Chapter Thirty-Five: Still Missing One Team Member
Seeing the confusion on Feng Yisheng’s face, Zhou Chuyi continued with a smile, “Your League of Legends nickname is ‘My Looks Are Plain and Unremarkable,’ isn’t it?”
As soon as Zhou Chuyi said this, Feng Yisheng understood how he knew about his gaming. He felt a little embarrassed and replied, “You must have seen my username at the internet café.”
“Haha, that’s right! It’s because your rank is high—every time you log in at the café, it gets announced!” Zhou Chuyi laughed heartily.
“Of course. At the café, anyone above Platinum gets announced. Maybe next month, if I have time, I’ll join you for the LoL tournament!”
Feng Yisheng was a skilled League player, and being praised by a fellow student made him quite happy.
“You’ll definitely have time—the tournament’s on Sunday.”
“All right.”
...
In fact, when Zhou Chuyi first entered the classroom, Feng Yisheng had already decided he wanted Zhou to join his team. Zhou Chuyi was extremely tall, standing at a full 1.9 meters—half a head taller than Feng.
The two chatted for a while longer. Feng Yisheng knew Zhou Chuyi was quite good at basketball, though not at the level of the second-year basketball team. But Feng didn’t need someone to outplay them—just someone to hold their players back during the game. Besides, Zhou Chuyi agreed to help recruit more teammates, and the two arranged to practice together that evening.
Since it was getting late and only the two of them, they decided to skip practice for the night. After leaving the classroom, they went their separate ways. Feng had originally wanted to treat Zhou to dinner, but Zhou politely declined.
...
Wednesday morning.
When Feng Yisheng arrived at the classroom, the other students were abuzz with discussion. But as soon as he walked in, they fell silent, though their faces bore strange expressions.
Feng didn’t mind. He sat at his desk, thinking that with one teammate secured, things were looking up. Still, defeating the second-year basketball team right now was pure wishful thinking—he needed three more players.
Today, he’d have to wait for news from Zhou Chuyi, who had promised yesterday to help find two more people. With ten minutes left before the morning reading session, Feng Yisheng pulled out his phone to check the school forum. He had quite a few private messages, but since he’d already agreed with Zhou Chuyi, he didn’t plan on meeting with anyone else.
...
Soon, afternoon dismissal arrived. All day, Zhuang Bi hadn’t come to bother Feng Yisheng, but Feng remained vigilant.
Once the classroom emptied out, Feng waited until Zhou Chuyi arrived with two people. One was named Yun Longkong—a name straight out of a novel. The other was Wan Shui, a rather offhand name; perhaps his parents chose it because he was born during a drought.
Together with Zhou Chuyi, their basketball skills were good enough for amateur matches, but facing the second-year team would be a stretch. So the four of them decided to train that night. This time, Feng treated them to dinner, and Zhou didn’t refuse.
They went to a small restaurant near the school, spending just over a hundred yuan on a few simple dishes. All of them were students at Nanshui Foreign Language School, and while they had plenty of pocket money, none were the flashy type. They ate heartily, still growing boys, each having several bowls of rice.
During dinner, Feng learned through Zhou that the three of them were good friends—now they had a team of four. Yun Longkong played guard, while Wan Shui, tall at over 1.8 meters, was a power forward. Naturally, the 1.9-meter-tall Zhou Chuyi would be center, and Feng Yisheng, a small forward. That left only the point guard position unfilled.
Zhou explained that he hadn’t found a suitable candidate for point guard, so Feng decided to recruit someone himself.
After eating their fill, Feng called a ride-hailing car and took Zhou Chuyi and the others to a local basketball park to practice.
...
Meanwhile, in a private room of a four-star hotel in Changnan Economic Development Zone.
Thirteen people sat in the private room, with Zhuang Bi at the center. They were drinking and toasting one another.
After they’d nearly finished eating, a tall man stood up, glass of beer in hand, and respectfully addressed Zhuang Bi. “Brother Bi, this toast is for you! I won’t say much—bottoms up!”
Zhuang Bi glanced at him and smiled. He raised his own glass and took a casual sip, while the tall man downed his beer in one go. Afterward, the tall man looked pleased but inwardly seethed—Zhuang Bi, who do you think you are? If not for your family’s wealth and your father being a local property developer, none of us, for all our millionaire families, would give you the time of day.
One by one, the others toasted Zhuang Bi as well, the last being a teacher—coach of the second-year basketball team.
Even so, Zhuang Bi only sipped from his glass each time, yet no one showed any sign of displeasure. On the contrary, they eagerly flattered him, praising his talent, with the coach especially lauding him as the best student he’d ever trained.
A little drunk and buoyed by the compliments, Zhuang Bi stood and declared, “Everyone here is my brother. I won’t go on about friendship. Winning Friday’s game will be as easy as eating or drinking for our team, but since you’re my brothers and putting in the effort, you won’t go unrewarded.”
With that, he snapped his fingers. The door opened, and twelve young women, all around eighteen or nineteen and strikingly attractive, entered the room. Zhuang Bi’s intentions were obvious, and the others, no strangers to such scenes, eyed the girls with anticipation.
With another wave of his hand, the girls each took their places beside the men.
Zhuang Bi smiled meaningfully, then said, “Enjoy yourselves tonight. This is just an appetizer. After we win Friday’s game, there’ll be a thousand yuan cash bonus for each of you.”
“Brother Bi is the best! That Feng Yisheng really overestimates himself, daring to challenge you. On Friday, our basketball team will take turns thoroughly humiliating him.”