CHAPTER 22

"You really believe that!" Little Fatty glanced at a nervous Tong Yao while

playing his game, "I went with him to buy the fish on the street, two for one,

three only costed five..."

Tong Yao: "..."

She put the cat down and sent a WeChat to the person called [djwdb2333]-- --

[Smiling: Liar! Little Fatty just told me those goldfish cost five RMB!]

Three seconds later, her cell phone vibrated.

[djwdb2333: you really believed that it costed 30,000?]

[djwdb2333: however, though goldfish can be bought with money, lives

are priceless.]

Tong Yao rolled her eyes towards the ceiling.

...

After Lu Sicheng left, the bickering between the two finally ended. For the

first few days, Tong Yan played duos with her teammates, watched some TV

dramas, played with her cat, and streamed. She was enjoying her life...

[Smiling: this is the normal daily life of a professional esports player. No one

laughs at you daily, you don't have to worry that someone will read aloud the

bullet comments. Lunch is ordinary take out that costs 20+ RMB. The bright

red flower on the back of my hand has almost faded, you can't tell if you're

not looking closely.]

[Smiling: it's simply so nice.]

Sitting on the bed, Tong Yao, with a candy in her mouth, slowly shared her

thoughts with her best friend, Jinyang. The screen showed that Jinyang was

'typing' for quite a while, Tong Yao believed that she was continuously deleting

what she had written...

One minute later, the new WeChat message finally jumped out-- --

[Ah Mao's mom: you miss him.]

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

She threw her cell phone again. The phone dropped on the floor with a loud

thud-- --A sense of deja vu, Tong Yao, who was sitting on the bed, subconsciously

raised her head to look at the door: Too bad, no one opened the door.

Tong Yao spaced out for a while on the bed until the candy had stuck to the

inside of her right cheek. She crushed the candy as if she was crushing someone's

neck, then jumped down from the bed to retrieve her cell phone. She speedily replied-- --

[Smiling: don't talk nonsense.]

[Smiling: I'm here only for a few days. I haven't established my empire yet, no

time for love affairs.]

[Ah Mao's mom: no need to say anything more. Looking forward to you and

Cheng Ge's wedding.]

[Ah Mao's mom: it's still a happy thing that the man I can't get becomes my best

friend's and I can see him all the time.]

[Smiling: bah.]

She put down her cell phone and messed up her hair in irritation. She got up

from bed, going downstairs to find all the others were sitting in front of their own

computer, playing games-- --They were still on vacation and the base didn't ask

them to train by playing ranked games. But it seemed that they didn't have

anything else better to do...

Their entertainment was League of Legends.

Their work was still League of Legends.

Tong Yao bent over to turn on her own computer. In the past few days, the one

who read out her bullet comments wasn't here and she had gotten more used

to streaming. In addition, she wouldn't team up randomly with her teammates

now…...In any case, her score had moved up gradually for about 400 points from

being Diamond 1 before Lu Sicheng's left. Today, if she could win a few more

matches, she would be back to Master.

"Tong Yao, are you coming?" Old K asked.

Tong Yao had just entered a new match, "I just got in one. You should ask

earlier. Where's Cat?"

"Upper jungle was a mess." Old K said, "He messed up promotion match, and

gave me Teemo at the most critical moment. I'll never play with him again."

"..."

Teemo was similar to Yasuo in a sense. For those who know how to play him,

he was a very strong champion. As for those who didn't know how to play--

--anyway, Old Cat was definitely not the former.

"Wait, till I finish this match. Yi."

Tong Yao, while speaking, found that one of her teammates for this match had

an id called "unlwer", who was assigned to play jungler. About 30 seconds

earlier, he typed on the team public chat: ya?

Tong Yao: "..."

What luck, she got was in a match with her ex, Jian Yang.

The next day, "Tong Yao, what's that thing on your hand?" The team

manager walked past her then backtracked, staring at the ugly flower

on her hand, "Did you sign a contract with some strange thing to become

a magical girl?"[1]

Tong Yao was nestled in the sofa with the cat. She raised her eyes,

about to complain, when a tall man, with luggage in tow, passed through

the two who were in a conversation. He casually commented, "Aren't you

a bit too old to become a magical girl by now?"

Tong Yao stood up from the sofa, "Speak nicely. You're about to leave,

won't it be better to leave with a good memory of the two of us?"

"I'm coming back next Friday."

Lu Sicheng set his luggage down and started to look around at the base

to see if he had forgotten anything-- --

Tong Yao: "Wallet, keys, cell phone."

Lu Sicheng paused to touch his pockets, "I have them all."

Tong Yao: "Go right ahead, Wukong."

Lu Sicheng slowly turned around, sizing Tong Yao up and down who was

almost sinking into the sofa. His eyes finally rested on the cat in her arms

…...After a short pause, he spoke in his deep voice, "You better keep a good

eye on this furry beast. This morning I saw it use its paw to stir inside my fishbowl."

"That's impossible." Tong Yao didn't believe him. "The cat's afraid of water."

"They're only afraid of water that doesn't have goldfish in it. There's cat

hair inside the bowl."

Lu Sicheng brought the fishbowl to Tong Yao, "Look."

Dabing excitedly raised its bottom as the fishbowl came near-- --Tong Yao

pushed the cat back onto the sofa. She a took look at the fishbowl…...

There were a few cat hairs floating in there.

"They flew in there."

"My sons are a mix between Italian and Russian purebloods. Their parents

all have certificates. One costs 30,000, three will be 90,000. They aren't

the cheap kind that you can buy from the market. You better be aware of that."

"..."

One goldfish costed 30,000, who would believe that…...They didn't look

any different from those you could buy from the market?

If it was coming from any other person, Tong Yao would never have believed

it. But it was coming from Lu Sicheng, who had paid five figures for hot pot,

she believed him-- --

Were the sons more expensive or the hot pot?

Certainly, the sons were more expensive.

Though she didn't quite understand how she came up with the comparison,

Tong Yao still sat up in the sofa and picked up Dabing, sighed, "Dabing, did

you hear? These fish are expensive and dirty, you can never eat them."

Lu Sicheng: "Who's dirty?"

Tong Yao: "...Sorry."

"Shorty, there's a problem with the way you educate your cat-- --If it's

something it shouldn't touch, then just tell it that it can't be touched." Lu

Sicheng put the fishbowl back. "You can't touch it, it has nothing to do with

the fact that it's unworthy to be touched."

"..."

"I'm worried how your kids will turn out under your care."

"You can educate them if you're so good at it." Tong Yao put the cat down

and countered without thinking, "I'm only responsible for giving birth, wouldn't

that be wonderful."

She didn't realized what she had just said until a few seconds later, when

everyone at the base, including Lu Sicheng, all turned to look at her quietly

…...She was puzzled, "What's wrong?"

"...Your relationship has developed to the point that you're having kids

together?" Xiao Rui said with a regretful expression, "Before I congratulate

you two, I have to remind you two: ZGDX forbids relationships among teammates."

Tong Yao was about to ask how could a bunch of men have relationships.

Before she opened her mouth, she was suddenly struck by Leblanc's

ultimate, "Mimic", replaying the words she had just spoken in her brain-- --

Damn, what did she just say? !

Tong Yao's face blushed then turned pale, her mind blanked…...Lu Sicheng,

at this juncture, acted normally, looked at his watch and said it was time for

him to go to the airport. He dragged his luggage and walked out the door.

As soon as Lu Sicheng left, Dabing jumped onto his desk to stir inside the

fishbowl as if to show off to Tong Yao proof that the man hadn't wronged it--

--Tong Yao dragged the cat from the desk and slapped its bottom, "It costs

30,000 each! If you kill any one of them, you'll be sent back home immediately!"

Dabing stretched out its little short leg, with was wet with the faint smell of fish,

to touch Tong Yao's mouth.

[1]: If you don't know what this is. See the wikipedia article for Sailor Moon.

Tong Yao imagined what it would be like when the Jungler never

came to gank mid in the coming match and seriously considered

backing out of the game. Then she decided that she rather not lose

points without trying, especially since she finally had the opportunity

to return to Master if she won this match. (*After a game begins, a

player who leave the game will lose League points for the match,

but not for their teammates.) She began to pray that Jian Yang would

be sensible enough to back out of the match himself-- --

When it was time for Jian Yang to pick a champion, he instantly

locked in as Lee Sin.

Tong Yao had no choice but to choose her own champion. After

all five players settled on their champions, the match began. Tong

Yao saw an id on the other team and cried out, "I'm playing against

Cheng Ge, he's the Jungler on the other side..."

"Then he probably will stay put at mid now…...But you have Yang

God on your side, don't worry." Little Fatty stretched his head out

to take a look, "We're always worried when he plays Jungler. Yang

God can take him down any time. You guys are fine this match."

Tong Yao fidgeted when she heard the possibility of Cheng Ge

setting up shop at mid. Whether Yang God was on her team or not

wasn't going to change anything since she didn't expect Jian Yang

to come to mid to help at all-- -- "Treat each other as stranger,

everyone for themselves," was the basic survival principle when

an ex-boyfriend and ex-girlfriend unfortunately met in a game.

The same time that Tong Yao's team spawned in the fountain, she

started to type on the public chat-- --

[zgdx, smiling: cheng ge, I'll be back to Master after I win this! ! !]

[zgdx, smiling: Please, don't mess me up! ! !]

[zgdx, smiling: I'm kowtowing...]

However, there was no response from the other side.

When they were level 3, Cheng Ge paid a visit to mid. Fortunately,

Tong Yao had prepared for it and kept the minion lane right under

the outer turret. Lu Sicheng's champion wasn't strong enough to

tower dive, he simply walked around mid then moved towards top...

Tong Yao warned her comrade at top and finished farming under her

turret. Just as she was ready to return to base, the enemy's mid used

abilities to harass her at range, interrupting her return. Tong Yao

murmured, "Don't get so confident..."

She hadn't even finished the sentence, when a ward appeared behind

them. Jian Yang's Lee Sin jumped out and, with a roundhouse kick,

booted the enemy's mid into his outer turret. At the beginning of the

game, the damage a turret could cause was limited. Tong Yao hurriedly

used her ability to control the other mid so he couldn't run away.

Together with Jian Yang, Tong Yao killed the enemy's mid-- --

Jian Yang left the killing blow to Tong Yao, turning around to go to bot.

Looking at his back and the 300 gold from the kill, Tong Yao suddenly

felt that her ex looked as if he was 7 feet tall today.

But what followed made Tong Yao's life miserable…...Jian Yang's

action seemed to have struck a wrong nerve on a certain person-- --

Lu Sicheng was indeed acting as if he lived at mid; he would come to

mid every few minutes and killed Tong Yao three times in a row. She

was so frustrated, she started to type on the public chat-- --

[zgdx, smiling: don't come, don't come. Are you a human being?]

No response.

Tong Yao hesitated, then decided on a softer approach-- --

[zgdx, smiling: Cheng Ge, I miss you a lot. When are you coming back?]

[zgdx, smiling: The cat is behaving and so am I.]

[zgdx, smiling: Since I miss you so much, please don't come to mid.

Bot looks good too.]

As she was typing, the two mids were fighting. Lu Sicheng helped his

mid in a frenzy, making it impossible for Jian Yang to give her a hand.

It seemed that everyone was concentrating on mid-- --

Tong Yao began to have the illusion that mid had became a lane for

two people.

Jian Yang was a veteran Jungler and more familiar with jungler

champions than Lu Sicheng. However, Lu Sicheng was a genius at

maneuvering. The result was that neither of them were able to gain an

advantage, except for their teammates at top and bot who kept pinging

their allies about missing enemy champions-- --

The two at bot on Tong Yao's team were Korean and she didn't understand

what they were talking about. Top, however, was Chinese. Finally, he had

enough and typed on public chat: What are you guys doing?

Tong Yao, in the meantime, was still trying hard to interfere with the

enemy Jungler with her spirit-- --

[zgdx, smiling: Cheng Ge, we have good weather in Shanghai today.]

[zgdx, smiling: I looked up at the stars last night, the blinking stars

are just like your eyes...]

She had tried everything, but the other side still refused to respond!

Tong Yao began to suspect that Lu Sicheng didn't know how to

type on the public chat…...Then, she saw Jian Yang had left a line:

He's ignoring you, what's the point of talking so much.

"..."

Tong Yao instantly stopped typing...

-- --[You miss him.]

She seemed to hear the voice of her friend, Jinyang. Staring at

Jian Yang's line, Tong Yao quieted down, feeling that he did have

a point. Looking at all her messages, there was not even a single

punctuation mark in reply. She was indeed hyping herself up too much.

That was true, he was ignoring her.

Tong Yao cast down her eyes, she had lost any interest to continue

typing. Actually, she had even lost interest in finishing the match-- --

It didn't matter now whether she could get back to Master. All she

wanted to do now was finish the match as soon as possible, so she

could get back onto her bed and stroke her cat, watch some tv, and

console her broken heart.

In the meantime, Jian Yang was still at it-- --

Why do you talk so much to him for.

If you want to win, I'll carry you then.

He's just ignoring you.

What's the fun of running a monologue?

...

In the game, the mid with the id of zgdx.smiling suddenly went

ballistic after thirty minutes into the game and mercilessly beat the

enemy's mid into the floor.

Outside the game, Tong Yao was stone faced.

The cell phone on her desk rang at that moment. Tong Yao didn't

like getting calls while she was playing games. Without looking who

was calling, she picked up the phone with a frown and answered it.

As she was about to say that she would call back later, she heard a

deep male voice came from the other side of the phone-- --

"Why did you stop typing?"

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

The sound of the clicking mouse abruptly stopped.

"I've taken care of everything here. I've changed my ticket to fly

back tomorrow. You and your cat all better behave."

"...."

"I'm hanging up now."

"..."

Tong Yao kept holding the phone until the busy tone sounded in the

phone. She went totally blank, at a loss of what to think.

Inside the game, her comrade, 'unlwer', without knowing what had

happened a second ago, kept typing-- --

Cheng Ge doesn't like to type while playing games. In the real

world, he doesn't like to talk either.

No matter how much you say, he won't respond.

It's like talking to a wall.

Hey, what happened! Internet dropped? AFK?

Come on, I'll get you that win. I know you want to be back at Master…...