Tong Yao climbed onto the car, clutching her round, full stomach and hiccuping. As soon as she settled into her seat, she saw Lu Sicheng, who had been typing on his phone with his head lowered, look up and announce to everyone with a helpless expression, "I'm going home this weekend."
It was already the off-season, and the team members were technically on break, free to come and go as they pleased. So Lu Sicheng's decision wasn't met with any objections. Instead, Xiao Rui, who seemed to understand the situation, asked, "Your family called you back?"
"My dad said my mom ran away from home again," Lu Sicheng replied with an indifferent "Mhm," his tone utterly calm. "Third time this year. The first time was a trial run, and when she saw how frantic it made my dad, she realized it worked like a charm—so now she’s using it nonstop... Women really shouldn’t be spoiled. Give them a step, and they’ll take a mile."
The team seemed long accustomed to the chaos in Lu Sicheng’s family. Everyone remained relaxed and went about their business. Xiao Rui leaned back in his seat and said, "At least finish the scrims with those noobs next door before you leave, right?"
"When are they scheduled?"
"Day after tomorrow."
"Then I’ll book my flight for the day after that."
As Lu Sicheng spoke, his fingers tapped on his phone—probably accidentally hitting the voice message button—and an older man’s voice rang out:
[Let me tell you something, I’m not going to coax her back this time. If I do, I’m a damn grandson, got it? Last time I brought her home, she maxed out my credit card the very next day—heartbreak and bankruptcy all at once...]
Everyone: "..."
Lu Sicheng swiftly ended the playback.
Silence filled the car.
"Henpecked," Lu Sicheng said flatly. "My apologies."
"No, no, no! It’s a traditional Chinese virtue! A virtue!"
"Absolutely!"
"Henpecked? No, no—when it’s high society, it’s called doting on your wife and children!"
Xiao Rui waved his hand, leading the chorus of agreement. Tong Yao twitched her lips and said, "You’d better remember these words when you have spouses of your own—'henpecked is a traditional Chinese virtue.' And if you forget, I’ll be happy to remind your better halves."
"Don’t expect your future man to be henpecked," Lu Sicheng shot her a glance.
"Why not? Same world, same dream!"
"Soft-hearted."
"..."
Tong Yao thought for a moment, then her face flushed red. She clapped her hands over her ears and glared at the unfazed man in the dim light. He, however, simply lowered his head and swiped on his phone, quickly purchasing a plane ticket... Tong Yao caught a glimpse of the destination—a southern city not far from Shanghai. Rumor had it that in that place, if a rock fell from the sky, it’d hit three billionaires.
...
Two days later, it was finally time for Xiao Rui’s scheduled scrims with the noob team.
This time, they deliberately chose a weekday afternoon when the VPN wouldn’t be as congested. Everyone took their seats and logged into the custom room the noob team had already set up—same faces, same IDs. Whether the opponents were discussing their rivals was unknown, but from the moment the five ZGDX members sat down in front of their computers, their mouths hadn’t stopped moving—
Old Cat: "Little Fatty, why do you think Pope joined that relegation team?"
Little Fatty: "Stop calling them a relegation team. They were in the World Championship back when you were still drinking milk!"Old Cat: "Alright, alright, tell me why Pope would join this... Fallen noble team?"
Little Fatty: "I heard it's to find the best support and teammates to help him defeat Cheng Ge."
"That's unfortunate," Lu Sicheng said expressionlessly. "All I have here is an acrobatic support with a bottomless champion pool and a 0/7/0 Yasuo mid laner."
Tong Yao: "...Watch your words, what does that have to do with me—that Yasuo game was an accident. Today, just watch me hard carry you."
Lu Sicheng: "Don’t just do half the job—only explode without carrying."
Tong Yao: "..."
Old K: "You two sure talk a lot of trash. Are you planning to dominate the in-game quotes during the Summer Split?"
"In-game quotes" were an essential entertainment segment in the Professional League. The production team would record what players said during matches, then edit and release the most amusing clips, allowing fans to hear what pro players actually discussed or joked about during games—
Usually, you’d hear players screaming "Aaaah!" or "Focus him, focus their AD carry!" during team fights, or just bantering and teasing each other...
Tong Yao: "I love watching in-game quotes."
Old K: "Trust me, once you become the star of those clips, you won’t love it anymore."
Tong Yao: "..."
At that moment, Ming Shen clapped his hands to quiet everyone down. "Alright, alright, focus up. So much nonsense—are you all getting cocky? Cockiness never ends well. I heard from the neighboring team that after our last scrims, they realized they’d exposed a lot of issues and worked to fix them—"
Little Fatty: "They figured out their problems after just ten minutes in that scrim?"
Lu Sicheng: "Means they had a lot of problems."
Ming Shen: "Cheng Ge, stop talking, you’re seriously too cocky—Why not? Ten minutes already covers most of the early laning phase..."
Amid Ming Shen’s muttering, the scrim began. As usual, it started with the Ban & Pick phase. Surprisingly, the enemy team immediately banned Tong Yao’s Twisted Fate. Amid the team’s collective sighs, Tong Yao happily realized she might get her desired Leblanc—
And she did.
The match started peacefully, with everyone quietly farming like well-behaved gentlemen. The occasional skirmish ended harmlessly as both sides retreated to safety. But as everyone approached level 4, the atmosphere in the bot lane grew tense—
"Li Junhe’s about to start tower diving to feed kills," Lu Sicheng said in a low voice.
"Their mid is missing, be careful bot lane."
Tong Yao pinged a warning signal as she spoke. The moment the system sound played, the missing enemy mid laner indeed appeared like a ghost in the bush behind Lu Sicheng and Little Fatty—along with the enemy jungler.
"Damn, four-man gank bot! When did they place a ward behind us?! Their mid laner teleported (*Summoner spell: allows instant travel to any allied vision point on the map) down!"Amid Little Fatty's scream of agony, the four members of the Noob team swarmed in. Lu Sicheng was the first to use his escape skill and fled, leaving Little Fatty alone to be ganged up on under their own turret. The system's "d" sound rang out—Pope had secured First Blood.
This marked the beginning of the balance in the bottom lane tilting in favor of the Noob team.
Tong Yao hadn't taken the "Teleport" summoner spell, so her mobility couldn't match Ai Jia's. Knowing that even if she ran to assist, it would be too late, she chose to stay in the mid lane, calmly farming her wave of minions to gain enough experience. Then, she pushed her minions under the enemy turret, letting the opposing turret kill them—this way, when Ai Jia returned, he'd find no minions to farm, freezing both his experience and gold income. This was the inevitable drawback of a Mid Laner roaming to other lanes.
However, around seven minutes into the game, Ai Jia went to the bottom lane again.
This time, the Noob team's Mid Laner, along with their ADC and support, ganked and killed Lu Sicheng, then proceeded to take down the first turret in the bottom lane.
With two kills and a turret lost, ZGDX now found themselves in a slight early-game disadvantage. The worst part was that Pope, their primary damage dealer, had two kills under his belt and was snowballing hard, effectively becoming an early-game mini-boss!
Ming Shen was right—the Noob team had truly learned from their mistakes in the last scrims and corrected them swiftly. Pope and his support diving under the turret was too risky? No problem, they'd just bring their Mid Laner and Jungler along! Four people—surely that wouldn't be dangerous anymore?
"Damn, wasn't the Noob team supposed to be a passive farming squad under Pope's leadership? Why are they playing so aggressively today? Did they eat rat poison or something? Ahhh, Cheng Ge, you guys gotta hold the bottom lane steady," Tong Yao muttered. "Wait for me, I'll—huh?"
Mid-sentence, Tong Yao suddenly noticed something surprising. After securing an assist from his roam to the bottom lane, the enemy Mid Laner Ai Jia hadn't recalled to buy items. Instead, seeing a large wave of minions in the mid lane, he turned back, greedily eyeing the experience and gold to make up for the deficit caused by his excessive roaming.
And at this moment, most of Ai Jia's skills were on cooldown, and his mana was nearly depleted!
Without hesitation, Tong Yao abandoned her own minion wave and unleashed a full combo on Ai Jia, who thought he could sneak back unnoticed. Once Leblanc's chains locked onto the enemy, there was no chance of escape. After losing most of his health, Ai Jia weakly auto-attacked her twice before obediently surrendering his life.
"Nice!"
"Serves him right for being greedy!"
"Damn, Smiling, that was beautiful!!!"
Amid the cheers from her teammates, Lu Sicheng—still waiting for his respawn timer—glanced at the minimap in the bottom right corner and warned, "Their Jungler's coming."Normally, after securing a kill and seeing enemy reinforcements approaching, the best course of action would be to retreat immediately to preserve the advantage. However, Tong Yao didn’t follow convention. She turned around, first using her Summoner spell Flash to create distance, then ran back toward her own Turret while simultaneously slapping the noob enemy Jungler a few more times. Seeing her kill someone and still act cocky before trying to escape, the enemy team probably got impatient and also used Flash to chase her—
But unexpectedly, at that very moment, Tong Yao hit level six!
Leblanc’s ultimate ability, "Mimic," allows her to replicate the last spell she used. In an instant, the enemy Jungler was chained again, and the same shadow of death that had claimed Ai Jia now loomed over him—
The situation changed in the blink of an eye!
One moment, ZGDX Team was agonizing over the economic gap from two kills and a Turret deficit; the next, Tong Yao’s back-to-back solo kills on the enemy Mid Laner and Jungler turned the tide in their favor!
At the same time, with their Jungler dead, YQCB’s top-side jungle was ruthlessly invaded by Old K. Whether it was the Blue Buff or other jungle camps, everything was taken by ZGDX Team, and even the first mid Turret was whittled down to half health by Tong Yao!
This wave turned the noob team’s massive advantage into a crushing loss—
All because of Ai Jia’s one wrong decision, Tong Yao went from a quietly farming nobody to a mini-carry capable of standing toe-to-toe with Pope. In the ensuing team fight for the Elemental Drake, she cleanly chained Pope and slapped the squishy Champion down in a few hits. The rest of the ragtag team, already underfed, scattered like monkeys fleeing a falling tree—some ran, some died. Tong Yao’s team smoothly secured the first Infernal Drake and took down the enemy’s first mid Turret…
China Telecom Team had officially shifted from a disadvantage to an advantage!
What followed was a relentless push—destroying Turrets, securing kills, snowballing their economy until the gap was insurmountable, and finally clinching the scrim in one decisive push.
After the match, everyone slumped into their chairs with a collective sigh of relief. They’d won, but the noob team’s sudden shift in playstyle had left them shaken…
This team definitely wouldn’t just barely escape the relegation zone in this year’s Summer Split—they were aiming much higher!
Just then, Xiao Rui smacked Old K, Little Fatty, Old Cat, Lu Sicheng, and Tong Yao on the head one by one with a rolled-up magazine: "Serves you right for getting cocky! Almost got stomped by a fallen noble team! Think you’ll dare get complacent again?"
"Hey," Tong Yao protested, covering her head, "I carried that game! Why hit me?"
"Still gloating?"
"...My bad."
……
That night.
Having hard-carried the team to victory in the scrim, Tong Yao was in high spirits. After a refreshing shower, she happily slurped a bowl of instant noodles as she walked out of the kitchen—only to find Lu Sicheng crouched on his chair again, knees hugged to his chest, probably wreaking havoc in someone’s stream.
As she approached, he turned his head as if he had eyes on the back of it and pointed at his screen. "The Mid Laner from the rival team is hyping you up—excessively."
"..."Tong Yao spat her noodles back into the bowl.
Lu Sicheng made a disgusted expression—
Tong Yao quickly walked over and peeked, only to confirm that Lu Sicheng was indeed watching Ai Jia’s live stream. Right now, the guy was playing a ranked match while casually boasting to his fans in the chat...
“Yeah, yeah, we had scrims with the neighboring telecom team again today… No disconnections this time, you think we’d disconnect every day? What, you think we’re on some five-cent yearly internet plan?... Yeah, we lost, but hey, we had the early-game advantage—don’t give me that look, we really did!”
...
“Pope’s positioning is so slippery, he’s practically a tower-diving specialist… But then the other team has someone even more slippery than Pope—that’s right, it’s that damn Smiling! Man, we were feeling all good after securing two kills, and then out of nowhere, she pops up and wrecks me! Then, cool as a cucumber, she turns around and takes out our jungler too!”
...
“I should’ve just recalled that time. I had no mana, my skills were on cooldown, and she just seized the opportunity—this woman is terrifying… That was the turning point of the scrim. I lost my blue buff, Xbang lost his jungle resources, and our captain nearly chewed me out—”
...
“No more greed for minions. From now on, after getting a kill, I’m recalling straight home, no detours. Seriously, greed never ends well—I learned that the hard way.”
...
“The other team’s girl’s mechanics? Of course they’re good. She killed me, then immediately took out a full-health Xbang so fast we couldn’t even see her skill animations. Truly China’s number one Leblanc!”
...
“If any of you ever tell me again that girls can’t play League of Legends well, I’ll shove today’s scrim recording right up your nose!”
He rambled on and on.
Praising Tong Yao to the heavens and back.
By the end, Tong Yao could hardly stand listening anymore. She bent down, opened her own computer, entered Ai Jia’s stream, and quickly typed:
【ZGDX、Smiling: Buddy, no matter how much you praise me, I won’t put in a good word for you with your girlfriend.】 Enter.
Send.
Half a second later, the live comments exploded with: “Wait, did something weird just pop up?” “Holy crap, speak of the devil!” “Smiling!!! I’m your little fan!” “Teach me how to play Leblanc, pretty please~”
One comment zeroed in on the key point: …Ai Jia, what’s the deal between Smiling and your girlfriend?
“Partners in crime,” Ai Jia said. “Lately, my girlfriend’s been picking fights with me—I think she’s planning to dump me and run off with Smiling instead. So mad! And today I lost to her in-game too. I feel like my life has lost all meaning!”
Tong Yao stood in front of the computer, thoroughly amused.
Meanwhile, Ai Jia continued tirelessly hyping her up, singing her praises left and right—
Just as Tong Yao was enjoying herself, the stream suddenly got closed. She blinked and turned to Lu Sicheng, who leisurely retracted his hand. “That’s enough fun. Any more and you’ll get a big head.”
“No one’s praised me since elementary school,” Tong Yao said. “Let me hear a little more…”
She made as if to lunge back toward the computer.Yet the back of her neck was suddenly grabbed by the man from behind. Struggling to turn her head, she could only see Lu Sicheng’s perfectly chiseled jawline as he casually remarked, “Stop listening to his nonsense. Want compliments? I’ll praise you.”
“...”
Tong Yao, who had been squirming, instantly stilled.
“Praise me.” Tong Yao blinked, looking expectant.
Lu Sicheng: “...”
“Go on, praise me.” Tong Yao urged.
Lu Sicheng: “...”
After staring into those sparkling, hopeful dark eyes for a full fifteen seconds, Lu Sicheng released Tong Yao, bent down, and reopened Ai Jia’s livestream for her—the latter’s noisy voice immediately flooded back into her ears. Tong Yao froze for a moment, then turned to look at the man who had returned to his seat, his face clearly saying, “Nothing just happened.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Tong Yao tugged at his sleeve and shook it.
Lu Sicheng ignored her.
“I performed well today, oh great Captain. Where’s my praise?”
Another shake.
Lu Sicheng still ignored her.
“Do I seriously not have a single redeeming quality worth your—”
Before she could finish, Tong Yao suddenly saw Lu Sicheng reach out, grab the oil-based marker they’d used earlier to analyze the scrims, uncap it, seize her hand, and swiftly draw an outrageously ugly flower on the back of it—
Tong Yao: “？？？？？？”
“A Little Red Flower from your Captain,” Lu Sicheng said, tossing her hand aside along with the pen. He clicked to start a new game while staring at the screen and added flatly, “Keep it up next time, and I’ll draw it on your forehead.”
Tong Yao: “...”
After glaring at him for five seconds and confirming he wasn’t joking, Tong Yao silently turned and headed to the bathroom to wash her hands.
Only to discover that the Little Red Flower from her Captain… wouldn’t come off.
She tried hand soap, body wash, makeup remover, and even regular soap, but the flower remained as vibrant as ever. Standing in front of the sink with her dripping wet hand, Tong Yao finally snapped and yelled, “Screw you, Lu Sicheng! This ugly flower won’t wash off!!”
“You begged for it, got it, and now you want to wash it off? So hard to please,” the man, absorbed in his game, replied without turning his head. “Also, young ladies shouldn’t curse.”
“...”
“...Don’t want a Little Red Flower? Next time I’ll draw a turtle?”
“Ugh!”
“On your forehead.”
“...”
OpenNovel