After the group draw ceremony, Tong Yao really started to feel nervous. It was like those overly optimistic students who kept fooling around until a few days before the college entrance exams, only to suddenly realize on the eve of the test—"Oh my god, the exams are tomorrow, what do I do? Help, urgent, waiting online!"
Tong Yao: "We've played against Huawei Team before. Their top laner can occasionally bully Old Cat into submission—pretty strong..."
Tong Yao: "Red Arrow's predecessor was the Assassin Corps. Ahhhhhhh, I know the Assassin Corps made it to the S3 finals too! They're also really strong!"
Tong Yao: "King is a newly promoted team from this year's Spring Split Challenger Series. I heard their jungler is a dragon-stealing expert, the king of best-of-fives, with an 80% chance of reverse sweeps in losing games... Tsk tsk tsk, I'm so nervous."
Tong Yao: "Storm is an old-school club, also an All-Chinese Team. Their roster has been super stable—same five players from S3 to S6, three years without a single change. That's the wildest part. I bet they don’t even need shotcalling during matches—just type '1' and they’ll flawlessly execute tower dives, kills, dragon steals, and high-ground pushes like it's a 5.0 difficulty combo—"
Tong Yao: "Obsidian played in the relegation tournament this Spring Split, just like that team next door—but damn, even that team next door can beat CK now! What the hell isn’t possible anymore?!!!!!"
Everyone: "……………………"
Lu Yue: "You're scared of Phone Team, who we crushed in scrims?"
Old Cat: "Red Arrow's predecessor, the Assassin Corps, made it to the finals a couple of years ago—so what? Even if they won back then, it's not the same roster now. Why are you panicking..."
Old K: "Being scared of a newly promoted Challenger team is the wildest take."
Little Fatty: "Storm’s five players have been teammates for three years, sure—but they suck!"
Xiao Rui: "How can Obsidian even compare to those scrubs next door? Their ADC is Pope, who goes toe-to-toe with Cheng Ge! I can’t even remember Obsidian’s player IDs—wake the hell up!"
Lu Sicheng sniffed, half his face buried in the oversized hoodie of his jacket, and summed it up succinctly: "Too noisy. Get out of the van."
Tong Yao: "………………………………"
Tong Yao: "I'm just a little nervous. Do you guys have no sympathy at all?"
Xiao Rui: "All I’ve heard the whole ride back is your endless muttering. Anyone listening would think we got placed in some 'group of death'—when the actually tricky teams are all in Group B. What’s there to panic about? Show some respect for Cheng Ge’s amazing draw!"
Lu Sicheng let out a cold laugh.
Tong Yao interpreted it as "pride."
...Or maybe "tsundere" would also work.
"Give me your phone," Xiao Rui snatched Tong Yao’s phone, glanced at the screen, then smirked with an "I knew it" look. "You were totally Googling the mid laners’ champion pools from these teams, weren’t you?"
Tong Yao: "..."
If not for the dim lighting inside the van, everyone might have easily seen their starting mid laner’s face burning red with embarrassment—Lu Yue snorted, stretched his legs, and lazily drawled, "If you're that scared, just let me sub in."
"Dream on. You’ll rot on the bench forever."Tong Yao glared at him and tried to snatch her phone back from Xiao Rui, who held it high above his head, out of her reach. "If you want to check these materials, go find Ming Shen later. He has classic match recordings of these teams—the kind that best showcase their playstyles, individual tactics, and strategic patterns. He started collecting them as soon as the groups were finalized tonight."
Tong Yao froze for a second before her eyes lit up. "Ming Shen is amazing!"
Xiao Rui smirked proudly. "Of course! Stop relying on Baidu! You really think Baidu knows everything?"
"Isn’t this what a data analyst is supposed to do? Can you two stop acting like idiots?"
A hoarse voice chimed in. The captain sitting between Tong Yao and Xiao Rui shifted, his long arm reaching out to grab Tong Yao’s phone and toss it back to her. She fumbled to catch it before sitting down, then hesitated and cautiously glanced at the person beside her. "Cheng Ge, are you sure you don’t want to take some cold medicine?"
"No."
"Your voice is already hoarse. How are you going to lead the team the day after tomorrow?"
"It’ll be fine by then… Achoo! "
Tong Yao wore an expression that clearly said, "I don’t see any signs of you getting better," as she straightened in her seat. Meanwhile, Little Fatty loudly complained about not wanting to catch a cold and rolled down the car window.
About an hour later, the group arrived back at the ZGDX team headquarters. It was already 11 p.m. Tong Yao returned to the base, comforted Da Bing, who had been left alone all day, then asked Ming Shen for written materials on all the teams in their group—including the CK Team—before heading upstairs.
After washing up and lying in bed, Tong Yao naturally prioritized reviewing the CK Team’s information, given that they’d be facing them the day after tomorrow.
The CK Team’s top laner, "Haoyun Lai," was once dubbed the "Emperor of the Secondary Professional League" alongside Liang Sheng, the support player from a neighboring team. The two had been teammates for a year before Haoyun Lai was fortunate enough to be bought by CK Team, a top-tier Professional League squad, while Liang Sheng joined the mid-tier team YQCB. Haoyun Lai later secured a starting position in CK Team, specializing in tank champions—Maokai, Trundle, and Gnar. His Gnar, in particular, was notorious for pulling off game-changing "Tathāgata’s Palm" plays, slamming multiple enemies against walls in one swoop.
The CK Team’s ADC, Hu Die, lived up to his name—good-looking, a bit short, but that didn’t stop him from having hordes of female fans. He was a master at acting cute and spoiled, but his playstyle was hyper-aggressive, always ready to fight at the drop of a hat. He was also a world-ranked ADC, excelling with champions like War Goddess, Ashe, and Big Mouth.
The CK Team’s support, Lao Wang, had the in-game ID "Ximen Qing." No one knew why this player chose such a provocative name, but since everyone jokingly called him "Wu Song’s neighbor, Lao Wang," the nickname stuck. Paired with ADC Hu Die for two years, this veteran bot lane duo bullied every opposing bot lane except Lu Sicheng and Little Fatty. His champion pool was bottomless—he could pull out anything and make it work, though his best was probably Thresh.
The CK Team’s jungler, Jian Yang… blah blah, whatever ( eye roll ).
The CK Team’s mid laner, Xiao Hua.
Tong Yao sat up in bed and began flipping through the materials in earnest—
This was the opponent she’d be facing directly the day after tomorrow.Xiao Hua was a chubby guy with narrow eyes, looking completely non-threatening... Yet, much like Tong Yao, he excelled at assassin-type Champions, with Leblanc being one of his specialties—along with Nine-Tailed Fox and Fizz, two Champions Tong Yao wasn’t particularly skilled with, though she roughly knew how to lane against them and gain an advantage...
In the final match of the Spring Split finals, Xiao Hua picked Fizz—the only time the Champion appeared in the entire Spring Split, and in such a crucial championship-deciding game at that! Whether he completely disregarded ZGDX’s last-minute substitute Mid Laner or was simply overconfident remained unclear...
All Tong Yao remembered was that his Fizz, in about fifteen minutes, had teamed up with Jian Yang to dominate ZGDX’s substitute Mid Laner, then began roaming relentlessly, crushing ZGDX’s other two lanes that had initially held the advantage—
"......"
At this thought, Tong Yao lowered her eyes, silently vowing not to give Xiao Hua that chance in the upcoming match. Even if she fell behind in lane, she would do everything to keep him pinned to the mid lane...
Mid and jungle synergy?
Not a chance.
She searched online for some of CK Team’s matches—thanks to their sizable fanbase, their classic battles were easy to find with just a few keywords...
While waiting for the match videos to download and buffer on her iPad, Tong Yao idly browsed live streams on her phone. To her surprise, she discovered that Lu Sicheng, despite being sick, was still streaming—albeit without audio or camera. A flood of fans in the chat were wailing, "My dying roommate’s last wish is to see Cheng Ge turn on his camera!"
Such pleas might have worked if Lu Sicheng happened to be in a good mood and felt like indulging his fans.
But when it came to his idol image... that was a matter of principle.
Tong Yao set her phone aside and stepped out to check on him. Beside Lu Sicheng were two boxes of tissues and a massive trash bin already overflowing with crumpled white tissues.
Leaning on the railing, Tong Yao sighed silently before returning to her room. She sent him a message on WeChat: 【Take your meds.】 After a moment’s thought, she added: 【Are you sure cold medicine affects your gameplay more than having to free up a hand to blow your nose?】
After sending the message, she switched back to the stream and noticed Lu Sicheng’s Champion suddenly freezing for a few seconds mid-farming before sluggishly moving again. With a deadpan expression, she guessed he was blowing his nose—only for a line of text to pop up on the screen—
【fhdjwhdb2333: Why aren’t you asleep yet?】
Tong Yao: "......"
He had time to reply to WeChat while gaming?
【fhdjwhdb2333: The real person is right in front of you, yet you’re watching the stream. Are you sick?】
Startled, Tong Yao slipped on her slippers and clattered downstairs, stopping beside Lu Sicheng. "How did you know I was watching your stream?"
"System announcement when someone enters the room. People noticed." Lu Sicheng’s voice was hoarse as he nudged the trash bin with his foot. "Since you’re here, don’t leave. Take out the trash while you’re at it."
"......"
Speechless, Tong Yao picked up the bin and headed out.
Little Fatty, amidst his busy schedule, spared a glance at Lu Sicheng and Tong Yao. "Why’d she suddenly come down?"
Lu Sicheng: "She butted into my business on WeChat, telling me to take meds."Little Fatty: "...Texting each other when you're just upstairs and downstairs, are you two out of your minds?"
Lu Sicheng thought for a moment and realized he had just said something similar to Tong Yao earlier. His face darkened, and he fell silent—just as Tong Yao returned carrying an empty trash bin. After setting it down and hearing Lu Sicheng mutter a thanks, she turned to wash her hands before sitting down at her computer, right beside Lu Sicheng.
Amid the clicking sounds of the mouse.
"Not going to sleep?"
"Later. I’ll watch one match replay of CK Team first."
"Xiao Hua’s pretty good."
"Yeah, I’m not great at playing Fizz either, so I at least need to know how to counter him."
Tong Yao yawned and lowered her head to continue watching the livestream... Lu Sicheng glanced at her phone screen, about to ask why she had the strange habit of watching his stream on her phone when he was right beside her—until he noticed the camera feed in the bottom corner of her screen.
...She wasn’t watching his stream.
Lu Sicheng averted his gaze, staring intently at his own screen. "Whose stream are you watching?"
Tong Yao looked up, blinking. "Da Wang."
Da Wang was "Wei Xiao"—the original "Wei Xiao," the former ADC of Team WE, the one who had inspired Tong Yao to vow to bring the ID "Wei Xiao" back to the world stage.
Wei Xiao was incredibly strong, once officially recognized by Riot Games as the world’s best ADC.
Lu Sicheng: "..."
Lu Sicheng: "The best ADC is playing right in front of you, and you’re sitting next to him watching another ADC’s stream on your phone?"
Tong Yao looked up, bewildered, not immediately processing his words—the best ADC? Who? Wasn’t that her beloved Da Wang?
A few seconds later, it clicked.
Tong Yao: "...Cheng Ge, just because you don’t turn on your camera or mic doesn’t mean you can be this shameless."
Lu Sicheng swiftly pulled out a tissue, decapitating an enemy Dog Head with one hand. As the in-game character displayed the "300" gold bounty for the kill, he kept his eyes fixed ahead. "Go the hell to sleep. What are you doing watching streams in the middle of the night?"
OpenNovel