Wednesday afternoon, the basketball tournament officially began.
There were 16 classes in the first year, one team per class.
The format was group stage, preliminaries, semifinals, and finals, all to be completed in four days.
Zheng Yang’s Class 3 was up against Class 4.
It wasn’t a difficult matchup, but Teacher Li still pulled the entire class over to the sidelines as spectators.
“Friendship second, competition first!”
Teacher Li called out playfully, a rare sight.
“Even if you win, win with style!”
The students were stunned for two seconds before they caught on—
Teacher Li was so confident in his own Class 3 that he’d even stolen the losing team’s lines in advance.
They burst into laughter.
The female homeroom teacher of Class 4 punched him hard in the arm.
Zheng Yang sat on the bench, wearing his basketball uniform.
Underneath, he had on a plain black compression shirt to prevent any wardrobe malfunctions and to keep his chest from bouncing.
His gaze calmly settled on the Class 3 half-court, where the team was warming up—
Siyuan was practicing shots, Zhang Zihan was working on his footwork under the basket, and Li Tong was retrieving balls.
“Yangyang, are you nervous?”
Wu Chun had somehow slipped over beside him, holding a pair of gold cheerleader pom-poms.
“I’m a substitute. Why would I be nervous?”
Zheng Yang smiled.
“You guys are the ones who should be nervous, right? Having to dance in front of so many people.”
Wu Chun pouted.
“It’s all Teacher Li’s fault. None of us wanted to at first, but he insisted on naming people.”
It all started last week.
During a break in practice, a boy in the class joked, “Teacher, with a team this strong, shouldn’t we have a cheerleading squad?”
That one comment got all the boys in the class riled up.
Teacher Li just smiled, didn’t scold him, and went along with it.
He asked the girls in the class who would be willing to join.
“You’ll get to wear cheerleader uniforms,” Teacher Li said, pulling up a photo of a past cheerleading squad on the PPT.
“Red T-shirts, white pleated miniskirts, white knee-high socks. You’ll be the center of attention on the court.”
The boys saw the picture and started hooting and hollering, but the girls all fell silent.
It wasn’t that they were opposed to the idea—mostly they were just too embarrassed.
“Anyone volunteering?”
Teacher Li asked again.
Wu Chun, thinking only about cheering for her sticky rice dumpling—
Zheng Yang—
Raised her hand first.
Then another girl followed.
The others looked at each other, turning their heads back and forth, but no one else raised a hand.
Teacher Li scanned the room, his gaze landing on the more outgoing girls.
He called out five more names, making it seven in total.
Lin Weiwei was also among those called, but when she remembered that Zheng Yang was actually on the starting team, she shook her head.
“Teacher, I’ll pass.”
Teacher Li didn’t push it.
Wu Chun later told Zheng Yang that Lin Weiwei’s expression at the time was full of contempt, as if she were saying, “Me, cheer for Zheng Yangyang? Dream on.”
Zheng Yang just laughed when he heard that.
He was used to it by now.
The cheerleaders had practiced their dance for a few days.
The moves weren’t hard, but getting all seven to move in sync wasn’t easy.
Wu Chun sent Zheng Yang a practice video every night.
Zheng Yang always genuinely complimented her, but inside, he was thinking more along the lines of, ‘Thank goodness I’m a player and don’t have to wear that skirt.’
He thought about his basketball uniform—
The loose top covering his butt, the baggy shorts reaching past his knees, revealing none of his feminine curves, yet exuding a lazy kind of cool.
It was as comfortable as it was carefree.
But then he suddenly realized something.
When he watched Wu Chun’s practice videos, he didn’t feel even a hint of—
That typical guy’s appreciation or teasing about the girls’ bodies or looks—
Toward those sexy, cute female classmates.
That was weird.
Or maybe, this was normal…
Fast forward to now—
Before the game started, the sidelines were packed.
Class 3’s cheerleading squad made their entrance.
The seven of them wore matching red T-shirts and white miniskirts, holding gold pom-poms.
They stood in two rows at the edge of the court.
The music started, and they began to dance to the beat.
Wu Chun was the centerpiece, her moves flawless, her smile radiant.
The other girls were a bit nervous, but the overall effect was excellent.
Everyone’s attention was drawn to them, and some boys from other classes even whistled.
“Class 3’s cheerleaders are pretty good!”
“That girl in the center is gorgeous! What’s her name?”
Listening to the chatter around him, Zheng Yang’s lips curled up.
That was his best friend.
Across two courts, Class 8 refused to be outdone.
They had also put together a cheerleading squad, wearing blue-and-white uniforms, and started dancing at the same time.
The two sides seemed to be competing over whose cheers were louder, making the scene quite lively.
“Why don’t the other classes have cheerleaders?”
A curious student asked.
“Probably because they know they’re not good enough to bother with all that,” someone explained.
Some spectators from Class 4 and other classes craned their necks, seemingly searching for something among Class 3’s cheerleaders.
“Class 3’s class monitor, Zheng Yangyang—why isn’t she in the cheerleading squad?”
A girl pointed at the bench.
“Wow, she’s over there! She’s wearing a basketball uniform. Is she a player?”
“She really can do everything…”
A boy nearby seemed disappointed.
“That’s such a shame. Zheng Yangyang in a cheerleader uniform—how amazing would that be?”
Zheng Yang heard that and felt his face warm slightly.
He looked down at his basketball uniform—
Loose, plain, nothing like the “good-looking” the boys were probably imagining.
‘Hmph, once I start playing, you’ll all know I look even better on the court,’ he thought to himself.
The whistle blew.
The group stage officially began.
Class 4 was clearly a level below.
Within two minutes of the opening tip, Siyuan broke through for a layup and scored the first two points.
On the second possession, Zhang Zihan grabbed an offensive rebound under the basket and put it back.
On the third, Li Tong caught the ball on the perimeter and shot it straight through the net.
The score quickly stretched to double digits.
Zheng Yang sat on the bench, not particularly interested in such a low-intensity game against a weak opponent.
His real focus was on two people on the court—
Zheng Siyuan and Zhang Zihan.
He was surprised to find that Zhang Zihan and Siyuan had absolutely no chemistry issues.
Siyuan would drive and dish, Zhang Zihan would seal his man and catch the ball under the basket.
Zhang Zihan would grab a rebound and immediately look for Siyuan on the perimeter.
They even ran pick-and-rolls multiple times, with Zhang Zihan setting screens to let Siyuan get clear for a catch-and-drive layup.
Smooth as flowing water.
Zheng Yang was stunned.
He remembered how Zhang Zihan had been jealous of him and Siyuan before, causing his performance to drop.
Looking at this Zhang Zihan on the court now, playing so well with Siyuan, a wave of warmth suddenly washed over him.
‘This kid has class.’
Not everyone could treat a romantic rival like a teammate.
Zheng Yang mentally gave Zhang Zihan a thumbs-up.
‘The most important thing for a man is perspective.’
‘If I weren’t Siyuan’s dad, I might actually like you,’ he thought half-jokingly.
But he had no idea about the whole “a waterside pavilion gets the moonlight first” thing, nor did he know that Li Tong had a crush on him, and he definitely didn’t know that Zhang Zihan had cried over him at the barbecue stall.
He just thought this guy was pretty decent.
The score gap had already stretched to over twenty points, and the game quickly entered garbage time.
Teacher Wang glanced at the bench and waved at Zheng Yang.
“Class monitor, get in there!”
Zheng Yang sprang up like a coiled spring, threw off his jacket, and jogged onto the court.
The moment he stepped onto the floor, the sidelines erupted.
What had been a lackluster garbage-time atmosphere suddenly reignited.
“Zheng Yangyang is in!”
“Wow, she can actually play?”
“What, you didn’t know? She’s been fierce in practice!”
Cheers, screams, and whistles mixed together, even louder than when the cheerleaders danced.
Zheng Yang knew these cheers weren’t because he was a great player—
They were because “a pretty girl playing basketball with the boys” was a spectacle in itself.
But he didn’t care.
Getting on the court was enough.
He ran to the frontcourt, and Siyuan passed him the ball.
The Class 4 defender took one look at him—
A girl—
And visibly relaxed, not even putting up a hand.
Zheng Yang caught the ball, adjusted, and launched a three-pointer.
The ball arced through the air.
Swish! Nothing but net.
“Whoa, a three-pointer! A girl hit a three!”
The sidelines erupted another octave higher.
“Yang-ge, you’re awesome!” Zhang Zihan shouted at him.
Zheng Yang raised an eyebrow in response and ran back on defense.
On the next possession, he received a pass.
This time, the Class 4 defender didn’t dare slack off and got up in his face.
Zheng Yang crossed over, blew past him, drove into the lane, and pulled up for a jumper before the help defense could arrive.
It went in again.
“Whoa… ahem… she really can play!”
“She’s not just a pretty face—she’s got skills!”
Listening to the chatter, Zheng Yang couldn’t keep the smile off his face.
He knew that beating the scrubs from Class 4, given how long he’d been playing, was like a max-level player starting a newbie village.
But the feeling of being acknowledged and celebrated was still satisfying.
Over the next few minutes, he scored another 6 points and dished out 4 assists.
Almost the entire crowd’s attention was on him.
Even players from the two classes competing on the neighboring court kept stealing glances over.
Zheng Yang realized that his mindset had shifted from “just getting on the court is enough” to genuinely enjoying himself.
Back in his corporate days, no matter how well he performed, nobody clapped.
At business dinners, no matter how attentive he was, it was just “expected.”
Now, he made a shot and the whole crowd went wild.
He blew by someone for a layup and people screamed until their voices cracked.
He had never felt anything like this.
The final buzzer sounded.
Class 3 won by a landslide.
The players high-fived each other.
Zheng Yang also bumped fists with Siyuan.
“You played well today,” Siyuan said.
“I’m just a sub. What’s so good about that?”
Zheng Yang said modestly, but inside, he was beaming.
Zhang Zihan walked over from the side, patted Siyuan on the shoulder, then nodded and smiled at Zheng Yang without saying a word, before turning and walking away.
Zheng Yang watched his back and thought of a phrase:
‘A man’s growth sometimes happens overnight.’
What he didn’t know was that the moment Zhang Zihan turned around, the smile on his lips carried a faint trace of bitterness that was hard to notice.