Chapter 12: Fake Cat food

“Meow……”

“Wait for me for five minutes,” he told Liu Man, and went into the other room with the swab.

The confused Daylight just realized what had just happened, and incessantly meowed. Her look was quite restless and her eyes particularly looked like they were wronged. 

Liu Man quickly came up to comfort her.

Five minutes were quick to pass, and the man walked in to say, “She doesn’t have any parasites in her body. If you are still worried, then I can do an operation to expel the parasite.”

Hearing him say this, Liu Man was assured but not assured at the same time, “But there’s blood in her poop.”

“There are a lot of reasons for hematochezia, and parasites are just one of them. It can also be because of diarrhea, but I just did a check for her, and we can basically rule out parasites and diarrhea. It could also be because she’s eating too much dry food, and maybe the quality of the cat food isn’t that good?”

Speaking of cat food, Liu Man suddenly remembered that she did buy new cat food.

“I just bought her new cat food.”

“Are they from the same brand and the same taste?”

TL’s Note: Even cat food has different tastes now…

“Yes. It’s just that the packages look different now.” Liu Man bought the cat food from the same Tao Bao shop that the old Liu Man bought from. It was a shop that surrogates cat food from a shop outside of the country, and the old Liu Man bought all of her cat food from that shop.

“What’s the brand?”

A long string of English. Liu Man couldn’t remember it that well, so she logged onto Tao Bao from her phone and read out loud, “Cat’s Garden.”

“You might’ve bought fake cat food.”

“Really? But there are so many good comments below this shop!” Liu Man was shocked.

The man laughed a little, as if laughing at her naiveness, “Nowadays, a lot of pet stores online sell fake cat food that’s mixed with real ones. They only care about earning money.”

“But this can cause a lot of cats’ deaths.”

“There are too many fake things, and a lot of them harm humans. It’s the same as harming cats. But right now, we only have our suspicions and no proof.”

Liu Man sighed. Even from two thousand years ago, a lot of people lost their conscience because of money.

When she paid for the bill, she scanned the QR Code in front of the shop. The receiver’s box read “Yu Zhan”, and this shop’s name was “Zhan.” Out of curiosity, Liu Man, who never liked to speak too much, asked, “Your name is Yu Zhan?”

He nodded, “Yes.”

“Are you the owner of this shop?”

Yu Zhan smiled as he nodded once again, “Can’t you tell?”

Liu Man said honestly, “You just look too young.”

“You must be younger than I am,” Yu Zhan said, smiling, “Are you still in high school?”

“I’m in my sophomore year of college.”

Yu Zhan continued smiling, “Indeed a young girl.”

Yu Zhan’s smile was very handsome. Liu Man felt as if she was suddenly enveloped by rays of light, and was overwhelmed by warm sunlight. She hated how weak her face was, after holding herself together for so long, her face still blushed.

The red started from her ears, then, slowly, went up to her neck. At last, her white pale cheeks were blushing, too. She lightly bit on her lips and didn’t dare to look at him. Her curly long eyelashes were vibrating lightly because of her timidness.

Yu Zhan could imagine that her eyes under her eyelashes must be extremely pretty.

He suddenly said, “Add me on WeChat, so you can tell me if Daylight has any other accidents in the future.”

TL Note: WeChat is a popular Chinese communication app

Liu Man didn’t think too much and took out her phone. She opened the “scan QR code” section, and scanned Yu Zhan’s WeChat QR code. She sent a friend request over, wrote:

TL Note: You can add people in WeChat by scanning their “QR codes” or by adding them by their ID/phone number/etc.

I’m Liu Man.

After clicking the confirm button, Liu Man put her phone back in her pocket and thanked him once again, still unable to look him in the eye. She was prepared to go back home.

“Which direction is your house? I’m leaving too, and I can give you a ride. It’s getting really late, and it’s not safe for young girls like you.” He said. 

Liu Man didn’t want to cause him any more trouble and said,

“It’s alright, I’m fine. I don’t live too far away from here, and I can just walk back home.”

“Daylight just took the stool test and is very weak. She won’t be able to stand the cold wind.”

Now, Liu Man must agree. Yu Zhan easily persuaded her, just like that.

Yu Zhan’s car was parked in the business parking lot across the road. In the old Liu Man’s memories, the parking fee over there was very expensive. If Yu Zhan parked the car over there every single day, then the parking fee must be even more expensive than the renting fee of the shop itself!

Yu Zhan’s car, however, wasn’t very expensive. It was a low profile Volvo. He parked the car beside Liu Man and came down to open the doors for her, and this flattered Liu Man. But when she thought of his patience and gentleness with Daylight, Liu Man thought that he must be a very good person. He was so kind to everyone, so gentleman-like.

“Keep driving down this road and turn right at the next intersection,” Liu Man instructed, then lowered her head, held the kitty in her arms, and sat upright in the front passenger seat. 

A light laugh flowed into her ears, “Is there gold on the ground?”

“What?” She turned around to look at him, confused

Yu Zhan stared straight ahead, with a smile on his face, “You’ve looked at the ground ever since we left the shop and got onto my car. I thought you were trying to look for gold.”

Liu Man’s blush, which finally disappeared after her huge attempts, came back again. She decided not to talk. 

Yu Zhan didn’t mind it, it was just that his smile in his eyes were getting deeper.

The car parked in front of the compound. Yu Zhan watched as Liu Man walked into the compound before driving the car away.

This night seemed very long. When Liu Man finished her night routine and layed on her bed, it was already almost one o’clock. She finally had time to take out her phone, and the first contact she saw, was Yu Zhan, who she’d just added.

“I passed your friend verification request, now we can start chatting.”

TL’s Note: It’s an automatic message that you can get when you add someone on WeChat

Yu Zhan’s WeChat nickname was just Yu Zhan. His profile picture was a small white dog, and it was a very prevalent kind that could be seen anywhere on the street; the Chinese rural dog.

Yu Zhan had only sent a few posts in moments. The first one was posted a year ago, it was a picture of him with an Alaska, and the background was the huge cerulean ocean. The latest post was posted a month ago, “I finally reached my dream.” The attached picture was a full picture of the entire shop. So, this shop was actually only a month old.

TL’s Note: Moments is something where you can send a post and everyone will be able to see it. Kind of like… posting on Instagram? Similar at least. Also, Alaska is probably a breed of dog.

Right at this time, a notification popped out on her screen, “Have you already gone to bed?”

Yu Zhan, unexpectedly, sent her a message while she was peeping into his moments. 

“I’m about to,” She typed, and clicked on the ‘send’ button.

“Mm, good night.”

“Night.”

The duo finished their conversation just like that.

The next day was a Saturday. Daylight liked to step onto her stomach during mornings, so Liu Man couldn’t sleep in even if she wanted to.

She got up semi-consciously, and was going to pour cat food into the bowl. She suddenly remembered what Yu Zhan said last night, and as a thought came to her mind, she felt refreshed. She went to the cupboard and took out both the new cat food and the old one, and poured them into two separate dishes.

There was, indeed, a difference between the two.

The new cat food was smaller than the old one, and the color was a bit deeper. The texture was different when she held it, the quality seemed more rough.

Liu Man immediately opened Tao Bao, and clicked onto the customer service section. She directly asked, “Do you sell fake cat food?”

“Sweetheart, our products are all from the Cat Garden’s official products. They are all authorized from the factories and we can promise the safety of our products, the quality is also guaranteed. If you are really worried, then you can look at the anti-counterfeiting sign on the package~”

Liu Man uploaded her picture of the comparison between the new cat food and the old cat food, and received a reply similar to the last, “Sweetheart, this could happen because of different production batches. Our products are all authorized and are the official products from Cats’ Garden.”

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter

---

Credits: Sydney, Kathrien, & a bit of Dora

If you find any mistakes, then please do comment down below and we’ll fix it~

Chapter 11: Pet Clinic

Liu Man continued to do live-streaming every single night for one week, and her amount of followers slowly increased to 40. When she wasn’t advertising her second-handed shoes, she live-streamed Daylight eating and pooping.

Streaming Daylight pooping was strongly requested by the audience. Liu Man was helpless.

Under normal conditions, Daylight only pooped twice in a day. Once during the morning, and once during the evening. If Liu Man was at home, she would scoop up the poop, and if she was at school that night, then Zhang Pei would help.

Liu Man kept the cat litter box in her bedroom so that Daylight could go use it during the evenings. Once, when Liu Man was live streaming, Daylight walked into the bathroom and started digging the litter. The audience heard it, and maybe because their lives were too tedious, they strongly requested Liu Man to livestream Daylight pooping.

Daylight was a very elegant and shy she-cat. When Liu Man live-streamed, she would act like a gentle lady, and sit upright in her arms. But when Daylight used the litter box, her facial expression would be very serious.

“Is the kitty having constipation?” — Peach is a fairy.

She was a very loyal fan of Daylight and always waited for Liu Man to get online every single day, at the exact time.

“Haha, she has the same expression as me when I have constipation.” –Otaku Boy

Liu Man didn’t know if it was because the old cat food was mixed up with some of the new cat food she bought from Tao Bao, but these few days, Daylight took a much longer time when she went to the bathroom. And even before she pooped, she would walk around the cat litter box for a while, shovel the litter incessantly for a long while, before pooping.

“Girl, go see if Daylight’s poops are in shape, and if the colors are normal. Nowadays, the climate is getting colder and colder, I’m so worried that she would get sick!” — Peach is fairy.

After seeing her comment, Liu Man was starting to get worried too. She bent down and shoveled the cat litter aside to see Daylight’s poop. It was in shape, the colors were normal, but there was a bob of blood on the poop.

“God, why is there blood?” –Where there’s a cat, there’s me

This girl was Daylight’s new fan and just followed Liu Man yesterday.

“It couldn’t be because of a parasite, could it?” — Peach is a fairy.

“It’s possible.” –Where there’s a cat, there’s me.

“Sis, you should quickly bring Daylight to a pet clinic!” — Peach is a fairy.

“I suddenly feel that it’s so annoying to keep a cat, it’s like taking care of a child.” –I’m here for the shoes.

“Of course, every single kitty is a baby.” –Where there’s a cat, there’s me.

At this moment, a silver magic wand appeared on the screen. There were fireworks on the top of the magic wand, and a number 10 appeared in the fireworks.

Peach is a Fairy sent you 10 magic wands.

TL Note: 10 magic wands is probably another one of those gifts you can give to live-streamers and exchange for real money.

“Sis, this is the out-patient expenditure. Tomorrow, it’s the weekend, please bring Daylight to a vet.” — Peach is a fairy

Knowing that Daylight might have a parasite in her, Liu Man had no thought of continuing her livestream, “Okay, I will bring her there first thing in the morning.”

After exiting the livestream room, Liu Man hugged Daylight in her arms. Daylight was very goodly behaved, she licked her paws, and licked Liu Man’s fingers as if trying to please her.

This wet and warm feeling didn’t make Liu Man feel better, but made her feel even more anxious. 

She glanced at the time on the phone, 10:01.

Was there even a pet clinic open?

She logged onto Yelp and quickly searched for nearby pet clinics. She lived in the residential section of the city, and a lot of people had pets. There were five to six pet stores and pet clinics. Most of them opened from nine in the morning to nine-thirty in the evening, and there was only one where they closed at ten.

Although she knew that this store, most likely, closed too, Liu Man still felt like if she didn’t go there, she wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight. After all, it was Daylight who kept her company ever since she came to this strange new world.

Knowing that this could not be delayed, Liu Man quickly put on a puffer jacket and opened the front door with Daylight in her arms. Zhang Pei was already in bed and did not notice Liu Man going out.

The temperature was very low tonight. A gust of cold wind blew at her face the moment she walked out of the building and made Liu Man shiver. At this time of the evening, everyone was already in bed, so there were very few pedestrians outside. The yellow light from the street lights made the shadows of the bare-leafed sycamore trees long.

Liu Man walked and walked with the instructions from Baidu Maps. The kitten in her arms stayed very still, with her two paws tightly hung onto her pajamas. Daylight was afraid of new environments.

TL’s Note: Baidu is China’s search engine. Chinese Google. Baidu Maps is equivalent to Chinese Google Maps :)). 

The pet clinic was a bit more than nine hundred meters away from her apartment. Liu Man’s footsteps were very quick, but it still took her more than ten minutes to arrive. The name of this pet clinic was very unique, with only one word, “Zhan”, and it seemed like a name for pubs.

The light was still on behind the glass doors, and the doors were still open. Liu Man sighed in relief.

She pulled open the glass doors, and the first thing that appeared in her sight was a reception desk. There was no one in the room, but the air conditioner was still on, and it was very warm. She reached her head into the room and looked around,

“Hello, is there anyone in here?”

After a couple of rustling sounds, a young man walked out of one of the rooms inside.

Liu Man was stunned when she saw him.

Before, she thought that in real life, men who were as handsome as Tang Tu were already the extreme. But this person in front of him made her realize what it meant that there was nothing that’s called “the best”.

Four eyes staring at each other. She saw that this man had a pair of eyes the color of amber. It was the color of autumn, like the fallen leaves of the sycamore tree outside. Liu Man’s eyes could do nothing but look downward, and she realized that the shape of his lips was very good looking, too. They were light red, like the color of cinnabar.

Daylight, as if feeling the comfortableness and the warmness of the environment, struggled as she jumped out of Liu Man’s arms. She landed on the floor and proudly shook her tail. When her huge eyes saw the man, she meowed, and ran towards him with her short legs, forgetting all about her owner.

The man picked Daylight up and asked Liu Man,

“A very pretty cat, what’s her name?”

Daylight was completely disloyal to her owner at this moment, and obediently leaned her small head onto the man.

“Her name is Daylight,” Liu Man guessed that he was the vet at this shop, and continued to say, “There was blood in her poop, and I was worried that there might be parasites inside her body. I can’t wait until tomorrow, and I saw that your shop was the only one nearby that was open until ten, so I decided to come over here and see if I’m lucky. Can you please check on her? Very sorry for the disruptions.”

“It’s fine, come with me.” The man said.

There were two doors inside. He pushed open one of them and turned on the lights inside. It was obvious that he was getting ready to leave, and Liu Man made him unable to go home.

There was a line of cupboards leaning against the wall in the room. On the other side of the room were shelves made from stainless steel. In the center of the room was a platform, it was stainless and was obviously just cleaned.

The man spread a disposable blue medical cloth onto the platform and put Daylight on it. He put on medical gloves, turned on the special lighting used for operations, and closely examined the kitten’s fur. He also checked inside her mouth, his moves were patient and proficient.

While he was doing all of this, he asked Liu Man, “How’s the cat’s appetite these past few days?”

“Pretty good, there isn’t really a difference between these past few days and the normal ones. There aren’t any other problems that she has.” Liu Man described Daylight’s poops again.

The man nodded and took out a swab from the paper box. He half kneeled down so he could be on the same level with Daylight, then incessantly patted Daylight’s back and chin, “Daylight, sweet obedient Daylight,” His tone was extremely soft.

Right at this time, he, as sudden as a lightning, stuck the swab into Daylight’s butt.

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter

---

Credits: Sydney & Kathrien

Chapter 15

At half past nine in the evening, the plane landed at the Guangzhou White Cloud Airport. The group of YYg members picked up their luggage, got onto the bus that they booked before they arrived, and set off for the hotel.

Zhou Tian had had a nap on the plane and was woken up before they landed. And now, she still felt sleepy, and her brain couldn’t function either.

Fortunately, there was no other activity tonight, so she could sleep right after arriving at the hotel.

She didn’t know if it was because she still had a fever, because that night, she was especially sleepy, and slept deeper than usual.

After an entire night of sleep, she felt completely refreshed after she woke up.

Guan Bo Niang, who had slept in the same room with her, was still sleeping. She thought about it a little and made her movements very quiet. She quickly did her simple morning routine, grabbed her phone, and went out of the room, wanting to go have breakfast downstairs.

The result was, when she went out of the door and turned around the corner, she met Xie Yi.

They were both surprised to see each other, as it was simply too early right now.

“You feeling better now?” At last, it was Xie Yi who spoke first. He wanted to ask how she was feeling.

“Much better.” She said while pushing the button on the elevator, “Just a bit hungry.”

“Breakfast?”

“Are you going to have breakfast too?” Zhou Tian blinked, “Then let me pay for the meal. I’m very familiar with the local streets.”

Xie Yi didn’t decline and only asked, “You’re from Guangzhou?”

She shook her head, and said that she only stayed in Guangzhou for a while a year ago, when she moved out of her hometown, but that she was actually from Chaozhou.

“At that time, I lived right nearby,” She continued her explanation even after going into the elevator, “Because I knew that there was an internet cafe on this street at that time, and a lot of Sports teams train over there every time they come to Guangzhou for competitions. I was thinking about whether I could come here and livestream or not, but Guangzhou had really strong security, and so they never let me into the internet cafe.”

“Mhm, it’s right downstairs.” In fact, YYg chose to stay at this hotel precisely because this hotel was very close to that internet cafe that was allied with huge e-gaming teams, and so it would be very convenient.

TL’s Note: Xie Yi doesn’t talk much, but he meant that the internet cafe is right downstairs.

Just when he finished his sentence, the elevator stopped at the lobby and made a “Ding!” sound.

Zhou Tian was the first to walk out. She wanted to introduce him to a few breakfast restaurants that served traditional and delicious plates. She asked what he wanted to eat.

“I’m fine,” He really wasn’t picky. But after this reply, he realized that he sounded perfunctory, so he added on after pausing for a moment, “Depends on what you want to eat.”

Zhou Tian was familiar with his personality and didn’t force him to make a decision. She rubbed her temples for a moment, while she thought about it, then said, “How about the Wonton noodles across from the internet cafe?”

“Then, we can go rank for a few rounds after we have our breakfast!” Zhou Tian said, “The simulation competition is during the afternoon anyway.”

It was impossible for Xie Yi to say no to anything that was related to rank, so he nodded immediately.

So the duo left the hotel and headed toward the Wonton noodles restaurant that Zhou Tian told Xie Yi about.

Because she knew that the owner of the restaurant was a local of Guangzhou, Zhou Tian switched to her not-exactly-traditional Chaozhou Cantonese.

Before, when everyone in the eSports circle all said that Yuzhou Mei’s voice was very sweet and soft, Xie Yi almost never had any special feelings.

Later on, the duo became teammates and duo ranked every single day. She was the one who directs all the time, and she cursed naturally now and then, which, even more, made him think that she had nothing to do with the words “sweet” and “soft”. But right now, when he heard her talk in Cantonese and drag the ending letters, he suddenly felt that the comments made sense after all.

Every single word that came out of her mouth sounded coquettish.

“There’s an empty table over there!” Zhou Tian, being very astute in observing, dashed in and took over the last table in the restaurant after ordering breakfast for the both of them.

After she took over the table, she realized that he was still at the entrance. She then blinked a few times, raised her hand high up into the air, and enthusiastically waved at him.

Like an idiot, Xie Yi thought. Coquettish and everything else, of course, was an illusion.

The Wonton noodles were fresh and delicious, Zhou Tian, who didn’t eat anything yesterday, gobbled down everything quickly.

When her bowl was halfway empty, she turned her head to look at Xie Yi. Seeing that he was delighted with his food as well, she finally felt assured.

It turned out that Xie Yi had to pay for this meal again because the owner said that she lost her phone and only accepted cash payments these days.

Zhou Tian, who only brought her phone when she came downstairs: “……”

She complained: “Ah, why is it always you who pays for the meal at the end?”

Xie Yi: “Next time you can pay.”

“Alright, that’s a promise. Next time when we eat a meal together, let me pay for it,” She said loquaciously as they crossed the road, “Wait, no, I’m still not eighteen years old and aren’t an adult. Won’t the internet cafe kick me out again?”

“Nope,” Xie Yi paused, “Cooperation with eSports teams.”

There were always a few teammates who were not yet eighteen years old, in every single eSports team, no matter if they were in the best team or the second best one. If the internet cafe that was allied with them couldn’t think of that, then it wouldn’t be necessary to cooperate with them.

TL Note: basically, if the internet cafe didn’t let their underage teammates enter, then it wouldn’t be necessary for them to cooperate with each other. Also, according to Sydney, each eSports team has a best and a second best team.

Anyway, with Xie Yi with her and showing his identity, this time, Zhou Tian was finally successful in entering this internet cafe that was famous in the professional gaming circle.

It was the beginning of summer, and there were a lot of students who came to the internet cafe to watch football games and play games the entire day and night.

And these students, of course, knew a few things about the League of Legends eSports circle, so there were a few discussions and whispers going on when the duo entered the cafe.

Zhou Tian even realized that a person raised their phone stealthily and was going to take a picture of them. She wasn’t used to it, and instinctively turned away.

But even so, pictures of them two entering the internet cafe together still ended up on the internet.

Fortunately, the person who took pictures of them wasn’t doing so in a bad way, and only thought that it was a huge surprise to meet a professional gamer in real life.

“Daddy Xie is so tall and thin, he’s so handsome in real life! Yuzhou Mei seems like an elementary schooler standing next to him……”

Zhou Tian almost leaped high into the air in anger when she came back to the hotel and saw this post from Guan Bo Niang’s phone. 

“I’m not that short!!” She said, trying to state the fact, “I’m 160 centimeters tall, alright?”

Yin Yuanxia coughed, and said, “But Xie ge is 185 centimeters tall! There is a difference of twenty-three centimeters between you. Do you know how much is twenty-three centimeters?”

He said, then reached out his hand to outline the difference of height between her and Xie Yi.

Zhou Tian: “……” Fuck, you two from the bottom lane are so annoying!

Guan Bo Niang, who travelled everywhere with the team, came over to reassure her: “It’s okay, I am going to send out the microphone recording of the first week in a few minutes. And then, everyone will watch this and won’t have the time to continue reposting that post.”

TL Note: Microphone recording = a recording of what they said when they played in the match.

“How long is the recording?”

“A bit over five minutes. You guys talked more during the ban-pick section.”

At twelve o’clock sharp, the post was sent out. The group of teammates was sitting in the restaurant on the top floor of the hotel and was waiting for their meal, all clicked onto the post and were eager to hear which parts of their conversations were in the edited version.

The result was, Zhou Tian’s voice filled their ears the moment the recording started.

【It’s only my first time on stage, is it even necessary to target me like this?!】

Zhou Tian: “???”

The good thing was, the next part of the recording was Wang Ren and Han Ziliang bickering with each other when the competition just started.

It was probably because the editing team knew that she was new, so they didn’t put in the sentence where she asked Wang Ren if she could have the first kill. Instead, they put in the part where she said that Further could handle the entire bottom lane. And there was a caption that read: “Congratulations to your new rank as Xie’s Sycophant!”

【Middle path, middle path!!】

【I’m teleporting, I’m teleporting, hold on!】

【The AD on the other side isn’t parrying, the tower is open, it’s open! I’m gonna go try starting a wave!】

TL’s Note: A wave of attack.

…

【It’s a wave! A wave! Just team fight.】

【Crocodile, crocodile, the crocodile is up again, someone go!】

…

【Xie ge should be the MVP this round, fuck, Xie ge’s always MVP when he gets the Lu Xian as hero! I’m just so jealous.】

【But this time he didn’t get five kills in a row, hahahahaha!!!】

Everyone thought that it was pretty good after they finished watching the edited version. Not only did the editing team put in the splendid team fighting parts, they also put in funny parts where the fans would be happy to watch.

Zhou Tian also sighed in relief, she thought that the editing team did great and thought a lot about her, because they cut off a lot of things that she said when she was getting too angry or excited.

“But after the competition and during the interview, Xie ge already said that you’re fierce,” Yin Yuanxia said, sighing, “Did you forget?”

Zhou Tian, again: “……”

Just when she was speechless and was glaring at the “bottom lane duo”, Xie Yi, on the other side, raised his head: “Good to be fierce.”

His tone was casual and he said it in a very simple way, but Zhou Tian’s anger somehow disappeared.

“W-Why?” She asked after pausing for a long time.

He pursed his lips and didn’t answer.

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter

---

Credits: Sydney & Kathrien

Chapter 10: Stable Triangle Relationship

Liu Man lifted Daylight up, put her on the bed, and pointed the camera at her.

Daylight had her two front paws on the blanket cover. Her two ears were standing up, and she had a confused look as she looked at herself on the phone’s screen. She didn’t know what was going on. 

“She’s a golden shaded. So cute!” –Peach is a fairy

TL Note: Yes, this is grammatically correct. “Golden shaded” was the only literal translation we could think of. 

“What’s a golden shaded?” –I’m here for the shoes

“It’s a kind of british shorthair. Golden shaded are really rare, and if they are purebred, their eyes should be green. Like this one, it must be very pure. Its lake green eyes are so pretty! (cute)” –Peach is a fairy

Apparently, this person really knew cats since she explained them so well.

“What’s the name of your kitty?” –Peach is a fairy

Liu Man said, “She’s called Daylight.”

“Ooh, her name sounds really good, too. Daylight allures the city. Our Daylight is going to be a super fairy when in the future.” –Peach is a fairy

TL’s Note: Daylight allures the city is just a saying in Chinese

“Sis, can you film this kitty more when you livestream? I love cats so much. There aren’t very many live-streamers who have golden shaded.” –Peach is a fairy

“Sure! But I can only film her if I’m at home. I can’t film her if I spend the night at the school dorms.”

“You are so easy to talk to.” –Peach is a fairy

An animation of a hand doing a heart sign appeared on the screen, with a ‘x’ sign to the right of it. The number next to the multiplication sign kept on increasing, and at last it stopped at 33.

TL’s Note: Welp, 33, horizontally looks like a mouth. But it can also mean hearts.

“Peach is a fairy sent you pencil lead.”

TL’s Note: A hand doing a heart sign, in chinese, sounds similar to pencil lead. So softwares tend to use “pencil lead” in order to catch up with the viral sayings online.

Liu Man knew that this is another audience member spamming her with presents, and she was very glad, “Thank you, peach is a fairy.”

It was probably because there were two people who spammed presents to Liu Man, and so as a result, she climbed up the leaderboard, and now there were suddenly seventy viewers in her livestream room.

TL Note: As Sydney says “presents = popularity”, so people who have more popularity will get onto the leaderboard?

There were also a lot more people commenting down below.

Some people were asking her questions about her AJs, while others asked about her cat.

Liu Man realized that she would get viewers from filming her cat. She suddenly felt that it was magical. Through an internet string and a phone, she could talk to many people who lived far away from her. She could also share things about her life, and everyone was happy to see how she lived her life.

TL Note: Sydney says: “WIFI WIRE = INTERNET STRING”

It wasn’t until eleven o’clock in the evening when Liu Man ended her livestream. This evening, she’d gained a lot. She sold another pair of AJs and had received a lot of presents.

She happily raised Daylight up, “You have to help me in the future!”

Daylight, who didn’t realize that she had become the idol to many cat fans, squirmed. Her two hind paws kept on scratching around, but when they touched Liu Man’s skin, she would withdraw her paws, and just lightly poke her skin.

Liu Man fiercely kissed her, “First, I’ll buy you cat food with the money I earned today.” 

She then immediately opened Tao Bao, put down an order, and bought fifteen pounds of cat food.

TL Note: Tao Bao is like a Chinese Amazon. 100% recommended

Before she went to bed, Liu Man logged onto her live-streaming software because she wanted to see what other livestreamers were doing to get viewers. She knew that there would be a day when all her AJs would be sold out. Then what would she depend on to earn money? She needed experience.

On this app, there were livestreamers who would dance, live streamers who do makeup, livestreamers who cook or bake… It was multifarious. 

Liu Man still was shy because of her past experiences as a girl from Ancient China. She wasn’t ready to show her face yet.

She scrolled down to a livestreamer who was number ten on the leaderboard. She clicked on it and saw a person painting. The livestreamer never showed her face, and she could only see a hand holding a paintbrush and the painting. Liu Man saw that he had seventy thousand fans, and the amount of presents he got shocked Liu Man.

Was this the modern version of selling paintings?

Liu Man suddenly felt inspired and made a decision in her mind. She opened Tao Bao again, looked around for a bit, and finally bought a few things.

The next day, when she got to school, Li Xiaoru was very happy, “Man Man, you’re terrific! It was only your second time live streaming, and there were already people giving you presents. If we don’t give up and continue, you’ll be a god!”

TL’s Note: Not literally god. But like, similar to a live-streaming star. Cyber star.

“But I only have fifteen fans.” Liu Man said resignedly.

“Nothing’s easy when you just start to do it. But in the future, your number of fans will definitely go up like crazy.”

“You didn’t even show your face anyway. Those livestreamers who live-stream just to show their appearance, use filters, and they’re still not even more good looking than you. If you show your face, you can beat them easily, so you don’t have to worry about having no fans.”

Li Xiaoru was very confident in Liu Man. At first, she thought that live-streaming wasn’t dependable. But when she saw how good the interaction between Liu Man and the audience were, she felt that Liu Man could become a cyber star in the future. 

“What are you looking at? It’s not like you to not interrupt me.” Li Xiaoru turned to Wang Nina, “Eh? Isn’t that a photo of Tang Tu?”

Wang Nina was scrolling through Wei Bo, “The photos of Tang Tu and his girlfriend are on the leaderboard again.”

A fan of Tang Tu took a few photos of them with her Wei Bo. The photos were taken at a Japanese restaurant, and this time, Shen Mozhen’s face was clearly disclosed in front of the public.

In the Wei Bo comments, someone dug up Shen Mozhen’s background.

“The prettiest in the major, and she’s also going to be a professional musician. She’s so brilliant that you can’t even be jealous of her.”

“This couple is so attractive! We can’t compare to them. Nah.”

“We can only bless them. (crying)”

…

A few astute fans found out where they were eating, just from the background decorations.

“Isn’t that just the Ju Jiu Wu across from the music conversation? I went there a few times, it’s pretty good.”

“I saw it on Yelp. The prices are so expensive, and my poorness had affected the attractiveness of the food.”

“Wait, so if we eat there, we would be able to meet Tang Tu?!

“We can’t eat there. It’s so, so expensive!”

…

There were a lot of discussions going on in Wei Bo, and Wang Nina was engrossed in reading them. “But this Shen Mozhen really is brilliant. Even if you graduate from our school, it would be hard to get into a national orchestra. And she already got an offer before she graduated, I really admire her skills.”

Although Liu Man and her friends were still in their sophomore year, they had to think about their future. Art students had difficulty in finding jobs, unlike normal students. If you had really good grades, you could go to huge orchestras like Shen Mozhen. If your grade was good and you had a good background, you could also go to a good orchestra. Those kids who were rich would go to music conservations in other countries to continue their studies. If your grades were okay, then you could at least take an exam for the post-graduates and save yourself. But if your grade was really bad, then you could only hope that you could get a job like a piano teacher.

The old Liu Man was the bad grade kind. Otherwise, Liu Chenyu wouldn’t have been worrying about her future. But completely different than her, Wang Nina and Li Xiaoru’s grades were brilliant, and they were the serious art student type. Their grades were very good in their major, if you put everyone on a leaderboard, but they weren’t the best. They didn’t have good backgrounds, and so it would be a bit hard to get into a big orchestra.

“Next year, our school will be officially eighty years old… Unless we can somehow be allowed to do a solo performance at the end of next year on the eighty-years-anniversary.” Wang Nina mumbled to herself. 

TL Note: So, basically unless they get to do a solo performance, it’ll be hard to get into a big orchestra

After hearing her words, Li Xiaoru, who always rambled on and on, went silent. Performing in the eighty-year-anniversary performance was probably the dream of every student at piano major who wanted a bright musical future.

Liu Man, who was always attentive, realized that there was a change in the duo’s emotions, “If I can get a hundred fans, then I’ll pay for a meal at Ju Jiu Wu. How about that?”

“Really?”

“You can’t take that back!”

Li Xiaoru and Wang Nina said together.

Liu Man laughed, “Mhm. That’s a promise.”

There weren’t any art students that weren’t proud and arrogant. Li Xiaoru and Wang Nina could tolerate Liu Man’s self-willed temper, and be friends with her, because she was bad at piano. Liu Man would never be able to compete against them, and she never wanted to improve. She never competed or stole any chances from them. Only with Liu Man in the middle and reconciling, could their dorm be a stable triangle relationship.

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter

---

Credits: Sydney, Kathrien, & a bit of Dora

Chapter 14

Zhou Tian finally woke up after sleeping for an entire afternoon.

The two bottles of drip were just about to be empty when she woke up. Xie Yi, because of his guilt, was looking after her the entire time. He just went out to call the staff so that they could pull out the needle and left Guang Bo Niang behind to watch over her.

Guan Bo Niang was very excited, seeing that Zhou Tian’s consciousness had returned: “Little Tian, you’re finally awake! How are you feeling right now?”

Zhou Tian was a bit confused, “This place is… The hospital?”

“Yes, because you had a fever.” Guan Bo Niang immediately explained, “Xie Ge found you, and we came with you to the hospital. The doctor said that you came just in time, otherwise, your fever could’ve gotten worse.”

“Oh.” Zhou Tian tried to remember after hearing her words and finally thought of how she heard Xie Yi knocking in her dreams, “…So, it really was him…”

Just as she was mumbling softly, Xie Yi came back with the nurse.

The nurse measured her body temperature after seeing that she was awake.

“How is she?” Guan Bo Niang was the first to ask.

“She hasn’t completely recovered yet,” The nurse said, “But she’s definitely much better. Have a good night of rest, and make sure that you are under the blanket at all times. You will recover soon.”

“Does that mean that she shouldn’t go back today?”

“Mhm, she should, of course, return when she’s completely fine.” The nurse answered, as if it was common knowledge.

Guan Bo Niang didn’t know what to do, because YYg had already organized their two weeks of schedule accordingly to when the Summer Competition’s dates came out.

And according to their schedule, the entire YYg team would be flying to Guangzhou tonight, and prepare for the match that was going to happen in three days.

TL Note: Guangzhou, well, is a city in China.

Zhou Tian also knew the schedule and immediately shook her head, “No, I still have a flight to catch tonight.”

The nurse didn’t stop them either. She just reminded them to be careful afterwards, and to not have a fever again because of exhaustion.

Zhou Tian scratched her face: “This is not the first time I have a fever, and I feel like it’s not that big of a problem. I won’t drag the team behind schedule, if I can help it.”

Xie Yi, standing beside her bed, frowned, “You would be dragging us behind if you go to a match with a fever.”

Xie Yi’s voice was already very deep for his age group, and now, because of his anger, his voice was even deeper. His tone sounded very icy and hard.

But Zhou Tian already knew his true personality, so she wasn’t afraid. She pursed her lips and raised her head to look at him, “I won’t go to a match with a fever. Aren’t there still three more days?”

Xie Yi: “…”

At last, Zhou Tian still decided to leave the hospital.

Before she left, she wanted to show her determination to recover and had a conversation with the doctor while noting down everything the doctor said.

The doctor said that her fever was caused by many reasons and not just because of the cold.

“Aren’t you from Chang San Jiao, right? Being acclimatized when you just move here is normal.” The doctor told her, “And you must stay up late a lot. Your schedule doesn’t have a regular pattern, so these are all big problems. You need to take care of your body, don’t go looking for death just because you’re young.”

TL Note: not like literally looking for death, but more of doing reckless things. 

Zhou Tian couldn’t find a way to explain to the doctor that this was something that she had to get used to because of her job. 

Just as she started to speak, Xie Yi spoke for her and said that she wouldn’t stay up late again.

Zhou Tian: “???” Wait a moment, so he’s not going to call me down to duo rank in the middle of the night ever again?

She tentatively asked Xie Yi when the group of three got onto the taxi that was heading back to their base.

And Xie Yi, not even hesitating a single bit, nodded and said yes.

Zhou Tian: “…To be honest, it’s actually unnecessary. You know, we still need to practice.”

Xie Yi said that they could practice during the mornings.

“But it’s slow to get into a server during mornings.” She said without thinking, “There are only around a thousand people that are in the high-ended bureau of the Korean server, and only nine hundred or so log on during the afternoon or during midnight.”

Although the game was right there, and you could play it whenever you wanted, things like ranking games were different without the system giving you opponents and teammates that were about your level.

Xie Yi, as a professional gamer who has been playing in the Korean server for many years, of course knew this.

TL Note: This was really confusing, but like I think the point is that because there are only 100 players in the morning, it’s harder to get into a server. Correct me in the comments if I’m wrong.

But he thought that it wasn’t a problem. First of all, professional gamers played rank only because they want to sustain their skills or to just practice using new heroes. Secondly, Zhou Tian had been really good at cooperating with her teammates ever since she joined. Even if they didn’t rank outside of training, it still wouldn’t really affect them. And even if it would be much slower to get into a server during the morning, they would still only be getting into a few games.

TL Note: So like, since there are less people in the mornings, it’s slower to get into a game.

“It’s fine that it’s slow.” He said with a tone that didn’t allow anyone to object, “We’ll do it during the mornings.”

Zhou Tian considered it and said, “Then you will have to sleep earlier from now on too. If you sleep late and wake up early, then you won’t be able to play well. If we wake up early and lose a lot of points, then it’d be unbearable.”

Xie Yi: “…”

Guan Bo Niang, who was sitting next to the driver, saw her cruely saying bad things about Xie Yi, and saw that Xie Yi had nothing to reply with. She almost laughed, but of course, she resisted doing so.

When they got back to the base, the other teammates had already returned. So the group packed their luggages for half an hour, and then were ready to go to the airport.

Yin Yuanxia and the others learned that Zhou Tian had a fever and went to the hospital, so they came to find her.

“How are you now? Are you feeling better?”

“You still look pale. Are you sure you’re fine?”

“It’s going to be cold on the airplane later. Make sure to wear an extra layer.”

Zhou Tian answered them one by one, and then got on the bus heading towards the airport with the rest of the group with her luggage.

On the bus, the staff who went with the team took a few photos and said that it was for tonight’s official Wei Bo posts.

“We don’t have to worry now. These photos should be enough for today’s advertising, and tomorrow we can put out the edited version of the voice recording at the competition.”

Zhou Tian, who was sitting in the corner and who was probably still sick, had to take a moment to react before she heard ‘the voice recording at the competition’, “Wait, the microphone recording is going out?”

TL Note: A bit confusing for me, but I think she means that a recording of what they said during the matches is going to be released to the public

Guan Bo Niang, sitting in the row in front of her, immediately turned around, “Yeah, we edited it during this entire morning. We need to put all your highlights in it, but sometimes we’ll still have to crop out what you say during the highlighted moments.” 

“This, I know.” Wang Ren said, “Every single time we team fight, Han Ziliang always curses. When we lose, he curses. When we win, he curses. It really would be inappropriate if we put it in the edited version.”

“Fuck, you’re such a jerk. So apparently you curse less than me?”

“It’s actually okay this time, since there isn’t much content with cursing in it.” Guan Bo Niang said with a tone of ‘I’m already used to it’, “Mainly, you guys were just saying that SF’s new Top player played too bad, when you won during the second round. If we directly put those recordings out there, then the fans of both teams will start fighting, and we don’t want that. We have a pretty good relationship with SF right now.”

Yin Yuanxia also reacted: “Oh yeah. We also complimented Boss Su and Bone. SF’s fans always cursed at Boss Su and Bone last season and kept on complaining about how they were so bad. Now, SF changed to two new players who are the ones that are really sucky. I wonder how their fans feel right now.”

TL Note: Boss Su and Bone are the previous players of SF that now left.

Zhou Tian sensed the smell of gossiping, “So these two players left the team because they were being blamed for something they didn’t do?” 

Yin Yuanxia nodded: “Mainly, they had nothing to do with losing the Spring Competition, but in the end, they were still blamed. The day after they lost to tSD at the finals, there were people going over to SF’s base and swearing at them for dragging the team behind. And SF’s management didn’t do anything about that. I don’t even know what they were thinking.”

Zhou Tian: “…” That really was too awful for them.

Maybe it was because he was afraid that these pieces of gossip would scare her, Yin Yuanxia quickly added: “Ah, just hear some old news and forget about it, don’t mind them either. There are crazy fans all over the place.”

Zhou Tian, of course, understood this. But she couldn’t resist but think that Boss Su and Bone took the blame because they weren’t old members of SF and instead joined halfway. But if you put this situation for YYg–

When he saw that she was thinking randomly, Wang Ren interrupted: “And our fans don’t care about these kinds of things.”

Zhou Tian couldn’t resist but looked at Xie Yi, who was sitting in the other corner, when she remembered the crazy comments online when YYg lost during the semifinals.

Because after they only achieved third place in the competition, he, without any worries of insulting anyone, had talked about their failure in the semifinals during an interview.

At that moment, a journalist had asked him how he would comment on YYg’s result during the Spring Competition. He said that it was obviously a failure.

When the journalist heard the answer, she was too slow to react and almost forgot to continue the interview.

At last, Xie Yi, who was used to being silent and aloof in front of others, took over the microphone and initiatively continued, “This failure would be my fault.”

The journalist, who was about to pull herself back together, was shocked again after hearing this sentence. She said without thinking, “How could it be your fault? During the fifth round of the semifinals, you clearly–”

During the fifth round of the semifinals, it was Song Chu, the old captain, who was first to go off strategy and wander around the jungling area. And then, it was Han Ziliang who got killed three times on his path. They were getting worse and worse in that round, Xie Yi, with an AD hero that only became powerful in the second part of the game, couldn’t even get the equipment and do his job before the round ended. Nobody could really blame him.

Everyone thought so, but he didn’t.

He interrupted whatever the journalist was saying, “I have the highest salary, it would, of course, be my fault if I can’t carry my team.”

Zhou Tian still remembered that his words stunned the entire eSports industry.

Nobody could say that they hadn’t seen anyone who felt  strong responsibility for the entire team, but people like Xie Yi were really rare.

And he was also pointing out some classic logic that was in the eSports industry, that was never pointed out, but everyone knew–You make the most money. You’re the most famous star. The team lost, whose fault is it if it’s not yours?

Because of these brief short words that he said, YYg’s fans and Xie Yi’s own fans didn’t curse any team member later on even when they lost the Spring Competition.

This situation, compared to Boss Su, Bone, and the SF’s officials who kept on getting cursed at by their fans, really was different.

So it wasn’t actually ‘YYg’s fans don’t care about these kinds of things’, Zhou Tian thought, but that it’s actually because there is always a person like Xie Yi, who’s standing in front and blocking out all the wind and rain attacking.

TL Note: Like, there’s always a person taking the blame (in this case) and shielding the team.

Zhou Tian thought. She didn’t even realize that she was staring at Xie Yi for a few minutes.

Until Xie Yi felt a bit weird and couldn’t resist but raise his eyebrow at her, when she finally pulled herself back together.

…And then, without knowing why, quickly looked away.

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter

---

Credits: Sydney & Kathrien

Chapter 9: Continuing Live-streaming

Right now, Liu Man didn’t know about the messy thoughts ongoing inside Shen Mozhen’s head. She had already forgotten about Tang Tu as she tried her best not to suffocate while moving along in the subway trains while heading back home within the huge crowds of people who had just finished work.

It was already eight when she arrived at home. Zhang Pei made dinner for her. As she ate, she told her mother, “Mom, I’m going to sell all my AJs.”

“Aren’t they your treasures? Before, you wouldn’t even let me or your dad touch them.” Zhang Pei was stunned.

“That was before, when I wasn’t considerate and spent my money on things I shouldn’t be buying. Now that dad got himself involved in this kind of incident, I can’t just watch. The three of us are in this together, and I can’t just let you take all the responsibility.”

“Don’t sell them, second-hand shoes aren’t worth that much. You don’t have to do anything about this, I will figure out what to do,” Zhang Pei still loved and cared about her daughter too much. Collecting AJs was one of Liu Man’s few hobbies, and she still remembered her daughter’s smile that came from her heart every time she received a pair of AJs.

“I already sold a pair today and earned a thousand RMB,” Liu Man took out her phone to show her mother the transaction record, “Look, I only put up the post for about one day, and someone had already bought it. It’s actually very easy to sell my AJs, since those AJ fans love these kinds of limited versions.”

Zhang Pei saw the line that said “Successful order and transaction”, and was very surprised. Before, this pair of shoes used to be Liu Man’s favorite ones, and it was a limited version. Liu Man finally got it online after staying up past midnight. Zhang Pei wanted to tell her daughter not to give up her hobbies, but when she looked into her daughters’ eyes, she saw a slight glint in her dark black eyes.

Before, there used to be recklessness,  willfulness, and even a bit of arrogance and soleness, in front of family, of course, in these eyes. But right now, they had a sheer clearness. Zhang Pei felt as if her eyes had magical powers that could let her relax and confidently believe in her. No matter how hard and long the path in front of them was, it would be alright in the end.

Zhang Pei’s expression turned into a smile, which was rarely seen on her face these days, “Forget it, forget it. I’m not going to interfere then, go do whatever you want.”

After she fed Daylight and took care of her cat litter, Liu Man started preparing for livestream. She didn’t have a phone holder, so she simply held the phone up by putting it on a pile of thick books on the middle of the table. She adjusted the position for a few moments, and then finally adjusted the front camera of the phone into an almost perfect angle.

At exactly nine o’clock in the evening, Liu Man started her livestream.

In the viewers’ list, the first two were “HeheHaha” (Li Xiaoru) and “NANA” (Wang Nina), they had been waiting for Liu Man for a long time.

“Hey sis, you’re finally online!” –HeheHaha

“We’ve been waiting for so long” –HeheHaha

“Please start soon” –HeheHaha

…

Liu Man never knew that Li Xiaoru was a spammer, yet the comment section was filled with her messages in less than a moment.

“Whoa, so you’re live-streaming at home today, sis?” –I’m here for the shoes

“Yeah, I came home from school today,” She answered and peered at the viewers’ list with the corner of her eyes. Excluding her two “fake audience” members, the three other viewers were all familiar to her, “I’m here for the shoes”, “Dragon’s Roar”, and the “Otaku Boy” who accidentally entered the livestreaming room yesterday.

“Dragon’s Roar, I’ve already sent out your shoes today. If there is any problem with it when it arrives at your address, feel free to contact me anytime.” Liu Man said.

Dragon’s Roar, who didn’t write anything in the comments section, sent a message, “Alright, thanks.”

At this moment, a few more viewers entered the live-streaming room.

“Aye, our live-stream girl not only has good looking legs, but also has a pretty nice neck. (heart-eyes)” — Otaku Boy.

The air conditioner was on, so Liu Man wore a pair of tight and light blue pajamas, which had long sleeves and long trousers. Through the screen, the audiences could only see her pale, long neck and pointy chin. Sometimes they could also catch a glimpse of hair hanging down.。

“Girl, can u please show us your face” –Otaku Boy.

“Sister, if you’re willing to show us your face, then I’ll spam you with a castle.” –Otaku Boy.

TL’s Note: just so u don’t know, castle is one of the “presents” fans give livestreamers which could be brought by real money and when the livestreamer get the present, it would automatically be exchanged into real money

Liu Man’s face reddened again, she felt like she was being flirted with online.

“Pervert fuck off, our live-streamer’s here to show us her AJs.” –HeheHaha.

“I want to see the AJs, but I also want to see a beauty.” –Otaku Boy

“To be honest, I’m also curious about how our livestreamer looks like.” –I’m here for the shoes.

“Show us the AJs!” –NANA

Wang Nina’s comment reminded Liu Man.

“I will now show you my cloakroom.”

Liu Man picked up her phone and switched to the rear camera. She then walked into her cloakroom, focused it on her whole wall filled with AJs, and said while slowly filming the pile from the top to the bottom, “This is my entire collection of AJs.”

“Wow, this is so shocking, so eye catching, and so colorful!” –I’m here for the shoes

“This girl has a mine in her house!” –andy my euphoria.

TL’s Note: this is something that’s commonly said in china, basically deeper meaning = rich, cuz if u have a mine ur rich 🙂

Seeing a comment from an unfamiliar viewer, Liu Man quickly explained, “If I have a mine at my house, would I even be selling second-handed AJs?”

“Ooh, I love your interior decoration style. I also love your AJs, the only thing is that my shoe size, 38, is too big for your AJs (sob)” –Peach is a fairy

So far, Liu Man’s viewers were all female, well, except for Otaku Boy, of course.

“Sis, can I get a closer look at the 2nd row to the left on the top, the 3rd pair of shoes?” –andy my euphoria

“Of course you can.”

Liu Man stood on her tiptoes and reached for the pair of shoes,

“This pair of shoes are one of the early ones that I bought. I wore it a few more times than the others, but it still looks pretty new,” Liu Man zoomed in on the shoes.

“Ahhhhhhhh, this is my most wanted pair of AJs. When it just came out, I was in tenth grade and spent a lot of time earning and saving up my allowance. But when I finally got enough money, they stopped selling it. (weary) ” — andy my euphoria 

“If you really want it, I can make it cheaper. I wore it a few times anyway,” Liu Man directly told her the price honestly, “800 RMB would be enough,” The original price was 2488 RMB.

“I love people with straightforward personalities!” –andy my euphoria.

Suddenly, a golden carriage appeared on the screen. A butler with white blouses and black uniform sat in the carriage, he waved his baton and countless small stars fell, as if it was raining stars.

“andy my euphoria sent you a blissful carriage.” A line of caption, red and bold, appeared at the bottom of the comment section.

A notification jumped onto her screen.

“Jesus christ, she must be a parvenu! And she said that you own a mine, she probably has a mine. She gave you 500RMB!” Li Xiaoru, on the other side of the screen, was extremely excited. A blissful carriage equaled 5200 coins in the app, and 10 coins in that app equaled 1 RMB.

Liu Man was also very surprised, “Thank you, andy my euphoria!”

“I’ve already ordered on Xian Yu, remember to mail the shoes to me tomorrow!” –andy my euphoria

“Okay, no problem.”

“Meow meow~”

“Eh? I think I heard a kitten,” –Peach is a fairy

Liu Man lowered her head and saw Daylight, who was sitting beside her feet, looking up at her. Her huge round eyes were staring at her owner, looking sad and innocent, as if asking for a hug. Liu Man did neglect her, after all.

“She’s my cat.” Liu Man said.

“Ah, you’ve got a kitten in your house?” –Peach is a fairy

“Can you please show us your kitty? (eyes)” –Peach is a fairy

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter

---

Credits: Sydney & Kathrien

Chapter 13

Zhou Tian had a dream. In the dream, she was back to the time where she was locked in her room because she had refused to listen to her parents and work for the fishermen.

In fact, she lived close to her school, so she was close enough to hear the rings of the school-bell from across the street and felt sad and helpless. But she couldn’t do anything about it and could only lay on her bed and watch the clock tick. Every second felt like a year.

For a long time, she couldn’t let the memory go and wasn’t as carefree as she had told everyone else.

Especially after that summer passed. Her former table-mate often visited her, and every time, she would mention all kinds of things she was seeing in high school.

Zhou Tian was stressed in her dream. She almost couldn’t breath.

She tried to tell herself to calm down, but her breaths wouldn’t listen to her.

Just as the feeling of her suffocating was getting worse and worse, she heard a series of rapid knocking.

The knocking sound was incoherent, but after she started concentrating on listening to it, it became clearer. At last, she finally identified the voice that was hidden within the knocking noises.

It was Xie Yi.

He was calling her.

“Yuzhou?”

“…”

“Yuzhou, are you up yet?”

“…”

The moment she heard what he was saying, she finally realized that she was probably just having a nightmare.

She opened her eyes with difficulty and found herself in another room, instead of the tiny and narrow one that had held her captive. She sighed in relief and was about to answer the person outside the door, but she couldn’t make any noise.

The feeling of nausea was spreading through her entire body, now that she was awake, and she almost fell back into her suffocating nightmare.

Luckily, Xie Yi, who was on the other side of the door, kept on knocking and was getting more anxious with each moment.

She rubbed her head and got off her bed nauseously to open the door. Her steps were unstable, and she almost fell.

Xie Yi, who probably heard her footsteps, finally stopped knocking on the door and said, “You’re awake? Or–”

The door opened. Zhou Tian, standing shakily in front of him, pointed aggrievedly at her mouth with heavy eyelids.

Xie Yi: “…”

Although Xie Yi knew that her cold must’ve been getting worse when he didn’t see her downstairs at two in the afternoon, he was still startled to see her reddened face and her confused look.

“…You’re having a fever.” He said with confidence.

Zhou Tian was mute at this moment and could only blink at him.

Xie Yi: “Did you take your medicine?”

She shook her head.

He wasn’t surprised at her answer and sighed. “I’ll go get it for you.”

But he didn’t even have the chance to finish his sentence before the weak and feverish girl fell onto him and went back into her deep sleep.

Xie Yi was standing right in front of her and, of course, wouldn’t let her just fall onto the ground like that. He naturally reached out and tried to help her stand back up.

He realized that Zhou Tian was becoming even worse than he had imagined because she couldn’t even stay conscious for this short while, and her whole body was getting feverish. 

It took half a second before Xie Yi decided to directly send her to the hospital before she became even worse.

Because today they were on vacation, the rest of the team all went out.

If Xie Yi hadn’t been the kind of person who was too lazy to go out, except for competitions and celebration meals, then Zhou Tian would’ve probably been left unfound in her room, even if she stayed feverish for a whole day.

Thinking of this, Xie Yi, who was always calm, felt scared.

He stopped hesitating and went downstairs with Zhou Tian in his arms.

There wasn’t anyone on the training floor, but there were still a few employees working at the other side of the base.

Xie Yi figured it would be inappropriate if he took Zhou Tian to the hospital all by himself, since they were in opposing genders, so he called the female staff member who was mainly in charge of operating YYg’s official Wei Bo account.

“Little Tian has a fever?!” Guan Bo Niang almost flew to the training floor when she saw his WeChat message, “God, this really looks bad.”

TL’s Note: Guan = Official, Bo = Wei Bo, Niang is just a way to call a female. (Although I do not recommend you to call any female this because Niang also means “mom” in chinese.”

“Mhm.” Xie Yi didn’t deny, “We have to get her to the hospital.”

Guan Bo Niang quickly nodded her head, “With this kind of fever, she must go to the hospital.”

Xie Yi: “Can you go to her room and get her some clothes?” This was the main reason why he called her over.

“Oh yes!” Guan Bo Niang patted her head. She just realized, “I’ll be right back.”

After five minutes, Guan Bo Niang came downstairs after taking Zhou Tian’s fresh pieces of clothing, phone, keys, and important belongings.

She also took a thin blanket and wrapped Zhou Tian in it the moment she came down. She didn’t want Zhou Tian to get even worse, since it was windy outside.

After that, the duo left the base and went to the nearest hospital so that Zhou Tian could receive treatment.

“Why does she have such a bad fever?” The doctor probably thought that it was very late when they sent the patient over, and his tone was very disapproving, “If you had driven her here just a bit later, then it could’ve become pneumonia.”

“God…” Guan Bo Niang was a bit scared when she heard the doctor. She covered her mouth and turned her head to look at Xie Yi, “Then it’s fortunate that Xie ge discovered her before it’s too late.”

Xie Yi, however, didn’t dare to take the credit, because he realized that if he hadn’t called Zhou Tian downstairs to duo rank, then she probably wouldn’t have come downstairs and sat right below the vent for three hours without even finishing drying her hair.

If you thought about it that way, then the reason why Zhou Tian caught a cold and had a fever was definitely because of him.

“When will her fever be gone?” He asked the doctor in a low voice.

“How can I give you an exact timing for something like this?” The doctor said with a chuckle, “But at least you sent her over. Let’s first wait until she finishes this bottle of drip.”

TL Note: Drip is like medicine.

Xie Yi nodded and sat down beside the bed.

Guang Bo Niang saw what he did and was a bit shocked. She resisted for a long time, before she spoke tentatively: “Xie ge, aren’t… Aren’t you going back to the base?”

Xie Yi: “Do you want to go back?”

Guan Bo Niang: “…” No, I thought you called me over because you wanted me to stay here and watch over Little Tian? But in the end you aren’t going either?!

Because communicating with Xie Yi was a big challenge for the employees at YYg, Guan Bo Niang thought for a long time before she finally came up with a rough draft and spoke again.

Xie Yi waved his hand before she finished with her “speech.”

“I’ll wait until her fever’s gone.” He said simply.

“Then, I…?”

“If you’ve something to do, then you can go first.”

“…”

At last, Guan Bo Niang decided to stay. Because just as she was hesitating, a nurse came in to check on the patient on the bed next to Zhou Tian’s. And when the nurse came in, she stared at Xie Yi for at least five seconds.

It was clear that this nurse knew Xie Yi. She could even be one of his fans.

Under this condition, if she, as the operator of the official YYg account, left Xie Yi alone with Zhou Tian, then it would be too inappropriate. At least, if the news got onto the internet, then Xie Yi’s fans would probably make another huge fuss out of it.

Sure enough, it hadn’t even been a few minutes after the nurse went out, when there was a person who mentioned seeing Xie Yi and Zhou Tian in the hospital in the discussion section in YYg’s Wei Bo account.

There were a lot of comments below. 

(????)

(WHAT??!)

(Shoot, Xie ge is responsible for driving colleagues to the hospital?”

Guan Bo Niang facepalmed and had no choice but to respond to that post. Her explanation was that today everyone was on vacation, but only Xie Yi, who was always practicing on his own, stayed behind and found Zhou Tian with a fever. She also emphasized again and again that there was staff who also went with them to the hospital.

“Right now, Yuzhou’s condition hasn’t been completely stabilized, and YYg has another match in three days at Guangdong. Further and the staff both are not quite assured, so they stayed behind in the hospital to watch over Yuzhou.”

The fans, seeing this, finally quieted down and began exclaiming about how Xie Yi was so hardworking and so ingenious, and how he was practically the model for all professional gamers.

Guan Bo Niang went through the entire post and saw that there were no longer any other argumentative comments and finally sighed in relief.

When she looked up again, she saw Xie Yi, who was looking at Zhou Tian with a frown on his face.

“What, what is it, Xie ge?”

Xie Yi didn’t reply, but stood up and told Guan Bo Niang that he would be right back.

After two minutes, he came back with a bottle of water and a box of cotton swabs. He then, rustily, began dipping swabs in water and spreading the water on Zhou Tian’s dry lips.

Guan Bo Niang was stupefied. 

TL’s Note: Harry potter, get it? Hahaha

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter

---

Credits: Sydney & Kathrien

Chapter 8: Practicing Piano At The Piano Room

Since it was Liu Man’s first-time live-streaming, it was very messy and only lasted for ten minutes. The maximum amount of people watching had only reached twenty, but Liu Man was already very proud. 

The biggest surprise was that on the second day, someone on XianYu bought one of her AJs that she had shown in the livestream yesterday. The buyer’s username was Dragon’s Roar, her first viewer in the livestream room.

TL’s Note: XianYu is an app commonly used in China where anyone can sell second-handed things.

Liu Man wrapped the shoes in her dormitory and carefully wrote the buyer’s address and phone number. Li Xiaoru was even more excited than she was, “Someone actually bought it!”

“The shoes are in great condition, and it’s also very cheap, so why wouldn’t someone buy it?” Wang Nina did not think that it was something worth being proud of. When they were live-streaming, she had been the one handing the shoes to Liu Man. When the shoes had passed through her hands, she had kind of wanted it, but did not have the habit of buying second-handed things.

“Then let’s do better this time and try on ten pairs of shoes today!” Li Xiaoru said.

“But I only brought five pairs to school, and I’ve got to practice piano this afternoon. I don’t have time to try on that many.” Liu Man was frustrated, but she also had never expected that her second-handed AJs would be so easy to sell.

“You can go home after you practice! Don’t bring the shoes around so much, since you can just livestream in your house. Me and Nina will be your audience, so we can hype up the chat!” Li Xiaoru snickered.

Liu Man and Wang Nina also laughed along with her.

There were only ten more days until the big exam, which meant that Liu Man had to hurry and practice. Because of the exam, the piano rooms and practice rooms were all booked. Liu Man was slow to book one and had only got one from five to seven, when there weren’t that many people.

TL Note: meaning she got a room from 5 to 7. Basically 2 hours of practice time.

The music was linked together, plus, she still had the memories from the old Liu Man. Piano wasn’t so hard to play, and Liu Man was getting better every minute that she spent practicing. She had also discovered some tricks by herself. But getting a score of eighty-five was still challenging.

TL Note: Like two instruments linked together.

The school was strict about grades. Last semester, Liu Man had failed the exam, and the rules were: two failed exams meant retention, while three failures meant expulsion.

At this point, Liu Man didn’t want to trouble her family, so she could only practice harder.

When Tang Tu finished practicing, it was already half past six, and the sun was already down. He sent his girlfriend a message via WeChat and was about to grab something to eat.

As he passed the piano practice rooms, he heard someone still practicing. He wasn’t interested in listening, but he found out that the person was repeatedly practicing a melody that seemed very easy to Tang Tu. He thought that it was funny and wondered how this person even got into the school.

Out of curiosity, he went closer to the room and looked through the window on the door, wondering who was playing.

He was stunned by the sight.

He saw Liu Man sitting up straight on the seat, her eyes focused on the sheet of music. She was strangely serious with playing this simple melody.

Under the warm dizzy light, the girl in the room seemed to be overwhelmed and in her own world. She had long, black hair and resembled elegance. She seemed as if she was an ancient lady that had come straight out of a mural.

For a moment, Tang Tu felt as if his heartbeats were getting faster. But soon, he got himself together, and was confused as to why a girl who was playing a western instrument had brought him the illusion of seeing a classic eastern beauty.

This illusion circled around in his mind until he stepped out of the building and saw his girlfriend, Shen Mozhen.

“Didn’t I tell you that you could have dinner without me?” Even Tang Tu didn’t realize that his voice held a bit of impatience.

Shen Mozhen didn’t notice anything wrong. She wrapped her arm around Tang Tu’s with a grin, “I wanted to give you a surprise! Are you glad to see me?”

“Of course, very glad indeed,” Tang Tu lowered his head to drop a light kiss on Shen Mozhen’s cheek, and Shen Mozhen leaned into him. Fortunately, it was very dark outside and only a few people were still out on the campus. Otherwise, if someone had taken a picture of the two of them like this and had put it onto the internet, then who knew how many girls would’ve experienced heartbreak again.

“Let’s go have Japanese food today, there’s a new restaurant that just opened near school, and there are a lot of good reviews for it on Yelp,” Shen Mozhen suggested.

“It’s your choice, you decide, I won’t mind,” Tang Tu’s tone sounded a tad perfunctory.

He was just about to walk toward the school gate with Shen Mozhen leaning against him, before he saw Liu Man, who was slowly walking out with her backpack. He paused for half a second, but this half a second of hesitation was just enough to alarm Shen Mozhen’s natural instincts as a woman.

Shen Mozhen looked towards the direction of his stare and saw Liu Man too.

The stares from the perfect couple were so straightforward that Liu Man saw them directly when she lifted her head. She unrestrainedly and generously nodded at Tang Tu, brightly smiled at Shen Mozhen, and walked around the two of them, thinking on the inside about how Tang Tu’s girlfriend was remarkably beautiful. 

Was her reaction disregardful, or just out of courtesy?

Tang Tu and Shen Mozhen both felt weird, so Shen Mozhen asked her boyfriend, 

“Who is she?”

“A sophomore in the piano major.”

Shen Mozhen immediately thought of the rumors that she had heard during the past two days. Someone told her that a girl in the piano major badgered Tang Tu, and Tang Tu even went to her classroom just to look for her. Ever since then, Shen Mozhen had felt a mixture of jealousy and anger, but had never had the courage to interrogate Tang Tu.

Shen Mozhen had studied folk music ever since she was a toddler, and was especially good at Guzheng. During the four years of her university, she was always the best in her major. Her appearance was feminine, with a slim and soft body. Whatever she did or said, she always did it gently and virtuously. She was always known for her classical eastern beauty. So, Shen Mozhen often represented her major and traveled internationally with the school’s official orchestra to perform. As someone who was about to graduate, she had already signed a contract with the National Folk Music Orchestra and had a bright future ahead of her.

She knew Tang Tu since the first day of freshman year. Excluding the romantic relationship that they had just announced recently, they still had four years worth of friendship. The duo knew each other very well. Because of that, all the other girls that knew Shen Mozhen had never complained and in the end, all stopped pestering Tang Tu when he chose her as his girlfriend.

But nobody knew that, Shen Mozhen, the perfect “goddess” to everyone else, swallowed her pride in front of Tang Tu. Most of the time, she put Tang Tu in front of herself. Maybe the reason Tang Tu chose her to be his girlfriend was because she was considerate and sensible.

“Don’t let her worry you. A few days ago she passed out outside the practice rooms, and I sent her to the clinic, and the next day, I went to her classroom to see if she was okay,” Tang Tu rarely explained himself, “Let’s go have our dinner now, I’m starving.”

“Okay, alright,” Shen Mozhen looked down. Tang Tu gave her an explanation but didn’t give her a chance to ask any other questions. These four years, countless girls of all kinds had tried to get near Tang Tu, but none of them could ever get his attention. Shen Mozhen was always extremely confident that if she stayed with Tang Tu as a friend, then one day, she would be able to get Tang Tu to like her. And she did.

But she didn’t know why. They had just confirmed their relationship a month ago, and now, out of every opponent in the past few years, there was a rival that had the best chance to steal away Tang Tu. Shen Mozhen felt a bit anxious and pressured.

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter

---

Credits: Sydney & Kathrien

Chapter 12

They ate dinner in a restaurant of porridge hotpot, near their base.

Before they went in, Han Ziliang and Yin Yuanxia, who were walking at the end, mumbled while walking, “Porridge hotpot sounds like a mystery, is it some kind of new viral food that’s become famous recently?”

“But Xie ge rarely goes to eat in restaurants that go viral online!” Yin Yuanxia said, “He’s very picky, you should know.”

Zhou Tian heard what they were saying and couldn’t help but explain: “It’s not some kind of food that’s gone viral online recently. Porridge hotpot is very famous in Guangdong, and it’s also very delicious. Although, it is quite rare in places outside of Guangdong.”

TL Note: Guangdong is a Chinese province.

“Oh?” Han Ziliang obviously didn’t expect such an explanation, “Out of all the hot pots from Guangdong, I only know the hotpot called ‘beef hotpot’ or something.”

“Chaoshan beef hotpot!” Yin Yuanxia knew that too, “A few years ago, there were a lot of those restaurants in Shanghai, they tasted really good.”

After he finished speaking, he blinked at Zhou Tian and said, “You people from Guangdong really know how to eat.”

Zhou Tian pursed her lips and explained, “In fact, those Chaoshan beef hotpot restaurants that are in places outside of Chaozhou, aren’t as delicious as the local ones, mainly because the restaurants here cannot make those hand-made meatballs. It’s a test of skill.”

At this time, it was time to have supper, and it was quite appropriate to chat. So as soon as Zhou Tian spoke, the other members of the team started to consult with her about Guangdong cuisine along with this topic.

“I used to work for the fishermen that my parents knew.” She said lightly, “I was responsible for helping them send fresh fish and shrimp to various restaurants, and I saw the chefs of many restaurants. Most of the best and classical beef hotpot restaurants, slaughter animals right on the spot, and then rely solely on employees to make the meatballs. Those kinds of meatballs taste really different.”

The team didn’t expect that she had such a level of experience and were very surprised.

“Before… before becoming a gaming livestreamer?” After becoming so shocked, Yin Yuanxia asked first.

Zhou Tian nodded, and then the whole room went silent.

She probably guessed the reason why they were silent and simply explained, “I didn’t take the middle school’s end of the year examination, and I didn’t go to high school or vocational high school. I went to work as soon as I graduated from middle school.”

Although the eSports circle was generally a lowly educated circle, and there weren’t that many few people who hadn’t attended high school, it was still extremely rare for her to start working as soon as she completed compulsory education.

After all, the age of fifteen was simply too young for work, or to be more serious, it was simply illegal.

“Your family…” Ying Yuanxia didn’t hold back. “What the hell were they thinking?”

Two years ago, Zhou Tian wouldn’t have been able to restrain her emotions and would’ve gone directly red-eyed when mentioning this, but after she started living alone and starting depending on her live-streaming income, she could gradually think better. So as she was asked by her teammates at this moment, she just answered quietly, “They wanted to save money for my brother to go to school and be able to marry someone.”

Although this answer was totally reasonable, it still felt like thunder in the ears of the audience.

The atmosphere in the room was, thus, frozen. In the silence, Xie Yi opened his mouth. Xie Yi said: “What do you want to drink?”

Everyone was used to Xie Yi ordering.

The crowd immediately returned to reality and asked what was there on the menu.

Xie Yi quickly quoted a chain of names of drinks.

“Yangmei juice, it’s summer.”

“I also think that Yangmei juice is good.”

“Then that’s it,” His answers were always simple, and then lowered his head and quickly put a check beside “Yangmei juice.”

Because they weren’t in a hurry to go back anyway, supper finally ended after almost three hours.

During dinner, they discussed the two games that SAg had won against tSD, and finally concluded with SAg and how they had fixed their disadvantages with their team members. They truly shouldn’t be underestimated.

“But we don’t need to worry too much about tSD, they were the champions of the spring season.” The coach said, “As long as we enter the summer playoffs, we’ll be able to go to this year’s S-match. The only thing is that we have very few points on in the spring match. We have to do our best from now on.”

The S-match was the league’s highest professional level and the strongest level of competition, also known as the League of Legends Global Finals. There were only a certain number of places in each division, and the way to get a place was to get enough points in both the spring and Summer Season Competitions.

The YYg team’s spring result was third place. If they wanted to ensure that they would enter the S-match, then the most secure way would be to at least reach the final round in the summer playoffs.

Of course, if they could win the summer championship and directly enter the S-match, then it would be even better.

“I think that if we maintain today’s status, then we’ll have very big hope.” After listening to the coach’s words, Wang Ren was the first to talk, and he was very confident,”After all, we didn’t expect to win so smoothly before playing.”

“The main thing is that SF has changed so much. Can you believe that they were in second place last season with their status and cooperation today?”

“They changed two players in their first team all at once. It still has something to do with it. I feel like they hadn’t gotten themselves together during the whole match today, especially with the new Top player. He was always two steps slower than the others.”

“To be honest, this is no longer a cooperation problem.” Wang Ren spoke without consent, he wasn’t going to be polite at all, not even when he was mocking his teammates. “He got into a disadvantaged situation ever since the beginning and had been (100) times by you in thirty minutes, and you’re not even the best Top player in the league.”

TL Note: This part was a bit unclear, thus the (100) thing.

Han Ziliang: “Fuck you, you said all of that just to say the last sentence!”

“Stop fighting, let’s go back after dinner.” The coach seemed accustomed to this scene, and resignedly stood up to stop them, “Old rules, you’ll have a day off, no training tomorrow, take a good day of rest.”

“Why is it only one day!”

“Yeah, wasn’t it two days before?”

The coach, however, said, “Don’t you ever look at the schedule of the Summer Season Competition? We’ll have a second match in four days, and we’ll be going to Guangzhou. Rest for two days?! Do you even want to keep your status right now?”

While he continued mumbling on and on about how they only think about vacation, Xie Yi had already brought in the waiter and had paid for the bill.

Zhou Tian sat close to Xie Yi and clearly heard of the amount of payment that the waiter said. She was very shocked.

Although the members in the team regularly took turns paying for takeouts, there was still a huge difference between a meal that costed a few hundred, and a meal that costed almost ten thousand.

She felt as if this dinner was really a bit too expensive and felt awkward for Xie Yi for having to pay for this dinner all by himself.

It was just that Xie Yi’s speed of paying was too fast. While she was still surprised by the amount, he had already settled the account.

This evening’s supper was a typical Chaoshan flavored meal. She was the one who was thousands of miles away from her hometown and had eaten the most out of them all. She felt as if she deserved to be the one who paid for the meal.

Zhou Tian thought about it that way, and on the way back, there were a few times where she had wanted to speak but couldn’t find the right words. She just couldn’t find a suitable moment to talk with Xie Yi and give him the money.

At last, she decided to simply transfer the money directly in WeChat.

TL Note: Ah, WeChat, an app that Chinese people use to communicate. Very useful, 100% recommend.

Xie Yi did not immediately click to accept the payment, nor did he reply to her. She thought that he hadn’t seen it yet. 

She did not wait for him to respond, but instead went to take a shower first.

When she came out from the bathroom and picked up the phone, her WeChat showed that she had some unread messages, but that he still hadn’t confirmed the payment.

He just sent her a question mark.

Zhou Tian: “…..”

“I’m paying for this meal.” She typed into the chatbox, as she blew her hair.

Xie Yi, over in his room, was silent for a while, then sent her a period, but still didn’t accept the money.

Zhou Zheng was getting anxious: “Take it!”

He replied with something completely off topic, “Come down and duo rank.”

Zhou Yan was speechless. She wasn’t feeling sleepy yet, so she changed her clothes and went downstairs.

The lights in the training room downstairs were still on. Xie Yi was sitting in the middle of the room without headphones and heard the sound of her pushing the door, but he did not turn his head around to look at her. Instead, he only said, “I’ve already turned on your PC.”

Zhou Tian: “…” Why are you so enthusiastic!

Of course, she didn’t say that out loud. After she actually sat down and entered the game to start ranking, she immediately entered the state.

TL Note: The state of competing^

This evening, the two of them played four rounds and practiced using the Jungling and AD heroes, so that they would be prepared for the new version of the game.

At the end of the fourth round, Zhou Tian suddenly sneezed two times. She crossed her arms and rubbed herself on the arm and said, “Can the air conditioner be turned off for a while?”

Xie Yi did not disagree, but it seemed that her voice had changed, so he looked at her sideways before speaking.

He froze.

Because Zhou Tian was obviously looking as if she was freezing, her eyes and nose were red, which looked particularly pitiful.

Xie Yi was startled: “Did you catch a cold?” He was too indulged in the game to notice the difference in her voice. 

Zhou Tian heard the words, and subconsciously wanted to shake her head to say no, but sneezed again before doing so.

“Fuck, it seems like I’ve really caught a cold.” She rubbed her temples, and her voice became even more hoarse. “I didn’t do anything, though.”

Xie Yi leaned on the back of his chair, looked her up and down, and finally affirmed, “You didn’t completely dry your hair.”

Zhou Yan: “…I think so too.”

In fact, it wasn’t a big deal to not dry your hair after showers since it was summer. The only thing was, the air conditioner in the training room was turned on very low all year round, and coincidentally, Zhou Tian’s spot was directly below the vent.

The two played four rounds in a row. She sat there for almost three hours, and cold wind was blowing against her wet hair. It’d be a miracle if she didn’t catch a cold.

“Did you feel sick before?” Xie Yi frowned.

“No, I just felt a little cold,” she told the truth, “But the game matters the most, of course.”

Although Xie Yi would usually agree with this logic, he was a little angry the moment when he saw the tears in her eyes.

“Take your medicine and go to bed,” he said. “We’re done for the night.”

“But we’re already in another round…” She felt a bit unfortunate. After all, the ranking speed of the high-ended bureau was obvious to everyone.

TL’s Note: Obviously slow^

Xie Yi: “…It’s not a big deal to quit one round of the game.”

Zhou Tian was startled: “I never thought you would say something like this?!”

Xie Yi felt that this girl really needed a lesson. He simply got up and walked over to pull her up from the chair. He then said, “Go upstairs and rest.”

Zhou Tian: “Okay, okay, fine, I’ll go.”

“Oh wait! You need to take the money!” She suddenly remembered. “You guys hardly ate anything tonight. It seemed as if I was the one who did most of the eating. It’s more appropriate if I pay for dinner.”

Xie Yi had paid the meals for his teammates so many times, but this was the first time that he had encountered this kind of situation.

He wanted to laugh, but eventually held back and said, “I don’t lack money.”

Zhou Yan: “But—”

He interrupted her: “If you really want to make up for it, then come down and help me in the lower path more.”

Zhou Yan: “…” This is no way to bully your Jungler!

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter

---

credits: Sydney, Dora, & Kathrien

Chapter 7: Live-streaming Shoe Selling

Enjoying the chapters so far? Join our Discord server to support us and to receive the newest updates: https://discord.gg/WfZffPY

---

It was already very late into the night when they arrived home. Daylight’s feeding bowl was already empty. When Liu Man went to get ca food from the cupboard, she realized that there wasn’t much left.

TL Note: Daylight’s her cat, remember.

Liu Man used to get all of her allowance from her father. Now that Liu Chenyu wasn’t here anymore, she didn’t even have enough allowance to buy the cat food. When she looked at her mother, Zhang Pei, who was sitting in the living room and looked as if she suddenly grew older, Liu Man realized that she needed to find a way to earn money.

She walked into her dressing room and saw her piles of clothing and shoes. She then took out her phone, typed out a message, and sent it into a group chat that she was in, along with Li Xiaoru and Wang Nina.

“Do you guys know anyone who wants second hand clothing and shoes?”

The duo replied in less than a minute.

“Nope, (._.) but I think they usually sell these kinds of stuff on Xian Yu.”

TL’s Note: Xian Yu is an app that people use to sell and buy second hand stuff. Most commonly used in China.

“What? You suddenly want to sell your clothes and your shoes now?” Li Xiaoru said while typing out a huge question mark.

“Yeah, I want to sell my AJs.”

“!!!!!!”

“Are you going crazy? Aren’t AJs your most favorite thing in the whole world?”

Both girls were shocked. They all liked AJs and were jealous of how Liu Man could buy all the shoes that she liked. With their allowances, they certainly couldn’t afford all those AJs. They also went to Liu Man’s house before and saw a whole wall filled with piles of AJs. They all thought that Liu Man was crazy rich.

That’s why both girls were so shocked.

“I really need money right now,” Liu Man didn’t want her friends to worry, “And I don’t even like AJs anymore. There isn’t enough space in my house anyway.”

“What’s going on with you? You don’t like Tang Tu anymore, and now, you even want to sell your AJs. Then, really, what do you like?” Nina asked with a bewildered expression.

“I like money.”

  “……”

Under the advice of the two girls, Liu Man took pictures of every pair of shoes that she owned and sent them onto Xian Yu, with the date they were made and their color. In total, there were sixty-two pairs. When she finished, Daylight had already fallen asleep on her blanket.

That night, Liu Man was so tired that she cuddled Daylight and immediately fell asleep.

The next day was a Tuesday. She packed up and rushed to school. On the subway, she held onto the railing while she logged onto Xian Yu to check if anyone had messaged her. She didn’t expect to see so many people message her.

“Are all the shoes at size thirty-six?”

“Are there more pictures of the fourth pair?”

“Is it really that new? Are you really not faking it?”

“I’m in the same city, can I come and go see the shoes?”

A lot of people had messaged her, since her shoes were newer than most of the shoes that people sold in Xian Yu, and the price was only half the original price. A lot of AJ collectors were very interested.

She replied to every single message and discovered that everyone was questioning whether the shoes were fake or not. She added to her profile, “I’m also an AJ collector, due to family issues, I have to sell these, but I can guarantee that these AJs aren’t fakes.”

A little while after adding the information, she had another comment. “You have lots of AJs and there are lots of buyers. Not all of us are at capital, so it would be difficult to prove that the AJs aren’t fake. How about you do a live video, and show us the shoes one by one?”

Live?

Liu Man was surprised. In her memories, the old Liu Man didn’t really watch live videos, and she didn’t even have a live-streaming video app on her phone. At school, Liu Man asked her two best friends for advice.

“Why not, there’s really no reason for hesitation. Xu Zihan in the neighboring class live-streamed piano videos and was able to make a lot of money.” Li Xiaoru didn’t think there was a problem.

Wang Nina spoke with disgust, “With her skills? She’s even worse than Manman. She can only coax the internet.”

TL Note: Manman = nickname for Liu Man.

Liu Man felt like Wang Nina was looking down on her skills and was also looking down at creating live-stream videos. She smiled, but didn’t say anything.

“But Manman, why are you suddenly selling your shoes? Did something happen in your family?” Li Xiaoru asked with concern.

Li Xiaoru thought, ever since Liu Man passed out, she’d changed. Liu Man spoke less, had more on her mind, and her behavior changed. Multiple times, Li Xiaoru saw her alone in the piano room practicing, working harder than usual. She doesn’t hug them anymore, and when they attempted to hug her arm, Liu Man dodged them. This girl seemed like she became more mature in the span of a night.

“Don’t worry, I just realized that I used to spend money without care and that I bought a lot of useless things. So right now, I have to stop myself before it’s too late. Didn’t I say this before? Right now, I really like money. Especially the feeling of holding a bunch of cash in my hands.

“Can you not be so low..?” Wang Nina was speechless, they were supposed to be the piano major’s youngsters.

“More low is more elegant.”

The three laughed together, Liu Man temporarily dispelled their doubts.

After discussing it with her two friends, Liu Man decided to stream tomorrow night in their dorm room. She first downloaded the streaming app. She made an account called “Princess Man,” and wrote down her streaming time and username on Xian Yu’s public page.

At the live-streaming time, Liu Man changed into a pair of jeans that suited everything, and Li Xiaoru held the camera up so that it only showed from below Liu Man’s legs.

“Why aren’t there any viewers?” After Li Xiaoru’s commentary, the view count changed from 0 to 1. “There’s someone, there’s someone! Their username is Dragon’s Roar.”

TL Note: Usernames in Chinese are hard to replicate in English. There will be flaws in the names. If we directly translated Liu Man’s username, then it would turn out like this: Princess Go Slow. In Chinese, the name incorporates Liu Man’s actual name which we cannot transfer into English. So we have to use Princess Man. Man in Chinese means slow.

Wang Nina rolled her eyes at Li Xiaoru, “Shhhh.”

Li Xiaoru quickly shut her mouth.

Although there was only one viewer, Liu Man still introduced herself, “Hello Dragon’s Roar, I’m an AJ seller on Xian Yu, so now I’ll show you my collection.”

Liu Man’s voice was unnatural. She was a bit nervous and felt uncomfortable. Even though there was only one person viewing, she felt as if she was exposing herself in front of millions of people.

For a girl who was locked away in the cold palace and wasn’t able to walk out the front door even once, this was a huge challenge.

“Today, I’m going to be showing you five pairs of shoes, and because my size is 36, all my AJs are also size 36.”

Liu Man opened a shoe box and took out the shoes. Li Xiaoru immediately filmed the shoes in every way possible with the phone. Front, back, sideways, from bird eye’s view, and from the bottom. At this moment, a second audience member entered the live-stream room.

When Liu Man changed into her shoes, there were already six people in the audience.

“Wow, her legs are beautiful,” an audience member with the nickname of “I’m here for the shoes” wrote the first comment.

Li Xiaoru saw it and said, “Thank you for praising Manman.”

“Why won’t you show your face?” “I’m here for the shoes” wrote.

“Haha, she’s a bit shy,” Li Xiaoru explained.

Liu Man’s face blushed a bit, but continued to present the shoes, “I bought these last year in January, I’ve only worn them twice, and the original price was $1899.”

She put on the shoes and walked a few steps.

 There were now 11 viewers.

One person came in by accident,

“What is this? Is she showing off her legs?” –Otaku Boy

“It’s for showing shoes.” –I’m just here for the shoes.

“But the legs are more attractive than the shoes.” –Otaku Boy

TL Note: Yes, it’s literally written like that. With the double “–” and the weird names. There aren’t any periods either.

To be honest, Liu Man did have beautiful legs; they were skinny and long. The jeans perfectly outlined her curves, and the lifted up parts of her jeans showed her flawless ankles. She was indeed, beautiful.

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter

---

Credits: Sydney, Kathrien, & Dora