facing only got worse the more he tried to fix them.
His entire day had been awful—
He flew for twelve hours, and as if that wasn’t bad enough, he had a hangover from when he drank too much right before the flight because of Jiang Zhiqiang’s phone call scheduling the impromptu trip in the first place.
When he finally made it to the hotel, he had to immediately rush to make himself presentable and get to the conference on time, because being thirty minutes early was on time for the Jiang family, and he was representing his father after all.
He hated that word, hated that people associated them like that—
Jiang Zhiqiang would never be his father.
Thinking about him only dampened his mood further, and Zheng Shun sighed loudly, before pulling out his phone and scrolling aimlessly through his and Wu Biaoqing’s messages to cheer up.
His mind wandered to the other’s sweet smile, and his cute laugh, and his adorable little expressions when he first heard his voice.
He thought about his mildly obscured, serious face as he put out his cigarette that day at the restaurant, and his blank expression as he played LOW, like his insane combat skill within the game was nothing.
Legend of the Wind.
His hands shook, and a teardrop fell into the screen.
It was like a dam that had a leak, those four words that always caused him a heavy heart making a few stray tears he’d been holding back slip out.
The plethora of what-ifs that plagued his every moment, the reality of his situation that felt like an endless ibis.
He was in an ocean of despair, and he was drowning in it, sinking due to the weight of his responsibilities, unable to breath as he was crushed under the overwhelming pressure of all of those expectations.
Everyone expected things from him—
Whether it was his friends, his so-called family, or even complete strangers, there was no letting up on expectations.
Except…
Wu Biaoqing had never expected anything from him.
To him, Zheng Shun was someone worthy of being protected.
In his twenty years of life, he’d never felt that feeling of protection before—
He hated that he loved it.
He hated that he was getting used to it, when it would inevitably be taken away.
He didn’t think, simply pulled out his phone and clicked the call button before he regretted it.
—
“Hm?” Wu Biaoqing paused as his phone rang out through the room.
“Is your mom calling you again?” Asked Men Wu, who had successfully evaded Chang Hui’s wrath.
“I don’t think so…” he finally fished it out from where it had fallen, and gasped slightly when he read the name, his ears going bright red.
“Wu-ge?” Xi Zhe called out, before watching dumbfoundedly as his teammate suddenly rushed out of the room.
Hesitantly, Wu Biaoqing took out his earbuds and plugged them in, getting the cord tangled due to his nervousness, and the call went unanswered.
The hallway was doused in silence once more, and Wu Biaoqing put on his earbuds, waiting for a second call.
It didn’t come.
He waited two, three, five minutes—
Nothing.
It could’ve been an accident.
A slip of the hand, or an accidental press after dropping his phone.
…or it could’ve been on purpose.
He wasn’t sure which one was the option he desired more, but he found himself hovering over the phone call button, debating whether to call him back.
Zheng Shun wasn’t typing or anything.
In fact, the last time they had talked was almost a full day before, after Zheng Shun mentioned that he would be gone for business and went offline without waiting for his reply.
Thinking of this, he sighed, and pressed the button.
There was no use hesitating, besides, he’d get to hear his good voice again.
A win-win.
When the call connected, there was silence on the other end, only the sounds of heavy breathing and the light pattering of distant rain.
Wu Biaoqing frowned.
He wasn’t in trouble, was he?
That idiot probably didn’t know how to take care of himself, if the pictures of his last attempt to make a home cooked meal were anything to go by.
“…ge.” Zheng Shun called out, voice gruff and serious sounding, and he knew instantly that something wasn’t right.
“Zheng Shun,” he replied, “what’s going on?”
This seemed to snap the other out of whatever trance he was in, as he replied somewhat shakily, “N-nothing. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have called you. I know you didn’t want to voice call yet.”
“It’s fine,” Wu Biaoqing assured him, before realizing, “wait— are you crying?”
The younger man’s voice shook a bit as he replied resolutely, “No!”
He paused for a second, thinking about what to do, before repeating what he said before, “…baby, tell me what’s going on.”
There was a moment of near silence where the other’s breath hitched, before the sounds of silent sobbing filled his earphones.
“I’m sorry,” Zheng Shun whispered, and Wu Biaoqing’s heart ached, “I’m sorry. You- I’m sure you have better things to do than stay on the phone with me.”
“Shh,” Wu Biaoqing cooed, “it’s alright. I’m not very good at comforting people, but… I’m here for you, Zheng Shun.”
He stood in the hallway with a concerned look on his face, Men Wu passing by and mouthing, “you okay?”
He covered the phone and whispered, “fine,” before returning to the task at hand.
“I…” the gifter hesitated for a minute, “I had a bad day today, sorry.”
Wu Biaoqing sighed, thinking that his boyfriend really needed to learn to not apologize so mu—
Wait what.
“It’s pretty weird to call you when we’re not even dating, right?” He laughed self-deprecatingly, before adding quietly, “I didn’t know who else to go to.”
“You have me,” Wu Biaoqing replied, “you always have me. You can always go to me.”
There was silence, before another quiet, “really?”
“Really,” He echoed, “I know our relationship is a bit complicated and all, but… I want to be someone you can rely on too.”
He heard a quiet gasp from the other line, and smiled slightly.
“Baby,” he said, “you’re pursuing me, but… I want to pursue you back sometimes.”
Zheng Shun laughed loudly, “Fuck, is that even a thing?”
“Probably not,” Wu Biaoqing grinned, “but it can be our thing. For now, at least.”
“For now?” The other paused.
“I mean—” the gamer flushed, cheeks heating up until they were bright red, “I wouldn’t mind… becoming official. But only after the tournament!”
A clattering noise erupted in his headphones, which made him laugh again, as Zheng Shun had obviously dropped his phone in surprise.
“You- you what?”
“I mean,” he explained softly, “we’ll go on a date after the tournament. A real date… uhm, but only if you want.”
“Of course I want to!” Zheng Shun exclaimed, “goddamn it, I’m elated at just the idea of it.”
Wu Biaoqing giggled, “Elated? You sound older than me.”
“Shut up, you’re ruining the moment!”
There was silence for a brief moment, until the two of them were giggling all over again.
“Ge?” Zheng Shun called out.
Wu Biaoqing hummed, “Hm?”
“…I’m really glad you want to go on a date.”
A four hour flight apart, two strangers grinned at their phones, and they were not much of strangers at all anymore.
They were considered strangers, simply because they hadn’t developed their relationship in person, yet in both of their minds…
They’d already become each other’s most trusted person.
“Of course I want to,” Wu Biaoqing teased, “I’m elated.”
Zheng Shun resolutely hung up, and Wu Biaoqing only laughed harder.
The author has something to say
Originally, this was supposed to be the chapter where I finally bit the bullet and wrote a detailed in-game fight. However, I am evasive, so I just skipped it in the end. Little author who doesn’t play online games suffers.jpg
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P vfmlvfv ab mbwwlrrlbc bcf bo ws ojnbglaf jgalrar *mbeut* ktb lr jirb kbgxlcu bc atf boolmlji mbnfg *mbeut* ab wjxf atlr qlfmf bo jgakbgx ab mfifygjaf jr j rqfmlji agfja! Zs yjylfr jgf gfji (´；ω；｀)
UPDATE: I added breaks to all the sections from chapters 1-9 I felt would need them. Please let me know if there are any other scene changes that might need breaks! I want to improve the reading experience as much as possible.
Omg!!!! The new chapter came out in less than a week!!! I’m so so so so happy. My god I’m so curious on what’s zhenshun reaction was to the phone call HAHA little isolation throwing good pick up lines there. So proud of him
Wait no I’m curious of zhenshun FEELINGS HAHA as his baby says all those
Our beloved qingqing is slowly learning the art of flirting… oh they grow up so fast (´；ω；｀)
As for shunshun’s reaction, during the phone call he felt much calmer hearing WBQ and didn’t dwell much because, Y’know, he was crying, but after hanging up he was super flustered. Let’s just say, walking into a pole on your way to a hotel can do a number on you.
WBQ also totally laughs at him when ZS inevitably starts sulking about it.
Thank you author!! I also noticed that you added breaks, thank you for looking out your little readers experience hehe!! Gonna continue my camping
Poor Zheng Shun has a lot going on. Who are the people he mentioned? Was he adopted by the Jiang family? Or am I misunderstanding?
I am also very curious about what’s going on with Chang Hui. I thought his playing would be negatively affected with his grandma being ill. (I hope she gets well soon)
But it’s nice of WBQ to not pry.
I have one little request: I really enjoy reading your work, but it is sometimes difficult to immediately notice that the scene changed; is it possible that you mark scene changes like different time/place/characters somehow? For example with ~~~ or something else before the scene switches? It would greatly improve my reading experience 🥺
More information on the Jiang family will come soon ( ´▽｀) as for the scene changes, that’s a good idea! Thank you for the suggestion, I think I’ll go back soon & add some sort of break for the scene changes.
Awww these two cutiepies made my day ☺ happy birthday little zheng shun~~
“baby” ⁄(⁄ ⁄•⁄-⁄•⁄ ⁄)⁄ so bold
Qinqing knows what he wants 🤭