Chapter 27: The Snowman and the Ring
“So, would you lie to me?” He looked into Xie Jingchu’s eyes, casually brushing aside the stray hair on his forehead, and asked gently.
Xie Jingchu held his hand back, lowered his eyes to avoid Shen Guanchao’s burning gaze, and twitched the corner of his lips in self-mockery. “No.”
Shen Guanchao asked again, “Then, will you come to every one of my matches in the future?”
“I will.”
“I will come to every single one of your matches.”
In a trance, he remembered the first time he went to see Shen Guanchao play.
During the summer vacation after the high school entrance exam, he was kicked out of the house by his stepfather. His mother dared not intervene, letting him work odd jobs outside for two months. By day, he handed out flyers on the streets; by night, he transformed into a waiter in a busy restaurant. With hands that had once written perfect exam papers, he carried plates, saving up a considerable sum of money in the real world.
After receiving his wages, he rented a small room near his workplace. After carefully budgeting for daily expenses, he used the extra money to buy a ticket for an LFK regular season match.
Xie Jingchu clearly remembered that the match was NAVA vs. Lost.
In the vast e-sports stadium, Shen Guanchao came out last as the finale, as always. Hugging his keyboard, he walked onto the competition stage without a hint of nervousness. Colorful lights flowed over him. Xie Jingchu stared deeply at him, feeling fascinated by a person for the first time.
Even if he wasn’t wealthy, even if he had nothing, Xie Jingchu would exhaust all resources just to catch a glimpse of him.
Young people always look up to beautiful things.
On stage, the radiant Shen Guanchao pulled at the corner of his mouth, chatting with his teammates while debugging his equipment. The commentator introduced him with a rising tone—”This is NAVA’s ace player, Flesh, the strongest primary attacker in our local region.”
Xie Jingchu didn’t understand what LFK was. After watching that match, he began to get into the internet and gaming. While working part-time, he tried game streaming on a large platform and was assigned to the “Looks” category. His beautiful face quickly accumulated a considerable number of fans who liked him for his appearance, but he broke out of the circle because of his “underworld” streaming style.
During streams, there was no shortage of low-quality viewers who would attack his looks, his skills, and even his parents.
He glanced faintly at the bullet comments and sneered, “A flower vase streamer with only a face and no skills… are you introducing yourself?”
“I am indeed without a father or mother. My biological father is in jail for killing someone, and my stepfather, along with my biological mother, threw me out of the house when I was tiny. Do you want parents like this? 9.90 RMB, free shipping to your home, I’ll sell them to you.”
“Don’t refuse. Since you like other people’s parents so much, just take them. I’ll make money too. I’ll put up the link in a moment, who’s afraid of whom?”
“Scolding me for not studying well at a young age, dropping out to stream and ruining my life? Do you know what life is? My life was being maliciously locked in a garage by my stepfather for three days during the high school entrance exams, given no food or drink, with only old book covers to fill my stomach. Do you want to experience a life like that too?”
He didn’t care about others’ tearing and cursing. He exposed his scars one by one in the sunlight without feeling any shame, because he wasn’t the one in the wrong.
Victims never need to live hiding in corners.
He used to be a top student at Zhijiang Middle School, a regular on the honor roll. He hadn’t gotten the questions wrong, nor had he taken the wrong path, yet he fell into an endless abyss. How could he not hate?
“Is the Healer dead? Played half the match only healing your boyfriend, telling other teammates to heal themselves with spiritual therapy?”
“Is the Main Attacker protecting nature? The arena boss spawned three times and you didn’t initiate, planning to keep it overnight?”
He learned to speak increasingly harsh words, revealing his sharp edge to outsiders, and soon gained a large number of technical fans and die-hard followers.
But Xie Jingchu understood that just having this wasn’t enough to get close to Shen Guanchao. He had to work harder.
The day his mother passed away from asthma, because his gambling-addicted stepfather couldn’t be reached, the police called him to handle the funeral arrangements.
Xie Jingchu felt very calm that day. After Xie Fangrong was cremated, he buried this woman who gave birth to him but didn’t raise him next to his grandmother’s grave.
Reason told him he didn’t need to care about this woman who nearly ruined his life, but the warmth and kindness Shen Guanchao had taught him compelled him to repay the debt of giving birth. At least this woman had felt pain when bringing him into the world; he shouldn’t leave her lying alone in a cold hospital.
What was Xie Fangrong’s life like?
She had a wonderful mother, and possessed beauty and grades that everyone envied, yet she abandoned her bright future for that laughable “love.”
On the eve of the college entrance exam, she eloped with a “big shot” from the neighboring vocational school, Song Jingchen—the biological father who would later go to jail for robbery and murder.
They promised to love each other for a lifetime and gave birth to Xie Jingchu at an ignorant age. But Song Jingchen didn’t have much familial love to give this child. Eloping and sleeping with Xie Fangrong were just impulsive acts; he couldn’t bear the responsibility and decisively broke up with her.
No matter how heart-wrenchingly Xie Fangrong cried, she couldn’t win back his fickle heart. She threw the child to her parents and went to the Song family alone, unreservedly offering her body and dignity to Song Jingchen’s bed again and again, dressing up as the enchanting type he liked best.
During that time, Song Jingchen resumed taking care of her somewhat, but never mentioned marriage or raising their son. Every time Xie Fangrong brought it up, he would drive her out of the house.
When Xie Jingchu was seven, Xie Fangrong’s mother passed away. The Xie relatives didn’t want to care for this little burden and forcibly sent young Xie Jingchu back to Xie Fangrong.
Xie Fangrong only gave him a mouthful of plain rice every day, ignoring the child otherwise, continuing to focus solely on pleasing Song Jingchen. Sometimes, their lewd sounds would come from the bedroom, the kitchen, the garden. As a father, Song Jingchen didn’t shy away from doing things with Xie Fangrong anywhere in the house.
A few years later, he was caught for a crime and went to prison. Xie Fangrong instantly lost all support. Without a man’s protection, she couldn’t even get a meal.
These years, under Song Jingchen’s training, she had turned from an elite student into a loose woman. Her greatest skill was moaning charmingly in bed; how could she earn a living?
She turned to Song Jingchen’s subordinate, Ji Xinghong, changing the place where she wagged her tail and begged for pity. She thought of countless ways to feed and clothe herself, but never considered relying on her own hands to work.
In front of Ji Xinghong, she was even more obedient.
If Ji Xinghong told her to go east, she dared not go west. If he told her to “drink” with his business friends, she dared not refuse. If he told her to knock that little burden unconscious and throw him out, she dared not disobey.
This submissive attitude satisfied Ji Xinghong greatly, so he granted her wish and got a marriage certificate with her at the Civil Affairs Bureau.
It is unknown why in this world, some people discard love like worn-out shoes, while others treasure it like a gem.
Perhaps it was the desperate desire to hold on, or perhaps just unwillingness to accept defeat.
A title isn’t important for a woman; a woman doesn’t need to be someone’s wife to survive. But in Xie Fangrong’s eyes, it was incomparably glorious, as if being Mrs. Ji was some kind of achievement.
She should have taken the college entrance exam smoothly under the guidance of her mother and teachers, then entered an ideal university, received education in a higher institution, had a healthy relationship, and strived for a career after graduation.
But Song Jingchen’s appearance changed her life’s trajectory, and Ji Xinghong dragged her into hell.
Two men, for their own selfish desires, lightly destroyed her beautiful life, yet she never resisted until her death. For Song Jingchen’s so-called “youthful pain” and “freedom,” she threw the self-strength, independence, and rationality her mother taught her as a child to the back of her mind. The knowledge she learned in school was also used by her to please Ji Xinghong’s “guests.”
Xie Jingchu didn’t know why his mother was like this. Clearly, Grandmother loved her so much. If he had a mother’s love too, everything would have been different.
Living a similarly ruined life, possessing similar experiences, Xie Fangrong willingly became a plaything, while Xie Jingchu silently endured all malice and walked toward the light.
Though they were mother and son, they were ultimately different.
After the New Year holiday ended, Shen Guanchao left Xie Jingchu alone in the villa. Before leaving, he built a small snowman for him.
Xie Jingchu carefully put the snowman away in the refrigerator.
It should have melted in the spring of that year, but his love granted it rebirth again and again.
Growing up in that kind of environment, Xie Jingchu didn’t understand how to love someone; he only knew how to grab what he wanted.
In the following months, Shen Guanchao became busy and didn’t accompany Xie Jingchu often.
But he knew Xie Jingchu would always watch him from the audience, waving flags and shouting for him, waiting for him at their agreed-upon place.
After a match victory, they would go on dates and eat in corners of the city, recklessly sharing joy and extending their affection.
Once, the residential area’s circuit was under maintenance, and the villa lost power. Xie Jingchu ran back anxiously. Opening the refrigerator, the snowman had melted halfway, revealing a ring inside.
Xie Jingchu dazedly and carefully took out the abrupt ring from the snowman’s heart. It was a gold Möbius ring, a very beautiful style, symbolizing eternal, infinite love.
He suddenly shed a tear, surging emotions flooding his heart.
For the first time, someone cared for him so implicitly and gently.
He wanted to hold onto this beauty so badly.
Xie Jingchu ignored the snowman and walked quickly out of the villa. He found a jewelry store and asked the clerk, “Do you have a ring of the same style as this one?”
“We do.” The clerk let out an “Ah” and looked for it for him.
She remembered that a few months ago, a gentleman seemed to have come here to buy an identical one.
That gentleman seemed to be acting on a whim passing by, yet also like it was premeditated for a long time. Pushing open the store door, he walked up to her gracefully and asked with a smile, “Are there any rings suitable for a proposal or confession? The meaning needs to be precious.”
At that time, the clerk also let out an “Ah,” then replied, “We do.”
Love from different times intertwined.
Xie Jingchu bought an identical ring, personally wrote a card at the front desk, booked a private room in a restaurant, and ordered a grand bouquet of flowers, plotting to confess to Shen Guanchao after his next match ended.
From boyhood to youth, it seemed there was only this one person who had consistently poured kindness onto him. He wanted to hold onto Shen Guanchao too much.
In his barren world, Shen Guanchao was his Creator.
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