Bab 32: CHAPTER 32
Lu Sicheng's news conference stirred another wave of discussion. Those
who voiced doubts about what really had happened began to top the
nasty comments about Lu Yue. After the public calmed down, they began
to analyze the information presented in the stream-- --Lu Sicheng's responses
during the stream in the afternoon were cut into short clips by fans and others
to be uploaded onto other media platforms. People started doing detective
work on his choice of words. Some even perceived his dissatisfaction at the
current esports environment simply by the tone of a random word. It was
interpreted as his annoyance at society's bias towards the esports.
Tong Yao laughed at Lu Sicheng. With just one stream, Lu Sicheng had
become the Lu Xun[1] of the esports world.
However, her laughter didn't last long. When she went on to check Tieba, she
soon discovered that whenever someone said, "It's Smiling who put the video
up," there would be a reply: Wait for the picture.
Then, a gif of Tong Yao standing on the chair, pulling up her sleeves, and
spitting out chips would appear. There was even captions next to the picture:
Go to hell, do you think I'm from FBI!
.......Watching her own meme, she lost whatever energy
she had to laugh at Lu Sicheng.
Before they went to bed that night, Xiao Rui and the other staff members finally
had their official announcement ready to post. Everyone, under the instruction
of Xiao Rui, went on their own Weibo accounts to repost it.
After the truth was released, with members of the team reposting onto their
own sites, public opinion gradually turned to their favor. Their fans flocked behind
them. Some began questioning team JK, questioning whether those rich kids
were corrupting the esports circle-- --Though some would argue that Lu Yue had
better ways to handle the situation, like calling the police, there were others
defending him: Has there been a young man who hasn't gotten into a fight?
Besides, JK started the whole incident.
By the time Tong Yao took a shower and crawled onto bed, the issue was still a
hot topic online but it wasn't as toxic as it had been in the afternoon. People were
posting on CK's official Weibo site accusing them. CK's offcial site was forced to
come out to release a statement: Team JK was sold a long time ago and it has
nothing to do with the CK team.
CK also came out clean.
This incident had finally come to an end…...Tong Yao cuddled inside the blanket
to view all the comments on Tieba. She lamented that today was the first time in
her life that she was part of the center of a storm and all those people who were
the target of discussion were all living around her.
It was quite something to be part of the esports world.
She yawned and put down her cell phone after her fat cat walked over her for the
third time. She let Dabing under the blanket, then closed her eyes and fell asleep
quickly.
...
Next day around noon, Little Fatty, in an unprecedented event, was up early. What's
more surprising was that he personally cooked lunch for everyone at the base: curry
with chicken, beef, and potato, which didn't require much cooking skill.
As an overweight person, the only thing Little Fatty could think of as compensation for
all the trouble he had caused to the team yesterday was to cook a meal for everyone-- --
This was what Tong Yao guessed-- --Though, she felt that Little Fatty had suffered
enough after being deducted of 3 months salary plus bonus as punishment for his rash
action. It was very possible that for the next few months he had to rely on the other
teammates to donate some food to him when they ordered out.
"I volunteer to donate a braised chicken rice bowl for 15 days." Tong Yao said.
"It's alright." Little Fatty, who was wearing an apron and busy preparing the ingredients
for the curry, answered even without turning his head, "I deserved it."
Tong Yao stood on her tippy toes to pat Little Fatty's fuzzy head with a sigh.
Though she was sympathetic to Little Fatty, she was too hungry to leave him alone. She
followed him around like a tail and asked every 3 minutes, "Do you want me to cut the
meat for you?" "Do you want me to peel the potato for you?" "Do you want me to wash
the pot?"-- --In the end, Little Fatty couldn't stand her anymore and drove her out of the
kitchen. After about an hour, Tong Yao was so famished that she collapsed on the dining
table as the other sleeping beauties were just beginning to come down to the table one
after another.
When everyone sat down at the table, Little Fatty took out bowls of curry rice from
the kitchen...
When he brought the bowl to Lu Yue, they eyed each other. Tong Yao felt the
awkwardness in the air-- --Little Fatty put down the bowl and hurried away. Lu Yue
didn't say anything, just went into the kitchen to get a spoon and started eating without
much expression on his face...
Tong Yao sniffled and began eating with her wooden spoon. There wasn't much meat
in the bowl. The meat was so precious that everyone would eat one bite of potato, then
curry, then rice, then meat. Old Cat complained after two bites, "Little Fatty, even your
salary have been deducted, you don't have to be so stingy with meat."
"Yeah, I just saw you cut the meat, it was quite a lot..." Tong Yao chimed in.
"Give it to me if you don't want to eat it." Little Fatty, who was the last one to sit down,
flatly said.
Tong Yao gave a sympathetic look at Old Cat. She lowered her head to continue eating
her share of curry rice without any further complaint. As she worked on her bowl of
curry rice, she noticed something seemed off in the corner of her eyes: As everyone was
treating the few pieces of meat like a treasure, the one who was sitting right next to her
seemed to have either beef or chicken in every bite. She observed for a while, finally put
down her spoon, wiped her mouth with a napkin, and called Lu Yue.
Lu Yue: "?"
Tong Yao used her two fingers to pull Lu Yue's bowl, which was as big as a flower pot,
over to her side. Lu Yue raised his eyebrows, "What are you doing?"
Tong Yao grabbed his spoon and began to dig down to the bottom of his bowl.
Underneath a thick layer of rice, there was another thick layer of both kinds of meat.
Tong Yao used a voice which could be heard by all the people around the table, "Damn,
it can't be, Little Fatty! I thought no one will do such a thing now as to hide more food at
the bottom of the bowl for one's favorite child!"
Everyone: "..."
Little Fatty: "........."
Lu Yue: "..."
[1] A famous early 20th century Chinese writer
Ming god put down his spoon and wiped his mouth, sighed and spoke
with a smile in the tone of an old man, "You bunch of kids." Little Fatty
blushed, glared at Tong Yao, then fled back to his room after picking up
his own bowl, slamming the door shut-- --
Lu Yue watched Little Fatty fleeing without much expression on his face.
A few seconds later, Little Fatty opened his door, darting to the top of the
staircase as if a fire was chasing after him, and deeply bowed to the direction
of the dining table. "Lu Yue, I've made a mistake. I didn't get the facts straight
before bringing you all this trouble. I'm sorry!"
Without waiting for Lu Yue's response, Little Fatty hurriedly turned around
back to his room and shut the door again as if he was afraid his apology
would be rejected!
Little Fatty's apology caught everyone off guard.
There was a short moment of silence around the table.
After a short while, Lu Sicheng opened his mouth, "That door will fall off
sooner or later if he keeps slamming it." Then he looked at everyone at
the table and spoke as the captain, "What are you all looking at? Eat."
Everyone then lowered their head and continued eating. Lu Yue casted
an eye at Tong Yao and grabbed his large bowl and spoon back. Xiao Rui
happily said, "Yeah, that's good. Now that Little Fatty isn't against it anymore,
then there should be no more objections to Lu Yue coming back to the team?
Lu Yue, I'll have someone bring you a new contract to go over. We'll be just in
time to turn in the player list for the new season tomorrow. The day after
tomorrow will be picture day for the summer season. We'll have enough time
to arrange everything..."
Amidst Xiao Rui's chatter, Tong Yao raised her head in confusion. "How can
you settle this thing just like this? What do you mean nobody has any objections?
Why is Little Fatty the only one who was against it? What about me? Me? Me?
I have an objection!"
Xiao Rui: "Every new player needs an alternate."
Tong Yao: "...Don't fool me just because I haven't played professionally before."
Xiao Rui: "It's true."
Xiao Rui: "Look at Cheng Ge, he was the alternate for someone else when
he first started playing professionally. Then after a year, he replaced Pope..."
Tong Yao kept the same expression of confusion. "...Are you trying to
persuade me or what?"
Xiao Rui: "........I'm just trying to tell you that gold will shine in the
end no matter what. Look at Cheng Ge and Pope, they're both respected by
people. Each rules one region and all the other AD carries will shiver facing
them. They both are the strongest light and shadow in the history of
League of Legends."
Tong Yao glanced at Lu Sicheng, as she had expected, he was sneering at
what Xiao Rui had said. Then she turned to looked at Lu Yue who happened
to be sizing her up like an explorer with his spoon in hand. He put down the
spoon and spoke in defiance with an indifferent voice, "The kind of 'light' that
got drunk and went crazy just because she lost to the Koreans once? I don't
care for it."
Tong Yao: "What did you say? Say that again, you better speak nicely."
Lu Yue turned his head away.
Tong Yao stretched her leg under the table to kick the captain who was still
quietly eating his lunch. "He's not talking, you talk!"
Lu Sucheng couldn't pretend that he hadn't noticed anything after being kicked
on the knee several times. He raised his head, glanced over the two bickering
kindergartners sitting right across from him. He asked with an expressionless
face, "Talk about what?"
Tong Yao widened her nostrils and angrily said, "Your brother is bullying me!"
Lu Sicheng answered with an "oh," then lifted his chin towards Lu Yue. "She's
here first. You have yourself to blame for coming back so late…...Besides, her
champion pool is much deeper than yours. Behave yourself."
"You hear that?" Tong Yao used her elbow to poke the person next to her. "You!
Hear! That! I'm here first! I have a deeper champion pool! Champion spoon
(*referring to someone who can only play a few champions and not enough to
form a pool)!"[1]
Lu Yue unhappily threw his spoon down and stared at Lu Sicheng. "Why are
you speaking up for her?"
Lu Sicheng paused as everyone at the table looked at him with the same
question in their eyes, he used his normally steady voice to declare, "I like to,
none of your business."
Lu Yue showed his displeasure on his face.
Lu Sicheng turned to look at Tong Yao. "Don't make a racket. It's quite common
to have an alternate for the formal competitions in case there's any emergency.
Everything is for the summer season. You want to keep your position, prove
yourself with your skill."
Tong Yao puffed up her cheeks.
Xiao Rui put down his bowl and applauded. "Nice. This is the most fair effort that
I, as the team manager, have ever seen to keep the bowl of water level."
Tong Yao: "..."
Lu Yue: "..."
What the hell did he mean keeping the bowl of water level?
[1]: In Chinese. Nobody says "Champion Spoon" in English.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone