Tea of Summer - Chapter 12: Autumn Tale 2.3

Chapter 12

Autumn Tale 2.3

The melodious tune of ‘Zhen Ming Ge’[1] started to play,  Xia Liang’s consciousness woke from its sleep.  She stretched one hand out of the blanket, moved around and turned off the alarm clock without looking.  Then she retracted back into blanket to continue sleeping.

Ten minutes later, the melody of ‘Zhen Ming Ge’ started again.

Xia Liang climbed out of bed and turned off the alarm clock.  With bleary eyes, she scratched her messy hair.

“Do you want to do a commercial voice over in the future?”

“En……of course I do…...”

“Then give me your phone number.”

“……Oh.”

Xia Liang recollected her conversation with Song Qiyan last night.  She buried her head into the pillow again..….

Oh my gosh, she had given Bei Yan Da Da her real world contact information!

God's Left Hand - Book 1: Chapter 26

She walked up and hugged everyone.  Everyone there had gone through all night training, defeats and shady plots, victories and cheers with her……

When she was in front of Solo, looking at his eyes and face with the familiar expression and smile, she hesitated for a few seconds then reached out to hug him and said with a smile, “Can I say that you are even more handsome now?”

“Sure.”  Solo hugged her back.  When they separated, he continued to say,  “Your hair's longer.”

“Is there anything wrong?”  She touched her own hair.

“It looks good.”  Solo smiling eyed her.  “Sit down.”

Undefeated - League of Legends - Book 1: Chapter 10

Book 1: The Return of the Lost King

Chapter 10: Failed to Sneak Up, Got Killed Instead

.......

“Boss is coming down to ambush them.”  Feng Xiaoqin, who controlled Graves, was back in his lane again.

This round, he had learned his lesson.  He stayed out of view from Blitzcrank and waited for Lin Xu’s Kha’Zix to get into position.

“No rush.  Wait till they get closer.”  Lin Xu directed.

Lin Xu’s Kha’Zix was hidden behind the wall under the triangle bush.  He held a Flash and waited for Blitzcrank and Miss Fortune to move closer.  He would Flash over then jump onto them!

Finally, the minion line rolled forward!

Lin Xu saw Miss Fortune had misstepped, instantly used Flash to go over the wall, and jumped towards Miss Fortune! !

At the same moment, Garen and Graves excitedly rushed towards Miss Fortune!

Two large men and an alien monster all greedily, spitefully aimed at that slender sexy body!

On the other side, Zhong Xiaoyun was stunned by Kha’Zix’s sudden appearance and didn’t even know what ability to use.

“Barrier, Flash, and fall back!”  Yu Luocheng said to Zhong Xiaoyun.

God's Left Hand - Book 1: Chapter 25

She had met All seven years ago.

In 2003, Chinese esports was full of uncertainty.

At that time there were no commercial clubs; all the teams were formed by the players themselves, compared to foreign teams it was like comparing the earth to the heavens.  Most players came out of internet cafes and disappeared in a flash; no one had any long term plans.

They didn’t know how to plan for anything long term either.

The winter of that year was especially cold.  The internet cafe was freezing; she sat next to Solo and couldn’t stand the cold anymore.  She stood up to stamp her feet and asked Solo, “Aren’t you cold?”

Solo laughed and turned his hand around to hold her hand.

His hand was as cold as ice and she instantly cried out.

People in the cafe turned to look at her.  She was so embarrassed that she kept staring at him and whispered, “You should warn me first……”  Solo didn’t let go and pulled her over to sit on his lap. He brought his hands around her waist.  “If it’s too much for you, just go home.”

“That can’t do.”  She put both of his hands in hers.  “You said it’s more effective to do real game at the cafe than at home.  I’ve finally gotten a feel for it……”

Most of the time she was at home playing by herself.

Everyday only between seven and eight o’clock, she could get away and come out to keep him company.  How could she bear to leave early?

Tea of Summer - Chapter 10 & 11: Autumn Tale 2.1 - 2.2

Chapter 10

Autumn Tale 2.1

Xia Liang mechanically took the cup of water that was in front of her.  The entire experience felt so surreal.

The Great God Bei Yan = Song Qiyan = her schoolmate.

This equation was too brutal no matter how she looked at it.

“It’s ice water.  Drink it slowly.”  Song Qiyan reminded her warmly.

Listening to the voice of her idol,  Xia Liang faintly felt that she was not drinking water, but wine of higher proof than normal.

Song Qiyan saw Xia Liang was still in a daze.  He took off his cap and toyed with it in his hand.  His mouth slightly curled up, “Do I look scary?”

Xia Liang choked again…...

Song Qiyan gently patted her back.  After Xia Liang recovered, she kept waving her hand.  “No, no,  absolutely not…...”

Song Qiyan laughed lightly. “But you looked so shocked when you saw me.”

Xia Liang finally calmed down.  She puffed out her cheeks.  “I was really shocked……ah?  Bei Yan Da Da[1] do you still remember me?”

Song Qiyan looked at her.  “My memory isn’t that bad.”

…...

God's Left Hand - Book 1: Chapter 24

She thought Grunt was just asking casually; she hadn’t expected the sudden invitation.  After Ai Jing came into the room, Ai Jing mysteriously told her,  “He didn’t tell you everything; the one who’s playing against him this time is Solo.”

“You have found a man who likes to gossip.”  Ai Qing sulkily threw herself onto the bed.  “I warn you, don’t tell him anything about my past.  And, I’ll go home tomorrow; I need to report to the place I’m going to intern at.”

“How come I haven’t heard you mention this before?”  Her sister also laid down besides her.

“It’s an excuse.  Can’t you tell?”  She turned away, not wanting to bother with this person who had been carried away by love.

Her sister insisted on staying.  She went online to book an airline ticket and found out that for the next two days, all the flights to Hangzhou were sold out, the flights to Shanghai were sold out too.

Undefeated - League of Legends - Book 1: Chapter 9

Book 1: The Return of the Lost King

Chapter 9: I Said I’ll Bust Bot and I Will!

.....

While fighting at bot, one has to watch out for the minions carefully and remember what abilities the enemy has used.

Considering Zhong Xiaoyun’s skill level, Yu Luocheng didn’t move in until Graves had used his important Q ability.  

To ensure that there was a hundred percent chance for a kill, Yu Luocheng used Flash to move directly across the minion line!

The golden robot towered over Graves in the next instance.  A shocked Graves hastily moved back to get away.

Feng Xiaoqin obviously was too shocked to think. The more he retreated backwards, the more advantageous it was for Yu Luocheng!

Blitzcrank used its Q ability, Rocket Grab, to pull Graves over!

At this angle, Yu Luocheng was confident that the probability for Graves to get away was very slim!

Certainly, if Graves had a cool head, he should have moved left or right instead of backing up.  How could he outrun the speed of Blitzcrank’s hook?

Graves was pulled to the robot for the third time.  In order to stop Graves from using his E ability, “Quickdraw”, Yu Luocheng directly used his Ult and silenced Graves for 0.5 seconds.  Then he used the mechanical iron fist to hit Graves into the sky.

Zhong Xiaoyun reacted quickly following Yu Luocheng’s words and used Miss Fortune’s frightful Ult “Bullet Time” right from the start!

God's Left Hand - Book 1: Chapter 23

“14?  I remembered he was 15 at WCG.”

“There was an ID on battle.net called Momomo[1].  Have you ever seen it?”

The name sounded very familiar.

She tried very hard to dig it out of her memory and finally remembered the name……

That was the year after she and Solo’s team was disbanded and when Solo emerged as a dark horse in Warcraft.  She remembered the summer of that year, she would sometimes go on battle.net and notice this ID.

Momomo and Solo had a breathtaking showdown on battle.net.

It was deadlocked for 70 minutes.  In the end, both sides exhausted their resources and couldn’t do anything to each other. It ended with a ‘draw’.  For Warcraft, the word ‘draw’ was something unheard of.

Tea of Summer - Chapter 8 & 9: Autumn Tale 1.2 - 1.3

Hey guys sorry for the late update (again). Another homework thing was due last night and I got an eye infection so trying to get over that.

Here you guys go!

---

Chapter 8

Autumn Tale 1.2

It was 4:55 when they arrived at the party as they had planned.  Basically everybody was there.  Altogether there were over ten students from the Shanghai area, both undergraduate and graduate students.

“You came so late. “ One man came to greet them after he saw them while talking to several freshmen.

“Wei shixiong[1].”  Both Xia Liang and Lin Qian greeted him.  His name was Wei Minghuei, a very talented senior student in the business school.  He was very socially active and it’s said that his family was very rich.  He was very popular among the Chinese students.

“Summer, Cici, why did you guys come so late?  Did anything happen? “  Wei Minghuei asked with concern.

Lin Qian shrugged helplessly, “You should ask her.”

Both of them looked at Xia Liang, who was looking around innocently.

Lin Qian poked her head, “Wake up.  What are you looking around for? “

Xia Liang replied subconsciously, “I am looking for cheese cake……”

God's Left Hand - Book 1: Chapter 22

“I can’t.”  She quickly turned it down.  “I really can’t.”

The owner urged her on a few more times and gave up after seeing that Ai Qing really didn’t want to play.

Grunt took a couple of looks at her thoughtfully and 97 just smiled regretfully.

Suddenly, Dt stood up, took out ten dollars, and went to the counter to buy two bottles of coke. He handed one to Ai Qing.  “The air here is not good.”  It was as if he was talking to himself.

She sniffed.  “Indeed, a strong cigarette smell.”

The two looked at each other and stood up at the same time to walk out of the internet cafe.  The door of the cafe was facing a street full of local snack stands.  It’s close to dinner time and there were all kinds of enticing delicious food everywhere. Ai Qing was unfamiliar with the city, but she loved the food here and took a few looks at the place not too far away.

“I’m a bit hungry.  What do you want to eat?”  Dt said abruptly.

“Anything.”  She contemplated a bit.  “We just had a lot of stick food, let’s see whether there’s other stuff?  Should we buy some for Grunt and them?”

“En, wait for me here.”  He said.

He jumped down the stairs about the height of half a person and almost bumped into several young girls who happened to bike by.  The young girls screamed immediately and tried to avoid him.

He took a step back away from those bikes.

The two young girls in the front looked at each other when they saw Dt and their anger instantly dissipated.  They teased him using the local Sichuan dialect but Dt just stood there, seemly not understanding what the girls were saying.  He embarrassedly lowered his head slightly, bypassed the bikes, and went to the end of the longest line on the snack street.

Undefeated - League of Legends - Book 1: Chapter 8

Book 1: The Return of the Lost King

Chapter 8: Have to Bust their Bot

……

Yu Luocheng’s Blitzcrank had almost full health after using his health pots.

He saw the minion lane had reached the opponent’s turret and calculated that Graves should be back in the lane about now.

Therefore, Yu Luocheng pretended to back into the bushes.

He used the moment that the other side had no vision to move his robot towards the direction of the river, went around to the location of the triangle bush, then went to the wall on top of other side’s turret.  (That’s the position behind the wall of the first turret to left of bot.)

“Zhong Xiaoyun, move closer to my side.”  Yu Luocheng said.

Zhong Xiaoyun was cooperative, moving closer to Yu Luocheng while killing creeps.

In just a few seconds, Graves showed up as expected.

Yu Luocheng became very focused; through the view of the allied minions who were under the other side’s turret, he could see the shadow of Graves.  Graves couldn’t see the robot which was hiding behind the wall.

A range minion was losing health.

Graves was going to kill this minion!

Adjusting the angle!

Rocket Grab!

God's Left Hand - Book 1: Chapter 21

97 was just joking but it caught Ai Jing’s interest.

They ended up going to an internet cafe.

Because the city was one of the WCG tournament stops, the internet cafe was also infected from the excitement; there were heated contests going on there.

There were always two camps inside any internet cafe in any city, those playing MMOs[1] and others playing competitive games.  When Ai Qing walked in this internet cafe, there was a small scale tournament going on to celebrate the occasion.

Her sister excitingly looked at the scoreboard.  “Heh, it’s DotA, heh, there’s CS……”

The owner of the cafe was especially interested in the twin sisters.  After he heard what Ai Jing had said, he said immediately with a smile,  “How about you two come and give it a try?”

Ai Jing nodded and turned around to look at Grunt behind her.  “Will you play with me?”

Grunt’s eyes started to have a trace of a smile inside the black frame of his glasses.  “No problem.”

So, this guy, who overslept and forfeited the competition at Guangzhou stop, agreed without hesitation to seriously play a game with a bunch of teenagers in a unknown internet cafe in Chengdu.

“Grunt.”  He told the owner his name.

Then…...half of the internet cafe turned quiet.

Tea of Summer - Chapter 7: Autumn Tale 1.1

Chapter 7

Autumn Tale 1.1

“Xiao Zixia, how about this voice?”  After the person spoke an audition recording was played, a male voice started to play in the YY chat room immediately.

--- --- “In next life, we will still meet underneath this peach tree and you will still dance ‘Zui Tao Hua’ for me.  Is it a deal?”

Xia Liang managed to fit in well a week after her class started.  She and her roommate, who was a girl from Shanghai too, shared a small rental apartment.  She went to classes during the day and went back home to study in the evening.  Occasionally she voiced internet characters or listened to audio dramas.  She had quite a productive life..

Xia Liang pinched the center of her eyebrows, “Just so so.  The emotion was too strong and my goosebumps almost popped up.  It does not match the personality of the lead male role.”

Zixia was Xia Liang’s ID online.  She was on YY with the director of an audio drama to pick out the voice for the lead male role.

Finally the director, Mo Qin, could not help exploding, “Xiao Zixia, you better explain to me clearly.  What’s wrong with you lately, ah?  I let you listen to the audition voices and no one is seems to be qualified to you?  What exactly are you looking for?!”

Xia Liang silently turned down the volume of her earphones.  She tightly pressed her lips together.

It was not her fault at all.

She muttered, “You wouldn’t be attracted by a pond of water if you had seen the immense ocean before……”

Originally she was but a random fan of Bei Yan.  But she had heard Bei Yan’s actual voice live on site in the summer.  She had collected all of Bei Yan’s works and recently listened to all of them.  As a result--- ---no other male voice could touch her as Bei Yan’s did.  She had thoroughly become Bei Yan’s diehard fan.

His feelings were not too much and not too little.  Too much would be over exaggerating and too little would be devoid of emotions.

His voice was not too high and not too low.  It was exactly the lofty voice of a noble young man.

Xia Liang sighed.  She spoke before Mo Qin exploded again, “Then this one is okay. Let’s rehearse  later…...”

Actually picking out the voice actors was the director’s responsibility, but this director was her good friend online so he had asked her, the leading voice actress, to listen to audition voices and provide her own comments.  She ended up rejecting all the applicants.   No wonder he exploded.

She heard the sound of someone knocking on the door.  Xia Liang didn’t react to it until she noticed that the knocking was not coming from the earphones.  Somebody was knocking on her door.

“Just a minute. “  She told Mo Qin, took off her earphones, and went to open the door.

It was her roommate standing outside.  She sized up Xia Liang’s casual wear, then said, “We have a party for Chinese students at 5 o’clock.  Have you forgotten it?”

Xian Liang looked at her desk calendar and touched her forehead instantly, “My bad…...Give me 5 minutes to change.”

Xia Liang closed the door and explained to Mo Qin apologetically before she got offline.  Then she randomly picked out a simple light blue dress and quickly put it on.  She pulled out a pair of white high heel sandals, slipped them on, grabbed her purse, and rushed out of her room.

In the living room, the Beijing girl, Lin Qian, sat on the sofa playing with her cell.  She already had exquisite makeup and an elegant hairdo.  She looked up at Xia Liang, “Summer, my dear, don’t tell me you’re going out like this.”

Xia Liang pulled at her skirt, “Oh, it’s no good…..?”

Lin Qian put down her cell and looked up at the clock on the wall, “4:20.  It takes about 20 minutes to go to school.  20 minutes should be enough.”

She dragged Xia Liang into the bathroom without any hesitation.  She took the cosmetics bag from Xia Liang’s shelf-----She helped Xia Liang buy it last year—and put it in front of Xia Liang, “Quick, get started.”

Xia Liang pressed her lips into a thin line.  She first put on her contact lens and began to put on the base makeup.

Fortunately she had learned some techniques for putting on makeup from Lin Qian last year.  Her technique was not too bad for putting on basic makeup.  Meanwhile, Lin Qian took out the hair straightener from the drawer and helped Xia Liang style her hair.

Fifteen minutes later, Xia Liang looked in the mirror and saw that she had turned into--- ---in Lin Qian’s words--- ---a normal college student with clear, light makeup and bob styled hair spreading over her shoulder.

“OK, done. “ Lin Qian clapped her hands and dragged Xia Liang out of the door.

Xia Liang puffed up her cheeks and muttered, “Cici, my queen.”

God's Left Hand - Book 1: Chapter 20

When they arrived at the hotel, 97 happened to come out of a taxi; it appeared that they had arrived at the same time.

97 looked at them with great interest and smiled good-humouredly.  “I was thinking how come I can’t find you?  It turned out that you left with Gou Gou.”  Dt didn’t respond.

It seemed that her sister had just came back to the room when she walked in.

“Did you see Grunt?”

She took off her jacket; after staying at the stadium for a whole day, there were all kinds of smells on her.  When she was taking off her skirt, her sister finally nodded smilingly.  “Ai Qing, I have decided to play esports.”

She carefully looked her sister up and down, she didn’t seem to be joking.  “Sure, you can use my computer to play later.”

“I mean, I also want to be a professional player.”

Undefeated - League of Legends - Book 1: Chapter 7

Book 1: The Return of the Lost King

Chapter 7: If I’m Grabbed Again, Shame on Me

Anyone who’s played Graves before should know that his E ability, ‘Dash,’ is for moving short distances.

Yu Luocheng knew that Zhong Xiaoyun wasn’t very skilled, he barely moved even though he had multiple chances to grab Graves.  Until Graves had burned his dash, the golden Blitzcrank controlled by Yu Luocheng finally started moving on Graves, marking him for death!

Yu Luocheng waited till the minion line had disappeared, then decisively used Blitzcrank’s W ability ‘Overdrive’.

This ability increased its speed.

“Zhong Xiaoyun, attack Graves!”  Yu Luocheng said.

He didn’t use Blitzcrank’s Q ability ‘Rocket Grab’ to grab the enemy as usual, instead Yu Luocheng aggressively used the increased speed to quickly bear down upon Graves who had made a bad move.

Graves reacted half a step slower and he didn’t have another ability to move away; Blitzcrank used E ‘Power Fist’ directly on Grave and punched him into the sky.

Actually, Miss Fortune was half a step behind as well but she caught up in time.  She shot at Graves and used all her abilities.  Graves’ health dropped to half.

God's Left Hand - Book 1: Chapter 19

“You know Guangzhou well?”  She knew roughly which direction to go at best.  If he let her walk back on her own, she would definitely become lost.

“I used to live here for a while.”

She responded with an ‘oh’.  She remembered that he had mentioned that he had watched her competition in Guangzhou six years ago.

Dt seemed to know the way very well, leading Ai Qing with a steady pace.  Since he was much taller than Ai Qing, he had deliberately slowed down somewhat so that she wouldn’t become too tired trying to keep up.

Ai Qing was not dumb and certainly clear about his intentions.

That’s the difference between a boy and a girl.  Three years ago in Singapore, he was only taller than Ai Qing by about 10cm.  But now at the age of 18 or 19, he had already become a full grown adult.

Along the road, the audience and esport fans came out of the stadium and soon they recognized Dt and her.  Many students who were riding bikes kept turning their heads to look at them and began to exchange words with each other.

Tea of Summer - Chapter 5 - 6: Summer Tea 2.2 & 2.3

Sorry for the late posting, I had an all-nighter getting a deliverable to work today. Group projects mang. Anyhow, enjoy!

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Chapter 5

Summer Tea 2.2

Not long after, San Qi quietly came over to her while she was still mulling over her clumsy reaction the moment she saw Bei Yan.

San Qi was about the same age as her. He had not gone to college and started working right after high school. He was close to Xia Liang in the recording studio. He came over and sat down across from Xia Liang. “Come. Come. Come. Tell Ge Ge[1], are you falling for the godly Bei Yan~”

Though they were the same age, San Qi was callous enough to refer to himself as “Ge Ge” just because he had one extra year of working experience.

Xia Liang stared at him then turned away.

San Qi giggled and then dropped the topic; he didn’t prod her sore spot anymore. He naturally switched the subject. “Ah, Xiao Xia[2], didn’t you say that you did some voice over several days ago? What did the director say about your recording?”

Only then did Xia Liang get over the embarrassment she had a while ago. She finally replied to San Qi’s attempts to start a conversation. “Don’t even mention it…...I was dragged onto YY chat by the director so that he could lecture me. Then I practiced with the lead voice actor for two hours. I managed to pass those 3 sentences that needed to have more “deep feeling” finally. It took two hours, ah, two hours!”

When two young people got together, they always had endless topics to talk about. They chatted for about an hour. San Qi suddenly asked a question out of nowhere, “Ah, Xiao Xia, then when are you going to US?”

Xia Liang tilted her head and thought. “I booked the direct flight to Seattle on August 15th.  I’m going back there one or two weeks earlier to get over the time difference.”

“Oh?” San Qi counted using his fingers. “Then isn’t it only a couple weeks left?”

Xia Liang nodded. “Uhm, only a little more than 3 weeks.”

Xia Liang finished talking and noticed that San Qi’s eyes were not looking at her. He was looking over her head and speaking enthusiastically. “Bei Yan, what’s the matter? Finished recording?”

Xia Liang turned her stiff neck towards the direction of Bei Yan who was looking at them calmly. She smiled embarrassedly. “Uhm, how are you?”

Bei Yan looked at her, “How are you, en, the recording was finished.” The latter was to answer San Qi’s question. Then he raised the empty cup in his hand to Xia Liang. “Do you have more water? Just plain water will do.”

Xian Liang went blank for a second, then quickly stood up. She took the cup from Bei Yan’s hand. “Yes, I do!”

She rushed to pour in half a cup of hot water mixed with another half a cup of cold water. She handed it to Bei Yan.

All the while Xia Liang was quietly questioning herself— ---warm water was better for the voice. He wouldn’t dislike it?

“Thank you.”  Xia Liang heard that “ear pleasing” sound coming from above her plus the sound of him swallowing water. Her thoughts began to wander until the figure in front of her began to turn his back to leave. He threw the empty plastic cup accurately into the trash can against the wall. Ah, good shot.

Bei Yan paused when he put his hand on the door knob. “Goodbye.”

Chapter 6

Summer Tea 2.3

On 15 August, at Pudong Airport.

Xia Liang, with 2 large suitcases, was accompanied by her parents as she waited in line to get her boarding pass and to check in the luggage. Her ears were full of her mother’s non-stopping nagging, so she could not stop her mind from wandering around.

She quit her intern job from the recording studio in the first week of August and went to Xining and Qinhai region for 10 days. She had gotten a deep suntan.. The days after she had returned from her trip were spent packing her luggage and getting ready to return to the US. She had to endure her mom’s constant nagging during the whole time.

Her eyes were constantly roaming around beneath her cap. Suddenly she noticed that the back of the man who was checking in luggage looked familiar……he looked so much like……

“Oh nevermind, I’ll just stop bothering you. Nevertheless whether you take good care of yourself or not is your own business.”  Her mother saw that Xia Liang was obviously absent minded and felt that she was wholly unappreciative of her advice.

Xia Liang quickly looked back and smiled affectionately. “Hey hey……I won’t starve myself to death.”

Her mother stared at her, “I am not worried that you’ll starve yourself. You have to remember to eat balanced meals. Eat more vegetables and fruits. Eat less garbage food. Additionally, a girl should watch out for your safety. Especially at night, absolutely do not walk around outside at night.” “I know I know~” Xia Liang played the role of nice and obedient daughter. Her mother stared at her in both annoyance and amusement at the same time.

When Xia Liang turned around again, that man’s back had already disappeared around the corner. She bit her lower lip. She must have been mistaken.

The airplane took off like a big white bird flying over the sky------

Xia Liang watched the ground become more and more tilted and far away. She quietly spoke to herself.

“Goodbye, Shanghai.

And, Seattle, here I come.”

[1]: 哥哥, “ge ge” in pinyin is Chinese for “older brother.”

[2]: Xiao Xia is Xia Liang, he’s just addressing her with 小 (lit: small) in the beginning, used for colleagues or friends or younger people. The inverse is true for older people where you add Lao 老 (lit: old).