Playing Fish Trapped in Secret Room
Book 1: The Storm is Coming
Chapter 33
His footsteps slowed a bit but didn’t stop.
“Yesterday I heard some news. Do you want to hear it?” Baona whispered.
“What is it?” Ai Qing found Baona to be a totally different person from when she had first met him. He was very calm and self-composed at first, but now he liked to gossip a lot.
“Dt is Gun’s cousin.”
“......” Ai Qing looked at him to double check that he wasn’t joking.
“So it all makes sense now, no wonder I couldn’t recruit him.”
Really?
Ai Qing turned to look at the stage and her cell phone vibrated suddenly. She lowered her head to look at it, but to her surprise…...it was a short message from Dt: “Thanks.”
Really…...he even sent a message to say thanks.
Ai Qing laughed and searched for him amongst the crowd. It was easy to spot the distinct K&K uniforms. Five players wore the club’s sports uniforms with its alternating red and whites. Grunt sat closest to the audience and was slowly rubbing his glasses. Dt sat the furthest away from the audience among the five.
That seat was reserved for the team’s captain.
Unlike the other players who casually wore the team uniform, Dt had pulled the zipper of his sports jacket all the way up to the top of the collar. The collar stood up because of it and highlighted his pale face even more prominently. Just by seeing the profile of his face, she could tell that, in the near future, Dt would definitely continue K&K’s aggressive rise to become a famous player known all over the world. He always had the potential to become a star player.
Their opponents sat across from them, separated by two rows of monitors.
“Is K&K against the Koreans in the first round?”
In this kind of group battle competition, the Korean and Chinese team were always archenemies. It had almost become the norm at any international esports competitions.
Baona laughed, “How lucky.”
In the seven-day long exhibition tournament, Solo was one of the two chief referees with the privilege of walking the entire competition area. During the whole competition process, he only passed the K&K area once. His footsteps slightly paused between Dt and Grunt.
He was too far away, she couldn’t tell which one Solo was observing.
The results was unsurprising, both SP and K&K qualified for the next round.
The names of all the qualifying teams were displayed on the large ten meters high screen, one by one. The whole arena filled with applause and cheering. Ai Qing received a message from her sister on WeChat. It was a picture Ai Jing had found on the K&K’s official site on Weibo.
It had all five K&K players with glimpse of a few SP people in the background.
“Oh my god, I see so many people I know.” Ai Jing said in the voice message.
Amidst all the noise, Ai Qing turned slightly to face the podium with her backside and replied, “Congratulation. Grunt won the first battle.”
“Is the final competition in Korea?” Ai Jing’s voice came back excitedly. “Since you’re the team manager, can I drop by to watch the final rounds? I will pay my own airline ticket!”
“It will be in China. The competition in Korea will only go up to the quarter finals.” Ai Qing felt strange. “How do you know that I am the manager?”
“Of course while I’m following Grunt online, I also follow his opponent, SP, at the same time.” Ai Jing chuckled. “Besides, Solo’s Weibo had more than one million followers. With so many people sharing his posts, it’s easy for me to see it.”
Then, the managers of all the qualifying teams stood and walked to one side of the stage. Some staff beside her reminded her that she needed to register for the quarter finals.
She hurriedly stuffed her cell phone into a pocket and walked to the workbench behind the stage. She filled out a series of forms following the instruction of the staff. She left her own cell phone number on the paper. After she finished the last digit, she noticed that Gun stood behind her. He was still dressed in all black from top to bottom; his headphones which hung around his neck, the cell phone in his hand, and his shoes were all black.
He hadn’t changed a bit after so many years.
Gun raised his chin to ask for the pen in her hand.
Ai Qing was perplexed for two seconds, then she passed the pen to him, “I didn’t expect that.….you would also be the manager.”
“I’m not the manager. She went to work on the application for the awards. I’m bored so I’m running the errand for her.” Gun took the pen. He filled out the information in his sloppy handwriting and it seemed that he didn’t even remember his manager’s cell phone number. He took out his cellphone to look it up. He glanced at Ai Qing who was still standing next to him. “Anything else?”
“No.” She shook her head embarrassedly.
The staffs here were all Korean. Their Chinese was limited to a few polite words. They didn’t know what they were talking, but they could sense the awkwardness between Ai Qing and Gun. Slightly uncomfortable at the entire situation, they nicely told her: “It’s done. Thank you.”
Thanks for the chapter!
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