CHAPTER 98

At noon the next day, Little Fatty, who was eating instant noodles in front of his computer, heard someone come downstairs. He looked up with a piece of noodle still hanging from his mouth and the first thing he saw was the section of leg between a short skirt and a pair of knee high stockings…...The piece of noodle fell back into the bowl and Little Fatty asked: "What are you up to?"

Tong Yao, with slippers, crouched down in front of the shoe cabinet and earnestly looked for the shoes she wanted to wear. While looking, she pulled out a shoe box and opened it to take a look. Inside was a pair of shoes which she hadn't seen before and they turned out to be her size-- --She looked up to make sure it was her personal shoe cabinet…...Tong Yao blinked: "When have these shoes been here?"

"The mutual sponsor of you and the mid next door put them in there the last time she was here. She said she already had a pair of the exact same ones…...Where are you going?"

Tong Yao took out the shoes from the box; they were a pair of black shoes, with low heels decorated with a few pearls and metal brand logo on top of the shoes with the signature fabric of red and green stripes…...Tong Yao put down the shoe box and put her feet inside the shoes to try it out, they were a perfect fit. She looked up to glance at Little Fatty: "I'm going out shopping."

Little Fatty with the noodles bowl in hand: "Oh. Lipstick is a little too red."

Tong Yao mumbled: "Really?" Then hurriedly grabbed a tissue to wipe her lips... At the same time, there was the sound of a door opening and closing upstairs. Little Fatty looked up-- --This time, it was the team's ad who was wearing a simple outfit, thanks to the hot summer weather which didn't give a man too many choices about what he could wear. But even when dressed simply, he was still much better looking than 95% of the men on the street since he had paid some attention to putting his outfit together in addition to shaving and washing his hair...

The other 5% might as well be those handsome movie stars.

Little Fatty: "Captain, oh captain, where are you going then?"

His captain stopped in the middle of the stairs with hands in his pockets and took a glance at the person next to the shoe cabinets-- --Tong Yao paused and smoothed out her breath: "I'm going out shopping."

Lu Sicheng turned to look at Little Fatty: "I'm going shopping with her."

Before Little Fatty could say anything, Lu Yue happened to come out from the kitchen with a bowl of noodles in his hands. He passed by Tong Yao and Lu Sicheng and glanced at them. Finally he sat down at Lu Sicheng's chair right next to Little Fatty and logged on to the game to invite Little Fatty to play duos. While he was doing all this, he said with an imposing manner as if he had seen through them: "Why do you two have to dress like you're going to the Civil Affairs Bureau every time you two go out on your own?"

Lu Sicheng: "I look like this every day."

Tong Yao: "Me too-- --"

Lu Yue: "Forget about that, what you too. The last time you wore a skirt was when you went with my brother to go buy goldfish in the market. There isn't any other time."

Tong Yao: "..........True! But what's wrong when a country pumpkin dresses up to go shopping!"

Lu Yue didn't pay any attention to her, but poked at his noodles and said: "When did you two get together?"

The shoe box in Tong Yao's hand dropped on the floor.

Lu Sicheng raised his eyebrows.

Little Fatty choked on a mouthful of burning hot soup. The burning sensation made him thump his chest and stamp his feet as he struggled, his face red: "I've been deserted? ! The ad who I worked hard to raise abandons me for mid? !"

Lu Yue looked up without much expression: "I'm just joking."

Tong Yao: "..."

Lu Yue: "I can't accept the miserable fate of my brother's son who would only be 1.5 meters high like his mom and be laughed at all his life."

Tong Yao used all her might to suppress the urge to throw her slippers at the face that looked similar to Lu Sicheng: "You shut up."

Lu Sicheng didn't bother with Lu Yue and dragged Tong Yao out of the door. Tong Yao kept looking back as she was brought to the garage. Even after Lu Sicheng had strapped her into the passenger side seat, she still fretfully slapped her lap and said: "Lu Sicheng, why didn't you give him a retort? Is it because you think what he said makes a lot of sense? Hrmph, I'm so angry. Your Lu family's perfect genes are going to be contaminated by my 1.5 meter inferior genes-- --"

"Go ahead, come contaminate me."

"..."

Lu Sicheng started the car and backed out of the garage: "He's teasing you. My mom, that's his mom too by the way, is about your height. Are either of us 1.5 meters high?"

Tong Yao grabbed the seatbelt with a dark face: "I'm not talking."

Lu Sicheng reached out with his big hand to pat Tong Yao's head: "As long as our son plays more basketball then he'll grow taller. Don't panic."

".................." It took 3 seconds for Tong Yao to reflect that there was something wrong with his words: "Who, who's having 'our son' with you!"

"If it's a daughter, then it'll be fine if she's just like you. She can go capture a tall guy later on from another family, perfect." Lu Sicheng drove out of the residential area, then earnestly said after being quiet for a while: "To tell the truth, I'd prefer having a daughter. Sons are too naughty."

Tong Yao covered her red face with both hands

"...You, too, shut up."

"Why can I just imagine for a moment?"

"You can't, imagine something more normal."

"En."

"You sound like you're smiling."

"I'm not."

"You are."

"I'm just being a little emotional here."

"What are you being emotional about?" Tong Yao put her hands down from her face.

"I just thought what luck to pick up a little cutie like you. If you were underwear, you'd be the one with blue and white stripes."

"...................." The color on Tong Yao's face turned from red to white then to red again. After a short moment, she looked straight ahead without much expression on her face and said: "Captain, do you see that huge tree next to the road?"

"I see it, what?"

"Crash into it, I want to die together with you."

"..."

...

Tong Yao refused to respond to Lu Sicheng for the rest of the drive, no matter what he brought up. Tong Yao didn't speak until they had arrived at the shopping mall and Lu Sicheng had parked the car: "Captain, you've totally ruined your public image."

Lu Sicheng seemed undisturbed: "Why do you say that?"

"In my memory, Chessman is calm, composed, cold, sharp, and prescient." Tong Yao released the seatbelt, turned to jump off the car because of her short legs. Then she closed the door and stretched out her head to say from the other side of the car: "But in the end I found out that you're just a shameless wily old fox with indecent thoughts. I'm sad."

Lu Sicheng had gotten out of the car as well. He closed the door while saying briefly and to the point: "Too much imagination."

Tong Yao: "..."

To avoid bumping into any fans, they had picked a shopping center in a more remote location. They walked shoulder to shoulder out of the parking lot, Lu Sicheng reached over to touch Tong Yao's hand. Tong Yao knew what he was going to do and stepped to the side a bit.

Lu Sicheng sighed: "Be reasonable."

Tong Yao: "...What do you mean?"

Lu Sicheng: "The first time we met, I thought you were a fangirl who had come to gank the base and shut the door right in your face-- --What was your thought at the time?"

Tong Yao thought about it, turned to take a glance at the man next to her, and replied only when she saw Lu Sicheng seemed quite earnest and not trying to play a trick on her: " 'Damn, idiot.'"

Lu Sicheng nodded: "At that moment, I was already quite a distance away from the public image you've imagined."

"Idiot doesn't mean indecent."

"I'm a perfect gentleman in front of other girls."

"Huh?"

"Isn't that nice?" Lu Sicheng took the chance while Tong Yao was still in a daze about what he had just said to grab her hand and pulled her over closer to him: "You can freely enjoy my inner personality all to yourself."

".........."

While her hand was firmly held in his big hand, Tong Yao's brain stopped function-- --Though she didn't really know exactly what the enjoyment "freely and all to herself" was, Tong Yao reluctantly accepted what he just said in consideration of the fact that he had told her about the principles of survival on the professional playing field in all seriousness and his blue and white striped underwear.

Somehow, Tong Yao felt like she had been tricked by her captain again.

But when she was going to continue arguing over it, their conversation had turned to a new topic-- --They had stopped in front of a claw machine. Lu Sicheng took a glance: "Remember this?"

Tong Yao took a look at the stuffed lop rabbits inside the machine. Though there was no longer any with a rabbit in its arms, she still recognized them since they all looked pretty much alike. She nodded.

There were many young girls gathered in front of the machine, jumping up and down. They kept pointing at the stuffed rabbits inside saying this one was cute or the other one was cute. Yet they couldn't get any of them out of the machine-- --

"Ahhh, your clumsy hand!"

"It fell down again."

"I can't do it. I'm not playing. With the money I've spent here, I could buy a bunch of these on Taobao. Wait till I buy ten of these then I'll bring them back here and display in front of this machine."

One of the girls took out her cell phone to search on Taobao as they spoke. Some of the girls backed away from the machine, Lu Sicheng dragged Tong Yao to squeeze in-- --The chattering girls suddenly stopped talking when they looked up to see a handsome guy coming closer to the machine. But Lu Sicheng didn't pay any attention to them. He only asked the person who was behind him, tightly held in his hand: "Which one do you want?"

Tong Yao instantly felt the eyes all around her were focused on her face and the hand that was in Lu Sicheng's-- --

The looks seemed to say "she must have saved the whole galaxy in her previous life."

Tong Yao sniffled and thought: I did save the whole galaxy, are you all envious of me? She reached over to take a look: "...I already have one."

"I know you have one, I got it for you. I even know that you put it at the head of your bed. We can get more and let them have a meeting." Lu Sicheng pointed at the machine: "They all look different; this one has a little hat."

Tong Yao: "..."

Tong Yao wasn't sure whether she was mistaken or not, but the way Lu Sicheng said "this one has a little hat" seemed a little frivolous yet cute…...The girls around them seemed to feel the same way; one of them had already chuckled.

"These rabbits are very hard to grab." The girl tried to make a conversation: "We've stood here for a long time."

Lu Sicheng gave her a glance but didn't say anything. Then he took out a bill and sent Tong Yao to get some more changes. When Tong Yao came back with coins, there were already two stuffed rabbits placed right next to Lu Sicheng's hand: one was wearing a little Christmas hat and the other had a strawberry in its arms.

When Tong Yao handed the coins over to Lu Sicheng, she could feel the envious looks from the surrounding girls and the nervous look of the owner behind them-- --She lifted up the two rabbits to take a closer look then turned to Lu Sicheng: "Which one is cuter?"

Lu Sicheng hit the confirm button, as the metal claw firmly picked up a third rabbit, he turned back to take a look at Tong Yao who was earnestly asking while holding up the two rabbits. He said without any expression: "You're cute."

Tong Yao: "..."

...

The end result was that before lunch Tong Yao had collected a big bag full of stuffed rabbits. She imagined that when she lined all the rabbits up along the head of her bed, it would really be like a grand meeting of rabbits...

Tong Yao: "I used to think, when I couldn't get anything from the claw machines in an amusement park, that I just needed to wait till I have a boyfriend and then come back to clean out all the machines."

Lu Sicheng: "You've done it."

Tong Yao: "What?"

Lu Sicheng: "You've gotten a capable boyfriend."

Tong Yao: "..."

Lu Sicheng: "Which amusement park is that? Go get the tickets and we'll go clean them out."

Tong Yao: "...The Disneyland in Tokyo?"

Lu Sicheng: " ..."

It was 1:30 in the afternoon.

A date for any normal couple would usually be to eat lunch, watch a movie, have afternoon tea, play some games, eat dinner, then say goodbye and return to each other's home. Since Tong Yao and Lu Sicheng were practically living in the same house, they could skip the last step. What they needed to do now was to take care of lunch.

Tong Yao carried a big bag of rabbits and led Lu Sicheng around in the mall. Her indecisiveness prevented her from deciding on what to eat. She hesitantly stopped in front of a dessert place and bent over to check the menu at the front of the store. But someone yanked her back: "Lunch. What are you looking at ice cream for?"

"Why can't ice cream be for lunch?"

"Are you a three-year old?"

Lu Sicheng dragged her away. As Tong Yao said: "tsk" and was about to say something more, she suddenly noticed from the corner of her eye that there was a group of girls, standing in front of a store across that looked rather familiar. She took a look to make sure and was stupefied. Those four or five girls in front of that Korean BBQ place were those fans who carried those support banners at the competition a few days ago.

The tallest one probably still had the support bracelet with Tong Yao's name on it on her wrist.

-- --If any one of them looked up now...

Then they would see the two players from their favorite team didn't stay at base to play rank games. Instead the two were hanging out at the mall hand in hand.

Tong Yao gasped, threw away Lu Sicheng's hand, and told him that she needed to go to the restroom and he should wait for her in front of a certain Western restaurant on the first floor before he could say anything. Then she scurried away…...She rushed into the restroom and took a while to calm herself down. Then she walked out the restroom and found Lu Sicheng hadn't followed her suggestion to wait on the first floor. He was leaning against the exit with arms crossed at the bend of the staircase, smoking.

When he heard her footsteps, he looked up at Tong Yao then looked down without saying anything and extinguished the cigarette on a nearby trash can.

"..."

At that moment, Tong Yao felt like she had done something really lousy and her captain had been especially, especially mistreated.