Chapter Text
“What do you have there?”
Yu Tu looked up, startled, as the tickets to the Glory of Kings championship award ceremony that Jing Jing had given him earlier were very unceremoniously snatched out of his hands.
Zhai Liang stood before him, looking at the tickets in surprise.
“You got tickets to the KPL award ceremony? I should have known, you’ve been obsessively watching the pro matches for weeks already. Wait...there are two tickets...who’s the other one for? It’s for me, right? You have no other friend in Shanghai who would be into this sort of thing - “
Yu Tu sighed and finally cut through his friend’s monologue. “Insulting me is not going to make me want to invite you to come with me.”
Zhai Liang just let out a “Hah!” and then said, “You already bought the tickets, who else are you going to take?” He waved the tickets around. “Besides, I have the tickets now.”
“So are you coming or not?” Yu Tu asked, rolling his eyes.
Zhai Liang smirked. “I’ll check my schedule.”
“Hey, she’s looking at me!” Zhai Liang said, nodding towards the stage, where Qiao Jing Jing indeed was looking in their direction, smiling widely.
“She’s not looking at you,” Yu Tu said in a bored voice.
“Yes she is! Look, she actually just winked at me!”
Yu Tu just sighed. Deeply. This was, as expected, turning out to be a very, very bad idea.
And then Jing Jing started to speak, and Yu Tu couldn’t help but glance over to watch Zhai Liang’s expression, which turned from smug delight to gradual confusion.
“Is it just me...or does that voice…”
Zhai Liang turned to stare back at Yu Tu. He frowned with suspicion.
“Don’t you think her voice is a little bit familiar?”
Yu Tu just shrugged. Omission was always better than outright lying.
Fortunately, Zhai Liang was not the obsessive type, and as the first match started, he gradually got swept away by watching the game on the big screen.
“Dong Huang Tai Yi is so good!” he exclaimed after Jing Jing made a particularly good move. “She’s a lot better than I would expect!”
“Isn’t she,” Yu Tu couldn’t help saying softly, mostly to himself.
Still, it was easy to get swept up in the eventual excitement of Jing Jing’s team easily winning the first match. By the time the final results showed on the screen, Yu Tu couldn’t help himself smiling at both Zhai Liang and Jing Jing’s happiness.
“If this is just a friendly match, I’m starting to see why you like watching the full pro matches so much,” Zhai Liang said, clapping hard as the two teams convened in the middle of the stage. There, it was announced that, as the MVP of the first game, Xia Xue was to be removed from the second game, and Jing Jing had to choose another player.
Yu Tu’s stomach twisted - he didn’t know whether it was nervousness, anticipation, or perhaps even excitement - when she asked the MC whether she could choose a non-pro player. Then, her shining eyes turned towards him.
At that moment, not even Zhai Liang could assume that she was looking at him. Of course, he didn’t immediately catch on that Jing Jing was looking at Yu Tu either, because he looked around behind him, hoping to catch some other famous person who might be sitting behind them.
Then, the bombshell dropped.
“The person I choose is…” - Yu Tu clenched his hands on his armrests - “...Yu Tu.”
If people could become memes, then Zhai Liang’s face in that moment was the spitting image of that “shocked Pikachu” meme. His demand for answers only came out as a flat “What” as he turned to stare at Yu Tu.
With the spotlight now shining directly at him, Yu Tu simply ignored Zhai Liang and tried to calm his own breathing. Then, he caught Jing Jing’s gaze and for a moment, found himself swept up in the brilliant, shining light in her eyes.
“Move,” he said to Zhai Liang, who wordlessly shifted his knees aside so that Yu Tu could pass him.
Zhai Liang wasn’t sure he caught much of the second match, his mind still in a whirlwind trying to sort out all the new information he had just been bombarded with.
Yu Tu knew Qiao Jing Jing.
Yu Tu was high school classmates with Qiao Jing Jing.
Yu Tu was friends with Qiao Jing Jing.
Yu Tu played freaking video games with Qiao Jing Jing.
And he had never said anything to Zhai Liang about any of this.
It was practically a crime!
The players, including Yu Tu and Jing Jing, were ushered backstage after the second game finished. A couple of minutes later, Jing Jing came out to present an award, but Yu Tu remained elusive.
Zhai Liang was not at all watching the award ceremony, his eyes now glued to Jing Jing, who he was 99% sure was the Cotton that apparently “could be seen everywhere on the streets” and the Miss Qiao of Romanée-Conti fame. The only question was, why the hell had Yu Tu been so silent about all of this?
Jing Jing was led to a seat in the front row, and perhaps she sensed Zhai Liang’s eyes on her, because she turned slightly around. As she caught his eyes, she smiled and gave him a little wave, which Zhai Liang hesitantly returned.
When the award ceremony ended, instead of making her way backstage, Jing Jing actually ascended the stairs and stopped at the row where Zhai Liang was still sitting.
“You are I’m So Panicked?” she asked with a friendly smile.
“Uh...that’s me,” Zhai Liang answered, smiling back tentatively.
Jing Jing’s smile widened. “Come with me, Yu Tu’s backstage. Can you bring his jacket as well?”
Zhai Liang picked up Yu Tu’s jacket and numbly made his way to the end of the aisle, suddenly acutely aware of everyone staring at him and Jing Jing.
How could she look so calm knowing that everyone was whispering or speculating about her right next to her?
“Come on,” Jing Jing said when Zhai Liang arrived next to her, and then led the way down towards the stage and into a corridor leading backstage. When they had a bit more privacy, she turned to Zhai Liang, still smiling. “Did Yu Tu tell you?”
“Tell me...what?” Zhai Liang asked, still feeling rather shocked at the whole encounter.
“That I’m Hand That Picks Cotton!”
“Oh...I guess at some point just now I worked that out, but no, he did not tell me that,” Zhai Liang answered, feeling increasingly indignant now. “You really are Cotton? You really are Yu Tu’s high school classmate?”
“Yes,” Jing Jing said, laughing, making the tendrils of hair framing her face bounce and her rabbit earrings catch the light.
Rabbit earrings. This, combined with the outright flirting she and Yu Tu conducted earlier on stage, made Zhai Liang wonder what else Yu Tu was hiding from him.
After all, Yu Tu drank freaking ten-thousand dollar wine with this girl! In Yu Tu-land, this was practically a wedding ceremony.
“I’m Zhai Liang, by the way,” he found himself saying, belatedly realising that Jing Jing probably didn’t know his real name.
“Hi, I’m so glad you could come,” she said, grinning. Then, looking around, she added, “I’m just waiting for someone to show us the way to the waiting room where Yu Tu probably is.”
That was the first time Zhai Liang realised that perhaps Yu Tu hadn’t been so obsessed with professional esport that he would go out and buy tickets for the awards ceremony. After all, in the decade Zhai Liang had known him, he had never known Yu Tu to spend money so frivolously.
“Wait, our tickets…did you give Yu Tu our tickets?”
“Yes.” Jing Jing looked surprised. “Didn’t he tell you that?”
“No...he didn’t tell me anything.”
Before Jing Jing could say anything else, a Glory of Kings staff arrived to take them to lead them out of the backstage area. They arrived at a room where they found Yu Tu sitting alone.
“Hi!” Jing Jing said brightly, bouncing into the room.
Yu Tu stood up and turned around, looking slightly surprised to see Zhai Liang following in behind her.
“Where are Ling Jie and Xiao Zhu?” Jing Jing asked.
“They’ve gone for a meeting,” Yu Tu answered.
Zhai Liang glowered at Yu Tu as his friend finally glanced over to check on his reaction to all of this, but he didn’t immediately say anything. After all, they would have time to have a very long conversation when they got home.
“Come on, let’s go home,” Jing Jing said, still smiling and upbeat, while Zhai Liang could already sense Yu Tu withdrawing into himself. He couldn’t help but feel a jolt of concern at this. Things were very strange between Yu Tu and Jing Jing, despite the fact that they were very obviously flirting and smiling at each other on stage just an hour before.
Then again, if there was anything Zhai Liang knew about Yu Tu, it was that his friend had an unrivaled talent for making the simplest things so very complicated.
As if to prove that very point, Yu Tu said, “We’re not going in the same direction as you. We’ll just take the subway from here.”
Zhai Liang felt like reaching out and strangling Yu Tu.
“How can you leave from here? There are loads of people outside,” Jing Jing protested. “I can get the staff here to take us directly to the car through a private route.”
The three of them silently made their way down to the basement of the building, where apparently Jing Jing’s car and personal driver was waiting. On the way down, Zhai Liang’s mind was brimming with questions, but he suddenly was made very aware that the girl he had been playing games with for the last few weeks was a very famous person, and he couldn’t exactly just rudely interrogate her when they met for real 0.5 seconds ago. The person he could interrogate was clearly in a mood that indicated he would remain stubbornly silent, or at least taciturn, if Zhai Liang started asking questions.
By the time they got down to the car, it seemed as if Jing Jing had caught on to Yu Tu’s mood as well, because her smile was a little dimmer as she said Zhai Liang could sit in the front with the driver.
For a sudden moment, Zhai Liang considered bailing out of this third wheel situation. Whatever this was about, he was sure he was about to make it a thousand times more awkward with his presence. But then, if he bailed, he would be giving Yu Tu an excuse to bail as well, and right now, that was obviously the last thing Jing Jing wanted.
He accepted her gifts in the game, clearly this was now the moment to make himself useful. Or at least, make sure Yu Tu didn't make more of a mess of this than he already was.
Because Zhai Liang was definitely not imagining it. Whatever act she could have been putting on for the stage aside, even in this private setting, Jing Jing’s eyes shined brightly as she looked at Yu Tu. Yu Tu must see it too - recognising that girls liked him was never Yu Tu’s problem - but he had somehow chosen to not do anything about it. If anything, he was obviously pulling away. Not because he wasn’t interested. That much was clear. Yu Tu was never shy about making it clear when he was not interested in a girl, and Zhai Liang’s previous half-hearted attempts at helping reconnecting him with Xia Qing had only been out of a lack of any other options. He had never actually expected it to work.
And now, there was clearly a chance that it could work with Jing Jing. If Yu Tu would stop being an idiot about it.
So he sat in the front seat and listened to Yu Tu and Jing Jing’s stilted, awkward conversation in the back, that was a world away from how comfortable they had looked with each other on stage. Zhai Liang wondered if either of them even remembered he was there and could hear everything.
Zhai Liang didn’t know that Yu Tu had decided to go back to the research institute either, not until he announced it on stage. Hearing Jing Jing ask about it now, Zhai Liang suddenly started to understand why Yu Tu was acting so odd. He understood too well the kind of work schedule Yu Tu had at the research institute. In the years he had worked in Shanghai, he might as well be living half a world away if you considered how many times they saw each other per year, and it wasn’t just due to the fact that before he resigned from his job, he was living near the financial district. If Yu Tu’s work schedule already vaguely bothered Zhai Liang as a friend, a girlfriend would hate it.
“Please drop me off ahead,” Yu Tu said. “There’s a subway station near here that is convenient for me to go home.”
“Ling Jie has already planned a celebration meal. Surely both of you would come,” Jing Jing protested.
“I should get some early rest to prepare for work tomorrow,” Yu Tu said flatly. Then, apparently remembering that Zhai Liang existed, he added, “Zhai Liang, if you want to go, don’t worry about me.”
The implication that Yu Tu just wanted to mope and that Zhai Liang should leave him alone to do it, was clear. Still...Qiao Jing Jing was Yu Tu’s friend(?), not his, and if he was invited, it should be because Yu Tu was going, not as Qiao Jing Jing’s...internet friend.
“I - uh - “
Zhai Liang was still trying to figure out how to get out of this situation in a way that would not make it weird with either Yu Tu or Jing Jing (it was probably too late now), when Jing Jing said, “Please come, it’ll be fun.”
Did she realise that her voice no longer matched her words?
In the end, Zhai Liang decided to just let Yu Tu have his time to sulk. It would be much easier to talk sense into him after he had had time to mull things over a bit. So he accepted Jing Jing’s offer, who barely heard him as she was too busy staring at Yu Tu’s back as he walked away.
The car started again, but before it had moved more than a hundred metres, Jing Jing called for it to stop. She got out and ran in the direction where Yu Tu had gone.
Ages seemed to pass, but by Zhai Liang’s phone, it was really only about fifteen minutes. When Jing Jing opened the car door again, she was alone, and even in the dark, Zhai Liang could see the rims of her eyes were red.
She was no longer wearing any earrings.
The ride to the restaurant where Jing Jing’s manager had set up the celebration supper was only ten minutes long, but to Zhai Liang in the front seat, it seemed to last ten years. His co-passenger in the back seat spent the ride staring out of the window into the dark roads, and once or twice, Zhai Liang caught her wiping at the corners of her eyes when he glanced back at her.
By the time they got out of the car at the entrance of the restaurant, however, she seemed completely composed, and even was smiling when they entered the private dining room.
“Where’s Yu Laoshi?” an older woman who Zhai Liang guessed with Jing Jing’s manager asked.
“He’s got work tomorrow morning, so he’s not coming,” Jing Jing answered without a hint of even a grimace. If Zhai Liang didn’t know better, he’d assume she was completely sanguine about the situation. Taking her cue, he only smiled as Jing Jing turned to introduce him to Ling Jie, her manager and the staff from her office. “Zhai Liang is Yu Laoshi’s university friend and a part of our team when we play team games, so he was vital in helping me improve as well!”
Everyone was friendly enough, that if it wasn’t for the giant ghost of the not-dead-Yu-Tu still between him and Jing Jing, Zhai Liang would actually enjoy himself. As everyone was occupied with sitting down, Zhai Liang asked, “Yu Laoshi?”
He tried to be quiet, but was heard by Jing Jing’s assistant, Xiao Zhu, nevertheless.
“Yu Laoshi has been teaching Jing Jing to play the game,” Xiao Zhu said. “He’s been coming over to teach her everyday.”
Zhai Liang blinked and looked at Jing Jing, who was now concentrating very hard - too hard - on the menu in her hands.
Well, that somewhat explained why Yu Tu had hardly been around and his cryptic remarks over the last few weeks. Zhai Liang suddenly also recalled that time when “Cotton’s” air purifier supposedly broke down.
“Didn’t you say you live in Pudong?”
Jing Jing looked at him, startled. “Yes.”
Zhai Liang frowned for a moment, considering the hours that Yu Tu kept these last few weeks. Then he involuntarily smiled, though the explanation about what Yu Tu had been doing just made this entire situation even more exasperating.
“What’s so funny?” Jing Jing asked.
“I’ll tell you later,” he muttered.
In the flurry of ordering food and everyone being generally happily celebrating Jing Jing’s success, Jing Jing didn’t have time to press Zhai Liang for an answer. She was too busy acting as if nothing was wrong.
Ling Jie had ordered little small individual cakes for everyone as part of the celebration, and at the end of the night, having found out that he lived with Yu Tu, they all insisted he take one home to Yu Tu.
Zhai Liang wasn’t entirely sure Yu Tu would even welcome the gift, but he could hardly say that to anyone. Even Jing Jing.
“Let me get the driver to take you home,” Jing Jing said when the party was over.
“There’s no need. It’s definitely in the opposite direction to where you’re going now, and I’m not just saying that. I’ll take a cab, it’ll be fine.”
Jing Jing hesitated for a moment, then nodded. Then, she let out a long sigh. Zhai Liang wondered if she was contemplating whether this first meeting would also be their last meeting.
Seeing that everyone else had wandered off, assuming that Zhai Liang would see Jing Jing to her car, he decided to just get it all out in the open.
“Can I say something?”
Jing Jing looked at him, startled for a moment, perhaps because she could guess what he was going to say. She nodded slowly.
“Yu Tu can sometimes think he knows better than everyone else, that he has all the right answers for everything. But he is wrong more often than he wants to admit, and sometimes he does need a shove to realise that.”
Jing Jing stared at him. It was almost eerie how she could make it seem like she had no idea what he was talking about.
“Look, I don’t know what happened just now and I don’t want to assume. All I can say is, he spent a month making three hour commutes everyday to teach you the game. That has to mean something, eventually, if it didn’t at the beginning.”
This time, his words did get a reaction out of her. She blinked rapidly at him, staring in disbelief. “Three hours?” she asked faintly.
“You don’t know how long it takes to get to his house to the city centre? At least an hour and a half on the subway.”
It appeared that she didn’t know, which must mean that Yu Tu must have consciously not mention it. Probably because he didn’t want her to know he was going through so much trouble for her. But then why would he care so much, if he didn’t actually care for her?
Zhai Liang watched as Jing Jing was clearly working over these questions as well.
“I mean, I knew he didn’t live close, ” she said quietly. “Even that first time he came over, it took him ages to get back. I thought it was because it was late…”
“Yeah, well.”
Jing Jing sighed deeply.
“Well, it doesn’t matter anymore,” she said finally. “I’m sure he’ll be glad he doesn’t need to make those trips anymore.”
Zhai Liang was sure he wouldn’t.
“Listen, Cotton - Jing Jing, Yu Tu’s feelings - “
“It doesn’t really matter what his feelings are, anymore,” Jing Jing cut him off. “I don’t think I imagined anything. Regardless, he made a choice. I can’t - I shouldn’t...question that.”
Zhai Liang sighed, and wished Yu Tu was here, so he could clobber him over the head.
“You should head back, it’s late,” Jing Jing said quietly.
Unable to find a reason to linger and prolong their conversation when she was so obviously wanting to end it, Zhai Liang nodded.
“Thank you for the food,” he said. “I’ll talk to you in the game?”
His last words came out as a question, because he was almost sure he should not expect to see her in the game anymore. At least not as Hand That Picks Cotton.
“Sure,” she said nevertheless, smiling as if nothing was wrong.
They were standing in front of the restaurant, and at that moment, her car pulled up in front of them. Zhai Liang opened the door for her.
“Goodbye,” she said.
“Goodbye.”
When Zhai Liang arrived home, the entrance to the apartment was dark. He could see the light still on through the gap under Yu Tu’s bedroom door. However, it didn’t seem likely that Yu Tu would welcome any conversation from him tonight, so in the end, Zhai Liang only put the cake into the fridge and retreated to his own room.
He pulled out his phone to text Yu Tu.
There was cake at the party. I brought one back for you. It’s in the fridge.
There was no read receipts in WeChat. But when Zhai Liang woke, late the next morning, the cake in the fridge was gone.