Honey Stewed Squid

“Come up with me.” There was something peculiar about his voice.

She could not say what exactly was the feeling she got from it. It felt cold, yet at the same time warm. It seemed to sound edgy, yet also seemed br.i.m.m.i.n.g with emotion.

Puzzled, she answered with an “oh” and ran up the stairs.

She did not know whether or not it was because of his tall height and long legs, but the stair steps from the second level to the third were obviously quite a bit taller than the ones leading from the first level to the second and were quite strenuous for her to take… Holding the handrail, she climbed up. When she reached that top level, her view opened up.

There was no layout to be spoken of at all.

Unlike the second level, which had individual bedrooms and a small living room, the third level had an open concept: a gigantic king-size bed, a black bookcase, several black computers that were all connected, a deep blue sofa, and a s.h.a.ggy rug in the same color scheme…

All the window curtains were drawn shut…

Besides dark blue, there was only black. This was… his room.

She was constantly looking around, her eyes taking in all sorts of bizarre objects, and many of them, she did not even know what they were. It felt as if she had stepped into another dimension.

No lights were turned on… There was only the light emitted from those several computers.

She could not even differentiate whether it was day or night.

Arbitrarily setting his gla.s.s down on the computer desk, with his hand, he turned the swivel chair around toward himself so that its back was to the glow of the computers. Taking a seat in it, he faced her, then beckoned to her with his hand.

One hour ago, he had sat right in this place, listening in the audio monitoring system as this kid delivered that long string of words.

That era… the one that had once embodied his youth and his pa.s.sions, that he had invested one hundred percent of his sentiment and love into—never had anyone dared mention it in front of him before. None of those so-called official sites or personal websites were sanctioned, nor had he ever visited them. The past was the past. It did not matter who still remembered the name, Gun.

When his own individual heroism had transformed to become his club’s glory and honor…

He had, in fact, already ceased being the him of the past.

However, who would have known—even he, himself, had not known—that those sentiments that were still coursing in his blood would be drawn up again because of those words she had spoken? This was… the first time, in all these years, that he had used an entire sixty minutes to recall the details of his past.

The little girl in front of him dawdled her way over. All those little thoughts, little hesitations she carried as well as the uncertainty and undisguisable happiness she was feeling—his eyes took them all in. She came to a halt in a spot one step away from him.

For the first time, his eyes looked at her in seriousness, like he was treating her as a peer. “Aside from knowing that my name is Han Shangyan, what else do you know?”

She was taken aback. What else did she know?

Actually, it was all just little bits and pieces.

The information on him was simply too spa.r.s.e…

In reality, once she knew his real name and nationality, there were always ways to find out more, but all this time, she had dared not do so. Last time, he had already been very displeased that she had peeked at his ident.i.ty card in the Internet café, so she very clearly knew where to draw the line and had only searched online for information regarding “Gun.”

“Nothing…” she truthfully confessed. “I’ve only looked at your interviews that were made public and compet.i.tion videos.”

He fell silent for three seconds.

Then, he opened his mouth and spoke again.

“Han Shangyan. Born February 14, 1986 in Norway. In 2004, my nationality was changed to Chinese. A former professional gamer. All my rankings and achievements can be found online. Retired from professional play in 2005. Studied a few years in a university. Major was in industrial design. After graduating, I founded K&K eSports Club in the United States. I am its number one investor and also one of the owners of the organization. In 2013, after K&K China was established, I changed to permanently reside in China.”

Such a detailed introduction of him. Even Baidu Baike would not have this information.

And in this way, one sentence at a time, they were spoken from his mouth—to tell her.

It was as if he was saying, “Welcome to my world, Tong Nian.”

After saying all this, he unhurriedly unwrapped a candy, popped it in his mouth, and with words that were somewhat indistinct, summarized, “This can be considered my official self-introduction to you. Don’t view me as some hero that’s written about on the Internet. I’m not, understand?”

“Mm-hmm.” She nodded.

“You’re a hundred times better than what’s written on the Internet,” she thought.

This was the first time he had ever had such patience to say so much to someone of the opposite gender.

But clearly, he was starting to lose that patience.

Especially since, up to this point, the kid still did not understand what he was trying to say, even though she… really was listening focusedly…

“Nor am I some perfect, n.o.ble gentleman. I’m not the least bit chivalrous, I don’t like being romantic, and I don’t even have time to go out on dates. My entire life is K&K, it’s all the members of my team—very monotonous, no pastimes, no time for taking trips, no vacation time. Even more so, I dislike social niceties and interactions. I don’t even have rest days, holidays, or yearly vacation leave.”

“Poor him…” she thought.

And then, all around, it grew quiet.

It seemed he had finished saying all that he wanted to say.

She was still caught in a stupor.

“So, I’ll give you another chance. Do you still want to break up?”

0.0?

Huh?!

Her eyes widened.

She utterly did not know even how to speak.

Thump, thump, thump…

Thump, thump, thump…

Her heart was beating faster and faster. All of her was caught in this huge, wonderful surprise, and she was frozen in astonishment.

“So do you want to? Or not?” He once again opened his mouth to ask.

“……”

“Haven’t thought of how to answer?”

“……”

“Still need to think it over some more?”

She wrung her fingers furiously behind her back, so hard it was painful.

“I don’t want to…” Worried that he had not heard, she repeated the sentence again in a small voice. “I don’t want to.”

This was the first time since she was a child that she had spent so much time and effort to learn about and understand a person, to try to catch up to his footsteps, even if all she received in exchange was a single glance back at her.

She did not want to break up with him…

Nor did she want to never be able to see him again after today.

Gun carried on with eating his candy, not saying any more.

That entire s.p.a.ce once again fell into a bizarre quiet.

She seemed to be waiting for a final answer, her two hands joined tightly behind her back, twisting until they hurt. And it remained as such until she felt a warmth along the bridge of her nose. He had stretched out a hand and brushed a finger down her nose. “Then let’s not break up.”

……

So that meant…

They really didn’t need to break up anymore?

Somewhat uncertainly, she tilted her face upwards, trying to get a clear view of his eyes.

Unfortunately, he had already swiveled the chair around. Facing the computers, he opened his inbox and pulled up an email, reading the telephone number on the screen as he dialled into the phone conference.

Following a series of greetings, he tossed out a sentence. “You guys continue. I’m listening.”

Everyone threw back several replies of “okay” and then began discussions on the expected situation for compet.i.tion registration amongst the four major servers around the world. “The American eSports alliance that previously had focused on StarCraft II has announced that it will be transitioning its focus to Tempest of the Sealed Chamber…”

He turned back again and continued to look at her, seeming as if he wanted to carry on with the topic from earlier on.

However, he did not say anything.

Tong Nian was blushing from his gaze, and softly, she mumbled, “Um, well… you have your meeting. I’m going downstairs…”

Extending his arm, he drew her toward himself. While she was overwhelmed and fl.u.s.tered, he pulled her down so that she was seated on his right leg.

In that moment, when his hand cupped the back of her head, he could even feel that there was a slight tremble in her body.

“Should I… give you some alcohol to drink?” His voice was like a phantom, pressing itself close against her ear.

The little girl did not move, her entire body rigid.

It was still the scent of fruit candy on her body. It should be a type of perfume. Such a saccharinely sweet smell. Somewhere deep within him, the memories of that night were slowly roused, those…

Feelings of rashness, desire…

Feelings of wanting to do what had never been tried before…

The room was dim.

The background noise coming from the phone was very exhilarated, the people inside speaking about the upcoming global qualifying tournament.

He, on the other hand, had closed his eyes. The tip of his nose slid down from her forehead, wordlessly, noiselessly grazing over the bridge of her nose and tracing a path downwards the entire way until he found that spot…

“Tong Nian.” His voice was husky.

She gave a tiny “mm” in answer.

“Do you want… to kiss?”