Chapter 22

Inside the venue.

The front camera of the mobile phone mounted on the bracket faithfully recorded what was happening in front.

The girl in sportswear has a nimble and light figure like an antelope leading the grassland, with flying hair.

The movements were fluid and fluid, the rhythm perfectly balanced. He Xi dribbled the ball with his right hand, beginning the performance with a swift change of direction. He then closed the gap with a series of swift, underhand dribbles, leaving afterimages. He leaned slightly sideways as he advanced, creating a convincing suspended pause. He then gathered the ball, leaped, the soles of his sneakers scraping against the ground with a soft sound, and the ball swished through the net.

A drop of sweat quietly slid down from the temple. He Xi's eyes were focused, and his shining eyes revealed a spirit of not admitting defeat.

This time she used a neat high dribble to prepare for the advance, took advantage of the momentum to complete a beautiful ball-protecting turn, then stopped abruptly, jumped up, and finished perfectly with a jump shot.

The ball reverberated as it hit the ground. He Xi leaned on his knees, breathing heavily. "He Xi, you're making great progress," Bai Shu's voice came from the phone behind him.

"Even if you want to be a basketball coach in the future, that's fine." The boy couldn't hide his exaggerated smile as he said this.

"Ha!" He Xi wiped the sweat off his face with the back of his hand, "I actually thought about it."

"Basketball coach?" Bai Shu in the video couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.

"No, it's the physical education teacher." He Xi turned around, "I want to apply to the same sports school as you."

Bai Shu was silent for a moment, "Seriously?"

"Yeah." He Xi took a sip of water, his voice slightly panting, "But that was before I found what I wanted to do."

"Since I was little, teachers and relatives have been asking me, 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' Back then, my answers were always wild and imaginative," He Xi laughed. "Astronaut, scientist, singer, writer, and so on. But perhaps they don't know that I still haven't figured it out."

"But I need a goal now. A goal to get into college."

"So at this stage, Bai Shu—" He Xi met Bai Shu's eyes, meeting the doubt in his eyes with determination, "You are my target."

The tone of each word made Bai Shu's heart skip a beat.

"It seems like you've really made up your mind." Bai Shu licked his dry lips. "I didn't expect that my influence on you... would be so great."

He Xi blinked and said, "Thank you, Bai Shu, you helped me find the courage to start over."

"It's nothing, actually. Some people in this world start chasing their dreams very early, while others only have the chance to realize their dreams when they are approaching middle age. This is just an opportunity in life that you can only encounter once in a lifetime. Sooner or later, the day will come."

"In the future, my life will continue to move forward and get better and better through my own exploration and efforts." Even if one day you are no longer by my side.

Why do I always have to think so pessimistically? He Xi shook her head and decided to focus more on the present. So she immediately changed the subject, "What about you?"

_

He Xi looked at Bai Shu in the background of the hotel and asked, "How was the competition this time?"

"It went pretty smoothly." Bai Shu touched the back of his head sheepishly. "After the game today, a basketball coach from Beihai University came up to me and told me he'd been following me for a long time."

"He Xi, let me tell you, that coach is really good at making promises," the voice reciting the text beside him stopped abruptly. Wei Mo spoke from somewhere in the room, blocking most of the screen. "What's 'our training facilities are the best in Asia...'"

"There's also this and that thing about 'We have a national broadcast every year' and 'Our school has a very high academic ranking'..."

As he spoke, he groaned in pain. Bai Shu still smiled and pushed Wei Mo away, but the smile didn't seem to reach his eyes. "Are you done? If you're done, make way for me!"

"Oh my god, it hurts so much. Are we still brothers, Bai Shu?" Wei Mo covered his head and jumped away.

Before leaving, he did not forget to secretly hit Bai Shu on the back. Only after hearing him groan in pain did he leave with satisfaction.

He Xi saw Bai Shu on the screen take a breath and tried hard to keep his expression straight in front of her. His sense of humor and morality were in conflict, and he couldn't help laughing.

Bai Shu: “…” His face became darker and darker.

He Xi quickly covered his mouth and heard Wei Mo's accusations coming from the video, but it might be because of the bathroom door and the sound of running water, so it sounded very vague.

Bai Shu on the screen must have heard it clearly. He ran over, kicked the bathroom door, and knocked on it to the person inside, "If you have the guts, come out and tell me in person!"

When Bai Shu came back, He Xi quickly asked, "What did Wei Mo say?"

"Nothing..." Bai Shu answered hesitantly.

When the boy lowered his head, He Xi saw the slightly red tips of his ears.

What on earth was it? He Xi's brows furrowed in curiosity, but he changed his mind and let it go.

Bai Shu breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, He Xi didn't ask any more questions. Did he really want him to tell He Xi exactly what Wei Mo had said?

——"Bai Shu, why were you so strange just now? Are you jealous of me?"

Wei, Mo. Bai Shu secretly clenched his fists. He should be thankful that He Xi didn't hear these words, otherwise... he would not let him go.

"Haha, Bai Shu, you're still thinking about what Wei Mo said, right?" He Xi smiled. "Don't worry, if you don't want to talk about it, I won't ask."

Bai Shu responded guiltily.

He Xi recalled the Chinese textbook that flashed across Wei Mo's hand as he entered the screen just now. "I seemed to hear Wei Mo reciting the 'Preface to the Lanting Poems' just now."

Bai Shu: "Yes, that kid is much more serious about studying than before. Sometimes you can see him taking time out to do math papers."

"What about you?" He Xi asked, holding his chin, "That should be the case, right?"

"Me?" Bai Shu paused. "He Xi, when you walk through the corridors of the teaching building, have you ever noticed Edison's saying, 'Genius is 99 percent perspiration and 1 percent inspiration'? I think success is the same."

“Human energy is limited. When you feel that you have that one percent of inspiration, what you need to do next is to put in all your effort to exchange for the ninety-nine percent of sweat.”

"So I practice extra every day and dare not slack off at all. Maybe studying is important, but unless it is absolutely necessary, I'd better give way to basketball first." He Xi heard Bai Shu say this.

She opened her mouth and swallowed the words that cultural subjects are also essential for sports students.

Aside from his English struggles, Bai Shu was passable in his other subjects, even scoring above 140 in math on several exams. If he'd relied on academic performance to get into university, He Xi would have worried. But Bai Shu's athletic prowess, and his exceptional performance, made her worries seem unnecessary.

Forget it, at worst she could just keep an eye on him and ask him to memorize a few more words, just like he kept an eye on her while she ate.

-

The classroom after school on Friday.

The classmates packed up their bags and left one after another. He Xi was not in a hurry to leave. He sat down and wrote his math test paper seriously.

There was only one question left, and she didn't want to take it home. He Xi gripped the pen, lightly running the tip across the question, her lips moving. "Given..." This was her subconscious habit to keep herself focused.

As the solution to this problem became clearer in his mind, He Xi's thoughts became more and more focused. Suddenly, someone knocked on the table, and He Xi's shoulders shook.

"Hmm?" She raised her head, with panic in her eyes that she hadn't subconsciously concealed in time, and looked at the person who came.

Moving her gaze from the girl's cute, round knuckles to her face, Chen Linlin saw a face with wrinkled features and a look of unhappiness written all over it.

"Hey, He Xi, you already knew this a long time ago, right?" Chen Linlin said unhappily.

"Know what?" He Xi stared at Chen Linlin's round, light-colored eyes, which were full of scrutiny.

"My dad is going to marry your mom!" Chen Linlin folded her hands and spoke word by word. With each word, she lowered her head and took a step closer.

So the man named Wu Tao's surname was Chen, Chen Wutao? He Xi reacted, looked at Chen Linlin's face getting closer and closer, and hurriedly stepped back with his hands folded.

Chen Linlin expressionlessly opened her hands that were blocking her view and asked He Xi, "What do you think?"

He Xi took a deep breath. She felt that I was the only answer she could give.

"I don't agree?"

Yes, it wasn't an easy thing to accept. Especially for a child, seeing their parents remarry was a very difficult thing to adapt to. Of course, she wanted her mother to be happy, but after her father's death, she and her mother had been dependent on each other for so many years. They were mother and daughter, and friends, each other's only support in this world.

He Xi had planned their future countless times, and there had never been a man in it from beginning to end. A man who was unexpected but would definitely appear.

If He Xi was strong enough, she and her mother would have a choice. Of course, she disagreed. But now, as a vested interest, the answer became unclear.

"What an ambiguous tone. Does he agree or disagree?" Chen Linlin frowned.

Not everyone has the patience to guess what others mean. He Xi: "I disagree!"

"I don't agree either!"

He Xi felt a sense of relief upon hearing Chen Linlin's words, but then a sense of loss washed over her. She wondered if Zhang Chaomei would be upset. Was she truly looking for support, or was she truly in love with this man? If it was the former, then...well, she could just quit school and work, helping to share some of the burden. But if it was the latter, a marriage without her stepdaughter's blessing would be like jumping into another pit of fire.

He Xi was melancholy. What on earth did Chen Linlin mean? She was about to ask for clarification when Chen Linlin in front of her suddenly let out a long sigh.

"But who can blame my dad for liking your mom?" She counted off the items on her chubby fingers. "The fruit we usually wouldn't eat was sent to your house in boxes. Your mom's workplace is a three-hour drive away, and just to see your mom, he'd go home, pack up, and fall asleep right away. Not to mention the constant money transfers and the red envelopes for gifts during festivals! My dad hadn't met your mom more than three times before he started calling her "wife, wife" on WeChat."

"Do you know this?"

He Xi shook her head like a rattle. She sensed something was wrong, but except for that photoshoot where she'd made it clear, Zhang Chaomei had usually kept it hidden from her.

"It's fake, right?!" Chen Linlin frowned and looked He Xi up and down, her eyes full of scrutiny and suspicion.

He Xi: “…”

"Should I say that you are too oblivious to what's happening outside, or should I say that you don't care enough about your mother?"

He Xi: "..." She doesn't agree with either of these two.

Just when He Xi thought Chen Linlin would continue to complain about her, she snorted coldly and turned around proudly, "Tomorrow Lu Xiaoyue and I are going shopping. You can come too."

What's the trend? He Xi was a little surprised.

"You are not allowed to not come!" He Xi realized that Chen Linlin's words sounded a bit like a domineering president.

"Don't be so self-indulgent. Do you think I want to call you? If my dad hadn't repeatedly told me to pay more attention to you, I wouldn't bother to pay attention to you!"

"Oh." He Xi said he understood, "I will be there on time tomorrow."

"That's better!" Chen Linlin flicked her hair and walked away gracefully.

He Xi was left alone in the messy classroom. So Chen Linlin had come over and said so much to her, going around in circles... just to ask her out to play?

_

"Hey!" Wei Mo suddenly had an idea and called the girl sitting by the window.

"Hmm?" She took off her headphones and looked over, her eyes rippling with confusion.

Good boy. Wei Mo's heart trembled, pounding in his chest. The bus noise quieted down, but his world became a frenzy of rock music.

Wei Mo opened his mouth, feeling like he wanted to say something without thinking.

"What's wrong?"

You don't know? You don't know? Why don't you know? How could you not know?

Was he not close enough? Wasn't his heartbeat fast enough or intense enough? Otherwise, how could she not know...

Wei Mo licked his dry lips. "Yours..." He pointed to his cheek. "There's a hair." It was pressed against his face, like a light kiss. He was so envious.

"Oh oh oh." She reacted, brushed her fingertips across her eyes and behind her ears, and turned away.

Wei Mo looked at the hair that was held up in the air and felt a little sorry.

"You're going to the comic convention, right?" Wei Mo said without saying anything. "Are you a student too? I only see you during holidays."

"Hmm." A faint sound came from the throat.

"Which school are you from?" he asked.

She stopped talking. There was an earphone in her ear.

The bus stopped and she stood up. His legs stiffened for a moment and he stood up to move aside.

She got out of the car and walked into the crowd, leaving only her back that caught his attention.

He became more and more curious about her.