Chapter 28: The Regional Qualifiers Begin!

Ju Jieping originally planned to have Budong Peak make a surprise breakthrough in the regional qualifiers, with Shengzai serving as his hidden ace.

After all, Budong Peak Middle School had always been an obscure institution, and Qingsheng likely wouldn’t even consider them a threat.

Their opponent’s complacency was an advantage for them—a tactic in itself.

But Ju Jieping never expected Shengzai would come here with his sister to show off, and worse, that he’d pick Qingsheng, their regional rival, as his opponent.

“Brother, I’m sorry—we just wanted to gather some intel on our opponents before the match started.”

Seeing Ju Jieping angry, Xiao Xing clearly grew frightened and hurried forward to apologize sweetly.

Since Ju Jieping had already come all the way here, the match could no longer proceed.

So Shengzai could only look at Taocheng and Longma with an apologetic expression: “That’s the situation—this is our captain’s order. I can’t do anything about it.”

“Let’s leave the outcome of this match to be decided at the regional qualifiers.”

Shengzai picked up his racket and left the court without a second glance, while Xiao Xing, facing her brother’s scolding, kept casting desperate glances toward him.

But Shengzai ignored the girl’s plea and even added fuel to the fire: “Captain, this whole mess is entirely Xiao Xing’s fault.”

Then, quickly, Shengzai recounted the entire sequence of events to Ju Jieping.

Watching her brother’s face darken further, Xiao Xing glared at Shengzai: “Shengzai, you’re really adding insult to injury—are you even my boyfriend?”

“What the hell kind of boyfriend? Isn’t that just the excuse you used to drag me into this?”

“Just accept your captain’s scolding, Xiao Xing. I’m leaving now.”

Under Xiao Xing’s furious glare, Shengzai walked away without a hint of mercy.

Just as Shengzai left the street tennis court, a man and a woman seemed to have been waiting for him and stepped forward to block his path.

“Hello, I’m Inoue from Tennis Monthly; this is my assistant, Shima Orin.”

“You’re Wenren Shengzai, right? Would you have time for an interview?”

Before Inoue could finish, Shengzai raised his hand to cut him off: “Both of you, I appreciate your interest, but I’m exhausted and just want to go home and rest.”

“And I’m not some undiscovered tennis prodigy or a hidden master, as you might imagine.”

“My past is simple—I have no notable achievements or records. I’m just an ordinary second-year student in Budong Peak Middle School’s tennis club.”

With that, Shengzai turned his back on Inoue and Shima and walked away.

Inoue didn’t get angry at Shengzai’s refusal—he’d already gleaned plenty of useful information from those brief words.

“Wenren Shengzai… second-year student at Budong Peak Middle School…”

“Maybe Qingsheng really has met its match in this regional qualifier.”

Shengzai’s match against Taocheng wasn’t finished, but anyone with eyes could see that in the final service game, Shengzai—with his “Lanyang” technique—had no chance of losing.

Remember, Taocheng is a regular player of Qingsheng. Who else on Qingsheng’s team could crush him so thoroughly?

And yet Shengzai, who did this, is only a second-year student—and not even the captain of Budong Peak’s tennis club.

So here’s the question: how strong is the captain of Budong Peak’s tennis club—the man just now? Could he be stronger than Shengzai?

And what about the rest of Budong Peak’s team? What’s their level?

Thinking of this, Inoue couldn’t wait to return and dig up information on Budong Peak Middle School.

Why was Shengzai so strong, yet his school so unknown?

The Tennis Prince era is modern, but computers and the internet weren’t yet widespread; most information was still preserved in magazines and newspapers.

Later, with help from a friend, Inoue found articles about Budong Peak Middle School in old newspapers.

But no matter how hard he searched, he found zero records on Wenren Shengzai.

Frankly speaking, as Shengzai himself had said, neither Shengzai nor Budong Peak Middle School appeared to be notable at all.

On the day of the regional qualifiers, Inoue and Shima Orin woke up early and rushed to the venue.

Since Qingsheng was the top seed in the regional qualifiers, they received a bye in the first round—but Inoue’s target wasn’t Qingsheng; it was Budong Peak Middle School.

Budong Peak’s first-round opponent was Dawusuo Middle School.

Since neither Dawusuo nor Budong Peak were well-known schools, and it was the first round, very few spectators had come.

Budong Peak’s lineup: doubles two was Shi Tian and Sakurai; doubles one was Uchimura and Moritatsu.

Singles three: Kamio; singles two: Shinji; singles one: Ju Jieping; Shengzai was the reserve.

When Inoue arrived at the court, he was stunned to see a few middle schoolers in blue-and-white uniforms watching nearby.

They were none other than Qingsheng’s intelligence gatherers: Gan, Longma, and Taocheng.

Despite the humiliation of last night’s defeat, Taocheng still felt he had to inform his seniors about Budong Peak and Shengzai.

That’s why these three had come to watch.

As the highly anticipated top seed, Qingsheng’s every move drew attention from other schools.

So when the Qingsheng team members in their uniforms appeared, many people took notice.

“Hey, look—they’re Qingsheng!”

“Yeah, why are they here? Does Dawusuo or Budong Peak have a player Qingsheng needs to watch?”

“I think it’s Dawusuo—they made it to the quarterfinals last year. Budong Peak? I’ve never even heard of them.”

Hearing the spectators’ chatter, Kamio and the others grew angry, but Ju Jieping silenced them.

“Let them talk. The court rewards strength, not words.”

“It’s all because of Shengzai and Xiao Xing’s recklessness—we’ve drawn unwanted attention too early.”

“No need to show all our strength. Just win. It’s time to shut up everyone who looks down on Budong Peak.”

(End of Chapter)