Lu Sicheng, having been kicked by Li Junhe, snapped out of it and turned to look at Tong Yao. What he saw was her sitting there calmly, staring at the backs of the YQCB players. Her dark eyes reflected the light from the stage, but beneath that composed exterior, she seemed utterly lost in thought, as if her soul had wandered off somewhere...
Lu Sicheng sighed, pulled both her and her chair back a bit, then crouched in front of her computer to unplug the mouse and keyboard. With somewhat rough movements, he stuffed them into her peripheral bag—
"Be gentle," a small voice piped up from behind. "That keyboard's expensive."
Lu Sicheng paused mid-shove, raising an eyebrow as if to say, "Do it yourself then..." But when he turned and met his girl's distant, hollow gaze, his heart softened instantly. He pinched her cheek and tossed out, "If it breaks, I'll buy you a pricier one," before turning back to dutifully pack her things—though his hands did become a tad gentler. With a "zip," he closed the bag.
"Now you know how annoying it is when someone treats you like a servant and still orders you to be careful, huh?" Little Fatty teased from the side, his tone dripping with sarcasm. "Welcome to my world."
"......"
Lu Sicheng glanced up at him. Beside them sat Tong Yao, still lost in thought on her chair... He craned his neck to peer past the stage at the sea of dark silhouettes in the audience below. After a pause, he half-turned and asked the person behind him, "Want me to carry you down?"
He asked with utter seriousness.
So much so that Tong Yao gave him a look reserved for the mentally unwell before standing up on her own. She reached for her peripheral bag, but Lu Sicheng dodged her grasp—
Just as their little tussle continued.
On the other side of the stage, not far away, the MVP interview for the winning team began. In the dim light, the two grappling with the bag simultaneously looked up to see Li Junhe stepping forward for the interview. With a distinctly foreign accent, he greeted, "Hello everyone, I'm Pope, YQCB's AD carry." The host immediately fired the first question: [After two years, how does it feel to finally face Chessman on the battlefield?]
The moment the question left the host's lips, the fans erupted.
Lu Sicheng's grip on Tong Yao's bag loosened, and she seized the chance to snatch it back. She looked up to find her man staring intently at another guy, eyes practically glued.
Tong Yao: "......"
Li Junhe answered first in Korean.
Then the translator relayed: "It felt good. Whether in the Korean league or the World Championship, there aren't many AD carries who can pressure me—but when laning against him, even the slightest misstep in positioning could mean the game's over. So I had to stay hyper-focused."
Lu Sicheng seemed quite satisfied with that answer.
Tong Yao stood on her tiptoes, pinching Lu Sicheng's chin and giving it a shake: Had enough staring?
Lu Sicheng swatted her hand away.
Host: [Were you happy with today's win?]
Li Junhe: "I was pretty happy. I heard the team didn't perform well in the Spring Split, so making it this far in the Summer Split shows how much everyone's improved. But I have to admit, luck played a part too."
Host: [Luck?]Li Junhe: "We were quite lucky to win the third game. The opponent's execution was slightly weaker than ours. If they had given up the Inhibitor Turret at the last moment and retreated properly, the match wouldn’t have ended like that."
Host: [Everyone noticed that YQCB's execution was very strong.]
Li Junhe flashed a grin, carrying a somewhat roguish air, but his words were surprisingly earnest: "Because our captain is also very strict. If you don’t follow orders, you’ll get beaten up."
The translation drew laughter from the audience. The host then asked: [We noticed that after the match, you spoke quite a bit with the opposing team. Everyone knows you and Chessman are old acquaintances, but surprisingly, you also seemed to exchange words with Smiling. Could you tell us what you said to her?]
Before Li Junhe could answer, Tong Yao, hearing her ID mentioned, tried to flee like an ostrich, clutching her peripheral bag—only to be stopped after just one step as Lu Sicheng hauled her back, bag and all. He took the bag from her arms, slung it over his shoulder, and anchored her firmly by his side, leaving her unable to move.
Li Junhe thought for a moment, then replied with a long string of Korean, adding something at the end after another pause.
The translator glanced at him and smiled before translating: "It wasn’t much. I just felt it’s really impressive for a girl to perform like that—our Mid Laner had a tough time laning against her all three games, and our Jungler couldn’t gank her. Her Taliyah was played exceptionally well, something we hadn’t seen before. The second game’s draft was also shocking—I heard it was a result of their Scrims... She’s a very hardworking girl."
Finally, the host asked about the differences between the Chinese and Korean leagues. Li Junhe said the gap wasn’t as big as people imagined, and with the Korean Aid issue now well addressed, some players, after the Xu Tailun incident, had readjusted their attitudes and reignited the same passion and training intensity they once had in the Korean league...
Tong Yao didn’t hear the rest.
Because after listening to Pope’s praise for her, Lu Sicheng forcibly dragged her away.
Tong Yao: "Let me listen a bit more. He was praising me, wasn’t he?"
Lu Sicheng: "In your dreams."
Tong Yao: "Just a little longer."
Lu Sicheng: "Weren’t you half-dead earlier? Now you’re revived just because some guy’s doing an interview? No listening, no watching."
Tong Yao: "I wasn’t the one staring at Li Junhe with stars in my eyes earlier."
Lu Sicheng: "Then who was it?"
Tong Yao: "..."
Back in the break room, everyone except Old Cat was in decent spirits. The two losses today were largely due to Old Cat’s mistakes, and while the others had felt down right after the match, they quickly bounced back—this was just a Group Stage match, and winning or losing didn’t significantly impact ZGDX’s current standing in Group A.
What mattered was that they knew why they lost.
—As Pope had pointed out, it was decision-making.
Failing to execute the shot-caller’s commands immediately, hesitating for even a moment—that was why they lost. This was perhaps the only downside of every player in a top-tier team being capable of carrying: not distrust in teammates, but overconfidence. Because each individual was strong enough, everyone had their own stubborn ideas and unique understanding of the game.Just as when Old Cat and Old K were arguing, Old Cat believed that carrying from the top lane could win the game—you had to come help me. Meanwhile, Old K thought that if the enemy sent an entire division to gank top, they would inevitably suffer losses elsewhere. As long as he farmed up the economy, they could play for macro.
—That was the crux of their disagreement.
Being able to expose the problem meant this loss wasn’t in vain. There was still time to adjust now.
At least, that was what Lu Sicheng thought. As he stepped onto the van, the man swept his gaze over the team members already seated in their respective spots. His authoritative stare made everyone shiver despite the summer heat—
From now on, anyone who disobeys orders will be hung up and beaten. We’ll borrow a rope and a feather duster from the neighboring team captain when we get back. No objections.
As the van started moving, Old Cat leaned against Old K, yawned, and promptly fell asleep, exhausted from a sleepless night.
Lu Sicheng sat down beside Tong Yao, who was hugging her phone and scrolling through Weibo. He glanced at her screen: "Uninstalled the Forum?"
Tong Yao: "No."
Lu Sicheng: "Don’t look at it."
Tong Yao: "I’m not."
Lu Sicheng: "Don’t look at Weibo either."
Tong Yao: "Weibo’s fine. Except for some people calling me Tong Daji, seducing the captain, shamelessly clinging to him on stage even after losing, and saying China Telecom is doomed."
Lu Sicheng: "Oh, that’s not enough? That’s why I told you not to look at Weibo. Just look at me."
"What’s so great about looking at you?"
Ignoring him, Tong Yao kept scrolling. Lu Sicheng reached for her phone, and she hissed, dodging to the side. Just then, a new post refreshed on Weibo—
[ZGDX is my life: Korean major here, applying to translate for YQCB’s post-match interview—Li Junhe’s comments about our Smiling were clearly cut off. The last part he added was actually: ‘She’s a very hardworking girl, and quite cute too. Even her dejected expression after losing was memorable. For someone as rigid and boring as Lu Sicheng to land such a great girlfriend is nothing short of his ancestors’ graves smoking with luck. Stop acting like she’s the one reaching—it’s not like that at all. The one who should be secretly thrilled is Lu Sicheng.’
………………HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Li Junhe HAHAHAHAHA! This brutally honest troublemaker, Cheng Ge’s probably gonna lose it when he sees this. Though ‘rigid and boring’ does seem pretty accurate lol.]
Tong Yao held up her phone and loudly recited Pope’s final remarks.
Then she turned to look at Lu Sicheng, her eyes saying: No wonder you suddenly looked like you’d been slapped with a death warrant halfway through the interview and dragged me away in a huff.
The latter snatched her phone with a dark expression.
Lu Sicheng’s throat tightened under her gaze. He pinched her chin and gave it a little shake: "If the translator didn’t translate it, it means it was inappropriate."
"Inappropriate how?"
"Misleading."
"Which part? The ancestors’ graves smoking?"
"All of it."
The man tersely reached over, pulling the hood of his jacket—which Tong Yao had draped over herself—up over her head to block those gleaming eyes. As she struggled, he yanked her into his arms and held her firmly, his long arm stretching out to pat her butt: "Stop squirming."
Tong Yao tugged the hood off, her hair now disheveled.Lu Sicheng glanced at her disheveled appearance, which made her seem more alive than when she was sitting neatly behind the computer in a daze... Feeling slightly relieved, he lowered his head and planted a kiss by her lips.
Tong Yao pushed his head away and leaned back, stubbornly insisting, "You're out of your league with me."
"Yeah, yeah, my ancestors must be burning with joy for me to be so lucky. Can you shut up now?" Lu Sicheng pressed her head against his chest with his large hand.
"...You don't sound very willing."
"I am."
"..."
"Stop moving." Lu Sicheng said half-jokingly, "I can barely hold you anymore—my hand hurts."
Those words acted like a freezing spell. The person who had been squirming in his arms immediately stilled, muttering, "Oh, I forgot! Why didn’t you say so earlier?" From then on, she even held her breath lightly, as if the slightest movement might cripple her captain.
Lu Sicheng finally got to hold her to his heart's content.
The car ride back to the team headquarters was quiet.
Everyone in the vehicle was lost in their own thoughts.
OpenNovel