Chapter 7 The Hot Arena
On a sunny day, cicadas chirped loudly, and young people stood or stood on the blue and white court.
"President Echizen and Tezuka are absent again today!"
When Kazama pushed open the fence of the court with a towel in his arms, he just heard Coach Ryuzaki announcing that Tezuka and Echizen would be absent the next day due to illness.
"It must be a lie. Hey, Horio, you and Echizen are in the same class. Have you discovered anything?" Momoshiro asked.
"Echizen is still the same as always, nothing's different, so you must be lying if you said you were sick and didn't come for two days."
"Momoshiro-kun, you still have 50 sets of swings to do today, and 30 sets of squats..." Kazama tapped the exercise book in his hand lightly with the end of his pen. "If you don't start now, you won't be able to finish it."
"I know, I know," Taocheng scratched his head and took a half step back, deliberately stretching his tone, "Kazama is more talkative than Oishi now - ah, it hurts, it hurts!"
"Hey, that's pretty good," Feng Jian took back his hand that was knocking on his head, clenched his joints, and smiled kindly, "Looks like I need to tell Senior Gan that tomorrow's training plan will be increased by 1.25 times."
"Girls are so scary..."
Before he finished complaining, Gan appeared silently behind Taocheng.
"The landing force of your two feet is inconsistent. Taocheng, you need to increase the number of shuttle runs starting tomorrow."
“No way!!”
The atmosphere on the court was heated. Thinking back to Tezuka's request for leave, Kazama lowered his head and stared at the page with Tezuka's name on it.
"Serving speed: 183km/h, 177km/h, a decrease of 3.27%."
She suddenly remembered the scene she saw when she passed by the court and returned to the training room because she forgot to bring something that day - the boy was standing in the shadow of the dusk, serving with one shoulder, his left shoulder always higher than his right shoulder.
Senior Gan once said that President Tezuka's best self-created trick is the "Zero-style slice", and Chiba also said that the elbow injury that President Tezuka suffered when he was hit by a senior in his first year has not yet healed.
She gently turned the page and saw the data on it: "Zero-style slice > 40, elbows turn red", with a small red ball next to it.
Her heart sank slightly.
It turns out that Senior Tezuka’s hand injury has never healed.
——
On the second day, Tezuka Echizen, who had been on leave for two days, finally showed up.
The latter received the attention of his predecessors as soon as he appeared on the stage.
"Little one, you finally agreed to come to training."
"Echizen, you've actually learned to be lazy."
"Senior Atao, Senior Kikumaru, this hurts..." Echizen pouted in dissatisfaction.
"It's been so long."
"Echizen, your milk," Gan handed over two bottles of milk, "Remember to drink it."
"I don't want to drink this kind of stuff."
"No, no, you must drink it," Kikumaru covered his mouth with his hands and laughed, his right arm around Echizen's neck, "After all, you are the smallest among us, little one."
Feng Jian was watching the excitement on the sidelines when he was suddenly poked in the back. He turned around and saw Chiba standing outside the court. Seeing someone looking at him from the other side, he quickly hid behind the shade and waved at her.
She walked over and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Give."
Chiba handed over two brand new pens, one for her and one... She nodded at Inui Sadaharu who was not far away, her cheeks slightly flushed.
The cicadas in the trees are still chirping, the cheers of the first graders on the sidelines are still loud, and the blue and white stadium is like the sky reflected on the ground.
After school, Kazama was the last one to leave the lounge and put the small gift box containing the pens into the dry shoe cabinet. His eyes inadvertently swept across the cabinet at the edge with the "Tezuka" label on it.
Fengjian paused for a moment, hesitated for a moment, tore off the page with the rehabilitation plan and stuffed it in, then quickly closed the door and left.
However, she walked in such a hurry that she didn't notice the figure sitting in the computer room.
A few seconds later, the curtain was lifted, and the orange-yellow sunset shone through the glass and fell on the boy's chestnut-colored hair. Tezuka took off his Seigaku uniform, folded it and put it in the cabinet. When he was about to close the door, his eyes fell on a piece of white paper that had fallen to the ground.
He lowered his head and saw the white paper covered with neat handwriting. The black wristband pattern in the upper corner instantly caught his attention.
——
Despite Senior Gan's repeated warnings not to be late, when Fengjian saw the alarm clock showed "9:30" the next day, he rolled out of bed.
"April, are you tearing down the house?" Sister Ling's powerful roar came from downstairs.
She had originally planned to dress up nicely, after all, it was her first time to participate in a formal competition, but because she got up late, she was forced to compress her time into three minutes, so she had to just put on a sweatshirt and sweatpants and went out.
Just as the ten o'clock bell rang, Fengjian finally arrived at the competition venue amid the cheers from the sidelines.
"April, don't tell me that you were late because you took a pregnant woman to the hospital." Taocheng rested his shoulder on Su Hecun, smiling teasingly.
Others also covered their mouths and laughed.
"Atao, you can't talk about girls like that..." This is the concern from Vice President Oishi.
On the way here, Kazama heard Chiba say that a junior who got up even later than her lied and said that he was late because he was sending a pregnant woman.
This excuse has been used too much.
She walked up to Tezuka obediently, bowed and apologized.
"I'm sorry, President Tezuka, I got up late."
Tezuka just nodded, "Be more careful next time."
"yes!"
"I heard that all the tennis teams in Tokyo are participating."
Gen Chiba, holding a strawberry cone in his mouth, handed her the mango ice cream while fighting with Momoshiro Takeshi who tried to snatch her ice cream. Of course, the girl won in the end.
In the previous few games, Seigaku won easily with a score of 6-0 without any suspense, until the game against Akiyama Sanzhong.
"Fuji, although you won the doubles match with Kawamura just now, it took longer than expected." Gan suddenly said while staring at the game between the golden partners on the court.
Fuji wiped his hair and nodded, "I don't feel very good when playing. The ball always hits us where we are not good."
"Kikumaru-senpai is sweating a lot more than in previous matches." Feng Jia added.
There were quite a few spectators gathered on the sidelines, and the sounds of words related to "Qingxue" and "Saint Rudolph" entered her ears. She paused in drawing, and the tip of her pen tilted, drawing the border line.
Before the match between Seigaku and Akiyama Junior High, she passed the competition area and caught a glimpse of a boy wearing a different uniform standing with the students from Akiyama Junior High. A vague word about Seigaku rang through the air. If she remembered correctly, the boy's uniform had the "St. Rudolph" school emblem engraved on it.
Fengjian looked around and, sure enough, spotted that familiar figure not far away on the opposite court. His fingers were elegantly entwined with his hair, his chin half propped up, as he surveyed the game with a confident look on his face.
Someone is one step ahead of her.
She hid behind a tree, using the dense undergrowth to conceal her presence as she listened to the conversation between the two people in front of her. The words "information" and "data" entered her ears.
Fengjian lowered his head and looked at the record book of the prestigious school in his hand.
It turned out to be the work of the new secretary of the St. Rudolph Tennis Club named Guan Yuechu.
It's really insidious.
He actually leaked their data to people from Akiyama No. 3 Middle School, observing how their players responded when they encountered an unfavorable ball situation, and used this to collect good information.
Kazama left without listening to the end. When Senior Inui came back, the match between Oishi and Kikumaru had ended. Although Seigaku still won, the opponent still got a point.
Look at Kikumaru Eiji's short, sweaty hair, and then look at Oishi who just competed with him. On the other hand, Fuji and Kawamura who competed before, although the time they spent in the competition was almost the same, the former sweated significantly more than the others.
"Kikumaru-senpai's energy is depleted faster than others."
She rubbed her sore eyes and looked up. The dazzling sunlight poured down through the gaps between the branches and leaves. On the uncovered court, sweat soaked the ground, but was quickly evaporated by the scorching sun.
The weather today looks very unbearable.
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