Chapter 32 (1)
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
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