Tong Yao followed Lu Shicheng out of the room. Lu Yue happened to be outside and Tong Yao grabbed his uniform to pull him back: "Play well. Don't screw it up. Don't be timid, just do it."
"What's wrong?" Lu Yue was confused. "You're going to retire?"
Lu Yue looked at Lu Shicheng as he walked ahead of them: "Did you crush her will?"
Before Lu Sicheng was able to respond, Tong Yao slapped Lu Yue's back: "Nonsense. If we win this match, we'll have won every match so far. Didn't you seen those people outside waving the fluorescent sticks? That's the glory I helped create with my own hands."
Lu Yue: "And with foot you kicked it all away and paid 120K for it."
Tong Yao: ......
Lu Sicheng: "You two are too chatty."
Lu Sicheng pulled Lu Yue's jacket out of Tong Yao's grip. Then Lu Sicheng pushed her back into the room, head first. After the emotional soul searching talk with Lu Sicheng, Tong Yao felt more relaxed now, the burden on her heart seemed to have lightened. She went back to the rest area to sit with the staff and watch the match on the big screen. To tell the truth, after the lecture from Lu Sicheng, she was now more afraid that Lu Yue would fail this round.
Especially if they lost the match because Lu Yue couldn't coordinate well with his teammates. If that happened, she felt compelled to kneel down and kowtow to her teammates to apologize.
Tong Yao was quite nervous sitting in front of the live broadcast. The first thing Red Arrow did when the second match started was to ban Twisted Fate. Because Red Arrow also needed to prevent Lu Sicheng from picking Kalista and teaming up with Little Fatty's Alista in bot, that they weren't able to ban Azir. Lu Yue got to pick Azir as his champion.
ZGDX's mid lane effectively had a third turret now.
Tong Yao breathed a sigh of relief after Lu Yue got Azir. She leaned back in the chair and watched the match attentively while chatting with Xiao Rui: "What's the story about Lu Yue's Twisted Fate?"
Xiao Rui turned to take a look at Ming god and pointed his chin at the smiling man: "Ask him."
Tong Yao looked at Ming god. He explained with the same smile: "I taught him. I told him any professional Chinese mid has to know how to play Twisted Fate, a jungler just has to know Lee Sin. The older generation of players practically established this fact. They're traditionally strong champions which has nothing to do with the edition of the game. One of these days, we'll take these champions back to the world stage."
Tong Yao: "I haven't seen Lu Yue play him before."
Min god: "Twisted Fate doesn't match his style, so he generally doesn't play. But once he uses it, it'd be his trump card. It's proof that he cares about this match very much."
Xiao Rui: "True. After all, it's the fight to decide who'll be the one staying behind to watch the drinking fountain."
Min god: "Xiao Rui, don't go and scare Tong Yao. But it's true that Lu Yue wasn't willing to learn Twisted Fate until I said to him 'see how smoothly Tong Yao plays Twisted Fate.'"
Tong Yao: ......
Tong Yao rolled her eyes.
At the beginning of the match, the broadcast was focused on bot because there was more action there. But Tong Yao's attention was focused on the mini map in the lower right hand corner. She was keeping her eyes on Azir's profile in the mid.
Suddenly her cell phone vibrated, she pulled out her phone and discovered that the caller was her father. Tong Yao didn't think too much about it and answered the phone. Before she could greet him, her dad began lecturing her. The core contents of his reprimand were "I sent you to play games not to have a fight" "You haven't even kept the first month's pay in your pocket for long, now you'll lose an additional 60K" "Is there something wrong with your brain, a girl having a fight with others?" and etc.
Tong Yao: ......
Though her parents didn't frequent the internet, her brother was a different story. She had been wondering yesterday why she hadn't heard from her family at all and her brother hadn't told on her yet, it was his favorite thing to do after all.
So her family was waiting for the right moment to give her the ultimate blow.
After Lu Sicheng's lecturing, Tong Yao got another rebuking from her own father. Tong Yao was a bit overwhelmed. She had her eyes fixed on the screen while holding her cell phone up to her ear, but what went into the left ear went right out the right ear. The match lasted 40 minutes and her dad's phone call lasted 40 minutes. When Lu Sicheng and his teammates were pushing Red Arrow's base, her father had just reached his conclusion.
One of the conclusions was a familiar one: What sort of man would marry you if you act this way.
Tong Yao: "I'm quite happy living by myself."
Tong Yao's dad: "You dare talk back."
During the duration of her father's phone call, the only words Tong Yao said were "en," "ah," "oh," "I know," or "I was wrong." The only long sentence she had said was immediately retorted by her father. She had no choice but to remain silent for the remainder of the phone call. Before hanging up, her father asked her a question which finally proved to her that her parents hadn't found her at some trash dump: "Did you get hurt?"
The concern in those words suddenly moved Tong Yao to tears. After she told him that she was fine, her father added one more warning before hanging up: "Don't cause any more trouble." Lu Sicheng and her other teammates walked into the rest area right afterwards. Tong Yao took a glance at her stone faced captain and suddenly had a revelation.
It seems that all men in the world knew how to play the "carrot after stick" trick.
Lu Sicheng found his own coffee mug, sipped some coffee, and turned around to see the team's mid staring at him with her black and white eyes. He paused and asked: "What are you looking at?"
Tong Yao numbly turned her eyes away.
Lu Sicheng asked Xiao Rui: "What's wrong with her?"
Xiao Rui: "You guys played the match for 40 minutes and she was lectured by her father for 40 minutes."
Lu Sicheng raised his eyebrows.
Xiao Rui added: "Her biological dad."
Lu Sicheng's eyebrows flattened.
......
Lu Yue was doing an interview outside because he had earned MVP for the second match. Tong Yao walked out of the rest area to stand in the passageway to listen. She heard the host ask Lu Yue how he was feeling coming back onto the stage.
"Pretty good." She could hear the smile in Lu Yue's voice. "That's why I play a new champion that I've been training with."
"That's right. It was a real surprise today when you suddenly took out Twisted Fate who doesn't really match your usual style. So it was something you've prepared for a while now?"
"En. Not really. It's just that our data analyst." Shouts and screams came from the audience; some were shouting Ming god's name. Lu Yue laughed then continued: "Our data analyst told me that a Chinese mid has to know how to use this champion, otherwise I'd lose face. So I practiced him."
"So that means Smiling can play Twisted Fate as well?"
"Yeah, she plays Twisted Fate well. Actually, I always feel that she seems to play everyone well. In the beginning, she wasn't good with Azir, but she got a handle with him a bit later."
"Oh, it looks like there's not much tension between player and substitute on our ZGDX team."
"There's no tension at all. We have different styles. Maybe today some people will think that, after seeing my performance, I shouldn't be just a substitute or something. But the fact is that for now she is more suitable than me to be the main player. Though I'll be stronger later on, that's for sure."
"Looks like this is the reply Lu Yue would say in response to doubts being posted online."
"I trust my teammates' ability to make the right decision. If there's anything I want, I'll fight for it on my own."
Tong Yao concluded after hearing the interview that Lu Yue was truly protective of his brother. Then Tong Yao put on her jacket and went to gather their stuff to go to the parking lot. There were many fans who had waited there right after the match was over and media reporters as well. Usually there were only fans, but today even reporters were there too. The crowd looked rather large.
When those reporters saw Tong Yao, they excitedly ran over with their cameras. A swarm of camera lenses and microphones were stretched right under her nose.
"What do think about the suspension this time?"
Tong Yao: "I deserved it."
"Don't you feel that you're being treated unfairly? People said that you did it because you were protecting your teammates!"
Tong Yao: "I don't feel it's unfair."
"Tell us, tell us."
Tong Yao: "Tell you what?"
"Are you worried that you'll be replaced by Lu Yue?"
Tong Yao: "I'm only suspended for one match."
"Why did you hit her? Haven't you thought about how it would damage your image? Or is it because you know that you're the only female player in the league and everyone is watchful of your every move so you couldn't help yourself so you could attract more attention?"
Tong Yao: ......
In her mind, Tong Yao cursed the reporter with every dirty word she knew. Did the reporter mistaken her as a movie star who has to make sure she has enough exposure all the time? Before she could come up with a more gentle way to answer the question, a big hand came from behind her and pushed the microphone to the side. A chilly voice came from the man behind her: "That's enough. How do you expect her to answer a question like that? Which media outlet are you from?"
The reporter was taken by surprise and subconsciously backed away a little. The fans swarmed forward to pull him away. The crowd of fan girls noisily jabbered like chattering birds: "This is so insulting." "Where's your professional ethics asking a question like that?" The more aggressive ones were more straightforward: "Shit, are you trying to earn more followers? Idiot."
Tong Yao blinked her eyes, appreciating the warmth the fans had shown her. She took pens and notebooks to sign autographs for a few fans and thanks the fans who had given her gifts. The crowd in front of her dispersed slightly and Tong Yao took a breath of relief and prepared to get on the bus. As she moved forward a couple of steps, she heard someone next to her say: "What kind of professional player is she? Who knows how she became a main player, there wasn't any news about her being in training at all. I heard that she had signed a contract before that. Even if she's really good, but she never had her face cam on before. Who knows whether it's really her who played all those matches to get her to that rank? The club just signed her up without any proof, tsk, tsk, don't you think."
It was the reporter who had been pushed away earlier.
He was leaning against the wall, looking down at the pictures he had just taken while suggestively talking to another reporter next to him.
As he was talking, he sensed that someone was walking towards him. Before he could raise his head, a slender hand with fair skin covered the lens of his camera. The reporter looked up with a start and saw a girl who was one head shorter than him standing right in front of him. Her black eyes were sparkling.
She abruptly lifted her hand up.
Startled, the reporter shrank back.
It turned out that Tong Yao was only using one finger to wiggle in front of his nose and raised her chin up at the same time. She gripped her teeth and said: "You should be glad."
The reporter: ? ? ? ? ?
Tong Yao: "My dad won't let me cause any trouble now. I'll let you go this time."
After saying those words, Tong Yao drew her hand back with some force, disregarding the dumbfounding reporter. She turned around and got back onto the bus, fuming. She sat down on a window seat and pulled the curtain up. Three minutes later, Lu Sicheng also got on the bus. When he passed Tong Yao, he pulled the hood of her jacket over her head and patted her head at the same time.
Tong Yao slapped his hand away.
Xiao Rui stretched his head over and cunningly asked: "Which dad won't let you cause more trouble?"
Tong Yao: ......
Tong Yao silently stared at Xiao Rui.
During the silence, Lu Sicheng stood there and suddenly, after some searching, pulled out a box of milk from the gift bags he had received from fans. He put the straw in and handed it over next to the lips of their angry mid: "Fans want me to give this to you so you calm down."
Tong Yao took the milk and drank it in two gulps, then she threw the empty box into the trash bag.
Lu Sicheng: "Still angry?"
Tong Yao: "Angry."
Lu Sicheng: "Then we'll take you to eat hot pot."
Tong Yao: "Ok."
Lu Sicheng: "Still angry?"
Tong Yao: "Yes."
Lu Sicheng took out all the other boxes of milk and stuffed them into her hands, then he walked towards the back of the bus. Xiao Rui leaned over: "Well, give me a box."
Tong Yao grasped the boxes hid them behind her: "No, I won't."
Xiao Rui: "They weren't from Cheng Ge anyway, what's the big deal?"
Tong Yao thought about it and figured it was true. She took the milk out and watched Xiao Rui begin sharing the boxes. Then suddenly she thought about something else. She got up from her seat and looked to the back row: "Is it that hot pot place that sells a plate of beef for 888 RMB? I want lobsters."
The back row was silent.
A long while later, a calm male voice could be heard.
"As you wish."