Xu Tailun had the scent of cologne on him.
It wasn’t pleasant.
Tong Yao felt the urge to sneeze, so she frowned—she swore she used to think this Xu Tailun was quite good-looking, fair and clean, and most importantly, his Chinese was excellent, giving off a friendly and approachable vibe. Even if you wouldn’t call him handsome, you’d at least think he was a cute guy…
Until she witnessed his true colors.
All those supposed virtues were probably just part of his act, and even his “cuteness” had become repulsive… Tong Yao slightly raised her head, meeting the dark eyes of the man before her with indifference. “What do you want?”
Xu Tailun smiled. “Can’t I just look for you without a reason?”
“No,” Tong Yao said. “Let go.”
As she spoke, she tried to pull her hand free—but she didn’t succeed. In fact, the other party seemed to tighten his grip upon realizing her intention, and now her wrist was hurting from the force.
Her frown deepened.
At the same time, she felt the person restraining her lean slightly closer. Xu Tailun’s voice sounded right beside her ear: “During that livestream, why did you say something so troublesome? Wouldn’t it have been easier to just deny it? It would’ve saved everyone a lot of trouble…”
Mid-struggle, Tong Yao suddenly stopped. She tilted her head slightly, her previously erratic heartbeat calming—it was the kind of calm that came from unintentionally discovering the other’s weakness. She curled her lips. “What I say is my business. It’s already generous of me not to expose you outright. Instead of thanking me, you’re still pulling the same stunts in today’s match.”
“Because I’m unhappy.”
“Your team lost because of you.”
“I don’t care, and they won’t object—I’ve already carried them to plenty of wins. Isn’t it fine to indulge myself just once?” Xu Tailun narrowed his eyes slightly. “I can do more—even lose the next match to you quickly. That’s no problem, as long as you promise not to speak out of turn from now on. Be a good girl, hm?”
What was this?
A promise to throw matches?
A dirty deal?
Tong Yao felt goosebumps rise all over her body. Instinctively, she turned to look toward the end of the hallway—but Xu Tailun pinched her chin and forced her face back toward him. “Looking for who? Reinforcements? Lu Sicheng? Don’t bother. Your teammates are all being held up by my dear teammates in the lounge, being bombarded with questions. Right now, no one will—”
Before Xu Tailun could finish, he suddenly yelped in pain.
Then he watched as the deepest of the neat row of bite marks on his wrist split open, even oozing a drop of blood—before he could react to the sudden attack, the girl who had been pinned between his chest and the wall slipped out like an eel—
“I don’t need any reinforcements,” Tong Yao licked her teeth, tasting blood, then spat twice. “You don’t have AIDS, do you? Mom always said illness enters through the mouth…”
“...”
The girl stuck out her tongue in an exaggerated grimace at the man, then turned and walked into the restroom.When Tong Yao walked into the restroom, all her previous composure vanished as she pressed herself against the wall, her heart racing. She glanced up at her reflection in the mirror—her face was deathly pale... She walked to the sink, rinsed her mouth, and splashed cold water on her face to calm down. Deliberately waiting until the match was about to start before leaving, she confirmed that Xu Tailun was indeed gone—Tong Yao hurried back to her team's lounge, her steps quick and unsteady, her hands trembling slightly as she pushed the door open.
Little Fatty asked, "Where'd you go?"
Tong Yao shot him a glance, her voice sounding deceptively calm. "The restroom."
Just then, Xiao Rui called for them from outside, and her teammates stopped questioning her, filing out one by one. Tong Yao kept her head down, thinking she was the last one. As she watched Little Fatty walk out, she turned to leave as well—but just as her hand touched the doorknob, someone grabbed her arm from behind. Startled, she turned around, her eyes flickering nervously, only to realize it was Lu Sicheng standing behind her.
Lu Sicheng's voice was low. "What's wrong with you?"
Tong Yao blinked. "...What do you mean?"
"Go look in a mirror. You're pale as a ghost."
"..." Tong Yao pulled her arm free from his grip. "I'm fine."
By the second match, as the players took their seats, Xu Tailun's hand was wrapped in a bandage—the stark white strip stood out conspicuously. Tong Yao clearly heard the commotion from the Great Qing Team's fan section (which could also be called Xu Tailun's personal fan section), and the commentators loudly speculated how "Long Ge" had gotten injured in just a ten-minute break...
Xu Tailun walked slowly to his seat at the very end, as if sensing the hostile gaze from next door. He tilted his head slightly and, upon meeting the emotionless face of China Telecom's Mid Laner, smiled at her.
Tong Yao rolled her eyes, twisting her face away in disgust—only to immediately face the deadpan expression of the person sitting on her other side.
Lu Sicheng: "Still saying you're fine? What was that exchange of glances with the enemy team's Jungler?"
Tong Yao: "..."
"Focus on the match first. Explain when we get back—no entry until you do." Lu Sicheng put on his headphones as he spoke.
Tong Yao: "............"
For the second match, China Telecom Team executed the "four protect one" strategy as Lu Sicheng had arranged before the game. Instead of the usual dual-carry setup, the Top, Mid, Jungle, and Support prioritized protective Champions to ensure the ADC—the sole core damage dealer—could survive the longest in team fights and deal massive damage. This strategy tested the team's coordination, trust, the ADC's individual skill, and mental fortitude, as the entire team's success hinged on his performance.
The "four protect one" tactic had been mainstream in Season 5, when most LPL Top Laners were dubbed "blue-collar Top Laners"—tanks focused on farming and protecting the two carries. However, right before the World Championship, the meta shifted drastically to the Juggernaut version, where offensive Top Laners dominated, burying the "four protect one" strategy in the international stage. By Season 6, very few teams still adhered to this playstyle.
Halfway through China Telecom's Ban & Pick phase, the commentators had already begun to notice the trend—Commentator A: [Smiling picked Lulu, Old Cat picked Maokai, and Old K went for—Nidalee! Nice, it seems China Telecom Team is really going for a four-protect-one strategy this game.]
Commentator B: [But is four-protect-one really viable in this patch?]
Commentator A: [The patch is rigid, but players are flexible—honestly, I love watching matches from teams like China Telecom. Not only do they win often, but they dare to use anything, pick anything. That’s what makes the games exciting!]
Commentator B: [Hahahahaha, true! You want to target my Mid Laner? Fine, I’ll take Lulu—long-range for last-hitting, shields, silences, movement speed boosts, and an ultimate that heals. How are you gonna kill her? Just how? If you stubbornly focus on a non-damage Champion in mid, then our bot lane will take off. Great Qing Team is really being forced to make a choice here!]
The match began, and as expected, Xu Tailun tried to gank mid. However, since Tong Yao had picked Lulu this time—a highly mobile Champion with versatile skills for both offense and defense—Xu Tailun failed both attempts and had no choice but to retreat into the jungle to farm.
It seemed he had no intention of targeting China Telecom’s bot lane either.
The two failed ganks on Tong Yao had already wasted most of his early-game farming time, and Old K wasn’t about to give him a chance to recover. While Xu Tailun was fruitlessly trying to gank, Old K invaded his jungle, aggressively placing vision and taking every available resource. By the seven-minute mark, Old K was a full level ahead of Xu Tailun!
But that wasn’t the worst part.
For Xu Tailun, the real disaster was that after clearing the monsters in his bottom-side jungle and the top-side Gromp, he had nothing left to farm. This would only widen the level gap between him and Old K.
Meanwhile, his bot lane teammates were struggling without jungle support!
At around fifteen minutes, the first team fight broke out. Since China Telecom was running a four-protect-one composition, their mid and top lanes hadn’t gained a significant lead in CS, and both sides were relatively even in terms of gold—except for the AD Carry. Lu Sicheng had utterly crushed his lane opponent, leading by over 40 CS and half an item. In team fights, the damage output was simply incomparable.
The frontline tanks were unkillable.
The backline AD Carry was untouchable.
After losing the first Elemental Dragon fight, Great Qing Team realized this game’s tempo was even worse than the last one. Mentally, they were already broken.
Once their focus wavered, China Telecom quickly snowballed their advantage, taking the mid and bot lane tier-one turrets. With their ADC and support now freed up, they invaded the enemy jungle and pressured top lane.
Soon, the previously even mid and top lanes also tilted in China Telecom’s favor.
The match ended decisively at the 30-minute mark.
Fifty seconds before the final push onto the enemy base, Tong Yao saw the system notification: [DQWL、dragon has left the game.]
As she took off her headphones and stood up, she could hear the audience murmuring below—debating whether Xu Tailun had genuinely rage-quit or simply disconnected.
Tong Yao was awarded MVP for the second game.When the MVP was announced on the big screen, the venue erupted once again—many people laughed. Everyone knew that the one who performed exceptionally well in the second game was actually Lu Sicheng. The award going to Tong Yao was probably just because everyone had a ton of questions they wanted to gossip about.
Tong Yao handed her peripheral bag to Little Fatty and walked over to the interview area. She noticed that not only were there fans below, but also some media reporters. The host handed her the microphone.
The host began with the usual opening remarks, and Tong Yao responded with her usual greetings.
Then they quickly got to the point—
Host: [Were you angry about being mindlessly targeted like that in today’s match?]
Tong Yao: "A little at first, but I got over it. We won, and that’s all that matters. It doesn’t matter who carries—a strong team should take turns carrying each other. Having different players step up to carry in each match is a good thing."
Host: [Do you have anything to say about today’s match?]
Tong Yao: "..."
She did.
A lot of things—like "your mom’s a bitch" or "f*ck your ancestors"—but she wasn’t sure if she should say them out loud.
Tong Yao looked at the host, whose earnest face clearly wasn’t the type to accept a curse as an answer. So she just smiled sweetly and said, "Cheng Ge’s Ashe is really strong. Remember to ban it next time."
Amidst the crowd’s laughter, Lu Sicheng—who was bending over at the mid-lane position not far away, packing up his peripherals from the bag labeled "Smiling"—paused and glanced up at the interview stage.
Lu Sicheng clearly hadn’t expected her to say that, but no one else found it strange—everyone knew that ZGDX’s mid-laner was a well-known "Chessman fanboy."
Host: [Smiling, do you think the opponent’s extreme targeting strategy against you was effective? At least at some point?]
Tong Yao smiled and replied confidently, "I think targeting me is useless when the other two lanes are evenly matched or even stronger. My teammates aren’t just here to eat grass—China Telecom is a triple-core team. Any lane that gets ahead can confidently take over the late game."
Host: [Do you agree with this kind of competitive attitude?]
Tong Yao: "Your questions today are really terrifying."
Host: "HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Tong Yao: "I get where he’s coming from. If you’re the core of the team, you have to take responsibility for your teammates and the team. That’s the bare minimum."
Host: [There are rumors that your comments during a recent livestream about Xu Tailun’s alleged fan meetup incident led some people to believe it was true—do you think there’s any connection?]
Tong Yao: "I don’t know what I said, but if there wasn’t a problem to begin with, no one’s words could have stirred up this kind of drama. I believe Xu Tailun understands that too—"
Tong Yao glanced at the reporters sitting below.
Watching them scribble furiously, she hesitated.
She bit her lip and frowned slightly, unsure if her words were too obvious or might cause trouble. She wanted to say something more—but at that moment, Lu Sicheng stood up. Carrying two peripheral bags, he strode from the competition stage toward the interview area.
Some fans started buzzing.
Tong Yao was completely bewildered."What are you doing here?" she whispered to the man standing like a guardian deity behind her.
"Give me the mic."
With that, Lu Sicheng snatched the microphone from Tong Yao’s hand, then swept a glance over the reporters below. Just one look, yet it made many of them pause their pens and raise their heads to look at him—
"Today, Smiling was merely answering your questions. I sincerely hope everyone here reports truthfully and doesn’t twist her words the moment she steps out of this door—I know the media sometimes resorts to sensationalism by taking things out of context for attention. But since this matter concerns a player’s reputation, I urge you to think carefully about how and what you write."
Lu Sicheng’s voice was calm.
His deep brown eyes were steady, and the expression on his face made it abundantly clear: he wasn’t joking.
……
On the way to the parking lot, Tong Yao remained silent the entire time.
She climbed into the car and curled up in a corner, only snapping out of it when a tall figure filled the seat beside her. She blinked and looked up, meeting a pair of deep brown eyes—
Lu Sicheng: "Something to say to me?"
Tong Yao shook her head.
Lu Sicheng didn’t move away.
Tong Yao then nodded.
"I want to know if I messed up again," Tong Yao said. "Being vague, letting the reporters fill in the blanks, stirring up drama about Xu Tailun… I could’ve just stayed silent and said nothing—"
"..." Lu Sicheng paused. "Why would you think that?"
"..."
"I remember telling you that in this industry, sometimes you have no choice but to compromise. You have to learn to yield—but no one told you to dull your edges."
"?"
"Should I spell it out for your brilliant intellect?"
"...Yes."
"You’re not the one screwing fans, so why the hell are you apologizing?" Lu Sicheng curled his lips in a somewhat mocking manner. "You spoke just fine. If you didn’t do anything wrong, no one can twist your words."
"……………………Oh."
"Don’t know what you’re worried about."
"I just got ruthlessly targeted!"
"And what good did it do them? Didn’t they still get stomped and lose the match? As for you, isn’t it nice to get carried to victory once in a while? Think of it as a break."
"You wouldn’t be saying that if your bot lane got steamrolled."
"Not necessarily."
"What?"
"Who knows? Maybe I’m looking forward to the day you carry this middle-aged player to victory more than anyone else."
"……………………"
It took Tong Yao five seconds to process what Lu Sicheng had just said. On the sixth second, she blurted out, "You and your smooth talk again," her face burning red as she lowered her head. Then, as the man stood up and moved to the back seat, she opened her phone and posted a Weibo update—
[Salty Fish Girl Smiling: Beware of sweet talk. Anyone who suddenly acts nice is definitely a weasel in disguise.]
A second later, someone instantly replied—
[@Heart’s Eternal: @ZGDX Lu Sicheng, someone’s calling you out.]
OpenNovel