Chapter 550: Playoffs

After the meal.

As the group is herded off to the showers after a long day, Zhao Muchi looks at the back of Spades' departure and slowly turns his attention to Bai Liu's face.

Bai Liu has already finished washing up, the man seems to have a penchant for keeping himself clean, having showered as soon as he got off the volleyball court, and is now leaning back on the living room sofa in loose pyjamas, casually flicking through a book, with drops 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 next to him, "When Spades comes out, he's going to fight you."

Zhao Muchi looks over at the book Bai Liu is flipping through - Salome - and he closes his gaze with a dismissive smile: "I dueled with him, but I lost."

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

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

Bai Liu asks, "What do we talk about?"

Zhao Muchi looks down: "Salome?"

Bai Liu changed back into his white shirt and trousers, packed up and went out with Zhao Muchi for a quiet stroll along the shoreline.

The waves lap gently on the beach, the sun has not yet set completely, and from the horizon you can see just a glimpse of the sunset, a shimmering orange light blending with the approaching night, reflecting the shimmering light on the cascading waves, and the soft warmth of the sea breeze.

Bai Liu wears leather shoes, but Zhao Muchi is barefoot, and the two walk along the beach not far from each other, leaving a trail of shoe and footprints.

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

Zhao Muchi replied with a quirked eyebrow, "Do I make it obvious?"

" Buming obvious." Bai Liu looked up at him, "But after that your reaction was obvious, you kept looking at me and you were waiting for my reaction to reading the book."

"So what do you think?" Zhao Muchi turned his head as he looked intently at Bai Liu, walking backwards with his hands behind his back and a lazy smile, and asked in return, "What kind of story do you think Salome is?"

"What do you think?" Bai Liu asked calmly, his pupils dark, reflecting the faint light of day and causing Zhao Muchi to drift off for a moment, "Do you like the story?"

He had watched her mother's tapes so many times and knew the story so well that when questioned by Bai Liu, he was too familiar to answer exactly how he felt.

Yes, what did he think of Salome?

What was his feeling when he first heard the story?

Almost twenty years had passed since he first heard this story? I think it was when 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 story of this beautiful and mad princess, Salome.

"Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, there was a beautiful and unfree 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, and she but never met a man who could not love his appearance, until one day a man reputed to be a saint, John, was taken into the palace by the king, said to be the wisest saint in the world, who could see through everything, and even the king dared not look him in the eye, but only dared to imprison him at the bottom of a well, fearing to see in there the reflection of his own filthy soul reflection."

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

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

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

The young man could not understand such unexplained feelings and frowned, "Why would the princess fall in love with John with just one look?"

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

She stroked the top of his head with amusement, lowering her eyes and telling the story with a little sigh in her voice, "This is where we're going to talk next."

"For only John told the princess that the king was wrong, that it was a despicable king who should not have had incestuous desires for the princess, for her mother, and that he deserved to go to hell. "

" Salome falls in love with John and she makes repeated advances to him, but John rejects him at every turn, and eventually the princess vows to have John's kiss, begging the king, her stepfather, to let him kiss him."

"And the king said, if you do a dance for me, even if John doesn't agree, I will cut off John's head and give it to you so you can kiss him."

"The king asks 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 most holy man in the world."

"She danced the dance of the seven veils for the king, a dance so beautiful that it finally moved him to cut off John's head, which the princess took up and kissed the dead saint in ecstasy."

"But I still don't get it." He furrowed his eyebrows and tucked his hands in a serious analysis, " Salome is pretty and a princess, why should she like John and John doesn't like her!"

"Maybe it's because John doesn't like her that she likes John." There was a lot of complexity in her tone that he didn't understand, "...... Maybe all the princess wanted was someone who watched her dance and didn't want to kiss her."

At that time he was not able to understand what she meant by that statement.

And at this moment, in the sea breeze and waves, Zhao Muchi looked at Bai Liu looking at him, his eyes so calm that there was not a single ripple, and suddenly understood the meaning of these words and why Bai Liu had said that day that he could not go on kissing.

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

Just a spectator who doesn't want to kiss him.

"I didn't like the way Salome ended." Zhao Muchi stopped in his tracks, the sunset reflected in his purple eyes, his tone light as a gust of wind, "She must have regretted it after she got that kiss."

"Is that so?" Bai Liu was noncommittal, "Your take on the story, it's interesting."

"Why do you think Salome regretted it?"

Bai Liu raised his eyes, no waves in them, "Because you think if you kissed down on me on that day, you'd regret it too, don't you?"

Zhao Muchi fell silent, then he quickly looked away and smiled: "...... Bai Liu, aren't people in your country very subtle in their speech? I don't think a blunt person like you would be liked, would you?"

"You can just say I talk obnoxiously, I don't mind." Bai Liu spread his hands with a smirk, "But it's true what you say, I am indeed unpleasant."

"I'm the opposite of you, I'm very likeable and everywhere I go people come up to me and confess their love." Zhao Muchi looks at Bai Liu with a smile and a teasing tone, "You're a bit insensitive to be rejected by someone like me, who likes someone like you, who is not."

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

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

Zhao Muchi looks out to the sea and takes a deep breath: "Do you ...... like to watch dancing?"

"Appreciate not." Bai Liu replied honestly.

Zhao Muchi: "...... At this time, I'd still like you to speak more politely."

"Okay, so is it okay if I re-answer?" Bai Liu corrected himself with good grace, "I do not really appreciate dance as an art form."

"But if you want to." Bai Liu's brow was calm and he smiled a friendly and gentle smile, "I think you might refresh my perceptions and let me know anew that I was the one 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 with a sigh, "Has anyone ever told you that you're really a bad man who's good at coaxing people?"

"Is that so?" Bai Liu smiled nonchalantly, "Only you've said that so far."

"Do you mean you've only ever coaxed me?" Zhao Muchi lowered his eyes and said with a soft smile, "Stop it, I've seen more men than I care to admit."

In the sunset, Zhao Muchi, dressed in plain clothes and barefoot, gave Bai Liu a dance of the seven veils, and as time passed, the sunset light fell on Zhao Muchi's body like a veil, fading away layer by layer to reveal his original form, and he looked across at Bai Liu.

Bai Liu was promptly applauded on command.

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

"Yes, I'm probably not really artistic." Bai Liu admits frankly, but soon he smiles and says, "But it's beautiful."

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

"Though the significance of that I may not understand."

"The highest compliment to the dance." Zhao Muchi stepped back on one foot, haughtily lifting the hem of her dress and bowing slightly in a curtain call gesture, "Thank you for watching."

Bai Liu smiles: "My pleasure."

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

Wang Shun almost fell down as he ran to the conference room with a pile of materials in his arms, but he met Tang Erda halfway and helped him carry some.

"I'm glad I met you." Wang Shun let out a long breath.

Tang Erda wondered, "Why are there so many paper documents? Wasn't it all electronic before?"

"It's a long story." Wang Shun gave a bitter laugh and pushed open the door to the meeting room, "It has to do with our next game against, 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 announced, "Gentlemen, our opponent for the next game is out."

"- is Golden Dawn."