CHAPTER 65

Tong Yao felt quite uneasy for quite a while and couldn't relax until the plane had taken off…...This wasn't the first time she'd sat so close to Lu Sicheng, but it was totally different from the previous times. Before she confessed to Jinyang, she had never considered Lu Sicheng as a potential target whom she would develop a crush on.

-- --She had suddenly realized Lu Sicheng's gender.

She had mentioned her sudden realization to Jinyang, who mercilessly laughed at her.

After the plane had reached its cruising altitude, the flight attendant announced that passengers could now use their electronic devices. In order to distract herself from focusing on Lu Sicheng's presence right next to her, Tong Yao turned on her iPad to watch videos of Red Arrow's past competitions-- --The predecessor to Red Arrow was a team called "Assassin Corps," which was disbanded after the team failed to win the world championship and was reorganized into Red Arrow. Only one member of the original team, their top, stayed on to join Red Arrow. Red Arrow was able to keep its position in the major league without much difficulty, but they failed to get into the world competition again and again. Each time, the team missed by a whisker.

Last year, the only original member of "Assassin Corps" announced his retirement-- --

He left when the team had just lost its chance to compete in the world tournament. He left with a lot of regret and humiliation. To be more exact, he was actually driven out by Red Arrow fans from many comments like: "senior", "old Top", or "holding the team back"...

The funny thing was that Red Arrow hadn't performed any better after the departure of their Top. In this year's Spring Tournament, the team had barely made it into the playoffs and none of those internet trolls stepped up to take responsibility for the poor performance of the team.

"..."

Tong Yao rested her chin on one of her hands and looked up at Ming god, who was sitting in the row in front of them forcing Old K and Old Cat to study Red Arrow's stats-- --

Not every professional player could retire at the height of his career like Ming god did, being sent off with cheers and applause…...Most players, who were once at the top, would gradually slow down and drop down and become substitutes. By the time most fans had forgotten about him and his name only appeared when the fans were mocking him, he would suddenly post on Weibo announcing his retirement. The post would be reposted hundreds or thousands of times, yet no one would mention it the next day.

It was the reality of professional esports.

Tong Yao wiped her face and turned to talk to Lu Sicheng: "Captain, what will you do after you retire?"

"Coach. If there's no more games, I'll go home to work at my family's company-- --Every year, my dad burns incense and makes offerings to Buddha wishing Riot Games would go bankrupt the next day." Lu Sicheng replied without thinking. "Why?"

"...I'm watching Ghost Constellation's game videos."

"Ghost Constellation was forced to retire last year. At the critical moment in their last match, he didn't use teleport well and sent the whole team to their graves." Lu Sicheng said: "Actually, the move wasn't bad, but his state of mind had gone awry."

"It's all because of those internet trolls."

"To play professionally, it's not enough to be skilled and win games. Sometimes, the player himself has to have the self-awareness-- --when to listen, when not to; what to do, and what not to."

"Oh. Why are you suddenly lecturing me about the human state of mind."

"..."

"En?" Tong Yao raised her eyebrows.

Lu Sicheng met her curious eyes for a while, then lightly smiled and flicked her forehead: "It's nothing. I'm just afraid that you'll be destroyed by those trolls before you have the chance to shine in this profession, little girl."

Tong Yao: "..."

Her forehead didn't hurt.

But Tong Yao still covered her forehead with her hand and shrunk her head back. She was lightly blushing and only two words flew across her mind like bullet comments: Little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl...

It was a sinful flirting.

As Tong Yao was leaning back away from Lu Sicheng, Little Fatty caught her from behind and patted her shoulder: "Don't worry, just listen to the Captain. Don't do things that you aren't allowed to and play well, then you won't ever get bombarded-- --Besides, even if you're about to, the Captain will stand in front and block it for you."

Lu Sicheng fixed his eyes on Little Fatty for a while, then spoke with no expression on his face: "Who told you that I'll be this heroic and kind?"

Tong Yao was a little taken back: "So you won't?"

Lu Sicheng: "You're talking about Buddha."

Tong Yao: "..."

Little Fatty: "..."

Lu Sicheng: "But Little Fatty got one point right."

Tong Yao: "What?"

Lu Sicheng: "You have to listen to me."

Tong Yao: "..."

The mid and the support exchanged a look with each other and collectively rolled their eyes. Then they started to watch the videos together…...

Lu Sicheng sneered and turned away from them, facing the window to get some shut-eye. He could hear the two next to him chattering from time to time: "Their jungler likes to gank mid a lot. Give me a ward at the beginning of the game." "Don't give it to Cheng Ge, he won't die." "Even he dies, it won't hurt you. Let him die." When he heard "Pick Alistar and constantly use his e (a healing ability)while hiding behind him. He'll rage so hard.", he finally had enough and opened his eyes. After a short pause, though, he closed his eyes once again-- --

About 20 minutes later, all was quiet behind him.

He could hear the flight attendants pushing the cart grow near. The seemingly sound asleep Lu Sicheng opened his eyes, without an ounce of sleepiness in his eyes. He raised his head up to take a look around-- --Most of the people on the plane, including his teammates, had fallen asleep. His team's Mid and Support were even sleeping huddled together...

Because of their Mid's height, when she curled up in the narrow airplane seat, hugging her legs, she looked like roly-poly. Her whole body tilted towards Little Fatty, leaning on him like on a soft human pillow-- --

Lu Sicheng: "..."

When the flight attendant pushed the cart over, she asked Lu Sicheng what he wanted to drink. He asked for a cup of coffee. As he was getting his coffee, he used the opportunity to tip the tumbler over towards himself with three of his fingers-- --

Tong Yao's body tilted over and her head landed right on his shoulder.

He could feel her even and long rhythmic breathing next to him.

He hesitated for a moment before he put down his coffee and lifted the jacket on himself to place it over her shoulder

Tong Yao only knew that she had dozed off for a while.

She was woken up by the jolt of the plane as it landed. She looked up and around in a daze and breathed a sigh of relief when realized the plane had landed. She lifted her hand to wipe her mouth: "Such a bad landing, I'm going to file a complaint…...Ur, Little Fatty, do I have saliva on my face?"

"No." Little Fatty, whose face had a red mark from sleeping on the small table, looked quite confused as well. "But you have Cheng Ge's jacket on you."

Tong Yao looked down and saw a long sleeve jacket resting on her lap. The jacket was last year's winter uniform, with the word "Chessman" embroidered on the back-- --Tong Yao stared at the jacket for a while until a large hand besides her reached over and took it away...

"It's common sense to bring a jacket onto the airplane during summer time."

"...."

"You won't survive for three days if you traveled by yourself."

"..."

Tong Yao kept quiet since she was the one who had been taken care of and it was only common courtesy not to throw a retort back.

It was two o'clock in the morning when they arrived at the prearranged hotel in C City. Considering that they had to get up at eight o'clock the next morning to get ready for the event, Tong Yao simply washed up and went right to bed...She could swear that she had only closed her eyes for a short moment before the alarm woke her up.

Irritated, Tong Yao got up to take shower, blow dry her hair, and change into a clean uniform before heading downstairs. She had just taken a sip of the juice at the breakfast table when the organizer began to hurry them so they could get their makeup done…...The other members were still half asleep from waking so early. Only Tong Yao, who was accustomed to waking early and couldn't function without breakfast, was getting angry at how they were being treated-- --

"Didn't you say we only needed to meet at nine thirty to get our makeup? It's only eight thirty."

"The organizer said that since you're all here, we might as well to get there early so we won't run into traffic."

"...So early. What exactly is the event for?"

"We're only responsible for transporting you guys. As for the itinerary, you'll have to ask the person in charge after you get there!"

"..."

What kind of organizer would plan a surprise for the team after they got there?

-- --This was Tong Yao's first wave of anger. Her anger was at about 25%.

They got on the bus and arrived at the anime convention. Xiao Rui managed to get a bottle of yogurt for Tong Yao while they were in the make up room. Tong Yao surveyed her surroundings as she drank her yogurt-- --She noticed that there were many people coming in with staff badges asking pictures. Xiao Rui stopped them, then they turned around to ask for autographs. Some of them only asked Lu Sicheng, Old K, or Ming god to sign their autograph books. But some of the others seemed to have the attitude: "since I'm here, don't miss anyone of them" and they would ask for an autograph from each one of the players in the room...

Lu Sicheng, though aloof, was quite patient, not refusing any request for an autograph. Tong Yao, on the other hand, had been irritated since she'd got off the bed and compounded with her low blood-sugar, no one looked agreeable to her…...She counted in silence in her mind until the thirteenth person reached her with an autograph book. She thought to herself that thirteen was a good number and then her first explosion occurred-- --

She pushed back the book into the person's hand: "I'm not signing anymore. I'm doing makeup right now. How many times do I have to be interrupted? Rui Ge, can't you stop them."

She deliberately raised her voice so everyone could hear her in the room.

Xiao Rui, with an expression as if to say "now you're talking", chimed in: "Ah, ah? Oh, oh, I got it. I'll go tell them now."

The person asking for Tong Yao's autograph was a girl about the same age as her. She was wearing the cheongsam style uniform of the showgirls, probably a college student doing a side job. She had come in several times before to ask for autographs, obviously doing it for other people…...Now she had been refused by Tong Yao. Though she was embarrassed, she didn't say anything before leaving with the book.

"Good job." Tong Yao's makeup artist rolled her eyes. "How many times I have been interrupted this morning. It took me four times to finish drawing the eye lines-- --These people like to brag to their friends that they can go backstage to see so and so and ask their friends whether they would like autographs, then they barge in here! I tell you I've seen enough of them. They probably don't even know who you are exactly, other than the fact that you're a famous game player."

Tong Yao: "Oh." She didn't carry the conversation further but lifted her face up for the makeup artist to continue her work.

-- --That was the second wave of anger. Now her anger level was about 50%.

After they were finished with makeup, Tong Yao sat on the couch eating crackers. She saw the girl who she'd turn away sneak back several times. Everytime, she would bypass her and go directly to Lu Sicheng and the others…...Tong Yao rolled her eyes and thought: go ahead, you guys just kept pretending to be gentlemen. She grabbed her cell phone to look at Weibo-- --

She noticed someone had @ her and opened it. It was probably a fan who had @ her at a certain Weibo post. The content of the post was as follows-- --

[Kitten meow: I'm working at the show table for xx Tech today. I heard that a famous esports team sponsored by a telecom company is here. Many of my friends are fans of them. I figure I'd try to do everyone a favor. Fortunately, these people seem quite nice, no one refused to sign for me-- --Except, the only female member of their team is rather arrogant, like she's so special. She wouldn't give me an autograph when she's doing her makeup…...It doesn't matter, looks like she isn't famous anyway. Xixi, so arrogant, she doesn't seem to deserve her fame?]

Under the post there were many comments: "A girl playing on a professional team?" "She's probably just a staff member. Tsk, tsk, making a fuss about nothing!" "Hahaha, I think I know who you're talking about. To tell the truth, she pisses me off. What's there for her to be cocky about!"...

Tong Yao: "..."

Now she was very angry.

She mumbled some curses and threw her cell phone onto the couch...

-- --That was the third wave of anger. Now she was 75% of the way to her limit.

After Tong Yao tossed her cell phone, she sensed someone coming closer from behind. She snapped her head around and saw Lu Sicheng was bending down to pick up the phone…...The tip of her nose swept across the side of his cheek. Her brain went blank and completely forgot to grab the phone.

Lu Sicheng looked at the cell phone for a while, then chuckled: "So someone's backbiting you?"

"......Damn, I can't stand people who takes advantage of her job to get favors." Tong Yao rolled her eyes. "When I was in high school, I worked at a bunch of anime conventions and never did this kind of thing even if there were a bunch of big shots. One time I was so close to a famous coser, just an arm's length away, and he was my idol!"

"Then?"

"Then I found out that he's only taller than me by a little bit and I gave up on him."

".......How short can he be?" Lu Sicheng circled his hand around Tong Yao's head and pushed her back down onto the couch. "You're a bit cranky today. Haven't had enough to eat this morning?"

Tong Yao leaned back on the couch and used both her hands to pry open the big hand off her eyes. Then she looked up and stared at Lu Sicheng through the gaps between his fingers: "You're elated seeing a good looking, cheongsam cladded girl coming to ask you for an autograph?"

Lu Sicheng released the hold on Tong Yao: "I'm just used to it."

Tong Yao raised her eyebrows: "Then it's guys like you who spoil them."

"Otherwise, these people will go out and badmouth you, see." Lu Sicheng shook her cell phone: "See what happened? I figured by this afternoon, there'll be a post on Tieba titled 'A female member of a famous team is bad tempered and arrogant, inconsistent to how she usually presents herself'..."

Tong Yao went blank for a moment, then she took a deep breath as if she had just realized what she had done. She started to feel a little regretful.

"These people have nothing to lose." Lu Sicheng stuffed the cell phone back into her hand. "You just turn a blind eye to it. Don't get sidetracked by these people."

"But -- --"

"What did I say on the airplane yesterday?"

"...What?"

"Listen to me."

"..."

"En? Listen to me"

"............Just because you're the captain."

Tong Yao irritatedly stuffed her cell phone into her pocket, gave Lu Sicheng a stare, then got up from the couch to grab a comb to tidy up her hair after Lu Sicheng had messed it up…...In the mirror, she saw Little Fatty snickering and making a face at Old K: "Cheng Ge can go apply as a canine trainer if he's not playing esports later. Maybe he'll be very good at it again."

Lu Sicheng reclined on the couch, raising his eyelids to glance at his gloating teammates: "Don't you annoy her even more. Unless you plan to take care of it if she explodes again?"

As if in concert with Lu Sicheng's words, Tong Yao flung the comb in her hand.

Little Fatty and others instantly quieted.

-- --This was the first time Tong Yao had vented. Her anger levels had dropped to 65%. It was all because the captain had said: think before you act, don't let others distract you.

Alright, alright, alright, Tong Yao tugged on her hair and told herself that she had to be calm and act professionally.

...

Eventually, around 11:30, after much delay, a staff member came to lead Tong Yao and her teammates to a so called "VIP Lounge" which was simply put together with several boards right next to the stage. Inside, there was a desk and several plastic stools. It was stuffy inside and boisterous all around . Tong Yao was chewing a bread roll which Xiao Rui had scrounged from somewhere.

"The convention isn't giving us lunch?" Tong Yao asked while biting the roll.

"We have water." Little Fatty drank some water. "It's good enough that they gave us water."

After a short pause, Tong Yao broke the bread roll and gave the larger half to Little Fatty who looked famished.

As they waited in the lounge, nobody came in for an autograph, probably because Xiao Rui finally said something. Only the staff busily came in and out…...Finally, a group of girls in high heels came into the lounge, it looked like they had finished their program on the stage-- --

All the male members of the team naturally stood up to let the girls sit down. Some of the girls were polite enough to say thanks before sitting down. Tong Yao hesitated for a moment and stood up with the others. Then her seat was taken by the girl who had bad mouthed her. After she sat down, she even gave Tong Yao an askance look...

Tong Yao thought to herself, shit, where was the good reward for doing a good deed?

Tong Yao stood behind the girl and grimaced. A few showgirls across from her saw her expression and probably thought that the girl was rather rude as well and started giggling. Lu Sicheng gave her a glance, but just turned a blind eye to it-- --

The host finally came into the lounge and handed out the details of the program to everyone, which include some interactive game segments-- --

Tong Yao was stupefied by the games they were supposed to do. Some innovative people had come up with new game ideas. The team members were supposed to carry the showgirls in a race on the stage, from one end to the other. Whichever showgirl struck the gong and drum with the hammer first won the game.

Tong Yao: "..."

The moment she saw the games, she wanted to call the police and file a report for this vulgar activity.

She looked up and saw her teammates all looked quite reluctant. Some of the young showgirls looked dubious about the game. They were wearing figure hugging cheongsams, how would it look being carried on stage.

…...Besides, there was something even more important to consider than this.

Tong Yao put down the program and said with a stone face: "Who came up with this game? Don't you need to inform us beforehand? All professional players have some sort of injury on their hands. This past weekend, the physical therapist just gave them acupuncture treatments and warned them not to carry anything heavy for half a month. This week, I didn't even allow them to twist open a bottle cap..."

Xaio Rui gave an appreciative glance to Tong Yao and hurriedly added: "Right, right, right. It's true. Who's responsible here? Let's do a different game. This particular game is truly unsuitable for them and bad for our public image-- --"

Several showgirls chimed in.

"We have all the props ready for the game and the timing is perfect. It's quite inconvenient to do any changes? Actually it's just for a little while, you don't need to carry them for long. Bear with it and it'll be over soon..." The host hesitatingly said, obviously he wasn't the one who could make the decision.

Tong Yao frowned and walked over to Old Cat. She pulled up his sleeve and exposed the brace on his wrist: "My teammates can't bear with it just for a second. We have a competition tomorrow. Now if he sprains his wrist, where can we come up with a substitute?"

She put down Old Cat's arm and stood there like a mother hen who was spreading her wings in front of her injured teammates.

The host uneasily tittered. He was taken aback by this audacious, petite young woman. However, he still tried to persuade them, stammering all the while. A voice came from one of the corners in the room: "Hey, girl, are you looking for a chance to find a fault from the very beginning? Haven't they told you that they have had everything ready and can't change it?"

It was that girl who had been making trouble with Tong Yao since the morning. Now she was sitting there with a bottle of water in her hand-- --

"We all are paid to be here. You think you're better than us? If you don't want to do this, then don't come. You've taken the money from them and then turn around to make trouble for the organizer. Aren't you esports players rather difficult to please…...Just carrying these featherweight girls back and forth on stage, is it this difficult for you big, strong men-- --"

Before she could complete her sentence, Tong Yao's anger level had reached 100%. Before anyone could react, Tong Yao dashed forward and kicked the chair that girl was sitting on-- --The plastic chair tipped over and threw the girl onto the ground with an accompanied scream!

Tong Yao stepped forward, kicked the chair up with the tip of her foot, and was about to crush the chair onto the girl on the ground, when she was lifted up by someone from behind. The back of her head hit a solid chest, she was turned around before she had realized what had happened-- --

"Put me down!"

Tong Yao shouted.

At the same time, the girl got up from the ground, and hurled the water bottle at Tong Yao with a scream. The bottle was open, but it didn't touch Tong Yao. The water splashed onto Lu Sicheng's back as he held Tong Yao down in his arms.

The lounge was in total chaos!