Lu Sicheng clicked his mouse repeatedly without looking up, asking, "Why did you turn off the stream?"
Tong Yao removed her phone from the selfie stick, tossed it aside, and sat back in her seat. "Said everything I needed to. Besides, my chat was going crazy wanting to see you—what's up with that?"
Lu Sicheng let out an absent-minded "Oh" and casually replied, "Then let them see. One glance for a big gift—easy money."
When he noticed the sudden silence beside him, he didn't think much of it—until he caught sight of the person next to him craning her neck to glance around. Seeing everyone either wearing headphones or engrossed in their games, she retracted her neck and whispered, "No showing."
The rhythmic clicking of Lu Sicheng's mouse abruptly stopped. His hands hovered slightly above the keyboard as he turned to look at her. "What?"
Tong Yao: "..."
The man chuckled softly, reached out to pat her head, and sighed in a tone one might use for a child growing up. "The silly deer finally knows how to guard her food."
Tong Yao flushed red. "So what? So what?"
"Nothing much," Lu Sicheng's hands returned to the keyboard. "As the guarded dog food, I'm quite honored."
Tong Yao: "..."
...
On Saturday, both YQCB and ZGDX had matches. YQCB's match was scheduled for 1 PM. As the players packed their peripherals and prepared to board the team bus, they noticed the lively ZGDX squad also heading to their own bus.
"Why are you leaving so early?" Ai Jia tugged at the strap of Tong Yao's small backpack, pulling her closer. "Your match is after ours, isn't it?"
"We’re going early to watch your match," Tong Yao said. "After the Demacia Cup, we’ll officially face off. Right now, YQCB is ZGDX’s top rival."
"Officially face off... Wait, you guys aren’t playing in the Demacia Cup?"
"Nope." Lu Sicheng’s voice came from behind them. The man reached over, rescuing both Tong Yao and her backpack from Ai Jia’s grasp, then casually nudged her toward the bus. "It’s China Telecom’s tradition to field the second team for the Demacia Cup. Same as usual this year."
Every year, when the LPL Summer Split reaches the end of the first Group Stage and halfway through the second, the league pauses for a week to host the Demacia Cup, a national tournament featuring select LPL and LSPL teams. Aside from the Professional League, it’s one of the few major official tournaments... Given its formal competition format, many teams treat its championship as a serious goal and go all out.
However, the China Telecom Team has a long-standing tradition of not fielding their starting roster for the cup. Typically, ZGDX’s second-string or substitute players represent the team in the Demacia Cup. The tournament serves as both training and an evaluation platform for selecting next year’s starting lineup, while the current first team only attends as spectators.
Tong Yao had checked the calendar. One week after the Demacia Cup, they would face YQCB for the first time—unlike their initial scrim encounter, YQCB had long shed their former identity as a relegation team, transforming into a formidable opponent not to be underestimated.——The suggestion to arrive early at the venue today to watch the match between YQCB and HUAWEI Team was the result of a group discussion.
Tong Yao got into the car and sent a text to Jin Yang asking if she was going to the match.
The reply she received was resolute—
[Night Angler - Crazy Fisherman: Of course I’m going, why wouldn’t I? Not only am I going, but I’m sitting in the front row so those non-believers can see just how long my legs really are.]
Half an hour later.
Arriving at the venue, Tong Yao and Jin Yang took their seats directly in the YQCB fan section. Coincidentally, both YQCB and ZGDX were seated on the right side today, so quite a few ZGDX fans had already taken their spots in the rows behind them. When they saw Tong Yao plop down right in front of them, their faces lit up as if they’d won the lottery. They immediately whipped out their phones for a frenzy of photos before grabbing notebooks to ask for autographs.
This was the second time Tong Yao had interacted so closely with ZGDX fans in the audience seats.
The last time she’d done this, she hadn’t even been a professional player yet. But now—
“Our match is the second one today. This Hongqiao Tiandi venue is so far out—thanks to everyone for coming all this way to support us.”
“I’m here with my friend, uh, the one from Ai Jia’s family… Any YQCB fans here? Raise your hands? Ahahaha, I see Pope’s light sign and Cheng Ge’s light sign placed together—I already know what you’re up to—”
“Autographs? Sure, of course… Photos too, but if you post them, remember to edit them. No editing just yourself—that’s a crime. Alright, come on, one, two, three…”
Before the match started, Tong Yao found herself surrounded by a crowd of girls.
Amid the lively chatter, she suddenly heard the familiar click of high heels behind her. Pausing mid-sentence, she turned around and locked eyes with someone who wasn’t exactly a stranger but not exactly a close acquaintance either—the woman was slightly hunched over as she made her way to her seat, still holding a few remaining ZGDX cheering slogans in her hand. Clearly, she had just finished distributing them in the back rows.
When their eyes met, the woman froze for a second, but Tong Yao quickly recovered, her lips curling into a bright smile. “Oh, it’s you!”
It was the Ming Shen fan girl she’d met during the Spring Split finals—the one who had said she’d leave the fandom once Ming Shen retired. Tong Yao never expected to see her again here. The girl recognized Tong Yao too and smiled shyly, not saying a word. Instead, she pointed at her wrist. Following her gesture, Tong Yao spotted a glowing bracelet wrapped around it, clearly displaying the words: ZGDX, Smiling, fighting!
Tong Yao: “…”
Her eyes widened slightly in disbelief, a bright sparkle flickering in her dark pupils.
Just then, a girl from the back row—who had probably spoken to Tong Yao before—threw an arm around the shy girl’s shoulders. The others chimed in, laughing and chattering—
“This is such a surprise! We never expected the new player from our favorite team to be sitting right next to us!”“She even stood up for us against those sexist jerks who look down on female gamers, hahahaha! At that moment, I was like, damn, who is this girl? She’s so cool—I was almost a fan!”
“But who would’ve thought she’d be our team’s new Mid Laner? Wow, when the official announcement dropped with your photo, our group chat exploded! None of us could believe our eyes!”
The girl holding the cheering slogan was pulled back to her seat by her friends. She handed Tong Yao a new Summer Split slogan and whispered with a smile, “This one’s still free.”
Tong Yao glanced at the slogan, then raised it to hide her silly grin.
Her eyes crinkled into happy crescents, her heart bursting with joy. Her mind was filled with nothing but “I have fans now, ahhhhh!” and “She didn’t leave, she’s still here, she still loves this scene—that’s so great!”
Tong Yao: “I’m really glad you stayed.”
“Yeah,” the fan girl lowered her head shyly. “Another player worth liking and following appeared, so I decided to stay.”
Tong Yao: “…”
Pressing the cheering slogan against her face, Tong Yao turned beet red and abruptly plopped back into her seat. Jin Yang teased, “Look at you, so easily flustered.” Tong Yao kicked her under the chair, then pulled out her phone to message her captain—
【ZGDX、Smiling: Ran into fans at the front! So many of them, ahhh! And some are my personal fans! A young lady was about to leave the scene but came back because of me! She was wearing my cheering wristband! I took photos with them! I signed autographs for them! The Summer Split cheering slogan is so pretty, and it has my name on it!!!】
【fhdjwhdb2333: Oh, saw it.ZGDX, Smiling: So perfunctory! What did you even see?!】
【fhdjwhdb2333: Look up.】
Tong Yao’s fingers froze mid-text. As if obeying an order, she instinctively raised her head and glanced toward the stage. There, she saw that the members of Team Mobile and a bunch of Noob Team players had already taken their seats. Behind them, near the player tunnel entrance, a tall figure stood leaning lazily against the doorframe, arms crossed, watching the audience below.
The phone in his hand was still open to their WeChat chat.
Their gazes met across the distance.
“Huh, your hubby couldn’t bear to let you come down here alone, so he came out to keep an eye on you?” Jin Yang whispered into Tong Yao’s ear. “Damn, so thoughtful. Meanwhile, mine’s over there laughing like an idiot with his teammates—”
Tong Yao stopped listening after that.
Through the crowd, she saw Lu Sicheng raise a hand and wave in their direction.
“Holy crap, why is Cheng Ge out here too?!”
“Damn, is this a buy-one-get-one deal? Smiling sits down, and Cheng Ge shows up too? Today’s too good to be true, ahhhhhhh!”
“He’s waving at us! Did you see that? Oh my god, is my hair messy? Is my makeup smudged?”
“From that far away, he can’t see shit. But your eyeliner is actually smeared—want to touch it up?”
“Where? Where…?”
A commotion erupted behind them.
Amid the noise, Tong Yao tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, then rubbed her slightly warm earlobe.[ZGDX、Smiling: Saw it.]
[fhdjwhdb2333: I even waved at you, how could you not see? Are you blind?]
[ZGDX、Smiling: Watch your tone.]
Tong Yao looked up and saw Lu Sicheng typing on his phone for a while before turning to walk into the player tunnel.
[fhdjwhdb2333: He’s gone in now. Don’t go bouncing around outside the second I take my eyes off you, flirting left and right.]
The door to the player tunnel closed softly behind him.
[fhdjwhdb2333: Not even with girls.]
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