CHAPTER 56

Tong Yao found herself unable to answer. After staring at the cell phone screen for a while, she resolutely turned off her phone…...The interlude between matches was almost up. Lu Sicheng walked into the rest area with a big bouquet of brightly blooming flowers in his hand. Tong Yao turned to see him giving the bouquet to his support the moment he entered.

There was a photographer constantly shooting pictures right behind them.

Little Fatty was moved almost to tears: "I play support for you for two years, working my butt off as your nanny, finally today comes-- --Come, come, Mr. Photographer, give me a close up shot. At this sacred moment, I have to loudly respond to Cheng Ge: I don't want to screw you."

Lu Sicheng gave him a glance, sneered, then closed the door behind him.

Silence returned to the room as the door closed. Old Cat was holding a cup of coffee, swirling it from side to side. He paused to check the flowers in Little Fatty's arm. It was delicately wrapped with a variety of fancy flowers. It looked like a very expensive bouquet…... "Who gave you the flowers? Fans? That fan who was just backstage?"

Lu Yue raised his eyebrows: "It's his fiancee."

The entire room became deathly quiet.

Old Cat: "? ? ? ?"

Old K: "You have a fiancée? !"

Little Fatty: "What about our Tong Yao? You guys shared the same bed and that's it?"

Tong Yao: "What?"

Old Cat turned around to look at Tong Yao with sympathy: "I hear raindrops falling on the green, green grass."

Old K: "I hear the bell of derailment[1] in the distance."

Old Cat: "But I haven't heard your voice."

Old K: "Be serious, say sorry."

Old Cat: "I was wondering why the water was so green[2] when I was washing my hands at the first floor back at the base, it was Tong Yao washing her hair upstairs."

Tong Yao: "Get lost."

"That's enough, guys." Lu Sicheng grabbed the notebook in Ming god's hand and slapped it on Lu Yue's head: "Fiancee? You can really spin a story."

Old Cat: "We all understand. Why are you reacting so calmly, are you secretly enjoying all this? Why don't you tell us you have a girlfriend? Do you still consider us your teammates? We can't trust you to back us up in the game now..."

The entire team was very excited about the news, probably because most of them, like Tong Yao, didn't think Lu Sicheng was capable of falling in love with another human being.

Lu Sicheng was about to say: "How can I get a girlfriend hanging around with you guys every single day." But before he could say it, the door abruptly pushed open from outside-- --It was Li Hengshuo, with a takeout box from Starbucks in hand with two pieces of cake inside. Lu Sicheng had to swallow what he was about to say since he knew Li Hengshuo understand quite a bit of Chinese.

It seemed the Huawei jungler had run to get here. He was short of breath and greeted everyone inside the rest area. Then he walked directly to Tong Yao and put down the box: "These are good. They're yours."

He thought for a moment then added: "It's not good to your body if you get hungry after the game."

Tong Yao: "......Er, thanks."

Tong Yao then turned to look at Lu Sicheng. Lu Sicheng looked at the box, then Tong Yao, then said to Li Hengshuo in Korean: "Hey, brat, what are you up to? I can forgive you for bursting into another team's rest area, but are you trying to court my woman as well?"

"I'm just delivering some food so she won't get hungry. What kind of courting is that? You haven't seen me courting women. I can pluck the stars from the sky for them!"

Lu Sicheng didn't disguise his feelings this time, rolled his eyes and raised his fist as if he was going to hit the young jungler. Li Hengshuo squeaked, turned to Tong Yao and emphasized: "Enjoy it. It took me quite a lot of effort to get them." Then he turned to scurry out of the room-- --

He had left behind a room full of confused players and staff.

[1]:(chu gui), normally means derailing, but it figuratively can mean an extramarital affair

[2]:(dai lu mao), means literally wearing a green hat, but can also mean a wife's cheated on a man. It's rarely used to describe the women being cheated on, as it is in this case.

Little Fatty: "What's going on here? He didn't ask us for our WeChat earlier because he

already has them, but today he didn't give everyone of us a piece of cake!"

Old Cat: "It's so obvious that you don't even have to use your imagination."

Tong Yao put the box aside and stood up. She was about to say something when Xiao Rui

entered: "It's time to go. Come out when you're ready-- --Damn, what's going on here?

Flowers and cake? You guys even threw a party when there's only a ten minutes break?

You guys are so full of yourselves."

Little Fatty: "Our team's mid and bot have infinite charm."

Xiao Rui: "You?"

Little Fatty: "Except me."

Xiao Rui turned to look at Tong Yao: "What's going on?"

Before Tong Yao could answer, Little Fatty chimed in again: "Huawei's jungler wants to be

our son-in-law."

Xiao Rui: "He's after our Tong Yao? He killed our Tong Yao like crazy last match and still

wants to chase after her? Wow, you professional players sure have a strange way of being

romantic..."

All the players walked out of the rest area while poking fun at each other. Lu Sicheng was

in the front, Tong Yao at the back. She didn't have a chance to speak with Lu Sicheng during

the entire 10 minutes break. Though it wasn't anything out of ordinary, Tong Yao somehow

just didn't feel right-- --

It just felt awkward.

After she sat down at her seat on stage, she glanced over the front row of the audience.

Lu Sicheng's blind date had already went back to her seat, without that big bouquet next

to her feet. Li Hengshuo also was back at his seat.

The second match started.

Everyone was rather relaxed since they had won the first match quite easily. They didn't

even take much consideration about the other team during the ban and pick phase. They

just picked the champions they felt like using. Tong Yao pondered for a moment then picked

Diana-- --This champion hadn't showed up in any of the matches this season. Especially

nowadays, every match seemed to have the same champions being picked over and over.

It caused quite a commotion when Tong Yao picked a rarely seen champion...

The audience cheered loudly, though the players couldn't hear it.

The commentator A: [Diana, Scorn of the Moon. Wow, I wasn't expecting to see her today-- --

Hahahahaha, I think mids from other teams should really take note of this. The girl from

ZGDX has the confidence to pick such a champion, why don't you?]

The commentator B: [I've been watching ranked games on the Korean server. Smiling's been

playing Diana quite often lately, probably practicing.]

The commentator A: [Then she probably isn't too good at it yet?]

The commentator B: [It's true. Once in a while she shows some brilliant moves, but most of

the time, her skill at playing is still rather elementary-- --I hope today she can play it well

enough to her satisfaction.]

Amid the teasing from the commentators, Lu Yue, who was sitting next to the drinking

fountain backstage, sneezed a few times. He rolled his eyes and recalled the conversation

back at base-- --

Lu Yue: [Diana is really weak during the early game. Why does a champion like that even

exist. They should just remove her. There's no meaning for keeping her like this.]

Tong Yao: [Don't make a fuss just because you don't know how to play her. How can you

kill anyone with that maneuver, you think you're playing a Silver level match? You don't

even use the right item. Get away, watch how I play...]

Lu Yue: [I can't see.]

Tong Yao: [Cheng Ge, come over and pull your brother's eyes open...]

Those who were watching the match didn't realize that all the bad moves were played by

a guy who was trying to increase his champion pool. His real id was Lu. Those occasionally

brilliant moves were played by the real owner of the account who would grab the mouse

back from Lu Yue to teach him a few moves when she couldn't stand how badly he was playing...

Lu Yue used one hand to support his head and the other to eat Tong Yao's cake as he watched the match on the screen-- --

The ban and pick phrase was over, both sides entered Summoner's Rift.

Diana had difficulty in the early game. Her most useful ability could swing around the tank in the front and strike at the weaker champions behind. To play this champion well, the player had to have quick reactions, good map sense, and agile fingers. This was a champion who could change the outcome of the game in a split second.

After Tong Yao entered her lane, she was careful to not give the enemy many chances and concentrated on farming while using the corner of her eyes to constantly monitoring the mini map on the lower right corner on the screen-- --

When Tong Yao was level five and halfway to leveling, she sudden noticed the enemy mid and top had both teleported. There were two flashes of light at bot-- --

Tong Yao: "? ? ? ?"

Old Cat: "Damn, what's happening? What's wrong with their bot? No one's reached level 6 yet, why the heck are they teleporting now?"

Old Cat hurriedly teleported as well.

Tong Yao had no choice but find a spot to teleport Diana as well-- --

In no time, ten players from both teams were gathered at bot.

"I just took a glance at their support, really, just one glance!" Little Fatty innocently called out: "Shit, just one glance, why so sensitive! Is one glance so serious that warrants a team fight? !"

"You didn't just take a glance, you also used your hook."

Lu Sicheng slowly reminded Little Fatty while avoiding enemy abilities. At this moment, Tong Yao and Old Cat also arrived. Old Cat's champion placed a pillar separating the enemy's mid and adc from their teammates. Tong Yao followed up and quickly took down the low health adc!

The other team wanted to retreat after their adc died. But Lu Sicheng didn't give them the chance. His champion made a sudden turn and chased after the enemy's top, shooting arrows at him-- --At this point of the game, none of the players were well equipped yet, the enemy's top died easily. Only the enemy support, jungler, and mid were left, they were unable to turn the table against the five players of ZGDX...

In addition, Lu Sicheng still had full health at this point.

The team fight the enemy had initiated had placed them in a disadvantageous position.

Tong Yao didn't use any abilities on the enemy mid and let Lu Sicheng have the kill. Lu Sicheng took a look at the person sitting right next to him: "Feeling generous today?"

Tong Yao didn't bother to reply.

Old K, Old Cat, and Little Fatty were taking down the first dragon. Lu Sicheng, with three kills in hand, was thinking about going back to base when he saw another wave of minions were coming by. He decided to farm the minions so he could have another few hundreds more gold-- --As he was about to start farming, the moment the minions were pushing down, Tong Yao, who was recalling in a nearby bush, came out and slew all the minions.

Lu Sicheng: "..."

Many question marks appeared on Tong Yao's minimap from her team's adc. It is said that anyone who dared to steal minions from Lu Sicheng would already have three feet tall grass growing on top of their tomb.

Tong Yao leisurely went back to the bush and resumed recalling back to base as if she hadn't seen all those question marks. Before her champion disappeared, amid the pinging question marks, she coldly said: "Tax."

What the heck about taxes.

Little Fatty who had witnessed what had happened was laughing so hard that he was almost out of breath and collapsed in his chair. Lu Sicheng turned to look at Tong Yao frustratedly. If this was in any other ranked games, if anyone had stolen Lu Sicheng's minions, he would probably never sprawn again from the spring once he had returned to base.

But right now, he didn't say anything and simply returned to base and bought his items-- --

Little Fatty: "Finally, there's someone who can bully you."

Lu Sicheng: "Don't you speak."

The match was still on.

Though the enemy team worked well as a team, each individual player's skill was somewhat

lacking compared to ZGDX, except for their mid who was comparable to the new comer

Tong Yao. Since the enemy team lost the team fight early on, they didn't have much of a

chance to turn the tide around-- --

ZGDX quickly won the second match.

They won today's match with ease again for a 2-0 win.

Lu Sicheng thought back about the two matches, from beginning till end, Tong Yao had only

spoken once with the word 'tax' to him-- --There hadn't been much communication from her,

but she had no problem cooperating with her teammates. As a captain, he couldn't find

anything to pick on her performance during these two matches.

After they destroyed the enemy nexus, ZGDX players took off their earphones and went over

to shake hands with the other team. Tong Yao walked straight over without looking back. From

where Lu Sicheng was standing, he could only see the side of her face. Her quietness made

him feel awkward, but he couldn't tell how exactly it was awkward.

After shaking hands, the five players from the winning team walked to the front of the stage to

bow to the audience.

Lu Sicheng seemed absent-minded during the entire time. After bowing, he was the first one

to turn and walk back. As he was pondering how long Tong Yao could keep her silence, a

sudden squeak came from behind. He subconsciously turned around-- --

From the angle of the audience, what they saw was: After the five players from ZGDX bowed,

they turned to walk back; Lu Sicheng was first, Tong Yao second, Little Fatty third, followed by

Old Cat and Old K…...Little Fatty turned to chat with Old Cat as they walked and accidentally

stepped on the back of Tong Yao's sandals. Tong Yao staggered and lost her balance, she

was about to fall to the ground...

At that second, Lu Sicheng who was walking in front abruptly turned around as if he had a pair

of eyes on his back. He stopped Tong Yao's fall with his arms from behind and lifted her up

onto his shoulder like she was a huge toy.

The air seemed freezed at that very second.

The person, who was hanging face down from Lu Sicheng's shoulder with one bare foot, was

dumbstruck.

Little Fatty, the culprit, was stupefied.

The entire audience was amazed.

It wasn't until a shout broke the silence in the audience that Tong Yao lifted her head in a daze

from Lu Sicheng's shoulder. She saw numerous cell phones and cameras aimed at them and

flashes lit up like stars in a dark night-- --

Lu Sicheng said to Tong Yao: "How can you fall walking on a flat surface? Are you calcium

deficient?"

Amid the man's baritone voice, Tong Yao didn't even have a chance to argue that it was his

support who had stepped on her sandal.

...

[Originally, we thought we're here to watch a competition. We didn't find out until the end that

we actually are here to watch a Korean drama…...Tsk, tsk, tsk, at that moment, tsk, tsk, tsk,

I'm even embarrassed to describe it. I only dreamt that kind of scene in my dreams when I

was 14.

…...I also want to trip accidentally, then be picked up by someone onto his shoulder.

My teenage heart thus wished.]

-- --from someone in the audience who wished to remain anonymous.