CH 71

The courts were packed full of people before the matches like they were in the morning, and the two P.E. teachers were busy shooing off the people who climbed onto the basketball hoops.

Music was playing through the PA system, and it was a lot more upbeat than usual. Huo Ran felt like they got a nightclub DJ to work there today. It got everyone, from the audience to the players, walking with a bounce in their step, and you also had to scream to be heard. 

It was exciting.

Huo Ran looked around: “Where are we playing?”

“The fourth court. Did you forget because you’re too nervous or did you not even know in the first place?” Kou Chen pointed in front of him, “Our classmates are already on the stands.”

The stands were huge metal frames on wheels, and they would be pushed out whenever there was a match going on. The wheels would be locked in place, but someone would always unlock them and push it closer to the courts so they could see better. 

But every time the P.E. teachers and the student council would push them all back in case they affected the match.

When Huo Ran looked over, a couple of student council members were currently pushing the stands back. As Kou Chen pointed, all of their classmates waved at them and cheered.

A teacher ran over and yelled, making them sit back down.

“Fuck,” Jiang Lei said. “This is great, can we take our jackets off now?”

“What’s the rush?” Kou Chen looked at him. “Are you hot?”

“I’m all hyped up right now,” Jiang Lei said, and then he looked around. “Fuck, what if Humanities 3 doesn’t even show up to watch?”

“Looking for Lu Huan?” Huo Ran asked.

“Yup.” Jiang Lei nodded. 

“They’re sitting with our class.” Huo Ran said. “There’s at least four classes cheering for us right now.”

“I see Lu Huan,” Jiang Lei immediately looked down at himself. “She’s sitting at the very front, how do I look?”

“You’re pretty handsome when you’re not nervous.” Kou Chen patted him on the back. “Stop that. If you play like this, Huo Ran’s not just gonna yell at you, he’s gonna beat you up.”

There was also a row of tables and chairs in front of the stands for the players to rest, so they all went and sat down.

“Do we take it off?” Jiang Lei asked again after they sat down.

“Sure! Go on, take it off!” Wei Chaoren grabbed his jacket, “If you want to take it off so badly I might as well strip you right here!”

“Fuck,” Jiang Lei put his arms around himself and leaned over the table, “Fuck off!” 

Behind them, everyone started laughing.

Huo Ran looked down at his shoes. He had a habit of checking his shoes before matches. In elementary school, one of his teammate’s shoelaces flew out while he was running and hit the referee in the face, and he got a technical foul. He remembers that moment vividly.

“Captain, time for the coin toss.” Xu Zhifan knocked on the table. 

“Captain.” Kou Chen nudged Huo Ran.

“Yeah.” Huo Ran stood up, and swept his gaze over all of his teammates.

He had talked big just now, but he was still a little worried. The guys in his class all had the height, and it’s not like they were completely out of hope if they had to substitute someone… He just couldn’t ask a lot in terms of skill.

“Hurry.” Kou Chen said as he pointed to his left eye, winking at him. 

“…Go warm up.” Huo Ran pointed at him.

People were warming up on all four courts, and Huo Ran watched Sciences 1 as he headed over to the referee. Their starting lineup would for sure be different than when they went against Humanities 4, their captain didn’t even play this morning.

“Second year, Humanities 1.” Huo Ran walked over to the table. Sciences 1’s captain Ma Hao was already there. 

“Heads or tails?” Lin Wuyu played with the coin he had.

Huo Ran glanced at Ma Hao, not saying anything. He was a member of the school team after all. Ma Hao pointed at him: “Huo Ran can pick.”

“Heads.” Huo Ran didn’t insist otherwise.

“Okay.” Lin Wuyu tossed the coin up, and he covered it after it landed on the back of his hand. He looked at Huo Ran and Ma Hao, then took his hand away. “Heads. Humanities 1 can pick their side.” 

“That side.” Huo Ran pointed at the hoop in front of the stands his class was sitting at. Although it wasn’t because they were already sitting there, it was because that hoop was new, and it looked better.

“Go get ready.” Lin Wuyu waved them off. “The match begins in ten minutes.”

“We’re on this side first.” Huo Ran went back and called up his members. “Don’t run the wrong way.” 

“Is that even possible?” Luo Feiyu said.

“Of course it is.” Huo Ran said. “Last time at sectionals, someone from Shijiuzhong did that. Looked confident while he did it too.”

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“I’ll say it if I remember.” Huo Ran said. “Class tournaments aren’t that hard, everyone’s pretty much at the same level. We just need to try our best and we can win. Don’t worry.”

“Anything else?” Kou Chen asked.

“Nope.” Huo Ran said. “Chaoren, watch the basket. Hit whoever tries to get the rebound.” 

“Okay!” Wei Chaoren nodded, and then he paused before asking, “Do I actually hit them?”

Huo Ran didn’t say anything, he only raised his hand and smacked him on the back.

“I got it, I got it.” Wei Chaoren rubbed his back.

“Watch for Kou Chen on the field.” Huo Ran said. “Pass the ball to him if you can. Okay, let’s go!” 

“Yeah!” Everyone yelled.

“Second year Humanities! All legs! Fierce as a tiger! Fast as the wind!” The girls suddenly cheered from behind them, and then they tapped their tambourines in sync.

They are startled, and when they turned around they found that all the cheerleaders had come together. Their class had tambourines, Humanities 2 had fans, Humanities 4 had colourful pompoms, and Humanities 3 had… nothing, they just yelled.

“I bet they just thought of it.” Kou Chen said. “It’s not even Humanities 1 anymore.” 

“We’re their hope now.” Xu Chuan said. “They even lent the cheerleaders out, you guys gotta do your best.”

“We will.” Huo Ran tugged down the zipper of his jacket.

They all had their jerseys under their jackets, but for some reason, the cheerleaders had to start clapping and cheering right as they took them off. It was like they were wearing nothing at all under the jackets.

“Hurry up,” Kou Chen obviously felt a little awkward. He quickly threw his jacket off to the side and took his pants off. “It’s making me nervous.” 

Everyone took off their outer layers a couple times faster than usual, throwing them onto the chairs.

“You two…” Luo Feiyu looked at Kou Chen and Huo Ran’s ankles. “It’s pretty cool.”

The referee stood in the middle of the court with the ball, and he blew his whistle. 

The two teams both walked into the court.

Huo Ran looked down at the leather tape measure wrapped around his ankle.

It was alright if he was the only that wore it, it wasn’t anything special, but two people wearing the same thing would attract quite a bit of attention.

He felt a bit awkward, but he also felt at ease for some reason. It was like knowing someone had your back on the battlefield, like having someone behind you to lean on at night, so ghosts couldn’t touch you. 

Ma Hao was the one jumping for the ball. He was usually the one that did it for the school team, since he could jump high and steadily.

Huo Ran wasn’t worried about it. It didn’t matter who got the ball first, it was what came after that was important.

“Ready.” The referee put the ball in-between them. 

Huo Ran bent his knees and stared at the ball.

At the whistle, the ball was tossed up.

Cheers started from all around, and he didn’t know if it was from their audience or the others.

Right as the ball was about to reach the apex, he jumped. 

Ma Hao’s hand touched the ball at the same time as his, making a hollow ‘smack’ sound.

The ball flew out to his left, pretty much like he predicted. Kou Chen and Luo Feiyu were both standing there.

As he landed back on the floor, he heard tambourines jingling along with cheering.

“Kou Chen! Kou Chen! Ahhh! Kou Chen!” 

As expected, Kou Chen got the ball, and he was running towards the basket.

Luo Feiyu followed around two metres behind him to the right, ready to receive a pass.

Nice.

Huo Ran ran forwards, blocking Ma Hao who was going for Kou Chen at the three point line. 

Kou Chen didn’t play much basketball since he didn’t like it, so he didn’t have much experience in actual matches. He was stopped in the key, and he paused, about to pass the ball.

“Who the fuck are you looking at?! Throw it!” Huo Ran yelled.

Kou Chen reacted fast. One second he was about to pass the ball, and the next he had already pushed past the defense, hooking the ball into the hoop.

The ball made a clean arc through the air, landing in the basket. 

The shot was short and from a bit of a weird angle, so Sciences 1 didn’t get a chance to react.

Applause and screams erupted from the stands.

“You’re yelling at me first fucking thing?” Kou Chen looked at Huo Ran.

“I’ll beat you up if you hesitate again!” Huo Ran stared at him. “There were only two people, what were so afraid of?” 

“…Got it.” Kou Chen tsked.

The inbound was quick, not giving them much chance to talk.

“Nice shot.” Huo Ran smacked Kou Chen’s butt as he ran back.

“Who do you think I am?” Kou Chen followed up without hesitation. He was generally only humble in the completely opposite context when showing off. 

A great start to the game.

They did have the stamina advantage of having played one less game, but they were also at a disadvantage. Sciences 1 was in a perfect state because of the morning match, and since it was their first match, their movements were a little stiff.

He didn’t know if it was because of Kou Chen’s opening shot, but the others quickly became a lot more energetic, evident in the way their defense was a lot faster than Sciences 1’s. 

Right as Sciences 1 passed the midcourt line, they already had people on each of their players.

The one with the ball was their guard, Gao Jie, also on the school team. Luo Feiyu was on him.

Luo Feiyu was very athletic, but Gao Jie was a shooting guard. Even two people might not be enough to stop him. He got past Luo Feiyu both times he tried to block him.

One more time, and he would be able to pass the ball from the three point line. 

Huo Ran looked ahead, Kou Chen was to the right of Gao Jie, already staring at the ball in Gao Jie’s hands.

Right now, then.

Huo Ran rushed towards Gao Jie from behind him.

“Behind you!” Ma Hao yelled. 

That’s the bad thing about playing together for so long. Huo Ran was familiar with these people, and these people were also familiar with him. Right as he took the first step, Ma Hao already realized what was happening.

Gao Jie moved the ball to his left hand without even looking behind him.

But Huo Ran didn’t stop. In order to not give Gao Jie any time to react, he took off on his left foot when the took the second step, almost flying through the air. If his right foot was five centimetres forward, he would be doing the splits in midair.

He was right on the cusp of doing the splits, and reaching forwards, his fingers touched the ball in Gao Jie’s left hand. 

“Kou Chen!” he yelled.

Kou Chen already started moving when Ma Hao warned Gao Jie, so he was in to Gao Jie’s left when he switched the ball.

The ball shot out, and he was there to catch it. His left hand passed the ball to his right, and without pause, he flashed by Huo Ran with it.

At this point, the audience had mixed in with the cheerleaders. They couldn’t even tell what they were screaming, it all sounded like undulating ‘AHHH!’s. 

“Defense!” Ma Hao yelled.

Huo Ran really took too big of a step just then. His left leg had to touch the ground for a second before he could get back up.

Sciences 1’s defense was pretty fast, but Huo Ran’s move was just too sudden. Kou Chen had already passed the midcourt line when Ma Hao yelled for defense.

Just like Huo Ran said, he didn’t hesitate. He jumped, and took the shot. 

But the moment the ball left his hands he knew that it was too rushed. It wouldn’t go in.

“Missed!” He yelled.

Wei Chaoren was like a skinny bear stepping on a spring. He lunged forward as the ball hit the backboard, shoving aside the guy that was about to go for the rebound. He landed with the ball held securely.

He looked left and right. 

“Pass it!” Huo Ran screamed.

Wei Chaoren passed the ball, and Huo Ran caught it, but it was too late to take the shot, so he quickly passed it to Jiang Lei at the end of the court.

When Jiang Lei caught the ball, he took the shot without a moment’s hesitation.

It didn’t go in, obviously. 

The ball flew past the backboard, and the audience all put their hands up to block it.

“Damn, I’m so fucking cool.” Jiang Lei huffed, both angry and amused by his amazing skills.

“It’s fine.” Huo Ran said. “I don’t care if it goes out of bounds, I care about you not taking the shot. Defense!”

Then he pointed at Wei Chaoren: “Were you waiting for the ball to hatch a dinosaur?” 

“I won’t do that again.” Wei Chaoren laughed.

Huo Ran looked at Kou Chen.

Kou Chen raised an eyebrow, like he was saying ‘yell at me all you want, I’m not scared of you’.

But Huo Ran didn’t say anything. Kou Chen played really well, and missing some shots was unavoidable. They were starting off well, and they would only get better. 

“Are you okay after that?” Kou Chen asked as he walked by him.

“Fine.” Huo Ran said.

“Fuck, my balls hurt just looking at you.” Kou Chen whispered. “You’re really fucking flexible.”

Sciences 1 had already took the inbound, so Huo Ran didn’t have to say anything else to him. He only yelled: “Defense!”

Maybe because they felt provoked, but Sciences 1 was really aggressive that round. Their whole team soon pushed through to under the basket, and the track guy was about to make the shot.

Huo Ran ran to him, and jumped at the same time, blocking the ball.

But the whistle sounded as he landed. The referee called a foul for him hitting his hand. 

The other team gets a free throw.

“What do you mean he hit his hand?” Kou Chen yelled.

“Shut up.” Huo Ran said. He really didn’t hit the other guy’s hand, but was going to block the ball no matter what, and then with the angle, the referee probably couldn’t see clearly. “Doesn’t matter.”

Kou Chen looked at him. 

“Get the rebound.” Huo Ran said.

Kou Chen furrowed his brows and nodded.

Getting a free throw really does something to your mind. It looked like there was nobody in your way, and even the cheerleaders went quiet, but everyone was watching your every movement… 

The guy missed the first throw, so the pressure was even bigger.

Huo Ran glanced at Kou Chen, and Kou Chen was looking at him too. When their eyes met, Kou Chen smiled.

What are you laughing at?

Huo Ran looked at him, then looked at the backboard. 

Kou Chen nodded, but then he winked his left eye at him again.

Fuck off!

Huo Ran looked away.

Mental! 

The guy didn’t make the second shot either.

Kou Chen flashed forward like lighning, and Huo Ran turned around immediately as well. He believed in Kou Chen, and just from his earlier boasting, he’d get the ball for sure. He was the type of person that performed better the more he bragged about it.

Indeed, Kou Chen passed him the ball as he turned around. 

Huo Ran ran with the ball.

Kou Chen grabbed the ball aggressively, and he passed fast, so nobody caught up to him. The court was empty.

Ma Hao finally caught up to him when Huo Ran jumped at the three point line.

And then he saw the ball fall through the basketball. 

“Three points!” Wei Chaoren yelled.

The Humanities classes’ cheerleaders all went crazy. Everyone probably forgot their improvised cheers already, and the girls all waved the things in their hands while jumping and screaming. They were almost louder than the boys.

“How was that?!” Kou Chen yelled as he ran to Huo Ran.

“Awesome.” Huo Ran bumped him with his shoulder.