Book 1 — 9

Book 1: Chapter 9

Luckily, Grunt did not say anything more afterwards.

He and Ai Qing were the minority in this room, so he naturally sat next to Ai Qing.

He only picked one song to sing during the whole night.

When the music began to play, the whole room suddenly quieted down. Unlike the noisy pop songs they had sang before, it was James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful”. His voice was deep and low. It was a slower song to begin with, but his singing instantly grabbed everyone’s attention when he sang with his deep voice.

When he put down the microphone, Ai Qing’s sister excitedly gripped on her hand.

“You sang very well.” Ai Qing also exclaimed sincerely. “You like James Blunt?”

“My ex-girlfriend liked Blunt very much.” Grunt put the microphone back on the table. His eyes were slightly squinted so one couldn’t tell how genuine his words were. “She liked to hear me sing this song, so I just learned it in passing.”

Ai Qing did not expect him to talk about something so personal and did not know how to respond.

Luckily, he did not seem to have any desire to continue on the topic either.

It was her sister who pulled on her arm and mouthed: he’s not just cute but also a very doting boyfriend.

Ai Qing turned around to look at her sister and also mouthed back: don’t tell me that you’ve fallen for him?

Her sister’s eyes flickered a bit then quickly nodded.

On the way back, they rode on the same taxi since only Grunt and the two sisters were staying in the same hotel. Her sister acted very lady-like all the way. Once they were back in the hotel room, her sister grabbed her arm excitedly. “I really like him, really.”

“No wonder you were restless the whole night.” She did not know whether to cry or laugh. “You don’t even know his real name. Don’t you find that a little bit untrustworthy?”

“But my heart raced when I first laid my eyes on him, just like you when you saw Solo for the first time.”

……

In a split second, Ai Qing became silent.

Many, many memories wildly bursted out; she couldn’t suppress them in time.

She remembered that the first time she saw Solo was when she was 14 years old. The internet at home was off and she and her sister went to an internet cafe to pass the time. She recalled that she was playing a matching game and suddenly heard a boy talking. His voice was very pleasant to the ear.

She couldn’t help herself to take a peek.

Solo was talking to the owner of the internet cafe with one elbow resting on the counter at the front of the cafe. His face was full of smiles, from his eyes to his expressions, just like the bright sunlight in the height of summer.

She felt as if she’d been enchanted and immediately pulled her sister’s arm. “Ai Jing, Ai Jing, look at that boy.”

Because she was wearing headphones, she forgot to control the volume of her voice. Solo looked over at her even before her sister could turned her head……

The light in the hallway wasn’t turned on.

She looked down to take off her sneakers in the dark then walked into the bathroom barefoot. She turned on the faucet and splashed water onto her face.

The cooling sensation quickly suppressed all the memories.

She pulled down the towel and said, “Men who play video game competitions are no good. The amateurs totally have no future, the professionals are like athletes whose lives only consist of trainings and nothing else. In the end, you’ll only suffer. For them, only their teammates are their families, girlfriends and such are all outsiders.”

She thought about it more and added. “Besides, in the future when you are introducing your boyfriend, someone would say that their boyfriend is in the banking business or works for the government, what are you going to say? My boyfriend plays video games?”

“I don’t mind.” her sister leaned against the doorway of the bathroom smiling while biting her lip. All of a sudden she looked at Ai Qing again. “Seriously, have you ever regretted it?”

“I’m not sure. Sometimes I regret it very much. Sometimes I feel that it was a pretty nice thing to be able to solely focus on one thing. But, it is true that esports will mess up your life.” She walked out of the bathroom and saw the laptop on the table. “Especially for those people who have reached the peak, it would be very difficult for them to adjust back to an ordinary live.”

There was a prompt for a new email on the lower right corner of the screen.

This email box was from the old days which she had subscribed to a large amount of news related to esports. She did not have the heart to close it.

She opened the mail, for sure, it was news about an international tournament.

“The WCG 2010 qualifying tournament in China has come to an end.

The WCG 2010 qualifying tournament in China has already concluded in 13 locations. The last two locations will be held in Guangzhou and Chengdu this weekend. At the closing moment of the qualifying tournament, the WCG organizers have announced that this year’s final competition in China will be held in July 23 - 25. The location will still be Shanghai.”

The following was a long list of those who had qualified.

While she was reading, her sister came over and pointed at Grunt’s name. “Let’s go see the competition? It happens to be in Guangzhou.”

Ai Qing did not respond.

She might see a lot of familiar faces at a competition like this.