Prelude — 5

Prelude: Chapter 5

Their midnight conversation wasn’t a very pleasant memory.

Dt was usually quiet and Ai Qing couldn’t quite figure out what he was thinking like his teammates could……therefore, she had to carry the conversation herself for a length at times. Finally, she couldn’t keep it going anymore and used thirst as an excuse to go back to her room.

She didn’t wake up till noon the next day. She was woken up by a phone call, reminding her to attend the Asian Tournament opening ceremony that afternoon.

She hung up the phone and hid her head inside the blanket to keep the glaring sunlight out. She struggled another 20 minutes before finally getting out of the bed. She truly did not want to go to any opening ceremony; speeches from the sponsors, promotions by young girls cosplaying, and routine interviews by the media from different countries……the one thing she hated the most was that some of the foreign media would ask very discriminatory questions. Questions like: We heard that you are from China; compared to other more advanced countries, China is somewhat behind in its computer fields. What kind of efforts have you put in to compete in the world level competitions?

Everytime this happened, she felt like smashing a keyboard into their faces and say:

Behind!? Like hell we are! The world’s first returning WCG champion is Chinese!

Even Singapore couldn’t play any new tricks to alleviate the boredom.

For example, the event that just left the stage.

Ai Qing listened to the many shouting fans sitting behind her. “Lin Junjie! Lin Junjie!” This singer, Lin Junjie, was invited by the organizer as a special guest. He energetically sang three songs and finally left surrounded by security guards.

But, all the contestants were dozing off. It’s not that they were not respectful.

It’s just that video games competitions in Asia are basically a man's world, except for an occasional female’s team or two. Hardly any young man likes to hear these kind of pop songs.

A buffet was served after the ceremony.

“Gou Gou,” Slide walked over holding a plate full of BBQ chicken wings and purposely lowered his voice. “I forgot to tell you one thing.”

Ai Qing was tapping her forehead with a wet towelette trying to keep herself awake. “What?”

Slide was still hesitating, several contestants not far from them were whispering a name, “Solo”.

Ai Qing thought she had heard it wrong. But at the very next second, she realized that he was really here.

A lot of people stood up; looking for this man, who had swept through most of the world competitions and almost took down the title of grand slam[1], with respectful gaze. Even some people from the strongest team, the Korean team, looked over at him.

Usually, these type of minor Asian competitions don’t attract any world class competitors. No one expected to see Solo, ranked number 3 in the world, showing up here.

“See, I’m still too late.” Slide patted her shoulder. “He just asked me how you were doing lately. I didn’t tell him that you’re here. It’s up to you whether to see him or not.”

After saying that, Slide leaned back on the chair and bit into a chicken wing.

Ai Qing didn’t say anything. She quickly glanced over in the direction that everyone was staring at.

There were 3 or 4 tall men standing at a table.

That man, who attracted the attention of everyone, wore a simple pure white short sleeved polo shirt. With one hand inside his pants’ pocket and head stooped down, he was talking and smiling with the person next to him.