CHAPTER 31

Tong Yao skimmed through more than twenty thousand comments

under the post, covering a wide range of opinions.

Some were directing their anger at Lu Yue-- --

[What's the meaning of this? Damn, I thought Ming god's hand injury

was from playing too much. Even the official site didn't give us a clear

explanation. Now you're telling us it was from a brawl…...Now the only

thing I want to say is to Lu Yue, please go die ten thousand times.]

[A gang of Ming god's fans are on the way here, it looks like they're

going to crash the ZGDX base.]

[I won't accept Lu Yue rejoining ZGDX.]

[Lu Yue always looked evil to me. Hehe, you guys always say that he

looks like Lu Sicheng. At the beginning of this video when he showed his

face, I already knew he wasn't Lu Sicheng. I'm not even Lu Sicheng's fan.]

[Last season the league announced that Lu Yue would be banned from

competing for a season because his involvement in a fight. No specifics

were reported…...What the hell of a fight, so it was because of this?]

[I heard that the Lu family is wealthy and well connected, so the news

was suppressed at the time.]

...

Some weren't that angry, but questioned the motive of OP after they

calmed down-- --

[Wait, why did OP disappear after posting the video? What's the reason

for the brawl? It doesn't make sense that Lu Yue would barge into the

room and hit someone whose team had already been downgraded.

What's the reason?]

[The last comment makes a lot of sense. It's better for ZGDX fans to

slow down before turning onto its own teammates. For now, I want to

know the reason more than anything else...]

[I remember that JK had a new boss after being downgraded last year.

The team was established by someone from a rich family who plays good

games. It was attached under CK. So the people involved in this incident

all have some background. The incident was concealed from the public

so well; there was no news about this, not even a single leak.]

...

Some put their focus on Ming god-- --

[qaq our Yu Ming's wrist. God, I cried out in class…...Why was he trying

to break up the fight, idiot! ! !]

[I feel so sorry for him. I don't feel good seeing all the blood.]

[Hope Ming god is alright now. How he suffered away from public sight.

I totally can't accept it whenever I think about this.]

...

There were other sentimental or abusive comments. Most of the

emotional comments overshadowed the few that asked for the truth

from the OP...

The one that caught Tong Yao's eye was a suggestion by someone who

had a vivid imagination that the video was posted by Smiling. Though

she looked quite naive and sweet, she was actually quite cunning. Maybe

it was because she was afraid that Lu Yue would take her place in the

summer season, so she put this video up just at the right moment…..

Tong Yao used her own Tieba username to reply to him: "Well said, big

brother. It really is women who have the most poisonous hearts." Then

she backed out of Tieba to look at her WeChat which was practically

overflowing-- --Many people sent her private messages asking her what

was going on. Tong Yao replied: "How the hell do I know." She got

overwhelmed by all the same questions, in the end she started to copy

and paste the same reply one by one.

Tong Yao knelt on her bed, it took her more than a half hour to finish

reading all the messages…...Then someone casually knocked on her

door and pushed it open. Her captain stood behind the ajar door,

"Get up, meeting time."

His voice was icy cold.

Tong Yao obediently put down her cell phone, got off the bed, and

was going to follow him downstairs. When she put her hand on the

door handle trying to open the door wider for her to go out, a big hand

stretched out behind the door to put on her head, pushing her back into

the room. "Wash your face, put on a jacket."

Startled, Tong Yao realized that after being shaken up by the stunning

news, she hadn't washed her face or combed her hair since she got up.

She was still wearing her sleeping gown…...Blushed, she swatted away

the big hand on her forehead and muttered, "Got it."

Then she shut the door.

Tong Yao turned around to go into the bathroom. She could faintly hear

Lu Sicheng knocking on doors one after another. When she turned on

the faucet and squeezed out the toothpaste, she could hear someone

moving around next door. She noticed that the room had poor sound

insulation, so she turned off the faucet and heard Lu Sicheng's baritone

voice. He was asking someone-- --

"What exactly happened back then?"

It was silent for a while next door. With a toothbrush in her mouth, she

almost flattened herself onto the bathroom wall so she could vaguely

hear the other person's reply-- --

"Ah Yue won't let me say it. He'll get angry if I tell you…...Go ask him

yourself, you're the only one who can rein in him anyway."

She was surprised to find out that the one who was speaking was

Ming god-- --There was no anger or resentment in his voice, nor any

sense of gratification that the truth had finally came out. He sounded

very peaceful, or perhaps even a bit helpless.

Tong Yao: "..."

Tong Yao moved her head away from the wall, then she fixed her eyes

on the crack on the tiles for a long time-- --Suddenly, she felt that the

whole thing wasn't as simple as they thought. The so called truth at the time...

Probably, not even the OP who posted the video knew the exact truth

of the matter.

It took a while to get a grip of herself, then she quickly brushed her teeth,

washed her face, grabbed a shirt to wear, and hurried downstairs.

Almost everyone was there by the time she arrived.

-- --Everyone meant "everyone she can think of." In addition to all the

players, team manager, and others she usually saw, there were many

people from the other departments that she had never met. There was

a woman who raised her head to smile at Tong Yao. She introduced

herself as the official Weibo site moderator, who was responsible for

posting official announcements and replying to all the messages...

"The official site is overflooded." She carefully took a glance at Lu Sicheng,

then continued in a small voice, "They're all asking for an explanation.

What should we do now? This time we won't be able get by from just

ignoring them..."

Just when she finished, Lu Yue, who was curled up and eating rice

crackers at the corner on the couch, raised his eyes to take a look at

Ming god. Ming god wasn't looking at him…...Lu Yue picked up his cell

phone to check what was being said about the whole thing. Before he

could raise his arm, the woman pressed the cell phone down. "Lu Yue,

don't look, there are no good words there."

Lu Yue put down the phone with a dark face.

Lu Sicheng kicked him. "Regret it now? I told you before that a professional

player is a public figure. It's not like you're in school anymore, you have to

watch your language and behavior so you don't hurt others and yourself."

Lu Yue, with rice cracker in his mouth, raised both hands to cover his

ears with no expression.

Lu Sicheng kicked him again.

The team manager, Xiao Rui, had kept quiet with a darkened face

up till now, "First of all, this incident is aimed at Lu Yue. He just came

back to the club after the ban lifted and someone put the video online.

Obviously, someone is trying to use public opinion to prevent him from

coming back..."

Xiao Rui continued after a short pause, "Only our people have this video

clip. Do you know why we kept this video a closely guarded secret back

then? Because the number of people who had viewed the video at the

time were less than 20, along with KTV staff and the police. The security

at KTV and the police were all middle-aged. In their eyes, this incident had

nothing to do with esports, just a bunch of young men brawling. The rest

are people from our club and JK-- --People from JK definitely wouldn't want

this video publicized. From a public relations perspective, there's no benefit

for JK to show the video in public. That was what we agreed on, to suppress

the incident from going public; they were even more eager than us to do so."

Tong Yao: "Why? Wasn't Lu Yue the one who hit them first?"

Lu Sicheng: "But they also fought back."

Tong Yao: "Justifiable self-defense?"

Lu Sicheng: "That's not how self-defense works. Have you seen the video?

Those people, in the beginning, tried to subdue Lu Yue; they pushed him

down and struggled to take his weapon away. That was justifiable self-defense.

But later on, they turned around and beat him up, that was assault-- --"

Lu Sicheng took a glance at Lu Yue. "If you ask me, he deserved it."

Lu Yue indifferently twitched his lips and turned his head away.

Xiao Rui gestured Lu Sicheng to stop and flatly said, "Thus one of our own

people did this. I don't know who, but I hope you'll confess. Then we can

discuss and try to solve it internally-- --Now rumors are flying out there,

everyone is in the teeth of the storm. If we can't stand together as a group,

then it'll turn into a big problem for us."

Right after Xiao Rui finished, Little Fatty rubbed his tummy then said with a

stone face, "I released the video."

Everyone was quiet.

Tong Yao silently touched her chin. She didn't expect Little Fatty to admit it

so fast and it was still a surprise to her that it actually was Little Fatty who

put the video up-- --

"Why was there a fight? Why drag Ming god down? Why drag the whole

team down?"

Little Fatty frowned and showed a scornful look in his eyes for the first time.

"It was so cool to knock a bottle on someone, wasn't it? Hehe, I used to fight

against ten people in front of my high school, it was cool, too. Yet, I stopped

doing that later on. Why? Because I know I'm a professional player now, I

have my teammates, my bosses, the club and the whole esports circle

behind me..."

Little Fatty breathed out a long breath. "In terms of the small picture, with this

one action of yours, Ming god's professional career came to an end. The

whole team wasted a whole year of hard work backing out of the world finals.

In terms of the bigger picture, how would society view the esports business

as a profession now? Internet addicted teenagers, goofing around, no future

in playing games-- --I hear these comments year after year. I'm tired of them

but I still can't raise my head to refute them. You explain to a hundred people

that we aren't like that, but turn around, there's one jackass teammate who can

be used as proof to tens of thousands of people: You're all correct. We're a bunch

of good-for-nothing just like you've said."

Little Fatty stood up. "I know it's quite boring to talk about all this. But this is

what I'm thinking-- --I'm annoyed. What I'm doing isn't something that I should

be ashamed of. But why can't I walk with my head held high?"

No one said anything after Little Fatty finished.

Lu Yue looked at Little Fatty, without anger, and no one could tell what he was

thinking from his face…...Lu Sicheng lightly commented, "too impulsive." Xiao Rui

kept sighing, "You young kids-- --"

Ming god furrowed his brows and called Lu Yue.

Lu Yue raised his head to take look at him.

Ming god paused a bit, then he seemed to make up his mind. No

longer looking at Lu Yue, he turned to look at Little Fatty instead and

suddenly spoke, "Little Fatty, you got it all wrong. There's more to it

than what you're seeing on the video. Ah Yue wouldn't let me tell you

about it all because he's afraid the incident would affect you-- --"

Lu Yue, who seemed to huddle up at the corner, abruptly stood up

from the couch. "Yu Ming."

Lu Sicheng lifted his foot to kick Lu Yue's knee. Lu Yue screeched

and fell back into the couch. Lu Sicheng stared at him as a warning,

then turned to ask Ming god, "I knew it wasn't as simple as that. You

better tell us what exactly happened."

...

The story began just as the summer season ended last year.

ZGDX had won the summer season championship and earned an

invitation to play in the world finals. It was an occasion for celebration.

After the celebration banquet, the team moved to KTV for karaoke.

Since the next day was a day off, everyone was drinking. Lu Yue had a

bit too much and everyone sent Yu Ming, who didn't drink at all, to take

Lu Yue to the restroom to wash his face and sober up...

On their way back, they ran into a group from team JK-- --This team was

originally attached to CK as its B team. Later on, it moved up from the

minor league to the professional major league. Since it was against the

rules to have two teams of the same club listed under the major league,

JK was sold to the son of a rich family, A. He spent big money to buy JK

so he could play professionally.

A became the captain of JK. Though he played well enough, he was

still far from

the professional level. Even though he had four other professional players

to support him, the team was still being bombarded at competitions…...

In the end, the team was at the bottom of the group and had to play another

low ranked team from the other group in a relegation match. The loser of

said relegation match would drop back down to the minor league. JK ended

up being said losing team-- --

Instead of hating the team which defeated them at the relegation match,

they blamed ZGDX, which was already guaranteed to move forward to the

next round, for not letting JK win one match so they could avoid being placed

at the bottom of the group.

"Damn it! If it wasn't for those ZGDX bastards, we wouldn't have been

downgraded just by losing one match! Even if we lost the match between

the second to last teams, we could still have had a chance to defeat second

ranked junior league team to keep our place in the major league."

"We might not be able to defeat a major league team, but taking down a

junior team would be as easy as eating cake."

"I just saw those guys from ZGDX. Looks like they're celebrating winning

the championship. They're here, too."

"Ha, now they've got the invitation, they're so bloated with arrogance.

Disgusting-- --What do they have to gain from getting us downgraded?

Why couldn't they just go easy on us? A Ge spent so much money to buy

the chance to play in the tournament and got downgraded just after one

season. All the money has been thrown into the water..."

They were talking very loud inside their private room, almost drowning

the singing from the next room…...Lu Yue who was supported by Ming god

suddenly stopped in front of their room when he overheard the conversation-- --

People inside the room continued talking. A person who had been quiet up

till now, the person referred to as A Ge by his teammates, smirked and spoke

in a surly voice, "They think they're going to the finals? In their dreams! We

have to let them have a taste of what we've been through..."

As he spoke, the room grew quiet, even those who were singing had

turned off the music.

Under the gaze of his JK teammates, A Ge took out his cell phone and

dialed a number. After the call connected, he spoke in a particularly pleasant tone-- --

"Go find a few more people to come outside the Caesar KTV. En, I'll let

you know when they come out…...You don't need to do anything, just waste

their hands. Haha, right, right, right-- --professional players-- --they can still play,

with their feet…...Oh, remember, don't touch the two good looking ones among

them. They're from the Lu family, it'll be big trouble if you hurt them. Don't worry

about the others, do whatever you must. I'll cover you if you get sued for damages.

Hurry and come over, I'm afraid they'll leave soon."

The voice inside the room could be heard clearly out in the hallway.

Alarmed by what he had overheard outside the room, Ming god was

about to go back to the team and warn them to leave before those people

arrived. He was also going to call the police on his cell phone-- --

But when he lowered his head, he saw the man that was leaning on him

seconds ago now had a different look in his eyes. Lu Yue straightened up

and turned to open the door to the room. Under the gaze of a bunch of

strangers, he held a liquor bottle and kicked the door open to JK's private room!

Before anyone realized what had happened, the bottle came down on A Ge's

head-- --Lu Yue spoke when he first entered the room, "Aren't you so great?

Try me. Paying for damages? I have money, too"

What followed was what everyone had seen on the video; punching and pushing

that only stopped after Ming god injured himself. They called the police and the

ambulance. After the police got there, they sent those who weren't badly hurt to

the station. Lu Yue, Yu Ming, and A Ge, whose head was bleeding, rode in the

ambulance to the hospital-- --

Then came the results from their medical examinations.

Though A Ge's head was bleeding, the wound was considered minor which

didn't constitute criminal liability. Lu Yue was locked up a few days for reeducation,

then paid for the damages…...However, Riot Games' Chinese office learned about

the incident. Everyone involved, except Ming god, was banned from competing for

different lengths of time. Lu Yue got banned for the whole year, the longest of the bunch.

Ming god went to the hospital. Though his wrist was injured, the doctor didn't give

his hand a death sentence but kept him under observation-- --

He might be able to make it to the world finals.

After Lu Yue was released from the police station, he went to the hospital to kneel

before Yu Ming's bed for a whole night. In addition to apologize to Yu Ming, he also

asked Yu Ming not to tell anyone about the cause of the whole incident. He was afraid

that it would scare their teammates and affect their performance at the finals. He didn't

want a whole year's of effort go to waste…...At first, Yu Ming disagreed but in the end

Lu Yue persuaded him-- --

Lu Yue told him: I'm banned and you're hurt. Why did all this happen? If the others

found out that they were facing such threats while playing professionally, then

everything I've done will be worthless.

Those words convinced Ming god to keep it a secret.

Ming god's hand hadn't healed by the time the team had to turn in their list of players

for the finals. With one mid banned and the other mid hurt, ZGDX had no choice but to

announce their withdrawal from the world finals at the last minute.

Afterwards, Yu Ming did want to tell everyone that it wasn't Lu Yue's fault for starting

the brawl, but Lu Yue wouldn't let him. Then Lu Yue left the team and disappeared for

half a year. He didn't contact anyone, didn't even go home for the Chinese New Year-- --

Until today.

…...

Yu Ming took his time to go into the details of the story, from beginning to end. By

the conclusion, everyone was so quiet that one could hardly hear the sound of someone

breathing…...Though it could be argued that Lu Yue was simply too impulsive, it was

something that a 17 year old would do-- --

It was like a high schooler who had overheard that someone in the class next door

was going to gather a crowd to beat him up outside of the school. The high schooler's

first reaction wouldn't be to call the police or reporting it to the teacher; rather he would

find a way to gather even more people to beat up the instigator.

Besides, Lu Yue was doing it all by himself. Before he kicked open the door with beer

bottle in hand, he had pushed Ming god away from the door. He didn't intend to pull Ming

god into it from the beginning.

It was an unfortunate accident that Ming god to hurt his hand which was something no

one wanted to happen.

When Ming god finished his story, there was a rather complex expression on

Little Fatty's face. He took out of his cell phone to delete the post in front of everyone.

Then he turned around to go upstairs, closing his room door.

The staff who were responsible for public relations and publicity got together with

Xiao Rui to discuss how to make the truth go public. Though it might not completely

urn public opinion around, at least they had to let the public know that ZGDX wasn't

the one who instigated the whole incident.

Lu Sicheng sat on the couch with his arms crossed, looking at his brother,

"Tried to play hero."

Lu Yue lowered his head, kept chewing his rice crackers, and glanced at Ming god

with furrowed eyebrows. "Told you not to say all that nonsense." Ming god smiled

and patted Lu Yue's head, "You've been wronged for so long, can't let you take the

blame anymore."

Lu Yue impatiently pushed his hand away.

Tong Yao now began to feel the overbearing pressure which had hovered over

the base had finally been lifted.

That afternoon, as the rest of the team's staff discussed how to handle

the whole situation, Lu Sicheng began his stream-- --Right now, streaming

was practically the same as having a news conference. His stream chat

was overflowing; everyone was asking what the video clip in the morning

was all about...

Lu Sicheng was still playing; the only thing different was that he had for the

first time turned on bullet comments. He would selectively answer some of

the questions as he played-- --

"Lu Yue was the one who struck first all right, because the people that JK

called had already parked their cars in the parking lot."

"It's true that Ming god's injury was an accident, but it was still caused by

the incident…...His hand before this? He had old wounds, torn tendons and

such, which is quite normal for someone playing his position. We've always

had a therapist with the team."

"Who released the video? Can't tell you, you're too curious. You would only

last for half of an episode in a TV drama."

"...The video was released by Smiling because she was afraid of being

replaced?" Lu Sicheng's hand jerked and missed a last hit while farming

minions. He turned the camera head around, "Ask her yourself."

In the camera, the person who was eating potato chips while watching

American TV dramas looked back in surprise. She turned around with chips

stuffed inside her mouth and asked with a muffled voice, "Why are you filming me?"

"Someone said you released the video." The calm voice of the man came

from offscreen.

Tong Yao widened her eyes and stood up on her chair, pulling up her sleeves,

"Go to hell, I was going to school abroad last year! Where could I get this video

when it only circulated internally! Do you think I'm from FBI!"

The man: "You just spit your chips out."

The girl: "..."

While the girl lifted her hand to cover her mouth in a fluster, a large hand turned

the camera view. After the hand had moved away, the expressionless face of the

captain of ZGDX filled the view. "You guys hear all that?"

The bullet comments, in addition to the earlier questions, now had more comments

like, "23333333", "hahahahahahaha", "it's so cute that she stood on the chair", and

some more perverted people noticing something totally different-- --

[Have I seen Smiling's sleeping gown!]

[Ahhhh, a girl's sleeping gown! It's white!]

[Captain, what's your Mid wearing! Is it a sleeping gown!]

[Let me have one more look at my wife! ! ! ! !]

For these comments, no one knew whether Lu Sicheng had actually seen them or

not. All they knew was that after 30 seconds, their screens went dark with a

notification, "The host isn't home"-- --

The man had turned off the steam without a word.

Everyone was stunned. Five minutes later, they noticed on their Weibo that he,

who hardly ever posted anything on Weibo, had posted a new message. The

message was very simple: Internet got hacked.

As for whether it was true or not-- --

"Our internet was hacked this afternoon?"

On the dinner table, Tong Yao who had been watching American TV dramas for

the whole afternoon, asked with a confused face.

"It did."

"How come I don't know about it?"

"Videos have buffered memory."

"...Oh." Tong Yao nodded and put down her cell phone. "Cheng Ge, why haven't

you followed me on Weibo?"

"I did."

"No, you haven't." Tong Yao lifted her cell phone to show Lu Sicheng the single arrow

on the lower left hand corner. "See, you didn't. It can't be the system messed up?"

"I cancelled it."

"? ? ? ? ?"

"You make too many Weibo posts. When I get on, it's all about you."

"..."

"It's annoying."

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

Tong Yao put down the cell phone and ate two more bites. She still couldn't get over

the fact that Lu Sicheng had cancelled follow her. "Women like to post every little thing

on Weibo! What do you know!"

Lu Sicheng: "I don't know, so I cancelled. What's the problem?"

Tong Yao: "..."