Summary:
Yunyun finally met Li Chunhua: "...Xiao Chu. It's been hard on you."
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
All-Star Weekend Day 2. The pamphlet handed out showed today's list of events.
The nature of the second day was always as a show. There were almost no competitive elements in the matches. Today's event was often filled with mini-games, such as Glory's running race, climbing race, target match, obstacle course, etc.
The second day was also a day where pro- players interacted with the audience more. For these small mini-games, audience members would be randomly chosen to play with the pros.
The host in charge was currently drawing straws. The audience all had their own seat numbers. The chosen all-star would randomly choose audience members to go onstage and play with the pro in the match.
Right now, the first event just ended which was led by the very obedient guy, Zhou Zekai. The second event was the High Jump. But for this event, the contestants weren't jumping for height, but for speed. The goal was to reach the highest point as fast as possible.
"Next up is a pro player from Team Excellent Era. She's someone we all know and love, Su Mucheng!!"
"Oh it's Mumu, hope that she would pick you!" Li Chunhua was in a good mood again. Enough sleep made her forget about everything that happened yesterday.
Li Chunhua was successful with her goal, Ye Xiu now felt somewhat uneasy. Su Mucheng hadn't gotten binoculars just to find him and wave at him, right? Right? She hadn't counted which seat he was in to call him up onto the stage, right?
The occasional joke suited Su Mucheng's personality. But she knew that Ye Xiu never showed himself to the public, so acting on her own and playing the joke out was somewhat headstrong. Ye Xiu felt like it wasn't something Su Mucheng would do.
"Mucheng, how do you plan on choosing the four audience members?" The host's tone was very excited. It was probably because of his previous experience with Zhou Zekai.
"Let's do it randomly for now!" Su Mucheng said.
"Okay, then we're going to show the numbers on the screen and it'll stop when you say stop." The host said and the numbers began to roll.
"Stop!" Su Mucheng's shout was almost faster than what Zhou Zekai did on the first game. The host almost slipped on the ground, causing the audience to laugh.
"Mumu is becoming shameless because she's always with you!"
"Why is it my fault?" Ye Xiu was helpless. Li Chunhua couldn't see him except for a bad person!
"Next up, I'm going to switch methods!" Not waiting for the host to speak, Su Mucheng took the initiative to make a suggestion.
"Oh? Mucheng, what's your new method?" The host excitedly asked.
"Oh, I don't have a new one. Can I just randomly call out two seats?" Su Mucheng said.
"I pick Area C." Su Mucheng said.
"Ah...." Chen Guo cried out in surprise. She was sitting in Area C.
"Row 18."
"AH......" Chen Guo jumped up. She was in Row 18.
"#21!" Su Mucheng concluded.
Chen Guo's brain immediately exploded. As if something had blown up, she asked Tang Rou in disbelief: "What number?"
"21! That's you!" Tang Rou was also happy for Chen Guo. No one knew better than her how much she liked Su Mucheng.
Chen Guo's gaze was still somewhat blank. Except this time, when she looked around, everyone had their heads turned towards her, their gazes filled with envy and jealousy.
"It really is me!" Chen Guo didn't know what to do.
"Oh how lucky. So your Boss is a fan of Mumu? Why don't you try to bring Mumu and let her ask for your Boss to give you a wage increase?" Li Chunhua snickered. It was now clear to Ye Xiu. Li Chunhua's goal this day was to diss him.
Su Mucheng continued: "Next up, I have an idea. I want to choose this friend's neighboring seats. I think it'll be very fun if we invite people who know each other to come up."
"Mm, Mucheng, that sounds like a great idea. Then which one are you going to pick? #19 or #23?" the host said. They were in an odd number only area. Number 19 was Ye Xiu. Number 23 was Tang Rou. After hearing Su Mucheng's suggestion, Chen Guo shouted excitedly: "AH! We can even go up together!"
"That's my girl! Go Mucheng! I support you!"
She isn't actually going to make me go up, is she? Now that things had gotten this far, Ye Xiu couldn't help but feel uncertain. What more, there was a little devil beside him, praying for his tragedy.
And when he looked on stage, Su Mucheng was currently hesitating with her answer: "Number 19 or number 23?" Su Mucheng mumbled.
The surrounding audience members had all turned around to look at them. Their eyes were filled with envy. It didn't matter what her answer was, one of them would have the chance to go up.
"It's......." Su Mucheng said and then paused with a deep breath. Ye Xiu had figured it out. He was certain that Su Mucheng wouldn't pick him. The girl was just messing with him deliberately in order to scare him. Unfortunately, her little scheme had been seen through by Ye Xiu and he wouldn't be fazed by it.
Sure enough, after taking her deep breath, Su Mucheng chose number 23, Tang Rou's seat.
"Oh? Too bad Mumu is not as shameless as you are." Li Chunhua once again whispered. Ye Xiu didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. The bad thing was Li Chunhua only say irritating words but the good thing was she was leaning closer to him. But who is Ye Xiu?! He's the most shameless guy. Any words that Li Chunhua said became music into his ears. He was the one in the advantageous situation right now!
The host had already called the two forward and the two handed their belongings to Ye Xiu to take care of.
Back to the stage, the host once again turned to Su Mucheng: "Now Mucheng, how do you pick the last lucky guest?"
"Hmmn, then a random one again!"
Everyone including Su Mucheng stared at the screen to see the last lucky audience. That time, Li Chunhua was picking something from the floor when Ye Xiu tapped her shoulder.
"Congratulation you were chosen!" Ye Xiu smiled as if he won a lottery.
"Funny! Don't joke around. Let's watch the fu-." When Li Chunhua looked up, what welcomed her was the look of everyone. She then shifted her sight to the stage and immediately saw the number on the screen "C-17". That's her seat!
"Alright, the last lucky audience is C-17. C-17 c'mon down!"
"GOODLUCK!" Li Chunhua had never seen Ye Xiu this happy but for her, its a misery. She was now a great believer of karma.
When Li Chunhua arrived at the stage, Chen Guo and Tang Rou greeted her, making everyone assume that they were all together. How lucky!
"The final guest has arrived on stage. Oh we have here three very beautiful girls and a handsome boy. Let's all get to know them." The host noticed that Li Chunhua, Chen Guo and Tang Rou were very beautiful. It could be said that they weren't much inferior to Su Mucheng. The handsome boy was not actually handsome. The host said it like that so he wouldn't feel left out.
"Could I ask for your names?" The host asked.
"XX"
"Chen Guo."
"Tang Rou."
"Li Chunhua."
The four replied.
"Are you three together?" The host asked.
"Yup." Chen Guo replied. Though they were really not close with Li Chunhua, they now at least felt comfortable with each other.
"You three were lucky enough to participate in today's event for the All-Star Weekend. What are your feelings about this?' The host continued to ask.
"Of course, I'm very excited."
The questions were pretty much all answered by Chen Guo. After Tang Rou said her name, she just stood on the side with a smile. She looked at the girl beside her who was smiling awkwardly. She followed the girl's gaze and it turned out that she's smiling at the all-star, Su Mucheng. As this Su Mucheng caught her looking, the e-sports player waved her hands at Tang Rou, smiling. Tang Rou was somewhat startled, but she quickly returned a friendly smile back.
Though the three were really beautiful, the host couldn't only revolve around them. After all, the three other pro players and the other guest were already on stage, as well. They couldn't be left feeling ignored.
While the host interviewed the other participants, Su Mucheng walked towards the three. Chen Guo squealed and Su Mucheng politely smiled at her. She then by passed Chen Guo and Tang Rou and stood beside Li Chunhua.
"Sister Li, haven't seen you in a while. You look stunning as ever." Su Mucheng whispered.
"Haven't seen you in a while and you're still a sweet talker!"
"Hahahaha...do you want to talk to Yunyun?" Su Mucheng suddenly changed her tone.
"Ah that-"
After the host finished with the introductions, the match officially started and the eight players went to their respective platforms.
In truth, seeing the two extremely beautiful ladies that were hushing with each other was so pleasing to the eyes. But the host needed to start the game so he regretfully interrupted the two.
The event continued.
After the eight players went up onto their respective match platforms, they began to log in with their account cards.
The eight players' characters were projected onto the stage. The electronic screens featured each character's perspective. But to everyone's surprise, when Li Chunhua's Level 60 Elementalist appeared on-screen, there was quite a bit of commotion among the pro-players.
It's not because the character was not maxed out. It's because the character was fully clad with silver equipment. The weapon was particularly striking. A beautiful Icy staff adorned with flower and vines. Those normal GLORY players from the audience seats who noticed that the character was not normal were all amazed. Why would a character like this appear outside the Alliance?
"Spring Night?" After seeing that character appear, the pro-player's seats was in uproar! Some of the veteran players on the audience also cheered when they saw the name displaying above the very familiar God-tier Elementalist character. Windy Rain was an all-star level character but the real God of Elementalist is the one projected on the stage right now. The 'Caster Goddess', Spring Night! But everyone knew who would be the most affected with this sudden appearance. Everyone focused their eyes towards the Misty Rain's seat. Sure enough, they were greeted by an odd sight. The usually cheerful and easy going Queen Chu was now standing. She clenched and unclenched her hand, seemingly not believing what was in front of her. All her emotion welled up. She wanted to run down the stage to hug the person that she was unfamiliar yet familiar with. But she also wanted to shout at her, be upset at her, question her...why did she have to leave me alone? What was the reason for her disappearance? Why after all these years, she only comeback now? Chu Yunxiu felt dizzy with her surging emotions. She lost her footing, but a large hand prevented her from falling.
Chu Yunxiu looked up and saw a stern looking guy. Han Wenqing was also surprised to see the appearance of Spring Night. No wonder he thought that the girl looked familiar and strangely had a comfortable action towards Su Mucheng. The first time he saw her was at the GLORY first all-star event, Han Wenqing accidentally saw Ye Qiu talking to a very beautiful girl. Something in him made him want to know who that girl was. So he observed how the girl talked and he was so excited to find it familiar. It fitted perfectly with the image of Spring Night on his mind. From then on, his feelings for the girl didn't weakened. In contrast, it only got stronger.
Han Wenqing always hope to see the girl on stage. The girl promised everyone that she will join the alliance at Season 4. But what exactly happened for her to suddenly disappear?
"You rest first, we cannot interrupt the program with our personal interest." Han Wenqing helped Chu Yunxiu to sit down. When he saw Spring Night, the second thing that came into his mind was Chu Yunxiu. So despite everyone's weird gazes which by the way, he didn't cared about, Han Wenqing walked towards Misty Rain.
On the audience seat, Ye Xiu furrowed his brows. There was no reason for Li Chunhua to do this. There must be a mistake! He knew the girl wouldn't do something like this. If she really wanted to announce her comeback to the pro-circle, she would chose to talk to them in private.
Ye Xiu was right. Right now, Li Chunhua was equally shocked. What had happened? I surely asked Butler Wang to bring Spring Dawn, her first server alt. F*ck! It was long long ago since she last used that alt. Maybe Butler Wang didn't remember her having such account and accidentally disregard the word alt (TL: Spring Night and Spring Dawn were both pronounced as Chun Xiao but have different spelling).
"I'll kill you when we get home, Butler Wang!" Li Chunhua roared at the voice channel which was temporary on for the all-star event. Her roar startled everyone. Butler Wang who heard this couldn't help but to shudder. It was indeed his fault but at that time, he hadn't realized what he had done wrong!
Hearing Li Chunhua, everyone had a rough idea that it was all accidental and that the Goddess Spring originally didn't planned on using her main account card. It was unfortunate for Li Chunhua, but for others, they felt blessed. It's not everyday that they will have the opportunity to see the legendary character, Spring Night!
"You had been played by destiny little girl." Ye Xiu laughed.
Li Chunhua couldn't do anything. She couldn't turn back the time and personally retrieved her alt card or just ask for new account card from the host like what Tang Rou did. She could only compose herself and finish the game. What would happen later would anyway also happen in the future. It was all inevitable. Might as well use this opportunity to explain everything.
The map was projected onto the stage as the eight characters lined up. The eight characters all had their heads up, looking up at the steps floating in the air.
"Bang!" A gun sounded and the match began. The pro players used their own methods to jump up. Su Mucheng, as the all-star, didn't disgrace her status. She used her Aerial Cannon to jump up and rapidly ascended. After a few ups and downs, she pulled ahead of everyone.
The audience had big expectation towards Spring Night so they all focused on her character. Li Chunhua didn't failed them. She cast an Ice spikes vertically and smoothly jumped at it. The attack pushed her character upwards. When the skill faded away, she jumped into a nearby step and used another skill to climb up, surpassing Su Mucheng's character. The audience was in uproar! It can be used like that?! F*ck! God-tier player's way of thinking was always unconventional!
Su Mucheng and Li Chunhua then happily chatted. They were way ahead of other players so they could just relax while steadily going upwards.
"Sister Li, you had been found out!" Su Mucheng teased her.
"It was all an accident!" Li Chunhua complained.
"More like a destiny!" Su Mucheng giggled.
As what expected, Su Mucheng and Li Chunhua were the first to reached the top. It was obvious that they deliberately climbed the last step at the same time. When the game finished, the host excitedly invited everyone back on stage. This day was so thrilling that their broadcast viewers sky rocketed! Not only did Spring Night appeared, she appeared as a very beautiful lady. Who would have thought that the mysterious Caster Goddess was a real female Goddess in real life?! And when the things calmed down, the little sister, Tang Rou also showed her commendable skills!
When Li Chunhua exited the booth, the first thing she saw was a girl running towards her, teary eyed. Li Chunhua composed herself. You need to explain it to her. She deserves to know.
Chu Yunxiu didn't care about her appearance right now. What appearance? If the Goddess decided to disappear again without saying a word, what would she do? She ran towards the beautiful girl who just exited the playing booth. It was her first time seeing her personally but strangely, she felt that this person was the one that she really missed.
When she reached Spring Night, Chu Yunxiu didn't hesitate to hug her. She nestled her head in the other girl's chest. The sweet smell of the taller girl, her warm embrace...how many times did Chu Yunxiu imagined this and now its happening. The feeling was so surreal! If this was just a dream, then Chu Yunxiu will happily chose to not wake up.
"...Xiao Chu. It's been hard on you." Chu Yunxiu heard the familiar voice called her name. Like an obedient child, she raised her head, eyes glistening with fresh tears. It's been four years...she longed for this for four years!
"Sister Spring...why...why did you left me?"
Notes:
I personally love this chapter!!!
( Sina Weibo)
Sometimes fate can be deliver to your plate in a most bizarre and unexpected ways.