Chapter 23: Ambiguity
When Shen Guanchao woke up the next day, his face was comfortably buried in Xie Jingchu’s chest. The man’s fingertips were still entwined with countless strands of his long purple hair.
“Mm…” He lay quietly in Xie Jingchu’s arms for a while, enjoying the posture of snuggling together. He suddenly remembered a dream from last night.
In the dream, while watching the “Iron Flowers,” he kissed Xie Jingchu, and the fireworks filling the sky cheered for them, as if it were a blessing from the gods.
The feeling was strangely real, so real he didn’t quite want to wake up.
But a dream is essentially just a dream.
Shen Guanchao curled up in Xie Jingchu’s arms, carefully fished out his phone from under the pillow, and messaged the family driver.
As if sensing something, Xie Jingchu groggily pulled the person tighter into his arms.
Warm breath flowed over the back of Shen Guanchao’s neck along with the youth’s movements, his soft lips brushing against his skin.
Shen Guanchao’s heart skipped a beat, then accelerated rapidly. In this moment, the surrounding things seemed to lose their sound.
All his senses were forcibly occupied by Xie Jingchu. That man brought an intense presence, hugging him tightly.
As if treasuring him, yet also like a domineering confinement.
Quietly feeling the frequency of the youth’s breathing, the heart inside that chest rising and falling slowly, Shen Guanchao hesitated whether to push him away or continue pretending to sleep and enjoy it a bit longer. But Xie Jingchu suddenly woke up.
“Mm…?” He opened his eyes, looking sluggishly at the person in his arms. The two looked at each other ambiguously, but he didn’t let go. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine.” Shen Guanchao moved out of his arms gently and said warmly, “I’ll head back first; you keep sleeping.”
Hearing this, Xie Jingchu instantly sobered up. Lying in bed, he tried to grab the car keys, struggling to get up stubbornly. “I’ll drive you.”
“No need. I called the driver.” Shen Guanchao held his head down, the corners of his lips twitching slightly, soothing him, “You sleep well. When you wake up, I’ll have someone bring you breakfast. Be good.”
“Alright…”
“…”
The sound of the door opening and closing fell, announcing the departure of the ambiguity.
Xie Jingchu lay under the covers, coveting Shen Guanchao’s lingering warmth and scent. He lay on his stomach, rubbing his cheek against the pillow Shen Guanchao had slept on. The corners of his lips rose slightly, but he couldn’t fall back asleep.
Downstairs at the homestay, a black Maybach was stopped in front of the yard. Uncle Liu had been waiting in the driver’s seat for a long time. Seeing the person arrive, he greeted enthusiastically, “Xiao Ting, you’ve grown taller again.”
“Uncle, I’m twenty-one, what am I still growing?” Shen Guanchao smiled. “Next time, praise me for being handsome.”
E-sports players were hardly home for a few days all year round, spending every day at the base doing nothing but grinding. When the Shen family saw him, they would say he grew taller and older, feeling both distressed and cherishing him dearly.
“Let’s go.”
Getting in the car, Shen Guanchao put on his headphones to nap, thinking about how to ask the handsome guy out to play next time.
But before he could think much, he quickly sank into a dream.
Back home, it was Uncle Liu who woke him up.
The Shen family mansion was located in a prosperous area of City A, worth a fortune; the back garden alone was terrifyingly large. The Maybach turned a corner and stopped in front of a three-story western-style building in the center of the estate, guarded by security.
Shen Guanchao woke up, rubbed his eyes, and subconsciously lit up his phone to check the time. A dozen WeChat messages popped up all at once on the screenâNew Year greetings from the NAVA crowd and other friends in the circle, as numerous as ox hairs.
He got out of the car and replied one by one. Scrolling to the bottom, Xie Jingchu’s message bumped into his eyes.
[Xie: You forgot your coat]
[Image]
“You keep it for me. I’ll get it from you in a few days.” Shen Guanchao replied with a voice message, turned off the screen, and walked toward the house. As soon as he entered, he saw the house was lively.
Father Shen and Mother Shen were lovingly making dumplings at the round table, laughing as they watched his aunt’s daughter and a big golden retriever running all over the houseâthe family couldn’t catch them no matter what.
“Back? My big star.” As soon as Mother Shen saw Shen Guanchao return, she didn’t have time to wipe her hands clean. With flour on her hand, she kneaded his face, turning him into a white-faced doll in a few strokes.
“Mom… Mom, Happy New Year.” Shen Guanchao smiled and brushed away his mother’s hand, turning back to look at Father Shen, joking, “Life is hard, is the CEO selling his skills?”
“Otherwise, you do it? My young master.” Father Shen huffed. “I remember someone insisting on causing trouble last year, making a pot of crooked dumplings that all broke as soon as they hit the water, and then blaming your aunt for the fire being too high.”
Shen Guanchao was stubborn. “That’s called the ‘Heavenly Maiden Scattering Flowers’ cooking method, understand?”
“Old man with no taste, tsk.”
Father Shen: “With so much taste, I don’t see any young girl liking you.”
“Damn kid only knows how to brag.”
“…”
Father and son liked to bicker as soon as they met. Shen Guanchao teased Old Shen for a while before taking his luggage to his room.
Leaving the homestay, he had made a trip to the base to pick up the things he had packed in advance before coming home.
The luggage contained some clothes and daily necessities, as well as a few New Year gifts sent by fans.
High-popularity players would receive small gifts from fans after matches or during holidays. The club staff would receive them on their behalf, then check for dangerous items or excessively expensive things, which would be returned by the staff.
Most of what could be kept and delivered to the players were exquisite, thoughtful handmade itemsânot too expensive to attract criticism, and not dangerous.
Usually, players would thank or give return gifts during offline events after receiving them, but Shen Guanchao was different. He wasn’t that sentimental; he directly started a livestream to open gifts. Layer upon layer, hundreds of thousands of bullet comments were uniformly “666” and “interrogations” from fans.
[Can someone manage this wild brat? Starts streaming on New Year’s Day without notice and doesn’t even say hello to Daddy?]
[Exactly, where is your “Happy New Year”?]
[Remember to say it louder, or Daddy can’t hear you.]
“Happy my ass, don’t be so pretentious with me.” Shen Guanchao sneered mercilessly, casually dropping a few rounds of red envelope rain in the livestream room.
[Holy crap, Son is generous.]
[Why is Little Purple Hair so generous today??]
[Possessed by the God of Wealth?]
[I won’t flame you for now, my dear God of Wealth wife.]
[Touched, Son has finally grown up, learned to give Mom the first red envelope of the New Year…]
Shen Guanchao: “Alright.”
“Stop yapping, let me first see what kind of trash you bunch of old rascals sent me.”
The bullet comments scrolled even faster.
For the first gift, Shen Guanchao opened up a pair of new cool purple fashion height-increasing insoles in front of millions of viewers.
“…” Snap. He closed the packaging again, expressionless. “Thanks to netizen ‘Better to be a Mistress than a Bottom’ (Dang Yi Dang Ling Bu Ru Dang San) for the pair of cool purple height-increasing insoles. Trouble you to Baidu my personal profile before sending gifts next time. My official height is 183cm, thank you.”
Comments: [Let me translate what this idiot means into human language: Bro, great gift but don’t send it again, I’m 183, don’t need your height increase points, OK?]
[Netizen ‘Better to be a Mistress than a Bottom’ is some kind of talent hahahaha…]
[Summary: God-tier ID, god-tier streamer, god-tier gift.]
“…” Shen Guanchao tried hard to ignore the mockery, keeping a straight face as he opened the next gift.
After tearing open the pink packaging, a few black butterfly hair clips were revealed inside. The side of the clip was printed with a string of white-gold English letters “NAVA¡Flesh”.
This gift was fairly normal. After picking it up and trying it, Shen Guanchao placed it on the desk beside him and recited the thank-you speech as usual: “Thanks to netizen ‘Bai Luli’s Dog’ for the hair clip, very pretty.”
But the comments started acting up again.
[Holy crap, this clip, long-haired beauty with butterflies, so hot.]
[Upvote previous comment, a path I never imagined!!]
[Add a metal chain to cuff Little Purple Hair and it would be perfect ahhh.]
[No no no, should add silver-framed glasses, fits perfectly with the abstinent sickly intellectual image in my eyes!]
[Easy-to-topple long-haired toxic-tongued beauty, damn.]
[Hehe, Little Purple Hair (perverted laugh) (wipes face).]
Shen Guanchao: “…?”
I’m behaving, please spare me.
The packaging of the third gift was the most uniqueâa long object wrapped tightly in bubble wrap, impossible to tell what was inside.
With a mentality of facing death, Shen Guanchao opened this seemingly world-shocking gift and got a stylish wooden mini version of the Golden Cudgel (Jingu Bang). His eyebrow twitched. “You guys are actually quite impressive.”
He sneered again, “One height insole leaves, and here comes a Golden Cudgel. What’s next? The Golden Fillet? Or Pigsy’s big ears?”
“…”
“Pfft.” Back at the apartment, Xie Jingchu sat on the sofa, leaning lazily against a pillow watching Shen Guanchao’s livestream. Seeing him unwrap those messy things, he couldn’t help but laugh.
The first few items were a bit excessive, but later it slowly became normal.
There were two complete hardcover sets of “Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” and “World History” sent by big fans, which suited Shen Guanchao’s taste very well.
After opening the gifts, he chatted with these idiot fans for another half hour before hurriedly ending the stream; Mother Shen was calling him downstairs to help paste couplets.
The whole world seemed to be overflowing with festive atmosphere, but Xie Jingchu’s house was empty, without a hint of warmth.
The person who brought the liveliness had left, and his world naturally quieted down.
Usually, Xie Jingchu wasn’t someone who liked liveliness, nor would he envy those scenes full of human warmth. But lying on the sofa, looking at the camel coat and red scarf Shen Guanchao left behind, his heart, dead for so long, suddenly craved madly…
He hoped to have a liveliness that belonged only to him, and a lover that belonged only to him.
Once a person experiences a beautiful feeling, they will no longer want loneliness and begin to fear loss.
Xie Jingchu buried his face in that wine-red scarf, his mind filled with the way Shen Guanchao put it on him yesterday, as if this way, the scent and shadow of that person would return once more.
He sighed low, wanting to go downstairs for a walk to relieve his loneliness.
Putting on his clothes, he pushed open the apartment door and walked out, but unexpectedly smelled something wrong.
It was like something was burning, emitting a pungent smell.
Accidents descend in the night.
On the other side.
Shen Guanchao was dragged by his parents to work all day. By the time he was free, it was already past nine. The family gathered in the living room watching TV and chatting. Halfway through, he received a call, put on his coat, and went out to the garden.
The caller was the youngest son of the Chen family, Chen Zhongwen, who had hung out with Shen Guanchao since childhood; their bond was deep. His cynical laughter came from the screen: “Brother Ting, coming out to play?”
“You haven’t been chic with me for a long time.”
“Where?” Shen Guanchao asked.
Chen Zhongwen replied, “Queen Bar. With Han Yina, and Jiang Hesheng and the others.”
Han Yina was the real name of RSG’s sub-attacker Pear Flower Na. Shen Guanchao sneered lightly, “Jiang Hesheng is there too? Since when is our Sister Na free enough to go clubbing with her ex-boyfriend?”
“I tricked her into coming; she just beat me up,” Chen Zhongwen said calmly. “So, coming or not? I’ll send someone to pick you up.”
Shen Guanchao: “No need, I’ll drive over.”
He picked a flashy purple supercar from his garage, greeted Uncle Liu, and left.
Queen Bar was a place where the young masters of City A often gathered. It was a twenty-minute drive from the Shen family mansion. When Shen Guanchao arrived, it was exactly ten o’clock. He familiarly found the private room booked by Chen Zhongwen. As soon as he entered, he saw Pear Flower Na sitting under the ambiguous lighting with a stern face.
He smiled and walked up, teasing, “Why so unhappy coming out to play? Thinking of going back to RSG for training?”
Pear Flower Na handed him a drink with a calm expression. “That depends on who I’m playing with. With you, of course, I’m happy. With others, not necessarily.”
When she said this, she pointedly referred to someone in the venue.
“Miss, I was really wrong.” Chen Zhongwen laughed dryly beside them, then said, “Finally here, brother.”
“The number of times I can see you two e-sports gods in a year is few and far between. Are we still friends?”
“Busy.” Shen Guanchao nodded slightly and sat on the sofa. People greeted him one after another; they were all familiar faces he had seen before.
Colorful lights flowed. They drank until late at night. Amidst the socializing, someone tactfully handed Shen Guanchao a pack of cigarettes.
He smiled and declined, finding an excuse: “Quit smoking recently, don’t pass them to me anymore.”
Chen Zhongwen raised an eyebrow. “You’re dating? Keeping yourself so clean.”
“No.” Shen Guanchao smiled, fished out a lemon candy from his pocket, and put it in his mouth. “Just have someone I like, he won’t let me smoke.”
The others instantly fell silent, looking at each other.
They thought this eldest young master of the Shen family was the wildest player in the group, usually drinking and smoking, dyeing his hair and playing e-sports. They didn’t expect him to be playing the “pure love” game in private.
Someone teased, “Brother Shen, are you planning to marry young?”
“Get lost.” Shen Guanchao laughed and cursed.
“Hahaha…”
Everyone laughed, but didn’t notice that the originally high-spirited Chen Zhongwen suddenly darkened his face.
He had recently gotten a little boyfriend, very cute and quite delicate, still in college. Disliking the dormitory environment, he rented an apartment in the “City Garden” residential area near the school, where security was decent.
A few minutes ago, Chen Zhongwen received several voice messages from his little boyfriend.
He clicked on them with a smile, thinking the other party was acting spoiled and wanted company again, but heard Mu Xinyue’s voice clearly crying: “Ge… there’s a fire near my home, can you come over?”
“Please come over, okay…”
“It seems a man in my neighbor’s house owes money to loan sharks and ran away. Lately, thugs often come to cause trouble. Just now they argued and threatened to set fire to kill Grandma Wu and their kid. I called the police…”
“Then my… my friend sent me out of the fire, and ran back in himself to save the kid and the old lady.”
“What to do… my… my friend… rushed in alone… I can’t help, I’m really scared, what to do?”
Encountering such a thing for the first time, Mu Xinyue completely panicked, trembling all over, his heart cold. Watching his friend’s striding figure leaving, he unconsciously muttered, “Xie Jingchu… don’t go in…”
Chen Zhongwen comforted him not to worry, grabbing his coat to walk out of the private room. “Be good, I’m coming right now.”
Shen Guanchao, who was listening nearby, lost his mind upon hearing this. He inadvertently heard Xie Jingchu’s name. The smile on his face stopped abruptly. Ignoring the jokes with everyone, he tightly grabbed Chen Zhongwen’s hand and frowned, asking, “Who did you say rushed in? Where?”
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