Back at the team headquarters, the crayfish in their hands was warmly welcomed by everyone, though Lu Sicheng’s freshly cleaned car, now permeated with the smell of crayfish, seemed to be a lost cause again... Little Fatty, diligently boosting revenue for the car wash, started a live stream to proudly show off his personal ten pounds of lobster to the fans. Before ending the stream to enjoy the feast, he solemnly announced to the viewers: "Cheng Ge is a man of his word."
The live comments responded:
[Well said, so when are your Double Carry getting married?]
[Still happily munching on lobster, what marriage? Our team is full of elementary school and kindergarten students.]
[……………………ZGDX really has such a great team atmosphere.]
[Of course teams with good results have great atmospheres, that goes without saying... Plus, with a big sponsor like Lu Sicheng treating everyone to meals every day, I’d be optimistic all the time too.]
[So how much did these lobsters cost?]
[So Lu Sicheng is really loaded, how much does he make in a year?]
[Upstairs, don’t you know Lu Sicheng is a rich second-gen himself? Just look at Lu Yue—how much can a perennial substitute’s annual contract fee be? Yet he wears the same watch as his brother. Do you know how much that watch costs? Starts at 800k, my friend.]
[Turn the camera a bit, let me see the others, not you, you fatso.]
"Who’re you calling a fatso? Watch your tone if you want me to turn the camera," Little Fatty taunted, holding up a lobster bigger than his palm. "Ever seen a lobster this big? The aristocrat of shrimp, costing 150 to 160 per pound. Even the bubbles it blew before cooking were rainbow-colored..."
[That shrimp’s got food poisoning.]
[All hormones.]
[The Mary Sue of shrimp, ruined by you, this piece of cow dung.]
[Drank detergent... 233333333333333]
"Little Fatty, you done bragging? Are we eating or what?"
Old Cat’s voice came from afar, accompanied by the rustling sounds of plastic bags being opened... Little Fatty looked up to see Old K holding up his phone for a selfie, capturing himself, his teammates, and the crayfish in the background. After posting it on Weibo, Little Fatty tossed aside his lobster and checked his phone: "Old K, your Weibo post is problematic. What do you mean ‘everyone’s here’? Did you even see our support?"
"You didn’t come over, want me to Photoshop you in?" Old K put down his phone and put on disposable gloves.
Lu Sicheng scoffed but stayed seated, playing on his phone without touching the food.
"Aren’t you eating?" Tong Yao kicked him.
Lu Sicheng glanced up but didn’t respond. Lu Yue, peeling a shrimp, chimed in: "Too much trouble, and it’ll leave his hands smelling."
Lu Sicheng: "The smell lingers till the next day. Unbearable."
Lu Yue, with a look that screamed ‘See?’, tilted his chin at Tong Yao: "...His idol complex is too heavy. Unless you peel it for him and put it in his bowl."
"Damn, thinks he’s eating Boston lobster or something, needing someone to serve him," Tong Yao muttered under her breath. Swiftly, she tore off the shrimp head, peeled the shell, removed the vein, dipped it in the sauce, and held it to Lu Sicheng’s mouth. "Open up, say ‘ah’."Lu Sicheng leaned back to dodge, while Tong Yao muttered, "You watched me peel it—no rat poison, I swear." Seeing his continued resistance, she raised an eyebrow and sighed, "Fine." Just as she was about to retract her arm and eat the shrimp herself, Lu Sicheng suddenly opened his mouth and took the shrimp tail from her fingers, pulling it into his own mouth.
Tong Yao: "..."
Tong Yao then asked Lu Sicheng, "Want another one?"
Lu Sicheng: "Do you enjoy peeling shrimp for people?"
Tong Yao: "I was just going to say even if you want more, I won’t bother. At least I spent money to let you taste it—that’s called courtesy. Who are you talking to?"
Lu Sicheng turned his phone screen away. "None of your business."
Tong Yao: "You asked me the same thing earlier, so now I’m asking you—"
Before she could finish, a light slap landed on her forehead. Tong Yao yelped and shrank back, rubbing her head. Lu Sicheng stood up, muttering "No respect for your elders," and moved from the seat beside her to one farther away. At this moment, Lu Yue smacked his lips and teased, "Tsk tsk tsk. Solo in the morning, feeding shrimp at night, flirting and bickering—what a harmonious couple."
Lu Yue’s voice was loud enough that Little Fatty, who was streaming, immediately noticed the live comments reacting:
[Who’s feeding who shrimp?! Who’s being all lovey-dovey?!]
[I just heard Smiling tell someone to open their mouth!]
[Damn it, Fatty, turn the camera around and show us what’s happening over there—who wants to watch you livestream eating crayfish?! Screw you!!!!! No thanks!!!!!]
[Turn the camera! Turn the camera!]
Little Fatty sat by his computer, grinning smugly with his legs crossed, taunting the chat: "Nah, not turning it," "Hands are greasy, no time for that," "Come hit me, hahaha," "Why turn it? Just watching me is enough." Just as he was happily teasing the viewers, a comment suddenly scrolled past:
[Fatty, see you in C City next week. Mwah.]
Little Fatty paused mid-bite, his face blank as he looked up at his teammates nearby, then back at the chat. Blinking, he asked, "What C City?"
The comments grew denser. Fans who had been clamoring for him to turn the camera now eagerly filled him in: Earlier that evening, ZGDX’s official Weibo had announced that the entire main roster of the Operator Team would be heading to C City next Saturday for an event at a comic convention, appearing at a sponsor’s booth for a live promotional activity.
Little Fatty: "...?"
His reaction was pure confusion. "An event in C City next week? A comic con? What comic con—our team? That can’t be right. Why didn’t I know about this? Next week, we have two final group stage matches in the A division—Friday against Obsidian and Sunday against Red Arrow. How are we supposed to go to C City for an event on Saturday? Fly there and back in one day?"
As he spoke, the joking expression faded from his face. He peeled off his disposable gloves, muttering, "I’ll go ask," before abruptly ending the stream.
After shutting down the stream, Little Fatty immediately checked the Operator Team’s official Weibo and confirmed that, indeed, about an hour ago, the account had posted this announcement. The sneakiest part? None of the team members with Weibo accounts had been tagged—it was a unilateral declaration.
As if they were afraid the players themselves would find out.
Sneaky as hell."Xiao Rui, what the hell is this? There's an event in City C next Saturday? Damn, buddy, wake up! It's a two to three-hour flight one way, practically crossing half the country. You think it's a trip to the suburbs? I wouldn't even have known if the fans hadn't mentioned it in the live comments just now..."
Little Fatty slammed his phone onto the table, and everyone gathered around eating late-night snacks froze—Old Cat craned his neck to glance at Little Fatty's phone screen and frowned, first looking up at Little Fatty: "Is the stream off?"
Little Fatty: "Yeah."
Old Cat let out an "Oh" and turned to Xiao Rui, bluntly asking, "Is the sponsor out of their mind?"
"...The headquarters did mention this schedule to me earlier, but it wasn't confirmed—I told them we have matches next Friday and Sunday and don’t have the energy for some bullshit event. They said they’d talk to the sponsor to see if the second team or the Dota division could fill in..." Xiao Rui also stood up from his chair, leaning over to peek at Little Fatty's phone. "And their so-called 'communication' was to announce it without even discussing it with our division?!"
Everyone: "..."
After a moment of stunned silence, Tong Yao seemed to snap out of it. She took off her disposable gloves, climbed over several chairs to squeeze next to Lu Sicheng, and unceremoniously grabbed his phone to look—
Sure enough, while the rest of them had been optimistically eating snacks, their captain had already been "negotiating fiercely" with the headquarters about this matter...
ZGDX Operations' Xiao Ma said: QAQ Sponsors are like our parents, Cheng Ge, just agree to it, okay? Lu Sicheng replied: No.
ZGDX Operations' Xiao Ma said: From what I know, the two teams you're facing next week aren’t that strong. Taking a quick trip to City C for the event won’t make much difference... Lu Sicheng replied: Not going.
ZGDX Operations' Xiao Ma said: If you don’t want to attend these random events, why don’t you just buy the entire ZGDX esports club next time? Lu Sicheng replied: My surname is Lu, not Ma.
ZGDX Operations' Xiao Ma said: We all gotta eat, Cheng Ge. Lu Sicheng replied: Fine, I’ll cover the loss this time. Tell them to pull their funding.
ZGDX Operations' Xiao Ma said: Don’t make things hard for us, Cheng Ge. We’re discussing this with you because you’re also a shareholder. Such an uncooperative attitude is making the headquarters feel really stuck—it’s already been announced! Lu Sicheng replied: You ignored reality and jumped at the sponsor’s demands without thinking, and now you’re saying we’re the ones making things hard for you? And did I tell you to announce it? Playing the "act first, report later" game, huh?
...
And so on.
There was a lot more.
By the end, Lu Sicheng’s tone had turned downright icy. Tong Yao felt like grabbing a pot lid to hide under and crawl away—
But at this point, since the official Weibo had already announced it, refusing now wouldn’t just disappoint fans who’d already bought tickets for the event. Even if Lu Sicheng were willing to personally cover the sponsor’s funding gap and ask them to withdraw, it would still seriously impact the club’s future ability to secure sponsors...The headquarters definitely wouldn’t let the League of Legends division act so willfully… After all, running an esports club wasn’t just about shouting slogans for dreams or the sake of Chinese esports—they were businessmen at heart, and businessmen needed to make money.
"...Whatever, it’s just a same-day trip anyway." Seeing that Lu Sicheng seemed genuinely upset, Tong Yao suppressed her own dissatisfaction and tried to console him. "At most, we’ll be a bit more tired and lose a day’s rest."
"You don’t get it." Lu Sicheng shot her a glance. "Once they get a taste of this, they won’t stop—last year, before you joined, we turned down dozens of similar events. Ask Xiao Rui."
Tong Yao turned to look at Xiao Rui, who gave her a bitter smile.
Thinking about it, this was actually Tong Yao’s first non-competitive commercial event since joining the team. She sat down next to Xiao Rui, put on gloves, and continued eating her lobster. "So what do these events usually involve?"
"Just some on-site scrimmages with fans, signings, photo ops, and a bit of interaction with the audience," Xiao Rui said. "That’s the usual routine."
"Oh, that doesn’t sound too bad. Doesn’t seem too exhausting."
"C City’s been scorching hot lately, and the convention’s indoors. With so many people, there’s a risk of heatstroke, which could affect the next day’s match." Xiao Rui sighed again. "We’re so screwed."
Tong Yao patted his back comfortingly with her clean hand. "It’s fine, it’s fine. We’ll manage."
...
The following week.
Match day arrived in the blink of an eye.
Facing Obsidian turned out to be much easier than Tong Yao had imagined—whether it was due to their consecutive losses in previous weeks or their rock-bottom position in Group A with zero points, the team seemed utterly demoralized. Against ZGDX, the group leaders, they showed no intention of putting up a fight. The match, which started at 5 PM, ended by 6:30...
Tong Yao secured two MVPs.
And her first Penta Kill in a professional match.
As the match concluded, she took off her headphones and stood up, about to shake hands with the opponents when she suddenly heard someone in the audience calling her name. Pausing, she turned and noticed for the first time that some fans were holding up cheering banners with her name on them—those colorful banners were mixed among those for Lu Sicheng, Little Fatty, and the others, barely noticeable, but Tong Yao spotted them instantly.
She heard them shouting her name, cheering for her—men and women, voices uncoordinated, but it was the best roar she’d ever heard.
Tong Yao narrowed her eyes slightly, a smile tugging at her lips as she raised her hand to wave at the fans holding her banners, yelling out a loud "Thank you!" The audience burst into laughter—after all, she was the first pro player to lose her cool like this on stage.
Standing behind her, Lu Sicheng rolled his eyes and pressed a hand onto her head, pushing it down. "You’re so embarrassing."
"I have fans now! Ahhh! Did you see that, Cheng Ge? Did you see? That’s my cheering banner!"
Under her excited insistence, Lu Sicheng glanced perfunctorily at the audience and grunted, "Yeah—"
"Did you see it? Did you? My banner!"
"I saw it."
"Liar! You didn’t! You’re just humoring me!"
"I said I saw it. The one with that dumb cat face, right? Are you done yet?""......"
So after the team bowed, everyone saw ZGDX's Mid Laner following behind the ADC and giving him a hard slap on the back.
Later.
Because the match against Obsidian had ended so quickly, Tong Yao still had plenty of time after her MVP interview to leisurely pack her things and then slowly make her way to the airport.
On the way to the airport, Tong Yao idly browsed the Forum. Obsidian was getting torn apart there, with comments like, "If they don’t even want to win, why are they still clinging to their LPL spot, wasting a slot? There are so many teams in the secondary league that actually want to compete!" and "It’s because of teams like this shamelessly hanging on that LPL can never achieve anything!"
Tong Yao asked Ming Shen about it and learned that Obsidian had nearly been relegated last season. They’d only managed to stay in LPL by pulling off a last-minute reverse sweep in their final match.
Tong Yao: "But they still won in the end."
Ming Shen: "Yeah, but personally, I think their actual skill level was worse than the secondary league team they were up against—mainly because secondary league teams lack experience. If they’d been promoted and played a few rounds, they might not have been any worse than some of the bottom-tier teams in the Professional League now."
Tong Yao gave an "Oh" and went back to browsing the Forum.
She happily noticed that, probably because of her Penta Kill in this match, she was finally getting some recognition. Amid all the posts trashing Obsidian, there were a few threads with titles like: ["Smiling’s actually pretty good"], ["That Penta Kill was solid, even if Obsidian is trash"], ["I’m temporarily taking back my statement that girls have a low skill ceiling in gaming"]...
Tong Yao randomly clicked on one and saw the first line from the OP:
["After watching today’s match, I’m starting to think Smiling beating Cheng Ge in that solo match wasn’t a fluke. She’s actually got some real skill—her wave control and itemization understanding..."]
Tong Yao let out a smug "Heh."
The person sitting behind her kicked the back of her seat. "You done giggling like an idiot yet?"
When Tong Yao turned around to retort, the person had already ruthlessly pulled his jacket over his face, feigning sleep... Tong Yao rolled her eyes and went back to browsing the Forum. Meanwhile, Lu Yue leaned over and remarked indifferently, "Win against Red Arrow the day after tomorrow, and with a perfect group stage record, no one’s gonna argue about you being a top-three Mid Laner in LPL anymore."
Tong Yao "Heh-heh"-ed again, grinning so wide she couldn’t close her mouth.
......
They arrived at the airport around 8:30 p.m.
After getting their boarding passes, the team dispersed. Tong Yao was dragged off by Little Fatty to grab dinner and shop for skincare products at the airport, returning to the gate by 10:30 p.m. for boarding.
Carrying bags of purchases, Tong Yao lined up to board the plane. Since it was late, the cabin was quiet, with people speaking in hushed tones. She distractedly counted the overhead compartments until she reached her seat—
Then she looked down and saw her team captain sitting in the window seat.
Tong Yao: "......"
Damn it.The man was wearing headphones, his handsome face scowling—probably still upset about having to attend that chaotic event tomorrow... Sensing someone lingering beside his seat, he lifted his gaze and glanced at her before removing one earpiece. "What are you looking at?"
"..."
At you.
"Sit down. You're blocking the people behind you."
Tong Yao quickly muttered an "Oh" and, under the annoyed stares of those she had obstructed, hurriedly took the seat next to Lu Sicheng. The person assigned to the outermost seat hadn't arrived yet. As she bent down to fasten her seatbelt, she accidentally brushed against Lu Sicheng, who shifted slightly. She immediately recoiled like a startled animal—shrinking away to the side—until she watched in despair as Little Fatty lumbered over like a mountain and plopped down in the aisle seat.
Tong Yao: "..."
Little Fatty: "What a coincidence, huh?"
Tong Yao: "..."
Little Fatty: "We probably won't arrive until past midnight. If you get sleepy later, little sis, you can rest your head on your chubby big bro's soft shoulder."
Tong Yao awkwardly straightened up slightly, though her body remained instinctively hunched, her head nearly touching Little Fatty's shoulder.
At that moment, Lu Sicheng, who had been fiddling with his phone, looked up and gave her a glance. After a brief pause, their eyes met for a few seconds before Lu Sicheng dropped a bombshell: "Am I a pile of shit? Why are you sitting so far away?"
Tong Yao: "……………………………………"
The captain was clearly in a bad mood.
Best not to provoke him.
Tong Yao immediately sat up straight, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear—as she did so, the back of her hand inadvertently grazed the shoulder of the person beside her. Through the thin fabric of the team uniform, she could almost feel his body heat.
In that instant, it was as if the rest of her body had vanished.
Only the back of her hand remained.
And that hand felt like it was burning up.
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