[fhdjwhdb2333: Shorty.]
[RabbitHuggingCarrot: What?]
[fhdjwhdb2333: Your account's back in Grandmaster. Come duo with me.]
[RabbitHuggingCarrot: ……………………I'm changing my password tomorrow. Lu Yue keeps messing around on my account—I'm trying to hit rank one on the Korean server! What's his problem?!]
[fhdjwhdb2333: Get back to Challenger first, then we'll talk. Come on.]
Lu Sicheng set down his phone and glanced over at Tong Yao. Her gaze met his deep brown eyes over the top of her phone before she plopped Da Bing onto Xiao Rui and returned to her seat.
Then, on a whim, she said, "Cheng Ge, want me to play support for you?"
Lu Sicheng: "...Weren't you aiming for rank one on the Korean server? Why play support? Trying to derank on purpose?"
Tong Yao: "Come on, come on, come on! I'm an amazing support!"
Lu Sicheng quirked a corner of his lips: "Suit yourself."
Tong Yao logged into her main account and eagerly accepted Lu Sicheng's party invite. She set her primary role to support and secondary to Mid Laner. Soon, they got into a match. Tong Yao solemnly picked Thresh. While the game loaded, Lu Sicheng checked her stats with a support app—Games Played on This Champion: 0.
...Let's just assume she played this champion on the Chinese server.
He turned his head and saw her alt-tabbed out of the game, secretly asking Little Fatty on QQ about the current meta build for Thresh... Sensing Lu Sicheng's gaze, she yelped and quickly switched back to the game, asking guiltily, "Why are you looking at me? Watch your own screen!"
Lu Sicheng: "..."
In a tone reserved for the intellectually challenged, Lu Sicheng slowly said, "You know Thresh's Q can hook people, right?"
Tong Yao: "I'm the God of Thresh. Shut up."
Once in-game, the God of Thresh fumbled around for her Starting Items. Based on her clumsy movements, Lu Sicheng judged this support to be Silver rank at best—and braced himself for a 1v3 bot lane.
And indeed, it became a 1v3.
Never before had his calm, methodical last-hitting felt so strained. Not only did he have to watch the enemy AD for tempo and CS, but he also had to keep an eye on his own support. One slip of attention and—
"Tsk." Lu Sicheng pinged the ground aggressively. "Spit out my cannon minion."
"Force of habit," Tong Yao shrunk her neck. "Can't resist a low-health cannon minion."
"You're making this game unnecessarily hard for me."
"You won't even spare me one cannon minion."
Lu Sicheng casually grabbed the car keys hanging from the lucky cat's ear and tossed them in front of her: "Take the car in the garage outside. Still not giving you the cannon minion."
"Deal. That flashy blue Maserati now belongs to the Tong family."
"Take it. Touch my cannon minion again and I'll break your legs."
"..."
Tong Yao's support and Lu Sicheng's AD had zero synergy. The entire laning phase was a grueling 15-minute ordeal—and the only reason they lasted that long was because Lu Sicheng was barely holding on. With a support like Tong Yao, who kept stealing farm and kills from her own AD, their bot lane would've been demolished long ago...Within fifteen minutes, Lu Sicheng suggested three times that Tong Yao should roam, twice that she should AFK, and once that Little Fatty should take over and finish the game for her—
By the twentieth minute, Lu Sicheng bent down to glance at Tong Yao’s internet cable.
He wanted to unplug it.
The match lasted forty minutes. In the late game, once the laning phase ended, the AD never stayed with his support again. Wherever the support went, he went to the opposite side of the map, avoiding her like the plague. The game ended, predictably, in a loss. Throughout, Lu Sicheng managed to hold back from trash-talking or AFKing. Only when their team headquarters was destroyed did he meaningfully remark, “Never let me see your support again.”
“…I got tired of playing Mid Laner and wanted to try something different for once.”
“Fine. Then kindly get lost to Top lane.”
“…”
Rumor had it that Summoner’s Rift was a place where relationships died faster than in JXQ3 ’s arena. To avoid losing her boyfriend too quickly, when the next match began queueing, Tong Yao obediently changed her primary role back to Mid Laner.
While waiting in queue, Tong Yao leaned back in her chair and played with her phone. Before long, the screen of Lu Sicheng’s phone lit up.
[Rabbit Hugs Carrot: You wouldn’t even spare me a single cannon minion. I feel zero warmth from my boyfriend.]
[fhdjwhdb2333: If anyone else supported me like that, I’d have teleported back to the fountain by the fifth minute and AFK’d till the game ended.]
[fhdjwhdb2333: If you went and smashed the car in the garage right now, I’d still ask if your hand hurt—but when it comes to cannon minions, that’s a matter of principle.]
[Rabbit Hugs Carrot: Then next game, I’ll play Ezreal, and the Red Buff is mine.]
[fhdjwhdb2333: Warning issued.]
[fhdjwhdb2333: For pushing your luck too far, you’re about to lose your boyfriend.]
[Rabbit Hugs Carrot: …………………Alright, alright, my bad.]
[fhdjwhdb2333: No, you just have a flawed self-awareness. God of Thresh, this is my fault.]
[Rabbit Hugs Carrot: What the hell?]
[fhdjwhdb2333: Love is blind.]
Tong Yao: “…”
Tong Yao had no idea where this man got all these shamelessly flirty lines. Comparing his current unrestrained self to his former stern demeanor, she was almost worried that her captain had been bottling himself up for too long—
Meanwhile, behind them.
Noticing the sudden silence after their duo queue session, Lu Yue curiously turned around and saw them sitting in their respective seats, heads bowed over their phones. He raised an eyebrow. “What, did you two break up?”
Tong Yao looked up blankly. “Huh?”
Without lifting his head, Lu Sicheng replied, “Quiet. Busy.”
Lu Yue: “Busy with what?”
Lu Sicheng: “Taming my wife.”
Tong Yao’s hand jerked, and her phone fell onto her lap. Lu Yue’s expression twisted in horror. “Are you playing a porn game?”
Tong Yao: “Pervert?”
Lu Yue: “Pervert!”
…
That night, after duo-queueing with Lu Sicheng for four matches, they mysteriously lost all four in a row.The power of love is greater than imagined. Tong Yao finally understood why her high school homeroom teacher always nagged about not allowing puppy love—not only does it hinder studies, but it might also make a perennial King-tier player drop to Diamond I...
At midnight, Tong Yao, watching her trembling LP at the edge of Diamond I, couldn't take it anymore and demanded to log off. She shut down her computer and went upstairs to wash up. Peeking into the cat bed, she saw the two cats, big and small, had ceased their daily battles and were now playing a game of stacking in the nest. At the moment, Da Bing was snoring away, while Xiao Cong nestled in its soft embrace, also snoring.
Utterly adorable.
Tong Yao took out her phone, snapped a photo, and sent it to Lu Sicheng before heading into the bathroom... Twenty minutes later, she came out, sat on the bed applying body lotion, and then noticed in her peripheral vision that Lu Sicheng had replied—
[fhdjwhdb2333: Even the cats live better than me.]
Tong Yao paused in drying her hair, grinning until her eyes curved into crescents. She picked up her phone to ask the guy downstairs what was wrong now. After a while, he replied—
[fhdjwhdb2333: Even the cats get to sleep hugging their wives.]
[ZGDX、smiling: Da Bing is neutered.]
[fhdjwhdb2333: Even a neutered cat gets to sleep hugging its wife.]
[ZGDX、smiling: Xiao Cong is also a little brother.]
[fhdjwhdb2333: Even a neutered cat gets to sleep hugging its little neutered cat wife.]
[ZGDX、smiling: And you? You only have League of Legends.]
[fhdjwhdb2333: ……]
Tong Yao put down her phone, too lazy to keep bantering with him. She blew her hair dry, climbed into bed, and curled up under the covers to check other WeChat messages. She realized Jin Yang hadn’t come to gossip with her today, which seemed unusual, so she casually sent a sticker of a little yellow dog shaking its legs to tease her. Then she switched out of WeChat to browse the Forum, idly checking for any gossip today—
And she actually stumbled upon some gossip.
The source of this gossip seemed to have at least a loose connection to their club.
[Thanks to Xu Tailun, LPL Clubs Overhaul Management—YQCB Leads the Charge with New Rule: Players Banned from Going Out Alone After 10 PM]
OP:
OP knows a bit of Korean. Today, while watching Lu Sicheng’s stream, I saw him teasing Li Junhe to go out for drinks. But Li Junhe tearfully said it was all because Lu Sicheng spouted nonsense during an interview, leading to YQCB’s major overhaul—now, on non-rest days, players are banned from going out alone after 10 PM!
Damn, that’s hardcore!
What’s the difference between this and prison? Once the team headquarters doors are locked at night, hand each of them a set of "Five Years of College Entrance Exams, Three Years of Mock Tests." Forget winning the S Series Finals—they could probably get into Tsinghua or Peking University in a few years, no problem, LOL!
The replies below largely agreed this was a good move, praising the decision. Tong Yao skimmed through them absentmindedly until she noticed the tone shifting slightly. Someone pointed out—
[I think Lu Sicheng made a fair point. It’s not just a Korean Aid issue. Aside from a few Korean one-voice halls messing around, domestic players screwing fans isn’t uncommon either. And the language barrier isn’t even a problem, heh…]
[Yeah, yeah.][Upstairs, stop mindlessly praising that bunch of noobs from the relegation team. Isn’t their mid laner Ai Jia himself a prime example? His girlfriend is always at the team headquarters, and she doesn’t seem to be staff. She’s pretty, sure, but doesn’t appear to have a job—probably just living off Ai Jia.]
[Ai Jia isn’t bad-looking either.]
[Upstairs, don’t say that. I think Ai Jia and that girl seem like a normal couple.]
[Wow, a “normal couple”? What kind of girl in her teens or twenties wears head-to-toe luxury brands? If you can’t even recognize designer labels, just shut up. One bag from Ai Jia’s girlfriend could cover your food expenses for a year.]
[Damn, upstairs, is that for real? Hahaha, how much must Ai Jia be spending to keep this girlfriend? If she dumps him after he retires, won’t he lose everything?]
Tong Yao finally understood why Jin Yang had been so quiet tonight after reading further.
These overcorrecting lunatics, who saw every relationship as "screwing fans," had dragged her into the fire.
Switching to her forum alt account, she randomly picked a post where someone was wildly speculating about Ai Jia living on scraps just to support his jobless girlfriend and replied, “Bullshit! That girl’s monthly allowance alone is more than you’d earn in ten years.” Just then, her phone buzzed with a WeChat message from Jin Yang:
[A Mao’s Mom: Sis got dragged into some drama. You might burst a blood vessel reading it, but I suggest you don’t stoop to their level on the forum.]
Tong Yao thought about it but couldn’t figure out how to reply.
Instead, she dove right back into the battlefield of “stooping to their level.”
As she was arguing, her finger accidentally scrolled to a reply like this:
[Women are terrifying. Thank god Cheng Ge is single. I don’t want any girl messing with his career. Please, brothers and sisters, do him a favor and stay away from him.]
Tong Yao: “…”
She put down her phone, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
After a moment’s thought, she flopped back into her blankets: For the first time, she felt that announcing her perfectly normal and innocent relationship was harder than coming out of the closet.
OpenNovel