Playoffs

After Dinner.

As a group of people who had spent the day being driven to the showers, Zhao Muchi looked at Spades' back and slowly shifted his eyes to Bai Liu's face.

Bai Liu had already washed up, and the man seemed to have a problem with keeping himself clean, having taken a shower as soon as he got off the volleyball court, and was now leaning back on the living room couch in loose pajamas, casually reading a book, with droplets of water falling from the ends of his hair.

"If you keep looking at me like that." Bai Liu closed the book and looked up at Zhao Muchi, "When Spades comes out, he's going to ask you for a duel."

Zhao Muchi looks over to the book Bai Liu is flipping through - Salome, he closes his gaze and smiles with a disinterested show of hands, "I dueled with him once, though I lost."

"Is there something you want to talk to me about?" Bai Liu inquired calmly.

"Can I go out and talk to you alone?" Zhao Muchi looked at Bai Liu.

Bai Liu asks, "What's the conversation about?"

Zhao Muchi looks down, "Salome?"

Bai Liu changed back into his white shirt and suit pants, and after packing formally, went out with Zhao Muchi, the two of them quietly strolling along the coastline.

The waves lapped gently on the sandy beach, the sun hadn't yet set completely, and only a glimmer of the setting sun could be seen on the horizon. The orange shimmering light blended with the approaching nightfall, reflecting the sparkling light on the rising waves, and the sea breeze blew softly and warmly.

Bai Liu wore leather shoes, but Zhao Muchi was barefoot, and the two walked not far apart on the beach, leaving a trail of shoe prints and a trail of footprints.

"The book Salome, you left it on the couch on purpose for me to read, didn't you?" Bai Liu brought up the subject in a flat tone.

Zhao Muchi replied with an arched eyebrow, "Did I make it obvious?"

"It wasn't obvious." Bai Liu looked up at him, "But afterward it was obvious, you kept looking at me, you were waiting for my reaction to reading the book."

"So what do you think?" Zhao Muchi turned his head, he looked intently at Bai Liu, his hands behind his back, walking backwards, smiling lazily as he asked rhetorically, "What kind of story do you think 'Salome' is?"

"What do you think?" Bai Liu asked calmly in return, the pupils of his eyes dark, reflecting the faint daylight, looking at Zhao Muchi in a trance for a moment, "Do you like the story?"

He had watched her mother's videotape so many times and knew the story so well that when questioned by Bai Liu, he couldn't answer how he felt exactly because he was too familiar with it.

Yeah, what does he think of Salome?

What kind of feeling did he have when he first heard the story?

It had been almost twenty years since he had first heard the story, hadn't it? It seemed like he was five or six years old, and she was at the foot of his bed, holding him tenderly as she told this somewhat bizarre tale of this beautiful and maniacal princess, Salome.

"Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, there was a beautiful and illiberal princess who was so beautiful that everyone courted her, even her stepfather, the king at the time, coveted her beauty."

"The Princess hated the atmosphere, she but never met a man who could not love her appearance, until one day a man who was reputed to be a saint, John, was captured by the King and taken into the palace, it was said to be the wisest saint in the world, who could see through everything, even the King did not dare to look directly into his eyes, and dared to imprison him only at the bottom of the well for fear of seeing in it the reflection."

"Princess Salome was so curious about John that she begged the guards guarding the well to show her John inside the well."

"The squire, obsessed with her moonlit beauty, granted her request to see John inside the well."

"Salome took one look at John and fell in love."

The young man was not able to understand such unexplained feelings, and frowned as he asked rhetorically, "Why would the princess fall in love with John after just one look?"

"She's a princess, so many men around her love her, why would she love a prisoner locked at the bottom of a well?"

She stroked the top of his head in amusement and lowered her eyes, her storytelling voice sighing a little, "That's what's coming next."

"Because John was the only one who told the princess that the king was wrong, that it was a despicable king, that he shouldn't have had incestuous desires for the princess, for her mother, and that he deserved to go to hell. "

"Salome fell in love with John, and she made repeated advances to John, but John refused him at every turn, and finally the princess, vowing to die to get John's kiss, begged the king, her stepfather, to let him kiss him."

"And the king said, if you dance for me, even if John doesn't agree, I'll cut John's head off for you to kiss."

"The king asked Salome, beautiful princess, will you dance for me?"

"The princess said that I would dance the most beautiful dance in the world for you, and I would get a kiss from the holiest man in the world."

"She danced the dance of the seven veils for the king, which was so beautiful that it finally impressed the king, who cut off John's head, which the princess held up and kissed the dead saint as if in ecstasy."

"But I still don't get it." He furrowed his brow and analyzed it with a serious tweak of his hand, "Salome's pretty and a princess, why would she like John, and John doesn't like her!"

"Maybe it's because John doesn't like her that she likes John." Her tone contained a lot of complex emotions that he didn't understand, "...... Maybe all the princess wants is someone who watches her dance and doesn't want to kiss her."

At that time he couldn't understand what she meant by that.

And at this moment, in the sea breeze and waves, Zhao Muchi looked at Bai Liu looking at him, calm to the point of not a ripple in the eyes, and suddenly understood the meaning of these words, and also understood why that day Bai Liu would say, he could not kiss.

--Because what he wanted ...... was never Bai Liu's likes or kisses.

It's just an audience that doesn't want to kiss him.

"I didn't like Salome's ending." Zhao Muchi stopped walking, the sunset reflected in his violet eyes, his tone light, like a gust of wind, "She must have regretted it after she got that kiss."

"Yes?" Bai Liu was noncommittal, "Your take on the story is interesting."

"Why do you think Salome is remorseful?"

Bai Liu looked up, no waves in his eyes, "It's because you think you'd regret it if you kissed down on me on that particular day, isn't it?"

Zhao Muchi sank into silence, then he quickly turned his face away and smiled, "...... Bai Liu, don't people in your country speak in a subtle way? A blunt person like you shouldn't be pleasing to the eye, right?"

"You can just call my speech obnoxious, I don't mind." Bai Liu spreads his hands with a smirk, "But what you say is true, I am indeed unpleasant."

"I'm the opposite of you, I'm very likable, everywhere I go people will take the initiative to confess to me." Zhao Muchi smiled and looked at Bai Liu with a flirtatious tone, "A likeable person like me likes an unlikeable person like you, and still has to be rejected by you, you're really a bit uneducated."

"I've had quite a few people say that about me." Bai Liu smiles, "Maybe that's part of my personality trait."

"I don't hate that about myself, though."

Zhao Muchi looked out to sea and took a deep breath, "Do you ...... like watching dance?"

"Can't appreciate it." Bai Liu replied honestly.

Zhao Muchi : "...... At this point in time, I'd prefer you to speak politely."

"Okay, then is it okay if I re-answer?" Bai Liu corrected himself, "It's true that I don't quite appreciate dance as an art form."

"But if you're willing." Bai Liu's eyes were calm, and he smiled in a friendly and gentle way, "I think you might refresh my perceptions and make me realize anew that it was I who was shallow-"

"- Dance turned out to be such a beautiful art form."

Zhao Muchi stared at Bai Liu for a moment and smiled as if sighing, "Has anyone ever told you that you're a really badass man who's good at coaxing people?"

"Yes?" Bai Liu smiled disarmingly, "You're the only one who's said it so far."

"You mean you've only ever coaxed me?" Zhao Muchi lowered her eyes and laughed softly, "You stop, I've seen more men than I can count."

Under the setting sun, Zhao Muchi, dressed in plain clothes and bare feet, danced the dance of the seven veils for Bai Liu. As time passed, the setting sun was like a layer of veil on Zhao Muchi, fading away layer by layer, finally revealing his original appearance, and he lifted his eyes to look at Bai Liu across the street.

Bai Liu applauds quickly and on command.

Zhao Muchi sighed, "The look in your eyes tells me you didn't read it."

"Yeah, I'm probably not really very artistic." Bai Liu admits matter-of-factly, but quickly smiles and says, "But it's beautiful."

"You make me think that something like dance, which I can't find value in for a while, still has its place in the world."

"Though the significance of that may be beyond me."

"A supreme compliment to the dance." Zhao Muchi stepped back on one foot, haughtily lifted the hem of her dress and bowed slightly in a curtain call gesture, "Thank you for watching."

Bai Liu smiles, "My pleasure."

A day later, in the game, the Wandering Circus Guild.

Wang Shun was carrying a large pile of materials, running towards the conference room with his hands in a hurry, almost falling down, but luckily he met Tang Er hit halfway and helped carry some of them.

"Luckily I met you." Wang Shun let out a long breath.

Tang Er asked in confusion, "What's with all the paper? Wasn't it all electronic before?"

"It's a long story." Wang Shun let out a bitter smile and pushed open the door to the conference room, "It has to do with our opponent for the next game, so let's talk about it inside."

The moment the door to the conference room was pushed open, Wang Shun took a deep breath and proclaimed, "Ladies and gentlemen, our opponent for the next match is out."

"- is the Golden Dawn."