Sheng Kuang learned about the incident when it had already begun to fade from public attention.
He had spent too long at the training camp the day before, so he slept in a bit longer on the second day. By the time he woke up, it was almost three in the afternoon.
The first thing he did was splash some water on his face to wake himself up, then he grabbed his phone to find Lin Jing.
His "little CP" was busy with something, and even after five minutes of sending messages, there was no reply.
He threw off the covers and went into the bathroom. After a shower, he came out, and there was still no activity from his "little CP."
He frowned, thinking of calling her, but accidentally clicked into her Moments feed and saw a new update from her, posted just a minute ago.
She had time to update her Moments, but no time to reply to her CP.
Sheng Kuang tutted, clicked on it, and discovered that his "little CP" had posted a long string of updates that day.
All text.
"Seen shameless people, but never seen anyone this shameless."
"Truly disgusting, like a door opened by a disgust."
"They can make black white, 6666666."
"If you're so capable, why don't you fly to the sky?"
"[Smile][Smile][Smile][Smile][Smile]"
"No need to say more, I understand, kpl owes gdt one championship every year."
"......"
At a glance, it was all sarcasm.
Sheng Kuang chuckled, accurately grasping the key point in these words: "gdt."
He didn't bother to guess; he directly clicked into Weibo. In less than a minute, he closed it.
They were staying in a hotel. Lan Bowen's room was the largest, and everyone usually gathered in his room.
Sheng Kuang got dressed, looking down at his phone, and pretended to ask his "little CP" what she was busy with, while simultaneously knocking on Lan Bowen's door.
He didn't step inside but could hear Chen Jing's curses from within: "Holy crap, gdt is too damn shameless. Was it a network malfunction in the base during the third game? Don't they have any self-awareness? They clearly can't handle losing."
Everyone was awake, each holding their phones, sitting around the sofa in a circle scrolling through Weibo. Even Jiang Zui, who was usually very laid-back, had a hint of anger on his face.
Sheng Kuang glanced at their furious expressions and let out a laugh: "What's going on?"
"What's going on? What else could it be? gdt is shamelessly doing it again and again!" Chen Jing held his phone up to Sheng Kuang: "Look, look, you see for yourself!"
Sheng Kuang didn't even look, his gaze directly falling on Lan Bowen: "Aren't we eating? I'm hungry."
Chen Jing glared at Sheng Kuang: "You're still in the mood to eat? Shouldn't you adopt your arrogant stance and start a 300-comment war on Weibo?"
Sheng Kuang ignored Chen Jing's words and lazily half-sat on the desk beside him: "I'm hungry."
Chen Jing was annoyed. "Sheng Kuang, are you even listening to me?"
Sheng Kuang raised his hand and pressed his temple, bothered: "I already knew about this."
"How did you know?" Chen Jing was successfully sidetracked.
"Ah," Sheng Kuang paused, then slowly said, "I found out from my 'little CP'."
Chen Jing: "..."
Ever since Sheng Kuang and Lin Jing formed a "CP," the term "little CP" had appeared in their ears almost daily.
If Chen Jing said "Lin Meimei," Sheng Kuang would reply, "Oh, my little CP." If they had a late-night snack together, Sheng Kuang would take a photo for his "little CP" and then randomly add, "My little CP said this dish looks unappetizing."
The group had long since had enough. Now, he was still preoccupied with discussing this, and Chen Jing truly couldn't stand it. He rolled his eyes: "Can you be more normal?"
Sheng Kuang asked, "For example?"
Chen Jing: "For example, get angry, curse at gdt or something."
Sheng Kuang: "My 'little CP' has already cursed on my behalf all day. Before I could even get angry, it was gone."
Chen Jing: "..."
The others: "..."
Sheng Kuang: "Can't help it, my 'little CP' is too good at comforting me."
Everyone in the room: ".................."
Chen Jing slumped back onto the sofa, defeated: "Forget it. Compared to gdt, I'm more inclined to kill our jungler right now."
The others didn't dare to speak, but their eyes silently expressed agreement.
Sheng Kuang didn't care about their teasing and persistently looked at Lan Bowen again: "Did you order food? My 'little CP' told me to eat well."
Lan Bowen: "...I ordered. It'll be here soon."
Just as he finished speaking, his phone rang; the food had arrived.
Sheng Kuang was the first to sit at the dining table. He looked at the others, "Not eating?"
The others didn't move. He didn't wait for them, unwrapped a pair of chopsticks, and said, "Then I'll eat alone."
After eating, Sheng Kuang put down his chopsticks, tore open a packet of wet wipes, wiped his fingers, and looked at the others: "We've already securely entered the winner's bracket of the playoffs, right?"
Chen Jing was startled by his words and looked up: "Yes."
Sheng Kuang tossed the wipes into the trash can nearby: "Then that's that."
Chen Jing blinked: "What do you mean?"
Sheng Kuang: "Literally. Winning or losing isn't that important. We've already made it to the playoffs. What we need to focus on now is the playoffs, then the semifinals, and then the finals. We just encountered gdt; there's no need to fuss over it. We can talk about it again at the finals."
Lan Bowen agreed: "Exactly. Don't pay too much attention to all that online chatter. Don't take gdt too seriously. Just like before, don't feel pressured, play your game, and if you lose, you lose. You can win it back in the playoffs."
Chen Jing, being an optimist by nature, felt much more confident after this: "That's right. Worst case, if we lose, we'll win it back in the playoffs. Even if we still can't beat gdt in the playoffs and fall into the loser's bracket, we'll fight our way back from there and meet gdt in the finals. It's not a big deal."
When these young men got angry, they truly got angry, and when they calmed down, they did so just as quickly.
With just a few words, everyone's spirits were lifted again.
Although they all knew deep down that winning or losing wasn't that critical, the grudges between yLs and gdt ran too deep. Three of yLs' core players had come from gdt. Even though everyone was joking around and pretending not to care about gdt, they were all secretly practicing extra that night.
Four eight-hour periods later, the first match between yLs and gdt in the autumn split finally arrived.