Chapter 4: Chu Zihang

This was Lu Mingfei's first time coming to a basketball hall.

With his persona as a "transparent" background character in class, combined with his height and build that held no advantage, he never had the chance to show his face on a basketball court, let alone waste money on a commercial basketball hall.

During PE class or school basketball games, he would choose to sit far away on the lawn, chewing on a blade of grass while squinting at the sky, pretending to be carefree and enjoying nature, signaling that he neither liked basketball nor cared about the cheers for the pretty girls.

But how could he not be envious?

As a character with no presence, no special talents, and who seemed born to be nothing more than an "ordinary audience member in the stands," Lu Mingfei sometimes fantasized about being on stage as the "protagonist" too...

Yet, it was just a thought.

Too tiring, costs money, wastes time and energy, getting laughed at if he did poorly... whenever Lu Mingfei didn't want to do something, he could always find countless reasons.

But no amount of reasons held any meaning at this moment; that Schedule Plan he had created himself wouldn't care about any of that! Since it was written down, it had to be completed honestly!

"I've brought this upon myself, no one else to blame."

Lu Mingfei panted heavily, looked up with a bitter smile, glanced at the gilded sign that read "Qingning Basketball Hall," and, facing the final countdown, stepped over the shadow cast by the setting sun and walked inside.

"No spots left."

"What?!"

Lu Mingfei's heart rate, which hadn't fully slowed down yet, jumped to his throat again at the administrator's words.

"School just let out, so several middle and high school teams are playing practice matches; the outdoor courts are all booked up," the administrator spread his hands, then went back to cracking melon seeds. "Why don't you go ask somewhere else?"

"How can that be!"

Lu Mingfei nearly collapsed on the spot. What kind of situation was this? The school basketball court was under maintenance, the nearest paid basketball hall was packed... was heaven trying to kill him today?

The Schedule Plan, which had seemed quite intelligent before, suddenly became rigid again; not only did it fail to re-plan a new venue for him, but it kept flashing the countdown, urging him to get to a basketball court immediately!

"Nothing I can do, that's just how it is... By the way, you're a student, right? What's your name? How many people?"

"High school student, Lu Mingfei, just me," Lu Mingfei said, dejected.

"Eh, you came alone too? That's strange. Looking at your build, you don't look like someone who plays basketball often."

The administrator looked a bit surprised, chatting while cracking melon seeds.

"Someone came earlier and booked the only private indoor electronic basketball court in our hall. If you really want to play that badly, I'll take you to ask them."

"I will never forget your great kindness, big brother!" Lu Mingfei almost knelt before the administrator.

"Hey, it's a small thing! Just asking, no guarantee it'll work. That person is someone who doesn't care about money; they probably booked the whole court just so they wouldn't have to play with others. You, well, you probably don't have much of a chance..."

The administrator waved his hand and led Lu Mingfei along the corridor toward that private indoor basketball court.

【Warning: The time for the 【Practice Basketball】 plan has arrived. Please enter the basketball court immediately to execute the plan. Countdown: 30 seconds, 29...】

Watching the countdown inch closer, Lu Mingfei was anxious to death. Fortunately, the corridor wasn't long, and as he got closer to that door, the series of "bang-bang" sounds of balls hitting the ground became increasingly distinct.

The sound was so dense it was like an automatic weapon pulling its trigger and firing wildly!

Was this the kind of commotion one person could make? Lu Mingfei would have believed it if someone said there were a dozen people inside throwing dozens of balls around!

"Wait here, I'll knock and ask for you; they specifically said not to just walk in..." the administrator said, walking up to the door.

Lu Mingfei felt inexplicably uneasy. He noticed that, for some reason, the dense sound of basketballs hitting the ground had suddenly stopped, and silence rushed to meet them.

"Knock, knock, knock!"

The administrator didn't notice this; he knocked on the door. "Handsome? There's someone here who also wants to play basketball; I wanted to ask if you'd be willing to share the court?"

"Sorry." The person behind the door answered very briefly, their tone very flat, with almost no emotion detectable.

"Nothing I can do then, student Lu Mingfei..." The administrator turned around and shook his head at Lu Mingfei.

"Isn't it a coincidence, I was just about to say the same thing." Lu Mingfei looked at the countdown, which only had 10 seconds left, and wore a bitter smile.

"Huh?" The administrator was stunned, then saw Lu Mingfei rush toward him. After instinctively dodging, he saw Lu Mingfei charging toward the door and exclaimed in alarm, "Eh, eh, the door is locked from the inside!"

The administrator's thought was simple: what if this blockheaded kid got injured and tried to frame him?

Lu Mingfei heard what the administrator said, but his forward momentum didn't slow down in the slightest.

Driven to the edge by the countdown, he had rarely been this ruthless. At this moment, he had only one thought in his mind—

Today, either he would knock this door open and avoid being electrocuted, dealing with the aftermath later; or he would slam into the door and knock himself unconscious, providing a physical anesthesia so he wouldn't feel the pain when he was electrocuted!

But this wasn't a choice between one or two; just as the outcome was about to be decided, a third possibility appeared... the door opened by itself.

Of course, the door didn't open by itself; the person behind the door had opened it.

The light of the setting sun followed the gap and cast that person's silhouette into his eyes; it was a boy with a lithe and sturdy build... Lu Mingfei, who was about to crash headlong into him, had his expression change drastically. He wanted to hit the door, not a person!

Breaking the door would at most cost money, but injuring someone was a huge deal!

But the distance between them was too close; he couldn't stop his footsteps in time and could only watch helplessly as he slammed into him...

"I'm done for!" Lu Mingfei closed his eyes in despair.

Then he felt a pair of powerful arms catch him steadily. The other person even used some kind of highly sophisticated technique to dissipate the force, dragging him to spin half a circle in place before setting him down steadily.

"Lu... Mingfei?" the boy who caught Lu Mingfei asked.

Did he actually know him? But he didn't have this voice in his memory... Lu Mingfei wanted to play dead even more, but the imminent countdown forced him to open his eyes cautiously.

He blurted out, calling the boy's name.

"Chu... Zihang?"

The misunderstanding was cleared up, the door closed again, and the lock clicked.

Lu Mingfei changed his clothes, got the basketball, and stood on the plastic floor. Watching that deadly countdown finally stop and disappear, with only him and the person opposite him on the entire basketball court...

He still couldn't believe that what was happening before his eyes existed in reality.

Chu Zihang, who was he?

He was the eternal legend of Shilan Middle School, the unchanging number one on the "This Scoundrel Must Be Executed" list, an existence who embodied his life with the word "badass"!

If Chu Zihang were compared to the final boss, then Zhao Menghua, whom Lu Mingfei wanted to surpass, was just a grunt on the side of the road kicked to death with one foot, and Lu Mingfei? He didn't even deserve a role.

Yet such an existence actually remembered his name, and judging by the situation, had probably even paid attention to him?

For a moment, Lu Mingfei was so moved he didn't even know what to say... If he told people about this to show off, he was afraid no one would believe him!

"Chu... Senior, didn't you go abroad for university?" Lu Mingfei racked his brains to come up with an opening line, struggling for a long time to recall, "What was it called, Gaddafi College?"

"It's winter break," Chu Zihang corrected, "Cassel College."

"Oh, oh..." Lu Mingfei scratched his hair, trying hard to find a topic, "Do foreign universities have winter breaks too?"

"They do, the timing is different." Chu Zihang was like a calm question-and-answer robot, but he only answered one sentence and would never start a new topic.

"Well, thank you for letting me in, Senior..." Lu Mingfei said cautiously.

"It's nothing." Chu Zihang shook his head, as if this were a matter of course.

A matter of course, my foot! If the girls at Shilan Middle School knew what had happened to him, they would only lament what kind of dog-shit luck he had!

The boys would too!

Silence fell over the basketball court.

This conversation was impossible to continue!

Lu Mingfei was feeling a bit frantic inside; he really didn't know what new topic to bring up.

The popping up of translucent characters made him heave a sigh of relief; ever since this thing appeared, Lu Mingfei had never been so happy to see it.

【Warning, during the execution of the 【Practice Basketball】 plan...】

"Then Senior, shall we... play basketball?"

Lu Mingfei hurriedly began to dribble the basketball clumsily, asking cautiously.

"Okay." Chu Zihang nodded.

Lu Mingfei breathed a sigh of relief, and just as he was preparing to start practicing shooting, he finally heard Chu Zihang take the initiative to ask a question.

"How shall we play, one-on-one?"

The legend of Shilan Middle School, the starting center who once represented Shilan Middle School in the city youth basketball team and won the runner-up in the national league, has initiated a one-on-one challenge against you.

PS: Your basketball skill level is zero; you haven't even touched the ball more than a few times.

What is your choice?

A. Gladly accept

B. Decisively refuse

C. _______ (Fill-in-the-blank)

(End of chapter)