Secret Room Book 4 - Chapter 8

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

Playing Fish Trapped in Secret Room

Book 4: The Return of the King

Chapter 8

Though Solo occupied the memory of her entire youth, the time they were
together wasn’t actually for that long.

To call it their story, it was probably more appropriate to call it the story of
Solo’s team.

The story circulated in every corner of the internet, because the team was
a living dream.  They had created too many miracles.

But if one could really go back to that time.

Then you will find that the sites where all the miracles were created were
hardly glorious.

There was no high end stadium like the ones that would appear ten years
later.  There was no large high definition screen that showed the live stream.
There was no professional game commentators with high pay.  There was no
TV station or web page to make live broadcasts on.

There weren’t many people in the audiences back then either.

……

“I believe that everyone should be very familiar with the usernames you’ve
seen so far.”  A teenage Slide holding the microphone talked excitedly. He
coughed, “You don’t need me to make any extra introductions about Solo’s team.  
You knew all these star players very well. They are all idols, including Gou Gou,
a player I greatly admire myself.”

Many players in the audience jeered, laughed, and booed.

Only players on Buff’s team despised it.

The hot blooded Buff despised the excessive promotion of idol players.

But needless to say, the formation of Solo’s team was very dazzling.

Especially the two major players, Solo and Gun, the few female players that
existed were all their fans.  And the only girl player Appledog was especially…...
oh, no need to say anything more.

“Ok.  Let’s see how Solo’s team killed their opponents on Train.  Alright, Solo’s
team opened with a 2-1-2. One at the middle gate, two at the red ladder, and the
other two down the green hallway. Gun was at the green hallway, up in the front by
himself.  Ah! We can see an opponent, let’s see if he can take him out?.....”

Before he finished, Appledog was right behind him to take the opponent down……

“Beautiful!”

“Solo’s team all begin to assemble at one point.  They’re all rushing there.” Slide
was so excited next to the commentator area that he didn’t want to sit down.  “Look
at the coordination. Ok. Buff jumped over there and tried to get a shot off with his
sniper rifle! But he got his head shot off!  Appledog. It’s Gou Gou again!”

Slide’s commentary kept mentioned Gou Gou, Ai Qing took off her earphones, feeling
somewhat embarrassed.

An average game had fifteen rounds, each round took one and half minutes.

Ai Qing rubbed her shoulder and stuck out the tip of her tongue at Solo who was next
to her,  “Hey, hey. Praise me.”

Solo laughed and reached out to stroke her hair.  “Praise.” After he finished, he stood
up and walked to the podium to sign the captain’s name of the winning team.

Ai Qing jumped up and stretched her arms as wide as she could. She ended up hitting
Gun in the face……”Damn!”  Gun covered his nose. He stretched his legs straight and
slid his chair backward several inches away. The blood flowed down from his nose along
his fingers.

……

While Ai Qing was busy looking for napkins, Slide jumped down from the commentator
area, walking towards her. He stretched out his hand a little bit excitedly:  “Hello, Gou Gou.
I’m Slide.”

“Do you have tissues?”  That was the first sentence she said to Slide.

Slide was stunned.  Ai Qing depressingly glanced at Gun.  “I’m in trouble. I hit Gun god
and his nose is bleeding.”  Slide responded by “oh, oh,” then turned to the players area
and yelled something. A pack of tissues flew over.

Ai Qing quickly pulled out one sheet and tore a piece out of it.  She carefully poked Gun’s
arm. “Wipe it quickly, then stuff it with this.”  Gun’s dark eyes glanced at her back and forth
three times, then he turned and walked away without saying anything.

For the game that day.

They qualified while Gun god had blood all over his hands……

Everything went smoothly after that.

It was like all their past efforts and sorrows had finally paid off.

They won victories one after another, more and more fans, and the love she wanted, it
was so perfect.  Sometimes there was fangirls who came to the place where the club lived.
Her favorite sight was how furious Gun became when the fangirls pursued him one after
another……

Solo was much nicer.

Probably because she was already there when Solo’s team was founded.

Occasionally, while Ai Qing was in school, some girls would hand Solo small gifts when
he  participated in some minor commercial events or was being invited as the referee for
some high school competitions. But he always politely declined.  It was Xiaomi and All who
told her about this. Whenever he returned the gifts, he was direct but still polite.

She didn’t know why but she trusted Solo entirely back then.

Because when she saw him at first sight, he was such a sunny and pure young man.  He
was so polite even when he stood at the door of the internet cafe chatting with the owner.  
He was very polite to everyone, the complete opposite to Gun. But in fact, Gun’s scores and
background were far superior than anybody else on their team.

At that time, it was a fad to post popular quotes.  She was only a middle school student and
she liked to jot down excerpts whenever it involved loved.

She felt that each sentence was talking about her and Solo.

She still remembered that night.

In the dark room, they just finished training.  He leaned on the chair with earphones on, she
could imagine that the music in his earphones must be Within Temptation’s <Jillian> because
that was his favorite band.  That day, the two of them just sat there face to face like this. She
hesitated for a long time, then typed a line of characters in the conversation box on the computer
screen.  “Love needs two people.”

The light on the screen vaguely reflected on Solo’s face.

At first he just smoked his cigarette quietly.  After a full four or five minutes had passed, he
then started to type slowly on the keyboard and pressed Enter key: Therefore, Solo is not
suitable for love.

Just one line carried two meanings:

Ai Qing needs two people.

Therefore, Solo is not suitable for Ai Qing.

Both she and he didn’t know at that time that this sentence also carried a third meaning.

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.