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After training for a while, Teacher Qiu let us go home. It was to ensure we had a good rest before tomorrow's away game against Qingzhu High School. On the way home, I chatted with A Fei while pushing our bicycles. "A Fei, do you know Xue Er?" I asked mischievously. "What Xue Er? I don't know what you're talking about. Stop thinking about those random things and get ready for tomorrow's opening match!" A Fei said as he hopped on his bike and sped off. Sigh! This A Fei thinks that competing is more important than anything else. Forget it, I won't ask anymore. "Wait for me!" I chased after him.
The next morning, A Fei came to wake me up early. "Jie, get up! Today is the opening match of the City High League, and I've been looking forward to it for a long time." A Fei barged into my bedroom. "Hey! It's rude to just barge into someone else's room," I said, rubbing my sleepy eyes. A Fei walked over and pulled my blanket off. "Hurry up!" "You pervert, I'm going to be exposed!" We started playfully teasing each other.
On the way to school, A Fei seemed particularly excited, eager to try his skills. When we reached the school gate, Cheng Fei called out, "Wait a minute!" Sha Xiaomei ran over. "Sha Xiaomei, what's up?" A Fei politely asked her, sounding a bit distant. "Did you guys beat Zhao Bin?" Sha Xiaomei's voice suddenly dropped low. "Yeah, what's the problem? Are you here to seek revenge for him?" A Fei replied without even looking at her. Sha Xiaomei lowered her head and started crying, "A Fei, please don't be like this; it hurts my heart." A Fei's determined expression seemed to waver a bit. "Stop crying; I won't bother with him anymore," he said, turning to me as we walked towards the school.
I noticed A Fei closed his eyes for a moment, as if he had just made a difficult decision. We dropped our bags and ran towards the basketball club. When we arrived, everyone was already there except for us two. "Alright, everyone is here; let's go!" Teacher Qiu commanded as we boarded the bus heading west. A Fei sat expressionless on the bus, staring out at the scenery. Half an hour later, we arrived at our destination and got off the bus. I saw A Fei take out the silver Eagle Pendant from around his neck and grip it tightly in his palm.
Under the guidance of the opposing team's coach, we entered Qingzhu High School and found that the environment was quite nice; flowers in the green belts emitted a pleasant fragrance, and there was even a fountain shaped like a urinating boy. After passing by the school's auditorium, we reached the gymnasium where the Qingzhu High School team was warming up. Once inside, we adjusted to the court as Teacher Qiu explained our tactical system. Looking around, I noticed that their players weren't very tall; our twin towers in the paint should be enough to handle them.
The game began as we took to the court with our starting lineup: Zhongqi Senior (Point Guard), me (Shooting Guard), Zhang Jun (Forward), Bing Ge (Power Forward), and Zhang Ruizhi (Center). Due to an injury that interrupted his training and considering A Fei's eyesight issues, he wasn't in the starting lineup but would come off the bench to gradually find his rhythm again.
In the first quarter of the game, Qingzhu High School clearly wasn't in form; perhaps our strength was slightly higher than theirs. We outperformed them in blocks, rebounds, shooting accuracy, and steals; they made many mistakes. Zhongqi Senior recorded four assists in just the first quarter while I scored seven points myself. With Zhang Jun's buzzer-beater layup hitting its mark, we ended the first quarter leading by twelve points.
"Not bad! This year Qingzhu High School has lost key players like Lu Fei and Jiang Weiping due to graduation; their strength has significantly declined compared to last year when they almost made it into the top four," Teacher Qiu commented as we prepared for the second quarter.
A Fei replaced Zhang Jun at small forward while Ouyang took over for Zhongqi to give our freshmen some experience. Finally getting to play alongside A Fei again felt great! The second quarter began with Ouyang making a long pass to A Fei for a mid-range jumper that went in. I ran over and high-fived him in celebration. "Nice shot, Ai II! Congratulations on your return." I smiled at him as A Fei returned my smile but didn't say anything.
Ouyang passed me the ball as I dribbled towards their defense trying to draw a foul. As expected, an opponent stepped in front of me; I felt their elbow hit my chest hard and fell flat on my back gasping for air. The referee blew his whistle. "Jie!" A Fei rushed over with others as they called an offensive foul on their player.
"How can that be an offensive foul? It was clearly a dirty play; it should have been called a flagrant foul!" Teacher Qiu argued with the referee but maintained his original call and issued a warning to him instead. Our team captain Zhou Litong and others stopped Teacher Qiu from arguing further since they knew continuing could lead to ejection.
A Fei and Ouyang helped me up as I bent over to catch my breath before stepping up for free throws. I made my first shot but missed the second one; however, Zhang Ruizhi grabbed the rebound and scored on a putback—well, that's still considered an “and-one,” right? But that hit was really hard; it almost knocked me out!
A Fei gradually found his old form again—first assisting Li Junhai with a hook shot then missing his own shot but grabbing his own rebound for another score! He was getting excited again after being away from competition for so long—it felt like an eagle finally soaring back into open skies after being trapped for too long.
By halftime of the second quarter, A Fei had scored one point while we extended our lead over Qingzhu High School to more than twenty points at 66-45; it became clear how this game would unfold as we joyfully walked towards the locker room shouting “We won!” Upon entering the locker room, I jumped up exclaiming loudly while high-fiving everyone.
"Xiang Jie! Don't celebrate too early; we've only played half of the game," Teacher Qiu interrupted my celebration.
"Coach, it's already decided; Qingzhu's strength is evident—they're clearly soft targets with no threat to us," I joked lightly with Teacher Qiu.
"Jie, Coach is right; as long as there's still time left in this game, every point and every second must be taken seriously without any slackening," A Fei chimed in.
This guy A Fei is always so serious—he can't even take a joke without ruining everyone's fun!
When halftime ended, we formed a circle together shouting “Yulin High School! Go!” As we walked back onto the court, I noticed students were slowly filling up the gymnasium—strangely enough there were many more girls than boys there! No wonder their basketball skills were lacking—their support team was insufficient! With so many girls around it might mean that Qingzhu High School’s girls' team could be strong!
The third quarter began with us continuing our aggressive strategy against their defense; they became increasingly frantic committing fouls—by just this quarter alone they fouled us nearly thirty times! We maintained control of pace throughout while extending our lead close to thirty points—the game gradually lost its suspense.
In the fourth quarter Bing Ge and Zhang Ruizhi were substituted out as we brought back our “Mini Legion” lineup to counter their offense effectively—ultimately winning decisively by 108 points against them! We celebrated this victory marking our first win in this year's high school league!
Upon returning to school afterward our principal praised us—it felt amazing! Back in class Xia Ying along with Three Sisters and Shuai Dong approached me saying “Congratulations Jiefei on your triumphant return! So how was it? Heard there are many beauties at Qingzhu.”
Shuai Dong asked with hearts in his eyes while Xia Ying interjected annoyedly: “Oh? What do you mean Shuai Dong? Are you implying that there are fewer beauties here at Yulin High School?”
“Exactly! You’re just being lewd!” Zhang Yirong chimed in too.
“Fine then! As if I care—Yulin has plenty of beauties!” Shuai Dong turned away pretending to gag—clearly these Three Sisters must have bullied him and Pang Hao quite often!
A Fei chuckled nearby before heading back towards his seat while Zhang Yirong followed after him saying “A Fei! Have you always been this cool?”
Zhang Yirong walked up next to A Fei who replied casually: “Have? I've never thought of myself as special—I just don’t act crazy like Jie or Shuai Dong.”
A faint smile appeared on A Fei’s face which made Zhang Yirong gaze at him dreamily saying: “You know what? When you smile you look incredibly handsome—it’s so charming! I really don’t understand why Sha Xiaomei missed out on you.”
Hearing this made A Fei suddenly uneasy: “Zhang Yirong please don’t bring up Sha Xiaomei anymore—I don’t want reminders of that painful past—I’m focused solely on how best to compete and help my team go further.”
His eyes darted away from hers as she asked: “Then… what do you think of me? Just so you know—I won’t let you compare me with Sha Xiaomei because she’s way out of my league being popular among everyone…”
Zhang Yirong lowered her head shyly while A Fei turned beet red wishing he could disappear into thin air!
“Zhang Yirong—is this your confession?” I approached them surprised by how straightforward she was about her feelings publicly among all of us!
“Mind your own business!” she retorted before turning away angrily leaving Xia Ying admiring her boldness saying: “I really admire Rongrong’s fearless nature—she never hides her feelings or opinions about anyone which is something I can’t do…”
Xia Ying sighed reflecting on herself—but thinking back neither could I…
That night when I logged onto QQ neither Xue Er nor Cookie were online when suddenly another friend request popped up from someone whose profile showed he was male with age listed as 01—gender: uncertain—city: Earth… Wow! What nonsense is this?!
I rejected his request only for him to add me again with verification message reading: Xiang Jie hello!
Huh? He knows me? Out of curiosity I accepted him saying: “Who are you?”
“A net friend—call me Ice Man,” he replied casually.
Ice Man? Who is that?
“What do you do?”
“A basketball enthusiast and athlete.”
“Professionally?” My interest piqued—could he be some scout or star player?
“Nope—just playing for fun.”
Wow! So he’s just another wannabe!
“Do you know me? What’s your purpose in adding me?”
“I’m just a basketball fan wanting to discuss basketball with you—that’s all—I’ll log off now but feel free anytime during games if anything comes up—we can chat.”
With that he logged off leaving behind this mysterious guy who seemed like an undercover agent now joining Xue Er and Cookie!
On my way back to school next day I asked A Fei if he knew Ice Man but he didn’t recognize him either—it was strange since Ice Man had also added A Fei too—but who cares who he is anyway?
Today marked Hejiang Middle School facing off against Experiment Three City—a match-up between strong teams which caught A Fei’s attention since he seemed focused on Jiang Lingfeng instead!
Meanwhile tomorrow we'll host Twenty-Four Middle School—I felt relaxed knowing we recently defeated them twice both home-and-away—but still saw seriousness etched across A Fei’s face…
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