falling into your smile

32

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.