Chương 34: CHAPTER 34
The expression in Lu Yue's eyes briefly changed as if he had thought
of something. "Where's that damn shorty?" he asked as he approached
Lu Sicheng. He was in front of the makeup room and reaching for the
doorknob. The man who was squatting next to the door suddenly stood
up-- --His tall body was right between the door and Lu Yue.
"You go back first."
Lu Sicheng sounded quite calm, without any facial expression. Except
for the messy hair, there wasn't a sign of emotional turmoil-- --as if it
was Lu Yue's imagination running wild.
Lu Yue pulled his hand back. "Is she in there?"
Lu Sicheng: "Yeah."
Lu Yue: "Doing what?"
Lu Sicheng: "Don't know."
Lu Sicheng paused a bit, then said, "You go back first, she'll be
there soon."
Lu Yue fixed his eyes on Lu Sicheng's eyes. "Xiao Rui insists that the
two of us take a group picture. That's why I'm here to get her."
Lu Sicheng just answered with an "en," as if he wasn't interested in
keeping the conversation going…...Lu Yue knew he couldn't get any
more information from Lu Sicheng and gave up. He turned to go back
to the studio, "Then be quick, you two."
Only Lu Sicheng remained in the hallway again. After a short while, the
door behind him opened from the inside. A slightly blushing face carefully
appeared through the slightly opened door. "Who were you talking to just now?"
"Lu Yue."
Lu Sicheng turned to take a look behind him. She was wearing the uniform
now-- --He was silent for a while then used his usual, flat voice to say,
"Come out if you have the uniform on. What took you so long?"
The words "have the uniform on" almost made Tong Yao drag the doorknob
off. She tightly held onto the doorknob and opened the door a bit wider-- --
gliding out behind the door like a mud fish wearing ZGDX's summer uniform...
The blue and white uniform on her looked a bit different from the other
teammates. The white, slender arms showing under the short sleeves
seemed to make the white uniform even whiter-- --like the skin color of
someone who never goes outside…...Lu Sicheng didn't say anything but
just glanced over her and turned around to lead the way.
It was quite an awkward moment.
Tong Yao jogged behind to keep up with him and tried hard to find a way
to get both of them out of the embarrassing situation. "What did you see
just now?"
If Lu Sicheng took the hint, he should've replied that he hadn't seen
anything at all. She didn't expect that he would pause and honestly
respond, "I saw everything."
Tong Yao almost tripped and stepped on Lu Sicheng's heel. She steadied
herself and looked up, "I told you a thousand times to knock before you
open the door!"
"...Lu Yue was going to open the door without knocking just now."
Lu Sicheng changed the subject, "I stopped him."
"I'm talking about you, don't bring Lu Yue into this!"
"You've been inside the makeup room for an hour and 40 minutes.
The chance for me to go in and see you in that condition or go in to
find you dead is about 50/50."
"..."
They were near the entrance of the studio. She could hear Little Fatty
questioning Lu Yue where was the girl he was supposed to look for.
Tong Yao felt like she had found a way out of the awkwardness and was
about to yell that she was right here. The man in front her abruptly stopped
right then-- --Tong Yao, startled, looked up, but could only see the man's
wide shoulder. Before she could react, she heard the man quietly said,
"But, I'm sorry."
Tong Yao: "?"
Lu Sicheng: "I'll knock first next time."
Tong Yao: ".............."
Tong Yao's brain went blank.
Three seconds later, a bullet comment in block letters flew into her brain-- --
Mr. Captain was apologizing.
To Me.
The awkwardness and embarrassment she felt seconds before doubled.
She used her hands to cover her face which was so red that it could fry
an egg and suddenly squatted down. Her face almost buried between
her knees. "What, what's wrong with you! Why do you apologize so
seriously all of a sudden! ! !"
"?"
The man whose back faced Tong Yao turned around and saw her squatting
on the ground. His lips twitched and reached down to pull Tong Yao up.
Without paying attention to her red face, he simply said, "I thought you
needed a serious apology."
"Right, right, right. I do need one." Tong Yao gave him a stare. "In ancient
times, you would have to marry me."
Lu Sicheng: "..."
Tong Yao: "..."
Lu Sicheng: "......"
Tong Yao: "......"
Lu Sicheng: "The punishment doesn't seem to fit the crime."
Tong Yao: "..............."
Lu Sicheng: "Don't push your luck."
Tong Yao was immediately frightened out of her wits. "Sorry!"
Lu Sicheng released her arm and turned towards the studio. Tong Yao
dejectly followed behind. She could only commend her tendency to talk
nonsense when she got nervous…...When they walked in the studio, Little
Fatty was the first one to see Tong Yao. He was about to tell the others that
they'd finally arrived when he noticed Tong Yao was walking behind Lu Sicheng
with her head down. "Tong Yao, what happened to your face?"
His shouting attracted everyone's attention.
Lu Sicheng turned to glance at Tong Yao. She quickly raised her head,
pretending to be calm, pulled her hair to the back of her ears, and cleared
her throat, "What about my face?"
"Red." Lu Yue, who was sitting at the side, said with a stone face. "What
did you two do just now?"
Now everyone had their eyes on Tong Yao and Lu Sicheng. If glances
had a sound effect, they were making the sound of flying machetes and
swords from Kung Fu movies-- --
"We ran over here." Lu Sicheng coolly said, "Aren't we in a rush?"
Lu Yue: "Why don't you look like you've run?"
Lu Sicheng: "I've got long legs."
Lu Yue couldn't say anything more.
Under the urging of the photographer, Tong Yao walked in front of the
camera for her solo photo shoot.
Tong Yao was the last to have her individual photos taken. The photographer,
in consideration that later on it might be necessary to Photoshop all the
individual shots into a group picture, was asking Tong Yao to pose in certain
positions. He instructed her to cross her arms in front of her chest, raise her
chin a bit to look at the camera, and cast down her eyes a little bit-- --
People who were familiar with promotional pictures would know that it was
the pose usually reserved for the person who would be put in the middle of
the group picture. It would be such an honor and show how the team valued
her-- --A team that had a player like Lu Sicheng, who would make the
newcomer stand in the center-- --If it was someone else, the person would be
elated, yet Tong Yao was like a chatterbox: "...This way? Like this? Raise the
chin this high? Are you sure? Would it make my face bigger? Lower my eyes,
would it make my eyes disappear? My eyes aren't big to start with..."
The photographer: "Yes, it would."
Tong Yao: "? ? ? ? ?"
The photographer: "But it would make you look domineering. Just imagine
yourself as the queen."
Tong Yao was confused: "The queen?"
Xiao Rui, looking on from the sidelines, wanting to go up and hit her with a
stick…...Lu Sicheng, sitting with legs crossed by the side, suddenly spoke as
he was focused on his cell phone: "You're asking Thumbelina to pretend to be
a queen. You have to consider whether the person has the ability or not."
Finally, the photographer went up to Tong Yao and forced her head into the
position he desired, then quickly took the shot. The end results were passable,
later on he would have to do more work on Photoshop...
After the solo shots, Xiao Rui strongly demanded that Tong Yao and Lu Yue
take pictures together.
"I want the feeling that the two of you are destined to confront each other.
Full of confrontation, aggression, and the silent battle between the player and
its substitute. You have to create the sense of contradiction because of your
competitive relationship!"
Xiao Rui tried his best to create the emotional condition for Tong Yao and
Lu Yue. Lu Yue listened with no facial expression at all, there was no way to
tell whether he was actually listening. Tong Yao kept nodding with a confused
face, there was no way to tell whether she actually understood what he was
saying. Lu Sicheng stretched his long legs: "Weren't you two already doing that?
Use that same childishness when you fought over the chair. Xiao Rui is just
asking you two to act as your usual selves."
Tong Yao rolled her eyes in the distance.
...
That night, they got back to the base exhausted. Tong Yao collapsed in her
chair and ordered take out for everyone on her phone. When she was asking
one by one what they would like for dinner, Little Fatty suddenly screamed in
front of his computer. Startled, Tong Yao almost dropped her phone. She got
up from the chair with some difficulty: "What's wrong?"
"The Weibo official site just released some of the pictures we took this afternoon!"
Little Fatty pointed to the screen. "This one is really good!"
Tong Yao thought about the poses she was forced to do in the afternoon and
got nervous about the end result. She hurried onto Weibo and saw on the front
page a picture that had been reposted from the official site-- --
Tong Yao's eyelids twitched.
The picture was her and Lu Yue.
The post-production had made the background dark, with a beam shining from
the left side of Tong Yao, lighting up half her face and leaving the other half in
shadow. Behind her was the much taller Lu Yue who stood back to back with her,
like a huge hill behind Tong Yao. He slanted his head slightly towards the source
of the beam. The light outlined his tall nose bridge and indifferent lips. He had
his eyes slightly lowered, the long eyelashes cast tiny shadows under his eyes...
One could sense the vigorous energy between his eyebrows.
The picture had gone viral on the internet, having been reposted over
2000 times and was overflowing with comments-- --
[That young man's Lu Yue: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh my Lu! ! ! !]
[Her king: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh my wife Smiling! ! !]
[ZGDX larger than all: Nice picture.]
[Yihaha: The new generation "light and shadow" has been born. Looking
forward to the summer season.]
[Short legged dog: New summer uniforms looking good. Hehe, ZGDX should
be in blue and white.]
[Little wife of Ah Yue: …...I'm jealous. Doesn't this picture look like a wedding
picture if it was hanging in the bedroom? ? I want to send over some razor
blades again.]
[I'm just passing by: Does this mean that Lu for sure will be on the summer
player list? The picture seems to pass the message-- --start player: Smiling;
substitute: Lu.]
[Give me an elephant: Cheng-Yao gang, hold me tight! Make sure I stand
firmly in the ground and not be swayed so easily!]
[Ah Tong: How are you, the most popular Cheng-Yao gang. I'm Yue-Yao
gang. From today and onward, this gang will emerge as a new force.]
...
Tong Yao stared at the picture for a while, then went through the comments.
After a long while, she turned her head to check on Lu Yue. Lu Yue was also
looking at his cell phone in his hand. As if he sensed Tong Yao's gaze, he
raised his eyes to glance at her-- --
Both of their eyes locked in the air for 3 seconds.
Then they each rolled their eyes and turned their eyes away in disgust.
Tong Yao collapsed back into the sofa.
"I told the official site to release this photo." Xiao Rui came into the living room.
"Before the official announcement, I'll let those who can figure it out know that
ZGDX will still has two Mids at the summer games."
"Not many people will figure it out." Lu Sicheng sarcastically commented,
"Most of them will think our Mids got married at the Civil Affairs Bureau."
Tong Yao jumped up from the sofa, straightened her upper body, put both of
her hands on her knees, and widened her eyes to look at the captain in
confusion. Xiao Rui was also taken aback: "Most people? Who?"
"My mom, his mom." Lu Sicheng pointed at Lu Yue. "On my cell phone, there
are 5 missed calls and over a dozen unread WeChat messages. All of them
are asking whether her youngest son has a girlfriend now. And why a couple's
portrait would be released on the official site."
Lu Yue was stunned to hear it. He hurriedly grabbed his cell phone to dial
a number and went outside to clarify about this affair.
Tong Yao was glad that her mom hadn't gone onto Weibo yet. But she
overlooked the fact that she had a good friend who did go on Weibo.
Less than 5 minutes after Lu Yue had gone outside, the Mid from the team
next door came by for a visit with his girlfriend. The moment Tong Yao
opened the door, the hand of her 172 cm tall, high heels wearing friend
landed on her shoulder: "Nice picture."
Tong Yao felt a gaze shooting daggers from behind.
Tong Yao tightened her back: "Don't talk nonsense! Our team forbids
internal love affairs."
Jinyang smiled like a flower: "I didn't say anything, my friend."
Tong Yao felt the gaze behind had turned into a spotlight. She turned to
check and found there was no one behind her. Xiao Rui was on the phone;
Old Cat and Old K were playing duos on the computers; Little Fatty was
kneeling before the refrigerator, flipping through its contents; Lu Sicheng
was sitting on the sofa playing on his cell phone-- --
Everyone seemed busy.
Tong Yao breathed out a sigh of relief. She left Ai Jia to her teammates
and pushed Jinyang upstairs. Jinyang spoke as she was whisked up the
stairs: "I saw the male lead talking on the phone on my way in-- --I heard
he's Lu Sicheng's brother, they do look alike. I almost mistook him as Lu
Sicheng when I first saw him…...He's really handsome, it almost gives me
the wrong impression that there's good looking guys everywhere in the
esport circle."
"Then?"
"Then, why do I get to pick the leftover Ai Jia among all the good looking
ones?"
"..."
"-- --Hey, the one upstairs, I heard that!"
Ai Jia's voice came from downstairs. Jinyang made a face and dragged
Tong Yao into her room…...Tong Yao was still wearing their summer uniform
which was somewhat scratchy since they hadn't been washed yet. She
wanted to change into something more comfortable once she was back in
her own room-- --Jinyang sat crossed legged behind her as Tong Yao was
changing. When she saw the underwear that Tong Yao was wearing underneath
the uniform, Jinyang chided her: "Tsk, what are you wearing?"
"Underwear." Tong Yao turned around without much expression. "What
about it?"
Jinyang glanced over the childish prints on the underwear, though there
were two bow ties on both sides of the panty-- --
Jinyang supported her chin with one hand and understandably said: "Now
I think I might have gotten something wrong."
"What?" Tong Yao turned to grab a t-shirt to put on and asked.
"It's quite possible that there are people who do like this kind of underwear."
"..."
"But, you have to be careful now. If someone truly likes this style, then he
must be, without a doubt, a pervert."
Tong Yao threw the summer uniform onto her face. Jinyang fell onto the
bed in laughter. Tong Yao got on top her trying to stifle her laughter, yelling
all the while, "You better shut up, hurry." The person who was being pushed
down couldn't possibly see that Tong Yao was blushing more than usual-- --
As the two were fooling around, Tong Yao's cell phone vibrated. She got
up to get her phone, panting. On the screen, there were a few short messages-- --
[djwdb2333: Food's here.]
[djwdb2333: I paid.]
[djwdb2333: Come down to eat.]
Tong Yao; "Ahhhh!"
Jinyang got off the bed as well: "What?"
Tong Yao smoothed out her hair: "The food's here."
She quickly sent out three WeChat messages-- --
[Don't, don't, don't.]
[I'll pay, I'll pay. I promised to buy dinner for everyone today!]
[I'm coming! Don't you do anything!]
Tong Yao put the phone into her pocket and hurried downstairs. When
she opened the door, she could hear people moving around and picking
up bowls and chopsticks downstairs. She quickened her steps, ready to
pay Lu Sicheng back. On the way, she heard Lu Yue asking: "Ge, give
me your phone. Mine's out of battery."
Tong Yao didn't think too much about it and kept going.
While she was half way down on the stairs, she heard Lu Yue pause a
bit then confusedly asked-- --
"Who's this 'rabbit hugging carrot'? He sent a WeChat to you saying that
he's coming soon and to not do anything. Do what?"
Just as Lu Yue finished, everyone downstairs heard a crashing sound
coming from the staircase, followed by a girl's pained scream. Startled,
everyone turned their head to take a look and saw their Mid sitting at the
bottom of the stairs in a awkward position. Her slippers landing some
distance away. She continued to sit in the same position as she had when
she tumbled down.
"Shoot, are you alright, Tong Yao?"
"What are you running for? You can't be that hungry."
"Get up, get up, hurry…...Are you hurt anywhere? Did you twist your foot?"
Everyone swarmed around her after getting over the shock.
Only the Lu brothers stood still. Lu Sicheng glanced at the person who
was in so much pain that it caused her face to twist and being helped
off the ground by Little Fatty. Then he turned his face away and pulled
his cell phone back from Lu Yue's hand: "It's no one. Why are you so
curious? Just use the phone, what are you nosing around for?"
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