“He! Just like that! Bypassed his dearest brother! And threw his trench coat to my goddess!”
In front of the rostrum, the neglected Pei Tianyang was sending a voice message to the absent Zhong Rong, complaining with deep grief and bitter hatred.
On the other end of the line, Zhong Rong, who never minded a crowd watching a scene, added fuel to the fire: “On the day of the freshman orientation convocation, when Master Jiang ran over just to look at Shuxue’s name, anyone could guess there was something going on between them. When have you ever seen Master Jiang take the initiative to care about a girl?”
Yet, compared to Pei Tianyang’s miserable and sorrowful state, Lin Shuxue was more concerned about something else.
“You’re playing basketball in a dress shirt and trousers?”
She properly folded the trench coat the man had carelessly thrown over and held it in her arms. Her sitting posture, with her legs pressed together, was upright and well-behaved, and the look in her eyes as she raised her head carried a few hints of “unreasonable.”
Although she understood that different people had unique pursuits regarding different outfits, and Jiang Zong was probably the type who was a fanatic lover of dress shirts and trousers—nine times out of ten, when she saw him at school, he was wearing a dress shirt.
But surely it wasn’t to the extent that he had to wear a dress shirt even for a sport as intense as basketball?
Sometimes Jiang Zong really wanted to see the inner workings of Lin Shuxue’s brain; otherwise, why did the things she focused on always manage to be completely different from everyone else? Furthermore, these unusual focus points made her seem particularly… cute.
He couldn’t help but chuckle. Bending his knees, he leaned down and pinched her cheek, explaining in a lazy voice.
“A player from our school encountered a traffic jam on the way and didn’t make it back in time, so I’m going up as a substitute.”
Jiang Zong’s movements were intimate and natural. Before Lin Shuxue, who was frozen on the spot, could react, he turned around and entered the court. However, he had been drawing thousands of eyes when he came over, so the other onlookers naturally took in the interaction between the two of them, whispering among themselves one after another.
Lin Shuxue only snapped back to reality when she heard her roommate calling her name.
“Are you two together?” The shock in Meng Shuyin’s eyes was clearly no smaller than Lin Shuxue’s.
The lingering warmth on her cheek had not yet dissipated. Lin Shuxue unnaturally tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, avoiding her gaze guiltily as she deliberated.
“Probably, not yet?”
Meng Shuyin was even more shocked: “Not yet, and he’s still laying his hands on you?!”
She failed to suppress her voice, drawing a wave of looks from the surroundings.
Lin Shuxue felt like a high schooler caught red-handed in a premature romance. The words stuck in her throat, and she didn’t know what to say.
In the end, it was He Xicun who rescued her: “Then what kind of relationship do you two count as right now?”
After thinking it over from every angle, Lin Shuxue gave a definition to this ambiguous relationship: “It should be that I am pursuing him?”
A single stone stirred up a thousand waves.
“You confessed?” Meng Shuyin felt her worldview was turned upside down today.
Lin Shuxue nodded cautiously.
“Then how did he respond?” Meng Shuyin pressed on.
This question successfully stumped Lin Shuxue. Her smooth forehead puckered into a tight knot as she repeatedly recalled the scene of that day, Jiang Zong seemed to, apparently, completely fail to say whether he agreed or refused?
Meng Shuyin had completely never envisioned that her roommate, who was as pure and well-behaved as a little white rabbit, would actually do such a huge thing behind her back without a sound. Looking at her hesitant and silent expression at this moment, she guessed the answer.
Her hatred toward Jiang Zong deepened by another level. Her teeth itched with anger, and she silently clenched her fists.
“Is it a case where he didn’t agree, but he didn’t refuse either?” Meng Shuyin tried her best to restrain the anger in her words.
Lin Shuxue blinked, her clear eyes visibly writing the large characters of “how did you know.”
Meng Shuyin cursed in a low voice: “Dead scumbag!”
He Xicun also had a face full of disapproval: “Not agreeing, not refusing, yet still walking so close to you, Shuxue, be careful that he might be trying to string you along.”
Meng Shuyin gave a cold laugh: “I said it long ago, he is exactly this kind of person!”
A loud whistle pierced through the sky.
It turned out that during the time they were just talking, the players of both teams had taken the court one after another, completely prepared.
And Jiang Zong was undoubtedly the easiest one to identify on the basketball court; if for nothing else, everyone else was wearing sports tank tops with a jersey slipped over the outside to play, while only he wore a basketball jersey over a white dress shirt, paired with a neon orange color scheme, making it look neither fish nor fowl.
But the completion of fashion mainly relied on the face.
For the first time, Lin Shuxue profoundly agreed with this saying.
She had seen Jiang Zong’s swift movements when rock climbing, so she guessed his level of playing basketball shouldn’t be bad. After all, sports items all shared common traits. Besides, to be chosen to come over for a temporary rescue, he must possess the ability.
But she hadn’t expected that Jiang Zong on the court would be so dazzling.
She didn’t understand basketball. She simply couldn’t comprehend those unfamiliar terms spoken by the commentator; she only knew that throwing the ball into the basket counted as winning.
Very clearly, Jiang Zong was precisely the main person in the School of Automation’s team responsible for doing this exact thing.
The youth on the court changed his usual laziness entirely, becoming high-spirited and dashing. His physique was agile, and he dribbled the ball under his palm with room to spare, bypassing heavy defense lines. Time and again, from various positions on the court, the basketball in his hand drew swift, clean arcs, effortlessly entering the net.
The match was scorched with tension, and the atmosphere on-site was enthusiastic. Because it was Jiang Zong playing, people were still continuously arriving at the stands even after the match began. They had probably rushed over after learning the news.
Meng Shuyin also couldn’t spare any effort to curse the scumbag, shifting her attention entirely to the match.
He Xicun couldn’t help but marvel: “Every single shot Jiang Zong has made so far is a three-pointer, right?”
“More than that.” A girl nearby joined the conversation familiarly. “So far, I haven’t seen anyone manage to intercept the ball from his hands.”
Jiang Zong on the court was exceptionally dazzling. Just like round of red sun hanging high in the deep blue sky.
Hearing this, Lin Shuxue looked toward the scoreboard not far away. The School of Automation’s side had a fierce offensive, and the score gap widened very quickly.
The School of Science gradually lost its footing a little.
The referee waved the flag and blew the whistle; the first quarter ended.
The score stopped at 18 to 5.
The expressions on the faces of several players from the School of Science were all somewhat unpleasant.
“He’s so amazing, why didn’t he join the university basketball team?” Lin Shuxue couldn’t help but feel curious.
The girl beside her replied: “You’re a freshman, right.”
She nodded her head sheepishly.
That girl wore an “as expected” expression: “Then it’s normal that you don’t know. He was in the school basketball team before, but later.”
She paused for a moment, pondering how to phrase it more properly.
“Later, he had a dispute with the people on the team, so he quit on his own.”
A gentle male voice took over the conversation.
Lin Shuxue raised her eyes. The boy in front of her wore a proper smile, and the gold-rimmed glasses resting on the bridge of his nose looked highly familiar.
Instead, it was the girl beside her who took a step ahead to acknowledge him: “President Zhuo, why did you come over?”
Lin Shuxue suddenly realized, oh, he was the Student Union President, Zhuo Li, whom she had met on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival Gala.
Listening to the two exchanging pleasantries, Lin Shuxue only then learned that this senior sister beside her turned out to also be a member of the Student Union; she was the director of the Practice Department, named Pu Tao.
Lin Shuxue did not forget Meng Shuyin’s earnest entrustment. While the two were talking, she nudged Meng Shuyin several times with her elbow. Seeing no reaction from her, she turned her eyes to look.
The person who had just been so aggressive that she almost rolled up her sleeves to go in front of Jiang Zong and curse out loud had, at some unknown point, changed into a shy face, blinking as she stared fixedly at Zhuo Li.
Lin Shuxue let out a silent laugh.
During that momentary distraction, she discovered that Zhuo Li actually bent his waist, seemingly intending to sit down in the empty seat next to her.
“Student Lin Shuxue, could you please make some room toward the inside?” His eyes curved into a smile, completely beaming with amiability.
Lin Shuxue hadn’t expected that he would actually still remember her. After freezing for a brief moment, she nodded and moved a bit toward the right as requested.
The brief few seconds of their eyes meeting were entirely taken in by Jiang Zong, who was down below the court gulping down two mouthfuls of soda water.
“Zhuo Li? What did he come over for?” Jiang Zong was slightly dissatisfied.
Pei Tianyang: “It’s a warm-up match. As the president, he definitely has to come over to inspect the work.”
Jiang Zong wasn’t satisfied with this answer, his brows tightly locked: “Then why doesn’t he go to the rostrum instead of running over to the spectator stands? Does he have nothing better to do?”
Pei Tianyang was tongue-tied: “Maybe, maybe he’s checking along the way to see if the stands’ facilities need repair?”
Jiang Zong sneered: “If he had this kind of spare mind, he should go suggest to the Youth League Committee to establish a separate Sports Department, instead of stuffing all this kind of crappy work onto us.”
The Student Union department setup at Huahua University didn’t have a Sports Department. Consequently, every year’s sports meet and various campus sports tournaments were all pushed onto the Arts and Culture Department to organize and undertake, beautifully termed: “Sports and culture belong to the same family.”
The second half of the year inherently had many holidays. Once a holiday arrived, the Arts and Culture Department had to organize activities to celebrate. Now, adding an annual sports meet that was as unmovable as a mountain, the small number of member slots in the Arts and Culture Department was simply not enough to use.
This was the true reason why Jiang Zong ran over to do unpaid work for others—solely to trick the other departments into coming over to give their sports meet a helping hand.
The whistle blew again. This was the referee urging the players to return to the court, preparing for the next round of the match.
Jiang Zong screwed the bottle cap back on, handed it back to Pei Tianyang, and instructed with a gloomy gaze: “Keep an eye on the movements over on Zhuo Li’s side for me. I’d like to see what he wants to achieve by coming to this temple.”
Pei Tianyang naturally agreed in a chorus of responses.
Zhuo Li seemed to have matters to discuss with the Practice Department director beside him, making it appear as though his choice to sit beside her was merely for the convenience of communication.
Lin Shuxue lowered her voice and leaned close to Meng Shuyin’s ear: “Do you want me to switch seats with you?”
Who would have thought that Meng Shuyin, who usually spouted endless bold words, instantly blushed over her cheeks: “No! Being too close will make me nervous.”
Seeing her serious look, although Lin Shuxue didn’t understand, she still didn’t move away from her position.
The School of Science had clearly changed its tactics, beginning to focus their defense heavily on Jiang Zong. Jiang Zong gradually felt his strength falling short of his desires; dribbling and passing the ball were intercepted by at least three people.
Seeing that the score was about to be tied up, a trace of irritation rarely dyed the space between his brows.
After briefly explaining the next college student entrepreneurial plan for their department to Pu Tao, Zhuo Li couldn’t help but turn his body to look at the girl beside him.
Her expression remained quiet from beginning to end, appearing somewhat out of place on this passionate basketball court. Yet, the focus and earnestness flowing within her pupils made it very hard for anyone to think that she had been forced to come.
Her long hair fell loosely, her profile delicate and completely without makeup. She wore a boat-neck pure white top, revealing a distinct half-section of her collarbones.
“Do you like basketball very much?” Zhuo Li couldn’t restrain himself, softly breaking the girl’s rapt attention.
“Huh?” Lin Shuxue turned her head, her small melon-seed face making that pair of starry eyes appear even more nimble. “I don’t understand it very well.”
She seemed a bit embarrassed, the curve of her upturned lips faint and shallow.
Not understanding it very well, yet watching so earnestly, for whom, the answer was completely obvious.
Zhuo Li suddenly felt a touch of jealousy toward the youth dribbling through defenses on the court.
Only, before this emotion had time to diffuse, he heard the girl raise her warm, soft tone to add: “But my roommate understands basketball very well! President Zhuo, if there’s anything you don’t understand, you can ask her!”
After saying that, she turned her body to yield the seat of the roommate she spoke of, her eyes signaling frantically.
Zhuo Li couldn’t help but laugh, the center of his heart slightly astringent.
The crowd suddenly erupted into thunderous cheers.
Before Lin Shuxue could react to what had happened, she saw the referee flip a page on the School of Automation’s scoreboard.
The youth on the court arrogantly threw his head back, shifting his lips into an insolent curve toward the three opponents who had just repeatedly double-teamed him. He tilted his head slightly, pointing at his raised wrist as if in defiance.
The cheers among the crowd, mixed with the sounds of jeering, grew increasingly passionate.
She inquired of a student beside her.
“Jiang Zong just performed a hang-time jump shot! It was simply too smooth!!” The student beside her said with a face full of admiration.
While using her phone to search for what “hang-time jump shot” meant, Lin Shuxue simultaneously regretted missing Jiang Zong’s brilliant scene just now.
Probably because the vexation hanging on the tips of Lin Shuxue’s brows was too obvious, Zhuo Li leaned his head closer and comforted her in a soft voice.
“The entire match has a video recording. When the time comes, you can go to the school’s official website to watch it.”
The girl’s eyes lit up for an instant, and she smiled faintly to express her thanks to Zhuo Li.
“Lin Shuxue.”
She heard that familiar, lazy, and tired voice ring out.
Jiang Zong had walked over at some unknown point, and a girl was still standing by his side.
It appeared to be someone who wanted to offer water but had just been politely rejected by Jiang Zong.
Lin Shuxue raised her eyes to look over, her gaze bewildered.
The youth within her line of sight carelessly tilted his jaw. A large expanse of the setting sun dyed the sky red behind him, the afterglow outlining his sharply contoured lines.
Beads of sweat hung from the tips of his hair, and a large portion of his back was also soaked through. Having jogged all the way up to the stands, his breathing hadn’t quite evened out yet.
Jiang Zong strode right in front of Lin Shuxue. His eyelids drooped, and his upturned eyes were pulled flat; clearly, he didn’t wear any expression, but Lin Shuxue just managed to sense that he was displeased.
He opened his mouth from a commanding height.
“I’m thirsty.”