Extra Training

The moment he landed, his voice had already drained the color from the faces of the two ninth-graders. The young man in black and Wang Jun did not say a word; they grabbed their jackets and slunk away.

The surrounding crowd applauded Li Ke's brilliant final performance. Some boys walked off with embarrassed looks on their faces, while the girls stared at Li Ke with an unusual glow in their beautiful eyes.

Zhu Zhan watched them and shook his head helplessly.

"Xiao Zhan, well done!" Li Ke walked over and patted him on the head.

"All right, the school team didn't have practice today since it was Friday. Once Xu Qian gets here, let's go get some shaved ice!" Li Ke said with a smile, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

"Haha, so you were here! You rascal, Li Ke, showing off with basketball again!" At that moment, a sweet, bell-like voice came from behind them. Li Ke and Zhu Zhan turned around to see a tall girl with her hair loose around her shoulders, large black eyes clear and bright, and a plain white T-shirt. She walked toward them carrying a faint fragrance with her.

"Wen Ting, you're here. Come on, let's go get shaved ice together." The smile on Li Ke's face grew even more captivating when he saw her. He reached out and lightly scraped the tip of her small, lovely nose.

"You jerk! Keep your dirty hands off me!"

Wen Ting wrinkled her delicate nose and pouted in mock annoyance. Her bright black eyes, exquisite features, and the faint fragrance unique to a young girl made her look especially beautiful.

The gazes of several boys nearby who had not yet left immediately froze on her. A moment later, the looks they gave Li Ke had turned into a mixture of envy and jealousy.

"I'm heading home. You know my mom isn't well, so I need to get back early to take care of her." Zhu Zhan shook his head. He had no desire to play third wheel.

Seeing this, Li Ke knew Zhu Zhan was not the type to linger. He and Wen Ting waved goodbye to him and left first.

Zhu Zhan stayed behind and slowly packed up his things. He carefully took off his number one jersey and put it away, then silently headed alone toward the school gate.

The afternoon sun slanted across the basketball court. The young man walked alone down the road, silently stroking the jersey he regarded as part of his own body. He kept walking, and no one knew what he was thinking.

The red sunlight stretched his shadow long. Step by step, he walked on alone, lonely and resolute.

The number one jersey on his body slowly blurred along with his silhouette.

"Mm, Xiao Zhan, you're back. How was school today? There's only one week until vacation, so don't let it interfere with your studying."

The furniture in the room was simple, yet the place was filled with the warmth of everyday life. A refined middle-aged woman who appeared to be around forty sat at the coffee table in the middle of the room, looking lovingly at Zhu Zhan.

Traces of her youthful beauty could still be seen, but the faint wrinkles at the corners of her eyes made her appear much older than she really was.

Two small dishes and two bowls of steaming white rice sat on the coffee table, all displaying the warmth of this home.

Yet the black-and-white photograph on the living room wall, showing a man in a police uniform who bore some resemblance to Zhu Zhan, made that warmth feel incomplete.

"Today was pretty good. The National High School Basketball League starts again in two months," Zhu Zhan said.

"Xiao Zhan, don't overthink it. Just give it your best," Zhu Zhan's mother said.

"Mm." Zhu Zhan nodded.

Since their first year at Jinghai High School, Zhu Zhan and his best friend Li Ke had been the unquestioned core players of the school team. Their talent was the envy of everyone. Over the past two years, they had led Jinghai No. 2 High School to the finals of the National High School Basketball League twice in a row, only to lose both times to the same opponent—Dongda Affiliated High School.

This year, he and Li Ke were already seniors. It was their final chance to claim the highest honor in high school basketball. Zhu Zhan desperately wanted that championship, not for himself, but for his first coach, Yang Weimin.

Coach Yang had been Zhu Zhan and Li Ke's teacher in elementary school, as well as the man who introduced them to basketball. Even after they entered middle school, they often went to Coach Yang's training camp. More than once, Coach Yang had said that the two of them were the most gifted and promising players he had ever trained.

Gradually, Zhu Zhan and Li Ke learned of Coach Yang's real background. Before becoming a schoolteacher and opening a basketball training camp in Jinghai, he had been a youth coach for a Chinese Basketball Association team. However, because of his unconventional youth-training philosophy, he had failed to achieve good results for many years. In the end, he had been forced to resign and leave the youth development career he had devoted himself to for so long.

But Zhu Zhan and Li Ke knew that although their coach was older now, he still wanted to prove himself.

Last winter, Coach Yang had been diagnosed with late-stage stomach cancer. Now, he lay in a hospital bed at death's door. That was why Zhu Zhan and Li Ke wanted so badly to win this championship and give it to their coach. They could even accept interviews afterward. Before last year's league had begun, he and Li Ke had agreed that if they won the final championship, they would shout their coach's name before the cameras.

But last year, they had once again lost to their old rival, Dongda Affiliated High School.

If they failed again this year, not only would he and Li Ke miss out on the greatest honor of their high school years, they would also lose their last chance to give their coach this final gift.

"Looks like I'll have to do extra practice every day from now on."

Taking the bowl of rice his mother handed him, Zhu Zhan thought to himself. He looked up at the window. Though thick clouds filled the sky and thunder and lightning flashed outside, there was no sign of rain.

"Playing basketball should be fine, right?" Zhu Zhan glanced outside and frowned.

After thinking it over, he decided to do some extra practice later. Zhu Zhan quickly finished the rice in his bowl, called out to his mother, put on his favorite Magic number one jersey as usual, and headed for the basketball court in his residential complex.

Although the residential complex where Zhu Zhan lived had been built in the last century and its basketball court was nothing more than a small concrete lot, his father, who had been a police officer and was still alive back then, had often brought him there to play when he was young. In a sense, this was where Zhu Zhan had first learned basketball. Whenever he had free time, he would come back here to practice.

For the National High School Boys' Basketball League two months from now, he decided that from now on, he would come here to practice every afternoon after school.

Because this residential complex was already several decades old, most of its residents were elderly. When Zhu Zhan arrived with his basketball, the bad weather had left the court empty. However, he spotted an unfamiliar middle-aged man sitting on a bench at the other end of the court with his eyes closed, resting.

The middle-aged man sat with his arms folded, looking calm and composed.