Chapter 4
On Sunday, Deng Letian and Xiao Yuan unusually avoided staying in the dorm to play games. After lunch, they gathered together, excitedly discussing something.
Jiang Zhong lazily scrolled through his Moments on WeChat. As the weekends approached, there were always more posts about food and selfies on their Moments.
He looked through each post, his finger sliding down until he reached Xi Qin’s Moment from a couple of days ago.
【Don’t think about it.】
A baffling sentence, without any expression or image.
Jiang Zhong felt vaguely uncomfortable looking at it.
“Jiang Zhong, hey, Jiang Zhong?” Deng Letian came over and tapped him on the shoulder. “What are you daydreaming about? It’s almost time. Aren’t you going to change clothes?”
“Hmm?” Jiang Zhong looked at him. “Change clothes for what?”
“To play basketball,” Deng Letian said. “We’re having a friendly match with Class 2, remember? It’s on Monday.”
Jiang Zhong vaguely remembered that during class on Monday, the sports committee members from Class 2 and their class had sat behind them, spending the whole class period discussing the match. “Oh… I remember now.”
Xiao Yuan said, “So you didn’t hear us talking here for so long?”
“I wasn’t paying attention, I was lost in thought… Wait,” Jiang Zhong suddenly realized, “Xi Qin is coming too, right?”
“Yeah, send him a message to see if he’s here yet. The class monitor asked us to warm up early,” Deng Letian said while searching for clothes.
Jiang Zhong pouted. “I’m not sending it. You guys can send it.”
“Lately, you’ve been the one in touch with him,” Deng Letian said matter-of-factly.
Xiao Yuan caught onto something and asked Jiang Zhong quietly, “Is everything alright?”
Jiang Zhong forced a smile and shook his head.
Xiao Yuan didn’t press further but gave Jiang Zhong a look that said, ‘If something’s wrong, just say it,’ and said, “I’ll send the message.”
When the three of them arrived at the basketball court, the class monitors of both classes had already arrived with their respective roommates, practicing dribbling and shooting freely.
The Computer Science Department had more boys than girls, and it was common for different departments and classes to arrange basketball matches.
Boys naturally gravitated towards competitive events, and in Class 1 of Computer Science, which had only six girls, most of the more than twenty boys came to the court, except for three or four who were off-campus.
The area for warming up was crowded with those preparing to play against Class 2 or cheering them on, while the boys from Class 2 occupied the other half.
Passersby who didn’t know the truth thought it was about to turn into a fight any minute, so they couldn’t help but stop and watch.
When Xi Qin arrived, Jiang Zhong was being asked for his WeChat by two girls, and the surrounding boys erupted in amused cheers.
Jiang Zhong’s ears grew warm. It wasn’t his first time being approached, but it was the first time in front of so many people.
After the girls added him on WeChat and left, Jiang Zhong’s view was no longer blocked, and he saw Xi Qin walking towards him.
Xi Qin was dressed simply in a T-shirt, shorts, and basketball shoes, the only difference from usual being the two white wristbands on his wrists.
Throughout his walk, people he knew greeted him, so Xi Qin kept a faint smile on his face, softening the aloofness he usually had.
“Xi Qin,” Deng Letian called out cheerfully, waving his hand. “Over here.”
At this moment, Jiang Zhong’s gaze at Xi Qin was caught by the person himself.
With a smile on the person’s face, Xi Qin couldn’t just ignore him. Jiang Zhong instinctively tried to smile, but before the smile could fully form, his mouth slightly dropped in surprise.
The two girls who had just asked him for his WeChat were now blocking Xi Qin’s way, excitedly showing him their phones.
Xi Qin’s height is over 185 cm tall and looks even taller in basketball shoes. At this moment, he was leaning down to talk to the girls who only reached his shoulders.
“That’s really rude,” Jiang Zhong couldn’t help but say. “They just turned around and asked for someone else’s WeChat right in front of me.”
Xiao Yuan said, “And they look even more excited than when they asked you.”
Jiang Zhong: “…”
This is too much!
“It’s fine,” Deng Letian laughed heartily. “There are two girls, and you each get one, so it’s enough.”
After discussing with the two class monitors, the basketball game followed the ¹CBA format:
The whole game lasted 40 minutes, divided into two halves with four quarters, each 10 minutes long. The break between quarters was 130 seconds, and the halftime break was 15 minutes.
If the game ended without a winner, there would be a 5-minute overtime, with a 100-second break between the fourth quarter and overtime.
It sounded very formal, but besides the format, the game was essentially a friendly match or a casual game.
The most obvious point was—there were a lot of substitutes.
There was a row of ready-to-go substitute players lined the sidelines, and Jiang Zhong was one of them.
In the first half, Jiang Zhong’s dorm mates, Xi Qin and Deng Letian, played. Xi Qin was the shooting guard, and Deng Letian was the point guard.
Most people were amateur players, and while they remembered their positions at the start of the game, it quickly turned chaotic. Everyone’s eyes were on the basketball, and dribbling, passing, and scoring relied mostly on luck.
This chaotic style of play was more exhausting, but a crowd of novices found it exciting and tense.
Xi Qin stood out amid the chaos, skillfully sticking to his “position” and seizing opportunities to score two three-pointers!
This created two highlights in the game.
There were clearly more boys than girls on the sidelines, but when Xi Qin scored, the cheers from the girls completely drowned out the boys’ roars.
On the court, Deng Letian was so excited that he hugged Xi Qin, forgetting completely that he had previously considered Xi Qin to be “cold and distant.”
At the end of the first half quarter, those waiting high-fived and hugged the players who’s coming off the court.
Xi Qin bypassed everyone who had their arms open for him and stopped in front of Jiang Zhong.
Jiang Zhong had just been released by Deng Letian, his arms still open. Seeing Xi Qin, his arms opened even wider. He had expected Xi Qin to refuse, but to his surprise, Xi Qin stepped forward and hugged him, giving his back a few gentle pats.
Well, he unilaterally declared that the cold war was over.
In order to give everyone a chance to play, three substitutes were rotated in for the second half, and Jiang Zhong was one of them.
Xi Qin was still there, still playing as the shooting guard. Jiang Zhong was now the center. As for how chaotic the game would become after it started remained to unseen.
Jiang Zhong played basketball moderately well but had learned dance for a few years as a child, so his stamina and endurance were quite good.
On the court, whenever Jiang Zhong got the ball, he tried to pass it to Xi Qin, but his aim and force were not very good, and the ball was often intercepted by Class 2.
By the end of the second half quarter, Xi Qin had scored another three-pointer.
The newly substituted small forward from Class 1 played well, scoring several times with his aggressive style. The score gap widened, with Class 1 leading by 10 points.
There was a 15-minute break before the second half started. Two players were swapped out, including Xi Qin and another student who had played the entire first half, leaving them as substitutes.
Just before the end of the quarter, an accident occurred.
About seven or eight minutes into the game, a pass from a student in Class 2 was intercepted and slapped away by someone, causing it to veer off course and rapidly head towards the sidelines, directly toward a girl who was recording with her phone.
The girl was focused on the screen of her phone and didn’t realize the danger approaching. By the time she heard the shouts and saw the ball coming, she was momentarily stunned and forgot to dodge.
Jiang Zhong was about four to five meters away from the girl. Sensing the danger, he instinctively tried to run over and block the ball.
He managed to deflect the ball when it was about 50 centimeters from the girl’s face, pressing it downward with his palm so it bounced back into the court.
However, the sudden acceleration made it hard for Jiang Zhong to stop immediately. If he took another step forward, he would collide with the girl. A full-grown man colliding with a slender girl would likely knock her down, possibly causing her to hit her head.
In an instant, Jiang Zhong turned his body with great effort, twisting his ankle severely.
The people around the girl, also trying to avoid the basketball, moved aside, and Jiang Zhong ended up collapsing on the ground in a very awkward position.
Fortunately, he remembered to use his hands to cushion his fall, avoiding direct contact between his face and the court.
His ankle immediately throbbed with sharp pain, and his hands weren’t in great shape either, especially his right palm, which had hit the basketball hard before slapping the ground, now feeling a fiery, tingling soreness.
“Damn it…” Jiang Zhong couldn’t help but curse.
The players on the court and the “audience” outside quickly gathered around, asking questions like, “Are you alright?” “Where did you fall?”
Jiang Zhong turned over and sat on the ground, spreading his hands and relaxing his legs, wincing and taking deep breaths.
Before he could respond, another person pushed through the crowd.
Xi Qin knelt beside Jiang Zhong’s legs, looking as if he wanted to touch but hesitated. He asked softly, “Where did you hurt?”
“I didn’t fall or get hurt,” Jiang Zhong said, feeling a bit aggrieved upon seeing a familiar face. “It seems like I twisted my ankle.”
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¹”CBA” stands for the ‘Chinese Basketball Association’, which is the top professional basketball league in China. The league’s format, including its game rules and structure, is often used as a reference for organizing basketball games and tournaments.