CHAPTER 44
Tong Yao's face was the color of persimmons dangling in the autumn
wind, turning white, then blue, then red. She was silent for a while, then
ask in horrific confusion: "What do you mean? Are you proposing to me?"
Lu Sicheng: "..."
Tong Yao: "..."
Lu Sicheng: "Is there something wrong with your head? I'm asking whether
you're trying to swindle…...Nevermind, I'm mocking you."
"..." Tong Yao slowing widened her eyes: "What's that about swindling
betrothal gifts? You better talk nicely. I'm a person with an 800,000 annual
salary! Who cares about the meager betrothal gifts!"
Lu Sicheng sneered and lifted the blanket to check the bed without paying
any more attention to her.
Tong Yao stopped talking and asked: "What are you looking at?"
"I'm checking to see if you dirtied my-- --"
Before Lu Sicheng finished his sentence, Tong Yao suddenly jumped up
and spread her body over his bed. The man was caught off guard and fell
onto his back. He raised his head in irritation to see Tong Yao nervously
staring at him with her body on top of the blanket: "Don't look! If it's dirty,
I'll wash it for you! Don't look!"
Lu Sicheng wasn't originally serious about checking the bed. But seeing
her so nervous about it amused him. He curled the edges of his lips: "Then,
where do I sleep tonight?"
"..." Tong Yao pointed to Little Fatty's bed.
Lu Sicheng took a glance: "His bed is too soft, it'll hurt my back."
Tong Yao's lips twitched and she almost jumped up to strangle this difficult
person. She slowly got up from the bed and went under the blanket to feel
around to see if there were any signs of a wet spot. As she was busy, she
heard Lu Sicheng lazily speak over the blanket: "Why can't you be more
prudent when you do things? Tell me, how many times have I taken the
blame for you..."
"Yes, yes, yes, long live Captain the great. I'll be working my tail off for you
in the next life…...move your leg, let me see that side."
As she was talking, she lifted one of Lu Sicheng's leg from under the blanket.
Right at this moment, the door was pushed open from the outside. Little Fatty's
voice came into the room-- --
"Cheng Ge, Xiao Rui asked me to come up and ask you two whether you want
to eat some of the har how[1] that we brought back..."
Little Fatty's voice vanished when he saw Lu Sicheng with one leg raised high
up and someone was under the blanket, seemingly knelt between his two legs.
He was silent for a moment-- --
Then the door slammed shut.
Inside the room, Lu Sicheng calmingly raised his eyebrows.
Under the blanket, Tong Yao dropped Lu Sicheng's leg and lifted the blanket
off of her head: "The bed isn't dirty…...Who was that? Little Fatty? Why did he
go back out? har gow? I want to eat har gow!"
Lu Sicheng bent his legs and smiled while taking his time to say: "Let's go."
Tong Yao jumped down from the bed and used her hand to tidy up her hair.
She turned to see Lu Sicheng slowly getting up and asked him hesitantly: "Do
you want to change? You were probably sweating a lot earlier? Be careful not
to catch a cold."
Lu Sicheng glanced at her but didn't say anything.
Five minutes later, Tong Yao, dressed casually, and Lu Sicheng, now in a
clean T shirt, walked downstairs one after another.
Seeing everyone sitting downstairs staring at her, Tong Yao scratched her
head and figured that she probably wouldn't able to get this thing behind her
if she didn't offer some sort of explanation…...She embarrassingly said: "It's
so embarrassing. I was just watching Cheng Ge take his pills and waiting to
get him a new towel, but I somehow felt asleep leaning against the bed. After
I fell asleep, I felt cold and grabbed around for blanket in a daze and then, I
squeezed in with Cheng Ge on his bed…...ur, sorry, did I scare you all? Actually,
I even scared myself."
"It's alright, it's alright."
"It's normal, it's normal."
"Ah, you just can't stand the cold. It's cold today. It's normal for a girl to be
afraid of the cold."
"Have you eaten dinner? Come eat some har gow; it's pretty good and we
especially bought it for you two..."
Everyone went along with her explanation, though none of them meant what
they said.
Tong Yao realized that it was better not to say anything further, so she stopped
talking and sat down next to the dinner table. She felt that she needed food to
help her get over her shock-- --She was telling the truth just now. She wasn't just
shocked, it felt like her senses, which had been frightened out of her body, hadn't
returned yet.
She opened the take out box and found the har gow was still warm. She hurriedly
separated the chopsticks and picked up one to send to her mouth. She saw through
the corner of her eyes that Lu Sicheng had walked over to the sofa and sat down.
He took the yogurt drink which Lu Yue had just put the straw in and sipped a couple
of mouthfuls.
Little Fatty cleared his throat: "So, are you two…...all done?"
The surrounding became dead silent all of a sudden.
Tong Yao with a har gow in between her lips: "?"
Lu Sicheng quietly glanced over the people around him who were all silently looking
at him. He figured that when Little Fatty came downstairs the second time, he must
have said something to the others. He ridiculed sarcastically: "So I lasted only 15 minutes?"
The atmosphere around suddenly relaxed. No one said anything to challenge him, it
looked like they all took a sigh of relief.
With a second har gow in her mouth, Tong Yao: "? ?"
Lu Sicheng: "Is it good?"
Tong Yao nodded.
Lu Sicheng: "Oh, then eat some more."
Tong Yao swallowed the food in her mouth, still oblivious about what was going on.
...
The next day, Tong Yao was sitting on her chair counting the competition matches
this week. Yesterday, which was Thursday, afternoon, they played the opening match.
There was no game on Friday or Saturday. On Sunday afternoon, at three o'clock,
ZGDX would be back for the round robin in their own group and met their first opponent
in the group: King.
During the spring tournament, King moved from the junior league into the major league
by coming back from a major disadvantage to win the last match in the finals and became
one of the 12 major league teams.
King's mid was a Korean, his id was Ramen. He was hired by the Chinese team as one
of top Master players on the Korean server. Tong Yao had been on the same team as
him when she was playing ranked games. He was skilled, but Tong Yao had never
played against him. She didn't quite understand him.
"Ming god, do you have the video of King's final match at the spring tournament?"
"Yes, I do. You want to see it?"
"Yes, I want to watch Ramen."
"Oh, ok." Ming god took a look at the instant noodles he was eating: "I'll send it
over to you in a little while."
Tong Yao sat back down on her chair. Lu Sicheng happened to pass by behind her
and heard her conversation with Ming god. He snidely remarked: "It's better to use
your time to count your stream hours rather than the days till your match against that
newly promoted team-- --It's almost the end of the month. It's the time that everyone
else is streaming like there's no tomorrow. Why are you the only one who has such
an easy time?"
"What if they are a newly promoted team? You looking down upon a newly
promoted team?"
"At least I won't count on my fingers to see when the match against them will be."
"..."
Tong Yao puffed up her cheeks and refused to continue bickering-- --After she woke
up this morning, she felt somewhat uneasy between her and Lu Sicheng. Probably
because she had laid on the same bed with him last night...
It seemed that she had lost her equal footing with him since last night. She was
annoyed by that feeling.
Tong Yao looked around at the other teammates at the base. Everyone, except Lu
Sicheng who was used to receiving deducted pay, was desperately trying to make
up stream time for this month-- --
No wonder Little Fatty was very polite when he played ranked games.
Old K and Old Cat also played duos so harmoniously today.
Tong Yao: "....I shouldn't have too many hours to fill. I didn't sign the contract from
the beginning of the month, Rui Ge said I will have discounted hours for this month."
As she was mumbling, she opened her notebook on her computer and casually
counted her stream hours for this month. Then she pulled out her cell phone to
calculate-- --After finishing the calculation, she stopped mumbling and fixed her
eyes on the number 42 on her cell phone.
She recalculated it once again.
The number was still 42.
Lu Sicheng, sitting next to her, sipped some coffee and spoke with his still hoarse
voice, though his eyes never left his computer screen: "Are you done counting?
Welcome to hell."
Tong Yao: ".............................."
It was May 27th today.
There were only 5 days left till the end of the month.
In other words, before June, Tong Yao had to stream at least 8 hours a day
everyday to avoid getting a pay deduction...
Moreover, what would others think if she got pay deduction the very first month
working as a professional player?
Tong Yao sighed deeply and reluctantly turned on the stream. She was planning
to stream while playing ranked games…...Within ten minutes, her stream room
became lively. Many fans who knew her situation even more clearly than herself
started to send comments-- --
[It's the end of the month.]
[I was just figuring out when you were going to give in....]
[hhhhhhhh so annoying. The whole ZGDX team is streaming. Which one should I
watch? It's not enough just having two computers!]
[Wife, I miss you so much, ahahahahah!]
[It was a good game when you beat CK at the opening match. I saw many skillful
maneuvers from you.]
Tong Yao read the bullet comments and made some modest yet insincere
replies. From the corner of her eyes she noticed the mocking smile on the
lips of the man next to her was getting wider and wider. She took a deep
breath and logged onto the game and began waiting in queue-- --
She got into a match in no time.
Tong Yao, with her higher rank, had the right to ban a champion first. As
she was pondering which champion she should ban first, she saw Lu Sicheng
click open his friend list while holding a coffee mug with the other hand. He
took a look…...then turned his head to give Tong Yao a meaningful look and
slowly said: "Ah Tai is on the team opposite of you."
Tong Yao's hand jerked and banned a champion which was hardly used by
any player.
Her teammates sent a "?" on the public channel. Tong Yao hurriedly apologized
saying that her finger slipped and had banned the wrong champion.
Lu Sicheng: "There's really no comparison to your psychological makeup."
Tong Yao: "..."
After the game started, Tong Yao chose Ekko as her champion. The opposite
side chose Fizz and kept suppressing her ability to farm. In less than 5 minutes,
Fizz had 15 more minions than Ekko. Tong Yao was struggling…...it was then that
she stopped paying attention to her other teammates and all the bullet comments,
concentrating only on playing her game. When she was finally about to reach level 6,
Fizz had already reached 6 and cast his ultimate on Ekko. Ekko's health rapidly
dropped, Tong Yao moved Ekko around, ready to run-- --
"One more minion, you'll be level 6 and get your ultimate. Your jungler is also on his way.
You can still fight, what's there to panic about?"
She heard the clam voice of the man next to her. Tong Yao hastily killed one minion and
in an instant reached level 6. She used her ability to stun Fizz, then slashed him a couple
times. Before the stun was over, she quickly cast her ultimate while keeping her distance.
Her jungler arrived at the same moment and they easily killed Fizz!
As the game was playing the kill notification and sound effect, Tong Yao was standing at
the foot of her turret, somewhat stupefied. She let out a long breath only after she saw a
string of bullet comments saying "66666666666"[1] "The hand speed of someone being
single for 20 years" "Wife, you're great. 66666." She picked up the cup at front of her,
wanting to sip some black sugar water to calm her nerves, and discovered that her hand
was shaking.
…...It was just a ranked game.
Lu Sicheng was now leaning on the back of Tong Yao's chair. He noticed her tremors
and used his calm but authoritative voice to give her a lecture, like a father to a daughter:
"What's the matter. Do you only know how to run away when pressured by the enemy?
Why aren't you checking your teammates' position and your own stats? A Silver level
player. Has Ah Tai eaten a person in front of your face or what? Why are you so scared
of him..."
Tong Yao: "You, shut up. Don't push me."
Hearing Tong Yao talk back to Cheng Ge this way, the "6"s on the bullet comments
increased rapidly.
Lu Sicheng paused.
Then he flatly said after long moment of silence: "I have to say that I miss the way
you were shivering and couldn't utter a word while on the bed."
Then he left.
Tong Yao choked and spat the sugar water in her mouth back into the cup.
The "66666" on the bullet comment was now replaced by "? ? ? ?"-- --
The question marks were so packed on the screen that Tong Yao couldn't even see
her own cursor.