At that moment, I understood why someone could steal Chessman's Red Buff and still be alive and kicking in this world;
At that moment, I understood why someone could command Chessman, who was in the middle of a Ranked Game, to drop the game and stand up just to fetch her a bottle of mineral water upstairs;
At that moment, I understood why someone's cat, with the audacity of a bear and the guts of a leopard, could eat fish it wasn’t supposed to and shamelessly rub against the fish owner’s leg, begging for a can to be opened;
At that moment, I understood why a car worth at least seven figures could casually become "You want it? Here, take it" amid laughter;
At that moment, I understood why Lu Sicheng’s salary hadn’t been docked much for smoking violations these past two months;
At that moment, I understood why delivering a bottle of water—an action that should take less than three seconds—could make Lu Sicheng linger in her room for a full thirty minutes...
Little Fatty had just stepped out to make instant noodles—
But now, God had made him stumble upon these century-old mysteries completely unprepared... At this very moment, the support player of China Telecom Team held a bowl of noodles in one hand, his mind flooded with an extremely rich barrage of Live Comments, roughly along these lines—
[Holy shit holy shit holy shit?!!]
[I’ve time-traveled.]
[Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!]
[They’re together, excuse me?! These two? A match?!!!]
[My noodles are gonna get soggy.]
[But that’s not even the point.]
[No one even told me I got cucked—the AD ran off with the mid-laner, leaving me, the support, behind: Why is the river in the bot lane so green it’s even dyed the crab green? Because Fatty’s washing his hair upstream.]
[My eyes are burning.]
[……………………Wait, what were they doing in the room yesterday?]
[……………………Wait, what did I interrupt when I knocked on the door?]
[……………………Wait, what did the captain’s crotch look like when the door opened?]
[...Suddenly realized why I suffered a whole night of reverse Rank Up despite duoing with the captain—this bastard had it all planned, he didn’t even use his own account!!!!! Damn it!!!!]
[Superman and Chessman, nice, very couple-like IDs.]
[Bastard.]
[Bastard.]
[Bastard.]
Little Fatty took the plastic fork out of his mouth, opened his mouth to say "You guys"; paused, then probably thought "silence speaks louder than words," so he stuffed the fork back in—returning to his original pose of holding noodles with a fork dangling from his mouth—he silently stared at Lu Sicheng and Tong Yao, then glanced down to find Lu Sicheng’s hand still resting on Tong Yao’s waist.
Little Fatty: "..."
Tong Yao’s face flushed red. After snapping back to reality, she frantically tried to pry Lu Sicheng’s hand off her waist, but the man’s grip remained stubbornly fixed, unmoving... Tong Yao grew desperate, looking up at him and mouthing "Let go"; Lu Sicheng, seeing her eyes widen in agitation—dark and bright—curled his lips and mouthed back "No way"—
Tong Yao rolled her eyes so hard she nearly fainted from anger.
Until Little Fatty cleared his throat—The two entangled figures froze in their movements, lifting their heads in unison to look at Little Fatty. Little Fatty switched his cup noodles to the other hand, barely resisting the urge to hurl them like a grenade at the pair. After a moment's thought, he asked, "………………How long has this been going on?"
"For a while," Lu Sicheng replied nonchalantly.
Oh.
For a while.
...What the fucking melon skin?!
"...You hid it pretty well. No one had a clue. Just yesterday, Xiao Rui was still fantasizing about Tong Yao and Greedy Wolf," Little Fatty pressed on. "Who committed the crime first and shattered the pure camaraderie of teammates?"
"Me," Lu Sicheng answered smoothly. "I threatened her. Said if she didn’t comply, I’d throw her cat out..."
Tong Yao frowned and slapped the back of his hand. Lu Sicheng let her, but the hand resting on her waist moved to her shoulder, pulling her firmly into his embrace. He patted her head, looking smug as he declared, "And she obediently came with me."
Little Fatty: "..."
Little Fatty’s mind was instantly flooded with live comments all screaming, Holy shit, that actually worked?!
At this moment, faced with Lu Sicheng’s utterly unbothered expression—as if being caught was just a casual coincidence—Little Fatty found himself holding his noodles, drowning in a sea of unspoken fuck my life with no words to articulate his frustration.
Five minutes later.
The three of them found some empty seats and sat down. Tong Yao took the spot to Lu Sicheng’s right, playing with her fingers and looking down, her expression screaming Sorry, comrades, I accidentally seduced your general—I can’t face you all anymore.
Lu Sicheng sat in the middle, kindly reminding Little Fatty, "Your noodles are getting soggy."
Little Fatty, seated on the far left, opened his cup and took a bite. The image of Tong Yao on her tiptoes, red-faced, tugging at their captain’s collar to pull him down for a kiss flashed through his mind. Suddenly, the seafood-flavored noodles tasted like dog food—bitter on the tongue, the flavor of a single man’s sorrow.
"This isn’t right," Little Fatty set down his noodles, heartbroken. "She’s the only girl on the team. We all dote on her, protect her, cherish her. And you, as the captain, just went ahead and claimed her behind our backs..."
Lu Sicheng: "If I didn’t claim her first, should I have left her for you guys?"
Little Fatty: "..."
Lu Sicheng: "I’m the captain, not a saint."
Tong Yao: "..."
Little Fatty found Lu Sicheng’s reasoning both shameless and somewhat logical, so he turned to their mid laner, who at least seemed slightly guilty and ashamed. "And you, Tong Yao! Weren’t you the one who swore to focus on your career and never date pro gamers because they’re all scumbags? Now you’re slapping yourself in the face—"
Tong Yao ducked her head, her chin nearly disappearing into her collar as she mumbled, "But Captain isn’t like Jian Yang. He doesn’t fool around or lie. He just plays Ranked Games and watches match videos. That one time I sneezed next to him, he even put out his cigarette..."
Her voice grew quieter, her head drooping lower. In contrast, the smile on Lu Sicheng’s lips grew more pronounced. He reached out to pat her head, looking unbearably smug—as if he’d just pinned Pope Li Junhe to the bench and single-handedly claimed the LCK ( League of Legends Champions Korea ) trophy.
Little Fatty felt the dog food aroma emanating from his noodles grow even stronger.
"So how did you two even fall for each other?" Little Fatty asked.Tong Yao thought for a moment before answering, "I don't know. Being scolded by him so much just made me start to like it somehow."
Lu Sicheng didn't even hesitate, answering with complete seriousness: "She's especially cute when standing on tiptoes to hide drinks in the supermarket; especially cute when gaming; especially cute when bullied by A Tai's Leblanc and hiding in her seat crying while practicing Azir all night; especially cute when winning matches and getting cocky enough to trash-talk Yang Shen without knowing her limits; especially cute when she won against me in solo matches with that arrogant look..."
Tong Yao: "..."
Tong Yao raised both hands to cover her face, the blush peeking through her fingers so intense it looked like her face might drip blood.
Little Fatty said expressionlessly, "I was just asking casually."
Lu Sicheng also kept a straight face: "I could list more."
Little Fatty maintained his deadpan expression: "Save it for the priest at your wedding ceremony."
Lu Sicheng turned to look at him with a regretful expression: "Don't you want to hear more?"
Little Fatty tore off the lid of his instant noodles, poked at the softened noodles with a plastic fork, and made an extremely conflicted expression. After much hesitation, he tremblingly asked what he most wanted—and most feared—to know: "One last question... how far have you two... gone?"
Lu Sicheng immediately laughed—a soft chuckle. Tong Yao made a protesting noise, lowering her hands from her face to kick him under the table while hurriedly clarifying to Little Fatty: "It's just what you've seen! Nothing more!"
"If you hadn't been begging me last night to carry you through Diamond III, the answer might have been different," Lu Sicheng said leisurely, turning to tuck the messy strands of Tong Yao's hair behind her ear—hair she'd messed up from fidgeting. The red-faced girl swatted his hand away, and he slowly retracted his now-reddened hand. "Don't you think now that losing those hundred points was justified?"
Little Fatty: "BULLSHIT!!!!"
Lu Sicheng smirked: "Anything else you want to ask?"
Tong Yao panicked, whispering sharply, "Lu Sicheng!"
Little Fatty waved them off: "Right now I just want to eat my noodles in peace. Get out of here, far away!"
Lu Sicheng pulled Tong Yao to her feet, casually remarking, "Did you see anything you liked while we were shopping earlier? I'll buy it for you."
Little Fatty shoved a mouthful of noodles in and casually added, "I've been supporting you for two years and you've never even bought me face wash."
Tong Yao dragged Lu Sicheng away in a fluster, then went to the most expensive cosmetics counter to buy Little Fatty the priciest face wash available—
Watching the fair-skinned girl with flushed cheeks hand over her own bank card to the sales associate, the man stood behind her like a guardian deity, his handsome face expressionless as he delivered a sarcastic remark: "You don't need to feel so guilty. He was just saying it casually."
"He's been with you for two years!" Tong Yao scribbled her signature on the receipt without looking up. "And you never even bought him face wash! How tragic!"
"..."
Lu Sicheng fell silent. Even as they collected their purchase and left, he mercifully refrained from telling Tong Yao about the indescribably complicated look the sales associate had given her during their conversation.
...
In the end, Tong Yao and the others were stranded at the airport until 9 PM before finally boarding their flight.When boarding the plane, Tong Yao was already so drowsy she could barely think straight. Seeing her window seat, she looked forward to getting some proper sleep on the flight... But the moment she settled into her seat, a dark figure moved past her vision—her team captain sat down beside her.
Tong Yao instantly woke up halfway: "...Wasn’t Little Fatty supposed to sit here?"
"He’s fat. The aisle seat gives him more room, so we switched." Lu Sicheng took off his jacket and casually tossed it to Tong Yao. "Sleep. You’ve yawned ten times already."
The jacket carried his scent.
And his warmth.
Hugging the jacket, Tong Yao blinked. "Did he approve of us being together?"
"…………Are you stupid? If he said no, were you planning to dump me, huh?" The man reached over and pressed a hand against her head. "Since when does his opinion matter?"
Tong Yao pulled the jacket up to cover half her face, giggling. "No, I’m just happy to have our teammate’s support. Hehe, why are you so mad?"
Lu Sicheng straightened in his seat.
He lowered his eyes, thinking for a moment.
"Because someone told me today that I passed the probationary period. I don’t plan on going backward."
"..." Tong Yao froze mid-giggle, her hands still clutching the jacket.
"I remember—I’m not Jian Yang. I don’t mess around, I don’t lie. I just play Ranked Games and watch match replays. That day you sneezed next to me, and I quit smoking—Xiao Rui begged me for two years and I ignored him. One sneeze from you, and I quit."
"So?" The girl hiding behind the jacket looked nervous.
"Nothing," the man turned his head, offering her a clear smile, his deep brown eyes unusually bright. "That was a very good confession. Makes me feel like I’ve finally waited for the clouds to part and see the moon. I’m happy. Thank you."
"…………"
Tong Yao’s first reaction was blushing, her heart racing— Oh my god, this gaming-addicted old man is seriously thanking me!
A few seconds later, she calmed down slightly, refusing to be completely disarmed by his sweet talk: "...My rational side tells me you’re not done yet. What do you want?"
"Nothing much. Just a reminder." Lu Sicheng’s smile faded as he shifted into a more comfortable position, speaking lazily. "If you change a man, you have to take responsibility for him."
Tong Yao: "..."
Lu Sicheng: "Like you once promised your fans—at the Demacia Cup opening ceremony, I’ll give you a megaphone so you can announce to everyone: I’m Smiling, and my heart and body belong to my team captain. "
Tong Yao: "Pfft!"
She raised the jacket to smother his face, but he easily blocked her with one hand. Just then, Xiao Rui’s voice came from behind—"What are you two doing?"—as he took a seat in the empty row beside them. Tong Yao lost her balance, and Lu Sicheng swiftly caught her in his arms.
Xiao Rui: "What’s going on? Are you two kindergarteners with endless energy? You sat around the airport all day and still have the strength to roughhouse? Captain, where’s your hand? Take it off her waist—acting like some pervert. Is she even yours to grope so casually?"Hearing this, Lu Sicheng seemed displeased. His hand stealthily groped in a corner where Xiao Rui couldn't see, making Tong Yao's back hairs stand on end before he pressed her face back into position. The man spoke with natural calmness: "I asked her to do something, and she got overly excited."
Xiao Rui yawned: "What thing?"
Lu Sicheng said with complete seriousness: "Announce to the entire nation through a loudspeaker that her body and soul belong to me—"
Little Fatty started coughing violently from the row behind them.
Lu Sicheng added: "—to our team."
Xiao Rui nodded and commented: "A thoroughly insane decision. Take your meds."
Tong Yao chimed in: "Take your meds!"
Xiao Rui said: "Both of you should take them together."
Tong Yao: "..."
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