Chapter 95: You Could Never Beat Lu Yuanqiu

“Alright, alright, girls, everyone take your places the way I said.”

Hearing that high, sharp voice, Bai Qingxia, who was sitting on the steps, lifted her gaze from her textbook. Propping her cheek on one small hand, she quietly tilted her head and looked over in that direction.

On the east side of the sports field, on a badminton court without a net or posts, a boy in black leather pants, with pierced ears, a fashionable haircut, and movements that carried a touch of softness and allure, clapped his hands.

His name was Li Tejiao. He was a male student in Senior Year, Class 2, a level-two aerobics athlete, and also the president of the school dance club. He had come today specifically to teach the girls a cheer routine.

In front of him stood about thirty or forty vibrant, pretty girls, each in the position they had just been assigned, curiously sizing up the boy.

Hu Caiwei held back a laugh and whispered to Chen Fei beside her, “Why does he look like someone who can’t even keep his pants from falling down?”

Chen Fei covered her mouth as well, smiling. “Shh, keep it down. If his boyfriend hears you, he might come over and beat you up.”

Li Tejiao lifted his carefully groomed brows and asked, arms folded, “Any sisters here who’ve learned dance before?”

Only a dozen or so girls timidly raised their hands.

With a smile that was half exasperation and half amusement, Li Tejiao said, “All right then, looks like most of you are starting from zero.”

“When you’re doing cheer dance, the hardest thing for someone with no dance background is first learning how to open yourself up and show the beauty of your body.”

As he spoke, the slender boy turned to one side and demonstrated three consecutive chest-thrusting, hip-lifting movements. “Just like this. See? Open yourself up.”

A burst of giggles rose from the girls.

Li Tejiao did not mind and went on, arms still folded. “We’ve got a week, so we’ll take it slowly. Today I’ll teach everyone the simplest, most basic moves first. By tomorrow, the uniforms will be here, and we’ll put them on and start practicing, okay? Don’t be shy. Follow me.”

“Come on, one, two, three.”

The girls, thirty or forty of them, tried to imitate the basic dance steps Li Tejiao demonstrated, some clumsily, some with ease.

Though they were far from neat, the sight gradually drew the girl on the steps into a daze.

Mother, why do I have to stretch my legs before I can learn to dance? They hurt so much.

Because only after tasting bitterness can you know sweetness.

And if Xiaxia really hurts, Mommy has candy.

Good heavens! My Xiaxia was simply born for ballet. Come here and let Mommy hold you!

Xiaxia, do you know? Just now on stage you were like a little swan. One day, you’ll surely grow up just like Mommy and become a great white swan standing on the stage!

But, Mother...

I’ve tasted so much bitterness, and still I never became a great white swan.

“Zheng Yifeng, keep it up!”

A voice from the basketball court snapped the girl’s thoughts apart.

Bai Qingxia drew a deep breath, lowered her head with a faintly desolate expression, and reached out to brush the dead leaves off her textbook.

Just staying alive with effort was already hard enough. How could she still dare to dream of becoming a swan again?

She turned the page.

At that moment, Lu Yuanqiu glanced at Bai Qingxia on the steps. Seeing that she was sitting there safely, he withdrew his gaze and shouted with a smile toward Zheng Yifeng, “Keep going!”

Zheng Yifeng was very handsome, perhaps the kind of boy the girls would call a Japanese-style handsome guy, handsome in the sense of atmosphere.

But Lu Yuanqiu could not appreciate that sort of atmosphere. To him, Zheng Yifeng, who always seemed half-asleep, radiated nothing but a heavy air of weariness.

Yet when Zheng Yifeng moved beyond the three-point line and turned around, Lu Yuanqiu saw that his eyes were fully open.

At that moment, the handsome boy’s languor had vanished entirely, replaced by a focused, calm expression.

He received the basketball Wang Ping tossed to him, lightly stepped out with his right foot, and exhaled.

“Come on then, Zheng Yifeng. Let me see what you’ve got.”

Wang Ping took a half step forward with his right foot and assumed a defensive stance.

But all at once, the handsome boy in front of him moved like the wind.

Instinctively, Wang Ping blocked in the direction of the drive, only for Zheng Yifeng to fake him out, pivot with the agility of a leopard, change direction, and lay the ball in. It went in.

A very plain, utterly unadorned layup.

The ball bounced on the court with a pair of crisp thuds as the handsome boy caught it again in one hand, then gave Wang Ping a cool, detached glance.

That scene made Su Miaomiao’s eyes light up.

“He’s pretty fast, and his layup is really smooth too,” Wang Ping remarked.

He had not exactly taken the defense seriously just then. After all, the other side was only a student; there was no need to crush him right from the start.

On the second try, Wang Ping defended more earnestly. Zheng Yifeng’s layup was no longer so easy, but that only gave him a chance to reveal other strengths.

Wang Ping was dazzled by Zheng Yifeng’s dribbling, standing rooted in place with his eyes wide open.

Even Gao Qiang and the others were astonished. Usually, when they played together, everyone just messed around casually. Zheng Yifeng had only ever been seen shooting on the court, and though he was pretty accurate, no one had ever seen him show anything else.

But now Zheng Yifeng was smoothly using all sorts of between-the-legs and behind-the-back dribbles, his sense of rhythm fierce and precise, his feints seemingly carved into his body as instinct.

Wang Ping nearly got juked to the floor several times. On the second basket, after shaking him loose so hard that he stumbled, Zheng Yifeng pulled up for a jump shot.

It went in.

Seeing this, Lu Yuanqiu folded his arms and could not help letting out a light snort.

This kid, as expected, had been hiding his real ability all along.

At first Lu Yuanqiu had thought that if the basketball match relied only on him, they might not be able to beat Zhang Yifei.

Because, according to Cao Shuang, the members of Zhang Yifei’s class team were all very strong. Before the game had even begun, that team was already regarded by everyone else as the championship favorite.

But now, learning that Zheng Yifeng had been pretending to be ordinary while actually hiding his claws, Lu Yuanqiu’s confidence surged at last.

After being scored on three times in a row, Wang Ping grew a little irritated and began to take it seriously. On the fourth attempt, he leaped straight up and successfully blocked the shot.

Zheng Yifeng looked at Wang Ping with some surprise, only to hear the PE teacher say, “I admit your ball-handling is strong, but your stamina is no good. I don’t know whether you’ve noticed it yourself, but after just three attacking possessions, your speed has already dropped a lot.”

Wang Ping then took the ball on offense. As expected of the athletic fanatic from Seventh High School, his physicality was excellent; every time he drove, he finished with a powerful layup that Zheng Yifeng could not stop at all. Before long, Zheng Yifeng was already gasping for breath.

After scoring the fourth basket, Wang Ping turned around triumphantly and looked at the gasping Zheng Yifeng behind him. Probably because he was too fired up, he had forgotten the difference between teacher and student and sneered, “Can’t beat me, can you? You little loser.”

At the word “loser,” Zheng Yifeng’s expression tightened. It was as if some memory buried deep in his heart had surfaced again, and he frowned hard.

Su Miaomiao strode forward in displeasure and rebuked him, “Wang Ping, you’re a sports major. Why are you bullying a kid?”

And upon hearing the word “kid,” Zheng Yifeng lifted his eyes again in surprise.

After a long moment, he lowered his head and spoke in a low voice, “Teacher Wang.”

Wang Ping turned back to him. “What? Not convinced?”

Zheng Yifeng clenched his fists. “None of us are trash, and none of us are losers... At the very least, Lu Yuanqiu isn’t. You can beat me, but you’ll never beat him.”

With that, he gave Su Miaomiao a barely noticeable glance, his brow knotting even tighter, then bowed his head and left the basketball court.

Wang Ping silently turned his head and looked at the buzz-cut boy standing nearby, who was grinning from ear to ear.