CHAPTER 64

Back at base, Tong Yao and Lu Sicheng received a rousing welcome from everyone, though Lu Sicheng's recently washed car was now filled with the smell of crayfish and needed another wash…...Little Fatty was streaming and showed off the ten pounds of crayfish that was his share to his fans. Before he ended the stream to go eat the crayfish, he sincerely announced to his fans: Cheng Ge is a good man who keeps his words.

The bullet comments went like-- --

[Well said, so when are the two Cs of your team going to get married?]

[What marriage? They're happily eating their crayfish now. The team is all grade schoolers and kindergarteners.]

[...........ZGDX teammates get along so well.]

[Any team that's doing well certainly gets along well. That goes without saying…...Besides, with Lu Sicheng the big investor who buys food everyday, even I can be happy all the time.]

[So, how much is all the crayfish?]

[Lu Sicheng is really rich, how much does he make a year?]

[Don't you know that Lu Sicheng comes from a rich family? If you don't believe me, look at Lu Yue. He's just a substitute, how much can he make? But he wears the same watch as his brother. Do you know how much that watch costs? It starts from 800,000 RMB my friend.]

[Turn the camera over, let me see the other guys. I don't want to watch you, Little Fatty.]

"Watch your words. You expect me to turn the camera for you with that attitude?" Little Fatty pinched a crayfish which was larger than his palm and kept showing off: "Have you ever seen a crayfish this big? It's 150 or 160 a pound. Before it's cooked, the bubbles it made are rainbow colored..."

[This shrimp is poisonous.]

[It's full of hormones.]

[A Mary Sue among crayfish wrecked by you.]

[It had drunk liquid detergent…...233333333333333]

"Little Fatty, are you done showing off? Do you want to eat or not?"

Old Cat's voice came from behind, mixed with the rustling sound of plastic bags being torn open…...Little Fatty looked back and found Old K was taking a selfie of himself, the teammates behind him and the crayfish. After taking the shot, he posted it on Weibo. Little Fatty put down the crayfish in his hand and checked the Weibo post: "Old K, there's problem with your post, what do you mean by 'everyone's here'? Have you seen your support in it?"

"Who told you to stay over there? I'll photoshop you into it?" Old K put down the cell phone and put on disposable gloves.

Lu Sicheng sneered and sat there playing with his cell phone without touching the crayfish.

"Why don't you eat?" Tong Yao kicked him.

Lu Sicheng looked up at her without saying anything. Lu Yue was peeling the shrimp in his hands: "He doesn't want to bother with peeling them. Besides, it will make his hands smell."

Lu Sicheng: "That smell won't even dissipate till the next day. Terrible."

Lu Yue tipped his chin up to Tong Yao as if to say: See. "...He cares too much about his idol facade. He'll eat it unless you peel one for him and put it in the bowl."

"Damn, you think you're eating Boston Lobster and need others to serve you." Tong Yao nagged while swiftly taking off the shrimp head, peeling off the shell, pulling out the vein, dipping it in the sauce, and delivering it next to Lu Sicheng's mouth: "Open your mouth, ah."

Lu Sicheng backed away trying to avoid it. Tong Yao mumbled: "You watched me peel it, I didn't put any rat poison on it." Seeing him still resisting, Tong Yao raised her brows and said nevermind. Just as she retracted her arm to put the crayfish in her own mouth, Lu Sicheng came forward and bit up to the tail of the shrimp and pull it into his mouth.

Tong Yao: "..."

Tong Yao asked Lu Sicheng again: "Do you want more?"

Lu Sicheng: "You like to peel shrimp for other people?"

Tong Yao: "I was going to say that even if you want more, I'm not going to serve you. I'm just letting you have a taste since it's your money. This is a courtesy-- --Who are you talking to?"

Lu Sicheng turned the screen of his cell phone away from her: "What does it have anything to do with you?"

Tong Yao: "You asked me the same question earlier, so I'm asking it now-- --"

Before she could finish, a slap landed on her forehead. Tong Yao screeched and shrunk back. Lu Sicheng mumbled: "No respect to elders." Then he stood up from the chair next to Tong Yao's and changed to one farther away from her…...Lu Yue interrupted: "Tsk, tsk, tsk. You two played a 1v1 this morning and flirted by feeding crayfish at night. What a loving couple."

Lu Yue's voice was a bit loud and there was an immediate response on Little Fatty's screen as bullet comments flew by-- --

[Who's feeding who? Who's a loving couple with who?]

[I just heard Smiling tell someone to open his mouth!]

[Damn Fatty, I dare you to turn the camera and give us a look-- --Who wants to watch you eating crayfish! ! ! Go away! ! ! !]

[Turn the camera, turn the camera-- --]

Little Fatty gigled in his seat: "Well, I'm not turning the camera." "My hands are greasy, can't turn the camera." "Come hit me, hahahahaha." "Why, it's enough just watching me." As he was joyously teasing his fans, he saw one comment fly by-- --

[Little Fatty, waiting for you at C City next week. Muah.]

Little Fatty stopped stuffing crayfish into his mouth and looked up at his teammates not far away with a confused look on his face. Then he checked the comment again and blinked: "What C City?"

There were more comments. Those who were just asking him to turn the camera now started to fill him in about the news: The ZGDX official Weibo site has just released news that all the major players of the ZGDX will fly to C City Saturday of next week and show up at a certain anime convention. They will be there to promote a certain brand of peripheral equipment from one of the team's sponsors.

Little Fatty: "...?"

Little Fatty's reaction to the news was utter confusion: "Next week we have an event at C City? Anime convention? What anime convention-- --Our team? That can't be right. Why don't I know about this... We have two matches next week, against Obsidian on Friday and against Red Arrow on Sunday. How can we fly to C City for an event with just Saturday being the only free day? Fly in and out the same day?"

As he was talking, the smile disappeared from his face. He took off the disposable gloves and murmured: "Let me go ask." Then he turned off the stream.

Little Fatty then checked the official site of ZGDX on his cell phone. He discovered that about an hour ago, the official site had indeed posted the news. What was suspicious about the news release was that it didn't @ any of the teammates who owned a Weibo account. It was a unilateral announcement-- --

As if headquarters was afraid that the team would find out about it. How sneaky.

"Xiao Rui, what is this. We have an event at C City next Saturday? Damn, wake up friend, it takes at least 2 or 3 hours to fly to C City, it's in the other half of the country. Do you think it's like going for a field trip to the suburbs? I wouldn't have even known about it if the fans hadn't mentioned it on the bullet comments..."

Little Fatty slapped the cell phone on the table as he yelled. Those who were sitting around the table eating crayfish were taken back-- --Old Cat stretched his head over to look at the screen of Little Fatty's phone and frowned. Old Cat looked up at Little Fatty first: "Did you turn off the stream?"

Little Fatty: "Yes."

Old Cat then turned to look at Xiao Rui and asked quite frankly: "Is there something wrong with this sponsor?"

"Headquarters did tell me that there might be an event like this, but it isn't confirmed yet-- --I told them that we have matches both on Friday and Sunday and won't have the energy to do any events. They said they will negotiate with the sponsor further to see whether we can have the B team to go instead..." Xiao Rui also stood up and reached over to check Little Fatty's cell phone. "Damn, looks like the result of their negotiations is sneakily making the announcement without even letting us know?"

Everyone: "..."

After sitting there dumbfounded for a while, Tong Yao suddenly realized something. She took off the disposable gloves and crawled on top of several chairs to get besides Lu Sicheng. With a swift move, before Lu Sicheng could react, she pulled the cell phone out of Lu Sicheng's hand and took a close look-- --

Just as she had expected, their captain was arguing with people at headquarters about the arrangement while all the others were happily enjoying crayfish...

Xiao Ma from the marketing department of ZGDX: QAQ all the sponsors are our providers, Cheng Ge. Just agree to it?

Lu Sicheng: No.

Xiao Ma: As far as I know the two teams you're against next week aren't strong teams. It won't affect your team's performance just go to C City for the event between two matches...

Lu Sicheng: No.

Xiao Ma: If you are against attending this kind of events, why don't you buy up the whole ZGDX club?

Lu Sicheng: My last name is Lu, not Ma.

Xiao Ma: We all have to make a living, Cheng Ge.

Lu Sicheng: Alright, I'll make up whatever difference there is for this event. Let them divest, then.

Xiao Ma: Don't let us be caught in the middle, Cheng Ge. I'm discussing this with you because you're one of the owners, but your strong objection puts us at headquarters in quite a difficult position. We already made the official announcement!

Lu Sicheng: It's you guys who are being unrealistic. Agreeing to any demand from the sponsors only because there's money there. Now you tell me our refusal to cooperate is giving you a difficult time? Furthermore, did I let you make the official announcement? You really know how to act first, ask later?

The exchange between Xiao Ma and Lu Sicheng continued in similar fashion until Lu Sicheng's responses grew nasty in the end. Just from reading those words, Tong Yao felt like grabbing a pot lid to shield her head and quietly crawl away-- --

At this point, since the official site had already announced the event, it was hard to back away from the commitment. They had to consider the reaction from the fans who had purchased tickets for the anime convention as soon as the news came out. Then it would be hard to give the sponsor a satisfactory explanation for the team's cancellation. Even if Lu Sicheng was willing to make up the funds from the sponsor and ask them to divest, the whole incident would still deter other potential sponsors from investing...

The club headquarters definitely wouldn't allow its League of Legend team to have its own way...After all, those who invest in the club aren't doing simply because of a dream to build Chinese esports; they are businessmen first and all businessmen want to make money.

"...It's alright, we can go and come back on the same day." Though Tong Yao was also displeased with the arrangement, she comforted Lu Sicheng anyway since she sensed his growing anger: "We'll just rest less, it's only one day."

"You don't understand." Lu Sicheng gave her a glance: "This isn't the first time these kinds of things have happened. You back down this time, more will come later-- --Last year, before you joined the team, we had stopped various events like this at least dozens of times. Go ask Xiao Rui."

Tong Yao turned to look at Xiao Rui, who returned a wry smile.

This was the first commercial event since Tong Yao had joined the team. She walked over to Xiao Rui, sat down next to him, and wore the disposable gloves again to eat crayfish: "What are these kinds of events like?"

"Play some matches with fans, sign autographs, take pictures with fans, and interact with them, things like that." Xiao Rui replied: "It usually goes like that."

"Oh, then that's not that bad. It doesn't sound like a hard job."

"C City is hot as a hot pot lately and the anime convention is indoors. It'll be so crowded, that I'm afraid our players will get a heat stroke and affect our performance the next day." Xiao Rui sighed: "We're being preyed on."

Tong Yao used the back of her hand to pat Xiao Rui's back as a comforting gesture: "It's alright, it's alright. We can take it."

...

The competition next week came quickly.

The match against Obsidian was much easier than Tong Yao had anticipated-- --Obsidian had probably lost the will to fight against the leading team in the A group since they had lost all their prior matches, being last in A group with 0 points. The matches with Obsidian started at 5 o'clock in the afternoon and ended by 6:30...

Tong Yao was named MVP for two of the matches.

She also earned her first 5 kills in her professional career.

After the match was over, she took off her earphones and stood up, ready to go shake hands with the opposing team. Suddenly, she heard people in the audience calling her name. She turned to take a look and found a group of fans in the audience holding a support plaque with her name on it-- --The colorful support plaque was one amongst a sea of plaques that had other names like Lu Sicheng, Little Fatty, and her other teammates. Though hers were inconspicuous, Tong Yao found it just at a glance.

She heard the people shouting her name, cheering for her-- --Voices from both men and women; though the shouting wasn't uniform, Tong Yao still felt it was the best cheering she had ever heard.

Tong Yao squinted and her lips curved into a smile. She raised her hand to wave at her fans in the direction of the plaque, then she shouted: "Thanks." The audience burst into laughter-- --She was the first professional player to act so thrilled onstage.

Lu Sicheng, who stood behind her, rolled his eyes. He pressed down on her head with his big hand: "Shame on you."

"I have fans. Ahhh, see that, Cheng Ge? Have you seen that, my support plaque!"

With such excited insistence, Lu Sicheng took a perfunctorily look at the audience then simply said "en"-- --

"You see it? See it? My support plaque!"

"I saw it."

"Hmph, you haven't seen it. You're just brushing me off!"

"I said I saw it. The one with an idiotic cat head on it, right? Would you cut it out, already?"

"..."

After the players of ZGDX bowed to the audience, they turned to leave the stage. The entire audience saw their mid, who was following the ADC, raise her arm and give a forceful slap on his back.

Since they had finished the match early, including the time for Tong Yao's MVP interviews, the team still had plenty of time to gather their belongings then head to the airport.

On the way to the airport, Tong Yao had nothing else to do but check the posts on Tieba. All the posts were quite critical of the Obsidian team. Many commented that if Obsidian didn't really want to win the competition, the team shouldn't have stayed in the major league. There were many teams in the junior league who were fighting hard to get into major league…...Some even said that the reason why the Chinese professional league couldn't earn a better standing in the world was because there were shameless teams like Obsidian!

Tong Yao asked Ming god about Obsidian and learned that they had almost lost their position in the major league last season. They made a comeback in their last match in the last season to stay in.

Tong Yao: "A win is a win."

Ming god: "En. But personally, I do think they aren't that strong compared to some teams in the junior league-- --Most of junior league teams lack experience. If they could play a few round-robin matches, they would probably perform better than some of the bottom teams in the major league."

Tong Yao continued checking Tieba.

Then she happily discovered that she had finally earned some validation in the eyes of the fans, possibly because of her record 5 kills today. Amidst all the derogatory comments about Obsidian, there were some posts about her here and there: [Smiling is really fine], [That 5 kills wasn't easy, even if Obsidian's lousy], [I decide to take back my comment about girls playing games]...

Tong Yao randomly clicked on one post and found the first sentence of the post was -- --

[After watching today's matches, I begin to suspect that Smiling's victory in her 1v1 wasn't an accident. She's really good at the game, fully in control of the lane and has a good understanding of strategy...]

Tong Yao couldn't help but giggle.

The man sitting behind her kicked the back of her chair: "Haven't you been giggling foolishly enough?"

Tong Yao turned around, ready to retort, when she saw the man behind her had already pulled his jacket over his face to take a nap…...Tong Yao rolled her eyes and sat back down in her seat to continue reading. Lu Yue reached over and said flatly: "If we win the Red Arrow the day after tomorrow again, we'll be all wins and no losses in the group. It looks like no one will question your position as one of the top three mids in the major league."

Tong Yao couldn't stop herself giggling again.

...

It was about 8:30 at night when they arrived at the airport.

The team was dismissed after everyone received their own boarding pass; they would have to be back at the terminal at 10:30 to get ready to board the plane. Little Fatty dragged Tong Yao to eat dinner together, then went to buy some skin moisturizer.

Tong Yao carried several bags with her as she boarded the plane. It was late at night and the passengers on the plane all spoke in low voices. She concentrated on the number on the seats as she passed the rows and eventually reached her own seat-- --

She looked down and saw her captain sitting at the window seat.

Tong Yao: "..."

Damn.

The man was wearing his earbuds with a darkened face; probably still irritated at the commercial event they were forced to attend tomorrow…...He seemed to notice there was someone standing still next to him and lifted his eyelids to take a glance at her. Then he pulled one of the earbuds off: "What are you looking at?"

"..."

Tong Yao thought: I'm looking at you.

"Sit, you're blocking the aisle."

Tong Yao hurriedly sat down in the seat next to Lu Sicheng amid the unhappy gaze from the people behind her. While she was buckling the seatbelt, she accidentally brushed past Lu Sicheng and he moved away a little. Tong Yao instantly sprang away like a startled animal-- --then she began to curl up towards the opposite side-- --until she helplessly watched Little Fatty's huge body approach her like a hill and sat down in the aisle seat next to her.

Tong Yao: "..."

Little Fatty: "What a coincidence, ha."

Tong Yao: "..."

Little Fatty: "We probably won't get there till after midnight. If you get sleepy, you can lean on my soft shoulder to take a rest."

Tong Yao embarrassingly sat up straight a little, though her body was still curved towards Little Fatty's direction and her head was very close to Little Fatty's shoulder.

Lu Sicheng who was playing with his cell phone suddenly looked up at her. After a short pause when their eyes met, he made a surprising statement: "Am I a pile of shit? Keeping such a distance from me?"

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

She concluded that the captain was really in a bad mood and she had better not make him unhappier.

Tong Yao sat up straight and lowered her head to pull her hair behind her ear-- --As she was doing that, the back of her hand unintentionally touched Lu Sicheng's shoulder. She could feel his body temperature through the thin layer of fabric between them.

Tong Yao suddenly felt like the rest of her body had disappeared, except the back of her hand.

And the back of her hand was so hot as if it was going to ignite at any moment.