【Chessman Plays with Heavy Personal Emotions, Refuses Post-Match MVP Interview】—As soon as this news broke, major media outlets went wild, immediately rushing to the ZGDX Team headquarters with press credentials in hand, lying in wait. Sure enough, it wasn’t long before they spotted the returning players after their match.
The van stopped at the team headquarters entrance. Little Fatty was the first to step out, unaware of what was happening, turning back to ask Old Cat behind him what they should order for dinner—only to nearly retreat back into the vehicle when a swarm of reporters suddenly surrounded him, startling him half to death!
“Holy shit! What the hell—how did you guys even get in? Camping outside our headquarters like this… I’m calling security!”
Little Fatty grumbled as he blocked the way, only to feel someone calmly pat his shoulder from behind. A composed male voice spoke up: “They’re here for me.”
Little Fatty froze, turning around to meet the deep brown eyes of his team captain. Facing the reporters below, who grew instantly excited at the sight of him as if he were some superstar, Lu Sicheng remained expressionless—as though looking at a crowd of corpses.
Lu Sicheng pushed past Little Fatty and stepped out of the van. The reporter at the front immediately brightened, stepping forward with a question straight to the point: [Cheng Ge, we heard you secured two MVPs today but refused the post-match interview—something unprecedented in the Professional League. Some say you were also emotional during the match. Is that true?]
“Is that question even worth answering?” Lu Sicheng replied coolly.
The reporters: […]
One persistent journalist pressed on: [Everyone knows Smiling didn’t participate in today’s match—she didn’t even accompany the team to the venue. This suggests the club had already decided Smiling wouldn’t play today, yet no official explanation has been given…]
The moment the words left his mouth.
A derisive snort came from the man.
“Since when do teams need to post on Weibo before switching lineups?”
Lu Sicheng’s tone was dripping with sarcasm, the implication being that whether they posted or not was none of their damn business, and they should stop stirring trouble—his disdain was so blatant that even an idiot could tell he was emotionally charged.
And that was exactly what the reporters wanted.
Seeing an opening, their eyes lit up, undeterred by the mockery as they thrust their microphones forward: [Is the sudden lineup change due to an unofficial Suspension as punishment for Smiling’s disrespectful remarks last week? Was this the club’s decision or yours? If it was yours, was it because Smiling pointed out flaws in your leadership, making you feel her behavior was overstepping?]
Anyone with eyes could see Lu Sicheng’s expression darken at the words “disrespectful remarks”—his gaze turned downright murderous. Little Fatty and the others behind him were already mentally scrambling to vault over the wall into the headquarters and grab a pot lid for protection—but the oblivious reporters pressed on, thrilled by the reaction.Lu Sicheng's lips twitched slightly, a barrage of sarcastic remarks already on the tip of his tongue—when suddenly, from the corner of his eye, he noticed a slender figure by the team headquarters' window, holding something fluffy in her arms. Tong Yao, cradling Little Cong, had pushed open the window and was peering outside.
She must have heard the commotion and come to see what was happening—now, watching her wide-eyed, innocent curiosity as she observed the scene outside, she looked just like the cat nestled in her arms...
Lu Sicheng: "..."
The mocking expression faded.
The cutting remarks were momentarily forgotten.
All the anger in Lu Sicheng's heart was instantly restrained with meticulous care. His eyes darkened slightly, and when he spoke again, his tone was polite yet restrained: "No, substituting Lu Yue in today's match against Red Arrow was simply preparation for the World Championship. As for Smiling, every single thing she's done as a professional player—excluding that one fight—has been done exceptionally well. Neither the club nor I have any reason to punish her."
The reporters seemed taken aback by Lu Sicheng's composed response, momentarily falling silent, unsure how to proceed.
Lu Sicheng sneered inwardly.
"—Exactly, exactly, don’t go writing nonsense."
"—Haven’t you asked enough? If you keep this up, I’ll really call security. You can’t just block the entrance to someone’s team headquarters like this. If you want an interview, shouldn’t you contact the club for a formal arrangement?"
Seizing the opportunity while the reporters were momentarily silenced, Xiao Rui and Little Fatty quickly stepped forward, pushing aside the journalists blocking the entrance to clear a path. Old Cat nudged Lu Sicheng from behind, signaling him to leave.
Lu Sicheng had no more patience for the reporters. His gaze flickered imperceptibly toward the now-closed window of the headquarters—the figure holding the cat and leaning against the window was gone...
He lowered his eyes, masking his emotions as he walked into the headquarters' courtyard.
Behind him, the reporters scribbled furiously in their notebooks.
Just as they were writing enthusiastically, the man who had already entered the headquarters suddenly stopped.
He turned around, walked back to the courtyard gate, and leaned slightly forward, one hand resting on the iron gate. In a voice that wasn’t loud but carried clearly, he addressed the crowd of reporters outside: "You want to write news? I have no objection—but what you write, the headlines you choose, you’d better be careful—especially certain esports media outlets. I won’t name names, but if I see even a single fabricated punctuation mark in your reports just for clicks this time, try me and see if I won’t sue you into bankruptcy."
The reporters: ["......"]
Amidst their stunned silence, the man straightened up, casually tossing out, "That’s all I have to say," before finally walking away for good.
The reporters exchanged bewildered glances.
They had no idea why the man who had been relatively polite just moments ago had suddenly turned cold, becoming as intimidating as the King of Hell—
His mood.
Seemed genuinely terrible.
...
Lu Sicheng returned to the headquarters and opened the door to find his girl standing there obediently in slippers and loungewear, holding the cat, waiting for him. She looked up at him, faint shadows under her eyes from poor sleep.Frowning instinctively, the same mix of heartache and frustration from yesterday morning when he saw her curled up in bed holding the cat resurfaced. Yet the man didn’t know what to say at this moment, so he simply raised his large hand to pat her head, then the cat’s head in her arms. Bending down, he pretended to focus intently on taking off his shoes.
“I watched the match.” The girl’s voice sounded beside him. “You played so aggressively today—were you possessed by Pope or something?”
“…Yeah.”
Lu Sicheng lifted his eyelids to glance at her, then slipped on his slippers and walked inside.
Tong Yao, still holding the cat, chased after him. “Why wasn’t there an MVP interview after the match? I was looking forward to hearing what you’d say… Why didn’t you do it? Are you not feeling well? Stomachache? A cold? Or a headache? Some people online are speculating you skipped the interview on purpose—is that true? Why—”
The man in front suddenly stopped.
Tong Yao, caught off guard, bumped her head against his back.
“Ow!” She stumbled back three steps, then looked up to meet his gaze. He paused before asking, “What are they saying online?”
Under the scrutiny of those deep brown eyes, Tong Yao inexplicably grew nervous. Forcing a smile, she replied, “…They said that because I was suspended after my ‘disrespectful’ remarks during the MVP interview, you were unhappy with the club’s decision. So you played with a temper and refused the post-match interview as a protest. Hah, of course I know that’s not true. There’s no way you’d—”
“I am unhappy.”
“…”
Tong Yao’s smile froze on her lips.
“But not with the club.”
“…”
She wanted to ask more, but at that moment, Lu Sicheng’s phone rang. He lowered his gaze to check the caller ID, hesitated for a second, then tossed out, “I’m tired. Going to rest. Don’t call me for dinner,” before turning and heading upstairs alone. Tong Yao watched as he answered the call in a hurry, saying “Hello” before his voice dropped into a low murmur— “Wait a second.”
The man continued upstairs, phone in hand, without looking back.
Left standing at the foot of the stairs, Tong Yao stared after him until his door slammed shut with a loud bang . She tightened her arms reflexively, causing the cat in her embrace to yowl in protest before slipping away like a slippery eel.
The first floor of the team headquarters was eerily quiet.
Little Fatty walked up behind Tong Yao and poked her waist, whispering, “What’s going on?”
As if snapping out of a daze, Tong Yao finally tore her gaze away from the tightly shut door. She smiled faintly, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear, and replied in a deliberately light tone, “I don’t know either.”
—Ever since that night when Lu Sicheng stormed out, up until now.
He had been like this.
Taciturn, gloomy, showing little interest or energy no matter what he was asked or told… He barely spoke to Tong Yao, sometimes ignoring her or just holding her in silence, as if his soul had gone missing. But when it came to gaming, it was like he became a different person—just as aggressive as he had been in today’s match. In fact, his recent Ranked Games had been the same. Others might not have noticed, but Tong Yao saw it all: he refused to say anything, using the game as his only outlet for venting.These days, the phrase "I'm fine" had been repeated so often that her lips were practically worn out—yet it did nothing to change the situation. By now, Tong Yao herself was starting to doubt whether Lu Sicheng’s agitation had anything to do with her at all...
He remained silent.
He refused to cooperate.
Tong Yao truly had no way to deal with him.
She felt utterly powerless.
...
That night, lying on her bed, Tong Yao vented to Jin Yang about everything that had happened over the past few days—from losing the match against YQCB, the leak about someone in the team revealing Scrims secrets stirring up internal drama, to the team hitting a bottleneck in their playstyle, Lu Sicheng’s apology, Tong Yao being blamed, her response during the MVP interview, and finally the recent delivery incident. She recounted every detail, no matter how small.
The past few days had been packed with drama.
Just talking about it all left her exhausted.
And then there was Lu Sicheng’s inexplicable attitude.
...Damn it, she was mentally and physically drained.
[ZGDX、Smiling: Today he even admitted he was upset, but not with the club... Damn it, is he upset with me?! He clearly promised during the stream he wouldn’t hold a grudge over me calling him out, didn’t he?!]
[ZGDX、Smiling: Or is it because I keep unconsciously stirring up drama and he’s sick of it?]
[ZGDX、Smiling: Then again, he never had this much trouble before. Back then, he just focused on playing matches.]
[ZGDX、Smiling: Ah, he really must be upset with me qaq!]
After sending out this string of self-deprecating messages, she soon received a reply—
[Fluffy Little Fairy: ………………………What the hell are you imagining now? Falling back into old habits, huh? Back then, you convinced yourself Jian Yang was breaking up with you because he had a kid with a KTV hostess and ended up blowing up and dumping him first. Here we go again?]
[Fluffy Little Fairy: I won’t even mention how ridiculous your delusions were back then—at least with Jian Yang, there was a tiny speck of ink on the paper. But with Cheng Ge? The brush hasn’t even touched the ink, and you’ve already convicted him.]
Tong Yao: “...”
[ZGDX、Smiling: I was just guessing.]
[ZGDX、Smiling: He used to be this perfectly focused gaming addict, but now it feels like I’ve dragged him down from his pedestal, tainting him with all this messy worldly drama—at least his brain-dead fans aren’t wrong about that part.]
[Fluffy Little Fairy: "Worldly drama," my ass. I swear, I envy you newlyweds and how you hype each other up like you’re the center of the universe... I think his so-called dissatisfaction is with himself. That’s why he’s frustrated and avoiding you—men are way tougher than you think, but their mysterious egos are also way more fragile than you realize. Somewhere you can’t see, he might be banging his head against a wall, blaming himself over that tiny wound on your hand.]
Tong Yao: “...”
[ZGDX、Smiling: The wound was huge. I even had to get a tetanus shot and had nightmares all night. Show some sympathy, thanks.]
[ZGDX、Smiling: Breaking up is out of the question, and beating him up isn’t an option since I’d lose. So all I can do is overthink to pass the time.]
[Fluffy Little Fairy: ……………Damn, you’re unshakable.][ZGDX, Smiling: Who told him to ignore me? My hand was already hurting, and he didn’t even pity me—just kept that deadpan face. Damn it, doesn’t he know I’m in pain!!!!]
[Little Fairy Mao: …………………]
Tong Yao grew angrier the more she thought about it.
She threw her phone aside and shook her fist in the direction of the next room—then picked up her phone again and scrolled through it. She saw the long string of messages she had left for Lu Sicheng that day, to which he hadn’t replied with even a single punctuation mark. The only response had been when he quietly climbed into her bed the next day and actually held her in his arms as they slept.
—So he had seen her messages. He just hadn’t replied.
…What an absolute jerk.
Tong Yao frowned, her heart aching again—these past few days, she had been trapped in a cycle of understanding one moment and then spiraling into confusion the next. Muttering, “I need a cat,” she sat up and craned her neck to look around the empty bedroom, only to suddenly remember that even holding a cat wouldn’t help right now.
Slumping back onto the bed, she grabbed her phone and aimlessly tapped around until she accidentally opened an old audio file—the only one saved on her phone. After hesitating for a moment, she pressed play. The audio crackled to life with static…
Little Fatty’s voice came through—
[So what do you even like about her? Don’t give me that sappy wedding vow nonsense—let’s be real, Tong Yao’s looks are just average—especially compared to your legion of drop-dead gorgeous fangirls.]
There was no immediate reply, just the quiet static. Even though she already knew what was coming, Tong Yao couldn’t help but tense up. A few seconds later, she heard a man’s voice, gentle and laced with a faint smile—
[She’s really strong.]
[And cute when she cries.]
[Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.]
Tong Yao: “…”
She turned off the audio, set her phone aside, and dragged her exhausted body into the bathroom for a shower. As she wrapped her injured finger, her mind wandered. Water seeped into the bandage, soaking the wound, and the sting of soap made her finger throb. The thought of having to remove the freshly changed bandage from earlier that afternoon and endure another round of alcohol disinfection pushed her to the brink.
—This was finally the last straw.
Suddenly.
All the suppressed frustration, fear, anger, and resentment from the past few days burst forth like a flood, overwhelming her—chaotic negative emotions completely took over her mind, mingling with the memory of Lu Sicheng’s gentle voice saying, “Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation,” as if threatening to explode her skull.
Under the showerhead, Tong Yao couldn’t tell whether the liquid streaming down her face was hot water or tears. All she knew was that she started off standing, quietly sobbing and trembling under the sound of running water, then gradually lost control, crying harder and harder until her limbs went weak. Eventually, she climbed onto the toilet seat, still naked, and wailed at the top of her lungs—
Until her brain ran out of oxygen.
Until she was utterly drained.
If not for the searing pain of her waterlogged wound, Tong Yao suspected she could’ve cried out every tear she had saved up in her nineteen years of life—maybe even borrowing some from the ones she might shed by age sixty-nine. She couldn’t even remember the last time she had cried this hard.
In the end, she stumbled out of the bathroom, hiccuping from the aftermath of her sobs.Before she could steady herself by the bed, her phone rang. Tong Yao glanced at the caller ID—Jin Yang. She answered with a hoarse "Hello," and the other end paused before muttering, "Hiding in the bathroom crying, huh?" Without waiting for a response, Jin Yang added, "Go check the news online."
Tong Yao squinted through her swollen, tear-filled eyes, thinking, What the hell is there to see?
Yet she couldn’t resist opening the Forum.
The first reposted headline that caught her eye was from the notorious, trouble-stirring esports media outlet zmm: [Chessman: As a Professional Player, Smiling Has Always Been Qualified.]
Tong Yao: "..."
Shocked into another hiccup from crying, she thought, Holy shit, even zmm can write a proper headline now? Is it raining Red Buffs or something?
Her fingers scrolled further, landing on another headline—
[All Haters Owe ZGDX an Apology: Tournament Organizers Cooperate with the Club to Identify the Culprit Behind the Leaked ZGDX Scrims Roster—A Backstage Audio Technician. The Employee Has Been Fired.]
The comments below were flooded with: ZGDX, we’re sorry.
Tong Yao: "..."
Now she was genuinely stunned—
She had assumed this incident, the root of everything, would be swept under the rug. Yet someone had actually taken it seriously enough to investigate and follow up...
Who?
Who?
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