Chapter 134: What a Shame…
Translator: Noodletown Translated Editor: Noodletown Translated
“Woah…” everyone in the stadium cheered loudly.
Xie Yujia, the crazy basketball fan, jumped out of her seat immediately!
Although Grandma didn’t know much about basketball, she could still tell that Hao Ren just scored. Therefore, she also stood up with the nearby students in excitement.
Hao Zhonghua and Yue Yang looked at each other in surprise; they had no idea that Hao Ren got so good at basketball after he had gone to university.
Can Ronghua, Yu Rong, and the guys on the other side of the stadium were all shocked; they wondered if the person in the No. 8 Jersey was actually Hao Ren.
East Ocean University was hosting the game after all. Therefore, the cheer for the straight four points lead took place for a long time before it stopped.
Afterward, Xie Yujia held Grandma’s arm as they sat down. Grandma asked Xie Yujia proudly, still excited, “Our Ren is quite handsome, isn’t he?”
“Yeah.” Xie Yujia nodded.
“Little Carrot, Oh, I should probably call you Yujia now,” Grandma held Xie Yujia’s hands as she looked at her blus.h.i.+ng smooth cheeks, “We couldn’t do much since we have lost contact with your family. Since we have finally met again, our two families need to stay in touch. I know that your parents are still in the States; it must not be easy for you to be on your own. Come to spend some time with me whenever you are free!”
“Okay.” Xie Yujia nodded again.
Grandma looked at the shy girl who was so pretty that it looked like she was carved out of jade. She remembered how Little Carrot and Ren played together as kids and wondered how nice it would have been if they had grown up together.
The game continued on the court below them.
The Captain of Jinghua University, Chen Dali, looked extremely mad. He underestimated Hao Ren and Zhao Jiayi, and that caused him four points in a roll.
Hao Ren and Zhao Jiayi were the shortest players on the court. To his utmost surprise, they messed up the entire plan he made before the game.
Currently, Jinghua University was still at zero points; four points behind. Their team was going hard and tried to take two points back in order to boost their morale.
Pa! Zhao Jiayi suddenly dashed crossways and cut off their pa.s.s successfully.
“Good job!” Xie Wanjun couldn’t help but shout out.
Zhao Jiayi dribbled quickly and pa.s.sed it on to his team member Bear, and Bear found a great position and pa.s.sed it on to Xie Wanjun. When two players went over to defend him, Xie Wanjun pa.s.sed it back to Zhao Jiayi.
Chen Dali noticed that two of his team members were going for Zhao Jiayi and shouted, “Watch Xie Wanjun!”
Two Jinghua University players blocked Xie Wanjun, so he didn’t have a chance at all. However, Xie Wanjun secretly praised Chen Dali as this Captain could accurately determine Hao Ren’s Power Forward position and Zhao Jiayi’s Point Guard position through the way they played so far.
Neither of these positions was the leading score getters in the game. As long as Jinghua University kept an eye on Xie Wanjun who was the Center and Little Fatty who was the Small Forward, they shouldn’t need to worry about East Ocean University winning the game. After all, the two teams played against each other last year, and they all knew about the old players’ abilities.
When Zhao Jiayi saw that Hao Ren had been guarded, he made a quick decision and hopped up with both hands on the ball.
Pa! Pa!
Two players from Jinghua University reached out to block him.
“Watch out for his pa.s.s!” Chen Dali shouted.
However, Zhao Jiayi didn’t pa.s.s the ball this time.
Fadeaway shot!
His body leaned backward as he made the shot. The ball pa.s.sed through those two players and shot towards the basket.
Peng! Peng!
The ball bounced on the basket before it went in!
Woah! There was another wave of cheers on the stands.
6:0!
“What the h.e.l.l!” Chen Dali shook his head.
Zhao Jiayi suddenly became the hero, and he turned to the audience with his arms up.
“F*ck, now Zhao Jiayi will be famous, and there will be lots of girls interested in him!” Zhou Liren cried out on the stands.
Bai Zhixiong and a few other suspended players were surprised; they had no idea that this ‘shorty’ whom they looked down upon was actually so good at basketball!
6:0! East Ocean University was in the lead even though the game had just started. The entire basketball hall was cheering crazily.
As the game went on, Hao Ren, the Power Forward, kept Xie Yujia’s words in mind: rebound and defense.
Hao Ren kept up the good teamwork with Xie Wanjun, the Center. They worked together on getting the rebounds, blocking in the restricted area, defending for each other, and controlling the tempo. On top of that, the Point Guard Zhao Jiayi succeeded in stealing the ball several times with his agile movements. East Ocean University kept scoring, and they maintained a lead of over ten points!
Chen Dali’s shouting turned into roaring. However, Hao Ren, Xie Wanjun, and Zhao Jiayi were like a fantastic iron triangle. One of them could always get the rebound, one of them was constantly making horrifying dunks or blocking shots, and one of them was a ball-s.n.a.t.c.hing machine who could always deliver the ball to his teammates for scoring.
Half of the game was almost finished, and the tallest and strongest player on the side of Jinghua University, Chen Dali, finally gave away his Center position to focus on defending Hao Ren!
There would be no chance for Jinghua University to win if they couldn’t break the iron triangle.
“Ren, catch the ball!” Zhao Jiayi made a smooth behind-the-back pa.s.s, and the ball accurately fell into Hao Ren’s palm.
“Cut to the inside lane! Pa.s.s it if there is no opportunity to score!” Hao Ren remembered Xie Yujia’s instruction vividly and tried to break through the defense line with the basketball.
Boom… A ‘tank’ came to him out of nowhere!
He turned around and saw Chen Dali das.h.i.+ng over madly with a twisted face.
Boom!
Their shoulders collided; Chen Dali was even stronger than Xie Wanjun with his two-meter height.
Xie Yujia opened her eyes wide and held her fists tight on the stands. Her nails even sank deep into her skin!
Xie Wanjun had already cut into the inner lane and was waiting for Hao Ren’s ball; he was nervous in this situation as well.
Bang… Out of almost everyone’s expectation, Chen Dali was knocked away!
He backed up five or six steps before falling onto the floor and sliding to the outside of the court, unbalanced.
He turned to the referee, but the referee signaled everyone to carry on with the game.
Hao Ren pa.s.sed the ball successfully to Xie Wanjun, and there went another exciting dunk!
The game carried on, and Chen Dali had his eyes on Hao Ren again.
Bang! Chen Dali was flipped aside in another crash.
“Referee! It was a foul!” he stood back up and shouted to the referee.
However, the referee shrugged in disagreement. That seemed to be a reasonable collision. If anything, Chen Dali’s malicious intent was more noticeable.
Chen Dali returned to the court madly; he couldn’t figure out how this ‘shorty’ was that heavy. Chen Dali felt like Hao Ren’s feet were rooted to the floor. It was absolutely impossible to knock him over. On the other hand, Hao Ren could easily knock him away with just a little movement.
Bang! Chen Dali, who was strong as a hill, was knocked away again in another collision.
“Referee! He made a ball collision!” Chen Dali cried out since he couldn’t stand it anymore.
This referee was invited from the East Ocean City Referee a.s.sociation.
He couldn’t stand Chen Dali anymore either and said to him, “I will give you a foul if you do this kind of fake moves again!”
“What fake? I was knocked over by him…” Chen Dali yelled as he was pulled back by his team. It was really irrational for this Captain to argue with the referee.
As the game went on, Chen Dali kept on defending Hao Ren. However, whenever he tried to crash into him on purpose, he would immediately get bounced back.
His movement of being knocked over appeared to be extremely exaggerated; the referee got annoyed by him gradually, and the audience all hissed at him as well.
“Six, you come and defend him!” finding this strange, Chen Dali shouted at one of his teammates.
When Hao Ren got the ball again, it was this Six, who was about eight centimeters shorter than Chen Dali, who started to defend him.
The two teams were hostile to each other at this point, especially when Jinghua University was many points behind. All their players were a bit furious, and Six’s defense was a bit overdone as well.
He smashed his arm heavily into Hao Ren’s shoulder while Hao Ren was dribbling with his knees bent, and Hao Ren immediately got knocked a few steps back.
Hiss… The referee whistled and signaled the collision foul.
The audience burst into an uproar.
The captain of Jinghua University team, Chen Dali, was just about to argue with the referee. Then, he suddenly realized, “Wait a minute…I got knocked back when I collided with this ‘shorty’, yet Six who is shorter than me could knock him over… Doesn’t this show that my contacts with him are all fake?”
He swallowed his words while the audience realized the irony and hissed at Chen Dali again.
The fact was, he was over two meters while Hao Ren was only a bit over 1.7 meters. Physically, his arms were even thicker than Hao Ren’s legs. No one would believe that Hao Ren could knock him over instead of the other way around.
Everyone thought Chen Dali was overly dramatic with his acting, including the referee.
Pa! Hao Ren scored a penalty shot, and the entire gym cheered again.
Xie Wanjun secretly raised his thumb at Hao Ren.
“That player in the No.1 Jersey from Jinghua University is too sneaky. He couldn’t win in skills, so he is going for collisions and putting dirt on Hao Ren. With a fake move like that where he backed up six to seven steps out of the court? Who would even believe that’s real?” Zhou Liren said angrily on the south stands.
“Yes… Too fake… Just too fake…” the guys beside him agreed.
The coach of Jinghua University, who was sitting in the corner, looked really bad. He thought the special training on the island did a lot to improve the team members in both strength and skills. The goal of this ‘friendly match’ with East Ocean University was to take the edge off of East Ocean University’s spirit and get off on a flying start for the National College Basketball League this year.
However, instead of a flying start, Jinghua University was being defeated right from the start. Despite the poor points they have gotten, their players were getting injured, and they were the ones asking for it. Vice President of the University, Lu Qing, who was on the opposite side of the stadium, was smiling.
“Xie Wanjun, as the Coach as well as the Captain of the team, is indeed the best in the country! Also, Chen Dali is such a shameful b.a.s.t.a.r.d since he went for fake injuries and fakes fowls in this disadvantageous situation,” he thought.