["Lu Sicheng is nothing like he promised. You'll never get to attend our wedding in this lifetime."] ["A man so straight it's unbelievable."]
["He mocked me for hiding the soap on the highest supermarket shelf—come on, everyone's done that at least once, right? Right??"] ["Then he laughed at me for not being able to press the hotel elevator button—I just had too many things in my hands at that moment! They were heavy! And I forgot to put them down for a second. When I tried to explain, he just gave me this cold smirk! What's there to smirk about!"] ["Sharp-tongued, sarcastic, and loves to mess with people—yesterday he pretended to be live-streaming—he actually did turn on the stream, but didn't turn on the mic! Made me play dumb for a whole hour. The funniest part? He even lowered his voice dramatically like we were sharing some big secret, as if anyone could hear us! HEAR WHAT? THE MIC WASN'T EVEN ON AHHHHHH!"] ["At least Little Fatty, Old Cat, and Old K are nice."]
["The team manager treats Da Bing better than me. He bought a cat leash online and said he'd take Da Bing to the neighborhood to pick fights with other cats."] ["Lu Sicheng pinched my ear and said I'm too soft-hearted. Tch."]
["I'm living in constant suffering, and now the club wants me to start live-streaming. I'm so nervous—do I need to wear makeup for streams? Should I buy a beauty camera? If I do, Lu Sicheng will probably mock me for it. He might even announce to all my Fans during my stream that I bought a beauty camera—ahhh, forget it, I'll just buy it."] ["...I bought it."]
["Huh? Wait, suddenly I'm worried. 'Announcing to the whole world that I use a beauty camera' sounds exactly like something Lu Sicheng would do."] Sitting cross-legged on her bed in her nightgown, Tong Yao was having a late-night heart-to-heart with her best friend—her fingers flying across the screen as she fired off message after message. She didn't even notice the sea of green text bubbles completely dominating the chat, having monopolized the conversation. After sending her final complaint about Lu Sicheng's crimes, she frowned slightly at the ceiling, lost in thought—was she forgetting some other important grievances? Surely there should be more than just these (......).
She waited for a long time.
Finally, her phone vibrated with Jin Yang's reply. Tong Yao hurriedly looked down, only to find that amidst her lengthy rants, Jin Yang's response was remarkably concise—just four words and a punctuation mark:
["You're in love."]
Tong Yao: "......"
Tong Yao: "？？？？？？"
Startled, her hands trembled, and she accidentally flung her phone away—
It hit the floor with a loud clatter, startling Da Bing, who had been dozing on the bed. The cat let out a startled "Meow!" and leaped up. At the same time, the half-open bedroom door was pushed wide open by the very man who had just been the subject of her complaints. His tone was icy as he demanded, "What's going on?"
Tong Yao hastily scooped up Da Bing, her face full of panic. "Why didn't you knock?!"
Lu Sicheng: "Why didn't you close the door?"
Tong Yao: "I forgot!"
Lu Sicheng: "I couldn't be bothered to knock."
Tong Yao: "......"The man peeked in and seemed to guess the source of the loud noise upon seeing the phone on the floor. Muttering, "Thought you fell off the bed," he pushed the door open, walked in, and bent down to pick up the phone for Tong Yao. As he did, the locked screen lit up, casting a glow on his expressionless, slightly lazy face. His peripheral vision caught the screen, and he paused slightly: "'You care about him, silly child'—I agree with the 'silly child' part, but who do you care about?"
"..."
Tong Yao tossed the cat aside, practically springing from the bed into a horse stance, snatching the phone from the man's hand before leaping back onto the bed, burrowing under the covers, and resuming her original sitting position—all while wearing a guarded expression.
The entire sequence took about three seconds.
Lu Sicheng remained frozen in the position of holding the phone from three seconds prior. He blinked, looked down at his now-empty hand, and a faint trace of helplessness finally surfaced on his usually stoic face. "What's wrong with you?"
"Don't peek at my WeChat!"
"It popped up on its own."
"Do you have eyes on your chin?! How else would you see it without looking down?!"
"..." Staring at the person now cocooned in the blankets, puffed cheeks and eyes darting around, Lu Sicheng couldn't help but think of a squirrel. The corner of his lips curled mockingly. "You're welcome."
With that, he turned to leave.
Tong Yao stared at his retreating back, only belatedly realizing he'd picked up her phone for her. Through gritted teeth, she squeezed out a delayed "Thanks." Lu Sicheng waved dismissively without turning around, as if unimpressed.
Just then, voices and footsteps from Little Fatty and Old Cat echoed from the staircase. Tong Yao blinked. "Why is everyone going to bed so early today?"
The man paused at the doorway. "Tomorrow's scrims with YQCB are scheduled for noon, so I told them to sleep early."
"..."
Tong Yao was taken aback: You tell them to sleep early, and they just obey? They really do listen to you, Team Tyrant.
As Little Fatty and the others drew nearer, Lu Sicheng reached out and casually closed the door for Tong Yao. A soft click sounded, followed by muffled voices and footsteps outside—likely Little Fatty asking Lu Sicheng why he was coming out of Tong Yao's room. And what was Lu Sicheng's reply?
— Oh, she fell off the bed and hit her head on the nightstand. Made such a loud noise, scared the hell out of me.
Tong Yao: "..."
She grabbed her phone, found [fhdjwhdb2333] in the group chat, opened a private message window, and typed furiously: "Trash-talking me again? I heard you. Don't expect me to carry you tomorrow." —Send.
About ten seconds later, a reply: Remember to take your meds before bed. Early treatment for insanity :)
Tong Yao: "..."
Some people could make even a smiling emoticon feel like a sarcastic "heh."
She copied Lu Sicheng's message and pasted it to Jin Yang—the one who was actually spouting nonsense and actually in dire need of medication—then added a puking emoji for good measure. Closing her phone, she burrowed under the covers, yawned contentedly, and prepared to sleep.
Tomorrow was scrims.
Tong Yao stared at the ceiling for a while, then rolled over. As she lay there, she suddenly started kicking her legs and pulled the blanket over her mouth to stifle giggles—Oh my god, I really, truly am a professional esports player now!
...
The consequence of being too excited was barely sleeping all night. The next morning, when Tong Yao got up and saw the dark circles under her eyes in the mirror, she couldn't bear to look and turned away with a grimace... After showering to wake herself up, she went downstairs and was surprised to find Lu Sicheng already awake. He was sitting on the sofa reading a book, a steaming cup of coffee beside him.
For a moment, Tong Yao thought she had crossed into a parallel universe.
—Holy crap, the internet-addicted old man actually reads books.
Tong Yao walked around and sat down opposite Lu Sicheng, glancing at the book in his hands titled The Sad and Happy Funeral and Twelve Strange Stories —so profound that even the title seemed incomprehensible. She averted her gaze and casually struck up a conversation: "Up so early?"
[You're in love.]
The man across from her lifted his eyelids, peering at her over the top of the book. "CK Team has a match in the Mid-Season Tournament today, so I got up to watch."
Tong Yao thought for a moment and let out an "Oh." "Did they win?"
"Crushed the Taiwanese and North American teams," Lu Sicheng said flatly. "Got crushed by the Korean team as usual."
"Oh."
[You care about him.]
Tong Yao: "Ahhh, shut up!"
Lu Sicheng: "?"
Tong Yao: "...Never mind."
Tong Yao rubbed her face, her eyes darting around. Finally, unable to endure the echo of Jin Yang's teasing in her head, she stood up and went to the kitchen to pour herself a glass of iced milk. When she returned, she found the rest of the teammates had woken up and were coming downstairs one by one... Lu Sicheng had already returned to his computer. The book he'd set down lay open on the coffee table, and Da Bing stood beside it, pawing at the pages. Tong Yao walked over, picked up the cat, and glanced at the book, barely resisting the urge to pick it up and flip through it.
—Even though she knew she had zero interest in the book, the only reason she wanted to touch it was...
Tong Yao felt like she was under a spell.
She'd been perfectly fine yesterday, but after Jin Yang teased her a couple of times, she wasn't okay anymore. It had escalated to the point where she wanted to touch anything that he had touched...
This was terminal.
Holding the cat, Tong Yao swayed back to her computer. Without looking up, Lu Sicheng said, "Get ready for scrims. Put the cat down." Tong Yao followed his order step by step, setting the cat down and taking her seat. By then, Little Fatty and the others were also in position. Little Fatty was noisily munching on bread, but his hands were already tapping away at the keyboard, logging into the game server.
Before long, Ming Shen, who had transitioned to being a data analyst, came downstairs, along with the team coach, A Hou.
At Lu Sicheng's command, everyone seemed busy—this was the first time Tong Yao realized that their team actually had a "captain" figure.
After coordinating with a noob team, Xiao Rui provided them with the custom scrimmage mode room and password. Everyone quickly found the room, only to discover that the five members of the noob team were already waiting inside. The opposing team's positions were arranged according to standard play: first pick Top Laner, second pick Jungler, third pick Mid Laner, fourth pick ADC, fifth pick Support.
The ID in the fourth slot was: YQCB、.
Pope.
... That Pope.Tong Yao sighed inwardly, then steadied herself and focused her attention on the opponent she would soon face directly—the third-floor ID on the opposing team: YQCB、AICA, also known as Ai Jia, the Mid Laner of the "Noob" team—the boyfriend of her good friend Chen Jinyang, the best buddy of Da Bing, and the father of A Mao, that silly kid who kept shouting for his girlfriend to watch his livestream.
But Ai Jia was anything but silly in-game. Tong Yao had been dragged by Jin Yang to watch his matches before. His playstyle was as steady as a mountain. Back when the "Noob" team hadn’t yet fallen to the Relegation matches, he had earned the nickname "The Third Mid Lane Turret 2.0," much like a certain formidable Korean player. He excelled at defensive counterplays, making him a natural counter to Tong Yao’s aggressive, impulsive playstyle—
Because when Tong Yao played, she loved to fight at the drop of a hat, reckless to the extreme.
The game now entered the initial ban/pick hero mode. The opposing team immediately banned Leblanc, the Champion Tong Yao prided herself on—a gesture of respect toward her. Lu Sicheng turned his head to glance at Tong Yao and remarked dryly, "Not bad. At least you’re worth one ban slot."
Tong Yao twitched her lips but, too nervous to retort, quietly watched as both sides banned the remaining five Champions and moved on to the picking phase. When it was finally her turn, she bit her lower lip hesitantly, unsure what to pick against the enemy Mid Laner’s Kassadin. The coach behind her remained silent, seemingly unwilling to micromanage her too much in their first Scrims—
"Pick something. Don’t tell me you can’t play anything besides Leblanc?" Lu Sicheng sighed, half-joking, half-serious. "Great, one ban slot just took out our Mid Laner."
Tong Yao smacked Lu Sicheng lightly before locking in "Twisted Fate."
"Wait, you can play Twisted Fate?"
"Nice, Tong Yao."
"Damn, our girl’s got skills."
Her pick earned a chorus of impressed murmurs from her teammates.
Twisted Fate was a Champion with a unique mechanic—the cards he threw from his hand had different effects depending on their color. The blue card dealt the highest damage and restored mana; the red card was an AoE explosion that also slowed; the yellow card was a stun, serving as crowd control... Typically, the first card drawn was randomly generated, while subsequent cards followed a fixed "red-yellow-blue" cycle. Players could manually switch colors before attacking, so mastering the timing to cycle to the desired card and execute effective combos was key to playing this Champion well.
Additionally, his long-range movement ultimate at level six often allowed him to provide crucial support to teammates in other lanes.
Twisted Fate had once been a proud representative Champion of the Chinese region. But in recent years, fewer and fewer domestic Mid Laners could wield him effectively, and he was gradually disappearing from the competitive scene—
Which was why Tong Yao’s decision to pull him out today drew such reactions.
"Can you actually play him? Don’t force it if you can’t."
"Or what? Should I pull out my treasured Yasuo to carry you instead?"
"..."Tong Yao's retort successfully shut Lu Sicheng up. At that moment, as Pope on the opposing team locked in "Kalista" and Lu Sicheng locked in "Ezreal," the champion selection phase ended, and the game began!
The opposing team's Kassadin wasn't particularly mobile in the early game, focusing mainly on playing safe and farming. In contrast, Tong Yao's Twisted Fate had much stronger offensive capabilities, so from the start of the game, she pressured her opponent relentlessly, making their life miserable. Meanwhile, the situation in their own bot lane was the opposite—the enemy bot lane had secured the strong duo of Kalista and Thresh support, a meta-dominant combination, so Lu Sicheng's side was also being heavily pressured.
During the early laning phase, everyone was relatively quiet, quietly farming minions while focusing on dealing with their lane opponents. Occasionally, Lu Sicheng would remind Tong Yao, "Don't push so far up. If their Jungler comes, you'll get ganked hard."
At this point, Tong Yao had already pushed all the way to the enemy turret.
Tong Yao gave an "Oh" in acknowledgment and obediently backed off a bit. Seeing her opponent seemingly relax and step out from under their turret, she instantly switched to a yellow card, stunned them, then rushed forward to unleash a flurry of attacks—colorful cards flying into their face, followed by another yellow card, another stun, and another barrage of point-blank attacks—
The system announced: First Blood!
First Blood, claimed by Tong Yao!
"Nice!"
"Solo kill!"
"Twenty years of single life hand speed!"
"Damn, sis, that card-switching speed is insane—China's last hope in card games!"
Amid the teammates' praises, Tong Yao established her mid-lane dominance.
By this point, both teams had reached level four. Lu Sicheng paused and signaled for their Jungler, Old K, to wait in the bot lane bushes. Tong Yao glanced at him, and as if sensing her gaze, he calmly remarked, "Before level four, he’ll try to tower dive at least once. It’s Li Junhe’s weird hobby."
Tower diving meant entering the enemy turret’s attack range, enduring its hits while forcibly killing the enemy.
"I spent a whole year trying to fix this bad habit of his, but I know he won’t change."
Lu Sicheng spoke lazily, and sure enough, the moment he finished, the enemy support began deliberately placing vision in the bushes to prevent Old K from ambushing. However, their own Little Fatty didn’t give them much chance—almost as soon as the vision was placed, he rushed over with a sweeper and cleared it. But that didn’t stop Pope from jumping into the turret with his support the very next second!
The first turret shot landed on the support, who threw out a lantern (allowing allies to click it for a quick reposition to Thresh’s location) and began retreating. The moment Pope leaped into turret range, Lu Sicheng’s champion unleashed a rapid-fire barrage of abilities straight into his face—
At the same time, Old K emerged from the bush where Little Fatty had just cleared the enemy’s vision!
Realizing the danger, Pope tried to click the lantern to escape, but Lu Sicheng and Little Fatty immediately played dirty—they dropped a bunch of vision items right on top of the lantern, blocking him from clicking it in time. The turret continued mercilessly chipping away at his health, leaving him with just a sliver of HP. Lu Sicheng smirked coldly, ready to secure the kill—
But at that exact moment, the words "Reconnecting to server" suddenly appeared on everyone’s screens!
They had disconnected!"...Fuck!"
Lu Sicheng froze for a moment before slamming his keyboard hard, standing up with visible irritation as he went to pour himself a cup of coffee... The man leaned against the table, frowning in silence. Xiao Rui scurried to the window, opened it, and yelled at the top of his lungs: "Hey, neighbors! We're disconnected!!!"
Soon, a response came from the adjacent connected villa: "Hey, neighbors! We're disconnected too! Must be the VPN crashing!"
Tong Yao: "..."
Tong Yao stood up and looked at Lu Sicheng: "Pretty pissed, huh?"
"Yeah," the man lowered his eyes, taking a sip of coffee with a frustrated frown. "The grand welcome slap for Li Junhe's arrival in China is gone. What do you think?"
"Don't worry, your Mid Laner just got her first scrims welcome slap instead." Tong Yao raised her hand in a Popeye pose. "I'm thrilled. Right now, I feel like I can crush anyone."
"Bullying a Kassadin early game and you're already this smug." The man behind the coffee cup rolled his eyes. "Get a grip."
"Little Fatty and the others said I'm China's last hope."
"They lied."
"..."
"Single for twenty years, finally gets a chance to sweet-talk a girl—even if it's just a kindergarten kid."
"..."
This was someone who, when unhappy, made sure no one else was happy either.
Tong Yao rolled her eyes and walked away. Though her first scrims had ended in such a bizarre way, it didn't stop her from texting Jin Yang to gloat: [Friend, your ex-husband got stomped into the ground by me in scrims today.] The reply came swiftly: [Friend, I know. That loser’s crying to me about it... I feel our friendship has grown stronger! Keep it up, Mulan of esports!] Tong Yao hugged her phone, giggling like an airheaded fool.
A stark contrast to the dark-faced Lu Sicheng behind her.
...
That night.
Tong Yao's giddy happiness didn't last long.
She soon realized that the VPN crash had robbed Lu Sicheng of his chance to deliver the "slap" to Li Junhe, leaving him in a foul mood all day. The team headquarters was shrouded in low pressure, with everyone tiptoeing around, afraid to breathe too loudly.
—The usually lively headquarters was eerily quiet today. Even the normally chatty Little Fatty was curled up in his chair, trembling as he watched his harem anime with headphones on... Tong Yao glanced at Lu Sicheng, who was sitting at his spot with his legs drawn up, scrolling through news. He seemed to have lost all interest in gaming. With a listless expression, Tong Yao scooped up Da Bing and approached him: "Captain, is there anything I can do to cheer you up?"
The cat immediately wriggled out of her arms like a slippery eel, squeezing insistently into Lu Sicheng's lap. To her shock, Lu Sicheng didn't push Da Bing away—instead, he actually petted its furry head. Tong Yao's jaw nearly dropped: Oh no, he's really depressed. He’s even willing to pet the cat now!
As she stood there dumbfounded, manager Xiao Rui drifted over: "Tong Yao, tonight you—holy shit, Cheng Ge, what are you doing?"
Another poor soul startled by the sight.
"Petting the cat," Lu Sicheng said flatly. "Want to join?"
Xiao Rui: "...Yes."Lu Sicheng: "No way."
Xiao Rui: "Tong Yao, you should stream tonight. With camera."
Tong Yao, who got dragged into this unexpectedly, was stunned: "??? He's tormenting you, so why come torment me?"
Xiao Rui: "That's the food chain. Nature is cruel like that."
Tong Yao: "..."
The manager's orders were the boss's orders. Being on the payroll, Tong Yao couldn't fuss too much about her idol image. So she excused herself to go upstairs to wash her face and comb her hair, quickly applied light makeup, brought down the beauty camera she'd bought yesterday (delivered this afternoon), and started setting up the stream...
After she finished installing and adjusting the beauty camera, the official Weibo had already announced her upcoming livestream. Tong Yao logged into her newly created channel on Bearcat Live and found around twenty to thirty thousand people already waiting inside. Since livestream platforms usually inflate viewer numbers, the system displayed over three hundred thousand online viewers—
Instantly pushing her to the homepage!
[Waiting for the stream!]
[Three of a kind with a pair, can't beat that.]
[North Wind! Mahjong! Big Four Happiness!]
[Time to see if this girl's got bigger balls than me!] [The most mysterious person in LPL history is about to show her face 666666 how do I pretend not to be disappointed if she's ugly????] [Where's the stream? Where's the stream? You promised a stream—]
[Four twos, bomb!]
Live comments flooded in.
"Ahhhhh so many people..."
Tong Yao nervously opened the game and streaming software while her friend Jin Yang sent her a message saying she was also in the stream and asked to be made a Moderator so she could ban anyone who called Tong Yao ugly—
[Just worried I won’t be able to ban them all fast enough, don’t blame me.]
Tong Yao replied with "Screw you, friendship over," took a deep breath, and turned on the camera. A small window appeared in the bottom right corner of the screen, and under the anticipation of thousands, a girl with short hair, slightly chubby cheeks, and big round eyes appeared in view... Her background was the China Telecom Team headquarters, with the team's support player Little Fatty casually walking by in the background, munching on an ice pop—
Tong Yao was so nervous she felt like dying. She adjusted her mic and said, "Hi, good evening, everyone."
The live comments paused for a second.
Then exploded completely!
[AHHHHHHH MY WIFE HOLY SHIT!!!!] [Her voice is so nice.]
[Damn, she’s as pretty as I imagined!]
[I told you she was a girl when I saw her hands that day, but you didn’t believe me!] [Ugly.]
[...You’re actually a woman? My worldview is shattered.]
Tong Yao skimmed the comments—compliments, insults, ads—but after a while, she couldn’t bear to look anymore. Ignoring the barrage of messages trying to engage her, she quickly opened the game: "Let’s play, let’s play. I’ll be streaming every month starting this month. If you like me, feel free to subscribe..."
As soon as she said that, the subscription count skyrocketed.
Her heart leaped with excitement. Her cheeks flushed slightly, her palms sweaty as she smiled and waved at the camera, saying, "Thank you." Then she logged into the game—the familiar interface popping up finally calmed her down. She entered a Ranked match with practiced ease...
Once she was in the game, her focus shifted away from the live comments.
After all, if she didn’t have the comment assistant open, she couldn’t see them—out of sight, out of mind, wahahahaha!!!!
Just as she was marveling at her own brilliance, she noticed the man beside her—who had been sitting with his legs curled up, looking utterly lifeless—suddenly move. He clicked into some webpage, the pale glow reflecting off his handsome face as he lazily remarked:
"—‘Wow, they actually got an elementary school student to compete!’"
"...?"Tong Yao twisted her head toward her right side with such force it seemed she might snap her own neck. Yet, the person sitting to her right appeared entirely unaffected by her fierce, wolf-like glare.
"——'Pick Leblanc, I want to see your Leblanc...'"
"——'Isn't China Telecom Team employing child labor? I'm going to report this.'"
"——'Smiling, your hands are so beautiful!'"
"——'Tong Yao, you look no taller than 1.5 meters.'"
"——'Oh my god, I’ve fallen for you. Watching elementary school students play professionally feels so adorable lololol.'"
...
"This guy says his wife isn't Yui Aragaki anymore—it's Smiling." Lu Sicheng lifted his head from his knees and spoke slowly while looking at Tong Yao. "From my personal perspective, this fan of yours probably needs to visit an ophthalmologist... And if the neurology department isn’t too crowded, he might as well go there too."
Tong Yao: "..."
Tong Yao: "What the hell are you doing?!"
"Weren’t you looking for a way to entertain me?"
Lu Sicheng pointed at the computer screen—
"Found it."
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