You’re Beautiful When You Smile

As Tong Yao stared at his back, she realized that he did pick up her phone for her. She squeezed a late “Thank you” through her teeth. Lu Sicheng didn’t seem to buy it, waving his hand behind his back.

It was then that she heard the voices and  footsteps of Little Fatty and Old Cat. She was surprised, “Why is everyone sleeping early tonight?”

The man stopped at her doorway, “Our skirmish with YQCB is scheduled at noon tomorrow. I told them to sleep early.”

“......”

Tong Yao was amazed: You told them to sleep early and they’re actually doing it? They really listen to you, ah, team tyrant.

The footsteps got closer, Lu Sicheng naturally closed the door behind him. The muffled voices of a conversation seeped through the door. It seemed that Little Fatty was asking Lu Sicheng why he was coming out of Tong Yao’s room. What was Lu Sicheng’s answer?

-- --Oh, she fell from the bed and hit her head on the nightstand with a loud thud. It startled me.

Tong Yao: “......”

She grabbed her cell phone to locate [fhdjwhdb2333] on WeChat and sent out a private message-- -- “You’ve smeared me me again, I heard it. Won’t be helping you win tomorrow.”

About ten seconds later, his reply was: make sure to take your medicine before bed, rid yourself of your insanity early :)

Tong Yao: “......”

Some people could use ‘smile’ as ‘hehe’ perfectly.

She copied his reply and sent it to the person who had really gone mad and needed medicine, Jinyang. She added a ‘throwing up’ expression. Afterwards, Tong Yao turned off her cell phone, got into her blanket, yawned with satisfaction, and got ready to sleep.

The skirmish would be tomorrow.

Tong Yao stared at the ceiling for a while, turned, suddenly she kicked her legs, covering her mouth to giggle-- --

By the heavens, I’m actually a real professional esports player!

……

The outcome of being overly excited was that she didn’t sleep well that night. The next morning, she couldn’t even face the black circles around her eyes in the mirror. She turned on the faucet…...took a shower to wake herself up. When she went downstairs, she was surprised to find Lu Sicheng already awake, sitting on the sofa reading a book with a cup of steaming coffee near his hand.

Tong Yao thought she had travelled to a parallel universe.

-- --My goodness, this internet addicted old man can actually still read a book.

Tong Yao went to sit down across from Lu Sicheng and saw the title of the book in his hand, Strange Pilgrims>[1]. Even the title was so profound that she couldn’t get it. She moved her eyes away and pretended to casually strike up a conversation, “You’re up early?”

[You are in love.]

The man across from her raised his eyelids and glanced at her above the book, “CK had games today for the mid-season competition. So I got up early to take a look.”

Tong Yao thought about it, “Oh, did they win?”

“They crushed the Taiwanese and the North American teams.” Lu Sicheng spoke without much emotion, “But, was crushed by the Korean team as always.”

“Oh.”

[You care about him.]

Tong Yao: “Ahhh, shut up!”

Lu Sicheng: “?”

Tong Yao: “......Nothing, really.”

Tong Yao used her hand to rub her face. Finally, she couldn’t stand the broken record in her mind that repeated Jinyang’s words and stood up to go to the kitchen, pouring herself a glass of icy milk. When she returned to the living room, all the other teammates had also woken up and come down…...Lu Sicheng was back at his own seat and the opened book was placed on the coffee table face down. Dabing was standing right next to it, stepping on it with the paw. Tong Yao went over to pick up Dabing while glancing at the book again. She had to try hard to hold back the urge to pick it up and take a look.

-- --Though she knew that she had absolutely no interest at the book, the reason why she wanted to pick it up was……

Tong Yao felt like she had been bewitched.

She was fine just yesterday, now she wasn’t feeling like herself after being teased by Jinyang. It had elevated to the point that she wanted to touch everything that the man had touched……

It was a terminal disease.

[1]: The Chinese title is translated into English as A Merry Funeral in Dreams and Twelve Pilgrim Tales.  Ain’t that a mouthful?  The book is written by Gabriel Marquez a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Strange Pilgrims is official English translation of the original Spanish title.