"Tong Yao, who are you talking to on the phone? You look like you've been struck by lightning." Little Fatty curiously leaned over and asked.
"..." Little Fatty's question successfully snapped Tong Yao out of her daze. She put down the phone and said in a dreamlike tone, "It was Cheng Ge's call. He said he finished his business and changed his flight to return tomorrow..."
Cheng Ge? A phone call? Little Fatty blinked, noticing Tong Yao hadn't even finished her current game yet. He was even more confused: "Aren't you two in the same match right now? What's so urgent that you had to call instead of talking in-game... Playing face-to-face while also on the phone—are you two out of your minds?"
"I talked to him in-game, but he ignored me. I was jumping around like a lunatic all by myself..." Tong Yao shifted the blame, "The one with issues is clearly him."
"...So Cheng Ge is coming back tomorrow? Well, it's good he's returning—the Mid-Season Tournament just ended, and the Summer Split is coming up soon. We haven't even taken our team photos for Summer yet, and I heard the new summer jerseys will arrive shortly... And before Summer starts, we need to squeeze in more Scrims. You still need more time to synergize with us."
Amid Little Fatty's muttering, Tong Yao swiftly destroyed the enemy Nexus. As the explosion sound played, she exited the game, satisfied to see she had taken some of Lu Sicheng's LP and gloriously returned to the Challenger tier!
Just as she was considering whether to queue for another game, a small window popped up in the bottom right corner of her screen—a string of Korean with "sunflower" mixed in, meaning this person wanted to add her as a friend. Accept or decline? Considering how, during the game, he had seemed momentarily impressive when ganking mid, and that she'd had him blocked for years already—which was more than enough—plus the fact that they'd inevitably cross paths on stage... Not to mention the post-match handshakes. It'd be awkward to remain sworn enemies forever...
With that in mind, Tong Yao hesitated briefly before accepting Jian Yang's friend request.
Unexpectedly, the first message he sent nearly scared her off her chair:
【yaoyao (Yao Yao) hehaoxingbuxing (Can we make up)?】
Without hesitation, Tong Yao replied 【buxing (No)】 and quit the game.
True to form, Jian Yang persistently chased her to QQ to reason with her—
【Where the Sun Blooms: Tong Yao, back then, you broke up with me over trivial things because you thought long-distance and mismatched schedules made dating a waste of time... But now you're a pro player yourself. You should understand the daily life of a pro gamer. I never meant to neglect you, and I never wanted to break up.】
Tong Yao: "..."
Some people belong on the blacklist.
Forever.【NotBaldJustSmiling: Back then, I couldn’t see any of your so-called "didn’t want to break up at all" actions—you ignored my texts during class, claimed you were in scrims at night, only for the forum to expose your whole team at some KTV with hostesses whose stockings were practically draped over your head. Now you’re telling me you didn’t want to break up? Do you think I have dementia, or are you just delusional?】
【WhereTheSunBlooms: That’s all in the past, and I’ve apologized! I shouldn’t have lied.】
【NotBaldJustSmiling: Oh, but I don’t accept apologies.】
【WhereTheSunBlooms: ……Are you really with Lu Sicheng now?】
【NotBaldJustSmiling: ????????】
【NotBaldJustSmiling: What does he have to do with this?】
【WhereTheSunBlooms: I’ve noticed for a while now. Whether it’s his stream or yours, you two are always glued together. The forum and the app are full of rumors about you two dating—even someone like Lu Sicheng reads live comments for you… Fans even claim they’ve seen you holding hands while shopping.】
【WhereTheSunBlooms: Chen Jinyang said you swore you’d never date a pro player.】
【WhereTheSunBlooms: Do you even remember what you said? If not, let me remind you again… If you’re going to get involved with a pro player, it can only be me.】
Tong Yao: “…”
Wow.
A domineering CEO romance.
【NotBaldJustSmiling: Buddy, you need to take your meds.】
【WhereTheSunBlooms: Lu Sicheng wouldn’t like a little girl like you.】
【NotBaldJustSmiling: ……】
【WhereTheSunBlooms: Tong Yao, I miss you. Really.】
Tong Yao thought for thirty seconds before typing—
【NotBaldJustSmiling: Unfortunately, Little Fatty was watching a stream yesterday, and I accidentally overheard some female streamer cooing, ‘Thank you, Yang Shen, for the Super Rocket (*the most expensive gift on the platform)’—Did you really think I’d fall for that?】
【WhereTheSunBlooms: What female streamer?! That’s just a member of our club’s women’s League team! The team asked me to hype her up for publicity—you know the women’s team isn’t meant for actual competition—】
【NotBaldJustSmiling: You said the same thing two years ago, all that ‘had no choice’ nonsense…】
【NotBaldJustSmiling: A dog can’t stop eating crap.】
【NotBaldJustSmiling: ‘The women’s team isn’t meant for competition’—if you look down on female players that much, you deserve a lesson. Aren’t you close with Ai Jia from YQCB? Go ask him how I wrecked him in scrims last time.】
【WhereTheSunBlooms: You only beat Ai Jia. Aside from the Korean region, there are still ten other teams in our own Chinese region—you’re good, but don’t get too cocky. China Telecom Team has a substitute mid laner, not the one from the Spring Finals. If he returns, you’ll be benched the moment you slip up.】
Tong Yao frowned slightly, vaguely recalling that China Telecom Team did have a substitute mid laner last year, but she couldn’t remember who it was. At the time, she’d been busy preparing to study abroad—and dealing with the mess of her boyfriend lying about scrims while drinking with hostesses at KTV…Tong Yao pondered for a moment before finally placing Jian Yang back where he belonged—a place called the blacklist.
She wasn’t actually angry about Jian Yang saying Lu Sicheng wouldn’t like her. Honestly, even Tong Yao herself thought the same, and she—alright, alright, it was all Jin Yang’s nonsense that made her act all foolish and insecure—she had only been with the China Telecom Team for a few days, hadn’t even played many scrims yet. She was someone with big ambitions—who the hell had time to think about romance?
No more thoughts about Cheng Ge.
...As for that mysterious substitute Mid Laner Jian Yang mentioned—
“Little Fatty.”
“What?”
“Did our team have any other substitute Mid Laners last season?”
“...”
Little Fatty paused his mouse movements, seemingly caught off guard by the question. For the first time ever, his chubby face showed an uncharacteristically somber expression. He frowned slightly and after a long silence, replied flatly, “There was one. But don’t worry, he won’t come back.”
Tong Yao blinked. “Why?”
Little Fatty lowered his eyes. “Because he was driven out... by all of us. No one wanted to be his teammate.”
After saying this, Little Fatty shut his mouth with a look that clearly said he didn’t want to talk about it anymore. So even though Tong Yao was burning with curiosity, she couldn’t press further. She went online to search but only found that the person’s ID was “Lv.” He had left the ZGDX Team during the transfer window after last year’s World Championship and had since vanished completely from the entire League of Legends professional scene.
...Huh, seems like this guy has a story?
...
Tong Yao held onto this question until the next day, originally planning to ask the team manager Xiao Rui about it when she got the chance. But in the end, she forgot all about it...
Because Lu Sicheng came back.
That morning, Tong Yao carried Da Bing out of her room, but the moment she closed the door, the cat slipped out of her arms and scampered downstairs on its stubby legs, rolling and tumbling straight into someone’s embrace—Tong Yao leaned over the second-floor railing and looked down to see Da Bing nuzzling the man’s hand like a dog, trying to burrow under his palm...
Its round eyes were practically squinting into slits.
Does Lu Sicheng smell like fish or something? Why are you so obsessed?
At that moment, the man on the sofa seemed to sense the gaze from behind and turned to look at Tong Yao. “What are you staring at?”
Tong Yao, already accustomed to this kind of exchange, mumbled, “Cheng Ge, you’re back,” and slowly made her way downstairs. But halfway down, Lu Sicheng suddenly asked, “Shorty, what’s going on between you and CK’s Yang Shen?”
Tong Yao’s foot slipped, nearly sending her tumbling down the stairs. She grabbed the railing to steady herself, then looked up in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“Someone posted screenshots of the three of us playing Ranked Games yesterday on the forum—the entire thing. Were there any other Chinese teammates on your side?”
“...The Top laner is Chinese. Wait, you actually read the forum?”"That's right," Lu Sicheng ignored her question. "Every word you said to me, and every word Yang Shen said to you, has been screenshot and posted on the Forum—thousands of replies already. The tangled relationships between the three of us could make for a full-length drama. The plot would be: the female lead, hopelessly in love with the unattainable second male lead, and the cold, ruthless male lead."
Lu Sicheng delivered these words with a deadpan expression that carried a hint of dark humor.
"..."
Tong Yao walked behind Lu Sicheng, bending over the back of the sofa to peek at his phone. Sure enough, she found a trending post on the front page of a gaming Forum. The title read: 【ZGDX Mid and Bot Lane Suspected Romance, CK's Yang Shen Interferes—A New Legend of the White Snake in Esports】—
Bent over, Tong Yao widened her eyes as loose strands of her hair brushed against Lu Sicheng’s ear, causing a faint tickle. The man caught a whiff of her shampoo—subtly furrowing his brows, he shifted slightly away and remarked coolly, "Don’t you have your own phone?"
Tong Yao let out an "Oh," as if just remembering, and pulled out her phone. She quickly skimmed through the post and saw, unsurprisingly, screenshots of all her emotionally charged, cringe-worthy words from yesterday—along with Jian Yang’s responses...
The comments below were a wild mix:
【This headline—come work at the news department tomorrow.】
【Always trying to stir up drama.】
【Is Yang Shen the Green Snake? LMAO OP, have you ever seen an 'Xu Xian' like Lu Sicheng?】
【Damn, Yang Shen sounds so salty LOL—never thought he’d say stuff like 'Come on, I’ll carry you to victory.' That’s smooth as hell! The last person who said that to me dropped from Diamond to Gold. Tragic.】
【This is why pro teams usually don’t have female players. Workplace romances happen too easily. Not that I’m against it, but if they fight or break up, how are they supposed to keep playing together?】
【Wait, the plot’s moving too fast—what’s Yang Shen’s deal here?】
【Didn’t fans see Yang Shen talking to a girl during the Spring Finals? Was it Smiling? Did they know each other before?】
【This girl just joined and already hooked up with Cheng Ge? Someone said they saw them holding hands shopping the other day—I didn’t believe it then! Damn, I’m so mad! How shameless!】
【Will dating affect their performance? My Cheng Ge’s gonna win championships this year—don’t let this distract him.】
Tong Yao: "..."
Her fingers scrolled further down until she landed on this comment:
【All you worrywarts need to chill. Did dating in high school stop you from getting into college? Quit whining—you’re so bitter it’s rotting your teeth. Lu Sicheng and Tong Yao look good together, and even if it’s not her, it sure as hell won’t be any of you.】
Beneath it, over a hundred replies simply read "1," "2," "3," and so on.
Tong Yao put her phone away.
"Jian Yang is my ex. Back then, he wasn’t a pro yet, and I hadn’t even started playing League. After he went pro, we broke up." She paused, then added, "Sorry, Cheng Ge. I didn’t expect yesterday’s mess to affect you."
Tong Yao sat down across from Lu Sicheng, pulling the cat from his arms. She absentmindedly stroked its head, frowning slightly as her gaze drifted to a corner of the living room, lost in thought—Ever since she arrived at the team headquarters, Lu Sicheng had never seen her this quiet before.
So he frowned along with her, but soon relaxed his expression, adopting a rare tone that wasn't so icy: "I'm not blaming you, why make that face?"
Tong Yao froze for a moment, hugging the cat in her arms tighter before saying with a pause, "I've never held hands with you while shopping."
Her voice sounded slightly hoarse, filled with grievance—
"I haven't even touched your hand before."
Lu Sicheng: "..."
Tong Yao: "..."
After a brief, awkward silence, just as Tong Yao pursed her lips and turned her head away as if barely containing her emotions from exploding, the man sitting across from her suddenly stood up. Then, before she could react, he reached out, grabbed her wrist, and rubbed her hand against his palm—
Tong Yao: "?"
"Now you have." Lu Sicheng said expressionlessly, "Still feeling wronged?"
Tong Yao: "..."
The man's palm was dry and warm, with a slight callus from years of holding a mouse. His palm lines were clear and neat, his fingers clean and slender, his nails trimmed neatly, and there was a faint scent of hand soap...
"Did you smoke again just now?" Tong Yao blurted out.
Lu Sicheng's face went blank for a second. He glanced around to confirm there was no one like Xiao Rui nearby who would deduct his salary, then pulled his hand back: "None of your business."
After a pause, he added, "You're about to strangle your cat to death."
Tong Yao let out an "oh" and released Da Bing... Da Bing meowed and kicked her stomach hard with his hind legs before jumping out of her arms. Lu Sicheng reached out and patted the head of the person sitting on the sofa: "It's not a big deal. Look at how fragile you're acting."
"I heard you've had zero negative news for years, and now your first scandal is because of this. I feel really terrible about it," Tong Yao said gloomily. "I'm really sorry."
Lu Sicheng straightened up, looking down at the dejected figure before him: "As a girl coming to play in the Professional League, surrounded by guys, it's natural people would pay extra attention to this kind of thing. I thought you would've guessed it earlier..."
"I had a vague feeling it might happen," Tong Yao frowned and ruffled her hair, "but I didn't expect it to be this bad."
"Once the novelty wears off, they'll only care about your performance and skills in the league—then the fact that you're a woman will gradually fade from their minds... Probably by the Summer Split at the earliest."
"Oh."
After saying this, Lu Sicheng bent down, picked up the cat licking its paws on another sofa, and stuffed it back into the arms of the girl who looked torn between hope and fear: "We have scrims with Huawei Team this afternoon. If you're unhappy, take it out on their Mid Laner."
With that, he turned to tidy up the things he'd brought back—
Turning on his computer.
Feeding the goldfish.
Rearranging his desk that Little Fatty had messed up.
The man walked back and forth in front of Tong Yao three or four times, while she kept her head down, busy with her phone, seemingly occupied with something...
Around the fifth time, he stopped and looked at the person curled up on the sofa typing rapidly on her phone, raising an eyebrow: "What are you doing? Don't tell me you're using a throwaway account to argue with people on the forum?"
"..." Tong Yao put down her phone, "Do I look that bored?"
"You kinda do."Lu Sicheng reached for Tong Yao's phone as he spoke, but she quickly stuffed it under her butt, forcing him to give up. He looked at the girl who tilted her chin up challengingly, her eyes taunting him with a "Come and get it if you dare" expression. "Are you seriously this childish?"
Tong Yao paused, firmly sitting on her phone. "I'm drafting a Weibo post to clarify things."
"Clarify what?"
"That there's no 'eSports Legend of the White Snake' drama between me, Jian Yang, and you."
"No need."
"Yes, there is. I can't tarnish your reputation."
"..."
Lu Sicheng fell silent, staring at the girl before him who gazed up at him with earnest, dark eyes, saying something like "I can't tarnish your reputation." After a long moment, he sighed and flicked her forehead. "Go check the Forum yourself."
Tong Yao blinked, then pulled her phone out from under her and reopened the Forum. The post she had been reading had jumped from over 3,000 replies to more than 5,000—all in just a few dozen minutes. She scrolled down and noticed a reply on the second floor: Front-row reminder, the OP just showed up on floor 3758.
Tong Yao blinked again and switched to reverse-order view. On floor 3758, she saw a comment from a user named "I'm Your Daddy":
Nonsense. None of that happened. Stop making stuff up.
Beneath it, a swarm of excited Spectator masses were hopping around, addressing him reverently as "Cheng Ge." Some apologized, others praised him with "Cheng Ge speaks the truth" and "Cheng Ge is wise," while a few even tagged the moderators, demanding the post be deleted.
Tong Yao: "????"
Lu Sicheng: "Men should be the ones taking the bullets."
Tong Yao: "...Cheng Ge."
Lu Sicheng: "What? ...Why are you looking at me like that? It's disgusting."
Tong Yao: "I don’t know who’ll have the honor of being your 'Mrs. Lu' in the future, but damn, I’m already a little jealous of her."
She’ll be so well protected by you...
Impervious to blades and bullets.
Untouched by storms and winds.
As soon as the words left her mouth, a large hand landed on her head again—this time with enough force to ruffle her hair. A resigned sigh came from above as he scoffed, "What 'Mrs. Lu'? Are you an idiot or something?"
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