Chapter 3:
The power of money can't be underestimated.
The five younger Ye Xius agreed to this sentence as they stared at the inside of their 'clubhouse' as Big Ye dubbed it. The said clubhouse is completely equipped with all necessities, including Wi-Fi and sets of computer for them to use.
"This... Is our clubhouse right?" Second Ye gestured. This clubhouse is the very same clubhouse that Chen Guo had rented for team Happy in his timeline. But even so, Chen Guo then couldn't completely equipped it with Wi-Fi and computers immadiately. This is... Power of money indeed.
"Yup," Big Ye casually tossed the key to the coffee table in the living room. The well-equipped living room with TV, two long sofas, three normal sofas, an empty cabinet, etc.
"So, this is what you did after carrying Little Ye away for a rest?" Ye Xiu asked.
"Well, what else? I used our real identity by the way, so you'll be responsible," Big Ye spoke as he leisurely climbed upstairs with his younger selves following behind. "Now go to sleep, all of you." Big Ye then gestured to the hallway with six rooms before them.
"Yes..." Everyone agreed as they sleepily choose a room to sleep in. All but one.
Little Ye had slept the night before and he's still very much awake, so he's not going to sleep along. Instead, he reached out to the nearest person, which just happens to be Ye Xiu. Tugging on Ye Xiu's sleeve, Little Ye looked up at the older man with questioning eyes.
"We only have six rooms?" Little Ye asked.
Ye Xiu looked down and smiled at him, "Yes, I think it's enough for the current us," Ye Xiu answered.
Little Ye's brows furrowed in confusion, "Muqiu and Mucheng won't live with us?" He asked.
Everyone froze in their track and quickly give a subtle glance toward Fifth Ye who looks extremely pale, paler than he originally was. But not even a second later, they resumed their movement normally without gathering any suspicion to themselves. Four doors slammed shut wordlessly as if they didn't heard anything, leaving Ye Xiu and Little Ye alone in the hallway.
Blinking his tired and sleepy eyes, Ye Xiu smiled softly at Little Ye, "You haven't created your own account right? Come, I'll accompany you for a while," Holding Little Ye's hand, Ye Xiu led him to the computer room. Little Ye followed him silently, their light steps are in sync with each other.
Upon reaching the room, Ye Xiu started two computers and helped Little Ye to make his character. The two played silently, a beautiful picture of serenity.
Myriad Manifestations Umbrella changed shapes actively as Lord Grim worked hard to help, support as well protect his new little brother, One-Inch Love.
"Woah, what a cool weapon. It's a self-made weapon right?" Little Ye finally couldn't hold it anymore and praised Lord Grim's Umbrella.
Ye Xiu chuckled with amusement, as if he had waited for Little Ye to say that "Yes, do you wanna hear the story behind it?" Ye Xiu smiled at Little Ye, soft and tender.
"There's a background story to it?" Little Ye asked curiously.
Ye Xiu changed Myriad Manifestations Umbrella back to its original form, letting Little Ye to examine it closely. With a distant voice he says, "More like a history actually... A story about a genius boy... Full of ideas and dreams," Ye Xiu gestured Little Ye to come closer indulgingly and the younger obeyed.
"Do you want to hear about it?" Ye Xiu asked. Little Ye's youthful face is filled with confusion regarding his older self's offer but he nods nonetheless.
Something are just impossible to hide.
But who says you can't distract them from the supposedly hidden secret?
Leaving Little Ye alone to play by himself, Ye Xiu yawned and scretched his body. He needs to catch up with his sleep. But upon reaching the hallway, Ye Xiu stopped when he saw Big Ye is standing there, smoking freely.
"You lied to him," It wasn't an accussion but rather, a simple statement. Like Big Ye is pointing out something so obvious.
Ye Xiu smiled tiredly as he run his fingers through his hair, "What was I supposed to say? The real ending? Kids don't like tragic end," Even if it's the only thing that keep Ye Xiu going through all the sabotages and isolation... Even till now.
"Going abroad for research... It's not the best lie to be said," Big Ye exhaled a cloud of smoke and continues, "But it seemed to be the only thing we could manage currently. Telling the big event such as death from the future is not exactly wise," Big Ye nodded at Ye Xiu, expressing his approval of the matter.
"I'm going to sleep. You should go to sleep too," Big Ye loudly yawned and Ye Xiu grunted.
"Don't have to remind me," Ye Xiu yawned and pick an empty room for himself to sleep in.
Big Ye smiled softly after Ye Xiu is gone, "Ah Third Ye, I wasn't talking to you..." Big Ye's eyes shifted to the room beside him. "Sleep, Fifth Ye," Big Ye said softly before entering his room and shuts the door quietly.
In the room beside Big Ye's, Fifth Ye tensed slightly. The young man then proceed to bury his face deeper into his pillow, shoulders are shaking for a few seconds before it stopped and relaxed down. He shifted his head sideways and blinked his tired red eyes, breathing silently and staring into space. Fifth Ye let out a soft sigh and closes his eyes.
Despite his rough breathing, he completely lost consciousness in a matter of second.
The first one to wake up and accompany Little Ye is Second Ye.
"One-Inch Love?" Second Ye stared bafflingly at Little Ye's avatar's name. For a moment, he recalled one of his precious proteges and immadiately feels speechless. "Who gave you the idea?" Second Ye asked.
"None. I come up with it myself," Little Ye answered easily.
"But, 'Love'? Seriously?" Second Ye is not believing that.
"Because 'Love' kills in an even more painful way, I think it's a good name. It's from a poem too," Little Ye looks pleased with his naming skill.
"Yeah... A poem," One inch of ash, One inch of love - that's the line of the poem. And Second Ye knew who will made the 'One-Inch Ash' one... 'It sounds like a couple name!?' He thought incredulously.
"Sigh... I also already thought up a name specially for you..." Second Ye said regretfully.
"What is it?"
"Smol Kitten," Second Ye grinned.
"Go to hell," Little Ye replied without missing a beat. The two of them proceed to fight and do mandatory missions together. In one of the mission, Second Ye especially instructed Little Ye in details and they got Skill Books as th reward.
Not long after, Fourth Ye comes in with a cup of steaming hot noodles in his hand. Because he played in a different server, not much need to be said.
"How's the Lord Grim in the first server?" Second Ye asked.
"Level 24," quick levelling is only because Autumn Tree was carrying Lord Grim. They went silent after that. The three of them choosing to focus in their own game Second Ye glanced at the lone Fourth Ye.
"Fourth Ye..." Second Ye couldn't help but to gently called out to his twenty years old self.
"Make it yourself," Fourth Ye blew on his noodles calmly before slurping some in.
Second Ye's sweat dropped, "Not that. I mean, because you're playing alone and Big Ye is not waking up any time soon. How about you do some mission?" Second Ye paused to see Fourth Ye is not impressed. "... It has some guarantee to gain skillbooks with little tricks," As the last sentence is dropped, Fourth Ye stopped slurping his noodles and turn to look at Second Ye.
"Really?" He questioned regally.
Second Ye smirked, "Why would I lie, dear me?"
"I'm listening," Fourth Ye motioned.
Second Ye held up his hand, "How much will you pay me? Just so you know, a champion team bought this from me with sky-high price," Second Ye playfully asked.
Sipping the water of his noodles one last time, Fourth Ye offered the half-eaten cup of noodles, "This?"
"You think I'm that cheap?" Second Ye said deadpannedly.
"How could that be?" Fourth Ye instantly denied with righteous indignance. "Expensive! You're expensive!" Fourth Ye praised generously.
"Just skill books alone make you become like this? Your price is too low, how cheap." Second Ye haughtily scoffed as if skill books are nothing to him. Who was the one who threatened a retired man with a sliver weapon for the information again?
"Well, I don't know about the future me. But skill books are very important to decide a character's fate whether it's a cannon fodder or a pro-level account! If you didn't know it firsthand, you will fall on low price too!" Fourth Ye said indignantly.
"Fellow cheap people shouldn't discuss about price," Little Ye suddenly piped in to throw in his own snarky remark causing the older two men looked at him in disbelief.
They're rendered speechless in front of this little brother...
"I feel like... I grown up to be nothing," Fourth Ye immadiately feels depressed after he couldn't find a counter remark for little Ye's remark. Second Ye held up his hand towards Fourth Ye in an attempt to soothe him down.
"Of course, who are we to discuss price in front of you, Little young master," Second Ye exhaled regretfully and Little Ye paused to glare at him.
"Hmph," Little Ye huffed in annoyance and ignored them.
"You're still too young," Second Ye chuckled. If Little Ye is any older, he'll just agree with Second Ye's statement and that will really corner them. But alas, Little is still too green. Not black-hearted enough.
After everyone had reached level 20, Except those who played Lord Grims, they changed their classes. Just as discussed before, Second Ye is Battlemage, Little Ye had chosen Blademaster after learning that their strength mostly laid in handspeed.
Big Ye and Second Ye had laughed gloatingly at the future... Welp, here goes another one fighting for Sword Saint's tittle. The two of them did got jealous when Blue Rain have such a good young blood like Lu Hanwen. But now forget it. After all, having their own young self is much more assuring. It's not called being arrogant, they're just having the self-confidence.
As for Fifth Ye, he become a lone wolf now. Searching for a group to accept him here and there, such a sad life. Not to mention he wouldn't be able to level up crazily like the rest. Life as a cleric is tragic in this household. Silently, Fifth Ye swore to be a number one Cleric when he doesn't know there is one already.
As for the first server... Nothing big really happened yet as Lord Grim and Autumn Tree still have such a large level gap, Big Ye had decided to join a big guild whilst bringing Fourth Ye along. Mainly to get an easy notification when a wild boss fight appeared. They're poor here, so they had no choice but to scrap-picking fallen equips. They kept some and sell the others.
Like now... "All clear, dear fourth. Go to ten o'clock direction from your position," Big Ye leisurely instructed with a soft smile. That smile had never been a good news.
Fourth Ye nimbly moved Lord Grim away according to the instruction and rapid gunshoots could be heard in his headphone, as well some yells of misery and creative curses. He manuvered Lord Grim to dodge everyone in his way, his presence is like a gentle shadow that no one paid attention to as his level is truly too low in their eyes.
Autumn Tree is already in level 54. After some looting, his lousy green equipements had replaced with blue equipments with one or two pieces of purple equipments. "You see that sharpshooter in red? The things in his hands are Devil's Whisper, orange weapon level 60. The other one is Flaring Wind, purple and level 65. I want either one, watch him," With that, Autumn Tree sent a barrage of bullets and skills, all of which accurately landed on the targetted sharpshooter who panicked and tried to run. But alas... It's a god who targetted you.
"Everyone, pray for me," Big Ye said distractedly and everyone rolled their eyes. Because they were still in the normal server, the drop rate is lower than in the Heavenly Domain. But the possiblity is still there nonetheless. Luck played a great part in it.
They gone their own way. The first server is still relatively calm... Although several records were broken. Although not normally happen, but it's not surprising for the players in the first server... Though in the future they will cry as every records, even those which had the gods' names on it were broken to pieces.
The three in the tenth server kept their paces in gathering materials whereas the only healer is going here and there to get a job.
A few days later, Ye Xiu found himself got kicked out by his 'family' and ordered to scout the 'Future Battle Goddess' as Big Ye and Second Ye had dubbed. Strangely, they didn't exactly tell Ye Xiu to 'Tempt/Deceive/Trick/Convince her to join' but rather...
"Beat her. Don't how any mercy. The faster the better," Yeah, that's what they said. It made Ye Xiu speechless for a full minute in the cold temprature of winter outside. Not long after, Tang Rou joined them in tenth server and tried hard to catch up in level. Ye Xiu also found himself got subjected into a night shift job in Happy, Chen Guo insisted. Something about, It's the least she could do... Ye Xiu doesn't understand.
In these few days, Big Ye also excused himself out for a bussiness which sounded so shady to the younger ones. So before Big Ye was gone, he decided that the duty to gather materials and scrap-picking as well carrying Fourth Ye's Lord Grim in the first server is moved to Second Ye's hands.
Although tenth server now have one less Ye Xiu, it's still pretty much screwed. No Second Ye just means there's no the devil Battlemage. Lord Grim and One-Inch Love are still there to screw off anyone's record that doesn't have their names in it. Something about integrity they said.
Every guild leaders had cried a lot because of this. Can't you guys stop?! Stop breaking any records that doesn't have your name! We need a record too!
That's it until Liu Hao and Boneyard Record happens...
Ignoring the endless chatter beside him, Ye Xiu promptly covered his ears with a headphone and curses silently in his heart. It was a desperate attempt, really. This choice to invite... Him here is also desperate.
Let's back-track a few things
Night shift in Happy Internet Cafe is Ye Xiu's job now... After his 'family' kicked him out to scout Tang Rou, Chen Guo had offered him a job because of his 'family situation'. Chen Guo even offered if his other 'brothers' wanted to work here too. Ye Xiu didn't want to destroy the illustrous tragic back story that Fifth Ye had creatively created so he accepted the job and told Chen Guo that the others have their own ideas (to screw with anyone and everyone in-game).
Additionally, Big Ye had been gone for a few days now for his bussiness, so Second Ye is still in the command of first server to help Fourth Ye.
And adding more problem, because of the crushing and humiliating defeat of Excellent Era today because Liu Hao was 'Playing shittier than what's supposedly' (Second Ye's words) and that caused the entire Excellent Era to be grounded. Yeah you read that right, grounded. No Internet, No Glory, so they could reflect of their mistakes... Including Su Mucheng, so she couldn't come.
Second Ye said, maybe the pressure of two 'Ye Qius' are too much as when Liu Hao was using Hateful Sword, Little Ye had played Second Ye's Battlemage, Sad Autumn Night, to level up a bit. And of course, living with five master battlemage players affected Little Ye's mastery in the class too. Also, Little Ye was told to not talk and just typed. Making Liu Hao trapped in dillema. Which one is Ye Qiu?
Although Su Mucheng had played splendidly, she's still punished along... Of course, knowing Su Mucheng, she's probably watching a CD Drama and eating melon seed right now, while gossiping on phone with Chu Yunxiu about everything.
So, removing Second Ye is fine because now they have Tang Rou's Soft Mist. But if Su Mucheng is not there they only have four... Ye Xiu, Little Ye, Steamed Bun and Tang Rou. How could they fulfill their 'order' to break a dungeon record?
And then, Second Ye had gleefully come up with an idea... An idea that Ye Xiu had regretted agreeing to, already. Second Ye called out to Huang Shaotian from the QQ and sent this... Friend? Rival? Colleague? Junior? Let's settle with annoying Chatterbox- to Happy Internet Cafe.
Ye Xiu clicked his tongue secretely, 'Let the destiny take its course' he said. 'Little Ye might learn something' he said. 'It would be fun' he said. Bullshit. Second Ye just wanted Ye Xiu to suffer like him in the first place. Why so? Because come on, Second Ye could just ditch first server for a while and come back but he vehemently rejected it. Without a launcher, Ye Xiu also needed to change the strategy a little to adjust with two blademasters in a team.
"I'm so good to you to come here sacrificing my integrity to help you setting a record in a low level dungeon of all things. What's so good about this place anyway? Trash. Trash. Trash. Trash. You're lucky I value friendship over anything else if not, see if I didn't ignore your messages just like how you ignored mine." Flowing Tree chattered non-stop, sometimes adding a speechbubble for some certain words or sentences to make his point clear.
"Third Ye. Who is this? He's so noisy!" Little Ye immadiately complained to Ye Xiu and he sighed.
"He's Huang Shao-"
"AAAAHHHHHHHH!" Huang Shaotian screamed to cover up Ye Xiu's voice.
"What the hell? Pipe down!" Ye Xiu hissed.
"You bastard! You just uncovered my identity!" Huang Shaotian growled at Ye Xiu.
"Who's uncovering you?" Ye Xiu was just telling Little Ye, who is essentially him. He's pretty sure the other two don't know anything.
"Oh? Your friend?" Tang Rou dully asked.
"Ooh! What is it? A secret? Are you a scorpio?" Steamed Bun Invasion danced in front of Flowing Tree and asked.
"Pretty much," Ye Xiu replied.
"Shameless! I'm Leo!" Huang Shaotian denied. Then Steamed Bun began to sing loudly and Little Ye stranded off not wanting to hurt his ears.
Ye Xiu got a feeling this run wouldn't be easy... "Enough. Let's do the first run,"
"Go, go, go." Huang Shaotian boredly urged. Distantly, Ye Xiu could even hear Second Ye's evil cackles...
"Second Ye, Shut up!" Little Ye suddenly snapped... Oh it's not an imagination.
Huang Shaotian's expression is serious as he directed his sight toward One-Inch Love.
What a baffling talent.
The others were also not bad, but One-Inch Love is the one that gained Huang Shaotian's attention the most. Especially since he's a blademaster. As the number one Blademaster, Huang Shaotian knew a blademaster talent in a glance and One-Inch Love caught Huang Shaotian's eyes in just that one glance.
'He's in the same degree as Little Lu...' Huang Shaotian's eyes widened slightly. The other blademaster know when to jump into the fray, seize an openig and cover up others' mistakes. Strategical mind, Great mechanical skills and a fast handspeed... Who is this? No blademaster fro the Alliance could slipped under the Sword Saint's watchful radar. Liu Xiaobie? Huang Shaotian knew his playstyle and it's different. Du Ming? It's also different... Too stiff, too raw.
One-Inch Love is an unpolished diamond... Just, unpolished alone he's already bright what if he got polished?
Huang Shaotian carefully glanced at Ye Xiu for a brief moment, looking at his side profile as the older guy keeping the group to move on and instructing here and there. 'This guy, does he have some kind of golden hands in picking up talents? Not only one or two... he picked three all in the same server! Motherfucker, if you could just randomly looked around in the new server, normal people wouldn't be able to pick up anything!' Huang Shaotian thought.
But despite his train-like thoughts, Huang Shaotian still did his job beautifully till the end. Not making a mistake that could make him become any less than a Sword Saint.
When they're running back on track, Huang Shaotian quickly moved Flowing Tree towards One-Inch Love. "Hey Kid! That's a beautiful play, what's your name?" Huang Shaotian casually called out to One-Inch Love. Ye Xiu arched his brows at Huang Shaotian, does this guy want to snitch a talent in a broad nightlight?
"Father said to not give my name to an unknown stranger," Little Ye bluntly answered. Beside him, Second Ye covered up a maniacal laughter.
Huang Shaotian almost choked after hearing One-Inch Love's answer.
After setting the new impossible-to-break record, Flowing Tree cornered Lord Grim away "Old Ye, who is that brat?" Huang Shaotian asked straightforwardly.
"Who? Steamed Bun?" Ye Xiu leisurely replied back.
"Don't play dumb! You know what I meant! That One-Inch Love! One-Inch Love!" Huang Shaotian impatiently questioned.
"Shaotian," Ye Xiu's tone turn solemn. "He's too young," Ye Xiu said it like it would be scandalous.
"What the fuck do you mean by that?!" Huang Shaotian snapped to glare at Ye Xiu, removing his headphone. "I don't like your accussing tone! I'm not into young boys okay!? I'm only into a cool older one!" Huang Shaotian's eyes stared hard at Ye Xiu only to be disappointed yet again. This nut is still a hard one to crack. Should he list off his traits one by of as his type?!
"Anyway," alright let's take care of the crush issue later. "That One-Inch Love is a talent, where did you find him?"
"He was new. He started playing in the tenth server, which is only a few days ago or so... Before this, he had never touched Glory," Ye Xiu shrugged and turn a suspicious brow toward Huang Shaotian, "What are you going to do?"
Huang Shaotian straightened, "Nothing of course, I just want to know. After all I'm the number one blademaster in the Alliance. It's my duty to give extra attention and care also motivation towards such a talented young blademaster like One-Inch Love. Just like how you mentor that Battlemage girl, I'm also moved to try and share my vast knowledge in this class to the the young Blademaster!" Huang Shaotian preached righteously and passionately, acting like a benevolent saint who is determined to share his knowledge and wisdom to everyone. The all-important Sword Saint.
"Just say you want to snitch him," Ye Xiu bluntly said and destroyed the angelic as well sparkling atmosphere Huang Shaotian had made with his speech. Ye Xiu stood up and walk away with a bored face.
"Snitch is a harsh word. I already have one too," Not denying, Huang Shaotian also stood up and followed Ye Xiu to the counter.
"Dammit Old Ye, how could you find so many talents upon retiring? That made me remember, how are you retired again? Do you even read our PMs? You should see how many people spammed the group after the news is out. The other Master Tacticians refused to talk about 'possible replacement' for your position- they're really possesive. Oh! And Zhang Xinjie said in the Golden Generation chatroom that Han Wenqing destroyed one of the sandbag in their gym after the news of your retirement. So why did you retire?" Huang Shaotian rambled on and one before going back to square one and stared expectantly at Ye Xiu.
Ye Xiu tiredly tilten up a bottle of mineral water, ignoring Huang Shaotian's chatter. Seriously, does he even get tired? Ye Xiu is thirsty from hearing him alone.
Huang Shaotian put his chin on his palm, waiting silently as he watches Ye Xiu drank. Ye Xiu noticed this.
"You want some refreshment?" Ye Xiu asked and was about to fetch another bottle when the bottle in hand is snatched away. Huang Shaotian calmly drink a part of it before closing the lid and store it away.
"So?" Huang Shaotian raised his brows. Ye Xiu couldn't resist the urge to sigh, he'll kill Second Ye for this.
"So... A flexible silver weapon and a talented young Blademaster player?" Yu Wenzhou repeated what Huang Shaotian had said.
"Really talented," Huang Shaotian insisted as he pick another french fries and much on it.
"I see," Yu Wenzhou expressed his understanding of Huang Shaotian's insistance and skillfully changed the video's angle that their senior Yichun(?) just gave to report in. But alas, the video is too focused on Lord Grim and One-Inch Love is always standby in the back like...
"He's learning..?" Yu Wenzhou realised the key and clicked a few times, "His perception is not half-bad..." Yu Wenzhou murmured.
"Exactly! He's still learning and is a noob! If Old Ye was not lying then he had only started playing Glory when the tenth server happened. Which matched with my observation, with his stiff playstyle like he's following everything from a book... Probably guide." Huang Shaotian pointed toward One-Inch Love's figure.
To Huang Shaotian, flexible weapon can wait. The only danger that weapon possessed is that it's in Ye Qiu's hands. But then again, anything with Ye Qiu in it would take a long time to solve, so it could be moved to the back first and focused to the talented player behind One-Inch Love.
"How is he compared to Lu Hanwen?" Yu Wenzhou asked seriously.
"About the same in potential," Huang Shaotian answered instantly "But Little Lu have an advantage in experience, if they fight now little Lu might still win... But as time goes, I don't dare to predict," Huang Shaotian uncapped a mineral water bottle and gulped it down empty.
"He's a fast learner captain, in the first dungeon run when I helped Old Ye he mostly stayed back and watched me going. But in the second run when we were setting the record, he caught my eyes immadiately. He mimicked some of my playstyle and covered the rest's mistakes. Of course he accomplished it under Old Ye's command but to perfectly finish Old Ye's high-level commands... He's also very smart." Huang Shaotian recited back his observation as Yu Wenzhou jotted down some notes.
"How old do you think he is?" Yu Wenzhou questioned.
"I don't know... But from his voice, he's older than Little Lu, perhaps... By two or three years?" Huang Shaotian make a rough guess.
Yu Wenzhou reaches toward a nearby phone and pressed some numbers, "... Hello? Senior Yichun, sorry for disturbing you. Yes, could I trouble you by video-tapping the one named One-Inch Love?"
Meanwhile, the said talented young blademaster player is currently on grocery duty with Fifth Ye. "They ran out of it, little Ye... It's not my fault so stop being childish," Fifth Ye exasperately rolled his eyes.
Little Ye turned his head away, idly sucking on his strawberry lollipop and pretending he didn't hear what his older self just said.
"Come on, we have to buy some vegetable for you," Fifth Ye stared at the long list of grocery that Second Ye had made; A few packs of cigarette, a new lighter, cup noodles with various flavors at least five each, toothbrushes, toothpaste, bread, jam, milk (For Little Ye), boxes of cereal (For Little Ye), Some veggies (Little Ye again). As you can see they're really watching out for the youngest.
"I don't need vegetables," Little Ye turned and hissed at Fifth Ye like a wet cat... More like a wet kitten. He's really too cute.
"Some carrots will do,"
"No! Just buy some more noodles!"
"It can be boiled till soft and we could add it to your cup of noodles,"
"Don't want!"
"It won't change the taste,"
"No!"
"Just few slices will do,"
"You won't give up don't you?" Little Ye scowled further but finally can be conviced.
"Of course," Fifth Ye smiles leisurely, trying to coax a child to eat is an easy thing to Fifth Ye. He had done the hardest level with Su Mucheng when... The accident just happened. Fifth Ye's gaze turn downcast as he recalled the unpleasant memory. Unknowingly his hand which is holding Little Ye's hand tightened.
Little Ye looked up, "Fifth Ye? What's wrong?"
Fifth Ye instantly snapped out of it and shakes his head, "Nothing,"
Little Ye shrugged and let the matter drop, "Fifth Ye, I want to go there," Little Ye tugged on Fifth Ye's hand and pointed toward a fastfood restaurant nearby, "I want a hamburger," he requested.
Looking down at Little Ye, Fifth Ye smiled indulgingly, "Okay, let's buy some for the two of us," The rest would pardon them. After all they're both growing boys who need meat to grow. Thinking that, Fifth Ye lets himself to be led by Little Ye.
Sun Xiang grumbled grumpily and kicked a pebble in his way. He glared through his cool-glasses as people glanced at him weirdly.
Wearing a black cap, cool-glasses and white surgical mask, it's a no wonder people would look at him suspiciously. But Sun Xiang doesn't care, He just wanted to be alone without being stared at okay?!
Stupid team, stupid teammates, they're dragging him down even lower than his previous team.
Excellent Era's performance hadn't been good and Sun Xiang is blamming those incompetent fools who can't even concentrate in their game. No matter even if Sun Xiang is very talented and strong, if there are so many who dangled on him dragging him down, he couldn't do anything!
Sun Xiang doesn't understand what's their problem is. So insecure, they looked like they're guilty of something as well at lost. The only decent one is Su Mucheng but she had always looked at him with a cold gaze that cold froze a country. Her hostility towards him (and everyone, in that case) is apparently because of Ye Xiu - Or so Liu Hao said.
It was said the girl had always been at Ye Qiu's side, docile and obedient like a little flower. Who knows the flower actually had thorns? It seemed like Ye Qiu's presence is the one thing that prevent her from showing her thorns and once he's gone, nothing could stop it.
Recalling that pale older player, Sun Xiang furrowed his brows.
"Do you love Glory?" His amber eyes looks like molten golds, piercing deep right into Sun Xiang's soul.
Sun Xiang clicked his tongue, "Tch, stupid." What's the use of asking that? None! Loving it or not, the fact stand still that he's falling and Sun Xiang is far better than he currently is... And would be even better than Ye Qiu was in his golden era.
Though, Sun Xiang could sympathize a bit with Ye Qiu... With these teammates, it's a wonder indeed he wasn't falling much earlier. But that's okay, Sun Xiang could deal with it. What Ye Qiu could do, Sun Xiang surely could do too. And what Ye Qiu couldn't do, Sun Xiang also could do that too. Because Sun Xiang would be a better Battle God.
After he thought of that, Sun Xiang nodded satisfactorily. "I'm going to get something to eat..." Sun Xiang mumbled to himself as he looked down and start rummaging through his clothes to search for his wallet.
"After that, I'm going to go-" Not seeing where he was going, Sun Xiang bumped on someone harshly.
""Ow!"" Both exclaimed as they were forced to to take a step back because of the impact. Sun Xiang immadiately feels dizzy and shocked at the sudden impact when someone exclaims.
"- Are you okay?" A boy asked softly to the one who bumped on Sun Xiang. Sun Xiang looked up to see a pair of boys wearing caps holding each other's hand whilst carrying bags of groceries.
Sun Xiang scowled from beneath his white surgical mask, "Use your eyes to look where you were going!" Sun Xiang immadiately chastised the both of them, taking advantage that he's obviously the older one.
"What? You were the one who bumped me out of nowhere," Fifth Ye furrowed his brows and looked up to his offender, his amber eyes filled with indignance and hurt as he briefly glanced at the half-eaten wrapped hamburger on the ground. It's still could be eaten right...?
Fifth Ye was about to reach down to fetch the half-wrapped burger hen his wrist suddenly got seized and he's forced to stay eyes-to-eyes with the taller stranger again.
Sun Xiang's steel blue eyes disbelieving stared... Those striking amber eyes... It's so familiar... Mesmerizing and ellegant, filled with regal gait. Breathtaking and beautiful...
Sun Xiang yanked the shorter boy closer, so close that they could only see each other in their sight. In a slightly baffled but certain voice, Sun Xiang demands.
"You're.. Ye Qiu?"
WHAT THE FUCK WITH 'One-Inch Love'!? WHO GAVE THE NAME?!
Fi: You left the avatar naming to us you little shit!
YOU CAN'T JUST STRAIGHT UP NAME IT WITH COUPLE NAME!