【126】Except for Dawn’s Fans, No One Else Could Do This
Orange actually didn’t want to forgive him at all. Why should the person who did wrong get to be “forgiven” by the victim just because of a few sentences of apology—whether sincere or fake—delivered in a grand manner?
But this person was simply a rogue stalker fan. Orange didn’t want to tangle with him any further, so he walked past him and grabbed Nan Xi’s wrist: “Let’s go.”
Orange’s hand was a bit cold. The sensation of him gripping Nan Xi’s wrist made Nan Xi somewhat flustered.
He was a bit greedy for this temperature; it was comfortable. But he also felt that he shouldn’t be walking so close to Orange.
Nan Xi broke free from his hand. Orange was a bit astonished but didn’t say much. He just awkwardly withdrew his hand, pretending nothing had happened.
“Thank you for just now.”
He said it sincerely. Orange truly felt that Nan Xi was a good person. Since they first met, the other party had helped him an unknown number of times.
“It’s nothing.”
When the two returned to the base, they startled the club staff.
“What happened to you guys?” The staff looked at the paint marks on Nan Xi, unable to imagine how their Captain, the ace player, could get splashed with paint on a good day like winning the seeding match.
“Encountered a toxic fan,” Orange explained briefly. “The Little Captain’s uniform is also lost.”
“The uniform is easy to handle,” the staff member said. “The club has plenty; just get another one later.”
“To think even pro players have toxic fans now. Sometimes being handsome is quite troublesome.” The staff member said, “Go quickly and clean yourselves up!”
Because he was well-protected by Nan Xi, Orange didn’t have much paint on him—just a little splattered on his jacket. So he finished showering quickly and came out. However, the paint on Nan Xi’s face simply couldn’t be washed off.
“I’ll help you.”
Orange took the initiative to borrow makeup remover from a female staff member. Seeing Nan Xi like this because he helped him, he felt very apologetic in his heart.
Nan Xi originally wanted to refuse, but seeing Orange so insistent, he didn’t say anything, which counted as tacit consent.
“Don’t move, I’ll help you wipe it.”
After wetting the cotton pad, Orange wiped away the red paint marks on Nan Xi’s face bit by bit.
He wiped very seriously, his movements very light, as if treating some precious work of art.
From Nan Xi’s angle, he could easily see Orange’s curled eyelashes trembling slightly with his blinks. Orange’s eyes were beautiful, the pupil color light but sparkling. Placed on such an obedient and soft face, it was easy for people to feel fond of him.
“Strange, this spot is hard to wipe.”
Orange muttered to himself, increasing the strength of his hand slightly. His slender, cold fingers touched Nan Xi’s eyelid. The beautiful face magnified in front of him, their nose tips almost touching.
Breaths entangled as Orange spoke: “Jian Yu, close your eyes for a sec.”
Nan Xi obediently did as told. He only felt the heart in his chest beating faster. It was really strange; clearly, Orange was just wiping the paint off his face, but why did he feel like the moment he leaned in, he was going to kiss him?
Feeling the cotton pad wiping his eyelid stroke by stroke, it seemed his heartbeat was following the rhythm of Orange’s movements.
“Done!” Orange withdrew his hand. “It’s almost wiped clean.”
“Mm, thanks.”
“I should be the one thanking you.”
Returning to his room, Orange took out a small notebook he had bought earlier and drew the scene of Nan Xi holding him.
Then, in the bottom right corner, he solemnly noted the date.
Only then did he take out his tablet and open the drawing software.
Orange’s drawing skills were high. From drafting to coloring, it took almost no time to draw one.
After refining some details, he sent it to Nan Xi with satisfaction.
[Little Captain: ?]
[Orange: This is the profile picture I drew for you. Hope you can like it.]
Nan Xi looked at the image he sent. It was a Q-version character image of himself.
Orange was actually very apprehensive. He had always had a crush on Nan Xi, and this affection had reached a peak tonight after he blocked the paint for him.
When they were in such close contact tonight, Orange could feel his heart beating non-stop.
But he also knew it wasn’t appropriate to confess to Nan Xi now. At the very least, he should wait until they won the championship, wait until he accompanied him to take the trophy.
That way, it would be a bit more justifiable, right?
Nan Xi replied with a “Thanks” and said nothing more. Orange kept refreshing their chat interface, hoping expectantly that the other would change his profile picture.
He had hidden a tiny thought in the avatar: in an inconspicuous corner on the bottom right, he drew a small orange.
Nan Xi looked at the avatar Orange gave him. It was indeed drawn cutely and vividly.
But…
He moved his gaze to his phone. His profile picture was a patch of black.
To others, this was just an ordinary, unremarkable black image. But Nan Xi knew clearly that this was taken the night he watched the moon with Wen Ran.
He couldn’t bear to change it.
Although it was cloudy that day and they didn’t get to see it, Nan Xi clearly remembered Wen Ran excitedly wanting to watch the moon. In the end, he waited and waited to no avail, finally getting sleepy and nodding off. He yawned and told him to wake him if the moon came out, then planted his head on his shoulder.
The time he spent with Wen Ran was his most memorable period.
But he failed to seize the opportunity.
Now, Wen Ran was someone else’s boyfriend, who would openly rest on someone else’s shoulder. Even for Wen Ran’s trip to the World Championship this time, the jungler beside him wasn’t him.
Nan Xi saved the image Orange drew for him, but he couldn’t bring himself to change his profile picture.
Orange actually hadn’t held much hope to begin with. Nan Xi probably didn’t like it.
They had things to be busy with next, plus the matches, so they quickly threw themselves into new training and preparations.
After the National Team won a complete victory in Japan, earning enough face, the enthusiasm of domestic fans reached a climax.
Esports was now considered a sports event, and these players were star athletes. The National Team also had a published itinerary.
When they returned to the country, a dense crowd of fans could be seen picking them up at the airport.
The loudest screams came from Ling Han’s female fans. Wind’s fans were half male and half female. Xu Jiajia’s fans brought a lot of strange gadgets. Twilight’s fans were well-behaved and gentle.
Wen Ran had actually never been picked up by fans before. He was also looking forward to seeing what his fans looked like offline.
However, as soon as he stepped off the plane, Wen Ran saw that amidst the crowd of normally dressed people, there was a group wearing light pink and gold wigs. Each held a red rose in their hand. They consciously formed a square formation. A bunch of pink hair gathered together—those who didn’t know would think they had walked into a comic convention.
Wen Ran’s eyelid twitched, and he had a vague premonition of something bad. As expected, that group of “non-mainstream” (alt/scene) people walked toward him as if dogs smelling a bone.
He hid behind Jiang Yan, but the fans still spotted him with sharp eyes and waved at him excitedly:
“Dawn! Son, look over here! Daddy is here!”
Wen Ran: “……”
Wen Ran looked at the goddess-like female fans over at Ling Han’s side, smiling sweetly as they handed over autograph boards—handsome guys and beauties standing together were pleasing to the eye. Then he looked at his own family’s group of crazy pink fur balls…
Thanks, I don’t know them.
Yet their voices were incredibly loud: “Son, look over here quickly!”
Wen Ran walked forward pretending not to hear, praying inwardly to leave this place of trouble quickly. But before he could walk out, the security uncle next to him, unaware of their terms of address, thought it was some parent coming to pick up their child.
He saw Wen Ran at a glance. He wasn’t tall and had dyed his hair back to black now, looking particularly like a high school student.
So he grabbed Wen Ran’s arm and shouted loudly: “Dao (Dawn)? You are Dao, right? Didn’t you hear? Your Daddy is looking for you!”
Wen Ran: “……”
Kill me, right now.
Wen Ran was dragged by the security uncle to the side of the Little Roses. A group of pink instantly surrounded him.
But they had a sense of propriety and didn’t get too close, consciously leaving an open circle.
“Wow, Dawn, I didn’t expect you to be even more handsome offline than online.”
“Yeah, let me see if you’ve grown taller!”
“The semi-final was played wonderfully, keep adding oil!”
“You didn’t even post a Weibo when you went out. Don’t you know we missed you very much?”
“FMVP is indeed invincible. You were so cool in the arena!”
The Little Roses chatted with Wen Ran all at once. Wen Ran didn’t know which sentence to reply to.
He could only use a catch-all phrase casually: “Thank you for your support, I will continue to work hard.”
“Don’t continue to work hard just yet!” A leading girl spoke up: “Dawn, today is our first time picking you up. We also prepared a gift for you.”
Ling Han and Jiang Yan had already received quite a few gifts from fans, mostly small gadgets that weren’t very expensive, and handwritten letters. He had grown this big and had never received a handwritten letter from anyone!
Hearing the other party say this, he felt a little expectation in his heart.
Since his debut, these fans had accompanied him through noisy and playful times until now.
“Come, cue the music!”
As soon as her voice fell, another girl immediately took out her phone and clicked on the music accompaniment.
Then Wen Ran watched helplessly as, to the tune of the DJ version of “The Shameful Rose Quietly Opens,” this group of people held up roses in front of him and danced a 30-second dance with stiff and very uncoordinated limbs.
Calling it a dance was a stretch, as there were hardly any movements. It was like broadcast gymnastics, done by the worst students in class during school days. It made the corners of Wen Ran’s mouth twitch.
Then, a wide-mouthed jar was stuffed into his hands. The jar had the words “Toxic Tumor” printed in bold black font.
The Little Roses stuffed roses into his jar one by one. Finally, the leading girl tied a ribbon on it, making a butterfly knot.
“Dawn, although others call you a Toxic Tumor, you must never belittle yourself. Even a ugly toxic tumor has a beautiful field of roses in its heart.”
Wen Ran was stunned. What did they mean by ugly toxic tumor?
And, with which eye did you see me belittling myself?!
After the girl finished speaking, she even performed a very standard gentleman’s bow to him: “We hope Player Dawn carries our blessings, marches forward courageously, and has a bright future.”
Wen Ran smiled without his eyes: “I thank you all.”
Just as he planned to hold this wide-mouthed jar and turn to leave, he looked back and was horrified to discover that at some point, a circle of people had gathered around them, all holding phones and recording videos of them.
A passerby auntie was even saying to her old friend next to her: “Young people nowadays, oh, really know how to put on a show. Let’s film it and post it on Kuaishou; maybe it will go viral!”
Some people hadn’t turned off their flash. Wen Ran had never felt so photographed by so many people.
He wished he could immediately dig a big pit, bury these anti-fans who caused him social death, and then jump in himself!
Beside him, Xu Jiajia’s big fan couldn’t close her jaw: “Sweet, do you like this kind? Shall we get one for you next time?”
“Better not,” Xu Jiajia was also shocked. He couldn’t help but feel embarrassed for the other party: “I think in the Alliance, except for Dawn’s fans, no one else could do this kind of thing.”
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