Little Fatty scratched his butt and squinted his eyes as he opened the door to go downstairs for water. The moment he stepped halfway out of his room, he spotted his team's Mid Laner and AD hugging in the hallway, whispering with their heads close together. He froze for a second, then muttered "disgusting" before slamming the door shut.
Tong Yao released Lu Sicheng and shooed him off to bed. Without a word, Lu Sicheng let her go and obediently turned to return to his room.
Tong Yao went downstairs alone and practiced last-hitting with several Mid Lane Champions in solo mode—especially focusing on Taliyah, a Champion she wasn't very familiar with. Once she felt ready, she decided to test her skills in a Ranked match and queued up.
While waiting in queue, Tong Yao suddenly noticed the small notebook on her desk. She picked it up and flipped through it—only to realize that between being busy with various matters, procrastinating earlier in the month, and last week's trip to Xiamen, she was still far from meeting her monthly streaming quota. After some thought, she decided to start a live stream.
—At such a critical moment, no one expected Tong Yao to actually go live!
In an instant, the number of viewers in her stream skyrocketed. By the time she adjusted her camera and sat down—a mere few seconds—the viewership had exploded from a dozen to over two hundred thousand... The live comments flooded the screen at lightning speed. After holding back for two or three days, the audience finally had the chance to confront the leading lady of the drama head-on, and they were going wild!
[Wow, she actually went live!]
[Holy shit holy shit my wife is streaming—supporting you! Wife, are you okay?!]
[6666666666666]
[Warning: incoming wave of haters!]
[How dare you show your face on stream? Just trying to ride the hype train now that you're trending, huh? LOL]
[↑Already here.]
[Demacia Cup 6666666666666 how the hell did you two even get together hahahaha]
[Mods, do your job! Or just give me mod, Smiling, and I'll guard the chat till you log off.]
[Hello, Team China Telecom's captain's wife, where's my Cheng Ge?]
[Where's Lu Sicheng where's Lu Sicheng where's Lu Sicheng where's Lu Sicheng]
[Get your man on stream!!!!]
……
The live comments scrolled by too fast to read, with both supportive and hateful messages quickly disappearing. Tong Yao skimmed a few and casually responded to some neutral ones: "Yeah, I'm streaming. If I don't stream while grinding Ranked Games for practice, when else would I? How is streaming shameless? I've streamed before... If I don't stream today, I won't hit my monthly quota, and then I'll have to stream myself sleeping—"
[With Lu Sicheng!]
[Lewd streamer, calling the cops!]
[So shameless, who wants to watch you and Cheng Ge sleeping?]
"………………I sleep alone," she replied calmly, unfazed by the barrage of suggestive comments. Just then, a match was found, and Tong Yao clicked to enter the game, instantly locking in Taliyah before continuing to chat. "Teammates? They're still asleep. We just got back to the team headquarters yesterday—everyone's exhausted. Yeah, from Xiamen—the second team? They played pretty well. Even though they lost to CK, they barely made it to the next round. Greedy Wolf's got talent..."
[You're praising another AD?!]
[Your man is the one with real talent, thank you very much.][Recording, reporting, changing a moderator for Lu Sicheng's room!]
[Let's talk about Cheng Ge!!!]
"What about him?" Tong Yao glanced at the live comments, her tone casual. "Cheng Ge is a very strong AD carry, currently ranked at least top three in the world..."
[Only top three!]
[Damn, why so indifferent when mentioning your man? Where's the girly heart? I want to see you blush! I want to see you shy!]
[Top three, 6666666666]
"It is top three. I can't just say he's number one, right? After all, there's an AD carry of similar skill living just next door... The AD king in my heart is Wei Xiao, Gao Xucheng, the Great King—the one who would scream if he missed a cannon minion... Cheng Ge doesn’t do that. He only inherited Gao Xucheng’s poker face, so boring."
[So are you two really together? Ahhhh look at me, answer me, answer me!]
"Yeah, we're together. Otherwise, how could things be like that?"
[Who pursued who?!!! How did you get together?!!!]
Tong Yao bent down to pick up Xiao Cong, who was passing by—in just over half a month, "Little Scallion" had grown into "Big Scallion." What was once skin and bones that could be lifted with one hand now had a round belly full of fat... She held the cat up to the camera: "He said if I didn’t agree to be with him, he’d throw Xiao Cong away. I figured it’s still a little life, so I agreed."
[666666666666666]
[Never expected Cheng Ge to be like this]
[66666666]
[Damn, this move is next-level. I’m gonna try it to get myself a wife too!]
[So when are you two breaking up?]
Amid the flood of "666" comments, Tong Yao stroked Xiao Cong’s head, her expression calm. "No breakup. Why would I break up with a boyfriend I worked hard to get?"
As she finished speaking, the Ban & Pick phase ended. Tong Yao adjusted her runes and waited for the game to start—once in-game, she stopped looking at the live comments and focused on playing the ranked match... This, however, made the spectator masses outside the stream anxious. This wasn’t quite what they had imagined when she started streaming.
They thought Tong Yao would avoid all topics related to Lu Sicheng, but she didn’t.
They thought she would directly confront the haters, but she didn’t.
They thought she would flaunt her relationship to slap the Wife Squad in the face, but she didn’t.
They thought she would hypocritically comfort Lu Sicheng’s female fans, but she didn’t.
Everything was normal.
Everything remained the same.
Yet, because of her demeanor, some of the female fans who had initially felt sour or displeased inexplicably calmed down—it was strangely effective. Tong Yao’s attitude was so matter-of-fact. She didn’t deliberately cater to others’ emotions, nor did she avoid the relevant questions...
It all just happened naturally.
So when Tong Yao began seriously practicing in ranked matches, some fans on Weibo who had previously criticized the China Telecom Team or Tong Yao quietly deleted their negative comments and privately messaged her to apologize. Others remained silent, while only a handful continued nitpicking and making a fuss.It was as if Tong Yao's calmness had a soothing effect on most people, making them settle down as well: Right, it's just two players getting together, how normal is that? What does it have to do with them... Damn idiots.
Meanwhile, Tong Yao herself was oblivious to these subtle shifts in sentiment. She continued playing her Ranked Games, diligently studying the mechanics of new Champions—Taliyah was fast, elusive, and excellent at countering assassin Champions, though her laning phase wasn't particularly strong. For a player like Tong Yao, who had an aggressive playstyle, this Champion wasn’t the most natural fit...
After getting killed by the enemy Mid Laner, she tabbed out to check the Live Comments. The chat was flooded with 【66666】 for the opposing Mid Laner, along with messages like 【You’ve fallen off since getting into a relationship—you rarely got solo-killed in lane before. Waiting for China Telecom to implode】 and 【Taliyah just isn’t your Champion】...
"I agree I’m not great with Taliyah, but I’ve seen Korean players dominate with her, so I have to practice. If I don’t, we’ll get wrecked at the World Championship—every Champion I don’t master means wasting an extra ban slot, and that’s no good."
Her tone was composed as she tabbed back into the game.
Just then, footsteps echoed from upstairs as the second-string players woke up and headed down to the first-floor training area. Tong Yao poked her head out to greet the youngsters, and as she pulled back, the door across from her—Lu Sicheng and Little Fatty’s room—swung open. The two emerged, still groggy with sleep.
Lu Sicheng leaned over the railing, squinting at Tong Yao seated in front of her computer, then ruffled his hair and shuffled back to his room for a shower.
Little Fatty drifted downstairs like a ghost and called out, "What’s for dinner?"
Tong Yao tabbed out again to skim the Live Comments: 【6666 this fatass only thinks about food】【Fatty’s awake】【Tell him to start streaming】... She chuckled and returned to the game. Her current stats were 0/2/0, contributing the only two deaths on her team. Taliyah was supposed to have strong anti-gank tools—knock-ups, traps, slows, and self-speed boosts—but Tong Yao’s unfamiliarity with the Champion left her vulnerable, unable to chain her abilities smoothly, so she kept getting caught...
At least her last-hitting fundamentals were intact, so she wasn’t too far behind in gold and items.
By the 20-minute mark, her score was 1/6/5—1 kill, 6 deaths, 5 assists. Right then, the door across from her creaked open, and out stepped a man with damp hair, clearly fresh from the shower.
Tong Yao checked the Live Comments again and saw everyone buzzing about hearing the door open. She smiled. "Yep, our captain’s up."
【Our captain, our.】
【Smells like dog food in here.】
【Stop torturing us! Unsubscribed!】
【Ahhh our captain!!! So cute, why does this feel so heartwarming now when it never did before?!】
As she spoke, Lu Sicheng descended the stairs, grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, and went back up, stationing himself behind Tong Yao like a gatekeeper in the second-floor training area.
Lu Sicheng: "A 1/6/5 Taliyah? Pull that out in a match, and I’ll smash your Dog Head."
"…………………………I’m practicing, okay? Ugh." Tong Yao scowled. "Go away.""I've seen A Tai play Taliyah before, and this isn't how you do it. What kind of messed-up play is this? Move aside, let me show you how it's done..." The man set down his water bottle and leaned over, trying to grab the mouse and keyboard.
"No, no, no! What kind of joke is an AD carry teaching a Mid Laner? You're getting way too cocky. Get out of here!" Tong Yao pushed him away, refusing to let him take control.
"Let me try. Stop shaking me."
Lu Sicheng shoved Tong Yao aside. The mid-lane minion wave was in a decent position, but Tong Yao had been playing too passively, allowing the enemy Mid Laner Ryze to bully her relentlessly. Unaware that the player had changed, Ryze suddenly found himself hit by Taliyah's E-W combo followed by Q-A—instantly losing over half his health. Reacting quickly, Ryze retaliated with a full combo, and due to the item disadvantage, Taliyah's damage wasn't enough to secure the kill. Instead, she got outplayed and died.
The screen turned black.
Tong Yao's AD carry teammate typed a single question mark in chat: ?
The support was more direct: ruesmiling (fake Smiling, trash Mid Laner)
Lu Sicheng: "..."
Tong Yao was furious: "Dammit, get out of here!"
She shoved Lu Sicheng away and, while waiting to respawn, quickly opened the shop to update her items—frowning as she debated whether to build "Abyssal Mask" or "Zhonya's Hourglass" first. Suddenly, she felt someone pinch her cheek from the side, forcibly turning her face away.
Her eyes remained glued to the screen, the very picture of a dedicated gamer girl: "Lu Sicheng, stop bothering me, I'm in the middle of—"
Before she could finish, the man behind her leaned down and kissed her.
Tong Yao: "..."
The kiss was brief. He nibbled her lips before pulling away, looking smug and lazy as he asked, "What?"
Tong Yao deadpanned: "I'm live-streaming."
Lu Sicheng froze. He glanced up at the camera pointed at them, hesitated for a second, then reached out and covered the lens with his hand: "...You could've said something earlier."
"You didn’t give me a chance! And why cover it? Since when do you care about shame?"
"I do care."
...
Outside the stream, the audience was met with pitch-black darkness, only able to hear the hushed argument between the two. Though they couldn’t see anything, that didn’t stop them from spamming the chat:
[6666666666666]
[666666]
[Can you focus on the game? I'm here to learn proper gameplay.]
[Lewd streamer, I'm calling the cops!]
[MOVE YOUR HAND AAAAAAA DAMN YOU LU SICHENG MOVE IT]
[Lewd streamer, I'm calling the cops!!]
[66666666666666]
[I just came to watch a stream, why am I being force-fed dog food?]
[Already reported.]
[Unsubscribed.]
[666666666666]
[Mass unsub, everyone!]
[...]
OpenNovel