CH 39

“Cheng-ge!” Wang Xu very quickly followed up with a sentence, “En! I know! Pass to you and Cheng-ge!” 

“Jiang Cheng.” Jiang Cheng informed. He was actually not used to having a bunch of people calling him Ge, even though Pan Zhi called him Grandpa. 

“Jiang Cheng, just Jiang Cheng. Jiang Cheng.” Wang Xu waved his hands, “We’re all buddies so let’s not care so much about formalities… let’s first head over to my place to get something to eat. I got my mom to prepare everything for us already. We can directly head over to the technical school to practice afterward.” 

Jiang Cheng wanted to ask when had they ever even had any formalities but set that question aside altogether. Having eaten so many delicious flatbreads from Wang Xu’s place, he was willing to ensure that Wang Xu’s spot as Class 8’s class tyrant was firmly secured. 

When they all arrived at Wang Xu’s shop in great vigour, Wang Xu’s mother had already finished packing up the flatbreads for them. Perhaps because Wang Xu had never done something along the lines of “leading a basketball team to victory” before in his life, his mother was very enthusiastic. 

“Just eat first and then you can go. How uncomfortable would it be to eat with the wind blowing the entire way,” she commented. 

“No need, we’re in a hurry,” Wang Xu replied, “We’re short on time and heavy with responsibilities, you wouldn’t get it.” 

“Thank you, Auntie.” Jiang Cheng received the flatbreads. 

“You really have the best manners, so polite every time,” Wang Xu’s mother remarked with a smile.

The group didn’t stay any longer; they took the flatbreads and once again made their way to the technical school in great vigour as to not waste time. 

“Da Fei.” Wang Xu handed a bag of flatbreads to Gu Fei, “Beef and tenderloin, which type do you want?” 

“… beef,” Gu Fei answered. 

“The tenderloin one is also really delicious, didn’t you also like that one quite a bit last time?” Wang Xu asked. 

“I just want to eat the beef one today,” Gu Fei said. 

“Then what about Jiang Cheng?” Wang Xu then passed the bag over to Jiang Cheng. 

“I’ll try the tenderloin one.” Jiang Cheng picked up a tenderloin one according to Wang Xu’s suggestion. 

Beside them, Gu Fei suddenly choked and started coughing for a long time. 

Jiang Cheng took out his own water bottle from his bag: “Wanna drink some water?”

“Oh.” Gu Fei took a few sips from the bottle. 

“Ai, that’s a pretty good bottle,” Wang Xu commented. “Sports style, you can tell at a glance that it’s used by athletes. I’m not judging you, but Jiang Cheng, you really are pretty good at being pretentious. No wonder a lot of people think you’re an eyesore.”

“… even a water bottle counts as being pretentious.” Jiang Cheng muttered, “Aren’t your standards for pretentious a little low?” 

“It’s not like that,” Guo Xu piped up from the side. “We’re a small place here. Somebody like you who we can tell isn’t a local with just a glance is definitely from some big city. Your existence itself is pretentious.” 

Everybody voiced their agreement one after another. 

Jiang Cheng was somewhat speechless. 

The court at the technical school wasn’t as good as the one in Si Zhong, but everybody still squatted very seriously on the sidelines to discuss some tactics, and then diligently entered a practice game in accordance with the results of their discussion. 

Needless to say, when it came to learning in class for this group of people from Class 8, none of them were ever a good example. But after receiving some encouragement, the improvement they made in training was incredibly substantial. In the beginning, the players were running after the ball, but now, they already knew to have a few people cooperate to dribble the ball and to protect their teammates. Jiang Cheng was so touched that he even wanted to write a broadcasting script for them in English. 

There was a match in the afternoon, so the first period of class was chaotic as expected, with nobody caring even the slightest. They practiced in the technical school until the first period of class was halfway over before they finally returned to school together. 

There were already a lot of people on the court, and this time, the team members from Class 8 that nobody had ever paid attention to before aroused the onlookers’ attention the moment they arrived. Jiang Cheng found that in just a couple of days, they had already accumulated quite a lot of “fans”.

They didn’t even reach their class’s resting area when Wang Xu already unzipped his jacket in a charismatic manner. With a strip and a toss, it landed on Lu Xiaobin, who was standing beside him.

“Carry it yourself.” Lu Xiaobin wanted to chuck the clothing back at him. 

“Help me carry it for a bit!” Wang Xu turned around and glared at him. 

“… should’ve hired a full-time photographer for you,” Lu Xiaobin grumbled. 

“How come you have so much to say? I just made you help me carry my clothes for a bit and yet you’re so reluctant,” Wang Xu gave him a pointed look as he lectured. “Are you the captain, or am I the captain?” 

Lu Xiaobin didn’t say anything and simply turned his head to look elsewhere. 

What made Jiang Cheng dumbfounded was that both Lao Xu and Lao Lu had changed into sportswear and were standing at the sidelines waiting for them. 

“This isn’t our external help, right?” Jiang Cheng couldn’t help but ask. 

“Actually,” Gu Fei also found it funny when he saw them. “Lao Xu and Lao Lu are both from our class, if they really do come up then we wouldn’t even need to call it external help… Lao Lu’s actually pretty good at basketball. There’s going to be a teacher’s basketball tournament later on, you can check it out.” 

“The principal really does love basketball ah.” Jiang Cheng sighed with some emotion. 

Just as the words left their mouths, they spotted the principal. 

The principal’s surname was Liu. Jiang Cheng had never even talked to him one-on-one before, and now that he had suddenly stopped right in front of him, Jiang Cheng was given a scare. He noticed that there was a pimple growing on the side of Principal Liu’s nose… who knew if it had appeared because he was too excited about watching the game. 

“Student Jiang Cheng,” Principal Liu smiled as he patted Jiang Cheng’s shoulder. “Not bad, I saw the game you played, and might I say that you played extremely well. You can join our school’s basketball team with your level ah!” 

“Principal Liu,” Wang Xu didn’t wait for Jiang Cheng’s reply when he cut in, “You can’t pat his shoulder.” 

“I…” Jiang Cheng glared at Wang Xu. He felt that this guy’s brain wasn’t just missing a single chord, he was missing the entire instrument. 

“Alright, alright, no patting.” Principal Liu didn’t seem to mind; after praising him, he moved on to pat Gu Fei’s shoulder. “Your shoulder can be patted, right?” 

“Nope,” Gu Fei smiled. 

“You rascal.” Principal Liu smiled as he waved his finger at him, “It’s only when you’re playing basketball that I can find you easy on the eyes! You and Student Jiang Cheng can be considered the perfect partners, you two must come to the teachers’ competition next time!” 

“No,” Gu Fei continued to smile. 

Principal Liu waved his finger at him twice but didn’t say anything, thus he turned around to point to something at the back: “Reporter, interview this pair of dark horses!”[1] 

A boy, who at a glance looked like a literary youth that even had a face full of acne, and a girl, who at a glance looked like a school gossiper and had a stature so small that she could take a sneak shot even when standing right in front of you, immediately rushed over. 

“Hello, we are reporters from the school’s radio station.” The literary boy first took out an automatic camera, pointed it toward them, and snapped a bunch of shots. Then, he pulled out a small notebook, “We want to interview you.” 

This crappy school that didn’t even have as many tests as the other schools actually had a radio station? And even reporters? 

“… hello.” Jiang Cheng felt extremely bothered about having his face continually photographed without any warning; he wanted to snatch the fucking camera and see what shitty appearance he had been photographed into. 

Gu Fei immediately turned around and left. 

“Classmate Gu Fei,” the little gossiper grew a little anxious and hurriedly chased after him, shouting: “Classmate Gu Fei! I have a few questions to ask you…” 

“Classmate Jiang Cheng,” the literary boy immediately blocked Jiang Cheng from going back to Class 8’s resting area. “Please answer some of my questions.” 

Jiang Cheng kind of wanted to ask, are your questions prepared in pairs? 

“The game your class played exceeded expectations,” the literary boy looked at him. “I want to ask…”

“Wang Xu!” Jiang Cheng spotted Wang Xu, who was looking this way with very expectant eyes, “Captain!” 

“Aye! What is it?” Wang Xu rushed to his side at the speed of light. 

“This is a reporter from the school’s radio station,” Jiang Cheng introduced. “I think it’s better if his questions were answered by the captain. It’s the captain that’s the spirit of our team after all…”

“What questions?” Wang Xu immediately set his eyes on the reporter, “I can answer them.”

Jiang Cheng immediately evacuated the scene. The literary boy wanted to stop him but was blocked by Wang Xu. “Just ask, but I’m pretty tight on time, so you can just pick and ask the important ones.” 

The people from Class 7 had already arrived. Jiang Cheng was seated on a bench, trying his best not to look around at the phones and cameras pointed toward him and Gu Fei, and instead, stared at the players from Class 7. 

“Are you looking for Hu Jian?” Gu Fei asked as he changed his shoes beside him. 

“Is that their external help?” Jiang Cheng raised his chin. On that side, there was a man who had a buzz cut engraved with a wild boar design. 

“En.” Gu Fei also glanced at them, “There’s only one, who knows if there’ll be others coming later.” 

“Is he an underhanded person?” Jiang Cheng asked. 

“Quite underhanded.” Gu Fei answered, “When Bu Shi Hao Niao and I play with them, we lose more than half the time.” 

Jiang Cheng glanced at Gu Fei, somewhat taken aback; to tell the truth, with Bu Shi Hao Niao, Li Yan, and Gu Fei added together, the skill level of the six people combined should be able to completely sweep aside the average team under normal circumstances.

“They will have some people who specialize in playing dirty,” Gu Fei explained. “Class 7 has a lot of substitutes, and the moment something goes wrong, they’ll definitely switch in someone to play dirty.” 

“Don’t worry,” Jiang Cheng shrugged off his jacket. “As long as they don’t start stabbing us with a knife, however many of them there are, is how many I’ll deal with.” 

“You cover me,” Gu Fei said. “The cooperation between Jiuri and them is pretty good right now. We can definitely win even without having to play better than normal.” 

“En.” Jiang Cheng nodded. 

The perfect partners? 

Jiang Cheng kind of liked this form of address. 

“Smile.” Gu Fei turned his head. 

“En?” Jiang Cheng glanced at him then followed him in turning his head. He saw that Yi Jing was holding a camera toward them, so he smiled. 

“Good luck!” Yi Jing clenched her fist. 

The competitions being held now were all single games. To let everyone enjoy themselves to the fullest, the two games held every day would occur at different times, so now the court was densely packed[2] with both the players and the audience. 

Because there were no seats for the audience, everybody had crowded outside the sidelines to watch. Watching from up-close like this caused some people to be agitated, but that also incited excitement. 

Jiang Cheng had never played a game within such a tight encirclement before, and for some reason, his excitement rose. If only Pan Zhi was also here; with a Pan Zhi added to the court, the championship would be theirs for sure. 

The referee blew the whistle. 

The players from both sides entered the court and after the captains had chosen the courts, they jumped the ball. 

For Class 8, it was Wang Xu who jumped the ball. Jiang Cheng didn’t want to waste the energy of their main forces on jumping the ball, even though compared to Wang Xu’s ability to grab the ball, Gu Fei was a far better option. 

“Jiuri,” Gu Fei followed behind Wang Xu. “We’re counting on you.” 

Wang Xu didn’t turn back and only hammered at his own chest. 

Boar Head didn’t go up. Class 7’s team was per normal as of now. 

Jiang Cheng exchanged a glance with Gu Fei and stretched his waist. 

The ball flew through the air the moment the whistle sounded, and in that split instant, the audience fell silent. Within that moment, the only sound that could be heard was Wang Xu’s furious cry and the sound of a hand slapping down on the ball. 

And it was very encouraging to see that Wang Xu had slapped the ball directly toward Gu Fei’s direction. 

Gu Fei reached out a hand and swiftly hooked the ball within his grasp. When he turned around, the people from Class 7 had already quickly run back to defend their net, leaving only Hu Jian at his side. 

Gu Fei dribbled the ball and charged a step forward, Hu Jian followed after him, but he quickly passed the ball behind him with a backhanded shot. 

Just when Jiang Cheng caught the ball, Gu Fei had already shot forward. Jiang Cheng swiftly caught up and first passed the ball to Guo Xu. Guo Xu then caught the ball but didn’t continue dribbling; he just took a few steps before passing the ball back to Gu Fei who had already made it past the three-point line. 

This pace wasn’t too shabby. 

Jiang Cheng gave this group of people a thumbs up in his heart; the them from half a month ago couldn’t possibly display such a level of cooperation. 

Class 7’s encirclement quickly shrunk to defend. The speed was pretty fast, but truth be told, it couldn’t compare to Class 5. After all, Class 5 was a strong team that was second only to Class 2. Considering how they were eliminated without any mental preparation, they must be pretty aggrieved.

Gu Fei stepped forward onto the three-point line and raised the ball. 

Jiang Cheng rushed over and gave a suppressed shout: “Here!” 

Gu Fei flicked his wrist and passed the ball over. Jiang Cheng caught the ball with a leap then immediately followed up with a three-pointer before the people from Class 7 could even react. 

Jiang Cheng was very nervous when he took the shot; this was the first shot of the game – it must go in. 

Good thing he had always been a xueba, possessing the professional mentality of someone who had perfected the skill of showing-off…   

The ball went in. 

A wave of cheers instantly erupted from Class 8’s resting area, spreading outwards to the entire audience. 

It was Class 7’s turn to take the ball. Gu Fei was running back in front of him and his arms were hanging at his sides with his palms facing behind him.  

Jiang Cheng ran over and lightly patted his hand. 

Just when Gu Fei was about to withdraw his hand, Wang Xu also ran over and slapped his hand with a pa sound: “That was great!”

“Ah!” Gu Fei jumped up in shock. 

“Pay attention to defense!” Jiang Cheng shouted. 

Just when the new round began, they had let the opponent score a goal. The people from Class 7’s wills to fight were immediately aroused and headed by Hu Jian; they immediately started pressing back once they got the ball. 

In light of the agreement “let’s use our basketball skills to speak” they had at noon, Jiang Cheng went over to greet Hu Jian by blocking him. 

He had no understanding of Hu Jian’s ability, nor did he take his brash trash talk to heart, but in Jiang Cheng’s eyes, the only people that could snatch the ball away from him were Gu Fei and Li Yan – there were no other exceptions. 

Hu Jian could be called agile and had a lot of tricks up his sleeves, so Jiang Cheng remained where he stood and closely watched as he swayed forward one moment, backward the next, left one moment, and then right the next. He was honestly a little tempted to remind him not to waste too much energy. 

When he had swayed till he felt that it was about time for the referee to blow the whistle, Hu Jian suddenly faked to the left and charged with the ball. 

Jiang Cheng sighed. He took a step over, reached out, and gave the ball a shove – the ball immediately changed direction and bounced away. Over on that side, Wang Xu caught the ball and turned around, dribbling the ball over to their net. 

Due to the shock, the people from Class 7 were slower by a beat. Wang Xu rushed over with the ball, full of spirit and surrounded by various kinds of shouts, he reached the net and pressed passed the only defender there and did a layup. 

“Good shot!” Wang Xu, who had scored two points, roared with clenched fists and eyes widened into circles, “Good shot!” 

Compared to Class 5, the skill level of Class 7 was much worse. At the end of the first quarter, they were already 6 points ahead. 

“Look,” Wang Xu took two gulps of water and peered at the other side during the break. “Class 2 is staring at us right now, our number one opponent.” 

“Class 5 is even cheering for Class 7 right now,” Lu Xiaobin remarked. 

“There isn’t anything to change up later.” Jiang Cheng took a few looks at the other side, “Just continue playing as we did just now. Keep at it.” 

“They’ve switched people,” Gu Fei commented. 

The few of them all turned to look over in that direction. Class 7 had switched in two people; one of them was a big man with a face shining with grease, and the other was Boar Head. 

“Try not to have physical contact with them,” Jiang Cheng instructed. “Pass the ball more, and immediately make a pass when somebody comes near you.” 

According to what Gu Fei said, Boar Head was here to help snatch points and that Grease Face should be here to play dirty. Class 7 really did have many substitutes; it had taken Class 8 a lot of effort to even find three to five of them, yet there were enough people donning uniforms on Class 7’s bench to play a game of soccer. 

Class 7 took the ball and then directly passed it to Boar Head. 

Boar Head charged toward the net with the ball like a tank, and although his speed was shocking, his dribbling was very steady. When Jiang Cheng cut over to block him, he abruptly stopped without making any feints and directly slammed Jiang Cheng’s arm aside to continue charging forward.  

When Jiang Cheng wanted to obstruct him again, Grease Face came over and slammed right into him.

He had wanted to make a sidestep and avoid him to continue forward, but Grease Face’s shoulder had already hit his right shoulder and slammed into him extremely hard in a not-very-concealed manner. 

Jiang Cheng was struck so hard by him that he almost flew to the side. After a period of numbness, his shoulder started throbbing in pain, causing his eyebrows to furrow. 

Generally, in this kind of class game, as long as a ‘loose ball foul’[3] wasn’t grabbing somebody’s arm and preventing them from moving, the referee basically wouldn’t blow the whistle – they may not even notice it. 

After Jiang Cheng was knocked aside, Boar Head had already made it to the net. Gu Fei was trapped by two people, unable to prevent anything, letting Boar Head succeed in scoring a shot. 

Class 7 suddenly burst into cheers, and a group of people started knocking on the ground with their stools. 

“Be bolder!” Lao Lu’s voice abruptly rang out and was even accompanied by the music from a sprinkler. 

Jiang Cheng glanced over and caught sight of Lao Lu holding a loudspeaker. Who knew why he didn’t turn off the speaker’s music, but the music continued to play like a BGM. 

Lao Lu continued to yell with his arms akimbo: “Be more unrestrained! If other people hit you! Just hit them right back! Boldly…”  

“Lu Laoshi! Lu Laoshi!” The Principal also raised a loudspeaker from the referee’s bench, “You are disturbing the game. Class 8, this is a technical foul!”[4]

Lao Xu snatched away Lao Lu’s loudspeaker and passed it to a student behind him. 

“I’m going to start ramming people,” Gu Fei said as he ran over to Jiang Cheng’s side. “You just have to shake off Zhang Wei and score points.” 

“Is that Grease Face?” Jiang Cheng asked. 

Gu Fei swept a glance at Grease Face: “… yes.” 

“Actually, that isn’t necessary,” Jiang Cheng said. 

“You only have to focus on scoring,” Gu Fei replied. 

Gu Fei’s ramming target was Boar Head, Jiang Cheng didn’t even have to ask to know. Currently, this fella and Grease Face were working together pretty well – one person obstructing and the other person going on offense. 

This made him a little annoyed. The perfect, perfect partners are here ne[5], who do you think you are? 

However, he didn’t support deliberate fouls. He just didn’t have the chance to speak more with Gu Fei about it, he could only play first. 

Jiang Cheng was guarding on the centerline. When Class 7 got their hands on the ball, they quickly went on offense, giving the ball to Boar Head as expected. Gu Fei didn’t find a chance to ram into him and was actually trapped by two people once again so he couldn’t go on defense. 

Jiang Cheng didn’t care about all that. He directly cut over and forcibly rushed forward from between the two people. After Gu Fei also escaped, he turned, and the two blocked Boar Head’s path together. 

At that obstacle, Jiang Cheng clapped, cheered, and screamed for him and Gu Fei in his heart. When the two of them stood firm at the same time, Boar Head was still a step away from them, he couldn’t employ a defensive foul.[6]

It was perfect. 

But Boar Head wasn’t an amateur. He didn’t directly charge forward and had instead chosen to make a shot right in front of two players with similar heights to him from the opposing team with a fair amount of confidence. 

Gu Fei and Jiang Cheng jumped up at the same time to slap down the ball. 

The ball was sent flying and landed in Lu Xiaobin’s hands. 

This blocked shot[7] was done beautifully. Jiang Cheng once again fell into a round of internal praises, especially about the tacit cooperation between him and Gu Fei. It made him play incredibly comfortably. 

But the screams from the mass of girls on the sidelines made him rather uncomfortable; there was always a sense of guilt like he was being caught on the spot. 

He didn’t know how he had become so unpromising.[8] 

When Lu Xiaobin caught the ball, he quickly cooperated with everyone to go on offense. Jiang Cheng and Gu Fei were pretty much wrapped around Boar Head; like his shadows, they made him completely unable to intercept the ball. 

On the other side, Lu Xiaobin and Wang Xu passed the ball without pause, faultlessly disrupting the rhythm of Class 7’s defense. Wang Xu caught the ball and with another cry, scored another two points. 

When there were only a few minutes left in the first half of the game, Class 7 called for a break.

“Fuck,” Gu Fei patted his hand. “Jiuri’s gone crazy.” 

“He is our captain after all,” Jiang Cheng remarked. “Do you think he’d let you steal all the spotlight?” 

“We managed to push through the first half, it’s still very hard for them to catch up to our scores now,” Gu Fei said. “It’s not very easy to hit them. He’s too familiar with me.” 

“We can win even without hitting them.” Jiang Cheng looked at him. His gaze landed on Gu Fei’s neck, then on his collarbone, to the shoulder, then when it went all the way down to his arm, he became dumbfounded. “Is this from getting hit?” 

Gu Fei lowered his head to glance at his arm: “This was from the slingshot and the wooden bead. There’s also one on my stomach, do you want to see?”

“No.” Jiang Cheng was a little speechless, “Aren’t you a little too delicate… I shouldn’t have used much strength…”

“This is flesh ah,” Gu Fei patted his arm. “Not a tree trunk.”

“… sorry about that.” Jiang Cheng sighed. 

“It’s fine.” Gu Fei took the water from Jing Yi, “Think of it as me paying my entrance fees.”

“Fuck.” Jiang Cheng swore with clenched teeth. 

The first half of the game wasn’t actually very difficult to play. Class 7 only depended on Boar Head, an external help, and didn’t actually improve on their own skills. In twenty minutes, Jiang Cheng was able to tell that Hu Jian was only an overly self-confident teenager with middle school syndrome. His skills weren’t much better than Wang Xu’s. If they were to really speak with their basketball skills, then he was a mute at most. 

But when the second half started, Class 7 went on a rampage like they had all gotten shots. They were probably giving their last efforts – even if they couldn’t win, they couldn’t let the difference in their scores be too large. 

Jiang Cheng didn’t care about the other people. Even if they switched in the people committing fouls, they wouldn’t dare to casually make a foul on offense. As long as they could score, the other people weren’t worth paying attention to, only Boar Head. 

That person had the ability but also had thick-skin. 

When Lu Xiaobin got the ball and pressed forward to the opponents’ basket, he passed it to Jiang Cheng. 

Actually, that wasn’t a very good timing. Gu Fei didn’t have the time to cover, and on the contrary, Boar Head had rushed up. 

Jiang Cheng lowered his center of gravity, switched the ball from his right to his left, and used his body to guard the ball. Boar Head had come over and blocked his right, he continuously squeezed his way over and inconspicuously elbowed him. 

Jiang Cheng was growing irritated at him, but in this situation, if the referee didn’t blow the whistle, you must keep your mind steady and continue to keep a firm grasp of control. 

Good thing Gu Fei had quickly made his way over and was ready to respond. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Jiang Cheng’s gaze swept over Gu Fei’s shoes, and with a sweep of his arm, he passed the ball over to him. 

But right at that moment, Boar Head aggressively jumped forward, his right arm making a motion of stealing the ball. However, Jiang Cheng immediately knew that he didn’t intend on stealing the ball. 

As he stretched out his right hand, his left elbow made a heavy blow on Jiang Cheng’s stomach with inertia. 

“Fuck!” Jiang Cheng’s cry had come from between the gaps of his clenched teeth. 

After this hit landed, an unbearable pain along with a strong urge to vomit rose from his stomach, making his world suddenly go white. He almost fell to his knees with soft legs. 

His mind was messed up by the pain; so many voices were simultaneously crying in his head —My injured heart really, really hurts! Why am I always the one that gets hurt?! Aaaaahhhh it’s always fucking me!

The referee blew the whistle: “Blocking foul!”[9]

Boar Head gave a breezy smile and raised his hand. 

The audience didn’t see the situation clearly and only thought it was a normal collision. Only the team members from Class 2 jeered, some even pointed and waved their dumbs downwards. 

“Fuck!” Wang Xu was right behind Jiang Cheng and rushed over to support him. “How is it? Is it serious?” 

“It’s fine.” Jiang Cheng finally managed to rasp out after a long time. 

Gu Fei walked over without a word and directly lifted up his shirt. 

Although he didn’t react much to Gu Fei’s touch anymore, he almost slapped him for such a drastic action. 

“You really are an underhanded person ah.” Gu Fei turned to face Boar Head. 

“What,” Boar Head gave a cold laugh, “Have I touched porcelain[10], huh? Could I possibly be as underhanded as you?” 

Gu Fei didn’t say a word and walked over to Boar Head with a gloomy expression. 

“Gu Fei!” Jiang Cheng hurriedly grabbed onto him and took hold of Gu Fei’s arm. 

Gu Fei turned around and with a face full of irritation, his eyebrows twisted: “What are you doing?!” 

Jiang Cheng said in a low voice: “Playing is playing, competing is competing. If they don’t want any face, then it’s their problem. But if we want to win, then we must win in a way that leaves no room for debate.” 

“Well said Cheng-ge!” Wang Xu also kept his voice low and maintained a moved and tragic expression. 

Gu Fei stared at him. After a long time, he finally opened his mouth: “Got it.” 

[1] Pair of dark horses – from the way it’s phrased, 黑马搭档 is more like a title (like Dark Horse Partners), kinda like the principal is already giving them the topic name/title… but since it’s not in quotation marks, we’re not sure.

[2] 水泄不通 idiom, literally tled to “water can not flow/leak out” meaning “to be densely packed/to be hemmed in”.

[3] Loose ball foul (无球犯规) – an illegal contact, after the ball is alive, when team control does not exist; basically, Neither player has the ball in this case. One player for instance pushes the other from behind to secure the rebound and pushes the other too far under the basket to get the rebound. The player that pushed the other under the basket could be called for a loose ball foul as neither player was in possession of the basketball at the time the foul was committed.

[4] Technical foul (技术犯规) – a punishment for conduct or violation by a team member which is unsportsmanlike. This foul is given to a member, whether in the court or on the bench. Even coaches are subject to technical fouls when the need arises.

[5] 呢 ne – particle signaling a pause, to emphasize the preceding words and allow the listener time to take them on board (“ok?”, “are you with me?”) / (at the end of a declarative sentence) particle indicating continuation of a state or action / particle indicating strong affirmation

[6] Defensive foul (防守犯规) – Illegal physical contacts which are made by defensive players are known as defensive fouls. These contacts are primarily aimed to impede the progress of offensive players. Some of the typical defensive fouls are blocking, reaching in, holding, tripping and pushing.

[7] Blocked shot (火锅盖) – occurs when a defensive player legally deflects a field goal attempt from an offensive player to prevent a score.

[8] Unpromising (出息) – lit. without prospect

[9] Blocking foul (阻挡犯规) – foul assessed to a defensive player who is not properly positioned and makes contact with an offensive player to stop their movement. If the defensive player is still moving, does not have his feet planted, or has not establish themselves within the ball handler’s path before the two players collide, a blocking foul against the defender will be called

[10] Touch porcelain (碰瓷) – metaphorically refers to a behavior or trick when someone pretends to be knocked down so he can ask for money.

It originally comes from an old Beijing dialect of Mandarin. This word refers to a trick that takes its name from a scam, in which unscrupulous antique sellers would rig up damaged porcelain vases to look whole, wait for customers to “break” one by picking it up, then demand that they pay for the item.

Origin Story:

A long time ago, in the late years of the Qing Dynasty, some elderly aristocrats held a “rare” porcelain (actually, it’s a fake.) in their hands, and walk down the streets with it. These aristocrats would seek out a chance to be “deliberately” touched by a carriage passing by. This touch would cause the porcelain in their hands to immediately drop and fall into pieces. This trick would be used so that carriage owners would have to offer compensation for the price of the valuable porcelain. The trick targets people in a hurry, so the odds of making them feel guilty for the action are higher. Over time, people called this behavior “碰瓷 (pèng cí).” The phenomenon of “碰瓷 (pèng cí)” evolves with the development of society, such as “You stepped on my feet”, “You scraped my car”, “You knocked me down” — and has resulted in people taking these opportunities to ask for compensation. If one day you encounter something like this, call the police immediately and let them know you have not been tricked! 

Got love researching! – Sae

The author has something to say: Taking a break tomorrow, will continue on Monday. 

【Blank】

“Where’s the author?! How did the author disappear?! I even brought my little brother here to be introduced ne o(≧口≦)o! Come! Say hello to everyone o(≧口≦)o!” The black furry spirit shouted as it pounded on the floor. 

“Ying.” The small black furry spirit cried. 

The translators have something to say:

Ice: Oh my god Gu Fei. It’s tenderloin. He literally made me unable to even look at a chunk of meat the same way as before now… But perfect partners indeed, getting angry when your dear partner gets hurt (Jiang Cheng is so lowkey proud of that title lol). (*^艸^)

Sae: Ah, gotta love not knowing much about basketball and doing all the research! *Jiang Cheng is mentally high-key proud of that title!* BAHAHAHA

*Jiang Cheng and Gu Fei are reminding you to wear your masks yo~* (art @神棍张帝心)