Lu Sicheng had only gone up a few steps and heard footsteps behind him. He stopped and turned around-- --startling the person who was closely following him.
Standing higher up, Lu Sicheng lowered his head to glance at the innocent face that seemed surprised that he turned around. Lu Sicheng raised his eyebrows:
“Why are you following me?”
“......”
Tong Yao was dumbfounded.
She opened her mouth, but couldn’t come up with an explanation for following him…...It wasn’t that she refused to tell him, it was because she didn’t even
know why she was following him. However, if she replied that she didn’t know why, it probably wouldn’t be enough to convince Lu Sicheng to drop the question.
Tong Yao tried to come up with some plausible reason. She pricked her brain trying to find a good excuse-- --
“Cheng Ge, do you have a girlfriend already?”
“......”
“......”
There were a few seconds of dead silence.
ZGDX base had never before resembled so much like a graveyard, solemn and quiet.
Not only Lu Sicheng but even Tong Yao herself was taken back by her question…...She felt that the air around them had frozen-- --Under the strict eyes of Lu Sicheng, Tong Yao could feel her ears starting to burn. She became tongue-tied: “No, no, actually I’m not that curious, just asking. If you don’t want to say……”
“No, I don’t.”
“......”
“Since I lived at home when I was in school, my mom always directed me to do this and that a few days each month-- --So I got the idea that: every woman has
the right to do whatever she wants at a certain period during each month.”
Lu Sicheng calmly spoke as if he was speaking of a very common subject.
“....................................Oh, really.” Tong Yao answered as if she had lost the ability to think. “That’s tough.”
“So later on I lived on campus. I wouldn’t go home even if blazing hot in the dorm during summer.”
“......”
“So I wouldn’t easily get involved with a woman.”
“.........................Oh, right. You do look like you don’t like people.”
“What did you say?”
“......” Tong Yao almost wanted to bit off her own tongue.
“It’s not that I don’t like people, it’s that I like games. If I fall in love, I hope I can find someone who plays better than me.”
After he finished talking, as if he had lost interest in continuing the conversation, he pulled the jacket on his shoulder closer and turned to walk up the stairs without showing much emotion on his face-- --He completely ignored the girl who was so shocked to hear his answer that she had frozen in place.
Until he closed the door to his room.
The sound of the closing door brought Tong Yao back to her senses.
-- --Someone who played better than the Chessman?
…………………………………………………….Excuse me? !
Still in shock, Tong Yao pulled out her cell phone-- --
[ZGDX/Smiling: …………………..Oh, no. Cheng Ge is actually gay!]
[ZGDX/Smiling: Or he really dislikes people!]
After a few seconds, Jinyang sent her reply, a very calm reply-- --
[Ah Mao’s mom: How so?]
[ZGDX/Smiling: He said he’ll find a person who plays games better than him to fall in love!]
[Ah Mao’s mom: ……]
[Ah Mao’s mom: Does Miracle Nikki count?]
[ZGDX/Smiling: ……]
[Ah Mao’s mom: He didn’t say better in which game.]
Speechless, Tong Yao put away her phone and sat down on the sofa waiting for the porridge to cook. Once she was idle, her tummy started to hurt again-- -- She changed positions at least ten times within ten minutes on the sofa, sitting, lying, on top of her stomach and couldn’t get into a comfortable position no matter
what she did. In the end, she gave up trying and collapsed on the sofa and started to watch streams on her phone……
As a faithful fan, Tong Yao was watching the retired ADC Smiling’s stream. Though he had retired for 3 years, he still played like a professional, rarely
missed any minion…...Oh, right, she had heard that this Smiling was an esports pager before; he would constantly page his support during competition-- --
It was a totally different style from Lu Sicheng.
After playing a competition match with Lu Sicheng, Tong Yao discovered that he really didn’t talk much during the game. Aside from giving out some commands, he usually just quietly conducted his own business and listened to the constant chatter among other teammates……
Or he might have blocked the chat channel and wasn’t listening at all.
Tong Yao: “......”
Tong Yao’s mind drifted away as she watched the stream.
It wasn’t until the Smiling in the phone cried out because he had missed a siege minion that Tong Yao was startled out of her daydreaming. Her hand jerked and the cell phone fell from her hand on top of her nose. Tong Yao screeched with pain and covered her face. At the same time, a door upstairs opened-- --
Lu Sicheng walked out of his room frowning, with a sleepy face and messed up hair…...He stood on the second floor looking down and asked in a cold voice: “What’s wrong?”
Tong Yao wiped away the tears of pain and raised her head: “What? What’s going on? Why are you up? You’re not sleeping anymore? The porridge isn’t ready yet……”
“What was that screaming about?”
“......I was watching a stream.”
Lu Sicheng’s expression became icier. Tong Yao bent down to pick up her phone: “Am I bothering you? I’m sorry, I’ll turn down the volume even lower. You go back sleep.” In reality, the volume was very low to begin with, she couldn’t understand how Lu Sicheng could have such sharp ears……
“Never mind.”
With Lu Sicheng’s cold voice, Tong Yao muted her phone after a bit of hesitation. Lu Sicheng walked down from the second floor and passed by Tong Yao. He noticed her messed up hair and pale, bluish face.
He paused and suddenly said: “I thought you had burned yourself from the porridge.”
“What?” Tong Yao was stunned and raised her head with a smile: “How can it be possible? I’m not that-- --”
When Lu Sicheng turned to look at her with his expressionless dark brown pupils, Tong Yao swallowed what she was about to say: I’m not that clumsy. She fell silent and embarrassingly rubbed her nose tip……
Tong Yao seemed to hear a sigh next to her in a hopelessly resigned manner. She wasn’t sure whether she had heard wrong. From the corner of her eyes,
she noticed the tall figure hovering over her. One of his hands gripped her arm to pull her up straight a little on the sofa and the other hand lifted the bottom of her top up a little-- --
The usually warm big hand rubbed her cold tummy. Tong Yao uttered a low cry and stiffened her back.
Lu Sicheng coughed and said flatly with furrowed eyebrows: “Be quiet.”
Tong Yao returned to silence..
The next second, the hand on her tummy moved away. Lu Sicheng backed away: “Don’t you know how to get a hot water bottle for yourself?”
Though she could still feel the warmth on her tummy, she weakly answered: “There, there’s no such thing in the base.”
“How do you know if you don’t ask?”
As he was speaking, Lu Sicheng turned to go upstairs. When he came down again, he was holding a hot water bottle in his hand. “Some fan gave this to Little Fatty last winter.” He threw it to Tong Yao as he spoke. “Is there any hot water left?”
Tong Yao, holding the hot water bottle that had last year’s ZGDX team picture of ZGDX on it, shook her head then nodded.
Lu Sicheng raised his eyebrows, looking at Tong Yao as if she had brain damage-- --bending down to pull the hot water bottle away from Tong Yao’s hands rather
roughly. He turned to walk into the kitchen, turned off the rice cooker when he noticed that the porridge was ready, then turned around to open the electric kettle.
With one hand holding the hot water bottle, he picked up the kettle and poured hot water in.
He did all this in one swift motion.
Tong Yao had jumped down from the sofa and followed closely behind. She stretched out her neck, on her tippy toes, trying to watch him pour the hot water from the side. The steam blurred that handsome face…….
“How could you rub a girl’s tummy like that just now?”
“Is it a tiger’s tummy? Untouchable?”
“In ancient times, you would have to marry me if you did that.”
“I thought I was doing a favor for you.” Lu Sicheng casted down his eyes: “Why do I have to be punished?”
“......”
After filling it up with hot water, the man put the stopper back into the hot water bottle. He raised his eyelids to glance over the girl who was standing behind him with a stone face. He used his thumb to wipe away some water that had splashed out and stuffed the hot water bottle into her arms: “In the ancient times, I would have married you 800 times already.”
“......”
“Then I would have divorced you over 800 times.”
“Isn’t it ridiculous that you had to repeatedly marry and divorce someone 800 times?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I’m unfortunate and have periodic bouts of blindness.”
After he finished, he turned to take out two bowls from the cupboard and started to spoon out the porridge.
Five minutes later, the only two living souls at base occupied the two ends of the dinner table, quietly eating their porridge-- --Tong Yao sat on the chair cross legged, with the warm hot water bottle nestled against her stomach. She felt like bathing in a warm ocean and after eating the warm brown sugar porridge, her originally icy cold toes were starting to warm up.
Tong Yao put down the bowl.
“Cheng Ge.”
“?”
“I feel bad that you ended up taking care of me when I’m supposed to take care of you.”
“?” Lu Sicheng looked up from the edge of the bowl to the girl at the other end of the table: “When and who told you to take care of me? Wasn’t it because you
weren’t feeling good so you begged to come back?”
Tong Yao laughed hollowly before she standing up to put the bowl into the sink. Usually, they didn’t have to wash the dishes, the housekeeper would do it next day…...Her stomach felt much better after having something warm in her stomach. Not feeling sleepy at the moment, Tong Yao went back to the sofa to continue watching the stream.
Lu Shicheng finished eating soon afterwards. When he passed by the sofa, Tong Yao suddenly called him: “Cheng Ge.” He stopped and turned to look at her from high above. His handsome and aloof face had a look that said: What’s wrong now?
Tong Yao put down her cell phone, tugged the hem of his top to let him bend down, then she knelt on the sofa reaching for his forehead: “Do you still have fever?”
“You think the medicine you gave me is some sort of miracle drug.”
Tong Yao stood up and pushed him towards the stairs: “Go up, go up. Now it’s my turn to take care of you.”
“You tummy isn’t hurting anymore?”
“It still hurts.”
“Then stay away from me. I don’t want to see someone rolling on the carpet in my room with a ghastly pale face.”
“......”
The two of them argued about whether the captain needed anyone to take care of him as they walked upstairs until their voices disappeared inside Lu Sicheng’s room and the door closed-- --
The base returned to its early quiet.
Tong Yao had left her cell phone behind on the sofa, still broadcasting the stream……
She didn’t forget to bring the hot water bottle though.
……
That night, when it was close to 12:30 after midnight, the ZGDX base was finally alive again. The teammates who had been in the event for the whole night were
jumping off the van and rushing back into the base. Little Fatty was at the very front and shouted: “We’re back with food for you two.” But there was no one at
the first floor of the base when the door opened, it was complete quiet.
Little Fatty hesitated but then thought those two sick people might be sleeping after they had taken their medicine. He gestured to the others who were following him-- --
Everyone quieted down considerably.
Little Fatty muttered: “Let me go check on Cheng Ge to see whether he’s feeling better now.” Then he climbed up the stairs on his tiptoes.
Five seconds later, he dashed out the room as if he was frightened out of his wits. But he didn’t forget to shut the door.
“......What’s wrong with you?” Lu Yue raised his eyebrows. “Did you see a ghost?”
Little Fatty waved his hands, looking at all the others downstair at a loss…...Under everyone’s baffled gaze, Lu Yue indifferently said: “It can’t be that my brother is
dead from a cold,” and walked upstairs. He went straight past Little Fatty, opened the door, and stuck his head into the room. The expression on his face froze the next second-- --
The black blanket hunched up high on the bed next to the window inside the room. The man on the bed was soundly asleep facing the door…...The captain of ZGDX
was obviously still alive. What had horrified his teammates was that there was another person under the blanket nestled against him. That person had her face buried deep inside the man’s chest with her feet curled up. Her slippers exposed outside the blanket.
Lu Yue backed away, much calmer than Little Fatty. Without much expression on his face, he closed the door.
“......What’s wrong?” Xiao Rui raised his eyebrows and asked the same question as Lu Yue did 30 seconds ago: “Did you see a ghost?”
Lu Yue was quiet for 30 seconds.
Then he spoke: “It’s more horrible than a ghost.”