CHAPTER 77

Tong Yao went back to her room and threw herself onto the bed.

[ZGDX, Smiling: I wussed out. Dogs bite in every country. I really shouldn't have forgotten the pain that I suffered before, now the slap in the face came so quickly-- --I give up. You really can't fall in love with a professional player! The model esports couples are all fake, fake, fake! No man can resist the temptation from outside! None! ! !]

[Ah Mao's Mom: ...What's all this? What's wrong with you? Going crazy all of a sudden? Your captain betray you? No, that's not right, you guys aren't even together yet. How can he betray you. Well, what has he done?]

Tong Yao used voice chat to describe in detail how she had seen Xu Tailun at the market and in the movie theatre today. As she was retelling the whole story, the feelings of betrayal and disgust she had in the past when Jian Yang had kept her in the dark came back fresh again. She felt like her heart was burning, so she spoke quickly and used rather harsh words.

However, Jinyang totally missed the point.

[Ah Mao's Mom: My goodness, you and Cheng Ge went to the market, had lunch, and went to the movie together?]

[ZGDX, Smiling: You've missed the point my friend!]

[Ah Mao's Mom: The point is that you two went shopping and ate food and watched a movie together, isn't it? That, my friend, is a date! ! ! !]

[ZGDX, Smiling: The point is that Qing Dynasty's Korean player has a girlfriend and they have PDA every day. He attracts many fans by being the most sweet player in esports and the faithful half of a model couple in this circle. Now he attracts fans and has to go on a date with a fan! He lied about staying at the base playing with his alternate id this afternoon. If he's not guilty, why does he have to lie? The most unforgivable part is that his teammate helped him with his lie! Are they sick? ! Are all of them sick? !]

[Ah Mao's Mom: Don't get over excited now.]

[Ah Mao's Mom: This Korean player is the key player on the Qing Dynasty. I heard from Ai Jia that the team has to listen to him since he's the team's carry…...His teammate may have no choice but to cover him.]

Tong Yao thought about it while holding the cell phone in hand. She recalled that when Xu Tailun turned the camera to face his teammate this afternoon, his teammate did look a little uneasy and the way he spoke was a little awkward-- --It was because she was so annoyed at the time that she didn't think much about it.

[ZGDX, Smiling: It's a Chinese club, isn't it a joke that they all have to listen to a Korean.]

[Ah Mao's Mom: There are only a few Korean players who are truly willing to play and win in the Chinese region, we have to cherish them-- --Besides, calm down, don't stereotype people for no reason. Jian Yang's mistake and Xu Tailun being a jerk have nothing to do with your captain. You can't just put them into the same category simply by saying 'dogs bite in every country.']

[ZGDX, Smiling: ...]

[Ah Mao's Mom: You're once bitten, twice shy.]

[ZGDX, Smiling: Jian Yang was my first love. He went out happily with some night club hostess and I lost 5 kg. In the end, I had to go abroad to get away from all that.]

[ZGDX, Smiling: What about it? I'm scared! Scared! ! ! ]

[Ah Mao's Mom: So you don't want your captain now?]

[ZGDX, Smiling: .... I don't, I don't.]

[Ah Mao's Mom: You finally managed to stick out your nose tip from the shell and now you want to shrink back into it again. Alright, suit yourself!]

[ZGDX, Smiling: The best way to avoid being cheated or tricked is to not fall in love at all.]

[Ah Mao's Mom: Makes sense, I believe you-- --Like hell I believe you.]

[Ah Mao's Mom: I suggest that you eat your shit first to calm yourself down.]

[ZGDX, Smiling: Who jumped up and down and wanted to break up with her boyfriend simply because a female fan had given her boyfriend some clothing?]

[Ah Mao's Mom: Me.]

[ZGDX, Smiling: If Ai Jia did anything like what Jian Yang or Xu Tailun had done, you probably would cut off his penis. So don't be the pot calling the kettle black…...However, I believe your Ai Jia isn't that kind of person because he's scared of you, so cherish him.]

After sending the last message, Tong Yao felt exhausted. She took off her makeup, showered, changed into her pajamas, and went to bed, without even feeling like play any games-- --After she had fallen asleep, she had nightmares one after the other and none of them were the kinds she wanted to remember.

Before Tong Yao went to bed that night, she raised her voice so that Lu Sicheng could hear her even with his earphones on, to announce to all her teammates that Dabing was locked inside the cage of no freedom and would be denied canned food until it recognized its own mistakes-- -- When she passed by the cage, Dabing pressed its face onto the side of the cage and kept meowing. Tong Yao gritted her teeth and heartlessly walked by and thought to herself: If she was partial to the cat, then Dabing wouldn't be the only one who wouldn't see the sun rise tomorrow.

Tong Yao went upstairs and showered. Afterwards, she saw Jinyang's WeChat message-- --

[Ah Mao's mom: .........Dabing's in big trouble?]

[Ah Mao's mom: Your captain's searching online for piranha fry…...It's so hilarious that I dropped my cell phone on my face.]

Tong Yao: "..."

… …

Tong Yao had a sleepless night.

First, she had to get used to sleeping by herself, without a cat next to her. Then she had to worry about what would happen when her cat and her captain were left alone together downstairs-- --

She had nightmares the whole night and got up very early the next morning.

She went downstairs and discovered that Dabing's cage was empty, the cat wasn't in there. Tong Yao's heart skipped a beat; she was afraid that she would find the body of a cat flushed halfway down the toilet-- --She anxiously searched around the base and eventually found her cat on the couch in the living room. The cat was perfectly intact and quietly crouched down on a man's body, bearing its teeth at her, the person who had locked it inside the cage...

The reason why the cat had the courage to be so haughty probably had something to do with the person under its feet-- --Under the cat's fuzzy bottom, ZGDX's captain was lying face up on the couch with closed eyes with faint bluish bags. His tummy rose up and down in regular intervals.

He was sound asleep.

He didn't even realize that a cat weighing over a dozen kilograms was sitting on top of his stomach, using it as a floor mat.

Tong Yao turned to check his computer, which was still logged waiting for a ranked game…...But his id had already been kicked out of the queue probably because he had failed to respond when a match was found earlier.

He probably had played ranked games the whole night. When he finally had enough of them, it was probably already daybreak and he was too tired to go upstairs to sleep.

…...Such an internet addicted man.

Tong Yao lightly walked to Lu Sicheng's computer to log off the game and turned off his computer for him. She turned to pick up a small blanket from another couch and waved her hand to get Dabing off Lu Sicheng. The cat jumped off his stomach. As Tong Yao bent over to put the blanket over his body-- --

A big hand reached over to cup her head from the back of her head and pushed her head down. Tong Yao was taken by surprise as her entire face was pushed against Lu Sicheng's tight abdomen. Right at that moment, she heard the man said in a dazed voice: "Be still or get lost if you keep moving around."

Then he stroked Tong Yao's hair as if he was stroking the cat.

Tong Yao's whole body stiffened up. Both of her hands gripped the edge of the couch as her face was buried in the man's stomach with only a thin blanket and his clothing separating her and him. When she breathed, her nose with filled with his scent.

-- --If someone came over now, I probably can't...

Before Tong Yao could finish her thought, she heard the sound of a door opening upstairs. Little Fatty, with sleepy eyes, came out wearing a white tank top and his big Ultraman underpants: "Cheng Ge, shit, you haven't gone to sleep yet, I already woke up-- --"

Little Fatty's voice abruptly stopped.

Tong Yao didn't even have a chance to raise her head to explain to Little Fatty since the big hand on the back of her head was still exerting a steady amount of pressure-- --The next second, Little Fatty mumbled: "I'm not up yet, I'm sleep walking." Then he turned and returned to his room.

A few seconds later, Lu Sicheng's cell phone rang.

Tong Yao struggled to reach over for his cell phone on the couch and picked it up to take a look-- --

[The rounded fat: I didn't expect that you're this kind of captain. I was too naive.]

The match against Qing Dynasty was four days later at 3 pm on a Sunday afternoon.

Tong Yao went to check out the place after arriving at the arena and having her makeup done. She happened to cross paths with Xu Tailun in the hallway-- --If it were a player from any other team, she would definitely greet the person politely. But since it was Xu Tailun, she had chosen to ignore him, despite having a rather good impression of him at first. She passed him without even giving him a glance.

She knew that Xu Tailun had turned to look at her after she had passed him by.

The game started 30 minutes later.

"Tong Yao, which champion do you want to take today? They haven't banned many mid champions…...Kassadin? Karma? Diana? Syndra? Leblanc?" Ming god asked in the earphones: "You can choose any of them, it seems, you can handle them all anyway."

"I don't know." Tong Yao checked the lineup of the opposing team. The enemy jungler had picked a champion with strong gank power in the early game, Lee Sin. Tong Yao didn't have a good premonition. She paused for a second before asking: "Why don't I take Lulu and let's play 4 protect 1?"

"........What hell with Lulu. Where's our fighting heroine? Isn't our mid the attacking type? Are you taking on Lu Yue's persona?"

"Ur, well, then never mind."

Tong Yao wiped her face. Maybe she was just being paranoid and instead picked Syndra as her champion. She thought to herself: Even if that jungler intended to play rough, his teammates shouldn't have to go along with him?

After the game started, Tong Yao found that she was totally wrong.

Since the beginning of the game, the five players from Qing Dynasty stayed together in mid-lane and attacked Tong Yao's champion until they killed her-- --Afterwards, Lee Sin kept coming up to the mid lane as if he lived there and didn't bother protecting his teammates at top and bot lanes. In the first ten minutes, he had visited mid four times. Tong Yao's champion was powerless to protect itself from Lee Sin's kicks and ended up hiding under the turret.

Even then, Lee Sin would still tower dive after her.

By the 12th minute into the game, Tong Yao had only managed to farm a little bit over 40 minions and was a level and a half lower than the enemy's mid!

The kill ratio of the time was 7 : 5, with ZGDX leading with 1500 gold. It was because-- --

Commentator A: [This doesn't make any sense! What's going on today? Qing Dynasty has no rhythm at all. All they see is mid and only attack mid! This isn't the third place team that we know of from the Spring Competition!]

Commentator B: [Maybe it's because they've learned from Huawei team that the few times they won against ZGDX was from attacking mid like crazy, so they're brainlessly copying that.]

Commentator A: [But for them it's useless! Well, Huawei at least had three main players; they could maintain an equal footing in the other lanes while concentrating on mid-- --What does Qing Dynasty have? The only main player has stayed in mid and his other teammates are no match at all against ZGDX in the other two lanes. What's the point of just winning in one lane. Old K takes care of top then comes down to the bot; ZGDX owns those two lanes!]

Commentator B: [I don't get it either, don't ask me! You can interview Qing's jungler after the match to see what he's thinking.]

While the two commentators were exchanging their confusion, Qing's jungler, after clearing the monsters in the upper half of the jungle, had squatted inside the bush again, at a time that a jungler normally wouldn't appear at. He was ready to gank mid for the fifth time-- --

Commentator A: [To be fair, Qing's jungler is going too far.]

Commentator B: [Smiling must be yelling inside 'Why's this guy always gunning for me!']

Commentator A: [But there's no reason behind it. I have to be honest, it feels rather rude what he's doing-- --I can't tell what exactly Qing Dynasty's is trying to do here. After ten minutes into the game, all I can tell is that they want to kill Smiling.]

Commentator B: [Hahahahaha, watch what you're saying. Don't blame me for not reminding you and don't ask me why I said so. Later you'll know after checking the kind of comments Qing Dynasty's fans will be leaving under your Weibo.]

The commentators were baffled by the Qing Dynasty's strategy as well as the audience.

As for Tong Yao, the person actually playing the game, she was simmering with rage. When Lee Sin showed up at mid for the fifth time, the cool down time of her flash ability happened to be up and Tong Yao flashed under the turret without a second's thought the moment Lee Sin started to head her way. She saw Lee Sin follow after her-- --She had used all her damaging abilities and invited him, but at this point she was poorly equipped and couldn't deal much damage to Lee Sin. Tong Yao calculated the damage she could cause and realized that the most she could get would be a trade-- --

Fortunately, a huge arrow shot from bot hit Lee Sin just in time!

Commentator A: [Ahhhhhh, it got him! ! ! What an angle! ! !]

Commentator B: [It's from Lu Sicheng! Do they think there's any use aiming solely at mid? Don't forget bot also has a carry!]

The shout from the commentators made the audience excited. The arrow had stunned Lee Sin under the turret for a few seconds and let him take enough damage from the turret-- --

Tong Yao took the chance to cut Lee Sin a few more times.

Then she retreated-- --

Lee Sin eventually died under the turret.

The audience burst into an uproar and applause!

Commentator A: [That arrow was a typical hero's rescue. To be fair, if it weren't for that arrow, Smiling wouldn't have been able to fight Lee Sin.]

"I said I should've taken Lulu for this one!"

Tong Yao went back to base, very irritated-- --This was the second time in her professional career to be treated this way. The first time was from Ah Tai. But this time, the opponent knew very well that they weren't on equal footing with ZGDX in the other two lanes and they still tried to aim only at her-- --

She concluded that they had done this on purpose.

If it were a normal ranked game, any player who had been treated this way probably would go on public chat and diss the other guy.

Tong Yao, however, knew that in a competition like this there were many staff workers who would be recording while they were playing. She couldn't curse or say anything inappropriate. She had to suppress her anger and keep dragging on with her miserable stats. She watched Lu Shicheng and Old Cat reap the outcome from her sacrifice-- --

Because of Qing Dynasty's idiotic strategy, they had lost control of their jungle. Their top and bot were cleared out by Old Cat and Lu Sicheng. By the 40th minute of the game, Tong Yao watched her teammates push the enemy's base while she was looking at a gray screen waiting to be revived. Her stat was a glorious 1 kill, 12 death, and 3 assists.

As the enemy's nexus exploded and the win music played, Tong Yao finally let the pent-up frustration out after holding it in for 40 minutes. She slapped down on the mouse and took off her earphones as she stood up, then she strode towards the break room without looking back!

"What's that Long Ge up to? He didn't make any sense playing this match."

"Maybe he believed what Tong Yao said during his stream that made all that gossip about him and he's taking revenge on her..."

"It can't be. He's going after a personal vendetta during an official competition? Can his teammates agree to that?"

"It doesn't matter that much to lose one game in the group matches. Besides, the Qing Dynasty is a 4 protect one team, four Chinese players protect one Korean player, hehehehehehehehe..."

Tong Yao's teammates walked towards the break room while chattering about the previous match. Lu Sicheng, walking in front, kept quiet until they reached the doorway when suddenly turned his head to look at the three chatting players behind. The three instantly stopped talking-- --

Tong Yao opened the door from inside at the same time.

Lu Sicheng: "Where are you going?"

Tong Yao: "To the bathroom."

Lu Sicheng: "...We'll play 4 protect 1 next match."

Tong Yao: "Whatever. If he keeps playing this way, even if I take a super powerful tank, I'll still die…...Next match, if he's still camping mid, please, someone report him after the match that he's griefing."

After saying so, Tong Yao walked out of the break room with her head held up high.

Her four other teammates, standing outside the break room, all turned to watch her walk away-- --

Little Fatty: "Isn't that something? I thought she would be crying."

Old Cat: "I thought so too."

Old K: "Maybe she's too angry to cry."

Lu Sicheng: "Are you guys coming in or not?"

Everyone: "..."

They all went into the break room, their discussion renewed.

Tong Yao, once again, saw Xu Tailun right in front of the women's restroom. Xu Tailun was leaning against the wall. It was an awkward encounter.

If it wasn't for the reason that her captain forbade her from getting into a fight, Tong Yao really wanted to jump on him and scratch his deceiving face...

Thinking about her captain, Tong Yao slightly lifted her chin up, straightened her back and tried to imitate her captain's arrogance as she passed Xu Tailun. As she passed by him, he clasped one of her wrists and pushed her against the wall.

Tong Yao: "..."

…...What the hell was this, kabedon from a cockroach? Not even her captain had done this to her!