CHAPTER 69

Tong Yao sat in the chair cross legged, looking at Lu Sicheng.

Lu Sicheng pulled himself away from her but one of his hands still landed on the arm of the chair. He looked at her, his face impassive.

"...To tell you the truth," Tong Yao stared at Lu Sicheng and said frankly: "With you looking at me like this, I can't think of anything to say. If you keep looking at me like this, I can't even recall my personal id number."

Lu Sicheng: "..."

Lu Sicheng lowered his eyes to look downwards, released his hand from the chair arm, and stepped back two big steps: "Six minutes forty seconds."

Tong Yao: "One question: from what position are you asking the question?"

Lu Sicheng: "Your captain, your boss, your teammate, or any passerby on the street. Six minutes and thirty seconds. I want an answer that can convince everyone, not just some sweet talk paying lip service to me-- --Please be as straightforward as you were during your stream yesterday."

Tong Yao: "............"

He really did see it.

Lu Sicheng: "Six minutes twenty seconds."

Tong Yao: "Don't do the countdown! Give me some time! Give me a prompt. You suddenly ask me and I'm not mentally prepared. How can I persuade you?"

Lu Sicheng paused for a second before speaking: "Then let's start from your behavior that day."

Tong Yao: "I hit someone."

Lu Sicheng nodded and took a moment to think before responding: "EDG team's jungler, Promise, before he became a professional player had dissed other players during rank matches: 'your mom's dead, I'm your dad now' and in the early stage of his professional career he mocked other players: 'you're so lousy, why don't you go home to raise pigs'-- --He's still denounced as a 'troll' to this day. People still laugh at him as the owner of a pig farm…...Now five years have passed since he became a professional player. Even if he won't say more than 20 dirty words during a ten hours stream and never diss anyone, that reputation remains. LGD team's mid, Gao Dewei, won the summer competition championship one year. But afterwards he didn't put in the training for the world competition; messed up his ranked matches and sometimes even stopped in the middle to play other games. In the end the team suffered a landslide defeat all because he made a major mistake during the world competition. Even today people still laugh at him for that and everyone says that he deserved it. But actually he's changed a lot a year after that, kept a low profile, is quite reserved, and takes his job to heart. But his bad reputation clings to him-- --"

Lu Sicheng: "Your thoughts?"

Tong Yao: "............Speak and act with caution."

Lu Sicheng nodded: "So before the incident, what did I remind you on the airplane?"

Tong Yao: "............Speak and act with caution. Also it's very easy for a professional player's actions be viewed under a magnifier, so don't do anything to affect one's career and create trouble for yourself."

Lu Sicheng: "Then where did you store it and forget all about it?"

Tong Yao looked downwards: "In the back of my head."

Lu Sicheng moved back more to lean on the table and crossed his arms in front of him: "Continue?"

Tong Yao: "En."

"During the training match yesterday, 3rd minutes and 57 seconds in, Lu Yue died and kept falling behind, unable to gain an advantage until the team flight at the end of game-- --During the whole time, at 5:37, 7:49, and 12:11, Old K tried to gank mid lane. He failed each time because Lu Yue habitually likes to farm near our own turret and the enemy's mid was very vigilant." Lu Sicheng checked his watch then continued: "In today's match just now, at 27:11, after Old K got the dragon, we had a 4v5 on the other side of the map. Since we'd suppressed the enemy ADC in the early game, there shouldn't be any problem for us to take them 4 to 5. The enemy retreated and we chased after them. Lu Yue didn't join the chase with the rest of us and instead turned around to farm the minions around the second turret. We were left with 3 people and they all died, giving the enemy 3 kills. Their crippled AD got a new lease of life. This time we're playing against Red Arrow, if it were against CK or YQCB, we would have lost the match already."

Lu Sicheng: "Your thoughts."

"Bad coordination."

"Why is it bad?"

"..."

"Because during training sessions, you like to keep the enemy mid at their turret so Old K's gotten used to counter ganking the enemy's jungler. When Lu Yue played differently from you, Old K couldn't react in time. Because if you had been playing today, you would've made the immediate decision to pursue the enemy and we'd have all followed without hesitation-- --"

"..."

"Why?"

"The habits we've formed from working together."

"Where does that come from?"

"From the daily training sessions and ranked duos."

Tong Yao answered the questions fluently without pausing. She suddenly understood something at the same time-- --Then she heard Lu Sicheng retorted: "Your team and your teammates change themselves to get used to your way of playing, how can you be irresponsible to them?"

"..."

"Now, do you still feel your suspension only matters to you personally? You made a mistake and got your punishment, then this thing is all over? You're now sitting at backstage watching your teammates play. Have you ever thought about the fact that your teammates on stage are actually being punished with you? They have to readjust themselves to suit the new player and all their previous training is wasted." As Lu Sicheng spoke, he took out a cigarette. As he was about to light it up, he glanced at Tong Yao and stopped. Instead, he broke the cigarette in half and threw it away. "You don't repent and mend your ways after one suspension; then you make the same mistake again and get suspended again-- --How is our team going to work with you? Should we still let you participate in the training matches? Should we invite you to play ranked? Should the team adjust itself to fit you so you can get used to us quickly? There are a lot of good players out there after all, they are all waiting for the chance to move up to your position..."

Tong Yao: "..."

LuSicheng: "Should we continue to hire you, or replace you with Lu Yue, or hire a new mid?"

Tong Yao twisted her fingers, pondering for quite a while.

Lu Sicheng continued after glancing at her: "Because Lu Yue acted on his impulses, he cost us Ming god's career and cost the team a chance at competing in the world competition-- --He tucked his tail and buried his pride to come back. His teammates chose to forgive him, but have you asked him whether he has forgiven himself yet?"

Lu Sicheng paused: "Your thoughts."

Tong Yao's head was hanging down so low that it almost touching her chest: "League of Legends is a team video game. In esports, there's no individual hero."

Lu Sicheng said en, then lifted his hand to check the watch again: "You have 3 more minutes."

Tong Yao abruptly raised her head.

"After 3 minutes, I want to hear you tell me exactly where you stand-- --As I've said, I don't care what other people say, I only care about how you see yourself: continue or give up? The professional scene isn't a place where you can come and play as you will. A professional player's career is very short, the golden moment is over in a flash-- --"

Lu Sicheng's eyes turned piercingly cold: "You can't afford to waste yourself, not to mention hold others back."

"As for me, I have to be responsible for my team, young lady." Lu Sicheng spoke lightly: "I don't know what you think about it. What I'm sure of is that ZGDX, as a top professional team, signed you up so you can come play games for us-- --In this circle, some people will treat you differently just because you're a girl: look down upon you, discriminate against you, worship you, or protect and cherish you. But I won't; after you start to wear the team uniform, to me, you have only one identity regardless of gender: a teammate."

"..."

Tong Yao bit her lower lip, hard.

Her heart, which had sank to the bottom of the sea and was so cold that almost stopped pumping, suddenly started to beat again-- --

She looked up to Lu Sicheng.

Lu Sicheng leaned against the table, quietly looking at her.

The whole room became silent for a long moment-- --Until there were footsteps outside, someone was trying to turn on the door knob but couldn't open the door. Tong Yao then realized that Lu Sicheng had locked the door when he came in…...Xiao Rui knocked on the door and called: "Cheng Ge." Lu Sicheng didn't respond, maintaining his gaze at Tong Yao with his head tilted to one side.

30 seconds later, Lu Sicheng briefly said: "Time's up." He straightened up, lightly glanced at Tong Yao: "Looks like you don't have anything you want to say to me."

Then he turned around and began to walk towards the door.

Right at that moment, he heard a loud noise coming from behind, as if something heavy had fallen off from the chair. He stopped and was about to turn around when the person behind him staggered forward to hit his back and forcefully grabbed onto his right hand out of desperation-- --

The hands felt icy cold.

Lu Sicheng's pupils shrank slightly, but he didn't say anything. Not even the expression on his face changed much. He slightly lowered his head and could see the tip of the nose of the person grabbing him from behind. The hands on his big hand were exerting a good measure of force-- --

"I don't know how to smooth talk and don't want to say meaningless apologies..."

She lowered her head and spoke in a hoarse voice.

"I just know that I want to win. I want to win every match together with all of you and I want to present in every single game. I don't want to disappoint all of you again. I don't want to be the stumbling block to anyone. I want to be your teammate until the day when all of you and I can stand on top of the world, which we all want..."

Tong Yao's eyes were red, her voice choked.

But she didn't cry.

Tong Yao's eyes were sparkling clear and there was only one thing that Lu Sicheng had said earlier echoing in her head — —

[after you start to wear the team uniform, to me, you have only one identity regardless of gender: a teammate.]

She wants to be his teammate.

She wants to be their teammate.

Even if it means that she has to smooth out the edges of her character one day, it's — —

"You probably feel that you haven't been treated fairly. You were protecting your teammates and ended up being treated this way."

The voice coming from above her head interrupted her thoughts. She paused slightly, then raised her head up to meet those dark brown eyes— —The coldness in his eyes had faded, now the dark brown looked as soft as chocolate.

"All of us are very grateful for your protection. That's why Little Fatty and the others were willing to do the game in the end. It was to provide some useful evidence to reduce the damage you've done to yourself." Lu Sicheng stopped for a moment. Under Tong Yao's gaze, he slowly said: "And I, I personally am also very grateful for your protection."

"..."

"No one asked you to smooth out the edges of your character, young lady. It's just that you have to understand — —Before starting to protect others, you have to learn how to protect yourself well."

"When do I know that I can protect myself?"

"When you're strong enough to the point that no one can put you down."

Tong Yao remained silent, eyebrows slightly gathered, confused by the answer she had received.

Xiao Rui had begun pounding on the door urging Lu Sicheng to get out of the room for the next match. Lu Sicheng raised his hand to pat her head as if to soothe her but didn't pull his other arm out of Tong Yao's grip until Tong Yao released it. He then mumbled in a low voice that he's going back to play and walked forward a couple of steps— —

Tong Yao grabbed his arm once again.

He turned his head.

"Cheng Ge, are you that kind of person?"

"What?"

"Strong enough that no one can put you down?"

Lu Sicheng was quiet for a while then slowly shook his head: "I'm not. There are times when I hesitate and don't know what to do."

Tong Yao: "?"

Tong Yao let him go again. Lu Sicheng unlocked the door and was about to open the door when Tong Yao called out to him, still standing in place with her hands behind her: "Cheng Ge."

"?"

"One last question."

"In the past two days, why did you ignore me? Just because you're angry? Or is there some other reason?"

"..."

Lu Sicheng pulled the door open and thought about her question as Xiao Rui nagged at him to go onstage. Then he gave his answer which made Xiao Rui rather confused. Afterwards, he went out the door and closed the door again.

Tong Yao was left inside the room by herself, in a daze.

His answer was that he would become soft-hearted.