Chapter 284

Sunday evening.

Ying Chanxi and Xu Youyu had gone to school in the afternoon.

Li Luo stayed at home, only to be dragged into the piano room by Yan Zhusheng for a lesson in love, and didn't emerge until evening, when he slung his schoolbag over his shoulder and headed to school.

Passing the playground on Houde Road, Li Luo glanced at the figures on the field, paused his steps, and pulled Yan Zhusheng aside.

Yan Zhusheng looked puzzled, followed Li Luo's gaze, and only then realized that Ying Chanxi and Qiao Xinyan were playing badminton on the playground.

"You guys start the competition tomorrow, right?" Li Luo said. "Looks like they're training. Do you want to go over and join them?"

Yan Zhusheng shook her head. "I don't need to."

"Then just go take a look." Li Luo said this, then added to Yan Zhusheng, "Go to the convenience store and buy a few bottles of drinks?"

"Oh." Yan Zhusheng nodded. "I'll go buy them."

Watching Yan Zhusheng obediently walk toward the convenience store, Li Luo stepped onto the playground and approached the sidelines where Ying Chanxi and Qiao Xinyan were playing.

At this moment, several courts had already been marked out on the playground lawn by students from the badminton club, with the corresponding badminton nets set up.

Ying Chanxi and Qiao Xinyan were warming up and testing their feel on one of those courts.

Because Ying Chanxi had her back to the playground entrance, she hadn't noticed Li Luo's arrival.

Meanwhile, Li Luo had silently greeted Qiao Xinyan from afar, signaling her not to say anything.

Until Li Luo approached the sideline, just as Ying Chanxi bent down to pick up the ball, he quickly moved to stand behind her.

"Xinyan, why are you smiling so happily?" After picking up the ball, Ying Chanxi saw Qiao Xinyan holding back a laugh on the opposite side and immediately looked strange.

Then she noticed Qiao Xinyan's line of sight and instinctively turned her body and head.

"Hello." Li Luo cheerfully greeted her from behind.

"Ah!" Ying Chanxi was startled by the guy, and because she had just turned around, her footing wasn't steady; losing her balance, she fell directly to one side.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Seeing this, Li Luo quickly reached out, wrapped an arm around her back, and held her, preventing Ying Chanxi from hitting the ground. "Are you okay?"

"You scared me to death!" Ying Chanxi, her face slightly flushed, hit him with a bad temper. "So childish. How old are you, playing tricks like this?"

"I'm sixteen this year, still a minor. What's wrong with being a little childish?" Li Luo chuckled, helping Ying Chanxi up. "How are you guys doing?"

"Xixi is very impressive." Qiao Xinyan on the opposite side said with a smile. "I feel like I can't beat her."

"Just came to test my feel," Ying Chanxi said. "Getting used to it today so I don't have to adapt when I step onto the court tomorrow."

"I thought you wouldn't care too much about this kind of competition," Li Luo said in surprise. "Are you aiming for the championship?"

"Don't exaggerate like that." Ying Chanxi rolled her eyes at him. "I just don't want to be eliminated too early; otherwise, as the class monitor, it would be too embarrassing."

"Xixi, you weren't saying that just now." Qiao Xinyan leaned against the net, smiling. "You said you wanted to spar with Zhusheng on the court and try to..."

"Stop talking!" Ying Chanxi immediately rushed to the net, reached out to cover Qiao Xinyan's mouth, and Qiao Xinyan quickly laughed and ran away.

At that moment, Yan Zhusheng happened to return with the drinks, walked over to Li Luo's side, and asked puzzledly, "I think I heard you guys talking about my name?"

"Nothing much." Li Luo laughed helplessly. "Just cheering for you guys who are participating in the competition."

"Oh." Yan Zhusheng handed a bottle of drink from her hand to Li Luo, then walked over to Ying Chanxi, patted her shoulder, and said, "Xixi, have a drink."

"Oh, oh, thanks Zhusheng." Ying Chanxi took the drink and was about to twist off the cap, but the next second, she suddenly thought of something. Taking advantage of the moment when Yan Zhusheng was handing a drink to Qiao Xinyan, she ran over to Li Luo's side, shoved the drink in her hand toward him, and said, "I can't twist it open. Help me."

Li Luo looked at Ying Chanxi, then looked at Yan Zhusheng, and then smiled. "Okay."

After easily twisting off the cap, Li Luo handed the drink to Ying Chanxi, who saw a flicker of joy in her eyes, happily accepted the drink, and took small sips.

A smile of having learned a new skill appeared at the corner of her mouth, and she felt a tiny bit of pride in her heart.

But after Yan Zhusheng finished handing drinks to Qiao Xinyan and returned, she saw that the drink in Li Luo's hand was still unopened.

So she twisted open her own drink, held it to Li Luo's lips, and said, "You drink."

Saying this, she took the bottle from Li Luo's arms and drank it herself.

Ying Chanxi, who had just taken two sips of her drink, saw this scene and immediately fell silent.

Li Luo and Yan Zhusheng drank their beverages while retreating to the sidelines, watching Ying Chanxi and Qiao Xinyan continue playing badminton.

It must be said, Ying Chanxi is indeed quite impressive.

On one hand, for the vast majority of students at Fuyi High School, the only time they come into contact with badminton is during the weekly physical education class.

So everyone's skill level is actually about the same.

Unless it's someone like Yan Zhusheng who has loved playing badminton since childhood, everyone's true level sometimes depends entirely on who serves.

Those with slightly better skills can rally a few shots back and forth, which is already considered quite good.

And someone like Ying Chanxi, who not only can return shots but also occasionally smashes and thinks about where to hit the ball, is already considered very impressive.

On the other hand, since the start of the semester, Ying Chanxi has basically been woken up by Li Luo every morning to run on the school playground together.

Plus, Ying Chanxi's physical condition was already not bad; she had even made it to the finals in the women's 100-meter race at the school sports meeting before.

Now with the added training of daily morning runs, her stamina is far superior to that of ordinary girls.

Pity... when Xu Youyu was in the first year of high school, Li Luo didn't know her yet.

Otherwise, he really wanted to see the senior's demeanor on the court.

But given Xu Youyu's personality, she probably wouldn't sign up for the competition anyway.

After a simple warm-up in the evening, the four of them returned to their respective classes for evening self-study.

By the next day, Monday, after the last class of the afternoon ended, the badminton and table tennis competitions officially sounded the starting horn.

The daily evening matches ran from 5 PM until 6 PM.

Half an hour was reserved for the last participating students to go to the cafeteria for dinner.

Li Luo wasn't very familiar with the other events, but for the women's badminton competition, he looked at the schedule Yan Zhusheng had received and got a general idea.

Unlike the class basketball tournament, which started with elimination matches right away.

The badminton competition had a total of 64 participants, with a two-week schedule; the first week was the preliminary round, and the second week was the elimination round.

To accommodate everyone's participation in the competition, the preliminary round was not a single-elimination format, but adopted a Swiss system.

Win one match to earn one point; only players with equal points will be drawn to face each other.

Everyone participates in one match per day, for a total of five preliminary rounds; the 32 players who win three or more of the five matches advance to the knockout stage.

"Why exactly 64 people?" Li Luo glanced at the schedule Yan Zhusheng handed over and couldn't help but ask curiously.

"It seems the initial number of sign-ups was only a little over fifty," Yan Zhusheng said. "Later, the badminton club managed to recruit a few more people to make it up to 64."

"No wonder," Li Luo nodded, then asked, "When is your match today?"

"First match on Court 8," Yan Zhusheng said while walking toward the playground, pointing to a badminton court nearby. "Huanhuan is on Court 7 for the first match, Xixi is on Court 3 for the second match, and Xinyan is on Court 4 for the second match."

At the playground entrance, students came and going to watch the matches.

After Li Luo and Yan Zhusheng met up with Ying Chanxi and the others here, they headed straight for Yan Zhusheng's Court 8.

In addition to the women's badminton, the men's badminton and the men's and women's table tennis matches were also proceeding simultaneously.

By comparison, far fewer boys signed up for badminton; most either went to participate in the basketball tournament or signed up for table tennis.

For badminton, there were actually more girls.

For the badminton tournament at Fuyi High School, to speed up the competition, the Swiss system matches were decided in a single game, and each game was only 15 points.

Whoever reached 15 points first won.

Under these circumstances, as soon as Yan Zhusheng stepped onto the court, she decisively won the match, not giving the girl on the opposing side a single chance, ending the game 15-0.

Ying Chanxi, watching the match from the side, blinked, then turned her head to look at Li Luo and couldn't help asking, "Did Zhusheng practice this before?"

"Uh... not exactly specialized training," Li Luo said helplessly with a smile. "Aunt Yuan just really likes playing badminton, so she's played quite a bit since childhood; she's considered quite skilled."

"What should we do?" Qiao Xinyan whispered quietly into Ying Chanxi's ear. "Zhusheng is so skilled; how can you possibly beat her?"

Ying Chanxi glared at her in annoyance, puffed out her cheeks, and grumbled, "I never said I was going to beat her; don't talk nonsense."

"But yesterday you clearly said yourself..."

"Shut up," Ying Chanxi hurriedly covered Qiao Xinyan's mouth to stop her from saying more. "You've been getting worse lately, always talking nonsense."

The two girls started playfully fighting.

After watching Yan Zhusheng's match, Li Luo turned to look at Xu Yinghuan next door, who won 15-9; that was also quite smooth.

Soon, it was time for Ying Chanxi and Qiao Xinyan's matches.

"Li Luo, the two of us are going to the restroom," Xu Yinghuan said to him while holding Yan Zhusheng's arm. "We'll buy some drinks on the way back."

"Got it," Li Luo waved his hand, then followed Ying Chanxi and the other two to the sides of Courts 3 and 4, watching them go to sign in, only to hear a somewhat familiar voice by his ear.

"You're here to watch Gao Yuqin's match too?" Lu Wei from Class 7 looked at Li Luo with suspicion, then snorted coldly, "Why are you always so persistent?"

Li Luo glanced at him, feeling somewhat speechless: "... To hear you say that, what should I even say?"

"Heh," Lu Wei pouted, then said, "I haven't congratulated you yet?"

"Congratulate me on what?" Li Luo was a bit speechless at this person's train of thought.

"Congratulate you on your basketball team not clashing with ours," Lu Wei said arrogantly with a laugh. "You didn't even dare to play against us in PE class last semester; this time you're just lucky to have never encountered our Class 7. If you get the chance to meet us later, you'll know what regret feels like."

"Big brother, how about we talk a little less?" Li Luo helplessly picked his ear, feeling his originally normal demeanor was being dragged off course.

Fortunately, at this moment, Liu Shaowen and Xie Shuchen also arrived at the sidelines and greeted Li Luo.

"Li Luo, you're here too."

"Here to watch the monitor's match?"

Li Luo nodded, pointed to Ying Chanxi on the court, then said to Lu Wei, "I'm being serious, brother; you should open your eyes and look at other girls. Why cling to one tree like Gao Yuqin?"

"Hmph, you don't understand," Lu Wei crossed his arms. "I made a deal with her this time: if we win the championship in the basketball tournament, she'll go out with me during the Labor Day holiday."

Li Luo tugged at the corner of his mouth but hadn't spoken yet.

Xie Shuchen nearby spoke up first, saying with a chuckle, "You're thinking too much; it's not too late to say that when you encounter our Class 1."

Lu Wei raised an eyebrow, only then realizing these two were from Class 1; a certain sense of responsibility as a member of a parallel class arose, and he straightened his chest, his momentum even stronger as he battled Xie Shuchen.

Seeing this, Li Luo quickly slipped to the sidelines, took the drinks Yan Zhusheng had brought back, and handed one to Ying Chanxi, who was preparing to go on court.

"Thanks," Ying Chanxi happily took the drink and took two small sips.

Li Luo took the drink back, helped her put the cap on and hold it, then said with a smile, "Go for it; try to win against Zhusheng later too."

"Hmph, you're just saying that," Ying Chanxi said, though she was quite happy inside; still, she squinted her eyes and asked, "Then if I end up playing against Zhusheng later, who will you support?"

"I would naturally..." Li Luo was just speaking when he saw Yan Zhusheng also come over nearby, listening curiously to his answer, so he immediately spoke up mid-sentence, "Naturally, I'll support both sides; whoever is behind in the score, I'll support."

Neither girl heard the answer they wanted most to hear, but they still nodded in reluctant satisfaction.

Soon, the PE teacher called both sides' players to the court.

Ying Chanxi and Gao Yuqin walked onto the court, holding their rackets and facing off.

It had to be said, Gao Yuqin played badminton quite well too; she and Ying Chanxi traded blows evenly, making the match extremely tense.

However, in the end, Ying Chanxi was slightly superior, winning the match 15-11.

The moment victory was achieved, Liu Shaowen and Xie Shuchen immediately clapped happily; Xie Shuchen even went up to Lu Wei's face, making faces, which made Lu Wei furious.

But after Ying Chanxi finished her match, she didn't share her joy with her classmates; instead, she immediately ran to Li Luo, hands on her hips and chin raised, with an expression begging for praise.

"Very impressive," Li Luo said with a helpless laugh. "It looks like advancing from the preliminaries should be no problem."

"Mm-hmm~" Ying Chanxi took the drink from Li Luo's hand and took a big gulp.

On the other side, Qiao Xinyan had also finished her match; she walked back looking a bit depressed, apparently having lost.

Seeing this, Ying Chanxi hurriedly held her best friend's arm and comforted her softly.

Fortunately, it was just a badminton match, and losing one game didn't mean elimination; Qiao Xinyan recovered quickly and went with them to the cafeteria for dinner.

On the way, Li Luo bumped into Zhao Rongjun holding a table tennis racket; he immediately approached with a surprised expression, patting his good brother's shoulder: "You secretly signed up for table tennis too?"

"What do you mean 'secretly'?" Zhao Rongjun saw Li Luo and immediately said, speechless, "I just signed up normally."

"You're participating in the basketball tournament while also signing up for table tennis; that's busy enough," Li Luo said with a chuckle. "Did you win?"

"Won."

"Good, good, good, doesn't this call for a celebration? Are you treating us tonight?"

"Get lost."

High school studies are very hard.

And the three major ball games in April became one of the few entertainment activities for students of Fuyi No. 1 High School to enjoy amidst their busyness.

And among the several ball games, the one with the highest attention was not the basketball tournament, but rather the badminton tournament.

Moreover, a key point must be made: it was mainly the women's badminton tournament.

As for the basketball tournament, at most only the participating classes would come to watch.

But for the women's badminton tournament, even students from Gao Er and Gao San, after finishing their meals, were willing to come over for a stroll and watch the girls' skillful badminton techniques from the sidelines.

Especially by mid-April, when the weather had risen to over twenty degrees, the girls had all changed into short-sleeved school uniforms.

Since it gets quite hot during the matches, many girls would even roll up their school trousers, revealing their Bai Xi and slender calves, making it hard for onlookers to take it all in.

Among them, the two girls who drew the most attention were naturally Yan Zhusheng and Ying Chanxi.

Especially after the news of their participation gradually spread, as time passed, whenever the two of them had a match, the surrounding courts would be surrounded by a dense crowd.

Among them were not a few Gao Er and Gao San seniors who had come specifically because of their fame.

Aside from their diligent studies, coming to watch the beautiful girls' badminton tournament was also a rare form of relaxation.

But this made Li Luo suffer greatly.

Every time during the middle of a match or after it ended, Ying Chanxi and Yan Zhusheng would like to run over to Li Luo's side to ask for praise, and conveniently take the drinks from his hand to drink.

After it happened many times, people noticed something was off, wondering why this kid kept showing up?

Moreover, it seemed that both Ying Chanxi and Yan Zhusheng had a very deep relationship with him.

A little inquiry revealed the truth.

Oh~ one was his desk mate, the other was his cousin.

Then the next second, many people became indignant, thinking, did this damn guy save the world in his past life or something?

Li Luo, being stared at by this bunch, truly felt like he had thorns in his back while watching the matches.

And after the matches on the fourth day ended, both Ying Chanxi and Yan Zhusheng advanced to the fifth round with four wins out of four matches.

Among the total of 64 participants, there were currently only four people with four wins.

And when the draw for the opponents on the fifth day was held in the evening, Ying Chanxi and Yan Zhusheng were unfortunately unlucky enough to draw each other.

After Li Luo saw the draw results, he immediately felt the gazes of the two girls looking over, so he immediately coughed twice: "You have both already advanced to the next round, so just treat tomorrow's match as a friendly game, play casually."

"Oh." Yan Zhusheng had no expression, simply nodding her head.

Ying Chanxi also hummed in agreement, but what she was actually thinking in her heart remained unclear.

And the news that Ying Chanxi and Yan Zhusheng were about to face off in the fifth round tomorrow spread like wings throughout the school very quickly.