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.

He wore his cap low, easily able to ignore their prying eyes.

But she was embarrassed and tried to come up with a topic to talk about.  She simply didn’t know where to begin since she really didn’t know him that well……

“What is a ‘grievance round’?”  He asked suddenly.

“It’s a way among esport contestants to settle personal scores.”  She said.   “Be it professional or amature, there will always be some conflicts during internet battles or competitions.  Some conflicts started from minor issues, but fans get too involved and escalate the situation into something unmanageable.  In the end, just like in the old days one settled a feud with a duel, there will be matches to settle the conflict.”

“Then what was it about, that time for Solo?”

He looked at her.

“Uhm……”  Ai Qing recalled.  “That was because one time at an offline match, Nani cursed when he lost the game.  Then it started from people talking on a forum and escalated into a very serious issue…...Nani didn’t apologize only saying that he had misspoke.  He even said it was because the Chinese didn’t keep the place in an orderly fashion and caused him to misfire.”

“Then?”

“Then, it escalated into a melee between the two countries.  Solo was worried that the situation was getting out of hand, so he decided to have a private ‘grievance round’ on Battle.net.  He used a membrane keyboard against a mechanical keyboard to prove that Nani hadn’t misfired but was simply not good enough.”  Ai Qing laughed.  “The agreed punishment was that the one who lost had to sing a song on YY and give the title of “Battle.net’s number 1” to the other side.  Because they were all professional players, it’s not nice to embarrass the loser too much, so the winner had to answer a question.  He had to answer any question except financial information like bank accounts.”

People who loved esports are all childish in some way.  They don’t put too much emphasis on what is good and what is evil.  So even the punishment of this grievance round which was to settle a serious issue was hilarious.

“Solo won?”

Ai Qing replied with an, ‘en’.  “Barely, he used a membrane keyboard after all.”

“What question did he have to answer?”

What question did he answer?

That day, it was like everyone who was watching had made a pact.  They all agreed on one question without any dispute: aside from your daughter and mother, who’s the woman you love most?

There were over ten thousand people online at the time and they flooded the screen continuously.

The one who was hosting the event almost couldn’t control the scene and just started following the crowd with their teasing, was it the name of certain animal, or was it the one who turned red when laughing?

……

Ai Qing stared at the traffic lights and said, “I forgot.”  Then she felt she wasn’t being polite so she turned the table to him.  “You know him well when we were in Singapore.  You can go ask him.”