When they arrived at the hotpot restaurant Tong Yao had been craving, the two little voices in her head were already on the verge of a brawl over whether to order lobster or the 888-yuan-per-plate beef—
One voice said, "What, country bumpkin never had lobster before?"
The other shot back, "What, country bumpkin never had beef before?"
One voice argued, "You can eat beef any day!"
The other countered, "You think you can afford 888-yuan beef every day? Did you forget about your 120,000-yuan salary deduction?"
One voice sneered, "Will eating 888-yuan beef make you fly?"
The other retorted, "I don’t know, so why not try? What if it does?"
Tong Yao propped her chin on one hand, practically drooling. The moment the car stopped, she stood up and started heading out, only to be called back by Lu Yue after a few steps. She turned around to hear the guy—who never had anything nice to say—ask, "What’s wrong with your foot? You limping?"
Tong Yao glanced down and lifted her foot. The back of her right ankle was red and even had a blister—nothing serious, just her new team shoes rubbing her skin raw.
Tong Yao: "Blisters. New shoes."
Lu Yue: "Tch. Drama queen."
"You didn’t even say anything about it. You mute or something?"
Lu Sicheng stepped forward from behind. Seeing Tong Yao hobbling out of the car, he simply grabbed her under the arms and lifted her onto the flat ground outside.
"New shoes always do this. No big deal. We can just grab some band-aids from the supermarket near the team headquarters later," Tong Yao shot him a look. "My friend once set a record—shopping in Las Vegas for twelve hours straight, with her feet rubbed raw by the fourth hour but still powering through for another eight. Like a mermaid dancing on knives."
Xiao Rui: "A shopaholic mermaid."
Ming Shen: "Is this mermaid the girlfriend of the Mid Laner from the neighboring team?"
Tong Yao nodded. The rest of the straight men in the group immediately wore identical expressions—pity for Ai Jia.
Only the Lu brothers, Sicheng and Yue, remained unfazed, as if they were long accustomed to such female tendencies. Lu Sicheng stayed silent, while Lu Yue remarked, "Splurging reduces the time women spend nitpicking or stirring up trouble, indirectly prolonging their lives. When you think about it, the money’s well spent."
Tong Yao kicked him lightly. "Yeah, women are all like that. Adorable, right? I could be like that too—if I had the money. Oh, don’t mention money. My chest suddenly hurts."
"Serves you right."
With that, Lu Sicheng tugged on the brass bell outside the private hotpot restaurant. The tightly shut, alluringly mysterious door swung open. The group stepped inside and quickly realized the place seemed to be hosting an esports gathering tonight—
Aside from Tong Yao and her group, the "HUAWEI Team" was already seated inside, along with the "Great Qing Fell Five Hundred Years Ago" team from the neighboring B-group. The two tables were close together. HUAWEI Team’s Jungler, Li Huanshuo, was draped over the Great Qing Team’s Jungler, holding up a wine glass while cooing in Korean, "Oppa~" Behind him, a staff-looking girl was tugging at his sleeve while secretly snapping photos of the two Junglers with her phone—
The trio looked like a human sandwich in a game of "stack the players."
Lu Sicheng: "Look."
Tong Yao: "Look at what?"Lu Sicheng: "This little brat always has women around him."
Tong Yao: "..."
However, Tong Yao's attention wasn't on Li Huanshuo at all. Her focus was entirely on the person at the very bottom, wearing the "Great Qing Dynasty Fell Five Hundred Years Ago" team jersey... If she remembered correctly, their first cross-group match next week was against "Great Qing Dynasty Fell Five Hundred Years Ago." This team had been the third-place finisher in the last Professional League season—a lineup of four Chinese players and one Korean. The only foreign player was the one currently being clung to by Li Huanshuo, whose ID was "Dragon," known as Brother Long, a warm-hearted player.
Why say that?
Tong Yao had watched their matches and privately thought this Korean's Chinese might even be better than Lu Sicheng's... Because at least he would tell his teammates during tough moments: "It's okay, we can win. Keep it up, don't give up."
—Unlike Lu Sicheng, who spoke little during losing games and even less during winning ones. If it weren't for Little Fatty's constant chatter during matches, there might occasionally be the illusion that the bot lane hadn't even shown up during the early laning phase.
Well, to get back on topic, thanks to such an excellent Jungler, the Great Qing team, which had been trembling in the relegation matches during S5, was revitalized entirely by this player in the Spring Split this year, directly securing third place.
So now, with her mind full of thoughts about how to win next week's match, Tong Yao stared blankly at the main carry of their upcoming opponent. Suddenly, her head was grabbed from behind and forcibly turned around. The man standing behind her like a gatekeeper asked expressionlessly, "Who are you staring at?"
"Brother Long," she answered without hesitation.
"What Brother Long? Are you two close? He's a Jungler and never plays Mid Laner. You couldn't have even faced him in lane, let alone be close. Trying to collect another one, are you?"
"...No, collect my ass! I was just thinking, this guy only came to the LPL in the Spring Split, yet his Chinese improved so much and he revitalized an entire team. That's seriously impressive." Tong Yao said, "Maybe you should consider asking him to teach you Chinese?... Instead of just knowing one phrase: 'Little Fatty, walk forward two steps and take some damage so I can clean up.'"
Lu Sicheng: "..."
Lu Sicheng fell silent. Little Fatty, standing behind Tong Yao and Lu Sicheng, grinned and gave Tong Yao a thumbs-up.
At that moment, Li Huanshuo looked up and noticed Tong Yao.
His eyes lit up, and he immediately shook off the staff girl following him—ignoring her displeased glare—and walked over to Tong Yao. He greeted Lu Sicheng behind her first, then grabbed Tong Yao and refused to let go: "Sister, why are you here too?"
"Here to eat," Tong Yao smiled.
Lu Sicheng tugged at her clothes from behind.
Tong Yao subtly freed herself from his grasp.
"I streamed yesterday. Some people in chat were talking about you," Li Huanshuo said earnestly in stiff Chinese. "I scolded them. I told them not to talk about you. You are good."
Tong Yao looked at his "praise me" face and really wanted to pat his head and compliment him. But with a certain control freak standing behind her, she could only say "thank you" reservedly, then whispered, "Don’t do that next time. What if they start scolding you too? Then I’d be dragging you down."
Li Huanshuo smiled shyly: "Don’t understand."
He didn’t understand what "dragging you down" meant.He asked Lu Sicheng, who replied, "Guess," showing no intention to explain. So he went back to ask Long Ge, who explained in Korean while glancing over at Tong Yao's group—Long Ge and Lu Sicheng were players from roughly the same era. To be precise, Long Ge had been in the Korean league longer than Lu Sicheng, so when he saw Lu Sicheng, he merely nodded in greeting, maintaining his composure.
Then, after saying something to Li Huanshuo, the kid got so worked up he started yelling...
Li Huanshuo scooted back to Tong Yao’s side: "Tyrone said you're interesting. I told him no way, you're another brother’s woman. Even if you weren’t, I’d still be second in line."
Tong Yao didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, unsure how to explain to the kid that a man calling a woman "interesting" equating to "sexual interest" only happened in domineering CEO novels. Most of the time, if someone said that, they probably saw her as an unstoppable husky...
Or maybe a clown sent by monkeys.
After bidding farewell to the eager Li Huanshuo and the others, Tong Yao’s team headed to a table further inside.
Little Fatty, having overheard Li Huanshuo’s earlier remarks, grinned and said, "Why are you so popular with these junglers? One treats you like his ancestor’s ex; another loves your toxic positivity; another enjoys your 'poetic' moments; and now even fighting wins you fans. What’s going on?"
"No idea. Maybe it’s because I’m pretty." Tong Yao absentmindedly took the menu as she sat down beside Lu Sicheng. "Don’t listen to that kid Li Huanshuo’s nonsense."
Lu Sicheng: "Was he wrong?"
Tong Yao peeked over the menu: "Huh?"
Lu Sicheng: "How many lobsters do you want?"
Tong Yao: "A lot."
Lu Sicheng: "Eyes bigger than your stomach."
Tong Yao: "We’ll take the leftovers home. Da Bing’s never had lobster before. After eating it, he’ll become an immortal cat who can clean his own litter."
Everyone: "..."
...
By the time they finished dinner and returned to the team headquarters, it was already past 10 p.m.
Tong Yao fully embraced the post-meal drowsiness, covering herself with her jacket and dozing off in the car. She had no idea when the car stopped or when they arrived at the base until Little Fatty shook her awake. Blinking groggily, she looked around: "...Where’s our captain?"
Xiao Rui: "Open your eyes and the first thing you ask is where your dad is."
Tong Yao flushed: "Hey."
Little Fatty: "Cheng Ge went to buy cigarettes."
Tong Yao mumbled, "Didn’t he quit?" as she got up. The moment she took a step, a sharp pain shot through her right heel, making her hiss. She’d forgotten to ask the driver to stop for band-aids.
Hopping out of the car, she kicked off her shoes inside the base: "Little Fatty, call the captain and ask him to bring me some—"
Little Fatty wordlessly held up Lu Sicheng’s jacket—his phone was placed conspicuously in the outer pocket.
Tong Yao: "...Dammit, I’ll go buy them myself later."
Grumpily tossing her peripheral bag onto a chair, she noticed Da Bing snoozing loudly on Lu Sicheng’s seat. She buried her face in the cat’s belly, cooing, only to find it slightly damp. Assuming the cat had spilled water, she didn’t think much of it—She habitually raised her head to turn on the computer and casually glanced at Lu Sicheng's desk. Absentmindedly, she asked Little Fatty, "Hey, Little Fatty, why are there only two of Cheng Ge's Goldfish sons left?"
Wasn't he supposed to be taking meticulous care of them?
Weren’t all accidental deaths strictly forbidden?
Didn’t he insist on changing the fish tank water even if he himself was dying of thirst?
"Nope," Little Fatty's voice came from afar. "There were still three before we left for the match this afternoon."
Tong Yao: "No way, come look, it’s clearly—"
Tong Yao: "..."
Her voice abruptly cut off.
As if suddenly realizing something, she lowered her head and looked at the cat lounging comfortably on Lu Sicheng’s chair. She grabbed the ten-plus-pound feline, pinned its head down, and brought her nose close to its mouth for a sniff—
The overwhelming fishy stench nearly made her vomit up the lobster she’d eaten earlier!
Without a second to lose, Tong Yao wiped the cat’s mouth with her team jacket, scooped it up, and dashed upstairs. She kicked open her bedroom door, tossed the cat onto her bed, then turned and slammed the door shut—
Just then, the sound of someone entering the team headquarters echoed from downstairs.
Lu Sicheng walked in carrying a supermarket bag. Before he could even take off his shoes and steady himself, a dark figure came barreling down from the second floor like a whirlwind. He paused and raised the shopping bag in his hand. "Shorty, your wound—"
Before he could finish.
The person crashed into him at full force, arms wide open, giving him an unprecedented, enthusiastic hug!
Lu Sicheng: "..."
He lifted a hand, covering the face buried in his chest, and pushed it back. "What’s going on?"
Tong Yao let go and took half a step back. "Upon reflection, I haven’t properly thanked our captain for his profound ideological guidance—so impactful it’s akin to the grace of a second set of parents… And our captain, benevolent and soft-hearted as a bodhisattva, brimming with love for all divine creations, respects the natural laws of cause and effect, honors the food chain where the strong prey on the weak, never forcing, never complaining—"
Lu Sicheng: "Tong Yao."
Tong Yao: "..."
Lu Sicheng: "Speak human."
Tong Yao: "My cat followed the laws of nature and the basic principles of the food chain… and ate your fish."
She had just returned from Frozen Hell.
Now, she had a feeling she was about to embark on a one-way trip back to that very same hell.
OpenNovel