After seeing off the fans, Tong Yao felt like she had narrowly escaped disaster. Watching the excited fans chatting amongst themselves as they walked away, she craned her neck and let out a sigh tinged with both unease and a hint of envy. "Will I ever have so many fans too? People who like me, praise me, and rush to take photos with me—"
Lu Sicheng glanced at her and said flatly, "If you play seriously, you will."
Tong Yao: "Ah, right."
Huh, actually, Cheng Ge isn’t so bad. At least now he knows how to say some warm, encouraging words to a newbie—
"If you don’t play well, there will be hundreds, even thousands of times more people criticizing you, cursing you, asking if you choked on water today, and rushing to drag you into drama to publicly shame you."
"……………………"
"Take care."
"But no one ever curses at you."
Lu Sicheng curled his lips slightly, as if Tong Yao had said something obvious. "Because I’m strong. In esports, being bad is the original sin."
Tong Yao: "...What a profound lesson. Thanks for the wisdom, Cheng Ge."
Lu Sicheng: "You’re welcome."
As they talked, they finally entered the household goods section. Tong Yao walked ahead with a basket, tossing in whatever she wanted, while Lu Sicheng followed behind, looking utterly disinterested in everything. Occasionally, he’d pick something up, examine it, and soon put it back.
Then, Tong Yao suddenly stopped in front of a display of house slippers, unable to move on—her eyes were fixed on a pair of fluffy sheepskin boots. They were soft-soled, knee-high boots with two pom-poms on top. She took down a sample pair to feel them and found them very warm. Considering that the ZGDX Team headquarters had tiled floors, they’d be perfect for autumn and winter...
She put the sample back and began seriously deliberating over the colors—
Blue or pink?
Actually, white was cute too, but white got dirty too easily.
Frowning, she deliberated for a long time before finally picking up the pink and blue samples and turning to show them to Lu Sicheng. "Cheng Ge, which one looks better?"
Lu Sicheng tossed a furry hat back onto the shelf and glanced over casually. "Blue."
Tong Yao nodded, muttering "Straight men’s taste can’t be trusted" as she put the blue pair back. Holding the pink sample, she began searching the shelves for an unopened pair... After looking for a while, her eyes lit up when she spotted a corner of the pink shoes buried under white and blue pairs at the very top of the shelf. Without hesitation, she stood on tiptoe and reached out to try and grab what she wanted—
As she strained her fingertips, using two fingers to painstakingly drag the packaging corner and slowly pull the pink shoes toward her...
"Tch."
A large hand reached out from behind her and effortlessly plucked the shoes down.
Tong Yao froze, then turned her head slightly to look up. The man standing behind her was backlit, making his expression unreadable. He stuffed the slippers into her basket and said in a low voice, "Tell me everything you need at once. Stop performing acrobatics here—you were practically climbing the shelf.""It's not my fault! This last pair of pink ones must have been hidden on the highest shelf by someone who didn't want others to find them!"
"......"
"Hehehe, but I found them anyway. They must be so mad—"
Lu Sicheng looked at that smug face and suddenly remembered something. He paused, this time finally speaking with genuine surprise: "...During the Spring Finals, at the supermarket near our hotel—did you do the same thing? Hmm? Hid a water bottle horizontally behind the highest shelf—"
".............................."
Watching Tong Yao's frozen expression, Lu Sicheng sighed with mixed emotions: "So it was you again."
"..................What do you mean? How did you know? Ah! You're the water thief!"
"What water thief?" Lu Sicheng took the shopping basket from Tong Yao and walked toward the checkout counter, casually grabbing a bag of chips on the way without looking back. "Did it have your name on it?"
"I hid it first! I saw it first!" Tong Yao hurried after him.
The man walking ahead let out a brief, cold laugh: "That's not hiding."
"Why not!"
"Hiding things in supermarkets—are you a child?"
"I was just afraid someone else would buy it first!"
"...Those two days I thought I was being besieged by a horde of short zombies. Turns out it was just one person."
"What short zombie siege? Speak properly!"
Tong Yao watched as the cashier scanned her items one by one. When the cashier sweetly announced, "That'll be 374 yuan," she turned to fish out her wallet. But before she could, Lu Sicheng had already pulled out a card from his pocket and handed it to the cashier—
Tong Yao's eyes widened slightly as she protested: "Hey wait, I can pay for my own—"
"There's my stuff too." Lu Sicheng took the bag of chips and casually carried the remaining bags. As they walked out of the shopping area, Tong Yao trailed behind, wanting to say something but only managing to squeeze out a quiet, "Thanks."
Lu Sicheng glanced back at the embarrassed girl behind him, thinking to himself how many years he'd waited for the team headquarters to finally get someone normal who wouldn't shamelessly demand "Cheng Ge's rich, Cheng Ge should pay." His eyes shifted slightly as he said calmly, "Then you can treat everyone to late-night snacks."
Tong Yao nodded eagerly like a chick pecking at rice.
"That private hotpot place. The one that costs 1,000 per person."
Her nodding stopped abruptly, her expression changing.
"Just kidding." Lu Sicheng shoved the unopened but already torn bag of chips into the shorty's hands behind him. "Spicy stir-fry pot is fine. Extra bamboo shoots and potato slices."
"......"
In the end, the bag of chips was completely devoured by Tong Yao with loud crunches, accompanied by threats of "if a single crumb gets in my car I'll throw you into the sea."
......
When they returned to the team headquarters and opened the door, they saw manager Xiao Rui sprawled on the sofa with Da Bing curled up in his lap. The former was petting the cat with a blissful expression. Hearing the door open, he craned his neck to see Tong Yao and Lu Sicheng walking in one after another.
"Did you have fun shopping?" Xiao Rui asked. "Getting along well with your new teammate?"Not far away, the support Little Fatty let out a clear mocking laugh to express his skepticism about Xiao Rui's speculation.
"Pleasant," Lu Sicheng said expressionlessly. "Like taking a kindergarten daughter who's going on a spring outing tomorrow to the supermarket to fill her little backpack with snacks."
Tong Yao, who had just taken off her shoes and was squatting nearby rummaging through a shopping bag for her newly bought slippers, turned her head to glare at him upon hearing this.
Xiao Rui watched as Lu Sicheng casually tossed his car keys onto the table and hurried to the computer, immediately queuing up for a new ranked match before even sitting down—behaving like a proper Internet addict... He narrowed his eyes slightly and, holding Mao, moved closer to Lu Sicheng: "Didn't smoke, did you?"
"Don't know what you're talking about. I don't smoke," Lu Sicheng lazily lied through his teeth.
At that moment, Tong Yao came shuffling in wearing her slippers. Xiao Rui waved her over and pointed to the empty seat next to Lu Sicheng: "Come, Tong Yao. While you were out, I had someone set up your computer. From now on, you'll sit here."
Tong Yao glanced at the spot Xiao Rui indicated, sandwiched between Lu Sicheng and the team's jungler Old K. The computer, from the monitor to the mouse, was brand new, and the keyboard was her favorite red-switch mechanical one. But—
"What is this?"
Beside her, Lu Sicheng picked up a corner of the pink lace border cover on the computer screen with two fingers, looking utterly baffled.
Tong Yao: "..."
Xiao Rui: "A pink decoration befitting a young lady. Get your pig hooves off it."
Lu Sicheng: "This thing is blinding me from the side. I'm gonna drop to Gold rank."
Xiao Rui: "Go ahead and try. See if you get any salary this month. If even a single cent appears in your bank account that day, I'll call you grandpa."
Lu Sicheng: "Take it away."
Xiao Rui: "No."
Tong Yao reached out and fiddled with the lace at the bottom right corner of the computer, also looking hesitant: "Rui Ge, this thing really does block part of the minimap..."
In the end, it was Tong Yao's comment that finally got the dreadful thing removed... By the time Tong Yao sat down at her computer, Lu Sicheng beside her had already entered a game. She turned to watch for a while before her own fingers itched to start playing. She booted up the computer and discovered that the League of Legends client and the esports club's dedicated VPN were already installed. She had heard about this VPN before—since most pro players trained on the Korean server, clubs would provide them with professional VPN software—
Much faster and more stable than the ones regular people used.
Tong Yao, who had long suffered under the tyranny of crappy VPNs, finally felt a surge of excitement. Combined with the sound of Lu Sicheng clicking his mouse and tapping his keyboard beside her, the Internet addict who hadn't touched a computer in three or four days could no longer control her hands and clicked open the game client—
The familiar login screen sound played, and she sighed contentedly.
She deftly entered her account and password on the login screen when she suddenly felt a pair of eyes boring into her back as if trying to burn two holes through it. Tong Yao turned around and saw Little Fatty staring at her longingly... Tong Yao smiled: "Little Fatty, wanna duo?"
Having waited for this very moment, Little Fatty responded with glee.At that moment, Lu Sicheng, who had been staring intently at his computer screen, suddenly spoke up: "Shorty, do you know why the ZGDX Team's bot lane duo never queues together outside of scrim times?"
"Who are you calling shorty... No idea," Tong Yao replied, utterly confused. "Why?"
"You'll find out soon enough," Lu Sicheng said calmly.
Tong Yao stared at him for a moment before shrugging in bewilderment, then clicked to accept the game invitation from Little Fatty and joined his queue...
—Or more accurately, boarded his hearse.
Several hours later, Tong Yao finally understood the meaning behind Lu Sicheng's cryptic words: this Little Fatty was truly here to wreak havoc. Throughout their entire duo queue session, Tong Yao witnessed the full extent of his "versatile" champion pool (Note: champion pool refers to the range of champions a player is proficient with). This was a Grandmaster-tier player with the mentality of a Bronze—in his eyes, there wasn't a single champion he couldn't play as support.
The consequence was that after returning from shopping in the afternoon and diving into ranked matches without rest, by 10 PM, Tong Yao had successfully achieved reverse rank progression—plummeting from "Challenger" tier back down to "Grandmaster."
After the final match, amidst Little Fatty's wails of "I'm gonna drop to Diamond II!" behind her, Tong Yao looked at her own LP dropping from 600 to just over 400 points and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Rubbing her stomach, she said, "I'm hungry. Let's order some food?"
Her suggestion was immediately met with unanimous agreement from the teammates in the headquarters.
Everyone abandoned their computers and gathered cheerfully around the table. Tong Yao treated everyone to the spicy hot pot that Lu Sicheng had specifically requested, with extra bamboo shoots and potato slices. When the food arrived shortly after, they dug in while chatting casually.
As the newcomer, Tong Yao had fortunately spent the entire afternoon locked in the room gaming with everyone, so they were already somewhat familiar. Thus, she didn't feel too reserved chatting with the other teammates. Eventually, the conversation somehow turned to the origin of Tong Yao's ID—
"Why 'Smiling'?" asked jungler Old K. "Because you're optimistic enough? Seeing how you haven't beaten Little Fatty to a pulp after losing over 200 LP with him, you must be extremely optimistic."
"You wanna say that again?!" Little Fatty glared at Old K through a mouthful of rice.
"Because when I first started playing, I really loved the former WE Team ADC player WeiXiao (Smiling), ahhhhh!" Tong Yao put down her chopsticks excitedly, her face full of admiration. "Back then, when he retired with regrets, I was heartbroken for ages. I swore that the ID 'Smiling' would return to the world stage and become known to everyone, so I took this ID!"
"Standard fan behavior," Lu Sicheng commented. "A relatively high-tier fanatic."
"You're the fanatic."
"WeiXiao was an ADC. What's a mid laner doing being his little fan?"
"Can't a mid laner have an ADC as their favorite player? I like you too, you know. As long as they're skilled and have the right professional attitude, I like them all," Tong Yao replied offhandedly.
Lu Sicheng froze slightly, looked up at Tong Yao, and fell silent.The table fell into a brief silence. Then the man put down his chopsticks, muttered "I'm full," stood up, and returned to sit in front of his computer... The remaining four at the table exchanged bewildered glances. Tong Yao lowered her voice: "Did I say something wrong?"
Old Cat shook his head, indicating he didn't know.
Little Fatty shook his head, equally clueless.
Old K sighed and was about to say something when Lu Sicheng's somewhat indifferent voice drifted over from nearby—
"Shorty, come duo queue when you're done eating."
Tong Yao froze, not comprehending what the hell was happening, her eyes wide with confusion.
Old K finally seized the opportunity to speak, giving her a thumbs-up while clicking his tongue in admiration: "I was just about to say, little sister, that was some masterful ass-kissing. I'm impressed."
OpenNovel