Tong Yao marched into the players' lounge with her peripheral bag, stepping in perfect rhythm. Everyone, including the staff, had already packed up and was ready to leave. It was said that the "Da Qing Forgot Five Hundred Years" team, who would use the lounge for their next match, were already on their way. Little Fatty asked Tong Yao why she was so slow.
“The keyboard and computer cables got tangled up. Took me a while to sort them out,” Tong Yao casually swept the lunch boxes they had eaten from earlier into a trash bag. “Should we take this too?”
“Oh, right, almost forgot.”
A staff member quickly reached out to take the trash bag from Tong Yao—during the time the lounge was open until the end of the day's matches, there were no cleaning staff to tidy up. The cleanliness of the lounge relied entirely on the conscientiousness of the team currently using it.
Lu Yue: “The queen of manners in the esports scene.”
Old K: “Feeling like a team with class—strong, and classy.”
Little Fatty: “Perfect.”
Old Cat: “Hello? I just asked if you guys were gonna clean up the lunch trash and no one answered me?! I’m gonna report you all to the esports neighborhood committee for gender discrimination!”
Amidst the laughter, everyone pushed the visibly annoyed Old Cat out the door. Tong Yao lingered at the back of the group, glancing behind her to see that Lu Sicheng hadn’t finished his post-match interview yet and hadn’t caught up—not worried that the team would abandon their captain and leave on their own, Tong Yao turned back and pulled out her phone, scrolling through it intently…
Her phone was flooded with unread messages—praise from her younger brother, approval from her mom, congratulations from her best friend, and compliments from friends all around. Tong Yao replied to each of these chaotic messages one by one, then opened the forum…
Originally, she had wanted to see if anyone was praising her.
But the forum’s tone turned out to be completely different, as if she hadn’t even been acknowledged—
【A newly promoted team is still just a newly promoted team. What does it matter if they dominated the LSPL? In the LPL, they’re just X fodder.】
【Getting stomped by an Operator Team, how tragic. This KING’s jungler is a joke!】
【Let me tell you a joke: the king of losing streaks, the reverse sweep team?】
【Can someone count how many times KING’s jungler actually succeeded in a GANK? Even once?】
【The gap is still huge. LSPL’s strategies are too one-dimensional. Even if they make it to the LPL, they’ll just get played to death.】
【ZGDX is still strong. Their Double Carry (*referring to the Mid Laner and ADC, the two core damage-dealing carry positions) are in insane form. Looks like their ticket to the S Series Finals is secured this year.】
……
Tong Yao: “……”
Scrolling further down, all the posts were similar—people eagerly scrambling to assign blame among KING’s five players—
Some said the ADC spent nine out of ten seconds positioning in teamfights, basically trolling;
Some said the support was invisible the whole match, not even sparing an Exhaust (*a Summoner spell that slows enemy movement speed and reduces their damage);
Some said the Mid Laner was behind in CS the entire game, utterly dominated by Tong Yao, trembling under their own Turret, only farming minions at Tong Yao’s mercy;
Some said the Top Laner took kills but contributed nothing, too squishy to tank, too weak to dive the backline—no idea what they were even doing…
But the one who got flamed the most was KING’s jungler, A Guang.From the very first game, when he attempted to invade ZGDX Team's jungle to steal the rock monsters, only to be caught by Tong Yao and Old K and angrily give up First Blood, his entire match seemed like he was constantly Exposed under ZGDX Team's watchful eyes—what a Jungler needs is unpredictability, launching surprise attacks to create early-game advantages for teammates. A cowardly Jungler who only knows to farm in the jungle early on and disappears into the wild would absolutely be dragged out, hung on a wall, and cursed at until dried by the wind!
Unfortunately, in the second game, A Guang did exactly that.
—He vanished into the jungle early on, and by the time he reappeared, the match was practically already lost.
Tong Yao pondered that after being dominated like this in the first game, KING Team should have already realized the problem—but expecting them to immediately come up with a solid countermeasure was definitely too much to ask. So in the second game, knowing full well he couldn’t GANK anyone, A Guang had no choice but to bury himself in farming and wait for team fights, as there was no other solution for now…
But the Spectator masses on the Forum wouldn’t care about any of that.
All they could see was—
First game: A Guang failed his jungle invade, angrily gave up First Blood, and couldn’t GANK anyone.
Second game: A Guang buried himself in farming, contributed nothing the entire match, had zero presence, and KING Team basically played 4v5.
These were the most obvious surface-level observations, so they cursed at A Guang the loudest, saying every nasty thing imaginable.
Tong Yao: “……”
Finding a particularly vicious post, Tong Yao was about to reply with, [Don’t make it sound like ZGDX won easily] —but just as she finished typing and hit send, Little Fatty, who had been walking ahead, circled back and urged her: “You disappeared halfway! Hurry up, we’ve got a team dinner soon! Xiao Rui’s treating us to Korean BBQ, yay!”
“Oh, coming.” Tong Yao pocketed her phone and paused near the restroom. “Go ahead first, I need to use the restroom.”
After hearing Little Fatty call back, “Then hurry up,” she turned toward the restroom. After finishing up and washing her hands, she was drying them on her way out when she suddenly heard a strange noise from the men’s restroom next door—like someone was dragging their feet across the floor.
…This restroom was mostly used by team members. The next match’s teams had just arrived, and the teams that had finished playing were about to leave—who could still be in there?
Out of curiosity, Tong Yao peeked into the men’s restroom as she passed by. Then, in the reflection of the dark tiles, she suddenly saw someone crouching beside the door of the first stall—
The posture was identical to that of the little ghost crouching in the closet from Ju-On .
Tong Yao: “？？？？？？”
At first, her hair practically stood on end, thinking she’d seen a ghost in broad daylight—until, in her stunned state, a beam of white light suddenly lit up in front of the curled-up shadow—
Clearly, someone was squatting on the restroom floor playing with their phone.
Tong Yao: “……………………”
Tong Yao: “Who’s there?”Tong Yao called out, then saw the light from the phone suddenly go out with a soft "poof." The person inside seemed to tense up, shifting slightly before raising their head to glance outside... By then, Tong Yao had already muttered, "I'm coming in," and tiptoed into the men's restroom with a slight hunch in her posture—
Inside was empty.
Except for the kid crouching in front of the first stall, looking up at her in bewilderment—his peripheral bag still strapped to his back, a half-smoked cigarette clutched in one hand along with his phone, his body curled into a tight ball. When he lifted his head, his bloodshot eyes and reddened nose, reminiscent of Santa Claus, betrayed the fact that tears had likely flooded this space just minutes ago...
—It was A Guang, the jungler from the neighboring team.
The two locked eyes, an awkward tension hanging between them.
Under his stunned gaze, Tong Yao fiddled with the strap of her peripheral bag and pointed toward the door. "I was passing by and saw someone crouching in here... didn’t look like they were, uh, taking a dump..."
She trailed off, cheeks flushing slightly as if embarrassed. A Guang stared at her with an odd expression for a moment before suddenly snorting and turning his head away. "Guess you saw something funny."
He stubbed out the cigarette.
Tong Yao shook her head, rummaged in her pocket, and pulled out a pack of tissues, handing them to A Guang. After a brief pause, she crouched down beside him, shoulder to shoulder. "Why are you hiding in here crying alone?"
"Don’t play dumb."
"Because of the loss?"
"Yeah," A Guang replied flatly. "And then I saw how vicious the Forum posts were. This was our team’s debut match in the LPL Summer Split. Losing like this already felt terrible, and then I turn around to see people tearing into us like that—"
As he spoke, he lowered his head, fingers raking through his carefully styled hair, mussing it up. He let out a bitter chuckle. "It’s not like I’ve never seen how the esports Forum worships winners and bashes losers. I thought I was mentally prepared for the backlash after a loss—but when it actually happens to you, it’s impossible to take. I wanted to grab every single one of them and explain that there was nothing we could do at that point, that we had to stall and wait for team fights because ganking just wasn’t an option. That next time, with better prep, we’d do better. But then I realized—there were so many posts, so many people cursing us... no way to reply to them all."
His voice grew hoarse again, thick with emotion. He sniffled, less like he was talking to Tong Yao and more like he was muttering to himself...
Tong Yao: "..."
She turned to look at the kid beside her. She’d heard he was only sixteen, just old enough to compete in the Professional League by national regulations. He’d fought his way up from the city leagues to the top-tier Professional League with his team... While gathering intel, she’d also seen plenty of praise for him, people hailing him as KING’s star carry, the engine of their momentum—
Tong Yao: "You already know those people just worship winners and bash losers..."
So why let it get to you?
A Guang smiled bitterly. "Because before, they always said I carried the team to victory, that I created the most opportunities for my teammates. KING managed to pull off a Reverse sweep in the LSPL finals to secure our LPL spot—all because I stole the Baron at the last moment... I know ZGDX is strong. We probably couldn’t have won, but I thought even if we lost, it wouldn’t be this ugly. At the very least, we’d have had a fighting chance—"Tong Yao let out an "Oh" and nodded, feeling like she somewhat understood: it was just a matter of being lifted high by praise before and now falling painfully, with a huge psychological gap.
This feeling was somewhat familiar to her—from the moment she first joined the team, fearless as a newborn calf, winning a few scrims and feeling triumphant, only to encounter the Korean meme team and be so thoroughly beaten by A Tai that she developed a fear of Korean players. Even now, whenever she saw that ID in Ranked Games, her palms would sweat and her heart would race, as if facing a nightmare...
She still hadn't found a way to recover from it.
Thinking of this, Tong Yao raised her hand and patted A Guang's shoulder like an older sister comforting a child: "The league has just started. As a newly promoted team from the LSPL, after being exposed to more professional team tactics and playstyles, you still have a lot of room for improvement. At the very least, you’ll definitely get stronger."
"..." A Guang buried his head in his knees. "What’s the point? We still got crushed effortlessly by you guys."
"...The forum says 'effortlessly,' so you really think it was effortless, buddy?" Tong Yao chuckled lightly. "Getting swayed by forum talk—what kind of nonsense is that? If you want to know whether it was easy, you should ask me, the one with the most authority to speak on it. To study your jungling routes and style, I watched all of KING team’s regular season, playoffs, and finals matches in the LSPL. All my analysis was based on watching dozens of matches..."
She pointed under her eyes. "I was still reviewing your spring finals before bed last night. See? Dark circles?"
A Guang turned to look at Tong Yao and, sure enough, saw faint shadows under her eyes against her fair skin...
A Guang: "..."
The kid fell silent for a moment, seemingly surprised. He wore an expression as if he wanted to say something but stopped himself.
The smile on Tong Yao’s face grew a little clearer.
"So stop crying. What’s there to cry about? Knowing exactly where you can improve and working toward it is a great thing. Isn’t that the whole point of the regular season?"
"..." A Guang grunted gloomily. "I really envy you. You joined such a strong team right from the start, and you’re strong yourself. No one would dare to scold you."
"The only untouchable one who never gets scolded is our captain," Tong Yao rolled her eyes. "If China Telecom ever loses a match, we’d absolutely get dragged and flamed. You think they’d spare us?"
"Right now, we’re the ones getting dragged and flamed. Some people even say teams like ours don’t deserve to be in the LPL and are just wasting a spot—"
"Didn’t you earn your LPL spot yourselves?"
"Yeah."
"Then why care what they say?"
As she spoke, Tong Yao pulled out her phone, originally intending to check the time in case Little Fatty and the others were looking for her. But the moment she opened it, she saw over twenty replies to her casual comment on the forum before she went to the bathroom—
[Didn’t ZGDX win easily?]
[Are you blind? Both matches averaged under 35 minutes, with all three lanes collapsing within ten minutes. If that’s not an easy win, what is?]
[LSPL teams have fans? Judging by the profile pic, it’s a girl. Does KING have any good-looking guys or something?]
[Watching their matches is a waste of electricity?]["Now even a newly promoted team like this has people hyping them up... eye-opening."]
["If this isn't called an easy win, then what is?"]
["LMAO, you brain-dead fangirls who only care about looks, what the hell do you know? Go back to your K-pop idols and leave esports alone."]
["Speaking of looks, isn't Chessman handsomer than anyone else?"]
["You don't know shit."]
...
Tong Yao: "..."
Squatting there, she calmly read through over twenty mocking comments before snorting and putting her phone away. "They don't know shit," she said flatly, standing up and patting A Guang's head. "No team ever wins against another easily. Don't put yourself down like this—you earned your spot in the LPL fair and square, so own it."
As she finished, she noticed A Guang looking up at her with a deep gaze.
A Guang: "You're kind of a pushover."
Tong Yao: "I just don't like mindless hype."
A Guang: "Isn't it good to make other teams fear you?"
Tong Yao: "Good how? I stayed up all night reviewing matches until my eyes nearly fell out—just to flex some invisible superiority?"
A Guang: "..."
Tong Yao clicked her tongue twice, waving her hand dismissively as she stepped back. For some reason, after comforting A Guang, she felt much lighter herself. It was as if A Tai didn’t seem so terrifying anymore—
Right, who knew how much prep work he’d done behind the scenes before seemingly crushing her effortlessly? They were all human—how could anyone be so strong they seemed like an alien?
At this thought, Tong Yao curled her lips into a smirk and whistled cheerfully—
Only to freeze mid-step when she spotted a tall figure standing by the restroom entrance, hands in his pockets, silently watching her.
Her smile stiffened. She halted, lifting her head to meet a pair of deep brown eyes—currently clad in blue-and-white inter-spaced team gear, he pulled a phone from his pocket and tapped it. The screen displayed an outgoing call. Tong Yao fished out her own phone, still on silent mode—
[Incoming Call: Tall Legs Poker Face]
Lu Sicheng ended the call. Tong Yao’s screen lit up: Missed Calls (4).
Tong Yao: "…………………………"
She glanced up at the bold "MEN" sign above her.
Tong Yao: "I…………………………"
She looked back at Lu Sicheng in panic.
Tong Yao: "………………No, he—"
Finally, she turned around in bewilderment.
Tong Yao: "F*ck!"
Tong Yao decided to give up on Heal.
"If you were playing hide-and-seek, hiding here is certainly unexpected," Lu Sicheng remarked dryly. "Clever."
Tong Yao: "…………………………………………"
OpenNovel