Honey Stewed Squid

Today was the qualifying match for K&K’s secondary Tempest of the Sealed Chamber roster.

Yesterday, the primary squad’s match had ended in a surprising draw, and they had qualified for the second round based on points. This had left Gun feeling very peeved. When the competition began, Gun pulled his mind back into focus and fixed his eyes raptly on the situation on the battlefield.

Tong Nian was also striving hard to learn how to watch these games. There was a light tap on her shoulder.

She turned around. The woman she had seen following him earlier on in the hotel was bent over at the waist, and she whispered, “The boxed lunches have arrived. Come eat with us.” Tong Nian was taken aback and glanced toward Gun. The woman smiled lightly and explained, “It was Leader who said to order one for you.”

Oh.

Submissively, she stood, and not daring to disturb him, she crouched over at the waist and slipped out of the lounge area.

The members of K&K’s primary squad as well as its few subs were each, with lowered heads, cupping a paper takeout box in one hand and wolfing down the food in it. This particular venue was relatively small and did not specially provide a meeting room for them. Therefore, everyone simply sat on a chair and held onto his own food as he ate. The woman looked around, then asked for the duffel bag of one of the players and brought it over. “Sit on here to eat and use a chair as a table. Let me get you a poster to spread on top of the chair.”

She opened the lunch box. The food inside looked pretty good.

The woman also brought her a can of beverage, opened it, and set it beside the boxed lunch.

In that short period of time, several team members around her had already finished eating. All of them smiled at her but did not really dare say much to this little sister-in-law with whom they were not very acquainted. After yanking out some napkins and arbitrarily wiping their mouths, they each grabbed the drink they wanted from K&K’s own box of beverages and then, one after another, left the room to enter the main venue and watch the competition.

As a result, eventually, only she was left, sitting there alone, eating and eating, eating and eating…

So much food. Could she leave leftovers if she couldn’t finish it all? …

Last time, she’d had leftovers remaining…

Would she be shunned for being wasteful? T.T …

While her mind was stuck in this dilemma, someone came and sat down in the seat beside her. Raising her head, Tong Nian saw Gun holding a paper takeout box in his left hand and opening it. He glanced inside, then turned his eyes to her box. “Is there enough to eat?”

“Yes…”

It was obvious that the quantities of the main dish and sides were so small you could not even bear to look at them. If it were him, he could finish it all in a few mouthfuls. Gun frowned. He did not like wasting food, and each time, the number of boxed meals was ordered according to the number of people there were. Hence, there simply were no extra boxes of lunch he could pull food out of to add to her meal. Without further thought, he took all the food items in his own boxed lunch and swept them into hers.

Tong Nian was dumbfounded. “You’re not going to eat your entree and sides? Just rice?”

Since when were men so dainty and weak? They ate until they were full, and that was enough.

“The food isn’t to my liking.” He randomly made up some nonsense of an excuse. With the chopsticks he was holding, he rapped the edge of her takeout box. “Try to finish everything. Don’t leave any leftovers.”

“Oh, okay…” She carried on, head bowed and eating, with tears spinning in her eyes.

Gun bent his head down. Swiftly and efficiently, he devoured all his plain, white rice until the box was clean, then closed it up and tossed the box into the trash bag that was in a corner. The entire process did not exceed five minutes before he was returning to the VIP viewing area.

Alone, Tong Nian huffed and puffed away, eating from the beginning of the competition until its second round. Finally, when the entire troop came back to gather their things, she wearily closed up the top of her takeout box…

So full she was going to burst…

The secondary squad lost its match and took seventh in the group standings, advancing into the next round as the second-last place team.

The performance of these two consecutive days had been a huge surprise to everyone.

The entire trip back, the atmosphere inside the bus was heavy, and it remained as such when they were back in the hotel. He had reserved a room for her, but she did not go there. Hanging out on the sofa in the bedroom section of his suite, she played on her computer while listening to him as he exploded at everyone in the living room. Her own mood was gloomy as well. Dinner was ordered from the hotel restaurant and delivered directly up to the room. Everybody made do and ate there, then continued with the meeting.

This meeting carried on until nine o’clock. During a brief break, he stepped from the living room into the bedroom, where he saw her, hugging her computer, her legs curled up under her as she dozed off on the sofa. She appeared to be in a half-awake, half-asleep state. As her little head nodded back and forth, she would frequently startle awake, but without even opening her eyes, she would adjust her position, tilt her head to the side, and continue sleeping.

While he gazed upon her, his thoughts wandered somewhat.

How did grunt and the others normally even manage to interact with their girlfriends? With this sort of lifestyle—high intensity training, competitions—the time allocated to a girl, to connect and be with her, was practically nothing.

So, Tong Nian, what do you think you can get from being with me?

Whether it had been that time picking him up at the airport or coming here to travel with the team in competition, they had eaten meals from takeout boxes. There was no recreational time, and an otherwise perfectly fine weekend was spent like this. Was it not frustrating? This was what was normal for him. There would be one day when a player would retire from professional gaming, but for him, unless he retired completely from this profession, there was no opportunity for him to relax and take things easy.

He walked over, bent at the waist, and took away the computer she had been holding in her arms.

This action caused her to start awake, and hazily, she asked, “Done your meeting?”

“No,” he answered softly. “I’ll carry you over to the bed to lie down.”

With an “oh,” she wrapped her arms around his neck.

Those little arms softly encircled their way around and caused him to quiet down inside. The action of picking her up that he had said he would do did not happen. Instead, he went along with her motions and, closing his eyes, rested his forehead against hers. Rest for just a while.

There was no door on the entryway between the bedroom and living room of this hotel suite, so it was impossible for them to do anything. Simply leaning up against her and resting with his eyes closed was already very contenting.

Something brushed up close to his lips.

He knew what it was. He had just not expected that it would come in this moment.

Searing hot.

Her palm pressed itself to his nape. She took his lower lip between her teeth, then arched her head up to him. After struggling for one tenth of a second, he silently returned the kiss she was asking for.

The angle was not comfortable. He decided to simply lower himself into a half-kneel.

If a man did not even know what he wanted, then all this would purely be something that was insincere and superficial. From the first time they kissed, it had been very clear to him—it could not be any clearer to him—that he wanted her.

It does not matter that our social circles are different, nor do we need to have common interests to talk about. What I do, you do not need to work so hard to try to understand. Neither do you need my approval for what you do.

You need only to be clear about one thing, and that will be enough.

How much you want me is how much I want you.

Apart from you, no one else will do.

Inside the living room, someone had turned on the television, hopping between all sorts of different programs. These professional gaming players, who had been high-strung for an entire day, were now chortling and making fun of things, from this face on the TV to that line in the script, seeming utterly as if they were beholding another world’s bizarre scene. At this moment, they were all just big kids, boys, ranging in age from their teens to early twenties, who were youthful and ardent and liked to bust out swear words.

Of course, they clearly knew…

A light had not even been turned on in the bedroom, yet no one dared take a step in that direction.

……

“What are you doing?” he chuckled, pulling back out her little hand that had reached into his clothes.

She was in a daze, her breath coming out in light gasps…

She had not known at all where her hand had extended to.

“This thing, how do you do it up?” His hand that was on her back touched that.

Pretty troublesome.

Oh gawd…

Tong Nian perceived that something had come undone.

I didn’t hear that…

I didn’t hear anything!

I don’t know…

I don’t know anything!

He patted her on the back, but she did not so much as budge. With no other alternative, he could only rely on himself. From his back pants pocket, he pulled out his mobile phone, and in that pitch-dark room, the phone’s light illuminated her fair back.

His throat felt a little dry, and he was somewhat unwilling to shift his gaze away. Shutting his eyes, he made himself calm down for a moment. Only then did he put his mobile phone between his teeth and, under the glow of the screen’s light, help her fasten those little hooks using the fastest speed possible.

Then he tugged her outer garment back down.

Even when this series of actions was completed, she still stubbornly hung onto him.

“I’m going out now.” His voice huskily told her this.

She did not utter a sound.

“Tong Nian?”

She still provided no response.

Shy?

Alright, then…

But he still needed to go back out. There were still many matters that had not yet been taken care of. He invested too much of his energy into the China branch, and only that stretch of time in the middle of night could be left for the other major regions. Navi and the people in the Taiwan branch of the club were already complaining.

However, it was apparent the little girl did not want to let go anymore.

After a long moment of pondering, he at last took action.

Disregarding whether she was still hanging from him, his hands took ahold of his own waist, and neatly and decisively, he undid his belt buckle. Huh? She gaped in shock and, in a stunned state, withdrew backwards. She watched as he pulled off his belt, tossed it onto the ground, and… then lifted up the hem of his shirt.

??!!

She quickly grabbed his shirt. “Out-outside, there are a lot of people…”

“It’s okay. I’ll have them leave.”

“……”

“You’ll sleep here tonight?”

“……”

“That’s not okay?” Obvious desire could already be heard in his voice.

“… Your work is important…”

Her fingers were twisting tight into his shirt.

Oh, please, don’t…

Still not mentally prepared yet, aaaah—

At last, she heard what she most wanted to hear—his concession.

“Okay.” With a low chuckle, he touched his forehead against the little tip of her nose. “So, I’m going out now?”

“Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.” She hurriedly nodded. “Don’t mind me. Honest. I can just amuse myself, and when I’m tired, I’ll go back and sleep.”

Very good.

Motive accomplished, he thought.

……

……

Several minutes later, those poor devils—the ones who had been jokingly dissing at the TV while, at the same time, praying that the certain someone indulging in pleasure with his beautiful maiden in the bedroom would not emerge again—saw their Leader suddenly appear. It was completely too late for them to turn off the television.

Gun arched his brow. “You’re all watching quite happily?”

“No, no. We’re just having an intermission, right?” 97 speedily began to search for the remote control. Frick! Where did it go? Hey bros, all of you get up, man! Let’s all look for it! Are you all waiting to die? The group sprung to their feet, and everyone was bounding up and down, searching frenetically.

“We just watched for twenty minutes,” demo mumbled.

“Twenty minutes? You’re complaining that’s not enough?” Walking into the bathroom, he turned on the faucet and swiftly splashed a palmful of cold water on his face before adding, “Times fifty. That’s your training duration every day for all of next week.”

Everyone…

Leader T.T … We were wrong!

We shouldn’t have spoiled the atmosphere by watching that “ripping apart the Japanese devils with bare hands[1]” drama while you were being lovey-dovey and snuggling with Sister-In-Law…

[1]手撕鬼子 “shou si gui zi.” Literally, “ripping apart the devil with bare hands.” This is referring to the 2011 drama《抗日奇侠》 “Kang Ri Qi Xia,” which translates roughly as “The Amazing Anti-Japanese Knights.“ It is set in the Second Sino-Japanese War. In this period in China’s history when anti-Japanese sentiments were very strong, Japanese were often referred to as 日本鬼子 or “Japanese devils.” In this drama, one particular scene caused a stir in Chinese social media. A Chinese soldier, with his bare hands, ripped a Japanese man in half. Due to this scene, the drama has been called “Ripping Apart the Japanese Devils With Bare Hands” by Chinese netizens.