Lu Sicheng's press conference had already caused a huge uproar. Amid the initial one-sided criticism of Lu Yue, voices questioning whether there was more to the story finally began to surface. People gradually calmed down from their initial anger and started rationally analyzing the ins and outs of the incident—Lu Sicheng's response during his afternoon livestream was clipped into short videos by countless fans and casual viewers, then posted across major media platforms. People dissected his words like high school Chinese reading comprehension exercises, with some even interpreting a single casual "le" as an expression of his dissatisfaction with the current esports environment—a call to challenge societal prejudices against esports.
Tong Yao teased Lu Sicheng, saying his livestream had turned him into the "Esports Lu Xun."
But her schadenfreude didn’t last long. While crouching on her chair scrolling through the Forum, she quickly noticed that whenever someone questioned whether "Smiling was the one who leaked Lu Yue’s fight video," a reply would soon follow: "I’m waiting for a certain image."
Scrolling further down, she’d find a gif of Tong Yao standing on a chair, rolling up her sleeves while angrily yelling at someone off-screen, captioned: "F*ck off, you think I’m the FBI or something?!"
……………… Staring at her own meme, Tong Yao no longer had the energy to laugh at Lu Sicheng.
Before bedtime, Xiao Rui and the team finally drafted and released an official statement. As per Xiao Rui’s request, everyone obediently reposted it on Weibo to set the record straight.
Once the truth came out, with the players personally sharing the statement, the team’s fans rallied together. Public opinion gradually shifted overwhelmingly in their favor, with people now questioning the CK Team and criticizing certain wealthy heirs for disrupting the esports scene—though some still argued that Lu Yue could’ve handled things better, like calling the police. But others countered: "What guy hasn’t gotten into a fight when they were young? Besides, the CK Team started it—they had it coming."
By the time Tong Yao finished showering and climbed into bed, the discussion was still trending, but the vicious insults from earlier had died down. Instead, people swarmed the CK Team’s official Weibo, bombarding them with criticism. The CK Team’s account, baffled, quickly clarified: "The JK Team was sold off ages ago—it has nothing to do with us."
They washed their hands of it completely.
And so, before the situation could escalate further, the matter finally came to an end… Curled up under her blanket, Tong Yao scrolled through the Forum, marveling at how she’d never before been at the center of such a "blood rain." The people being gossiped about were real, living individuals she knew personally.
This feeling of being part of the esports world was truly surreal.
The young girl yawned. When her fat cat stepped over her for the third time, she set her phone aside, lifted the blanket to let Da Bing crawl in, then closed her eyes and quickly drifted off to sleep.
…
The next noon, breaking all expectations, Little Fatty woke up unusually early. Even more shockingly, he personally cooked a meal for everyone—a simple, no-frills dish of curry with chicken, beef, and potatoes.As a chubby guy, the only compensation Little Fatty could think of for causing a major stir within the team yesterday was to cook everyone a good meal—at least that's what Tong Yao guessed. Though she thought it was already pretty harsh that Little Fatty had three months' salary and bonuses deducted for acting impulsively. This meant he might have to rely on his teammates donating him a portion of their takeout orders for the next few months to get by.
"I'll voluntarily donate fifteen days' worth of braised chicken rice," Tong Yao said.
"It's fine," the chubby guy replied without turning around, standing in front of the kitchen counter in an apron as he unpacked curry ingredients. "I deserve it."
Tong Yao stood on her tiptoes and patted Little Fatty’s fluffy head with deep emotion.
Sympathy aside, that didn’t stop the ravenously hungry Tong Yao from following Little Fatty around like a little tail the moment she woke up, asking every three minutes, "Do you want me to cut the meat?" "Do you want me to peel the potatoes?" "Do you want me to wash the pan?"—until Little Fatty finally couldn’t take it anymore and kicked her out of the kitchen. About an hour later, Tong Yao was slumped over the dining table in starvation when the other Sleeping Beauties finally trickled downstairs one by one.
Once everyone had settled at the table, Little Fatty brought out bowls of curry rice from the kitchen, portioned out for each person…
When he set one down in front of Lu Yue, the two exchanged a glance. Tong Yao, sitting next to Lu Yue, could practically wring the awkwardness out of the air—Little Fatty dropped the bowl and fled, while Lu Yue said nothing, just turned to grab a spoon from the kitchen and began eating expressionlessly…
Tong Yao sniffled and picked up her wooden spoon to dig into her rice. Meat was limited, so everyone ate carefully—one bite of potato, one bite of curry, one bite of rice, one bite of meat. Old Cat complained after two bites, "Little Fatty, just because your salary got docked doesn’t mean you had to skimp on the meat. Couldn’t you have bought one more pound?"
"Yeah, I saw you cutting quite a bit earlier…" Tong Yao chimed in.
"If you don’t want it, give it to me," Little Fatty retorted shamelessly, finally sitting down after all his work.
Tong Yao gave Old Cat a sympathetic look and lowered her head to continue scooping her curry rice, not daring to protest further. But as she ate, she noticed something odd in her peripheral vision: while everyone else was miserably rationing their few precious bites of meat, the guy next to her seemed to have either beef or chicken in every spoonful. After observing for a while, she finally put down her spoon, wiped her mouth with a napkin, and called out to Lu Yue.
Lu Yue: "?"
Tong Yao directly dragged his bowl—as big as a flowerpot—toward her with two fingers. Lu Yue raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"
She snatched his spoon, pushed aside the tightly packed layer of rice at the bottom, and revealed a thick layer of assorted meats underneath. "Holy shit!" Tong Yao exclaimed loud enough for everyone at the table to hear. "Seriously, Little Fatty? Hiding extra meat at the bottom of the bowl for your favorite? I thought even my mom’s generation stopped doing that!"
Everyone: "..."
Little Fatty: "………………"
Lu Yue: "..."
Ming Shen set down his spoon, wiped his mouth, and sighed with an old man’s knowing smile. "You kids…" Little Fatty’s face turned beet red. After glaring at Tong Yao, he grabbed his bowl and fled to his room like a fugitive, slamming the door behind him—Lu Yue continued to watch expressionlessly as Little Fatty fled in disarray. A few seconds later, Little Fatty reopened the door, rushed to the staircase like his pants were on fire, and bowed deeply toward the dining table. "Lu Yue, I was wrong. I shouldn’t have stirred things up without understanding the situation. I’m sorry!"
Before Lu Yue could react, Little Fatty hurriedly turned around and retreated to his room, shutting the door again as if afraid of being rejected!
The apology had come completely out of the blue.
A brief silence fell over the dining table.
After about ten seconds, Lu Sicheng remarked, "That door’s going to fall off one day from all his slamming." Then, after sweeping his gaze over the group frozen at the table, the team captain issued his command: "What are you all staring at? Eat."
Only then did everyone obediently lower their heads and dig into their food. Lu Yue shot Tong Yao a glare and snatched back his flowerpot bowl and spoon. Xiao Rui, smiling cheerfully, said, "Well, now that even Little Fatty has no objections, I assume no one else has any issues with Lu Yue rejoining the team, right? Lu Yue, I’ll have someone send over a new contract for you to review later. It’s perfect timing—tomorrow we submit the roster for the new season, and the day after, we’ll schedule the Summer Split promotional photos. There’s still plenty of time to arrange everything..."
Amid Xiao Rui’s endless stream of arrangements, Tong Yao lifted her head with a look of utter confusion. "How did this get decided just like that? How is it that no one has any objections? How did Little Fatty become the only one with an opinion? What about me? Me? Me? I have objections!"
Xiao Rui: "All newcomers need substitutes."
Tong Yao: "...I’ve never played professionally before, don’t lie to me."
Xiao Rui: "It’s true."
Xiao Rui: "Look at Cheng Ge—when he first started, he was even someone else’s substitute. But a year later, he had Pope trembling on the bench..."
Tong Yao’s expression remained one of utter bewilderment. "...Are you trying to convince me or what?"
Xiao Rui: "..................Just wanted to tell you that true talent always shines through. Look at Cheng Ge and Pope—both equally respected, each dominating their own region, all AD carries trembling under their grasp. The greatest light and shadow in League of Legends history."
Tong Yao glanced up at Lu Sicheng, who predictably scoffed at the description. Then she turned to Lu Yue beside her, who was currently holding his spoon and sizing her up with the scrutinizing gaze of an explorer. He then tossed the spoon aside, his face a picture of cold arrogance. "A ‘light’ who got drunk and rolled around on the ground after losing once to a Korean? No thanks."
Tong Yao: "What did you just say? Say it again, and say it properly."
Lu Yue turned his head away.
Tong Yao stretched her leg under the table and nudged the captain, who had been quietly eating with his head down. "Since he won’t say it, you say it!"
After being kicked in the knee several times, Lu Sicheng could no longer pretend to be dead. He finally looked up, glanced at the two kindergarteners sitting across from him locked in their standoff, and asked expressionlessly, "Say what?"
Tong Yao flared her nostrils indignantly. "This baby is about to get bullied by your little brother!"
Lu Sicheng let out an "Oh," then tilted his chin toward Lu Yue. "First come, first served. You’re the one who rejoined so late... And her Champion pool is way deeper than yours, so behave.""Did you hear that?" Tong Yao nudged the person beside her with her elbow. "Did! You! Hear! That! First come, first served! My champion pool is deep! Unlike some hero spoon!"
Lu Yue, having been poked painfully, dropped his spoon and glared at Lu Sicheng unhappily. "Why are you taking her side?"
Lu Sicheng paused. As everyone at the table turned to him with looks that screamed, "Yeah, why are you taking her side?" the team captain finally replied in his usual calm and measured tone, "Because I want to. None of your business."
Lu Yue’s expression soured.
Lu Sicheng turned to Tong Yao. "And you, stop shouting. It’s normal to have a substitute ready just in case since you haven’t played in an official match yet. Everything depends on the Summer Split results. If you want to secure the starting position, prove yourself with skill."
Tong Yao puffed out her cheeks.
Xiao Rui put down his bowl and clapped. "Well said. As the team manager, this is the most impartial 'impartiality' I’ve ever witnessed."
Tong Yao: "..."
Lu Yue: "..."
What kind of bullshit impartiality is this?
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