【Yao, Ai Jia and I broke up.】
Tong Yao opened WeChat to see a message from her best friend, Jin Yang. She froze for three seconds, then grabbed a cookie from the table and stuffed it into her mouth to steady herself. After a moment of thought, she replied: Why did you break up?
【He’s out of my league.】
The four icy words slapped her in the face. Tong Yao stared at them for a long time before finally letting out an “Oh.” Then she realized—no matter how many times she said “Oh,” the person on the other end of the phone wouldn’t hear it—
Jin Yang’s boyfriend, Ai Jia, was a professional League of Legends player—what people called an “Esports athlete.” In recent years, after Esports was officially recognized as a competitive sport by the government, these players… whether in terms of treatment or exposure, had risen to a whole new level.
Though, at their core, most pro players were just Internet addicts with simple minds—happy to survive as long as they had a computer—
But dating them was probably not much different from dating a celebrity.
“…I told you back then not to agree to date that Internet addict.”
Tong Yao grabbed another cookie and stuffed it into her mouth, unsure how to reply to her friend who was probably still fuming. So she simply clicked on the League of Legends icon on her desktop—
The interface was entirely in Korean. She had been playing on the Korean server lately because Korea’s Esports industry was more developed, meaning the Korean server had more skilled players. As a result, pro players from all over the world were crowding onto it.
Tong Yao had even run into a few herself.
After logging into the game, before she could even queue up for a match, a chat message popped up in the bottom-left corner. The ID was in English. Tong Yao squinted slightly to read what the person had written, only to find them getting straight to the point—
【HI,friend，wouldyoulikecometochinaplaygame?】
—Hey, buddy, would you like to come to China and play professionally?
…Three-cent English.
Tong Yao burst out laughing, a cookie still dangling from her mouth.
Casually, she replied—
【woshizhongguoren (I’m Chinese).】
Silence for three seconds.
Then came a string of “hahahahahahah”—
【nidadebucuo (you’re pretty good), duodale (how old are you), yaobuyaolaidazhiye (want to go pro)? woshiZGDXzhanduide (I’m from China Telecom Team).】
Tong Yao stared at those four letters on the screen for a long time before finally letting out an “Ah.” Her mother, who was in the kitchen gutting a fish, jumped in fright and rushed in holding a cleaver: “What?! What?! A cockroach?!”
“Mom, someone just invited me to go pro!” Tong Yao pointed at the computer screen. “It’s a really famous team, sponsored by China Telecom. Their headquarters are in Shanghai.”
Tong’s mother let out an unimpressed “Oh”: “Last week, I got a call saying I won a Rolls-Royce from a supermarket fish order.”
Tong Yao: “…”
Tong’s mother: “How are you so easy to fool? Go pro? What about school? You’re getting way too carried away with that stupid computer—have you even finished your summer homework?”“Freshmen don’t have summer homework…” Tong Yao muttered, turning her head to glance at the screen before pausing. “They said the annual salary is 600,000, with bonuses for competitions. If unsatisfied, it’s negotiable.”
“……” Tong’s Mother said, “Give them your contact info.”
“Didn’t you say they’re scammers?”
“Scammers would say six million.”
“Maybe this one’s a less exaggerated scammer.”
“Giving your number to a scammer won’t cost you a piece of flesh.”
“…Didn’t we agree I’d keep studying?”
“Take a leave of absence. Earn the 600,000 first, then go back,” Tong’s Mother waved a kitchen knife. “Give them your number.”
It felt like the knife would be lodged in her forehead the next second if she dared refuse. Tong Yao shook her head, thought for a moment, then typed a line on the computer—
【Sorry, woshinvde (I’m a girl), dabuliao LPL (can’t play in the LPL).】
LPL is the abbreviation for the League of Legends Pro League in China, with twelve teams in the entire league. ZGDX is one of the top-tier teams, boasting many star players and a massive fanbase both domestically and internationally—even more impressive than YQCB, the team Jin Yang’s ex-boyfriend Ai Jia played for.
Tong Yao quite liked this team and always kept up with their matches.
At first, she was genuinely excited when someone from the team reached out to her. But now, the real issue wasn’t anything else—it was that she was a girl.
Aside from a female pro player accepted into the North American league last year, no other woman had ever stood on that dazzling competitive stage across any major region worldwide. Back then, the North American league’s move caused quite a stir in the scene.
Tong Yao wiped her face and glanced at the chat—no reply. She knew it was probably over, unsure whether she felt disappointed or something else. She lost the mood to keep gaming and was about to close the window when another message popped up—
【Girls is OK, xiaojiejie (little sister), laigaogedaxinwenba (let’s make some big news)!】
“…”
Suddenly, broken English seemed kind of cute.
With the optimistic mindset of “even if you’re a scammer, at least you made me happy for a bit,” Tong Yao sent her phone number and logged off.
Then, she noticed her WeChat was flooded with messages from her best friend—
【All he cares about is gaming. Damn it, what’s the point? Games are more important than his girlfriend. I told him I was feeling down today, and guess what he said? ‘We lost scrims, so I’m feeling down too, wahhh.’】
【I said I wanted to see him, and he replied, ‘Sure, babe. I’ll turn on the camera during my stream tonight. Come watch and send me some fish balls (small stream gifts), mwah.’】
【I said I was exhausted from classes, and he said he was exhausted from gaming too.】["I'm so freaking pissed, where are you?! Answer me! Yesterday I saw him wearing a shirt I'd never seen before, and it actually looked good—definitely not straight guy taste. Asked him where he got it, and he said a fan gave it to him! A female fan, can you believe it?! This guy has female fans—was I supposed to say it looked good? Of course I had to say it was ugly. And you know what he said? 'Fans give gifts out of kindness, it's only right to wear them to show appreciation!' Screw that! So the fans' kindness counts, but mine is just shit?!"
"I'm done with this idiot. So tired."
"Finally got a break with no scrims, and he won’t even go out to eat… insists on solo training at the team headquarters. Like, wow, I’m moved. How is this hardworking guy still not a champion? God, do you have eyes on your ass or what?!"
"He loves his keyboard more than me. The worst part? That keyboard was a gift from me."
"Even our dates are just gaming. And when we do game, he has the nerve to call me bad. Hello?! Women just need to be cute. If there were creatures in this world who were both cute AND good at gaming, what would these Melon Skin Internet addicts even be good for?!"
"I'm so mad."
……
Tong Yao scrolled through the messages, laughing uncontrollably.
By the end, she was almost embarrassed. Languidly, she started typing in the reply box: "Stay positive, I’ll treat you to a nice meal—" when suddenly, another message popped up:
"Yao Yao, if it were you, how would you choose to date a pro gamer properly?"
Tong Yao paused mid-keystroke, then deleted the half-typed words. After a moment of silence, as if something had occurred to her, the smile faded from her lips. Lowering her eyes, she typed seriously:
"If it were me, I wouldn’t date a pro gamer. If I had that kind of patience, I’d rather use it to get into Tsinghua or Peking University."]
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