#i have to say though ye xiu and huang shaotian's faces...

[cataclysmicamomile]

Did S3E1 of TKA give better characterization to Su Muqiu (and to an extent SMC & YX) in five minutes than the entirety of the movie???

[syncogon]

[QZGS meta] what’s in an OP? dawning glory (pt 2)

(a continuation of part 1 here) (part 3 here)

{The King’s Avatar Season 2 premieres in less than 12 hours!}

Last time we covered just up to around the halfway point of this OP. We’re picking up again right at the start of the second verse, where a new singing voice kicks in.

After reminiscing on the past, we come to Ye Xiu again as he puts on his headphones - he’s smiling, he’s doing what he loves, he’s ready to go forward. His smile here is an act of defiance against those who tell him that he should be stopping in his tracks.

The change of singer here is very noticeable, as they have very different-sounding voices. However, this is something we’ll talk about more later. 

In this section, we cut smoothly between the real and the virtual worlds. Lord Grim, too, faces forward resolutely, despite the naysayers referenced in the lyrics - “they say I shouldn’t go forward, they say I should just say goodbye, they say there’s no tomorrow, only night.”

Again, we focus on his hands - his left hand positioning on the keyboard in the real world, his right hand in the game world hoisting his weapon. They both extend from the upper left side of the screen, which allows our brains to follow the visual connection easily without being too overt about the parallel. Ye Xiu’s preparations for his comeback help to build our anticipation for the action that’s to come.

The red palette used for these in-game shots in this segment is an interesting stylistic choice. It’s a more nuanced version of the red-palette style used for the entirety of the OVA OP. Red is the color most commonly associated with Ye Xiu, it’s the color of both Team Happy and Team Excellent Era, it’s Lord Grim’s main color due to his scarf, and of course it’s associated with things like passion, fire, blood, etc. The red is also a nice contrast to the darkened, navy-blue setting of the real-world internet cafe - the lighting makes it seem like it’s nighttime again - and the red of Ye Xiu’s hoodie serves as a nice visual bridge between worlds.

Because this segment of the OP cuts between the game and real worlds so quickly, I think it’s good that they distinguish the game world here with these colors, as it makes the jumps easier to follow and understand. 

“They say there is no tomorrow, only night,” as reflected light flashes across the umbrella. Maybe it’s night in the internet cafe right now, but certainly not for long. And even if it’s night for Su Muqiu, his creation will see the light of day.

“Crossing the frozen finish line” - Lord Grim steps out in a wide, battle-ready stance, emphasizing the sense of motion inherent to the word “crossing.” In the background of the music, you can hear the growing sound of what sounds like rushing wind, in time with the wind whipping Lord Grim’s scarf about, and it continues to build up the energy of this scene.

The “frozen finish line” here refers to his unwilling retirement on that snowy night; it’s an ending that he was forced into, not the goal that he was striving for. But the point that the lyrics make here is that this unwilling end merely becomes the new starting point for his dream. 

The animators are really milking his windswept bangs, but honestly the animation looks good, so I can’t complain.

As Lord Grim narrows his (vibrantly red) eyes and tenses in preparation, we fade to Ye Xiu making the same motion, once again emphasizing the real-virtual parallel. Just this small motion is enough to make us, too, brace ourselves in anticipation. And as we mentioned earlier, you can really see here how the red hood of his sweatshirt is a nice connection to Lord Grim’s scarf, standing out against the colors of the rest of the image. 

The music feels like it’s going to crest at its peak here, but it’s actually a fakeout - accompanied by a key change in the music, the intensity suddenly backs off. Instead of the climax we’re expecting, we’re instead shown a montage of mostly-still images.

This is actually a good demonstration of how this OP follows the effective “interest curve” fairly well. You can’t continuously build hype throughout a piece, because that quickly becomes exhausting and boring for the audience. Instead, you have to have your peaks and valleys. At the very beginning of the OP, we started off with a crescendo to the first peak where the beat kicks in. We had a fairly upbeat instrumental section, then we dropped off as we entered verse 1. The Happy player segment is relatively chill overall, with its own small ebbs and flows. Then when we enter verse 2 with the second voice, the excitement level is a step up from what it was before. The second half of this segment gradually builds up in intensity until suddenly, here, we drop off. We’ll come back to this curve later to see the fuller picture. 

So we have this montage of the major pros, Ye Xiu’s closest friends and toughest opponents (note the first half of the lyric here is “even if it’s dangerous”). Although these are just still images, they still efficiently reveal information about the characters and teams in question - both when you consider them individually, and when you look at the patterns as a whole. Let’s take a look.

In all of these shots, the captain is the largest figure, and always on the center-right side of the screen. Even the last shot of Ye Xiu’s face before this montage places him at the center-right, giving us the exact starting-off point we need. This means that our eyes don’t have to do much work - we naturally trace a path to follow the most prominent figure in every image. 

Tyranny’s Han Wenqing, of course, strikes the most intimidating pose. Just from how they’re positioned, you can get a sense of how the two of them work together as partners - Han Wenqing in front, aggressive, Zhang Xinjie only a step behind, more defensive. They appear to be the pair that’s second-closest to each other in terms of physical distance, as they have a fairly balanced partnership. They’re angled toward each other, implicitly acknowledging each other without actually overlapping. 

Blue Rain is famed for their dual-core, and this image makes it abundantly clear, with captain and vice-captain featured equally prominently, standing right next to each other, back to back, almost the same size on screen. Looking closely, you can see that the two of them are moving together in the same direction as a unit. This is in contrast to the other teams’ characters, who are all sliding across the screen at slightly different speeds and directions from each other. Yu Wenzhou holds his clipboard, an instant clue toward his tactician style. Huang Shaotian is at a side profile, reflecting his unconventional, opportunistic, assassin-like style. And with his casual gesture and a wide grin, you can immediately get a sense of his personality. 

In Tiny Herb, Wang Jiexi is king (pun intended). Out of all the team pictures, he is the largest figure. This reflects how he is the sole pillar of Tiny Herb as of now, and it hints at just how (unsustainably) deep the team’s reliance upon him runs. Behind Wang Jiexi, we see his successor Gao Yingjie. Although Gao Yingjie is smaller for now, the angle of the shot makes it seem as though he is rising above Wang Jiexi - and this, of course, is exactly what the captain is trying to make happen. 

Behind these two is a third figure. At first I’d assumed it was Liu Xiaobie, but he doesn’t have the trademark headphones, so I think it makes more sense that this is actually Qiao Yifan, still in the team. With how he’s half-hidden in Gao Yingjie’s shadow and not even looking at the camera, you get the sense that even in this little picture, he doesn’t quite have a place here.

Samsara features Zhou Zekai and Jiang Botao. When these images were initially previewed during the live ED performance, there was a lot of backlash because a) Jiang Botao’s design had changed, b) their jackets spelled “samsaea”, and c) there was a coloring error on the collar of Zhou Zekai’s shirt. Fortunately, it seems all of these flaws were addressed. 

Zhou Zekai is the second-largest out of all the featured characters, reflecting how Glory’s number one player always dominates the battlefield. Jiang Botao’s design here sweeps more hair out of his eyes, which suits his character well by giving him a more open, friendly, approachable appearance. Although he’s positioned far back from the camera relative to Zhou Zekai, he seems content where he is - he has a perfectly fine view of the camera and surroundings, and here he can serve as the tether connecting the powerful Zhou Zekai to the unseen rest of the team. 

Next we see Thunderclap - I was actually somewhat surprised to see them featured now, but I suppose we need to establish Xiao Shiqin early on. I’m also surprised that they have four members here… I don’t think I could name four Season 8 Thunderclap members off the top of my head, I’m sorry ahaha. We have Xiao Shiqin and Dai Yanqi obviously, I assume the third is Fang Xuecai, but I don’t know who the player with his back turned is supposed to be. Maybe they included a lot of team members to emphasize how, more so than any other team, Thunderclap’s strength is when they’re playing together as a team. You can also see this in how, unlike all the other teams except Blue Rain, all four of the characters are sliding across the screen in the same direction (right), although the parallax makes their speeds appear slightly different. 

That being said, with the hand adjusting his glasses and his thoughtful look to the side, Xiao Shiqin very much gives off the studious tactician vibe. Still, his smile is warm, not cold and calculating. Behind him, Dai Yanqi is just adorable.

Finally, we have Hundred Blossoms. Coming off of Xiao Shiqin’s smile, Zhang Jiale’s shadowed half-frown stands in sharp contrast, even though the viewer has only a fraction of a second to take it in. Angled at a full 90 degrees from the camera, Zhang Jiale stares at his right hand, a sort of frozen sadness on his face. What could he be thinking about? Reflecting on his continued inability to take the final step to the championship? Reflecting on the hand injury that tore his closest friend and partner away from him, leaving him to shoulder the burden alone? In this image, it seems as though it’s the Hundred Blossoms’ shining logo itself that is casting his face into shadow. He undoubtedly has many conflicted feelings about the team he gave six years of his life to, and ultimately abandoned. 

Visually, Zhang Jiale appears to be facing a deep blackness; the design places no decorative accents on that corner of the screen. Perhaps he sees no way forward. Perhaps he sees the way forward, through to the team with black as its color, and the betrayal that choice would mean. 

Behind him is Sun Zheping. Interestingly, he’s fully illuminated by the light of the Hundred Blossoms logo. In Zhang Jiale’s mind, perhaps he still is that light, a light now lost to him. Although Sun Zheping is also looking away, his body is angled more forward toward the camera, reflecting how he has a better sense than Zhang Jiale does of what it means to cast off doubts and charge forward into the future. 

In a sharp contrast to every other team picture, note that neither person in this image is looking at the camera. Whereas the other teams are unified and focused in their pursuit of the championship, both Zhang Jiale and Sun Zheping are lost. In fact, neither is even currently a member of this team that they founded together. And, of course, there’s a distance between them, as they look off in opposite directions, and this distance only grows as Zhang Jiale slides toward the right and Sun Zheping toward the left. Overall, the mood this final team image conveys is drastically different from the rest.

I also found it interesting to note here that, although all of the teams’ uniforms got redesigned in the donghua (for instance, official novel art always portrayed them with collared polos, not t-shirts), the Hundred Blossoms uniform here appears to be unchanged from the original.  

As a final thought, I do love the background designs in each of these shots, working in the team colors and the motifs of the logos. I wish they’d release these as desktop wallpapers, they’re really nice. 

So that’s enough words about these three seconds of the opening. Let’s (finally) keep going.

This is a good place in the OP to insert a reminder of the final goal we’re working toward - the championship. “As always we charge forward, we’ll ultimately be crowned,” here at the summit of glory. 

Something about the faded filter over these two shots gives it an almost mystical, imaginative quality. Or maybe it’s the feeling of a memory long past. This stage, this place of legends, it’s still a ways off for our protagonists for now. But they’ll find their way here in the end.

Team Happy! When it comes to illustrating Happy’s in-game characters in an action group picture, this sort of composition - side view, all of them leaping into action toward one direction - is fairly common, even just in official art. Still, it never gets old, and it’s nice to see it here, especially as the music crests. The lyric “we’ll be crowned,” which bridges us from verse 2 to the chorus, is timed with the very first large group picture we get in this OP. It’s a proud and triumphant declaration as we see our protagonists finally united for the first time, arrayed for battle.

With that, just before we enter the chorus section, we’ll pause here for now. Part 3, which will cover the last 20 seconds or so, will probably go up after the episode premieres. I’m also interested to see how they’ll work the credits into this OP; hopefully they do something interesting, or at least make it look nice. 

Thanks for reading! 

(part 1) (part 3)

[queenharumiura]

((H.A.R.U))

Taken from meme: [x] ||Accepting|| ((Oh Kiki, I see what you did, you beautiful bean))

H - What is your favorite source text for fandom stuff (e.g., TV shows, movies, books, anime, Western animation, etc.)?

A - Ships that you currently like a lot. (They don’t have to be OTPs because not everyone has OTPs.) Friendships, pairings, threesomes, etc. are allowed.

R - Which friendship/platonic relationship is your favorite in fandom?

[x] - Answered here ; As a bonus, i’ll answer A and R in regards to the Inuyasha fandom bc we’re both in it. He is coming into a friendly relation with Margaret (OC) which is great. IDK what he’d be with Elena, but realistically, I think it would maybe be a friendship of sorts? I think that covers that. I don’t have any ships that are official in threads. However, I do think our Kikyo and Sesshomaru would eventually get down to being a ship.

In fandom, I support Inuyasha/Kagome and Sango/Miroku as it’s canon. In regards to what I like, I do like Sesshomaru/Kagome and Sesshomaru/Kikyo (GET FUCKING REKTED INUYASHA! Don’t be mistaken, I love Inuyasha but I am biased). Sesshomaru and Kagura would be an interesting dynamic to explore more on. I think I’ve seen people state Sesshomaru already loved Kagura when she died and I just-- don’t feel the vibe tbh. I personally think he would’ve needed more time to come to terms with such an emotion. I think it was interest, respect, and familiarity at best at that time. Anyways, I think their dynamic would be very fun as a ship. I’ve seen Sesshomaru and Sango as well and i’m like LE KEK, SURE WHY NOT? Me casually making my muses a ship magnet in fandom? Yes. In RPC? LOL SHIP? Can I eat that? 

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.

Oof- Okay... uh... I’ll avoid the fandoms i muse for to try to make this more original. 

Trash of the Count’s Family

Cale- I am biased, I love the main character, obviously. I just really like Cale. He has some sassy thoughts in his head and I LIVE for that. Additionally, I just find him to be fascinating as a character. I can’t really go into it because it goes into severe spoiler territory, but basically, the way he was integrated into the world he was isekai’ed into is so fascinating to me, especially when you realize there is more to this isekai than we, the readers, are initially led to believe. In regards to emotions, he’s more stagnant than I’m used to in a lot of characters I like, but I don’t hate it? Rather, it fits him well. He’s an ‘unlucky’ dude and I laugh at his misfortune. When you consider angst material—Ohhhh CHEF KISS.

Alberu- BIG BROTHER CROWN PRINCE ALBERU!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love him so much. AHHHHHH He’s such a fun character to me. This sly Prince. He really does care a lot about Cale and it makes me cry. He takes his role as a Prince seriously and puts so much care into the common-folk and he doesn’t discriminate against those of the dark species (Necromancers, dark elves, vampires, etc) which is almost unheard of especially since the most prominent religions are those of the Light. He has a reason for it which I won’t spoil. AHHHH I love him. //sob

Raon Miru- BABY DRAGON!!!!!!! The cutest lil thing who I love to pieces. He was introduced as an abused baby and it hurts me to think about. He hates humans but he sticks around Cale because he’s the human that saved him from being tortured daily. He slowly becomes acclimated to being around humans and grows to trust some. He still hates humans but the ones he’s close to aren’t ‘humans’. They are ‘his people’. I cry. This all-mighty dragon is amazing and can do everything. Bow before his might. I love him. Fite me.

-

Legend of the Sun Knight

(Lesus) Judgement Knight- Okay, he’s not the main character, but--!!! He’s great. Even though he’s supposed to be at odds with the Sun Knight as they embody different philosophies, they are actually the best of friends in secret. He deals with a lot of Grisia’s (Sun Knight) BULLSHIT, getting him out of trouble. His dynamic with Grisia is just hilarious to me. He’s a calm and collective type. Very serious, not very talkative. He’s the head of the ‘cold-faction’ and his role is to punish sinners in grotesque ways so many fear him but HE’S. A. GOOD. BOI!!!!!!! He just—is so dedicated to his role but mostly Grisia, his best-friend-who-is-not-his-friend. I’M CRY.

(Grisia) Sun Knight- The actual main character of the series. He’s so… HE’S AN INSUFFERABLE LIL TWAT—BUT I LOVE HIM. So sassy and just a lil shit in general. He’s very clever and he’s also what you could consider a genius. I love competency, mmm. He’s HELLA petty. To put it simply, he’s the Sun Knight, who is like the head of the Sun Church. You could say he’s the leader of an entire religion, who worship the God of Light. (If you ever see me type OMGOL, it’s bc I’m typing Oh My God of Light. Fax) There are select knights who are spokespeople for the church and he’s the head of them. All such knights are considered to be ‘brothers’ and he’s very protective of them all. Princess? King? Liche? The world? He don’t give any flying fucks. You touch his knights and he’ll get revenge. BET. I love that level of savagery.

(Neo) Sun Knight- I must say, he doesn’t show up much, but he is just //chef kiss. The special knights I mentioned earlier are roles that get passed down to a new generation. There are 12 in total, and the Sun Knight is the topmost knight. Neo Sun is said to be the best knight in HISTORY aside from the original. His sword skills are legendary and he raised Grisia, the… uh… ‘weakest’ Sun Knight in history. He’s the weakest in sword skill and horse riding skill, but Grisia is the strongest when it comes to magic proficiency. Just Neo’s name can send Grisia into a panic. He is somewhat of a Father for Grisia. A scary one, but one that Grisia cares deeply for. The sacrifices that Neo has made for Grisia is just //sob. He and Lesus both have done so much for Grisia behind the scenes and I’m just--- //cries harder.

-

The King’s Avatar

Ye Xiu- He is the main character of this novel and ughhh I love him so much. He too, IS A LIL SHIT!!!! He is so insufferable sometimes to his opponents and I LOVE IT. He’s very smart and skilled in what he does. He’s a professional gamer and I don’t understand a thing about games but I only need to know that he’s wicked good lol. He’s very dedicated to Glory, the game that he was a professional gamer for. He kinda… got ousted out by the team he FOUNDED. He says that he’ll get back into the professional association and take another championship. The novel centers around him and you watch as he sets out to complete a specific goal in mind in honor of a certain someone.

Huang Shaotian- A talkative dumbass. I love him. He is such PUPPY ENERGY. He bothers Ye Xiu a lot with his highkey energy. He’s extremely talented and he is known for his trash talking. He talks ridiculously fast and he’s just so--- insufferable in another way lol. I love him for it. He doesn’t always think before he talks and it gets him into trouble. Even though they are on opposing teams, he is quite fond of Ye Xiu and after finding out Ye Xiu suddenly retired (ie he was forced out of his team), he was very concerned for him. He even travelled to come talk to him and do him a favor. He was like: Old Ye, if you ever need anything, just ask! I’ll help! THIS. GOOD. BOI!!!!!!!!!! He’s really just a big idiot sometimes. “Hey, Shaotian, where are you?” “Oh, I’m xxxxxx.” “Oh? That’s where a boss spawns. I’ll be there.” Who just—he legit just gave intel to Ye Xiu about a boss monster spawn to an enemy guild. He is just too honest and ready to answer to Ye Xiu. You can tell he really respects Ye Xiu despite what trash talk he spouts. Ye Xiu IS the God of Glory, after all.

Han Wenqing- IN COMING YE XIU’S OLD RIVAL FOR YEARS!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH They just--- I’M CRY. They have such history with each other, constantly butting head with each other in game/tournaments. They don’t have a dynamic where they look at each other and just cuss each other out or what have you. They genuinely respect each other and wouldn’t mind hanging out with each other in private. They are both captains of their own respective teams and the fans of their teams are mortal enemies lol. Han Wenqing and Ye Xiu are both older players and you really get to see the struggles older players face in the tough gaming industry. He’s a responsible captain and he is so respectable. He’s so great. I love him too. The dynamic he has with Ye Xiu is--- //crying

[saxifactumterritum]

Here you go, @lynne-monstr, for your post.

The first time they get selected for the Glory All Stars tournament, Yu Wenzhou hasn’t yet perfected the art of not reacting to things in public (Huang Shaotian teaches him a lot about keeping impassive and innocuous faces on. A lot. Quickly), and he goes around smiling too wide for a while, accompanied always by an ongoing stream of chatter. Even Yu Wenzhou struggles to keep up with the amount Huang Shaotian had to say. He perseveres, helped by how amusing it is that the rest of the Blue Rain team are not so much frustrated as astonished; no one had realised Huang Shaotian could speed up. It settles after being selected a few times.

When the rookies start regularly challenging him there’s an up-tick in excited talking again, and after a couple of times that shifts to annoyance that they don't want to 1v1 Yu Wenzhou as well. Yu Wenzhou is not annoyed; people widely assume he is not so good at 1v1, what with his hand speed. They’re not wrong, he is more likely to lose 1v1 than a team challenge. They do seem to forget that his best friend is Huang Shaotian, though, who demands everyone PK at the drop of a hat. The hat doesn’t even have to drop most of the time. 

It isn’t disappointing. Besides, it helps with his problem of over-smiling and being unprofessionally excited, because he can tell that his selection is at least partly due to being  half of the core of Blue Rain, not just for himself. He is proud of building that, and he never minds, he is always quite happy to sit back and watch Huang Shaotian play for the rookies challenge. He gets used to it, and years pass, and it feels more and more like an achievement - all this time, never speeding up, and still he gets selected for the All Stars, even if he isn’t called up to 1v1. This year, Huang Shaotian is busy being excited that he’s neck and neck with Ye Xiu for ‘who has most rookie challenges’, some kind of bet between them. Yu Wenzhou makes himself comfortable to watch the show. 

Huang Shaotian’s third challenger is a rookie from 301, he’s not bad but he is very inexperienced, and his effective hand speed isn’t so great yet; the game isn’t gripping. Yu Wenzhou enjoys watching anyway, because he can see Huang Shaotian teaching, showing the rookie where his strengths and weaknesses are, stuff he’s missed, tactics for the swordmaster class. Yu Wenzhou likes to watch Huang Shaotian do this. It makes him proud of their team and the ethos they’ve pushed in the club: teamwork and building each other up, working with strengths and using your own weaknesses. Huang Shaotian carries these things out into Glory whenever he plays. When he’s done, he bounces back to the stands, beaming happily, mid-conversation. 

“...ha ha! there’s only one rookie left, they’ll not challenge Old Ye no way no way, I’ve won, I’ve already practically won! Old Ye, Old Ye, time to weep! Captain! Hi! I think that was pretty good, right? Did you see his reaction speed? That was good, wasn’t it?” Huang Shaotian says, switching from talking to himself to talking to Yu Wenzhou.

“Hm. What did you think of his hand-speed?” Yu Wenzhou asks. 

“Right, right, but not everyone can be as quick as me,” Huang Shaotian says. He’s not wrong - not everyone can be as quick as Huang Shaotian, and the rookie wasn’t slow, it was just they weren’t able to use their full speed yet. They’re not slow the way Yu Wenzhou is. “Oh, look, someone else, she looks nice I like her bow, I like her bracelets I bet those are jangly, she looks nervous. Do you think she’s nervous?”

Yu Wenzhou just smiles; Huang Shaotian doesn’t need his input, he’s already off again in another direction as she makes it onto the stage, wondering which club she’s part of as she wasn’t announced before the event like the others were. Yu Wenzhou half listens, also listening as she introduces herself as Zheng Lichun, he doesn’t recognise her and he likes to have up to date intelligence on who their opponents are training. He gets her character name, Windblown Night, before he’s derailed from intelligence gathering, because as soon as she says ‘Windblown Night’, Huang Shaotian is sitting bolt upright so fast that he bounces right out of his seat, forceful enough that Yu Wenzhou has to catch him to keep him from going face-first into the row in front. 

“Oh my god oh my god oh my did she say Windblown Night?! She did, she did she did, I know she did,” Huang Shaotian whispers, vibrating in his seat, gripping Yu Wenzhou’s arm.

“What is it?” Yu Wenzhou asks, warily. 

He’s paging through his recent memory to try and find an incident that Huang Shaotian’s been avoiding telling him, sure ‘it’ is some sort of trouble. The only thing he can think of is that a few days ago Han Wenqing asked a very odd question about if Yu Wenzhou had noticed glitter in his teammates’ hair. Yu Wenzhou really didn’t want to know, so he’d just said that no, he had not, and it being Han Wenqing, that had been that. Glitter doesn’t seem relevant to… well, to anything really, although now he’s looking over at Tyranny, across the stadium, and Han Wenqing is picking something out of Zhang Xinjie’s hair. Huang Shaotian is avoiding answering the question and is, instead, talking too fast about how hungry he is. Yu Wenzhou digs out a too-sweet snack bar from his bag and peels away the wrapper, putting it in Huang Shaotian’s mouth to shush him, if he’s not going to answer properly. 

“-erk. ‘Ank’oo,” Huang Shaotian manages, biting off the end and chewing madly. 

“And who are you challenging, today?” the host is asking, when Yu Wenzhou can pay attention to the event again. He hopes Zheng Lichun gets done answering before Huang Shaotian starts trying to explain his innocence again, and, though he’ll never say it aloud, he hopes she doesn’t challenge Ye Xiu, so Huang Shaotian can win his bet. 

“Captain Yu Wenzhou,” Zheng Lichun says. 

There’s a very long silence. It takes Yu Wenzhou a moment to catch up, thinking too fondly about Huang Shaotian and his silly bets. When he realises, he’s so surprised he lets go of Huang Shaotian, who was leaning into his grip and nearly goes pitching forwards again. Yu Wenzhou feels himself flush uncomfortably as every eye in the stadium turns to look intently his way. He hasn’t been called to 1v1 in the All Stars since… 

Actually, ever. 

Maybe it’s a mistake. 

The host clears that up by asking her to confirm. Yu Wenzhou’s heart is beating strangely fast, he gapes at the stage while everyone gapes at him. Except, it slowly dawns on him, Huang Shaotian. Huang Shaotian is half-choking on his food trying to finish it so he can talk, and he doesn’t seem surprised at all. In the least. Not a bit. 

“What did you do?” Yu Wenzhou asks, feeling a little bit lost.  

Huang Shaotian laughs, and it’s loud in the quiet. The host has managed to get himself together enough to hum and haw but not to ask anything further or do anything yet. Zheng Lichun is going redder and redder and redder as people start whispering.

“I didn’t do anything, captain, I swear on my sword, actually on Troubling Rain, no, actually on all of Glory! I didn’t do anything, not anything at all,” Huang Shaotian says, finally managing to finish his mouthful. 

“You knew,” Yu Wenzhou accuses.

He’s stuck in place as the whispering heats up, and the host tells everyone who ‘Captain Yu Wenzhou’ is. Needlessly, Yu Wenzhou would hope. He might not be called on for 1v1 matches but he’s been selected for the All Stars as consistently as Huang Shaotian. 

“Captain, Wenzhou, she looks like she’s going to cry, go save the poor woman! You caused the poor poor host to go into shock, he’s being useless, go save her, go go go,” Huang Shaotian says, and then he gets up and hauls at Yu Wenzhou until he does get up and then gives him a gentle shove to get him moving. “Good luck, captain!”

 Yu Wenzhou makes his way to the stage, still confused and off-balance. At least he gets some applause when he gets up there; the roar from an entire blue section of the audience makes him smile. Then he turns his attention to Zheng Lichun, who really does look close to tears. He finds some of his composure and gentles his smile, approaching her. She is, he can see from the screen, a swordmaster from Thunderclap, and she’s asked to play with her own account. He missed quite a bit while he was distracted, clearly. 

“Hi,” is all Yu Wenzhou can think to say for a moment. Zheng Lichun nods. He can hear her breathing too fast, and her hand trembles a little when he takes it to shake. Her obvious nervousness settles his own a little bit.  “I’m flattered you want to challenge me, thank you.” 

Yu Wenzhou waits for the host to do something, but he just looks between them, smiling inanely. Yu Wenzhou takes the initiative and asks her why she picked him. He blushes again, hot, prickling his skin as she talks. 

“I have slow hands,” Zheng Lichun says, looking solemnly up at him. She looks so young. “And they shake. I got told I couldn’t play with my friends, I didn’t have good enough hands. I got better friends, and they told me about you. You’re amazing, it’s inspiring. You made me believe I can play.”

It’s not the first time that Yu Wenzhou has heard about recruits with slow hands. The other captains laugh about it sometimes, rookies with slow speed stating loudly that they will be the next Yu Wenzhou; Deadlast, crippled hands, too slow. Laughing, because Yu Wenzhou, everyone knows, is not just slow hands. Yu Wenzhou is strategic, he thinks quickly and adapts, he studies and memorises and works hard. Ye Xiu might be the Glory text book, but Yu Wenzhou learnt the text book and instead of using it, rewrote it to suit his slow hands, to suit Huang Shaotian’s quick mouth, to suit Song Xiao’s inconsistent play, to suit Zheng Xuan’s lack of ambition. It makes him feel exposed, though, how earnest these young people are about it. 

Huang Shaotian cheers too loudly and the host finally gets his head out of the clouds and directs them to the platform, and Yu Wenzhou can breathe easier, taking a seat and plugging in the headphones and account card, everything automatic. He’s got Swoksaar, which is comfortingly familiar. He checks the screen to see her Windblown Night, and matches her stats as best he can so Swoksaar isn’t quite so ridiculously over-powering. 

He isn’t sure what to expect, so he takes his time, watching her, keeping a bit of distance between them and testing how she closes in. Yu Wenzhou can calculate easily which skills she’s going to use. It’s Huang Shaotian’s voice in his head, commentating as they go, listing moves. Zheng Lichun’s precision varies but when it is precise, it’s very precise, impressively so. She’s built that into her style - he can predict the skill she might use, but he can’t predict which will aim-true, so he has to act as if each one will be precise. It’s clever. She’s methodical, quiet, and, yes, slow. He maneuvers Swoksaar around the map, observing, and finds himself enjoying it, fascinated by Zheng Lichun’s determined circling, inching ever-closer, inexorable.

Zheng Lichun isn’t just precise, though. She sets some traps in clever places and chips away a little of his health, uses hidden spots and secret paths, even manages to surprise him once when Windblown Night leaps out of a tree right in his blind spot. She must have put in a lot of work studying various maps, and watching him play; the only other person who’s found that blind spot is Huang Shaotian. Yu Wenzhou is definitely enjoying himself. He isn’t going to lose by any means, but he’s pleasantly surprised, and it’s more of a challenge than he ever expected from her stats. He takes it seriously that she asked him, so he makes sure to take the time to show her a few things as they play, and when a chance comes to finish things neatly he takes it. . 

“That was fun, thank you. You play well,” Yu Wenzhou says, when they meet at the front of the stage again. Zheng Lichun is beaming now, nervousness all gone. “You have a lot of knowledge. Why did you choose swordmaster?”

“I can’t play like you, you’re too precise. Not, I mean, I can’t play like Troubling Rain, obviously, Huang Shaotian is too quick. When I was trying to learn from you, it was easier to think about how to play with you than to play as you,” Zheng Lichun says. 

Yu Wenzhou wants to know more, but the host has come to ask how she feels, and there’s no opportunity to ask. 

Yu Wenzhou can’t stop smiling. He tries, but he can’t help it. Huang Shaotian is standing, waiting for him, smiling just as wide, face overflowing with pride… and smugness. Huang Shaotian’s smile is smug. Yu Wenzhou is going to find out what exactly that is for. However, not now. Now they are free to leave for a while, and Yu Wenzhou is glad of that.

They traipse away from the stage for a break. They’re walking with Tyranny, and Han Wenqing is keeping Yu Wenzhou silent company. Yu Wenzhou listens in on Huang Shaotian, further back. 

“I’m so hungry,” Huang Shaotian is complaining, to Song Xiao. “The captain’s health kick is so hard. I’m so hungry I might waste away! He gave me a granola bar! There was barely any chocolate at all!”

“At least it’s granola bars and fruit, and not the vegetable that shall not be named,” Song Xiao says. 

Yu Wenzhou smiles. He hasn’t put okra on the menu for a while, Song Xiao is quite correct. 

“Oh no,” Huang Shaotian says. “Captain! Stop listening to other people’s private conversations! Don’t go getting ideas! Ignore Song Xiao, ignore him, ignore him, he never spoke!”

“Do you want to tell me about the glitter?” Yu Wenzhou calls back, just to see what happens. Zhang Xinjie walks into the wall. 

Huang Shaotian hurries over and beams around, catching Yu Wenzhou’s arm and pulling him on quickly ahead and down a quiet bit of corridor, solicitous to Yu Wenzhou and enthusiastically apologetic to everyone else. Yu Wenzhou allows it, waiting until they’re alone before taking a look to see if Huang Shaotian does have glitter in his hair. 

“Stop it, I'm not telling,” Huang Shaotian says. “Not even for the threat of okra. Anyway, there’s nothing to tell, nothing at all, and any hints Old Han makes are to be ignored, because there is nothing at all that Xinjie and I did, and anyway, Old Han can’t know, so I’m not telling.”

“Tell me the other thing, then,” Yu Wenzhou says. It comes out less stern than he means, sounding a bit lost instead. Huang Shaotian catches his chin and draws him into a kiss, smiling against his lips. 

“It wasn’t me, I swear,” Huang Shaotian says, when he’s done with the kissing, stroking Yu Wenzhou’s cheek. “She just wanted to play Glory with you. She’s very smart, smart people want to play with you, playing Glory with you is the most fun, what a smart woman.”

“Stop.”

“I’m not avoiding telling you, that would be silly as you’d just make me tell you anyway, will you make me? You can make me. But I’m not doing that, I’m being reassuring, I’m reassuring you,” Huang Shaotian says. “You did that, not me. It’s what you did. You’re amazing, it’s really cool, you’re really cool, ok, ok? I think it’s amazing.”

Huang Shaotian has his hands cupping Yu Wenzhou’s face, holding him there, gaze intent and pleased. Yu Wenzhou can see his amazement right there in his eyes. 

“I didn’t do anything, though,” Yu Wenzhou says.

“I’m telling it, I’m telling it. Hush,” Huang Shaotian says, pushing Yu Wenzhou more firmly against the wall, and he presses his thumb against Yu Wenzhou’s lips. “Shh. Where was I? She wanted to play Glory with you, right right right. I was poking around the forums a year or two back, I wasn’t misbehaving I swear! I was just looking. I was definitely not getting into arguments that I shouldn’t be getting into.”

“I’ll overlook it,” Yu Wenzhou says, against Huang Shaotian’s fingers, which are still trying to keep him silent.

“You’re the best,” Huang Shaotian says, taking his hand away to kiss Yu Wenzhou “I was just reading, not arguing at all like I said, and there she was, talking about your slow hands. People do that on the forums, they’re very rude, I tell them off because- but I was just reading then! I mostly just read. No arguing. I only clicked because… because… because I saw your name, not to argue.”

Yu Wenzhou has no doubt at all that Huang Shaotian was logged on to the forum with the express intention to argue with people, and that he clicked on that particular thread in order to get in a fight. He keeps his peace, though, wanting the story more. 

“She was asking questions and everyone was giving her lots and lots of information that was just not correct and it was so very wrong, very very wrong, and when I tried to explain how wrong they were they started to argue, so I told Windblown Night to start a chat on QQ and I told her the right answers to her many many questions.”

“Which were…”

“All about you,” Huang Shaotian says, beaming at Yu Wenzhou. They’re standing so close, Yu Wezhou would have to go cross eyed to see anything other than Huang Shaotian’s eyes, so he just gazes back into those familiar, beautiful eyes. 

“She was so, so, so excited,” Huang Shaotian says, when Yu Wenzhou doesn’t speak. “So smart, so smart! She knows who’s the best in Glory. We should steal her from Xiao Shiqin, Wenzhou. Can we can we can we? She said that one day she was going to get to the top of Glory and play with you, and here she is! She’d do great in Blue Rain, Wenzhou. Can we please please please steal her away?”

Yu Wenzhou doesn’t make any promises. He doesn’t care, doesn’t care about the chatter or what Huang Shaotian is saying, or the plans, or the game, or any of it. He wishes that it didn’t matter to him, but he hasn’t had a rookie challenge him before and it turns out it does matter. It feels so good, it soars through him. He tries to keep humble, but it’s pride, and happiness, and he’s so flattered and honoured, and he sees it all reflected right back at him from Huang Shaotian’s eyes. He gets hold of Huang Shaotian’s biceps and lifts, turns, so it’s Huang Shaotian against the wall, and kisses his startlement away, kisses him until he’s gasping and hanging on to Yu Wenzhou, and when he’s done, Huang Shaotian’s head thumps back against the wall and he stares up at Yu Wenzhou, silent. 

“I love you,” Yu Wenzhou explains, and Huang Shaotian laughs, happily, wrapping his arms around Yu Wenzhou’s shoulders. Yu Wenzhou kisses him again. 

“Captain, captain, if you want, oh my god Wenzhou, stop, stop. If you want me to not melt into a puddle and need to be carried back to the hotel for naps and orgasms, you need to stop,” Huang Shaotian says, then pauses, expresion speculative. “Or you could-”

“We’re at work,” Yu Wenzhou says. Sternly. 

As if he hasn’t got Huang Shaotian pressed to a wall, as if he’s not busy pressing little kisses to every bit of skin he can reach. He does relent, letting Huang Shaotian go (and then holding onto him for a bti longer because he’s being dramatic about Yu Wenzhou kissing away the power of legs), and they rejoin the team. And if Yu Wenzhou goes back through old applications for the Blue Rain training programme to see if Zheng Lichun ever applied, for the rest of the break, no one needs to know that. She never did, and he wonders why. If she wanted to play Glory with him, why did she apply to Thunderclap? 

“She picked swordmaster,” Huang Shaotian says, late that night, when Yu Wenzhou wakes him up to ask because he can’t sleep and can’t stop thinking about it. “About half of everyone who tries for Blue Rain is a swordmaster, Troubling Rain is the best, I’m the best, we have the-”

“Shaotian.” 

“It’s a lot of competition. Thunderclap doesn’t have a swordmaster, but they have swordsmen classes; less competition, but good resources to train her with the other swordsmen. Xiao Shiqin is ok at optimising strengths despite weaknesses. The club has an ok rep for training. If she’s good, Xiao Shiqin will notice,” Huang Shaotian says, talking rapidly, listing them off while pulling a pillow over his head. “Go to sleep.”

“You’ve put a lot of thought into it,” Yu Wenzhou says, pulling the pillow off. Even in the dark without his glasses, Huang Shaotian looks ruffled and annoyed. It’s cute. 

“Stop smiling at me in the dark, it’s creepy, Wenzhou,” Huang Shaotian grumbles, rolling over and pushing until he has Yu Wenzhou on his back, and can plaster himself over Yu Wenzhou’s chest, face shoved into Yu Wenzhou’s neck and shoulder. Coincidentally, from there, he can reach an arm across Yu Wenzhou’s face when he tries to talk some more. “I’m asleep.”

“You told her to apply to Thunderclap.”

Huang Shaotian sighs and sits up, across Yu Wenzhou’s hips, naked but for his underwear, leaning over and feeling under a pillow to come up with his phone, switching on the torch so they have some light. Yu Wenzhou looks up at him, blurry, handsome. 

“Fine. I told her to apply for Thunderclap, yes,” Huang Shaotian says, crossing his arms. “She wasn’t good enough to get into Blue Rain.”

“Ok.”

“She wanted to play Glory with you. If I encouraged her to come to our Blue Rain, she’d never have got to do that. People don’t realise how much fun it is,” Huang Shaotian says. “I love playing with you, it’s the best, you’re the best. I want people to know that, I liked her for knowing it, her name stuck in my head, when she showed up today I just knew she was going to ask for you.”

“I liked it,” Yu Wenzhou says, feeling way more naked than he is, saying it. Even though he’s naked already. “I liked being asked.”

Huang Shaotian yawns. Even blurry from lack of glasses, Yu Wenzhou can make it out. He gives Huang Shaotian a tug so he lies back down, so Yu Wenzhou can get his arms around him. 

“I liked you being asked too,” Huang Shaotian mumbles, snuggling into Yu Wenzhou’s shoulder, yawning again.

“You can go to sleep again,” Yu Wenzhou says. 

“We’ll steal her, won’t we?” Huang Shaotian whispers. 

Yu Wenzhou hesitates. It’s not that Zheng Lichun isn’t good enough. There’ll be problems for sure, but in Blue Rain pretty much everyone has something that would usually stop them becoming a pro player. He hesitates because he’s not sure he can trust himself to give an unbiased assessment of her performance. He’s made sure he doesn’t mind that his popularity rests on Swoksaar and being half of a double-act. It’s not that people don’t recognise or acknowledge his skill or his intelligence, and the fact that the acknowledgement usually includes ‘it’s a shame about his hand speed’ or something, that’s fine. But… it is nice to be noticed for his skill working around his limitations, instead of despite those limitations. 

“Go to sleep,” Yu Wenzhou says, instead of answering, kissing Huang Shaotian’s hair. 

He grumbles that he had been asleep and it’s all Yu Wenzhou’s fault and something Yu Wenzhou can’t make out, but then he does as he’s told. Yu Wenzhou listens to his familiar breathing patterns change to sleep. Huang Shaotian advised Zheng Lichun to join Thunderclap, in the first place, because she wasn’t good enough. Now he’s asking Yu Wenzhou to recruit her. Blue Rain hasn’t actually signed many rookies recently, they have space, even for a swordmaster. Yu Wenzhou stays awake for a while thinking about it. Just before he falls asleep, only just remembering to turn off the torch on Huang Shaotian’s phone, he does find glitter in Huang Shaotian’s hair, but that’s a mystery for another day. For now, he goes to sleep scheming how to steal Zhang Lichun away from Thunderclap. 

[lynne-monstr]

@afincf-tirwer replied to your post “@afincf-tirwer replied to your post “crack fic where a very tired yu...”

Ywz: We're back- Hst: WE'RE MARRIED!! Everyone else: .... Zxj: congratulations Yx: ....you couldn't have done this after the meeting with the foreign investors? Ywz: This was of utmost importance. Had to be done as soon as possible. No time to waste. And as the team captain the workload on me is low- Yx (trying not to throttle him): If you say that one more time- Hst: yx you should be happy for us, we're married! *he's waving his hand around a lot, he's nearly hit everyone in the face as he shows off, an admittedly very nice ring and if yx hadn't just been abandoned to handle a socialising even he would be a lot more congratulatory. ywz and hst are very happy though. 

(also akljfdald they take the opportunity while in europe to get married, ywz walking into hst's room, 2 hrs before the train leaves: hst will you marry me? hst: yes, of course, when are we doing it? ywz: our train leaves in two hours, i have the rings hst: LET'S GO!!

alkjdkjfds that’s exactly how it would go down! 

yu wenzhou thinks for a split second that perhaps they should keep their new marriage on the down-low but huang shaotian is walking down the streets of this small german city shoving his new ring into strangers’ faces and so he quickly scraps that plan. 

and honestly, he’s glad to. he doesn’t want to keep this a secret from his friends and teammates. he may not be waving his ring at every passing stranger, but every moment since he kissed huang shaotian at their wedding (their *wedding*) has felt like he’s walking on air.

also he can’t WAIT to see the look on ye xiu’s face when he realizes why yu wenzhou ditched him. he feels like maybe he should feel guilty but he doesn’t. in the end, the only hitch in their plan about revealing their new relationship status is some mild confusion from the handful of pros who assumed they were ALREADY married

later, when they get back to zurich and all the excutement has died down, yu wenzhou shows huang shaotian the matching necklace chains he bought so they can still wear their rings while playing glory.

[ocean-tumbled-pebbles]

What if Happy Internet Cafe was a Cosplay Internet Cafe?

Fanfic slightly edited from my submission for the June fanfic contest on the discord server! I now have a FFN account and AO3 pending lol. Feedback and comments welcome~

Prompt: Ye Xiu has retired from Glory and departs Excellent Era but doesn’t head to Happy Internet Cafe and become a night manager.

Summary: In which Happy is a cosplay/internet cafe, Ye Xiu is a pro player magnet, and Chen Guo is a shrewd businesswoman

Tags: All叶, allye, cosplay, crossdressing, crackfic, tw minor sexual harassment, help i dont know how chinese money works, timeline is slightly off, let’s play spot the author’s favorite anime characters

(1)

Ye Xiu leant back languidly in his chair, his arms stretching out and coming to rest behind his head. “I feel that I match all of the qualifications, and work and pay aren’t a problem. So how about it?”

Chen Guo eyed him up and down. “Stand up.”

Ye Xiu took the time to stretch out his legs before lazily getting to his feet. Chen Guo circled him like a vulture coming upon a juicy piece of meat, muttering comments to herself.

“Hmm, he’s a little bit tall, but has pretty delicate features.” She crouched down to inspect his legs. “Long legs, not too much muscle....” She circled over to look at his back side. “Hmmm...”

Suddenly Ye Xiu felt a Smack! across his buttocks.

“Um...!” Ye Xiu yelped and rubbed his abused backside.

Chen Guo covered her mouth and snickered. “Oh, you’ll do.”

“Haha..?”

“So which shift do you want?” she asked.

“Night shift is fine!” Ye Xiu figured that he’d avoid the crowds and make some extra money. He didn’t mind switching his sleep schedule and he had always been pretty good at pulling all-nighters, thinking back to his time playing Glory all night long with Su Muqiu.

“Absolutely not!”

“Oh?” Were all the night shift posts taken?

“It’d be a waste to have a good looking guy like you take the night shift! If you want a less busy time you can take either the morning or the evening shift! Pretty boys like you need their beauty sleep!” Chen Guo explained.

Ye Xiu sweatdropped. “Uhh... Okay.... I guess I’ll take the evening shift then.”

Chen Guo clapped her hands together and gestured for him to follow her. “Great! You’ll work from 4 until 10. You get a break at 7 to eat. Most customers only come to use the computers, but if they need any help or want to order food they’ll ring the service bell. We offer special service if they order from us, which is that they can request you to do something, within reason. This usually means saying a line or doing a pose, so do your best to please the customer, alright?”

“Hmm?” Ye Xiu blinked. Wait. What was that last sentence?

“We’ll start you off easy, but we’ll want to take advantage of your good genes later. We’ll let you have a trial period tonight, but you can start officially as soon as tomorrow.” She started  rummaging through a closet in the back room. She finally pulled out some folded clothing in a box that Ye Xiu assumed was the uniform. “You’re about the same height as xiao Li, so this should fit you. I’ll show you the employee locker rooms!”

In front of the locker rooms, Chen Guo shoved the clothes she was holding into his arms.

“Try it on!”

Ye Xiu looked into the box. “Uh, boss, this... is your uniform?”

“You’re chickening out now?” She smacked his back. “You signed up for this, remember? How can we be Happy Cosplay Internet Cafe, the only cosplay internet cafe in all of China, without the cosplay?!”

Ye Xiu almost choked. “Cosplay?”

Chen Guo face palmed. “Have you been paying attention to your surroundings at all? Or at least been listening to me explaining your work?”

Ye Xiu looked around. At a second glance, it turned out that all the staff were wearing costumes of some sort. He had been so focused on getting out of the cold he really hadn’t noticed it!

He’d probably give a bad impression if he admitted he hadn’t been listening to his new boss though, so he coughed and said, “I’ll go change now.”

If he came out with a slight flush in his cheeks, it was a small matter. Well, maybe not, since Chen Guo had squealed and promptly whipped out her camera and begun snapping pictures of him to post on her Weibo. She gave him a big grin and a thumbs up.

“We’ll give you proper training with wigs and make up later. Can’t wait to have you crossdress~!”

A look of horror passes over Ye Xiu’s face. Just what did he sign up for?

(2) Su Mucheng

Dancing Rain: Big bro, you doing alright?

Lord Grim: dw, I got a job!

Dancing Rain: lol who would hire you. Your only skill is gaming

Dancing Rain: you should go back to my place! I’ll provide for you, and you can be my housewife!

Lord Grim: ...

Lord Grim: that was mean.

Dancing Rain: where did you get a job?

Lord Grim: Happy Internet Cafe!

Dancing Rain: you mean that cosplay cafe across the street?

Lord Grim: ...

Dancing Rain: omg are you in cosplay rn???

Lord Grim: ...

Dancing Rain: im coming over

Lord Grim: dont.

Lord Grim: mucheng im warning you

Lord Grim: It’s an internet cafe. What if you get mobbed?

Dancing Rain: dw im good at disguises!

It turned out that Mucheng’s “disguise” consisted of a pair of glasses, a hat, and a face mask. Yup, real subtle Mucheng. Everyone was thinking that, but no one dared approach. Why would Su Mucheng even go to an internet cafe across the street from Excellent Era after all? When Chen Guo took her id card, she nearly started screaming, but was quieted by a wink and shushing finger sign. Through the power of fangirling and selfies, Mucheng was able to obtain the whole second floor to herself, as well as Ye Xiu as her personal server. He was currently dressed in a simple school blazer with a blood red wig. Mucheng was snapping pics of him left and right.

Ye Xiu sweatdropped. “You better not post these.”

“I know,” she said plainly. “These are for my personal enjoyment. Besides, I’m supposed to get a ‘special service’ with my ice cream. So keep still while I take more photos.”

Later Chen Guo dreamily asked him, “Hey, do you think Su Mucheng will come again? Should I build a private room for her? I should build a private room for her.”

Ye Xiu sweatdropped again. Hey, don’t ask me if you’ve already decided.

(3) Huang Shaotian

Tang Rou thought that Huang Shaotian was a creep when he showed up outside around 10pm and covered in scarves, so she went to go get Chen Guo.

“Old Ye!” He whisper yelled, tiptoeing through the door. “Where the hell are you?”

Ye Xiu poked him in the back and the blond puppy jumped five feet in the air. “I’m right here.”

“Shit! You’re Old Ye?!” Huang Shaotian spluttered disbelievingly. To be fair, Ye Xiu was crossdressing, but you’d think that Huang Shaotian would have noticed him.

The short flouncy skirt of the black and white school uniform dress along with the mismatching colorful socks showed off his mile long legs wonderfully, and the orange wig with green highlights had pigtails that framed his handsome face. He was taller than a real girl, with slightly sharper angles, but all in all, he looked really good crossdressing.

“How could you? After all these years of friendship, you’ve forgotten me so soon?” Ye Xiu said in mock sadness.

“Nononono! That’s not it at all! I haven’t forgotten you though maybe I should seeing as you’re an old man dressing up as a girl that is not that you’re some creep or anything but just that you’ve retired and such but I promise I haven’t forgotten you after all you’re probably my best friend after Captain and all of the Blue Rain players and - Hey! Why are you leaving?!”

Ye Xiu turned in the general direction of the word explosion and shrugged. “It’s the end of my shift. I’m going to change.” And he sauntered off toward the back room to change into more comfortable clothes.

Shaotian sneakily grabbed his phone to snag a picture. He grinned down at the photo evidence of the battle god crossdressing.

“There he is, that’s the creep!” Tang Rou had come back with Chen Guo in tow.

“F-shit! I’m not a creep! That Old Ye invited me!”

Chen Guo and Tang Rou looked at each other.  A stalker?

“I’m going to have to see your ID.”

Some selfies and monetary transactions later, Huang Shaotian and Ye Xiu were in the private room running through the plan on the boneyard record.

“Hey Old Ye, it says that if I order some food, I can get special service. I’m going to make you PK with me!”

“Not happening.” Ye Xiu refused plainly.

“Why not?! PKPKPK!”

“Because it’s not my shift.” Ye Xiu wasn’t obligated to do anything for anyone right now. He was also tired after a long day taking requests from customers and didn’t want to deal with Shaotian’s shit right now. The boss had also given him a strict bedtime of 1am at the latest and he wanted to get in all of his dungeon runs before then.

“...”

Ye Xiu suddenly felt a chill down his back. Shaotian being silent? Never a good thing.

The next day at 4 pm.

“OLD YE!” A blond fluffball came flying at Ye Xiu. Ye Xiu tumbled to the ground under the unexpected tackle.

“Oh god.”

“PKPKPKPKPKPKPKPKPKPK!”

Six hours later...

“Boss, please kick him out.” Ye Xiu was disheveled and exhausted, pale and looking like he was about to collapse.

Chen Guo paused from counting the money Huang Shaotian had spent on reserving the private room and repeatedly ordering food with service for 6 hours. “....Hmm? What did you say?”

(3.5) All Star Weekend

“Ye Xiu! You’re really Ye Qiu?”

“...Yes.”

“Dammit! We should have charged Huang Shaotian more!”

“...”

(4) Ye Qiu

For the Lunar New Year, it turned out that Ye Qiu had found out he had retired from Excellent Era and was now working at Happy.

“Brother,” he tutted, “Come home for New Years. Do you even have a place to stay?”

“I’m going to work over time!” He just wanted to avoid going home over the holiday and play Glory all day.

“Fine, then I’m going to stay too.”

“Go home little brother. Unless... the boss has been wanting to do twin cosplays...”

“Happy New Year, I have to go attend to mother and little dot! Let me know when you’re coming back already! Bye!” In a flash, Ye Qiu was out the door.

Chen Guo came out of the back room holding a box of costumes. “Why did he leave? I had the cutest matching cosplays for you two!”

(5) Yu Wenzhou

“Captain Yu! What are you doing here?” Ye Xiu was so surprised to see Yu Wenzhou turn up one day that his half and half red and white wig almost fell off.

Yu Wenzhou was disguised in naught but a pair of dark sunglasses. Since Huang Shaotian had turned up the other time, more and more Blue Rain fans had been coming to Happy to see if they could catch a glimpse of their idol. Seeing the captain himself, of course some Yu Wenzhou fans crowded around to see if they could get an autograph. But as they approached, suddenly an ice cold aura appeared, and the fans decided it would probably be a good idea to back off.

“Hello Senior.” The blue-haired captain greeted amiably. “I came to see you in your new place of work.”

A slender hand came up to readjust his wig. “... I meant, how did you find me here?”

Yu Wenzhou smiled and merely handed him a thick wad of cash. “Let’s discuss this in the private room, shall we?”

So Ye Xiu led him up the stairs and Yu Wenzhou explained over coffee and biscuits. “Several weeks ago, Shaotian disappeared after the match with Excellent Era, and later claimed that he wanted to stay in Hangzhou for an extra day to visit family. He has no family in Hangzhou, so of course he must’ve been visiting someone other than family. He clearly lied about it, and as such it couldn’t have been anyone he would publically visit.”

He took another sip of his coffee. “The night he disappeared also happened to be the day the boneyard record was broken by Lord Grim and a swordsman Flowing Tree. Lord Grim is infamous in the tenth server with his technical skill, and he started in the tenth server around the time when you retired. Of course, I had a sneaking suspicion it was you, but Shaotian’s disappearance confirmed it. When he returned after his one day visit to ‘family’ he was in a surprisingly good mood and kept snickering at his phone. Naturally, I confisticated it and searched through the contents. Did you know he had this picture of you on it?”

He held up his phone and Ye Xiu saw that there was a picture of him crossdressing, shot from the back as he walked away to change clothes. It was slightly blurry, as it was dark, and Ye Xiu was surprised (but not that surprised) to know that Yu Wenzhou could recognize him even though the view was from the back and he had been in costume.

“That little brat!” Ye Xiu exclaimed. “Who would take advantage of such a good-looking guy like me, taking pictures of me on the sly?”

Yu Wenzhou put the picture away, ignoring the self-proclaimed ‘good-looking’ god. Ye Xiu noted that he didn’t delete the picture though. Wenzhou continued with his explanation. “When I saw this, I knew immediately that Shaotian had not gone to visit family but had rather gone to visit you at your workplace. A quick search of cosplay cafe and Hangzhou turned up this place. Did you know that this is the only cosplay internet cafe in China?”

“...Your deductive work is too scary Captain Yu.” Ye Xiu sighed. “So what did you hope to gain by coming here?”

Yu Wenzhou gave a little smile. “I was hoping to perhaps chat about some tactics and maybe play a match or two.”

Ye Xiu cracked his knuckles and began stretching out his arms in preparation. “It’ll be 100 yuan for each match, and you’ll need to buy food for any other requests.”

Yu Wenzhou tilted his head. “Hmm?”

“Boss’s rules.”

“Ah.”

(6) Zhang Xinjie and Han Wenqing

When Han Wenqing and Zhang Xinjie came to Happy Cosplay Internet Cafe one evening, they didn’t even bother disguising themselves despite being in the midst of Excellent Era territory, in fact, literally across the street from their so-called rivals.

A whisper chorus of boos echoed up from the computers. The quiet protest was quickly vanquished with the signature Han Wenqing GlareTM, resulting in the offenders groveling on the floor, offering their wallets as penitence.

All the commotion brought Chen Guo over. She reflexively wanted to jump back when he turned his gaze to her, but she held her ground and offered, “What can Happy Cosplay Internet Cafe do for you today, God Han, God Zhang?”

“Where’s Ye Qiu?”

Zhang Xinjie smoothed out the conversation. “We would like to rent out the private room and talk with Senior Ye if possible.”

“It’s 200 yuan per match and you need to order food for any other requests. The private room has a lock. Ye Xiu can let you in.”

Han Wenqing picked up a wallet off the floor, and dropped it on the counter, much to the dismay of one unfortunate booer.

“Yo Old Han.” Today Ye Xiu was dressed in a cute sailor themed idol costume with a long dark colored wig. He gave a mock salute. “Never thought I’d see the two of you here in a cosplay cafe in Excellent Era territory no less.”

“Never thought I’d see you here crossplaying at an internet cafe across the street from Excellent Era after having retired no less,” the older player spat back.

“Let’s go upstairs and fight in the arena instead of in the lobby, Captain, Senior.”

Ye Xiu laughed and led the two of them to the stairs. “You first.”

Zhang Xinjie, feeling that it was out of character for Ye Xiu to be polite asked, “Why don’t you go first, senior?”

“Gasp, Xiao Zhang! How perverted! You want to peek under my skirt as I go up the stairs, don’t you?”

Xinjie turned all shades of red and blurted, “That wasn’t it at all!”

Han Wenqing was not amused. “If we wanted a peek we would just lift it up. Now show me that unspecialized character of yours.” He began pushing Ye Xiu up the stairs.

“Ooh how brazen, Old Han.”

(7) Tiny Herb

Business at Happy was booming. Not only was Chen Guo obtaining more business from users hoping to see their favorite pro player, but she was able to charge the visiting pro players exorbitant amounts and they would gladly pay to play with Ye Xiu. Using the extra money, Chen Guo was able to upgrade the private room upstairs to include a full row of new computers and a comfy couch and coffee table.

The upgrades were a good investment. How else would the entire Tiny Herb pro team be able to fit comfortably into the room?

“Order whatever food you want. The club will pay for it. Don’t forget to think of your requests. You can ask him to do anything reasonable, so make sure you learn from this opportunity.”

“Yes Captain!”

Ye Xiu sighed. Today he was wearing a black and white sailor style girl’s school uniform, along with a short brown wig and white cap. He also had a staff and a stuffed animal to complete the cosplay, but they were too annoying to carry around while playing. “I left Excellent Era so that I didn’t have to be a training partner...” he muttered under his breath.

“What was that senior?” Wang Jiexi blinked his uneven eyes.

“Nothing, nothing. Just a reminder that it’s 300 yuan per person per match and that I require a break between matches. Oh, I know. While you’re waiting for me, you can fight Xiao Tang. I’m coaching her!” He gave a big thumbs up.

The whole ordeal was like one huge party with food and fun and Glory. Tang Rou despite getting utterly smashed bravely continued to fight, earning the respect of Tiny Herb. Ye Xiu then proceeded to crush them all in return. It was a bit depressing to think that all of them combined had still been trounced by a single guy dressed like an elementary school girl.

“Thank you Senior Ye!” exclaimed one Gao Yingjie on the way out.

“Yes. Thank you for your guidance Senior Ye. I hope to be like you someday.” echoed Qiao Yifan.

Ye Xiu patted both on the head. It was nice to see rookies with such enthusiasm. “You two have a lot to learn, but you also have a lot of potential. Keep working hard. And Yifan, why don’t you think about what I said?”

‘Why don’t you try out a Ghostblade! It would suit you!’ Yifan kept thinking of this phrase over and over again walking out of the internet cafe, such that he almost bumped into Chen Guo.

“Woah! Careful there.” She steadied him on his feet. “You know, you’re pretty cute.” Chen Guo handed Yifan a business card. “If you ever need a job or even a side job, you should contact me! I have some cute cosplays that would be perfect for you!”

Yifan almost choked. When he said he wanted to be like Senior Ye, he didn’t mean it that way!

(8) Jiang Botao

“So what brings you here by yourself?”

“Senior Ye! Please grant me a request!” Jiang Botao bowed deeply at a 90 degree angle.

“No need to be so formal,” Ye Xiu laughed. “As long as you buy something from here, I’ll be willing to hear you out.”

Jiang Botao ordered a What a Big One ice cream cone. “Sooo...” he started nervously, “ummm.... Please... Allow me to record a message from you to captain!”

“Oh? To Xiao Zhou? What would you like me to say?”

“Please say, ‘Zhou Zekai, Jiayou!’ a-and then umm, please blow a kiss!”

“Hoho? Well, alright get your camera ready!”

Jiang Botao aimed the camera at him portrait-wise, making sure to capture the full picture of Ye Xiu in a purple accented swimsuit and blue and white jacket covering his shirtless torso. He didn’t need a wig this time, but settled for some styling with gel to achieve the character’s likeness.

Ye Xiu grinned, not caring that it was out of character for the cosplay. “Xiao Zhou, Jiayou! Keep working hard!” He winked saucily and blew a kiss.

Jiang Botao was so grateful he kept thanking Ye Xiu over and over again and insisted on giving him extra cash. “For the wink! Please keep it for the wink!”

Later...

“Captain! Please make an effort to connect more with the rookies! They’re all intimidated by your silence!”

“...”

“If you coordinate well with them and get into the playoffs I’ll give you this!” Jiang Botao pressed a button on his phone, playing the video.

“Xiao Zhou, Jiayou! Keep working hard!” *Wink* *kiss*

Zhou Zekai stared at the little screen. “Want... Senior...”

“If you want it, please make an effort to get along!”

Zhou Zekai nodded emphatically.

“If we do well this season, we can go visit him later!”

Zhou Zekai was already walking out the door.

(9) Happy

“God Ye! Is it true that you initially worked as a staff member for Happy Internet Cafe?” Cameras flashed during the press conference following the Challenger League.

Chen Guo butted in, “It’s Happy Cosplay Internet Cafe. Get your facts right!”

“God Ye! Is it true that you engaged in crossplay?”

“It’s not that bad when you get used to it! Besides, my boss says I should show off my ‘legs for days.’”

“God Ye! Is it true that the other members of Happy cosplay as well?”

Chen Guo again interrupted. “At this time I would like to announce the limited edition release of our new cosplay photobook. It includes both group and individual cosplay photos of all of Team Happy. This limited edition will also include a section of Captain Ye’s best cosplays and a new cosplay as One Autumn Leaf. The photobooks will be on sale starting at midnight tonight and will cost 800 yuan. Proceeds will go to the development of Team Happy and also Ye Xiu’s costume repertoire. Thank you for your patronage.”

All the reporters gossipped among themselves. The males complained it was way too expensive, more than double the price of other costume books, but were quite sorely tempted by the One Autumn Leaf photo. The females wanted to see those legs for days.

The clubs were some of the first to buy the books when they came on sale. When questioned why they wanted to help the enemy the teams merely said, for research. Yeah, for research.

And so, Team Happy became the most influential team in the alliance for the sole reason of Ye Xiu fangirling.

//End notes:  *sweating* Yeah this totally fits the prompt. “Ye Xiu has retired from Glory and departs Excellent Era but doesn’t head to Happy Internet Cafe and become a night manager.” Hahaha *runs away*//

[ryukoishida]

QZGS | The King’s Avatar Fic: In which fox spirit!WZ is captured by fox demon!YX. [Part IV]

Title: Beneath the Cherry Blossom Tree Fandom: The King’s Avatar / Quan Zhi Gao Shou Character(s)/Pairing(s): Yu/Huang (Wenzhou/Shaotian); Ye Xiu Summary: A nine-tailed snow fox spirit rescued a young boy who would become a swordsman sworn to protect the weak.   Part: 4/5 Rating: NSFW A/N: Blame the cheesiness on the crappy Chinese romance novels I’ve been reading recently. Honestly no regrets though, y’all. Also maybe just a slight warning that YWZ is a little OOC at the beginning.

Writing Commission | Editing & Translation Services

Parts:

i. Encounter ii. Awakening iii. Confession iv. Survival v. Blossom

iv. Survival

Even after so many centuries, he could not escape.

His burning touches that left marks on him even after the scars had long disappeared, his false praises that had sounded so sweet when he was young and foolish — he thought he didn’t have a chance to escape back then, but every day he broke him into pieces and stole a fragment of him, every day he grew a little stronger and more immune until the beast could no longer be satiated just by feeding on his body or his vitality.

Until he decided he must own Yu Wenzhou’s body — his body and his soul.  

“Do you like this new shell of mine, Wenzhou? Of course, it will never be quite as perfect as yours, especially after centuries of such diligent refining,” the male’s complacent tone was horrifyingly familiar, and Yu Wenzhou hated that it still sent trills of dread down his spine.

“Ye Xiu…” the fox spirit growled from the back of his throat, the syllables drenched in poison from years of disdain, “when will you learn to give up?”

Frivolous chuckles echoed around him in this strange space — a realm that was not quite reality, a creation of the demon’s own twisted mind — but it was tangible enough that Yu Wenzhou’s heart, usually still as water and pure as snow, was trembling in unease.

His eyes were squeezed tightly close, and he tried to settle his internal state so that he could figure a way out of this, but Ye Xiu’s voice was like poison, like vines with thorns as it wrapped itself tightly around Yu Wenzhou’s core, injecting venom with every word he whispered.

“I thought you should know me better than that,” the beast named Ye Xiu murmured in amusement, his voice suddenly right by the fox spirit’s ear, his breaths cold as death, “I do not know the meaning of giving up. Some would see it as a virtue, you know.”  

A hand wrapped around the side of Yu Wenzhou’s neck, a thumb pressing threateningly against his throat and causing Yu Wenzhou’s breath to hitch; he dug his other hand into his thick, long hair, pulled his head to the side to reveal his snow-kissed skin, and leaned down to touch his lips against his pulse point before opening his mouth and pressed his teeth into the supple skin, drawing pearls of blood that he languidly licked clean.

Ye Xiu moaned softly at the flavor and the vitality that immediately enter his bloodstream as soon as he swallowed.

Yu Wenzhou whimpered at the slight pain, his eyes widening at the sensation, irises black as the night sky.

“You taste as good as I remember,” Ye Xiu said as he leaned back on his heels with a smile, the corner of his lips tainted red from Yu Wenzhou’s blood, “no, so much better — sweeter.”

The gesture was meant to be a possessive one, and even in this silence he could tell Ye Xiu was enjoying this little game he’d set up.

Now that Ye Xiu had sat down properly across from him, Yu Wenzhou could observe the fox demon more clearly: his eyes were red as rubies, skin pale to the point of being almost transparent, his lips thin and tucked into a constant conniving smile, ink-black hair swept over his shoulder and loosely tied up, and his frame was shimmering with freshly consumed vitality that was spreading over his entire body.  

Despite the different body he’d seemed to take over this time, he was still the same Ye Xiu; he still possessed the same ambition and greed to take control over the fox clan, to rule them as he pleased, and when even that couldn’t satisfy his hunger anymore, he’d turn his fangs to the mortals.  

“Why did you kidnap all those mortal children? You need not to go through such lengths to regain your powers,” Yu Wenzhou was trying to distract Ye Xiu. If he managed to redirect his attention, perhaps an opportunity would present itself.

“Do you not get it still? All of that was merely a dramatic act to get your attention,” Ye Xiu explained as if the fox spirit was a little slow, “and it worked, did it not? Since when did you start caring about human affairs, hmm? Ah, it must have something to do with that little human pet you keep by your side for the last few years. What is his name again?”

Ye Xiu’s blood-red irises stared directly into Yu Wenzhou’s dark orbs, his smile growing wide and dangerous.

“Leave him out of this,” Yu Wenzhou said, tone icy and sharp, “this is between you and me.”

“Oh, now this is interesting,” Ye Xiu laughed at the fox spirit’s unexpected reaction, bringing a sleeve over the lower half of his face that hardly muffled the sound. “Can it be that you have started to genuinely care for your pet, Wenzhou? You know that is not the way of the foxes.”

“Neither is whatever you have been up to, I am certain,” Yu Wenzhou murmured bitingly, violet irises glaring at the demon with unabashed defiance.

“Is there something different about this child of man, I wonder?” Ye Xiu tapped his lower lip with his index finger in mock wistfulness. “Something that would thaw the frozen, callous heart of even the proudest fox spirit of our generation?”

Yu Wenzhou pointedly ignored Ye Xiu’s question. He didn’t want to play into his hands, and to be honest, the question itself and the underlying implication of the validity of those words threw him off momentarily, for hadn’t he ask himself that very same question soon after Huang Shaotian — warm, golden eyes filled with nothing but affection for him — whispered those confusing, wonderful words into the fictitious spring breeze?  

‘Love’ had always been such a vague, puzzling concept to Yu Wenzhou, not that he spent much time considering the foreign notion in the first place; from what he’d observed in the human world, love only brought on misery and betrayal, a weakness that any demon could take advantage of. Yu Wenzhou would never allow himself to fall that low, to give others that kind of fault to hold over his head.

Yet even as Ye Xiu loomed over him once more, his lips pulling into a cryptic smile that had Yu Wenzhou shuddering uncontrollably and his hands gathering into fists resting in his lap, the image of the young and idealistic Huang Shaotian couldn’t be shaken from the crevasses of his mind.

This was exactly what he was afraid of. It was a mistake right from the moment he’d decided to keep the boy under his protection, but he felt no regret for the choice he’d made over a decade ago, only a hint of bitterness stuck at the back of his throat when the thought of not being able to say a last farewell to him invaded his heart.

“What do you really want from me?” Yu Wenzhou asked instead. It wasn’t as if Ye Xiu was actually expecting him to answer properly.

Ye Xiu let out a lighthearted chuckle.

“You know what I want, Wenzhou,” Ye Xiu kneeled down and hooked a finger under Yu Wenzhou’s chin, forcing the other man to lift his head until they could see each other at eye-level. When he spoke next, frost seeped out from between his lips and scattered against Yu Wenzhou’s cheek, “My desire has always been simple; it has never changed throughout the years, though sadly it seems that you have gladly left me behind. I am wounded, truly.”

Yu Wenzhou spitted out a cold laugh, wanting to reach forward and grab Ye Xiu by the neck but realizing belatedly that he’d been rendered immobile by an invisible force. He was frozen like an ice sculpture; Yu Wenzhou knew this was nothing but an illusionary spell casted by Ye Xiu, and with his training, he should be able to break free of this spell if only his heart would stop skipping all over the place in a panicked state and wondering about Huang Shaotian’s whereabouts at this moment.

“If you willingly give yourself to me, you will not experience any agony at all during the process, this I can assure you,” Ye Xiu grinned, his red eyes making promises that Yu Wenzhou was afraid to believe in — refuse to believe in. “Together, we will be able to achieve great feats even our clansmen and ancestors could not have imagined or hoped to do.”

“And what of Huang Shaotian?” Yu Wenzhou’s jaw tightened, the syllables barely making past his lips.

He couldn’t twist away when Ye Xiu leaned in to kiss him lightly on his cheek, gentle but with a knife’s edge that, should Ye Xiu desire, could slice Yu Wenzhou’s throat on the spot and he’d never have seen it coming.

Ye Xiu smelled of decay and flames — of the rotten past he longed to forget and the impending future that seemed to be the only path waiting for him.

“You are hoping that I would spare his life, am I correct?” Ye Xiu murmured, lips burning hot against the shell of his ear, and then he chuckled again, the sound eerily wicked. “This new, softer side of you, I really need some time to get used to.”

“He is not a threat — not to you — so why waste your time on him?”

“But he would make for additional valuable ingredient for my refinery training, or at least that is what I have gathered from the rumors that have been floating around,” Ye Xiu said as he maneuvered himself so that he was directly facing Yu Wenzhou again. There was a pleasant, kind curve to his smile when he spoke next, “The little ones said that he smells heavenly, but I am certain he cannot be comparable to you. Nevertheless, I can always use some first-rate quality nourishment. I could make you feel better and lie to you, but then what would be the fun in that?”

He brushed the pad of his thumb roughly against Yu Wenzhou’s lower lip until the pressure painted it a tempting rosy red; Ye Xiu’s eyes darkened at the alluring sight, inky lashes trembling as he leaned in a degree closer, “I like breaking you down little by little like this; I like seeing you cry, the way your eyes turn pink and bloodshot from desperation, the helpless little whimpers that you let out — it makes my heart race just so. It will be just like good old times again, Wenzhou, do you not remember? Do you not miss those moments?”  

It was then that Ye Xiu made his move and covered Yu Wenzhou’s mouth with his own in an aggressive and controlling kiss; his tongue, too hot and too rough, broke through the seam of Yu Wenzhou’s lips to dictate the flow and pace of their motions.

Trapped in all senses — within Ye Xiu’s illusion, Ye Xiu’s body, his own fogged, unnerved mind — Yu Wenzhou could do nothing but allow the fox demon to have his way with him. He discerned the metallic tang of blood in his mouth, and he wondered faintly if it was simply what Ye Xiu tasted like or if the demon had bitten him hard enough to draw blood. Soon, his ravished lips were numbed and oversensitive from Ye Xiu’s relentless kisses, the gesture more of a display of dominance than affection.

But Ye Xiu was just getting started.

With a firm, steady hand, the demon tore the thin garment off of Yu Wenzhou’s slender shoulders, revealing creamy skin that was showing hints of pink where Ye Xiu’s long and elegant fingers touched and scratched ruthlessly, leaving behind red welts and bloody lines, seemingly random. Yet Yu Wenzhou could gradually feel a sickening gravitational pull that started from where Ye Xiu’s palm was pressed against him, the center of his body just above his navel — the core of vitality that fueled him for years and years, refined and purified until it was polished into an almost perfect glow. The particles vibrated and hummed furiously inside of him, resisting the vicious pull as it rose and fell like the moon calling for the tide of the sea.

Yu Wenzhou forced his eyes to snap close in deep concentration, clearing his mind and heart so that he could put up a proper defense up against Ye Xiu’s invasion.

The demon’s hand was burning a hole through his skin as if he wanted nothing more than to claw out Yu Wenzhou’s insides and claimed it as his own, to combine them into one entity; the pulse of his core skittered, his mind and heart calling out the name of a man who was far from his reach.

‘Huang Shaotian…’

‘How pathetic,’ Yu Wenzhou thought, his mouth twisting into a self-depreciating smile at the image of the mortal boy who had somehow sneaked his way into his heart, captured him with his bright, hopeful eyes, and even brighter laughter, the sound like long-forgotten summer sunlight scattering through the lush foliage of a forest, ‘for a great nine-tailed snow fox such as myself to be conquered so easily simply because I wanted to protect you, a mere mortal.’

But that wasn’t right either.

There was no trace of bitterness or regret or resentment in him, only a kind of muted melancholy that he would no longer have the power to keep his promise he’d made to Huang Shaotian ten years ago. To respond to Huang Shaotian’s confession with his own revelation.

“Why do you push me away, Wenzhou?” Ye Xiu murmured against Yu Wenzhou’s lips, “your heart has been tainted by that mortal but once we merge as one, the stain will be purged and you will be pure and beautiful once again as you were before.” His mouth hot and forceful, his words even more so, and he swallowed Yu Wenzhou’s every exhale and the stream of essence, like silver starlight, that burned its way up from his core, through his lungs and capillaries, up his trachea and finally sucked in hungrily by the fox demon.

The ice armor around his core was melting, crumbling, succumbing to Ye Xiu’s assault. His consciousness, too, was slipping away, and the more Ye Xiu took from him, the more tempting it became to just surrender himself completely.

Just as Ye Xiu could feel himself almost breaking down Yu Wenzhou’s defenses absolutely, a flash of cobalt light — the deadly whistle of a blade — slashed through the darkness of their illusory world, igniting it momentarily with a blinding glow.

“Let go, demon!”

The next second, Ye Xiu had already dragged the languid body of Yu Wenzhou and skipped a few steps back to avoid an oncoming attack.

The demon narrowed his eyes, the red in his irises an eerie glow in the dark as he glared at the intruder, a young man with amber eyes and a heart that knew no fear and held too much love, one hand clutching onto a sword that gleamed dull blue.  

“So, you are the famed Huang Shaotian that Wenzhou has taken a liking to recently?” Ye Xiu sneered, his arm wrapping tighter around the weakened Yu Wenzhou as he nuzzled his nose against the fox spirit’s neck. He watched in amusement as Huang Shaotian’s eyes grew wide at the sight, his entire frame shaking in frustration. “For you to be able to break through the boundary between reality and fantasy to get into my illusion, it seems like I cannot underestimate your abilities after all.”

Ye Xiu’s gaze strayed upwards where the dome was gradually disintegrating particle by particle, obsidian melting away into the azure blue of the sky outside.

“Let go of him! Do you hear me?” Huang Shaotian snapped, taking a step forward, “I say let go of him this damn instant, you bastard!”

With his sword tip aiming for the demon’s throat, Huang Shaotian dashed towards Ye Xiu without any plans or intention to protect himself; all that occupied his mind and drove his instinct was to take Yu Wenzhou back and away from this monster.

“What if I do not want to?” Ye Xiu smirked, letting go of the half-conscious Yu Wenzhou who wobbled like a doll before he crumpled to the ground, and with a wave of his hand, an iron cage materialized from thin air to confine the fox spirit. He continued while easily blocking Huang Shaotian’s attacks with his bare hands, his elegant fingers drawing shapes and lines in the air to create a barrier around himself, “Have you asked Wenzhou what he wants? What if he wants to stay here? What if he wants to stay with me?”

Huang Shaotian exhaled heavily, “Like hell he’d want to stay in this depressing-looking shithole!”  

“Such vulgar language,” Ye Xiu remarked, “I do not understand why Wenzhou would tolerate someone like you.”

“Then maybe you don’t understand him as well as you think you do,” Huang Shaotian smirked at the instant reaction his taunt seemed to have ignited in Ye Xiu, who’d fallen silent. He seized the opportunity and announced, “I don’t know what the fuck you’ve done to him but you know what, it doesn’t even matter now because I am going to slay you and your minions with my Ice Rain!”

“Big words for a mortal child,” Ye Xiu seemed to take Huang Shaotian more seriously now, for there was no trace of teasing on his pale face, just the raw light in his eyes and the roiling energy that sprinted throughout his system, making his body glow faintly. He started for the swordsman, one step after another, and then broke into a run like an arrow targeting his victim — no room for error, no time for second thoughts.

“That’s right, that’s right, come on come at me already…” Huang Shaotian’s grip on Ice Rain’s hilt tightened and his limbs winded up to get ready as Ye Xiu came closer, and suddenly the fox demon was directly in front of him, fangs bared, blood-thirsty eyes boring into his, and claws raised high for a strike.

Huang Shaotian twisted away from Ye Xiu’s arms at the last second, his motion fluid and rapid as a feline’s, but Ye Xiu was faster, his body quickly adjusting to the swordsman’s movements and he was able to latch onto Huang Shaotian’s sleeves, slowing him down just enough to shift closer to the man once more, this time not allowing him to slip away.

“Do not test my patience, child of man,” Ye Xiu growled with a wide grin and a crazed look in his eyes as he reached for Huang Shaotian’s throat, talons gleaming, “Yu Wenzhou belongs to me and me only; nobody is allowed to take him away from me again!”

“Think again, asshole!” Huang Shaotian shouted, swinging his sword in a wide, horizontal arc, the tip barely grazing Ye Xiu’s garment across the demon’s chest, but Ye Xiu’s contact with Ice Rain’s blade washed with herb-of-grace was enough to burn his physical body, and he rolled onto the ground, hissing in pain as smoke and stench of burning flesh coiled from the incision that Huang Shaotian made.

Taking advantage of Ye Xiu’s respite, the swordsman easily cut through the cage that was imprisoning Yu Wenzhou. The fox spirit looked up dazedly at his savior as the metal bars disintegrated around him, eyes half-lidded and amethyst irises clouded with confusion and exhaustion.

“Shao…tian…” he murmured, blinking heavily and snow locks falling limply into his eyes as he tried to reach for him.

“Come on, great lord snow fox, let’s get you out of here,” Huang Shaotian gave him a small, relieved smile before hauling him up with one arm. It wasn’t easy to walk with a sagging Yu Wenzhou weighting him down on one side, but Huang Shaotian was solely driven by adrenaline and the goal of dragging them both out of this hellhole now, and this gave him a surge of fire and energy he didn’t even realize he possessed.

“Not. So. Fast.” Ye Xiu uttered each word with pure loath as he stood straight once more.

“Yu Wenzhou, this might burn a little but don’t let go, all right?” Huang Shaotian whispered.

Yu Wenzhou gave a weak affirmation as he leaned closer against Huang Shaotian’s warm and solid body.

If they were not in immediate danger, then maybe Huang Shaotian would have been able to enjoy this side of the usually proud and aloof fox spirit a bit more.

“I’m warning you now, bastard, you better leave us alone or you’re going to regret this,” Huang Shaotian warned, backing away slowly with Yu Wenzhou in tow, Ice Rain held defensively before him.

“You have been amusing, but now you are in my way,” Ye Xiu began to come for them again, this time with much less restraint than before.

The charm on the back of Huang Shaotian’s hands began to glow silver-blue as he silently muttered the defensive spell under his breath; ten years ago, he’d accidentally activated the spell, but today, with Yu Wenzhou’s essence running through him, becoming part of him as he grew, his powers and control had increased exponentially over the years.

The light on his defensive charm mirrored the purifying glow of Ice Rain, and together they created the ultimate shield, the pinpricks of radiance tearing the darkness of Ye Xiu’s world apart, shattering it and its creator into fragments.

“I will come for you again, Wenzhou…” Ye Xiu’s ominous promise echoed around them like a whirlwind before it, too, dissipated and scattered into the wind.  

*

“Yu Wenzhou, are you all right? Yu Wen— oh blessed be the earth and heavens what the actual fuck happened to you?”

Huang Shaotian froze in his tracks, his eyes widening frightfully at the sight before him: a giant fox covered in thick white pelt and nine long tails swaying agitatedly behind stood in place of Yu Wenzhou, his snout long and his eyes the same icy violet as his humanoid form, supported by graceful limbs that could run hard and fast in snowy and mountainous terrains. The swordsman blinked once and then laughed, his voice a little tight and frantic, “Wait, that was a terribly stupid and insensitive question, I’m sorry. You are a snow fox spirit, of course your true form would be a gigantic nine-tailed fox.”

He wished he had more time to admire the majestic form of the snow fox, but time was of the essence right now. Ye Xiu must have stolen much of Yu Wenzhou’s vitality, for every step the fox attempted to take was unsteady, the footprints on the snow dragging shallow tracks.

Despite Huang Shaotian’s effort to tug the half-conscious beast along the snow trail, they didn’t progress far since Yu Wenzhou was almost five times the size and weight of a normal fox’s; he easily towered over the swordsman and casted a shadow that blocked the sunlight above their heads.

“Uh…where should we head to? And who the hell was that asshole anyway? Don’t answer me now, but I demand a full, detailed explanation after you get better, you got it? I don’t suppose you can tell me where to go or what to do to help you when you’re in this form, huh? Goddamnit!” the swordsman stomped on the ground as if that motion could help him brainstorm better ideas.

Huang Shaotian didn’t get much of a warning other than a whispered ‘hold on tight’ in his mind before he felt himself being lifted off the ground, Yu Wenzhou’s furry tail wrapped securely around his waist as he placed the swordsman on his muscled back. Before Huang Shaotian could complete one inhale, his fingers barely grasping onto the long, gorgeous white fur on the fox’s back, Yu Wenzhou was moving — or at least, he thought they were moving, except instead of going forward, Huang Shaotian only felt like his body and insides were being crushed from all directions and that his breaths were being knocked out of him by an invisible fist over and over again.

As soon as they stopped after what felt like a century, Huang Shaotian rolled off the fox’s back, toppled a few steps away, and threw up where Yu Wenzhou won’t be able to see this shameful and awful side of him. Behind him, Yu Wenzhou fell to the ground with a heavy thud as well, his chest heaving quick, shallow bursts of air in and out of his body, eyes slipped closed in agony as he felt the last trace of his power disappearing completely from this vitality-consuming act.

Thankfully, there was a clean spring further in the cave they’d arrived in, so without letting his attention wander too much, he quickly rinsed his mouth to rid of the sour and disgusting taste. Since he’d been trained as a constable for years, once his stomach settled back down, his vigilance over his surroundings returned just as swiftly. The cave was small but not to the point of feeling claustrophobic, for just outside the entrance were rows of cherry blossom trees that had only just began to bud. The climate was still too cold for flowers to bloom, but in a month or so, the scenery would drastically transform from where they stood.

“Yu Wenzhou,” the swordsman climbed back to his shaky feet and turned to him with murderous eyes, “please give me a goddamn warning next time you want to play with teleportation! I thought I was going to die of a heart failure or something!”

When Yu Wenzhou didn’t reply with a snarky remark like he tended to do when Huang Shaotian got overdramatic like this, the swordsman quickly jogged to stand before the fox’s head; he reached up and only hesitated for half a second before he laid his hand on Yu Wenzhou’s fur and patted him on the snout, hoping the gesture would at least be soothing for the fox spirit, if nothing else.  

“Hey, Yu Wenzhou, wake up,” Huang Shaotian whispered urgently, leaning in closer so that his breaths brushed and rustled the fox’s fur. “Don’t fall asleep on me, oy! Tell me what to do. Tell me what I need to do to make you feel better, okay? I can’t fucking help you if you don’t talk to me, come on! Please…Yu Wenzhou…” his voice broke by the end as his demands became pleas. Still, the fox remained motionless.

“Wenzhou…” he allowed himself to murmur the fox spirit’s name like it was something sacred, something precious. His eyes were burning with unshed tears, but he won’t let himself be weak. Yu Wenzhou didn’t need a weak human being by his side.

‘Huang Shaotian, come closer.’

“H-How the hell are you doing that!?” he yelped, leaning back to take a better look at the beast.

Yu Wenzhou himself wasn’t stirring, nor was his mouth moving, but Huang Shaotian could clearly hear the fox spirit’s voice as if Yu Wenzhou was standing right there beside him.  

‘Do you really think this is the best time?’

Huang Shaotian could picture the eye-narrowing that accompanied with that similar tone.

“Right, right! Sorry!”

Yu Wenzhou’s eyes flickered, long lashes trembling, and with some difficulty, he was able to open his clouded eyes and stared at Huang Shaotian. There was no shield, no enigma, no pretense; he was in pain and this was the weakest state he’d ever been in, and he was willing to share this part of himself with him.

Maybe he didn’t have a choice.

Or maybe he wanted him there.

Huang Shaotian tried not to overthink the situation too much.

‘Will you do me this one favor?’

“I can’t believe you’re asking me this,” Huang Shaotian rolled his eyes, “Of course I will! If you think I’ll leave you here to die without trying to do all I can to help you, you’d be wrong.”

‘You are angry,’ Yu Wenzhou discerned, his eyes conveying a hint of puzzlement. ‘You do not owe me anything, so I cannot expect you to shoulder a hazardous act on my behalf. Such assumptions would be thoughtless and discourteous. I do not wish to impel that upon you.”

Huang Shaotian blinked; he had not expected the high-and-mighty fox spirit to have considered so much beforehand. His lips lifted softly upwards into a small smile, his hand resuming the movement of stroking the fox’s snout, “My life is yours the moment you gave me a drop of your blood, Yu Wenzhou.” There was a sense of finality in the swordsman tone, an underlying promise to do all he could to save him.  

Yu Wenzhou closed his eyes at Huang Shaotian’s gentle touch and replied, ‘After this, my life shall be yours as well. Please take good care of it.’

There was that unmistakable hint of humor in his otherwise calm voice, but Huang Shaotian’s heart was trembling nevertheless, yet for what reason, he couldn’t tell for certain.

“What do you mean by that?”

‘Ye Xiu had taken a significant amount of my vitality, and in protecting my core against his invasion, my internal rhythm and system have been disrupted. I will place my tainted core into your body, and in turn, your body, with its half-exorcist and half-celestial bloodline, will serve as a perfect vessel to restore, nourish, and purify my core vitality with the mutual exchange of our energy currents.’

“You will need to use human language to explain that one to me,” Huang Shaotian scratched the back of his head in utter confusion.

‘It is simpler to show you than to explain to you,’ Yu Wenzhou only said with a sigh, lifting his head a few inches off the ground and nuzzled against Huang Shaotian’s cheek like a giant, affectionate canine, causing the young man to giggle at the prickling sensation.

“Yu Wenzhou, what the hell are you— It’s tickly!” He tried to squirm away but he was caught by one of the fox’s tails around the waist. Yu Wenzhou first laid him down on the cave floor, which was surprisingly soft and dry — and it was then that Huang Shaotian realized his back was shielded by the fox spirit’s other tails — then he restricted the man’s movements by holding his limbs down in place by wrapping his tails around his wrists and ankles.

‘Do not move.’ It sounded like a command, but perhaps it was Yu Wenzhou’s way to beg him not to go, not to be afraid of him in this state.

‘Trust me.’

“You know I always do,” Huang Shaotian told him, amber eyes glowing bright in the darkened interior of the cave, but it wasn’t the usual carefree warmth that he exuded but one that was showing hints of uncertainty, as if he wasn’t quite sure whether he was still talking to the same Yu Wenzhou he’d known for the last decade.

As if he was trying to console the swordsman, Yu Wenzhou lowered his head and nuzzled his snout against Huang Shaotian’s neck, occasionally puffing out warm, moist air from his nostrils which caused Huang Shaotian to shudder, his jaw tightening from the strange proximity and sensation. The fox’s thick fur, in addition to his own agitated physical state, was making him sweat already, and the thick garment he donned was getting more and more uncomfortable by the second.  

Yet as he forced himself to focus on the soothing rhythm of Yu Wenzhou’s breathing pattern, the bubbling spring that echoed in a pleasing melody, and the gentle breeze that rustled the branches of the trees outside the cave, Huang Shaotian eventually felt the warmth enfolding around him became less overwhelming and more comforting. His frame relaxed within the embrace of Yu Wenzhou’s tails and his eyes slipped close naturally; the stream of vitality that had been rushing through his system decelerated, the instinctual defenses he put up around himself gradually peeled away to reveal the rawest, most innate part of himself.

When he sensed Huang Shaotian’s heartbeat slowing down to a steady hum and his body opening up to him, Yu Wenzhou unhinged his jaws slightly, allowing his deteriorating core, which was nestled deep within his solar plexus, to travel upwards and out of his body until the sphere, the size of a large pearl, chipped and marred in black on the otherwise silver-lavender surface, remained suspended in the air between himself and Huang Shaotian, all the while his fur gleaming a soft sheen of silver frost.

Placing all trust on the man beneath him, Yu Wenzhou’s mind and heart dictated the core to move until it touched Huang Shaotian’s lips, the sweet, warm glow casting his face in a soft, milky light, highlighting his cheekbones and long, inky lashes. The mortal swallowed his core and accepted it as his own, his skin shimmering like the fox spirit’s fur for a moment as his inner body slowly became more accustomed to the foreign presence of another being’s vitality.

It didn’t take long for his internal system to settle and calm down, for it appeared that Huang Shaotian’s body had long been acclimatized to Yu Wenzhou due to the drop of blood he’d been infused with ten years ago.

When Huang Shaotian opened his eyes again, his body seemingly having just experienced an extensive battle that left the young man swelteringly hot, his heart racing, and skin gleaming with a thin layer of sweat, he saw that Yu Wenzhou had transformed back to his human form, though he noticed that his ankles were still bound by the fox spirit’s tails and a set of pointy, triangular ears were twitching atop his head among the mess of white hair. His hands were braced on both sides of the swordsman’s head and his legs were straddling around his hips, the usual thin silk robe that he donned was nowhere in sight so that his bare body and moonlight-kissed skin was on full display.

He blinked up at him a little dazed, a little excited, amber darkening to black-gold, as he reached up with a shaking arm and caressed the pale, delicate skin of Yu Wenzhou’s cheek with his knuckles. His skin was cold to the touch, but that wasn’t new; the molten violet in his eyes, however, was churning with an emotion that Huang Shaotian had never seen on the proud fox spirit before, and he didn’t dare put a name on it just yet.

“Now what, Yu Wenzhou?” Huang Shaotian whispered, the heat in his chest making speaking difficult and his cheeks were flushing for no good reason he could think of.

“Now we must exchange our energy currents,” Yu Wenzhou said in a tone like he was explaining some kind of boring medical procedure, “until my core is completely healed and returned to its previous state.”

“And how do we go about doing that?” Huang Shaotian asked, swallowing hard as he watched the fox spirit’s half-lidded eyes staring back at him contemplatively, almost like he wanted nothing more than to swallow the mortal man whole — not in a way that a hunter wanted to tear into its victim, but more like a jealous lover craving to consume all and make him his.

“Like this.”

Yu Wenzhou lowered himself until their noses were almost touching, then he leaned to the side slightly and placed a soft, hesitant kiss against Huang Shaotian’s blushing cheek, his lips barely touching the skin there but it was plenty enough to ignite the smoldering kindling that’d been planted inside Huang Shaotian’s heart a long time ago. With just one innocent kiss, Huang Shaotian’s self-made chains of constraint broke, and he chased after the fox spirit’s lips, capturing them with his eager mouth, tasting him for the first time, hearing Yu Wenzhou gasped in alarm that made Huang Shaotian’s heart skipped merrily until Yu Wenzhou sharply caught his wrists with one strong hand and pulled them above his head to limit his movements.  

With his other hand, and with the assistance of his dexterous tails, Yu Wenzhou began to unknot the waistband that was keeping Huang Shaotian’s garment together and pulled layers of his clothing off with efficiency and grace all the while kissing the swordsman with a relentless enthusiasm as if the fox spirit wouldn’t be able to live if he were to accidentally let go of the swordsman.

In a manner of speaking, this was true.

As they bit each other lips savagely like beasts and while they exchanged their breaths in the midst of their kisses, hot and messy and heavy, the foreign and his own cores in Huang Shaotian’s body began to roil and burn, urging his system to push the stream of vitality out of his mouth and into Yu Wenzhou’s. In the same way, Yu Wenzhou hungrily accepted and swallowed down Huang Shaotian’s offer, the potent stream of heat exploded through his bloodstream, taking over his bones and muscles, converging and dividing, breaking and bonding, ridding the ashen contamination and replacing it with something brand new and breathtakingly beautiful.

His embrace tightened around Huang Shaotian, skin against skin, heart against heart — no escape. The fox spirit buried his head into the crook of the swordsman’s neck, sucking zealously at the succulent flesh and licking the patch of skin where the blood was pulsing so temptingly close to his fangs.

Huang Shaotian dragged his fingers through the fox spirit’s fine, snowy hair and pulling lightly, whimpering wetly, whenever Yu Wenzhou’s sharp fangs grazed teasingly against his sensitive skin.

He would be more embarrassed about the noises he was making if his mind weren’t still trying to process what was currently happening: Yu Wenzhou pressing passionate kisses against his lips, breathing just as hard and unsteady when Huang Shaotian experimentally scratched his blunt nails along his back, caressing his dripping length with his elegant fingers, touching him in places he’d only dreamed of deep into the night, and now…

“Haaah… Yu… Wenzhou?” Huang Shaotian felt the other man’s lips leaving his throat alone and his hands tracing and moving downward until they stopped at his thighs and hips.

When he looked down at the swordsman again, most of his face was hidden by the curtain of his long hair, but Huang Shaotian could never look away from those eyes.  

“Forgive me, Shaotian,” Yu Wenzhou murmured, a hint of apology seeping into the deep rumble of his voice.

Before Huang Shaotian could comprehend his words, Yu Wenzhou entered inside him, and the fire residing within both bodies burst into millions of smaller flecks of stars that melted on their skin and absorbed into their being.

Huang Shaotian let out a quiet sob as the pain where they were connected spread further out, his body stiffening in a feeble attempt to reject the foreign and agonizing presence, and Yu Wenzhou could only console him with whispered apologies and gentle kisses on his cheek, on his eyelids, his ears, along his nose, and finally his mouth.

Every inch of their bare skin was in contact with each other’s wherever possible, and every brush and caress against their skin seemed to ignite sparks that initiated the transfer of energy currents between their bodies. Gradually, the heat of the currents numbed the pain to a manageable level, allowing Huang Shaotian to feel the pleasure to build up in the pit of his abdomen; he glanced up at Yu Wenzhou and noticed that his cheeks had become slightly pink; his chest as well, was painted a lovely shade of flushing rose. His tails had long let go of Huang Shaotian’s ankles and they were twitching and waving restlessly from the electrifying thrill.

The proud, majestic fox spirit with his cold, emotionless demeanor had melted away without a trace in this intimate moment; replacing the callous, commanding ruler was a simple man gripped with uncontrollable passion for a mortal he’d unknowingly fallen in love with and the desire to survive.

Yu Wenzhou came with a guttural growl against Huang Shaotian’s shoulder, branding him with his scent and teeth marks that would turn to violet bruises in a few hours’ time. A moment later, the fox spirit, who seemed to look a lot healthier from the flush of his skin and the lively gleam in his eyes, pulled himself out and was about to roll off of Huang Shaotian when he was abruptly stopped.    

“I really, really hate it when you don’t give me warning about shit like this,” Huang Shaotian wrapped his arms around the fox spirit’s neck and pulled him down, his dark eyes glaring up at him with the same defiant light that Yu Wenzhou was familiar with since he was a child, but the unshed tears rolling along the brims of his bloodshot eyes made his reprimanding rather unconvincing.

“I apologize,” Yu Wenzhou’s lips twitched a little into a brief, amused smile and kissed him lightly on the lips. It wasn’t nearly enough to assuage him.

“Hmph, just you wait, Yu Wenzhou,” he turned to the side so the fox spirit wouldn’t be able to see the deep blush on his cheeks, “I will find your weakness one of these days and then you’ll be in trouble.”

“I can’t wait for that day to arrive,” Yu Wenzhou chuckled, the corner of his eyes crinkling though the violet in his irises had returned to its mirror calm.

-

A/N: Little did Shaotian know that they’ll be doing this a few more times after that, lol.  

[thelonglazyworm]

 Another fan radio drama.

In a nutshell: When Pro Players discover BL fics about themselves, their chatroom explodes.

This is not as epic as Chaos on Weibo. Just a lighthearted one on the topic of BL. Not really BL itself, though it’s hinting/joking about it. So if that’s not you cup of tea, you should now stop here.

None of the voices here appear in the donghua. And it’s not as well put together as others I’ve came across. But still quite funny in its own way. Especially the songs.

Did I mention the songs? XD I swear the ED is the whole reason why I am even linking and translating this radio drama in the first place. If I have to go through that, everyone has to go through that!

Translation after the break. Enjoy~~

*slight spoilers about final team members

original video：http://www.bilibili.com/video/av2641931/

Opening (the doraemon song):

Every match is a different style

The honourable China Team is the strongest

Because they have a legendary Leader

Championship is no longer a dream

Group Competition round is 3-0

Opponents fully annihilated in Team Competition

Whoever don't submit to Leader Ye Xiu can bring it to the arena

The cleric also does DPS

The swordsman talks till he is out of breath

Watch my Dragon Raising Head!

Ah ah ah, China Team is with you

Entering the Hall of Fame

 insert advertisement (fake):

This video is brought to you by Glory Alliance - Top 5 Teams Hand Cream.

"Each of the top five teams has developed a hand-cream for lazy hands cancer. Your lazy hands will never be a problem again."

-Glory Pro Players Chat Group-

Huang Shaotian:               Fuck x7! Who the hell did this? WTFWTFWTF? Come on out and I will fucking kill them!

Zhang Jiale:                       Huang Shaotian, what's wrong?

Fang Rui:                           I smell something brewing

Huang Shaotian:               Fuck x7! Hear me out! Isn't it holiday now? So I went home! And I had nothing better to do so I went on the Glory Forums with my tablet! And I see a thread that is right on top so I naturally clicked on the link! And then I am blinded! WTF! WTH is this thing? Can anyone explain this?!!

Ye Xiu:                                Calm down, Great Sword Saint. Tell us what did you see?

Huang Shaotian:               Take a look yourselves, I don't wanna talk about it.

              [Glory Fanfic Area. Yu/Huang, Han/Ye,Twin Flowers, All/Ye, Zhou/Ye, Twin Ghosts Yu/Ye, Ye/Lan, Ye/Huang etc....]

Zhang Jiale:                        This...

Ye Xiu:                                 Tsk.

Yu Wenzhou:                      Hehe

Su Mucheng:                      Eh...? This... @Windy Rain @Soft Mist @Sound Dust

Dai Yanqi:                           Eh....?

Chu Yunxiu:                        Eh....?

Tang Rou:                           Eh....?

Fang Rui:                            Those above are definitely fishy

Huang Shaotian:                Fuck! That's disgusting disgusting disgusting x10!!!

Yu Wenzhou:                      Shaotian, you feel disgusted with homosexuals?

Ye Xiu:                                 WTF Yu Wenzhou, ur hand is up to speed 0.0

Fang Rui:                            WTF Captain Yu! 0.0

Wang Jiexi:                        OMG Captain Yu!

Huang Shaotian:               No no no no no! AARRRGHH! No, Captain, that's not what I mean! No matter what I should still be the one on top alright alright alright?! What the hell is with Ye/Huang? Fuck x10!

Dai Yanqi:                           Here's the link. No need to thank me~

Su Mucheng:                      Oh? Hehe

Chu Yunxiu:                        Ohoho

Sun Zheping:                      WTF!

Zhang Jiale:                        WTF!!

Wang Jiexi:                         WTF!!!

Sun Xiang:                          WTF!!!!

Zhou Zekai:                        ...... ......

Fang Rui:                            Zhou Zekai is so freaked out that he double the number of ellipses!

Li Xuan:                             What in the world are all these?

Han Wenqing:                   What are all these rubbish!?

Ye Xiu:                               Tsk tsk tsk. This is too scary. Even I was freaked out.

Ye Xiu:                               How is it Old Han? Even you went to take a look?

Wei Chen:                          This this this this this what is this?! This straight and unbending body of mine has been defiled! But the part where Old Ye begged me is really invigorating!

              [Windward Formation sends a file - (Wei/Ye) My Love Is Only In Your Eyes.txt]        

             [Windward Formation is banned by the administrator]

Huang Shaotian:               The hell? Hahahahahaha! Ye Xiu you are really shameless! Hahahahahaha! You've actually abusing your position as the admin to boot Boss Wei out! Hahahaha!

Zhang Xinjie:                      Lights candle

Ye Xiu:                                 Hehe, Master Shaotian

              [Lord Grim sends a file - (Yu/Huang High H) The Daily Lives Of Blue Rain Couple.txt]              

              [Lord Grim sends a file - (Yu/Huang High H) What Can Be Done In The Training Room.txt]              

              [Lord Grim sends a file - (Yu/Huang SM) How To Train Your Trash Talker.txt]

Huang Shaotian:               Fuck x5! Ye Xiu you are shameless shameless shameless! Let's PKPKPKPKPKPKPK I will kill you! Don't read! Don't read them you hear!!! Nobody! Reads! Them!

Zhang Jiale:                        *lights many candles*

Sun Zheping:                      *lights many candles*

Tang Hao:                           Chatterbox, I light a candle for you

Sun Xiang:                          Chatterbox, I light a candle for you

Xiao Shiqin:                        Huang Shao, here's a candle

Wang Jiexi:                         Huang Shao, here's a candle

Huang Shaotian:                WTFx3 Captain what in the world are you downloading!!!!??? Bulk list of fics ahhhh??? Captain, noooo what’s going on this shouldn’t be I need to calm down aaaahhhhh!!!

Ye Xiu:                                 Captain Yu is a beast under gentlemanly clothes

Fang Rui:                            Captain Yu is a beast under gentlemanly clothes

Sun Zheping:                      Captain Yu is a beast under gentlemanly clothes

Zhang Jiale:                        Captain Yu is a beast under gentlemanly clothes

Sun Xiang:                          Captain Yu is a beast under gentlemanly clothes

Huang Shaotian:                !!!!

Ye Xiu:                                 Whatever could have freaked out the usual Master Shaotian to be silent, I think I am onto something.

Fang Rui:                            I think I am onto something.

Dai Yanqi:                           I think I am onto something.

Su Mucheng:                      I think I am onto something.

Li Xuan:                               I think I am onto something.

Yu Wenzhou:                     Hehe

              [Swoksaar sends a file – (Ye/All) [High H] 2014-2015 Master-list of Fic.rar]

              [Swoksaar sends a file – (all/Ye) [Warning Extreme Hardcore] Pinning Down The Glory Textbook.txt]

              [Swoksaar sends a file – (tentacle/Ye) Touch Of Love.txt]

Zhang Jiale:                        WTF! SM fic masterlist! *lights many candles*

Han Wenqing:                   ......

Sun Zheping:                      Tactics players are truly black-hearted

Huang Shaotian:                Well done, Captain!!!!!

Li Xuan:                              Tentacles *candle*

Fang Rui:                            Tentacles *candle*

Zhang Xinjie:                      Tentacles *candle*

Mo Fan:                              Tentacles *candle*

Ye Xiu:                                 Tsk, Old Wei, you are even using Mo Fan's account to pollute the environment?

              [Deception is banned by the administrator]

Zhang Jiale:                        WTF hahaha what the hell is this

              [Hundred Blossoms sends a file – (Han/Zhang) You Are The Brightest Light In My Eyes.txt]

              [Hundred Blossoms sends a file – (Han/Zhang) Pushing Down My Personal Cleric.txt]

Zhang Xinjie:                      I need time alone to cool down *facepalm*

              [Hundred Blossoms sends a file – (Zhang/Han) [Younger Seme, High H, Role Reversal] Who Says Tyranny’s Tough Guy Can’t Be Uke.txt]

Ye Xiu:                                Let him off, he is still a kid *candle*

Li Xuan:                              Let him off, he is still a kid *pffft*

Wang Jiexi:                        Let him off, he is still a kid *pffft*

Tang Hao:                          Let him off, he is still a kid *pffft*

Yu Wenzhou:                     Let him off, he is still a kid *^_^*

              [Cloud Piercer sends a file – (Zhou/Ye) [Warning ABO] My Omega Is A Heavy Smoker.txt]

              [Cloud Piercer sends a file – (Zhou/Ye) [ABO Setting] Our Glory.txt]

Zhou Zekai:                        *shy face*

Sun Xiang:                          WTF Zhou Zekai you!

Ye Xiu:                          …… Freaked out to the point of becoming a Zhou Zekai

Li Xuan:                        …… Freaked out to the point of becoming a Zhou Zekai

Wang Jiexi:                   …… Freaked out to the point of becoming a Zhou Zekai

Tang Hao:                     …… Freaked out to the point of becoming a Zhou Zekai

Fang Rui:                      …… Freaked out to the point of becoming a Zhou Zekai

Zhang Xinjie:                 …… Freaked out to the point of becoming a Zhou Zekai

Huang Shaotian:           …… Freaked out to the point of becoming a Zhou Zekai

Ye Xiu:                                 Even the great Master Shaotian is frightened into shutting his mouth. Xiao Zhou is so cute, hoho (fic’s quite well written) *shy face*

Han Wenqing:                   Ye Xiu, Let’s have a chat.

Ye Xiu:                                 Hey Hey Old Han, what’s that for? I didn’t offend you don’t shoot the wrong guy! See, I covered for you just now when you banned Old Wei and Mo Fan for sending those files. What are you jealous about?

Chu Yunxiu:                       This is quite a lot of info to take in

Dai Yanqi:                           This is quite a lot of info to take in

Zhang Jiale:                        Where did Ye Xiu disappear to?

Su Mucheng:                      If I recall correctly… I remember… That he mentioned on the first day of the break… Captain Han invited him to go to City Q?

Chu Yunxiu:                        Yoooooooooooooo

Dai Yanqi:                           Yoooooooooooooo, I am brimming with ideas

Fang Rui:                            WTF Su Mucheng, I saw everything. Your screen is showing the interface for author login!

Su Mucheng:                      Opps, I’ve been exposed. Yunxiu Yunxiu! Xiao Dai, Rou Rou, shall we advertise our round robin fic?

Sun Zheping:                      I don’t want to talk to you guys.

Zhang Jiale:                        I don’t want to talk to you guys.

Tang Hao:                           I don’t want to talk to you guys.

Sun Xiang:                          I don’t want to talk to you guys.

Li Xuan:                               I don’t want to talk to you guys.

Zhang Xinjie:                      I don’t want to talk to you guys.

Wang Jiexi:                        I don’t want to talk to you guys.

Huang Shaotian:               I don’t want to talk to you guys!!!

Su Mucheng:                      There’s no smoke without fire. Look at Du Ming, he is probably the straightest guy in the whole of Glory. Even we can’t do anything about that.

Chu Yunxiu:                        Even we can’t do anything about that.

Tang Rou:                           Even we can’t do anything about that.

Du Ming:                             ......

Dai Yanqi:                           I just want to light a candle for Ye Xiu now, and then go on to write a Han/Ye!

-end-

  ED song:

(translator note - If I have to listen to this, I need to drag everyone down with me. =v=) Original song is 辭めてやるよ歌い手なんか

 I give up I quit

So tiring just to play Glory

The fuck I put in effort to enter World Champ, what for

It’s the end, Owatta,

Might as well GG

Wasted my new keyboard, changed my card

I am going home

It’s not like I was without pressure before the match

Digging up all the (competition) videos to study

Of all the ones out there, I’d find Blue Rain

And now my vison has dropped

Team Captain is handicapped yet he still plays

Tactics and strategies are his true strength

But there’s no point saying that now

You have to know, that there’s three more people

Even more beautifully cruel

The Cleric is able to fight one on one like a Berserker

No need for healing and a bunch of speech bubbles as cover

And a Classless as reserve filled with cheating hacks

Look at myself what am I playing

My results are all trash

Might as well GG

I give up I quit playing

A bunch of BUG is too scary

The fuck Qigong Brawler and girls fiercer than guys

I am dead, no more health

I give up completely I quit

What’s the point of competing when I am killed before completing my moves

I give up I quit

Tortured everyday, it’s so tiring

The fuck I put in effort

What the hell is that Classless?!!

It’s the end, the team annihilated

Quickly pack and go back home

Wh-at~ the~ fuck!

(￣ω￣)

[hotarla]

My Thoughts: “Quan Zhi Gao Shou” Episode 10 Summary and Review

Someone is looking mighty guilty for this week’s edition of “My Thoughts.” We’ve got some more reshuffling (and a few more chapters of the novel completely cut out again!) so I’ll try to keep everyone on track with what’s going on.

Spoilers ahead so read at your own risk! Also, expect to see lots of Huang Shao and Yu Wenzhou screenshots! To give you guys a sense of where we are in the novel, we start off around chapter 179 and end around chapter 199, with the addition of chapter 159 for our special “guest.”

The episode starts off with the promised PvP battle in the Heavenly Domain between Poplar Beach and Chasing Haze (played by Ye Xiu). Chen Guo looks nervously on as he plays on her character, incensed when he throws her weapon away. Even while playing on another character (and a female one at that), Ye Xiu still looks pretty kickass as he combos the arrogant guy to death while Poplar Beach’s use of Shadow Steps to create four afterimages proves ineffective against our God. The Global Chat explodes with praise after the win.

At Blue Rain headquarters, Liang Yichun (Changing Spring) watches the recorded battle with the captain of the club, Yu Wenzhou and a very nervous looking Huang Shaotian. With his analytical mind, he is able to deduce Lord Grim’s tactics: throwing the weapon to reduce weight, using the extra speed to PK Poplar Beach. At the mention of Lord Grim, Huang Shaotian chokes on his drink, looking even more guilty than ever and Yu Wenzhou glances at him with a smile, asking him if he knows this “pro.” He immediately denies it vehemently. In the novel, he actually falls off his chair (which I would’ve loved to have seen!) and pretends to ignore Yu Wenzhou when he is called, feigning ignorance when asked about the the 10th server records and trying to change the topic.

As Yu Wenzhou goes on to study the records made in the 10th Server, noting the patterns between the main party for Lord Grim and pointing out the temporary “helpers” of Hateful Sword and Flowing Tree, Huang Shao tries to sneak away but is caught by his captain and told to come back to help out with his analysis. Resigned to his fate, he trudges back while Wenzhou deduces that the record for Boneyard was done by pros from Excellent Era, one of them being the vice captain Liu Hao, as it also coincided with the dismal performance of Excellent Era’s competition battle with Blue Rain. Shaotian pretends to come to the conclusion that the reason for the fast record was because a new strategy was used and Yichun reacts with surprise: why would a pro player like Liu Hao not only spend his time to set a record in the 10th server but also create a new strategy? Wenzhou just smiles and says that the strategy was stolen by Hateful Sword, who was actually Liu Hao in disguise, and that the strategy was originally created by Lord Grim.

Shaotian nervously laughs this off, reacting with feigned incredulity while Wenzhou continues his analysis. He goes on to say that during the pro competition battle, Liu Hao had used Berserker skills while playing with a Spellblade account, further deducing that Hateful Sword was a Berserker account. Shaotian continues to laugh it off: “why would Liu Hao go through all this trouble?” Wenzhou continues to mysteriously smile, saying that Liu Hao obviously had a grudge on this Lord Grim character: he obviously feared him enough to spy on him in the 10th server, yet recognized him enough to use the new strategy and trusted that it would be the best way to beat the dungeon. The only conclusion: Lord Grim is Ye Qiu!

Later, Yichun calls up Xu Boyuan (Blue River) and tells him what the captain had said: Lord Grim is Ye Qiu! (In the novel, this actually takes place in the Heavenly Domain) Blue River looks at Lord Grim’s name in his friend list, his eyes shining with awe before his eyes land on a second name, Flowing Tree. If Lord Grim was Ye Qiu, then this Blade Master could only be…

…Huang Shaotian! Said Blade Master is sitting with his captain, looking mighty guilty about everything as he laughs about the familiarity of the Flowing Tree name as Wenzhou continues to talk calmly. He doesn’t look mad, only highly amused about Shaotian’s actions. Things turn serious as Wenzhou questions Shaotian about Ye Qiu’s (Ye Xiu’s) new unspecialized character and changing silver weapon.

Back at the Internet cafe (I wonder where Bao wandered off to, has he gone back to whence he came?), Tang Rou is looking at dungeon guides written by someone called Concealed Light. We get a bit of Zhou Zekai again (lol what is it with all the fan service? *laughs*) before Ye Xiu wanders by, impressed by what he’s reading from the guide and asks Tang Rou to link him to the author’s account. She does so but shortly after, finds out that someone has killed her in-game while she was idle…

In-game, Ye Xiu gets a message from Huang Shaotian from his Flowing Tree account: you’ve been exposed! Ye Xiu laughs it off, saying that if he was exposed, the same would go for Shaotian. Shaotian agrees before realizing that his captain, Yu Wenzhou, was right behind him! Ye Xiu continues to talk: it’s too bad his hands are handicapped! Shaotian lets Ye Xiu know that Wenzhou was with him but Ye Xiu just continues to lament over Wenzhou’s “handicapped” hands. Wenzhou agrees with this statement, unfazed by the trash talk and asks Ye Xiu for a duel!

The two Gods meet up at the Fixed Arena field: Ye Xiu with Lord Grim and Ye Wenzhou with his Warlock, Swoksaar (in the novel, he used Shaotian’s Blade Master, Flowing Tree to go up against Lord Grim). As the two fight and compare notes, they casually talk, Wenzhou remarking how he envied those with fast APMs (his own, very slow hand speed is made apparent during the battle).

After Ye Xiu wins the battle amid the flashy light shows, they talk a bit more about the pros and cons of unspecialized characters. Ye Xiu leaves and Wenzhou discusses the match with Shaotian. They talk about the false combos Ye Xiu made and, after the captain leaves, Shaotian studies a recording of the match in order to figure out how many he could’ve dodged. Fighting spirit ignited, he immediately logs into the game but makes the mistake of going on his main account, Troubling Rain. After briefly being bombarded by messages, he quickly logs off and goes on his 10th server account, Flowing Tree, to bother Ye Xiu, who responds with indifference, making Shaotian mad (in the novel, he actually logs off his main, logs back into his main but hides his status, tries to contact him and Su Mucheng via QQ messenger before bothering him on his alternate account). I have to admit, his ever-changing expressions are so funny!

Meanwhile, Ye Xiu has just finished reading all the “Idiot” guides that Concealed Light has written. Chen Guo is skeptical about the guides but Ye Xiu tells her that the guides have no mistakes, even though they were written by a complete noob. After telling Ye Xiu about Tang Rou being killed in-game, he lets the rest of the group know that they’re going to the next dungeon, Line Canyon. However, before he can do that, a mysterious character in pink arrives in front of his desk. Who could it possibly be?

It’s Su Mucheng! Like our chatterbox Shaotian, she’s bundled herself up to come and play with Ye Xiu! In the novel, this event would have chronologically taken place in episode 9 while they were still playing in Desolate Land and she was supposed to be bundled up in a bunch of fur (kind of sad they didn’t do that for this episode lol). After Chen Guo leaves (originally, GuoGuo wasn’t around in the novel for her appearance), Ye Xiu has her sit beside him to play. His look of exasperated fondness towards her disguise (as if he’s used to her antics) is just so cute and sweet!

However, after logging in, Ye Xiu notices something fishy about his surroundings. It doesn’t take him too long to figure out as he soon finds himself running and attacking players who are appearing everywhere, determined to kill him! Ye Xiu quickly messages the others in-game and finds out that the same thing is happening to them. Su Mucheng remarks worriedly to Ye Xiu from her seat beside him, wondering if this was another one of Liu Hao’s tricks but Ye Xiu is unsure, although it appears that he has his suspicions.

In another area inside the game, players are looking all over for Steam Bun but are unable to find him. A certain turbaned fellow (*cough*Concealed Light*cough*) is also wandering around looking for him before he spots a well. Accidentally falling in, he comes face to face with an evil sounding voice and…a brick!?

Waha, Steam Bun is hilarious! Pretending to be some “Devil of the Well” was just priceless! I wasn’t expecting Concealed Light to look like that to be honest but at least it’s a tad different from all the other plain looking players with their swords and suits of armour! I kind of miss the fact that the series hasn’t animated a lot of the dungeoning and BOSS battles because those are truly interesting in the novel! Oh well…let’s just see what the next episode has in store for us!

Looks like we’ll be in Congee Forest next week! I see a bit more Concealed Light and some inter-guild cooperation against a certain character. I’m excited for the dual-God collaboration though! Seeing two Godly pro players taking on an entire squad of enemies? I hope we get some Yifan though, I’m feeling a bit Yifan-deprived! And I wonder how it will turn out between Steam Bun and Concealed Light? They don’t have the best of relationships in the novel, although their interactions have always been amusing because of their contrasting personalities. We’ll just have to find out next week! Until then, 再見!

Profile of the Week: Yu Wenzhou’s Warlock, Swoksaar

[syncogon]

[QZGS Fic] 0529

I haven’t cross-posted my works in a while, but figure I’d make an exception here. Happy birthday to Ye Xiu!

AO3 

summary: Some of Ye Xiu’s birthdays, throughout the years.

“Surprise!!! Happy birthday!”

Ye Xiu yelps at the sudden blast of noise and confetti in his face. It takes him a few seconds to realize what’s going on, and to see the two figures standing before him, each wearing a little party hat and triumphantly waving something in their hands.

Su Muqiu grins and high-fives his little sister. “You like these? Homemade… whatever they’re called! Confetti-blaster-noise-maker things just for this special occasion. Mucheng was a big help with these so make sure to thank her!”

Ye Xiu rubs his head. “You could give me some warning next time, sheesh…”

“That defeats the point! You should’ve seen your face!”

“It was great,” Su Mucheng giggles, eyes sparkling. Ye Xiu can’t get mad at her like this, so he just sighs and ruffles her hair.

“Anyway, happy 16th! This is a big year, you know why?” Su Muqiu doesn’t wait for an answer. “You’re two-thirds of the way to becoming the king’s avatar!”

“…What?”

“You know! Since there are 24 classes in Glory!” Su Muqiu throws an arm around Ye Xiu’s shoulders and gestures grandly before them. “So when you’re 24, you’ll be the master of all classes! The textbook of Glory! They’ll write novels about you!”

“Please.” Ye Xiu rolls his eyes. “Maybe you need a whole year to master a class, but I can do it much faster.”

“Oh yeah? Wanna go?” Su Muqiu gives him a light shove.

Ye Xiu grins. “You’re on.”

But Su Mucheng breaks in before they can rush off to the computers like they always do. “At least have some cake first! You have to make a wish, it’s your birthday!” She points to the table, where Ye Xiu finally sees the cupcake sitting peacefully, vanilla with orange-colored icing, a single candle stuck straight into the air.

“Oh right, almost forgot!” Su Muqiu slaps a hand to his forehead. “We got you a cupcake too, Mucheng picked it out just for you, so eat up! Enjoy! Make a wish to beat me, because we both know that’s the only way you’d win.”

“Whatever you need to tell yourself to sleep better at night,” Ye Xiu laughs. They sit down at the small table, and Su Muqiu strikes a match, lights the candle, and pushes the cupcake in front of him.

It’s really a lovely looking cupcake, the icing perfectly swirled atop the cake and dotted with colorful sprinkles. The sort of thing that they’d stare at through a display window, but never shell out the money to buy. But this is a special treat for a special occasion, and it warms Ye Xiu’s heart.

I wish… I wish that we can stay together like this, for a long time to come.

Ye Xiu closes his eyes and blows out the candle.

“I cannot believe,” sighs Wu Xuefeng, “that I’ve known you for this many years now, and I only just found out when your birthday was. And not even from you, but from Little Mucheng! You can tell me these sort of things, you know?”

“Sorry?” Ye Xiu offers a sheepish grin. “It just… never came up?”

Wu Xuefeng shakes his head. “You’re hopeless,” he says, but there’s a smile tugging at his lips nonetheless. “Anyway, now that I actually know, happy birthday! Got you something, not much since it was such short notice…”

“No, this is good.” Ye Xiu takes the profferred gift bag and, after a pause, reaches forward and pulls Wu Xuefeng into a hug. “Thanks, Brother Feng,” he says. “For saving my butt during matches, and covering for me outside of them.”

“That’s what I’m here for, right?” Wu Xuefeng laughs and pats him on the back. “I’ve always got your back, you know that.”

“I couldn’t ask for a better partner,” Ye Xiu smiles. “Ready to create a dynasty?”

“Always.”

Poor young defenseless Ye Xiu is on his way back to his room along the player passageways when suddenly out of the blue he is accosted by a terrifying mafia boss demanding his money or else suffer the consequences-

“What the fuck are you talking about.”

Ye Xiu smiles sweetly at said mafia boss. “Nothing, Old Han. What’s up?”

Han Wenqing gives him a dark look, but instead of saying more, just tosses him something. Ye Xiu fumbles a bit, but doesn’t drop it, which he considers a success. “Huh? What’s this?” he asks.

“I heard it was your birthday soon, Ye Qiu,” says Han Wenqing. “So, happy early birthday.”

“You got me a present?” There’s only the barest hint of incredulity in his voice, but Ye Xiu, behind his careless demeanor, is actually rather shocked. Is this a thing rivals do? Or… since when did Han Wenqing consider him a friend?

“Yes. Is there a problem?”

“…No,” says Ye Xiu. “That’s really nice of you, actually, I never thought you were such a softie behind that scary face of yours. Really,” he pretends to wipe away a tear, “it’s a present enough just to have someone like you as my rival.”

Han Wenqing glares.

“But also,” Ye Xiu waves the rather wallet-shaped wrapped gift around, “if this is a wallet, Old Han, I will laugh.”

Han Wenqing glares some more, and Ye Xiu smirks.

“Ye Qiu Ye Qiu Ye Qiu Ye Qiu Ye Qiu Ye Qiu!!!”

The voice echoes down the passageway, compounding the noisiness, and Ye Xiu can already feel the headache forming. Resigned, he turns around. “What do you want?”

Huang Shaotian bounces up to him, Yu Wenzhou following sedately behind. “Hello, Senior,” the latter politely greets him.

“Hello, Captain Yu.”

“Ye Qiu you bastard stop ignoring me!” The mess of blond energy plants himself firmly in front of Ye Xiu’s view.

“Don’t worry, you’ve made that thoroughly impossible, unfortunately. What do you want?”

“So goddamn ungrateful. Here, happy birthday! Take this, it’s from me and Captain. And come on, let’s go PKPKPK everyone knows that’s the best way to celebrate a birthday!”

Yu Wenzhou continues to smile calmly. “Happy birthday, Senior. I wish you the best in the year to come.”

Ye Xiu takes the gift and snorts. “The best birthday gift you could have gotten me was shutting him up, you know?”

“I know, but it was unfortunately impossible. Perhaps he’d quiet down if you played a match with him?”

“Nice try,” laughs Ye Xiu.

“Oi I’m right here you know! Ye Qiu I’m going to drag your ass to the Arena right now right this instant-”

“Oh would you look at the time, I have to go feed my dog. See you guys around, and thanks for the birthday wishes!”

“YE QIU GET BACK HERE-!”

“Ye… Xiu.”

“Hm? Oh hey, Big-Eye, how’s it going? Raising your team well? Your successor get any braver?”

Wang Jiexi nods curtly. “We’re doing well, thanks. I don’t know when I’ll see you next, so I wanted to give you this now.”

“This is…?” The box that Wang Jiexi gives him is cubical, heavier than it appears. Wang Jiexi had been carrying it rather carefully, so Ye Xiu does the same.

“Just a gift. It’s a little fragile, so be careful. Happy early birthday, Senior. I…” Wang Jiexi hesitates, then continues, “You were never gone for long, and I know we still had contact during the period of your retirement. But regardless, it’s good to have you back. I’ve enjoyed seeing the growth of your team and its players… Yours is an unconventional team, but one to look up to.”

“I…” What to say to that? Ye Xiu isn’t the type to get embarrassed, but after something like that? In the end, although it’s nowhere near what he’d like to express, he can only say, “Thanks, Captain Wang.”

“Though I hope you haven’t been working yourself too hard? Building a new team from scratch, and with so many rookies…”

Wang Jiexi would know, probably better than almost anyone, how difficult it can be. Ye Xiu smiles ruefully. “It’s been alright. Maybe… maybe if I’d been able to transfer to an already existing team, I’d be in good enough condition to play for several years longer.

“But… I wouldn’t trade Team Happy for anything. I’m sure you can understand, no?”

“Here!” Sun Xiang thrusts a wrapped box at him out of nowhere. This catches Ye Xiu off guard, to say the least.

“Uh…” Ye Xiu takes it, of course, but handles it rather gingerly. This kid doesn’t hate him enough to give him a bomb or something, right? “Thanks…?”

“Congrats on being a year closer to your death, old man,” grumbles Sun Xiang, stuffing his hands in his pockets and looking away. “I won’t go easy on you because you’re old though! I’m still gonna kick your ass onstage!”

Ye Xiu snorts. “In your dreams, Little Xiang.” He absently inspects the…birthday gift?… which is wrapped in a cheery yellow paper patterned with little white sheep. “Did you wrap this? I like the paper, it suits you. Though it’s a neater job than I expected, I’m impressed.”

The trashtalk is automatic and natural, but his brain is elsewhere. Honestly, he’s more impressed that Sun Xiang – Sun Xiang! – is giving him anything at all. Since when did this kid not-hate him enough to make such a gesture? It’s… kind of touching, actually?

“Fuck off,” replies Sun Xiang with an angry scowl, which only makes Ye Xiu’s grin widen.

“Um…” It’s at this moment that Sun Xiang’s companion speaks up, hesitantly extending another wrapped box to Ye Xiu. “Happy birthday… Senior…”

Ye Xiu accepts the present from Zhou Zekai as well, with less trepidation. “Thank you, Little Zhou.”

“Senior is… really… amazing,” says Zhou Zekai, ducking his head, and Ye Xiu’s smile softens at the sight.

“So are you,” he replies, “you’ve both played very well this season, especially with your coordination. I look forward to seeing you onstage.” And he means it, really. It would be Happy’s most difficult battle yet, but a good one no matter what.

“We don’t need your stupid comments!” Sun Xiang humphs, but Ye Xiu sees that the tips of his ears have gone pink. “I already know my One Autumn Leaf is better than yours! Let’s head back, Captain, we gotta train and annilhate this guy once and for all.”

Zhou Zekai opens his mouth, as though about to say something more, but he shakes his head. He offers Ye Xiu a shy smile, and turns to follow his teammate.

Ye Xiu watches the two of them depart, and then he glances at Jiang Botao, who’s casually standing to the side, feigning disinterest in the whole scene.

“So,” says Ye Xiu, walking over, “what did you say to convince them to do that? Are you trying to bribe me to go easy on you guys or something? Your heart’s really as black as a Master Tactician’s…” Because although the two were very different in personality and disposition, neither Zhou Zekai nor Sun Xiang were exactly the types to just…

Jiang Botao only smiles. “They themselves wanted to give you presents, they just needed a push to actually go through with it. Someone on Samsara has to be the socially competent one, after all. Happy birthday, Senior.”

That earns a chuckle from Ye Xiu. “Thanks. Hope we have a good fight.”

“And the same to you.”

“Okay everyone!” Chen Guo claps her hands together to get everyone’s attention. “It’s almost Ye Xiu’s birthday! We need to get him something.”

“Boss Lady, that’s what you called us all here for?” Wei Chen drawls, leaning back on his chair and puffing a cigarette at the corner of the room. “I thought this was some important strategy meeting or something…”

“Shut your mouth, this is important,” says Chen Guo. “He’s done so much for us, literally none of us would be here if not for him, so this is the least we can do. Any ideas?”

Su Mucheng is currently out with Ye Xiu, distracting him so that they could have this secret planning meeting right now. Aside from those two, everyone on Team Happy is here.

“The only thing Captain really cares about is Glory, and winning the championship,” An Wenyi points out. “And we’re all already putting in our full effort on that end.”

“But I’m sure we can still think of something nice to do for him outside of that,” says Tang Rou. “He would still appreciate it.”

“He’s a Gemini!” says Steamed Bun excitedly. “So we can get him a twin-”

“He already has a twin,” Luo Ji deadpans.

“-oh great even better, we can find his twin and-”

“Anyone have any other ideas?” Chen Guo firmly cuts off Steamed Bun before he can continue on his strange paths of thought.

“A mug that says #1 Dad on it,” says Fang Rui. “Appeals to both his ego and his role in this team.” At the looks he gets, he raises his hands defensively. “What? It’s totally accurate. He took in all you rookies and raised you into an actual fighting force. Look into my honest eyes, and see the truth of this statement.”

“Yifan did call him Dad once,” Steamed Bun pipes up. Qiao Yifan flushes, but he can’t deny the truth.

“See, exactly!”

“Get him a fancy ashtray or lighter or something,” suggests Wei Chen.

“We’re not going to encourage his unhealthy habits!”

“A whole pack of instant ramen.”

“Or McDonalds, doesn’t he really like their fries?”

“What kind of gift is that?”

An Wenyi wasn’t entirely wrong when he said that all Ye Xiu cared about was Glory. If they excluded the Glory-related accomplishments that they would strive to achieve anyway, then what else was there? What would Ye Xiu like? Something he could use, something that would mean something to him?

As a result, the ideas steadily become more and more outlandish.

“A body pillow of himself.”

“Buy an ad on the Citibank tower and slap his face on it.”

“Oh oh, Tang Rou can buy out the company that makes Glory and give it to him!”

“We get him a concentrated vial of liquid shamelessness.”

Suddenly, there’s a quiet cough. Normally, such a quiet noise would never catch any attention, but given the source of the cough, the room suddenly goes quiet as though a switch were pulled.

Mo Fan looks alarmed at suddenly having a dozen pairs of eyes upon him. His gaze darts around the room, and the others wonder if he’s just going to swallow his words back down again.

But in the end, the words do come out. Quiet, as per usual, but perfectly understandable. “What about a model Myriad Manifestation Umbrella?”

Such a simple idea. Chen Guo opens her mouth to shoot it down like all the others, but then stops, and thinks.

A simple idea, but a good one. And, unbidden, she remembers flowers on a gravestone, and a quiet voice, and a story. Even if it were just a model, even if it didn’t have practical use… it had significance. He would like it.

“There are some good ones that have been made,” Tang Rou says. “I remember seeing some that even had shapeshifting capabilities.”

“…Okay,” says Chen Guo, nodding slowly. “We can definitely look into that. We have time, we could do this. Make a nice card, too…” Murmurs and nods of agreement from all around the table.

“But also I still think we should throw in the mug,” grins Fang Rui. “He’d love it, I’m telling you.”

Ye Xiu V

29 May 2025 22:03

[photo] [photo] [photo] [photo] [photo] [photo]

Team Happy - team of champions, master of kings, the best goddamn team in the entire universe.

Glory isn’t a single-player game - thank you all <3 :)

[syncogon]

[QZGS TL ch 1478-9] The Emperor’s New Clothes

(image from what is quite possibly my new fav qzgs fanvid and which will probably get its own post in the future. watch here)

I read through this chapter by accident, and it was SO GOOD that I just had to translate this bit. Please read and enjoy (and leave a comment so I know)!

(SPOILERS!! obviously) (featuring: s10 playoffs and blue rain feels and ywz being awesome)

(ch 1478)

Normally, when Wei Chen won at an away game, he loved to applaud and thank the crowd, the majority of which would be fans of the opposing team. Other players that did this might have been genuine in their thanks, but for him, it was a way for him to gloat. But this time, he was quiet as he walked onto the stage with his team. 

To him, Blue Rain wasn’t just any team. Even though he was now standing with Happy, he would never be able to mock them. Winning was enough. On this brutal playoff stage, in front of this team for which he still had many feelings, he restrained himself.

“Congratulations.” Blue Rain’s Captain Yu Wenzhou shook hands with Ye Xiu.

“Thank you.” Ye Xiu smiled and dipped his head, but didn’t say more.

Huang Shaotian came up to him next and shook his hand. “You better get the championship!” he said in a serious tone. 

“What did you think I was planning to do?” said Ye Xiu, amused.

“Good. If you’d beaten us and then lost to someone else, I’d despise you!” said Huang Shaotian.

Congratulate the opponents, thank the audience. Blue Rain may have lost the battle, but they didn’t lose their demeanor; only, in everyone’s expression, there was a hint of disappointment.

They would have to taste this bitter fruit for the rest of the summer. But that didn’t mean this was the end. There was the new season to come; they would have a new beginning. Day after day, year after year, everyone chased after the goal.

There is only one championship – this is cruelty. But, there is a championship every year – this is never-ending hope. 

(ch 1479)

Blue Rain’s Big Defeat! This was the front-page headline of the latest edition of E-Sports Weekly. 

Happy won the battle, but the reports all focused on Blue Rain, as their loss on their home stage was a more interesting topic.

In any battle there is always a victor and a loser; who won and who lost was never something to be too surprised at. But when Blue Rain faced Happy in the first round on Happy’s stage, they only lost by a tiny bit. To lose so drastically on their home stage was very unexpected.

Group round, lost. Team round, lost again. The team loss was particularly surprising – it was on a map with which Blue Rain was very familiar, yet they still hadn’t been able to take the initiative. 

It was true that people now had a pretty good understanding of Happy’s playstyle, but battles were never certain. As the saying went, “eight immortals crossing the sea, each with their own unique superpowers” – everyone was striving to do their absolute best, in their own ways. 

But the feeling that people got from this battle was that as soon as Happy pulled out their superpowers, Blue Rain was abruptly forced down, gradually falling over in the midst of the struggle.

The atmosphere on the day of wasn’t too bad, but afterward, the criticism was overwhelming.

After the final results came out, everyone suddenly became a Glory expert. Any tiny flaw in their playing became a subject of loud criticism, proof of Blue Rain’s failure to perform.

As the losing side, Blue Rain of course knew the problems they had to fix. But too much of this deluge of criticism was simply people parroting each other.

If you’re determined to condemn someone, you don’t need a good reason.

It seemed that everyone who failed had to undergo an intense round of shaming, as though this were necessary to properly reflect their status as the losers. 

And this process of denouncement began right after the battle, during the press conference. It was less of an interview session and more of an attack session. What the reporters wrote down in their notebooks wasn’t questions for Blue Rain; they wrote down speeches to express their vehement opinions regarding the reasons for Blue Rain’s defeat.

Strategy, tactics, judgment, performance, awareness…

It was as if Team Blue Rain were stripped bare. They sat on the stage and were stabbed with the verbal knives hurled by the audience.

Knife after knife. Everyone was hit. 

Huang Shaotian couldn’t restrain himself for long. Several times, he wanted to butt in, but each time he was stopped by a look from Captain Yu Wenzhou. Yu Wenzhou understood him very well, both on and offstage. He knew exactly which comments from the reporters would set him off, and with his excellent prediction and judgment, cut him off every time.

Other than keeping Huang Shaotian under control, Yu Wenzhou simply sat there and listened silently, still wearing a faint smile.

These endlessly chattering people in front of them, they were all upset at Blue Rain’s failure to live up to expectations, hating iron for not becoming steel. Yu Wenzhou recognized many of them. Indeed, many of them had greatly anticipated Blue Rain’s performance, had penned beautiful words for them, had fought written wars for them.

They liked Blue Rain, so they had held high hopes for Blue Rain. The greater the hope, the greater the despair.

However…

Yu Wenzhou simply listened, until the crowd finally fell silent. What there was to criticize had all been criticized, and, suddenly, no one stood up to say any more.

The reporters glanced at each other uneasily, in this calm after the raging attack. They were suddenly keenly aware – this was a press conference, they were supposed to ask questions and spend more time listening to what the players had to say, rather than use the time all the time to talk themselves.

Suddenly, no one knew how to continue. But at this moment, Blue Rain’s Captain Yu Wenzhou finally opened his mouth.

“Thank you, everyone, for the concern and kindness you have shown Blue Rain.”

Everyone listened in silence. The fact that Blue Rain’s captain could say this made them feel that their bitter words hadn’t entirely been in vain. Even if they didn’t manage to get new information out of the players during this press conference, as long as they were able to get Blue Rain to wake up, then wouldn’t it be worth it?

“Ladies and gentlemen, you are all anxious for Blue Rain, and you only wish the best for Blue Rain. This, I understand very well,” Yu Wenzhou continued.

“However…” He paused, and his tone turned icy. “Even if it is for our benefit, forgive us for being unable to accept this sort of nonsense.”

At that, Huang Shaotian cackled. 

A year’s worth of effort, all for nothing. And in this time of intense unhappiness, Huang Shaotian was actually laughing. But he was only laughing for the sake of it; the sound masked his acute feelings of bitterness and resentment. 

He’d thought to himself early on: You guys understand nothing. You have no right to spout this nonsense at us.

While Huang Shaotian was laughing, the reporters were stunned. They never would have thought after giving such sincere thanks, Yu Wenzhou would directly and mercilessly call their words nonsense. 

Some of them stood up, prepared to leave, but Yu Wenzhou’s voice stopped them.

Beginning from the very first critic in this press conference, Yu Wenzhou began his replies.

One after another.

Fifteen.

In total, there had been fifteen reporters who had stood up and expressed vehemently their personal, disparaging views on Blue Rain’s performance. Yu Wenzhou didn’t miss a single one, and even followed the correct order in which they had spoken. One by one, he clearly, logically, systematically refuted their observations and opinions.

And thus, one after another.

Fifteen.

Fifteen reporters felt their ears go scarlet.

Yu Wenzhou’s rebuttals were so sensible that the reporters were surprised when he suddenly finished. And then, they all had only one feeling: that they truly understood nothing, that they truly were only speaking nonsense.

This was far more complex and high-end than they had imagined. And after listening to Yu Wenzhou’s analysis, the problems that they had brought up felt unbelievably shallow. 

It was as though they were a crowd of noobs, charging toward someone and yelling “Why didn’t you use ten Formless Phantom Blades to make a hundred-combo to kill the opponent?” And that person would laugh, and pat their heads, and kindly reply that Formless Phantom Blade has a cooldown, you can only use it once, you can’t chain together ten.

Even after having their arguments torn apart, not a single one of the reporters reacted angrily to being shamed like this. Because Yu Wenzhou’s counters were truly too accurate, they simply couldn’t find a foothold to reply.

When Yu Wenzhou finished speaking, the scene once again returned to silence.

“Then…” Yu Wenzhou surveyed the crowd one last time. “Thank you, everyone. We will meet next season.”

And with that, Team Blue Rain departed.

[translator’s notes: There were a number of proverbs here, which I did struggle with understanding/explaining/incorporating. Overall, I tried to keep this a close translation to the original. The “icy” phrase was the only completely inserted comment - if ppl don’t like it I’ll take it out]

[syncogon]

Happy Halloween, everyone! (weibo)

a few headcanons: nightmares, featuring some team captains

Ye Xiu: despite his careless shamelessness, he has quite a few flavors of nightmares. some about his parents and brother. some about suddenly losing his skill at glory, or glory - or all video games - vanishing from existence entirely. many about his friends (fellow proplayers) turning on him. many about su muqiu.

Wang Jiexi: “I HATE YOU!” screams gao yingjie, tears streaming down his youthful cheeks as he throws the keyboard to the side. “find someone else to be your pillar! i never wanted this responsibility, i never wanted any of this! but do you ever stop to consider what other people want?!”

Yu Wenzhou: he’s paralyzed, from head to toe. huang shaotian sneers, teeth glinting sharper and colder than troubling rain’s silver weapon.

Zhou Zekai: it starts off normal, his team discussing tactics for the upcoming match. “what do you think about this?” his teammates are asking him. he opens his mouth to respond, and... nothing comes out. not even one of his typical grunts. he tries moving around, gesturing, and he’s moving fine, but he sees only confusion in his teammates’ faces, and for once even jiang botao is at a loss to translate. “are you alright” they ask, worried, and he wants to reply “i’m fine” but can’t

Han Wenqing: “bring the next opponent,” says the king of fighting, but the servant, instead of scurrying off to fetch the next one, only shrinks back. “there’s no one left to fight.” “what?” “you defeated them all. there’s no one left. there’s nothing left. ...congratulations.”

Zhang Jiale: standing in the midst of a storm of petals, and he can’t see anything beyond. “you made your decision, now live with it,” sun zheping’s voice comes from somewhere. “what? big sun! where are you!” he shouts, but the presence is already fading. shouts from behind him, no, in front of him, no, all around him - “zhang jiale! why did you have to leave” “why did you abandon us” “you’ll never escape second place” “was it worth it” and they’re getting louder and closer and he feels the world collapsing in on him and the petals are spinning faster and suddenly they’re not petals, they’re blood droplets, splattering him, turning everything scarlet, filling the air with the scent of iron, blood and blossoms indeed-

Sun Xiang: a staircase before him, a flight or two; at the top, an illuminated silhouette. he starts bounding up the stairs, two at a time, knowing that it will only take a few seconds to reach the person up there. but a few seconds pass, then a few minutes, a few hours, and his sprint slows to a walk slows to a crawl, and though he hasn’t taken a break, the top is no closer. no one is around him but he hears voices anyway. “poor kid” “what’s his name again?” “he’s not bad, but he’ll never be as good as-” “what a pity”

Chu Yunxiu: knows all too well what it’s like being a woman in a man’s world. her dreams, unfortunately, only reflect reality.

Xiao Shiqin: “what are you doing back here? you weren’t happy with your lot, you tried to reach higher so you tossed us to the side like used trash. and now that you’re crawling back to us, you think we can just go back to how things were before? you disgusting traitor.”

[ryukoishida]

Quan Zhi Gao Shou Fic: In which rebel!Shaotian and goody-two-shoes!Wenzhou meet and fall in love. [High School AU]

Title: I Cause Trouble, not Romance Fandom: The King’s Avatar / Quan Zhi Gao Shou Character(s)/Pairing(s): Yu/Huang (Wenzhou/Shaotian) Summary: Five times rebel Shaotian stirs up trouble for goody-two shoes Wenzhou and one time Shaotian catches Wenzhou breaking a school rule. Rating: T A/N: It’s only so long before I can hold myself back from writing high school AU Yu/Huang… so here we are! Based on ideas from this list. May I also recommend listening to Matthew P.’s “Take a Chance” in the background while reading this? It’s weirdly fitting.

Writing Commission | Editing & Translation Services

—

i.

Huang Shaotian has a reputation.

He’s the school’s infamous loud-mouthed rebel and troublemaker. Students fear him, respect him, or outright avoid him; teachers are helplessly frustrated when handling him; and punks from other nearby schools, not knowing any better, challenge him only to regret their decisions soon after. Known for his bleached blond hair, piercings, messy uniform, and a dangerous yet self-assured smirk as he brings down students physically bigger and tougher than himself, sixteen-year-old Huang Shaotian is an existence that’s impossible to ignore, a typhoon that’s surely to bring destruction and chaos upon the path he walks.

Yu Wenzhou also has a reputation.  

He’s the responsible class president, a diligent straight-A student, and an all-around helpful and polite young man — simply put, he’s an exemplary student for his fellow classmates. Students admire him or outright have minor crushes on him; teachers adore him; and even the punks in the school know better than to pick on him. Known for his composed intelligence, his gentle smile, and kind manners, Yu Wenzhou blends in well within the teenage adrenaline and hormone-infested campus; he’s a tranquil lake that brings peace of mind and harmony to those who are close to him.    

There should be no reason for these two to cross paths, until one fateful morning — the sky a flat grey and the air heavy with precipitation — a drenched Huang Shaotian brings an equally drenched kitten to school, and Yu Wenzhou, who arrives at school a little later than usual due to the weather, witnesses the tender way with which the school rebel murmurs comfort to the tiny feline.

“There, there little guy, let me dry you off, okay? What kind of asshole would throw out such a cutie like you, huh? Shame on them, I say…” Shaotian mutters while lightly wiping the orange-white tabby with a handkerchief, its fur matted with mud and dirt.

Wenzhou freezes at the strange sight and quickly slips behind one of the pillars a few paces away, unaware of the water droplets from his umbrella that are soaking the cuffs of his pants. He’s not sure why he’s hiding, but his heart is thudding hard against his chest like he’s done something guilty, like he’s just seen something he shouldn’t have.

Cautiously, he peeks out from behind the pillar again after a few seconds.

Shaotian is still softly whispering to the kitten, his golden irises focused and bright; even towards a cat, he can’t seem to shut up, and Wenzhou finds that the corner of his lips is curling up before he manages to catch himself.

“Oi! Huang Shaotian, there you are!” a rough male voice interrupts Wenzhou’s trance. “Didn’t you get my message, or are you too chicken to accept my challenge?” the insult is accompanied by his lackeys’ uproarious laughter and a series of frightened mewling from the cat in Shaotian’s arms.

“Do you fucking mind? You’re scaring my cat here,” Shaotian snaps as he turns fiercely to face the group composed of four boys — all of them in various stages of the typical “troublemaker” label: dyed hair, jewelry, tattoos, untidy attires. If Han Wenqing from the Disciplinary Committee were present at this moment, he’d had a field day filing all the rules these kids are currently breaking.

“Y-your cat?!” the boy shouts in disbelief, clearly displeased by the fact that Shaotian cares more about his feline companion than his challenge, which can possibly change the social hierarchy in this school in a matter of minutes. “Who cares about the stupid cat? Come on, let’s go up to the roof and settle this once and for all!”

“Are you fuckers deaf or something? Didn’t you just hear what I said?” Shaotian gently scoops up the kitten into the crook of his arms and pulls himself up, his narrowed eyes cold and sharp, lips tightening into a straight line.

Wenzhou knows when a fight is about to start, and unwilling to get caught up in the middle of this, he’s about to sneak past when someone calls out to him.

“You! Yeah, you over there with the blue umbrella!”

Wenzhou’s shoulders quiver when he hears approaching footsteps, the damp slaps of shoes against wet concrete growing louder. He turns around stiffly, and he’s stunned by how close Huang Shaotian is standing before him, close enough to see that his blond hair is still dripping with rain water, thick lashes stuck together in black crescents, and gold eyes wide and stormy.

“Y-yes?” It takes Wenzhou everything in his power to remain rooted to his spot and not step back from the intimidating proximity.  

“Can you do me a favour?” he asks with a tone like they’ve been friends for years, almost like he’s pleading for his help, except it’s Huang Shoatian, and he never asks for anyone’s help, as far as Wenzhou is concerned.  

“Depends,” Wenzhou croaks out.

“You’re going back to the classroom, right? Can you take Troubling Rain with you?”

“Troubling Rain?” Wenzhou tilts his head to the side in confusion.

Shaotian stares at him like he’s slow before clarifying with a sigh, “… the cat, dude.”

Wenzhou blinks twice, suddenly comprehending and internally curses himself. “Oh… right, of course.”

The blond-haired boy carefully places the small feline into Wenzhou’s arms. The cat mews in protest for a brief moment and only calms down after a few strokes on the head from Shaotian’s warm fingers.

“I’ll pick him up after I’m done dealing with those idiots,” Shaotian casually nods towards the group, not even bothering to lower his voice, and then he turns his sharp gaze back onto Wenzhou, his lips curling up into a defiant smirk, “You won’t tell on me, would you?”

“No,” he says, realizing that this one, single promise is enough to destroy his reputation if anyone were to find out.

“You’re a pal. I owe you one!” Shaotian slaps Wenzhou on the shoulder and breaks into a bright grin, sunlight peeling away the monotonous grey.

Dazed from the unexpected encounter, and with a wet kitten named Troubling Rain yawning in his arms, Yu Wenzhou gradually makes his way up the stairs to his classroom.

For the first time since he started attending this school, he’s late to class.

-

ii.

“Class prez, class prez!”

“What is it, Boyuan?” Wenzhou calmly turns to see the other student running towards him, his face panic-ridden, and Wenzhou almost gets crushed in between the desk and his classmate when Xu Boyuan reaches forward to grab the edge of the desk to steady himself.

The tall stacks of workbooks that Wenzhou has been attempting to organize and is about to bring to the teacher’s office sway dangerously from Boyuan’s momentum, and Wenzhou is only able to rescue two stacks with his reflex; he watches helplessly as the third tower of workbooks crumbles like a weakly-constructed sandcastle and scatters into a useless pile on the floor.  

He’ll have to organize those again from the order of the student numbers. All thirty of them. Why is this happening to him?

“A… A fight! A fight broke out on the second floor!” Boyuan struggles to inform the class president as he takes in huge gulps of air.

“Who?” Wenzhou asks warily.

“Huang Shao and—”

He stops listening the moment Huang Shaotian is mentioned. Of course that kid is involved. Wenzhou shouldn’t even be surprised anymore. With a command of “get a teacher, quickly!” thrown towards Boyuan, Wenzhou dashes out of the classroom and heads for the staircase.

It’s easy to follow the jeers and encouraging shouts from other students to locate the fight. As he pushes through the excited audience with firm words of warning, many students move aside to let him through, though most of them still remain close by to watch.

In the center of the crowd along the narrow hallway, Huang Shaotian and a senior named Ye Xiu, who’s almost equally infamous as Shaotian in terms of their rule-breaking records, are at each other’s throats, their fists grasping each other’s wrinkled shirts and their faces bruised and scratched with bloodied lines.

“Enough! Both of you, hands off!” Wenzhou attempts to wedge himself in between the two boys, his hands shoving at their shoulders but to little avail.

“He’s the one who started it first,” Ye Xiu tells him in a lazy drawl, and if Wenzhou weren’t so annoyed at the both of them for interrupting his classroom duties, he’d almost be impressed by the casual way with which Ye Xiu is talking to him, as if there isn’t blood seeping out from an ugly scratch across his cheek or a pulsing swell that starts near his left eye, and he’s just nonchalantly commenting about the cafeteria menu.

“Yeah? Well that’s because you keep running away from me every time I challenge you to a one-on-one!” Shaotian retorts, and his pull on Ye Xiu’s tie tightens as their foreheads bump together, both of them growling lowly in their throats.

“You heard him, right?” Ye Xiu glances over at Wenzhou with piercing eyes, daring him to continue interfering with their brawl. “Just let us handle this on our own so I can put this little brat’s ass in his rightful place.”

“No, can’t do,” Wenzhou tries to get in between them again, this time more insistent, and that’s when someone’s arm swings towards his face and everything goes black.

“Oh shit. That’s… that’s a lot of blood. Did I kill him? Oh my fucking god, is he alive? Is he breathing? Please tell me he’s breathing, oh my god. Where’s the nurse when you need her?”

“I’d feel a lot better if you can just shut up for a second,” Wenzhou moans, and winces when sharp pain shoots up along the bridge of his nose. His voice sounds weirdly nasally and he realizes when he tries to breathe in (a terrible idea in and of itself) that someone has stuck tissue into his nostrils. He raises his hand up to gingerly brush across his face, feeling for any tender spots of pain, and sees fresh blood dotted his fingertips.

“Oh thank fuck you’re alive!”

In his excited realization that he didn’t murder his classmate, Shaotian tightly grabs one of Wenzhou’s hands.

“Ow!”

“Oh shit, oh shit I’m sorry! Are you okay? I didn’t mean to do that!” he quickly releases the other boy’s hand in alarm.

“What are you even doing here?” Wenzhou opens his eyes slowly, and without turning his head to the side, as that would probably worsen the nosebleed, he can only see a blurry outline of Shaotian standing beside what he presumes to be one of the cots in the school infirmary. “Where’s Ye Xiu?”

“He helped me carry you to the infirmary,” Shaotian says, “and then he got called out by his homeroom teacher, so my guess is he’s getting a good earful of scolding right about now.”

“So what are you doing here, then? Shouldn’t you be back in class?”

“I do have some conscience, y’know… I’m worried about you, okay? It’s partly — fine, mostly — my fault that you’re lying here with a goddamn bloody nose, so the least I could do is stay with you until the nurse comes back, right? But also let this be a warning for next time: never get in between other people’s fights because honestly, I don’t know what the hell you were thinking, interfering like it’s any of your business when you could have just left it to the teachers—”

“It is my business,” Wenzhou interrupts him indignantly, though it’s rather difficult to sound stern when he has tissue and blood stuck up his nostrils. “You still owe me one, remember?”

“Huh?” Shaotian scratches the back of his neck in puzzlement.

“Do you know how awkward it was for me to explain to my homeroom teacher why I had a wet cat with me on that day?”

“Oh, right! I still haven’t had a chance to thank you properly for that!”

“It’s fine, there’s really no need.”

“I insist,” he’s holding onto Wenzhou’s hand again, the syllables of his phrase accentuated by the press of his fingers against Wenzhou’s. “I may be a delinquent but I have my own principles, too! I don’t like being in other people’s debt.”

Wenzhou sighs, though he doesn’t complain about the warm hands caging loosely around his.

“You can pay me back by stop getting into so much trouble, Huang Shaotian.”

“You know who I am?” he sounds genuinely surprised.

There’s no reason for them to know each other by name; Yu Wenzhou is the class president of Class 2-A, which consists of students who excel academically, while Huang Shaotian belongs to Class 2-D, a class that makes up of delinquents and those who are basically failing school.

“Who doesn’t?” Wenzhou chuckles and then instantly regrets it when pain flares up along his nose again.

“And you are?”

“Yu Wenzhou.”

“All right, then, Yu Wenzhou. I promise I’ll… uh, get into less trouble from now on.”

“I can’t help but notice you used the term ‘less’ and not ‘no more’,” Wenzhou’s lips almost quirk up into a smile. Almost.

“You can’t expect me to entirely transform myself in one day. That’s asking way too much!”

-

iii.

“You should really wash your hands more thoroughly,” Wenzhou comments as he walks past Shaotian after delivering worksheets to the teacher’s office during lunch break.

Shaotian freezes at the other boy’s words, and instinctively pulls his hands up to his face to inspect more closely; sure enough, specks of bright green paint are still evident under the hallway’s fluorescent light fixtures, like neon stars scattered across his pale skin.  

“Fuck! I swear I’ve scrubbed my skin raw,” Shaotian mutters darkly, and then upon realizing what he’s just said, he slaps both hands over his mouth, his eyes widened in panic.  

But Wenzhou is not done; he enjoys seeing this rare side of the blond-haired delinquent just a little bit too much to stop.

“Although I have to say that neon green is not the most fetching color on a burgundy vehicle,” Wenzhou taps his finger against his lower lip in a mock thoughtful tone, “I wonder what Principal Chen thinks about the colour choices. Should we perhaps pay him a visit?”

“Yu Wenzhou, you little—” Shaotian grabs Wenzhou by the collar, and by this time, other students are already slowing down in the hallway to see if they’ll be lucky enough to catch sight of another one of Huang Shaotian’s notorious fights. Unfortunately, they will have to wait for another chance, because Shaotian is not in the mood to be in the center of attention this time. Releasing his shirt collar, he seizes Wenzhou by his wrist instead and pulls him along until they find a quiet corner away from the students milling about.

Shaotian backs Wenzhou into the side of a vending machine until Wenzhou can feel the coldness of the metal seeping through his shirt and chilling his skin; Shaotian slams a fist just mere inches beside the dark-haired boy’s head before muttering, his face hovering close to Wenzhou’s and his lips twisted into a cold smile, “You’re actually quite a little shit, aren’t you, Yu Wenzhou?”

He should be scared. If he’s sane in the head, he should be really, really scared right now, but Wenzhou understands that the heartbeat that thrums rapidly like a hummingbird’s wings, painful against his ribs with every shallow breath he takes, has nothing to do with fear. It’s excitement — at the prospect of teetering between the boundary of safety and danger, at the close proximity between himself and the unpredictable typhoon known as Huang Shaotian.

“Is that what I am to you?” Wenzhou returns with another question, dark, defying eyes gazing up at his golden ones with no sense of apprehension or self-preservation.

“What the fuck is it that you want? What will get you to shut up about car?”

“A bubble-tea, and an explanation of why you did it.”

(As it turns out, the reason is even more ridiculous than Wenzhou has initially imagined. Shaotian lost a bet to Ye Xiu — something about the results of the previous night’s Blue Rain versus Excellent Era match in the Glory tournament — and so upon following Ye Xiu’s snarky bidding, Shaotian was forced to accept the punishment for losing the bet, which was spray painting the principal’s car.

Wenzhou can only chuckle while trying not to choke over his very tasty and overly saccharine milk foam brown sugar oolong milk tea.)

-

iv.

With a boxed soy milk in hand, Wenzhou turns a corner to find Huang Shaotian slumped dejectedly against the side of the vending machine. Without further questioning, he quickly retraces his steps back to his locker and grabs the small first-aid kit he’s kept stocked since the time he got accidentally smacked in the face by Huang Shaotian during one of his numerous scuffles.

“Did you get into a fight with Ye Xiu again?”

Wenzhou asks softly when he returns to the same spot he’s found the delinquent earlier and sits cross-legged across from Shaotian, who finally looks up, sweat-slicked forelocks falling haphazardly into his eyes, one of which is swelling slightly and he has a hard time blinking properly.

“Would you be disappointed if I said ‘yes’?” Shaotian’s words are muffled, and he hisses at the stinging sensation when Wenzhou dabs on his split lower lip with antiseptic wipe, the white cloth tainting bright red with blood.

“Slightly,” Wenzhou replies with a quiet voice using a tone that Shaotian despises — it’s one that’s infuriatingly calm and indecipherable, difficult to tell whether the boy is pissed or simply unconcerned.

He continues to clean Shaotian’s wounds carefully, the procedure so familiar now since they learned of each other’s names last autumn: Shaotian getting into fights at least three times during the week, and Wenzhou patching him up each and every time. He would grumble about their promise, about how Shaotian is supposed to give him less trouble now that they’re friends (‘They are friends, are they not?’ Wenzhou sometimes ponders), and Shaotian would apologize with his signature sunshine smile — the one that he first gave Wenzhou when he thanked him for taking care of his cat.  

“Then, no, I definitely did not get into a fight with that asshole,” Shaotian answers with a cheeky grin.

Wenzhou doesn’t say anything for a brief moment as he puts a bandage over the gash on Shaotian’s cheek with immaculate care, his dark grey eyes so focused on the task that he’s entirely unaware of how Shaotian is unabashedly staring at him, or how hard he’s swallowing when Wenzhou’s scent hits him like waves of the ocean that attempt to suffocate him if he keeps breathing it in.  

His fingertips linger just a bit too long along Shaotian’s jawline, but neither comments upon that fact when Wenzhou says with a neutral smile, the grey in his eyes glimmering with a somber light, “I’d be more disappointed if I find out you’re lying to me though.”

“I just can’t win against you,” Shaotian sighs, his eyes fluttering close as he leans his head back against the vending machine. The humming from the machine fills in the silence between them as Wenzhou finishes patching up the rest of his injuries.

“Come on, I’ll walk you home,” Wenzhou gets up and extends his arm towards Shaotian.

He turns his head to the side when he murmurs, “it’s okay. I want to rest a little longer.”

“Huang Shaotian?”

Wenzhou crouches down, but the other boy only lowers his head further, hiding his face from Wenzhou’s view. With a suspicious frown, he begins to cautiously press his fingers along Shaotian’s calf and down to his ankle until the boy yelps in protest, pulling his leg away from Wenzhou’s hands.

“Ow! Fuck! What the fuck d’you do that for?!”

“Your ankle’s injured…”

“Yes, thank you for the diagnosis, Dr. Yu,” he rolls his eyes, tone filled with sarcasm.

“Why didn’t you tell me? You should go to a doctor and get that checked out.”

“It’s not the first time I’ve twisted my stupid ankle,” Shaotian mutters in annoyance, using his shirt sleeve to roughly rub away the tears that have started forming when the throbbing on his ankle flares up in sharp agony, “it’ll heal in a few days.”

“So stubborn…” Wenzhou shakes his head, half-fond and half-exasperated.

“What the hell was that?” he snaps, unimpressed.

“Climb on.”

“What?” Shaotian looks up with a scowl only to see that Wenzhou is crouched down with his back facing him, his intention suddenly clear as day. He snorts out a laugh, “I can’t walk right now, but that doesn’t mean I don’t value my long-term ability to use my legs ever again.”  

“I won’t drop you, I promise,” Wenzhou doesn’t turn around, but his words carry a kind of weight and sincerity that Shaotian can never resist, so without any further prompting, Shaotian climbs onto Wenzhou’s back, his arms wrapped around the other boy’s shoulders.

He’s incredibly warm, and his shoulders are broader than they look, or maybe the pain is just messing with Shaotian’s mind. Either way, getting a piggy-back ride from the esteemed class president of Class-A has not been part of Shaotian’s plan that day, but he definitely likes where this is going.  

Fortunately, Shaotian’s home is not too far from the school, but it’s still taken them about half an hour before they reach the front door of his apartment.

After he unlocks the door, Shaotian turns to him with a mischievous smirk, “Yu Wenzhou, you aren’t going to kiss me better? I’m so disappointed, like you have no idea.”

“Don’t push your luck,” Wenzhou replies, hoping the sudden burst of warmth on his cheeks isn’t too visible.

“You know I love pushing people’s boundaries! It’s part of my charm!”

-

v.

While the teacher is busy writing on the blackboard for next day’s lessons, Shaotian scribbles a note when he’s supposed to be working on a math assignment he’s missed a few weeks ago. After ensuring that the teacher won’t be turning around, he chucks the crumpled paper ball towards the back of someone’s head sitting two rows in front of him, the mob of dark hair a familiar sight, though not usually seen in detention after school hours.

The paper ball falls and rolls to the bottom of Wenzhou’s chair, and with motion as silent and smooth as a shadow, he picks up the paper, unfurls it carefully, and reads the messily scrawled content while he effortlessly twirls his pen with his slender fingers:

Wow, what a rare sight to see the star student in detention! What the hell did you do to land yourself into this boring shit hole?

With a gleeful light to his eyes, Shaotian observes Wenzhou penning a reply. He folds the paper into an airplane with flawlessly straight lines and accurate edges and sends it back to Shaotian.

Preparation for finals week had been hectic. I brought the wrong folder to school today and accidentally left my Chinese literary essay at home.

After finish admiring Wenzhou’s elegant penmanship for a few seconds, Shaotian is about to write back when the teacher announces to the few students sitting in his classroom for detention, “I need to go to the resources room for a few minutes, and I’ll be right back.

“Huang Shaotian,” he glares at the student pointedly, bushy eyebrows raised up and his tone strict, “I better see some of that math homework completed by the time I get back.”

“You got it, Mr. Liang,” he winks at the teacher, who only heaves a sigh and closes the door behind him.

As soon as the door clicks shut, Shaotian slips into the desk directly behind Wenzhou’s quick as lightning and taps on his friend’s shoulder with an urgency that even Wenzhou finds impossible to ignore.

“Hey, hey, Yu Wenzhou, want to skip detention together? There’s a new bubble-tea place that has just recently opened nearby; they apparently have really tasty bubble waffles, too! With fifteen different flavours! Fifteen! Isn’t that amazing? I wonder if they have it in taro flavor, you know I’d die for that shit. Come on, ditch detention with me! Oi, are you even listening to me, Yu Wenzhou mmf—”

It’s hard to interrupt Shaotian once he gets going, especially if the one-sided conversation is about food, so Wenzhou has to cover the other boy’s mouth with his hand until he calms down and shuts up long enough for him to get a word in.

“What?” Shaotian peels Wenzhou’s fingers off and demands with an impressive pout that can rival a five-year-old’s. “What is it?”

“I don’t want to get in trouble,” Wenzhou utters in a low voice, putting his pen down for the moment as he continues with a soft sigh, “I mean, even more trouble than I’m already in.”

“But detention is so boring,” Shaotian whines as if that alone is a good excuse for them to skip their punishment.

“Don’t you have homework that you need to catch up on?”

“My overdue assignments can be traced back all the way to last semester,” Shaotian tells him like it’s something he’s exceptionally proud of.

“All the more reason for you to stay, then,” Wenzhou nods matter-of-factly.

“What I mean is two hours of detention won’t make a damn difference,” Shaotian argues insistently, always needing to have the last word in an argument, “besides, I already know all the math stuff they’re teaching us — do you know how fucking boring it is to do things over and over again when you already know it by heart? And you’re helping me with history and literature later, right? We can do that over bubble-tea and waffles! Doesn’t that sound more exciting?”

“No, it sounds like more trouble than what it’s worth,” Wenzhou is saying, but he can already feel his determination crumbling the moment Shaotian lays his hands on him. He has never stood a chance, to be honest.  

“You won’t do it even for me?” Shaotian, being the opportunist that he is, seems to see the cracks in the other boy’s resolve and deals the final blow, in combination with the dangerously adorable puppy eyes that seems endlessly deep, the genuine enthusiasm trickling out full and fresh and innocent like spring water from the ground, and highly infectious.    

“Huang Shaotian, I swear you’re the devil incarnate,” Wenzhou buries his face into his hands, voice muffled and defeated.

“But you ain’t so pure yourself,” Shaotian retorts with a victorious grin, knowing he has won this round.

“The bubble waffles better be worth it,” Wenzhou begins to put his stationary and books into his backpack while muttering, “I don’t want to get extra detention for some sub-par dessert.”

-

+ i.

The rusted hinges of the door to the school roof creaks as it swings open, the shrill note clawing through the calm summer afternoon like a knife gouging a wound and tearing apart canvas of a watercolour masterpiece.  

“There you are! I’ve been looking all over the campus for you. What the hell are you doing up here?” Shaotian’s voice breaks into Wenzhou’s silence like glass; it shatters into a smattering of stars as shards plummet and cascade into random constellations all around him — in the sunlight that scatters warmly across his skin, in the breeze that teases through his hair, in the sultry air that he breathes in.

Wenzhou doesn’t turn around at the familiar voice, merely exhaling as a cloud of smoke slithers out between his lips and rises above his head like a dying spirit before it dissipates completely.  

He hears footsteps growing closer until he senses Shaotian standing directly behind him, and then he hears him gasp in disbelief.

“Holy shit. Yu Wenzhou, are you smoking?”

Finally, Wenzhou turns around, taking the cigarette out of his mouth with practiced ease and holds it delicately between his index and middle fingers while giving Shaotian one of his cryptic smiles, “Want one?”

“Uh… sure?” Shaotian’s tone sounds anything but certain. Still, he plops down beside his companion and takes the offered cigarette with a shaky hand. He notices that Wenzhou has wrapped the two cigarettes he has in tissue paper and not in their original paper packaging. He wants to ask why, but he’s still too awestruck by the discovery that their school’s beloved and respected model student has indulged in one of the campus’ most serious taboos: smoking in school grounds.

After a few unsuccessful attempts, Shaotian finally manages to light up the tip of his cigarette. Wenzhou must have noticed his hesitation, but he says nothing and continues to take a drag like it’s the most natural thing in the world.

The amber of the tip glows a weak red as it quickly burns away into flecks of ashen grey; a thin ribbon of smoke dances and spreads and dies.

‘Fuck it,’ Shaotian thinks, sticking the cigarette into his mouth and sucking in the smoke and heat like his life depends on it.

His mouth and esophagus instantly scorch in watery flames, the smoke making his eyes water as tears drip down his cheeks while he coughs for a good while. He swears he can hear Wenzhou laughing softly beside him as he pats his back in comfort, and if he weren’t about to cough his lungs out, he’d give the bastard an earful about murdering him with this tiny fire stick.

“You should have told me this was your first time,” Wenzhou says with a quiet, amused smile.

“When did you start picking up this bad habit? Who has tainted our precious class president?” he finally croaks out after putting out his cigarette and flicking the bud far, far away from him.

“I started before I met you,” Wenzhou only says with a shrug, turning to face the fence once more. The scenery beyond the fence is nothing spectacular, just residential buildings, tidy gridded streets, and the occasional patches of green where local parks are. “I’m not proud of it, even if I only smoke maybe half a package every semester, but it’s one of the few ways I know to unwind from all the stress.”  

He blows the smoke out and feels his heart growing lighter, and he wishes his feelings — the warm timber that has started out as small, harmless ambers like the tip of the cigarette that steadily grow into an uncontrollable forest fire — can flow freely out from him, too.

The cigarette in his hand is almost burned out, the small flame nearly reaching his skin and if he doesn’t let go, he’ll inevitably get burned. Maybe he wants to get burned, Wenzhou suddenly realizes.

Maybe that’s what he wants all along.

“You’re not going to report me to the Discipline Committee, are you?” Wenzhou turns towards Shaotian and asks, his lips quirking up into a small smile. It’s neither defiant nor scornful, and Shaotian can’t tell what’s behind that expression or within the dark, stormy grey of his eyes.  

“Hell no,” Shaotian stares back at him, wide-eyed and slightly offended that Wenzhou would even suggest such a thing, “What kind of relationship do you think we have now, huh? You think I’d tell on you like some little snitch? No way!”

“Oh? And what kind of relationship do we have?”

Wenzhou leans in, a hand winding Shaotian’s loosened tie between his fingers as he pulls the other boy in even closer until their noses are practically brushing against each other’s. All Shaotian can smell is the sweet scent of the tabacco smoke and whatever kind of soap that Wenzhou uses — something woodsy and herb-like that reminds him fondly of a forest in the summer.  

“Yu Wenzhou, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he murmurs, ravenous golden eyes gazing bravely into Wenzhou’s darkened irises.

“Shaotian,” he whispers his name, the first time he does so without calling him by his full name, and it’s sweeter than anything Wenzhou has ever tasted, “may I call you that?”

He nods once, and then Wenzhou is speaking again, his breaths warm against his lips, “Shaotian, may I kiss you?”

“Fuck, I thought you’d never ask,” Shaotian laughs, before the sound is swallowed up by Wenzhou’s lips covering his in a gentle kiss.  

He tastes of spice and smoke and smoldering ash, and Shaotian loves every second of it.

(They make sure to dispose of their cigarette buds afterwards. Even with their new-found romance, there’s no reason to start an accidental fire now, is there?)

—

A/N: Ohmygod 5K+ words. This has been fun, y’all.

[hotarla]

My Thoughts: “Quan Zhi Gao Shou” Episode 9 Summary and Review: “Everyone’s Public Enemy”

Excited greetings to you, my fellow QZGS fans, here is another edition of “My Thoughts!” This episode has a lot of reshuffling of events when compared to the novel so I'll try to point them out to you. I was actually genuinely surprised at a few things which I will discuss later. (BTW, I translated the title myself so it could be wrong...)

As with always, a warning about spoilers ahead! As an FYI, the start of the episode has us around chapter 148 and ends around chapter 178, (give or take) since some of the chapters were completely cut out from this episode (or are, in fact, going to be shown in episode 10).

The episode starts us off with some totally unnecessary fan service (I'm joking, it's TOTALLY necessary for all the screaming fangirls lol!) of Zhou Zekai’s dreamy visage before cutting to the Internet cafe where Ye Xiu is talking to Wang Jiexi about how the constant challenges from Tiny Herb are wearing him down. Tang Rou disagrees with him, saying that he's just playing around with a bunch of champion “three-legged cats” (in Chinese, a “three-legged cat” means that you're a “jack-of-all-trades and master of none”). At this point, Bao pops his face in and asks about what they're going to do in-game today. Just as this happens, Ye Xiu gets a PM from Seven Fields…

We cut over to Congee City’s Exchange Market where Bound Boat from Blue Brook Guild is talking to Blue River about Lord Grim setting the record for Desolate Land for the Full Moon Guild for the cheap price of four parts of the Scarlet Moon set (a level 30 set for Battle Mages). Blue River reacts to this with disbelief but it's all true. His QQ messenger lights up and he watches as leaders from some of the other big guilds complain about this. When the server announces later on that the Full Moon Guild has beaten Blue Brook’s record, the other guilds begin to declare: this Lord Grim is our enemy!

Left with no other choice, Blue River has to make a tough decision: ask for help from a higher dimension...

Meanwhile, Lord Grim and Co. are in Congee City as well, picking up new weapons for themselves now that they're at level 30. In the novel, this event actually happens before setting the record for Full Moon. Steam Bun dashes from one stall to another in excitement while Tang Rou wonders out loud about the steep prices. Lord Grim goes up to a stall and asks if they're buying uncommon materials. The man gives him the affirmative as he turns around and...ah! It's Bound Boat from Blue Brook! Why are you selling back the materials we gave you!?

Elsewhere, Blue River has arrived in the Heavenly Domain on his main account, Blue Bridge Spring Snow. I have to admit, the detailing and almost divinely-inspired instrumental for this scene is totally on point and totally gorgeous! Also, if you pay close attention, Blue River’s main account has a ponytail! Not QUITE the long hair I was imagining though!

We finally get to meet two characters I was actually not expecting to see: guild leader of the Heavenly Domain for Blue Brook, Changing Spring, and Poplar Beach, Blue River’s biggest rival in Blue Brook. To be honest, with all the stuff the donghua was cutting out, seeing these two characters was last on my list. I am a bit disappointed on the totally bland character designs for these two though.

Blue River informs Changing Spring about Lord Grim’s efforts in the 10th server while Poplar Beach scoffs in the background. Changing Spring decides that it's time to bring out the big guns: he will personally go to the 10th server to set the record for Desolate Land! Blue River goes to inform Bound Boat but, instead, he gets a complaint about Lord Grim’s shameless bargaining techniques! And, somewhere in the shadows, danger lurks…

Lord Grim and Co. group back at Desolate Land after getting some new weapons. Steam Bun detects a killer intent and dashes away to ambush the person. But, it turns out that the newcomer is not an enemy but a friend!

It's my favourite cinnamon roll, Qiao Yifan! He's come to the 10th server on his new level 30 Ghostblade account, One Inch Ash, to get some God-level training from Ye Qiu (Ye Xiu). Steam Bun is confused: was I wrong about that killer intent I felt? Lord Grim smirks: you're not wrong, it's right above you!

Looks like they've been surrounded! And, judging from the Battle Mage who attacks first, it looks like it's Chen Yehui, guild leader of Excellent Dynasty! A battle ensues and we finally get a bit of action! I was starting to despair a bit about the lack of action. The novel covers a lot of battle scenes, including lots of monster battles from Wild Bosses to dungeoning for records. The donghua, unfortunately, cuts out a lot of this, probably due to budget and animating concerns. On top of that, a lot of the battles in the donghua have become what I call “dust covered light shows:” all you see is dust and flashy lights.

Another FYI: this particular “encirclement” actually occurs before the record setting of Desolate Land and before Blue River goes to the Heavenly Domain to ask for help. For more information, please check out chapter 155-56.

Secondly, the members on Ye Xiu’s side actually included Seven Fields and Sleeping Moon (from the Full Moon guild) and Thousand Creations (from Blue Brook); Yifan’s character One Inch Ash hadn't even joined up with Lord Grim’s party yet as his level wasn't high enough. I believe the reason that Yifan and his Ghostblade appeared earlier than expected was because they had to make up for the fact that they wouldn't be animating the record setting of Desolate Land that included Yifan helping them. Lastly, this “encirclement” actually occurred in Line Canyon (the dungeon after Desolate Land), not in Desolate Land itself, which is what happened in this episode.

Anyways, getting back to the episode at hand, the members of Excellent Dynasty attack and we can all see the merits of having a supporting Ghostblade member on the team with the usage of Sword Souls (and Dual Linking Ghost Boundaries) buffing up the team. I have to admit, it's all very flashy! I love the action sequence for Lord Grim’s Sword Soul and how his umbrella splits apart into a sword and sheath. Ye Xiu praises Yifan on his timing for his Boundaries and Yifan just lights up at the compliment. You can truly see the way Yifan works so perfectly with the team, and how happy he is to just be a part of it!

The ambushers are finally defeated in a team wipeout and Lord Grim and Co. pose majestically at the end of it. (Insert some more shameless Yifan plug in lol)

Suddenly, another attacker comes from above! It's Poplar Beach! He arrogantly introduces himself before attacking Steam Bun. Lord Grim and Changing Spring intervene and more introductions are made. Lord Grim makes a comment on the new record set by Blue Brook for Desolate Land: how come I don't see Blue River up there? His dungeoning is much more stable and consistent than Poplar Beach who would excel more at PKs. (Another small note: in the novel, this conversation actually happens before they set the record and Blue River is not on scene when it happens) Poplar Beach becomes incensed at the insinuation that he's bad at dungeoning while Blue River is visibly touched by Lord Grim’s words (his face has the most beautiful show of emotion I've ever seen on him!). Poplar Beach starts to arrogantly challenge Lord Grim in the world chat. Ye Xiu smirks at this while Blue River and Bound Boat worriedly look on…

At Excellent Era, Chen Yehui (FINALLY we get official confirmation that he IS Chen Yehui!) is grinding his teeth in anger after his failed attempt to kill Ye Qiu (Ye Xiu) in-game. We get a flashback of him getting denounced for having inefficient skill to play a higher position in the team, on the recommendation of Ye Qiu (Ye Xiu). It looks like he's not through with him yet though, as Chen slowly scrolls through his friend list filled with members from other guilds…

Yifan, on the other hand, is talking to Ye Xiu about the high record for Desolate Land. Ye Xiu tells him that he's confident that they'll be able to set the record with Yifan and his Ghostblade’s help. All they need are three chances (since after this, Lord Grim and Co. would reach level 31 and they would not be able to set the record anymore). Yifan panickedly tells him that he's still not very adept at using a Ghostblade but Ye Xiu reassures him: you're a pro player too! These words, spoken to him by a God-level player, is enough to convince Yifan: three chances are more than enough! And, as expected, the record is set!

I get so many feels from this every time I see it: Yifan needs this kind of acknowledgement of his skills more often. He feels overlooked because of his friend Yingjie so every time he gains a little bit more confidence in himself, I just get all teary-eyed and emotional.

After setting the record, Chen Guo congratulates them. Ye Xiu wanders over and asks Chen Guo something: can I borrow your Heavenly Domain maxed leveled account, Chasing Haze? And, at Blue Rain headquarters, we watch as the IRL version of Changing Spring (Liang Yichun for anyone who's interested) approaches Huang Shaotian while looking for Yu Wenzhou…

Eeee, Yu Wenzhou! Another hottie appears, like a rare Pokemon! (Although, the chances of meeting a hot guy in this series seems pretty high lol!) Glad to see Shaotian again, I miss that adorable chatterbox! I can't wait to see more of them in the next episode! And what does the next episode bring?

Oho! I wasn't expecting the donghua to cover the battle between Poplar Beach and Chasing Haze (played by Ye Xiu). To be honest, I thought that they would cut it out completely (it only lasted two chapters in the novel). And a covered up Su Mucheng? Wasn't this scene chronologically supposed to happen a bit earlier (like in THIS episode)? Well, we didn't see much of her in this episode so I guess it's all right. And that turbaned fellow, he couldn't possibly be Concealed Light, right? Goodness what is with the pacing of the donghua? It's all over the place! I guess all we can do now is wait and see! Until next week!

Profile of the Week - Qiao Yifan’s Ghostblade, One Inch Ash

[hotarla]

My Thoughts: “Quan Zhi Gao Shou” Episode 7: “The Greatest BOSS in History”

Greetings to you from a certain sexy gunner, Zhou Zekai and I are here to bring you the next edition of “My Thoughts!” I have a few qualms about this particular episode because they cut out at least three to four chapters from the light novel although I understand the reasoning for doing so: budgets (probably in creating more on-screen characters and hiring more voice actors), time restraints...to be honest, even without those particular chapters (and they weren’t really that important), the episode could still proceed smoothly. Still, I will discuss some of the things that were cut out in my review. To give you a sense of where we are in the novel, we are currently around chapter 134.

As per usual, a warning of spoilers ahead! Also another shout-out to @noirliesl-sideblog again for her gifs!

The episode starts off with Liu Hao getting a notification that the Boneyard dungeon record has been broken yet again, this time with the help of a new character, Flowing Tree. On finding out that this new member is a Blade Master, he correctly guesses the identity of this character: Huang Shaotian.

In-game, Huang Shaotian is STILL jabbering on and on after beating the record. At this point, the other members have had just about enough of this chatterbox and they go their separate ways.

And, what of Ye Xiu? In his case, he’s completely ignored everything that Huang Shaotian is saying effectively...by taking off his headphones! On finding out that Ye Xiu hasn’t heard a single word that he’s said, he throws a little tantrum.

He continues to shoot out questions at Ye Xiu: why did you retire? Ye Xiu calmly answers his questions, saying that because the team wasn’t doing well, Excellent Era used it as an excuse to ask him to leave. Also, since he didn’t want to become a training partner, he had no other choice. Shaotian reacts indignantly to all of this, making cute, pouty faces while at it.

But, even so, Shaotian wonders: why did you not transfer to another team instead? Ye Xiu answers this simply: if I transferred, what about Su Mucheng?

We pan over to Excellent Era where Mucheng is happily humming and skipping down a hallway (by the way, her shoes are like cute af). Seeing Liu Hao, she cutely thanks him for helping out and continues on her way. Liu Hao angrily shouts at her to stop, realizing exactly what she is thanking him for (being a practice partner for setting the dungeon record). However, she merely acts innocent and Liu Hao is rendered speechless, as he knows full well that her position in the club is much higher than his (on top of being a cash mule for the club with all the sponsorships and commercialization). As she leaves, Liu Hao is left with informing the in-game guild leader of Excellent Dynasty Chen Yehui that he is unable to help him anymore with the game.

Back at the internet cafe, Ye Xiu explains that if he transferred, Mucheng would most definitely leave Excellent Era. When Shaotian asks him when her contract is up, Ye Xiu replies: a year and half. Shaotian immediately blusters over this: if you wait that long, you’ll be an old man! Ye Xiu then gives him a reminder: what is the current record of our 1v1 duels? Shaotian looks sheepish and laughs embarrassingly.

Shaotian finally decides to leave and, as he turns towards the doors, he turns back to look at Ye Xiu with the most serious look on his face: you have to come back. Ye Xiu promises and Shaotian goes on to say that if he ever needs any help, he’d come. Ye Xiu smiles and starts to slowly walk over to him. At this point, I’m just squealing over the cuteness and potential bro-bonding here, there’s this lovely instrumental playing in the background and Shaotian has the cutest, most sweetest and gentlest look on his face, they’re about to go for this totally bromantic handshake and then...Ye Xiu totally ruins it by asking for Shaotian to pay up for using the cafe computer! My inner voice was just crying “WHY, YE XIU, WHY!?” and my heart all but died right there. However, Ye Xiu will be Ye Xiu and it leaves Shaotian wondering what to do with his hand...

(SMACK HIM ON THE HEAD, DANGIT! GOT MY HOPES UP FOR NOTHING.)

Elsewhere, the guild leaders of the 10th server for Blue Brook and Tyrannical Ambition are complaining about all the pros playing in the server: what are they going to do? The two leaders think about whether it would be better to team up when Blue River asks: what does Plantago Seed think? And. where is this guild leader currently hiding? 

Apparently he’s off spying on Lord Grim and Co.! Just as they see their stalker, Plantago Seed shoots forward, attacking both Tang Rou and Steamed Bun! He throws some “Disperse Powder” (it is a Crowd Control skill only Witches can use and it can remove buffs and reduce the target’s attack, casting, and movement speed) at Tang Rou, making her unable to attack. As she continues to look on in confusion, Steamed Bun realizes what has happened: looks like he used “Laxative!” Ye Xiu, Sleeping Moon and Seven Fields (Ginseng) react with similar -_-” looks at the unorthodox name... 

At another location, a certain fanboy Plantago Seed is watching from the side as another person plays with his character. Who is this person?

It’s Big-Eye Wang!

Ahem, I mean, it’s Wang Jiexi, captain of Club Tiny Herb! After hearing of the exploits of Lord Grim and Co., he’s come over to test them out! After taking care of Tang Rou and Steamed Bun, he’s about to execute the final blow when Lord Grim jumps into the fray! Their quick handling amazes our bystanders. 

After being completely suppressed by Lord Grim, Jiexi realizes that while both Tang Rou and Steamed Bun are good, it was harder to assess Lord Grim’s skill level. Since he doesn’t have enough information, it would be unwise to jump to conclusions just yet, although I’m sure he already has his suspicions. 

God, why is everyone in this donghua so good-looking!? In-game, Ye Xiu doesn’t prevaricate: the one who was playing behind Plantago Seed was most likely Wang Jiexi. Although Tang Rou and Steamed Bun don’t know who he is, the other two react with exclamations of shock and disbelief. And where is the captain now? He’s meeting up with the team in-training at the Club. And now, introducing us all to the younger generation of (totally cute!) gamers!

It’s Gao Yingjie and Qiao Yifan, our resident cinnamon rolls! (Although I admit that Steamed Bun is a pretty air-headed but still cute and pure cinnamon roll himself lol) Seriously, someone protect them!

Anyway, poor Yifan is on the lowest rung of the pro-gaming circuit, relegated to water boy and totally outshone by his more brilliant friend, Yingjie. On the other hand, as the inheritor of Captain Jiexi’s God account, Yingjie is given special attention and training from the captain himself. Yifan sadly looks on as his friend is taken away by the captain.

God, all my feels for Yifan, what does one have to do to get some love and recognition around here? Still, it’s hard to hate Yingjie since he is such a genuinely sweet and gentle guy who obviously values his friendship with Yifan. He later comes back with account cards for the 10th server. Their mission: find and take out Lord Grim!

It’s around this part that we start to deviate from the novel. Originally, there are in fact five players in the training team who go after Lord Grim. Together, they have a team battle in the Boneyard with Ye Xiu and Co and are completely defeated. It is only afterwards that both the main and training teams meet up in Desolate Land to go up and fight against Lord Grim. If you want to read about this, please check out the light novel!

Anyways, in the donghua, our three pro-players in training are in Desolate Land, heading towards Lord Grim’s coordinates. The Battle Mage played by Xiao Yun attacks first, surrounded by his Chasers, followed by Yifan’s Assassin. For those who do not know, Chasers can only be used by Battle Mages and can be used to buff their characters with speed, attack, defense and so on, while also having the ability to be used on their enemies to do damage or debuff them with Slow, Stun or other such status effects. 

Lord Grim easily parries their attacks before focusing on Xiao Yun, completely suppressing him with the use of the pro-skill, Vanishing Step. Afterwards, he turns his attention to Yifan. 

After trading blows for awhile, Lord Grim rushes forward when...

Yingjie to the rescue! Gosh, I just love his friendship with Yifan, it’s so pure and beautiful! However, he is still unable to keep Lord Grim at bay and Yifan is still thrown back.

Luckily, more help is on the way! Introducing Captain Wang Jiexi, part two!

And, this time, he’s brought the entire team! As his team and Lord Grim face off, Jiexi makes an announcement: Lord Grim is Ye Qiu, the greatest BOSS in the history of Glory!

Ahhh, what’s gonna happen next!? With the changes in the donghua, I’m kind of apprehensive. Especially when I found out in the episode 8 preview that a certain brick-lover is coming....

Ye Xiu looks simply ECSTATIC to see Bao Rongxing AKA Steamed Bun Invasion! The reason I’m feeling apprehensive is because of this: Bao isn’t supposed to appear until chapter 607 of the novel! The fact that he’s appearing so early (like 500 chapters early!) makes me wonder about how the rest of the donghua is going to be like. According to a comment I read, there was apparently an official popularity poll for fans regarding characters who should have more screen time and should be introduced earlier. This is probably the reason that we are going to be graced with Bao’s presence sooner than we thought! If anyone has an official source for this, please let me know so I can add it in!

Even though I am worried for what this means for the donghua, at least we’ll get more Yifan!

Apart from that, another great episode! Now, sending you off with some shameless ad-plugging for McDonalds....

Ahahaha, I couldn’t stop laughing at the cheesiness of it all! Granted, McDonalds IS an official sponsor of the series. Still, you gotta admit, Zhou Zekai sure does have the looks and flair.....

Profile of the Week: Team Tiny Herb - Wang Jiexi’s [Vaccaria]