Chapter 31 Part 1

Tong Yao skimmed through more than twenty thousand comments

under the post, covering a wide range of opinions.

Some were directing their anger at Lu Yue-- --

[What's the meaning of this? Damn, I thought Ming god's hand injury

was from playing too much. Even the official site didn't give us a clear

explanation. Now you're telling us it was from a brawl…...Now the only

thing I want to say is to Lu Yue, please go die ten thousand times.]

[A gang of Ming god's fans are on the way here, it looks like they're

going to crash the ZGDX base.]

[I won't accept Lu Yue rejoining ZGDX.]

[Lu Yue always looked evil to me. Hehe, you guys always say that he

looks like Lu Sicheng. At the beginning of this video when he showed his

face, I already knew he wasn't Lu Sicheng. I'm not even Lu Sicheng's fan.]

[Last season the league announced that Lu Yue would be banned from

competing for a season because his involvement in a fight. No specifics

were reported…...What the hell of a fight, so it was because of this?]

[I heard that the Lu family is wealthy and well connected, so the news

was suppressed at the time.]

...

Some weren't that angry, but questioned the motive of OP after they

calmed down-- --

[Wait, why did OP disappear after posting the video? What's the reason

for the brawl? It doesn't make sense that Lu Yue would barge into the

room and hit someone whose team had already been downgraded.

What's the reason?]

[The last comment makes a lot of sense. It's better for ZGDX fans to

slow down before turning onto its own teammates. For now, I want to

know the reason more than anything else...]

[I remember that JK had a new boss after being downgraded last year.

The team was established by someone from a rich family who plays good

games. It was attached under CK. So the people involved in this incident

all have some background. The incident was concealed from the public

so well; there was no news about this, not even a single leak.]

...

Some put their focus on Ming god-- --

[qaq our Yu Ming's wrist. God, I cried out in class…...Why was he trying

to break up the fight, idiot! ! !]

[I feel so sorry for him. I don't feel good seeing all the blood.]

[Hope Ming god is alright now. How he suffered away from public sight.

I totally can't accept it whenever I think about this.]

...

There were other sentimental or abusive comments. Most of the

emotional comments overshadowed the few that asked for the truth

from the OP...

The one that caught Tong Yao's eye was a suggestion by someone who

had a vivid imagination that the video was posted by Smiling. Though

she looked quite naive and sweet, she was actually quite cunning. Maybe

it was because she was afraid that Lu Yue would take her place in the

summer season, so she put this video up just at the right moment…..

Tong Yao used her own Tieba username to reply to him: "Well said, big

brother. It really is women who have the most poisonous hearts." Then

she backed out of Tieba to look at her WeChat which was practically

overflowing-- --Many people sent her private messages asking her what

was going on. Tong Yao replied: "How the hell do I know." She got

overwhelmed by all the same questions, in the end she started to copy

and paste the same reply one by one.

Tong Yao knelt on her bed, it took her more than a half hour to finish

reading all the messages…...Then someone casually knocked on her

door and pushed it open. Her captain stood behind the ajar door,

"Get up, meeting time."

His voice was icy cold.

Tong Yao obediently put down her cell phone, got off the bed, and

was going to follow him downstairs. When she put her hand on the

door handle trying to open the door wider for her to go out, a big hand

stretched out behind the door to put on her head, pushing her back into

the room. "Wash your face, put on a jacket."

Startled, Tong Yao realized that after being shaken up by the stunning

news, she hadn't washed her face or combed her hair since she got up.

She was still wearing her sleeping gown…...Blushed, she swatted away

the big hand on her forehead and muttered, "Got it."

Then she shut the door.

Tong Yao turned around to go into the bathroom. She could faintly hear

Lu Sicheng knocking on doors one after another. When she turned on

the faucet and squeezed out the toothpaste, she could hear someone

moving around next door. She noticed that the room had poor sound

insulation, so she turned off the faucet and heard Lu Sicheng's baritone

voice. He was asking someone-- --

"What exactly happened back then?"

It was silent for a while next door. With a toothbrush in her mouth, she

almost flattened herself onto the bathroom wall so she could vaguely

hear the other person's reply-- --

"Ah Yue won't let me say it. He'll get angry if I tell you…...Go ask him

yourself, you're the only one who can rein in him anyway."

She was surprised to find out that the one who was speaking was

Ming god-- --There was no anger or resentment in his voice, nor any

sense of gratification that the truth had finally came out. He sounded

very peaceful, or perhaps even a bit helpless.

Tong Yao: "..."

Tong Yao moved her head away from the wall, then she fixed her eyes

on the crack on the tiles for a long time-- --Suddenly, she felt that the

whole thing wasn't as simple as they thought. The so called truth at the time...

Probably, not even the OP who posted the video knew the exact truth

of the matter.

It took a while to get a grip of herself, then she quickly brushed her teeth,

washed her face, grabbed a shirt to wear, and hurried downstairs.

Almost everyone was there by the time she arrived.

-- --Everyone meant "everyone she can think of." In addition to all the

players, team manager, and others she usually saw, there were many

people from the other departments that she had never met. There was

a woman who raised her head to smile at Tong Yao. She introduced

herself as the official Weibo site moderator, who was responsible for

posting official announcements and replying to all the messages...

"The official site is overflooded." She carefully took a glance at Lu Sicheng,

then continued in a small voice, "They're all asking for an explanation.

What should we do now? This time we won't be able get by from just

ignoring them..."

Just when she finished, Lu Yue, who was curled up and eating rice

crackers at the corner on the couch, raised his eyes to take a look at

Ming god. Ming god wasn't looking at him…...Lu Yue picked up his cell

phone to check what was being said about the whole thing. Before he

could raise his arm, the woman pressed the cell phone down. "Lu Yue,

don't look, there are no good words there."

Lu Yue put down the phone with a dark face.

Lu Sicheng kicked him. "Regret it now? I told you before that a professional

player is a public figure. It's not like you're in school anymore, you have to

watch your language and behavior so you don't hurt others and yourself."

Lu Yue, with rice cracker in his mouth, raised both hands to cover his

ears with no expression.

Lu Sicheng kicked him again.

The team manager, Xiao Rui, had kept quiet with a darkened face

up till now, "First of all, this incident is aimed at Lu Yue. He just came

back to the club after the ban lifted and someone put the video online.

Obviously, someone is trying to use public opinion to prevent him from

coming back..."

Xiao Rui continued after a short pause, "Only our people have this video

clip. Do you know why we kept this video a closely guarded secret back

then? Because the number of people who had viewed the video at the

time were less than 20, along with KTV staff and the police. The security

at KTV and the police were all middle-aged. In their eyes, this incident had

nothing to do with esports, just a bunch of young men brawling. The rest

are people from our club and JK-- --People from JK definitely wouldn't want

this video publicized. From a public relations perspective, there's no benefit

for JK to show the video in public. That was what we agreed on, to suppress

the incident from going public; they were even more eager than us to do so."

Tong Yao: "Why? Wasn't Lu Yue the one who hit them first?"

Lu Sicheng: "But they also fought back."

Tong Yao: "Justifiable self-defense?"

Lu Sicheng: "That's not how self-defense works. Have you seen the video?

Those people, in the beginning, tried to subdue Lu Yue; they pushed him

down and struggled to take his weapon away. That was justifiable self-defense.

But later on, they turned around and beat him up, that was assault-- --"

Lu Sicheng took a glance at Lu Yue. "If you ask me, he deserved it."

Lu Yue indifferently twitched his lips and turned his head away.

Xiao Rui gestured Lu Sicheng to stop and flatly said, "Thus one of our own

people did this. I don't know who, but I hope you'll confess. Then we can

discuss and try to solve it internally-- --Now rumors are flying out there,

everyone is in the teeth of the storm. If we can't stand together as a group,

then it'll turn into a big problem for us."

Right after Xiao Rui finished, Little Fatty rubbed his tummy then said with a

stone face, "I released the video."

Everyone was quiet.

Tong Yao silently touched her chin. She didn't expect Little Fatty to admit it

so fast and it was still a surprise to her that it actually was Little Fatty who

put the video up-- --

"Why was there a fight? Why drag Ming god down? Why drag the whole

team down?"

Little Fatty frowned and showed a scornful look in his eyes for the first time.

"It was so cool to knock a bottle on someone, wasn't it? Hehe, I used to fight

against ten people in front of my high school, it was cool, too. Yet, I stopped

doing that later on. Why? Because I know I'm a professional player now, I

have my teammates, my bosses, the club and the whole esports circle

behind me..."

Little Fatty breathed out a long breath. "In terms of the small picture, with this

one action of yours, Ming god's professional career came to an end. The

whole team wasted a whole year of hard work backing out of the world finals.

In terms of the bigger picture, how would society view the esports business

as a profession now? Internet addicted teenagers, goofing around, no future

in playing games-- --I hear these comments year after year. I'm tired of them

but I still can't raise my head to refute them. You explain to a hundred people

that we aren't like that, but turn around, there's one jackass teammate who can

be used as proof to tens of thousands of people: You're all correct. We're a bunch

of good-for-nothing just like you've said."

Little Fatty stood up. "I know it's quite boring to talk about all this. But this is

what I'm thinking-- --I'm annoyed. What I'm doing isn't something that I should

be ashamed of. But why can't I walk with my head held high?"

No one said anything after Little Fatty finished.

Lu Yue looked at Little Fatty, without anger, and no one could tell what he was

thinking from his face…...Lu Sicheng lightly commented, "too impulsive." Xiao Rui

kept sighing, "You young kids-- --"

Ming god furrowed his brows and called Lu Yue.

Lu Yue raised his head to take look at him.