Honey Stewed Squid

Chapter 16 - A Master In That Field!

He had simply felt bored and had practiced on her his method of mocking and cutting down people that he used on the members of his own team.

Soon, the tournament had begun. All expression was absent again from Gun’s face as he resumed his flat, indifferent look to begin observing SP’s match in the eighth-finals.

……

The entire venue had grown dim.

Behind her, someone stealthily poked her in the shoulder.

She turned her head back. Blueberry signaled at her with her eyes, then mouthed in silence, “Go to the washroom.”

Glancing over at Gun, who was already intently watching the live play on the big screen, she noiselessly set her backpack onto her seat and, bending low at the waist, snuck away into the washroom with Blueberry. But only one foot had managed to step inside before she was immediately seized back out by Blueberry and led to an arbitrary corner in the main lobby. “Little Squidie—”

“I’ll try my best to get you an autograph”—with a pitiful look on her face, she raised her hands in surrender—“okay?”

“We can first set aside that thing about getting an autograph.” Narrowing her eyes, Blueberry moved in close, that deep black, large pair of eyes filled only with Tong Nian’s reflection. “Clarify for me, what is going on between you and my man’s male god?”

“Just…”

……

She used ten minutes to explain the things that had happened over the entirety of last week, and then, wordlessly dropping her head, she touched the tips of her index fingers together self-consciously. “It’s not that I didn’t want to tell you. It’s just that I felt that having my confession of feelings rejected is pretty embarrassing…”

A finger was stabbing her on the forehead before her sentence had even finished. “Your confession of feelings? Confessing is the biggest no-no when you’re pursuing a guy, don’t you know?! Who would have favourable feelings for a girl who professes her love after seeing you only two times? Huh? Has all your intelligence been eaten by a dog?”

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“… I didn’t want to confess my feelings. But if I didn’t explain, he’d get the wrong idea and think that I like that girly man…”

“What a waste of your looks that have a score of ninety percent. To date, you’ve never even had a boyfriend with looks that score nine percent. And here you are talking about first love? And secret crush? And confessing feelings? With you being like this, how could you possibly capture my man’s male god?”

“……”

Blueberry rubbed at her finger that was sore from all the poking. “The stupidest thing to do when you’re pursuing a guy is to rush over and declare, ‘I like you!’ when the other party hasn’t even discovered any good qualities about you yet. Only an idiot would accept a flake like that, ’kay? You need to permeate into his life, show up by his side in various times and situations, and reveal all different sorts of special talents and qualities about you—your most beautiful qualities, your areas of expertise, and even moments where you are most popular with other men. You just cannot verbally admit that you like him. You need to keep him anxious, make him feel like there are a hundred claws grazing his heart, keep him always guessing with different speculations, make him obviously sense that you like him but yet just unable to get an actual answer. Got it?”

“… Mm.”

“Make him be the one who first opens his mouth to ask, first gives a hint, or first makes a confession, got it?”

“… Mm.”

……

……

After ten minutes of force-fed teaching, she noiselessly returned back to his side, all the while repeatedly mulling over Blueberry’s words: “It would have been so easy for him to do so, but he still did not clarify the misunderstanding. That shows he’s not turned off by this and maybe even feels affection for you.”

He… does?

Rather nervously, she peeked at him. How come I can’t tell? …

It was apparent Gun had left once midway through as well and grabbed his insulated mug from the lounge. He carried on pouring water from the mug into a paper cup and taking sip after sip to soothe his throat. He could sense that the little girl beside him was starting to restlessly steal glances at him again… Bringing the paper cup to his lips, he discovered that that small, faint gaze was once more furtively shifting away.

……

The entire competition was very exciting and impressive.

When K&K won their quarterfinal match, the entire place exploded with a huge sound of applause.

The applause, the enthusiastic congratulations from the emcee, and the motions of those five boys when they stood and expressed their thanks were all unfamiliar scenes she had never before witnessed. Never before had she watched this sort of competition from up close. It seemed as if, all of a sudden, those things called “video games” had become so high-class and grand…

Unable to contain herself, with all the other audience members that filled the venue, she clapped until her palms were red.

The five people stepped down off the stage and walked by in front of Gun. The corner of Gun’s lips tilted upwards as each nodded to him when they strode past.

This was a completely unsurprising win. He did not intend on watching SP’s remaining quarterfinal match, and rising to his feet, he patted Tong Nian on the back, indicating that she could leave.

As a result, midway through this tournament, all the members of K&K left.

……

As Tong Nian walked behind him, she would every so often feel Blueberry’s finger fiercely stabbing her lower back, then stabbing it again… At last, when she followed him into the VIP lounge, she managed to force out half a sentence from her lips: “Congrats… You guys won.”

Blueberry fainted. Where was the playing hard to get[1] they had discussed?!

Gun tossed the thermal mug into his backpack, pulled the zipper closed, and picked up the bag. After slinging it onto his shoulder, diagonally across his back, he turned and, towering over her, looked down at the top of her head.

Tong Nian instantly grew anxious.

“Weren’t you going to explain?” Because he had spoken too much already, his voice was even more hoarse and hence, seemed to give off an even greater oppressive feeling.

She paused blankly.

Oh! Right. Explain. She started back to awareness, asking softly, “It’s okay to do it now?”

The eavesdropping Blueberry…

Don’t explain, aaaah!! If you explain, you’ll have no chance with him!! Please feel free to misunderstand as you wish. This is the first sign of the earliest buds of a romance, aaaah!!

Gun discovered that the unfamiliar girl who had come with Tong Nian was within eavesdropping range, and coldly, he looked toward where the girl was. A cold shiver passed over the latter, and very wisely, without any prompting, she retreated—one step, two steps, three steps…

“It is entirely okay now.” Standing in front of Tong Nian, with two hands in his pants pockets, Gun bent at the waist so that his eyes were level with hers as he looked into them. “Give me a dry run of it first. How are you planning to explain?”

“Dry Run?” she stuttered.

“Let me have a listen to see if you can actually explain it well enough that it’s clear.” He was still staring eye-to-eye with her. “I don’t want to waste everyone’s time.”

“I… will say, ‘Han Shangyan and I…’”

Tong Nian had never before gazed into his eyes for so long. Right now, right this moment, right this instant, as she distinctly saw her own reflection in that pair of eyes, she utterly did not know even how to speak.

All that filled her ears were thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump…

Han Shangyan and I… what? …

“Don’t know how to say it?”

Thump, thump, thump…

He had more to say, but then, he watched as the little girl’s complexion changed from white to a foolish-looking red, so red that it was even more severe than appledog of the past, who had been well-known for her blushing… He suddenly felt that he seemed to have crossed the line again? “The little girl just likes you. It’s not some terrible crime. Tone it down a bit. You’re going too far if you treat her like she’s one of the members of your team,” he admonished himself silently.

And so, this person, who had now gathered back a few pieces of his conscience, cleared his throat. “I’ll be frank. I have no plans to get a girlfriend.” He straightened back up and swept his eyes over to those grown boys behind him who were organizing and gathering their things to get ready to leave this place. “These boys, the youngest is only fifteen years old, but they have placed all of their future, all of their prospects into my hands alone. All they desire is that one day, the country’s flag will be draped over their shoulders, and they can bring back the World Championship title to prove to their parents that their career choice had not been wrong. So, I do not have time or energy to deal with any person who does not belong to K&K.”

When his words were finished, his gaze lowered again and fell on her. “Do you understand?”

……

Tong Nian had not expected that what he spoke would be such serious words, and she nodded in spite of herself.

This was his world. A world strange and unfamiliar to her.

One that caused people to look up respectfully at it. And one that was worthy of being looked up to respectfully.

……

Dt just so happened to be walking up behind him at this moment. Hearing such words, he, in a very rare instance, actually shifted his gaze to the side slightly to look at that poor, little girl whom Gun had fooled with this great, noble fa?ade.

He could not stand watching this anymore.

Every time he rejected someone, Gun would use a different method. This time, however, was the worst and had stepped way over the line by actually using the team as an excuse.

Dt genuinely thought that the little lady could absolutely give the affections of her heart to another. Such an innocent, young girl who did not know how to scheme or make underhanded maneuvers. If she ended up being with Gun, it would ruin her… For this reason, he chose to remain silent. Turning around, he left.

And so, what about all that stuff about liking or not liking someone, getting an autograph or not? All completely inconsequential nothing.

With hearts and eyes filled with feelings of “we are so shallow and so childish in our antics,” Tong Nian and Blueberry watched as Gun led the members of K&K and departed. Nobody knew why Little Sister-In-Law was not going with Leader, and though they had speculations, no one really dared to ask. When they were leaving, they merely each nodded respectfully to Tong Nian with warm, smiling expressions of “Sister-In-Law, see you next time” written all over their faces…