Tong Yao found herself unable to answer Jin Yang's question about which telephone pole was so sharp, so after glaring at her phone screen for a while, she decisively turned it off... Just as the break was nearing its end, Lu Sicheng pushed the door open and walked in, holding a large bouquet of vividly blooming flowers. Tong Yao turned her head to watch as he casually handed the flowers to his support the moment he entered.
Behind them, the photographer's camera clicked away.
Little Fatty was moved to tears: "I've been your support for two years, working like an ox, a horse, and a nanny, and finally, this day has come—come on, photographer bro, give me a close-up. In this sacred moment, I want to loudly respond to Cheng Ge: I refuse, go to hell."
Lu Sicheng glanced at him, sneered, and shut the door behind him.
The noise outside was cut off. Old Cat, swaying in his chair with a cup of coffee, craned his neck to see the large bouquet in Little Fatty's hands—luxuriously packaged, with high-end flower varieties. Such a bouquet couldn't be cheap... Old Cat asked, "Who gave you the flowers? A fan? A fan who came backstage?"
Lu Yue raised an eyebrow: "His fiancée, probably."
As soon as Lu Yue spoke, the entire lounge fell into an eerie silence.
Old Cat: "????"
Old K: "You have a fiancée?!"
Little Fatty: "Then what about our Tong Yao? Does sharing a bed count for nothing?"
Tong Yao: "Huh?"
Old Cat twisted his head to look at Tong Yao with sympathy: "I hear raindrops falling on the green grass."
Old K: "I hear the distant bells of infidelity ringing."
Old Cat: "But I don't hear your voice."
Old K: "Seriously, say you're sorry."
Old Cat: "No wonder the water was so green when I washed my hands on the first floor of the headquarters earlier—Tong Yao must've been washing her hair upstairs."
Tong Yao: "Piss off."
"Enough already," Lu Sicheng snatched the notebook from Ming Shen's hands and smacked Lu Yue on the head with it. "Fiancée? What kind of drama are you imagining?"
Old Cat: "Some things go without saying, Cheng Ge. What's with this calm reaction? Secretly happy inside? Got a girlfriend and didn't tell us? Do you still consider us teammates? At this rate, we can't even trust you to watch our backs during matches..."
The teammates seemed excited, probably because, like Tong Yao, they had previously believed Lu Sicheng was incapable of loving a human being.
Lu Sicheng was about to say, "How would I have time for a girlfriend when I'm stuck with you people all day?" when the lounge door was suddenly pushed open from the outside—Li Huanshuo, who was supposed to be sitting obediently in the audience, slipped in, carrying a Starbucks takeout box with two pieces of cake inside. His appearance forced Lu Sicheng, who understood most of the Chinese being spoken, to swallow his unspoken words.
The jungler from Team Mobile looked like he had run here, his chest heaving slightly from exertion. After greeting everyone in the lounge, he went straight to Tong Yao and placed the cake in front of her: "This is good. For you."
After a moment's thought, he struggled to add: "Hungry after match. Bad for body."
Tong Yao: "......Thanks."After speaking, Tong Yao turned to look at Lu Sicheng. He glanced at his cake box, then back at her, and after a moment of thought, directly spoke in Korean: ["Hey, you little brat, are you trying to rebel? You can come and go from other people's break rooms as you please, but now you're trying to curry favor with my woman?"]
["I'm just giving her something to eat because I was afraid she'd be hungry. How is that currying favor? Brother, you haven't even seen me when I'm really trying to impress—I could pluck the stars from the sky and give them to her!"]
This time, Lu Sicheng didn’t bother hiding his eye roll. He raised his fist in a mock-threatening gesture at the kid. Li Huanshuo yelped, turned to Tong Yao, and emphasized, ["Eat it well, I worked hard to get it!"], then turned and fled like a rat scurrying for cover—
Leaving behind a room full of stunned Operator Team members and staff.
Little Fatty: ["What’s going on? He didn’t ask for our WeChat IDs because he already had them, but today he only brought cake for one person!"]
Old Cat: ["No need to imagine—there’s already a whole drama unfolding."]
Tong Yao set the cake box down and stood up, about to say something, when Xiao Rui pushed the door open: ["Time’s up, you guys should head out soon—what the hell is this? Flowers and cake? You couldn’t even spare ten minutes of break time without throwing a party? Getting cocky, huh?"]
Little Fatty: ["Our Mid and Bot lanes are just too charming."]
Xiao Rui: ["You?"]
Little Fatty: ["Except me."]
Xiao Rui turned to Tong Yao: ["What’s going on?"]
Just as Tong Yao was about to answer, Little Fatty cut in again: ["The Jungler from the rival phone team wants to marry into our family."]
Xiao Rui: ["Chasing our Tong Yao? Last match, he camped Mid and took our girl’s Dog Head—and now he thinks he can marry her? Man, you pro players really have a unique sense of romance…"]
The team members laughed and joked as they walked out. Lu Sicheng led the way, while Tong Yao trailed at the back. The entire ten-minute break passed without them exchanging a single word—though that wasn’t unusual, Tong Yao still felt something was off.
An indescribable awkwardness.
When they reached the stage, the audience was already seated. Tong Yao scanned the front row—Lu Sicheng’s blind date had returned to her seat, though the large bouquet from earlier was no longer at her feet. The brat Li Huanshuo had also settled back into his seat.
The second match began.
Since they had won the first game easily, the team was in high spirits. During Ban & Pick, they didn’t focus too much on countering the enemy and simply chose the Champions they wanted. Tong Yao hesitated for a moment before locking in Diana, Scorn of the Moon—a Champion that hadn’t appeared in competitive play for an entire season. Given that the current LPL meta had become stale with the same few Champions being picked over and over, Tong Yao’s bold choice caused an immediate uproar…
Though the players couldn’t hear it, the live audience erupted in cheers.
Caster A: ["Diana, Scorn of the Moon—wow, I really didn’t expect this pick! Hahaha, this is amazing. Other Mid Laners in the league should take note—if a girl from the Operator Team dares to pick this in a match, what’s stopping you?"]Commentator B: "I was watching the Korean server ranked matches recently, and Smiling has been playing Diana quite a lot. Probably practicing that champion."
Commentator A: "She must not be doing too well with it, right?"
Commentator B: "Yeah, not great. Occasionally, there are flashes of brilliance—some really inspired plays—but most of the time, it's just Melon Skin-level gameplay. Hopefully, today she can give herself a satisfactory performance."
Amid the commentators' banter, Lu Yue, sitting by the water dispenser backstage, sneezed three or four times in a row. After wiping his nose, he rolled his eyes hard, suddenly recalling a conversation at the team headquarters—
Lu Yue: "Damn, Diana is such a joke early game. What’s even the point of this champion? Just delete it. It has no reason to exist."
Tong Yao: "Stop whining just because you can’t play her. You think you can get kills like that? You must think this is a Silver-tier match. Not even building Zhonya's? You dive the backline with no intention of coming back? Move, let me show you how it's done..."
Lu Yue: "Can’t see."
Tong Yao: "Cheng Ge, come hold your brother’s eyes open..."
And so on.
Obviously, the randoms had no idea that all those Melon Skin plays were actually from a guy with the ID "Lv" desperately trying to expand his champion pool. As for those rare "inspired plays"? That was the actual owner of the account, unable to bear it any longer, snatching the mouse and keyboard to demonstrate proper gameplay...
Lu Yue propped his chin on one hand, munching on a cake the team’s jungler had given Tong Yao, while watching the live match on the TV screen in front of him—
The Ban & Pick phase had just ended, and all ten players entered Summoner's Rift.
Early game, Diana wasn’t exactly a strong lane duelist. Her real power came in team fights, where she could dive past the enemy frontline—tanks like the top laner or support—and assassinate the squishy carries. For the player, this champion demanded quick reflexes, precise positioning, and high mobility. A make-or-break champion, capable of turning the tide in an instant.
After laning, Tong Yao played cautiously, farming without giving the enemy too many opportunities. The opposing team was also an All-Chinese Team, so communication was smooth, and their vision never left the minimap in the bottom right corner—
Then, just as Tong Yao hit level five and a half, she suddenly saw the enemy mid laner and top laner both use Teleport. Two beams of light flashed in the bot lane—
Tong Yao: "????"
Old Cat: "What the hell? What’s happening bot? No one even hit level six yet, why the fuck are they all TP-ing?"
Old Cat panicked and also used Teleport.
With no other choice, Tong Yao found a slightly deeper ward in the enemy jungle and TP-ed as well—
Suddenly, all ten players from both teams were inexplicably gathered in the bot lane.
"I literally just looked at their support! Just one look!" Little Fatty cried indignantly. "Damn, does looking at someone make them pregnant? Why so sensitive? Since when does one glance justify an all-out engage?!"
"You didn’t just look. You also hooked them once."
Lu Sicheng said lazily, his hands executing crisp movements as he dodged a barrage of enemy skills. By then, Tong Yao and Old Cat, who had TP-ed later, had arrived. Old Cat’s Trundle charged in, placing a pillar perfectly to separate the enemy mid laner and ADC from their frontline. Tong Yao followed up, swiftly deleting their already low-health ADC!Seeing their ADC dead, the enemy team stopped chasing and tried to retreat. However, Lu Sicheng didn’t give them the chance. His Vayne suddenly dashed forward, turning around to chase the enemy top laner, relentlessly shooting arrows from behind—at this stage, no one’s equipment was fully built yet, and the top laner’s tankiness was still lacking. After a few hits, he was taken down, leaving the enemy support, jungler, and mid laner helpless against ZGDX’s five members…
Especially since Lu Sicheng’s health was still in great shape.
What was once a barely balanced situation quickly turned into an Ace after the enemy team initiated a teleport play in the bottom lane, completely shifting the momentum.
When it came to the enemy mid laner’s final kill, Tong Yao held back her skill, letting Lu Sicheng take it. He glanced at the person sitting beside him, who was a head shorter, and remarked, “So generous today?”
Tong Yao ignored him.
Meanwhile, Old K, Old Cat, and Little Fatty went to secure the first Elemental Dragon. Lu Sicheng, holding a bounty of three kills, was about to recall when he noticed the enemy minion wave pushing in. He decided to farm it for a few hundred extra gold—why not? Just as he made up his mind, he saw his own mid laner, who had been standing in the brush channeling recall, suddenly cancel it. QAAAAAA—a flurry of actions later, the freshly arrived minion wave was wiped clean.
Lu Sicheng: “…”
Clank, clank, clank—countless question marks from their ADC flooded Tong Yao’s minimap. Rumor had it that those who dared steal Lu Sicheng’s minions already had grass growing three feet tall on their graves.
Tong Yao, as if blind and deaf, completely ignored the question marks and calmly retreated back into the brush to resume her recall. Just as her champion disappeared amidst the sea of question marks, she coldly dropped three words: “Toll fee.”
What damn toll fee.
Little Fatty, who witnessed the whole thing, was laughing so hard he could barely breathe, collapsing onto his chair and abandoning the dragon. As Lu Sicheng recalled, he watched Tong Yao—already back at base, buying items, and heading back to lane—with resignation. If this were a normal ranked match and someone dared steal his minions like this, he probably wouldn’t have left the fountain after recalling.
But this time, he said nothing. Stolen minions were stolen minions. He obediently bought his items and walked out of the fountain—
Little Fatty: “Finally found someone who can bully you.”
Lu Sicheng: “Shut up.”
This was just a small episode.
The match continued.
Although the enemy team’s coordination was indeed strong, their individual skill—aside from their mid laner, who could hold their own against the rookie Tong Yao—was slightly inferior to ZGDX’s. After getting Aced early, they had little chance to mount a comeback.
ZGDX snowballed their advantage and swiftly closed out the game.
Another relatively easy 2:0 victory today.
According to Lu Sicheng’s rough estimate, from the start of the match to its end, Tong Yao had only spoken three words to him: “Toll fee.” Communication was minimal, but their coordination wasn’t an issue. As the captain, he couldn’t even find a reason to nitpick her performance.After destroying the opponent's Nexus, the team members took off their headphones and went to the opposing team's player seats to shake hands. Tong Yao walked ahead without looking back. From Lu Sicheng's perspective, he could only see her profile. Her unusual silence made him feel somewhat uneasy, though he couldn't quite pinpoint why.
The five team members walked to the front of the stage and bowed to their fans in the audience.
Throughout the entire process, the man appeared distracted. After bowing, he was the first to turn and walk back. Just as he was wondering how long the person behind him would remain silent, he suddenly heard an "Ah" from behind and instinctively turned around—
What the audience witnessed at that moment was this: After ZGDX's five members finished bowing and turned to walk back, Lu Sicheng was in the lead, followed by Tong Yao, then Little Fatty, Old Cat, and Old K... Little Fatty, chatting and laughing with Old Cat behind him, accidentally stepped on the back of Tong Yao's shoe. Tong Yao stumbled violently, swaying as if she was about to fall flat on her face...
At that moment, Lu Sicheng, walking ahead, seemed to have eyes on the back of his head. He snapped back to attention in an instant, catching the person who was halfway to the ground and lifting her up onto his shoulder like some giant toy.
The air froze in that instant.
The person hanging upside down over Lu Sicheng's shoulder, missing one shoe, was stunned.
Little Fatty, who had stepped on Tong Yao's shoe, was stunned.
The audience below the stage was also stunned.
It wasn't until a scream erupted from the crowd that Tong Yao, propped up against Lu Sicheng's back, looked up in bewilderment—only to see countless phones and cameras aimed at them, along with flashes like a sea of stars—
Lu Sicheng set Tong Yao down from his shoulder: "You can't even walk properly without falling? Calcium deficiency?"
His voice was deep, and Tong Yao didn't even have time to retort that it was his damn support who stepped on her shoe.
...
[Originally, we thought we were here to watch a match. But in the end, we realized we were actually watching a Korean drama... Tsk tsk tsk, at that moment, tsk tsk tsk, I'm too embarrassed to even say it. I only dared to dream of such a scene when I was fourteen.
... I also want to accidentally trip and get picked up like that.
My girlish heart says so.]
—From an anonymous Spectator masses at the scene.
OpenNovel