Summary:
Slow burning RouQiu is finally starting!
Notes:
I'm guilty with this. There's too much copy paste. But you cannot blame me, the sibling's dialogue was really cute for me to cut.
Chapter Text
Happy Internet Cafe. Chen Guo was sitting on a stool at the food counter, fanning herself. New year goods were scattered on the floor. Traditional or modern. Decoration or food. Useful or not.
Amidst the flood of red lanterns, door couplets, artificial kumquat tree, and many other random things was the first young master of the Ye family. Ye Xiu was collapsed on the floor and lying on his back. He was soaked with sweat despite the cold winter day.
“Ehem!” They were startled as someone knocked on the counter to get their attention.
Ye Xiu lazily stood up thinking that it was a customer. The sunlight was blinding outside so Ye Xiu couldn’t see it clearly but he could still make up three figures from the shadows.
Chen Guo also got up and as she squinted her eyes, she was able to identify the girl in front.
“Little Tang? Why did you come back?”Chen Guo blurted out as she hurried over to help the girl with her luggage but Tang Rou waved her hand saying that it wasn’t heavy.
“I was kidnapped.” Tang Rou answered helplessly while moving to the side to give way for the two figures behind her.
“Hello Brother.” The man greeted the guy who had just stood up. He smiled at Ye Xiu with a side of his eyebrow raised up seemingly disgusted with his current state. Slightly nasty, though, faintly intimate.
A smile also crept across Ye Xiu’s face. Unlike the guy, Ye Xiu showed a genuine one with a little bit of quirk. He dusted himself and walk towards the visitor.
“You did really try, I’m impressed.” Ye Xiu said as he patted the shoulder of his younger brother.
Chen Guo couldn’t help but to move her eyes back and forth to the two splitting image of her new internet cafe manager. From their face, the two looked exactly the same. But apart from that, there wasn’t anything else about them that was alike.
One of them was wearing neat and tidy attire, while the other was wearing the same jacket he had been repeatedly wearing for the past two months. Because their work and rest schedule were different, Chen Guo didn’t even know whether he had ever washed his jacket before. Don't blame Ye Xiu, the overcoat from Li Chunhua was on his to stare at collection.
One of them had an immaculate appearance, while the other had only just gone out to buy some stuff and his face already looked dirty.
Then, she looked at their posture. One of them stood perfectly straight, even the curve of his arm looked as if they had been paid particular attention to. As for the other…… Chen Guo couldn’t help but compare. The guy made it look like even standing was tiring.
But who was this guy that look exactly like Ye Xiu. Well, they were definitely connected to each other. He even called Ye Xiu brother. So are they like twins?
A night where Tang Rou told her the deduction about Ye Xiu’s possible background came back to Chen Guo.
I’m not sure but maybe he’s the heir of the Ye Corporation…
Seeing Ye Xiu’s supposed twin, Chen Guo was a little convinced. He was dressed in formal attire. Draped across his arm was an overcoat. He also had this elegant and stylish demeanor. Definitely a rich heir.
“You said I could try and now is the time. Come back with me.”
“Who said I was going to go back?” Ye Xiu asked.
“Cause A’Chun is here to convince you.” Ye Qiu answered proudly as he moved a little so Ye Xiu could see the girl behind him.
Ye Xiu’s eyes lit up. It’s been almost two months since the last time he saw her. He was definitely infected by incurable love-sickness.
“Who said I’m going to convince him? I’m just here to visit. Hi Miss Chen!” Li Chunhua greeted courteously to the hyper ventilating Chen Guo.
“Oh…hi!” Chen Guo awkwardly greeted back.
Ye Qiu gave her a look and immediately noticed his mistake, “Forgive me for my negligence. A pleasure to meet you, Miss Chen!” Ye Qiu politely addressed Chen Guo.
“Never mind. Never Mind. By the way, how do I call you?”
Being left unnoticed by his Goddess, Ye Xiu had gone to the mini-canteen and got the visitors their favorite drinks.
Ye Qiu had jump in fright at Ye Xiu throwing him the bottle of drink over. With great difficulty, he was able to catch the bottle and regain his composure. When he heard Chen Guo’s question, he immediately replied: “My name is Ye Qiu.”
“Ah?” Chen Guo was startled, “You’re Ye Qiu?”
“I’ve always been……”
“Then he borrowed your name?” Chen Guo asked.
‘’Yes. He even borrowed my credentials.”
Tang Rou smiled. Her deduction was right. It was Ye Qiu’s identity that Ye Xiu used to enter the Alliance.
Ye Xiu ignored Ye Qiu’s accusing words and walk towards Li Chunhua to give her the drink.
“Thank you,” Li Chunhua smilingly answered as she was giving the bottle back to Ye Xiu, for him to open the lid for her.
“Why did you come with him, missed me?” Ye Xiu casually asked. He successfully opened the bottle and naturally put it on Li Chunhua’s hand.
Li Chunhua who was about to drink it coughed heavily when she heard what Ye Xiu had said. The juice almost spilled on her dress!
“I promised that I will visit you when I had time,” she answered, clearly disregarding Ye Xiu’s nonsense.
“That’s why I said you missed me. Don’t worry, I missed you too.” Ye Xiu seriously assured her while nodding his head.
Tang Rou who was watching on the sideline couldn’t help but to cringe. Seriously?
“My hair stood up with that.” Ye Qiu commented on the sideline.
“You can shut up or just go away.” Ye Xiu suggested, quite threatening.
“I won’t go away until you come with me.” The younger guy resolutely said.
Ye Xiu exposed a helpless expression: “I won’t go back. It’ll be the same as always. Don’t push it. Nothing will work. Unless… Xiao Li will surely not convince me because we have the same goal, right Xiao Li?”
“Right.”Li Chunhua firmly supported.
“Very much appreciated.”
“It’s different now. Didn’t you retire this year? Then what are you doing drifting around outside?” Ye Qiu said.
“Retiring doesn’t mean anything. You outsiders wouldn’t understand.” Ye Xiu said.
“Retiring….. Even if you want to come back, it will still take a year, no?” Ye Qiu said.
“Oh, you even know of this?”
“It’s not like you have anything to do this year. Why not come back home and take a rest?” Ye Qiu said.
“I can rest anywhere. It’s all the same.” Ye Xiu said.
“Father’s health hasn’t been too good recently……”
Li Chunhua wanted to roll her eyes. Is it alright to make your parent sick even if Chairman Ye was perfectly fine, golfing with her or with Tang Ruo’s father?
“That’s what you always say……”
“Fine! Actually, mother’s…….”
“You’re lying!”
“Little Dot died!”
“It’s about time. He’s already lived long enough!” Ye Xiu said coldly.
Chen Guo couldn’t listen any longer, but she felt like she had to understand something, she whispered at Li Chunhua: “Who’s Little Dot?”
“A dog.” Li Chunhua helplessly retorted. When you’re watching these siblings, there would always come a time when you would feel helpless.
“Should I record it?” Chen Guo felt the phone in her pocket. She had even thought of doing this.
“I have many, you want?” Li Chunhua laughed. From primary school to middle school, she have it all.
“Oh? Don’t mind me haha.”
They continue watching the drama. Sitting on the sideline, Li Chunhua gave insights to the two ladies. Tang Rou and Chen Guo now had a different kind of understanding for the two. Tang Rou was already used to the siblings’ bantering inside the game but it felt different watching it personally.
“You really should come back.” Ye Qiu continued to urge him.
“Heh…….” Ye Xiu chuckled, “If I go back, it’ll make it easy for you to run away. Is that it?”
The very proper Ye Qiu had maintained his poise the entire time. This time, it seemed like his heart had twisted.
The three ladies watched as he suddenly shot forward like an arrow towards Ye Xiu and grabbed Ye Xiu’s clothing with his two hands.
Chen Guo was startled. She stood up and worriedly asked the smiling girl beside her, “Should we stop them?”
“No, no. That’s completely normal,” She assured.
Chen Guo uncertainly sat back as they heard Ye Qiu say angrily: “You shameful brother! That year, you stole the luggage that I had meticulously prepared. You went too far!”
“It’s more like I promptly discovered that my stupid little brother was about to run away from the family like an immature child and decided to take his place to teach him a lesson by example.” Ye Xiu answered.
“Shameless!” Ye Qiu tugged at the collar on Ye Xiu’s jacket. In the end, he wasn’t able to get anything out of it though and could only grind his teeth in anger.
“It looks like you weren’t educated well enough.” Ye Xiu’s expression was the same as usual.
“Come back home with me!” Ye Qiu gnashed his teeth.
“No way.” Ye Xiu said.
Ye Qiu’s gaze was deep and profound as if he were about to pull off some powerful move. The three continued to watch, waiting for it to happen. However, Li Chunhua knew the brothers very well. They were just full of empty threats. The two couldn’t truly hurt each other.
“Are you tired? Hurry up and let go. Show some respect to your elders. Fair ladies were even watching you, aren’t you ashamed?” Ye Xiu said and made a slap. It seemed like Ye Qiu’s hands weren’t using much force and were slapped aside by Ye Xiu.
“Your overcoat seems pretty nice?” Ye Xiu, with his worn out jacket and the one that Li Chunhua gave him, looked at the overcoat that had been hanging on Ye Qiu’s arm the entire time.
“No way!” Ye Qiu resolutely hid the overcoat behind him.
“How selfish.” Ye Xiu disdained.
“When are you going to give back the stuff you took from me?” Ye Qiu said.
“Didn’t I give you back your proof of identity?”
Ye Qiu suddenly choked. He had clearly forgotten about that part.
Chen Guo once again turned to the best information officer by her side: “What’s the story behind the proof of identity.”
Even Tang Rou readied her ear to listen. This bullying of younger brother was too cute for her.
“Oh….. that one……. That time, when Xiu Gege was going to join the Pro Alliance and he needed to use official documents as proof of his identity, he went back home. He wasn’t able to steal the household register though, so he took Qiu-ge’s proof of identity instead” Li Chunhua bemusedly narrated, still laughing at how ridiculous Ye Qiu looked like when he told her that he would kill his brother for stealing his identity.
“So it’s like that!” Chen Guo suddenly understood. This explained why Ye Xiu used “Ye Qiu” in the pro scene.
This time, Ye Qiu was still fuming for the same thing, “You didn’t tell me, so that’s considered stealing!”
“I did tell you later. Lucky you, look how famous your name is now.” Ye Xiu said to Ye Qiu.
“Tch.” Ye Qiu coldly expressed his disdain.
“You used such a familiar name. You weren’t worried that your family would find you?” Chen Guo directly asked Ye Xiu.
“If I had used Ye Xiu, then that might have been troublesome. But since I used a weak, common street name like Ye Qiu, there was no need to worry.” Ye Xiu said.
“Nonsense! The key point is that no one had imagined that you would run away from the family to play games. You’re the weak one!” Ye Qiu shouted.
“Oh? Then when you wanted to leave the family that time, what were you planning on doing?” Ye Xiu asked.
“Uh….. I……” Ye Qiu tried hard to recall.
“Or maybe you had a dream you wanted to fulfill?” Ye Xiu asked.
“My dream at that time…… was to leave the family……” Ye Qiu said.
Tang Rou almost choked from her drink. She suddenly felt sorry for Chairman Ye and Madam Ye.
“That’s the difference between me and you.” Ye Xiu said.
“Tch.” Ye Qiu expressed his disdain.
“Actually, I stopped hiding after a while. The family could easily force me to come back, but do you know why they never did so?” Ye Xiu said.
“Why?” Ye Qiu couldn’t help but ask.
“Because my dream was the game and that was all.” Ye Xiu said.
“Huh?” Ye Qiu asked.
“An eSports career favors the young. I’m already considered old as a pro. Even if I persisted, I wouldn’t be able to go on for much longer. This is why my dream will end at an early age. When that time comes, I’ll naturally come back because that place will forever be my home. And at my age, there’s still time for me to make a turn around at life. This is why my family left me alone.” Ye Xiu said.
“And you? You’re different. Your dream was only to leave the family. You’re clearly even more rebellious than me. I at least knew what to do after I ran away. You? You wanted to run just for the sake of running away. If you ran away, would you think of coming back? From my view, you probably wouldn’t, so it’d be best if you just stayed in the family like an obedient child. Leaving home…… did you really think that it would be fun?” Ye Xiu said.
Ye Qiu was stumped for words. He had even forgotten to express his usual disdain.
Li Chunhua was also surprised. It’s the first time she had heard this side of the story. She knew that Ye Xiu was actually a good brother. But she didn’t expected that the guy was this sensible and saw the issue more thoroughly.
“So I won’t be going back to celebrate New Years. When the time comes, I’ll come back on my own.”
After the three ladies heard this, they all wondered whether Ye Xiu was only saying all of that as an excuse to not go back home.
As for Ye Qiu? After a short pause, he suddenly smiled: “It won’t be too late if I come back home tomorrow.”
He turned his head to look at Chen Guo: “Boss, is it okay if we stay here for the night?”
Chen Guo nodded her head: “You can even stay here for a few nights if you want.”
“Can you not look for trouble.” Ye Xiu immediately stopped her, “Look how evil this guy looks.”
“Tch! I’m doing you a favor,” Ye Qiu’s usual disdain rebooted but he meaningfully eyed Li Chunhua.
Ye Xiu immediately understood his brother, they were twins after all, “Actually bonding with many people is not that bad. Not bad at all! Xiao Li, you’re also going to stay right?”
“There’s no problem with me.” Li Chunhua shrugged then she looked at Tang Rou, “Xiao Tang we’re really sorry. We stopped you so we can comeback together but now...”
“Actually, I can also stay. As long as we will be back before New Year’s eve tomorrow.”
“That’s not a problem. We also need to comeback before the dinner time.” Ye Qiu assured her.
( Sina Weibo)
He's my only enemy that I can't live without...
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https://archiveofourown.org/works/23230501/chapters/55619407