Tong Yao glanced at the live comments for a while and was about to continue her ranked match when her phone, placed in front of her, lit up. She took a quick look and saw an unfamiliar name—
【My Empress Seat is Taken: Just keep shielding them then.
Tong Yao: “……？？？”
She didn’t recall having a second chuunibyou patient in her WeChat contacts besides her younger brother. So, she scrolled up to check the chat history and found that just last night, she had been exchanging sweet nothings with this very chuunibyou, complete with virtual kisses.
Tong Yao: “………………”
She put her phone down and took three seconds to compose herself.
She accepted the fact that this chuunibyou was, indeed, her man.
【zgd、iling: ………………………… What kind of insane name is this?】
【My Empress Seat is Taken: ? ... Oh, Lu Yue changed it.】
【My Empress Seat is Taken: Not exactly wrong though.】
【zgd、iling: Not wrong? So this name is to remind those three thousand concubines of yours lurking in the shadows not to make any reckless moves?】
【My Empress Seat is Taken: There’s only you.】
【I Shall Tie the Red String with You: Happy now, you drama queen?】
Tong Yao stared at the instantly changed WeChat name, grinning like an idiot with her phone in hand. She ignored the live comments mocking her with things like “The stench of love,” “Laughing like a moron, must be the captain,” and “You’re in the same team headquarters where even a fart echoes, yet you’re texting?” Just as she was about to reply, another message popped up—
【I Shall Tie the Red String with You: There’s a second half to that.】
【I Shall Tie the Red String with You: Undress the rainbow skirt and enter the bridal chamber.】
Tong Yao: “…………………………”
【zgd、iling: You pervert.】
【I Shall Tie the Red String with You: I came to talk business, but you derailed it first—Stop shielding those two kids on the team. If you don’t force them to admit their mistakes, they’ll keep arguing.】
【zgd、iling: I already explained last night—they need the education of love! I was worried that threatening to bench them would just make them rebel.】
【I Shall Tie the Red String with You: If we lose to YQB again tomorrow like today, you’ll see what it looks like when your captain gets rebellious.】
【zgd、iling: …】
【I Shall Tie the Red String with You: I don’t care. Clean up the mess you intervened in, or I’ll scold you along with them.】
【zgd、iling: ………………………… I didn’t intervene in any mess. I just saw your handsome face up close and thought, ‘My man is so gorgeous, maybe I should kiss him?’ So I did.】
【I Shall Tie the Red String with You: Too late.】
Tong Yao put her phone down with a deadpan expression.
Somehow, she’d been slapped with guilt by association, and now she didn’t even feel like playing her ranked match anymore… She directly ended her livestream, then turned to look at Old Cat beside her. He wasn’t playing games either, just lounging in his chair like a sloth, fiddling with his phone.
The lighting on the second floor of the team headquarters was dim, so the glow from his phone screen illuminated his face… He probably had no idea that every move he made, even the slightest change in his expression, was completely visible—So Tong Yao could clearly see that although he was fiddling with his phone, his eyes weren't behaving—every now and then, his eyelids would sneakily lift to glance at Old K's computer screen, then slide over to Old K's expressionless baby face.
Tong Yao: "..."
If someone gave him a mirror right now, he'd probably gain a very vivid, three-dimensional understanding of the phrase "capital-letter guilt."
—So Lu Sicheng's earlier suffocating verbal barrage had actually had some effect? Though it hadn't been completed, at least it made one of the two quarreling parties—the one who'd gotten most worked up—calm down a bit: by now, Old Cat had probably realized this whole thing wasn't worth making such a fuss over, and that he'd been overly sensitive.
Tong Yao counted on her fingers how she could avoid getting scolded along with this pair of foolish top-jungle duo. Meanwhile, Old K had been on a losing streak in solo queue today—his rank had nearly dropped from the 500+ LP in Challenger he'd gained from duo queueing with Old Cat all the way down to 100+ LP in Grandmaster. As a result, his expression grew increasingly blank, until even his keyboard presses and mouse clicks became noticeably louder...
Old Cat finally put down his phone and quietly watched Old K play from the side.
Seeing this, Tong Yao stood up and, using the excuse of fetching something from Little Fatty's seat, gave Old Cat a hard kick as she passed by his spot—Old Cat hissed and looked up at her with a frown. Tong Yao frowned back, tilting her chin toward Old K's back in silent urging: Go on.
Old Cat hesitated.
Right then, Old K's team headquarters got destroyed by the enemy.
Old K exited the match and glanced at the damage chart—their top laner had picked an offensive Champion like Fiora but somehow dealt even less damage than their Bard support... Old K said nothing, maintaining his deadpan expression as he closed the stats screen and clicked to queue up again.
Tong Yao walked over to Little Fatty, casually picked up an apple, and on her way back, kicked Old Cat again.
Old Cat twitched, nearly jumping out of his seat—Tong Yao walked straight past him without a glance. As she settled into her seat, she finally heard Old Cat clear his throat beside her and say in an unnatural tone, "Hey... wanna duo?"
Tong Yao's lips curved upward.
Little Fatty misclicked and accidentally denied his ADC's cannon minion, turning around in bewilderment to look at the two behind him.
Old K didn't speak, but canceled his solo queue to send an invite to a certain ID—one second later, Old Cat successfully joined the lobby.
The entire process happened in silence, though the oppressive atmosphere in the second-floor training room lightened somewhat... Feeling quite pleased with herself, Tong Yao specially messaged her captain (who'd gone downstairs to sulk) to come up and witness the results of this "education of love." Lu Sicheng came upstairs holding her notebook filled with data analyses of various teams, standing behind Old K and Old Cat with his usual deadpan expression, arms crossed like a door god watching them duo queue.
The recently lifted oppressive atmosphere promptly returned.
Not a single person in the training room dared to speak.Until Old K and Old Cat's game started and reached the seven-minute mark, there was a moment when Old Cat's minion wave wasn't in a great position. Old K had just brushed past the enemy Jungler and saw them disappear towards the top lane. Feeling uneasy, he worried the Jungler might be hiding in a bush to ambush Old Cat. So, he decided to abandon helping his Mid Laner secure the Blue Buff, typing for them to get it themselves, and turned to head towards the top lane—
Only to find no sign of the enemy Jungler there.
Just as he began to wonder if he was overthinking it, he casually pinged a signal, implying that since they were already here, they might as well Tower Dive and kill the enemy Top Laner. Old Cat didn’t hesitate and went in—
The two took turns tanking the tower shots, coordinating smoothly. However, the enemy Top Laner was an annoyingly tanky Maokai with surprisingly slick movement… By the time both of them were at Low Health and about to give up, the enemy Jungler Nidalee, who had probably been camping in the bush for an eternity, suddenly jumped out.
Nidalee cut off their retreat path and swiftly secured a double kill—
The enemy Top Laner and Jungler were likely duo-queued and somewhat familiar with Old Cat and Old K’s usual duo strategies: they probably knew that if Old K sensed Old Cat might get ambushed, he’d never leave him to die and would come to counter-gank…
In any case, Old K’s misplay handed the enemy a free double kill.
Old Cat hissed through his teeth and glanced at Old K, muttering, “You came here just to screw me over, didn’t you?”
—Normally, such a remark wouldn’t be a big deal. But he forgot that right now, he was supposed to be meekly coaxing Old K. By the time the words left his mouth and his expression changed in regret, Old K had already replied, “Yeah, so what? Don’t like it? Go solo queue then.”
Old Cat immediately shut up.
Tong Yao clutched her chest.
Lu Sicheng turned his head and gave her a mocking look.
[I Want to Tie the Red String with You: Still giving him the Education of love?]
[zgd、iling: …………………… I was wrong. Policies emerge from the barrel of a gun. Long live the Captain.]
OpenNovel