With Lu Sicheng's interruption, only a god could continue to pour out emotions after that. Tong Yao half-pushed and half-escorted Jian Yang to the gate of the residential area, but he still refused to leave. He insisted on watching Tong Yao remove him from the blacklists of all her social media apps before reluctantly compromising.
Tong Yao lowered her head, removing Jian Yang one by one from the blacklists of QQ, WeChat, Weibo, and her phone contacts. The glow of the screen illuminated her face as she worked through each app. Meanwhile, Jian Yang leaned against the railing by the roadside, watching her every move—
“That’s all, right?” Tong Yao finally deleted his number from the call-blocking list and shook her phone. “Don’t say weird things to me in the future, or I’ll just block you again.”
“What counts as ‘weird things’?”
“Begging to get back together, telling me to watch you shine or whatever.”
“Oh.” Jian Yang responded, then reached over her shoulder from behind and pointed at her phone screen. “Did you take me out of the school social network blacklist yet?”
Tong Yao laughed helplessly and looked up. “Are you insane? What caveman still uses that—”
Before she could finish, the arm that had been reaching over her shoulder suddenly rested on it, applying just enough force to pull her backward. Caught off guard, Tong Yao stumbled back, just as she felt the person behind her lower his head—his soft, cool lips brushed against her cheek.
Tong Yao froze for a couple of seconds.
By then, Jian Yang had already let go, standing up straight as if nothing had happened. He waved down a passing taxi and paused before getting in, seemingly unable to resist glancing back at the still-dazed girl standing by the roadside. After a beat, he said flatly, “I’m heading back.”
“Huh?” Tong Yao nodded. “Oh.”
The car door closed, and Jian Yang was gone.
Tong Yao watched the taxi disappear into the distance before lowering her gaze to her phone. Finally, she raised her hand and wiped her cheek with the back of it. She blinked, unsure of what she was feeling—but she had a premonition. This time, after removing Jian Yang from her blacklists, she might never block him again. And Jian Yang probably wouldn’t suddenly show up to spout nonsense at her anymore…
It was all in the past.
For two people who had once sworn never to see each other again, being able to talk calmly face-to-face was probably the best outcome they could hope for.
Tong Yao thought for a moment, then tucked her phone back into her pocket and turned to head back to the team headquarters—only to jump in fright at the sight of someone standing behind her, who hadn’t been there a second ago. He was wearing a T-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops, yet draped over it all was a black trench coat. The bizarre combination somehow looked ridiculously good on him.
Seeing Tong Yao stumble back two steps in shock, Lu Sicheng reached out and grabbed her, saving her from the fate of falling into the road and getting flattened by a car. Once she steadied herself on the sidewalk, he let go. Still shaken, Tong Yao asked, “When did you get here?”
“Just now,” Lu Sicheng said. “Did you two make up?”
“No.”
“Then why did he kiss you?”
Tong Yao’s face flushed slightly. “A friendly kiss.”
“……” Lu Sicheng stared at her for a few seconds before deadpanning, “Do I look like a three-year-old to you?”The man finished speaking, slightly raised his chin, then turned and walked toward the residential area. Tong Yao stood frozen for a few seconds before quickly catching up to Lu Sicheng’s pace—he walked so fast that for every step he took, she had to take one and a half. By the end, Tong Yao was practically hopping behind him like a little rabbit.
"Captain."
"Hm."
"What are you here for?"
"To buy cigarettes. Didn’t I already tell you?" Lu Sicheng pulled out the pack he’d just bought along with his wallet from his pocket.
Tong Yao raised an eyebrow. "Didn’t you say you didn’t bring money?"
"...Who said there’s money in the wallet?" Lu Sicheng replied with a perfectly straight face as he tucked the wallet back into his pocket.
Tong Yao let out an "Oh," realizing he had a point. Her own wallet often only had a couple of yuan left—she rarely went out, and when she did, she mostly used apps for payments. Cash seemed almost obsolete these days... She glanced at the cigarettes he’d stuffed back into his pocket. "You haven’t smoked these past two days with that cough. I thought you were taking the chance to quit."
"I’m fine now," Lu Sicheng said, then abruptly stopped and coughed again.
Tong Yao: "..."
Pretending nothing had happened, Lu Sicheng continued walking. Tong Yao hopped around to stand in front of him, staring at his deadpan expression for a moment. "I feel like you came out here just to cause trouble. Did Jin Yang say something to you?"
"No. What trouble? Who would I be causing trouble for? Why would you even think that?"
"A girl’s intuition."
"Someone as slow as an elephant like you doesn’t have that kind of thing."
"Then let me see your phone."
"You want to look at my phone?"
"Yeah."
"How about I light a skyrocket for you so you can shoot straight to heaven?" Lu Sicheng sneered. "You’re really pushing it."
Yep, the captain was still the same captain. Tong Yao’s courage had just about run out by this point. She awkwardly rubbed the tip of her nose, not daring to push any further... By now, the two of them had followed Lu Sicheng’s brisk pace all the way back to the team headquarters. They squeezed through the door one after the other, and Lu Yue—who was sitting at Tong Yao’s spot—peeked out from his busy game. "Why are you two back together? Shorty, where’s your Yang Shen? Made up yet? Or did you reject Yang Shen and end up with my brother instead?"
"Ran into him by chance. Yang Shen went back. Made up my ass, ended up with your brother my ass." Tong Yao replied lazily, kicking off her shoes and slipping into her house slippers. "I’d like to live a few more years, so I’m firmly against dating fellow players."
"Can’t you be more ladylike?"
"Nope."
As she spoke, Tong Yao headed toward her computer. Passing behind Lu Yue, she glanced at his ongoing Ranked match—he was playing Leblanc with a score of 1 kill, 12 deaths, and 7 assists. What a joke. She scoffed and was about to walk past when something suddenly seemed off. She backtracked, bent down, and squinted at the screen. Then she let out a shriek and grabbed Lu Yue’s ear—
"Lu Yue! You bastard! You’re using my account to throw again!!!!"
"Let go, I’m about to pop off! We can win this!"
"Win my ass! I don’t see any winning plays from you!"
As the two argued, the enemy Mid Laner typed in all-chat: 【smiling？????????????】Korean, meaning: You say you're Smiling? Hahahahahahahaha.
Tong Yao slapped a hand over her eyes. "You're embarrassing me. Is that how you play Leblanc? QRWE, auto-attack, Ignite, Q—see! That's how you fucking kill them!"
"I was just about to do that. He would've died even if you hadn't said anything."
"Like hell you were."
As the two bickered back and forth, Lu Sicheng drifted past them with a cup of water, muttering "So noisy" before returning to his seat. He took off his coat, hung it on the chair, adjusted his mouse and keyboard... Out of the corner of her eye, Tong Yao noticed the stream of white text scrolling across Lu Sicheng's monitor and froze. "You're still live?"
"Killing time."
Lu Sicheng glanced at the screen. When he saw a spectator's live comment—"LMAO they still haven't made up HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"—he scoffed, pulled out a brand-new, unopened pack of cigarettes, and tossed it onto the table before leaning back in his chair.
"A viewer said China Telecom has two elementary school students now. Flattering you guys—at best, you're kindergarteners."
While Lu Sicheng relayed the message slowly, Tong Yao was busy pinching Lu Yue's ear, teaching him how to use his W dash to dive the enemy backline squishies... Just as Lu Sicheng finished speaking, Lu Yue managed to burst down the enemy ADC in the final teamfight, securing the Elder Dragon and pushing straight to the enemy High Ground to win the game. Lu Yue sighed. "Be honest, shouldn't I get MVP for this?"
"Give MVP to a 2-12-11 Leblanc? You think the system's blind?" Tong Yao kicked him. "Get up. Don't you have your own computer?"
Lu Yue sluggishly stood, and Tong Yao immediately hip-checked him out of the way to reclaim her seat. Lu Yue staggered, rolled his eyes, and stretched before noticing the pack of cigarettes on Lu Sicheng's desk. He paused. "You bought them but won't smoke?"
Lu Sicheng: "Suddenly don't feel like it."
Tong Yao: "He wasn't even going out to buy cigarettes in the first place."
As she spoke, she let go of her mouse and, in the blink of an eye, snatched Lu Sicheng's lucky cat piggy bank, flipped it upside down, and shook it. The clatter of coins spilled out two or three cigarettes.
"See?" She plopped the piggy bank back down. "There's still some left."
Lu Yue looked at Lu Sicheng.
Lu Sicheng remained unruffled. "Been in the team headquarters too long. Wanted to take a walk. Problem? Fresh air helps with recovery."
Lu Yue: "Sure, I believe that."
Lu Sicheng turned to Tong Yao. "This team's goal is the S Series Finals this year. No early relationships. No fraternizing with the enemy."
Tong Yao: "Oh."
Lu Sicheng turned back to his screen, where the live comments were now:
【LMAOOOOOO】
【Captain being all serious is so hot HAHAHAHAHA having to police his team's love life must be exhausting!】
【HAHAHAHAHA you really went out to sabotage? Yang Shen's gonna camp bot next match...】
【Aren't your top and jungle two lovebirds always flirting and feeding us sugar? Or is same-sex exempt from the ban?】
【HAHAHAHAHAHA I believe it!】["No matter what, I'm grateful you protected my wife's purity for me. I'll top up and send you a gift later!"]
["Bro Cheng, why are you so mean..."]
...
Lu Sicheng watched for a while.
Then he asked expressionlessly: "Had enough fun? I'm turning off the stream."
Three seconds later, all viewers behind their screens found the broadcast had gone completely black. The cheerful banter disappeared, and the China Telecom Team member's stream was once again flooded with 【？】.
One fan couldn't take it anymore and let out a heartfelt cry—
["Little Zongzi Fur: If you've got nothing to hide why turn off the stream!!!!"]
Lu Sicheng clicked his mouse and calmly added her to the stream's ban list... This was VIP treatment not even given to the spam bots posting shady ads in his chat.
OpenNovel