It was midnight when they arrived at Xiamen. After checking into the hotel and getting their room keys, everyone went to their assigned rooms to go sleep. Tong Yao, after washing up, exchanged a few words with Lu Sicheng on WeChat, then she fell asleep with her phone still in hand.
The last sentence Lu Sicheng said to her was to go and lock her door. Little Fatty happened to pass by behind Lu Sicheng while drying his hair after showering. Little Fatty stretched his head to take a look at the chat between Lu Sicheng and Tong Yao and asked: "Locking the door to keep thieves out or you out?"
"..." Lu Sicheng put down the cell phone and turned to look at his support who was getting into his bed: "Are you done yet?"
"I just couldn't get over the scene I saw today at the airport. I can only vent my frustration on you." Little Fatty pulled up the blanket to cover him and stared at the ceiling: "I treat Tong Yao as a teammate and you only want to get her pregnant."
Lu Sicheng: "..."
Little Fatty turned over: "Cheng Ge, Tong Yao is a very nice girl."
Lu Sicheng raised his eyebrows.
Little Fatty used one hand to support his head: "Look at Yang god, look at Ah Guang, look at Li Huanshuo…...They're all eyeing our mid. They don't even bother to go to mid lane to gank her during matches. If you ever act like a jerk to her, the junglers from half of the major league's 12 teams would station at our bot lane from now on-- --It's alright for you for you've brought it onto yourself but don't forget that I'm also at bot, that would be losing two lives! ! !"
Lu Sicheng sneered and also got ready to go under the blanket on his bed: "What exactly are you trying to say?"
Little Fatty sighed: "You have many competitors, don't keep thinking about your image just because you feel you're an idol."
Lu Sicheng stopped half way into the blanket: "I'm not thinking of my image. The day when we're together, I wanted to announce to the world that I've found someone to be my queen, but she wouldn't let me."
"Why not?"
"At first, I thought maybe it was better to keep it under wraps so as not to affect her performance. Later on I found that her ability is already well recognized. Nowadays if someone comes out saying she isn't good enough or this and that, then that person would be slapping their own face-- --The team has an all win record at the group phase of the competition. And you can ask yourself when did we have a team with a solid three-man core ever since ZGDX was formed-- --I was figuring how to make this thing public then there came that incident with Ai Jia and his girlfriend. It created such a storm that my fans even posted some comments on Tieba and she happened to see them." Lu Sicheng thought about it and frustratedly said: "Now she keeps saying that if I declare that I'm with her, I won't have any fans anymore."
Little Fatty covered himself under the blanket to muffle his laughter, making sounds like he was farting.
He happily touched his face: "Young girls like to worry for nothing."
"Yeah." Lu Sicheng gave Little Fatty a glance with a stone face: "How's your face wash?"
"You even get jealous about the face wash, what a jealous guy." Little Fatty laughed with great satisfaction until he had enough fun with it: "What exactly do you like about her? Don't give me those superficial things like on the marriage oath-- --To tell the truth, Tong Yao's looks are pretty ordinary-- --compared to those pretty fangirls of yours."
Lu Sicheng turned off the light.
The room became dark.
After a long while, Little Fatty heard the person in the next bed turn over and heard his low and slightly sleepy voice-- --
"She's quite a strong player."
Little Fatty: "Nonsense."
"She's cute when she cries."
Little Fatty: "Pervert."
"..."
Little Fatty: "Anything else?"
"Yes."
Little Fatty: "What?"
"The spark of love comes from nowhere, but the feelings get deeper and deeper."[1]
Little Fatty: "........"
Little Fatty: "This one is good, quite fancy."
[1]: A famous quote from a popular traditional Chinese opera (kunqu). The piece is called Mu Dan Tin or Peony Pavilion.
The next day, the other teams participating in the competition also arrived at Xiamen one after another. Early in the morning, Xiao Rui went out to arrange skirmishes for the B team for the next few days. The players from both the A and B teams were led by their coaches to an internet cafe near the hotel to do some training matches.
Just like at the base, the A team players would sit behind the B team players during the match and tell the B team kids better ways to handle the situation, or when to cast abilities, or when to hold their position, or when to move up.
-- --The B team at the moment was playing a skirmish with a team called RMB, which was a junior league team. It wasn't too difficult for ZGDX's B team to handle RMB since they were one of the strongest teams in the junior league and very likely to move up to the major league this year...
Besides, RMB was ranked a second tiered team even in the junior league.
"The other side has put a ward at red buff. Their jungler was at top a few dozen seconds ago. If he wants to go to bot, he would go get the buff first. You should place a ward so you don't get caught unaware."
-- --It was Little Fatty's voice and Alkaid responded with mhm, mhm.
"Is bot about to reach level 6? Check your farm, check the mini map; if your teammate ad is leading in farm then you need to calculate the right moment, don't wait till your teammate calls you then teleport to support him. Look for the correct timing on your own. If your team's ad is under pressure, then you should prevent the other side's top from teleporting before you..."
-- --It was Old Cat's voice and B team's top silently nodded.
"Don't bother looking at it. Stay safe at bot. Your opponent is Speed Star and he has Jinx. You're no match for him."
-- --It was Lu Sicheng's flat voice. Dubhe didn't respond at all, only the sound of him clicking on the mouse became louder.
Tong Yao: "..."
Tong Yao turned her head to take a glance at the pair of ads who didn't get along, then turned back to reach over to click the keyboard of the person in front of her. She took a look at the stats amid the protest of the person in front. The game had started for ten minutes now and bot was truly behind, over 20 minions. Bot was in bad shape.
Tong Yao jabbed the back of the person in front: "Who's Speedy Star? How come your brother knows so much about the ad of a second tiered team in the junior league?"
Lu Yue replied after a short silence: "You don't have anything more technical other than gossip to say to me?"
Tong Yao: "I do."
Lu Yue: "What?"
Tong Yao: "The opponent's mid obviously is afraid of you and you're so timid as well. Are the two of you prepared to stay put under each of your turrets and never cross the river? There's no lane phase in mid lane in this match. I've watched for ten minutes and don't even know what skin the other side's Leblanc is using today. You two are really something, playing the game like this."
Lu Yue: "...Speedy Star isn't some third rate ad. A couple years ago when my brother just came back to the league, Speedy Star was the first ad of team CK and very strong, really strong, especially when he's using Jinx and Ashe. He is particularly good at using their ultimates. At that time, he was at least on a par with my brother."
Tong Yao widened her eyes: "Yi yi yi yi yi?"
Lu Yue handled his champion to walk out of the turret towards the other side and the other side's mid appeared: "See, it's the Elderwood skin, see it? Now that you've seen it, don't force me to come out or I'll go back to being timid. To develop steadily is halfway to winning the game-- --Back to gossip-- --Later on, CK didn't do well at the world tournament that year and Speedy Star was the one who took the blame. He died seconds into the team fight, messed up his team's positioning, stayed put in lane and couldn't fight against anyone. The audience at home was very disappointed at him. Tieba at the time almost exploded."
"How so?"
"Everyone was making an uproar to tell him to come back and stop shaming the country. Some told him to swim back, that he wasn't worth the price of the airline ticket." Lu Yue frowned while remembering: "Some cursed the airplane hoping it'd crash. Anyway, he was trashed pretty badly-- --After the team came back, CK couldn't take the pressure and switched Butterfly, the current ad, as its first ad for the Spring season next year. The original idea was just to let Speedy Star lie low for the moment. But he couldn't take it and switched to a club in the minor league..."
"...What's his reason?"
"Striving for vindication, he wanted to lead a junior team and fight its way back to the major league by himself and like giving a hard slap to those trolls."
"...And the result?"
"The result is that even you, as a professional player, don't know who Speedy Star is."
"..."
"It's quite common. And not necessarily for vindication. Sometimes it's because a player refused to take defeat or for more money that he would willingly move down to the junior league and always thought that since he's such a good player, he would fight back to the major league one day..."
When the next wave of friendly minions arrived, Lu Yue confirmed that the opponent's jungler was at top and followed the minions across the river. Then he made a turn to go to bot lane and used Azir's ultimate to catch the enemy's support before he could retreat-- --He was aiming at blocking both the bot and support, but Speedy Star was indeed a good player and escaped Azir's ultimate. Lu Yue hit the support twice then let Dubhe kill him.
Then Lu Yue went into the bush to go back.
"Those people basically faded away from the stage at the peak of their careers just like that." Lu Yue said: "Quite helplessly, but there's disparity between the major and the junior leagues, in terms of the players' abilities, the morale of the team..."
Tong Yao nodded though didn't fully understand.
She raised her head, somewhat worriedly to take a glance at Dubhe sitting next to Lu Yue-- --
Dubhe looked calm, his eyes fixed on the game. After he had one kill, his gold was barely even with Speedy Star. It became less stressful for him in lane and was now able to play less defensively.
Tong Yao took her eyes off Dubhe, leaned forwards onto the back of the chair, and lowered her voice as she asked Lu Yue: "Who were you saying those things to?"
Lu Yue abruptly stopped clicking the mouse for a second. He turned to take a look at Tong Yao, with a faint smile, then gave a seemingly irrelevant answer: "Dubhe is pretty strong. I just don't know whether he can hold on long enough like Butterfly in CK."
Tong Yao nodded: "Oh." Then she realized something was off: "...You're cursing your brother to retire?"
"He's old, though still strong. But in the eyes of young people like us, he's still a bit like an eyesore, an old man, asocial."
Tong Yao lifted her hand and mercilessly pushed down on Lu Yue's head.
...
The B team, as expected, won the skirmish. The expressions on the faces of those young players were quite different than the day before.
After the skirmish, it was time for debriefing and team training in ranked matches. Tong Yao took a look at Lu Sicheng and found he was talking to Dubhe with a writing tablet full of notes. Dubhe was looking dowards, playing with his fingers. Tong Yao couldn't tell whether Dubhe was listening to Lu Sicheng or not-- --
It looked like Lu Sicheng had a lot to say to Dubhe.
Tong Yao took out her cell phone to send a WeChat message to Lu Sicheng [Babe is hungry], then put her cell phone away. While all the other players were discussing the recently finished match, Tong Yao turned without much expression to face Lu Yue quite awkwardly. Lu Yue also didn't have much of an expression on his face and said: "We have different styles. Don't try to force it. You know I won't listen no matter what you say, right?"
"That's exactly what I have in mind, Mr. Substitute." Tong Yao flipped her hair: "Best of luck winning the competition. You'll have to share my glory for winning the summer season, as for the championship cup for the Demacia Cup, you'll have to take that home on your own."
Lu Yue looked at her for a while then suddenly chuckled and gently shoved Tong Yao before getting back to his ranked match.
Tong Yao put both of her hands in her pockets and walked around the internet cafe. She took a look at Lu Sicheng who was still nagged at Dubhe. Tong Yao was amazed that Lu Sicheng could have so many things to talk about. Especially since the words Lu Sicheng said to her in a day were much less than what he had said in the last ten minutes. She turned to sit on the couch and started checking to see whether there was anything good to eat around here...
Someone came over to look for her after a little while...
It was Little Fatty.
Tong Yao was a bit nervous when she saw that it was Little Fatty in front of her. She was afraid that Little Fatty would say something like "you two are dating but don't hamper Cheng Ge's training" "Everyone has high hopes for going to the world tournament, we can't drop the ball halfway just because of you two". She was kind of apprehensive about everything to begin with. Those words would probably make her even more anxious... To be honest, Tong Yao really hoped that her teammates would at least support her.
Tong Yao was quite uneasy following Little Fatty out of the internet cafe. All she could think of was things like "Little Fatty didn't disapprove yesterday" "it doesn't look like he feels it's something bad" "could it be that he's pretending" "damn, I thought he didn't have any objections to it, ahhhhhh"-- --
The two stood outside the internet cafe and Tong Yao was already prepared to face a storm. She didn't expect Little Fatty to take out his cell phone and hand it to Tong Yao while nudging her with his elbow: "Listen to this."
Tong Yao took a glance at him baffled, then played the audio clip Little Fatty had pulled out on his phone-- --
[What exactly do you like about her? Don't give me those superficial things like on the marriage oath-- --To tell the truth, Tong Yao's looks are pretty ordinary-- --compared to those pretty fangirls of yours.]
It sounded like Little Fatty's voice amid a rustling background noise.
Tong Yao was taken by surprise and looked up at Little Fatty. Little Fatty was grinning from ear to ear and pointed at the phone, gesturing for Tong Yao to keep listening: "It's quite something, listen on."
Tong Yao: "..."
[She's quite a strong player.]
When she heard Lu Sicheng's voice, Tong Yao blushed.
[She's cute when she cries.]
Tong Yao felt like she was going to suffocate. What was he doing telling all these things to Little Fatty, ahhh.
In the recording, Little Fatty pushed on: "Anything else?" Lu Sicheng was quiet for a moment. As Tong Yao thought the clip had ended, she heard Lu Sicheng's low and slow voice-- --
[The spark of love comes from nowhere, but the feelings get deeper and deeper.]
Tong Yao: "......"
With the cell phone in hand, Tong Yao's face turned to the color of tomatoes and looked at Little Fatty at a loss of what to say or do. Little Fatty, holding onto the railing on the sidewalk, guffawed while pounding his chest and stomped his foot. "Hahahahahahahahahaha," he asked Tong Yao: "Isn't your man quite something?" Tong Yao couldn't reply as if her tongue was tied in a knot. She hastily stuffed the cell phone into her own pocket, only to remember a few seconds later that it was Little Fatty's phone. She took the phone out to return to Little Fatty with a red face-- --
"You want me to send you a copy, ha." Little Fatty was laughing so hard that his eyes disappeared.
At the very moment, the door to the internet cafe was pulled open from inside. Their captain came out with his usual stone face and asked: "Want to get something to eat?" After he stood in front of his support and mid, he sensed that there was something going on. He looked down and saw Tong Yao holding Little Fatty's phone in hand. He raised his eyebrows to ask: "What are you two talking about?"
Just as he finished, Tong Yao, like a bird flopping its wings to stagger forward, threw herself into his arms.
Lu Sicheng lifted both of his arms to accept the unexpected embrace, but lowered his head in confusion to look at the person in his arms. Tong Yao lifted her reddish face to look back at him: "Let's eat, let's eat. I'm famished. It took long enough for you to come out."
"?"
Lu Sicheng stroked her head.
He still felt that there was something not quite right and looked up at Little Fatty, warning him with a serious attitude: "You stay away from her, always coming up with weird ideas."
Little Fatty collected himself and stood straight: "Oh."
Little Fatty took his warning, too bad it was too late. In his mind, all he was thinking was: hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.