The Basketball Game

Light from outside spilled through the half-open door, stopping at Shen Si's feet and drawing a distinct line. He was shrouded in darkness, motionless as a statue.

The iron rack against his back was covered in dust, but the intense pain in his ribs left him unable to care how filthy his surroundings were.

The hand pressed to his front trembled slightly. In the darkness, his face was as white as paper, his lips clamped tight to keep the slightest groan from escaping.

Sweat from enduring the pain trickled down his temples, drop by drop.

The moment a drop hit the floor, a figure appeared outside the window.

"Did your wound open up?" The man didn't come in, only asked through the window.

Shen Si parted his lips, his throat working with difficulty. The groan he had held back until now finally slipped through his clenched teeth.

"Mm..."

He panted heavily and answered, "Take me to the hospital. Don't let my dad find out."

"Mm. How's the matter coming along?" The man's voice was utterly even, cold to the point of being almost inhuman.

Shen Si was used to it. He knew the man's heart was even harder than the iron rack behind him.

He gritted his teeth and squeezed the words out between them. "How could it be that quick? Wait a little longer."

"Mm." The man paused. "Don't make me wait too long."

Before going to bed, Cen Xia kept feeling as though he had forgotten something, but no matter how hard he racked his brain, he couldn't remember what it was.

In the end, he stopped thinking about it and went straight to sleep.

Ding Yiheng, who had been waiting for Cen Xia's call all this time: ...

All the love he had given these past days had been wasted after all.

Shi Su's message only added fuel to the fire: Brother Cen said he was back at the dorm. He's probably asleep by now.

Ding Yiheng angrily put down his phone and decided he wouldn't say another word to Cen Xia the next day. If he failed, he was a dog!

The next day.

Cen Xia: "What are they doing?"

Ding Yiheng: "Cheerleading. Isn't the basketball game next week?"

Woof.

He liked dogs too.

Huh? Why had he said "too"?

For the whole of Friday afternoon's PE class, they practiced nothing but basketball.

The lists of players representing each class in the basketball game were already up on the official website.

Ding Yiheng excitedly showed him their names in the substitutes column.

Their tiny names were side by side, and he had to zoom in to read them.

Cen Xia didn't quite understand what he was excited about, but he respected it.

Ding Yiheng went on to scroll through the other classes' player lists, saying that if you knew yourself and your enemy, you could fight a hundred battles without defeat.

He offered his comments as he scrolled.

As expected of a man who had maxed out his social skills, he could tell Cen Xia a thing or two about practically every player from every class.

"Old Chen? Old Chen won't do. His jumping ability is average. What was his class's teacher thinking, putting him on the list?"

"Bai Fei's pretty good. Just a little better than me."

"Tsk, I don't know this guy very well, but I think he's 1.9 meters tall. At that height, tsk, tsk, he'll be tough to play against!"

"Hey, this is..."

"No way! Pei Huaiyi? He's in the game too?"

He suddenly jumped up from his stool and thrust his phone in front of Cen Xia, pointing out Pei Huaiyi's name on the screen.

Cen Xia's vision blurred, and he blinked hard before he could make out Pei Huaiyi's name.

"This is going to be tough." Ding Yiheng shook his head and sighed. "Cen Xia, we're not going to win the championship..."

Cen Xia's expression turned complicated for a moment. Could we have won the championship if Pei Huaiyi weren't playing?

"Is he that good?"

"Extremely good!"

For a mouth as hard as a synthetic diamond to offer such praise, Pei Huaiyi's ability really had to be beyond question.

"His physical ability..." Ding Yiheng raised a thumb meaningfully. "He practically grew up in a military compound, and his old man trained him harder than new recruits. Right after the school year started, he took on the whole bunch of second-years, ten against one, without even getting out of breath."

"My older female cousin's practically had her soul stolen by him. She talks about him in my ear every day, and she's even changed her phone's screensaver to Pei Huaiyi. Now whenever I hear his name, I get goosebumps all over."

Cen Xia patted the basketball in his hands. "I hear you mention your cousin every day. When are you going to introduce me to her?"

Ding Yiheng reacted as though facing a formidable enemy. "Why? I won't agree to you and my cousin getting together!"

"..." Cen Xia opened his mouth, wanting to curse him out, but couldn't think of what to say. He gave him an eye roll and let him figure it out for himself.

Break time was over, and the PE teacher, who was also the basketball coach, blew his whistle.

Although Cen Xia and Ding Yiheng were substitutes, they didn't miss a single part of the required training.

Another teacher led the students who weren't participating through physical conditioning.

The cheerleaders, who were supposed to be rehearsing in the dance studio, suddenly appeared in the gymnasium. They stood at the edge of the basketball court, every one of them tall, youthful, and attractive.

Ding Yiheng immediately straightened his back. His movements became broad and sweeping as he passed the ball, putting a baffling amount of effort into it.

Cen Xia, whose wrist had been struck by one of his powerful passes: "..."

"Tsk-can you even play? You can't even catch my pass! Ah-" Ding Yiheng spread his hands and sighed theatrically.

Cen Xia: ... I really want to put the basketball hoop over his head.

Ding Yiheng had barely spent a few seconds showing off before he noticed that all the girls who had been standing by the court had disappeared.

He looked around and saw that the crowd had surged over to the basketball court up ahead.

It wasn't just the students from their class. A dense ring of people had already formed around the court.

Now Ding Yiheng wasn't the only one curious. Even the coach stopped, planted his hands on his hips, and looked over.

"Has the basketball game started? Why didn't anyone tell me?"

Someone opened the forum out of habit. "With a crowd like that, someone must have posted about it... Oh, Pei Huaiyi's playing over there."

"Oh." The coach nodded slowly. "That explains it."

It was Pei Huaiyi, after all. A crowd like that was normal. After a few glances, the coach was ready to resume training, but when he turned around, he found his carefully selected players craning their necks like crowing roosters, staring eagerly into the distance. He had no idea who they were watching.

"Ahem!" He coughed heavily twice, finally calling the little rascals' wandering minds back.

"What are you staring at? Get back to training!"

Only then did everyone reluctantly look away.

After several rounds of training, everyone was drenched in sweat.

The whistle blew for a break.

Ding Yiheng's legs had turned to jelly. Leaning on Cen Xia, he limped over to a chair and sat down.

Cen Xia was put off by how sweaty he was and only let him lean against the parts of his body covered by clothes.

Ding Yiheng cursed him for being heartless.

After sitting down, Cen Xia opened a new bottle of mineral water and gulped down half of it in one go.

Ding Yiheng had finished his water and watched him eagerly. "Save me some."

Cen Xia wiped away the drops of water running from the corner of his mouth and handed him the remaining half bottle.

"Isn't there a vending machine over there?"

Ding Yiheng finished it in one gulp too and cried, "That hit the spot!"

"I'm too tired. I don't want to go."

"How come you haven't died of laziness?"

Cen Xia sat with both hands braced behind him, his legs spread and his body leaning slightly back. When he looked up, he saw the crowd ahead packed two or three rows deep.

Every now and then, he could hear cheers.

That's way too much, he thought. It's not like he's some celebrity.

When Cen Xia had been at school before, he wouldn't have called himself one of its most celebrated figures, but he'd had quite a reputation, and the love letters he'd collected could have filled an entire schoolbag.

When he played basketball, at most seven or eight people gathered to watch, and only occasionally would a girl bring him water.

He'd never had a crowd like Pei Huaiyi's. Anyone who didn't know better would have thought James was playing basketball.

Ding Yiheng said enviously, "When will I be able to have people flock to my call the moment I show up?"

"Then you must want to become Song Jiang."

Ding Yiheng pretended not to hear. "If I were a girl, I'd like Pei Huaiyi too. He's handsome and strong. Being with him would definitely be... hee hee."

He suddenly let out a couple of lecherous chuckles, prompting Cen Xia to look at him as though he'd seen something filthy. "Are you possessed by a ghost!?"

Ding Yiheng patted his head. "It's all my cousin's fault. She says such wild and filthy things in front of me every day that she's rubbed off on me!"

Cen Xia fell silent for a second. "...I won't discriminate against you. You don't need to use your cousin as an excuse."

"Hee hee, you saw right through me."

Cen Xia silently edged away.

"Oh, come on, I was joking. I meant it would be great to have him as a teammate. You could just lie back and win."

Cen Xia didn't believe him. "Is he really that good? Why doesn't he go pro?"

"Hey!" Ding Yiheng wore an expression that said "congratulations, you guessed it" and waggled a finger up and down. "He actually made the national team!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, the smile vanished from his face. He shrugged and said, "But I heard he left the national team later because of an injury."