Chapter 47 To Bullfight or Not
Qin Chao and Su Ji walked across the school's playground and headed towards the teaching building. A group of young men and women in their prime were playing basketball on the court beside the playground. They appeared to be students from a particular class who were taking advantage of their physical education class time to engage in a basketball game.
"Wu Bin, Wu Bin, we love you!"
"Wu Bin is the most handsome! Wu Bin, keep it up!"
A group of girls formed a cheerleading squad and shouted at the top of their lungs. In the middle of the basketball court stood a handsome young man, covered in sweat and holding a basketball. He leaped high into the air and performed a perfect dunk, causing the basketball hoop and backboard to shake violently. The screams of his female fans erupted one after another.
"Teacher Su, were you ever this crazy when you were young?" Qin Chao pushed Su Ji's arm and teased her.
"I was not!" Su Ji gave Qin Chao a big white-eyed look. "The men I admire are not just good at playing basketball. By the way, how's your basketball skills?"
"Me? I can't play basketball." Qin Chao shrugged.
"Then what can you do?"
"I can play video games!"
"You...are you an otaku?"
"Teacher Su, I'm definitely a full-fledged otaku."
"I hate otakus the most. Sitting at home all day will make you fat."
"No, I exercise regularly too."
"You still exercise? What kind of exercise?"
"Cooking and washing dishes."
"Is this what you call exercise?"
"Well, it's good for your body..."
Two people were on the playground, watching others play basketball while teasing each other.
Wu Bin was a talented student from Class 3 of Senior Three. Not only was he handsome and came from a good family, but he also had exceptional athletic ability. Outside of school, Wu Bin was known as the Little Prince of the Second High School, and the girls who liked him could form a square.
Wu Bin himself was also a notorious playboy. The number of girls who had been impregnated by him and suffered miscarriages was uncountable, even with all ten toes. However, the school had never given him any punishment because Wu Bin's father was the director of the Education Bureau.
This basketball game was organized by their class for their physical education class. For Wu Bin, such a game was a piece of cake. The screams of those girls also made him feel very satisfied. Unfortunately, among those girls, there were only a few he found worthy of his attention. The ones who were too beautiful were either too arrogant or had already been played by him.
His gaze often lingered on the girl who sat quietly in the corner reading a book. That girl's name was Li Na, his classmate and the school's beauty queen. Li Na was known for her talent, and every time the school rankings were announced, she rightfully claimed the first place. Wu Bin, on the other hand, always hovered between second and third place.
This girl piqued Wu Bin's interest, and he had launched a love offensive against Li Na more than once. But this little girl was like a stubborn rock, ignoring his enthusiasm. Among the girls he had pursued with all his might, Li Na was the only one who made him fail!
A textbook-like behind-the-back dunk caught everyone's attention, but Li Na's gaze was absent. Wu Bin couldn't help but feel annoyed. He let out a low roar and directed his anger at his opponents, launching a sharp attack once again.
The girls screamed again, and Wu Bin felt for the first time that their voices were particularly piercing, making him increasingly agitated.
"Li Na! Look over here!" In the midst of the noise, a not-so-loud shout suddenly came. Although the shout was not loud, it seemed to be wrapped in a diamond, piercing into everyone's ears.
Everyone couldn't help but turn around and see a young man and woman standing outside the basketball court. The man was handsome and had a wild air about him. The woman was beautiful, like a blooming rose, captivating the gaze of all the men.
"Bang!" A boy who was about to dunk the ball didn't notice that he had already flown over the boundary line and hit the post of the basket, because he was too focused on looking at Su Ji.
No one laughed at him, as everyone's attention was drawn to the beauty. Especially Wu Bin, who thought he had played with many beautiful women, but he had never seen such a top-notch woman before.
"Qin Chao gege?" To Wu Bin's surprise, Li Na, a little girl who seemed to be otherworldly, jumped joyfully and rushed into the man's arms like a joyful little bird.
The beauty next to her raised her eyebrows twice, and Su Ji secretly thought, "Hmph, little girl, are you trying to show me up?"
"Qin Chao gege, you're here!"
"Hmm." Qin Chao patted Li Na's head and said, "I promised you something, how can I not do it?"
"Isn't this the beautiful sister from the other day?" Li Na tilted her head, as if she had just seen Su Ji, "You're here too."
"Yes, I came with Qin Chao." Su Ji smiled sweetly, reached out her hand, pinched Li Na's face, and said, "We're here for your parent-teacher conference! Of course, two people should come together. You can call me Su Ji, call me by my name or call me sister."
Li Na was still a high school girl after all, and pouted dissatisfiedly. Hmph, what kind of parent am I to you.
Despite her dissatisfaction, the little girl couldn't find any other words to say, seeing how close Qin Chao and Su Ji were. She just looked a little gloomy but still held Qin Chao's arm very intimately.
"Li Na, your friend?" At this time, the halftime of the basketball game had just arrived. Wu Bin pushed away the water that several girls handed him, walked up to Li Na, wiped off the sweat on his body with a white towel. His muscles were very toned, and with a little sweat on them, they looked shiny and had a metallic sense of power.
The little girls were all mesmerized, but there were two exceptions.
One was Li Na, and the other was Su Ji.
Li Na just didn't like this kind of flashy man deep down. She had always yearned for a gentle and considerate man who could appear in her life and allow her to rely on him.
Li Na's parents divorced when she was young. Her father left with another woman, leaving her and her mother to rely on each other. She always lacked her father's love, but when Qin Chao moved in next door, Li Na found a sense of security in him. She had found the lost love of her father in Qin Chao.
This was a kind of admiration for a father. There was a saying that went like this: daughters are their father's lifelong lovers.
As for Su Ji, there were just too many outstanding boys around her. Compared to them, Wu Bin was not even worth mentioning. Therefore, she didn't even spare a glance at this high school boy.
This made Wu Bin feel defeated.
"This is my gege," the little girl hugged Qin Chao's arm and said proudly.
"How about it, brother, want to play a game or two?" Wu Bin raised his chin and looked at the man in front of him who was less than six feet tall. Wu Bin himself was 5'9", and in his eyes, any man less than six feet tall was a cripple.
"Sorry, I don't know how to play basketball." Qin Chao shrugged his shoulders. He used to like this sport when he was a freshman. But by sophomore year, he had become a bit of a recluse, hardly ever leaving his room, let alone playing basketball.
The boys around them started to taunt and laugh, and the girls joined in. Qin Chao said nothing, but two of the girls were a little angry. Li Na bit her lip and glared at her classmates.
Su Ji, on the other hand, put her arm around Qin Chao's shoulder and said to Wu Bin, "It's just basketball, what's the big deal? You, throw the ball over here!" The girl pointed to a boy sitting nearby who had been stealing glances at her.
"Huh?" The boy was taken aback, but when a beauty spoke, he quickly got up, grabbed the basketball that had been sitting nearby, and ran over to hand it to Su Ji.
"Here you go!" The girl stuffed the ball into Qin Chao's arms. "Young man, go show off!" she said.
"Are you trying to make fun of me?" Qin Chao joked with Su Ji, winking at her and whispering, "You know I can only play video games. What am I supposed to do with basketball?"
"What are you afraid of?" Su Ji leaned in close to his ear and replied, "If you can play video games, you can play basketball. Come on, win and I'll give you a raise!"
"Great!" Qin Chao's eyes lit up at the mention of a raise. He didn't want to rent a house in Sunan City for the rest of his life. With the housing prices soaring, Sunan City was only a second-tier city, but its housing prices were comparable to those of first-tier cities.
Some houses near the city center were priced at almost four digits per square meter. If you wanted to buy a house of more than 50 square meters, you needed almost 500,000 yuan. Plus handling fees, decoration fees, and other expenses, it was almost impossible to come up with 600,000 yuan.
And Qin Chao's monthly salary was only 4,000 yuan, which meant he would have to go without food and drink for twelve years to buy a 50-square-meter house.
Some of Sunan City's common people earned only one or two thousand yuan per month, and even some people earned less than a thousand yuan per month. This was a problem that Qin Chao had thought about for a long time.
Even now that his income had reached a certain level, he still couldn't afford a house.
Therefore, when Su Ji mentioned a raise, he was so excited. Chinese people place a heavy emphasis on housing, especially people from the north, and Qin Chao was no exception.
If he had a house at that time, his girlfriend wouldn't have left so resolutely.
"Alright, I'll play basketball with you. The winner will be decided by three balls!" Wu Bin took the basketball from Qin Chao's hand and spun it on his finger, proudly saying, "The loser has to kneel down and call me grandpa three times!"
"Heh, do you like making others call you grandpa?" Qin Chao sneered, obviously the other party thought he couldn't play basketball and wanted to embarrass him on purpose.
"Wu Bin, how can you make such an unreasonable request?" Li Na, like a protective mother hen, stood in front of Qin Chao and questioned the little prince of the class.
"What, are you afraid of the challenge?" Wu Bin was annoyed in his heart, with a mocking smile on his face as he looked at Qin Chao.
"What's there to be afraid of?" In the midst of a group of boys cheering, Qin Chao took off his coat and handed it to Su Ji. "Since you want to be a grandson, I'll grant your wish!"
Chapter 48 One Ball Determines the Fate of the Country
The two sides agreed to a bullfight on the basketball court. Wu Bin smirked with a hint of pride, glancing disdainfully at Qin Chao across from him.
Basketball is a game that relies heavily on height, and Qin Chao was at most only 1.78 meters tall, with a considerable disadvantage compared to Wu Bin.
Wu Bin had exceptional basketball skills, having played with the city's basketball team's seed players since he was young.
If it weren't for his father's insistence that he not pursue a professional basketball career, he would have long been a seed player in the city of Sunan. His father's intention was for him to focus on his studies at Second High School and work at the Education Bureau after college.
Although he didn't like it, for children like them, their future paths had already been arranged since birth.
However, before that, his father did not stop him from playing basketball, but it could only be a hobby and never a profession.
This did not hinder Wu Bin's basketball talent, his developed motor nerves became a sight that attracted many young girls' attention. Whenever Wu Bin played basketball, groups of little girls would follow him to watch. Unfortunately, these girls were not his type.
The physical education teacher also came to join in the fun. After all, this was a normal competition, and as a teacher, he should support it. He stood in the middle of the court, dragging a basketball in his hand. When he threw the ball up, the game would officially begin.
Compared to Wu Bin, Qin Chao appeared more relaxed.
He stood there, looking lax, not even staring at the basketball, but instead surveying the Second High School's basketball court.
"Hey, focus!" Su Ji saw Qin Chao's carefree appearance and couldn't help but wave her fist and shout, "If you lose, I'll deduct your pay!"
"Don't worry!" Qin Chao waved his hand, indicating that he was fine.
"Go, Wu Bin!"
"Wu Bin, we love you!" the girls chanted in unison, encouraging their prince with their voices and passion. With this kind of support, Wu Bin felt even more arrogant, completely disregarding Qin Chao.
Especially when he saw Qin Chao's stance, it was obvious that he was a novice. Wu Bin felt cheap just competing with him.
Suddenly, he looked forward to the expressions on Li Na and the blue-eyed beauty's faces when Qin Chao knelt down and called him "grandpa."
"Begin!" Of course, the physical education teacher was also rooting for his own student. When Qin Chao's gaze turned to the other side of the playground, the teacher suddenly blew his whistle and threw the basketball high into the air.
Wu Bin jumped up, his bouncing ability was quite good, and he directly grabbed the basketball from mid-air, sprinting toward Qin Chao. He even deliberately played a trick, throwing the basketball toward Qin Chao's crotch, then brushing past him. The classic move of passing the ball between a person and a ball made the students around them scream in excitement.
Qin Chao did not stop him, only holding his arms and turning around to watch Wu Bin hold the basketball and jump into the air, slamming the ball heavily into the basket. The backboard trembled, and Wu Bin landed on the ground, letting out a low roar. The excited students around them were all cheering, and a few more open-minded girls were almost about to take off their clothes and dance. Of course, they did not dare to do so in front of the teacher.
Although this was a key high school, many students had paid to get in. Such a key high school would always let some wealthy but poorly performing students come in as a form of sponsorship.
Wu Bin was overjoyed as he walked over holding the basketball.
"Just wait and call me grandpa," Wu Bin said, extending his hand, raising his thumb and pointing it down.
Qin Chao did not care, smiling faintly. He took the basketball handed over by Wu Bin, tapped it on the ground twice, then held it in his arms and made a gesture with his hooked finger toward Wu Bin.
Wu Bin's gesture showed contempt, while Qin Chao's gesture was provocative.
Wu Bin immediately moved, his hand lightning-fast as he reached out to grab the basketball in Qin Chao's arms.
As Qin Chao's body gracefully retreated two steps, he dodged Wu Bin's cutting ball. At the same time, he lifted his hand and threw the ball toward the basket outside the half-court.
"Haha, this kid knows how to play!"
"He thinks he's Miller! A super long three-pointer!"
Everyone laughed out loud, including Wu Bin, who coldly sneered. But soon, their laughter stopped because the basketball elegantly drew an arc in the air and then, like it had an auto-guidance system, accurately hit the basket. It was also a beautiful hollow ball that almost made everyone's eyes pop out.
"Fortunately, I still have some feel." Qin Chao clapped his hands. Although his basketball skills were not great, as a practitioner of cultivation, his visual, auditory, and other human sensitivities were pushed to the limit. Playing basketball was simply a piece of cake for him.
"You got lucky!" Wu Bin took the ball from someone else's hand and stood on the half-court, sneering, "But there won't be a second time..."
Before he finished speaking, a gust of wind seemed to sweep by, and Qin Chao had already brushed past his shoulder. And the ball in his arms had been taken away by Qin Chao, who was just standing close to Wu Bin's back. Once again, he threw the ball toward the basket. Although his posture was not very standard, the basketball seemed to have eyes and hit the basket cleanly and effortlessly, without any mud or water.
Everyone was dumbfounded. The first time you could say he got lucky, but hitting consecutive long-range shots, even if it was luck, this person's luck had to be very strong.
"You got the shot right! But I won't give you another chance!" Wu Bin was a little irritable, took back the basketball, and tapped it twice on the ground. He made a fake move, trying to shake off Qin Chao. Qin Chao, as a basketball novice, was indeed fooled and leaned towards another direction.
Seemingly to prove that he was also a sharpshooter, after shaking off Qin Chao, Wu Bin jumped up in place, very gracefully and with a very standard posture, and threw the basketball out. This time, he felt his touch was good, which made him confident. He could judge from the arc of the basketball that this three-pointer would definitely hit the basket.
However, fate always likes to play tricks on people. Just as the basketball had flown halfway, a nightmarish figure leaped high into the air and intercepted the basketball with an astonishing height.
Qin Chao was seen in mid-air, his arm raised and his palm slapping the basketball, producing a loud bang as he slapped it down and caught it in his hands before landing heavily on the ground.
He imitated Wu Bin's movements, spinning the basketball on his fingertips before laughing, "I'm sorry, but you don't have a chance anymore."
With that, he held the basketball and bent his knees as if he was about to shoot.
"Damn it, you're not going to make it!" Wu Bin became anxious and rushed over, leaping high with his hands raised in an attempt to disrupt Qin Chao's shot.
But unexpectedly, Qin Chao did not jump. He gathered his knees, bent over with the ball and ran towards the opponent's basket.
"Damn it!" Wu Bin realized too late that Qin Chao had made a simple fake move. As a basketball expert, he had fallen for it!
Qin Chao ran very fast, like a gust of wind, and quickly brought the ball under the opponent's basket. He grabbed the ball with one hand and leaped up, slamming it into the basket with a classic tomahawk dunk.
"Boom!" The basket seemed unable to withstand the violent assault and collapsed with Qin Chao's dunk. The basketball stand snapped in half, and the backboard fell to the ground, shattering into pieces.
Qin Chao, meanwhile, landed on the ground, the basketball bouncing twice next to him before falling into the debris.
He turned around and looked coldly at Wu Bin, who had been arrogant a moment ago but now had a face as pale as wax.
As the basketball stand collapsed, the entire court fell silent. Everyone stared at Qin Chao, as if he was a monster.
"How about that? I've beaten you three times already," Qin Chao held up three fingers, reminding the bewildered Wu Bin, "We agreed that the loser would kneel down and call me grandpa three times."
"I'll remember you, just you wait!" But Wu Bin, with a cold face, waved his arm and left the basketball court.
The prince had left, and all the beautiful female fans had scattered like birds and beasts.
"See, I won! Remember to give me a raise!" Qin Chao exclaimed.
"A raise?" Su Ji blinked innocently. "I'm not the school principal. I don't have the authority to give you a raise! I'm just a gymnastics teacher!"
"You're shameless..." Qin Chao shook his head in disbelief. At this moment, the physical education teacher from the Second High School came over with excitement and asked eagerly, "Bro, which school are you from? You must be a college student from a sports school. Are you interested in teaching basketball at our school? Your basketball skills are great!"
"Sorry, I'm just a security guard. And I don't know how to play basketball. I was just playing around earlier." Qin Chao declined, pointing at the broken basketball hoop. "Also, your school's basketball hoop needs to be replaced. It's not sturdy enough. It could hurt the students."
The physical education teacher blinked, thinking to himself that the basketball hoop was just replaced recently and it's perfectly fine. It must be that Qin Chao is a strange man. Even security guards are so fierce now that they can break a basketball hoop just by playing around?
While the physical education teacher was trying to make sense of the situation, Qin Chao was being dragged away by a little girl named Li Na, who was asking him to teach her how to play basketball. Qin Chao was helpless and had to say, "You little girl, I'm here today to attend your parent-teacher conference. If you keep pestering me, I won't pay attention to you anymore."
"Okay..." Li Na pouted and looked at Qin Chao, feeling wronged. "I was just asking. If you don't want to, it's okay. Let's hurry to the teaching building. It's been half an hour since class ended, and our homeroom teacher is probably waiting for us!"
With that, she remembered that they had to attend the parent-teacher conference and led Qin Chao and Su Ji toward the teaching building, leaving behind a confused physical education teacher and a messy basketball court.
It was at this moment that the physical education teacher remembered an important question. "Damn, who's going to pay for the broken basketball hoop?"