Honey Stewed Squid

Within twenty minutes, the match had come to an end.

Inside the small chat room, the gamers that had been ruthlessly defeated were still boiling with exhilaration and spamming the chat screen…

ImAGodYouKnow: Begging not to be kicked out…

BrainDeadNumero7: Begging for another match…

KillLalala: … Is God Gun really online? Or just AFK [away from keyboard]? Why didn’t I see him just now?

DieLalala: Gun??????? Begging for another match!!!!

TheLittleMatchstickThatSellsGirls: I think God Gun was AFK…

KillLalala: Still happy, even if he was AFK. Just being able to run into g Shuai and 97 is RP[1] [good karma] erupting off the charts, you know!

BrainDeadNumero7: Ya… Being beaten and battered to the point it feels awesome is also a form of blessing…

……

Tong Nian was gnawing on her fingernails, deep in pondering. Why had they won just like that? Oh, and while she was at it, she continued to be stuck on the question of why you had to use your keyboard to move your character around… Although, she had already learned how to use the keyboard to move forward, backward, left, and right as well as jump, throw things, do front flips, do back flips…

“Yaya.” She addressed the person beside her.

“Uh-huh, uh-huh?” With Yaya’s state of euphoria, the only thing she was missing was a giant tail behind her that she could wag to and fro.

“Why do you need to use the keyboard to move in this game?” She did not really dare ask Gun. “Before, when I played God with… with my cousin, we used the mouse to move around. Isn’t that really convenient?”

She had finally gotten accustomed to how to move around, how to use a skill… and had thought that she was at least practiced in the trade now.

Who would have thought that once she switched over to Tempest of the Sealed Chamber, everything would be completely different?

And she did not dare ask Gun, either…

He would certainly then ask her what she had played initially and with whom had she played.

And then, that would let the cat out of the bag, right? Getting the wrong guy and chasing after grunt to game with him was just too humiliating!

Plus, she felt a strange sense of guilt, as if she had been unfaithful to him behind his back T.T…

With an “uh,” Yaya contemplated over how she could clearly explain the answer to this question to a gaming idiot. “Usually, DotA-like games, ones like League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm, God, etc. all use the mouse to move the character around, but for Sealed Chamber, you generally use the keyboard to move.”

She was bewildered. “But you can move with the mouse, too.”

“Yes, you can, but those who really play all use the keyboard. Only noobs and people who are just wasting away their time will use the mouse. Sealed Chamber is a simulation game, with all sorts of little, detailed actions like jumps, front flips, etc. and they are all controlled with the keyboard. A mouse is simply not able to handle so many actions.”

Tong Nian 0.0…

“And when you go over to the StarCraft, Warcraft type games, the way the mouse is used is different again…”

Tong Nian carried on with 0.0…

Yaya silently put away her desire to lecture. “One sentence summary: they are just different types of video games.”

“Ooooh.” Tong Nian nodded with great seriousness. “Well, if one moment you’re playing DotA, another moment you’re playing StarCraft, and then another moment you’re playing Sealed Chamber, won’t you get mixed up?”

Yaya…

How can someone who has gamed for ten-plus years get mixed up?

The ones who get mixed up are the types like you, those little girlies who can’t even differentiate between the different types of games… I guess…

Soon, the second match began.

On Gun’s end, he seemed to have started a telephone conference and reminded her to turn off her voice chat.

He typed out a string of words on the computer to her, instructing her to begin practicing how to switch from gun to dagger, then dagger back to gun; how to load, aim, and fire; how to throw grenades…

Her head spun from reading this, and quietly, she sent off a message in a private chat window to him.

Lolicat: *raising hand* May I first ask a question?

Gun: Go ahead.

Lolicat: Will you look down on me if I learn really slow?”

Gun: No.

She was feeling a little touched, and there was a tingly feeling in the bottom of her heart. She had never discovered before that he could be so patient. But very shortly, Gun followed up with another statement.

Gun: I never held out any hope that you would be able to learn this.

Lolicat: … Then… why are you taking it so seriously to teach me?

Gun: To pass the time.

……

In her vision, Yaya and 97 were already working very well together. Despite not really understanding what she was seeing, from watching them do all sorts of running, climbing up stairs, somersaulting, and, every so often, shooting and other stuff like that, she felt enflamed with excitement… Yet as she watched, she began to feel a little deflated. The motivation she had felt while happily jumping up stair steps just a moment ago had completely disappeared. Propping up her chin, she simply stared at the computer screen, waiting for his conference call to end.

After some time, Gun seemed to also notice that there was no activity from her whatsoever.

Gun: Why aren’t you moving?

Lolicat: Waiting for you…

Gun: Don’t like gunplay? You like adding HP?

??

!! That was not possible.

She stared foolishly at the computer.

He could not possibly know. Back then, it had been grunt whom she had played with. Besides, the entire time, she had used someone else’s ID. Stay calm, stay calm. He must have just asked that arbitrarily. Just like Yaya said, video games only have those few types. He just asked that arbitrarily…

So, she made the decision to play dumb.

Lolicat: Huh? … What do you mean by add HP 0.0?

Gun was silent.

After several seconds, he tossed over a line of words:

(>^ω^<) Meow. This is Little Squidie. Thanks, everyone, for watching out for me.

……

……

……

……

She banged her head fiercely on her desk.

Even the emoticon was exactly the same…

Yaya jumped in alarm. “What’s going on? Got chewed out by God Gun? Get used to it and you’ll be fine. Just get used to it, and you’ll be just fine. Supposedly, back in the day, out of the teammates who played with him… aside from his team captain, Solo, there was not a single one who didn’t get chewed out.”

“I didn’t get chewed out…”

After a lengthy while, she glumly lifted her head back up from the desk. grunt must have found out about her Fish Playing in Sealed Chambers account, linked it up with everything that happened later… and then told him…

And so, she once again made a decision, this time, to not play dumb and voluntarily admit her mistake.

Lolicat: I only played three times… with grunt. I thought he was you…

Gun did not reply.

Lolicat: I was wrong…

Gun still did not reply.

Lolicat: The first time playing with him, he hacked me to death… The second time, he told me to hide in the brush… The third time, I helped him add HP… But no inappropriate words were said! Never! I swear!

Lolicat: Don’t be mad…

Still no reply…

* * * * *

Gun had long brought his laptop back into his hotel suite and left grunt and 97 in the training room. Just now, he had stepped out momentarily to grab a bottle of mineral water from the refrigerator. He had not expected that when he returned, he would see so many messages sent from her… How slow was the kid? Hadn’t she noticed that the ID, “Lolicat,” had been chosen based on that character she liked, that Loli who rode around on a big cat?

Standing in front of the desk, he set his bottle of water down beside his hand and, with his fingers on the keyboard, sent over an invitation for a one-on-one voice call.

When he discovered that the kid had not even figured out that it was he, using grunt’s account, who had led her around and gamed with her back then, he immediately felt that this very simple matter had become much more fun and interesting.

Hence—

Call connected.

His first sentences were “What was that? You’ve gamed with grunt before, too?”

“Don’t read too much into that. Please, please don’t be mad. It was honestly nothing.”

He grinned, deliberately not answering her as he offhandedly loosened the tie around his neck. Things had been too rushed when he hurried back, having a meeting as well as watching her game, and only now did he realize that he was being constrained by his clothing. Very uncomfortable.

“I was wrong…” she mumbled softly.

“It’s okay to make a mistake.” He guided her in a low voice, “Knowing how to make amends for your mistake is the important thing.”

……

After a lengthy silence…

“Say it.” She quietly conceded, “As long as… I can do it, I will.”

* * * * *

In the blink of an eye, Saturday arrived.

For five entire nights, Tong Nian spent the deepest hours of those nights tossing and turning, unable to sleep because… he would be returning on Saturday…

In a large-scale gaming and anime expo, as she sat at the special guest booth in the northeast corner with a pen clutched in hand and her head down, working away, her mind was still filled with thoughts of “he’s coming back, he’s coming back…”

Every part of her was so excited it was as if she was going to soar off into the air…

However, once she remembered what she had promised him that night, her face immediately reddened, and she became a little nervous about his return.

The end of that long line-up of people waiting for autographs could not even be seen. The event host was very puzzled as to why so many people had all of a sudden showed up this time. Later, she discovered that… half the people were holding stuff like K&K jerseys or K&K brochures to stand in line. Unable to resist, she asked in a low tone, “You’re standing in the wrong line, eh? … The one giving autographs belongs to the cover singing circle…”

“Not wrong, not wrong.” A young boy laughed and scratched his own head. “I want to ask K&K’s lady-boss for an autograph…”

The girl who was representing the event organizer went 0.0…

While she did not really know much about the gaming circle, she had heard that recently, the hottest gossip seemed to be that this extremely famous Fish Playing in Sealed Chambers Dada had found herself a man who was even more famous… As for exactly how famous, she genuinely did not know anything about those people who played video games. But from continually reading through the gossip on the forums and all sorts of news, this seemed to be especially exhilarating, in a blood-roiling kind of way?

He had taken a world title before? And not just once? And also won some sort of individual MVP award? And was the big boss of a top eSports club?

……

Too incredible.

The girl turned around to do a head count, all the while considering whether she should stop the line at a certain number of people so that anyone who came after would be turned away from getting an autograph. Otherwise… she reckoned that by the time the expo concluded, this oh-so-crazily popular special guest’s hand would end up snapping from all the signing…

Tong Nian was still head down and plugging away. On the table as well as all around her chair, all sorts of cute, little gifts were piled up.

Sign, sign, sign, sign, sign, sign…

All of a sudden, a huge bouquet of flowers was set down in front of her.

Confused, she lifted her head. Didn’t know him.

“My goddess…” The boy coughed, then undid his coat to reveal the front chest area of his button-up shirt. “Would it be okay to sign here?”

“Ah?” She gaped at him.

So many people were watching…

“I’ve been listening to your songs since middle school through to now. I’m definitely your hardcore fan…” The boy used all sorts of ways to beg. Not knowing how to refuse, in the end, she could only stand up and wordlessly and rapidly sign her name on his chest.

Then hurriedly taking her seat again, she continued to bury her head and sign, sign, sign, sign, sign, sign…

Hand out a CD, take a CD, hand out a CD, take a CD—

A man had stretched out a hand.

The fingers were slender and the outline of their bone structure clearly defined as they casually rested on the edge of the table.

?

Out of reflex, she lifted her head and—

From the hands, to the arms, to the waist and up, there was a black, cotton, long-sleeved T-shirt… He was emitting a rather languorous, apathetic air with his very large duffel bag slung cross-body on his back and his jacket lying on top of that bag, and he leaned in close, his right hand in his pants pocket and the other arm resting on top of the table. Using a voice that was a near whisper, he said, “Little girl, you’re quite popular. Didn’t you say you like me? How could you so easily agree to sign someone’s chest, then?

……

She opened her mouth slightly, dazed with shock.

Didn’t he say he wouldn’t be back until the evening? …

In a single second, silence fell over all the staff in front of the autographing table as well as that long line that stretched behind him with no end in sight.

What the heck?! … What was this…?

[1] 人品爆表 “ren pin bao biao.” This is a Chinese online saying and literally means “moral character has erupted until off the chart.” The first two characters, 人品 mean “moral character” and in pinyin, are written as “ren pin.” As a result, they are sometimes abbreviated as RP by Chinese netizens. With the belief that good moral character will eventually bring good to you (i.e. you reap what you sow) when netizens say their RP has erupted, they are saying something extremely lucky has happened to them because their good moral character has “erupted” to bring good karma upon them. The presence of these K&K players is beyond “extremely lucky,” to the point it’s as if their RP erupted off the charts.