Always In Your Smile

Chapter-9: Explanations

A silence that was eventually broke by the most obvious suspect.

“Huh!” Lao Mao looked round the rest of ZGDX.

“That’s it!” Xiao Pang eventually got out. “He apologises and you accept… just like that!”

Tong Yao tilted her head to the side as she looked back at him.

“Well of course, Ming’s my cousin, why wouldn’t I accept a genuine apology? Especially from my favourite cousin who’s more like a brother?”

There was literally no way that anyone could answer that question with a negative and silence fell again before K moved slightly.

“I have to ask though, why Yu Te Yi?” He pronounced her name the way most used by both press and fans.

“It irritated his/my mother!” Both Tong Yao and Ming replied simultaneously before looking at each other and breaking out in a shared grin. “We really need to stop doing that!”

Again, the pair managed to silence the room and this time Lu Si Cheng broke it. “I’m actually not surprised but then I have met Madam Yu.”

Tong Yao looked at him for a moment and then returned her gaze to the corner of the blanket she was toying with. “Yes, well, so, I was eleven and determined…”

“Stubborn and spoilt by your father, according to Aunt Tong!” Ming inserted which earned him an elbow in the ribs.

“Uncle Yu always said precocious.” She threw back. “He was the one who suggested it.”

“Unfilial and disrespectful.” Ming shot back, “According to mother.”

“No, that was both of them.

Anyway…” Tong Yao had caught the restless movements of his team-mates and she elbowed him in the stomach to make him behave before continuing.

“The more reasonable members of the family realised that if I went by Yu T. Y.,” and she pronounced it correctly, “It would be harder to for the press to find out personnel details, and for legal reasons, it afforded me more protection, especially as I was so young, well at least that’s what Uncle said at the time.”

“So, when they started to call you Yu Te Yi…” Again, it was K who spoke. “It was allowed to go on unchallenged because it was another layer of protection.”

Lu Si Cheng actually nodded in approval at that. “Sound legal thinking.”

“Which brings us to now…” Tong Yao pulled back slightly and took in a deep breath, looking around the room for a moment. “Actually, it brings us back to 18 months ago…”

“The Incident.” Ming caught his cousin’s hand. “Yao-Yao?”

“The girl in hospital that Cheng-ge and I came with Ming to visit a couple of times?” Lao K moved slightly as his eyes widened with the realisation. “The one who almost…” He broke off.

“Died.” She finished his sentence. “Yes.”

“I’m confused now.” Xiao Pang broke the almost uncomfortable silence that had fallen this time.

“I haven’t stopped being confused.” Lao Mao growled lowly which earned him a roll of the eyes from both Xiao Pang and Lao K before the Support continued.

 “I remember there being a lot of talk about you competing in the next Olympics, bringing home another gold medal but then…”

“It just… stopped,” Ming finished the sentence as he wrapped his arm around her and murmured something she could only hear to which she nodded to, before looking at his team to continue, “Because of the Incident. Because it was a deliberate attempt to end her career as a gymnast that went too far and almost took her from us completely. An attempt that was pushed under the carpet because the instigator was a fellow team-mate, and they didn’t want it…!”

Tong Yao covered his mouth quickly and looked around the room at the completely stunned ZGDX. “He’s angry because it worked. The doctors said that while one day I could perform again, they wouldn’t recommend it long term because the fractures caused to my legs had weakened them.”

“And the internal bruising caused her heart to stop… twice!” Ming freed himself to burst out.

“Ming-ge!” This time it was the smaller girl who wrapped her arms around her taller cousin to comfort him. “I’m here, I’m still here. I’m too stubborn, too determined, remember!”

That reference to being determined broke the tension in the room slightly and it almost felt like everyone took in a deep breath at the same time.

After checking that her cousin had returned to his normal calm self, Tong Yao took another deep breath. “So that’s how my first dream ended, I had to retire a little earlier than planned, got better from my injuries and finished my degree at college.” 

She twitched her nose, much like a rabbit then and broke into smile.

“…and without realising it began to work to my next dream. I’ve always played OPL, Ming taught me, said it would give me something else to do other than schoolwork, practices, competitions and travel.”

She cast a sideways glance at Ming for a moment, then continued. “And to answer your question, Xiao Rui, it is also why, with Ming and two other people I know being professional gamers already, I chose to go under the name Smiling to see if I could get an offer to be a professional gamer on my own abilities.”

She scowled for a second. “That way there would be proof I had been given an offer based on my own abilities, not because I had contacts already playing!”

“So, take that, Sunflower!” Lu Si Cheng murmured under his breath with a slight smirk.

“The fact that I now get to carry Ming’s dream for us both is a bonus.” Tong Yao looked at Ming smiling softly.

“And the fact that you continue to irritate both our mothers with your life choices…” He responded.

“Ming!” There was a warning note in her voice and a hand reaching towards a pillow.

“Don’t you even think about it Tong Yao!” Ming grabbed her in a bear hug to stop her.

Lu Si Cheng smirked openly at that; he was becoming even more impressed by the second with the small girl that was now most definitely his Mid – and woe betide anyone else’s thoughts on the subject to come.