Summary:
Our Chunhua-jie playing cupid...
Notes:
I don't know if this chapter could match to your liking. It took days for me to delete, rewrite, delete again, but this was all I came up with.
Chapter Text
8-2. The tragic match between Team Void and Excellent Era had ended. Displayed on the wide screen was the disastrous result that left the people watching inside the lounge area blankly staring at it with mouth widely opened.
After the contract signing, they had agreed to watch the match and analyze it as a symbol for the official start of their team operation. But now, they really didn’t know what to comment.
This was a total disaster. Excellent Era played so mechanically, as if they were following a guide word for word. But Team Void was not a block wood, this isn’t a PvE. With how Excellent Era played, it would be even more surprising if they didn’t lose.
“F*ck!” Wei Chen broke the silence in disgust.
Is this really the Excellent Era that won three consecutive championships with the Battle God, One Autumn Leaf?
No wonder the two Gods had already excused themselves even before the team competition started. What preparing the foods? They had clearly expected this result and opted to stop watching to avoid being disappointed!
Wei Chen had no emotional attachment with Excellent Era, but he still felt some regrets for the fall of this dynasty that he once battled with in the beginning of the Professional Alliance.
Seeing the same Battle Mage on the highlight clips being replayed, Wei Chen became more nostalgic. It was the same character, but the vibe that it was now giving off was completely different.
One Autumn Leaf was always a character that relied on the supports of his teammates. Even Team Hundred Blossoms pointed that out during the Season 3 finals. But the One Autumn Leaf now was a lone wolf, a self-centered immature youth.
Wei Chen shook his head in disappointment at how this era was progressing.
The fame of Samsara’s one-man team had influenced many teams in the alliance, and it was mostly obvious with the recent actions of Excellent Era.
But didn’t they know that Jiang Botao played a big role in his team just like how Wu Xuefeng did with Excellent Era before? If there’s someone who should understand this the most, it should be Tao Xuan. But the old man was acting otherwise.
“Glory is not meant to be played alone,” Wei Chen unknowingly recited Ye Qiu’s catchphrase from his MVP speech in Season 1 as he stared at the corner where the former Battle God disappeared.
Chen Guo turned her head to the source of the voice that said her favorite quotation. Surprisingly, it was the vulgar guy. She sized him up, not believing what she was seeing. She didn’t know why but this battle worn look of Wei Chen made her hate him less.
On the other hand, Wei Chen was hating himself for acting like this. Why was he being so dramatic for his past shameless rival that kicked his ass from his last match before he decided to retire?
Wei Chen returned his focus back to the screen with a sigh. At this moment, Excellent Era was having its post-game conference and Sun Xiang was expressing his fake laments. Beside him was the PR representative of Excellent Era, Wang Sheng. This sight wasn’t normal, commonly the Captain and most famous figures would be the only ones attending the post-match conference.
The reporters smelled that something big would be coming. They readied their pens and laptops. Some even had their voice recorder on, not wanting to miss a single word.
Sure enough, Excellent Era threw down a huge bomb. In the conference, Wang Sheng announced: “The recent addition to the team, Sun Xiang, will not be participating in the remainder of the matches this season due to health reasons.”
When Wang Sheng answered the questions of the reporters, he answered in a very remorseful way. They had noticed Sun Xiang’s poor health a long time ago, but because of Team Excellent Era’s current predicament, they had insisted that he should participate in the matches, but now, it had reached a point where he had to stop.
“Sh*t! What is Excellent Era planning? It seems like they’re already prepared to get relegated!” Wei Chen disapprovingly commented. But no one could answer him. They had never interacted with Excellent Era before. If someone could understand them better than any outsiders, it should be their former captain.
At this moment, footsteps were heard before two figures appeared in front of them. Seeing the newcomers, Wei Chen immediately asked, “F*ck! It’s good that you came back! Did you know what your beloved former team did? They announced that they will be hiding Sun Xiang!”
Wei Chen was waiting for the guy’s answer but he only looked at him seriously, politely letting him to finish saying everything that he wanted to say.
Wait! Polite? Ye Qiu was being polite?!
The former Swoksaar felt that something was off. The hell could freeze over but Ye Qiu would never be polite while interacting with him.
In normal times, Ye Qiu wouldn’t just stand there saying nothing, even though he didn’t want to admit it, but the guy should be defeating him through trash talk by now.
And one more thing, is Ye Qiu really that bored with his life that he suddenly changed his outfit into a formal one? Even his sweet looking companion was replaced with a fierce hot one!
Ah okay, Wei Chen get yourself together, the fiery type is still your genre! Don’t ever forget that Baobao is your target!
The old man shook his head and finally convinced himself to return his focus to the formal version of Ye Qiu, “Are you that shock with their shamelessness that you couldn’t speak? Don’t be, you’re still more shameless than them.”
“Ah-eh…Old Wei, you don’t understand,” CEO Zhang laughed awkwardly. He and Chen Guo eyed each other, they both knew that Wei Chen misunderstood something. But they couldn’t blame him. It was indeed confusing.
“What did I not understand? Aren’t they really hiding Sun Xiang? It was obvious that the health issue they were saying was a joke!” Wei Chen explained his point but didn’t get the true point of this conversation.
“No, that, ah… look,” Zhang Ziwei felt helpless, but noticing the real God walking from the other side with Li Chunhua, he could only point his finger at their direction.
Wei Chen looked at the direction that the dandy CEO was pointing. His mouth slowly parted in disbelief, as if he had seen a ghost.
Seeing his weird reaction, the others also followed suit.
Standing there was the familiar lazy God with a big grin on his mouth, a cigarette naturally dangling into it. He was reclining against the small frame of his female Goddess, and seemingly amazed with their reactions.
Actually, not only him, even the three ladies were trying hard not to laugh and Zhang Ziwei now had a playful smirked on his face.
The new members of the team were equally as shocked as Wei Chen, but some of them already think of the possibility regarding this situation, though they didn’t voice it out. Only Steamed Bun was acting like the hoodlum old man.
Meanwhile, the said old man rubbed his eyes, believing that it was only an illusion made by his old mind. But when he opened his eyes, the apparition was still there, laughing about something with his girlfriend, probably about him.
Then who?
Wei Chen returned his gaze to the mirror image of the shameless bastard. It was the same face, though it wasn’t the same lazy nonchalance that the person was giving off. Clearly, they were two different people!
“F*ck! Who is this f*cking doppelganger?!” Wei Chen roared disbelievingly, pointing his index finger towards the innocent younger brother.
His old heart was having a hard time accepting this shock. One shameless bastard is enough, no? And now there’s two of them?
“My pleasure to meet you all. I’m Ye Qiu,” the doppelganger introduced himself in a formal and polite way.
The uninformed group simultaneously knitted their brows in confusion. He was saying that he’s Ye Qiu? Then who was the one that they were talking with earlier? Does it mean that they were paying their respects to the wrong God? But it was clear that the former one was familiar with them, and they could see no holes in the way he acted.
Ah, this was why Ye Qiu didn’t want to show himself up in this gathering, he didn’t want to cause a lot of confusion. Especially since, he won’t be joining the team anyway, so knowing him or not wasn’t really that important.
“Ye Qiu? You don’t mean a clone, right?” Wei Chen laughed hysterically. This guys were playing with him, aren’t they? He was sure that one of them was wearing a mask, that skin type mask that he had seen from western movies.
“Wow! Wow! wow!!! A clone! I’ve watched a movie about this!”
A series of repeated cries interrupted their conversation. Bao Rongxing ran towards the immaculate persona and suddenly pinched the guy’s cheeks. Ye Qiu couldn’t react on time. When he realized what was happening, the blonde guy was already stretching his skin.
“WOW! It looks so real!” Bao Rongxing exclaimed, earning a laugh from the five people who knew the identity of the man they were calling clone.
“I’m not a clone. I’m the real Ye Qiu,” Ye Qiu lightly pushed the hands of the lunatic who just pinched his cheeks, his precious cheeks! He didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry. It was the first that someone humiliated him like this. Even his shameless brother never did this to him when they were young.
“Oh? Then that guy that was with us earlier is the clone?! You bastard! You deceived us!” Bao Rongxing then ran towards Ye Xiu and also stretched his hands in front of his face. But Ye Xiu had good reflexes so he was able to seize the Brawler’s hands before it could do him any harm.
“Steamed Bun, I’m also not a clone. Creating a clone is illegal,” Ye Xiu helplessly explained.
“Okay okay! What a waste, those movies deceived me!”
Ye Xiu sighed exasperatedly, he clapped his hands to get the attention of everyone, and made them settle down, “Steamed Bun, go back to your seat. Di, Tang Rou let’s sit first.”
When he saw that everything was already under control, he also took his seat beside Li Chunhua, waited for everyone to quiet down, and finally started introducing the newcomers, “This is Tang Rou, in-game name, Soft Mist.”
“Hi, everyone!” Tang Rou stood up and politely smiled.
The others said their hellos to her but they were clearly more interested to the guy that was sitting beside her.
Only Steamed Bun completely moved on from the previous topic and gave his full attention to Tang Rou, “Ah, It’s you! Amazing! You’re fierce in game and you look fierce too.”
“You look fierce…. Is that a compliment?” Tang Rou smiled.
“Of course of course,” Bao Zi nodded his head.
“Ahem,” Ye Xiu tried getting the noob’s attention once again, “This is Autumn Moonlight. As he said earlier, he’s the real Ye Qiu, and he's also my younger twin brother,” he pointed his hand to his brother.
Twins! That’s right! One need not to ask, and they could already tell the relationship between these two, especially the intellectuals like Luo Ji, An Wenyi, and Qiao Yifan.
“AHHHHHHHH!!! Guild Master!!!” Bao Zi suddenly jumped to the empty space between Ye Qiu and Tang Rou and happily hugged his beloved leader. Obviously, everyone was focusing by the fact that Lord Grim and Autumn Moonlight were twins, but Bao Zi only cared that Ye Qiu was Happy’s Guild Master.
“Let go.” Ye Qiu, this time, was not as calm as before. He inhaled and exhaled, controlling his breathing that already became ragged.
Not only did he feel humiliated, he also felt molested. HE’S THE IMMACULATE PRINCE OF THE BUSINESS WORLD! NO ONE CAN TOUCH HIM JUST BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO!!!
“Bao Zi, right? Please let go of Guild Master, he’s easily shied with handsome guys,” Tang Rou chuckled.
Ye Qiu eyed her, but she only returned it with more laughter. Thankfully, her words were effective and the noob really let go of him.
“I’m sorry Guild Master. Don’t worry, you will get used to my face sooner. Do you want to take my photo so you could stare at it as a training?” Bao Rongxing seriously tapped him by the shoulder.
“…no need no need, just stay away from me first.” Ye Qiu powerlessly replied.
“Ah I understand. I’ll go back to my seat first, Concealed Light must be feeling lonely without me,” Bao Zi earnestly said. Dude, what did you understand, exactly?!
“F*ck! Who’s feeling lonely because of you!!! You should also stay away from me!” Luo Ji pushed the Brawler away, but how could Steamed Bun’s large frame be bothered by that?
“Ah, you also have a disease like Guild Master?”
What disease?! Can’t this guy watch his words? Ye Qiu’s patience was really nearing to its end, especially when he saw that the others were just forcing themselves not to laugh at them.
“Ahem! Steamed Bun, you settle down. Luo Ji, come sit beside me,” Ye Qiu smiled at the smaller guy. His Guild Master demeanor came back as soon as the familiar situation inside the game happened in front of his eyes. But he would admit that Steamed Bun was even more hard to handle in real life.
“Xiong,” Luo Ji thankfully smiled at Ye Qiu.
The two of them were the closest among the main force. Luo Ji was younger than him by seven years so they treated each other as brothers.
“The thing that you sent me, I already tested it and there’s no problem……,” Ye Qiu immediately started a conversation as soon as the younger man, sat down.
At the other side, the elder brother was being cornered by the Warlock.
“If he’s Ye Qiu, then who are you?” Wei Chen asked. He could understand that two men with uncanny similarities were twins but did they really have to mess up with their names?
“I’m Ye Xiu,” Ye Xiu answered.
“F*ck! Then who is the real Battle God? You or him?”
“Can’t you tell?”
“Of course I can tell! You look like a beggar, he looks like a rich heir, how can I not differentiate the poor Battle God from the two of you?”
“……,” everyone looked at him in disbelief. No matter how they looked at it, they couldn’t associate the word beggar with the man in front of them.
Wei Chen was just bluffing, Ye Xiu’s closet already improved a lot because of the disgusted plea of his brother.
And the younger brother was the one paying for it, why wouldn’t he accept?
However, his brother knew him so well, the things that he bought for him leaned more in a casual style. Though they were branded clothes, one that wasn’t familiar with them like Wei Chen couldn’t tell its difference from any other clothes. Howbeit, it was still an exaggeration to call him a beggar.
Wei Chen was indeed just joking, after a while, he immediately went back to their previous topic and asked Ye Xiu the reason why he introduced himself as Ye Qiu in the Professional Alliance.
Ye Xiu puffed a cloud of smoke to the open area beside the outdoor lounge and calmly answered, “It’s a problem with proof of identity. Mine wasn’t available so I stole my brother’s.”
“Tsk. Not only that, even my luggage,” Ye Qiu disdainfully commented. He was busy talking about something with Luo Ji, but when he heard that they were talking about his stolen items, he immediately wanted to dive into the conversation.
“Wow, you’re really so shameless even in your younger years,” Wei Chen snorted then decided to dig deeper since ‘Ye Xiu’ was clearly not minding about it, “Why not just ask your parents, why stole?”
“I was a runaway. Yeah, I think I’m no longer a runaway now, right Xiao Li?” Ye Xiu asked the girl beside him.
Qiao Yifan and An Wenyi, the ones that played GLORY longer among the juniors in the team and clearly had heard about the rumors about the God perked their ears up. God Ye was a runaway? Was it because of this that he never showed himself in the public? This information was too shocking for them to believe. But the Goddess beside him was already nodding her head in agreement.
“Uncle confirmed it,” Li Chunhua chuckled, thinking how these juniors’ respect for the God was decreasing the longer they knew him.
“Tsk, you’re proud with that dark past, huh?” Ye Qiu sniggered, earning a look with full of interest from these juniors. He was clearly an immaculate figure, but they could now see that this guy had a hobby of not letting a chance of insulting his brother to pass.
Who would have thought that the respected God Ye had this kind of relationship with his brother? The venerated figure of the God from their heads once again withered. They only saw him as a gaming God before, but the man in front of them was indeed a living person. Smoking, flirting, fighting with his younger brother…
“Can’t help, it’s a good life experience. Clearly a great conversation starter,” Ye Xiu laughed.
The juniors couldn’t help but smile awkwardly, ah, God Ye really is something….
“Humph, shameless!”
On the other hand, having a hunch about Ye Xiu’s background through the three’s conversation, Wei Chen suddenly exclaimed, “F*ck! The rumor was true! You punk ran away from home?! Don’t tell me that it’s also true that you’re a young master of a rich family?”
“How am I supposed to answer that? You said that I shouldn’t tell you,” Ye Xiu laughed.
“Sh*t! You shameless brag!” Wei Chen was shocked with this big discovery. No wonder, they could afford this big headquarters!
“You’re asking me, I’m just answering honestly,” Ye Xiu shrugged his shoulders.
Wei Chen couldn’t fight with this words. Ye Xiu was indeed just answering his questions all along. He admitted his defeat and decided to change the topic, he then started talking about the announcement of Excellent Era earlier.
“Uh, with my understanding of Excellent Era’s current team members, Excellent Era has really planned to get relegated. Announcing that Sun Xiang was sick is merely the excuse for their downfall,” Ye Xiu said.
“With Excellent Era’s foundation, how can they not even have confidence in staying in the Professional League?” Wei Chen didn’t understand.
“Their morale is gone. It’s not a problem with skills but rather with mentality,” Ye Xiu said.
“Mentality?” Wei Chen asked. He knew what was the mentality Ye Xiu was talking about, but he was more interested in the reason why Excellent Era had problems with their game mentality.
“They don’t want to be blamed…...,” Ye Xiu sighed.
“It was also partly because of that one time,” Li Chunhua reminded him.
Ye Xiu had to agree with this, it was really after that time that Excellent Era’s performance worsened but how could he know that they would be affected that much? He sighed, “Right, Excellent Era’s players have gotten in a conflict with me in the game before. They ended up getting wiped.”
“Let’s say that you’re telling the truth, if it’s just that, how could they be depressed for so long. That doesn’t seem like the drive a pro player should have.”
“I’m telling the truth, I had advantage in number,” Ye Xiu bitterly laughed. Why was it that even though he never lied, people always had their doubts on him?
“You’re so unscrupulous, how could I fully trust you?!”
“The pot calling the kettle black?” Ye Xiu nodded.
“Ahem!” Li Chunhua lightly coughed and decided to explain everything in one go before these two old men started their trash talking practice once again, “We already looked at their recordings and analyzed their performances. The mentality of their players right now was to lose the battle but win the war, especially Liu Hao that punk, he was only thinking about his own future. He has already abandoned his team. Though, their record is so poor already so it’d be strange if they didn’t have these thoughts.”
“How disgusting! When a team faces a crisis, isn’t working together to improve and resolve the crisis the most logical thing to do?” Wei Chen commented.
“Indeed, but when Excellent Era faced this crisis, with Liu Hao at the lead, a few of the players have already regarded the team as a sinking ship and they plan on abandoning the ship to save their own lives,” Ye Xiu concluded.
“That’s so selfish,” Wei Chen commented, it came from his experience. He was a Captain that decided to step down for the betterment of Blue Rain after all.
The others could only nod their heads in agreement, too tired to insult the former glorious team. And as if they could, they were still an aspiring pros. No matter how weak was Excellent Era right now, its members were still top-tier pro players. Only the Gods had the right to insult them.
“If they really get relegated, then they could only blame their bad luck. It was clearly not within their expectations that we will also take that path, no?” Ye Qiu suddenly said amidst the silence.
Everyone looked at him disbelievingly, especially Tang Rou. Where was that ‘I’m no part of the team’ ego that he was showing off earlier.
“You finally decided joining us?” Ye Xiu mirthfully laughed. He wouldn’t let this great opportunity to pass. He watched how his brother grew to love GLORY. He also wanted him to follow his heart just like him.
Realizing that he had said his inner thoughts loudly, Ye Qiu stared blankly in the air for a second before weakly saying that, “I’m not part of your team…”
“You are,” Ye Xiu smiled, “I know that you also want to participate.”
“Are you joking? I’m not like you, unfilial son! I have responsibilities, how can I be a pro player?!”
He also wanted to fight, he was well aware of his own thoughts. But he had responsibilities, and his brother was not still ready to take it from him. Until that time come, he can only selflessly follow their father’s wants.
“You will only be our sub-player. Just help us in critical times. That won’t be a problem to your responsibilities, no?”
“The old man will kill me!”
Responsibilities was one thing, but the permit from the old man was the biggest hindrance for him.
“There’s a solution,” Li Chunhua interjected. “Remember what I did to convince him?”
“How could that be easy?” Ye Qiu bitterly laughed. He knew what she meant, but where could he find a girl that his father would approve?
“You’re not confident because you don’t have a partner in crime, right?” Li Chunhua meaningfully laughed and moved her eyes to the seat not so far from Ye Qiu where a beautiful short-haired girl was sitting, “Xiao Tang, will you help him?”
Tang Rou was not aware of what they were talking about. Li Chunhua said something about partner in crime and then, directly asked for her help. She would be willing to help if she had the ability, but she wasn’t foolish enough to just agree.
“What do you want me to do?” she asked.
Ye Qiu looked at her awkwardly. It was only not long ago since they had their reconciliation, but now the girl was being asked to act as his guarantor in front of his father. Yes, he understood that it was Li Chunhua’s plan.
“Ms. Tang you don’t have to…” Ye Qiu decided to stop this nonsense.
“I want to first know if it was within my capability before quitting. You know that I hate quitting, right?” Tang Rou winked at him, making fun of her own personality.
But Ye Qiu was more concerned of what she just did, making him confused as to why his heart beat abnormally faster again.
Did she really wink at me??? Am I scared of her again?
Ye Qiu was still having his internal crisis, but the current situation in the real world was now getting out of his hand. Especially with the involvement of his shameless brother.
“Xiao Tang is right, let the girls discuss about this matter,” Ye Xiu chuckled for unknown reason.
“Yeah, leave it to me. Let’s eat first everyone! Xiao Tang, we’ll talk later,” Li Chunhua happily concluded.
Hahaha, she wasn’t dumb enough to talk about this confidential matter in public. The fewer people involve, the safer. After all, Chairman Ye was not someone who would just believe in everything that they would say.
But she had a feeling that this lie won’t last long. She’s confident with her Something About 1 Percent, Accidentally in Love, Across the Ocean to See You, My Amazing Boyfriend, My Pretend Girlfriend and the likes collection. Hehehe, let’s see let’s see!
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( Sina Weibo)
李春花LiChunhua V
Playing as love cupid with these two cutie patooties! Wait for my good news everyone!
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[Spring Bloom by XieJianRou - Multifandom https://archiveofourown.org/works/23230501]