Chapter 352: Campus Academic System (24)

That evening, when Xie Yang was picked up and taken home to enjoy a sumptuous dinner, her WeChat group pinged with a string of notifications tagging her.

【Sister Yang! When did you join the volleyball team? How come we didn't know? Wuwu! Do you still consider us your brothers or not!】

【Sister Yang, you should have told us there was a match earlier; we would have skipped class to come cheer for you!】

They were used to skipping class anyway; recently, with them sitting obediently in the classroom, the subject teachers were even more unaccustomed to it than they were.

Xie Yang was quite puzzled: how did this bunch of lackeys find out?

Although it was a national high school league, Deya International High School was different from ordinary public or private schools; it focused more on integration with international universities, such as organizing students for study tours abroad during winter and summer breaks, and friendly exchanges with overseas schools.

It almost never organized students to participate in academic or sports competitions held between domestic high schools; even if they did participate, they would just get crushed, so it was better not to ruin their own reputation.

The next second, Xie Yang knew how they had found out.

Xue Qian posted a video, a clip of Xie Yang scoring with a serve in today's match; in just over ten seconds, it was all footage of her serving and crushing the opponent. Honestly, watching it was quite blood-pumping.

【Sister Yang, you're on fire! The local trending topics are dominated by this video of yours tonight!】

【My Sister Yang is mighty and domineering!】

【Sister Yang, when is the next match? We'll go cheer for you.】

【Just cheering isn't enough to show our momentum; I'm going to order a batch of cheering signs.】

【Then I'll go order a banner! With my Sister Yang's skills, she's invincible across Jiangcheng!】

【Don't you guys think that cheerleading song is quite fitting? Why don't we use that for the banner?】

Xie Yang: "..."

Originally, she didn't mind telling them the match time, but seeing Cheng Zixin and Lin Zhihan say they wanted to customize cheering lights and banners for her, she worried that these ridiculous guys would really print the lyrics of that ear-piercing cheerleading song onto the banner.

She turned her head away, pretending she hadn't seen it.

But she forgot, this group had a third party besides her and the lackeys—Jiang Yinian.

Seeing that Xie Yang hadn't replied to the messages for a long time, Cheng Zixin assumed she was tired after the match and was already resting, so he considerately didn't continue to disturb her in the group, but instead sent a private message to Jiang Yinian.

Jiang Yinian was tutoring students and hadn't checked the group messages; during a break, he saw Cheng Zixin's private message. Not knowing that Xie Yang was intentionally not replying, and seeing Cheng Zixin ask for her schedule and say he wanted to go cheer for her, he didn't think much of it and forwarded the Preliminary Tournament schedule he had gotten from Du Huaiyao to him.

Cheng Zixin received the schedule and saw that the second match was tomorrow at ten in the morning.

It was already eight o'clock in the evening, so the time was obviously a bit tight.

But this guy had the power of money; by throwing cash at it, not only could the banner be made overnight, but even the specially customized cheering signs were rushed to the gymnasium before the match started the next morning.

So much so that when Xie Yang and her teammates arrived on the bus arranged by the school, the eye-catching banner with yellow characters on a red background was already fluttering in the wind above the gymnasium lobby.

At the entrance of the lobby, there was also a life-sized cardboard cutout of Xie Yang, capturing the moment she jumped up for a clean spike.

Caught off guard by seeing her own cutout, along with that banner printed with the ear-piercing slogan, even as calm as Xie Yang was, her expression couldn't help but crack.

Her teammates couldn't hold it in and let out "pfft," "pfft" sounds of laughter.

Even the team leader, Teacher Liu, held her forehead and laughed: "Which student made this? What a talent!"

No sooner had she spoken than Cheng Zixin and the other five got out of their luxury cars while yawning; seeing Xie Yang, their eyes lit up, and they shouted aloud:

"Sister Yang! Did you see our work? Are you happy? Are you touched?"

"We also brought a few boxes of cheering signs, enough for everyone!"

Xie Yang: "..."

Good grief! So it was you guys!

She gritted her teeth: "How did you know the match time?"

She clearly hadn't responded to them last night.

"Jiang Yinian sent me your schedule. Don't worry! We'll go cheer for you at every one of your matches from now on."

"Yeah, Sister Yang, we didn't sleep all night for this, afraid we'd oversleep and miss your match."

"We bought a box of coffee, oh right, and a box of cheering signs."

"Sister Yang, look at this cheering sign of mine: 'Sister Yang goes to war, not a blade of grass grows!'"

"Mine is 'Sister Yang takes the court, strongest on the surface!'"

"Look at this one, 'Match MVP!'"

"..."

The veins on Xie Yang's forehead could barely be contained.

The teammates and teachers beside her were already laughing in a heap.

Xie Yang: "..."

Mentally exhausted.

Saturday at ten in the morning, First High School faced off against Second High School, starting the second match of the Preliminary Tournament group stage.

The Second High School women's volleyball team was already weaker than First High School's, and especially after seeing the video that circulated yesterday, they had even less confidence.

However, the Second High School team, upon arriving at the gymnasium and seeing the banners and cutouts of Xie Yang, as well as the cheering signs that Cheng Zixin had hired people to distribute at the lobby entrance, couldn't help but laugh.

"This dark horse from First High School already has fans so quickly?"

"Actually, I'm her fan now too."

"Me too, I really envy her powerful explosive force."

Since they couldn't win anyway, they might as well treat it as a friendly match.

If they won, it would be a surprise; if they lost, it wouldn't be shameful.

Wenli was so strong, yet they still lost to First High School by a large margin; their own best result in previous years was only fourth in the district, and they had never made it into the City Tournament, so what else was there to lose?

Consequently, the overall atmosphere of today's match was much better than yesterday's.

The Second High School women's volleyball team completely cast aside their tension and pressure; since they were going to lose anyway, they might as well let go and play however they wanted.

The more they did that, the less miserable the scores were; the first set ended 25-17, and the second set ended 25-19.

Of course, this also had to do with the fact that Xie Yang didn't take the court.

She sat with Teacher Liu, listening to him quietly explain the rules and techniques for receiving every type of ball; he feared that because her time on the team was too short, she could currently only use her specialty—explosive power—to spike and score, but as the opponents she would face later grew stronger, she could not rely solely on explosive power, so he took every opportunity to give her extra training.

Before the final set began, the coach from the Second Middle School walked over and said with a chuckle, "Old Liu, why not send student Xie Yang onto the court? After watching your match against Wenli yesterday, our team really wants to play a set against the 'strongest on Earth' student Xie Yang. Since the outcome is basically decided anyway, why not let them play freely for the last set?"

Teacher Liu: "..."

How could there be people who actively seek out abuse?

Xie Yang: "..."

Her teeth ached just hearing the four words "strongest on Earth."

However, seeing the girls from the Second Middle School's volleyball team looking eager and unable to hide their excitement, Xie Yang agreed nonetheless.

"Sister Yang is taking the court!"

Xue Qian shook awake Cheng Zixin and the others, who were fast asleep while clutching their cheering signs.

They had no great interest in sports like volleyball and were purely here for Xie Yang; furthermore, they had stayed up all night for the banners and cheering signs.

With Xie Yang not on the court, the few of them had been nodding off as they watched.

"Huh? Oh!" Upon hearing this, Cheng Zixin instantly perked up; without even looking at the score, he cupped his hands into a megaphone shape and shouted toward the court, "Sister Yang, crush them!"

"Yes, yes! Crush us!" The girls from the Second Middle School's volleyball team were not angry at all; instead, they were quite pumped, standing on the other side of the net and saying, "Let us witness the spiking aura that only exists in manga!"

Xie Yang: "..."

Are you all serious?