Tong Yao put down her cell phone, cleared her throat, and mustered enough courage to make the following statement.
"Everything I just said was just a joke. I'm going to stand in the corner and reflect on all my misdeeds. Next Monday, at the Club's regular meeting, I'll present my ten thousand words self-criticism…...En, I'm going to write it now. Getting off stream now, bye."
Then she watched the bullet comments turn into-- --
[Cheng Ge's here again?]
[Alright, we know now. Tell us, where's Cheng Ge?]
[Wait a minute, five minutes ago I saw someone called "superchessman" enter the stream. Could it be...]
[Five minutes ago? Hhhhhhhh, then host, it's too late.]
[Best wishes on your road to hell.]
Tong Yao: "..."
Freaking out inside, Tong Yao turned off her stream. She looked up at the closed door upstairs with a blank face... A few seconds later, as if she had finally made a decision, she puffed up her cheeks, pushed her keyboard away, put her cell phone in her pocket, and ran upstairs in one breath. She stopped in front of the door, lifted her hand up to knock but stopped right before her knuckle touched the door.
She could hear her own heartbeat.
She paused for a second-- --
The courage she had finally mustered suddenly evaporated.
Tong Yao retracted her hand and stood in front of the door like a statue for about 5 minutes until she heard the faint sound of footsteps and running water-- --Lu Sicheng was probably taking a shower and getting ready to go to sleep…...The feeling of emptiness she had earlier returned. Her head drooped down like a defeated rooster. She turned around and despondently staggered back downstairs...
When she passed her own seat, she saw the take out box still sitting on her desk. Tong Yao stopped, rubbing her empty stomach. She had been hungry for a while now. Refusing to go with Little Fatty for midnight meal wasn't something she had planned; she couldn't even understand what was wrong with herself-- --
When she saw Lu Yue help the team win the training match in her place, she found that she didn't know what to say to Lu Sicheng.
Tong Yao: "..."
[ZGDX, smiling: You're right, I'm annoyed that Lu Yue won.]
[ZGDX, smiling: Will I be replaced by Lu Yue because of that and become a substitute for the rest of my life? Then I'll become the transparent member of the team. My teammates will remember me when they want to order take out: Ah, she's not busy, she can order take out for us.]
[Ah Mao's mom: ? ? ? Your teammates are all so chatty that they would even talk to the air. They wouldn't ignore a substitute.]
[ZGDX, smiling: Hey.]
[Ah Mao's mom: I figure you're just hungry. Didn't your captain bring some food for you? Go eat, then go sleep. The suspension is only for one match, it'll be over soon. Your position is still yours and your captain won't stop talking to you for the rest of your life.]
[ZGDX, smiling: Really?]
[Ah Mao's mom: ? ? ? Hasn't your club issued a notice saying you're suspended only for tomorrow's match? How can it be false.]
[ZGDX, smiling: …...I'm not asking about that.]
[Ah Mao's mom: ....... Oh.]
[Ah Mao's mom: It's true, really.]
[Ah Mao's mom: Tsk, tsk, if he decided to give you the silent treatment for the rest of your life, why would he bring back porridge for you worrying you might be hungry. He probably only wants to stuff your head into the toilet.]
[Ah Mao's mom: All you care about is the fact that your captain isn't talking to you. Why do you have to drag the whole team into it, really…...Does every girl in love so jumpy and anxious like you?]
Tong Yao: "..."
Tong Yao turned off her phone screen, held it against her chest, and fell into silence. She looked up again at the closed door on the second floor, lifted up her heels, and silently mouthed "to hell with that tsundere" at the door then pouted.
She felt that she had been on edge all night.
She sat back at her desk and touched the almost forgotten takeout box on her desk-- --
Forty minutes later, when the rest of the team returned to base, they saw their mid sitting cross legged on her chair, quietly eating porridge. At this point only a quarter of the porridge was left.
Little Fatty: "Tsk, that's enough for three people. Didn't you say you weren't hungry? !"
"...I became hungry later." Tong Yao raised her eyes from the bowl to glance at everyone. "Where did you all go after eating? Coming back at such a late hour."
"We didn't go anywhere. We headed right back after we finished eating."
"..." Tong Yao stopped eating and pointed her spoon upstairs: "Then why did Cheng Ge-- --"
"He came back right after the takeout porridge was ready. He said the fish smell would get too strong once the porridge turned cold." Little Fatty looked at the trash can that was now full of crab, shrimp, and clam shells right next to Tong Yao. "Now it looks like he's probably also afraid that you would die from hunger?"
Tong Yao, with spoon still held in the air, blinked, completely baffled : "What did you say? Say that again."
Little Fatty: "You aren't talking to each other yet?"
Tong Yao: "No."
Little Fatty: "Oh. One is too proud, the other is too tsundere. You two should just stay this way for the rest of your lives. I have faith in you two."
Tong Yao: "..."
...
The next day was the game against Red Arrow.
Tong Yao idly got up and packed her equipment bag, then listlessly waited till the last minute to get on the bus. Before she could climb onto the bus, someone pulled the strap of her backpack back. Tong Yao turned with eyebrows raised. Lu Yue returned with a bright smile: "Are you going to watch me play?"
"I'm going in case something unexpected happens to you and you can't play." Tong Yao expressionlessly tried to pull the strap out of his hand. "I'm being optimistic. What if your hand suddenly breaks?"
"Even if it has to break, it will break after I finish playing the match." Lu Yue increased the strength in his hand. "Even if half of my foot is in the coffin, I'll make sure you stay put in the substitute seat before I close my eyes."
Tong Yao bit her lower lip: "You're dreaming."
Lu Yue's smile became even brighter until a cold, low male voice came from behind the bickering two: "Have you two said enough?"
The facial expression on the bickering two were all froze. Lu Yue grabbed Tong Yao's backpack and walked into the bus…...Tong Yao mumbled at him to return her bag and followed him on. After they sat down, they behaved like obedient grade schoolers. Tong Yao shrunk in the corner of the seat until the bus arrived at the arena. When she sat down in the makeup room, she suddenly felt that something seemed to be missing. She turned to check and found her backpack was still in Lu Yue's hand.
Lu Yue walked in and threw the bag at her, then sat down before the mirror waiting for the makeup artist.
It didn't take long for the team to get their makeup done. They then went into the rest area waiting for today's match to begin. Before long, the large screen in the room started to show the audience in the arena. The two commentators also started to talk-- --Tong Yao thought they probably would discuss her suspension today, yet all they mentioned was: "Today, ZGDX's Lu will be playing. This player..."
Tong Yao thought about it then figured that the club must've negotiated with the two commentators beforehand not to elaborate on the issue.
Tong Yao sat in the rest area, listening with her left ear to Ming god and Lu Yue's discussion about which of Red Arrow's mid's champions to ban. Her right ear was listening to the commentator's conversation. From time to time, she would interject her own opinion about Red Arrow's mid-- --
"Their mid's a jack of all trades. Even though Red Arrow isn't doing so well, he's one of the top five mids in the professional league. He can use any champion. It'll be rough for Lu Yue. You two better ponder how to ban his favorite champions: Leblanc and Twisted Fate; he probably won't take Annie..."
Then she saw on the big screen some fangirls were holding signs flashing with her id when the camera panned over the area where ZGDX fans were sitting...
Tong Yao abruptly stopped talking in the middle of her sentence.
She paused for a while then suddenly stood up, surprising Ming god and Lu Yue. Lu Yue asked: "What are you doing?" Tong Yao said: "Going to the bathroom." Then she hastily left the room-- --She went to the bathroom to wash her face, then sneaked to the front near the stage pretending to be one of the staff. She stretched out her head to look at the audience. There truly were a few people carrying signs with her name on it.
-- --But it was impossible they didn't know that Tong Yao had been suspended for this match.
She felt her stomach acid surging up, the overwhelming feeling yesterday came back again.
She returned to the rest area despondently, but she forced herself to act calm as if nothing had happened…...By now, her teammates had started to move from the rest area to go on stage for the match. Tong Yao stayed with the staff in the room for a little while longer. When the match was about to begin, she went into the adjacent room to watch the game-- --She was the only one in the room. She sat in a wide, soft swirling chair looking up at the screen. The ban & pick phase was focused on each team's mid, just as they had expected-- --
Red Arrow immediately banned Ekko and Azir.
Commentator A: [Ekko and Azir! These are the champions which Lu's good at. Looks like yesterday Red Arrow, after learning Smiling has been banned from this match, had done their research!]
Commentator B: [ZGDX has banned Viktor and Leblanc. Haha, today they are truly going head to head in the mid lane. The champions they've banned have rarely appeared in previous matches-- --To tell the truth, I'm looking forward to this one. Lu is known for his maneuvering and steadiness. But his champion pool has always been criticized…...I'm really curious what champion he'll use without Azir and Ekko!]
Commentator A: [Yes, this is an important match for ZGDX. If they win this one, they will keep their no loss record in their group…...To tell the truth, I thought there wouldn't be any problems for them to keep their winning record, but since the incident happened yesterday...]
Commentator B: [Right, right. During the past few weeks, ZGDX has been in very good condition. Even their captain, Lu Sicheng, who rarely makes any promises, would praise their mid and say she has made the team even more confident for winning this season.]
Commentator A: [Hahahahaha, now it looks more like a flag...]
Tong Yao frowned and muted the sound.
As the ban and pick phase was winding down, Lu Sicheng chose Ashe as his champion. Tong Yao almost choked on her own saliva as if she was witnessing her own death…...Probably to counter Red Arrow's mid, Lu Yue chose Twisted Fate-- --Tong Yao could hear the commotion outside and the high-pitched voices of the commentators. None of them had ever seen Lu using Twisted Fate before.
Not even Tong Yao had seen him play this champion. She started to worry whether Lu Yue was out of his mind. After the game began, Lu Yue played smoothly with Twisted Fate in every aspect. He was even accurate at calculating his attack damage at each level-- --
It didn't look like he was forced to pick Twisted Fate in order to counter the opposite's mid. It seemed as if he had always played this champion!
At level 4, he killed Red Arrow's mid and got his first blood.
At level 6, he used his ultimate to help Lu Sicheng get a double kill, giving the team an upper hand.
At the twentieth minute into the match, he had ganked effectively 4 times, assisted 6 times, and his cs number was on par with Red Arrow's mid...
Tong Yao logged on to Tieba and found everyone marveling at what they were seeing on the front page-- --
[Damn, when did Lu become so strong! Where's that useless guy who couldn't play if Azir got banned?]
[He's hiding the fact he can play Twisted Fate? !]
[They have someone like that as their mid substitute? Isn't ZGDX a little bit too extravagant?]
[...........Why do I feel like Smiling is going to go away? Lu's performance here is as good as Tong Yao.]
[I decided to watch two more rounds with full attention.]
[Lu Sicheng boasted how great their new mid before, now it looks like even their substitute is very good too. It's certainly made the match even more interesting-- --]
Tong Yao lifted her head from her cell phone to look at the LCD screen in front of her. The first match was near the end. She watched without much expression when her team began to push Red Arrow's nexus. Lu Yue's stats at the end of this match was 7 kills, 1 death, and 13 assists.
The broadcast on screen was usually delayed about a dozen seconds from what was happening on stage. As Tong Yao was watching her team pushing Red Arrow's nexus, the door behind her pushed open. She didn't turn to check, thinking it must be one of the staff. She could hear the earth-shattering shouts coming through the opened door from outside, "Go, ZGDX"...
Tong Yao lowered her head, taking a few seconds to ponder whether she should give Lu Yue a little red flower on the broadcast stream.
At the fourth second, she made up her mind to give Lu Yue a thumbs up for playing Twisted Fate so well. She looked up and discovered a tall man was now standing with his back to the now closed door, arms crossed in front of his chest and quietly looking at her.
Tong Yao: ".............."
It was Lu Sicheng.
When did he come in the room?
Tong Yao's heart skipped a beat under his cold gaze. Tong Yao's hair was about to stand up. She lowered her head after meeting Lu Sicheng's eyes for a second. Then she swirled the chair so the back of the chair was facing the door. Her fingers subconsciously swiping her cell phone...
The silence broke when Lu Sicheng abruptly asked her: "Seeing your substitute receive cheers on stage while you can only watch sitting in the rest area. How do you feel?"
Tong Yao: "..."
Tong Yao dared not to turn around.
She blankly fixed her eyes on the top page of the Tieba; there were some praising Lu Yue, even some questioning whether Lu Sicheng had misjudged Lu Yue, and why ZGDX hadn't paid much attention to Lu Yue.
"I said in one of the after game interviews that I'm glad to have a teammate like Smiling. Because ever since she joined us, ZGDX would be unprecedentedly strong going into the summer season."
A low and calm voice came from behind.
Tong Yao's finger on the phone screen paused.
She heard footsteps approaching from behind. At the same time, her jumbled mind suddenly quieted down. Her heart sank downwards endlessly, from the lukewarm shallow sea all the way down to the chilling bottom-- --
She then discovered that she probably has thalassophobia.
"Now they're questioning my ability to judge, questioning whether I've made mistakes, questioning whether I wasn't even handed in placing you and Lu Yue in the team..." Lu Sicheng stopped for a while, then flatly asked: "Why? "
Tong Yao: "..."
Tong Yao lowered her head further, using her back to face the man behind her.
Then she saw a big hand landing on the arm of her chair; with a little force, the hand swung the chair back to face him-- -- Lu Sicheng was slightly bent over, with both hands on the arms of the chair to support himself. The shadow created by his large body completely enveloped her.
"Look up."
"..."
Tong Yao raised her head.
Though unprepared for it, she looked up and met a pair of dark brown eyes. His eyes seemed bottomless. She tried to glean something from them, but couldn't tell if there was any emotion in them.
She leaned back towards the back of the chair and swallowed. Her heart and stomach seemed to have dropped to the floor. She moved her lips, about to apologize. Suddenly, she heard the man's voice again right next to her: "However, I don't care about other people questioning my judgement."
Tong Yao was taken aback.
"The sticking point is you. What I care about is you."
"..."
Lu Sicheng slightly raised his body upright and checked his watch: "There are 7 minutes left. Before the next match begins, give me a good reason why I shouldn't give you up no matter what other people say."