King’s Game
“——Number Four! Number Four, go sit on Number One’s lap!”
Cong Ye was operating the karaoke song-selection machine, silently picking the song “Peninsula Ironbox.”
From the nearby sofa, the sound of conversation drifted over, burrowing into his heart.
“Will it be heavy?”
“Not at all, very light.”
Oh, how eloquently spoken, Qiao Yu, your girlfriend power is really high.
Cong Ye watched Mi Yi calmly and leisurely sitting sideways on Qiao Yu’s lap, feeling as though his spirit had died in his eyes. He could only express his inner turmoil through the music.
“Why is it like this?—”
After finishing his song, Cong Ye returned to his seat, looking as though he had aged five years.
But the game must go on. Mi Yi hopped down from Qiao Yu’s lap to reshuffle the cards, and this time the role of the king finally landed in Qiao Yu’s house.
…What should I do?
Qiao Yu, having lost her cheating device, felt a bit put off. Relying entirely on guessing to accurately pick the numbers of two people seemed to her to have a slim chance of success. What if she accidentally chose Lin Qing and some other person—especially Lu Yao? If they ended up doing some ambiguous act, wouldn’t that be a disaster?
Cong Ye, the fool, didn’t even utilize his chance when he drew the king card. He could have guessed Lin Qing’s number, suggesting ‘number x will do such and such with the king.’ That way, he would only need to guess one number!
As she reflected on this, she grew frustrated with Cong Ye’s timid and hesitant nature and quickly came up with a plan for a hint as a safety measure.
“Cong Ye.”
Qiao Yu unexpectedly called out Cong Ye’s name directly. He responded, lifting his head.
“What’s your number?”
…Can it be done this way?
Cong Ye had a baffled look on his face, but then he suddenly understood the purpose behind Qiao Yu’s question.
She’s eliminating options! Qiao Yu must want to choose Lin Qing to do this and that with her, so she’s asking for his number to rule it out!
Brave Qiao Yu! He will support her with all his might!
“Number Two! I am Number Two!”
His response was eager and exuberant; Qiao Yu nodded in satisfaction.
“Then Number Two will do ten push-ups.”
Cong Ye: ???
Thus, Number Two, Cong Ye, went to the side and did ten push-ups. He was wearing a tight-fitting shirt today, which he had buttoned rather tight.
He slumped back to his seat, feeling Qiao Yu was really being unreasonable. He decided she might as well let him draw the king next round.
Then, Cong Ye drew a number four and fell silent.
“Ah, it’s me again.”
The female lead, Lin Qing, who had always been the subject of matchmaking but had never been successfully matched, turned over her card, and it was shockingly the king.
On the sideline, Qiao Yu was grinning foolishly, her mouth agape: “Lin Qing makes a good king; Lin Qing has a beautiful singing voice.”
Even when Lin Qing was king in the first round, she was lavishly praised by Qiao Yu, who was never stingy with compliments. Lin Qing chuckled and pushed Qiao Yu’s head, which was leaning on her shoulder, straightening herself up a bit. Her gaze lingered on the back of Qiao Yu’s card for a few seconds before shifting away.
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She fell silent for a while, as if pondering what command to issue, and after a long moment, she clapped her hands together with a smile that was both merry and light.
“Then, let Number Two and Number Four hold hands until the next round, the kind with interlocked fingers.”
Cong Ye’s heart skipped a beat with anxiety. With such an instruction, what would he do if he ended up having to face Qiao Yu again?
—— His worries proved to be completely superfluous, as Cong Ye held the hand of the person beside him, feeling a weary heart.
A soft muttering could be heard from beside him: “Wow, this is my first time interlocking fingers with someone—”
“Shut it, Lu Yao. Any more and it’ll be nauseating.”
“Cong Ye’s hand feels all sticky…”
“Didn’t I tell you to zip it?!”
Cong Ye felt on the verge of collapse inside, yet the English song chosen by Lin Qing was at least five minutes long. These drawn-out five minutes felt like an entire hour. When he was finally able to let go, Cong Ye almost cried.
He really hit a streak of bad luck… Wasn’t his luck terrible today?
Qiao Yu, on the other hand, seemed quite entertained, happily munching on chips, the earlier gloom of not being able to play her cards now completely dispelled.
Let’s not forget how Cong Ye, even knowing she was Number One, had someone sit on her lap! If it had been Lu Yao, she would have surely sunk into the sofa!
Now, she’s got a taste of the “intimate” command herself, talk about instant karma! Qiao Yu found this quite amusing, gleefully sidling up to the “hero” Lin Qing, diligently offering up the bag of chips right in front of her.
“Does Lin Qing want some? Or do you prefer a different flavor, let me get it for you?”
Lin Qing warmly accepted her closeness, took a chip to eat, and glanced at the cards that had been spread out again, a flicker in her eyes.
After several more rounds, the most exhausted person at the table was probably Cong Ye. On the one side, Qiao Yu was teasing him about how he always got picked while on the other, she was nonchalantly snacking without a care, having completely put her earlier plotting mishaps out of her mind.
Once again crowned the ‘king’, Mi Yi thought for a moment and picked out a box of Pocky from the plethora of snacks on the table.
“Let’s play a Pocky game—um, with Pocky of two centimeters or less—”
“Wait a minute, wait a minute!”
Cong Ye, once bitten by a snake, fears the well rope for ten years (LP: he basically suffered so much already lmao), was the first to jump up in opposition: “Two centimeters is way too short! I think we need to reconsider the length!”
“Is that so?” Mi Yi measured with her hands and, going with the flow, changed her tune, “Then five centimeters it is.”
Ah, it sounds like a safe distance. Cong Ye sat down relieved, feeling that even if he was chosen again, there wouldn’t be any problem.
“Let’s have Number One and Number Two play.”
Number One, Qiao Yu, was suddenly choked by the snacks she had just stuffed into her mouth.
She coughed earth-shatteringly with tearful eyes, thinking to herself that surely fate fires a cold shot when one least expects it. She only recovered after taking a sip of water from the glass Lin Qing offered to her lips.
“I’m Number One.” Qiao Yu, wiping the tears from her eyes, raised her head in a disheveled manner and looked around. “Who’s Number Two?”
Everyone looked at her blankly, not uttering a sound. A while later, a voice as slight as a mosquito’s murmur finally came from beside her.
“…It’s me.”
Thankful for the dimly lit ambiance of the private room, which veiled her blushing face, Lin Qing suppressed her racing heartbeat, feigning calmness as she flipped over the card.
“I’m Number Two.”
For a moment, only the randomly playing music filled the private room until Cong Ye suddenly slapped the table with a ‘bang’ and stood up, excitedly turning towards Mi Yi.
“Two centimeters! I think two centimeters is brilliant!”
“It’s already too late; the instructions that have been decided cannot be changed anymore.”
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Mi Yi coldly rejected his suggestion, and Cong Ye sat back down with trembling lips, cursing himself and wishing he could slap his own blabbering mouth.
“…No, what’s gotten into you?”
Qiao Yu was puzzled by his sudden plummet in mood, initially thinking he was just someone who loved to fan the flames and enjoyed watching the excitement unfold. Could it be that he was so greatly affected just because he missed out on the spectacle?
“Never mind me, you hurry up and go eat the Pocky—damn it, with five centimeters, can’t that just be finished in one bite by each person…”
Still muttering regrets, Qiao Yu could not understand his feelings, only feeling that the mood swings of young people nowadays are truly incomprehensible.
Oh my, but for Lin Qing, who’s Number Two, this is really just too perfect. Even with a generous distance requirement of five centimeters, she really isn’t keen on playing this game with either Cong Ye or Lu Yao… This turn, she’s really pulled out a trump card!
Qiao Yu was in high spirits, turning around to crisply grab the Pocky.
“…Um, Qiao Yu.”
Hesitantly, Lin Qing called out to stop her, and Qiao Yu paused in her actions and turned her head to look at her.
“If it would bother you, then perhaps we should—”
As she spoke, her voice grew fainter, and toward the end, she even dared not look at Qiao Yu.
Qiao Yu, whose thoughts were never particularly delicate, blinked in confusion, looking at Lin Qing who was furrowing her brows and holding her waist with tension, and in a flash of insight, she understood her meaning.
That’s right! Lin Qing is so thin-skinned; of course, she would have reservations about such an intimate game!
Even though Qiao Yu felt that there was nothing amiss with girls playing such games together, she could very well understand Lin Qing’s feelings. She felt ashamed for having taken the initiative without consulting others first and said warmly,
“I don’t mind, but if Lin Qing is uncomfortable, how about I talk with Mi Yi to switch the instruction to something else, OK?”
Before she could even move, Lin Qing had grabbed her sleeve. The pretty girl bit her lip, hesitated for a long time, and then shook her head forcefully. Even under such poor lighting conditions, Qiao Yu could see the color of her ears deepening.
Qiao Yu was so tempted to touch her ears to see if they were burning hot, but she feared being too brash and startling Lin Qing. So, she opted for the lesser choice, reaching out to caress her face instead and teasing with a smile, “Qingqing is so shy, huh?”
Lin Qing wanted to say something in retort, for she had always been poised and courteous in her dealings with others, never before the subject of such teasing.
But the words were stuck in her throat, unspoken. She could only dodge Qiao Yu’s smiling gaze, praying her face wouldn’t grow redder.
Because Lin Qing knew best. Ever since she met Qiao Yu, in front of her, she was totally different from before.
“Ahem ahem.“
Mi Yi, holding a Pocky box and having waited for quite a while, deliberately coughed twice. Only then did the two who seemed utterly oblivious to anyone else in their cozy little world turn their heads in unison towards her.
…Honestly, who could Lin Qing really fool with such obviousness? Ah, of course, except for these two idiots right beside her.
Sighing inwardly, Mi Yi pushed the box closer to Qiao Yu.
“If we don’t start now, I’ll break all the Pocky before giving them to you.”
“Don’t waste food.”
Qiao Yu found her peculiar threat amusing yet also couldn’t help but laugh, as she received the Pocky box.
She eyed the length of the Pocky and mentally gauged it, soothing Lin Qing, “It’s okay, five centimeters is quite a distance. Later on, you just need to bite on one end, and I’ll be the one moving.”
As she was talking, she took a stick of Pocky out of the box. Lin Qing watched the biscuit stick like she was facing a formidable enemy, her throat visibly swallowing in tension. She leaned forward, biting onto the end of the Pocky that was in Qiao Yu’s hand.
Qiao Yu was startled by her sudden closeness, and as she observed Lin Qing’s fair and refined features up close, a drumbeat of realization started thumping in her heart.
…Doesn’t it feel much closer than I imagined?
But now, there was no time left for Qiao Yu to mentally prepare herself. At some point, a suspenseful atmosphere had permeated the karaoke box, with the three people around her watching intently, their eyes practically popping out of their sockets. Cong Ye’s eyes looked like they were about to bulge out, and seeing that Qiao Yu’s peripheral vision had swept over, he even got annoyed with her, gesturing frantically for her to hurry up.
…Seriously, it’s not like you can’t speak.
With the arrow nocked, one must shoot; Qiao Yu didn’t have the leisure to entertain Cong Ye’s antics, thinking to make it quick and get it over with, she clumsily supported Lin Qing’s shoulder and leaned her head down.
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It wasn’t until she took the second bite that she felt something was amiss—why was she holding onto her shoulder? This posture almost looked like she was about to do that.
Fortunately, Lin Qing seemed excessively tense, to the point of being completely unresponsive to her movements; she had even closed her eyes. Her long eyelashes trembled uneasily, entrusting all the autonomy of the situation to the person before her.
This seems even more like that kind of situation now, doesn’t it!
Qiao Yu’s neck was stiff with tension and she dared not move, continuously peering downwards. How long is it now? Has it reached five centimeters yet? She had just taken two bites; it shouldn’t have reached that yet, right? But why did it feel so close?
Her intense nervousness made her judgment of distance blur. She and Lin Qing were breathing each other’s air, with Lin Qing’s fragrance filling the space between breaths.
No, no, no, if the distance got any closer, wouldn’t they be… about to touch?
Considering Lin Qing with her eyes closed, she seemed far too defenseless. Oh no, how much longer until it’s five centimeters?
Qiao Yu’s mind turned into a mushy mess, finding herself in a dilemma with no way out.
At such times, the overly rational system proved to be very reliable. It meticulously took measurements and announced in a clear and resonant tone within Qiao Yu’s mind, “The current length is 7.63 centimeters.”
There was still nearly three centimeters to go! Could this really be okay? Five centimeters seemed perilously close! The voice of the system jolted Qiao Yu back to her senses. She didn’t know where to look, gritted her teeth, and stamped her foot in determination.
Well, it’s a stab whether you stick your neck out or not! Just eat it!
She made up her mind, thinking to herself, “Halfway, halfway, halfway, oh no, that seems like too much—”