Lu Sicheng was discussing today's match with his teammates, his voice unhurried and devoid of much emotion. If not for the fact that his voice was pleasant to listen to, the way he recited each dull statistic would have been like a chemistry formula being read off a blackboard by a teacher in the summer heat—
Who would pay attention to that unless they were trying to fall asleep?
…Yet somehow, everyone seemed to be listening intently.
Tong Yao shoveled rice into her mouth, feeling as though she had fallen into some strange paradox.
—Her gaze kept involuntarily following a certain someone, but for some inexplicable reason, she knew she shouldn’t be doing this… Before joining the pro scene, the Lu Sicheng she had known was the one who carried matches on stage, whose promotional photos were so handsome he could have passed for a celebrity, and who rarely spoke in his streams, occasionally even roasting his own fans—
Until one day, her usual seat was placed right next to his.
She had seen him stumble downstairs early in the morning, wearing what might or might not have been underwear, squinting and scratching his butt as he rummaged through the fridge for a Coke or yogurt.
She had seen his hair sticking up like a bird’s nest.
She had seen him unshaven and disheveled.
She had seen him with dark circles so deep from staying up late that he looked like a ghost had possessed him—
She had heard him snoring on the couch after exhausting himself from reviewing match footage and taking notes. Half the scribbles in Tong Yao’s notebook now belonged to Lu Sicheng’s messy, barely legible handwriting. During meetings, he would hold that notebook with utmost seriousness as he recited statistics—though Tong Yao seriously doubted whether he could even decipher what he had written…
She had seen him hiding cigarettes all over the place under Xiao Rui’s watchful eye, even though he rarely touched them these days. “Breaking team rules” seemed to have become some sort of hobby for him…
She had seen him tilt in Ranked Games, labeling all four of his teammates as “idiots” before rage-quitting and dropping from Grandmaster to Diamond II overnight…
She had seen him desperately needing to use the bathroom, forced to play the game standing up with his butt sticking out before securing a Penta Kill, ending the match in record time, then sprinting to the toilet—only to bellow, “F*ck, where’s the toilet paper? Who took it?!” before rushing back out, pants still half on…
—And yet.
Even so, stripped of the halo of being an “idol,” she found herself still drawn to him… If even the sight of him cursing while scrambling for toilet paper could be categorized as “adorable,” then she was in real trouble.
Tong Yao: “…”
Shoving the shrimp on her chopsticks into her mouth, she chewed mechanically, barely tasting anything. She silently told herself that if she had any sense left, she should stop letting Lu Sicheng lead her around by the nose—
Until a glass of Coke, filled with ice cubes and condensation clinging to its surface, was placed in front of her.
The ice clinked softly, bubbles bursting and fizzing on the surface. Tong Yao paused, her eyes inexplicably meeting a pair of deep brown ones. The owner of those eyes looked back calmly. “Not going to drink it?”
Tong Yao thought carefully before remembering—after the match that afternoon, she had complained about the heat on the way to the parking lot. When she got into the car, she had offhandedly mentioned, “I want a Coke, the kind with ice from KFC.”
…He had actually heard her.Tong Yao took the cola and took a small sip. The sweetness of the drink burst from her tongue all the way down her throat. She took another big gulp, then set the cup down with satisfaction and let out a burp. "Don’t think a cup of cola can buy me off so I’ll forget how you left me outside for over an hour to get eaten alive by mosquitoes."
Lu Sicheng: "Hm."
Tong Yao: "So mad."
Lu Sicheng reached out and patted her head. "Just drink your cola."
Tong Yao picked up the cup again.
The icy liquid balanced against the heat of her palms, and she realized she couldn’t bring herself to put the cup down—even though she knew cold drinks weren’t good for girls, and cola would make her gain weight.
No ice-cold cola, absolutely no benefits, why even drink it, damn it—thinking this to herself, Tong Yao nonetheless tilted her head back and downed the entire drink in one go, even crunching the transparent ice cubes between her teeth with loud crack sounds.
[ZGDX、Smiling: Resisting cola isn’t easy. Even when you say no, your body clings to it like it’s the last cup on earth.]
[A Mao’s Mom: Love is when everything around you starts looking like their face. Before, it was a lamppost, a stray dog—now it’s a cup of cola.]
[ZGDX、Smiling: What was Ai Jia compared to?]
[A Mao’s Mom: Fermented tofu stir-fried with water spinach.]
[ZGDX、Smiling: …]
Tong Yao wanted no part in this conversation that sounded like it belonged in a psychiatric ward.
…
But soon, she had no time to dwell on cola, lampposts, or stray dogs anymore.
Before bed that night, Xiao Rui helped the team schedule scrims with the Korean Operator Team, OP, for Wednesday. This team was known as the "BO5 God"—a traditional powerhouse in the Korean league.
Every player on their roster had a Champion pool that could practically be described as "ALL." Trying to counter them in the Ban & Pick Phase was nearly impossible… Often, the moment you thought your pick had countered their corresponding lane, they’d pull out another Champion for that same role—one you’d never even considered, but upon closer inspection, its skills and traits perfectly countered your choice. Meanwhile, the pick you originally meant to counter would be swapped to another position.
And somehow, that swap would just happen to counter your corresponding lane’s Champion, flipping the entire dynamic from passive to aggressive in an instant.
—This was OP Team’s signature trick, both astonishing and awe-inspiring.
But what Tong Yao cared about most was OP’s Mid Laner—Kim Yuguang, a veteran who had been with OP since his trainee days, serving the team for five full years. From Season 2 to Season 6, he was OP’s captain—tall, broad, and jokingly referred to by some fans as "OP’s Hero Pool Anchor." The meaning was simple: though he wasn’t always the most carry-heavy player, with him on the field, OP played with unshakable confidence. Even if they were down 0-2 in a series, they could still reverse-sweep to victory.
—OP’s title as the "BO5 God" was inseparable from this player.There were two scrims scheduled, one with Tong Yao playing and the other with Lu Yue. This was in preparation for this year's World Championship. Facing the strong Korean teams, only flexible strategies could take the team further—neither Tong Yao nor Lu Yue had any objections to this. After Tong Yao's previous suspension, Lu Yue had already proven himself to be a competent player who could keep up with the team's pace through his actions. And because of his relentless pursuit from behind, Tong Yao never dared to slack off on her training time...
The early bedtime she used to have when she first joined the team had long become a thing of the past. Playing ranked matches until 1 a.m. was now the norm—often, by the time she crawled away from the computer, her brain was completely empty, filled only with positioning and last-hitting.
So, to avoid embarrassing herself in front of Korea's unshakable pillars during Wednesday's scrims, and thinking that even if she couldn't secure a solo kill, she at least needed to hold her own, Tong Yao sat at her seat the entire day after the scrim plan was confirmed before bedtime on Sunday...
And hey, catching up on her streaming hours was a nice bonus.
Since the June game update made it impossible to duo queue in the highest rank, she had been using Lu Yue's account to practice mid-jungle synergy with Old K in ranked matches, while Lu Yue used her high-ranked account to solo queue.
For the entire day, aside from meal breaks or the occasional person standing up to drink water, the team headquarters was unusually quiet, dominated by the sounds of mice and keyboards. The only other noises were the exchanges between Tong Yao and Old K—
"Come gank at level three. It's Kassadin—if we don't get him now, we won’t get another chance."
"Let me check. I’ve played with this AD before—he loves pinging the bot lane. If you don’t come, he’ll spam ping like crazy."
"Just ignore him, just ignore him."
"If I ignore him, he’ll start typing insults."
"Who cares? You can’t even read Korean anyway."
"..."
As a new game started, Tong Yao was muttering complaints about her teammates to Old K. At that moment, Lu Sicheng, who had been sitting beside her, finished his game, tossed his mouse aside, and stood up to stretch his wrists. He then stood behind Tong Yao, watching her laning phase while sipping from his water cup. After taking a sip, he suddenly paused.
He quickly set the cup down, coughed a few times in the bathroom, and started brushing his teeth.
When Lu Sicheng returned, his breath still carried the minty freshness of toothpaste. He tapped on Tong Yao’s desk and said, "Their jungler just showed up at the F4 in the top-side jungle, which means he’s already cleared his first rotation. You’re pushing the lane so far up—are you waiting to get ganked? If you play like this on Wednesday and they pick Rengar, your mid lane will be wide open."
Tong Yao: "...Ban Rengar."
Lu Sicheng: "And what about Evelynn, Nocturne, and Fiddlesticks? Should we ask Riot for ten ban slots just for you?"
Tong Yao: "..."
She immediately pulled her champion back.
Old K: "You two mid laners have completely different playstyles. It’s exhausting for me to adjust to both of you. The team should get me a substitute too."
Lu Sicheng: "You’re the first pro player to actively ask for a substitute. Where’s your ambition?"
Old K: "..."
A flood of live comments scrolled across the screen—
[666666666 Your captain is so annoying lol]
[He’ll roast anyone at the drop of a hat]
[HAHAHAHAHA Cheng Ge, go away! Stop bullying our adorable mid-jungle duo]
..."You still have the live comments on? Turn them off and focus on training. Why bother with their nonsense?"
While speaking, Lu Sicheng picked up his cup and pressed it against Tong Yao's face—startled by the sudden cold, she flinched, her fingers slipping and causing her to miss a cannon minion. She let out a cry, "Lu Sicheng! What are you doing?!"
"After this game, go wash my cup for me."
"Why should I?"
"Because I found cat hair in it," Lu Sicheng said flatly. "It's summer now. Even someone as heartless as me knows these little critters shed. Can’t you take your cat to the pet store for a bath?"
Tong Yao pushed his hand holding the cup away. "At least you admit you're heartless."
Lu Sicheng’s eyes remained fixed on Tong Yao’s computer screen. "So the fact that I haven’t hit you yet means my heart is overflowing with kindness—the enemy is level three already, Old K, why are you still farming jungle? Come gank."
Old K and Tong Yao: "..."
Under Lu Sicheng’s critical gaze, Tong Yao barely managed to finish the ranked match. Once it was over, she stood up and searched the entire team headquarters for her cat, finally spotting the fat furball curled up under Lu Sicheng’s desk, sound asleep on his slipper. The fur she had brushed just that morning was now sticking out in all directions again. She picked up the cat and rushed outside to the courtyard, brushing its fur under the sunlight. Watching the cat hair float everywhere, she sneezed and decided to listen to Lu Sicheng—tomorrow, she’d take Da Bing for a bath.
...
The next morning, she called and booked an appointment at a nearby pet salon, then stuffed the reluctant cat into a carrier and headed out.
Tong Yao arrived at the pet store around 10 a.m. Since it was a weekday, the shop wasn’t crowded—only one other customer was there. The moment she stepped inside and gave her phone number for the reservation, she sensed something off about the atmosphere in the store.
Pausing, she looked up and spotted the lone customer sitting on a chair, playing with her phone. A small kitten lay listlessly on a cushion beside her. To be precise, both the girl and her cat seemed to be in poor spirits.
"I know you," the girl suddenly spoke up. "You’re the Mid Laner for ZGDX Team, right?"
"..."
"We ran into each other at the flower and bird market that day," the girl said with a faint smile. "I was with Tailun-ge."
Tong Yao recognized her now—though not because of the girl herself, but because of the cat.
After handing Da Bing over to the store staff, Tong Yao walked up to the girl and asked, "What’s wrong with your cat?"
"It caught a cold, and it’s been stressed from being taken to the team headquarters with so many people around. We really shouldn’t have brought it to the movies that day." The girl stood up as she spoke. "Tailun-ge doesn’t have time to take care of it, so he gave it to me to bring to the vet... Ugh, but I have to go to work soon. I need to clock in at the office, and I was just worrying about what to do. Could you watch it for me? I’ll come back to pick it up later."
Tong Yao glanced at the cat, then at the girl who was already heading for the door. She reached out and gently stroked the kitten’s head. "If you don’t want to raise it, you shouldn’t have bought it in the first place."
The girl paused, muttered an "Mm," then turned to leave—
"Hey, do you know what Xu Tailun said during his livestream?"The person at the door suddenly stopped, turned back to glance at Tong Yao, and said calmly, "I heard you."
"......"
Tong Yao fell silent.
She watched as the other left.
Tong Yao pulled out her phone—
[ZGDX、Smiling: Captain, how many Suspension matches would someone get for secretly stealing another person’s cat?]
[fhdjwhdb2333: What nonsense are you spouting now?]
[ZGDX、Smiling: I feel like committing a crime.]
[fhdjwhdb2333: Stop right there.]
[fhdjwhdb2333: Where are you?]
[ZGDX、Smiling: …At the pet store, why?]
[fhdjwhdb2333: No reason. Should I come over and beat some sense into you?]
Ten minutes later.
A pet store employee pushed the door open and said to Tong Yao, "Miss, your boyfriend drove here to pick you and your cat up. Didn’t you tell him your cat just started getting washed? Why’s he in such a hurry?"
Tong Yao: "…………………………"
OpenNovel