"Tong Yao, who were you talking to on the phone. You look like you've been hit by thunder." Little Fatty curiously stretched over his head.
........
Little Fatty's question pulled Tong Yao back to reality. She put down the phone and spoke as if she was sleepwalking, "It's from Cheng Ge. He said he had finished his business and has changed his flight to come back tomorrow."
Cheng Ge? Phone call? Little Fatty blinked, making sure that Tong Yao's match wasn't finished yet, and asked in confusion, "Aren't you two in the same match, what's there to talk on the phone about instead of in the game. Are you two alright, playing the same game while talking on the phone?"
"I talked to him in the game, but he ignored me. I was like an idiot jumping up and down." Tong Yao didn't take the blame, "He's the one who has a problem."
"So Cheng Ge's coming back tomorrow? It's good that he'll be back soon. It'll be the summer season soon and we haven't taken the pictures yet. I heard that the new uniform for the summer will be here soon. Before the season starts, we need to play a few more training games, so you get used to playing with us."
As Little Fatty murmured half to himself, Tong Yao quickly pushed the enemy's Nexus. Amid the sound of the exploding Nexus, she exited the post-game screen. Tong Yao watched the points she took from Lu Sicheng soar with great satisfaction as she returned to Master!
Just as she was considering whether to start another match, a small box jumped out at the lower right hand corner on the screen with many Korean words mixed with a word, "sunflower." It meant that this person wanted to add you to his friend list, do you accept. Considering the fact that he had played bravely when he was ganking mid earlier and she had blocked him for so many years, and the possibility that they would meet during competitions and shake hands after each match. It would be very embarrassing if she kept refusing to interact with him.
Tong Yao thought about it all and hesitated, then accepted Jian Yang's friend invitation.
What she didn't expect was the first message she'd receive, it was almost enough to make her fall out of her chair:
Yaoyao, can we get back together?
Tong Yao instantly replied,
No way. Then logged off the game.
Jian Yang wouldn't give up and used another app to message her.
Where the sun shines: Tong Yao, in the past, you felt that because we're in two different cities our schedules could never match up and it was just a waste of time to continue our relationship. So you found some small issue to fight with me to break up with me. Now you're a professional player yourself, you should understand the daily routine of a professional player. I wasn't ignoring you on purpose back then, I never want to break up with you.
Tong Yao: ...........
Some people should be blocked forever
Be blocked for ten thousand years.
It's smiling not balding: However, at that time I didn't feel anything you did was pointing towards 'you don't want to break up', not even slightly. I snuck in messages during class during the day and you never answered. At night, you told me you were busy with training matches and then I find on Tieba pictures that your whole team had gone to karaoke. One of the hostesses almost put her stocking on your head. Now you tell me that you didn't want to break up, do you think I have Alzheimer's or is there something wrong with you?
Where the sun shines: That was all in the past, besides, I have apologized to you already! I shouldn't lie to you.
It's smiling not balding: Oh, but I don't accept your apology.
Where the sun shines:Are you really getting together with Lu Sicheng?
It's smiling not balding:? ? ? ? ? ?
It's smiling not balding: What does this have anything to do with him.
Where the sun shines: I've noticed it for some time now. Whenever you stream or he streams, you two are always together. The internet is saying that you two are together now. Lu Sicheng even read out bullet comments for you. And there are fans saying that they saw you two go shopping hand in hand.
Where the sun shines: Chen Jinyang said that you have sworn never to fall in love with a professional player.
Where the sun shines: Do you still remember what you said before? I'm reminding you again if you forgot. If you have a relationship with any professional player, it'll have to be me.
Tong Yao: ..........
Yo, an overbearing boss had fallen in love with me.
It's smiling not balding: Friend, it's time for your medicine.
Where the sun shines: Lu Sicheng won't like a little girl like you.
It's smiling not balding: ....
Where the sun shines: Tong Yao, I miss you, really.
Tong Yao considered for 30 seconds, then started typing..
It's smiling not balding: Unfortunately, yesterday, when Little Fatty was watching a stream and I happened to walked by, I heard the hostess say in a sweet voice, 'Thank you Yang God for the big sword (a gift on the stream platform, the most expensive kind).' Are you missing me with your feet?
Where the sun shines: What stream hostess! That's the member of our club's LoL female team. Our club asked me to do some publicity stunt with her to bring up the viewer count. You know as well that the female team isn't for the competitions.
It's smiling not balding: You said the same thing two years ago, you were forced to blah blah.
It's smiling not balding: The leopard cannot change his spots.
It's smiling not balding: What are you saying that a female team isn't for competitions. You need to learn you lesson for looking down girl players. Aren't you good friend with Ai Jia? Go ask him what I had done to him at the skirmish last time?
Where the sun shines: You only beat Ai Jia. Even if we don't count the Koreans, there are ten teams in the Chinese region alone. You're good, but don't be too confident. There's an alternate Mid in ZGDX, not the one in the Spring Tournament. If he comes back, you can be switched off if you don't perform well.
Tong Yao slightly knit her eyebrows; she seemed to remember that last year ZGDX did have an alternate Mid, but she couldn't remember exactly who that was. She was busy at the time getting all the documents ready to go abroad and digesting the fact that her boyfriend had lied to her about training while in reality he was going to karaoke bars to drink with the hostesses there.
Tong Yao pondered for a while then she put Jian Yang back to where he belonged, on the block list.
She wasn't annoyed at him for saying that Lu Sicheng wouldn't like her. To tell the truth, Tong Yao thought so herself, besides she was also. Nevermind, it was all Jinyang's fault making her think about all these unrealistic things. She had just joined ZGDX for only a few days, had only played a few training matches. She was here to accomplish a great career, who had the mood to fall in love?
She stopped thinking about Cheng Ge.
As for that mysterious alternate Mid that Jian Yang had mentioned.
"Little Fatty."
"What."
"Did our team have any other alternate mid last season?"
...........
Little Fatty's hand on the mouse paused abruptly. It seemed that he hadn't expected Tong Yao would ask about it. There was an unusual displeased expression on his chubby face. His eyebrows slightly furrowed and lightly answered after a long while, "There was one. But don't worry, he won't come back.'
Tong Yao was surprised, "Why?"
Little Fatty cast down his eyes, "Because he was driven away by all of us. No one wanted to be his teammate."
After he finished talking, it was obvious that he didn't want to continue. Though Tong Yao was curious, she didn't feel that it was right to continue asking. She went online to check it out and only found out that this person's id was 'Lv'. He left ZGDX after last year's world finals and disappeared totally from the League of Legend circle.
Uhm, there must be some story about this guy?
......
Tong Yao kept her curiosity to herself till the next day. She was planning to find a chance to ask the team manager, Xiao Rui. But in the end, she had forgotten all about it.
Because Lu Sicheng had come back.
In the morning, when Tong Yao, with Dabing in her arms, came out of her room, the cat jumped off from her as soon as she closed the door to her room. The cat rolled down the stairs and ran into the arms of another person. Tong Yao looked down from the railings on the second floor and happened to see Dabing was rubbing its head against the man's hand trying to get under his hand.
The cat's round eyes had squeezed into almond eyes.
Did Lu Sicheng smell like dried fish, was that why the cat cared about him so much?
The man sitting on the sofa seemed to sense the look from behind, he turned to glance at Tong Yao and asked, "What are you looking at?"
Tong Yao had almost gotten used to the way he carried a conversation. She murmured, "Cheng Ge, you're back." and slowly walked down the stairs. Halfway on the stairs, Lu Sicheng suddenly asked, "Shorty, what's going on between you and CK's Yang God?"
Tong Yao almost slid and fell on the stairs. She grabbed the railing to stable herself and asked in confusion, "What, what's going on?"
"Someone posted on Tieba what had happened amongst the three of us while we were playing ranked yesterday, screenshots the whole time. Did you have any other Chinese teammates on your side?"
"The top was Chinese. But, you look at Tieba?"
"Then that's it." Lu Sicheng ignored her question. "Your messages to me and your conversation with Yang God were all screenshot word by word and posted on Tieba. There are thousands comments under it already. The mysterious relationships between us can be filmed into a TV drama. The actually plot is: the female lead, the love-sick second male lead, and the cold and heartless male lead."
When Lu Sicheng spoke with an emotionless face, there was a feel of dry humor.
.............
Tong Yao walked behind Lu Sicheng and bent over to look at the cell phone in his hand. She saw a hot post on a certain esports Tieba, the title of the post was ZGDX mid and bot seem to have fallen in love, Yang God steps in, esports edition of The Legend of the White Snake
Tong Yao widened her eyes and bent over to get a closer look. Her hair fell next to Lu Sicheng's ear, it was itchy and he smelt her scented shampoo. He quietly frowned and moved slightly to the side, "Don't you have a cell phone of your own?"
Tong Yao took out her cell phone as if she had just remembered. She quickly logged onto Tieba and indeed, all of her messages, their conversation, had been screenshot.
There were all manner of comments underneath.
With a headline like this, come work for the news department tomorrow.
Always trying to make big news.
Yang god is the blue snake, hhhhhhhhh, OP, have you ever seen a Xu Xian like Lu Sicheng?
Shit, Yang god's so sarcastic, hahahahahahahahaha. Never knew he's the kind of person to speaks like that, 'Come on, I'll get you that win.' I'm melting! Last time the person who spoke to me like that had fallen from Diamond to Gold, so sad.
This is the reason why most professional teams don't have female members. It's way too easy for office romance to develop. It's not that I'm against it, but how can they play a competition together if they have a fight or break up?
Wait, wait, the plot is developing too fast. What's going on with Yang god?
The day of Spring Finals, didn't some fans see Yang god talking to a girl. Could that be Smiling? They knew each other in the past?
This girl has been here for only a few days and has already gotten together with Cheng Ge? I didn't believe it when, a few days ago, someone said he saw them shopping together, hand in hand. Damn it, I'm so angry. How cheeky is she?
Will a love affair affect a player's performance? I want Cheng Ge to win the championship. Don't get held back by it.
Tong Yao: ........
Her finger quickly slid down the posts and she saw another comment.
All the posters above, you all worry too much. Dating in high school never prevents you from getting into college. So what's all the fuss about? You all are just jealous. I feel Lu Sicheng and Tong Yao are a good match. It won't be your turn even if it's not Tong Yao.
Under this post, there were more than a hundred replies with "+1" "+2" "+3".
Tong Yao put away her cell phone.
"Jian Yang was my ex-boyfriend. He wasn't a professional player at the time and I haven't started playing League of Legends. Later, he became a professional player and we broke up." After a short pause, she continued, "I'm sorry, Cheng Ge. I didn't expect what happened yesterday would affect you."
Tong Yao sat down across from Lu Sicheng, took the cat from the man's arm, and stroked the cat's head with slightly furrowed eyebrows. She sat there, staring blankly at a corner of the living room.
Lu Sicheng had never seen her so quiet since she had arrived at the base.
He knit his eyebrows too, but released them soon after. He spoke in a not so cold tone, "I wasn't blaming you. What's that face for?"
Tong Yao looked distracted and tightened her grip on the cat. She said after a while, "I have never gone shopping with you, hand in hand."
Her voice sounded a little hoarse, feeling being totally aggrieved.
"I haven't even touched your hand."
Lu Sicheng: .........
Tong Yao: .........
There was a moment of awkward silent. Tong Yao pressed her lips together tightly and turned her head away as if she was trying to suppress an emotion that was about to explode. The man across from her suddenly stood up, before she knew what was happening, stretched out his hand to grab her wrist, then picked up her hand and rubbed it in his palm.
Tong Yao: ?
"Now you have touched my hand." Lu Sicheng spoke without any expression, "Do you feel better now?"
Tong Yao: .........
The man's palm was dry and warm, with small calluses from holding the mouse all the time. His fingers were clean and long, manicured, and had the smell of liquid soap......
"Did you smoke just now?" Tong Yao blurted out.
Lu Sicheng, somewhat startled, turned his head to check whether Xiao Rui or anyone who could deduct his salary was around. Then he pulled his hand back, "None of your business."
He spoke again after a while, "You're strangling your cat."
"Oh." Tong Yao released Dabing......Dabing gave a good kick to Tong Yao's stomach with its hind legs as it jumped from her arms. Lu Sicheng patted Tong Yao's head. "It's no big deal. Look at you, such a vulnerable person."
"I heard that, for the past few years, you're never the topic of any gossip. I really sorry that I brought you into the headlines about all this." Tong Yao dispiritedly said, "I'm really sorry."
Lu Sicheng straightened up, looking from high up at the dejected Tong Yao. "Being a girl professional gamer, surrounded by only men, people will naturally pay more attention to these kind of things. This is normal, I thought you would have figured it out a while ago."
"I sort of thought it might come to this." Tong Yao, with furrowed brows, rubbed her hair. "But I didn't expect it would get this serious."
"After a while, they will get over it and notice only your performance and skill. By that time, they will forget that you're a girl. The earliest, maybe by the Summer Competition."
"Oh."
Lu Sicheng picked the cat up from another sofa and stuffed it back into the arms of the worried girl. "We have a skirmish with the Huawei Team this afternoon. If you're unhappy, release your anger on their mid."
Afterwards, he turned around to unpack his luggage.
He turned on his computer.
He fed his goldfish.
He tidied up his desk which Little Fatty had messed up.
The man walked pass Tong Yao three or four times while she was busy doing something on her cell phone.
He finally stopped at the fifth pass, raised his eyebrows, and said to the person nested inside the sofa typing at lightning speed, "What are you doing? You aren't arguing with people on Tieba with an alternate id?"
.........
Tong Yao put down her cell phone. "Do I look like I'm that boring?"
"Yes, you do."
While he was talking, Lu Sicheng tried to grab Tong Yao's cell phone at the same time. She hurriedly put the cell phone under her rear, looking at him with a challenging expression as if to say "come get it if you dare." Lu Sicheng gave up and said, "Aren't you childish?"
Tong Yao paused, still seated on top of her cell phone, "I'm writing a post for Weibo. I want to make a clarification about this."
"Clarify what?"
"Me and Jian Yang and you. There isn't any esports The Legend of the White Snake."
"It's not necessary."
"It is. I can't tarnish your reputation."
..........
Lu Sicheng quieted down, looking at the girl who looked at him straight in the eye, seriously insisting that she couldn't tarnish his reputation. After a long while, he sighed and flicked his finger on her forehead, "Go look at Tieba."
Tong Yao was confused and took the cell phone from under her. She logged on Tieba again and discovered that the comments under the post had gone from 3000 to 5000 in less than an hour's time. Tong Yao looked down then discovered that there was a sticky comment: the person involved is at #3758.
Tong Yao blinked, then checked the 3758th comment. She saw someone with the id of "I'm your dad" left the message.
Nonsense. There's no such thing. Don't make up stories.
It was followed by a bunch of replies, calling him Cheng Ge, apologizing to him, saying that Cheng Ge's right, and asking the Tieba moderator to remove the post.
Tong Yao: "? ? ? ?"
Lu Sicheng: "This kind of things should be done by men."
Tong Yao: .....................................Cheng Ge.
Lu Sicheng: "What? Why are you looking at me like this? So disgusting."
Tong Yao: "Though I don't know who will have the honor to be Madam Lu, I'm starting to envy her now."
You would protect her very well.
No weapons would harm her.
No storms would harm her.
Just as she finished, a big hand landed on her head again, this time with more force, to mess up her hair. The man spoke above her head in disgust, "What Madam Lu. Are you mentally retarded?"
Note:
[1]: It's a play on Jian Yang's name. His Yang is written with the character for sun.
[2]: Yes balding is in her username and I don't know why.
[3]: A Chinese site for fan groups.