Tong Yao sat down next to Lu Sicheng, the two of them huddled together like a pair of fluffy rabbits at the doorway of Tong Yao's room... Seeing this, Lu Sicheng casually picked her up and settled her into his arms: "The floor's cold."
"It's fine, I don't need to bear a younger brother now anyway."
Tong Yao raised her arms to loop them around Lu Sicheng's neck. When he didn't respond, she tilted her head slightly to look at him and noticed the man seemed distracted, his eyes downcast... She paused: "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Lu Sicheng turned his head away.
Tong Yao grabbed his chin and turned it back: "There clearly is something."
Lu Sicheng swatted her hand away and pressed her head against his chest—Tong Yao could feel the vibrations of his voice through his chest, close to her eardrum: "...I don't know. I should be relieved, really. You still have so much to do, and it would be inconvenient now. But when I found out there wasn't anything, I felt a bit disappointed... On the way to the pharmacy, I even searched Taobao for anti-radiation clothing and planned out your personal training schedule."
Tong Yao nuzzled against him, inexplicably touched—unlike the scumbags in dramas who panic at the news of pregnancy and immediately decide to abort, this guy actually really wanted a child... Hers and his child.
Tong Yao: "Now that you see it's just one line, are you disappointed?"
Lu Sicheng touched her ear and hummed in agreement: "You have no idea how much I wanted to give you an eight-carat diamond ring."
"..." Tong Yao's ears perked up, and she lifted her head slightly, narrowing her eyes. "You could still give me one now, couldn't you?"
"No merit, no reward. Right now, even sending you a glass one from Taobao would feel like a waste of shipping fees."
"Lu Sicheng, I helped you win the Summer Split Championship!"
Lu Sicheng absentmindedly hummed: "There's a huge trophy downstairs—use it as a water cup if you want. If anyone dares stop you, your captain gives his approval."
Tong Yao squirmed restlessly in Lu Sicheng's arms. He wrapped an arm around her waist, leaned back against the wall, and effortlessly stood up, carrying her with him: "Suddenly remembered there's something else I can reward you with."
Tong Yao blinked: "What?"
Lu Sicheng walked into the room, hooked his foot to kick the door shut with a "bang," and said solemnly: "Reward you with a night of passion."
Tong Yao glanced at the still-bright sun outside and her expression shifted—before she could say "that won't be necessary," she was already pinned to the bed by Lu Sicheng! His recently donned clothes came off again, and Tong Yao let out a shriek, covering her eyes at the sight of his firm chest. Lu Sicheng grabbed her hands and said like an old rogue: "It's not like you haven't seen it before. Come on, touch..."
Before Tong Yao could respond, there was a knock at the door, followed by Little Fatty's voice: "What's the meaning of this? Indulging in debauchery in broad daylight?"
"We're on break—if not debauchery, then gaming?" Lu Sicheng pushed aside the small bra covering Tong Yao's chest, gave the bouncing white rabbits a squeeze, then sat up and snapped at the door: "Mind your own business!"Little Fatty was probably stunned by his unapologetic attitude and fell silent for a moment before letting out an "Oh." The sound of his footsteps gradually faded away—Lu Sicheng withdrew his gaze and saw Tong Yao staring blankly at the red handprint on his chest, her face flushed crimson. Her dazed expression was especially adorable... Lu Sicheng felt a stir in his heart, lowered his head, and planted a kiss on her forehead, murmuring tenderly, "If we had a child, they'd definitely be cute and beautiful."
Tong Yao looked up at him and said, "Stop saying that while staring at my chest. It's creepy."
Lu Sicheng couldn't help but laugh. Still chuckling, he stripped her bare. Those slender fingers—which had just achieved a thousand kills on the professional battlefield, striking fear into opponents—crept up her thighs, pressing and teasing until the person beneath him let out a muffled moan, her body arching like a shrimp... Satisfied, Lu Sicheng gave a low laugh and pulled the blanket over them both—
Later, Tong Yao concluded that Lu Sicheng's earlier, deeply moving disappointment had probably just been part of his first-class acting skills. Otherwise, given his "relentless enthusiasm"—even going so far as to personally feed her water—she would have long since kicked him off the bed... Forget "granting her a night of passion." From sunset that afternoon onward, Tong Yao barely left the bed... When she struggled to get up in the middle of the night to shower, her walk was unsteady, as if the thing that had been stirring inside her all night was still there—when she stood, warm liquid trickled down her legs. Tong Yao stiffened, frozen like a statue on her way to the bathroom... until the man, who was on a break, glanced up from his phone, tossed it aside, got out of bed, scooped her up, and carried her into the bathroom. Plopping her onto the toilet, he eyed the glistening wetness on her thighs, wiped it with tissue, and clicked his tongue in admiration. "So wet..."
His gaze remained fixed on the glowing spot the entire time.
Tong Yao promptly kicked him in the shoulder.
Lu Sicheng, caught squarely, fell back onto the floor. Still grinning, he tossed the tissue aside and pointed at a certain spot. "Now I can see even clearer."
He then proceeded to forcefully take her again in the bathroom.
Tong Yao had no idea how that night ended. The next day, she lay sprawled on the bed, too exhausted to even lift a finger... Watching Lu Sicheng, refreshed and energetic, get dressed, she buried her dark-circled face into the blankets and muttered, "This is called overindulgence. Don’t blame me if you can’t get it up in middle age."
"I look forward to inviting you to witness the miracle with me twenty years from now," Lu Sicheng said, patting her head. "Sleep. I’ll come back this afternoon."
"………………………………" Like hell you will. "Get lost!"
...
Lu Sicheng didn’t make it back that night because Tong Yao’s period arrived. Overjoyed at the sight of red on her underwear, she watched as her captain, scowling, announced to their bewildered teammates: Vacation’s over early. Everyone, back to training.
With the belated arrival of her period, September 10th soon arrived.
This was a special day.
As the other major regions had already completed their Playoffs, the roster of teams advancing to S6 had been finalized. On this day, the S6 group draw ceremony would take place.
Sixteen teams from five regions—The LPL China region has three slots: first seed pool ZGDX Team, second seed pool CK Team and YQCB Team; the LCK Korea region has three slots: first seed pool TAT Team, second seed pool RP Team and the Korean Operator Team; the LMS Taiwan region has two: first seed pool FZ Team, second seed pool C Team; the EU LCS region has three: second seed pool G4 Team, second seed pool SUN Team, third seed pool MOON Team; the NA LCS region has three: first seed pool TIME Team, second seed pool TANK Team, third seed pool BBQ Team; the IWC Wild Card region has two: third seed pool BEAR Team, third seed pool TURKEY Team. The drawing ceremony is broadcast live globally, with each region sending their representative pro players (or retired players) to San Francisco, USA to participate—...this year, the person sent by LPL to represent the region in the drawing ceremony happens to be Tong Yao's idol, the retired player Gao Xucheng, whose in-game ID is "WeiXiao."
The S-series World Championship features sixteen teams divided into four groups. The drawing order is as follows: the first seed pool consists of four teams, drawn first and placed into four separate groups without overlapping; then the second seed pool of eight teams is drawn and distributed into the four groups in turn; finally, the third seed pool is drawn last and placed into the four groups.
In theory, teams from the same region do not meet in the Group Stage. The group round-robin is conducted in BO1 format, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the quarterfinals.
At 7 AM Beijing time on the 10th, which is 8 PM US time, all teams participating in the S-series World Championship gathered in their respective team headquarters' conference halls. Accompanied by photographers sent by the event organizers, they shared the thrilling moment of the drawing live with audiences around the world—as a first seed pool team, the only significance of being drawn in the first round was to see which lettered group they would be placed in. So when ZGDX was drawn into Group B, the audience could see from the camera feed in the lower right corner that most of the ZGDX members gathered in the conference room remained calm and expressionless—except for the Mid Laner sitting in the middle of the group, Tong Yao, the league's only female player who had already made a name for herself in the Summer Split across the five major regions. When Gao Xucheng unfolded and flipped over the slip of paper in his hand, she grabbed her boyfriend and team captain's hand and screamed, "Oh my god! The King's fingers are so beautiful! Did you see how he held the slip with our team's name on it? Ahhhhh, I feel like I AM that slip of paper!!!!"
Lu Sicheng: "..."
Lu Sicheng pulled his hand back and coolly mocked, "Now the whole world knows you like him. Want to take this chance to confess?"
Tong Yao immediately turned to face the live-streaming camera sent by Riot Games, beaming and waving, "King!!! I like you!!!! Wait for me to bring that trophy back and FedEx it to you!!!"
Lu Sicheng: "..."Little Fatty, as the ace support and team caretaker, quickly reached out to press Tong Yao back into her chair: "Sit down, girl. The captain is just mocking you... If you keep shouting, the whole world will know our mid and bot lanes have severed ties by next second."
Old K nodded and spoke into the camera: "Don't listen to her nonsense. Our team isn't overconfident at all—our goal is just to make top four."
Meanwhile, the group draw ceremony continued.
Apart from the China Telecom Team, last season's S-series champions—Lu Sicheng's former team, the Korean Meme Team—were placed in Group A. Taiwan's FZ Team went to Group C, while North America's TIME Team landed in Group D... As the first seed pool was finalized, the subsequent team draws followed a remarkably unified chant—"NO A! NO B!!! GOD!!!!"
"Please don't put us in Group B! We got crushed by the Mainland Communication Team in scrims last time—aaaaaah please don't draw our team, please please!"
"That's totally our team logo—I can see the edge! A green edge! It really might be us!"
"We're done for. Manager, you can go ahead and book our return tickets for right after Group Stage ends now!"
"NONONONONONO! NO A!!! NO ME! WE WANT GOD!!!!"
"#%+@+#%%…"
And so it went.
Amidst the chorus of other teams praying "Don't put us in Group A with the Meme Team or Group B with ZGDX Team," the final Wild Card slot was assigned to Group B—marking the conclusion of the S-series World Championship group draw, leaving some teams overjoyed and others in despair.
Unlike YQCB, who were tragically placed in Group A alongside TAT Team (Lu Sicheng's former squad), or CK who had to face both the Korean Operator Team and Taiwan's FZ Team—China Telecom, under the divine blessing of Tong Yao's idol Gao Xucheng's lucky hands, drew the absolute best possible group: Group B, consisting of China's ZGDX Team, Taiwan's C Team, North America's TANK Team, and Russia's Wild Card BEAR Team.
Having perfectly dodged all three Korean teams in Group Stage, and facing a Wild Card brother, North America's underperformers, and Taiwan's C Team (against whom they'd never lost a single scrim), ZGDX Team was practically guaranteed a spot in this year's quarterfinals the moment this draw was announced.
As the ceremony concluded, celebration erupted throughout ZGDX.
Tong Yao raised her arms triumphantly: "Long live the King! Ten thousand years!"
Lu Sicheng yanked the cushion from under himself and smushed it onto her face: "Shut up, you're so loud."
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