The stands of the outer field, No. 2 stadium, were packed with people.
The moment Cheng Che walked out of the player tunnel, cheers surged like a tidal wave.
People in the stands held up their phones and support banners; some shouted his name, some whistled, and some simply screamed "Ahhh!"
Of these people, very few actually understand tennis.
Most of them were drawn in by the " Life Slowed Down " live stream.
An eighteen-year-old boy, the top scorer in the college entrance Zhuangyuan, a tennis player, a good singer, and incredibly handsome.
Who wouldn't want to see this kind of person with their own eyes?
With the added advantage of being surrounded by Stars Surrounding the Moon and being a " Sapiosexual Boy," Cheng Che walked in the sunlight, looking as if he had a built-in filter.
Lin Ming stood in the third row of the stands, holding a cup of cola, staring dumbfounded at Cheng Che entering below.
He doesn't know anything about tennis; his girlfriend dragged him here.
But his girlfriend doesn't know anything about tennis. She just came across Cheng Che online recently and became a fan because of his face and the live stream. When she saw that the main tournament was being held in Hang City, she bought two tickets.
Lin Ming initially refused.
"He's just a tennis player, how handsome can he be?"
Lin Ming scoffed.
"How handsome can sports stars be? It's all thanks to their fame. There's this sports star who looks like a monkey, but he still has a ton of fans, doesn't he?"
After he finished speaking, his girlfriend shoved her phone in front of him.
The screen shows a boy's profile, bathed in warm yellow light, holding a teacup.
He paused for half a second, then scoffed:
"He definitely used a beauty filter. Who doesn't use one when they're live streaming these days?"
"This is a live variety show broadcast," my girlfriend said.
"You can even adjust filters during variety show live streams."
My girlfriend swiped again.
This time it's a video of Cheng Che playing basketball.
On the screen, the boy runs, swings his racket, and serves on the tennis court, his movements as fluid as water.
Lin Ming stared at the figure in silence.
He's also a fan of celebrities, specifically Yan Ruanning, a rare and stunningly beautiful singer.
He felt that his girlfriend's taste in pursuing a sports student was really poor.
But he couldn't resist his girlfriend's persistent entreaties and still came to watch the game.
He wanted his girlfriend to know that things are completely different online and offline; how many people have had their online personas crumble in real life?
Then Cheng Che entered.
Lin Ming watched as the boy walked out of the player tunnel, stood behind the baseline, took his racket out of his bag, and bent down to check the strings.
The sunlight shone on him, illuminating his entire body clearly.
He had clean-cut eyebrows and eyes, a straight nose, and perfectly fair skin. He raised his hand and casually scratched the stray hairs on his forehead. His fingers were long and slender.
A suppressed gasp instantly rose from the stands.
The can of cola in Lin Ming's hand stopped in mid-air.
He opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word for a long time.
What's with the beauty filter?
What filter?
That lousy live stream was so real.
They look even better in person than on live stream.
He used to think that sports stars' good looks were just a result of their fame, but this one was different.
Even if he weren't the Zhuangyuan, even if he didn't play tennis, just his face alone would still make people scream.
Lin Ming's girlfriend was taking pictures with her phone, but she didn't scream like the girl next to her.
"Ahhh, honey! Look at me, honey!"
"He's so handsome! Even more handsome than in the live stream!"
"I can't go on, my legs are too weak..."
Lin Ming's girlfriend simply took photos quietly, a smile playing on her lips, occasionally muttering, "This angle is good."
"How about it, handsome, right?" His girlfriend snapped photos with her phone, then gave him a smug look. "I told you he and Yan Ruanning looked like a couple."
Lin Ming's heart skipped a beat.
Yan Ruanning is his goddess.
He pursued her for three years, from the time she debuted until now.
Although he knew there was no possibility between him and Yan Ruanning, it didn't stop him from placing that name in a special place in his heart.
My girlfriend says that Cheng Che and Yan Ruanning look like a couple?
"Their ages aren't right," Lin Ming blurted out. " Yan Ruanning is four years older than him."
His girlfriend's smile faltered for a moment.
"What do you mean?" She turned to look at Lin Ming, "You think I'm too old?"
Lin Ming felt a chill in his heart.
His girlfriend is three years older than him.
She usually takes care of him like an older sister, but she is particularly sensitive about the issue of "age".
"No, no, that's not what I meant." Lin Ming quickly put down the cola and grinned as he moved closer to her, saying, "A woman three years older than you is like a golden brick."
His girlfriend stared at him for two seconds, then her gaze turned even more unfriendly. "Are you saying I'm cold-hearted and have a stubborn temper?"
Lin Ming: "Huh?"
His mind raced.
A woman three years older than a man is considered lucky... frigid... stubborn...
BRICS seems cold and hard...
"Who am I? Where am I? Someone please save me!"
He let out a silent cry in his heart.
He decided to go back and delete all the messy novels from his girlfriend's bookshelf!
Oh, and the Little Pink Book!
Deleted everything!
On the field.
Cheng Che stood behind the baseline, feeling the changes in his body.
[ Star of the Court ] is in operation.
With so many eyes on him from the stands, he should have felt nervous or uncomfortable.
But at this moment, those gazes felt like a warm current flowing into his body from all directions, making his senses even clearer.
He could hear the wind blowing through the net.
You can see Zhu Junchi's fingers tightening slightly when he grips the racket.
You can feel the elasticity and friction of the hard ground under your feet.
"I was hoping to win this game through my own efforts..." he thought to himself, then chuckled to himself, "Oh well, let's just start."
"Deep Blue! No, [ Total Concentration ] activated!"
In an instant, the world fell silent.
His vision became extremely clear.
Zhu Junchi's stance, center of gravity, and the direction of his racket were all laid out before him like an enlarged blueprint.
His breathing slowed, and he entered a state of extreme calm.
Zhu Junchi, sitting opposite him, suddenly frowned.
He discovered it.
Cheng Che's demeanor has changed.
The boy who stood behind the goal line, surrounded by cheers from the stands, still seemed to carry a youthful and carefree air of eighteen.
But now, just a few seconds later, he felt as if his whole body had been tightened.
Zhu Junchi has played basketball for ten years and has seen countless opponents.
He knows what kind of opponent is the most difficult to deal with.
It's not about strength or speed; it's about being able to enter a state of "flow" the moment you step into a competition.
Such a person is not easily distracted by external factors, will not panic when behind in the score, and will not be distracted by the cheers of the audience.
They are like a precise machine, only doing the most correct thing.
"This is troublesome."
Zhu Junchi said to himself.
"Dear viewers, welcome to the group stage of the National Youth Games tennis main draw. I'm commentator Lin Yan, and next to me is my partner, former professional player Zhou Zhou."
At that moment, the commentary came through the loudspeaker.
Hello everyone, I'm Zhou Zhou.
"Today's match on the second court outside is the highly anticipated one between Cheng Che and professional player Zhu Junchi. Zhou Zhou, please introduce these two players to everyone."
"Okay. Cheng Che, 18 years old, is a dark horse who made it through this qualifying round. He has no official ranking, but he swept all three rounds of the qualifiers. Zhu Junchi, 26 years old, is a professional player who has been competing in international challenge tournaments for many years. He has a solid baseline game, and his serve is his main weapon."
"Alright, Zhu Junchi will serve first."
Zhu Junchi stood behind the baseline and slammed the ball to the ground twice.
His gaze was fixed on Cheng Che opposite him.
"One shot, one kill," he told himself. "The first ball has to go right through him."
He tossed the ball, jumped, and swung his racket.
The ball, like a yellow-green lightning bolt, slammed into the service area just outside the sideline, bounced up, and continued to curve outwards.
Chasing the outside corner.
Zhu Junchi's signature serve.
The angle was extremely tricky, the ball speed was extremely fast, and the landing point was extremely deep. He scored a lot of points with this move in the challenge match.
The commentator's voice rose. " Zhu Junchi serves first! This is an outside serve, a very tricky angle, and the ball speed is also very fast! Cheng Che must--"
The sound stopped.
Half a second later, another commentator's voice boomed out.
His voice was so excited that it even cracked, but he didn't care and continued his passionate explanation:
"What! Cheng Che made a very strange move! He caught the ball!"
" Zhu Junchi lunged forward! But he didn't catch the ball! Cheng Che scores!"
In the blink of an eye, everything had happened.
A buzzing sound came from the stands, and waves of surprise surged up from all directions.
Those spectators who didn't understand the game didn't even see what happened. They only saw Zhu Junchi serve a ball that was as fast as light, then Cheng Che moved his body slightly, and then the ball flew to the other side.
Then Zhu Junchi fell to the ground.
His knees slammed into the hard ground, his palms brushed the ground, and his racket flew out of his hand.
Zhu Junchi was lying there, looking completely bewildered.
He didn't see how the ball came back at all.
He felt smug when he served.
The angle and speed of that shot would be impressive even in a challenge match.
He waited to see Cheng Che hastily catch the ball.
Then he saw Cheng Che's actions.
The boy barely adjusted his pace.
He shifted his body slightly to the right, pulling the DSLR camera out from his side.
The wrist makes an extremely subtle rotation at the moment of contact with the ball, and the angle of the racket is ridiculously precise.
The entire movement was incredibly smooth from head to toe, without any unnecessary adjustments or hesitation.
Zhu Junchi saw that tricky ball fly back at an even more tricky angle than it had come from.
It landed close to the edge, a few centimeters inside, and bounced up before flying directly towards the barrier.
He lunged forward.
He threw himself out, his racket stretched to its limit, his fingertips almost touching the ball.
I didn't encounter it.
He fell onto the hard ground, his knee burning with pain. The racket rolled behind him and bounced twice.
"Fifteen to zero."
In the commentary booth, Lin Yan and Zhou Zhou exchanged a glance, both seeing shock in each other's eyes.
"Let's watch the replay again." Lin Yan's voice was still a little excited. " Zhu Junchi's outside serve landed right on the line, the angle was very tricky, and the ball speed was at least 180. Even in professional matches, this would be considered a high-quality serve. But Cheng Che barely adjusted his footwork and returned it with a one-handed backhand. Moreover, he hit it straight down the line, right on the sideline."
"That angle, that precision," Zhou Zhou added, "Even in the entire main competition, that's a top-tier serve return. Cheng Che's coordination is incredible."
In the stands, Lin Ming stood with his mouth agape, having completely stopped drinking his cola.
He only saw a yellowish-green shadow fly by, then Cheng Che moved, and then the ball came back.
He didn't even see how Cheng Che swung his racket.
"What just happened?" he asked his girlfriend.
My girlfriend also looked bewildered.
"I don't know, it's just... that ball was very fast, and then he hit it back."
A guy next to me who knew a little about tennis turned around with a complicated expression:
"Didn't you guys see it? That serve to the outside corner, the angle was already outside the sideline. A normal person would be lucky to even touch that kind of ball. But that kid just smashed it straight down with his one-handed backhand. I've been watching tennis for ten years, and I've never seen anything like it before."
Lin Ming fell silent.
He looked down at his hands, then at the boy on the court who was preparing to receive the second serve.
Suddenly I realized the can of cola in my hand was a bit heavy.
Zhu Junchi got up from the ground and dusted off his knees.
His palms were scraped, but he didn't care.
He walked back to the baseline, picked up his racket, and gripped it tightly.
His fingers were trembling.
"This kid's wrist..." A thought churned in his mind, "Is this what young people are like... But when I was young, why couldn't I do that?"
He'd been playing tennis for ten years and had never seen anyone make such a clean motion when receiving a serve of this quality.
"His coordination..." Zhu Junchi took a deep breath, "This isn't something you can train for. It's fucking innate."
He picked up the ball and walked back to the service line.
His original plan was to hold serve with all his might in the first game, to let Cheng Che know that his serve was not to be trifled with.
In the second game, they fought back fiercely, attacking aggressively during Cheng Che's serve to try and break his serve.
Once he breaks through a set, he has the opportunity to wear down the young man with his physical strength and experience.
But now... he has to think of another way.