Though the team manager believed that Tong Yao and Lu Sicheng were going to the market and tying the knot at the same time, in reality the conversation in the car went as follows-- --
Tong Yao: "Cheng Ge, I heard that you were searching for piranha fry online after I'd gone to bed..."
Lu Sicheng: "That's right."
Tong Yao asked after a moment of silence: "Did you find any?"
"Somehow the search ended up at Venus Flytraps." Lu Sicheng answered: "Since it'd have the same effect in the fishbowl, I just bought that."
Tong Yao searched for Venus Flytrap on her cell phone and became silent after seeing the images of the vicious look of the plant: "What effect are you talking about?"
"Whoever puts their hand inside the fishbowl gets bitten."
"..."
Tong Yao looked out the windshield without expression on her face. It was silent inside the car for the rest of the way. Lu Sicheng was concentrating on driving while Tong Yao dwelled on the question: "does he intend for it to bite me or the cat?"...When they arrived at the market, Tong Yao opened the door and saw a crowded market. This market specialized in selling flowers and all sorts of pets. A Labrador with a sign hanging from its neck saying "Looking for a mate, I have money," walked pass Tong Yao. Tong Yao couldn't move her eyes off the dog.
Tong Yao: "..."
Amazing, even a dog knew to come to this market to look for a mate.
Lu Sicheng parked the car and walked over. He took a glance at the huge crowd at front and another glance at the person next to him who was still too short while wearing platform shoes and would be buried amidst the crowd. He paused a moment then flatly said: "I'm thinking of putting an auto alarm system on you. With one push of the button, an alarm will go off and I won't be afraid of losing you in a crowd."
"......" Tong Yao was a bit uneasy: "I have a cell phone. Who needs an alarm? If we get separated, please call me on my cell phone."
"I won't." Lu Sicheng took a glance at her: "Just follow closely."
With his height and conspicuous clothes, Lu Sicheng not only stood out in the crowd, he also parted the crowd like Moses. By following right behind him, Tong Yao found it easier to move through the crowd...
Tong Yao stayed behind Lu Sicheng. The man was like a hill in front of her, blocking her view in front. All she could see when she raised her head were his broad back and the earrings on his ears…...The silver earrings looked quite nice on him. Tong Yao didn't remember seeing him wear them before. She fixed her eyes on them-- --
"Cheng Ge."
"What?"
"I didn't even know that you have pierced ears. You look good wearing earrings. Why don't you wear them at base?"
"For whom would I wear them for at base?"
"....Then whom are you wearing them for now?" Tong Yao couldn't get it: "The fish?"
"Aren't you wearing a skirt? For whom are you wearing it for? The cat?"
"You even wore new shoes."
"Are your shoes old?"
"..."
"..."
It was a moment of sweet embarrassment.
While Tong Yao wondered when the two of them could compliment each other with sincerity, Lu Sicheng abruptly came to a stop when the crowd in front of him stopped-- --Tong Yao who was still focused on his earrings bumped into Lu Sicheng. To steady herself, Tong Yao grabbed Lu Sicheng's wrist out of instinct!
After the crowd dispersed somewhat enough for them to continue, Lu Sicheng still stood there, unmoving. He lowered his head to see the hand on his wrist and paused for a moment: "Shorty."
Tong Yao: "?"
Lu Sicheng: "You seem to be taking advantage of me today a lot, what's going on?"
Tong Yao: "..........."
Tong Yao: "Screw you!"
Tong Yao threw down Lu Sicheng's hand and stepped back three steps to show her innocence-- --Lu Sicheng lightly smacked: "You can't even wear shoes with heels well, why bother pretending to be a grown up." Then he turned towards the fish section. Tong Yao stood at the same place and stared at his back for a while before hurriedly catching back up with him.
…...There was much fewer people over at the fish section.
Lu Sicheng intended to buy the cheapest kind of goldfish. They randomly picked a stand to ask for prices. Tong Yao squatted down in front of the stand with a small fish net in hand. Her eyes following the swimming fish. She asked without looking back: "Cheng Ge, how many do you want?"
"Whatever."
"What color?"
"Black."
"Those gold and red ones look much better. The tails are like little umbrellas."
"Oh, really? I want black ones."
"Red looks prettier and festive. Look at that one, it's so lively. You can tell just by looking at it that it'll live forever-- --"
"The one I had before could live forever if a fat cat hadn't eaten it-- --I said I want a black one. Put down the net. Who's buying the fish anyway, you or me?"
Lu Sicheng squatted down next to Tong Yao and grabbed the net out of her hands. Tong Yao wanted to grab it back but Lu Sicheng gingerly moved away out of reach…...They squatted in front of the stand pushing and shoving, bickering back and forth about whether to get a red or black goldfish each only worth 1.5RMB. They were having a genuine argument-- --
"It's my fishbowl, I decide."
"Why do you dislike red so much? Then in the future, let me always have red buff."
"You just try to touch my red buff."
"You're so capable, why don't you convince the developers to make a black buff in the jungle for you. Just say that you'd like it that way, no objections accepted. It's your jungle, you decide. Just like that."
"You're so chatty."
They talked back and forth for about 10 minutes, 8 minutes of which was arguing who would get the buffs in the jungle-- --The owner didn't know what to think about the good looking couple that seemed to be speaking nonsense with complete seriousness...
Finally, the owner couldn't stand it anymore. He was afraid that these two would bicker right in front of his stand for the entire day over just 1.50RMB fish. He interrupted them: "Young man, why don't you just listen to this young lady. What's the point of arguing about this with your girlfriend? Us men always suffer when women get irritated-- --Wait till next month, when she refuses to hold hands with you and says its because you didn't even let her get a fish in her favorite color last month, then you'll regret today."
Lu Sicheng: "..."
While Lu Sicheng paused, Tong Yao took the chance to grab the net back, scooped up the fish she'd been watching, and put it into a small bowl at the side. Then she quickly stuffed the net into the owner's hand with a smile: "You must be joking. I'm not his..."
"Will you sell the fish for 1 RMB?" Lu Sicheng asked.
Tong Yao couldn't believe what she had heard and turned around to look at Lu Sicheng: A man driving a Maserati is bargain for fifty cents off. That's inhumane.
What surprised her more was that the owner agreed to it.
The owner happily packed up the red goldfish and said to Lu Sicheng when he handed the fish over: "My girlfriend is exactly the same as yours: headstrong. I can't rein her in no matter what."
Lu Sicheng didn't say anything. He took the plastic bag and lifted it up high to check the goldfish against the sunlight -- --
The serious and affectionate look on his face made him truly like an idiot
Tong Yao rolled her eyes and said to the owner: "I and this friend aren't like what you think-- --"
A hand lightly pat the back of head stopping her in mid sentence for the second time. She looked up and saw Lu Sicheng, expressionless, looking at her with his aloof dark brown eyes: "What are you looking at? Pay."
"..."
Tong Yao had no choice but to pull out a coin from her pocket and placed it in the owner's hands.
"Let's go." He said and turned to leave, Tong Yao stood up to follow him-- --A man pushing a cart full of goods happened to come by right between Tong Yao and Lu Sicheng. Tong Yao had to stop and wait till the cart passed. The crowd soon blocked her view. Tong Yao stood on her tippy toes trying to find where Lu Sicheng had gone to. Right then, a large hand reaching over from the side and suddenly yanked her: "I'm here, where are you looking at?"
Tong Yao staggered towards his direction.
"Why are you wearing a long sleeve shirt on a hot day?"
When she was close enough to him, she heard him comment flatly. Tong Yao looked up in surprise but found little emotion on Lu Sicheng's face. He turned to move forward. One of his hand carried the swimming goldfish inside the plastic bag and his other hand was clasped on her thin wrist, not letting go...
He didn't release his hold until they were back at the entrance of the market where there was less people. He aimlessly looked at the cars and people around him and slightly frowned, having forgotten where he parked the car. "Every time you come to this place, you lose three years of your life expectancy. If you want me to die early, you can just let your cat eat one of my fish again."
Tong Yao: "..."
Tong Yao was about to say something when her attention was distracted by a few kittens at a stand by the roadside-- --One of the kittens, inside a shabby cardboard box, was sound asleep under the sunlight, looking silly and carefree just like Dabing...
That kitten pulled Tong Yao over like a magnet.
Lu Sicheng, now annoyed that he couldn't find his car, turned his head around to find the person who was standing right next to him a second ago had disappeared. He raised his eyebrows and started searching with his eyes. On the roadside, he found his mid in a short skirt and those furry little animals right in front of her-- --
He got even more annoyed.
He walked up and was about to warn Tong Yao not to do anything hasty as Tong Yao was already asking the owner how much the little kitten cost. Right then he heard a soft female voice from behind: "Aiya, what a cute little kitten!"
Right afterwards, a hand reached from behind, pushed Tong Yao's hand to the side, and picked up the kitten…...Tong Yao, irritated, felt like someone had taken a bite of food straight out of her mouth. She frowned and was about to say that she had been there first, but when she looked up, she saw a tall man behind a pretty woman. The man was well dressed, wearing a face mask that only exposed half of his nose, a pair of thick eyebrows, and big eyes-- --
He looked very familiar.
Tong Yao: "Eh." She wracked her brain trying to match the face to the people she knew. Then she heard Lu Sichengg from behind her greet the man in Korean in a rather cold tone of voice.
Judging from the pronunciation, Lu Sicheng was addressing him as a Ge.
…...Tailun Ge?
It took Tong Yao quite a while to realize that the man in front of her was Qing Dynasty's Korean jungler. She was about to say hello when the woman who grabbed the kitten out of Tong Yao's hand had picked up the cat and moved closer to the man. She circled Xu Tailun's arm and said: "Buy this for me. I want this little kitten, it can keep me company when you aren't with me!"
It was quite sweet and clingy.
The woman didn't even bother to look at Tong Yao but took a glance at Lu Sicheng, then focused her eyes on Xu Tailun.
In the meantime, Xu Tailun didn't make a sound, only giving Lu Sicheng a glance, then lowered his head to look at Tong Yao. His dark pupils were quickly moving back and forth before calming down-- --He didn't even return the greeting from Lu Sicheng. Lu Sicheng grabbed Tong Yao up and turned around to walk away.
Before they walked away, Tong Yao heard the woman whispered to Xu Tailun: "Is that Chessman?"
Tong Yao didn't have the chance to hear the answer-- --She knew about Chessman? Was she in the esports circle? Then why didn't she recognize Tong Yao and didn't seem to know for sure what Lu Sicheng looked like?
Tong Yao was confused.
"...Wait, wait, what's the hurry. My kitten. I was there first!"
Lu Sicheng located his car and opened the door: "Isn't it enough to have that fat cat of yours? You want another one? We already have two troublemakers at base, I refuse to have a third one."
"How do we have two?" Lu Sicheng pushed down on Tong Yao's head to get her into the car. Tong Yao sat down but was unwilling to give up.
"You and the cat."
".......That kitten's so cute, like Dabing's little brother-- --I was forced to watch that woman's PDA then she took my kitten away, I won't be able to eat dinner tonight!" Tong Yao turned to the other side to face Lu Sicheng as he was getting into the driver's seat.
"What PDA?"
"That Qing Dynasty jungler and his girlfriend."
"His girlfriend is the hostess for professional Korean competitions. There was a bunch of PDA yesterday during their stream." Lu Sicheng started the car as he spoke: "I don't know who that woman who took your kitten is. Probably a fan of Qing Dynasty, the kind who only watches Qing Dynasty's games or maybe she doesn't even watch the games and just likes to chase after the players. Gives a bad name to all the fangirls in this circle-- --Oh, yeah, isn't that the kind that disgusts you the most?"
"..............? ? ? ? ? ?"
So he was having an affair? What a cheater!
Tong Yao didn't care who the woman was but, Xu Tailun, she had thought he was one of the rare sweet guys among all the professional male players? !
"That's right, Xu Tailun's always like this. Now please look up in the rear view mirror at your own expression on your face-- --Did you see it? You see the embarrassment with a capital E written on your face? Now do you still want me to learn Chinese from him?"
"........."
"Do you?"
Tong Yao remained silent, her face now red. Seeing that Lu Sicheng wasn't going to start driving the car until he got his answer, Tong Yao had to give in. She lowered her head and shook it.
Lu Sicheng was satisfied.
"Hrm, first is Li Huanshuo, then Xu Tailun, you can never tell what a person is really like. Better keep your mouth shut in the future."
"...Why didn't you tell me that day?"
"You wouldn't believe me even if I told you. You probably would've said that I'm just jealous and accusing others without evidence."
"..."
Urh, it wasn't necessarily a good thing to have a captain who knew her so well, Tong Yao thought. He could take any opportunity to give her a lecture and wouldn't give her a chance at fighting back.