Chapter 95: Hard Labor!?
Translator: Noodletown Translated Editor: Noodletown Translated
Xie Wanjun raised his hand, and Zhao Jiayi and the guys quickly ran over to Hao Ren as they thought Xie Wanjun was going to hit Hao Ren.
However, Xie Wanjun simply pointed at Hao Ren and said in a calm yet determined tone, “You, join the Basketball Team!”
This remark stupefied everyone including Hao Ren.
“What the h.e.l.l? Why should he join just because you asked him to?” Yu Rong shouted with the guys before Hao Ren could even respond.
Xie Wanjun ignored their yelling and turned towards Zhao Jiayi. He pointed at him and said calmly, “You as well. Join the team!”
“Ah?” Zhao Jiayi was just as surprised as Hao Ren.
Xie Wanjun took out a little notebook from the pocket of his baggy sweatpants and read to Hao Ren, “Reaction, level S; Speed, level S; Arm Strength, level SS; Positioning, level B; Pa.s.sing, level C; Dribbling, level D; Shooting Accuracy, level E.”
“What is that?” Hao Ren asked.
However, Xie Wanjun turned to Zhao Jiayi without answering Hao Ren’s question. “Leaping, level A; Positioning, level A; Pa.s.sing, level B; Dribbling, level A; Endurance, level A; Judgement, level B; Height, level D,” he read.
Zhao Jiayi got straight As and Bs except for a D for his height, which he felt disheartened about too. Despite his enthusiasm and talent for basketball, he was only 1.7 meters tall. That was also the reason why he didn’t make it into his middle school basketball team.
His height certainly didn’t get in the way of him being popular and being liked by girls at the school. Of course, the latter part of that sentence was from Zhao Jiayi’s own words. Even though that was the case, Zhou Liren and the guys kind of believed it when they saw him being invited a lot by pretty girls. The girls had always asked him to go to karaoke or go on a trip with them.
When Zhao Jiayi was formally invited to join the Basketball Team of East Ocean University by the Captain, he was thrilled! It had always been his dream to join the Basketball Team!
When Xie Wanjun saw the Rock Climbing Club’s registration event outside of the stadium, he decided to make time to take a look and see if there were any physically outstanding freshmen; he was hoping to recruit some new players to invigorate his team.
When he saw “Shorty” Zhao Jiayi smoothly climbed up over ten meters without any previous experience, he realized how talented this soph.o.m.ore was; at least he knew how energetic and perseverant Zhao Jiayi was.
However, before he could say anything to Zhao Jiayi, the quarreling scene between Hao Ren and Huang Xujie took place.
He heard that Hao Ren and his friends were playing basketball outside while he was training in the stadium, so he came over to take a look.
When Xie Wanjun saw Zhao Jiayi’s smooth shooting motion and excellent basketball consciousness, he knew that he found himself an “unprocessed jade”. Therefore, he dashed over to invite them despite other people’s objections.
“What A, B, C, D? Is it a multiple-choice question?” Xu Yandong from Yu Rong’s dorm shouted at Xie Wanjun, not knowing how good this Captain was at basketball.
“A, B, C, D, E are levels in my rating system, and S is better than A,” he pointed at Zhao Jiayi and said, “Your physical quality is excellent, and your basketball foundation is fairly impressive. You are quite promising as a soph.o.m.ore.”
Then, he pointed to Hao Ren and said, “Your foundation is extremely poor, but your physical quality is not excellent…”
“Um…” that remark hit Hao Ren pretty hard.
“Not excellent… but abnormally excellent!” Xie Wanjun continued.
Hao Ren who looked down immediately lifted up his head.
“I’m missing a few players in the game next week, so you need to serve as a last resort,” Xie Wanjun carried on calmly as if the opinion of others didn’t matter to him at all.
Hao Ren thought about it for a few seconds.
After he made sure that Xie Wanjun wasn’t there to pick a fight with them, he said, “There’s no problem if you want Zhao Jiayi on your team, but I don’t know how to play at all…”
“You have no choice. One of the things the Vice Princ.i.p.al promised me when I fired my team members was that I could pick anyone for the game next week,” Xie Wanjun said to Hao Ren in his calm voice.
Hao Ren shook his head and replied, “Even so…”
Xie Wanjun lifted his hands and interrupted Hao Ren. “A man should take responsibility for his actions. I didn’t hold you responsible for injuring my team members. In addition, it was me who urged the school to fire those troublemakers,” he said.
“He requested them to be fired?” not only Hao Ren, Xu Rong, Zhao Jiayi, and the other guys were all surprised.
“You can check with the Vice Princ.i.p.al, Lu Qing, if you don’t believe my words,” Xie Wanjun said before closing his mouth.
Hao Ren suddenly remembered that when he went to see Lu Qing in the Administrative Building, Xie Wanjun was there too. Now, he realized that Xie Wanjun looked mad back then because his team members caused a lot of trouble; this Captain wasn’t mad at him.
Xie Wanjun didn’t rush for Hao Ren’s decision as he noticed that Hao Ren was rooted in his thoughts. He turned to Zhao Jiayi and asked seriously, “Are you willing to join the Basketball Team?”
“Okay!” Zhao Jiayi agreed immediately.
Xie Wanjun asked again since he didn’t hear the answer he was looking for, “Are you willing or not willing!”
“I’m willing to join the team!” Zhao Jiayi gave a definite answer.
The guys looked at Zhao Jiayi in surprise as they didn’t expect him to join the “enemy team” so quickly. He was just in an intense fight with the members of the Basketball Team not long ago, yet he was already a part of their team!
However, Zhao Jiayi thought differently. Basketball was not only his hobby but also his dream. He saw the invitation from the Captain of the Basketball Team as the recognition for his abilities. The opportunity only knocks once, so he had to make the most of it!
Having gotten an affirmative answer from Zhao Jiayi, Xie Wanjun turned to Hao Ren again and asked, “How about you? Do you want to be a part of the game next week?”
Hao Ren heard him clear this time; instead of asking him to join the team, Xie Wanjun was asking if he wanted to play in the game next week.
“With your strength and fast reaction time, you can be a good fit to replace Bai Zhixiong’s position. You can be the temporary Power Forward of the team. You will be rebounding, defending, and blocking. We won’t count on you for shooting and scoring. Simply put, you will be the hard labor in the restricted area,” Xie Wanjun laid it all out to Hao Ren without mercy.
Hao Ren understood and felt relieved after hearing this.
“Sounds like this Xie Wanjun had been paying attention to me for a while now,” he thought.
“You, on the other hand,” Xie Wanjun turned back to Zhao Jiayi and said, “Are quick in reacting and smooth in dribbling. You can also protect the ball well while dribbling since your center of gravity is lower. Plus, with a great sense of s.p.a.ce and timing, you can pa.s.s the ball on by making use of gaps and errors in the other team’s defense. You are a great fit as a Point Guard. Your accurate shooting skills can benefit you in this position even more!”
Xie Wanjun kept on and on about how good Zhao Jiayi was. Even though Zhao Jiayi was short, Xie Wanjun couldn’t stop praising him out loud.
Zhao Jiayi’s eyes got brighter and brighter. Although Hao Ren didn’t understand the meaning of the whole spiel, Zhao Jiayi, as a basketball fan, knew clearly that the Point Guards had the most opportunity to control the ball in an entire game. They were the real core of the team!
“Yes! I’m in!” Hao Ren agreed without hesitation after seeing his buddy light up with excitement.
He asked, “When do we start training?”
Xie Wanjun couldn’t help but laugh when he heard Hao Ren’s question.
“Your friend can start his training with the rest of the team starting tomorrow. As for you…” he dragged out his voice before stating, “Yujia can instruct you.”