Volume 2 - CH 9

Playing Fish Trapped in Secret Room

Book 2: You’re Beautiful

Chapter 9

She didn’t like long distance flights.  After they changed flights, she began to feel airsick.

All of sudden, someone touched her arm.

She opened eyes to see Dt handing her an eye mask he somehow acquired.

She opened her mouth with smile and whispered,  “Thank you.”

“I have an extra one.”  He said, showing the other one in his hand.

Go to sleep quickly.  Have a nice dream.  He thought.

Ai Qing accepted the eye mask and put it on.  It was so cool and soft that she fell soundly asleep shortly afterwards.

Usually her dreams while traveling were incoherent.

But this time, it was a rare exception.

This was the first time after Solo disbanded the team that she dreamt about how it used to be.

It was unclear which day of which year that was.

……

It was raining outside.  She carried several lunch boxes and walked into the community along the path with an umbrella.  This small community could be categorized as upper class, because Gun had acquired their first round of funding.  But they didn’t waste money on the luxury of a single room for each person.  They instead rented a two bedroom apartment.  One was for the men and the other one was for the women, plus a training room.

When she threw the umbrella into the water bucket at the door and was about to walk into her own room, she could see seven or eight of the guys were all in the living room.  They sat face to face behind the two rows of computers.

No solo?

She put down the lunch boxes and looked around.  Finally she saw him in the bathroom which was attached to the living room.  Solo lowered his head, washing his face with cold water.  The water flowed down his face randomly soaking into his collar and shirt.  She walked over silently and took out a clean towel from the cabinet.

He didn’t open his eyes, but it seemed he had noticed her.

He stretched out his hand and touched her hand.  He took the towel at the same time.

He quickly wiped himself dry.

He then returned his usual gentle self and asked softly,  “Is the rain heavy?”

“Very heavy.”  She showed her hair.  “The umbrella turned inside out on the road.  My hair’s all wet.”

She heard his muffled laughter.  Then her vision was covered by a towel immediately.  He used the towel to dry her hair thoroughly.  His palm touched her ears.  She dared not to move.  Her face was flushed and she leaned against the door frame until he took off the towel and spoke,   “Ok. Go comb your hair.”

“En.”  She couldn’t stop herself from laughing and turned around.

She didn’t expect to bump into Gun as he was walking by.

So painful!  She covered her nose instantly and tears started to stream down.  When Solo, who was behind her, pulled her back and checked her nose, he found her nose was bleeding……

But Gun simply shrugged behind them and quizzically smiled at them.  “Are you two doing something that we shouldn’t know, eh? Occupying the bathroom?”

There was shouting from the living room instantly.

“What else can they do!”

“Vice captain, give them a single room!  Our captain’s been lovey dovey everyday recently.  He never considers our feelings.”

“Yeah.  It really made us singles jealous.”

“That’s right.  They don’t know how to care for small animals.  Single dogs are still dogs.  Dogs are the most loyal animal.  Do you understand, captain!”

……

The embarrassment was enough to wake her from her dream with a jump.

She couldn't tell whether she was still in the dream.  Dazed and in darkness, she listened to the thumping of her heart.  After a long while, she recovered some of her senses and took off her eye mask.

She had bad headache.

Next to her, Dt’s seat was empty.  She didn’t know where he’d gone.

It just so happened that Gun was passing by her.  His eyes slightly slanted and paused after he saw her.

En?

Was anything wrong?  She found out after quickly touching her face.

She felt embarrassed for being seen like this.  She lowered her head and reached out for tissues, pulling out a tissue to wipe her eyes dry.

Gun suddenly sat down next to her but didn’t say anything.  Startled, she blurted out,  “I’m all right……”  Her voice halted abruptly.  The Gun today wouldn’t care whether she was alright or not, would he?

She seemed to have spoken nonsense……

“Moods, that sort of thing,”  Gun, in a very low voice, asked her suddenly,  “Isn’t it a whimsical thing?”

“Ah?”  After a moment of confusion, Ai Qing quickly understood what he was talking about.  “It’s alright.  It’s just……”

What was it?

She couldn’t explain it clearly.

It doesn’t matter whether it was friendship, love, or something else, the last thing one could remember clearly and keep reminiscing about would always be those unique teenage years.

Unfortunately……

Them of the past and them in the present would be forever separated by the insurmountable long river called time.

They could never go back again.

“You have a good memory.”  Gun adjusted his chair to a comfortable position.  He closed his dark eyes without waiting for her answer,  “I already forgot almost all of them.”

This pair of eyes was nicknamed Satan’s Eyes in the CS circle at the time.

There had never been a player who used the weapons used in CS as his own name------Gun.

Compared to Cocky All, he actually was the person who was truly supercilious on everything.