The smiling k

The beginning

An: Most of it is going to be in tongyao point of view unless I say otherwise

Tong Yao paused her gameplay briefly when she saw a Wechat notification from her best friend Jinyang - [Yao Yao, I broke up with Ai Jia] . She sighed, this was the fourth time that her friend had already broken up with Ai Jia, a professional omoyji arena (OPL) player.

Ever since e-sports had been recognized as a real sport in China, the popularity of professional gamers had skyrocketed. They were treated like celebrities by millennials , gen Z and everyone younger than 30 basically. Ai Jia, a tween had become an instant celebrity. Popularity brought public scrutiny to everything and Jinyang and Ai Jia struggled with that causing constant fights between them. Though Jinyang was used to an affluent lifestyle, it was Ai Jia's fangirls that she struggled with the most. While, he was being a typical clueless tween guy.

Tong Yao responded , [What is it this time]

Before her friend could respond, Tong Yao saw a message in English pop up on the bottom left of her screen. She was playing OPL on a Korean sever, so it was unusual to receive messages in English. Surprised, she clicked on the notification. It said, [ Hi friend, would you like to come China play game?]

She sat up straighter wondering, ' Is this person using google translate?' and giggled. She figured, might as well reply--

[I'm Chinese] The other side paused for a few minutes and typed [Hahahahaha]

He continued in Mandarin [You play extremely well! How old are you? Would you like to come play professionally? I represent China's ZGDX team! My name is Xiao Rui ]

Tang Yao screamed loudly " Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!! " and started jumping up and down. The normally mature for her age 19 year old girl, acted her age . Her mom who was cleaning fish rushed in with a meat cleaver " What happened, is there a cockroach?"

Tang Yao responded, " No ma! A professional e-sports team wants me to come play for them"

Mama responded , " Aiyah! What playing games? You are such a smart girl, running a company and getting yet another bachelors . Shouldn't you be preparing for your masters or some meetings for your company ? Why do you want to waste time playing games?"

Xiao Rui continued [ We will pay a salary of 800,000 RMB , plus bonus for each game. You will be our team's starting Mid. What do you think Smiling?]

Mama read 800K RMB behind her shoulder and exclaimed, " What are you waiting for. Respond to them "

Tang Yao retorted, " I thought you didn't want me playing games..."

Mama" Well, you need to act your age sometimes and have fun like kids today do. Besides, they are paying you to have fun. So a gap year won't hurt in the long run" and promptly returned to the kitchen to finish cooking.

Tang Yao responded carefully, [ Thank you for the generous offer. You do know I am a girl, right?]

In the history of e-sports in China, no woman had ever played professionally.

Xiao Rui responded after a moment, [ Girl is okay, xiao jiejie ! Let's make a big splash. Send me your weibo information]

Tang yao thought, even if this turned out to be a joke, she had nothing to lose. She posted her number and logged off the game.

By the time, Tang Yao returned to her phone, it was overflowing with Jiyang's rants about how Ai Jia payed her no attention and didn't treat her well. Tang Yao knew that it was only a matter of time before they made up, so she responded [ Jiyang, come on. That's enough for now. Look on the bright side, I'll buy you dinner tonight. ]

Jiyang responded, [ Alright. Let's go to that new ice cream place. I want ice cream for dinner today. Yao Yao, if it were you, how do you go about dating a professional gamer?]

Tang Yao [ I learned that lesson already sister. If it were me, I wouldn't date a professional gamer. If I had that kind of patience, I would get my PhD in Nursing even tho I have a PhD in neuroscience and I'm the head and ceo neurologist of  my own company.]