Chapter 6: A Huge Debt Pushing Her Down

“As long as the compensation you seek is affordable,” Zhang Pei finally came to her senses, as she thought of what Lawyer Sun had taught her, and said, “If it’s reasonable, our side can cooperate. I have a hundred thousand RMB with me right now, so you can have it for now. After all, your three children have to go to school and eat.” She put the money on the table.

The Wang family calmed down after seeing the money. Mrs. Wang quickly grabbed the money. She looked at her youngest son, signaling something. They probably talked about it beforehand. Mrs. Wang said, “How much can this little amount of money do? Is my son’s life only worth a hundred thousand? I heard that your husband works for the government, if he goes to jail… He’s going to lose his job. Your daughter goes to Capital City Music Conservation and studies in piano major, right? The tuition must be very expensive. You have a house and a car in the capital city, so you must be very rich.” Mrs. Wang had a look of greed as she said this. She raised her left hand and put up three fingers. “Three million is the base line.”

TL Note: Capital City Music Conversation is Liu Man’s school

“How could we possibly have so much money?” Zhang Pei stared.

Lawyer Sun frowned.

The Wang family had already learned the details of her family. They knew all about Liu Chenyu’s job, where they lived, and where Liu Man went to school.

TL Note: Remember that Liu Chenyu is Liu Man’s father?

The Wang family had just arrived at the capital a few days earlier. How did they gather so much information in such a short time?

Lawyer Sun thought about it and looked towards the other lawyer named Zhao Feng. The opposing lawyer even smiled at him.

After the incident, Zhang Pei inspected all of their properties. She and her husband only had about thirty thousand RMB. If she sold her car, she’d be able to gain another twenty thousand. But that’d be nothing compared to a million RMB! Liu Man spent money without control and bought everything she wanted. The couple couldn’t save any money with a daughter like that. Now, Zhang Pei regretted spoiling Liu Man. She didn’t even know what Liu had spent the money on.

“Your house is on the center of the capital, right?” Wang Zhihua also went to college in the capital city, so he knew a lot about the prices of the houses there, “Sell your house, and you’ll definitely have enough money.”

Zhang Pei, of course, didn’t agree, “If we sell our house, then where will we live?”

“Well, that’d be your problem. My brother was so young. He could’ve had a longer life, not to mention he had three children waiting to be fed. How do you think that this can be solved? A million RMB per child wouldn’t be that much.” Wang Zhihua retorted back.

The Wang family’s greedy looks completely angered Zhang Pei, “Don’t even think about it, we’ll never agree.”

Zhang Pei grabbed Liu Man’s hand and said to Lawyer Sun, “We’re not negotiating anymore, let’s go.”

After she spoke, she walked out without even turning her head. Liu Man walked with her. Apon walking out of the room, she turned and glanced at the opposing lawyer named Zhao Feng. He had a confident smile on his face.

The first negotiation was a failure.

After leaving the Wang family’s sight, Zhang Pei yelled out, “They’re like a lion opening its mouth! Three million! Is their son even worth three million?!”

Zhang Pei was too furious, so out of spite, she screamed those rather unpleasant words.

Lawyer Sun said, “Even if Wang Chunhua isn’t worth that much, Chenyu is.”

His words felt like an ice bucket pouring down.

Because Liu Chenyu’s boss was protecting him to the best of his abilities, although Liu Chenyu was under arrest, he still wasn’t fired from his job. The dinner party that happened on the night of the accident, happened to be hosted by his boss. Liu Chenyu even took his boss’s place and drank wine for him.

Now, his boss was using his connections and was pressing down this incident. But if the Wang family went to his workplace to make trouble, or spread it around on the internet, then Liu Chenyu wouldn’t be able to be saved.

What worried Lawyer SUn the most was that, as he said to Zhang Pei, “The opposing lawyer is hard to deal with. Young adults these days are more thoughtful, so if he can convince the Wang family to ask for three million right away, then he must have some sort of confidence. I’m afraid that he has a trick up his sleeves.”

After hearing Lawyer Sun’s diagnosis, Zhang Pei felt helpless and scared, “What kind of trick would he have?”

“A government official drove and killed a delivery man after drinking wine, but that official was too powerful, and the family of the dead victim has nowhere to get help.” Lawyer Sun said, “If they get bots to write some news with that kind of title, then Chenyu will be destroyed.”

Liu Man wrinkled her eyebrows after hearing this.

That way of spreading around these kinds of negative news to make the public feel sorry for them, has been useful ever since the ancient times. People always thought that Liu Man’s neighbors in the cold palace were cruel and hated women. But, if they really were that sly, then why would they have been stuck in the cold palace as losers for their entire lives?

“Then what am I supposed to do?” Zhang Pei looked at Lawyer Sun helplessly, “The most I can do is to give five hundred thousand. We can’t sell the house.”

“I’ll go to the courthouse and the procuratorate to see what we can do.” Lawyer Sun realized that this was much more complicated and tougher than he thought it would be. Liu Chenyu’s identity was way too sensitive. Government employee, driving after drinking, victim dead, poor family; with these keywords together, it’d be impossible to explain.

Liu Man’s family had only moved into this compound around five to six years ago, and this compound was mostly for businessmen. Liu Man’s house was only a hundred and forty meters, and at the time, they had bought it at a very low price. Otherwise, how could Liu Chenyu have bought such a large house with his salary?

Zhang Pei would definitely not agree to selling her house.

The next day, Liu Man and Zhang Pei went to the pawnshop. Zhang Pei brought every single piece of jewelry that she owned along with her, including the ring that Liu Chenyu had given her when they got married. The staff at the pawnshop evaluated the price for every single piece of jewelry. The few diamond rings, gold necklaces, gold bracelets, emerald decorations, and a few sets of earrings, were put carefully in order in front of Liu Man, who was able to hear the price that the staff estimated.

“if we buy these, then the gold would be seventy percent of the market price, and the jade would be half price. So, if you agree to our fee, then we can just sign the contract right now.”

TL Note: basically, let’s say, if the jade costed 100$, then it’d only be 50$ in the pawnshop. If the gold costed 1000$, then it’d be 700$ when the pawnshop buys it.

“The jade can only be half price? This is emerald, and that’s real He Tian jade. They were very expensive when I bought them.” 

“Sorry, ma’am. The value in the market is very unstable, and our company cannot afford the loss if the value suddenly drops. So to be safe, we always buy it at half price,” The employee was very aloof.

“Sorry, ma’am. The value in the market is currently very unstable, and our company cannot afford the loss if the value suddenly drops. So, to be safe, we always buy it at half price.” The employee was very aloof.

Liu Man saw Zhang Pei look at her jewelries with a painful expression. Every single one of those pieces of jewelries were given to her by Liu Chenyu on her marriage anniversaries and birthdays.

Liu Man felt very sad and distressed. She remembered that when Madam Xu fell sick, during the last months of her life, she kept on selling her few pieces of jewelries, just begging the servants to treat Liu Man better. She remembered Madam Xu’s loving and painful expressions, and also remembered when Madam Xu carefully patted her head: “When I go to the other side, what will you do? I just hope that those servants will be a bit grateful after taking my belongings.” But reality proved that those servants didn’t have any empathy left in their hearts.

At this moment, Zhang Pei and Madam Xu seemed to layer together. Liu Man’s eyes became wet. She didn’t know what she was feeling; the love of the old Liu Man for her mother, or her feelings for Madam Xu. 

In the end, all of the jewelries were sold at only the price of a hundred fourteen thousand. It still seemed incredibly far away from their goal of three million.

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Credits: Sydney, Dora, & Kathrien

Chapter 10

After the second round’s ban picking, Zhou Tian was given Zhao Xin as her hero.

This particular hero was strong at ganking at the beginning of the game, and his legendary moves were great for team fights. It was also a pretty good jungling hero in this version.

“Tian’s doing pretty well! Keep up the good work,” the coach continued, after praising her yet again, “Everyone, just keep doing what you’re doing. Let’s try our best to get a lucky 2-0.”

TL Note: Tian = Zhou Tian, and 2-0 as in the score.

Zhou Tian’s anxiety was completely wiped out after achieving such a good result last round.

Wang Ren, who was sitting beside her, couldn’t resist but speak up, after sensing her excitement: “Tian’s literally shaking after getting Zhao Xin. Well, we’ll all depend on you for this round.”

“Yeah, she’s very excited,” Hang Ziliang, the Top player that was sitting on the other side of her, said, “She even almost took the wrong cup of coffee that was mine.”

Zhou Tian: “…It’s actually really easy to get it mixed up when you put it there!”

Yin Yuanxia: “Oh no, it’s over. Our Jungler’s gonna kill our team even before we enter the server. Wow, I think that we’re gonna lose this round.

“Well, then you should probably be more bold,” Wang Ren said, “Like, let’s say, ‘the other side’s gonna win two rounds in a row.’”

“Then, it must be because our Support is driving us crazy.”

TL Note: It’s kind of hard to explain, but they’re like teasing/play fighting with each other

After a moment of bickering, the second round of the game officially began.

Normally, everyone would start to rush towards the three paths and would start to work on increasing their magic. But this round, YYg had a very unusual tactic, and instead did a wave of level one T.F.

It meant exactly as it seemed. It was when they had a team fight at the start of the round, while everyone was still on level one.

This type of tactic had always been considered as one of the Lower bureau ones. But in fact, it had actually been constantly appearing in professional competitions over the last few years. So, if the level one T.F. happened to end well, then it could affect the beginning of the round immensely.

Zhou Tian was the one who’d suggested to play with this tactic. Although her teammates were a bit when started when they first heard her plan, they pretty quickly agreed with this strategy and started to talk it out.

And SF, on the other side, clearly didn’t expect YYg, that was famous for coming up with safe plans during the Spring Competition, would go with this type of tactic. And so, SF’s Mid, ADc, and Support were all surrounded, and two of them were instantly killed.

“Give the points to Further, give them to Further. This round, he’ll have to fight Kasha on the other side, so it’s safer to let him level up.” Zhou Tian gave her points away, “Guys, keep up with the good work. Don’t let any of them get past you. I’m going to go and slay some monsters.”

TL Note: Kasha = …hero? I think?

“Ooh, Tian sure does have some strong will to survive this round. She knows that our Xie ge didn’t have a good time last round.”

Zhou Tian: “…It’s because last round it ended faster than we’d expected it to be! ADc didn’t even have time to use any of his moves, so you can’t possibly blame me!”

“We’re not blaming you, of course,” Yin Yuanxia was already laughing his head off, “It’s best to finish work early. Right, Xie ge?”

Xie Yi, as usual, did not reply. But that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t interact or joke around with his teammates during the competition.

When they hit the twenty minutes mark, both sides started to fight because of the second fire dragon. Zhou Tian’s Zhao Xin skillfully circled around to the back and directly destroyed Team SF’s fighting formation, giving her teammates an advantage in the surroundings.

She was very confident in this team fight, and her teammates were also able to react quickly. Especially Xie Yi, who, just like how he’d played in the duo ranking during the past few days, didn’t waste a single second and instantly killed three more players.

“Further’s now 6-0. I’ve finally made up for what I did last round,” Zhou Tian said, “Anyway, I’m gonna go to the top path after slaying this dragon.”

“Making up?”

“So, you stole six kills from Xie ge last round?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Zhou Tian nodded her head madly.

At this moment, Xie Yi sighed and opened his mouth.

“You’re not done yet,” Xie Yi said, “I killed one of them on the lower path this round.”

Zhou Tian: “…”

Xie Yi continued: “You were on the mid path that time.”

TL Note: Once again, pretty confusing. I’m guessing that he means that she still owes him some kills, since she (?) stole some kills? Probably.

Zhou Tian took a deep breath and said: “Oh, then I’ll make up for it the next time we team fight. I really need to go to the top path now!”

Xie Yi didn’t say anything, but everyone who was sitting in the audience section saw a light smile from him on the screen.

Zhou Tian wasn’t just saying that to forget it later. She said that she would make it up during the next team fight, and she did. She confidently ditched the dragon and joined the fight during the most important time.

“Jess, Jess, Jess!!” Noticing that the mid player on the other side, that didn’t have much blood to begin with, couldn’t hold on for much longer after Zhou Tian used her move, she started directing her teammates with a high voice, “Use your moves on Jess!”

TL Note: Jess = hero, I think.

“Dead.” Xie Yi said.

“I think that we can let Xie ge kill all five of them this time.” Maybe it was, since Zhou Tian started the team fights a perfectly, this time, YYg was doing extremely well. The atmosphere around their conversations weren’t tight, and Yin Yuanxia was the most enthusiastic one out of them all.

Unfortunately, just as he was speaking, Zhou Tian had already killed the ADc on the other side with her godlike hand-speed.

Zhou Tian: “…You should’ve said it earlier.”

“Slay the dragon.” Xie Yi, however, didn’t mind their plan of him killing all five players, “We’ll be able to push away the after slaying the dragon.”

And a wave means to push away the wave of fights to the other side’s base in order to end the game.

And so, after he said that, YYg did, in fact, push all the way to the base with the buff from slaying the dragon.

The players from Team SF did try to defend their base with their last efforts, after reviving one by one. But the differences between the quality of equipment between the two teams was too obvious. They couldn’t even clear out YYg’s soldiers. And so, of course, their crystal was broken.

TL’s Note: The soldiers are part of the game, which each team’s base automatically spawns in to help their players push towers and attack the other side’s base. Of course, they are also something that can distract towers. For more information, you can google or try LoL yourself. 😉

At the exact moment that the crystal broke, there was a loud wave of roaring and cheering.

The five players of Team YYg stood up one by one and went over to the other side to shake hands with their opponents. Then, they came back to collect their equipment.

Zhou Tian went back to the waiting room and was told that later on she would have to go back on stage to be interviewed with Xie Yi. She nearly lost her stand: “What?!”

Zhou Tian went back to the waiting room and was told that later on, she would have to go back on stage to be interviewed with Xie Yi. She nearly lost her ground: “What?!”

Her teammates, however, weren’t surprised at all: “You were the MVP in the first round and also did pretty well in the second round. You’re also on the advertisement video with Xie ge. Honestly, it’d be surprising if you weren’t going to be interviewed after the game.”

Zhou Tian: “…”

So after resting for a few minutes, she followed Xie Yi back on stage, very confused.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of.” Xie Yi whispered before they got on stage, as if believing that she was still anxious.

Zhou Tian actually wasn’t really afraid. It was just that she had too many emotions mixing up in her mind. She still wasn’t completely back in reality.

The good thing was that the first few questions in the interview were all directed at Xie Yi. For example, things like how he was feeling after winning the competition, how would he celebrate with his teammates after the competition, etc.

When they started interviewing her, she realized that their questions weren’t very hard. Instead, they were all about the competition.

She listened carefully, then raised her microphone and answered honestly.

“After the level one T.F., I thought that we really needed to use the formation of the second round and that we needed to protect the AD. So, we wanted to let the AD to get more kills and level up sooner, so that we’d be able to get an advantage in the team fights later.” She paused, “Then, I asked my teammates, and they all thought that it was a great idea, so we just did it.”

The host was a bit shocked: “So you were the person who made the decision?”

Zhou Tian: “Of course, isn’t the Jungler always the person who directs the team?”

Such an honest and blunt answer almost stopped the host from continuing the interview because she was too startled. Luckily, since the audience offstage were also shocked from hearing this answer, there were a lot of whispers. These noises were able to make the host come back to reality and also help continue the interview.

“Next, comes the last question for our Further. Today, your team won your first battle with a decent result of 2-0. You’ve also completed Yuzhou’s first competition perfectly. So, as the most prestigious member in the team, how would you like to annotate your new teammate?”

After hearing the question, Xie Yi considered for a while with his eyes on the ground. Then, he said: “A bit fierce.”

Zhou Tian: “???” I’ve already came to the lower path and already did so much labor?! What do you mean, fierce!

TL Note: Like, she thinks that she did so much work yet he still calls her fierce, (probably she thinks that there could be better words that describe her) so she’s a bit confused (kind of)

The host was also bewildered: “Why would you think that she’s fierce? Would you mind if you disclose some more information with everyone?”

This time Xie Yi replied quickly: “The way she plays is fierce. She’s also fierce in person.” Especially when she directed the team. Every single sentence that she said, sounded as if she was going to run in and bite someone’s head off the next second.

There was a lot of shouting and whispering in the audiences’ directions, but Zhou Tian couldn’t figure out what they were so excited about.

The interview ended. While her teammates were still backstage preparing for the next part of interacting with the fans, she turned to Xie Yi and mouthed for him to not say untrue things about her.

Unfortunately, Xie Yi ignored her, and her teammates were already on stage with their presents for the lucky fans.

TL Note: I think this is like something that happens when fans are lucky and get the chance to meet their gaming idols after the competition?

Zhou Tian had watched this part before on her computer. But now that it was her turn to stand on stage, she still felt as if it was a very strange but wonderful sensation.

She also felt a bit worried. It was her first day in the professional gaming circle, and you could say that she absolutely had no idea whether she even had any fans over here. There probably wouldn’t even be one fan that liked her in the five lucky fans that were chosen randomly! If that was the case, then wouldn’t she be unable to give out the present in her hands right now?

After thinking it all through, Zhou Tian was even prepared for the awkward situation that would occur later.

However, the result was, not long after the host announced the first lucky audience’s seat number, a tall and strong man jumped onto the stage, took over the microphone, and spoke excitedly: “I am Yu, Yuzhou Mei‘s fan!”

Zhou Tian: “…” Fuck, was this really not someone that the officials found to help me out with these awkward situations? But, wouldn’t it be too obvious if they made him come up first?

The man was really enthusiastic: “I’ve always been watching your live-streams. From a very early, I’ve always felt that you have the skills and potential to become a professional. Now that I see you becoming an actual real professional player, I’m really glad, and I’ll try really hard to get tickets to your competitions in the future, so that I can support you even more!”

Host: “Wow, this Xiao ge ge’s story is very touching.”

TL’s Note: Xiao ge ge is what Chinese use to call young men that they are not familiar with but it’s just a name… very hard to explain.

Xiao ge ge held the microphone tighter, took a deep breath, and continued: “I really would like to see Yuzhou use Kindred on professional competitions in the near future!”

“I believe in you. I know that you are not only the number one Kindred in the Korean server, but that you can also become the world’s best Kindred player!”

Zhou Tian saw that his hands were a bit shaky as he said the last part. She also finally believed that this man was really one of her fans.

Then, when the fan came over to get her present, she whispered her thanks to him.

The host saw what happened, and gave the microphone to her, while asking: “So, will Yuzhou make Xiao ge ge’s wish come true, and use your famous Kindred in the near future?”

Zhou Tian took the microphone and scratched her head with her empty hand, “…Eh, I actually really want to use it. But the other side just won’t give it to me! It’s either chosen already, or it’d be banned before I even get to choose it.”

“Then… Let’s hope that the next opponent I face would give me the chance of making my fan’s wish come true?”

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Credits: Sydney, Kathrien, & Dora

Chapter 5: Negotiation of The Compensation

For the next few days, Liu Man did what she usually did. She went to school, practiced piano, and reviewed for the exam, trying very hard to get used to her new character. She couldn’t and didn’t let anyone see the difference in her personality. Even Zhang Pei didn’t realize that her own daughter was already a completely different person.

The weekend arrived soon, and after a discussion with Lawyer Sun, Liu Man and her mother were ready to go and visit the family members of the delivery man that’d died. Liu Chenyu had been kept in custody for the past few days, and except for the lawyer, no one was allowed to see him. Zhang Pei didn’t inform any of her family members. Firstly, Liu Chenyu’s parents were too old, so she didn’t want to startle them. Secondly, Zhang Pei had a good reputation, so she didn’t want her friends and family to laugh at her.

They appointed the rendezvous at a small room in an eastern restaurant.

Liu Man and her mother brought a hundred thousand in cash and arrived early with Lawyer Sun.

Lawyer Sun’s full name was Sun Yiyi. He was Zhang Pei’s high school classmate and a prestigious lawyer. He was also very famous in the industry and had a good relationship with Zhang Pei and her family. The two families often interacted with each other.

Lawyer Sun informed Zhang Pei several things to keep in mind during the negotiation.

Liu Man quietly looked at him. In her memories, Lawyer Sun’s family didn’t really like her. Both Lawyer Sun and his wife were straight A students that worked in the justice field. 

They had only one child called Sun Weiwei, who was the same age as her. Sun Weiwei was also a straight A student that now studied in Capital City University. Because the two families were so close, Liu Man and Sun Weiwei were classmates during elementary school and middle school. But, Sun Weiwei had a much higher IQ compared to Liu Man, and it showed especially when it came to exam results. Her results were always compared to Sun Weiwei’s, which made her very angry.

But Sun Weiwei’s looks were average, and that was the only thing that made Liu Man feel better. Once, during a math exam in middle school, Sun Weiwei achieved a full score while Liu Man had failed. Liu Man, livid and jealous, told Sun Weiwei, “You’re so ugly. Does it even matter if you got a good score?”

Liu Man’s words severely harmed Sun Weiwei’s self-esteem. Sun Weiwei held back her tears until she arrived home. Then, she cried out loud, in front of her mother.

After that, the two families weren’t as close as they used to be. During high school, Liu Man’s grades were far below expectations and she had to become an art student. She and Sun Weiwei never contacted each other again.

Now, after seeing Lawyer Sun doing everything he could to help their family, she felt shameful of the old Liu Man. He did not seek revenge but instead helped them. It was quite obvious that he wasn’t caring about a young girl who had no brain.

The delivery man that had died was called Wang Chunhua. He was twenty-nine years old and had three children. The oldest one, a daughter, was seven years old. The younger daughter was five years old, and the youngest, a boy, was only two years old. 

The family members who came to see Zhang Pei were Wang Chunhua’s wife, mother, and younger brother. They came to the capital city from their hometown, after receiving the news that Wang Chunhua passed away.

The atmosphere was extremely awkward when the Wang family arrived.

The wife’s eyes were very red, and you wouldn’t be able to tell if they were red from crying or from anger. She glared at Zhang Pei, as if Zhang Pei was an accomplice who helped kill her husband.

Zhang Pei forgot all about her apologies when she saw the woman’s glare.

Wang Chunhua’s mother suddenly hollered at Zhang Pei, without them even starting the negotiation, “My son died such a horrible death, all because of you guys!”

She patted her chest with both of her hands with a sad and angry expression, screaming. Zhang Pei was scared by her spiteful glare and took a step back.

Liu Man, however, stayed calm and wasn’t scared at all. She had seen a lot of these crying and screaming women in the cold palace. She was already used to it, so she wasn’t scared at all.

“The event has already happened, so you’ll need to hope that the justice system gives your family a fair trial,” Lawyer Sun said, while trying to make the atmosphere better, “We never wanted this to happen either. We invited you here today to try to fix our mistakes.”

Lawyer Sun glanced at Zhang Pei, and Zhang Pei immediately said, “Yes, yes. We really want to apologize for what my husband did. Sorry, we really are very sorry for your loss.”

Liu Man bowed with Zhang Pei. The apology was earnest and honest, because the delivery man did die.

“Apologize? Can an apology bring my brother back?” Wang Zhihua, Wang Chunhua’s brother, said angrily. He looked as old as Liu Man, and wore black framed glasses.

This somehow triggered Mrs. Wang, Wang Chunhua’s mother. Again, she howled and wept, “My oldest son had such a tragic life. In order to support his siblings for their education, he went to work before he’d graduated. A few years ago, he spent all his time working, in order to send his father to the hospital. He finally had gotten a wife, and his days had just gotten a little better, but then he was killed by your husband!”

Mrs. Wang’s sharp cries made Liu Man’s eyelids jump.

Zhang Pei glanced at Lawyer Sun. She had nothing left to say. 

Lawyer Sun sighed in his head. The negotiation hadn’t even begun, yet Zhang Pei had already began to lose mentally. The other side had already taken complete control.

He’d known Zhang Pei for almost thirty years and knew Zhang Pei’s soft personality extremely well. He knew that she was used to relying on her husband, that she was always scared of things, and that she couldn’t decide on ideas. Liu Man’s personality was similar to her mother’s. She was a coward, arrogant, and would never be able to accomplish anything big. These two, the mother and daughter duo, couldn’t do anything. He’d have to solve it all by himself.

“Although the driver did commit a crime by drunk driving, your son isn’t completely innocent either,” Lawyer Sun said. 

Liu Man didn’t know how it happened, so she paid close attention to what he was saying.

“My client didn’t drive past the speed limit and didn’t do anything else, except for drinking wine before all of this had happened. Wang Chunhua was driving his motorcycle at a very fast speed and bumped into my client’s car because he was driving the wrong way. According to the report from the traffic police, my client did step on the brakes during the time that the event had occurred.” He continued to say. 

Wang Zhihua interrupted Lawyer Sun’s statement and said sharply, “Nonsense, we’ve already seen the certificate of liability from the traffic police. Your client is the one that’s mainly responsible for this.”

“That’s because the police are very strict about drunk driving right now, and my client just happened to commit that felony at this time,” Lawyer Sun said with a steady tone, “Me and my client’s family did not invite you over today to argue, for we’re here to solve the problem. We all have a clear understanding of how and why this event happened. Furthermore, my client didn’t commit a hit-and-run. He did all he could and took Wang Chunhua to the hospital. Now that Wang Chunhua has passed away, my client and his family feel very shameful and regretful about what had happened, so they really want to compensate you.”

“Then, how much are you willing to compensate?” The lawyer from the other side, who had never spoken up, asked suddenly. He’d also stopped his clients from arguing anymore. He wasn’t scared by Lawyer Sun’s tone.

The lawyer on the other side was called Zhao Feng. He was a very young lawyer and looked as if he’d just graduated from college. Regardless of that, his eyes were still very astute. His eyes were observing Zhang Pei and Liu Man the moment he had entered the room. As if he was evaluating their value.

Liu Man didn’t know why, but she really hated the way he looked at her.

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Credits: Sydney, Dora, Kathrien, & Hill

Chapter 9

A week before the summer tournament, Zhou Tian only had four things to do every day: eat, sleep, train, and rank with Xie Yi.

Normally, the five of them were in perfect condition, so she and Xie Yi didn’t need to train that hard at night. But when Xie Yi insisted, she had to train with him. Especially, with the summer tournament so close, she found herself a bit nervous.

For Zhou Tian, when she didn’t have anything to distract her with, it’d make her feel more nervous. So, spending her free time on ranking wasn’t really that bad.

At least, when she concentrated on the game, she wouldn’t think about stuff as much.

A week later, since the resting season was finally over, this year’s LpL summer tournament officially began.

The YYg team, which had made a lot of commotion during the resting season, was finally arranged to play on the starting match after many years. The opposing team happened to be the first opponent that Zhou Tian had met since stepping into the professional gaming circle. It was the same SF team, that’d also made a lot of commotion during the resting season.

The SF team stood for Staunch Faith, meaning firm belief. It might’ve sounded weird, but on the gaming background, it looked lit. 

It was the new season opening match, and two giant teams were against each other. The match was, of course, high anticipated. 

On the day of the tournament, the YYg team had arrived three hours earlier to the tournament area. After they went backstage, and into their team’s resting room, Zhou Tian found out that they had to put on makeup before the match.

“Can’t help it, the officials made it a rule.” Yin Yuanxia shrugged, “Maybe it’s because they think that because eSports players don’t sleep, if we’d go on stage, we’d look terrible.”

Zhou Tian: “……” She looked at her reflection in the mirror, then saw the very obvious dark circles under eyes. She couldn’t refute him.

Speaking of this, she really thought that God was unfair. Both she and Xie Yi slept around the same time, yet you couldn’t even see a trace of dark circles on his face.

He only needed a bit of foundation to look handsome. You wouldn’t even be able to tell that he pulled all-nighters all year long.

“Ugh.” Zhou Tian had to sigh.

“Is something wrong? Are you nervous for the match?” Yin Yuanxia was in charge of hyping the team up, so he spoke. “It’s actually not that bad. Once you sit on your chair, you won’t even be facing the audience. It’s just the computer screen. So, just play like it’s a practice match, and remember, we won more than once during practices.”

Zhou Tian: “I know, I’m not nervous for the match.”

Yin Yuanxia: “?? Then why are you sighing?”

“I’m just jealous about how Further’s skin is so perfect, despite him sleeping so late.” Zhou Tian said, “He and I sleep together everyday.”

She meant that the two of them powered off their computers at the same time everyday. But, in her makeup artist’s ears, it was a totally different meaning.

TL Note: Yes, yes, Zhou Tian and Xie Yi DO NOT sleep together in the bed. It’s a different meaning, okay?

When she finished speaking, her makeup artist’s hand was shaking.           

The other teammates didn’t think too much about it. Instead, they all laughed and said: “We can’t really do anything about it, though. Even the game host wants to know Xie Yi’s skin routine.”

Zhou Tian was eager to ask: “So, do you have a routine?”

Everyone in the room was looking at Xie Yi.

Xie Yi’s mouth twitched and said: “No.”

“……So, basically, it’s natural beauty.” Zhou Tian was very disappointed, “Ugh, that’s even more maddening.”

“Natural beauty?” Yin Yuanxia almost spat out the water that he’d just drank.

“Then, what would it be?” Zhou Tian thought that her word usage was very precise and accurate, “It’s natural beauty.”

Yin Yuanxia: “……”

He looked at Xie Yi, saw the face that he was making, then looked back at Zhou Tian. Finally, he decided to remind her, “We eSports players pay attention to skill, not beauty.”

Meaning that Xie Yi normally didn’t like people complimenting his appearance.

Zhou Tian didn’t understand, “But I didn’t say that he lacked skills. I was just complimenting his looks.”

Yin Yuanxia was speechless again. Ah, she really didn’t fear Xie Yi at all!

The truth was, ever since her idol, Ye Bo, told her about Xie Yi’s true personality, and how he’d helped her, Zhou Tian didn’t fear her cold-hearted teammate anymore.

During the nights that they’d ranked on, when Xie Yi made a mistake, she’d just point it out.

Although Xie Yi wouldn’t apologize for his mistakes, when she did point them out, he’d definitely wouldn’t make the same mistake again in the next round.

As for her mistakes, he never went soft on her because she was new. What needed to be said, would be said. There was no hesitation.

Going back and forth like that made their relationship grow closer.

After doing their makeup, the team went onto the stage to check on the equipment. Once they made sure that there were no errors, they quietly went back to the resting room to prepare for the match.

At this time, the audience had already begun to head to their seats.

Zhou Tian looked down at the stage, not knowing what or how to describe what she was feeling.

She reminisced of when she had just started as a small video game streamer, with her family endlessly demanding for money, while also making fun of her for not getting a proper job, constantly repeating the words: “How are you going to live like that?” And scolding the well-known sentence, “You’ll never get married.”

Interestingly enough, she’d managed to last through all those problems. Adding onto that, Zhou Tian walked on a path that she had never imagined of before.

She didn’t want to fail the people that had given her these chances and opportunities. She didn’t want to fail herself either.

At exactly 5pm, the summer tournament would start.

After quite a lot of babbling from the host, Team YYg and Team SF both entered the stage, heading to their seats.

Both coaches stood in their positions, beginning to arrange positions and characters for the ban-pick selection.

The summer tournament had the same rules as the spring tournament. Winning two out of three matches would lead you to victory. Team YYg was on the red side for the first match.

In this subversion of the game, the red team had a minor disadvantage. After both teams decided on which characters to ban, the blue team would choose their players and characters for this round.

This meant that the blue team could use the best hero and decide not to ban it while giving the selecting option to the red team.

If the red team chose to ban a character, then the blue team would be given a free BP (ban-pick) selection space. If red chose not to, then during the selection time, the blue team could take down the best heroes immediately, therefore, adding strength to their team.

“This game, though, won’t really affect the whole tournament,” the coach said, while smirking. “We can just put JM. They won’t want to take it, because if Boss Su goes, then their whole team has only JM left, allowing them to only be able to take the midroad. This gives us a great chance to counterattack them.”

TL Note: JM is a character from the game. As for Boss Su… I don’t know. Maybe another character?

The team’s mid, Wang Ren, spoke: “Yes, yes. Just wait ‘till they take JM, then I’ll beat them to death. Hah!”

And so, when JM was not banned, Team SF hesitated and ended up leaving JM. Instead, they chose a Jungler hero, Qian Jue. 

“Wow. Taking Qian Jue. Did they become so afraid of Zhou murdering everyone with Qian Jue because of the practice round? Haha!” After seeing the opposing team sigh and make their final choices, Yin Yuanxia hollered, “Zhou is amazing!”

TL Note: Zhou = Zhou Tian

Zhou Tian stuttered, “Uh.. It’s my first time in a battle. Is there really a need to draw attention to me?”

The coach laughed: “You were a beast on the practice rounds. The opponents are scared of you, so they chose Qian Jue. Their team also has a member that’s good at using QJ.”

Zhou Tian thought, “Then I’d like to see how ‘good’ they are.”

After both teams finished ban-picking, the match officially began. The audience started to excitedly chant for their teams.

Because Zhou Tian was crazily targeted during the BP section, she took on the role of the “nerfed” character, QGY.

TL Note: QGY is also a hero from the game.

Actually, it wasn’t really that much of a deal. Since SF chose to target only her, they couldn’t target anyone else. So, all four of her teammates had successfully acquired characters that they were good at. 

The coach said, “I believe in you, Zhou! They haven’t seen what you’ve done with QGY, but we have! Didn’t Ye Bo also say that you playing QGY was pretty good, so you’ll do fine this round.” He patted her shoulder.

Other than Xie Yi, the rest of her team went along with the coach’s words, while complimenting her. Only Xie Yi did not speak.

Zhou Tian said nothing either. She nodded her head, took a deep breath, then readied herself into the game.

The opponents made it obvious that they wanted the newest player to be the key to their success. They practically forced her to spend all her time into farming XP and power for a higher chance of survival.

Ironically, QGY was a difficult hero to get a head start in the start of the match. It was slow on increasing levels and was hard to control.

Yet Zhou Tian stood her ground. “I’m not giving them a single chance.” She quickly increased her levels and headed toward mid-road without hesitation. Before the opposing side had reacted, she and Wang Ren already got a kill together. “I’m just gonna take this kill, or else it’ll be hard to survive before level 6.”

“Got it, got it,” Wang Ren said, laughing as he killed off a squadron of soldiers. “You can head down to the lower pathway now.”

“The low path can handle without me, since Further doesn’t need any help right now.” She said as she moved her character towards the lake, checking in on the area. “I don’t need to go.”

“If we win today, then the compliment you just gave for Xie will definitely make it to the microphone.” The match had just started, yet, Yin Yuanxia was already thinking about what would happen when it ended.

The rest of the team members didn’t shame him, though. Everyone believed that their team would win.

After twenty-nine long, hard minutes of staring at a screen, the match ended. Zhou Tian performed admirably well during the match by ganking well for the first few minutes. She retrieved back the resources that they had lost in the early stages of the match and only died once in the whole round, giving her amazing stats.

This, of course, made the opponents immediately ban QGY for the second round.

 The coach was very pleased with their performance for the first match, so the conversation for the second BP round arose.

“So, should we wait for them to give Qian Jue to Zhou?”

“Yeah! Our Zhou is the best Qian Jue on the Korean server. Let her play one of the most famous heroes, eh?”

Zhou Tian actually didn’t really mind about which hero she needed to play. Winning matches and getting good feedback was more important. But her teammate’s words gave her a bit of hope.

Yet at the moment ZT was most excited for, Xie Yi, who’d never left the left corner of the screen on the map during the entire match, opened his mouth and spoke.

“It’s gone.” Xie Yi said. “Play something else.”

Not knowing if she was hallucinating, Zhou Tian heard a bit of laughter from their team’s ADc…

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Credits: Kathrien, Dora, & Akiyo

It’s quite sad to see you leave, Akiyo, but your efforts were appreciated.

Chapter 8

In order to take revenge on Xie Yi for mocking him in front of his fans, Ye Bo, who’d fallen out of his King rank because he lost thirteen rounds in a row, now gave the rest of the YYg teammates a lot of information about the things that Xie Yi did when he was younger.

In fact, the relationship between the two wasn’t as simple as what the LpL fans thought it was. They didn’t just come from the same town; they practically grew up on the same street. They could be considered as best friends. Ye Bo had skipped class with Xie Yi the first time Xie Yi had played League of Legends.

Later on, Xie Yi, like Ye Bo, considered playing LoL as a professional. And so it was Ye Bo, who had already been a professional gamer at the time, who helped persuade his parents.

“At first, he wanted to play as a Jungler too and even wanted to be better than me. But he had no other better skills than me except for controlling the characters a bit better. Fortunately, he realized that playing Jungler was the wrong decision and changed to playing AD. Otherwise, he’d still probably suck so much that he wouldn’t even be here.” Ye Bo said.

He was older than Xie Yi, and, of course, more prestigious. He also had a great relationship with Xie Yi, which was why he didn’t consider anything before saying these words.

But the rest of the people at YYg didn’t have the courage to do so. They were shivering, even just as an audience.

Zhou Tian, as the new teammate, wasn’t an exception. After listening, she unconsciously looked in Xie Yi’s direction and wanted to see his reaction.

But Xie Yi himself wasn’t angry after hearing this. He even laughed: “Oh, so even you know that you’re bad at controlling characters.”

“I’m just a bit worse than you. Anyway, this bad bitch plays the game with strategies, with my brain. Players that only play with hand-speed will never understand.” Ye Bo retorted.

“Fuck off,” Xie Yi probably realized that continuing to argue with this person would be childish, so he just waved his hand at his friend, while speaking with a tone even colder than his expression, “Don’t bother me while I’m ranking.”

“Who’s bothering you?” Ye Bo thought that the statement was an injustice, “You can go rank or whatever. It’s not like I’m going to stop you.”

Xie Yi: “……”

He directly turned towards Zhou Tian: “Come.”

Although Zhou Tian wanted to have a few more words with her idol, when she thought of the fact that she was the one that called Xie Yi and told him to come back, she decided that she couldn’t refuse.

The good thing was that Ye Bo didn’t mind anyway. He joked around with the others for a few more moments, then went downstairs to call a taxi back to the tSD base.

After he left, Zhou Tian and Xie Yi played duo ranking for almost four hours. Once again, they played to the latest time out of the entire team.

But staying up late did help them a lot. After playing duo ranking for many rounds, Zhou Tian felt conspicuously that she and Xie Yi were cooperating better and better. Sometimes, they didn’t even need to communicate to figure out where the other person was and what they were about to do. Thus, they collaborated well and led the rest of the team to victory.

After a few days, not only did Zhou Tian manage to completely stabilize her new position of number four in the Korean server, Xie Yi’s position was also able to come into the top twenty, and it looked like he had a good chance of getting into the top ten.

TL Note: i think this is like server ranking

In the brief break that she took to go back to her room and take a shower, Zhou Tian took out her phone and logged onto Wei Bo as a habit. This resulted in her, as she scrolled down the timeline, seeing a picture that was obviously taken recently in the YYg training room.

@tSD-Delphi: I crossed half of Shanghai to find someone for dinner, and that someone was too busy with ranking and told me to get out. This is ludicrous and makes me very angry. [Image]

Zhou Tian clicked onto the image and realized that Ye Bo took a live photo. It was actually taken when Xie Yi was waiting for the bureau to put him in a server and was telling Ye Bo to get out.

Because of this, the entire discussion section under this post became filled with Xie Yi’s fans commenting, “Ahhhhhh!” since they usually never had the chance to hear Xie Yi say such a long sentence.

This was what the scene looked like—

@XXXX: Wow, Lord Prophet really does have a good relationship with Daddy Xie. This is the first time I heard Daddy Xie talk in this tone!

@XXX: This voice! This hand! This face! I’m going to die!! I really am going to die!!!

@XXXXXX: Fuck, Daddy Xie’s voice is soo sexy! I think I’ve only put it on replay for just three hundred times or so… If I listen to it one more time, I think my ears are going to get pregnant.

……

@XXXXX: Well, the main thing is, wasn’t Lord Prophet the one who crossed half of Shanghai just to find Daddy Xie for dinner?! My God, these two people, as friends, are really a bit too close!!!

@XX: I really ship them! Really, really! 

TL Note: Shipping is like a term when you support two people to be together

Zhou Tian recognized that a few of the accounts that had a lot of likes on their comments were ones that were commonly seen in Xie Yi’s main page. So, she decided to look around in Xie Yi’s main page too.

The result was that the people who were cursing her at noon were now cheering delightfully. Everyone was commently crazily about the photo that Ye Bo send and directly forgot about her.

Although she had a calm vibe while being insulted by Xie Yi’s fans, it didn’t mean that she felt good about being berated. Now that she saw that Xie Yi’s fans temporarily forgot about her, she was finally able to relax a bit for the time being.

When she lied down on her bed, she hesitated for a moment, but still decided to thank Ye Bo, who’d unconsciously helped her get out of her awkward status.

Coincidentally, at two o’clock in the morning, Ye Bo wasn’t asleep either. He not only replied after receiving her gratitude, but also told her some unexpected news.

“Oh, to be honest, Ah Yi told me to post that. He said that he didn’t expect that you’d be cursed at even more after he posted that message. He was afraid that your training would be affected and he regretted posting. But it wouldn’t be okay just to recall it either, so he asked me if there was anything I could do to solve it.”

TL’s Note: Ah Yi is basically Xie Yi. People add Ah （阿) in front of others’ names because they were close to them.

Zhou Tian had almost closed her eyes due to exhaustion, but after seeing his response, she became extremely cautious.

And Ye Bo, on the other side of the chat, continued his explanation.

“I didn’t know what to do either, I didn’t even understand why his fans were scolding you so crazily. So, I had a conversation with our tSD team’s advertisement department. They normally spend a lot of their time studying the fan circles for their advertisements, and they said that the best thing that could be done at the moment was to direct the attention of Ah Yi’s fans away. So, I thought for a while and decided to come over and have dinner with him.”

At first, Ye Bo only wanted to just take a picture of the two of them having dinner. But after he followed Xie Yi into the YYg base, he thought that he could take a few more pictures and see if they’d be better. Then, he unintentionally took a live photo of Xie Yi talking. He felt as if it was much better than the previous photos.

The effect that occurred after he posted the picture was obviously much more amazing than he thought it would be.

After seeing this picture, Xie Yi’s fans wouldn’t think much more about who was on the cover of the advertisement video. Instead, they’d all come over to praise their “God!”

The startled Zhou Tian stared at the long explanation Ye Bo sent and didn’t come back to reality until Ye Bo sent her a new message.

Ye Bo said: “Ah Yi is just cold on the outside, but truly, he’s a very good person on the inside. The press just likes to make use of his anti-social personality. But he really isn’t actually that cold, it’s just that he cares too much about competition results, so he doesn’t really joke around on some issues. But then again, doesn’t every single professional player care a lot about their competition results? Right?”

Zhou Tian laid on her bed, bit her lip, then typed a short response— Mm, I know.

She could feel Xie Yi’s obsession with winning ever since they first played duo rank together past midnight.

But just like what Ye Bo said, he was already playing the game for his career, so of course he wouldn’t just play it for fun.

To all professional gamers, if you played the game, then you had to win.

Zhou Tian was glad to become his teammate when she became a professional gamer, because she realized Xie Yi had a strong desire to win. She was also a bit touched and delighted when she learned how he had helped her without her even knowing.

She opened her DM with Xie Yi because she wanted to thank him. But she couldn’t think of any satisfying word choices, so at last, she ended up falling asleep with her phone still in her hands.

The next morning, when she was awoken by her alarm, she thought of the gratitude message that she hadn’t sent last night and immediately unlocked her phone to check on it, but was instead stunned by what she saw next.

She unconsciously pressed a lot of weird buttons and even sent it to Xie Yi!

What’s even worse was that Xie Yi hadn’t fallen asleep yet and instead responded with question marks.

Zhou Tian: “…” Oh fuck, this is so embarrassing. I really need to explain what happened when I’m downstairs later.

The duo left their bedrooms at around the same time and met on the same floor.

Zhou Tian had already thought of what she was going to say, yet when she actually saw Xie Yi in person, she was at a loss for words.

In the end, Xie Yi noticed her hesitating expression, which was different from before, and then frowned at her: “What do you want to say?”

Zhou Tian stared for a brief moment. Was her thinking really that obvious? But in the end, she still took a deep breath and nodded her head, then quickly explained about her midnight message.

“It’s… It’s just that I was too sleepy, and I didn’t even know what I was pressing.” She was standing beside the stairs and was trying to explain in a soft voice, so that she wouldn’t wake up her other teammates.

“Yeah.” He said, “Guessed that.”

Zhou Tian scratched her head, then said: “I was originally going to thank you. Ye Bo already told me.”

When Xie Yi heard the first half of the sentence, his facial expressions didn’t change at all. But then when he heard her say that Ye Bo had already told her, he lifted his eyelids while frowning a little bit. He looked unhappy.

“So nosy,” He said, then realized that his speech had probably made her mistake something. So, he then coughed before adding: “Not you, though.”

Zhou Tian : “Um…..”

She wanted to say “I know,” but didn’t get the chance to, because Xie Yi spoke first, even before she had said the “I.”

“Go down and have breakfast,”

Zhou Tian: “…..” Okay then, the universe was big, Earth was pretty big, but the game was the biggest. He really was the “most emotionless rank bot in the entire LoL professional gaming circle.”

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Credits: Sydney, Hill, & Kathrien

Chapter 4: Knowing Tang Tu

Liu Man, however, was unconscious when all of that had happened. She recognized the man in front of him as Tang Tu, but she didn’t expect that the real Tang Tu would be even more handsome than the one in “her” memories. She could now see why the old Liu Man liked him so much.

“I’m fine, now. Sorry for troubling you yesterday to drop me off in the school clinic,” Liu Man already figured out what happened from the whispers around her and Tang Tu’s reaction. Li Xiaoru and Wang Nina, as two girls, couldn’t have possibly carried a fainted person to the school clinic all by themselves, so clearly, Tang Tu had helped.

Liu Man took a deep breath and didn’t feel embarrassed anymore, so she raised her head to look at Tang Tu, “ Really, thank you so much.”

“As long as you’re ok,” Tang Tu smiled. He looked at her bright and clear eyes, then heard himself say unconsciously, “You’re from the piano major?”

Liu Man answered yes.

“What’s your name?”

Before she answered, she paused for a moment, “Liu Man.”

“Liu Man…” Tang Tu repeated, “You don’t have to thank me, I just happened to be there,” He waved his hand carelessly and walked out of the classroom.

This classroom was only for sophomores, and Tang Tu was already in his senior year. He didn’t come to school often, and rumors said that he had already signed a contract with an entertainment corporation. When he graduates, he’d be able to immediately enter the entertainment circle. The classical music society was really hard to work in these days, and the young adults were too restless to focus on studying classical music, so Tang Tu’s decision of becoming an actor and musician was very smart.

The entire class went crazy after Tang Tu left. Everyone’s looks were even stranger when they looked at Liu Man now. Was Tang Tu here just to check on Liu Man?

Liu Man felt anonymous pressure. She knew that in this world, the relationships between opposite genders were very open. People didn’t need their parents’ permission to date somebody. If you liked someone, you can date them. If you argue, then break up. You don’t have to keep the relationship. But there were still basic rules, you can’t probe into other people’s relationships. People call those who probed in relationships: the third wheel.

It would be great if the people in the past had thought of this. Then maybe her mother, her aunt, Madam Xu, Beauty Yu and other women wouldn’t have had to die in such horrible ways…

Li Xiaoru and Wang Nina arrived at the classroom right at this moment and found their friend by following everyone else’s gaze. They jogged up to her while secretly giggling. Especially Li Xiaoru, whose eyes were almost squeezed into a single line because of her smile.

The duo sat down beside her.

“Tang Tu came to find you! Be honest with us. Did you two already know each other before?”

“I knew it! Otherwise, why else would he be so nice and drop you by the clinic?”

The two girls said, agreeing with each other. They recently came up with the theory that Liu Man had a crush on Tang Tu, for she wasn’t paying much attention when she practiced the piano and skipped class for a couple of times. She also cried for no reason and ate a lot less than usual. She lost weight and looked very feeble. It looked as if her crush had been taken.

The old Liu Man hid her secret away deep inside her heart. She was a person who had a heart of pride, but still held on to this hopeless relationship.

“Nonsense, Tang Tu already has a girlfriend,” Liu Man said with a wrinkled eyebrow.

Li Xiaoru curled her lips, “If you can steal him from his folk music goddess, then it would be a miracle.”

Tang Tu was publicly known for his handsome appearance. Either way, Li Xiaoru thought that Tang Tu was the most handsome boy she had ever met in her entire life. Who, in this school, didn’t have a crush on him? But she knew that her appearance wasn’t the best, and she was already too embarrassed just to stand next to Tang Tu because he surely wouldn’t even glance at her. And when she looked around, the only person that wouldn’t look too bad and could stand next to the handsome Tang Tu, would be Liu Man.

She still remembered when she arrived at school on the first day of freshman year. The first time she saw Liu Man, she was so beautiful even without makeup on and only wore a simple white dress. Li Xiaoru was unable to take her eyes off of Liu Man. Even after getting to know Liu Man, Li Xiaoru knew that her friend’s personality was different from her appearance. Liu Man was lazy, self-centered, and  a bit arrogant. But Li Xiaoru was still willing to be friends with her.

“I don’t even like him a single bit now,” Liu Man said after carefully thinking about her words, “When I see him, I don’t even feel my heartbeat getting faster.”

Li Xiaoru and Wang Nina both thought she was joking, until they saw the sincerity in her eyes.

To be honest, with Liu Man’s appearance, she could definitely have a lot of followers and admirers over the past few years. But she paid all her attention to Tang Tu and was aloof to all the other boys. At first, some boys wanted to talk to her, but she always ignored them. After some time, the boys stopped trying to get her attention, since nobody could endure her shitty personality. So differently from all the other pretty girls, Liu Man had a very bad relationship with the opposite gender.

When she saw that her friends still didn’t believe what she said, she explained, “After I fainted last time, I thought it through. There are so many boys out there, why should I be stuck with this one person? I don’t want to make myself suffer, and I also don’t want to fight with the other fans of him. There is always a better person out there who’s just right for me.”

Even if you didn’t count the fact that she wasn’t the same old Liu Man anymore and didn’t like Tang Tu, just knowing the fact that Tang Tu already had a girlfriend, made her leave Tang Tu alone. She didn’t want to trace the steps of her mother. In the past, they were second wives. Now, they are the third wheel.

Li Xiaoru still wanted to say something when the bell rang and everyone quieted down.

The teacher was talking in front of the classroom. At first, everyone was paying all of their attention to the lecture. But after around ten minutes, Li Xiaoru and Wang Nina felt bored and played with their phones under the tables. Liu Man looked around and discovered that everyone else was doing the same thing.

Liu Man just realized that she hadn’t checked her phone until now. She took out her phone from her bag, turned it on, and saw that there was only ten percent of battery left.

“My God, did you even charge it last night?” Wang Nina nudged her. She had a bit of a battery OCD and couldn’t stand to see phones with low battery.

“I forgot to charge it.”

“You forgot? You can even forget about this? Who would go anywhere without their phone? Your phone is your life!” Wang Nina felt that it was strange.

Liu Man shrugged. She hadn’t completely gotten used to her new identity and didn’t have the time to learn what her phone could do. The memories of this body could let her quickly get the hang of modern technology devices, but that didn’t mean that she would get used to using them. Her reactions were always a second late.

She logged onto WeChat and realized that because she didn’t have a lot of friends, there weren’t a lot of messages for her, except for the classroom group chat, which had a few hundred unread messages. There was also a message from the class facilitator:

“@all Please remember to report the song you are going to perform at the end of the semester exam before tomorrow. Remember, remember, REMEMBER: Your score on the third-trimester exam must NOT be lower than 85 points.”

TL’s Note: WeChat is a Chinese social media app that’s a bit like WhatsApp or Snapchat. Different from Wei Bo though.

She flipped through the chat history and saw that Li Xiaoru and Wang Nina had already reported their songs. So she thought for a moment, and then sent Liu Man’s most recent song that she had practiced.

It wasn’t as easy as she thought to survive in this world.

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Credits: Sydney, Dora, & Kathrien

Chapter 7

After one hour, the other teammates woke up, and also enjoyed watching the advertisement video that the LpL officials sent. However, the comments below were just a bit too complicated to be described. 

“To be honest, Xie ge, you shouldn’t have reposted it,” Yin Yuanxia said, after sincerely looking at the discussions on Wei Bo. “Now that you’ve reposted it, your fans will hate Yuzhou— I mean, Zhou Tian, even more.

TL Note: Again, to remind you, Wei Bo is a social media similar to Facebook and Twitter.

“Why?” The others didn’t get the hidden logic there.

“Who’d like to be rebutted by their idol?” Yin Yuanxia said while rolling his eyes, “Especially, the ones who felt sorry for Xie ge were mostly female fans. They were scolding Zhou Tian enthusiastically for a good reason. But now that Xie ge reposted, now they can’t berate her, and are going to get mocked by other fans. Who would like that?”

TL Note: The reason it’s a “good reason” is because Zhou Tian took the cover spot when it was originally supposed to be Xie Yi

Zhou Tian heard his honest and serious explanation about what the fans were thinking. He looked even more serious than when he was practicing in the simulation competitions. She, however, was both surprised and amazed.

But amazement still did not change the fact that she still did not get his logic, and so she kept on asking: “But why would they hate me more?”

“It is of course because Xie ge posted that to defend you!” Yin YuanXia told her, “Although his fans were a bit too enthusiastic, it’s because they like him. They, of course, wouldn’t hate him after being rebutted. So instead, now they’ll hate you more than ever. I just glanced at his hot-topic-discussions and saw someone theorizing that he was probably ordered by the team manager to repost it.”

Zhou Tian: “…” The team must feel so unfair with this treatment.

Wang Ren, who was standing beside her, said her thoughts out loud for her: “That’s so unfair, though. Who would dare to order Xie ge to do what he wouldn’t want to do?”

“I know, right!” Yin YuanXia sighed, half lying down on his chair. He looked as if he was about to slip down any second.

“Alright, stop talking about random things,” Xie Yi, who didn’t share his thoughts until now, finally spoke. “Time for training.”

Even the development of the eSports industry had to start from scratch. However, nowadays, all of the most famous and largest teams all had very detailed and completed daily schedules for training.

Old and competitive teams like YYg were basically role-models for the entire league. They had an entire analytics team that would use information from simulation competitions and pieces of training to properly analyze their data. Then, they would review and give feedback to the players.

In the past two days, they’d fought against two powerful teams from two different gaming districts without any rest.

Training was always the most important thing in YYg. So, everyone immediately turned their attention away from the official advertisement video and focused on training after Xie Yi spoke up.

Zhou Tian didn’t dare to relax either. She immediately adjusted the height of her chair and focused on training.

But after hearing Yin Yuanxia’s explanation, she felt curious about Xie Yi’s fans’ reactions.

So when they finished training, and the team was waiting for their late-night snacks, she took out her phone, logged on Wei Bo, and clicked into Xie Yi’s account. 

A scenery of crying comments in the discussions section entered her sight—

@XXXX: Ge, if you’ve been kidnapped, then just signal for help!

@XX: *cries* Daddy Xie is such a good person. The officials don’t want to be the good guys, but he still wants to keep people from complaining about the officials? Then here’s a question. Can he get a pay raise?

@XXXXXX: Alright. So now that he’s shown his opinion, then let’s wait for the Yuan Yang Guo’s Summer Competition results. If this new and inexperienced Jungler is a team-drag, then I’ll curse at her, no matter who she is.

TL’s Note: Yuan Yang is a kind of mandarin duck? ‘Guo’ means pot. Yuan Yang Pot is a kind of popular hot pot.

Yuan Yang Guo is a nickname for the YYg team. At first, it was only because YYg’s, (Young Yaw Gaming), first two words’ pronunciation was very close to Yuan Yang, so some of their fans called them that way for a while.

Later, the old boss sold the team to a new boss. The new boss expensively supported the entire team, just so it could show his presence. He found a new person to re-design the logo. The designer came up with a good looking logo with black, white, and gray. But the new and rich boss thought that the three colors looked unlucky, so he told the designer to change it to gold and red.

And so, now YYg has a circular logo that really looked like Yuan Yang Guo. The nickname that people had come up with earlier, had now become more widely used.

Zhou Tian scrolled through the comments, intrigued, until Wang Ren came downstairs with the snacks and told them to come over and eat. Therefore, she had to put down her phone to join them.

“Look, it’s the stone pot barbeque.” Wang Ren declared with a loud voice, “I ordered Han ZiLiang’s favorite ‘Grilled Flower with Pickled Peppers!’”

“Is there MeiMao meat in it? It’s very delicious!”

TL’s Note: MeiMao meat is a kind of meat on a pig’s shoulder that’s very popular in China. For more information, search it up. 🙂

“Yeah, of course. It’s enough for everyone to get ten.”

Zhou Tian had a bad feeling when they were unwrapping the takeout box. When Yin Yuanxia turned around to hand her barbeque sticks, she knew that she was right after all. She couldn’t eat the barbeque that Wang Ren ordered.

“…I can’t eat this,” She raised her hands, “I’m allergic to pepper.”

“What? That’s awful!” Her teams were surprised but empathetic, “Then, are you going to order something else?”

Zhou Tian thought about it, then told them that it was fine, and that she wasn’t hungry anymore.

“Oh wait, where’s Further?” She looked around and was a bit confused when she didn’t see his familiar figure. He was still here when they were ordering take out!

“He went out to take a phone call,” Yin Yuanxia answered while taking a bite of his barbeque, “He’s probably having dinner with a friend. What, do you need him for something?”

“Oh, I was going to ask him if he still wants to play duo rank with me, tonight.” Zhou Tian replied honestly.

“Then just call him,” Yin Yuanxia said, then paused for a moment, as if he suddenly realized something, “Oh, wait, you don’t have his number, do you?”

Zhou Tian: “…We only followed each other on Wei Bo. I don’t have any other way to contact him.”

Yin Yuanxia: “Come, come over here. I’ll give you his number along with mine, Han’s, and Wang Ren’s.”

After two minutes, Zhou Tian finally had all kinds of ways to contact everyone, and was pulled into a group chat that contained all of her YYg team members.

“Xie ge never looks at his cellphone when he eats. If you want to find him, then just call him,” Yin Yuanxia told her, “That’s the fastest way to reach him.”

Zhou Tian nodded, then dialed his number without another thought.

Xie Yi picked up immediately: “Hello? You are..?”

“I’m Zhou Tian!” Knowing that he didn’t like people who were slow to get to the point, Zhou Tian quickly told him what she wanted to ask about, “I was going to ask you about whether we were still going to play duo ranking together tonight or not. Well, the others said that you’re currently having dinner together with one of your friends.”

After explaining, she heard another person’s voice.

“Who is it? It can’t be the insurance guy again, right?”

Zhou Tian: “…” Wait a moment, didn’t this voice sound a bit familiar?

“Yes, we are.” Xie Yi replied just as she was wondering, “I’m returning in half an hour or so.”

“Oh okay, then I’ll wait for you.” She answered, after coming back to reality.

“I’ll end the call,” Similarly to as if they were having a face to face conversation, he was still speaking in very short and simple sentences.

But before he ended the call, Zhou Tian heard the familiar voice again.

“Shit, it’s so hard for me to have and schedule a dinner with you, but now you only gave me half an hour. You’re really so cold…”

She couldn’t hear the last few words, but could still imagine the content.

Comparing it to this, she was still very curious about who was the person who accused Xie Yi of being cold. Why did he sound so familiar?

After half an hour, when Xie Yi brought back his leftovers and his friend, her question was finally answered.

It was actually Ye Bo?!

It wasn’t Ye Bo’s first time at the YYg base. He familiarly greeted Yin Yuanxia and the rest of the team as soon as he entered. The team wasn’t surprised at his presence either.

Only Zhou Tian, as a true-hearted fan of Ye Bo, was shocked the moment she saw him enter the training room.

Ye Bo finished greeting the others, and then his eyes stopped on her. He looked at her for a long time and didn’t move on.

“Aye, I’m finally meeting the real person,” Ye Bo said at last, “I was very curious for the past few days, especially after watching that video today.”

Zhou Tian wasn’t able to respond to his last sentence, before Xie Yi responded first.

Xie Yi said: “So you used dinner as an excuse to come over?”

“…Didn’t I pay for dinner?” Ye Bo couldn’t resist but reply, “What more are you not satisfied with?”

Xie Yi gave him an expression that showed his lack of interest in talking to him, then turned around to face Zhou Tian: “This person kept on saying that he wanted to meet you, and came here without my invitation.”

Zhou Tian: “!!!” God, am I dreaming?

Xie Yi: “If you don’t want to meet him, then just ignore him.”

“Fuck, you’re so annoying. I should’ve recorded what you said before, and let your fans hear.” Ye Bo said, then nudged Xie Yi, signaling for him to step back. Then, Ye Bo stepped up and reached out his hand for Zhou Tian to shake, “Then, uh, I don’t need to introduce myself, huh? I remember you saying in the interview that you started playing LoL because of me.”

Although Zhou Tian did say that: at this moment, when she heard her idol repeat her words to her, she was still felt very embarrassed.

Her face instantly reddened: “O-Oh, yeah, I even read your ‘Beginner’s Guide For Junglers,’ and I learned a lot from it.”

“Why are you so nervous?” Ye Bo laughed and waved his still outreached hand at her. “It’s not like I’ll eat you.”

Zhou Tian finally came back to reality and reached her hand over to shake it.

Although Ye Bo had been famous for many years, in private, he was still a gentleman. When he noticed that she was still very nervous after shaking his hand, he started talking about the game with her.

Reality showed that this choice was very appropriate. To any professional gamer, the game itself was the best topic when it came to discussions.

“I saw you playing with Qin Tongying before, and you played very well, with good strategies and good controlling. Also, that Sword Demon you played with a few days ago…” After chatting about the current version of Jungler heroes, Ye Bo praised her, “I look forward to seeing your performance in the Summer Competition!”

TL Note: Qin Tongying is a kind of Jungler hero. For more information, go find your best friend: Google.

“To be honest, the equipment and the costumes I put on Qin Tongying was a copy of yours.” Zhou Tian finally relaxed a bit and explained while scratching her head, “Before, I never thought that there was a possibility that it’d be good, but later, I found that it was actually very helpful, after trying it for a few rounds.”

“That’s because you have good understanding and good controlling skills, just like me.” Ye Bo didn’t forget to praise himself while praising her, “Average players can’t do it even after watching me use it. They wouldn’t have this type of effect, and would only end up dragging their teammates behind.”

Zhou Tian, who was praised by her idol, was ecstatic and couldn’t resist the urge to smile.

Xie Yi, who was standing beside them, couldn’t stand it anymore and interrupted: “Stop it, she’s already number four in the Korean server What about you?”

Ye Bo: “…”

Xie Yi continued to coldly mock his friend: “You lost thirteen games in a row when you played solo rank, and now you’ve dropped out of your King rank again.”

TL Note: king is a kind of rank you can achieve in LoL at a certain amount of wins. its probably a rather high rank too

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Credits: Sydney & Kathrien

Chapter 3: Her God

Liu Man arrived at school just before the bell rang. She entered the classroom and immediately felt everyone’s eyes on her, accompanied by whispers.

“That’s her, that’s her.”

“She does look pretty.”

“Of course, she’s the prettiest in the entire piano department.”

“So what? She’s just a pretty flower pot. Except for her face, she’s got nothing. Purposely fainting in front of Tang Tu, pretending to be all weak. Doesn’t she see? Tang Tu already announced that he has a girlfriend, yet she’s still trying to seduce him.”

TL’s Note: In China, people call a girl a flower pot when they only look pretty and aren’t good at anything else.

Liu Man was startled. She couldn’t remember who Tang Tu was, but she soon remembered because Tang Tu was a very important person to the old Liu Man.

What the art school lacked the least were talented boys and girl. Yet, in this bunch of talented people, Tang Tu was the shining star. Tang Tu played violin and was very handsome. He was also selected, unexpectedly, by a famous director, to act as a violinist in a movie.

It wasn’t a very important role in the movie, but he soon became very famous after the movie was published. He was even more famous than the protagonist. The audience was amazed by Tang Tu’s incredible acting skills and talent in music. For a long time, Tang Tu was all that mattered in the entertainment circle’s news. Paparazzi and fans were waiting outside of his dorms, and wherever he went, he was all everyone cared about.

With all of that popularity at that time, if Tang Tu went back to the entertainment circle, he would’ve probably been extremely successful. Instead, he pushed away all of the invitations and chose to return to school to continue learning about music.

But this decision didn’t decrease his popularity, but instead increased it. The press complimented him for not being arrogant and too proud just because of a little bit of success over a film, and instead going back to studying. The press also told everyone the reason Tang Tu was so calm must’ve been because he wasn’t from an average family, therefore, he wouldn’t care about a bit of success.

Liu Man was two grades below Tang Tu. She was a huge fan of him ever since high school, and Tang Tu was a huge reason why she got into the Capital City Music University. Liu Man used to have really bad grades, and her grade for her cultural arts class was so bad that it hurt to look at it. But because she wanted to be in the same school as Tang Tu, she gave up everything and studied as hard as she could for one year. Fortunately, her perseverance was not wasted, and so, she barely managed to squeeze into the university.

She thought if she got into the same school as Tang Tu, then she would be able to attract him because of her pretty face and her tall, straight body. But she didn’t realize that there were too many girls who also had a huge crush on him, and her so-called “advantages” were simply way too common.

Tang Tu told everyone that he liked girls with great talent. Liu Man did have talent, but her skills in piano in the department didn’t even meet the average line. She was even worse than Li Xiaoru and Wang Nina. The school sometimes hosted small performances, but the teachers never picked Liu Man. Tang Tu, of course, was the teachers’ favorite, and was handed a solo almost every single time.

So Liu Man never had a chance to really contact Tang Tu. In the two years she attended university, she hadn’t even spoken with Tang Tu. However, the good thing was, Tang Tu was always single, so that made Liu Man feel as if she still had a chance. But that thought was proven wrong, just not long ago.

About a month ago, someone took a photo of Tang Tu hugging a girl. The girl wasn’t facing the camera, so her face wasn’t shown. The photo was posted on Wei Bo and was put into the most popular discussions. Just when everyone started to guess who the girl was, Tang Tu posted and admitted that he was no longer single. But, he never told people who her girlfriend was, and instead just said that his girlfriend was in the same school as he was.

TL’s Note: Wei Bo is a social media that is commonly used in China. It’s sort of like a mix between Instagram and Facebook?

The girl was a legendary figure in the folk music department of the university, and everyone knew that as a fact. Even Liu Man knew that, that girl was a highly talented beauty, and that everyone liked her. She matched Tang Tu perfectly, to the point where Liu Man felt as if she didn’t even have the right to be jealous.

In the days after that event, Tang Tu’s fans were all despondent. Liu Man, who knew and understood that she would never have a chance now, felt depressed for a long time. In those days, she couldn’t even think about eating or sleeping. As a result, she lost a lot of weight. Even before she’d learned that her father had killed someone while drunk driving, she still hadn’t been able to get out of her depressed status.

Liu Man didn’t mind the whispers and instead found a remote seat in the classroom to sit down and go over her memories. The old body’s memories were only up until she passed out yesterday.

Yesterday morning, the teachers scolded her and told her that when she played the piano, she wasn’t using the proper techniques, or expressing her emotions. She was very angry at herself, her teacher, and at Tang Tu. Because of him, she wasn’t in a good mood and couldn’t even play the piano well.

The teacher left her alone at the practice room and told her to practice. She also said that if Liu Man kept on with this mood, then she wouldn’t be able to pass the end of semester exams, and would probably be kicked out of school. When Li Xiaoru and Wang Nina saw her like this, they decided to accompany her while she practiced. They practiced until lunch when every single student and teacher had already left.

That was when Zhang Pei called. With her mother’s increasingly rapid voice, Liu Ye walked out of the piano room and left her two roommates in the room to answer the phone.

Liu Man was still lost in her memories, and she didn’t realize that the entire classroom suddenly quieted down.

“Are you feeling better now?”

A sudden male voice interrupted Liu Man from sorting through her memories. She raised her head and saw a handsome face.

She immediately lowered her head again.

Back in the cold palace, she usually never even saw an unfamiliar male, and of course, she would never be in such close distance with an unfamiliar male. Right now, she could even smell the perfume on him.

Tang Tu saw that her ears were reddening quickly and also saw that when she lowered her head, her eyes were panicked. Right now, she looked like she didn’t know what to do.

Were there even shy girls nowadays?

Ever since he was a kid, Tang Tu was popular among the girls. When he became famous as a teenager, he naturally attracted a lot of admirers. Girls of all kinds surrounded him. If he would just wave, then all of them would come over and try to seduce him. But contrarily, he didn’t do it, and instead could not care less about them. He had high standards because of so many female admirers. He kept on selecting and eliminating his choices as if buying products. He would always be buying what was the best. And just recently, he had finally confirmed his first girlfriend.

Tang Tu did not think that Liu Man was trying to seduce him like everyone said she was. Yesterday, at noon, he had been practicing his violin and it was getting late. He was going to graduate soon and needed to start preparing for his graduation performance. This was what every single student needed to pass in order to graduate from this school. It was just like the essays that the students at normal universities needed to prepare for.

The violin practice rooms were just a floor above the piano practice rooms. When he walked downstairs, he was just in time to see Liu Man making a phone call. He didn’t hear what she was saying. Instead, all he saw were her pale face, red eyes, and her tears rolling down her face like a river. She looked intimidated, as if she heard something very scary.

When she ended the phone call, she wasn’t even able to take a few steps before her body started to shake. Tang Tu knew something was wrong and started to walk more quickly. He was just about to reach her when he realized that she had already fallen unconscious.

After that, the girl’s two friends came outside, too, and saw her unconscious. They were also very scared. Fortunately, his car was parked just downstairs, so he took the girl in his arms and drove them to the school infirmary. A lot of students who were eating lunch outside saw this scene.

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Credits: Sydney, Dora, & Kathrien

Chapter 1: A Blink In Two Thousand Years

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“Why isn’t she awake yet?”

“Should we call the doctor over?”

“I need to inform the school counselors.”

“Just wait for a few more minutes.”

…

You are reading on vandeztranslations.com

The noisy sounds came incoherently to Liu Man. She wasn’t able to process the words before a huge wave of strange memories came rushing into her mind.

It was the memory of a girl. All the emotions that belonged to the girl, the countless faces she saw, and the countless conversations she had. Liu Man saw concrete, bricks, cars, and airplanes. This was such a strange but wonderful world. Liu Man, in the past, would’ve never even imagined or even thought of this. Even Zhi Guai couldn’t make up things that were in this world in his stories. It was as if this world belonged to a dream.

TL’s Note: Zhi Guai stories are mystery and ghost novels popular in the South and North, Wei and Jin Dynasties.

She had the same name as this girl. They were both called Liu Man.

She was a princess that was never announced and born in the cold palace. Yet, she died in the same place. Twenty four years. In such a short life, she’d never even stepped out of the front doors of the palace even once.

TL Note: The cold palace is a place in the palace where the Emperor puts the abandoned wives that he doesn’t need.

It was such a cold winter. She’d pleaded for the servants to bring some firewood, but was rejected nonchalantly. Although she was a princess, her position in the palace was even lower than the servants. Because of the winter and the coldness, Liu Man had to put on all of her clothes and hide under the thin blanket, while shivering horribly. In this dark night, everything that surrounded her was only the coldness and silence. Yet, she could still hear the soft music and muffled laughter coming from far, far away. Sadness filled her heart, and her breaths were getting heavier and heavier by the moment. She didn’t know whether it was from the coldness or exhaustion, but in the end, she lost consciousness.

She wasn’t sure why she was able to dream if she was dead already. These scenes were so realistic: it was as if she was really there. Is the underworld really like this?

But the memories from this girl told her that what she dreaming of, was the the world in the future: two thousand years after her time. In this world, the emperors, servants, noble families, cold-blooded wars, and the rule of having “only wine and meat for the rich,” were already history. Nowadays, people live in huge, tall buildings, and travel by cars, subways, trains, and airplanes. No matter how far away their destination was, if they wanted, then they’d always be able to arrive at there in, at most, a day. No matter what people wanted to buy or eat, all it took was a few clicks on an electronic device, and in no time, there’d be people delivering it. This was an era of peace. The new arising civilization was special and wonderful, with new things created every moment. No matter how poor you were, or how average your family was, as long as if you were hardworking, then you’d still be able to feast and live in great places.

This girl who held the same name as her was also someone from an average family. She lived with her parents, who were paid pretty well. Her father worked with the government, but wasn’t really in a high rank. Her mother was a full-time housewife. The couple really cared about her and gave her everything she needed. She lived up to 20 years old, without having to care about anything. But only until she was twenty.

The memories abruptly stopped rushing in.

Liu Man slowly opened her eyes and stared at the slightly blinding chandelier that hung above her head, slightly confused.

This world was so good. There was never any blackness.

“Man Man, Man Man!” When a girl who was stood beside the bed saw her waking up, she exclaimed happily.

TL’s Note: Man is her first name and Liu is her last name, so Man Man is probably her nickname.

The memories from this body told her that the girl in front of her was her college roommate, Li Xiaoru. To be more precise, both of the girls in front of her were her roommates.

They were all Sophomore students from the Capital City Music University, and were studying in the piano major.

“Man Man, you almost worried us to death,” said Wang Nina, who’d been standing a bit far away from the bed. She came over in just one step and asked her, “What happened? Why did you faint just right after taking a call?”

A call… Liu Man remembered what was said in the call and continued her silence.

Li Xiaoru poked at Wang Nina, then signaled for her not to pry.

Li Xiaoru was still staring at Liu Man, looking very worried. Liu Man was the liveliest girl among them, but at this moment, her face was dull. When she looked at the two of them, it was as if she was looking at strangers. The doctors said that she blacked out because she was stimulated. They also said that it wasn’t really a big issue and that it would get better. But then, why was she like this when she woke up?

“I…” Liu Man paused for a moment to get used to her new voice. After thinking about what she was going to say in her mind, she said slowly, “I’m fine now, I apologize for worrying you guys.”

She then looked at the two of her roommates and asked, “Where am I?”

“At the school clinic,” Li Xiaoru replied.

After hearing the answer, Liu Man instantly sat up, “I need to go home.”

“Are you sure you don’t want the doctors to check over you again?”

“No, I’m fine.”

Liu Man said, and then stood up. Because her legs were very unstable, Li Xiaoru and Wang Nina had to quickly help her stand. She was still wearing the clothes that she wore from before she fainted. The puffer jacket she wore was all wrinkled up, and her face was so pale that it looked scary. She didn’t look fine at all.

Liu Man, who never liked to have direct contact with strangers, tried to push Li Xiaoru and Wang Nina away, but then suddenly realized her current situation and stopped. She witnessed and now held another girl’s memory, but that didn’t mean that she absorbed all of that person’s emotions/personality. No matter how close these two people were to the old Liu Man: to the present Liu Man, they were, at most, only familiar strangers.

“We’ll accompany you,” Li Xiaoru was still not reassured.

“Yeah, we’ll go with you,” Wang Nina said, too.

Liu Man considered for a moment, then nodded her head slightly.

The cold air welcomed them as soon as they walked out of the school clinic. She looked up, then realized that it was winter: the same season that occurred as when she died. The huge trees were lacking leaves, the meadows, now yellow, held piles of fallen leaves. The road in front of them was littered with passing by young adults, all with puffer jackets and unique auras.

Liu Man raised both of her hands up and tried to catch the hot air that she was breathing out, as if it were solid.

How wonderful.

Although she still had an unrealistic vibe, it was now, when she finally accepted the fact that she had transmigrated into another era and became another person.

Liu Man’s house was close to school, only ten miles away. There was no traffic at this time of the day, so they were able to reach their destination not long after entering the taxi. Liu Man lived in a newly-built compound that was just for the family of the workers.

Outside the compound, a parked police car was extremely noticeable. The few security guards from the compound who were standing beside the car, were staring at Liu Man with very strange looks, as she got off the taxi.

Liu Man didn’t respond to their looks and instead turned around to stop the two girls from accompanying her into the house. She thanked them whole-heartedly, “Thank you so much for today. I really don’t want to trouble you with anything else.”

They were already at the entrance of the compound, so the two girls didn’t insist at all. “Okay, fine. Say hi to your parents for us.”

Liu Man nodded her head and said “thank you” again, before walking slowly into her compound.

Li Xiaoru watched her as she walked away. She felt as if Liu Man was different from before. The huge puffer jacket she wore, still wasn’t enough to cover how weak she looked. But, her footsteps were strikingly light, as if she wasn’t wearing those heavy and long boots, but instead walking barefoot.

Did Liu Man walk like this before?

She was bewildered, but couldn’t think of the way Liu Man walked before. Who would observe and remember these kinds of details?

Maybe she was just worrying too much. Maybe Liu Man learned this all by herself in some manner lessons.

Li Xiaoru thought.

Liu Man’s apartment was on the fourteenth floor. After she walked out of the elevator, she unlocked the door with her key.

Everyone in the room turned around and looked at her, including her mother and the two police officers with their uniforms on.

Liu Man’s mother, Zhang Pei, looked as if she were just crying. Her eyes were still red. Seeing her daughter, she immediately stood up from the couch. Her eyes started to water up again. “Why are you back so late?”

“There was a bit of traffic on the road,” Liu Man hid away the details of her fainting. She took off her boots and hung up her puffer jacket, not exactly slowly, but not exactly quickly either.

“These two officers are here to investigate the situation. Officer Wang and Officer Chen. Your father, he…”

Liu Man nodded her head. She already knew about it.

The call was from Zhang Pei. Last night, Liu Man’s father, Liu Chenyu, had been driving after drinking and, as a result, had killed a delivery guy. This morning he was taken by the police at work, under everyone’s eyes, and was now in custody. This was the reason why Liu Man fainted.

However, all of these which he earned might vanish because of this incident.

Liu Chenyu came from a small village. Not only did he get into a prestigious school based on his own hard-work, but was also able to gain a foothold in the highly competitive capital city. Therefore, becoming a federal official. He had a virtuous wife and a beautiful daughter. Although his struggle was truly not easy, it was still very inspirational.

“Officer, Man Man was at school last night. She had nothing to do with her father’s incident,” Zhang Pei told the police officers, because she was afraid that this might get Liu Man involved.

In fact, right after Liu Chenyu hit the delivery person, he immediately got the person to the hospital. But Liu Chenyu was intimidated by what he had done, and had instead run away. He didn’t dare to return home, but instead stayed at a hotel. He didn’t know that he would get arrested the next day, when he had just gotten to work.

The police officers had already done enough investigation to know what was going on, and didn’t have any means to interrogate Liu Man. It was already dusk and the sky was darkening. They put everything away, stood up, and were getting ready to leave, “Thank you for cooperating with our investigation.”

“Officer, will my husband be given a sentence?” Zhang Pei hesitated, but still decided to ask.

“This will be decided by the prosecutor’s office and the court. We are only responsible for the investigation. All you can do now is to wait for any further news,” the police said in an official tone. They were very experienced in this field and had encountered all kinds of people. Most of them all had the same reaction as Zhang Pei’s, so their hearts would not be softened just because of a few tears of a women.

But what was the most suspicious was the girl’s reaction. Compared to her emotional mother, she was expressionless. It was as if she was just a passerby, eavesdropping on their conversation.

But it wasn’t Liu Man’s fault that she didn’t show much emotion. She didn’t feel many emotions for Liu Chenyu yet, and she also didn’t yet learn the rules of this world. Her mind was still slightly confused.

The room went quieted after the police officers left. Zhang Pei anxiously sat down on the couch.

Zhang Pei was outraged at her husband. Drinking was Liu Chenyu’s greatest weakness. He had a lot of business meetings, and every time, when someone advised him to drink, he wouldn’t stop drinking. Zhang Pei had told her husband multiple times to stop, but he wouldn’t listen. Usually, Zhang Chenyu would call a taxi when he became drunk. But there were times where he thought that he wasn’t drunk and still risked driving. The problem was that, something would always go wrong when you thought that it wouldn’t.

A human’s life, Zhang Pei was scared just thinking about it. She even considered going to the hospital and see how bad it is. But she was scared that the family members of the dead person would berate her, scream at her, or even hit her as revenge. So, she instead hid away all of her compassion and apologies.

Zhang Pei wasn’t expecting Liu Man to do anything, or even comfort her, because she knew Liu Man very well. She and her husband loved their child so much. They made sure that she had nothing to worry about, starting from a young age, causing her to become spoiled and habitual, with a willful behavior. She had never experienced any huge issues, and when suddenly such a big event happened, then Liu Man’s resistance certainly must’ve been worse than her.

Why else would she be so expressionless and just stand beside the couch. She must be too scared!

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Credits: Sydney, Dora, & Kathrien

Chapter 2: A Treasured Daughter

After an entire day of worrying and being angry, Zhang Pei felt exhausted. She didn’t have much energy to pay attention to the small details of change in her daughter, because all she could think of was her husband’s incident. She doubted that her daughter would think of anything helpful, so she said, “When the police came, I put Daylight in your bedroom. She hasn’t had food in an entire day, so you should go to your room and feed her.”

Daylight was a little female cat that Liu Man kept as a pet. She was a beautiful cat with graduated golden fur. The gold transitioned gradually from her spine to her belly, making it look as if the sun were shining. As a result, Liu Man nicknamed her “Daylight.” Daylight was only five months old, and had been bought from the cat store when she was only two months old because Liu Man had begged for her father to.

At first, Liu Man cared a lot about Daylight and did everything for her. She even held the cat everywhere. But then, because she was always interested in new things for short periods, and since there were always so many new things, she soon got tired and even despised her new job as a babysitter of a cat, and simply left the cat with her mother.

The master bedroom in the house belonged to Liu Man. She had always been so treasured by her parents. Liu Man pushed open the door towards the bedroom, and the first thing that came into her sight was the golden cat, who was standing with two paws on the ground and two paws leaning against the back of the door. She timidly stared at Liu Man with her huge, green eyes, looking as if she had been standing there forever.

Liu Man didn’t understand what “graduated golden fur” was, or “british shorthair.” These kinds of words were quite unfamiliar to her. She only remembered that a long time ago, her neighbor at the isolated palace, Yu Beauty, had a tabby cat. It also had such round eyes, like glass marbles. It was smart and naughty. Although its fur wasn’t this expensive and golden, it had, nevertheless, looked pretty.

Because the two palaces were so close, the tabby cat always liked to run into her palace. It would sometimes run into her bedroom and come under the covers to accompany her while she was sleeping. This seemed to make all of those cold days, warmer.

But one day, that tabby cat was poisoned.

Yu Beauty cried horribly and shrieked with tears all over her face, “They really want me to die!”

Not long after that, Yu Beauty passed away, too.

“Meow,” Daylight called with an extremely soft voice, interrupting Liu Man’s memories.

Liu Man kneeled down and stretched out a hand. The kitten stepped back, but couldn’t resist. She leaned her furry little head into Liu Man’s palm and nudged a little. She paced around her owner, wagging her tail. She looked so cute.

Liu Man took out a pack of cat food from the cupboard. Daylight’s eyes immediately lightened up after smelling the cat food. She meowed non-stop while walking towards her bowl, peering over her shoulders to see if Liu Man was following.

The kitten was indeed starving.

After Liu Man filled the bowl with cat food, Daylight happily put her head inside and started to eat, making crispy chewing noises.

When Liu Man saw her eating with such a good appetite, she felt her heart softening.

Beside the cupboards, there was a black upright piano. It was the most expensive furniture in the house and had accompanied Liu Man for fifteen years. At first, Zhang Pei made her daughter practice it as a hobby. But later on, it became the skill that helped her get into the university.

Liu Man opened the piano stand and brushed the piano keys with her long and pale fingers. She couldn’t resist the urge to just play a few keys, due to the body’s memories. Liu Man was new and unfamiliar with this Western type of musical instrument.

The only musical instrument that Liu Man could play was the GuQin. Her other neighbor in the cold palace, Madam Xu, taught her how to play it.

TL’s note: GuQin is an instrument with seven strings that can be plucked to make sounds. It was commonly used in China.

Liu Man’s biological mother died giving birth. When the emperor learned about her mother’s death and her birth, he ordered the servants to throw her mother’s body out of the palace, and gave her a random name: ‘Man.’

Liu Man was taken care of by her biological mother’s sister. One of her mother’s siblings was a singer, and the other one was a dancer. They were taken into the palace because the emperor had been so amazed by their performances. But, they then were framed by the other jealous Beauties and Madams. So, as a result, they were both kicked into the cold palace. They didn’t have names, and the emperor never gave them one. Therefore, the servants all called them Zhao and Little Zhao.

In the cold palace, there were so many people that came and left. So, excluding Little Zhao, who treated her like a real mother, the only one who accompanied Liu Man through her life was Madam Xu.

Madam Xu was different than all of them. She was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and was a really wealthy person. She was very skillful and well-educated. She was only kicked into the isolated cold palace because her father was corrupt. Liu Man admired Madam Xu immensely, and her skills for playing the GuQin were also taught by Madam Xu.

TL Note: silver spoon = born with a life of wealth, I guess?

And because of Madam Xu’s protection, she and Little Zhao’s days in the cold palace were a bit easier. But unfortunately, the good people in this world always had rather short lives. The adults closest to her all passed away before her.

Liu Man gazed at the framed photo on the piano. In the photo, Liu Chenyu and Zhang Pei’s eyes were both on the girl between them, who was laughing carelessly.

Daylight seemed to sense her owner’s glum mood. She stopped eating, ran over, and gently bit on her trousers.

Liu Man sighed and bent over to hold the kitten in her arms. She then said softly, “Don’t you know? Your owner is already gone.”

She sat down in front of the dressing table with the kitten still in her arms. She observed her new body in front of the mirror for the first time and realized that it looked completely different from her old one. She, in the past, owned a pair of eyes with single-edged eyelids. But now, she had a pair of big eyes with double-edged eyelids. She also used to have a cute little nose, but instead, this body held a tall and straight bridge of a nose. Before, she also used to have small lips, but now her mouth was full and heart-shaped.

Such a bright and beautiful girl. She looked more like a princess than her.

Liu Man’s dressing table was filled with makeup and skincare products, and her shelf was filled with perfume from famous brands. Some of the perfumes were still in their wrappers. She even had her own closet room, and all the clothing and shoes were neatly organized. What probably made all the other girls most jealous, were the AJ shoes that she’d collected, that filled the entire wall. Some of them were even shoes that she had only worn once.

Liu Man’s family wasn’t crazy rich. In fact, they only depended on her father’s salary. It was just that her parents spent all of their money on her.

A little later, Zhang Pei called an old friend, Sun, who was a lawyer. He gave Zhang Pei a comforting message.

“Although Chenyu did drive after drinking, the other person was driving in the opposite direction. This is very essential to the case, and it’ll cause his sentence to be lighter. Another thing, by the way, is that the family situation of that delivery person is pretty poor. His parents have health issues, his wife doesn’t have a job, and he has three young children that he needs to take care of. That person who died was probably their only way to survive. In my opinion, you should talk to their family and apologize. Perhaps you could even shorten the sentence by compensating them.”

But these people, at this time, didn’t realize that they couldn’t afford compensation at all.

They ate dinner late. Zhang Pei wasn’t in the mood to prepare any dinner, so they ordered some of Liu Man’s favorite food: braised pork on rice.

When Liu Man was in the cold palace, she never had enough to eat.

Liu Man ate a lot this time and was very satisfied. She took the initiative to help clean up the table, “I’ll do it.”

Zheng Pei was dumbfounded. Liu Man never did chores.

“You’ve been through a lot today, so go and have a good night’s worth of sleep.”

She said, while already cleaning up the table.

Zhang Pei was feeling very complicated. She thought that it was this incident that finally made her childish daughter grow up. She was also rather glad that her child could finally mature. But at the same time, the price for this growth was simply too high.

“You should go to sleep as well, after cleaning up. You still have school tomorrow, and don’t worry about your father. There will always be a solution.”

Liu Man nodded her head.

Differently from Zhang Pei, who suffered from insomnia the entire night, Liu Man’s first night in this world was wonderful. It had been a while since Liu Man had slept this well. Daylight had snuck under her blanket, just like the tabby cat Yu Beauty owned. She was curled up in the most comfortable position, providing her owner with her body warmth. In Liu Man’s dream, she was still Princess Liu Man, stuck in the cold palace. Painful looks on women’s faces flashed in front of her, one by one. Servants and maids were sarcastically calling her “Your Majesty.” But Little Zhao, Lady Xu, and even Yu Beauty, all told her that she was a real princess and that there would be a day when she would finally walk through the door that led out of the cold palace.

When she opened her eyes again, speckles of morning light had already spilled through the curtains, onto the wooden floor.

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Credits: Sydney, Dora, & Kathrien