Work Text:
A car parked itself under the streetlight, stopping after some adjustments. Not long, out came three people. Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng, and Fang Rui were here for something.
It was the night before the Chinese National Glory Team would depart for Zürich. They were hosting a private gathering within the Tiny Herb headquarters. Su Mucheng walked briskly towards the door, followed by Ye Xiu and Fang Rui, Her finger pressed on the door bell.
They were met by Zhang Jiale with his eyes spelling mischief.
"Sorry, for being late, Zhang gege..." she apologized.
"Just come on in," he chortled, "we’re just getting started!"
Zhang Jiale led the trio through the viney corridor to the door at the very end. Infused with aromas of mint and cucumber, the hallways were clean and fresh.
Something Ye Xiu knew all too well from the countless matches against Tiny Herb in his heydays. But that was not it…
A familiar chatter echoed loud as Zhang Jiale opened the door for Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng, Fang Rui, and himself.
"Lao Ye, lao Ye, lao Ye, lao Ye, lao Ye, lao Ye, lao Ye, lao Ye! I thought you would not make it, do you know how long we all waited for you, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 32 minutes to be exact! We are bored to death, dang even lao Han and Jie-ge are-"
"That's enough, Shaotian," Yu Wenzhou intervened before smiling. "You just made it on time for our game."
Ye Xiu inquired, curious of what the others had up their sleeves.
"What's the game?"
"We will be playing a game called Whispers in Silence."
Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng nodded at each other, knowing the game well enough. Meanwhile, Fang Rui nearly laughed at the mention of the telephone-style game. However, Zhang Jiale and Yu Wenzhou could notice him grinning at what seemed to be memories of him playing Whispers in Silence with his Happy teammates.
"Alright,” Yu Wenzhou resumed. " Let's go."
“Lao Ye, lao Ye! You will be on my team, you better not mess this one up, we will have Zekai, lao Zhang, and Li Xuan, they better not mess this one up too," Huang Shaotian hollered endlessly. "You mess this one up, I will PK you to the very bits, I will PK them to pieces, no one shall be spared from my sword, from the PK king..."
Wang Jiexi gave him a side eye.
"Some of my teammates are sleeping now."
Behind Wang Jiexi was Chu Yunxiu, looking amused from her eyes.
"Without further ado, let's get on with the teams. Fang Rui, you'll be in my team."
Subsequently, Chu Yunxiu ushered him to their teammates, Han Wenqing, Yu Wenzhou, and Xiao Shiqin. And so was Su Mucheng, who would be teaming up with Sun Xiang, Tang Hao, Wang Jiexi, and Zhang Xinjie.
After much discussion from each of the three teams, one representative from each team had to draw lots to determine who would go first. Han Wenqing immediately drew out a piece of paper.
"First or not, this will not bother us,” he quipped.
Sun Xiang was about to take out a piece of paper, but Huang Shaotian beat him to that. Nevertheless, the bus gleeful expression soon turned salty.
"Last? Last!?"
Li Xuan interjected, "Just get on with it."
Ye Xiu simply chuckled as he followed his crowd.
Han Wenqing and his teammates lined themselves straight, with their ears covered by what seemed to be headphores and their faces looking at Zhang Xinjie holding up a large sketchbook
"1, 2, 3, start." Zhang Xinjie opened the sketchbook, revealing the first word.
Han Wenging turned around to tap Yu Wenzhou's shoulder.
“Jeans.”
Yu Wenzhou asked, "Sorry, can you repeat?"
"Jeans."
This time, Yu Wenzhou understood and passed the message to Chu Yunxiu.
"Jeans."
It went on smoothly between Chu Yunxiu and Fang Rui as Xiao Shiqin waited for them.
"Jeans."
"Jeans.”
Xiao Shiqin answered, "Jeans."
"Correct!" Zhang Xinjie announced before his hands flipped through the next page.
"Hat," Han Wenqing said to Yu Wenzhou.
"Hat.”
"Hat? Oh, hat.”
"Wait, cat child?" Fang Rui looked at Chu Yunxiu, perplexed.
“It's ‘hat’, not cat child!" Chu Yunxiu exasperated.
Cat child would be a kitten."
"Oh, cat child," Fang Rui concluded before moving on to Xiao Shiqin.
"Is it ‘hat’?" Xiao Shiqin guessed.
"Correct."
Chu Yunxiu and Han Wenqing exhaled out of relief.
Zhang Xinjie turned the page.
"Qipao."
"Qipao..."
Chu Yunxiu stared at Yu Wenzhou as a hint of pink surfaced on her cheeks.
“Wait…”
Some of those who were watching guffawed at the sight.
"Qi... pao... am I right?"
Yu Wenzhou nodded. Chu Yunxiu then faced herself towards Fang Rui.
"Seven runnings? For Yu gege?"
"Oh please no. " Chu Yunxiu facepalmed, "It's Qipao."
"Sorry, Chu jie..."
Fang Rui turned to Xiao Shiqin,
"Qipao."
"Qipao."
"Correct, next!"
Quickly, the next word was revealed.
"Loafers.”
"Loaf—" Yu Wenzhou was about to say the word to Chu Yunxiu when…
“Time's up, time's up, "Zhang Xinjie said.
Overall, Han Wenqing’s team scored three points. Sun Xiang, Wang Jiexi, Tang Hao, and Su Mucheng stood up to join Zhang Xinjie. Xiao Shiqin took over to hold the large sketchbook for the second team.
“3, 2, 1, start!"
Sun Xiang glanced over at the page before giving Wang Jiexi a nudge.
"It's boxing!"
"Dog fight?" Wang Jiexi looked at him, confused.
"I said it's boxing!"
With that, Wang Jiexi faced himself towards Tang Hao.
"Boxin—“
Without a second thought, Tang Hao hurriedly turned to Su Mucheng.
"It's dog fight."
"Dog fight?" Su Mucheng giggled lightly.
Tang Hao nodded, determined though the word was far from correct.
"Dog.. fight.."
Zhang Xinjie blinked twice.
"You mean, boxing?"
Su Mucheng mouthed a resounding "yes."
“Is it boxing?"
"Correct."
The crowd watching was in awe. How could Zhang Xinjie deduce something correctly was an unsolvable math equation to them.
The next word was displayed to Sun Xiang.
"Basketball!"
"Basketball."
"Blue ball!?" Tang Hao asked tersely.
Wang Jiexi shook his head before enunciating every sound of the word.
'Basketball!"
"Basketball."
“Basketball."
“Correct. Next word."
Wasting no time, Sun Xiang sprang to tell Wang Jiexi.
"Swimming!"
"Have Yang?" Wang Jiexi tried to piece the glitched roice together.
"It's SWIMMING!"
Wang Jiexi turned to tap Tang Hao on the back.
“Have Yang.”
"Have Yang!"
"Have Yang."
"Is it swimming?" Zhang Xinjie asked, waiting for the answer to be assessed.
"Correct."
Murmurs of amazement and disbelief echoed throughout the whole room. Xiao Shiqin flipped the sketchbook pages for their fourth word.
“Figure skating!"
“Figure skating."
“Figure skating!*
“Chinese style ice skating?"
“Figure skating?"
“Correct. Moving on..."
With four points, Sun Xiang's team was more than ready to go forward.
"Rugby!"
"Rugby."
"Rugby-"
“Times up, times up," Xiao Shiqin reminded.
"Hey... we are about to..." Tang Hao protested, but it all fell to deaf ears.
"Serves you right, Wind Howl's darling! We will all be better than your team!" Huang Shaotian retorted. "Unlike your team of mistranslations!"
"At least Xinjie saved us," Tang Hao replied, "What about that Glory Textbook?"
Before Huang Shaotian could fire another argument, Yu Wenzhou calmly placed a hand on his shoulder.
"It's your team's turn now."
"Captain..." Huang Shaotian whined, but agreed to resign from arguing further.
Ye Xiu let out a nervous chuckle as Yu Wenzhou showed the first word.
"Master Chef!" Huang Shaotian yelled.
Zhou Zekai stared at him with blank eyes.
"It's a show with amateur chefs, trying to win over judges like Gordon Ramsay! To be honest, most of the food there looks scrumptious, God's Menu—“
Zhou Zekai raised his hands up to signify a "chef's hat." In spite of Huang Shaotian's mutterings, he already moved on to Zhang Jiale, who was waiting for him.
"Chef," Zhou Zekai said as he made the gesture again.
Zhang Jiale then asked, "Mad hatter?" But he was ignored, leaving Zhang Jiale to carry on what he knew to Li Xuan.
"Mad hatter."
Li Xuan was not amused.
"Why mad hatter?"
"I mean isn't Alice in Wonderland a TV Show?"
"I don't have a clue..." Li Xuan answered, with annoyance clear on his face. He now wanted to just get over it.
"Alice in Wonderland."
Ye Xiu's eyes pried into Li Xuan, making sure the latter was sure.
"Alice in Borderland?"
"Whatever you say."
"Alice in Borderland?"
"Incorrect.”
Before Huang Shaotian could begin to rant, Yu Wenzhou displayed the next word. Upon seeing the word, Huang Shaotian wasted no time to pass the message.
"Link Click! Link Click! It is one of your favorite BL anime, the one you are watching now, the one with Li Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi, the one xiao Sun always talk about—“
"Link..." Zhou Zekai paused as his fingers created a chain."Click...?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, that one! It's Link Click!"
Zhou Zekai nodded before tapping Zhang Jiale.
"Link…”
"LinkedIn?"
"Link."
"Oh, Link... "
Zhang Jiale turned to Li Xuan.
"Link?"
"Yes, it's Link!"
“Link— ah, Legend of Zelda!"
The crowd laughed at the sudden switch.
"Legend of Zelda."
"Incorrect."
Zhang Jiale and Li Xuan groaned, and Huang Shaotian was certainly mad at this point. Zhou Zekai only stood there, stoicism taking over him, and Ye Xiu cracked a smirk in the midst of the chaos.
Meanwhile, the crowd rolled in laughter, with the calmer players trying to bring them back to Earth.
"Love Island," Huang Shaotian tried to enunciate the words.
"Short Island?"
"Love Island."
"Sorrow Island?"
"LOVE ISLAND!!!"
Zhou Zekai looked at him with widened eyes.
"LOVE ISLAND! The one with hot jocks and curvy models getting together and then bam, they get fifty thousand pounds, they basically use 'love’—“
But Zhou Zekai had moved on…
"Sorrow."
"Sorrow!?"
Zhou Zekai nodded after gesturing on what seemed to be a plot of land with his hands.
Beyond irritation, Huang Shaotian shouted repeatedly as Zhou Zekai said the word to Zhang Jiale. Zhang Jiale then passed it on to Li Xuan and finally to Ye Xiu.
"Sorrow land," Li Xuan pronounced each phoneme slowly.
“Ah, Sorrow Land."
Meanwhile, Huang Shaotian yelled, " LOVE ISLAND! LOVE ISLAND! LOVE ISLAND!"
But none of his teammates could hear him, all thanks to the headphones they were wearing.
“Sorrow Land," Ye Xiu said.
"Incorrect."
The crowd, in particular Fang Rui and Sun Xiang, went wild with their laughter.
"Huang Shaotian looks so pissed right now, " Sun Xiang commented.
"True.”
Nevertheless, everyone was hushed into silence as the next word was revealed.
"Avengers!"
"A…vengers..."
"Avengers!"
"Avengers."
"Avengers."
"Correct," Yu Wenzhou smiled. That said, they were beyond feeling relieved. Maybe afterwards, they were not too bad as a team.
“Friends! Friends!"
"Friends…”
"Old chickens?"
And cut.
"Time is over, everyone," Yu Wenzhou announced.
All the players stood up. Overall, Sun Xiang's team won with four points. They were awarded with simple, yet intricate, trinkets.
Huang Shaotian quickly approached Ye Xiu to confront him.
"Lao Ye, lao Ye, lao Ye, LAO YE! I WILL PK YOU! Meet me in Tiny Herb's training room!"
Ye Xiu just smiled smugly, "All right, bring it on."
"Lao Ye! YOU SNEAK! I WILL PK YOU WITH ICY RAIN! I WILL—“
"Catch you in the act," Su Mucheng giggled.
Huang Shaotian skidded before stopping on his tracks. His face turned red not only from the running.
"What did you say?"