Honey Stewed Squid

Chapter 34 - Travelling with the Team!

Oh gawd T.T …

It was just that, when she saw that nutcase woman, in a moment of rashness, she had wanted to spring up onto him and throw her arms around him. She had not expected that her jump would land too high and more so, had not expected that he would react so swiftly and forcefully, holding her up so that her legs were off the ground.

Out of reflex, her long, slender legs had clamped tight around his waist…

……

Gun had not expected this.

Wholly, genuinely had not expected this.

Her entire body, including that obvious softness in her chest area, was pressed up against him, and her arms were wrapped tightly around his neck. This was a scene he had never imagined in his lifetime. Behind closed doors, no matter how cozy and intimate they were, it was still something that was only between the two of them. This sort of “pose” that they were displaying out in public, however, gave off a sense of flippancy.

“Oh no. I didn’t do it on purpose. I jumped a little too high…” she murmured, her palms breaking out in a sweat.

Gun drew in a deep breath, forcing himself to not pay attention to that obvious part of her that was rising up and down with each of her breaths. “Get down now!” Although he was berating her in a low tone, he did not dare loosen his hold. With truly no experience in this, he was worried that he would drop and hurt her.

……

The person clinging onto him made a tiny sound in answer and noiselessly slid down from him.

He moved his arms about to loosen them. Then waving a hotel employee over, he stated a room number and instructed the other party to bring the luggage up to his room.

Since Leader was so unperturbed, all the K&K members, of course, instantaneously recovered their composure as well. Wearing looks of “our leader is just so friggin’ I-don’t-give-a-damn-about-anyone-else type of cool,” they continued walking out with their own luggage on their backs.

……

Tong Nian followed after Gun, but before she had taken two steps, she saw the person in front of her halt his footsteps.

Oh no, she was going to be scolded…

“Your shoelace.” His voice was very detached.

Huh?

She lowered her gaze.

Eh? It was undone.

She wanted to bend over at the waist but her arm was grabbed.

Huh?

Gun’s eyes swept over her shorts. With that sort of length, too much was shown even when standing completely upright, let alone when bending at the waist. “Come with me.” Saying this, he hauled her into the stairwell beside the elevators. He had originally intended on telling her to tie her own shoe but unexpectedly discovered that this place was where hotel staff chatted and gossiped.

Seeing two guests suddenly walk in, everyone stopped talking.

His face was dark with a scowl. After taking in their surroundings, he wordlessly set one foot on the third step of the stairs and motioned for her to extend her leg over.

Tong Nian gave an “oh” in reply and dazedly raised her leg. Couldn’t reach it…

So, she ran up two steps and stretched out her foot.

With her hand on the wall, in that instant when his hand grasped her ankle, a tingly, numbing sensation shot up from the top of her foot and jolted her until she felt lightheaded.

A very small, light pink Nike platform sneaker was set diagonally across his thigh. Gun lowered his head, his fingers feeling rather unaccustomed as they wrapped the white shoelace around them. Very skillfully, he tied the lace so that the knot was hidden within the shoe. This was purely his own personal habit.

Her fingers nervously gripped the wall. Casting her eyes down, she docilely pulled her foot back. “Thank you…”

Gun rolled his eyes. “You’re welcome.”

“Just now, I didn’t mean to do that…” She quietly explained, “I was just feeling a little bit jealous, and then I wanted to hold you. And then…”

“Jealous about what?”

“Huh? Oh, just about that—”

It had been two days since they saw each other, but the kid was still the same. At the drop of a hat, her brain would not be able to keep up with her desire to speak, and she would get stuck for words. And while he was at it, she still would not listen and loved to wear those miniskirts and shorts that left her long legs bare and showing…

But for some reason, seeing her like this made him suddenly feel much more at ease and relaxed.

From physically to mentally, he felt very relaxed.

Unconsciously, the desire to tease her rose up in him, and moving in close beside her face, he gave a light laugh. “Tell me. That nutcase’s face isn’t as Loli as yours, legs aren’t as long as yours, chest isn’t as big as yours, and brain isn’t as smart as yours. What exactly is there that’s worth you getting jealous over?”

Huh?

!!!!

Those hotel staff, who were being treated as if they were thin air, could not hear what Gun was saying. They only saw the little girlie leap up and then trip. Right as it looked as if she was going to fall…

The handsome hunk promptly stretched out his hand and grabbed her by her backpack…

He’s got her in his arms, in his arms!

Kiss, come on, kiss…

The wolf’s blood in everyone seemed to be boiling in excitement. Who would have thought? The handsome hunk was so calm and cool, pushing open the door and… going… out…

On the K&K bus, the entire group, with their own eyes, saw Leader bring Sister-In-Law onto the bus. And then, one of them noticed that the shoelaces on each of Little Sister-In-Law’s feet were tied differently. It was very evident that her left foot was tied with a bow, like young girls tend to do, while her right was tied in the style that Leader normally used… Hence, the whole way, these hot-blooded, twentyish-year old grown boys were all whispering amongst one another and discussing one question: what exactly did Leader do just now?

For this Guangzhou district competition, K&K was the main, highlight participant while its longtime rival, SP, was merely a spectator.

As a result, regarding that match yesterday in which the most powerful opponent had been absent from the gaming battlefield, the outcome—a draw—had been far outside of everyone’s expectations. Once they were in the team lounge, Gun handed Tong Nian a staff badge, patted her on her back, and told her to go have fun as she pleased for a little while. He needed to hold a meeting to rally the team members prior to battle. Obediently, she took it from him and lowered her head to look at the name badge: K&K eSports Club, Tong Nian.

Somewhat overcome with emotion at this, she pulled out its blue string and hung it around her neck, all the while continually looking down at the name badge in front of her chest as she walked out. This was… a K&K name badge that belonged to her.

This eSports organization was no longer unfamiliar to her.

Here, there were many of the finest professional gamers. Worldwide, it had more than ten different branches and possessed the title of champion in all the various events.

During that period when he was in the United States, she had followed gaming forums and news of the tournament. Little Bai had been the one who took the championship title in the finals of that competition. Reportedly, the day of the finals match, there had been more than twenty thousand live spectators, and the number of people watching online had exceeded sixty million.

Despite not really understanding, she had still conscientiously watched all the videos from that competition.

……

“Hey.” A pair of hands waved in front of her face. Grinning, appledog looked down at her name badge. “Eh? It doesn’t say what your title is.”

There was a blank look on Tong Nian’s face, and then she smiled and also lowered her head to look at her own badge. “What title?”

appledog raised the name badge around her own neck for her to see.

Organization: SP

Title: TotSC Team Captain[1]

Name: appledog

Oh, right. She had not even noticed that the spot beside “Title” was empty.

“It should say ‘family’ there.” appledog put on a pretense of seriousness. “Go back and tell Han Shangyan, if he doesn’t fill it in with ‘family,’ you won’t travel with the team next time.” Hearing her say the words, “travel with the team,” Tong Nian immediately felt shyly embarrassed.

Every time Tong Nian saw her, this woman always seemed to be trying to help her. Naturally, then, Tong Nian felt a sense of closeness toward her. The two chatted and laughed for a long while. She felt that the people of SP did not seem like what was written on the Internet, that they were hostile toward K&K. Toward the end of their conversation, appledog rather helpfully recounted for her many, many things of his past.

……

“Hmm, what else is there? … He has a lot of fans. We don’t even know how many girls he’s given a tongue-lashing to for chasing after him to his competitions and not going to class. Oh, right. Also, in the past, we had a cat, and he was the one who took care of it. Later, when the cat died, he could not even stand it when people mentioned it. That’s why Solo and I were guessing that he must have a particularly strong ‘first love complex[2].'”

Huh?

All of a sudden, appledog lifted her wrist and glanced at her watch. “The competition is going to begin. Let’s go in.”

Tong Nian nodded, following her to the players’ lounge area. Just as they were about to step in through the main doors, the woman turned sideways toward her and, with one arm, gave her a firm embrace. “Back at the time, he did not have the support of his family. He drifted alone around the country for the sole purpose of winning gold medals in China. He didn’t have a girlfriend, didn’t have family. He only wanted to win. To keep winning. To win, as a Chinese national, and bring home the Grand Slam. I was worried that no one would be able to stand his terrible temper and his stubborn passion for eSports. Thank you. It’s so good now. Everything is going to get better and better.”

Tong Nian was somewhat dumbstruck.

When they parted and she returned back to his side to take a seat, her mind was still on those last words.

Slowly, she began to relate to some of the sadness as well as powerlessness.

So… this was the reason why his grandfather would spurn him every time? He was so successful in his career, had taken so many championship titles, had endured so many hardships, but the people in his family still did not understand and appreciate him?

Gun could perceive that her mood was very downcast and surmised that his overly harsh behavior this morning when they first met up had brought this about. Although he felt that he had not done anything wrong, it was also clear that the little girl’s actions had not been very wrong, either. It was merely a difference in viewpoints.

“Why aren’t you saying anything?” In a hard-to-come-by moment, he actually opened his mouth and spoke to try to lighten the atmosphere.

“Huh?” She looked slowly toward him.

……

That look in her eyes…

Just too weird.

Clearing his throat, he explained in a low voice, “I have no objections to any type of intimacy that is done behind closed doors. However, out in public, we should exercise appropriate restraint. Being overly showy and flaunting is not good. People will just treat it as if they’re watching a big joke. They’ll also think that you, as the girl, have no self-respect and dignity and that you are very frivolous.”

“Oh…” She nodded docilely. It doesn’t matter. I will always stand by you.

He was creeped out by her stares. “I’m a man. I won’t lose out on anything. In the end, the one who stands to lose is you.”

“Mm-hmm…” She continued nodding obediently. It doesn’t matter. You have me now.

He discovered that she was not even really listening. That lone bit of patience he had had was about to be exhausted—

Out of the blue, her little hand slowly extended toward him and very resolutely covered the back of his, holding it tightly. I will absolutely never leave you.

He sunk into utter despair, telling himself incessantly, “Do not get angry. Stay calm.”

Stay calm.

Frick! What the heck was going on? He’d just let the kid go out to play for twenty minutes. How come she was like this after she got back?