Tong Yao glanced down at the kitten curled up beside her hand and thought, He didn’t come to pick me up—he’s just here to stop me from stealing a cat… Distractedly, she muttered, “No, that’s just my coworker, not some boyfriend—”
Lu Sicheng pushed open the door just in time to hear that.
The man’s movement faltered slightly, but Tong Yao, who had her head lowered, didn’t notice. By the time she looked up, he had already schooled his expression back into neutrality, standing stiffly in front of her. His gaze flicked to the cat beside her hand, and his already blank face grew even more impassive. “Weren’t you here to give Da Bing a bath?”
“…I am.”
Tong Yao pointed behind her. Lu Sicheng followed her finger and spotted the Ragdoll cat struggling with a staff member through the transparent glass window. His expression softened slightly before he turned back and nodded at the American Shorthair beside her. “Why is Xu Tailun’s cat with you?”
“I ran into his, uh—” Tong Yao hesitated, unsure how to refer to the girl. “That person. She brought it in for a checkup—thought it might be feline panleukopenia, but the blood test came back negative. Just a regular cold…”
She grabbed the test results from the table. Lu Sicheng glanced at them but didn’t scrutinize them.
“So you stole—”
Before he could finish, Tong Yao clapped a hand over his mouth in a panic. Lu Sicheng looked down at her, his cool gaze making her awkwardly retract her hand. She rubbed her palms together sheepishly. “Don’t say it so loud—what if the staff thinks I’m actually trying to…? I just meant, Xu Tailun and his girlfriend clearly don’t know or care how to raise a cat. Why bother? If they’d tested for panleukopenia when they bought it, and if it’s just a cold, they shouldn’t have brought it to the hospital. Kittens without vaccinations are fragile, and hospitals are full of germs. For a mild cold, just keep it warm and give it Synulox. Even if they brought it in, the vet would just prescribe canned food, Synulox, and Lysine anyway. Why drag it here? I asked the vet—it’s not severe diarrhea, but they still wanted to give it injections. What’s the point of injecting such a tiny kitten—”
Lu Sicheng remained still, watching silently as the person beside him frowned and earnestly rambled about her cat-rearing philosophy.
He didn’t interrupt her.
Even though he hadn’t understood a single word and couldn’t care less about how to raise a fluffy little creature…
He simply watched quietly until she finished venting, then said flatly, “But it’s already someone else’s cat.”
“…” Tong Yao’s brows furrowed, her previously animated voice suddenly dropping low. “I know. It’s not like I can actually steal it.”
Lu Sicheng paused.
He glanced past her, then changed the subject stiffly. “How much longer for Da Bing?”
Tong Yao looked at Da Bing, who was still putting up a fight with the staff—acting like a bath was a death sentence. The tension in her brow eased slightly as she checked the clock in the pet store and sighed. “Not sure. They still need to groom him properly. Probably another hour or so.”
“I’ll wait in the car.”
“Huh? You don’t have to. I can go back by myself later… An hour of just sitting there?”
“I’ll watch OP’s league match recordings. It’ll pass quickly.” Lu Sicheng started walking out but stopped after a few steps. “Want to come?”Tong Yao hesitated and glanced at the American Shorthair cat beside her. Just as she was about to say "no," she heard Lu Sicheng's slightly impatient voice: "Hurry up and decide. The air conditioning in this pet store is set way too low—I'm freezing to death."
Tong Yao paused, then looked at the kitten sleeping on the mat without any cover. After a moment's thought, she asked, "Can I bring it with me?"
By then, Lu Sicheng had already pushed open the pet store door. Without turning back, he tossed out a casual "Whatever" and walked out—completely unexpected that this usually difficult guy would be so accommodating. A little surprised and delighted, Tong Yao waved to the store clerk and told her that if the girl came back, she should come find them at the car parked in front. Then, cradling the kitten, she climbed into Lu Sicheng's car.
Lu Sicheng's car also had the air conditioning on, but the temperature wasn't set too low, and he even allowed Tong Yao to roll down the window, letting sunlight pour in through the glass. The warm rays fell onto the mat she had carefully placed on her lap... After sneezing a few times, the kitten's breathing gradually steadied under the comforting warmth. Tong Yao gently stroked its head with her fingertips while squinting slightly and tilting her head to watch the match replay playing on the phone in the hands of the man beside her—
The sunlight was warm.
The car was quiet.
Only the voices of the commentators and the sound effects of the game filled the space. Occasionally, Tong Yao would comment on a particularly sharp play or well-timed rotation by the opposing Mid Laner, engaging in brief discussions with Lu Sicheng. Eventually, Lu Sicheng found the commentary too noisy and turned the volume down—
It was only then that Tong Yao realized, with her head tilted at this angle and distance, she could almost hear the sound of his breathing.
"Cassiopeia hasn't been picked in the LPL since her rework... This Jin Yuguang is really something. Plays safe early, then once he hits level three and has Blue Buff, he starts relentlessly poking and harassing. Even Viktor, a meta Champion, doesn’t seem to have an answer for it."
"So, can you play this Champion?"
"Nope, I can't."
"Why not?"
"………………………Because I just freaking can't, alright? You think I have an infinite Hero pool? This Champion is hard to play! After the rework, you can't buy boots—her speed scales level by level. You have to be intimately familiar with her speed at every stage to calculate the best timing for harassing or escaping. One misstep and you're dead!"
"But Jin Yuguang can play her?"
"He's Jin Yuguang! How can you compare me to him?!"
"If not you, then who? If you're not better than him, how are we supposed to win an S-tier championship?"
"……"
...Fair point?
Tong Yao fell silent.
At that moment, the kitten on her lap let out a contented yawn, stretched lazily, and wobbled up from the mat, its round cat eyes staring curiously at Tong Yao—she scratched its chin with her finger, and the kitten tilted its head, nuzzling against her hand with a soft murmur...
Lu Sicheng paused the match he was watching.
He turned his head slightly to watch the person beside him blatantly zoning out to play with the cat.
Listening to her mutter, "So cute... I really wanna kidnap you."
Lu Sicheng: "..."
—Until the sound of high heels approached from not far away. A slender, long-haired figure hurried toward the car, and a faint trace of perfume drifted in through the window. Then, a face with meticulously applied makeup appeared outside the window, blocking the sunlight."Sorry, Smiling. Traffic was bad on my way back from the company. Thanks for taking care of it for me."
The girl who had unceremoniously shoved the cat onto Tong Yao earlier appeared. She bent down, apologizing and thanking Tong Yao before carefully taking the kitten into her arms—her movements were gentle, and Tong Yao could tell from her eyes that she wasn’t entirely indifferent to the cat.
"It’s fine."
Tong Yao’s tone softened slightly as she repeated the same instructions about treating the kitten’s cold that she had just told Lu Sicheng to the girl… Then she pushed open the car door, hopped out, and entered the pet store to retrieve Da Bing, now freshly bathed and with trimmed claws.
—By the time she pushed the pet store door open again, the girl was already gone.
Tong Yao glanced around until, not far away, a man in an ostentatious luxury car impatiently rolled down the window and stuck his head out with a "Hey!" Only then did she hurriedly duck back into the car, clutching Da Bing’s pet carrier.
Settling into her seat, she mused, "She wouldn’t take the cat back to the Great Qing Team headquarters, would she?"
Lu Sicheng replied lazily, "Seems like Xu Tailun’s fans really like that cat, so she probably will."
Tong Yao frowned.
"What?" Lu Sicheng asked. "Planning to sneak into their base and steal the cat again?"
"I’d like to."
"Keep it to a thought. Don’t act on it."
"..."
…
That evening, Tong Yao indeed spotted the kitten—which had been listless at the hospital earlier—on Xu Tailun’s livestream. It seemed to have regained some energy and was now pacing in front of Xu Tailun’s camera.
Fans were predictably gushing over how cute it was and how lively it looked.
["Yeah, it got shots. I had a staff member take it for me in the afternoon,"]
Tong Yao: "..."
God damn "staff member."
["It’s fine, not feline panleukopenia,"] Xu Tailun said in Chinese that, while not entirely accurate, was fluent. ["Just a cold, really. It got better after coming back. I wanted to take it myself, but we had Scrims in the afternoon… Scrims? We won. Who against? Not telling you."]
He grinned as he spoke.
His little fangs showed, and he seemed to be in a good mood.
Fans went wild, showering him with praise like "You’re cuter than the cat" and "Your Chinese is 66666!" Tong Yao rolled her eyes, thinking he wasn’t half as endearing as that goofball Li Huanshuo. Just as she was stewing in disdain, a large hand suddenly reached from behind her and closed Xu Tailun’s livestream—
"You hate him but still watch him. What’s wrong with you?"
The team captain’s voice, neither warm nor cold, came from behind her.
Tong Yao smacked his hand, which was still covering her mouse, and tried to wrestle it back. "Move! Don’t close my stream. I hate him, but that doesn’t mean I can’t get addicted to watching him perform—a guy who lies through his teeth is a rare sight. This is a living textbook, teaching us that men in esports are no good!"
Lu Sicheng clicked his tongue, bending down to keep his grip on the mouse. "What nonsense are you spouting?"
Tong Yao pried at his fingers. "They’re all trash. Liars."
Lu Sicheng tightened his hold. "Just because you haven’t met a decent one doesn’t mean you get to generalize."Tong Yao switched to prying his fingers with her hands: "What do you mean 'I haven't met a good one'? So it's my fault now? Then name me one good man in the esports circle—good temper, skilled at gaming, handsome, patient, doesn't fool around or lie!"
"There is one." Lu Sicheng paused his movements.
"Who?" Tong Yao seized the chance to slip her fingers between Lu Sicheng's palm and the mouse, asking absentmindedly without looking up.
Lu Sicheng fell silent for three seconds.
"Me."
"Huh?" Tong Yao was focused on using her fingers as leverage to pry open the hand gripping the mouse.
"Me," his wrist pressed down, his palm firmly trapping the wriggling fingers against his hand, "Want to give it a try?"
Tong Yao's fingers were suddenly pinned between the mouse and his palm.
Tong Yao: "..."
Lu Sicheng: "..."
Tong Yao looked up in utter confusion at the man half-bent behind her.
Not far away, every teammate who had been concentrating on their Ranked matches a second ago now turned to stare at them in bewilderment... Little Fatty even threw his mouse in shock.
Tong Yao: "What did you say?"
She gazed into those deep brown eyes, trying to discern his emotions at this moment... but she failed. Those pupils had darkened even more than usual, like the depths of the ocean—impenetrable.
Until Lu Sicheng released her hand.
The warmth pressing against her fingers vanished—
"Nothing," the man said lightly, "Just a casual remark. Look how scared you are—where's your backbone?"
Tong Yao: "…………………………"
Tong Yao: "Damn! You can joke about something like this???"
"Of course," Lu Sicheng walked to the fridge, opened the door, and crouched down until his entire figure disappeared behind it, "If I say I can, then I can."
Tong Yao took off her slipper and waved it threateningly in Lu Sicheng's direction—
But at this moment.
What she didn't see was...
Behind the fridge door, the man didn't reach for anything... He simply pressed a hand against his forehead, silent for a moment before letting go with a helpless look in his eyes. Then he casually grabbed a bottle of water, unscrewed the cap, and drank the entire bottle in one go.
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