The audience had livened up by the episode that had just occurred on stage. It looked like people were having a lot of fun with the after game surprise.
Little Fatty, followed right behind Lu Sicheng and Tong Yao, dumbfoundedly asked: "What are you two doing? Zhu Bajie carries his wife on his back?"
Lu Sicheng: "Who's Zhu Bajie?"
Tong Yao's face turned bright red and patted Lu Sicheng's back while whispering: "Aren't you missing the point? Put me down."
Lu Sicheng didn't move. He took a look at Little Fatty, then kicked his fat leg which was still on Tong Yao's sandal: "Move your leg."
Little Fatty looked down and it suddenly dawned on him what had happened. He quickly pulled his leg back. Lu Sicheng then slightly bent over to put Tong Yao back down on his own shoes. Tong Yao breathed out a long sigh of relief and looked down to find her other sandal. She then discovered that the toe thong on the sandal had broken off during her struggle to keep her balance-- --Tong Yao wasn't too happy about it. Jinyang had given this pair of sandals to her for Christmas. They had black bottoms with a white camellia on top of each of the straps. Though they were basically a pair of flip-flops, they were a pair of very expensive flip-flops......
As if this wasn't the worst thing that could happen to her now, a staff member who had kept a lookout for a while now finally came up to Tong Yao to ask: "Smiling, are you ready for the MVP interview?"
Tong Yao thought to herself: do I look ready with one broken sandal, but couldn't actually voice her thoughts. The interviewer had already gotten in place not too far from her and the lighting was ready as well. Many ZGDX fans also gathered in front of the interview area looking at her direction......
Tong Yao quieted down and limped over to the interview area-- --After a couple of steps, she heard a sigh coming from behind. She was about to turn and ask Lu Sicheng what he was sighing for. Suddenly, she fell a pair of big hands clapped down on her waist, then both of her legs left the ground, the next second, her whole body was in the air-- --
The fans at the interview area shrieked and kicked up quite a commotion. Some male fans even whistled and jeered!
"Ah, ah, weiwei!"
The back of Tong Yao's head hit Lu Sicheng's solid chest. From her angle, she could only see the perfect curve of his under chin-- --
Lu Sicheng, expressionless, lifted Tong Yao all the way to the interview area and put her down on the stool at the interview area. He remained poised despite the flashing lights aimed at his face. After he put Tong Yao down on the chair, he turned to go back to his seat to collect his gears together with Tong Yao's.
Tong Yao sat on the stool watching Lu Sicheng packed her own earphones into her backpack. She was still in a daze when she looked back at what was right in front of her-- --She was sitting under the spotlight, with a dark mass of fans under the stage. She was nervous and went blank for a moment, however, she did remember one thing: The staff member seemed to have forgotten to give her the interview questions in advance.
Under such hasty situation, the interview started.
The interviewer congratulated ZGDX's 2 : 0 win over Lan with a smile. The accumulated points for ZGDX so far was 3, the top team in group A-- --
The interviewer: "Smiling, do you have anything you would like to say about your performance so far?"
Tong Yao held tight the mic in her hand: "That.....I'm very happy with it. Thanks to my teammates for helping me win. I hope we can keep doing it till the end of the season."
The fans started to laugh. Tong Yao also regained some of her senses and her pumping heartbeats began to calm down......The lady interviewer kept her smile and praised Tong Yao for her straightforwardness. Then she looked at the cards in her hand and asked the second question: "Smiling, you're the only girl in the major league professional teams. I'm sure everyone is very much interested in knowing that, being the only girl, is there any inconveniences or annoyances that you face more than the other players?"
"It's alright. I was nervous in the beginning, afraid that I wouldn't be able to fit in. But later on I've found my teammates to be very friendly." Tong Yao scratched her head: "It seems that they don't give me any special treatment because I'm a girl. It's actually turned out to be a good thing. I have to compliment my teammates once again. It seems that they don't think it's a big deal for a girl to play professionally. They have never thought in that way-- --"
Tong Yao lifted up the mic after she had put it down and added: "Actually, if girls want to join the esports scene, they can do it very well too. Esports shouldn't be a male only field. I hope those stubborn people who still think that way can change their minds."
After speaking her mind, Tong Yao seemed to see some of the fangirls put down their cell phones and start to applaud vigorously.
Without knowing why, Tong Yao suddenly was reminded of Ming god's fangirl whom she had met at the spring season competition. She wondered whether that girl had really given up the esports circle or was she still sitting in the audience like always and rooting for ZGDX-- --
Tong Yao squinted trying to make out the faces in the audience. She seemed to see her, but then felt she probably was mistaken.
The interviewer asked her a few more questions, like why did Tong Yao choose Diana. Tong Yao answered three or four more questions and thought the interview session was over. She was going to jump off the stool when the interviewer stopped her. Tong Yao turned and happened to meet the interviewer's smiling eyes: "We have one additional off-script question. All the fans here, including me, would very much to know what had happened the moment when our Chessman turned around suddenly and picked you up when your team was walking back after bowing to the audience......In fact, it's hard to imagine to see such a romantic scene at a League of Legend competition-- --"
The audience burst into laughter, they started to discuss it in small voices.
Tong Yao's lips twitched a little: "It's because Little Fatty stepped on my sandal. I tripped and Cheng Ge caught me."
Interviewer: "But, lately on all the gossip forums, all the the discussions have been about you and our Cheng Ge......"
Tong Yao: "There's nothing between us. It's only that sometimes he says things to tease me or does some flirtatious things. Don't be tricked by that."
The interviewer: "......"
Tong Yao: "If someday, our captain decides to like a human being and be with me, I'll definitely announce it to the whole world."
The interviewer: "......"
The interviewer: "You really would let us know?"
Tong Yao: "I'll shout it with a bullhorn onstage."
The interviewer: "Hahahaha!"
People began to believe that there was really nothing going on between the two since Tong Yao was so frank and unabashed about the topic. By the end of the interview, Tong Yao was very relaxed, laughing and joking with the interviewer......Finally, the interviewer ended the session and fans gradually left, Tong Yao jumped off from the stool breathing a sigh of relief. She returned the mic to the interviewer and found that her palms were all sweaty.
......What trouble did she have to go through in order to keep her captain's good name from being tarnished.
Tong Yao walked back stage, limping with the broken sandal dangling on her right foot......She began messaging Jinyang while walking-- --
[ZGDX, smiling: The sandal broke, Ahhhhh, the expensive ones you gave me TAT]
[Ah Mao's mom: Hahahahahahahahaha, I saw it, it's alright. I'll buy another pair for you. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, how do you feel when you were picked up by that light pole in front of the Lu household? Do you feel like being struck by lightning?]
[ZGDX, smiling: Not really.]
[Ah Mao's mom: The pole's bending down and inviting you to pee on it. You should be happy that you don't have to pee anymore.]
[ZGDX, smiling: I really like your optimistic attitude and exuberant imagination.]
Tong Yao finally reached the rest area and pushed open the door to find several staff members still inside. One of the girls ran to her to hand over a pair of disposable slippers like those found in hotels-- --
Tong Yao: "Where did you get these?"
The girl said: "Cheng Ge went to the nearby hotel to ask for them just now."
Tong Yao muttered: "Oh, I didn't expect him to be this nice." She changed into the slippers and saw through the corner of her eyes that the bouquet was still placed on top of the table. She paused and straightened up, noticing the staff members were all packed up and ready to leave as well-- --No one seemed to show any intent to take the flowers with them.
"You aren't taking the flowers?" Tong Yao asked, pointing to the bouquet.
"Cheng Ge didn't say to take it."
Tong Yao got closer to smell the flowers, they were all fresh imported budding flowers about to bloom. It seemed too wasteful to her to leave them here. Since she didn't have anything to take with her, she decided to take the bouquet with her. Following the rest of the staff, Tong Yao got onto the bus with the pair of expensive sandals in one hand and the huge bouquet that almost covered her face in the other hand-- --
Lu Sicheng was sitting on the last row of the bus with his eyes closed. Tong Yao walked all the way to the back and slightly bent over to pull off one of his earbuds: "Captain, thank you for the slippers."
Lu Sicheng opened his eyes and the dark brown pupils calmly and coldly stared at her for 3 seconds. In the fourth second, his eyes moved to look at the flowers next to Tong Yao's feet: "What are these?"
"The bouquet your fan sent you."
"Was that my question? I'm asking, why are you taking it onto the bus?"
"These are nice flowers, why not? Are you allergic to pollen?"
"......"
Lu Sicheng was quiet for a while, then he said to Tong Yao while fixing his eyes on her: "It's you who wanted to take it. Don't grumble about it later." As Tong Yao was looking at him confusedly, he grabbed his earbud back and stuffed back into his ear then used the hood of his jacket to cover half of his face-- --
His body language was obvious: Get away from me.
Tong Yao smiled and sent WeChat message to Jinyang: [The evil supporting actress from the Korean drama has done it again. I think I'll go to hell after I die.]. She then turned to sit down on her seat with the bouquet next to her feet and started to check Weibo posts with her legs crossed-- --
Tong Yao happened to see a post on the first page of Weibo.
[The untold secret of the esports circle: I was told by a fan who was in the audience today that there was a person acting strangely in the first row of ZGDX's fan section. She obviously wasn't in the esport circle since everyone else was taking pictures of Kun who was sitting nearby, she even asked her neighbors who Kun was and why they were taking pictures of him-- --In addition, during the first match, there was a huge bouquet next to her feet. When the first match was about to end, she left her seat with the bouquet. Then at the beginning of the second match, she came back to her seat without the bouquet. Someone asked her who she was here to watch and her answer was: I'm a friend of Lu Sicheng.]
[The untold secret of the esports circle: Some backstage staff members have also disclosed that they saw that girl, with their own eyes, give the bouquet to Lu Sicheng. They definitely know each other and even exchanged a few words. Later on, that girl left and appeared to be not very happy......]
Tong Yao's lips twitched and she put her leg down to sit straight up. There really weren't any secrets in this world. She looked down at the culprit at her feet. The more she looked at the flowers the more she found them to be innocent......Tong Yao exitted Weibo and checked other sites. The news about the mysterious woman was everywhere-- --
[A plum branch: See what all you've done by complaining about Smiling being too short to be a match for Cheng Ge. At least she knows how to play games.]
[Hum, not bad: Smiling's eased my concerns, now I'm worrying again because that woman we don't even know about.]
[Swimming whale: .....................That woman's makeup is so heavy.]
[Friendship first: I have to say, she's definitely an outsider since we all call Cheng Ge either Chessman or Captain of ZGDX or Cheng Ge, rarely does anyone address him by his full name-- --As for why she came to the arena to show off her relationship with Cheng Ge, well, that's beyond me.]
[Holy crap: When I realize that Cheng Ge is already at that age that he should have a girlfriend, I'm horrified.]
[Ahlalalei: I'm posting a GIF of the moment Lu Sicheng picked up Tong Yao to unnerve the shock from this woman. She obviously is showing off on purpose, otherwise she wouldn't be sitting in the first row.]
[Wildfire: The above +1, on purpose +1. Cheng Ge never has any affair after so many years in the professional scene. What is this woman up to?]
Tong Yao: "......"
Tong Yao didn't expect that a woman giving flowers to Cheng Ge could create such a big deal. All the fans online had turned into Sherlock Holmes-- --What's more shocking was that most of their guesswork was correct.
As for that woman, whether she was deliberately stirring up gossip-- --
Tong Yao moved to sit next to Lu Yue and found him chatting with someone on his phone. She kicked him and Lu Yue confusedly looked up at her. He paused for a second then whispered: "......You've seen what they're talking about on Tieba and Weibo."
Tong Yao: "Based on my teenage girl's sixth sense and so I can throw mud on her: She is doing it deliberately."
Lu Yue rolled his eyes and handed over the cell phone in his hand-- --Tong Yao noticed that it was Lu Sicheng's cell phone. Just now Lu Yue was arguing with someone called [Luoluo] on it. To put it simply, Lu Yue told this person that he didn't add her Wechat to have her cause trouble for his brother. Now everyone was saying that ZGDX's captain was in love and had let his girlfriend come see him play and give him flowers......
[Luoluo: So what about it? Professional video gamer players aren't allowed to have girlfriends? Think about how old he is now? He can't have his own life?]
[Luoluo: So what if I showed up there on purpose? Who do those fangirls think they are, constantly calling him "hubby" and not feeling ashamed......Isn't it good to let them give him up?]
[Luoluo: What if there's news about it all over the place, isn't it good to have more exposure?]
Lu Yue's face turned darker and darker, grabbing the phone back from Tong Yao and blocking her right away.
"It's not that we can't have girlfriends." Lu Yue stuffed the cell phone into his pocket. "It's that we can't have this kind of girl as a girlfriend. She likes to show off too much and is too competitive because of some superiority complex. Besides, she doesn't know anything about our profession, though it's not entirely her fault, no one is interested in wasting time on these things."
"You really are concerned about him." Tong Yao leaned to the back of the chair.
"No matter what, my brother is a public figure. It's not just him, the people around him also have to have an awareness of being a public figure. Then everyone can go about with things he wants to do with peace of mind."
Tong Yao thought about his words then lifted her hand to ruffle Lu Yue's hair: "You're actually quite sensible."
Lu Yue squeaked and tried to shrink back to avoid her hand. Tong Yao was about to move forward to ruffle his hair some more when her stretched arm was abruptly pulled back by someone from behind. Both Lu Yue and Tong Yao looked up in a daze. They saw a sleepy person towering like a huge Buddha statue standing right behind them.
"What are you two doing?" Lu Sicheng asked.
Lu Yue: "We're in a meeting."
Tong Yao: "A meeting."
"Heck with the meeting, there's no meeting in kindergarten." Lu Sicheng let go of Tong Yao's arm and seemed disgusted: "We're here. Get off the bus to eat dinner."
Tong Yao looked up and indeed, they had arrived at the restaurant.
It was already dinner time after they finished the game.
Tong Yao, wearing hotel slippers, followed the others into the restaurant. She was surprised that none of the waiters stopped her from entering though they did pay special attention to her slippers......
During dinner, no one had the spirit to mention to their captain that he, for the first time, had been the subject of gossip. After they all had enough to eat, Lu Sicheng came up with a surprise suggestion: "Let's go buy some team shoes. It's an eyesore to see all of you wearing an assortment of sandals, slip-ons and sneakers."
Tong Yao: "Sandals and slip-ons are so convenient. Why don't you like them......?"
Lu Sicheng: "I should've let you fall on your face today, then you can tell me whether sandals are convenient or not."
Tong Yao looked down at the slippers on her feet and chose to keep quiet.
Xiao Rui: "We have to ask for funding first......"
Lu Sicheng: "I'll pay for them."
Xiao Rui thought about it and nodded since Lu Sicheng was one of the team's bosses: "Cheng Ge will pay for them? I think that'll work."
Since it was still early after dinner, they all decided to shop around at the shopping center near the restaurant. Though it was supposed to be for the team shoes, they basically just need to go to a sports store to buy 6 pairs of identical sneakers. They swarmed into a store and after picking and choosing for a while, they finally decided on a pair of male blue and white basketball shoes. Little Fatty tried the shoes on and they looked pretty good on his feet. The rest of the team agreed to buy that pair of shoes.
"We'll take that." Lu Sicheng pulled out a bankcard from his pocket: "Tell them your shoe sizes."
Among the "41"s, "42"s and "40"s, someone said: "35" in the corner.
Everyone quieted down, even Lu Sicheng stopped handing his card over.
All of them turned to look at Tong Yao. She tipped her chin upward: "I'm size 35. Fire me if you dare."
"......What nonsense are you talking about." Lu Sicheng mumbled and turned to look at the salesperson.
The salesperson was uneasy under his gaze: "This one's for men and starts from size 39. But, ah, I know, there's a similar pair for women."
The salesperson turned to the woman's section to fetch a pair of red and white shoes in a similar style. It matched quite well next to the male version.
"What a coincidence." The salesperson said with a smile: "The pair you chose happens to have a matching women's pair."
Tong Yao tried on the pair while comparing hers with Little Fatty's to see how well they match. When she looked up again, she saw Lu Sicheng had already handed over his bankcard to the salesperson.
Tong Yao: "Hm, I feel like I can still try some of the others."
Lu Sicheng: "It'll be daybreak if you keep on trying different ones. Where is your sense of discipline?"
Tong Yao: "......"
......
After buying new shoes, the whole team went back to base in high spirits. They had won the game and each had received a new pair of shoes. They all felt quite satisfied.
Some went upstairs to set down their bags and take showers. Xiao Rui held Dabin in his arms and opened a can of cat food to feed the cat. Only Tong Yao and Lu Sicheng were left at the first floor of the base......Tong Yao saw Lu Sicheng had sat down in front of his computer and seemed to be preparing to play ranked games. She hesitated, then walked over. She pulled out a coin from her pocket and grabbed Lu Sicheng's hand, placing the coin into his palm.
Lu Sicheng: "?"
Tong Yao: "Jinyang said it's bad luck to give shoes to others as a gift. The one who receives the shoes have to pay a little money to the one who gives the shoes so as to dispel the bad luck."
Lu Sicheng: "......Which remote countryside are you from to come to the big city to play professionally? Do you even have the internet where you're from?"
Tong Yao: "..........."
Lu Sicheng said without much expression on his face: "It applies only to lovers."
Tong Yao thought about it and blushed, bending over trying to pry open Lu Sicheng's hand: "Then give me back the coin."
Lu Sicheng tugged his hand back and before Tong Yao could grab his hand, he swiftly dropped the coin into his piggy bank. Tong Yao gasped: "You think I can't find it in-- --"
Before she could finish, Lu Sicheng grabbed the piggy bank up and shook it a few times. Then he stuffed the piggy bank into her arms: "Take you time to find it."
Tong Yao: "...................................................."
Tong Yao: "Lu Sicheng, you're so childish!"
Lu Sicheng: "I'm childish? Then, you're stingy. It's only one RMB and you're asking it back. Stay to the side and take your time to find it, don't interfere with my stream."