The next day.
“Tong Yao, what’s that on the back of your hand?” The team manager, who had just walked past her, backtracked and stared at the ugly flower on the girl’s hand. “Did you sign a contract with something weird to become a magical girl?”
The girl curled up on the sofa with her cat, watching an American drama, and raised her eyes, about to retort—when a tall man dragging a suitcase walked right between the two of them and casually tossed out, “Isn’t it a bit late to become a magical girl now?”
Tong Yao sat up from the sofa. “Can’t you speak properly? Since you’re leaving soon, why not leave each other with a nice memory?”
“I’ll be back next Friday.”
Lu Sicheng set down his suitcase and began wandering around the first floor of the team headquarters, checking if he had forgotten anything—
Tong Yao: “Wallet, keys, phone.”
Lu Sicheng paused mid-step and patted his pockets. “Got them all.”
Tong Yao: “Go forth, Wukong.”
Lu Sicheng slowly turned his head, giving the girl sprawled on the sofa—almost sinking into it—a once-over before his gaze finally settled on the cat licking its paws in her lap. After a pause, he said in a low voice, “Keep an eye on your furry little beast. This morning, I saw it pawing around in my fish tank.”
“No way.” Tong Yao dismissed it. “Cats are afraid of water.”
“Only water without goldfish. There’s cat fur floating in the tank.” Lu Sicheng carried the fish tank over and shoved it right under Tong Yao’s nose. “See?”
Da Bing, seeing the tank approach, excitedly lifted its butt—Tong Yao promptly pressed the excited butt back onto the sofa and glanced at the water’s surface. Sure enough, a few strands of cat fur were floating there.
“They flew in.”
“My sons are hybrids of Italian and Russian breeds, with purebred parents holding competition-grade certificates. Thirty thousand per fish, ninety thousand for three. They’re not like those flashy cheap ones from the pet market. You’d better watch yourself.”
“...”
Thirty thousand for a goldfish? Yeah, right. What the hell kind of competition-grade, eight-nation hybrid bloodline is this? How is it any different from the half-yuan-a-piece Chinese garden-variety fish on the street?
If anyone else had said this, Tong Yao would’ve told them to get their head checked. But coming from Lu Sicheng, who could drop five figures on a single hotpot meal—she believed him.
Which was more expensive, his sons or a hotpot meal?
Obviously, his sons.
Though she didn’t understand why she was making such a bizarre comparison, Tong Yao obediently sat up from the sofa, grabbed Da Bing under its front legs, and lifted it up. Shaking the cat, she sighed, “Da Bing, you hear that? These fish are expensive and dirty. We absolutely cannot eat them.”
Lu Sicheng: “Who are you calling dirty?”
Tong Yao: “...Sorry.”
“Shorty, your parenting approach is flawed—if something’s off-limits, just say it’s off-limits.” Lu Sicheng placed the fish tank back where it belonged. “Not ‘you shouldn’t bother with it,’ but ‘you can’t touch it.’”
“...”
“I’m seriously worried about how your future kids will turn out with your parenting.”
“If you’re so good at it, why don’t you do it?” Tong Yao tossed the cat aside and blurted, “I’ll just handle the birthing part. Sounds great, doesn’t it?”
She didn’t realize anything was wrong with what she’d said—until a few seconds later, when she noticed everyone in the headquarters, including Lu Sicheng, turning their heads to stare at her in silence. She blinked. “What?”"...So you two have sprinted from just getting along to deciding to have a baby?" Xiao Rui looked utterly defeated. "Before I say congratulations, I feel I should remind you: ZGDX Team has always had a strict no-dating-among-teammates policy."
Tong Yao was about to casually ask how a bunch of guys planned to "date internally," but the words caught in her throat like Leblanc hitting level six and activating her ultimate "Mirror Image"—her own previous words suddenly replayed in her mind like a slideshow—
Holy shit, what had she just said?!
Tong Yao's face alternated between pale and red, her neck stiff as she failed to utter a single word... Meanwhile, Lu Sicheng remained completely unruffled, checking his watch before announcing it was time to head to the airport. After bidding farewell to his teammates, he wheeled his suitcase out the door.
The moment Lu Sicheng left, Da Bing jumped onto his desk and gave Tong Yao a live demonstration of "cat paws stirring the pot," proving the men hadn't wronged him—Tong Yao, her face dark with exasperation, picked him off the table and smacked his butt: "Thirty thousand per fish! If you kill even one, you're getting shipped back to the countryside!"
Da Bing stretched out his stubby legs, pressing his damp, fish-scented paw against Tong Yao's mouth.
"You actually believed that?" Little Fatty glanced up from his game at the girl nervously clutching the cat. "I went with him to buy those goldfish on the street—two yuan each, or three for five..."
Tong Yao: "..."
She tossed the cat aside and texted the contact named [fhdjwhdb2333]—
[Smiling: Liar! Little Fatty exposed you—those goldfish were five yuan for three!] Three seconds later, her phone vibrated.
[fhdjwhdb2333: You actually believed thirty thousand?]
[fhdjwhdb2333: But while goldfish have a price, life is priceless.]
Tong Yao rolled her eyes so hard they nearly got stuck in her skull.
...
After seeing Lu Sicheng off, the team headquarters finally settled into peace with just Tong Yao left behind, ending their daily chaos. For the first few days, she duo-queued with teammates, binge-watched shows, played with the cat, and quietly streamed as a mute beauty—life was pretty sweet...
[Smiling: This is what a normal professional esports player's life should be. No daily teasing, no worrying about live comments being read aloud, lunch is a regular twenty-yuan takeout box, the bright little red flower on my hand is almost faded, barely noticeable if you don't look closely.]
[Smiling: It's really great.]
Sitting on her bed, Tong Yao crunched the candy in her left cheek over to the right as she slowly shared these thoughts with her friend Jin Yang. The "typing..." status lingered for a while—Tong Yao figured she was probably editing repeatedly...
A minute later.
A new message popped up—
[A Mao's Mom: You miss him.]
Tong Yao: "..."
Her phone went flying again, clattering loudly against the floor—this scene felt eerily familiar. The girl on the bed instinctively glanced toward the door: unfortunately, no one pushed it open from the outside.Tong Yao sat on her bed in a daze for a while until the candy melted against her right cheek, leaving a thick sugary coating. She licked it with her tongue before crunching the candy between her teeth—as if she were biting through someone's neck. Jumping off the bed, she picked up her phone and quickly replied:
[Smiling: Stop talking nonsense.]
[Smiling: I just got here a few days ago. My empire isn’t even established yet—who has time for romance?]
[A Mao’s Mom: No need to explain. Looking forward to your wedding with Cheng Ge.]
[A Mao’s Mom: If the man you can’t have becomes your bestie’s man, at least you get to see him every day. That’s pretty fun too.]
[Smiling: Ugh.]
Putting down her phone, Tong Yao irritably ruffled her short hair before slipping into her slippers and heading downstairs. She found Little Fatty and the others already seated in front of their computers playing games—even though it was supposed to be a break and the team headquarters didn’t enforce Ranked matches or training, it seemed like none of them had much else to do anyway…
Entertainment? League of Legends.
Work? Still League of Legends.
Tong Yao bent down to boot up her computer. The person who used to read her Live Comments wasn’t around these days, so she had grown somewhat accustomed to streaming. Plus, she no longer recklessly dragged her teammates into chaotic games… or similar reasons. Her rank, which had nearly dropped from Grandmaster (with a few dozen points) back to Diamond I after Lu Sicheng left, had gradually climbed back up to over 400 points. If she won a few more games today, she could reclaim her title as a Challenger-tier beauty.
“Tong Yao, wanna duo?” Old K asked.
Tong Yao had just entered a new game: “I just queued. Why didn’t you say so earlier? Where’s Cat?”
“Jungle and top lane, friendship shattered.” Old K said. “This asshole ruined my promo match—picked Teemo in the decisive game. I’m never playing with him again.”
“...”
Teemo was a Champion with a reputation similar to Yasuo—those who mastered him could be terrifying, but those who didn’t… Well, Old Cat definitely wasn’t the former.
“Wait for me to finish this game. Huh?”
As she spoke, Tong Yao turned and noticed that one of her teammates had the ID “sunflower,” assigned to the Jungler role. About thirty seconds ago, he had typed in team chat: yao?
Tong Yao: “...”
Talk about enemies crossing paths—she had somehow been matched with that bastard Jian Yang.
Imagining a Jungler who would never gank mid lane, Tong Yao briefly considered quitting the game. But then she realized—no, if she won this match, she’d be back in Challenger. Why throw away free points? (*Players who forcibly quit after a game starts automatically lose the match and lose points, while teammates aren’t penalized.) So she began praying that Jian Yang would have the decency to leave instead—
But when it was Jian Yang’s turn to pick, he instantly locked in Lee Sin.
Left with no choice, Tong Yao obediently selected her Champion. Once all five picks were locked in, the game loaded. The moment the match loading screen appeared, Tong Yao nearly spat out her drink at the sight of the glaring red “ZGDX、Chessman” on the enemy team:
“I got matched against Cheng Ge! He’s Jungling on the other side…”"Then he’ll probably camp your Mid Lane... But you’ve got Yang Shen on your side, don’t panic." Little Fatty peeked over. "Cheng Ge’s Jungler terrifies everyone, but Yang Shen can still crush him any minute. This game is in the bag for you guys."
Hearing that Lu Sicheng would camp Mid Lane, Tong Yao instantly panicked. Whether they had Yang Shen on their team wasn’t even the point—because she was certain he wouldn’t come to help her in Mid Lane. After all, "act like strangers and fend for yourself" was the basic survival rule when exes awkwardly ran into each other in-game.
As soon as the five of them spawned in the Team headquarters fountain with a series of "poof poof poof poof poof," Tong Yao immediately started typing in all-chat:
[ZGDX、Smiling: chengge (Cheng Ge), yingyibahuiwangzhea (Win one game to get back to King rank ah)!!!]
[ZGDX、Smiling: ballballni (Begging you), biegaowo (don’t mess with me)!!!]
[ZGDX、Smiling: geiniguixiale (I’m kneeling for you), kuangkuangkuang (bang bang bang)...]
Yet the other side completely ignored her.
At level three, Lu Sicheng came to gank Mid Lane. Fortunately, Tong Yao had been on guard, keeping the minion wave close to her Turret. Since Lu Sicheng’s squishy Jungler couldn’t easily Tower dive, he could only circle Mid Lane before heading Top...
Tong Yao pinged her Top Laner, then finished farming the wave under her Turret. Just as she was about to recall, the enemy Mid Laner kept harassing her with long-range abilities, interrupting her recall. Tong Yao muttered, "Don’t be so ruthless..."
The moment she spoke, a vision ward landed with a "clang" behind them. Jian Yang’s Lee Sin ward-hopped out, delivering a roundhouse kick that sent the enemy Mid Laner flying into their Turret range. Early-game Turret damage was nothing to scoff at, so Tong Yao quickly locked the enemy down with her abilities, preventing their escape. The two of them coordinated perfectly to secure the kill—
Jian Yang left the kill gold for Tong Yao before turning toward Bot Lane.
Watching his cool retreating figure and the extra 300 gold in her pocket, Tong Yao suddenly felt her ex-boyfriend was two meters tall today.
But after that, things took a turn for the worse... It seemed Jian Yang’s move had struck a nerve in someone—because Lu Sicheng truly started camping Mid Lane, ganking every few minutes. After getting killed three times in a row, Tong Yao was utterly exasperated and returned to all-chat—
[ZGDX、Smiling: bielaile (Stop coming) a (Are you even human?)]
Still, the other side ignored her.
Tong Yao hesitated, then switched to a gentler approach—[ZGDX、Smiling: Cheng Ge (Brother Cheng), I miss you so much, when are you coming back?]
[ZGDX、Smiling: The cat is well-behaved, I miss you too.]
[ZGDX、Smiling: Please (since I miss you so much), don’t come mid anymore, okay? The bot lane scenery is nice too.]
While typing furiously, the mid and jungle duos on both sides clashed fiercely in the mid lane again. Lu Sicheng’s relentless ganks forced Jian Yang to stay mid as well, and soon everyone abandoned all strategy, turning mid into a chaotic brawl—
Tong Yao suddenly felt like mid had become a duo lane.
Jian Yang was a seasoned jungler, more familiar with jungle Champions than Lu Sicheng. Unfortunately, Lu Sicheng was a mechanically gifted genius, so after all the skirmishes, neither side gained much advantage—aside from their top and bot lane teammates spamming pings and question marks in frustration.
Tong Yao couldn’t understand what the two Korean players on bot were saying. Meanwhile, her team’s top laner, who was Chinese, had apparently had enough and quietly typed in all chat: What the hell are you guys doing?
At this point, Tong Yao was still relentlessly harassing the enemy jungler with psychological warfare—
[ZGDX、Smiling: Cheng Ge ah, the weather in Shanghai is nice today.]
[ZGDX、Smiling: Last night, I gazed at the stars—they shimmered like your eyes…]
[ZGDX、Smiling: My cat will kill your red fish.]
[ZGDX、Smiling: St.]
She even pulled out her ultimate moves, yet the person on the other side remained completely unresponsive!
Just as Tong Yao began to suspect that Lu Sicheng didn’t know how to type in all chat… Jian Yang suddenly sent a cold, mocking message: renjiyisi.
—He’s ignoring you. What’s the point of saying so much?
"……"
Tong Yao’s fingers, which had been hammering the keyboard and mouse, abruptly froze.
— You miss him.
Jin Yang’s damn voice echoed in her ears at just the right moment. Staring at Jian Yang’s message, Tong Yao fell silent, feeling inexplicably struck by something. Looking back at her own flood of messages—not even a single punctuation mark in response—she realized she might have been a little too carried away.
Yeah. He wasn’t responding to her.
Tong Yao lowered her eyes, instantly losing interest in typing any further. In fact, she didn’t even feel like finishing this game anymore—whether she made it to Challenger or not didn’t matter. She just wanted to end this match quickly, crawl into bed, cuddle her cat, watch some dramas, and soothe her shattered teenage heart.
Meanwhile, that annoying jerk Jian Yang kept pushing his luck—
Why say so much to him?
If you want to win, I’ll carry you.
He’s ignoring you.
Isn’t it boring talking to yourself?
……In the game, the Mid Laner with the ID [ZGDX、Smiling] suddenly erupted after thirty minutes of enduring pressure and playing cautiously, mercilessly dominating the opposing Mid Laner with no regard for fairness.
Outside the game, the girl remained expressionless.
Just then, her phone on the desk rang. Tong Yao hated getting calls while gaming, so she frowned and answered without even checking the caller ID. She let out a weak "Hello," about to say she was busy and would call back later, when a deep male voice came through—
"Why aren’t you typing anymore?"
Tong Yao: "……?"
The rapid clicking of her mouse suddenly stopped dead.
"I’ve handled my business. I’ll change my flight and come back tomorrow. You and your cat better behave."
"……"
"Hanging up."
"……"
Even after the dial tone sounded, Tong Yao remained frozen, phone still raised, her mind blank and utterly bewildered.
In the game, the oblivious "sunflower" was still spamming the chat—
Cheng Ge doesn’t like typing in-game, and he doesn’t like talking in real life either.
No matter how much you say, he won’t respond.
Why bother wasting your breath?
Hey, where’d you go! Disconnected? AFK?
Come on, I’ll carry you. I know you’re trying to climb back to Challenger…
OpenNovel