Honey Stewed Squid

Chapter 33 - Travelling with the Team

She bowed her head and threw her face into her hands, covering it. Frantically and with all her might, she tried to restrain that feeling of happiness that was billowing up in her.

And so, this carried on until, behind her, her dearest mother pushed open the door. “Would you like to have a late night snack?”

She shook her head forcefully. Her entire being felt giddy, and returning her mom’s gaze, she mumbled, “Not hungry, not hungry, not hungry, not hungry…”

Her dearest mother looked at her suspiciously.

Before she could ask any questions, however, Tong Nian had jumped up and was pushing her out the bedroom. “I need to help someone out with a big school assignment. Good night, good night.” She shut the door. But, still not assured, she turned the lock a couple of circles until the door was secured. Hugging her phone to herself, she hopped onto her bed.

Oh gosh, this won’t do. Still so fired up. What should I do, what should I do?

Holding her mobile phone high, she stared foolishly for a long time at the comments on her and his Weibos.

……

Eh? 22:23?

Wait, no! Where was the video call they had agreed to?!

She snatched up her phone.

WeChat message sent at lightning speed.

Her: doki doki

Gn: ……

Her: *poking fingers together* Ready to video call yet?

Gn: ……

Her: *looking at you with puppy dog eyes*

Gn: Do you know how to talk normally?

Her: Hmm. Well then, Han Shangyan, can we officially begin using video calling to bond emotionally?

Gn: ……

Her: *looking at you very normally*

Gn: QQ. Yours.

Her: 678709XX.

Gn: Wait.

Immediately, she rolled off the bed. Her room, her room! She needed to tidy her room. Oh, and change her clothes, change her clothes… Not enough time, not enough time! She simply grabbed a pink dress from her wardrobe, threw it over herself, and then raced back to her computer.

Inside her QQ, a friend request was already waiting. She opened it up:

Gn has requested to add you as a contact.

Approved. Added.

Not bothering with even a single useless word, he sent a video chat invitation straight over to her.

Feeling a little shy, she smoothed her hair with both her hands.

Accept.

The video call began. On the other end, it was surprisingly dark.

This angle felt as if… his computer was on the bed?

Soon, the image on the screen brightened. All she could see was his jean-clothed legs walking toward her. A hand picked up the computer and set it on a table. The next second, Gun, completely bare from waist up, was leaning himself on his two hands that were resting on the table and looking at the image of her, which was frozen in shock in the camera lens. “Can you see?”

“I-I can see.”

And… very clearly, too…

His upper body unclothed, the ends of his hairs still dripping water, his belt once again not done up…

Cover my face!! Why doesn’t he ever do up his belt?!!!!

“Angle okay?”

“Uh-huh.” Why was he asking about angle?

And then, as if nothing was going on, he… walked away?

Huh?

He wouldn’t be thinking that having the video call was… purely to satisfy her viewing desires, would he? Even though there was technically nothing wrong with this, how come it felt… kind of weird? Inside the picture on her screen, his back was to her as he pulled out a long-sleeved shirt from his wide-open suitcase and pulled it on.

His movements as he put on his clothes were also so… enticing…

She gnawed on her lip.

They fell completely into a Han Shangyan-style of video calling.

That was, he did his own thing, minimizing the video chat window, muting the speakers, and not concerning himself remotely with what she was doing on the other end of the video call. And she, well-behaved and quiet, merely rested her chin on her hand and watched him.

Simply observing him in this way, more than twenty minutes slipped by.

And still she did not find it boring at all.

During that entire period, he had merely gotten dressed, talked on the phone, turned on another computer, and typed. Hearing the sound of the game he was playing coming from the computer behind him, he had even detected that the volume of his video game was too loud and had completely muted it.

Playing games? So nice

If she could just keep watching him like this, it would be nice.

Who cared if there was sound or not?

She began to muse that in another half an hour, she needed to turn her computer monitor around to face the bed. That way, she could watch him game while she went to sleep.

All of a sudden, the he inside the monitor’s picture raised his eyes irately and looked at something off the screen. Shoving aside his mouse, he got up and disappeared out of the picture.

He went out?

Uh… Would he be coming back? Should she wait?

At a bit of a loss, she crestfallenly picked up her phone, planning to use WeChat to ask him when he would be returning. In the image on the screen, without any warning, a woman appeared, smiling and sitting… on his bed?!

“Han Shangyan?” she called out to him incredulously.

No one responded.

The two clearly were talking, but she could not hear what they were saying.

Wait, no! The volume had long been muted!!

Grabbing her phone at the speed of light, she called him. In the picture, she watched him pull out his mobile phone and take a glance before tossing it back into his pants pocket. Then, with quick strides, he walked over toward her, stretched out a hand—

The picture abruptly went black.

* * * * *

Out in the hallway, fourteen boys from both the primary and secondary squads, key players and subs alike, were casually approaching, studying the numbers on the doors and looking for Leader’s room.

“What was the number?” demo was earnestly searching for the room number.

“1708,” 97 answered. “Our results today weren’t very good. Wonder how Leader’s going to flip out on us.”

“It’d be so good if Sister-In-Law was here…” demo sighed, murmuring under his breath.

“Even if she was here, it wouldn’t necessarily be good. What if, by chance, it happened to be those certain days of the month where they weren’t able to ‘enrich’ their husband and wife relationship? The ones who’d end up suffering would still be us.” Sliding his gaze over the room number, grunt discovered they were already at 1705. “Eh? We’re nearly there?”

demo’s brain was filled with question marks. “Huh? Wha? What are the ‘certain days of the month where they aren’t able to enrich their husband and wife relationship’?

Everyone…

Suddenly, the door of room 1708 was flung open. Several of the people who had been walking at the front of the group were startled and jumped back several steps.

Accompanied by an extremely high-pitched shriek, they saw a large, white bundle of something being thrown out the door. Everyone retreated another two steps. A certain beautiful, female commentator who was very popular of late was, right then, very flusteredly crawling out from the white quilt. Holding down her skirt, with the stares of everybody fixed on her and her eyes reddened, she darted in the direction of the other end of the hallway…

Looks were exchanged between everyone in the group.

Why was it, every time there was a competition, the ones who got harassed were always Leader and Captain? …

grunt was more than glad to watch the excitement and gave demo a swift kick in his rear end. So, the latter was forced to cringingly lead the way and probe, “Leader, did you get sexually harassed again?”

Everyone…

demo, the day you learn to watch what you say is the day pigs will fly[1].

* * * * *

Tong Nian felt unsettled, and incessantly, she dialed his number. It seemed as if he was never going to pick up.

Unexpectedly, she received a WeChat message that came from Gn.

Her heart was pounding madly. Feeling somewhat wounded, somewhat apprehensive, she did not dare read to find out what had happened. But still, unable to restrain herself, she tapped it open.

?

Gn: Identity card #.

Her: 310110XXXX032070XX

?

One minute later.

Gn: Dear Miss Tong, your scheduled flight number is CA51XX, the departure time…

Her: 0.0

Gn: If you have nothing to do this weekend, come here.

Her: 0.0 That woman just now…

Gn: A nutcase I ran into.

Her: Oh. 0.0

Gn: Video call.

Her: Oh. 0.0

……

Very soon, he had sent her a video chat invitation, and dazedly, she accepted it.

As before, the volume was muted. The room that only a few minutes ago had been empty was now crammed full with people, all K&K members. She reckoned that the video call window on his end had been minimized, and no one had noticed that Gun had started a video call.

……

Early Saturday morning, she dashed to the airport with luggage in hand, along the way making a phone call to Blueberry to collude their stories to say that she was going away for a commercial singing performance. On the other end of the line, Blueberry exploded as she informed her, “Did you know we’re all going crazy? My hubby’s gone crazy, too. He spent the whole night scrolling through forums and showing me all sorts of buzz and gossip from the fans…”

Who cared about gossip and stuff? Her whole brain was stuffed full with thoughts of “I’m going to Guangzhou, I’m going to Guangzhou!”

After the plane had landed and the taxi had raced to his hotel, it was lunchtime. Gun had told her on the phone to wait in the downstairs main lobby, and very shortly, he was turning the corner and stepping out of the elevator corridor. Following behind him in a group were his team members, all with large duffel bags slung across their backs. Something subtle flashed across everyone’s faces in that instant when they saw Tong Nian.

Because… Everybody turned and looked back.

Close behind the K&K members were several male and female eSports commentators.

The expression on the face of one, in particular, darkened slightly when she saw Gun in the main lobby. Still, the woman calmly looked in that direction, glancing at the young girl not far from him who wore a cute pair of shorts and had a small suitcase beside her…

At that same moment, the little girl also turned and noticed her.

Their two gazes locked.

Gun was about to tell Su Cheng, who was standing behind him, that he would likely need to go alone to take the kid to have lunch. He had just turned his head, however, and had not even had the time to explain when he discovered the kid suddenly throwing herself onto him.

In that moment when her arms hooked around his neck, he reflexively extended his own arms to hug her legs.

The direct result of this particular position was that both his hands were resting on her…

Consequently, every single person waiting in the hotel lobby to head out—all the players of the seven different teams, the other members of those teams who were not pro gamers, as well as the tournament’s commentators, judges, etc., etc,. etc.—got to be onlookers and saw…

… how, completely out in the view of the public, K&K’s big boss held his little girlfriend like a koala bear against his chest.

Held her against his chest…

That position… Really. Was. So. Sinful…