You’re Beautiful When You Smile

Lu Sicheng walked back and sat down– –This time he sat across from Lu Yue, right next to Tong Yao.
He looked coldly at his younger brother with arms crossed in front of his chest.
“Now it’s your turn.”

Lu Yue raised his eyelids and lazily took a look at Lu Sicheng.
“What?”

Lu Sicheng: “Don’t play dumb with me.
Why are you here?”

Lu Yue threw away the empty yogurt drink bottle, then stretched with a yawn.
“I happened to see online the news about your newly recruited Mid being defeated by that Korean guy, Ah Tai.
I heard she got trounced.
Aiya! There’s a voice in my head while I was reading telling me, Lu Yue, it’s time to go back to playing professionally– –So, here I am.”

As he spoke, he raised his outstretched hands into a shrug– —

Afterwards, he fixed his eyes on Tong Yao.
“So, you’re that pitiful new Mid who was bullied by the Koreans.”

Tong Yao’s lips twitched.
Before she could say anything, the man next to her had already lifted his long leg to kick the person across from him– —

Lu Sicheng: “Is it your turn to ask questions?”

“I’m just asking.” Lu Yue shrugged as if he couldn’t stand being lectured by someone older.
“I thought she was your girlfriend.
I almost sent a text to mom to tell her the good news that her oldest son isn’t gay.
And the one in the team next door wasn’t coming all the way to China to ‘go after his wife’ as they put it online.
Now she can sleep much better now– –Almost.”

Lu Sicheng raised his hand to rub his temple as if he was having a bad headache.
“You shut up.”

Xiao Rui spoke almost at the same time, “You’ve come back too late.
Our team already has a starting mid.”

Lu Yue sneered.
“What do you mean too late.
Aren’t I only banned from competing for one season? It’s pointless to have come back earlier……Besides, I’m not going to fight for the starting position.
I’ll continue to play as a substitute.
I don’t care.”

He turned to look at the team coach, Hou, as he spoke, “As far as I know, the team hasn’t decided on the substitutes for the summer season yet, right?– –Coach, I want to play professionally.”

The coach: “……”

Xiao Rui: “……”

Lu Sicheng: “No, you can’t.”

Lu Yue: “Gee!”

Lu Sicheng: “‘Gee’ is still a no.”

Lu Yue took out his cell phone and spoke while he was typing, “I’m sending a message to mom: It’s getting cold, I happened to pass by the base and thought about bringing some warmer clothes to my brother.
I accidentally saw my brother and that Korean guy……Hrm?”

Lu Yue paused, then continued to type, “Hugging and kissing.”

Tong Yao: “……”

Lu Sicheng: “Send it, if you dare.”

Lu Yue put away his cell phone and became more serious.
“You all know that you will meet that Korean team sooner or later– –I mean it, instead of hoping your starting mid– –this little jiejie here– –to get her confidence back and defeat that monster of a mid in the official competitions……It’s better to prepare a safe spare tire beforehand that would put that Ah Tai at his wit’s end– –which would be me.”

“Having a dream is very important.
To rise from adversity is also something to make people cry.”

Lu Yue was smiling again– —

“But it’s also important for a person to face reality.
After all, with only slogans, the championship cup won’t roll into your hands by itself.”

No one said anything at the moment.

Lu Sicheng furrowed his eyebrows, not quite agreeing with what his brother was saying– –What he didn’t expect was that his silence would be taken as an admission by Tong Yao.
She burst out crying, though she had been pretending to be calm the entire time.

Lu Sicheng who was sitting right next her sensed something wasn’t right and turned to check.
He was so shocked by what he saw that he jumped straight up from the couch.

“Am I going to have a substitute? Am I going to be substituted? Am I going to be the only starting player who always stays at the substitute seat in the whole professional world? Will I never be able to play professional competitions? Really, I only lost one match, why do you have to put me at the substitute seat? I don’t want to see the drinking fountain……Hic– –” She began to hiccup between her outbursts, tears streamed down her face.
“I want to play professional games.
I want to have my revenge.
I’m very strong.
You guys can’t let me watch the drinking fountain.”

“………………………………….” Xiao Rui stared in confusion.
“How much did she have to drink?”

Lu Sicheng, still with furrowed eyebrows, bent down to take out a couple of tissues and shoved tissues into the crying girl’s face.
“I don’t know.
Tomorrow, let’s report that bar at the street corner for selling alcohol to an underage minor.
We can ask to check the surveillance videos as proof– –”

The sound of a blowing nose interrupted him.

A slightly cold hand stretched over and pried open his hand, then a ball of dirty tissues was stuffed into his palm– —

“It’s for you, Cheng Ge.” She looked down and spoke with a tiny voice, “This is the last time I give you a gift as the starting mid.”

Everyone: “……”

Lu Sicheng: “……”

“Don’t you see?” The man raised his head and looked at his own brother without any expression on his face.
“One lunatic in a team is plenty.
Our team is full.
You can go next door and ask them whether they need one.”