Someone kicked the back of Tong Yao's seat on the bus shaking her whole body. She raised her head and asked the man sitting behind: "What are you doing?"
"How could you describe the encouragement from a captain to a new member of the team as sweet talk?"
"I thought you didn't go on Weibo much?"
"So that's the reason why you have the gall to write something so blatant on Weibo?"
"..........What do you mean gall. That Weibo post wasn't meant for you."
"Oh, then who are you referring to?"
"...Captain, it's no fun getting to the bottom of it. The one who always wants to get to the bottom of everything usually has the lowest EQ. Really."
Tong Yao held her cell phone in hand and started to mumble: "It's so cold. Why turn the air conditioning so low."-- --As she was murmuring, she put her jacket over her and lifted the hood up to cover her face. She was trying to tell Lu Sicheng that she didn't want to continue with the conversation, because it was too cold inside the bus.
She could hear the noise of Lu Sicheng checking Weibo behind her. Tong Yao shivered under her jacket. She didn't breathe a sigh of relief until the noise behind her stopped. She looked at Weibo on her own cell phone and found that the comments under her post were all @Lu Sicheng. The corner of her eye twitched and she scolded in a low voice: You guys know everything, alright! You're all supernatural beings!
Tong Yao hid under the jacket to check Weibo for a little while longer. Ten minutes later, she closed her eyes and slowly fell asleep…...It was about 7 o'clock in the evening when they arrived back at base. Since they had won the first game against the other group quite effortlessly this afternoon, everyone was in a good mood. They scattered onto the couch and discussed what to order for dinner. Today Old K was buying since he was MVP for the first match.
Old K: "Smiling also was MVP today."
"Smiling has been deducted two months' wages as well." Tong Yao didn't even lift her head as she sat on the couch: "Please, brothers. I got MVP just because they wanted to gossip what was going on between me and Xu Tailun-- --"
She didn't finish what she was planning to say.
It was because even Tong Yao herself had sensed there was something wrong with what she had just said. She lowered her head to check the couch under her, then suddenly looked up at Lu Sicheng who was sitting right across from her…...Lu Sicheng had raised his eyebrows and was looking at her peacefully. Then he lifted his hand and used his thumb to point at the front door behind him, as if to say: Now you remember? Go out on your own, don't let me do it.
Tong Yao: "..."
Tong Yao obediently stood up.
Everyone else except Lu Sicheng: "?"
Lu Sicheng also stood up: "Time for education about character."
Everyone else except Lu Sicheng: "..."
Everyone looking at Tong Yao instantly switched from confusion to sympathy. They watched her and Lu Sicheng walk out of the base one after another…...Lu Sicheng closed the door and leaned against the door, so no one could open the door. Then he lifted his eyelids to glance over Tong Yao: "Let's have it. Think before you open your mouth."
Tong Yao thought about it and it seemed what had happened wasn't that much a big deal to her now. She was nervous only because of Lu Sicheng's serious attitude.
After a short pause, she honestly replied: "During the break between the matches, I ran into Xu Tailun outside the restroom. He asked me why I didn't whitewash the movie theatre thing for him during my stream and even said some vague things to stir up some trouble for him."
"How did you reply to him?" Lu Sicheng asked.
"I said I can say whatever I want, it's my mouth." Tong Yao answered.
"En. Nothing wrong with that."
Lu Sicheng glanced at Tong Yao and recalled that Qing Dynasty's players dropped by during the break to ask random things looking rather uneasy about it... He squinted his eyes. Anyone could tell by looking at him that he wasn't happy. "Then what happened?"
"He asked me if he threw the game, I'd keep my mouth shut."
Lu Sicheng sneered.
"We could win the match with our own ability, why do I want others to throw it? So I said no, then I bit him, and ran away."
Lu Sicheng's sneer suddenly frozened.
The corner of his lips quickly curved downwards. With an uncertain expression on his face, he asked in a quiet voice: "What?"
-- --Somehow the voice didn't sound right to Tong Yao's ears.
Tong Yao swallowed and mumbled: "I ran away."
"Before that."
"I said no."
"After that."
"...I bit him." Tong Yao said, then hurriedly explained: "Didn't you say that I can't hit people? So I bit him. It's alright to bite him, right? He won't get killed by one bite."
Lu Sicheng, ignoring her explanation, asked her to clarify: "The bandage on Xu Tailun's hand at the second match was from your bite?"
"Right-- --Ouch!"
With a light crisp sound, Tong Yao covered her forehead with her hand and backed away a few steps. Tong Yao looked at Lu Sicheng in confusion as he coldly said: "Stay outside." He opened the door, walked in the base, and slapped the door shut-- --Tong Yao put her ear to the door and heard Lu Sicheng announce: "No one can open the door for her." She lifted her ear from the door and stared at the door in disbelief, then put her ear on the door again: It was indeed very quiet inside.
So Lu Sicheng really meant it?
It can't be?
Tong Yao walked over to the window and tried to peek inside through the window-- --She saw Little Fatty sitting right next to the window. She knocked on the window as if she had seen a life saver. Little Fatty turned to take a look at her, then stretched his mouth open to give her a silly smile.
Open the door for me-- --Tong Yao mouthed.
Little Fatty kept smiling at her in a silly way, then pointed at Lu Sicheng who was standing not too far from Little Fatty with his back facing the window. Little Fatty shook his head.
Tong Yao: "..."
She could see her teammates walking around the base and her cat lying on someone's lap. The air conditioning unit out in the yard was rumbling and blowing out hot air. It seemed that no one in the whole base had noticed the desperate Tong Yao outside the window...
In the end, she had no other choice but to sit in the yard, battling the mosquitoes. With nothing better to do, she took out her phone and started watching some streams-- --
Tong Yao opened Xu Tailun's stream.
[Since Huawei beats ZGDX using the same strategy last time, so I wanted to try it too. Didn't expect that it wouldn't work this time.] Xu Tailun was sitting in front of the computer, resuming his gentle and easygoing persona. [Sorry, I lost the match.]
The bullet comments had responses like, "It's alright," "Try harder next time," "Win the next match" trying to comfort him…...There were people asking him whether he was taking revenge on Tong Yao because of what she said on stream. To those questions, Xu Tailun's reply was-- --
[Those rumors aren't true anyway. I didn't do anything bad with fans.] Xu Tailun said, [Actually, what Smiling said is true. If I didn't do it, there's nothing to be afraid of-- --My girlfriend and I love each other very much and it's impossible for me to like anyone else. She was sad after hearing those rumors, I've been comforting her for a while now, but she's alright now.]
Tong Yao: "..."
Tong Yao made a face like she was going to throw up onto the screen.
[The cat? It's sick, but it's nothing serious.] Xu Tailun said while looking at the bullet comments, [What do you mean a week cat?[1] Oh, I see. No, it's not like that. It just has a cold, a common cold-- --I've already asked a friend to take it to the vet.]
Tong Yao remembered the little kitty struggling inside Xu Tailun's date's bag and became expressionless.
[Yeah, I've been having bad luck lately-- --many bad things have happened. We lost the second match as well. I wasn't going to go to mid at first, but my teammate at mid signaled me to go and I thought maybe I could succeed. But who knew…...Ahh, it certainly isn't my teammate's fault. I'm just very sad now! No need to comfort me, it's just that I didn't do well…...Give me a gift? You don't need to give me gifts. I didn't play well today. I'm not worthy of receiving gifts.]
As he was speaking, the bullet comments were covered with crying faces or sympathetic words-- --What surprised Tong Yao the most was that after saying he didn't deserve any gifts, Xu Tailun clicked open the official website of Givenchy and started checking their newest T-shirts...
Tong Yao couldn't believe Xu Tailun's behavior.
Yet, she found it rather interesting to watch his stream-- --
She sat on a stone stool in the yard outside the base, with one hand supporting her chin, watching Xu Tailun acting on stream for over one and a half hours with great interest. She didn't put down her cell phone until she heard the ringing of the delivery man's motorcycle. Tong Yao stretched her neck to take a look-- --
Tong Yao stood up to walk out of the yard and stopped the delivery man before he entered the yard. The delivery man knew Tong Yao and handed the food to her without any suspicion: "Mosquitoes are everywhere in this heat, why are you out here all by yourself?"
"Enjoying the cool air."
Tong Yao took all the boxes and replied nonchalantly.
After the delivery man left, Tong Yao carried everyone's dinner to the door and yelled: "Hello, you guys have two choices. Either you let me in or I'll die from mosquito bites and you'll die from hunger. Make your choice!"
One minute later, the door opened.
Tong Yao lifted up all the boxes in her hand with a big smile and said to the man who stood at the ajar door with a stone face: "Mr. Lu, your dinner?"
[1]: The equivalent of a lemon car, but for a cat.
Tong Yao stuffed the take out boxes into Lu Sicheng's hands and crouched down to squeeze through the open door. She jumped onto the couch and grabbed the sleeping cat into her arms, as if that was enough to declare that she wasn't leaving no matter what…...Lu Sicheng didn't bother with her but turned and put the food onto the table and called everyone out to eat.
Tong Yao watched helplessly.
After a short while, she felt her cell phone vibrating.
[fhdjwhdb2333: Admit you were wrong.]
Tong Yao looked over at Lu Sicheng at the dinner table. His body was slightly turned to the side with his legs crossed. He rested his head on one hand and used the other to hold his cell phone…...He was staring at his phone with a cold face, the light of the phone reflected on his pointed nose tip.
Little Fatty: "Cheng Ge, eat."
Lu Sicheng didn't even look up: "Not hungry."
Little Fatty: "You just said you were hungry."
Lu Sicheng still didn't look up: "Now I'm past hungry."
Little Fatty: "Who are you sending messages to? A woman?"
Lu Sicheng paused, then said en.
The bustling dinner table suddenly quieted down. Everyone looked at their captain with wide eyes. Lu Sicheng lifted his eyelids and scanned the table: "What are you all looking at? I can't talk to a woman?"
Everyone shook their heads.
Tong Yao: "..."
[ZGDX, Smiling:..............I admit it, admit it, admit it!]
[fhdjwhdb2333: What do you do if you encounter a similar situation in the future?]
[ZGDX, Smiling: I'll turn and run away? Call the police? Call for help?]
[fhdjwhdb2333: Call who?]
[ZGDX, Smiling: …...But today the other players from the Qing Dynasty trapped you.]
[fhdjwhdb2333: Call who?]
[ZGDX, Smiling: Alright, alright, I know now.]
[fhdjwhdb2333: Call who?]
[ZGDX, Smiling: You.]
Tong Yao threw her cell phone down as if it was too hot to handle safely.
Yet she couldn't help herself from checking the phone from time to time…...Until the phone lit up again from an incoming new message-- --
[fhdjwhdb2333: Come eat dinner.]
Tong Yao rubbed her ears, stood up, and looked over at the dinner table. Her captain had already put down his cell phone and was talking to the person next to him with chopsticks in hand…...He looked at ease, a faint smile at the corner of his lips; he looked like he was in a good mood.
-- --He was acting as if he hadn't forced Tong Yao to say the words he wanted to hear on WeChat with an overbearing attitude.
Tong Yao thought he really wasn't a nice person.
.......... He was absolutely the perfect example of a wolf in sheep skin.