Given the brewing storm online, Lu Sicheng decided to start a live stream that evening after finishing Scrims and dinner.
Originally, he hadn’t planned to go live. He had little interest in streaming—the only reason he’d done it a few times before was out of sheer mischief to bully Tong Yao. Now that he’d exhausted all the presentable ways to tease her, he preferred shutting the door and tormenting her in private. As a result, his streaming hours had dwindled again.
—As for penalties like salary deductions for not meeting streaming quotas, he didn’t seem to care.
But right now.
In the midst of public opinion painting the narrative as “Four out of five Chinese team members are beasts ganging up to bully poor, pitiable Cheng Ge, boohoo,” the rest of the team had metaphorical blades pressed to his neck, forcing him to turn on his stream. As he did so, under the watchful glares of his four teammates, the team captain grumbled resentfully, “Was calling you beasts wrong?”
Little Fatty parted his lips, about to say something—
Just then, Lu Sicheng abruptly started the stream. The moment Little Fatty caught sight of comments like “That fat guy actually rolled his eyes at Cheng Ge during the match, so mean—he doesn’t deserve to be a fatty, all fatties should be kind,” his expression instantly melted into one of adoration.
The stream instantly flooded with viewers. While Lu Sicheng was still adjusting his camera angle, the chat was already packed with dense Live Comments—
[Ahhhhhhh Cheng Ge you finally went live!!!]
[My roommate wanted to see you stream before he died—now he can rest in peace, thank you Cheng Ge.]
[There’s a fat ghost looming behind you.]
[The way this fatty looks at you makes me wanna puke, can you make him leave?]
[What eyes? That fatty’s got nothing but slits LOL.]
The latter comments sent Little Fatty stomping off in a huff. By then, Lu Sicheng had finished adjusting his camera, straightened up, and opened the Ranked match queue. He skimmed the chat and said flatly, “Alright, I’m live. Where are the people stirring up trouble all over the Forum and Weibo today? Come out.”
Tong Yao: “…”
Feeling the ominous aura radiating from the man beside her, Tong Yao scooted her chair slightly away. Then she heard Lu Sicheng add, “Come on out. I’ll personally show you the way.”
Tong Yao: “…”
His tone made it clear he’d been bottling up frustration and finally found an outlet. Tong Yao stretched her leg under the table and kicked Lu Sicheng—a silent reminder to be more amicable, not to pick a fight. The result? Lu Sicheng glanced down at the rigid little limb that had barely reached him and said mercilessly, “Why’d you kick me? Tuck your stubby legs back in.”
Tong Yao’s face flushed red as she retracted her leg, curling up on her chair. Meanwhile, Lu Sicheng addressed the chat with brutal honesty: “The shorty next to me kicked me. No idea why—probably thinks I’m being too harsh. Am I harsh?”
Tong Yao: “…”
She opened Lu Sicheng’s stream and immediately saw the chat flooded with insincere comments like “Not harsh at all,” “We love it when you talk like this,” “She’s too fragile if this counts as harsh,” “Not harsh in the slightest.”
Masochists. All of them, masochists.During the live stream, Lu Sicheng played the game while explaining to the live comments what had been happening recently—Tong Yao had never heard him talk so much during a stream before. He started from the match against YQCB, explaining why they lost; mentioned that the lineup in the second scrim was indeed the same one they had used against the Korean Operator Team; emphasized that scrims were supposed to be confidential, and the leak likely didn’t come from their own team since it happened a long time ago; and said the club was already holding the tournament organizers accountable, and so on…
“We lost because there were areas we still needed to improve on, and we’re working on it—the results are decent so far… Which areas? Anyone who watched the match should know how we lost the third game—it was just a lack of execution. Everyone had their own ideas, which is normal. But a loss is just a loss—it’s not like we’ve never lost before. I don’t get why you guys are acting like the sky is falling.”
Lu Sicheng’s tone was remarkably calm.
[If you’re so casual about it, then why did you apologize?]
[10086, it’s just one Group Stage match—why apologize to your teammates for losing?]
[Talk about the apology.]
[Is what the Forum said true? Cheng Ge, are you getting arrogant?]
[Your teammates lacked execution, yet you apologized.]
[I really think your club is overreacting. Why apologize for losing one Group Stage match? It wasn’t just your Champion pick that was the problem in that game…]
…
Seeing the live comments shift to this topic, Tong Yao sat up slightly. For some reason, she felt a little nervous and glanced at Lu Sicheng—today, he had unusually turned on the live comment helper, so he could see some of the comments while playing. She noticed his eyes flick upward briefly—probably reading those comments—before returning to their usual position. He didn’t seem to have any particular reaction.
“About execution—it’s not exactly wrong, just that everyone had different ideas. Like in the last game, Little Fatty and I thought we should retreat, but the other three thought we could fight, so we fought a bit longer before realizing it wasn’t working and then retreated…” Lu Sicheng frowned slightly. “That’s a separate issue from my apology—don’t mix them up. And that guy cursing our Mid Laner—Moderator, ban them. If you’re here in my stream to insult my teammates, are you drunk or just here to feed?”
[66666666, what about the guy who cursed Little Fatty earlier? Why not ban them?]
[For heaven’s sake, Little Fatty has been your support for two years!!!!]
[666666666]
[My heart aches for Fatty.]
At that moment, the entire team headquarters was watching Lu Sicheng’s stream—Little Fatty was naturally watching too.
He immediately slapped his mouse and turned to glare at Lu Sicheng—with an accusatory look.
But Lu Sicheng ignored him.
He coldly disregarded all the live comments pointing out his bias.At this moment, a few live comments were still aggressively pressing about the apology in a clearly provocative tone... Lu Sicheng glanced at them and responded coolly in a slow, utterly composed manner: "You’re so eager to know about the apology? Fine, let’s talk about it. Today, I’m here to lead you troublemakers by the nose—during the first match against YQCB, my teammates left the R position for me, and I picked a Champion that got countered. That was a mistake, so why wouldn’t I apologize? Lack of execution is one reason we lost, and everyone’s reflecting and improving. This is no different—so I apologized. If there’s a problem, we fix it. Is there anything wrong with that logic?"
Lu Sicheng paused, glanced at the live comments, and continued: "In the past? Yeah, I’ve done this before, but none of my teammates called me out, so I got a bit willful and didn’t really realize it. You could say I was overconfident—until someone came along who dared to pin me down and lecture me. Then I finally understood."
The live comments were instantly flooded with "6666666" and "Smiling."
Lu Sicheng didn’t deny that the "someone who dared to pin him down and lecture him" was Tong Yao. He just said calmly, "It’s not a bad thing. If there’s a flaw, fix it. Don’t overthink it like it’s some great injustice—it’s not. If your girl nags you to wash your underwear properly for your own health, would you feel wronged?—Single dogs, shut up, first you’d need a girl—it’s just doing what’s necessary. A real man knows when to bend and when to stand tall. What’s there to feel wronged about?"
As soon as Lu Sicheng finished speaking, Tong Yao suddenly clapped both hands over her face with a loud "smack."
The sound was unmistakable.
Live comments immediately asked what that noise was.
Lu Sicheng glanced sideways at Tong Yao, then turned his head back. "The same person who fearlessly grabbed me by the collar in private and demanded I admit my mistakes is now sitting beside me, covering her face, blushing furiously—"
Lu Sicheng: "How should I know why she’s blushing? I didn’t even compliment her. I really don’t get what you girls are always thinking about."
Lu Sicheng: "And it’s not the ‘shame’ kind of blush—tch, troublemakers. Banned, banned."
Tong Yao: "..."
Finally, Lu Sicheng briefly mentioned the afternoon scrims against Team RP, stating that he was still the main shot-caller, but the team was experimenting with better strategies—then, under the calm and affectionate gazes of his teammates, he loudly emphasized the theme of China Telecom’s unity, camaraderie, and harmonious team atmosphere, where no one could possibly bully him—before ending the stream amidst a lively sea of confused black question mark emojis.
As soon as the stream ended, Lu Sicheng’s first words were: "I gave such a great speech—how come no one sent me a Greatsword (*a 666 RMB stream gift)?"
Little Fatty: "We’ve got a Dog Head Chopper. Want that instead?"
Lu Sicheng: "You’ve been acting up lately, fatty."
Little Fatty: "Why don’t you ban the live comments insulting me?"
Lu Sicheng: "Did they lie when they said your eyes are just slits? What grounds do I have to ban them?"
Little Fatty: "..."
Lu Sicheng then turned to Tong Yao: "And you—what’s with the random blushing?"Tong Yao sat curled up in her chair, her face inexplicably flushed. The atmosphere at that moment made it seem like Lu Sicheng was spouting some grand romantic line that had slightly stirred her—but of course, she wouldn’t tell him that—so she casually replied, “You looked especially handsome when you said ‘no grievances.’”
Lu Sicheng thought for a moment and, surprisingly, didn’t refute it. Instead, he asked directly, “Really?”
Tong Yao: “…”
……
Originally, everyone thought that after Lu Sicheng’s livestream, the matter had come to an end, and the rumors of discord within the team should have died down a bit. Tong Yao had relaxed, spending the evening cuddling with her captain before returning to her room to shower and prepare for bed.
After her shower, she lay on the bed as usual, scrolling through gossip on Weibo and the Forum. But the moment she opened her private messages on Weibo, she was stunned: since the last Demacia Cup, her inbox hadn’t been this lively in a long time.
[You’re meddling too much.]
[China Telecom’s performance has always been solid. They really don’t need you sticking your nose in and trying to fix things. If it ends up a mess… well, you reap what you sow.]
[Respect Cheng Ge’s pick, respect female pro players, but if you’re the one hindering China Telecom’s path to victory, we won’t let you off the hook :)]
[Know your place. Even if you’re his girlfriend, you shouldn’t have any special privileges… forcing Cheng Ge to do things he doesn’t want to do… I really don’t want to say anything worse, but are you happy now that the team’s in this state?]
[Cheng Ge always protects you, yet you pressured him into apologizing. Do you even have a conscience? Is your heart made of stone?]
[Even if Cheng Ge really did something wrong, he must be feeling awful right now… As a teammate, maybe pointing out his mistake was the right thing to do. But stepping back, you’re his girlfriend, someone close to him qaq Couldn’t you have let another teammate relay the message? You should’ve stood by Cheng Ge’s side.]
[At least before, China Telecom’s matches were reassuring. Now, with things like this, who knows if they can even win against Huawei this week? I’m begging you, please stop making things worse.]
[If you don’t know how to cherish Lu Sicheng, remember that there are still those of us who do.]
Tong Yao: “…”
[ZGDX、Smiling: The fire has finally reached me.]
[I Want to Tie the Red String with You: What?]
[ZGDX、Smiling: I’ve been kidnapped.]
[I Want to Tie the Red String with You: ????????? Who kidnapped you?]
[ZGDX、Smiling: Morality and conscience.]
[I Want to Tie the Red String with You: …]
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