What was particularly rare was that after having such a conversation, both Lu Sicheng and Greedy Wolf returned to the break room displaying remarkable mental fortitude, pretending as if nothing had happened...
Especially when Lu Sicheng asked Greedy Wolf, "You played Jinx pretty well today. Did you practice her a lot these past couple days?" Tong Yao felt that the Oscars owed her team captain a little golden statue.
Greedy Wolf nodded, not looking the least bit surprised, and raised his head to gaze expressionlessly at Lu Sicheng as he said, "I practiced last-hitting in single-player mode, mainly to get a feel for it. Things like champion scaling damage—you understand them after one use, no need to memorize them deliberately. I thought she was viable for today's match, so I asked the coach to let me try her out."
Tong Yao: "..."
Two little golden Oscars statues.
And also.
Back in the day, she had spent an entire night just practicing last-hitting with that damn Azir, then proceeded to bomb her way through Lu Yue's Diamond-ranked account before finally getting somewhat decent with the champion... Greedy Wolf's words were just too infuriating.
At that moment, the number of people around Tong Yao who also thought Greedy Wolf was being insufferably arrogant was the entire team—but anyone with eyes could see that Greedy Wolf had indeed played exceptionally well today, so his bragging wasn't entirely unjustified. When Little Fatty patted his shoulder with a grin and said, "Not bad, not bad, genius AD prodigy," Lu Sicheng nodded, tossed out a "Good," then plugged in his earphones and stopped dwelling on the matter.
Once on the bus, he took out his phone and saw someone stirring the pot on WeChat—
【Bunny Hugging Carrot: I thought you'd reply with: I don’t need to practice last-hitting and I never miss a creep… Or at least: Oh, same as me.】
Lu Sicheng: "..."
【fhdjwhdb2333: Greedy Wolf did get one thing right earlier by the restroom door.】
Tong Yao, sitting in front, glanced at her phone screen, then peeked her head over the armrest to silently stare at the man sitting in the very back row. He paused, then lowered his head to continue typing—
【fhdjwhdb2333: Old folks tend to be merciful. If someone like me, an old man, had to nitpick every little thing with you kids, it’d be a waste of all those extra years I’ve spent eating rice.】
Tong Yao stared at the word "merciful" for a long time, unable to process it, her mind filled with images of how the mere mention of "Lu Sicheng" during Scrims would make everyone pale if there had been any mistakes. She reflexively replied with a string of "Oh hahahahahahaha" on WeChat to express the absurdity she felt.
...But at that moment, Tong Yao had momentarily forgotten that aside from being their teammate, Lu Sicheng was also their half-boss—
Which meant that if he discovered Greedy Wolf had been privately discussing a transfer with another club outside the transfer window, he had every right—and solid justification—to take action against him. According to the usual practices of LPL clubs, such acts of betrayal were severely punished, ranging from salary deductions and Suspension for a season to contract termination and being benched until irrelevance.
Yet he didn’t.
Even knowing that this kid Greedy Wolf wasn’t exactly friendly toward him and was indeed a legitimate threat to his position, he still did nothing, pretending as if he knew nothing at all.
...After returning to the hotel, he sat in Tong Yao's room watching the match between RMB Team and CK Team from the LSPL, with the volume turned up loud—so even while washing up and tidying herself in the room, Tong Yao could hear the commentators rambling on...
Commentator A: [This is a fated battle—Hu Die from CK Team against Quick Star from RMB Team. The tension was palpable from the moment they laned, forcing a Level One Teamfight even when it wasn’t ideal...]
Commentator B: [Honestly, I haven’t heard much about Quick Star in the LSPL for a long time—such a veteran player.]
Commentator A: [I heard CK Team wanted to buy Quick Star back this year, saying even if he were to retire, they’d let him do it under the CK banner—many longtime CK fans were moved, but Quick Star turned down the offer.]
Commentator B: [I wouldn’t go back either. After all these years, why return now without having achieved anything? Though the team Quick Star’s in now... well.]
The two commentators were being particularly tactful. After finishing her wash-up, Tong Yao leaned over Lu Sicheng’s shoulder to watch. The player called Quick Star was last-hitting as smoothly as she’d seen in yesterday’s Scrims, using Big Mouth, its tail lightly swaying.
Tong Yao: "Hey, this Big Mouth... its tail is wagging."
—As mentioned before, Big Mouth’s tail wagging was a special animation effect caused by the combination of in-game frame rates and the player’s lightning-fast, precise inputs. Even in the current LPL, there were no more than four ADCs who could make this Champion’s tail wag...
In the current meta, ADCs weren’t strong early-game and relied entirely on their teammates to carry them through until they could take over late-game. RMB Team leaned entirely on their ADC to hold things together. Before the S5 World Championship, they could still manage, but after the major meta shifts in S5, against stronger teams, RMB often collapsed before Quick Star could even come online.
Like right now—
Even though the game was still in the laning phase, apart from the bot lane barely holding a 50-50, the other two lanes were on the verge of crumbling...
A player like Quick Star stuck in a mid-tier LSPL team, dragged down by teammates nowhere near his level, was truly a waste of talent.
Tong Yao: "This Quick Star is really good. Hu Die isn’t getting any advantage over him."
Lu Sicheng: "He was even better before. Hu Die wouldn’t have stood a chance against him back then. He’s a bit dulled now—LSPL teams without higher-tier affiliations lack proper management and operations... though domestic clubs are all pretty terrible at that."
Tong Yao reached past Lu Sicheng and turned off the match he was watching, plunging the room into silence: "No way. If Little Wolf goes to another LSPL team now, he’ll end up just like—"
"Worse than Quick Star, probably. Right now, he’s just a half-finished product. He might become strong later, but it depends on the environment he grows in." The man lowered his eyes, masking the faint amusement in them. "But if he wants to leave, no one can stop him. China Telecom would never play in a Relegation match, and they can’t make it into the LPL. So in the future, he’ll probably spend every year shouting about defeating me, only to meet me in the Demacia Cup and get stomped—""……………………How can you be so wicked?"
Lu Sicheng chuckled. "There's more where that came from."
As he spoke, he was sitting on the sofa in Tong Yao's room.
Outside the door, Xiao Rui could be heard pacing around, shouting at Little Fatty about what he wanted for dinner. Xiao Rui yelled, "Should we ask the captain? Where is he, anyway?"
"Oh," the Alliance First Support replied calmly, "He's taking a shower."
Meanwhile.
Inside the room, Lu Sicheng tossed his phone onto the bed, and the previously paused match resumed playing—just as the sounds from inside and outside the room mingled, the man reached out and pulled the person standing behind him into his lap with a swift motion.
Tong Yao landed squarely on his thighs, but before she could ask what madness had possessed him this time, the man tilted his head up and caught her lower lip between his teeth—Tong Yao froze, then felt his tongue sweep against her teeth. She obediently parted her lips slightly, allowing him to deepen the kiss...
["The teams are now clashing in the bot lane—Yang Shen from CK is finally making his move! Haoyun Lai is TPing in too! What incredible response speed! Oh no, Quick Star won’t be able to escape this time! No mercy for his old teammate at all!"]
Amid the commentator's roaring voice, the team manager outside was still searching for his captain, urging him to hurry up with his shower.
Little did he know that the person he was looking for was sitting just a door away, holding their Mid Laner in his arms, kissing her so fiercely she was left weak and breathless. Her heart raced, her face flushed crimson, and when the man finally released her lips, he trailed kisses down to her reddened earlobe, then further down...
His lips lingered on the faint marks she had concealed earlier with makeup—now freshly washed and uncovered—before his tongue teased the sensitive skin there.
Tong Yao squirmed from the ticklish sensation.
She tilted her head away, her voice hushed and flustered. "Wait, wait—they're all right outside, hey..."
["Quick Star knows he can’t escape, so he Flashes forward, trying to take Hu Die down with him—what kind of grudge is this? 'If I die, I’m dragging you with me!'—Hu Die must be so confused right now, hahahaha! Hu Die’s about to die! Aaaaand—Yang Shen ults, saving the low-health Hu Die! Kindred can’t be used? Well, that depends on who’s using it—Yang Shen cleans up!"]
Between the commentator’s excited shouts and Tong Yao’s soft protests, the man’s hands—chilled from the air-conditioned room—slid under her clothes. This time, there was no hesitation as his fingers traced slow circles over her stomach. Trapped firmly in his embrace, Tong Yao shivered at the contrast of his cool touch against her warm skin, letting out a small gasp.
Her face burning with tension, she grabbed his wrist. Through the thin fabric of her summer clothes, their proximity was undeniable—she could feel the steady rise and fall of his chest growing heavier...
["Yang Shen chases down the low-health support Trundle—let’s be real, Trundle’s pretty tanky, but kid, just stop running. You’re up against a level nine Kindred with eight kills and a fresh Quadra under his belt..."]
Breath uneven, face flushed deep red, even the corners of her eyes tinged pink like a rabbit’s—Tong Yao stared at the man’s handsome face and whispered, "What exactly are you trying to do? Everyone’s outside, the whole world is looking for you—what’s gotten into you?"
As she spoke, she tried to shift her weight, attempting to stand up."Stop squirming," Lu Sicheng's voice was hoarse as his large hand resting on Tong Yao's thigh gave her bottom a pat. "You're about to go give that brat Greedy Wolf another moral lecture—he just finished arguing with me today, and now I have to send my own person to give him counseling—"
[Penta Kill! Yang Shen! Jian Yang! He's given us the second spectacular Penta Kill on the first day of the Demacia Cup!]
Lu Sicheng's hand lingered on Tong Yao's backside without moving.
[In this team fight, Yang Shen has made his mark.]
"—I'm not happy about it."
His gaze darkened as his thin lips parted to deliver these three simple, conclusive words.
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