Those Sweet Times - Chapter 102 Part 6

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

Those Sweet Times

Chapter 102 Part 6

Extra: Shen Zemu and Yang Yin

Since there were several teams looking to work with Yang Yin next season, Yang Yin made the teams bid against each other. Eventually, she decided on one team and the bet-on agreement she signed with the team was 1.5 million. She would start working for that team after Chinese New Year.

Yang Yin told Shen Zemu: “A raise of half of a million in half a year, my income could catch up with the rising housing prices now. Are you convinced of my ability?”

“I’m convinced.” Shen Zemu was very supportive.

The day after she signed the agreement was January 12th, which happened to be Shen Zemu’s birthday.

Yang Yin had been in a very good mood lately and cooked enough dishes to fill the entire table that night to celebrate his birthday. She even cooked the birthday noodles herself.[1]

Since she was overjoyed and had a little too much to drink, she couldn’t help being attracted to him and taking him to bed.

When she led Shen Zemu onto her bed, she actually felt a little guilty, like she had forced him to do it. Then she found out that Shen Zemu had come prepared, with condoms.

Yang Yin couldn’t believe it: “I always thought you’re a serious man.”

It didn’t go smoothly for them since it was the first time for both of them. Shen Zemu accidentally hurt Yang Yin and Yang Yin said he “needs to hone his technique.”

Later on, Shen Zemu applied his talent in studying to improve his technique……

In any case, in the present, Yang Yin woke up the morning after feeling somewhat sluggish.

The curtain was closed tightly and the room was a little dim but it was quite warm. Shen Zemu was still asleep. Yang Yin was lying against his chest. She listened to his heartbeat for a while and felt quite happy, but also somewhat unreal.

People always worry about losing what they have. Sometimes Yang Yin would be afraid that all of this turned out to be just a dream. Once she woke up from the dream, there wouldn’t be anything left.

She got up to put on her clothes and got off the bed.

They had overindulged a bit last night and she still walked a little funny as of now.

Yang Yin quietly walked out of the bedroom to go into the kitchen, to cook breakfast. She didn’t know what to make, but decided to pan fry a couple of eggs first.

She kept her eyes on the eggs and was humming a song at the same time. Suddenly, she was embraced by someone.

Shen Zemu hugged her from behind, with his arms circling around her waist and his chin resting on her shoulder.

“You got up?” Yang Yin thought about what had happened between them last night and blushed a little.

“En.” Shen Zemu released the hold on her and said: “Go back and lie down.”

“No need. I’m cooking breakfast for you. What do you want to eat?”

Seeing that she wasn’t listening to him, Shen Zemu simply picked her up and brought her back to her bed, putting her under the blanket: “Stay here.”

Yang Yin struggled to sit up: “I’m not sick or anything.”

He held her shoulder down with one hand to stop her from struggling. Shen Zemu looked down at her with a very serious look on his face: “I’ll work on my technique.” Then, overlooking the embarrassed expression on Yang Yin’s face, he simply walked away to go to the kitchen to finish cooking breakfast.

He brought the breakfast to the bed for her.

Shen Zemu had cooked egg fried rice, egg drop soup in addition to the fried eggs Yang Yin cooked earlier. They all tasted quite good, though she couldn’t figure out why they were all egg dishes.

Shen Zemu sat on the edge of the bed, watching her eat breakfast. He said: “My school is over on the 18th.”

“Oh.” Yang Yin’s good mood suddenly disappeared. Shen Zemu was going to have his winter break and that meant they had to separate for a while. She cast her head down and said: “En…… I’ll keep doing my homework.”

The corner of Shen Zemu’s mouth curved a little and said: “Come home with me.”

Yang Yin abruptly looked up at him. There was a grain of rice hanging on her lips. She looked a little funny with the shocked expression on her face.

“Come home with me.” Shen Zemu repeated.

“Why?”

“You want to be here by yourself for the New Year?”

“No, I…… I just feel, won’t it be a bit too sudden? Do your parents know about it?”

“I’ve already told them about us.”

Yang Yin was even more worried. She hadn’t forgotten the gap between him and her. She figured that Shen Zemu’s parents shouldn’t be too happy about her……

Shen Zemu could tell what she was thinking from the expressions on her face. He rubbed her hair and gently said: “Don’t you worry. My family respects my decisions.”

“Then, will there be anyone there to give me a hard time? I’m just asking so I’ll be prepared for it.”

“With me there, I won’t let anyone give you a hard time.”

Tears fell from Yang Yin’s eyes, dripping onto the back of her hand.

Shen Zemu thought she cried because she was too scared. He got closer to hold her shoulder: “Don’t cry. Trust me.”

“Shen Zemu, I just feel that I’m so very lucky.”

Shen Zemu smiled: “I’m the lucky one here”

Meeting you in this vast world of people is the luckiest thing to have happened in my life.

[1]: In Chinese tradition, people have noodles on their birthday. The Chinese name means literally “longevity noodles” because noodles are long and the custom wishes for the birthday person to have a long life.

-- --The End-- --

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

Those Sweet Times - Chapter 102 Part 5

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

Those Sweet Times

Chapter 102 Part 5

Extra: Shen Zemu and Yang Yin

Happiness had come too suddenly. Yang Yin felt like she was in a dream when she woke up the next morning. Only when she looked in the mirror and saw the crack on her lower lip which hadn’t healed overnight…… Then she began to return to reality.

She had really become his girlfriend now.

She didn’t even know how to celebrate it.

From that moment on, Yang Yin felt like she had been floating in the air. The whole world was filled with peach flower petals floating in the air. She had had the same kind of hallucination when she had accidentally eaten some poisonous mushrooms.

Shen Zemu sent a message: What are we going to do today?

Yang Yin: Don’t know, what do you want to do?

Shen Zemu: Have you done your homework?

Yang Yin: =  = 

She thought it was quite inhumane for him to ask her that at a moment like this…… All he thought about was her homework! T ^ T

But on the other hand, she did have homework to do still, which was the sad part.

Ever since Yang Yin was off work and had more time on her hand, the homework from Teacher Shen had increased, he became more demanding, and he was more strict with her as well. Therefore, it wasn’t all her fault that she hadn’t finished her assignments yet.

Yang Yin was also a person who was very demanding of herself. She thought Shen Zemu was right that she shouldn’t indulge herself in momentary pleasures, she should chase after a higher goal. She decided not to go on a date today. She would stay at home and do her homework.

Shen Zemu: I have things to take care of today. I’ll go over later.

Yang Yin: En, en. You go ahead.

The thing that Shen Zemu needed to take care of actually had something to do with Yang Yin.

He had gone online to search what girls liked. He found out that most girls seemed to like lipstick a lot. Though he couldn’t tell the difference between all the different shades of lipstick, women seemed to be able to distinguish them.

He followed the suggestion of some beauty bloggers to go to the cosmetics counter of a particular brand and asked for a particular collection of lipsticks.

The salesperson at the counter asked him which shade he wanted.

“I want all of them.”

The sales explained: “Some of the shades are out of stock.”

Shen Zemu went to three different places before he could finally buy all the shades.

He brought the gift over to Yang Yin’s place. Yang Yin had already finished her homework and was studying at the moment.

Shen Zemu put all the things he bought in front of her without saying a word.

Yang Yin opened the bag and was very moved by the gesture. For a man like Shen Zemu, she felt that it must be true love for him to be able to do all this for her.

She took out a lipstick to try it on. Afterwards, she asked Shen Zemu: “Does this look good?”

“En.” 

Yang Yin was a little excited and couldn’t stop herself from kissing him.

After the kiss, Shen Zemu took out another lipstick and handed it over to her: “Try this one as well.”

Yang Yin: “......”

-- --

After the new year, Yang Yin had contacted several teams to decide which team she would be working for the next season. She had asked for Shen Zemu’s opinion, but Shen Zemu told her to make the decision herself.

“Since you let me decide myself, then there’s one thing that you have to do as I say.” Yang Yin said.

“What?”

“Next time, when I get the money, we’ll split it half and half. I can’t let you work so hard for nothing.”

Shen Zemu hadn’t really worried about money in his life but he knew that Yang Yin was different in this regard. The reason she wanted to make clear as to who gets what was because she had suffered from a lack of money when she was growing up. He felt for her when thinking about it.

He wouldn’t try to change her view on money. All he could do was to respect her wish. He nodded and said: “Alright.” After giving it some more thought, he added: “You’ll handle the money for me.”

“Why do you want me to handle your money?”

“Figure it out yourself.”

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

Those Sweet Times - Chapter 102 Part 4

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

Those Sweet Times

Chapter 102 Part 4

Extra: Shen Zemu and Yang Yin

It was a box about the size of his palm, wrapped in dark blue wrapping paper. There was an even darker colored bow on top of the box.

“What is it?” He asked.

“Open it.”

Shen Zemu opened the box. There was a Dupont lighter inside, with a pale gold metal frame. It was rectangular with clean and simple lines with a sapphire blue lacquer finish which was as deep as the night.

Shen Zemu quietly looked at the lighter. Yang Yin said with a smile: “Happy New Year, Shen Zemu.”

“Thanks.” He raised his eyes to look at her and his eyes stayed on her face.

Yang Yin was a little bashful under his gaze. She pointed at the lighter in his hand: “Try it.”

“Alright.”

Shen Zemu pulled out a cigarette and put it in between his lips. Yang Yin was eager to give it a try: “Let me light it up for you?”

Shen Zemu bent forward a bit with the cigarette in his mouth.

Yang Yin spun the lighter’s spark wheel to get a small bright yellow flame dancing on top of the lighter. Snowflakes fluttered around them like moths, the ones that got close to the flame melted away from the heat.

Yang Yin carefully lifted the lighter up to him.

Shen Zemu’s eyes still rested on her face. When the flame came out, there were two soft and bright rays of light reflected in her smiling eyes.

Behind her, snow flew by and there were sparks in her eyes.

Yang Yin lit the cigarette and felt a special sense of accomplishment for some reason.

Shen Zemu straightened up, took the cigarette from his mouth with his index and middle fingers, and lightly blew out bluish grey smoke. The smoke circled in the air and quickly disappeared in the snow.

Yang Yin felt the way he smoked looked so sexy. She opened her palm to him: “Give me one.”

Shen Zemu didn’t move, but slightly raised his eyebrows and asked: “You know how to?”

“I never smoked before, but I want to try.”

“Oh.” 

He moved his arm a bit. Yang Yin thought he was going to take out another cigarette. But all of a sudden, he simply brought the lighted cigarette in his hand over to her mouth.

“Try it.”

Yang Yin’s heart started racing. He had just smoked from this cigarette and now it was in her mouth. She couldn’t help but feel that he was being a bit flirty! For a moment, she even started to wonder whether it was because she had an indecent mind that everything looked like it was flirting to her?

She had the cigarette in her mouth but didn’t have the courage to do anything.  She looked transfixed with wide eyes. Shen Zemu took the cigarette away from her and put it back into his mouth again.

Then, with the cigarette in his mouth, he lowered his head to look at her with the spiralled smoke between them.

Through the smoke, Yang Yin could still see that his eyes were shining bright, so bright that it was scorching, and she froze under his gaze.

Behind him, it was falling snow and there was a flicker in his eyes

Yang Yin was so nervous that she almost couldn’t breath. She blinked at him: “W-what?”

Holding the cigarette with his fingers, Shen Zemu suddenly reached forward, wrapped his arm around her, then lowered his head to kiss her.

That was what he meant.

It felt like fireworks had exploded inside Yang Yin’s head.

She hugged him back and raised her head up to meet his kiss. The two of them kissed in the icy snow for a long time.

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

Those Sweet Times - Chapter 102 Part 3

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

Those Sweet Times

Chapter 102 Part 3 

Extra: Shen Zemu and Yang Yin

Deng Wenbo, to tell the truth, didn’t really care whether his team could survive or not. But looking at Yang Yin’s face, he knew there wasn’t any possibility for her to stay. He somewhat depressingly said: “I’m so regretful now.”

“What? I’ve brought the team back up and now you’re regretful? Haven’t you seen how they wrote about you? All compliments. Boss, you’ve earned big, alright? Now even if you don’t want the team, you can sell it without any problem. If you’re really interested in selling it, I can even find a buyer for you.”

“I’m not talking about that.”

“Then what is it?”

“I regret knowing you. If I didn’t know you, I wouldn’t feel like how I feel now, feeling bad everyday. I feel bad if I don’t see you, but I still feel bad when I do see you.”

Yang Yin was stunned at those words. She couldn’t really see her boss being such a melancholic person.

Just as she didn’t know how to respond to her boss, Shen Zemu, with a box in arms, touched Deng Wenbo: “Excuse me.” As he was speaking, he didn’t wait for Deng Wenbo’s response and walked by directly between Yang Yin and Deng Wenbo.

Yang Yin took the chance to say: “Boss, I have to go pack my things.” Then she ran away.

Deng Wenbo didn’t even get a hug from her.

……

Yang Yin planned to move all of her stuff back to her own place. She had bought the place two years ago. Since it was a small unit, the price tag wasn’t too expensive but she was still paying a mortgage every month.

The route from the club to her place would pass by Shen Zemu’s school. The two of them took the same taxi, packed with all their things.

When Shen Zemu arrived at his school, he told the driver when he got off: “Wait here for me.”

The driver asked: “You’re coming back?”

“En.”

Yang Yin didn’t think it was necessary: “You don’t have to. I can handle it myself.”

“It’s alright. I have time.”

Shen Zemu didn’t have a lot of stuff and had put everything in a cardboard box. He dropped off the box at his dorm, then went back to help Yang Yin move.

By the time they arrived at Yang Yin’s place, it was already evening. Yang Yin had a lot more stuff to move. Shen Zemu ran up and down several times and was all sweaty.

The driver told Yang Yin: “Your boyfriend’s really nice.”

Yang Yin was secretly quite happy to hear that, but she still had to explain: “He’s not my boyfriend.”

“He’s not? Too bad. Oh, my daughter is about the same age as him. I want to introduce……”

“Don’t you do that.” Yang Yin said.

After they moved everything in and sent the driver away, Yang Yin asked Shen Zemu: “What do you want to eat for dinner?”

“Whatever.”

“Then I’ll cook for you? I can really cook.”

The look in Shen Zemu’s eyes was warm: “Just cook something, not too much.”

Yang Yin easily cooked four dishes and one soup.

After dinner it was starting to get late into the night and Shen Zemu felt it wasn’t proper to stay at a single girl’s place for too long. Shen Zemu helped Yang Yin wash the dishes, then he said goodnight.

Yang Yin stood on the balcony watching Shen Zemu leave. The snow was getting heavier outside. Shen Zemu walked alone in the snow, suddenly as if he had sensed something, he turned to look at her.

Yang Yin thought about something: “Shen Zemu! Wait there for me!”

Shen Zemu stood in the snow waiting for her to come out. Yang Yin ran out and saw a thin layer of snow flakes had accumulated on his shoulder.

“Here, for you.” She handed him a box.

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

Those Sweet Times - Chapter 102 Part 2

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

Those Sweet Times

Chapter 102 Part 2 

Extra: Shen Zemu and Yang Yin

After a whole day of skiing, Yang Yin and Shen Zemu stayed at a nearby hotel that has a hot spring for the night.

Yang Yin soaked in the hot spring to relax, squinting her eyes comfortably.

She voice chatted with Xiang Nuan as she was soaking in the hot spring, asking Xiang Nuan what she was doing.

Xiang Nuan was knitting a scarf. She had bought a lot of yarn and wanted to knit a scarf for Lin Chuyan. She had asked her mother to teach her. Though she wasn’t very good at it, she chose a rather difficult pattern. Everytime she messed the pattern up, she had to unravel it to start all over again.

After repeating it so many times, Lin Chuyan told her: “Just knit one with a single color.”

Xiang Nuan gave up on knitting any patterns and knitted a single colored scarf.

She comforted herself that Lin Chuyan was good looking enough anyway and any scarf on him would look fashionable. Therefore, she didn’t have to make a difficult looking one.

Later on, Lin Chuyan used the leftover yarn to knit a pair of mittens for Xiang Nuan, with a pattern of little rabbits on the back of the mittens.

“See, isn’t he just trying to prove he’s better than me or what?” Xiang Nuan complained to Yang Yin.

Yang Yin was quite amused: “You two are so funny.”

“How about you, Yin Jiejie? How are you doing lately? I’ve watched the preliminaries. My Yin Jie is invincible!”

“Me……” Yang Yin couldn’t stop herself from telling Xiang Nuan about everything that had happened on the ski slope. Then she said: “I was so nervous at the time that I could die.”

Xiang Nuan thought about it for a while before asking: “Why was Xuezhang embracing you? Is he interested in you?”

“Hard to say. It could be that he was afraid that I would fall off the sled.” Yang Yin held her forehead and said a little sadly: “If we guess that he likes me just from this one thing, even I would feel like I’m flattering myself a little.”

“Ay, it’s too bad that Xuezhang has an expressionless face. It’s hard to figure what he’s thinking of. But I think you can try to feel him out.” 

Yang Yin debated over the idea and finally shook her head: “I think I better not. What if he’s not interested. I don’t want to scare him off. I still want to make a fortune next season.”

-- --

The day after Deng Wenbo transferred one million into Yang Yin’s bank account, Yang Yin immediately opened another bank card account and deposited half a million onto that card. She set the password of the card as Shen Zemu’s birthday.

Then she had that bank card express delivered to Shen Zemu.

Shen Zemu returned the card to her without touching it.

Yang Yin sent a message to him: I said I’d split it with you, I mean it, ha.

Shen Zemu: I said I don’t want money. I also mean it.

She had to control herself not to send something flirty like ‘then I’ll give myself to you.’

……

After receiving the money, the contract between Yang Yin and Deng Wenbo was completed. Yang Yin planned to move out of Dw club as soon as possible so as not to hinder Deng Wenbo from making other arrangements.

Shen Zemu also had some stuff left in the club. He came over to move out with Yang Yin.

It was lightly snowing the day when they moved out. Deng Wenbo and the players lined up to say goodbye to Yang Yin. Two of the players even shed tears. It was quite a sad moment.

Yang Yin wasn’t used to this kind of sentimental moment. She pulled Deng Wenbo to the side and asked him: “Have you found a good, new coaching team for them yet?”

“Not yet.” Deng Wenbo looked at her, there was something flashing in his eyes: “Why don’t you just stay, we’ve all known each other so well now.”

Yang Yin shook her head.

Deng Wenbo was saddened: “Is it because of me? If you can stay, I’ll leave the whole team to you. You can treat it as if I’m nonexistent. Would that work?”

Yang Yin scratched the back of her head and laughed: “Boss, let me be frank with you. I’m now addicted to making money now. One million for one season and it’ll be two million with two seasons one year. If you want to keep me here, can you pay me two million a year?”

Deng Wenbo was taken aback: “I thought it was something else. If it’s just money, I’ll pay you-- --”

“You better stop right there.” Yang Yin waved her hand to interrupt him: “Haven’t you learned your lesson from Dw being demoted last time? Having money is a good thing, but if you don’t spend the money in the right place, you might get a worse result. A two million yearly salary for a coach is too exorbitant for any major league team. Only teams that have to get on top at the preliminaries to get into the major league will be willing to pay that kind of price. Besides, this one million is on the basis of a contract, only payable when the team gets into the major league. You spend one million each season to keep me here, can your team keep going like that?”

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

Those Sweet Times - Chapter 102 Part 1

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

Those Sweet Times

Chapter 102 Part 1

Extra: Shen Zemu and Yang Yin

It was the peak season for skiing. Yang Yin and Shen Zemu decided to go on a weekday to avoid the crowd.

But there were still quite a lot of people at the ski resort.

Yang Yin fell in love with how Shen Zemu looked wearing a ski suit. He looked sunny and lively. When he stood in the snow, watching his straight back and long legs made her feel like her hormones were about to explode.

Her infatuated mindset made her perform crazy tricks on the slopes like a peacock spreading its tail.

Shen Zemu knew how to ski, but usually just went down the slopes without any fancy moves. He actually couldn’t understand the mindset of people who did acrobatics while skiing.

But when Yang Yin went airborne on her snowboard, swirled in the air, and stirred up the snow in a flutter in all directions…… he felt it wasn’t such a bad thing to do, at least it was pleasing to the eyes.

When Yang Yin was showing off her moves, she took an unintended look at Shen Zemu and noticed that he was filming her with his cell phone. She temporarily lost her concentration and made an error. She flopped onto the ground.

Her posture was somewhat awkward, like a wild goose that had been shot down.

“Aiyo! Don’t shoot, don’t shoot!” Yang Yin cried out as she laid on the ground.

Shen Zemu had already put his cell phone away and pulled her up from the ground: “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine.” Yang Yin stood up and said: “I fell down a ton the first time I learned to ski that I had to rub my bottom for a whole day. But after that, falling down won’t do anything to me.”

Shen Zemu silently tried to imagine the picture of Yang Yin rubbing her bottom. Then he took a deep breath.

……

This year, the snow resort had opened a new field for another winter sport, sledding. People would sit on big inflated sleds and slide down the slope. Yang Yin heard that it was quite the high speed ride which sounded rather thrilling.

Yang Yin thought it would be a fun thing to do and turned to ask Shen Zemu: “Why don’t we go try it?”

“En.” Shen Zemu turned to buy tickets for both of them.

There were sleds with a single seat and double seats. Shen Zemu didn’t ask Yang Yin but went ahead and bought tickets for a two person sled.

The sled was simply made, the two seats at front and back were very close to each other and there was no barrier between the two seats. Yang Yin sat in the front and Shen Zemu at the back. His two long legs were laid right against each side of her body, as if he could hook her into his arms with his legs.

“Sit tight.” Said the attendant who was responsible for pushing their sled. Then he began to run, pushing the sled forward and sent their sled down the slope.

The sled picked up speed and went faster and faster. The scenery quickly passed them by and the wind blew next to their ears like a passing train. Sometimes snow would splash onto their faces and catch them by surprise with its coldness……

Yang Yin started screaming: “Ah! Ah! ! !” It was so damn exciting for her!

Shen Zemu thought she was screaming out of fear, so he reached over with both of his arms and held her tightly in his arms.

Yang Yin: “......” Her scream immediately became stuck in her throat.

She became silent and was too afraid to move, like a petrified little lamb.

Shen Zemu tightened his hold on her. He thought that an indecent person must’ve designed this sled since the seats were so close together, it was too easy for the two people on the sled to hug.

Yang Yin’s heart was thumping fast, as if it was going to jump out. The sledding was already thrilling enough and now with the added exhilaration from the person behind her, Yang Yin felt like she would die if she kept going like this.

Though, on a second thought, it didn’t seem like a bad deal to die in his arms.

Finally, after who knows how long, the sled stopped.

When Yang Yin tried to stand up from the sled, her legs were wobbly. She tried to step off the sled and slipped, almost falling down.

Shen Zemu reached out with his arms and easily caught her.

He supported her waist and lowered his head to look at her. She blushed. There were snowflakes on her bangs and eyebrows. Her eyelashes were fluttering and her eyeballs were rolling around, like she was thinking about something.

“It was too exciting just now.” Yang Yin found a reasonable excuse for her wobbling legs.

“En.” Shen Zemu lightly nodded and released the hold on her.

They walked shoulder to shoulder. Shen Zemu had deliberately walked slower to be right next to her and asked: “Want to try it again?”

“No, no more……”

She figured if they tried it one more time, she probably wouldn’t be alive afterwards.

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

Those Sweet Times - Chapter 101 Part 3

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

Those Sweet Times

Chapter 101 Part 3

Extra: Shen Zemu and Yang Yin

The generous praise of Dw’s players from the commentators made Yang Yin nervous. She was afraid her players would get complacent.

Fortunately, her players didn’t let her down. They won another match.

The tight scheduling of the matches at the preliminaries demonstrated the advantage of insisting on daily physical exercise for Dw’s players. The high density of matches took a lot out of the players both physically and mentally. To play continuously at that intensity, it was easy for physically feeble otakus from other teams to lose their concentration and the ability to make good decisions.

In any case, Dw became the black horse of the preliminaries. As this outdated team regained its glory, the mysterious pretty coach of the team, Yang Yin, also attracted a lot of attention. Before the preliminaries were over, there were already other teams poking around to see whether she was interested in changing teams.

December 10th was the last day of the preliminaries. It concluded successfully. Dw, as expected, earned its ticket to play in next year’s major league spring competition.

All the players hugged each other and burst into tears.

Yang Yin said: “Stop crying, don’t be a crybaby.”

The next day, Yang Yin did an official interview with the organizer of the preliminaries.

The interview was live streamed. Shen Zemu was in the lab at the time. When it was time for the stream, he came out of the lab and sat in the staircase by himself, watching the stream on his cellphone.

The host of the interview was quite excited. He had learned more about her background by then and had a lot of questions to ask Yang Yin.

During the conversation with the host, Yang Yin was relaxed and spoke clearly. Her attitude was neither overbearing nor self-effacing. It was quite pleasant to watch her. The host chatted with her about the past, the present, and the future. In the end, he jokingly asked her whether she had something like an acceptance speech to make.

Yang Yin looked into the camera and said: “I actually do…… First, I want to thank my boss. It was the insistence of our boss not to give up on the team which gave us the chance to keep fighting on. In addition, I want to thank my players. You aren’t noobs, you are all great players, that’s from the bottom of my heart. Finally, I want to thank a person.” She suddenly stopped and blinked at the camera: “I……”

Yang Yin actually had prepared a lot of things to say. Yet when she thought about that person, she became sidetracked suddenly and lost her train of thought. She didn't know what to say.

She smiled embarrassingly at the camera.

Shen Zemu watched her silly smile on the screen, the corners of his mouth also curved upwards.

Then he reached out with his finger to touch the tip of her nose on the screen.

Yang Yin scratched her head and made a final statement: “Well, I’ll just buy you dinner.” 

After the stream, Yang Yin called Shen Zemu on the phone: “Shen Zemu, what are you doing now?”

“At lab.”

“Did you see my interview on the livestream?”

“No.”

“Oh.” Yang Yin felt a bit disappointed. “They said there were quite a lot of viewers in the stream today.”

Shen Zemu: “En.” Then he added: “Congratulations.” 

“For what. Hum, I’ll buy you dinner.”

“En.”

“And…… I finally have vacation now. I want to go skiing, do you want to go together?”

Shen Zemu sat on the stairs, his palm holding his knee, and answered with a light voice while casting his eyes downwards: “Ok.”

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

Those Sweet Times - Chapter 101 Part 2

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

Those Sweet Times

Chapter 101 Part 2

Extra: Shen Zemu and YangYin

The schedule for the preliminaries was rather tight. It wasn’t realistic to expect all the matches would be streamed. The organizer had picked certain matches each day to livestream with commentators. Dw team didn’t get to show their faces on camera until the second day of the competition and some female fans were shocked at what they had seen: Which team is this? Look at the figures, look at their skin…… Are you sure they haven’t put on some makeup? ?

The other teams always had one or two chubby players on their teams. For some teams, all the players were overweight. The five players of Dw, on the other hand, were all quite fit, regardless of how tall or short they were. They didn’t have slouching or hunched backs. They looked energetic and in high spirits. The players of other teams all had darker, rough, and pimpled skin from staying up at night too often. Yet, the young players on Dw team didn’t have those skin problems. Their skin was tight, smooth, and shiny.

It didn’t seem reasonable for young men to have skins like theirs.

The viewers certainly didn’t know it was because the players all go to bed early and get up early in the morning. They exercised everyday and followed a rigid daily routine. The audience instead suspected the owner of the team might have unusual preferences when choosing players.

After the players came on stage, the coach followed. Then the male viewers started to get excited: It’s a woman coach! A woman! !

The woman coach was slender and quite photogenic. Her skin was also in good condition. She was wearing a business suit, with light makeup. She naturally waved at the camera and smiled.

Stream viewers began sending bullet comments like crazy: Au! I’m in love! This is my wifey, no one can fight with me!

The competition wasn’t open to a live audience on site. Shen Zemu stayed in the break room for competing teams. He watched the live stream and saw a bunch of people fighting over whose wifey Yang Yin should be on the bullet comments and turned off the comments with a frown.

Dw won the match in the end. Because the opponent wasn’t a strong team, many viewers didn’t figure out what the key to Dw’s victory was. Only at the end of the game, one of the commentators said: “I feel Dw has done a lot of homework on their opponent.”

The next few days whenever Dw had a game, that comment would be repeated again and again.

Dw had done their homework on this opponent.

Dw had done their homework on that opponent.

Dw had done their homework on all their opponents……

It was a shocking discovery for the other teams. Many of the teams in the preliminaries were newcomers and didn't have much exposure before the competition. Even though many teams would play skirmishes against each other and had some level of interaction with each other. Yet skirmishes were a totally different situation from the real competitions, both in the mindset and the way a team played.

Normally, only the three teams that had been eliminated from the major league would have had enough exposure that made it easy for teams to analyze them. They had played at least a full season of regular games and there were many competition videos online about those teams.

But, it turned out that there was one team which had studied every team thoroughly. All the other teams, no matter how obscure or secretive they had been, could no longer make any surprise moves on team Dw.

To be able to achieve that, it wasn’t something that could be done in a short time. The other teams were certain that Dw must have started to study and analyze them long ago.

When the other teams thought that Dw had been quietly watching them all this time, they all had the jitters.

The other teams certainly would analyze their opponents. But, they didn’t do it as thoroughly as Dw. In addition, they usually wouldn’t bother to analyze Dw as they had lost all of their main players.

“I’m especially curious as to how they do it.” During one of the matches, the handsome commentator made no secret about his doubts: “I believe many viewers are as curious as I am. To be able to analyze the opponents to such a degree of detail and successfully trick the opponents during the ban & pick phase time after time, I figure this couldn’t be achieved just by one person. There’s probably a good sized coaching team behind the team. That’s the secret of their success.”

“There’s one more point you forgot to mention.” The other commentator added: “I’ve noticed that each of Dw’s players haven’t been outstanding players in the preliminaries, but they are players who work together as a team the best among all the teams. This is a team game and Dw’s players have completely demonstrated that.”

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

Those Sweet Times - Chapter 101 Part 1

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

Those Sweet Times

Chapter 101 Part 1

Extra: Shen Zemu and Yang Yin

Not too long afterwards, Deng Wenbo found a new girlfriend. His new girlfriend had single eyelid eyes, was slender and had fair skin. When she wasn’t smiling, she looked about 60 or 70 percent like Yang Yin. Deng Wenbo slept with her the day they met, but afterwards, he felt a sense of emptiness.

He had pretended to forget everything that had happened on the karaoke night, never mentioned a word about it.

But in reality, he hadn’t forgotten about it at all.

One time, Deng Wenbo carelessly brought his girlfriend to the base and she saw Yang Yin there. Yang Yin didn’t react, but the girlfriend wasn’t too happy about it. After they came out, she questioned Deng Wenbo: “What’s the meaning of this? What do you take me for?”

Deng Wenbo gave her a debit card and she instantly stopped fussing.

Deng Wenbo thought it would be nice if that other woman was this easy to please.

But on second thought, if she was this easy to please, then he probably wouldn’t care as much.

He thought that he was really pathetic.

-- --

It was the end of November when Yang Yin led Dw into the preliminaries.

This year’s preliminaries were going to be a brutal battleground. Among the qualifying teams, there were 7 teams which were attracting all the attention, 4 of the teams were from four well established clubs and three of them were teams eliminated from the major league last year. In everyone’s estimation, the three tickets for the major league this year would no doubt fall into the hands of one of these 7 teams. All the other teams were just along for the ride.

Though Dw had been a major league team before, the team had undergone a major overhaul, losing all the major players and had been out of view for almost half of a year. Nobody was paying much attention to this team now. Only some veteran players who closely followed the competition would feel familiar with the name of the team.

After combing through their mind or searching the name online, they would find: Ah, it’s them.

Then, nothing would happen afterwards.

After all, the teams under the spotlight didn’t include this outdated team. If someone asked about this team from the list of preliminaries teams, the answer was probably-- --this team has bad luck.

The preliminaries would be held for two weeks, over several dozens of matches. The scheduling for the matches was quite tight. Yang Yin and Shen Zemu did a lot of preparation before the game. Their major focus was analyzing their opponents and exploring methods to counter them. Yang Yin didn’t have time to study anymore. The two of them would always discuss late into the night. She didn’t feel the work as an extra burden. She believed that was what she should be doing as a coach. The more they were prepared beforehand, the less unexpected situations the players would have to face during the competition. She knew very well that her players didn’t have much of an advantage over the other teams in terms of experience-- --This was only a nice way to put it-- --Given all that, she would try to get rid of any foreseeable obstacle for them as much as possible.

“I’m sorry about it.” Yang Yin said to Shen Zemu. It was from the bottom of her heart since Deng Wenbo refused to raise Shen Zemu’s pay. With a part time analyst’s pay, Shen Zemu had been doing a coach’s job for the team, especially when he had sleeping problems to begin with. Yang Yin felt it was particularly cruel to let him stay up at night with her.

“It’s fine.” Shen Zemu said.

Yang Yin said: “Will you lose a part of your body if you say one more word?”

Shen Zemu gave her a glance and lightly pursed the corners of his mouth: “I’ll let you get your one million.”

Yang Yin was amused. Looking at his earnest face, Yang Yin, without knowing why, felt the urge to poke his face. She leaned her head to one side, supporting her head with her hand, and said with a laugh: “Shen Zemu, you know what? When others treat me well, I’m the kind of person who pays them back twice as much.”

Shen Zemu looked at her and asked: “Then, how would you want to repay me?”

“When I receive my one million, I’ll share half of it with you. How’s that?”

Shen Zemu moved his eyes away and lightly said: “I don’t want money.”

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

Those Sweet Times - Chapter 100 Part 3

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

Those Sweet Times

Chapter 100 Part 3

Extra: Shen Zemu and Yang Yin

“Boss, you’re drunk.” Yang Yin shook her head. “I’ll get someone to take you home.”

“I’m not drunk. I like you, Yang Yin. Do you like me?”

When Deng Wenbo spoke, his eyebrows and eyes drooped and he gave Yang Yin a wary look. Yang Yin couldn’t help but be reminded of the term ‘pitiful.’

“I don’t like you.” Yang Yin cruelly and cold-heartedly turned him down.

“Why?”

Yang Yin felt that she had to make herself clear on this matter: “Boss, you can’t offer me what I want; we aren’t the same kind of people.”

Deng Wenbo pressed on: “Then, can Shen Zemu?”

Yang Yin was taken aback a bit, then frustratedly answered: “Actually, to me, the point isn’t what he can offer me, but rather what I can offer him. Boss, I’ll be frank with you, I just like him, I’m willing to give him whatever he wants-- --as long as I have it.”

Deng Wenbo was intensely made aware of what the words differential treatment meant and felt his heart was about to be broken.

-- --

Deng Wenbo left the nightclub on his own. When Yang Yin returned to the private room, Shen Zemu’s eyes kept following her.

Yang Yin thought it was because he was worried about her and said to him: “Boss already left. He had too much to drink today, don’t mind him.”

Shen Zemu moved his eyes away and replied: “En.”

The group stayed there till after 10 pm. When they came out of the night club, they discovered that it was raining outside. The rain in the autumn was fine and cold, chilly and damp. Yang Yin pulled her clothes closer to her body and asked Shen Zemu: “How are you going to go back?”

“I’ll go back with you.” Shen Zemu pursed the corner of his mouth: “There’s nothing to do at school. I’ll go watch you do homework.”

Yang Yin thought she had never seen a more responsible teacher.

The group took two taxis back to the base. Yang Yin let all the players go to sleep and locked herself and Shen Zemu inside the office.

She started to do her homework.

Yang Yin was actually quite exhausted by now. Her team had played a game that day and then she went to the karaoke party, while also having to deal with her boss’s emotional issues. The whole day had been tiring both physically and mentally for her. When she ran into a harder problem in her homework, she rested her head on the table to think but ended up falling asleep.

Shen Zemu picked her up and put her back in her bedroom.

When he put her down on her bed, she mumbled: “Shen Zemu.” Her voice was a bit murky.

Shen Zemu thought she had woken up and answered her.

Yet Yang Yin turned to the other side and continued to sleep.

Shen Zemu pulled the blanket over her. Then he sat next to the bed to look at her. After a while, he suddenly reached over and lightly touched her cheek.

Yang Yin had fine facial features and the contour of her face was quite gentle. Her build would give others the misconception that she was frail, like the petals of a small white flower trembling in the wind, ready to fall at any moment.

But in reality, her character was the total opposite of that. She was more like grass, tenaciously putting down her roots, persistently growing no matter what the weather condition was.

“Aren’t you tired?” Shen Zemu asked in a light voice. He didn’t seem to expect an answer from her. Instead, he carefully touched her eyebrows, eyes, tip of nose, and lips with the tips of his fingers.

Her lips were quite soft. The tip of his index finger stopped on her lips and lightly pressed down on it, not knowing whether he did it intentionally or by accident.

Yang Yin, still asleep, licked her lips subconsciously and found the finger on her lips. She curled her tongue and pulled the finger into her mouth.

Shen Zemu was caught off guard, his finger was trapped inside her warm, wet mouth. He could feel something warm and moist wrapped around his finger. His heart skipped a beat. Yang Yin sucked on his finger and seemed dissatisfied with the taste. Her agile tongue then pushed the finger out of her mouth.

……

Shen Zemu left Yang Yin’s room with a red face.

He felt that he needed to calm down. He went outside and stood on the porch watching the rain. Under the street light, the rain seemed fine and closely woven, like morning fog or light dust. The light blended in the rain, looking blurred yet warm.

He leaned against the door with his hands in his pockets, looking at the light and the rain. After a while, he suddenly laughed.

A lonely man.

When you walk by yourself, you have to remember that, in a lonely night with hazy rain, there would always be a lamp that was lit for you.

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

Those Sweet Times - Chapter 100 Part 2

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

Those Sweet Times

Chapter 100 Part 2

Extra: Shen Zemu and Yang Yin

Shen Zemu was someone who prefered quiet. He grew impatient with the constant noise around him; karaoke was one of the places he couldn’t stand the most. He stayed in the room for a while longer and got up to go to the bathroom to smoke.

Afterwards, as he was coming out of the bathroom, Deng Wenbo happened to come his way.

Shen Zemu looked straight ahead as if he didn’t see Deng Wenbo at all.

“Stop.” Deng Wenbo blocked his way and turned to close the door to shut both of them inside the bathroom. Deng Wenbo at this point already had too much to drink, even his eyes were out of focus. He squinted his eyes at Shen Zemu, with undisguised hostility. “If you dare try to win Yang Ying’s affections, I’ll fire you. Get back to where you came from!”

Shen Zemu simply gave him a glance, the look in his eyes was chilling like the frost in autumn.

“What are you looking at?” Deng Wenbo said: “I’ll fire you now if you look at me like that again!”

Shen Zemu opened his mouth: “You don’t deserve her.”

-- --

Yang Yin was singing when she saw Shen Zemu and Deng Wenbo come back from the bathroom one after another. Deng Wenbo had a dark face.

“Go, my team doesn’t need you. Get lost!” Deng Wenbo pointed at Shen Zemu and said in a loud voice.

Yang Yin hurriedly put the microphone down and stood up to get in front of Deng Wenbo. She asked: “What’s wrong?”

“He’s fired by me.”

“How can you fire him just like that. You have to discuss it with me, boss.”

“What’s there to discuss, I’m the boss!”

While Deng Wenbo was talking, the smell of alcohol permeated onto Yang Yin’s face. Yang Yin rubbed her head and turned to the others in the room: “You guys carry on…… Shen Zemu, you sit here first.” Then she dragged Deng Wenbo out of the room.

Shen Zemu was worried about her and followed her out of the room as well.

……

Yang Yin was quite annoyed at Deng Wenbo and pulled him outside, stopping at a random corner.

“What’s wrong with you?” She asked Deng Wenbo.

“I don’t like him. I’m the boss, I can fire whoever I feel like it.”

“What if I disagree?”

“You disagree? Then I’ll just disband the team and neither of you need to come.” Deng Wenbo took the chance to blow his pent-up anger. He felt like he had always been treated quite cordially wherever he went. But in his own team, his coach and data analyst could walk all over him. Why did he have to take it? Why not just disband the team and he didn’t have to deal with them anymore.

“Deng Wenbo.” Yang Yin suddenly called out his full name.

Deng Wenbo’s neck stiffened: “What?”

Yang Yin abruptly grabbed his collar and pulled downwards. Deng Wenbo was forced to bend over and lower his head to look into Yang Yin’s eyes.

The two faces were very close to each other. Deng Wenbo could see the fury in her eyes. He should be angry as well, but he wasn’t. He looked at those familiar eyes which were shiny black from anger…… Suddenly, he felt his heart was racing.

“Deng Wenbo, is this team just a toy in your eyes? Something you can play with it when you like and toss it when you aren’t happy?”

“I……”

“Did you know.” She looked straight into his eyes and said: “All of your toys train for ten hours a day, everyday. They wouldn’t dare relax for even a minute. They are apprehensive when they lose a game. They are elated when they win a game just because that slim hope of qualifying for the preliminaries. Do you know how much effort they’ve put in? Now you’re going to disband the team just like that? Disband? Are you sure?”

Yang Yin was breathing heavily from rage. Her breath sprayed onto his face. He couldn’t think straight. Yang Yin fixed her eyes on him with a somewhat frightening look on her face. Yet in Deng Wenbo’s eyes, she looked quite charming at the same time.

Deng Wenbo also began to hyperventilate a little.

Yang Yin still stared at him: “Say something, hrm?” The pitch of her voice rose all of a sudden.

“I, I like you.”

“......”

“I like you.” Deng Wenbo finally said it. He felt a little melancholic, but what he felt more was the relief that he had finally let her know about his intentions. “I like you.” He mumbled repeatedly.

Yang Yin was completely unprepared to hear this. She released him and turned her face away: “You like me, so you want to disband the team?”

“No…...I just like you, and don’t want to see you be nice to other men.”

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

Those Sweet Times - Chapter 100 Part 1

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

Those Sweet Times

Chapter 100 Part 1

Extra: Shen Zemu and Yang Yin

Yang Yin had bought the aroma diffuser for Shen Zemu to thank him for helping her with her studies. She didn’t expect Shen Zemu would also buy a gift for her-- --He bought her a neck massage device.

It was a very considerate and useful gift to her.

-- --

Dw was doing quite well in October’s competition. The night they won, Yang Yin prepared to take all the players to a karaoke club to relax and have some fun. Deng Wenbo happened to be around and heard about their plan. He waved his hand and said: “I’ll take all of you to a great place.”

Yang Yin was afraid that the boss would bring the young players to an inappropriate place and wanted to turn down the offer. Deng Wenbo however widened his eyes and said: “What’s with that look on your face? I’m a perfectly decent person.”

The decent boss brought all of them to a nightclub. Once they entered the nightclub, the voluptuous hostess of the club winked at Deng Wenbo.

Deng Wenbo pretended that he didn’t know the hostess.

The hostess saw a woman following Deng Wenbo come in and immediately understood. She arranged the group to have a private room without saying too much to Deng Wenbo. Then she sent a message to the group chat that all the ladies working in the club were in and the message mentioning everyone: Deng Wenbo brought a woman with him. Pretend you don’t recognize him, don’t make him look bad in front of the woman.

Yang Yin followed the waitress to the private room. It wasn’t too far from the lobby to the private room, but she had seen many people along the way, all of them beautiful women. All the beautiful women were sizing her up, some with a look of curiosity and others with scrutiny. Yang Yin felt odd and looked back at them. They were the ones who became embarrassed and grinned back at Yang Yin.

Yang Yin: “......? ?” Women giving the sheep’s eyes to another woman, was this a new trend in nightclubs?

“What are you all looking at?” Deng Wenbo said.

All the women then moved away.

The private room was decorated rather luxuriously. All the young players were quite happy with it. Yang Yin was also satisfied with the place. She sat down and ordered some food and drinks, the boss was going to pay for all of them anyway.

Then Yang Yin took a few pictures of the interior of the private room to send to Shen Zemu.

Shen Zemu: ?

Yang Yin: We won the game today. We’re having a karaoke party, it’s on the boss. Do you want to come? #a beaming smile#

Shen Zemu: Location.

Yang Yin was only asking offhandedly and didn’t expect Shen Zemu would really come. She sent the location to him, then said to Deng Wenbo: “Boss, our data analyst is coming over in a while.”

“What is he coming here for?” Deng Wenbo wasn’t too pleased with the news.

“He’s part of our team.” 

……

Shen Zemu came rather quickly.

Yang Yin was sitting there listening to the young players singing, though to be more exact they were more like howling rather than singing. She was a bit bored and drinking with Deng Wenbo when Shen Zemu came in. She had drunk one bottle of beer and was about to open the second bottle.

Shen Zemu came in and walked over, sitting next to her.

Then he acted very naturally as he took the bottle from Yang Yin’s hand and put it on the table: “Don’t drink too much.”

“It’s alright. I’m happy today.” Yang Yin smiled.

Shen Zemu turned his head sideways to give her a glance, then used a voice only loud enough for her to hear: “Have you done your homework today?”

Yang Yin rubbed her head: “I’ll do it after we get back.”

“En. How was the game?”

“It was pretty good, let me tell you……”

The two of them sat close to each other and conversed quietly. Deng Wenbo couldn’t hear anything they were saying. He was rather irritated by that and put down his mug heavily on the table hoping to attract their attention.

Yang Yin only gave him a look, then turned her head to continue her conversation with Shen Zemu. They were briefly going over the successes and failures of the game.

Shen Zemu, however, never gave his boss even a glance throughout the conversation.

Deng Wenbo couldn’t really make out his own feelings, he just didn’t feel good. He sat by himself and drank glass after glass of liquor. He also begrudgingly asked the hostess to send in two pretty girls to sing and drink with them.

The two girls were fashionably dressed, yet not revealing, and were only there to chat and sing with the players. Yang Yin therefore didn’t object to it.

All the young players were quite happy with the additions in the room.

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

Those Sweet Times - Chapter 99 Part 3

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

Those Sweet Times

Chapter 99 Part 3

Extra: Shen Zemu and Yang Yin

A couple of days later, Shen Zemu came by the base to meet Yang Yin. He arrived a little earlier than the appointed time. When walked in the base, he saw a player who was holding a cup while walking as slow as a snail towards the office.

Shen Zemu took a look at him.

The player looked as if he had found someone who could save him and stuffed the coffee mug into Shen Zemu’s hand: “Shen Ge! Coach Yang is waiting for you!”

Shen Zemu didn’t know what was going on, but he still took the coffee and walked in the office.

Yang Yin was sitting in front of the computer watching the replay of one of the team’s games. She had turned the volume up and didn’t even turn her head when she heard someone had walked in.

Shen Zemu put down the coffee on her desk. Yang Yin still had her eyes fixed on the computer screen. She moved her shoulders and said: “Give me a massage here.”

Shen Zemu was taken aback a little, but still walked behind her to massage her shoulders as she had asked.

Yang Yin had a thin frame, making her look quite slender. Shen Zemu didn’t use much force and only lightly rubbed her bony shoulders. As he was rubbing her body, he couldn’t stop himself from remembering that confusing but erotic morning.

Yang Yin wasn’t satisfied with the rubbing: “Harder, did you forget to eat today?” She sounded a little harsh.

Shen Zemu then put in more force. After rubbing for a while, seeing Yang Yin’s body had relaxed a bit, he asked in a low voice: “Does it feel good?”

He could clearly feel the muscles on Yang Yin’s shoulders and back suddenly tense up when she heard him.

She slowly turned her head to check the hand on her shoulder. It had long and lean fingers. She also saw that clean and tidy shirt cuff. She could tell who he was just by the look of his hand.

She shrunk her shoulder: “It’s fine, it’s fine. Sit…...Why didn’t you make a sound when you came in?”

Shen Zemu sat on the chair and asked her: “What’s wrong with you?”

“We lost a game.”

“You win some, you lose some.” He comforted her.

“I know. But this loss is too depressing. They had won the first round too easily, then they started to get in over their heads and messed it all up, totally out of control.”

“Is it the problem with lineup?”

“No, it’s their attitude.” Yang Yin shook her head: “They don’t have enough competition experience. They’re all too young.”

There wasn’t a good solution to this problem. The only thing they could do was to play more competitions and get more experience.

“But on the other hand.” Yang Yin turned her body sideways and leaned against the back of her chair to look at him with a smile: “The analysis you gave me about the lineup is very good. I’ll ask the boss to see if he can give you a raise.”

Shen Zemu was about to say something, but Yang Yin continued: “I almost forgot. Here, this is for you.” She pulled out two boxes, one big and one small, from under her desk as she was talking. “This is an aroma diffuser, this is lavender essential oil, and together they will help you fall asleep. The manual will tell you how to use them.”

Shen Zemu took them without saying anything.

Yang Yin had chosen a simpler model for the diffuser since it was going to be used by a man. However, there was hardly anyone in the men’s dorm using an aroma diffuser. Once Shen Zemu had everything set up and put in the lavender oil, the sweet fragrance filled the dorm room.

Waiwai sniffed and sighed: “Shen Zemu, you’re getting more and more feminine.”

The lavender essential oil seemed quite effective; Shen Zemu’s three roommates all fell soundly asleep.

Shen Zemu, however, laid on his bed with his eyes wide open amidst the faint fragrance of lavender for quite a while.

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

Those Sweet Times - Chapter 99 Part 2

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

Those Sweet Times

Chapter 99 Part 2

Extra: Shen Zemu and Yang Yin

Yang Yin took a look at Shen Zemu. He was drinking his lemonade, looking rather at ease with himself. Yang Yin felt that it was impossible to ask Shen Zemu to leave at this point. She turned to tell the tutor: “I happen to be busy later, why don’t we just end it here?”

After sending the tutor away, Yang Yin carefully checked the expression on Shen Zemu’s face and asked him: “Shen Zemu, are you angry about something?”

“No, why would I be angry?”

Yang Yin secretly breathed out a sigh of relief, as long as he wasn’t angry. She gathered her books while asking him: “Why would you pass by here?”

“Getting some equipment.” Shen Zemu answered while holding down her arm.

His hand was forceful and Yang Yin couldn’t move. She looked at his clean and tidy cuff.

Shen Zemu asked: “What else don’t you understand?”

Yang Yin didn’t quite get what he meant: “Hrm?”

“I’ll go over with you.” He said.

Yang Yin was touched. She reopened her books and pointed out the questions she had marked.

Actually, for the most part, it wasn’t that Yang Yin couldn’t understand what she was reading. Her problem was that she had a weak foundation but tended to overthink the problems at times. She was a good student in her junior high years, but that was a long time ago and she had forgotten quite a bit of basic knowledge. 

Shen Zemu’s explanation was brief and to the point. He deliberately slowed down when he spoke and would earnestly look into Yang Yin’s eyes as he asked her: “Do you understand?”

At first, Yang Yin would go blank when he fixed his eyes on her.

He thought Yang Yin didn’t get it and would patiently go over the problem once again.

Yang Yin was a bit embarrassed. She touched her face and secretly told herself to be calm, be calm……

She avoided meeting his eyes directly and looked down at the book to listen carefully. Gradually, she could concentrate on the problems.

After he finished explaining all the problems, Shen Zemu even gave her some more problems to work on.

Yang Yin said: “Thank you.”

Shen Zemu asked: “Why did you hire a tutor?”

Yang Yin understood what he meant. He was asking her why she would need to hire someone else to help when he could help her right there. In fact, it was true that she could ask him to help her since they had been working together for a while now. Shen Zemu, as her data analyst, would often meet with her or call her. She indeed didn’t need to spend the extra money to hire a tutor for herself.

What Yang Yin couldn’t tell him was that she didn’t want to show her weakness in front of someone she liked.

“I’m afraid that you’re too busy for it.” Yang Yin randomly found an excuse.

Shen Zemu told her straightforwardly: “I’m not busy.”

“Hum, then……” She couldn’t think of any reason to turn him down and had no choice but to say: “Then, I’ll trouble you from now on.”

“En.”

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

Those Sweet Times - Chapter 99 Part 1

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

Those Sweet Times

Chapter 99 Part 1

Extra: Shen Zemu and Yang Yin

While Yang Yin was talking with the tutor, someone suddenly came by and sat down at their table. From the corner of her eye she could see a pair of arms resting on the table. This person was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt with the cuffs of the shirt neatly buttoned up, clean, neat, meticulous, and abstinent.

Yang Yin’s heart skipped a beat and looked up. She saw the face of Shen Zemu.

Shen Zemu was looking sideways at her. He looked at her quietly. When Yang Yin met his eyes, she uncomfortably moved her eyes away to look outside the window.

“Why are you here?” Yang Yin asked.

“Just passing by.” His answer was brief and forceful, very Shen Zemu-like.

The tutor put down his pen, took a look at Yang Yin, then Shen Zemu. He asked: “You two know each other?”

“Hrm.” Yang Yin turned her head around to take a look at the tutor. From the tutor’s expression, she asked: “You two know each other too? You aren’t in the same major, are you?”

“We aren’t. I’m in Computer Science. But the girls in my major, some of them like Lin Chuyan while some like Shen Zemu, and there’s quite a few more……”

“Who does quite a few more like?” Yang Yin was curious. The person who could be on par with Lin Chuyan and Shen Zemu or even surpass them must be rather outstanding.

“They like the both of them.” The tutor answered.

“What?” Yang Yin didn’t get it.

“It’s like they like them as a couple…...Like this.” The tutor seemed too embarrassed to put it in words. He gestured using his two fists with the two thumbs facing each other, wiggling a bit. Then he repeated: “Like this.”

Yang Yin found it quite amusing and thought those students were hilarious.

Shen Zemu didn’t know what bad things he had done in his previous life that he would always be paired up with Lin Chuyan wherever he went in this life…...He frowned, looked down at the books on the table, and asked deliberately: “What are you two doing?”

“Uhr……” Yang Yin was pulled back to reality. She scratched her head as her eyeballs circled in her eyes trying to find an excuse. Then she saw Shen Zemu’s eyes, calm and clear, she immediately realized that there was no need to pretend because he had figured out everything already. She then admitted quite frankly: “There are areas I don’t quite understand while I’m studying. See, that’s why I’ve hired a tutor.”

The tutor hurriedly said: “We’re studying together, improving together.”

Shen Zemu glanced at the tutor. He could see the eagerness in the tutor’s face.

Yang Yin had fair skin and was quite slender. She looked quite delicate and it was quite easy to arouse the desire to protect her from the opposite sex.

“You continue.” Shen Zemu said while nodding his head. Yang Yin didn’t know what exactly he wanted to find out.

With Shen Zemy watching next to her, Yang Yin was a little uneasy.

The tutor, rather simple-mindedly, didn’t sense Yang Yin’s awkwardness and picked up his pen to continue their discussion after the interruption.

Yang Yin had no choice but to go along with it.

After they talked for about 3 or 5 minutes, Shen Zemu abruptly pointed at Yang Yin’s notebook and said: “There’s an even simpler way to solve this problem.” Without asking, he took over the pen in the tutor’s hand and started to write down a few lines of operations on the notebook.

He returned the pen back to the tutor after he had finished writing.

Then he went to the counter to buy a glass of lemonade. The lemonade was in a pure white mug. When he walked back with the lemonade in his hand, he looked particularly like a retired official; the only thing missing would be a roll of newspaper in his other hand.

Shen Zemu sat back down with his lemonade, ignoring the looks from the other two people. He took a look at the tutor’s scratch paper and said to the tutor: “Trigonometry is taught in the second semester of the eleventh grade. She hasn’t learned it yet. You need to use another method to solve the problem.”

“What do you mean by that?” The tutor wasn’t pleased.

Yang Yin was a little ashamed: “I…...well, I indeed didn’t learn eleventh grade……”

“You have to tell me if you haven’t learned it. In any case, you have to let him leave first. With him around, I can’t help you solve the problems.”

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

Those Sweet Times - Chapter 98 Part 3

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

Those Sweet Times

Chapter 98 Part 3

Extra: Shen Zemu and Yang Yin

Yang Yin told Deng Wenbo the situation she had found. Deng Wenbo asked: “What exactly does it mean? Sum it up briefly.”

“To sum it up briefly, it means that we have to steer Dw, a precarious little broken boat, against four battleships for the three entrance tickets. Oh, right, at the time of the preliminaries, there will be three more big ships coming down from the major league.”

“Uhr.” Deng Wenbo was taken aback and asked: “Then, is there any chance for us?”

“I don’t know. I’m now a little regretful.” Yang Yin looked depressed. She had expected that by the time of the preliminaries there would be a few strong teams, but now it seemed that there were too many of them?......

Deng Wenbo felt a little sorry for Yang Yin seeing her so upset. He said: “Then, why don’t we…...just forget about it?”

Yang Yin glanced over those players who were diligently working hard in the training room and felt that she couldn’t just give up: “Boss, I feel that we can’t give up halfway just because it would be tough. Even if there’s only a slim hope, we still have to put in all our effort.”

Deng Wenbo finally understood why he hadn’t fired Yang Yin though she rebuked him almost everyday-- --He thought mostly it was because he was such a broad-minded person-- --But the other reason was because he truly liked that vigorous attitude of hers.

Yang Yin started to closely monitor those teams. Whenever those teams played a match, she would go out of her way to find the video of the game. She would save those videos to carefully analyze them. It was unusual for anyone to do so at the minor league level. There were too many matches in the minor league and the changes in teams and players were quite fluid as well. Some matches were so minor that there weren’t even a stream of them online and it was quite difficult to get those videos.

In addition, she also analyzed the teams in the major league to predict which 3 teams they might encounter in the preliminaries.

-- --

In October, Yang Yin led her players in one of the city competitions. Their opponent at Nanshan City happened to be one of the four newly formed strong teams. Yang Yin’s team lost the match as expected, but they didn’t lose it too badly. It was 1 : 2. After the match, Yang Yin gave her players a pep talk: “It was MX we were facing! You guys won one round against them, I’m quite impressed!”

The morale of her players were lifted.

Deng Wenbo felt she was really good at what she was doing.

After the city competition, Yang Yin asked for a day off to take the exam. Afterwards, Shen Zemu asked her how the exam went.

She replied: I feel pretty good about it.

She had listened to Shen Zemu’s advise to not take the courses for her major just yet. Instead, she had started to study high school math and physics.

She used Shen Zemu’s old textbooks and studied his original, handwritten notes. She studied vigorously and felt like she had an endless amount of energy.

Even she couldn’t believe it and sometimes wondered if she had taken some energy pills.

However, passion aside, her vigorous energy couldn’t make her more intelligent. There were times when she simply couldn’t do some of the harder problems.

Yang Yin found a tutor through an agency. She was basically self-studying, but whenever she encountered any questions, she would take it down then went to the tutor two hours each week to get her questions answered.

The tutor was a student of Nanshan University, majoring in Computer Science. They had agreed to meet every Sunday morning from 7:30 to 9:30 am. The tutor at first wasn’t willing to do those hours. Yang Yin had to increase the pay before he agreed.

Since she didn’t let anyone in her team know about the self-study exams, she couldn’t have the tutor come to the club.

She had to go meet the tutor.

Sunday morning, Yang Yin took a ride to go to the Yuanchi campus of Nanshan University. Because she was afraid to run into someone she knew at campus, she had arranged to meet the tutor at a coffee shop about two bus stops from the campus.

…...What she didn’t expect was that she happened to run into Shen Zemu there.

It was quite a coincidence that Shen Zemu would show up there. That morning, Shen Zemu had gotten up early to go to Nanshan Technology to pick up some equipment for his own lab. Since the place wasn’t too far from the campus and there was no direct bus line to get there, he had decided to walk over there.

When he was about to reach Nanshan Technology, he happened to see Yang Yin through the window of a coffee shop.

There was a man sitting across from her. They kept talking back and forth with some books spread out on the table. Yang Yin, with a pen in hand, would take down notes from time to time.

Shen Zemu stood outside the window, watching them, but she didn’t notice him at all.

Then, he made a turn to go straight into the coffee shop.

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

Those Sweet Times - Chapter 98 Part 2

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

Those Sweet Times 

Chapter 98 Part 2

Extra: Shen Zemu and Yang Yin

Shen Zemu had moved back to school after summer vacation ended and didn’t come to the club as often.

Yang Yin also stopped wearing skirts all the time.

The players all liked secretly inviting Shen Zemu to come over. It was the first time that Shen Zemu found that he was a rather popular guy?

Another person who was not used to not seeing Shen Zemu often was Deng Wenbo.

Deng Wenbo had known from the start that Yang Yin had a special interest in Shen Zemu.

One time Deng Wenbo asked Yang Yin: “Tell me, me and Shen Zemu, who looks more handsome?”

“Boss, where did you get the confidence to compare how attractive you are with him?” Yang Yin was baffled.

Deng Wenbo was a little disappointed and said: “Alright, I won’t compare with him. Just tell me then, do you think I’m good looking?”

Yang Yin shook her head.

Deng Wenbo said: “But all the other women all say that I’m handsome.”

Yang Yin opened her palm face up and said: “Boss, one hundred RMB for one ‘handsome.’ I can say it to you for a whole day.”

Deng Wenbo felt that he wasn’t being treated fairly: “You’re a tigress in front of me, but a little sheep in front of him.”

Yang Yin didn't fully understand what Deng Wenbo was upset about, but she didn’t bother getting to the bottom of it.

Deng Wenbo, however, kept going: “Why do you have two faces at such a young age?”

Yang Yin threatened him: “Boss, my iron fist is already hungry for action.”

Deng Wenbo: =  =

He stopped talking.

Deng Wenbo seemed to have a lot of time on his hands lately and came over to the base quite often. Though he felt bad when Yang Yin rebuked him, he still couldn’t stop himself from going over to get some more. Even he couldn’t understand his own mind.

-- --

After Shen Zemu went back to school, the offseason of the summer was over for Yang Yin’s team as well. They officially started their season in the minor league.

There were several kinds of competitions for the Kings of Glory minor league teams. Most of the teams would have to advance from weekly matches to monthly matches to finals. Those teams that came on top of the minor league competitions could qualify for the preliminaries. The first three winning teams of the preliminaries could participate in next season's major league competition.

Yang Yin, while preparing the team for the competition, tried to find out more about the other participating teams. What she had found so far didn’t seem too optimistic for her own team.

It wasn’t just a bit bad, it was outright frightening.

The Kings of Glory major league was getting more and more popular and had thus attracted many well-established esports clubs to join in. For this season, there were at least four very strong esports clubs forming new Kings of Glory teams. Those teams must all be strong teams, in terms of both financial backing and skill.

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

Those Sweet Times - Chapter 98 Part 1

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

Those Sweet Times

Chapter 98 Part 1

Extra: Shen Zemu and Yang Yin

Shen Zemu didn’t like Lin Chuyan very much. Any straight man wouldn’t like another man who messed around with him before. This had nothing to do with Xiang Nuan.

The four of them walked around inside the convention for a while, then they split up.

Many different games were participating in the convention and divided into several areas. Shen Zemu had played many other games, as had Yang Yin. After they left the Kings of Glory area, they went to visit other areas.

On their way, Yang Yin unexpectedly ran into her ex-boyfriend.

Her ex-boyfriend was a famous esports player. He probably wanted to get closer to the fans and had come out to do autographs and take pictures with fans.

His fans were excited, noisily circling around him.

Yang Yin stood some distance away watching him. She told Shen Zemu: “That’s my ex-boyfriend…… Tell me, was I blind before?”

Shen Zemu highly agreed with her: “Yes.”

Yang Yin had left the professional circle for a while. No one had recognized her when she was standing there since the circle changed rather rapidly and, in addition, she knew how to dress herself up more than before.

However, her ex-boyfriend still recognized her.

Over the crowd that was surrounding him, he immediately noticed Yang Yin.

Then he pushed his way out of the crowd and walked over to Yang Yin.

Everyone would like to show their ex that they had a better life now. It would be even more perfect if they had found a much better boy/girlfriend than the ex. Yang Yin was no exception.

She grabbed Shen Zemu’s hand the moment she saw her ex was walking over and whispered: “Give me a hand.”

“En.” Shen Zemu gripped her hand to work with her.

Speaking objectively, this ex-boyfriend was also quite handsome. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to attract so many fans wanting to take pictures with him. In the past, there were even some fangirls who wanted to bite her head off online.

But the problem was that the man who was standing opposite the ex was Shen Zemu.

The fans who followed the ex over changed loyalties right after they saw Shen Zemu and cried out in muffled voices: “Ah, so good looking!” Then they seemed to sense that something wasn’t quite right and shut their mouths immediately afterwards.

Some old fans had recognized Yang Yin by now and stood behind the ex whispering to each other.

When her ex walked closer and saw the two, Yang Yin and Shen Zemu, holding hands, he had a scornful expression on his face: “Are you going backwards, playing that kind of trash game now?” He said to Yang Yin.

“There’s no trash games, only trash players.” Yang Yin said: “I’ve heard that your boss is thinking of joining the Kings of Glory Pro League. You better go tell your boss about your opinion about this trash game.”

“Well, now you called him ‘your boss’? Weren’t you having a good relationship with our boss?”

“Whatever you think.” Yang Yin was a little impatient. She lifted up her hand which was holding Shen Zemu’s and said: “Oh, by the way, I’ve found someone much better than you. I hope you’ll give us your blessing.”

‘I’ve found someone much better than you.’

Though there was no affection between the two now, this sentence was still quite lethal. The ex’s face turned dark and he turned to look at Shen Zemu.

In terms of a staring match, Shen Zemu had never backed down before. Shen Zemu coldly looked back at the ex.

After a while, Shen Zemu heard the ex say in a very low voice: “Do you know that she’s sick?”

“She’s not sick.” Shen Zemu replied: “It’s just that you haven't treated her well enough.”

“I……”

Shen Zemu fixed his eyes on ex’s face and said: “You aren’t man enough.”

Yang Yin felt that she was becoming more and more sentimental. Just a few words from Shen Zemu, in quite an indifferent tone of voice, had made her almost choke up.

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

Those Sweet Times - Chapter 97 Part 3

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

Those Sweet Times

Chapter 97 Part 3

Extra: Shen Zemu and Yang Yin

Xiang Nuan told Lin Chuyan: “I want to buy you a cosplay costume and have you wear it to the convention with us, alright?”

Lin Chuyan asked: “Which champion costume are you going to buy? Is it Zhuge Liang?”

Among all the male champions in Kings of Glory, Zhuge Liang was Xiang Nuan’s favorite. If their appearance wasn't part of the consideration, her favorite would be Zhang Fei.

Xiang Nuan shook her head when she heard Lin Chuyan’s question: “No way. Zhuge Liang’s costume has too many layers. It’s so hot now, what if you get a heat stroke?”

Lin Chuyan was very moved by her consideration, he thought his girlfriend was just like an angel.

Xiang Nuan: “I’m thinking of buying Daji’s passionate Samba costume, that’ll keep you cool.”

Lin Chuyan: “......”

He had misunderstood her intentions……

Xiang Nuan pulled on his clothes: “Please wear it, I especially want to see you cosplay Daji.”

Lin Chuyan felt that he had met a twisted person.

Though Lin Chuyan could be shameless, there was a limit even to that. He couldn’t see himself doing that and refused.

“Please.” Xiang Nuan said.

Lin Chuyan patted Xiang Nuan’s head and said with a smile: “Under one condition.”

“What condition?”

Lin Chuyan got closer while holding her head and whispered: “You’ll put it on me yourself, one piece at the time. Undress first, then put on the costume.”

-- --

Xiang Nuan and Lin Chuyan accused each other of having twisted minds. In the end, they didn’t reach an agreement. As such, Lin Chuyan went to the convention dressed normally without cosplaying anyone.

The four of them met outside the convention. Xiang Nuan was a little surprised: “Yin Jiejie, you……”

“What about me?” Yang Yin asked with a smile.

“You’ve become more beautiful.”

Yang Yin didn’t bother making herself look good before, but now it was different.

She pinched Xiang Nuan’s face and said: “You’re so sweet.”

Xiang Nuan took a look at Yang Yin, then turned to glance at Shen Zemu. Her eyeballs rolled around.

They walked into the convention. Xiang Nuan suddenly said to Yang Yin: “Yin Jiejie, let’s go to the bathroom together?”

“Sure.” Yang Yin felt Xiang Nuan wanted to tell her something, she could see it on Xiang Nuan’s face.

Once they were in the bathroom, Yang Yin asked: “What’s wrong?”

“Yin Jiejie, are you and Xuezhang……”

When Xiang Nuan asked the question, she was slightly pouting her mouth as if she was unhappy about something. Yang Yin’s heart skipped a bit. She had almost forgotten that Xiang Nuan had told her about how she had a crush on Shen Zemu.

Yang Yin was also uneasy now and asked lightly: “You, do you mind?”

“Hrm?” Xiang Nuan was taken aback. When she finally figured out what Yang Yin meant, she hurriedly shook her head: “No, no, no, no, no! Don’t misunderstand me, Yin Jiejie. I don’t mean that……” She scratched the back of her head while saying: “I’m just a little curious. Why didn’t you tell me? I’ve told you everything about me. Besides, why do I feel that even Lin Chuyan knows more than me?”

Yang Yin relaxed and shook her head: “It’s really nothing going on. It’s just me who likes him. I haven’t told you because……”

“Because what?”

Yang Yin looked down, played with her own fingers, and said quite frustratedly: “I just feel that the gap between us is too big.”

“How can it be too big? Aren’t you the same age?”

“It’s not the age. It’s something else, like education, family background, and things like that.”

Xiang Nuan instantly shook her head: “I don’t think those things are problems. As long as you like-- --”

“Then we should be together?” Yang Yin interrupted her and sighed: “You don’t feel those are problems because there’s no such problem between you and Lin Chuyan.”

Xiang Nuan didn’t know how to respond. Indeed, she and Lin Chuyan didn’t have those concerns at all. She really didn’t know how to convince Yang Yin to not mind such things.

Suddenly, Xiang Nuan felt sorry for Yang Yin and went up to hug her.

“Yin Jiejie, go for it.”

“En.”

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