Chapter 64 (3)
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.
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