Tong Yao went over to the dinner table. Lu Sicheng in the meanwhile had started discussing today's matches with the rest of the team. He spoke leisurely, with little emotion. If it wasn't for the fact that he had a pleasant voice, the way he spoke about dry statistics was like a teacher talking about chemistry formulas on a summer day-- --
Who would pay attention to him talk unless you wanted to fall asleep.
......But everyone seemed to listen with full attention.
Tong Yao ate her dinner feeling that she'd fallen into a strange pattern.
-- --It seemed that she couldn't take her eyes off Lu Sicheng. She knew she shouldn't, but couldn't help herself......Before she started playing professionally, the Lu Sicheng she saw was the one who would carry games, whose promotional picture was good enough for the entertainment industry, and who seldom talked during streams and would blast fans once in a while-- --
Until one day, she found herself sitting right next to him.
She had seen him, early in the morning, come down the stairs wearing underpants to go to the refrigerator to look for coke or yogurt drinks while scratching his bottom.
She had seen his hair as messy as a chicken coop.
She had seen him unshaven.
She had seen him with two dark circles around his eyes from staying up all night-- --
She had heard him snore on the couch from being too exhausted after studying too many competition videos and taking notes. Half of the notes on Tong Yao's notebook were written with his messy and scribbly handwriting. During meetings, he would hold that notebook in hand and earnestly present some statistics. Though Tong Yao seriously doubted whether he could really read his own handwriting......
She had seen him trying to hide his cigarettes under the scrutinous eyes of Xiao Rui. Though he seldom touched cigarettes lately, he seemed to enjoy playing the game of doing something against the team rules......
She had seen him go crazy while playing ranked games. He would call the other four teammates idiots and then played all night until he dropped from Master to Diamond......
She had seen him in a hurry to go to the bathroom that he had to stand up with his bottom protruding as he hastily tried to finish the match. Then he would dash into the bathroom and shout from inside the bathroom: "Damn, who took the paper away." He would rush out of the bathroom holding his pants......
-- --Even though he never presented himself with the aura of an idol in front of Tong Yao, she still found herself attracted to him......If she even thought the way he held his pants as he was looking for toilet paper was cute, then she was in deep trouble.
Tong Yao: "......"
She stuffed the shrimp between her chopsticks into her mouth and chewed it without tasting anything. Tong Yao silently prayed that she would be smart enough not to let him lead her by the nose-- --
Her thoughts wandered until a glass of coke with ice cubes floating on top and beads of water falling down the side of the glass was set in front of her.
The ice cubes clashed together and the foam on top of the coke splashed out. Tong Yao was a little startled and looked up in confusion to meet a pair of dark brown eyes......He looked quite calm: "You don't want it?"
Tong Yao carefully thought about it. She recalled that after the game was over this afternoon, she was so hot while walking to the parking lot and mumbled something about wanting to drink coke, the one with ice cubes in it.
......She was surprised that he had heard.
Tong Yao took the coke and sipped it. The sweetness of the coke together with the bubbles burst inside her mouth all the way down her throat. She then took a big gulp. She burped with satisfaction while putting down the glass: "Don't think that one glass of coke is enough to forgive you for shutting me outside to feed the mosquitos for an hour."
Lu Sicheng: "En."
Tong Yao: "I'm very angry."
Lu Sicheng pushed Tong Yao's head down with his hand: "Just drink your coke."
Tong Yao picked up the glass again.
The icy cold coke seemed to balance the burning heat on Tong Yao's palm. She discovered that she couldn't seem to put the glass of coke down-- --
Even though she knew very well that it wasn't good for girls to drink cold drinks and that coke could make her fat.
She told herself that she shouldn't drink coke, there was no benefit at all drinking it. Damn-- --despite constantly telling herself so, she had downed the remaining glass of coke into her mouth, ice cubes including. She crushed the ice cubes between her teeth.
[ZGDX, smiling: It's not easy to turn down coke. I keep telling myself not to drink it, but my body wouldn't let go.]
[Ah Mao's mom: Falling in love is when you look around and everything surrounding you looks like his face. It was the power pole before, then a native Chinese dog, and now it's a glass of coke.]
[ZGDX, Smiling: What did you see as Aijia's face before?]
[Ah Mao's mom: Stir-fried ong choy with fermented tofu.]
[ZGDX, Smiling: ......]
Tong Yao refused to continue the conversation with someone who was out of her mind.
......
Pretty soon, Tong Yao wasn't in the mood to worry about whether he's coke, or a power pole, or native Chinese dog to her.
Before going to bed that night, Xiao Rui announced that he had arranged a skirmish with a Korean team, OP, on Wednesday. The team was nicknamed 'war god,' a historically top team in the Korean region-- --
Each player on Team OP could play almost all the champions. It was impossible to do anything to hurt them during the ban & pick round-- --Just when you think you had picked a champion which could suppress the opponent's picked champion, they would pick a different one, which you hadn't thought about. And after careful checking, you'd find out the new champion could counter the champion you had picked in terms of skills and special abilities-- --In the meanwhile, the champion which you had tried to target in the first place had already been put to use in another position.
The switch would instantly change the team's position from passive to aggressive.
-- --This was the trick Team OP constantly played, shocking yet amazing.
What Tong Yao was most concerned about was Team OP's mid player-- --Jin Yuguang had played for the team for five years, from an intern all the way to the core player. He was the captain of the team, tall and a bit overweight. Some people nicknamed him 'the mainstay of OP's champion pool.' Though he wasn't the one who usually carried the game for the team, his presence in any game was reassuring to the team; even if the team was behind two matches, the team would eventually win the best of five.
-- --Their nickname 'war god' was mainly given because of him.
Xiao Rui had arranged two skirmishes with them; Tong Yao would play one and Lu Yue would play the other one. The arrangement was to prepare ZGDX for the world tournament. By facing strong teams from Korea, ZGDX had to become more flexible in order to move further up-- --Neither Tong Yao, nor Lu Yue had any objections. Lu Yue had proved himself with his performance to be a qualified player for the team after he replaced Tong Yao for the game she had been banned from. Tong Yao wouldn't dare relax on her own training since Lu Yue was right behind her......
Sleeping early like she first joined the team was already a thing of the past. It was quite normal for her to play ranked till 1 am-- --Usually when she came off the computer, her brain was blank, the only thing she could remember was positioning and farming.
After she had confirmed the training plan before she went to bed Sunday night, Tong Yao sat at her own seat the whole next day without moving much......In order not to shame herself in front of her Korean counterpart on Wednesday, she wanted to make sure that even if she couldn't kill the opponent, at least she could play on the same level as him.
She could make up her stream hours at the same time.
The latest version of the game wouldn't allow players above Master level to play duo. So Tong Yao used Lu Yue's id to play duos with Old K's jungler. Lu Yue on the other hand used Tong Yao's id to play solo.
The whole day, Tong Yao and her teammates were diligently playing games on their computers at base. Once in a while, someone would get up to get some water. Aside from the exchanges between Tong Yao and Old K there was hardly any conversation. The base was filled with the sound of clicking mice and clacking keyboards-- --
"The Kassadin's only level three, come now or you won't be able to get him later."
"Let me check. I've seen this AD before. He likes to signal at bot, if no one responds, he'll keep signaling."
"Don't mind him, just don't mind him."
"He'll blast you if you don't respond."
"What are you afraid of, you can't read Korean anyway."
"......"
They had just started another ranked match. Tong Yao and Old K were busy nagging about their teammates. Li Sicheng happened to finish one of his matches and threw down his mouse and stood up to move his wrist around. He stood behind Tong Yao to watch her play, in the meantime he picked up the cup on his desk to take a sip of water. He swallowed the water but then paused.
He quickly put down the cup, went to the bathroom, coughed a few times, then started to brush his teeth.
When Lu Sicheng came back, anyone could smell the minty toothpaste in his breath. He knocked on Tong Yao's desk: "The opponent's jungler has already finished a set of monsters at the upper half of the jungle. Are you still going to farm and wait until you get ganked? If you're going to play this way on Wednesday and the opponent chooses Rengar, then he'll clean mid lane out."
Tong Yao: "......Then ban Rengar."
Lu Sicheng: "There are others: Evelynn, Nocturne, Fiddlesticks. How about you get Riot Games to let you ban 10 champions?"
Tong Yao: "......"
Tong Yao immediately retreated.
Old K: "You two mids play totally different. I have to prepare two different methods to work with you two, what a pain. I would like to suggest that the team arrange a substitute for me as well."
Lu Sicheng: "You're the first one to ask for a substitute on his own. Have you given up on the dream?"
Old K: "......"
A lot of bullet comments showed up on her stream-- --
[666666666 Your captain is really annoying]
[He'll diss you when you say something disagreeable]
[Hahahahahaha Cheng Ge, go away, don't bully our cute mid jungler duo]
......
"Still have the bullet comments on. Turn it off. Concentrate on your training. What's the point of watching them talk nonsense."
As he was talking, Lu Sicheng picked up his cup and put it onto Tong Yao's face-- --Tong Yao, startled by the cold, shrank her neck, and her hand slipped, missing a siege minion. She screeched: "Lu Sicheng! What are you doing!"
"After this match, go wash my cup for me."
"Why?"
"Because I drank some cat hair in my cup." Lu Sicheng said flatly: "Summer is here. Even I, an unloving person, knows that pets will lose hair. Can you take your cat to the pet shop to have a bath?"
Tong Yao pushed the hand holding the cup away: "So you know you're an unloving person."
Lu Sicheng kept his eyes fixed on Tong Yao's computer screen: "Indeed and that's why under the circumstances, I'm already being kind asking you to wash the cup rather than beat you up.-- --The enemy's already level 3, Old K, why are you still farming in the jungle? Come gank"
Old K and Tong Yao: "......"
Tong Yao finished playing the ranked match under Lu Sicheng's asperous scrutiny. After she was done with the match, she stood up and searched the room for her cat, finally finding it sleeping under Lu Sicheng's computer desk, holding Lu's slippers with its legs. The hair on the cat, which Tong Yao had combed just that morning, was sticking out all over the place in a complete mess. Tong Yao picked the cat up and rushed into the yard outside the base to comb its hair once again. She watched the hair fly under the sunlight and sneezed. She decided to listen to Lu Sicheng and take the cat to the pet shop for a bath.
......
The next morning, Tong Yao called to make an appointment with a pet grooming shop near the base, then stuffed the resisting cat into the cage.
It was around ten o'clock in the morning when Tong Yao got to the shop. It was a working day and few customers were in the shop. There was only one customer ahead of her......Tong Yao walked in the shop and told the receptionist her appointment, then she seemed to sense there was something not quite right inside the shop-- --
Tong Yao looked up to check the inside of the shop. She saw the only other customer in the shop who was sitting on a chair playing on her cell phone. Next to this customer, there was a little sickly kitten lying on a cushion......To be more exact, the young lady and the kitty both didn't look like they were in a good condition.
"I know you." The young lady suddenly spoke: "You're ZGDX's mid, right?"
"......"
"We met at the flower and pet market the other day." The young lady said with a smile: "I was with Tailun Ge that day."
Tong Yao also recognized her-- --
She finally recognized her, not because of the person but the little kitten.
Tong Yao handed over Dabing to the staff of the shop and walked over to the young lady: "What's wrong with the kitten?"
"It came down with a cold and was probably very stressed being taken to the base with so many people around. I shouldn't have taken it to the movie theater that day." As she was talking, she stood up from the chair: "Tailun Ge doesn't have time to take care of it and told me to take it to the vet......Ugh, but I need to go to work today. I have to go to the office to punch in in a little while. I was just worrying about what to do with the cat, could you watch over it for me temporarily? I'll come back to get it in a short while."
Tong Yao looked at the kitten, then glanced over at the young lady who had already walked over to the doorway. Tong Yao used her fingers to carefully stroke the kitten: "You shouldn't buy it if you don't want to keep it."
The young lady stopped and responded with an en, then turned around to walk out of the shop-- --
"Miss, do you know how Xu Tailun explained the whole thing during his stream?"
The young lady suddenly stood still outside the doorway. She turned to take a look at Tong Yao then flatly replied: "I heard it."
"......"
Tong Yao had nothing more to say.
Tong Yao watched the young lady walk away.
She took out her cell phone-- --
[ZGDX, Smiling: Captain, how many matches will I be banned for if I take someone else's cat away without asking?]
[fhdjwhdb2333: What's wrong with you now?]
[ZGDX, Smiling: I'm thinking of commiting a crime.]
[fhdjwhdb2333: You better not.]
[fhdjwhdb2333: Where are you now?]
[ZGDX, Smiling: ......At the pet shop, why?]
[fhdjwhdb2333: Nothing. I'll just go over and beat some sense into you.]
Ten minutes later, a pet shop worker came into the shop to tell Tong Yao: "Young lady, your boyfriend drove here to pick you and your cat up. Why haven't you told him that we're just starting to bathe your cat now? Why is he in such a hurry?"
Tong Yao: "................................................."