CH 19

Ch19 - Being Blocked. To Ask Is Pain.

Li Zhongchen originally thought that the day was going along smoothly. Even heaven was helping him. They were even able to draw the luckiest SSR card. It was not impossible for their relationship to ease up.

There were certain things that, not only could he not deceive others, but he could also not deceive himself.

To both of them, one’s birthday was a special and meaningful day. At the end of the day, Li Zhongchen still wanted to keep the other company and make it up to him once.

He also knew that whenever there was an event, the amusement park would set off fireworks at night. With the brilliant displays of lights in addition to whispering honeyed words of a lover under the night sky, it was something that Qiao Yi easily ate up.

Many years had passed, yet there was only such a person in his heart. He wanted to give something to the other unconditionally and make up for the regret in his heart.

……But in the end, everything was once again screwed up by him.

The parking area was brightly lit by the street lights at night.

He was seated in the driver’s seat of a white-silver Cadillac that Young Master Yao had graciously loaned him.

Li Zhongchen rolled down the car window and suddenly felt a sliver of chill. When he exhaled a lungful of smoke as the cigarette dangled from his lips, his eyes were filled with mocking intent. His gaze inevitably moved to the two small jars of candies on the storage rack.

They were the gifts from the event Qiao Yi and himself redeemed after their painstaking efforts.

“Master, I’m late!” Zheng Xiaokui sat in the backseat, and being uninvolved in the situation, she was in a great mood. “Were you waiting long? When I got the phone call, Xiao Su and I were just done wandering around. Why did you suddenly say we were going back?”

Li Zhongchen did not respond. After glancing at the rearview mirror, he started to drive.

His expression was dark as deep waters, and did not say a word from beginning to end.

“……” Zheng Xiaokui was frightened silly. As long as her sixth sense was not wrong, Li Zhongchen must be in a really bad mood now.

With a chime, her phone rang with a message notification. Within the cramped, small, silent space, it was exceptionally annoying.

The little girl hurriedly switched her phone into silent mode out of fright.

Sugi: Zheng Xiaokui, have you seen God Zhong?

Zheng Xiaokui responded to Su Ruiqi as sneakily as a thief.

Sunflower: I just got in the car OvO, about that, my Master seems to be in a bad mood.

Sunflower: What about you? Did Xiao Qiao gege go look for you guys?

After waiting for a moment, the other side responded.

Sugi: He didn’t come. Brother Qiao talked to my sister over the phone. I’m not too sure what they talked about. Anyway, Brother Qiao left first, and had my sister send me back to the base on her way home.

Zheng Xiaokui: “……”

It was over. Zheng Xiaokui was in a panic, thinking to herself how did things between her Master and male god turn out this way. Could it be that they could not come to an agreement and the two adults even got into a fight?

He drove like a whirlwind the entire way and stuck a pin wherever there was room. It was a drive of nearly two hours when they were headed there, but their drive back only took half that time. Zheng Xiaokui felt as though she was still on a ride at the amusement park, her brain stimulated by the intensity to the point of lacking oxygen. In her heart, she thought that he was truly worthy of being her Master!

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.

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Zheng Xiaokui jogged back. Master, that old man, didn’t even want to mention my name. Don’t tell me I’m really going to be wu wu wu, but I didn’t even do anything wrong……

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He mustered up courage and tried to send a message to Qiao Yi, which all sank like a stone in the ocean. When he tried to call him, each time would end up with a phrase that rang out: The number you have called is currently unavailable.

——He could not run away from the fact that he had absolutely been blocked.

“Damn it.” Li Zhongchen could not help but curse in a low voice.

When the last cigarette burned out, it was time for him to return.

At night, the two floors that belonged exclusively to the Apex branch were completely blacked out. Everyone had long returned to their own dormitories. Li Zhongchen turned on the lights. He randomly chose a desktop and got online.

He did not log into his account on the national server. Instead, he switched over to the American server to match up with international players.

The wee hours of the night in China were exactly in the afternoon in America. All the people who were matched with high rank points were all big shots. He even matched up with a famous livestreamer. He killed to his heart’s content, but his stomach felt empty. Li Zhongchen did not even notice it.

He had no idea how long had passed—

“Fuck me,” Yao Tong suddenly appeared and exclaimed, “what are you doing, not sleeping in the middle of the night?!”

Li Zhongchen turned his head at the sound. His eyes were bloodshot, the word fatigue imprinted on his face.

It was as though Yao Tong had seen a ghost. “You, are you not fucking tired?”

Li Zhongchen turned his head back and muttered, “I will return you the car key later.”

“I’m fucking……Did you think I slept my fill and woke up at three in the morning just to ask you for my car keys?”

“When did you go to sleep?” Li Zhongchen asked again. “Were you thinking of cooking instant noodles?”

“I was shaken awake by you this morning and was tired like a dog. I couldn’t hold on and fell asleep at nine,” Yao Tong knew what he had meant. “Wait five minutes, your younger brother, I, will immediately serve you the best selling Lao Tan pickled cabbage noodles in the entire base.”

As for Li Zhongchen who had once again returned his attention to the game world.

He had acid reflux and felt nauseous. The voice of his passerby teammate came through his headphones, “get into the safety zone, Bro.” He carelessly grabbed a piece of hard candy from the candy jar, and responded, “yep,” in an unclear manner. They killed their way into the final ring.

The savory aroma spread across his taste buds.

The fragrance of instant noodles filled the training room that was empty save for the two of them.

Yao Tong more or less figured out the situation. He stirred up his noodles with his disposable chopsticks, then put them down once again like a hung man, hesitating to eat despite wanting to. “But then again, you dragged him all over the amusement park. Aren’t you afraid of your pictures being taken and posted online by people who know you both?”

Li Zhongchen drank the soup, emptying out the bowl. “It doesn’t matter.”

Yao Tong could not understand him. “It’s up to you. The power of fangirls doesn’t work. Anyways, let’s give up on this. I don’t think Xiao Qiao would sign over here no matter what.”

Angered, Li Zhongchen smiled instead. “Then where can he sign? What is good about signing with OPW? He just wants to be stubborn when it comes to me.”

“……” Yao Tong coughed dryly. “What then? Didn’t you say that you guys were playing along rather well at the beginning? Things were going fine, so how did you two have a fall out again……”

In all honesty, Yao Tong more or less had an answer in his heart.

But he understood Li Zhongchen’s personality. If he did not voice it out, he would remain unhappy. Humans were not omnipresent and everyone needed to vent. It was just that Li Zhongchen was too stubborn and always acted as though he did not care.

“I upset him,” Li Zhongchen was frank and honest this time. “I couldn’t hold back and kissed him.”

Yao Tong yelled fuck in his heart, yet on the surface he still had to pretend to be calm. “……Awesome.”

Li Zhongchen said, “did you know, when we both drew the SSR card and went to an enclosed room, what kind of ambience it had? It had the kind of effects that high-end hotels could make. Fuck, all that was missing was a bed.”

A few hours ago.

Mottled lights within the Star Pavilion created an illusion of being in the vast galaxy. They were surrounded by an abundance of stars, and one would be able to pluck the star off the sky if they reached out.

The building was closed off for the event, and only three groups of players could enter at different times of the day.

Staff would remain outside and not enter to disturb, nor were there any cameras in recording. The romantic and bright galaxy was all left for the two to enjoy their time alone.

Due to the ambience, as they chatted about some topics related to the new competition season, Qiao Yi also gradually relaxed. In short, things were better than in the beginning.

Later, the atmosphere slowly became more and more strange. The ambiguity in the air grew and developed in secrecy.

Li Zhongchen mumbled. “The way he looked at me was like he used to. It’s not that you don’t know how good looking he is and that he’s my type. I couldn’t hold back, and……”

Couldn’t help but kiss him on the lips.

The feeling that was lost and regained was too tempting. At that time, his hand held the back of Qiao Yi’s head as his tongue sought the other’s out vigorously, completely ignoring what reaction the other had.

Of course, in the end, he was pushed away fiercely.

Qiao Yi’s breaths were unsettled, his heated gaze looked like a sharp blade, and he was about to cry.

Li Zhongchen recalled all that. “I think he blocked me after that.”

Yao Tong lost his cool then. “Damn, Xiao Qiao could block you?! Even when you two fell out to the point of breaking up, he didn’t even block you……”

After hearing that, Li Zhongchen also felt that he was beyond saving.

In the past, even during their period of cold war before separation, Qiao Yi had never once spoken aggressively at him. There was no disharmony even in their sexual life. Speaking of which, perhaps the fault laid in them being too compatible in bed.

That was why he had been so bold today. He lost his senses and could not control himself.

Li Zhongchen did not know how to court someone. He was also not good at dating and romance. There were too many factors to blame.

Even in a strict sense, it was Qiao Yi who courted him back then. They were fifteen, sixteen year old greenhorn youths. If it was not for Qiao Yi’s initiative, with how they were exchanging amorous glances with one another, it was estimated that he would not have taken that first step no matter what had it been Li Zhongchen.

“Ai, look at you, having spent the past year this way.” Yao Tong gritted his teeth and spoke cruelly. “Just treat your actions today as something you did after getting drunk. After sobering up, pretend nothing happened. Whatever happens, happens. If he really goes to OPW, then we’ll just buy that bastard Xu Hang back at high cost. There’s nothing too bad about that.”

Li Zhongchen looked at him abruptly. All the blood in his body froze. “No.”

Yao Tong looked at him woodenly. “What do you mean, no?”

Li Zhongchen leaned back. “Anyway, it’s a no. His heart is soft, but his mouth is damned hard. Xuhang’s team’s current boss is even less reliable than that one with the last name Qin. Qiao Yi had already been cheated twice. There are only a few years left before his retirement, I’m really uneasy about him being tossed around like this.”

Furthermore, ever since Qiao Yi’s return, he could not continue to pretend any longer. He said he did not care, but it was just him deceiving himself and others.

The feeling of his body boiling all over rushed straight to his head.

Whenever he looked at Qiao Yi, the countless cells in his body would tear at him frantically, causing his rational mind to be broken away, making him forget that he had actually completely lost the other in the past year and a half.

He really could not handle spending the remainder of his life without Qiao Yi.

At that moment, Yao Tong was at a loss for words. This couple were really too abusive.

The training room that should have been quiet and silent returned to its usual calmness. Yao Tong took out his mobile phone. It was uncertain what he was ferreting through, then handed the device over for Li Zhongchen to take a look——

“What?” Li Zhongchen moved over slowly.

“Look at it yourself.”

Li Zhongchen stared at the Weibo page. His eyes became sharper as he read the text. “Yu Wen and Luo Yuji will be livestreaming at eight o’clock at C station tomorrow night?”

Yao Tong corrected him. “It’s tonight. It’s almost five o’clock in the morning, brother.”

“……” Li Zhongchen’s eyes met with Yao Tong’s, and immediately guessed what the other was thinking. “Do you want to team up with Qiao Yi and match up with them for a fight?”

Yao Tong praised him with fan circle terminology. “Zhong-chan is really the best!”

Li Zhongchen: “???”

“What’s so scary about being blocked by Xiao Qiao? Don’t you two have the best communication bridge in the world? Would Xiao Qiao reject something so interesting?”

“……My younger brother?”

“That’s right, it’s that little academic tyrant friend.”

Li Zhongchen thought about it carefully. It was true. Perhaps, his brother, Xiao Xun could be a communicator this time.

Besides, Qiao Yi was not a pushover. Perhaps there was no need for his suggestion, he would have already had the intention to go to the battlefield with Wing and Lau for a bloodbath.