Chapter 012: Golden Star

Zhou Zhexiao didn’t speak; he just half-turned to look at him. The only light in the room came from Xia Chiyi’s phone screen, casting a cold, ceramic glaze over Zhou Zhexiao’s face. The details of his features were lost in the dimness, leaving only contours interwoven with light and shadow.

Though he was loath to admit it, Xia Chiyi had to concede that this guy was criminally handsome.

“Since you’re not asleep, want to watch together?” Xia Chiyi leaned in, whispering.

His hushed voice and breath rushed against Zhou Zhexiao’s eardrum, like countless feathers brushing across his heart, leaving behind faint, delicate traces one after another.

By the time Zhou Zhexiao reacted, Xia Chiyi was already propping himself up on the headboard shelf, ready to climb over.

The space from the bed to the ceiling wasn’t enough for Xia Chiyi’s height. He lay prone on the shelf, careful not to bump his head. His T-shirt rode up, exposing a long stretch of taut waistline and abdominal muscles. As he was about to put his foot down, he realized Zhou Zhexiao’s head was still smack in the center of the pillow, looking up at him with absolutely no intention of moving.

Xia Chiyi felt a bit embarrassed. It seemed he had been projecting; Zhou Zhexiao obviously had no intention of watching the video with him.

“Oh, sorry. My bad.”

Just as Xia Chiyi was about to retract his leg, his ankle was suddenly seized. Powerful fingers wrapped completely around it. The force in that instant felt like it was going to drag him down violently, startling Xia Chiyi’s heart into a chaotic rhythm, nearly making it burst.

He lay on the shelf and looked back; Zhou Zhexiao was still lying there, watching him silently.

Dude, what do you actually want? I try to come over and you don’t make room; I try to go back and you grab me.

After a second of standoff, Zhou Zhexiao finally scooted toward the wall, clearing as much space as he could to offer half the territory. Yet, his hand didn’t let go; instead, he pulled Xia Chiyi’s ankle, placing it near his own chest.

Xia Chiyi successfully crawled over and lay down.

It had to be said—a single bed was truly too cramped for two tall guys. There was no margin for error; they had to lie on their sides to avoid pressing against each other.

When he straightened his legs, Xia Chiyi could still feel the phantom pressure on his ankle, as if Zhou Zhexiao’s hand were still encircling him.

Xia Chiyi scooted closer to Zhou Zhexiao. The latter didn’t know what he was up to and kept retreating until his back was pressed firmly against the wall.

He didn’t know why the boy was getting closer, only that his instinct was to yield all available space to him.

But to Xia Chiyi, he felt like a cliché villain cornering an innocent youth at the end of a dark alley. Was a “kabedon” (wall-slam) the next step?

A mischievous thought excited him, and he put on what he thought was a “bad boy” expression, like a villain in a melodramatic soap opera. He deliberately ran his tongue over his teeth and leaned in close to Zhou Zhexiao’s face.

Then, just like during the day, he gently brushed aside the stray hair by Zhou Zhexiao’s ear and inserted the Bluetooth earbud.

He checked Zhou Zhexiao’s expression out of the corner of his eye. The guy didn’t resist; he even closed his eyes briefly as the earbud went in, looking like he was enjoying Xia Chiyi’s service.

Disappointed, Xia Chiyi lay back down. He placed the phone between himself and Zhou Zhexiao, then pulled Zhou Zhexiao’s hand up to support the other side of the phone.

This was a fan-made highlight reel of Ling Huanzhen’s college days in the NCAA, up until his retirement.

And Sheng Xingming was a frequent co-star in these clips.

They had been opponents on the NCAA court, but also the best of teammates during the World Youth Championships, the Asian Championships, and even the Olympics, co-creating countless spectacular offensive and defensive plays.

Xia Chiyi watched intently. For example, in an Olympic match, Sheng Xingming was double-teamed by two American players. With the shot clock running down, he had to make an emergency play. Everyone thought Sheng Xingming was going to shoot; American players were already boxing out for the rebound. But then came a BOOM—Ling Huanzhen caught the alley-oop and dunked it directly!

It was truly a heavy artillery shot, leaving the on-site audience shaken to their cores.

Xia Chiyi exhaled in excitement, his knees unconsciously twitching under the duvet, making one suspect he wanted to run laps right there. His knee bumped into Zhou Zhexiao’s leg.

Zhou Zhexiao didn’t dodge, and Xia Chiyi’s attention was already captured by the next highlight. Under the light of the phone screen, his eyelashes cast shadows like two tiny brushes, and the tip of his nose and his cheek, squished slightly against the pillow, looked childish.

Gradually, Xia Chiyi released his hold on the phone. Zhou Zhexiao subtly shifted the phone closer to himself inch by inch, while Xia Chiyi slowly leaned in… until finally, Zhou Zhexiao was lying flat with the phone in front of him, and Xia Chiyi’s chin was resting on his shoulder, his soft breaths brushing over the skin of Zhou Zhexiao’s collar again and again.

Until the boy’s eyelids drooped completely shut, and he fell asleep quietly against Zhou Zhexiao’s shoulder.

The phone battery died. Zhou Zhexiao placed it on the shelf at the head of the bed and gently removed the earbud from Xia Chiyi’s ear.

When his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he lifted the hand Xia Chiyi had obediently placed by his cheek.

The boy’s fingers were long and beautiful, nails trimmed to round arcs. It was this hand that always launched the ball in a beautiful trajectory. And on the side of his ring finger, near the middle finger, there was a tiny golden star.

While wiping his eyes at the breakfast stall, covering his eyes in the dorm, and just now, seeing the light filter through his fingers while holding the phone, Zhou Zhexiao had seen this star hidden between his fingers.

That was from a long, long time ago. Long enough that Sheng Xingming himself had forgotten… It was a little star he had once drawn on the ring finger of a little boy who kept failing to make a basket, just to comfort him.

The little boy had tattooed this star into his skin. So, ten years after Sheng Xingming’s death, whenever this boy sent a ball into the basket, that star was there with him.

The whole world had engraved him into history, but only this boy, ball after ball, was carrying him into the future.

The next morning, when Xia Chiyi woke up, he realized he was sprawled out in a ‘大’ shape on a bed, but opposite him wasn’t the dorm window, but the door.

“Huh?” Xia Chiyi scratched his head. As his consciousness slowly returned, he remembered—this was Zhou Zhexiao’s bed!

Where was Zhou Zhexiao?

The space beside him was empty.

Did he fall asleep first, forcing Zhou Zhexiao to climb into the opposite bed to sleep?

But when he looked across, he found his own bed empty.

“Ah, that guy is so disciplined… doesn’t even sleep in, just went to…”

Xia Chiyi looked down and discovered Ye Chaoying leaning on the edge of the pillow, watching him. Who knew how long he’d been there.

“Holy sh*t… Don’t scare people first thing in the morning!”

Ye Chaoying chuckled dryly. “Last night before I slept, I saw with my own eyes that you and Zhou Zhexiao were in your respective beds. I wake up, and you’re in his bed. Tell me, what is your relationship with Zhou Zhexiao?”

“What kind of relationship?! Roommates!” Xia Chiyi explained helplessly. “Last night we watched a highlight reel of Ling Huanzhen’s matches together.”

“Oh.” Ye Chaoying backed away disappointedly, the fire of gossip extinguished. “By the way, I’ve found out who the two people Coach Cheng introduced are.”

“Who?” Xia Chiyi asked as he climbed down.

“One is that guy who gave dried sweet potatoes to Ma Wenhua. He’s a junior this year, name is Du He, height 1.98 meters. He used to be the team’s center.”

“The honest guy who got pushed out by lobsters and abalone?” Xia Chiyi asked while brushing his teeth.

“Yeah. Because after Ma Wenhua got drunk, he patted that dried-sweet-potato guy on the face and said, ‘You blockhead, you’ll never make the starting lineup in this life.’ Dried Sweet Potato felt his future was bleak, so he left the team. He’s studying hard now, making progress every day, planning to find a good job in the city after graduation. Finding him is easy; just camp out at the library.”

“…That Ma Wenhua, specifically bullying honest people. He’s truly lacking in moral character and destined for pettiness,” Xia Chiyi mumbled, biting his toothbrush in indignation.

Ye Chaoying tilted his head. “You used to be pretty well-behaved. When opponents talked trash to you on the court, you’d only go ‘hmph’.”

“By ‘opponents,’ do you mean yourself?” Xia Chiyi said grumpily.

Ye Chaoying thought about it for a long time and felt that among all the opponents, he had been the gentlest to Xia Chiyi, never even using an impolite greeting.

“The other one should be a sophomore this year. He played both Power Forward and Center on the team. Height 1.95 meters. Shuai Bei.”

Xia Chiyi gargled a mouthful of foam and spat it out. “Does being 1.95 meters automatically make him a ‘Shuai Bi’ (Handsome Stud)?”

“It’s Shuai Bei. Handsome (Shuai) as in good-looking, Bei as in North. Please don’t arbitrarily change people’s names.”

“So what beef does this Shuai Bei have with Ma Wenhua?”

“Speaking of that, it’s quite a story. Allegedly, Ma Wenhua used the basketball team’s funds to buy a batch of counterfeit sports equipment, and Shuai Bei found out. This guy exposed Ma Wenhua right in front of all the basketball players and school leaders, making Old Ma lose face completely. Since then, he’s been exiled to the horizon.”

Counterfeit sports equipment is incredibly dangerous. For instance, if you’re doing barbell training and a substandard barbell snaps and falls, you might go to the hospital and never come out alive.

“Since riding the bench, this Shuai Bei ceased to care about reporting to the team. He relied on his physique to become a print model. Isn’t that a better future than staying on the basketball team?”

“So where do we find him?” Xia Chiyi asked.

“A photography studio. I’ve already got the address. We can go find them as soon as Zhou Zhexiao gets back.”

Speak of the devil, and he appears.

Zhou Zhexiao walked in wearing a light gray hoodie and black sweatpants. The compression pants underneath made the muscle lines from his ankles to his knees look even more taut and powerful. Xia Chiyi couldn’t help but stare, noticing he was carrying a plastic bag, which he placed on Xia Chiyi’s desk.

“Breakfast.”

After speaking, Zhou Zhexiao opened his locker, took out a sports drink, twisted the cap, and downed two mouthfuls with his head thrown back.

Xia Chiyi looked at the ankle bones exposed beneath the running shoes, and suddenly remembered the strength of Zhou Zhexiao circling his own ankle last night. It was a silent retention, hinting at a hidden desire to protect, as if he wanted to block all the harm from the world for him.