Duan Ye and Zhou Ji each have their own presence.
As they walk from the classroom to the teacher’s office, although they don’t walk together, with one in front and the other behind, they still attract the attention of many students.
They entered the office.
The homeroom teacher greeted them warmly and said while making tea for himself, “You’ve probably heard by now that we’re going to have a friendly match with First High School. There will be leaders coming to watch the game. Duan Ye, I don’t need to say much about you. In your first year, you led the school team to victory. Zhou Ji, you’re also impressive. Teacher has seen you play, and your skills are quite good!”
Duan Ye remained silent.
Zhou Ji also remained silent.
Both of them were tall, over 1.8 meters, and in their youth. Standing in the office, they exuded a youthful aura.
The homeroom teacher didn’t mind their silence and continued enthusiastically, “We need to form a team of five from our side and find two substitutes. The principal has entrusted this task to our class. Here’s the deal: both of you will definitely participate, as for the other three team members and substitutes, you can decide among yourselves. I only have one condition – we may not be able to beat First High School in academics, but we have to win this basketball game beautifully. Don’t worry, the school will reward you if you win.”
Duan Ye didn’t even lift an eyelid.
Zhou Ji, who was already rebellious, sneered at the words.
The homeroom teacher pretended not to hear.
He also knew that these two students weren’t afraid of teachers. One was more arrogant than the other. But he still had to say what needed to be said.
“The headmaster said the bonus is 800 yuan, and I will try to fight for a little more for you. The school will also give you certificates or trophies. It’s a supreme honor.”
Zhou Ji, who had always been rebellious, had endured for so long, giving face to the class teacher. Now he smirked and said, “800 yuan? Not even enough to buy a pair of shoes.”
As if it were some precious treasure.
The class teacher cleared his throat and said, “School honor comes first, *cough, cough*!”
Zhou Ji glanced at him and said, “Does that mean if we lose, we’ll be the sinner of the century?”
Although he believed that he and Duan Ye were invincible if they cooperate, the teacher’s words were annoying.
They had to win, and it was only 800 yuan. But it was treated as if 800 million?
“No, it’s a friendly match,” the class teacher said seriously. “Friendship comes first, competition comes second,” he changed the subject, “but since it’s a competition, you have to give it your all, right? Alright, it’s decided. You have to participate in this match; otherwise, the school will have no one. We can’t let the first and second-year students compete against the third-year students from First High. From now until the match, I will inform the subject teachers during the evening self-study, so you don’t have to attend classes and can go practice.”
Despite Zhou Ji’s looking reluctant, he had no intention of giving up on the basketball game.
He doesn’t have much sense of belonging to Fifth High School after all, especially since he has only been at this school for a little over two months. However, he is still interested in participating in the basketball match, especially playing together with Duan Ye. That’s just how people are. Zhou Ji and Duan Ye don’t have a good relationship. Zhou Ji used to dislike Duan Ye, but ever since Duan Ye demonstrated his basketball skills, Zhou Ji’s perspective has changed. For Zhou Ji, it’s not a big deal whether they’re friends or not. He has plenty of casual friends in Yanjing, but finding a suitable basketball teammate is rare.
And so, the basketball team at Fifth High was formed temporarily like this.
The other three team members and two substitutes agreed tacitly that they shouldn’t even discuss who would be the captain.
Choosing the basketball team captain, and the boss of Fifth High School is a difficult problem for everyone!
Duan Ye and Zhou Ji didn’t mention it either. Perhaps in their view, competing for a captain position was beneath them.
As a result, their team had two captains without any distinction between primary and vice.
It was Saturday, and there were no evening self-study sessions at school. It also happened to be Duan Ye’s eighteenth birthday. Guo Shichao and Zhao Zheng had been planning for a while, but they learned from the unpleasant experience of Jiang Yumo’s birthday last time and didn’t invite anyone else this time. Originally, they only planned to celebrate with the six of them, but somehow some members of Duan Ye’s basketball team found out and sincerely pitched in money to prepare a gift for Duan Ye.
It was a basketball worth over two hundred yuan.
People gave gifts, so as the friends and relatives of the birthday star, Zhao Zheng and the others couldn’t just do nothing. Zhao Zheng sought Duan Ye’s opinion and made a big gesture by inviting the other members of the basketball team to celebrate Duan Ye’s birthday together.
Zhou Ji felt as if he was being excluded.
The other three teammates didn’t call him when they pooled money to prepare gifts… Mainly because they were afraid that he and Duan Ye had conflicts, and they were worried that pooling money to buy gifts would cause trouble with him.
When Zhao Zheng came to invite him, he didn’t specifically mention Zhou Ji, just saying that everyone was welcome to join.
In the end, Zhou Ji still came.
Zhou Ji thought to himself that since everyone was invited and he was indeed bored, he might as well come.
When Duan Ye saw him, he didn’t have any special expression.
With the participation of several members of the basketball team, the group instantly became large. There were seven boys on one side and on the girls’ side, Jiang Yumo brought Yan Qing, Sun Mengting, and… Ning Zhiyu.
Jiang Yumo felt that Ning Zhiyu was also her good friend, and they happened to run into each other at school at noon today, so she tentatively invited Ning Zhiyu.
Duan Ye’s birthday was very important to Jiang Yumo.
At this joyful moment, she also wanted to invite her good friend to play together.
Originally, she was a bit unsure whether Ning Zhiyu would go or not…
To her surprise, Ning Zhiyu readily agreed and, seeing her astonishment, smiled and said, “Well, the school is also talking about reducing the workload. But let’s make it clear, I haven’t bought any gifts.”
Besides, it would be too strange to buy gifts for the boy your friend likes!
Jiang Yumo teased her, “No need for gifts. I’ll prepare for myself, and Yan Qing and Mengting won’t buy any either. You guys just come along!”
Like this…
As they gathered at the back door of the school, Jiang Yumo looked at Zhou Ji on Duan Ye’s side and fell into contemplation—what’s going on? How is this going?