Chapter 425 - Side Story 1: Basketball Tournament

"Yao Yao!"

The teenage Li Qin Yao turned around when she heard someone called out her name. Before she could respond, Li Qin Yao found herself pulled into her friend's tight hug. For a few seconds, she was unable to breathe.

"You made it here." Han Yue Xiu let her go after ten seconds and squeezed at her arms.

Li Qin Yao gave her friend a look over. At this time, Han Yue Xiu was in her team's blue jersey with short pants that reach just above her knees and her long hair was tied into a ponytail.

Standing side by side, Li Qin Yao had to lift her head to look at her friend as Han Yue Xiu was a head taller than her. 

"You threatened that you weren't going to speak to me for a week if I did not make it," Li Qin Yao muttered. 

She had come over to B City to live with her mother for a while and did not know a lot of people here. Han Yue Xiu's family and her mother were neighbors. Because they were closer in age, it was easy for Han Yue Xiu to be her friend in B City. 

When Han Yue Xiu heard that she was going to stay in B City for a while, she had invited Li Qin Yao to come over and watch her and her team in the basketball tournament.

If Li Qin Yao did noot show up, she was going to be disappointed, but not to the point that she was going to ignore this friend for a week. Though the two of them had different personalities, Han Yue Xiu found that she enjoyed spending her time with Li Qin Yao.

Han Yue Xiu had a big smile on her face, and it seemed that she was pretending that she had not heard her friend's voice of complaint. Turning around, Han Yue Xiu waved her hand at the rest of her teammates and the others approached them with a friendly smile on their faces.

"Let me introduce you," Han Yue Xiu spoke as she gave a slight shove at her friend. "This is my best friend, Li Qin Yao. She's here as our supporters."

The girls nodded and greeted Li Qin Yao amiably. 

Han Yue Xiu turned to one of her teammates. "Wan Wan, give me that extra uniform."

The short-haired fished a folded uniform from her bag and handed it to Han Yue Xiu. After Han Yue Xiu gave her thanks, she turned to her friend and hand over the jersey.

Li Qin Yao looked at the uniform in her hand and lifted her head to look at her friend. There was an unmistakable confusion in her face at the moment.

"Yao Yao, go and put this on," Han Yue Xiu instructed. "Wait. I should go and lead you to the changing room."

Li Qin Yao did not have the chance to say anything as her friend had already pulled her towards the changing room.

Previously, Han Yue Xiu had mentioned that this was a big tournament, but Li Qin Yao did not think that it would be this massive. 

"Why do I need to put this on?" Li Qin Yao asked as they arrived at the changing room.

"So you can stay with me all the time," Han Yue Xiu laughed. "There will be so many people coming to watch the tournament. I don't want to lose you in the sea of people." 

Li Qin Yao saw the way her friend was looking at her and was suddenly frustrated at her height.

She was surrounded by basketball players and noticed that they were all very tall. Just now, someone had accidentally bumped into her as she was a bit too short for them to notice.

"It would be easier for me to find you if you were in our school's jersey." Her lips curled into a smile. "Anyway, we can claim an extra lunch box for you."

Li Qin Yao felt the corner of her mouth twitched.

It turned out that Han Yue Xiu just wanted to get an extra lunch box...

"Won't we get into trouble for this? I don't look like a basketball player at all. I'm way too short."

Han Yue Xiu laughed at her worry. "There are a few short basketball players. As long as you are good with this game, your height doesn't really matter. Look, I promise we won't get into trouble. I already mentioned to our teacher about this. She's a cool and laid back person. It's fine."

Seeing the anticipating look in Han Yue Xiu's face, Li Qin Yao immediately put on the uniform. With the jersey on, Li Qin Yao had suddenly become a part of Han Yue Xiu's teammates as a reserved player. 

Because she was afraid that she might get caught by the officials, Li Qin Yao had obediently stayed close to Han Yue Xiu and her teammates. Fortunately, Han Yue Xiu's teammates were really nice and Li Qin Yao did not feel out of place being around them.

Soon, the tournament began and Li Qin Yao spent her time watching the women match. Seeing her friend on the basketball court with the ball in her hand, Li Qin Yao suddenly thought that Han Yue Xiu was very suave. The way she played a little trick to avoid the other players and jumped to shot the ball was just too cool.

This was the first time for her to watch a live match and Li Qin Yao found that the match was very exciting and heart-pounding. Looking around, there were a few others who came to watch Han Yue Xiu's game.

The match ended soon and Han Yue Xiu's team won the match. After celebrating for a while, Han Yue Xiu and the rest of her teammates went away to grab their free lunch box from the organizers. Because she was too lazy to move around and was afraid that she might get lost, Li Qin Yao decided to stay around and wait at the place.

As they were on a break, the spectators soon leave their place to get their lunch. There were only a few players who were hanging out in the area as they were too lazy to gather around with other teams.

The organizers cleaned the area and left.

After sitting around for a while, Li Qin Yao glanced at the ball at her side and hesitated.

Seeing that there were not a lot of people around, and the others were not paying attention to her, Li Qin Yao grabbed the ball and went to a side of the court. Then, she started to dribble the ball and tried to imitate how the others had played.

Her heart pounded as she watched the ball flew up high and slowly approaching the hoop. 

Her mouth gaped open as she watched how the ball entered the hoop. For a few seconds, Li Qin Yao was unable to react. She replayed the scene from a few seconds ago and suddenly jumped in joy.

Her happy moment was suddenly interrupted when Li Qin Yao noticed that a boy was staring at her direction with a smile on his face. Their gaze met and Li Qin Yao stared back in aghast. Her face gradually grew hot upon realizing that this boy had watched her practicing her lousy basketball tricks on the court.

Li Qin Yao nodded her head to him awkwardly before she picked up the ball and left the area. 

…

"Captain, where are you going?"

The teenage Qi Zheng raised a brow when he saw that Zhang Yu Han had suddenly stood up and was about to leave the area.

Zhang Yu Han stared at the direction where the girl in LH High School jersey had disappeared to and frowned.

"Our next match is going to start soon," Wei Jun Hao reminded as he stared at his captain with a strange look on his face. He followed Zhang Yu Han's gaze and saw that his friend was staring at the exit. However, he could not figure out what was his friend looking at.

Zhang Yu Han pursed his lips and shook his head. "Nothing. I just thought that I saw someone I recognize." He came out with an excuse.

"It's impossible to look for that person at this time. There are too many people outside," Wei Jun Hao said. "If you still want to look for your friend, you can do that after the match."

Zhang Yu Han thought of the uniform that the girl was wearing and suddenly, his lips turned up slightly into a smile. 

Anyway, he had already known that she was a member of LH High School's women team. At the thought that he could try and find her again after the match was over, Zhang Yu Han decided not to go after her.