Book 4: The Return of the King


    Chapter 12


    Ai Qing rested her chin on her palm and read Dt’s Weibo post word by


    word over and over, more than a dozen times.


    She recalled that she had explained to her sister in the summer of 2010


    about what the “modern definition of a hero is to a girl.”


    In the game world, he, with his skills, could easily kill opponents, as if he


    was mowing the law, without any mercy.  But only to you, that’s right, only


    you, he would show up from time to time to protect you, coordinate with you


    to kill an enemy, and give all his experience to you in order to let you rush


    ahead without any worries to enjoy the ultimate enjoyment in gaming.


    In the esports world, this type of hero’s halo was even brighter.


    That man was at the top of the game server and the most valuable player.


    He was the one who frightened all opponents whenever he led a team into


    a fight.  He was the one who earned the cheers of several tens of millions


    people worldwide whenever he won a competition.


    He was the one whose name would go down in gaming history.


    But he told everybody calmly on a public platform...


    She had been the reason for him to move forward in order to catch up to her


    since he was twelve years old.


    Ai Qing held the cell phone in hand, turned sideways, and fell down free fall


    style into the sofa.  She closed her eyes, but her heart had already departed


    from her chest, madly pumping blood……


    She wanted to call him, but didn’t after struggling for five or six minutes.


    Finally, she texted him reluctantly: Call me when you arrive at the club.


    His response was simple as always: Ok.


    Now, she could only wait.


    She felt like a teenager who thought that he liked her but was afraid that he


    actually didn’t feel the same way.  Finally, she decided to get to the bottom of it


    by writing a note folded inside a book and give it to him, then wait for a reply.


    Perturbed, filled with expectation, her heart was rising into her throat, higher


    and higher..


    But they had already been together for some time……


    Ai Qing patted her face gloomily, then her cell phone vibrated.


    She cleared her throat and put the cell phone to her ear. The call connected.


    She could hear panting from the other side.  “I just arrived.”


    “Why are you running?”  She muttered in low voice.


    “The underground parking lot doesn’t have any signal.”  Dt was a little


    embarrassed. He had been teased by her many times before, but this time


    he was really embarrassed,  “......I didn’t want you to wait for too long.


    “Oh.”  She held her knees sitting up on the sofa.  It seemed that he had just been


    sitting in front of her, lowering his head with the hat on, and nervously clenching


    the teacup tightly.   “Wasn’t there an elevator?”


    “The elevator is too slow.”


    It was silent for a while.


    “You……”  “I……”


    Both were speaking simultaneously and both stopped at the same time.


    “Let me sing a song to you.”  Dt quietly exhaled a breath.


    She was stunned.


    “Han Shangyan said you’d like to hear it.”


    “Did Han Shangyan say it?”


    “He said so casually back in 2000 and something.”


    “Oh.”  She remembered.  “Was it Beyond’s songs?”


    Actually, she wasn’t the one who liked to hear their songs back then.  It was


    because Han Shangyan played their songs everyday in the training room.  Solo


    liked to put earphones on and listened to songs like Jillian. So she was just


    forced to be brainwashed.


    “Uhm.”


    The next two minutes, Dt actually stood outside of the K&K building, accompanied


    with the sound of cars passing and the sounds of the city in the air, and sang a


    song <Like You> in Cantonese in a low voice to her.


    He sang it pretty well, better than Gun.


    He was singing and she listened, head in the clouds.  She didn’t have any concrete


    thought in her head and focused all her effort to listen.


    He cleared her throat a little bit after he finished, but his voice was still a little bit


    raspy probably because he was too nervous.  “I don’t know Cantonese. I just


    imitated it, so it probably wasn’t too accurate.”


    “That’s ok.”  Ai Qing answered in a low voice.  “I couldn’t tell even if it’s not


    accurate……”


    “Are you happy?”  He asked seriously.


    “Uhm.”


    “Then…...I’m going up for the meeting.”  Dt reported honestly. “It wasn’t easy for


    Han Shangyan to build up this club.  I can’t always let him give me free rein.”


    “Uhm.”


    “Ai Qing?”


    “What?”


    “The words in my post were all true.”


    “Uhm.”  Her fingers subconsciously rolled around the bottom of her sweat pants


    and she said lightly,  “I know.”


    Wu Bai had very high moral standards and she knew it very well.  She watched


    many of his interviews in the past. Though it was to observe a black horse with


    great future at the time, she still did a very detailed study on him.  He always had


    overly calm eyes in the camera. He never boasted randomly and never looked


    down upon his opponents. During competitions, he never resorted to any abusive


    behavior, be it language or protesting by exiting the arena. There was never any


    suspicion of him for throwing games on purpose, either.


    How could this kind of man lie.