[YQB, Ai Jia: Cheng Ge, don’t freak out, but I think I just saw a ghost in your team headquarters’ yard… It was terrifying, wearing a white dress and a Sun Wukong mask, floating around… I almost fainted from fright—isn’t this place supposed to be a Feng Shui treasure land in a wealthy villa district? Why are there unclean things here!!!!]
[YQB, Ai Jia: I told Shusheng and the others, but no one believes me!!! But I really saw it!!! No way I was mistaken!!! That Sun Wukong mask was glowing green too!]
[YQB, Ai Jia: …And I kept hearing rapid footsteps pacing around your place, along with sounds of heavy objects being dragged, like ghosts moving house—sob—]
[YQB, Ai Jia: QAQ I’m scared, Cheng Ge, should you guys invite a Grandmaster to check it out?]
Twenty minutes later.
[DJWDB2333: …]
[DJWDB2333: Copy this message, open Taobao on your phone to see the Children’s Cartoon Performance Mask Set—Sun Wukong, Tang Monk, Zhu Bajie, glowing masks. ￥ASMIQJ￥/.BA0UV=ASMIQJ&=A7B16]
[DJWDB2333: Glowing mask.]
[DJWDB2333: 7.8 RMB, nationwide shipping included.]
[DJWDB2333: What you saw wasn’t a ghost. It was our team’s crazy Mid Laner.]
“Shorty,” the man typing on his phone suddenly looked up and nudged the person sitting cross-legged beside him, eating mango, with his long leg. “Were you running around in your pajamas again?”
“Just took a shower, wanted to take Da Bing out for some fresh air in the yard while waiting for the fruit delivery,” the girl wearing a half-lifted Sun Wukong mask put down her fork, looking puzzled. “What’s wrong?”
Lu Sicheng glanced at the oversized shirt she wore over her pajamas, paused, then said flatly, “Nothing.”
“…Oh. Cheng Ge, want some mango?”
“No.”
“Then I’ll eat it myself.”
“Aren’t you afraid the team jersey will make you look fat? Still eating?”
“…………Little Fatty, want some mango? It’s really sweet.”
Watching as the girl immediately put down her fork and began maneuvering her gaming chair like a turtle shell to coax Little Fatty into eating the mango, Lu Sicheng lowered his head expressionlessly and continued typing—
[DJWDB2333: The running and dragging sounds you heard weren’t ghosts moving house either. It was our team’s two crazy Mid Laners fighting over a chair.]
[YQB, Ai Jia: …………………………Tong Yao? Why was she wearing a mask? Where’d she even get that thing?]
Lu Sicheng: “…”
…Even through the screen, he could sense the despair from the neighboring team.
Too bad he couldn’t muster any sympathy—after all, they were next door, while he was stuck under the same roof with this lunatic, observing up close.
[DJWDB2333: Fans sent it. As for why they’d send her this, maybe like attracts like.]
[YQB, Ai Jia: Wait, what do you mean two Mid Laners? Since when did your team have another Mid Laner?!]
[DJWDB2333: Lu Yue’s back.]
[YQB, Ai Jia: ………………………………]Facing the string of dots sent by the other side, Lu Sicheng pondered for a moment before putting away his phone... By then, Tong Yao had already returned to her seat—it was time for a young lady to get her beauty sleep—and she was busy considering the possibility of carrying her chair upstairs and locking herself in her room...
"If you move it back, I can still use your computer standing up," Lu Yue mocked. "Back in school, I often stood in the hallway outside the classroom for entire mornings. Try me if you don’t believe it."
"Don’t be so shameless," Tong Yao glared at him.
"You’re the one being selfish," Lu Yue tried to reason with her. "You don’t use the computer when you’re sleeping, so why hog it... Are all women as unreasonable as you?"
"Yep, all women are like this. Isn’t it adorable?"
"..."
"Both of you, shut up," Lu Sicheng looked at Tong Yao. "Go to sleep, leave the chair here."
Then he turned to Lu Yue: "You play Ranked Games, let me see how you’re doing lately—if your performance has dropped too much, get out tonight."
Tong Yao resentfully pulled her mask down over her face, made a face at Lu Sicheng behind it, and jumped off the chair she had been carrying around all day, reluctantly heading upstairs... Lu Yue gave Lu Sicheng a fake smile, clearly ungrateful and no longer as eager for the chair as he had been when Tong Yao was around. He just turned to the fridge, took out a yogurt, and started drinking noisily—
Once the two separated, the team headquarters immediately returned to its usual quiet.
Xiao Rui drifted out of the bathroom and looked around: "Where’s Wukong (*Monkey King)?"
Without looking up, Lu Sicheng said, "Wukong went to get her beauty sleep."
Xiao Rui walked behind Little Fatty, who was happily eating a box of mangoes: "Bajie (*Pigsy), stop eating."
Little Fatty: "After this box, I’ll start dieting tomorrow."
Meanwhile, Lu Yue sat down at Tong Yao’s spot, opened the game, and directly logged in using her account, clicking to queue for a Ranked match... Lu Sicheng tilted his head slightly: "Don’t you have your own account?"
"Haven’t played on the Korean server in a while," Lu Yue chuckled casually. "I haven’t even done my placement matches for this season (*At the end of each season, the current ranked status is finalized, and every account’s rank is reset. At the start of a new season, each account must play ten Ranked matches, and the system assigns a new initial rank based on the results of those matches and the previous season’s final rank)."
Lu Sicheng gave an "Oh," then opened his friend list and glanced at it: "A Tai is also in queue."
As soon as he finished speaking, the system chimed—Lu Yue clicked to confirm and entered the game, while tat、tei’s status also showed they had entered a match—
Lu Sicheng quickly scanned Lu Yue’s teammate list: "He’s on the opposing team."
Lu Yue let out an indifferent laugh.
Just as Lu Sicheng finished speaking, the person who had declared ten minutes ago that she was going to sleep came thundering down the stairs, stopping behind Lu Yue. She narrowed her eyes at the screen, then shrieked: "No wonder I couldn’t sleep! Not only are you sitting in my spot, but you’re also ruining my account! You dog!"
Lu Sicheng let out a brief, derisive laugh, as if he had expected this all along."...She's the one cursing, why aren't you stopping her? And you're laughing?" Lu Yue rubbed his ears, looking at the girl standing behind him with hands on her hips. "Weren't you sleeping? Why are you down here again?"
"Peasants keep coveting Our throne! How could We sleep in peace!" Tong Yao hugged the drowsy cat in her arms tighter but didn't push Lu Yue again. "Play well, I just got back to Challenger..."
Lu Yue: "I got matched against A Tai."
Tong Yao: "..."
Tong Yao immediately quieted down. She glanced back, stuffed the cat into Xiao Rui's arms behind her, then dragged a stool over to sit beside Lu Yue—the game had already reached the ban & pick phase. Lu Yue was third pick with first ban rights. Seeing this, Tong Yao frowned slightly: "Ban Leblanc."
Hearing this, Lu Yue lazily tilted his head to glance at her: "What's the hurry?"
Tong Yao was taken aback: Normally Lu Yue always seemed like an annoying punk, but once seated in front of the computer, his demeanor was practically identical to his brother's...
Arrogant and conceited.
The ban phase ended quickly—the opposing TAT mid laner probably knew by now that Tong Yao's account was matched against him, so they first-picked Leblanc again. Tong Yao's stomach twisted, acid surging up her throat as if that day's nightmare was about to replay...
It was Lu Yue's turn to pick.
Tong Yao was nervous: "Pick Ekko, or Diana works too. Play safe early game, wait for teamfights late game..."
Lu Yue: "Can't play either."
Tong Yao: "Ahri?"
Lu Yue: "Nope."
Tong Yao: "Kassadin?"
Lu Yue: "..."
Tong Yao: "If you can't play anything, why go pro? Go home and raise pigs! What the hell can you play?"
Lu Yue locked in Azir.
Tong Yao: "..."
Tong Yao: "Win or lose, I'm probably cemented as an idiot in that Korean's mind now."
"Someone destined to be crushed underfoot eventually," Lu Yue said calmly. "Why care what he thinks? Too much free time?"
The game started. Tong Yao shut her mouth, not daring to distract Lu Yue further. When playing, Lu Yue was completely focused—at least with Azir, he seemed far more adept than Tong Yao. Early game, he farmed meticulously without rushing to trade with A Tai, just maintaining distance to soak minion XP and gold. By three minutes, his missed CS count was: 0.
Doing this as Azir against Leblanc was incredibly difficult.
Even in solo practice mode without enemy harassment, Tong Yao would sometimes miss one or two CS with Azir—and that was after intensive training. Yet this guy faced A Tai without flinching. As a carry player, his fundamentals were undoubtedly world-class.
His rock-solid gameplay completely contradicted his flamboyant personality—Azir, a champion with exceptional tower defense capabilities, was truly utilized to its fullest potential in Lu Yue's hands. Although their team had been ganked a few times by the opposing jungler in the top and bottom lanes early on, falling behind in kills, Lu Yue's presence ensured that the mid lane's first tower became a thorn in the enemy's side—standing strong until nearly thirty minutes into the game. The enemy couldn't take it down, couldn't invade the jungle for resources, couldn't secure the Elemental Drake, and the early-game advantages created by the jungler's ganks gradually faded away...
By around thirty-five minutes, as the game entered the mid-to-late phase, Leblanc, who had an average early-game performance, began to fall off. In team fights now, their lineup—boasting a decently farmed Azir—clearly had the upper hand. A series of victories in skirmishes, big and small, helped them shift from a disadvantage to an even footing, and then to an advantage—
Ultimately leading to a reverse sweep and victory.
This was practically a textbook example of how to play Azir against Leblanc in a losing matchup: ensure your own survival, stubbornly defend the mid lane's first tower, lock the opposing Mid Laner in the mid lane, and let your teammates in the other two lanes farm freely. Then, in the late-game team fights, step up and carry your team to victory.
Watching the enemy Nexus slowly crumble, Tong Yao stayed silent. Lu Yue, too, remained quiet until the very moment the Nexus exploded, then remarked calmly, "Azir can still work against Leblanc—it's just not the right pick for you. Everyone has champions that suit them and those that don't. If you take a defensive champion and try to trade aggressively, betting on kills, you're just playing into the enemy's hands."
Tong Yao stood up, thought for a moment, and brushed her hair back. "You’ve got some skills."
"I used to be Ming Shen's substitute, too," Lu Yue said with a faint smile. "They’d sub me in when they needed a defensive Mid Laner. That’s why we had such a strong season last year—"
"What’s the point?"
Little Fatty's sudden interjection cut Lu Yue off.
Everyone froze, turning to look at the usually cheerful chubby guy—but the expression on Little Fatty's face right now was anything but cheerful. It was the first time Tong Yao had seen him like this since joining the team...
Little Fatty pushed his keyboard away and stood up, shooting Lu Yue a glance. "What’s the point of doing well in the regular season? What’s the point of securing first place in annual points and a direct slot to the World Championship? And how dare you even mention Ming Shen? Have you forgotten who forced him into early retirement this year because of his injuries—?"
The room fell silent.
"I stand by what I said," Little Fatty turned to the team manager. "If the club wants him as a sub, fine, that’s their call. But personally, I won’t accept a teammate like this."
With that, he turned and stormed upstairs, slamming his door shut with enough force to nearly shake it off its hinges. In the stunned aftermath, Lu Sicheng stood up, patted Lu Yue’s shoulder, muttered, "I’ll go check on him," and followed Little Fatty upstairs...
With the bot lane duo gone one after another, Old Cat and Old K looked awkward in the face of Little Fatty’s outburst. Old Cat mumbled, "It’s been so long, why bring it up now... Ming Shen himself never said anything about it."
Lu Yue had stayed silent the entire time. Hearing this, he lifted his head and glanced at Old Cat. "Don’t. It’s my fault."
Tong Yao: "???"
Tong Yao was utterly bewildered.
She had no idea what had just happened.Tong Yao didn’t understand why Little Fatty was so furious, nor why he was even more resistant to Lu Yue than she was. She was even more confused about why he suddenly brought up the issue of last year’s World Championship qualification—
Last year, ZGDX wasn’t on the roster for the World Championship.
Before this, Tong Yao had simply assumed they hadn’t qualified. But now, she suddenly remembered Xiao Rui mentioning something like “they didn’t participate in the World Championship due to certain reasons”…
Could it be that they had qualified but didn’t end up going because of some incident?
She vaguely recalled Little Fatty saying things like “he was kicked out” and “no one wanted to be his teammate”…
Could this so-called “certain incident” be related to Lu Yue?
And did it even involve Ming Shen?
Tong Yao’s head spun from her own wild speculations. With the team seemingly on the verge of an argument, she didn’t dare ask more questions. She just retrieved her cat from the team manager’s arms and slunk back to her room like a kicked puppy…
Back in her room, Tong Yao couldn’t sleep. Lying in bed, her thoughts ran wild until she finally grabbed her phone and searched everywhere for news about ZGDX’s withdrawal from last year’s tournament. Only then did she realize that during the year she hadn’t followed the League of Legends pro scene, many dramatic events had unfolded: Last summer, ZGDX had won the Summer Split Championship. According to Riot’s rules, the Summer Split champion of each region was guaranteed a spot in the World Championship.
At the time, everyone had high hopes for ZGDX to win it all.
But unexpectedly, just as everyone assumed ZGDX was undergoing closed training to prepare for Worlds, the team’s official account dropped a bombshell announcement: ZGDX was withdrawing from the World Championship.
No reason was given.
The internet erupted in outrage—it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say the entire nation was shocked. Theories ran rampant: Some said ZGDX’s sponsor had pulled funding, leaving the team on the verge of disbandment. Others claimed there were internal conflicts among the players, making it impossible to compete. Still others insisted they had simply buckled under pressure and chickened out… In the end, none of these theories were ever confirmed.
After scouring the web, Tong Yao’s already muddled head turned into complete mush.
Just before bed, she received a text from Little Fatty:
[Little Fatty: We won’t let that guy join as a sub. What happened to Ming Shen—I’ll never forgive him for that. Just you wait.]
Tong Yao replied with a few question marks, but there was no response. She waited and waited, eventually falling asleep with her phone in her arms.
…
The next day, Tong Yao was jolted awake by her phone. Groggily crawling out from under the covers, she pressed the phone to her ear without even opening her eyes and mumbled, “Hello?”
Her friend Jin Yang’s voice roared from the other end: “You’re still sleeping?! Oh my god, your team is in huge trouble, buddy!!!!”
“Huh?” Tong Yao rubbed her eyes. “What? What?”
“Go check the Forum yourself!”
Jin Yang hung up immediately.
Baffled, Tong Yao opened a well-known esports forum, only to find the front page flooded with posts about “ZGDX”—some lamenting, some cursing, some speechless. Confused, she scrolled through until, with one refresh, she stumbled upon a towering thread with nearly 23,000 replies—[Topic] [The Real Reason ZGD Team Withdrew from Last Year's 5 Finals].
The topic post was a video.
Tong Yao yawned, assuming it was just another attempt at hype, and absentmindedly clicked on the video—it was dark, seemingly recorded by a surveillance camera. The setting was a KTV, where a group of young people sat wearing jerseys with "JK" printed on them...
Tong Yao thought for a moment—it seemed like some club's secondary team went by that name, though they had already dropped from the Professional League to the secondary league this year.
At the start of the video, these people were drinking and chatting, laughing together in perfect harmony. But before long, the door of the KTV room was pushed open from the outside, and two people walked in—
Tong Yao abruptly sat up from her bed, clutching her phone with wide eyes—
The two who entered were Lu Yue and Ming Shen. Lu Yue walked in first, holding a liquor bottle in his hand. Without a word, he swung it straight at the head of the teammate sitting closest to the door... Seeing one of their own get hit, the JK team members immediately thought, Holy shit, this can't stand , and one by one, they stood up. The scene instantly descended into chaos—
At first, it was Lu Yue fighting seven or eight people alone, but soon, it turned into seven or eight people beating Lu Yue.
Broken liquor bottles and shattered glass littered the floor, and the coffee table was split in half by these hot-blooded youths who acted without hesitation—honestly, it looked like something straight out of a Hong Kong gangster movie. Tong Yao held her phone, watching with her heart in her throat, thinking, If someone loses their footing and falls, it’s over . But before she could even finish the thought, an unlucky soul did just that—Ming Shen, who had reached out to try and mediate.
Ming Shen had never joined the fight from the start. When he saw Lu Yue attacking, he tried to pull him back to stop him; when he saw Lu Yue getting beaten, he tried to drag him away. But the JK teammate who had been hit first was bleeding profusely—they weren’t about to let them leave. So when Ming Shen stepped in to mediate, one of them shoved him without even looking. Ming Shen lost his balance and fell straight into the shattered glass from the broken table.
His right hand instinctively braced against the ground, his entire palm landing in the glass shards. The sharp edge of the table sliced a long gash across his arm...
The footage on the phone continued to play.
One moment, Ming Shen was fine—the next, he was lying in a pool of blood. Lu Yue, who had been surrounded and beaten, froze for a second before springing up like a fish leaping out of water, kicking away those around him. He grabbed Ming Shen and pulled him up... but by then, both of them looked like they had been fished out of a vat of blood—
Tong Yao’s hands trembled, and her phone dropped onto the bed...
She looked up blankly toward the door, never having imagined that playing professionally could lead to such bloodshed.
OpenNovel