HGTM CH109
Chapter 0109: Revenge Match: The Provincial Team
“Then hurry up!” Xia Chiyi forcefully leaned back, pulling Zhou Zhexiao down to lie with him.
Zhou Zhexiao propped himself up on his arms and hovered over him. He bit the zipper of Xia Chiyi’s sports jacket and pulled it down. The sound it made caused Xia Chiyi’s heart to race.
When this man, who usually seemed so quiet and taciturn, lifted his eyelids to look at Xia Chiyi, his slightly curly black bangs slipped across his forehead, making Xia Chiyi’s mouth go suddenly dry.
“Am I too clingy? Always wanting to kiss you?” Xia Chiyi asked.
“Are you? What kind of misunderstanding do you have about the word ‘clingy’?”
Feeling slightly annoyed, Zhou Zhexiao bit the tip of Xia Chiyi’s nose.
He hoped Xia Chiyi would be clingy forever, just like malt sugar melted by the sun—a light touch of the tip of the tongue could draw out long, fine, beautifully glistening threads. A sweetness that only he was allowed to taste.
Zhou Zhexiao kissed the other’s eyelashes, which fluttered like little brushes. Xia Chiyi’s eyelids trembled lightly, brushing back and forth against the seam of Zhou Zhexiao’s lips.
Like an illusion, Xia Chiyi heard a low chuckle coming from Zhou Zhexiao’s throat.
Xia Chiyi’s eardrums and heart vibrated along with it. Feeling like his ears were about to catch fire, he opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was Zhou Zhexiao’s chin.
“What the hell are you laughing at!”
Only when he opened his mouth did he realize his voice was dry and hoarse.
His upper lip was lightly bitten. Before Xia Chiyi could even feel the force of Zhou Zhexiao’s teeth, the other had already launched a full-scale invasion, sweeping through his mouth in one vigorous breath.
“Mmph… Mmm…”
Why is he suddenly kissing so hard? Without even a transition?
But Xia Chiyi quickly realized that this was the adaptation period Zhou Zhexiao was giving him.
He was kissed until he had completely no strength to fight back, his mind so dizzy he didn’t even know what he was doing anymore.
If this were a basketball game, it would already be considered garbage time.
He was being completely crushed by Zhou Zhexiao, and as for when the game would end, there was no referee to blow the whistle. Everything was up to Zhou Zhexiao.
This guy had probably never loved anyone in his past life. Reuniting with Xia Chiyi in this life was truly like an old house catching fire—not only was it vigorous and dynamic, but it was also utterly destructive and sweeping all before it.
Xia Chiyi was a living, breathing human being. If they only kissed without breathing, he was going to pass away.
At first, he patted Zhou Zhexiao’s back, but Zhou Zhexiao only kissed harder. Xia Chiyi suspected the back of his head was going to crush straight through the pillow.
Next, he forcefully pushed at Zhou Zhexiao’s shoulders. The guy was kissing so self-forgetfully that he directly bit down on Xia Chiyi’s lip.
“Mn… Mmph…”
The sounds escaping Xia Chiyi’s throat only made Zhou Zhexiao intensify his efforts.
It wasn’t until Xia Chiyi grabbed a handful of hair at the back of Zhou Zhexiao’s head that he finally managed to yank him up.
As air rushed in, Xia Chiyi gasped for breath.
Still unsatisfied, Zhou Zhexiao kissed his cheek and the tip of his nose. The airflow when he spoke was so hot it felt like it was going to steam dry the blood in Xia Chiyi’s cheeks and neck.
“How is your lung capacity so small?”
“You kept stealing all my air, and you dare mock me for having a small lung capacity?”
Xia Chiyi unceremoniously bumped his side waist.
Zhou Zhexiao didn’t move; he merely lowered his head and looked at Xia Chiyi.
“Oh, you don’t like it?”
“I like it. It’s exhilarating.”
Xia Chiyi didn’t try to hide it, nor did he act coy.
Zhou Zhexiao’s kisses always managed to hook his desire to challenge and turn the tables against the wind.
Xia Chiyi bumped his lips against Zhou Zhexiao’s. “Catch your breath, suddenly feeling capable again, huh!”
Just when Zhou Zhexiao thought this version of Xia Chiyi was incredibly adorable, Xia Chiyi suddenly flipped over, actually managing to press Zhou Zhexiao down beneath him.
When the back of Zhou Zhexiao’s head hit the pillow, it wasn’t just Xia Chiyi who was stunned… Did I actually successfully reverse our positions?
Zhou Zhexiao was also startled; this was his first time looking at Xia Chiyi from this angle.
“What do you want to do?”
It would have been fine if Zhou Zhexiao hadn’t smiled, but that smile was simply too mature and full of pampering, making Xia Chiyi’s heart itch as he looked at it.
“Your Majesty, I want to take good care of you.”
Zhou Zhexiao’s fingertip lightly tapped against Xia Chiyi’s forehead.
“You’re definitely going to mess around.”
“I will not! Imitating your skills is my talent!”
“Some things aren’t a skill, they’re instinct.”
“Then aren’t you curious what my instincts are like?”
“A total noob’s instinct… to cause destruction?”
“Hmph!”
And so, Xia Chiyi put his instincts into practice once, and actually managed to achieve the effect of “beating a master with wild, unorthodox punches.”
Hearing Zhou Zhexiao’s muffled groans of forbearance and looking at his tightly shut eyes, Xia Chiyi realized for the first time that he could control Zhou Zhexiao.
That feeling of smug satisfaction was even better than the feeling of winning the Southeast Regional Championship.
A few hours later, they boarded the high-speed train.
As soon as he sat down, Xia Chiyi tilted his head, leaned on Zhou Zhexiao’s shoulder, and fell asleep.
Cheng Qing handed out mineral water to everyone while walking down the aisle taking attendance.
“Why are both your lips so red?” Cheng Qing asked.
While Xia Chiyi was still trying to come up with an excuse, Ye Chaoying suddenly spoke up: “Why else would they be red? They kissed, of course!”
“Cough, cough, cough… cough, cough…” Xia Chiyi choked so hard tears almost came out.
Ye Chaoying continued to gloat: “Hahaha, Xia Chiyi! What exactly is in that brain of yours! I meant eating ‘Kiss’ brand spicy strips!”
A wave of laughter rose and fell in the train car.
“You are definitely going to regret this in the future.”
Regret always brushing right past the truth.
As soon as they reached the exit of the high-speed rail station, they saw large red banners pulled high up, reading: “Warmly Welcoming the Triumphant Return of the Ningchang University Basketball Team.” Passing passengers couldn’t help but take a few extra glances.
Liang Qin had brought people from the Student Union to pick them up, enthusiastic smiles brimming on everyone’s faces.
Shuai Bei sighed with emotion: “Last year, when we were knocked out in the first round of the group stage, I came back with my tail tucked between my legs. At the time, I even bought a hat to cover my face, terrified of being recognized by others.”
Chen Chuan opened his mouth: “You’re so tall, it’d be pretty hard not to be recognized…”
“Yeah, burying my head in the sand. This time, it can be considered a glorious return to our hometown; we can hold our heads high.”
Shuai Bei pulled his suitcase forward. He hadn’t taken two steps before he stopped, and Du He, who was following right behind him, nearly bumped into him.
Rubbing his nose, Du He asked muffledly, “What’s wrong?”
“Your parents are here, and the lineup is a bit huge…” Shuai Bei shifted to the side.
Du He froze. It wasn’t just his parents who had come; his aunts, uncles, and extended family were all there. The scene rivaled the return of a top college entrance exam scholar to his hometown.
“Today… don’t we need to sun-dry the sweet potatoes today?” Du He asked foolishly.
“How could sweet potatoes be more important than you! You’ve truly brought honor to our entire village!”
“You have no idea! Your dad bought a projector and broadcasted your games publicly at the factory. Almost the whole village came to watch! You are the pride of our village now!”
Du He’s face turned so red it was almost purple. Embarrassed, he said: “It’s just… just the Southeast Regional Championship, that’s all…”
“The Southeast Region still covers eight provinces and one municipality!”
“Plus, the Southeast Region has the most intense competition in the whole country!”
Zhou Zhexiao pulled his suitcase, carrying both his and Xia Chiyi’s bags slung across his shoulders. Xia Chiyi held onto the strap of Zhou Zhexiao’s bag with one hand, while replying to various WeChat messages with the other.
Hearing classmates call his name, Xia Chiyi lifted his head, smiling and revealing two small canine teeth.
“Is playing basketball capable of performing plastic surgery? Why does it feel like Xia Chiyi is even more handsome than when he first enrolled?”
“Maybe it’s the buff of the Southeast Regional Championship?”
The school had sent a bus to pick them up. Seeing Pang Shuai leaning against the window waving at them, Xia Chiyi’s nose almost turned sour.
“Little Pang, thanks for your hard work taking photos for us!”
“Of course! I even lost six pounds! Holding up a DSLR camera is a great arm workout!”
“You lost weight? Why can’t I tell?”
“Probably because my base weight was too large…”
Once on the bus, everyone couldn’t help but chat the whole way, missing the food at the school cafeteria, missing the trembling hands of the cafeteria aunties when serving food, and missing the delivery lockers at the dorm entrance—even during the tournament, Zhou Zhexiao hadn’t halted his shopping spree. The accumulated packages could probably conquer their entire dorm room.
As soon as they entered the school gates, they were greeted by another massive banner.
Along both sides of the tree-lined avenue leading into the school, there was a roll-up banner or a life-size cardboard cutout made from their basketball game photos every five or six steps!
Chen Chuan pressed against the window, his face nearly plastered to the glass: “Holy crap, there’s even a solo photo of me?”
He Bin sighed: “Have some ambition, will you? You are a vice-captain after all.”
Xia Chiyi had never seen such a promotional display before.
These photos were all Pang Shuai’s work, capturing everyone’s shining moments.
“If this were ancient times, this would be like passing the imperial examination as the top scholar, parading through the capital streets while the commoners lined the roads to welcome us…”
“After all, we achieved a breakthrough from zero for Ningchang University. Before us, not a single sports program at Ningchang University could rank in the Southeast Region!”
Xia Chiyi saw his own life-size cutout; it was a shot of him executing a pull-up jumper, and several classmates were currently taking group photos under it.
Right beside his was Zhou Zhexiao’s cutout, showing him leaping into the air, executing a double-clutch to send the ball into the basket.
“So damn handsome.”
Right as Xia Chiyi finished speaking, he saw several classmates put his and Zhou Zhexiao’s cutouts together. The bus was getting further and further away, and Xia Chiyi stuck his head out the window, only to be yanked back into his seat by Zhou Zhexiao beside him.
“Did you see that? Did you see that? They put your and my poster photos right next to each other!”
Xia Chiyi looked completely surprised.
Ye Chaoying turned around and leaned on the back of his seat: “Look at you, acting like you’ve never seen the world. You and Zhou Zhexiao are Ningchang University’s number one CP. Don’t get a Bad Ending before graduation!”
Xia Chiyi’s throat bobbed. He wondered, Do they know that the CP they are shipping is real?
The school bus dropped them off at the spot closest to their dorm.
After experiencing the tournament these past days, returning to the dorm, seeing the familiar bedsheets, Pang Shuai’s unwashed socks, and the leftover paper milk tea cups on the desks, Xia Chiyi felt like he had returned from a dream back to reality.
His phone vibrated with notifications indicating that the packages stored in the delivery lockers were about to overstay their limit.
Zhou Zhexiao had barely put down their shoulder bags before Xia Chiyi grabbed him by the neck and marched him out.
“What’s wrong?”
“You guy, the delivery locker sent me over a dozen reminders! The things you bought better be useful!”
“Why do they have to be useful? I just bought them to take a look anyway.”
The completely matter-of-fact look on Zhou Zhexiao’s face made Xia Chiyi want to beat him up.
And so, Xia Chiyi ordered four cups of milk tea, getting double boba for Zhou Zhexiao. The four people in the dorm drank milk tea while unboxing packages.
“Hey, these socks that look like Santa Claus aren’t pure cotton. Beware of stinky feet, I’ve requested a return for you!” Xia Chiyi waved around several pairs of rainbow-colored socks.
Zhou Zhexiao said, “Oh, I just bought them to meet the minimum for a discount anyway.”
Xia Chiyi couldn’t help but knock him on the head: “You learned how to meet minimums for discounts, but how do you not know to return them after getting the discount? Wasting the merchant’s time sending it to you—are you asking for a beating?”
Zhou Zhexiao silently glanced at Xia Chiyi, as if saying “I’ve learned it now.” His cheeks were bulging; the guy was playing with the boba in his mouth again.
For some inexplicable reason, Xia Chiyi thought of the way this guy’s tongue forcefully entangled with his when they kissed. Was that mind-bogglingly intoxicating technique trained by playing with boba in milk tea?
Pang Shuai unwrapped a gift box. “What is this?”
As soon as he opened the box, a spring-loaded fist punched right into his face.
“D-Don’t tell me this was also to meet a discount minimum!”
Watching this, Ye Chaoying laughed out loud. “Is this Zhou Zhexiao’s belated chuunibyou (eighth-grade syndrome) phase?”
Pang Shuai struggled for quite a while before finally cramming the fist back into the box. “Xia Chiyi, this harmful thing definitely has to be returned, right?”
Zhou Zhexiao said slowly: “Not returning it. I didn’t buy it to hit you with anyway.”
Pang Shuai and Ye Chaoying exchanged a look: Good lord, then who do you want to hit with it?
“Wait, what is this?” Xia Chiyi opened a box, and inside was a glass cup. Astonishingly, printed on the cup was a photo of Xia Chiyi!
“Wow, I knew you had fans, Xia Chiyi, but are your fans making merch of you now?” Pang Shuai leaned over, feeling that the resolution of the photo on the cup was quite high.
Frowning, Ye Chaoying revealed a thoughtful expression: “This cup… couldn’t possibly be the kind of cup I’m imagining, right?”
“Stop talking in riddles, what kind of cup is ‘that kind of cup’?” Xia Chiyi asked.
“Let’s test it out.”
Ye Chaoying poured hot water into the cup. Slowly, the clothes on the Xia Chiyi on the cup disappeared, turning into a set of unexaggerated yet firm and beautiful pectoral muscles.
“Whoa—you’re taking a bath in the cup!”
“Dewy, glowing skin!”
Xia Chiyi’s eyeballs nearly fell into the cup. He grabbed Zhou Zhexiao’s head and shook it forcefully. “Do you have a death wish? Actually buying this kind of thing? Return it—”
Biting his milk tea straw, Zhou Zhexiao slowly lifted his eyelids to look at him and said a sentence. Xia Chiyi didn’t hear it clearly, so he leaned his ear closer.
“What exactly did you say?”
“It’s custom-made.”
So it couldn’t be returned.
Xia Chiyi felt a sudden wave of cardiac arrest.
“Put it away, you are not allowed to drink water from it!”
Even if it’s a custom couple’s item, what’s the meaning of only having me soaking in a hot bath in the cup?
“Oh.”
“Take off your T-shirt right now, I need to take a photo!”
“Hmm?” Zhou Zhexiao looked up and asked.
“I’m going to make a cup too, and soak you every day!”
Zhou Zhexiao immediately covered the hem of his T-shirt, and Xia Chiyi lunged forward, yanking at it wildly.
Just from opening packages, these two inexplicably ended up wrestling together. Yanking and pressing randomly everywhere, Xia Chiyi felt Zhou Zhexiao’s body temperature rise sharply. Feeling a jolt of alarm, he immediately backed away from him.
With a dark face, Zhou Zhexiao curled his back and grabbed a cardboard box to place on his lap.
Xia Chiyi’s palm had just been scorched; now, he sat obediently back on his little folding stool.
Pang Shuai’s exclamation saved him from the awkwardness with Zhou Zhexiao.
“This is a human action figure! Xia Chiyi, it’s you again! Oh, oh, oh, there’s a Zhou Zhexiao too. These figures are a pair.”
Xia Chiyi leaned over to see what other bizarre things he had bought.
“They’re actually quite exquisitely made,” Ye Chaoying took them for a look. “Especially the expressions, they’re vivid and lifelike. Haha, putting them together, are you two trying to act out Love Me If You Dare?”
“What is Love Me If You Dare?” Zhou Zhexiao asked.
“It’s that movie. The silhouette of the young boy and girl sitting in a tree looking at the sunset, and then kissing.”
After speaking, Ye Chaoying placed the two action figures together. They really did fit perfectly sitting side by side, and the Xia Chiyi figure had his face turned precisely as if leaning in to kiss Zhou Zhexiao.
“Truly an eyesore… Does this thing have any use?” Xia Chiyi covered his face, but peered at Zhou Zhexiao’s expression through the gaps in his fingers.
He really wanted to yell “Return it, return it, return it,” but inexplicably found them cute and wanted to keep them.
Zhou Zhexiao took the two little figures back and placed them on the edge of his milk tea cup, sitting perfectly back-to-back.
He looked up at Xia Chiyi: “They are useful. They are specially used to hold down instant noodle lids.”
“Is that so… then let’s keep them,” Xia Chiyi whispered.
Pang Shuai sighed: “Getting such professional tools just to press down instant noodles, are you trying to render textbooks completely useless?”
Lifting his head, Ye Chaoying said helplessly: “You clearly really like them in your heart too, don’t you.”
Pang Shuai unboxed another small item. “Has Zhou Zhexiao undergone a personality change recently? It feels like he’s become Xia Chiyi’s fan, buying nothing but Xia Chiyi merch?”
Ye Chaoying chimed in: “Yeah, yeah. Where are the limited-edition basketball shoes? The trendy T-shirts? The new-tech protective gear?”
Peeling off the bubble wrap, Pang Shuai started laughing: “Sure enough, it’s another ‘Xia Chiyi’. You’ve been made into a nightlight!”
“I don’t even get up in the middle of the night, what do I need a nightlight for!” Xia Chiyi took a deep breath. “This one… return it…”
“No returns or exchanges allowed,” Zhou Zhexiao answered.
“Eh? This one doesn’t seem to light up no matter how much I tap it, it must be broken, right?” Pang Shuai finally found a reason for a return.
“You don’t tap it,” Zhou Zhexiao said.
“If this nightlight of yours doesn’t turn on when tapped, then what? Do you have to kiss it?” Xia Chiyi was speechless.
Zhou Zhexiao silently took it over and blew lightly on the “Xia Chiyi’s” mouth. The light turned on.
Ye Chaoying swallowed hard with a gulp. “This… this is truly a moment to witness a miracle…”
Pang Shuai also gulped: “So every time you get up at night, you have to kiss it?”
Zhou Zhexiao blew on it again, and it went out.
Xia Chiyi opened his mouth. Is this Zhou Zhexiao dropping hints to our roommates that we are a couple?
However, the thoughtless Ye Chaoying and the innocent Pang Shuai completely failed to catch Zhou Zhexiao’s hint.
These things were probably bought by Zhou Zhexiao while aimlessly scrolling on his phone when Xia Chiyi was asleep or taking a shower.
He had originally thought that whatever Zhou Zhexiao liked, he would keep it very hidden and restrained. Seeing him childishly reveal his affection like this, Xia Chiyi only found it incredibly endearing.
In the past, from middle school through college, his mind had been filled with nothing but basketball. He never knew that there were so many interesting things about liking someone, including buying their merch.
“Ah! Finally… finally unboxed something that belongs to Zhou Zhexiao’s normal tastes! The material of this T-shirt is so soft, but why are there two? Zhou Zhexiao, do you only have Xia Chiyi in your heart? Am I not your roommate? Am I not your teammate? Or have I never passed the ball to you?”
Resting his chin in his hand, Ye Chaoying looked at him with an inquiring gaze.
Pinching his straw, Zhou Zhexiao poked at the brown sugar boba stuck to the bottom. “Keep unboxing and you’ll see.”
Ye Chaoying sped up his unboxing rhythm.
“Wow, I’ve always wanted to buy this pink sports T-shirt but couldn’t get it from several personal shoppers… Wait, this super-sized one is for…”
“Pang Shuai. To thank him for the photos he took.”
Pang Shuai immediately put down the things in his hand, took it, and held it up to his shoulders to measure it. “You actually thought of me! Thank you so much!”
“Wait, I can accept you and Xia Chiyi wearing matching outfits, but making me and Pang Shuai wear matching outfits… Do we look like a couple?” Throwing an arm around Pang Shuai’s shoulder, Ye Chaoying asked Zhou Zhexiao with complete seriousness.
“I’m not happy hearing you say that. Aren’t we roommates?” Pang Shuai swatted Ye Chaoying’s arm away.
By the end of the unboxing, other than the prank box that punched Pang Shuai and the acrylic rainbow socks, Xia Chiyi surprisingly couldn’t find anything else that could be returned.
Zhou Zhexiao asked: “Are we really returning this?”
Holding his phone, Xia Chiyi was searching for that order: “Who do you want to hit by keeping this fist?”
“I want to… mail it to Yang Huaiyu.”
“Ah? Didn’t you… appreciate him quite a bit?”
“The way he smiles is an eyesore.”
Yang Huaiyu’s smile is an eyesore? He clearly has a very approachable smile, handsome features with no aggressiveness, and most importantly, his smile carries a sense of relaxation. No matter who his opponent is, no matter who beats him, he can calmly accept it.
Such a Yang Huaiyu is actually evaluated as “an eyesore”?
The Creator would probably cry, right?
Zhou Zhexiao turned around and leaned against the ladder, looking sullen like a child whose parent had refused to buy him a toy.
Xia Chiyi asked tentatively: “Are you… perhaps jealous that he’s handsome?”
Zhou Zhexiao silently folded cardboard boxes without speaking.
It was truly hard to imagine the former him wanting to pull a prank like this.
This wasn’t his belated rebellious phase; it was his belated childish phase.
Having grown accustomed to his silent and mature demeanor, letting him be willful occasionally wasn’t a bad thing.
Gently pinching Zhou Zhexiao’s ear with one hand, Xia Chiyi flipped through WeChat with the other, looking for Yang Huaiyu’s profile picture. “Wait a second, let me ask him for his address.”
As expected, Yang Huaiyu had zero guard up. Thinking Xia Chiyi wanted to send him some Ningchang local specialties, he gave his address extremely readily.
Imagining his tall nose bridge being smashed by a fist, Xia Chiyi secretly rejoiced in his heart in advance.
Suddenly I feel like this prank box was a very worthwhile purchase, what do I do?
At that very moment, Zhou Zhexiao’s mother learned of the game results from Xia Chiyi’s mother’s WeChat Moments and hurriedly sent a message to Zhou Rong.
[Ningchang University won the Southeast Regional Championship! He also won Most Promising Rookie of the Southeast Region!]
The two exclamation marks showed his mother’s pride.
Zhou Rong scoffed coldly in his heart. Isn’t it just a regional championship for a college-level tournament?
The so-called Most Promising Rookie is nothing more than ‘when there are no tigers in the mountains, the monkey reigns as king’.
No matter how many of these championships you win, it’s not as good as going to mix it up in the NCAA.
“Oh, President Zhou, what message are you so engrossed in?”
“Nothing much. Just my ex-wife telling me that my eldest son’s basketball team won a regional championship, that’s all.”
Even if he said it out loud, the other party might not have heard of it. Zhou Rong wouldn’t go around bragging about it.
“High school student?”
“College student.” Zhou Rong actually didn’t want the other party to keep asking, as that would inevitably lead to mentioning Ningchang University.
It wasn’t a top-tier institution like Qing University; it was just a university that had some fame within Jin Province.
What Zhou Rong worried about was that if Zhou Zhexiao continued to waste his time like this, he wouldn’t be able to become an athlete after graduation. What kind of job would he be able to find to scrape by then?
“College student? The Sunshine League?”
“Division I league.” Zhou Rong tried his best to keep smiling; after all, the person across from him was an important business partner.
“Wait… your son wouldn’t happen to be from Ningchang University, would he? The only regional tournament with much buzz lately is the college Division I league’s Southeast Regional tournament, right?”
“Uh, yes.”
The smile on Zhou Rong’s face was extremely stiff. He was thinking that the other party’s next move would probably be to ask why he didn’t send his son to a better school, or that if he wanted to play basketball, he should have sent him abroad to study.
“Who is your son? Tell me, I might actually know him!”
“President Zhao, stop joking around. It’s just a college basketball tournament, would you really pay attention to it?”
“The college Division I league is an important source for the CBA draft now! Our group also title-sponsored a club—the Northwest Haohan Industrial Men’s Basketball team. The Northwest Region’s divisional games just ended, and as a basketball fan myself, it’s a pity I didn’t see any good seedlings. But the Southeast Region was incredibly exciting!”
“Is that so?” Zhou Rong smiled.
In his mind, he pictured Zhou Zhexiao’s indifferent, ignorant face that didn’t know the immensity of heaven and earth.
How exciting could it be? More professional than the CBA? Right now, the CBA is suffering from a talent gap; its level might not even match the NCAA across the ocean, not to mention the Division I league!
President Zhao across from him was a basketball fan, and upon mentioning basketball, he began pouring out words: “Do you know Ningchang University? A dark horse, truly leaving everyone in the dust, defeating all the teams our club had its eyes on. Ai Jun and Shao Jin from Fu Tech; Zhao Lingcong and Ma Tao from Southeast Mining; Yang Huaiyu and Li Shunchuan from Qincheng University—these are all promising seedlings favored by major clubs. The Southeast Region is truly full of crouching tigers and hidden dragons!”
Taking a sip of tea, Zhou Rong smiled.
See, it has nothing to do with Zhou Zhexiao.
President Zhao continued: “But those are all in the past now. Zhou Zhexiao and Xia Chiyi from Ningchang University were truly far too dazzling! Even a non-professional like me could see the gap in skill level between them and the others. They absolutely have to go pro in the future. By the way, what position does your son play at Ningchang University? Did he play in the finals?”
Zhou Rong had never expected the other party to actually give Zhou Zhexiao such a high evaluation.
“My son is Zhou Zhexiao.”
The other party’s gaze clearly halted, instantly lighting up.
“This is truly too much of a coincidence! Based on the relationship between you and me now, you absolutely have to let your son join our club! I guarantee he’ll be a starter! Not only does your son play well, but he’s also very handsome. Even my daughter is his fan, saying that when Ningchang University makes it to the National Final Four, she definitely has to go watch the games live!”
“Thank you so much. You’ve praised him so much I’m feeling embarrassed.”
A CBA club actually had their eyes on Zhou Zhexiao, and was even offering him a starting position?
President Zhao added: “Now that Ningchang University has produced results, their coach Ling Huanzhen’s tail is sticking up even higher. Our people called him wanting to discuss Zhou Zhexiao, and he acted like he didn’t see it. I never expected you to be Zhou Zhexiao’s father! You absolutely must send your son to us! With his attributes, he won’t have to worry about endorsements; he could make a living just off his face!”
“Thank you, I will have a good talk with him.”
He didn’t know if it was an illusion, but after learning of his relationship with Zhou Zhexiao, the other party suddenly became much more enthusiastic.
This was the first time Zhou Rong had felt the “convenience” brought to him by Zhou Zhexiao.
The tense regional tournament came to a close, and Xia Chiyi and the others’ lives gradually returned to classes and training.
But the pride and sense of honor among the school’s students didn’t diminish.
Even a week later, walking on the way to class, they could still see the team’s posters.
When Xia Chiyi went to line up for food at the cafeteria, he could feel the attentive gazes coming from all directions.
“Is that Xia Chiyi? He’s so handsome in person!”
“Duh, the Division I league live broadcasts don’t use beauty filters. How he looked during the games is how he looks now!”
“I really want to see his abs. The official Division I league Weibo posted a screenshot of him pulling his jersey collar, and his V-lines are super sexy.”
“Haha, I saw someone on the forum say they want to crawl into his waist dimples!”
Xia Chiyi’s ears flushed red. He appreciated his classmates’ favor, but could their conversations not be so explicit?
I rarely even notice my own abs.
Instead, it was Zhou Zhexiao, standing behind him getting bored of lining up, who rested his chin on the top of Xia Chiyi’s head. Holding his food tray with one hand, his expression seemed indifferent, but he was actually analyzing everyone in his line of sight.
“The girl with the plastic hair clip in front turned around and told someone else that Xia Chiyi looks very good in a white T-shirt, and she wants to buy one for her boyfriend too.”
What the heck, isn’t this T-shirt the limited edition one you bought online?
It probably can’t be bought anywhere now.
“The guy wearing the blue jacket said that when Xia Chiyi blocked Yang Huaiyu, it was so mind-blowing it almost made him turn gay.”
“Almost, so he hasn’t yet?”
Zhou Zhexiao nodded: “Mn… his gaze when looking at you is still relatively pure.”
“Should I thank you for your commentary?”
After they got their food and sat down at a table, classmates would occasionally pass by and place things next to Xia Chiyi’s hand.
“Xia Chiyi, treating you to yogurt. Good luck in the Nationals!”
“Thank you.”
There were exactly two bottles of yogurt, perfect for sharing with Zhou Zhexiao.
“These are home-roasted pistachios, I heard you like eating them.”
“Such a big jar? It must have been hard for you to bring it back!”
“Xia Chiyi, these are the wristbands we picked out, specially customized with your name on them!”
“Really! Thank you so much!”
When Xia Chiyi took them back and looked, he found that not only was his name on them, but Zhou Zhexiao’s name was too.
“It actually has both my name and yours, we’re really lucky.”
Zhou Zhexiao was almost done eating, resting his chin on his hand watching Xia Chiyi pack away the small gifts from others.
“Mn, very lucky. They shipped a real CP.”
Xia Chiyi also smiled, not expecting their classmates’ gifts to hit the mark by a lucky coincidence.
On this day, Yang Huaiyu went outside his dorm building and signed for the package Xia Chiyi had mailed him.
He returned to his dorm room with a smile. Ke Yan was just calling him to go eat.
“Let me open this package before we go.”
“Hmm? What package is more important than inhaling food?” Ke Yan leaned over to look.
“Xia Chiyi said he mailed me some things.”
“Hehe, is this supposed to be compensation for snatching away our Kings of the Southeast title? He better have sent something useful.”
Sitting on the side, Ke Yan rested his chin on his hand watching Yang Huaiyu open the package.
“This gift looks very expensive. The packaging is so high-class, there’s even a rose attached to it?”
“Let me see what it is.”
Yang Huaiyu slowly opened the box, and suddenly something sprang out, hitting Yang Huaiyu squarely on the bridge of his nose.
“Mmph…”
Beside him, Ke Yan nearly jumped out of his skin: “Holy crap!”
Inside was a small card: Who asked you to be more handsome than me!
The fist was actually made of sponge, so it didn’t hurt at all when it hit his face, it was just quite scary when it sprang up.
After realizing what had happened, Ke Yan clutched his stomach and burst into roaring laughter.
“Xia Chiyi… is it really that fun to be a little shit?”
Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, Yang Huaiyu took out the card. The handwriting was very large and erratic; one look and you could tell the person writing it had ill intentions.
Ke Yan: “He even admitted you’re more handsome than him, does that make you too embarrassed to be angry?”
Yang Huaiyu revealed a deep expression: “Such an expensive gift must be shared with my plastic CP.”
Unwilling to suffer a loss by himself, this guy regifted the present to Ke Yan and Li Shunchuan. Rumor had it that the ’embarrassed’ character face on Li Shunchuan was nearly punched upside down by the fist.
Xia Chiyi had originally thought Yang Huaiyu would call him on WeChat to demand an explanation, but unexpectedly, he directly mailed the gift box to Liu Suchen.
Liu Suchen must have fallen for it, posting a Weibo tagging Yang Huaiyu with the caption: You wickedly smoking scoundrel!
Yang Huaiyu replied: Are you talking about yourself?
Later, Liu Suchen mailed the boxing glove box to Southwest Aviation University and gave it to Lu Yingnan, under the guise of wishing them to become Kings of the Southwest once again.
Lu Yingnan was very cautious, firmly believing that Liu Suchen giving a gift was “the weasel paying his respects to the hen—harboring ill intentions.”
Acting aloof, he almost contacted the courier to return it, but Zhuo Zheng couldn’t suppress his curiosity. Unboxing the package on behalf of his captain, he fell into the trap.
He said resentfully: “The Nationals haven’t even started yet, how come everyone has already raised the curtains on their scheming and intrigue?”
And just like that, Zhou Zhexiao’s gift box inexplicably circulated through half the future basketball world, slapping quite a few people in the face.
On their third day back, Gao Jinshu ran over to Ningchang University and invited Ling Huanzhen out for skewers.
“You’ve always been stingy without parting with a single hair, why would you treat me to skewers?”
Looking at the mountain of skewers piled up in front of him, Ling Huanzhen revealed an expression doubting life.
Smiling enthusiastically, Gao Jinshu personally opened several bottles of beer for Ling Huanzhen.
“The weasel paying his respects to the hen, are you trying to steal my eggs?”
Gao Jinshu revealed a wronged expression: “How could you say that? What eggs of yours did I steal? I’m the one who trained and brought Ye Chaoying to you!”
“So? Are you treating me to skewers to congratulate Ningchang University on winning the Southeast Regional Championship? Then you should be rewarding your disciple!”
“It’s like this… Coach Xie watched the Southeast Regional finals and felt that I taught Ye Chaoying very well, so he recommended me to the Jin Province basketball team to take over Ma Hongming’s position… You know Ma Hongming’s concepts are very outdated, and his cultivation of guards has always been backwards…”
“Stop, stop right there. You’re going to the Jin Province basketball team? Do you want to be the scapegoat to take the blame? That group of players left behind by Ma Hongming definitely won’t submit to you. Even if you temporarily recruit new players, you won’t be able to produce results without three to five years.” Ling Huanzhen waved his hand at Gao Jinshu.
“Everyone thinks that way. They feel the Jin Province basketball team is a fire pit, a hopeless case that can’t be helped. Moreover, Ma Hongming won’t step down until early next year; for the next half a year, he’s definitely going to stir up storms, making it a hot potato even for anyone wanting to take over. But… it can’t just keep rotting away like this forever, right? Xia Chiyi and Zhou Zhexiao met you because of good luck, but what about the other kids?”
This question stumped Ling Huanzhen.
The Ningchang University basketball team had played so well that it made Ling Huanzhen get carried away, nearly forgetting his original intentions.
Thinking back to when he and Jiao Yingfeng left their hometowns to go across the ocean, that was only because they had the good luck of having Sheng Xingming as their guide.
Over all these years, what about the other good seedlings who had been delayed?
“What do you want to do?” Ling Huanzhen asked.
“I want to pull the Ningchang University basketball team over to play a game against the provincial team.”
Ling Huanzhen was eating corn kernels and nearly choked to death. “Did I hear you right? You want college students to play a game against the professional athletes of the provincial team?”
“Think about it. If I find people from other provincial teams to play against them, losing is just losing; they’re already used to it. But what if they lose to college students? That would truly be a humiliating disgrace. If the Ningchang University basketball team loses, there’s no loss for you, and you can farm some experience points playing against professional athletes.”
Ling Huanzhen let out a breath. “But what you need is for us to win.”
“You know very well in your heart that Zhou Zhexiao and Xia Chiyi are already at the CBA level. Even if they went across the ocean to play in the NCAA, they are at the level of joining a strong school’s first team. Playing against a provincial team that always comes in dead last in every competition, these two aces are already extremely lethal.”
Ling Huanzhen also pondered Gao Jinshu’s words.
For Zhou Zhexiao, that bunch of provincial team players weren’t even on the same level as Yang Huaiyu and Liu Suchen.
But for Xia Chiyi, it was a very good opportunity to let him experience professional gameplay.
“I trained Ye Chaoying, so I’m not boasting, but I haven’t found a better point guard than him in the provincial team.”
Ling Huanzhen nodded: “Although Ma Hongming engages in nepotism, he has always strongly emphasized the cultivation of the frontcourt. So… this would be a learning opportunity for Du He, Shuai Bei, and Chen Chuan.”
Seeing Ling Huanzhen waver, Gao Jinshu persisted, adding fuel to the fire.
“Think about it. Twenty years ago, Ma Hongming looked down on you and Jiao Yingfeng. Later, he looked down on Xia Chiyi, Zhou Zhexiao, and Ye Chaoying. If you can lead them to completely route the provincial team overseen by Ma Hongming, making him lose all face before he steps down, how satisfying would that be! Once he goes home to retire, will you still have this chance?”
[Author’s Note]
Xia Chiyi: For a gentleman’s revenge, I only need my freshman year.
Zhou Zhexiao: Not even a year.