On the evening of October 3rd, U.S. time, after ZGDX Team swiftly defeated the North American team TANK in just thirty-five minutes, the first round of the Group Stage in Season 6 officially concluded.
In the final match, Tong Yao, playing as Leblanc, achieved an impressive 15 kills, 0 deaths, and 3 assists, solidifying her title as the "Server's Best LeBlanc" and ascending to the throne of the "World's Best LeBlanc." Even commentator F, who had always looked down on the LPL region, sighed in admiration after the match—[In the second round of the Group Stage, perhaps no team will dare to leave the champion LeBlanc open for Smiling again.]
ZGDX Team and its female Mid Laner became overnight sensations in the Group Stage!
It truly fulfilled the prophecy made by the "Forum Immortal" on the Forum. Overseas, comics even surfaced online depicting Tong Yao dominating seventeen other Mid Laners from rival teams, showcasing her in an overwhelmingly superior light—undeniable dominance!
Female gamers in China finally had their moment of pride. Whenever they encountered male players who sneered, "You think you're hot stuff just because you beat a bunch of weak teams?" they could confidently retort, "Stay salty," before flipping their hair and strutting away. From the start of the Group Stage, Tong Yao's Weibo followers tripled in just three days, amassing countless female fans and skyrocketing in popularity, nearly rivaling that of her husband, Lu Sicheng.
Whether it was this seismic shift that genuinely shocked Lu Sicheng or simply because he was naturally flamboyant, on the very night the Group Stage ended, Lu Sicheng dropped a bombshell of his own—during an interview with foreign media, the highly educated Lu Sicheng proved that he could rely not just on his looks but also on his intellect. Unlike other players whose English was limited to phrases like "NOFNOD ( no Flash no Ignite)," "TPTPTPTP ( Summoner spell: Teleport)," "ADADAD," or "BACKBACKBACK," he effortlessly conversed with international reporters without needing a translator.
His English pronunciation was precise, and his expressions were accurate. The only minor flaw for American audiences was his use of British English, complete with a touch of posh London accent.
—And so, Tong Yao's outstanding performance against TANK Team was overshadowed within an hour as Lu Sicheng's interview video swiftly dominated headlines across major media outlets.
The headlines were unanimous—
[Arrogance! ZGDX Captain Drops a Bombshell in Foreign Media Interview: "ZGDX Will Still Dominate the Second Round of the Group Stage! No Fear of Korean Teams—Our Ultimate Goal Is the Championship!"]
...
The second round of the Group Stage would resume on October 13th, U.S. time.
At this moment, the standings in the LPL region were as follows: ZGDX sat firmly in first place in their group with an undefeated record; CK Team lost to a Taiwanese team but narrowly defeated the Korean OP Team, temporarily holding first place in their group due to tiebreakers despite being tied in points with OP Team; YQCB Team, with two wins and one loss, also secured second place in their group.All in all, despite the decent performance that helped dispel the notion of "LPL's decline" and allowed CK Team and YQCB Team to secure plenty of scrims, the most disheartening loss for the LPL region was still dealt by a Korean team. This left the LPL players with mixed feelings—comforted yet resigned. Comforted because, apart from Korean teams, the LPL seemed to have no major issues against other regions this year. The imagined scenario of domestic league weaklings getting crushed abroad didn’t materialize; instead, they found themselves in a vast chicken coop overseas, the only difference being the variety of chickens. Resigned because Korean teams remained as unbeatable as ever—if not more so. It was as if someone had tossed three weasels into the chicken coop, leaving the remaining fifteen chickens staring wide-eyed...
Little Fatty sighed, "Especially TAT Team—the king of weasels. They’re ridiculously strong, not only undefeated in the Group Stage but also with no team even catching a glimpse of their High Ground Turret yet... When a neighboring team managed to take down six or five of their outer Turrets after holding out for over forty minutes, the game just GG’d."
As Little Fatty lamented, the ZGDX squad was on the bus back to their hotel. With a ten-day break ahead, Xiao Rui had kindly given everyone the night off without scheduling any scrims. Over the next few days, they planned to spend a day or two exploring the area... Though, truth be told, this busload of homebodies had little interest in sightseeing. What’s the point of traveling when you could just take a day trip to Summoner’s Rift? But Tong Yao had dropped her golden travel mantra: "We’re already here, might as well take a look."
After some thought, the others agreed. It’d be embarrassing to return home and, when asked what they saw in the U.S., slap their thighs and say, "Playing on the NA server was so lag-free!"
How awkward would that be?
So now, everyone was flipping through travel brochures, researching nearby attractions and food spots.
Tong Yao browsed the brochures while scrolling through her phone, clicking on a viral Weibo repost of Lu Sicheng’s interview. The top comment read:
[If Smiling used the World Championship to redeem female gamers, then Chessman just redeemed Internet addicts with this interview: Who dares say we’re just uncultured game junkies now?! WHO?!]
She liked the comment, chuckling to herself.
Any lingering frustration over being overshadowed was completely extinguished by the pride of having tamed such an outstanding man.
Meanwhile, Lu Sicheng let her lean against him as he flipped halfheartedly through a travel brochure before tossing it aside, deciding to just follow the "wherever the wife goes, I go" principle. Lazily picking up Little Fatty’s earlier topic, he said, "If all teams maintain their current standings, with Group Stage winners facing runners-up in the quarterfinals draw—plus the same-region avoidance rule—then in the top eight, we’ll only face either the second-place team from Group D or the Korean telecom OP Team if they end up as runners-up..."
Tong Yao: "If OP Team takes first in their group and CK falls to second, wouldn’t we just steamroll the Group D runner-up for a free pass to semifinals?"
Lu Sicheng: "Yep."Tong Yao sat up, followed by Little Fatty. Old K, Old Cat, and Lu Yue all turned their heads in unison with gleaming eyes to look at Lu Sicheng, exclaiming in chorus: "Really? That good?"
Lu Sicheng sighed helplessly. "Is this all the ambition you have? After all my efforts to educate you, this is what I get—a bunch of cowards, huh? Afraid of the Koreans?"
The group burst into laughter.
Tong Yao let out an "Ah" and said, "What should I do? I suddenly want CK Team to lose again. Isn’t that wicked? Weren’t we supposed to stand united against foreign teams after going abroad? Weren’t we supposed to let bygones be bygones and sincerely wish my ex-boyfriend victory—except when he’s playing against me? In the face of the grim qualifying situation, all promises are just empty words."
Little Fatty asked, "If OP Team ends up as the second in their group, and we get unlucky in the draw and face them, how many Scrims have we won against them?"
Lu Sicheng replied, "We’ll have to face them sooner or later."
Little Fatty said, "Maybe OP Team will be sent home by someone else before that."
Lu Sicheng countered, "What about TAT Team then?"
Little Fatty answered, "At least we’ve won a few Scrims against them—when Lu Yue was playing."
Tong Yao rolled her eyes.
Lu Sicheng shot Little Fatty a glare before reaching over to snatch the travel brochure from the girl sitting in front of him. Leaning slightly forward, he tilted his head closer to her and asked in a low voice, "Have you decided where you want to go yet?"
"Anywhere," Tong Yao replied. Under the dim light inside the bus, she noticed the usually stern face of the man softening for once. She reached out and pinched his cheek lightly. "Wherever you go, I’ll go."
Her words happened to align perfectly with what Lu Sicheng had been thinking.
A flicker of emotion passed through the man’s eyes before he curved his lips into a faint smile. "Shopping?"
Tong Yao shook her head without hesitation. "There’s nothing I want to buy."
Lu Sicheng grabbed her hand and patted his chest with it. "A human ATM is right here, and you’re saying that?"
Tong Yao pulled her hand back. "Do you think I’m after your money?"
Lu Sicheng’s smile widened. "Are you after my money?"
Tong Yao pressed her palm against his forehead. "What’s wrong with you? So eager to spend money on me?"
Lu Sicheng didn’t push her hand away. Instead, he hummed in agreement and said, "When you like someone, you just want to spend all your money on them. If you have ten bucks, you’d spend nine-fifty, and keep the last fifty cents to buy steamed buns—just in case she gets hungry."
His voice was neither too loud nor too soft, ensuring everyone on the bus could hear him. Amidst the collective groans of exaggerated disgust, Little Fatty’s voice stood out: "I’ve been your support for two or three years, giving up countless kills. My demands aren’t high—just get me a Givenchy Dog Head hoodie..." Tong Yao laughed and pushed Lu Sicheng’s head back, watching as the man reclined into his seat at the very back of the bus.
The bus continued moving.
After a while, everyone grew tired and dozed off. Lu Sicheng closed his eyes to rest as well. Just as Tong Yao was about to sleep, her phone vibrated. She picked it up and saw a message from Jin Yang—
[A Mao’s Mom: Where are you? Disappeared right after the match—what’s up with that? The legendary ‘hit-and-run’?]
[This Girl Has a Wolf Dog at Home: What do you want?]
[A Mao’s Mom: Your new username is so suggestive.]
[This Girl Has a Wolf Dog at Home: Shut up. What do you want?]
[A Mao’s Mom: Can’t I just talk to you?]
[A Mao’s Mom: Isn’t your birthday on the 13th? How do you want to celebrate? This is the first time we can’t be together for it since we’re abroad—feels kinda special, doesn’t it? What should I get you this year? A bag? Shoes? A necklace? Jewelry? A wedding dress?] 【A Mao’s Mom: Forget the jewelry and wedding dress, let your man handle those. Not to sound jealous, but he’s richer than me. If you told him it’s your birthday, he’d probably buy San Francisco and rename it ‘Happy Birthday to My Wife City.’】
【The Girl Who Keeps a Wolfdog at Home: ……………… No no no, stop. Please don’t tell him about my birthday. If he actually buys something that extravagant, even if you chop me up and sell me by the pound, I still wouldn’t be able to pay it back.】
【A Mao’s Mom: Human meat isn’t tasty, and you’d fetch a better price whole than chopped up, girl… Ugh, I’m so jealous. I wish my boyfriend would give me something so expensive that I’d feel like selling myself wouldn’t cover it.】
【The Girl Who Keeps a Wolfdog at Home: …What exactly are you trying to say? Why bring up my birthday all of a sudden?】
【A Mao’s Mom: Auntie… aka your mom, called me earlier. She said your twentieth birthday is a milestone, so it’s important. She asked me to make sure you celebrate properly and not just brush it off like usual.】
【The Girl Who Keeps a Wolfdog at Home: Is she my mom or yours? Why wouldn’t she just tell me directly?】
【A Mao’s Mom: She was too embarrassed.】
【The Girl Who Keeps a Wolfdog at Home: Huh?】
【A Mao’s Mom: “I know you young people like romance for birthdays, and Tong Yao has a boyfriend now… I just saw on Weibo, he seems nice—handsome and well-educated—so it’s not like I’m against it. But Yangyang, remind her to be careful. She still has to focus on her studies, so don’t let anything life-changing happen.” —Direct quote.】
【A Mao’s Mom: Heh.】
【A Mao’s Mom: Let me translate: Use protection. Your mom’s still young and not ready to be a grandma yet.】
Tong Yao: “………………………………”
Tong Yao sucked in a sharp breath.
Just then, the man sitting behind her stirred and woke up, blinking drowsily at her. “Why’s your face so red?” he asked, reaching out to touch her cheek.
The moment his fingers made contact, Tong Yao jumped as if scalded, glaring at Lu Sicheng. He looked utterly baffled. “What’s wrong?”
Tong Yao: “My mom saw your interview video.”
Lu Sicheng raised an eyebrow.
Tong Yao: “She said you’re handsome and well-educated.”
Lu Sicheng let out an “Oh,” looking rather pleased with himself.
Tong Yao: “But also that your features look shady, like a total scoundrel, and told me to keep a safe distance from you.”
Lu Sicheng: “You added that last part yourself, didn’t you?”
Tong Yao: “……”
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