In the second half, looking at the score, there was not much suspense. As long as Class 8 did not just stand still and let Class 7 shoot, they were bound to win.

Wang Xu and the others had already foreseen this victory. Each of them was on fire, running around like their tails had been singed, jumping three feet high when going for layups and rebounds... They had also put all the substitute players in to get some practice.

Class 8's audience was also cheering with their all. Opportunities to cheer for their own class during a game were hard to come by, and Old Lu didn't even need a megaphone to make his voice stand out among the many screams.

Class 7 was not convinced by their impending loss.

In a basketball game, there really was no such thing as being unconvinced. Until the last second, no one would give up.

But Class 7's way of expressing their discontent made Jiang Cheng feel irritated.

All kinds of collisions, all kinds of obstructions, all kinds of overt and covert antics continued. In the first few minutes of the third quarter, they had already accumulated enough team fouls for one free throw.

They didn't care about scoring anymore. The points couldn't be chased down anyway. Their goal was probably to vent their frustration while interfering with Class 8's ability to score.

"Can't stand it anymore," Lu Xiaobin seldom talked, but during the break he wiped his sweat and said, "My inner thighs have been hit so much they almost smashed my balls. I don't want to lose the ability to continue my ancestry."

"But we have to win fair and square," Wang Xu said, grabbing a rebound when an elbow smashed the side of his head, but still sticking to Jiang Cheng's words, "They are playing dirty but we can't. Otherwise even if we win, people will say we played dirty."

"Then let's endure a little longer," Guo Xu sighed. "We're definitely going to win anyway. There's less than ten minutes left. No matter how much they mess around, they won't have a chance."

"Is it the fourth time for Boar Head?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"Yeah." Gu Fei replied in a displeased tone, glaring at the guys over there.

"Go provoke him into committing another foul," Jiang Cheng said. "Remember, provoke the foul, don't foul maliciously yourself."

"Yeah." Gu Fei was still displeased.

"I'll tell you guys later what to do in this kind of situation." Jiang Cheng raised his arm to stretch lazily, keeping his arm raised until the guys from Class 7 looked over, then he gave them a thumbs down.

Hu Jian immediately pointed at him and cursed something.

Jiang Cheng raised his arm again, made a heart shape with his hand, and tilted his body teasingly at them.

Laughter sounded around them.

"Fuck!" Hu Jian cursed loudly and swung his arm to come over, but was held back by his classmates.

"That's what I should do?" Wang Xu was a little confused. "All of us together?"

"...I meant later when we get back on court," Jiang Cheng said helplessly, dropping his arm. "I was just loosening up now and thanking the people cheering for us at the same time."

"Oh!" Wang Xu suddenly understood. He patted the teammates next to him, then turned around and raised his arm to make a heart shape at his class. "Come on, thank our cheerleading squad!"

Maybe they were too excited or they acknowledged Wang Xu's authority as class boss, but after only a little hesitation, they raised their arms together and made heart shapes at their classmates in the stands.

Class 8 immediately cheered loudly, spurring all the other spectators to applaud as well.

"Da Fei." Wang Xu looked at Gu Fei, who had his arms crossed and was watching the excitement on the side.

"No." Gu Fei simply refused.

"Da Fei! Don't you have any class honor?" Wang Xu glared at him. "Come on!"

"Idiot." Gu Fei continued his simple refusal.

"Gu Fei!" The girls in their class all shouted, "Gu Fei! Gu Fei!"

"Even Brother Cheng Jiang Cheng made a heart shape!" Wang Xu said again.

"So I have to do it just because Jiang Cheng Cheng did it?" Gu Fei said somewhat helplessly.

What the hell is Jiang Cheng Cheng! Jiang Cheng, who was drinking water, almost choked.

The referee blew the whistle. The last few minutes of the game were about to start. The girls were still shouting, with a hint of disappointment in their voices.

Jiang Cheng felt that Gu Fei probably wouldn't give face on this, so he turned around to head onto the court. Suddenly, he heard the stands erupt into a frenzy of screams, with the girls from the other side jumping up and shouting.  

He turned his head to see Gu Fei raise his arm over his head and make a heart shape.

...Damn, they've all gone crazy.

Class 7 was behind by nearly 20 points. With only a few minutes left, there was no way for them to catch up no matter what. So as soon as they got on court, their stance was not to try to score, but to mark each player from Class 8 and smother them.

As soon as the ball reached Class 8's hands, whoever had it would immediately be swarmed by at least two from Class 7. That rogue duo Boar Head and Hu Jian were the main ones. Whether they used dirty tricks was uncertain, but they just tangled with you until you couldn't even pass the ball, very likely leading to a 24 second violation.

The only thing Jiang Cheng could still admire was Class 7's stamina.

In this situation, they could only rely on the cooperation between Jiang Cheng and Gu Fei to attack, with swift movement and sneak passes at sharp angles.

When Jiang Cheng passed to Gu Fei several times, he didn't even pay attention to timing and just threw the ball out. There was even a time he almost smashed Gu Fei's head.

Gu Fei had just crossed the halfway line with the ball when Boar Head blocked his path.

Even from several steps away, Jiang Cheng could see the flames spewing from Boar Head's eyes, as big as candle flames.

This was a good opportunity. With Gu Fei's skills, it would be no problem provoking Boar Head into a foul, especially since Boar Head was clearly intending to foul now.

"Pass!" Jiang Cheng shook off his mark and shouted from Gu Fei's front left.

Gu Fei looked at him briefly, then suddenly thrusted the ball in his hands forward right as Boar Head swung to slap at the ball. Gu Fei turned the ball at an angle following the slap.

Boar Head's slap landed on his wrist with a crisp smack.

The ball in Gu Fei's hands flew out.

Right after, the referee's whistle sounded: "Striking foul! Fifth foul!"

Immediately, heckling and applause sounded around them.

Boar Head was penalized off court. Wang Xu high-fived each teammate, extremely excited, as if he was the one who knocked Boar Head off, utterly spirited.

But Boar Head getting substituted didn't extinguish Class 7's shameless fighting spirit. After the new player came on, there was less than four minutes left in the game.

Led by Hu Jian, the rampaging continued.

Actually, Class 7's persistence in fighting desperately without giving up to the last second was pretty admirable. Some teams, once they saw they couldn't catch up on points, would just stroll leisurely through the last quarter.

But Class 7 had misdirected their momentum.

The few times Hu Jian crashed into Jiang Cheng, he really wanted to slap Hu Jian's face and even regretted not giving him a beating with the mop handle at noon.

The opportunity came in the last minute. Hu Jian got the ball and charged all the way to the basket. To be fair, Class 7's stamina was much stronger than Class 8's, probably because they had more subs and thus more rest time.

At this time Hu Jian could still charge. Their speed was already slower than at the beginning. Hu Jian was able to drive straight to the basket.

He jumped up for the shot.

Jiang Cheng timed his jump accurately based on when Hu Jian jumped. He put all his strength into this leap, and Hu Jian didn't have outstanding hops, not even as good as the lumbering pillar-shaped Lu Xiaobin. Jiang Cheng jumped higher than him.  

As Hu Jian released the ball on his ascent, it flew towards the hoop.

Jiang Cheng reached out in midair and slapped the ball down with a crisp slap.

This slap hit nothing but the ball decisively.

But he had used full force, almost like spiking a volleyball. The ball went straight down and smashed into Hu Jian's face just as his toes had touched down but before he had steadied himself.

Hu Jian reeled back violently and sat down on the floor.

"Foul!" Hu Jian shouted after a brief daze, "He fouled! Striking foul!"

The referee glanced at him but didn't say anything.

"Foul your mom's fucking rules." Wang Xu rushed over and snatched up the fallen ball, then turned and passed it to Guo Xu at half court.

"Sorry about that." Jiang Cheng went over and patted Hu Jian's shoulder, then ran away.

"Fuck!" Hu Jian continued shouting. "Fuck!"

Jiang Cheng could hear him start to follow right after. He looked back and saw the guy's nose was bleeding from getting smashed. Right now he was glaring at Jiang Cheng with a bloody mouth.

On the other side, Gu Fei scored on a layup. Time left on the court was almost up. Class 8's side was cheering and jumping with raised hands.

Class 7 wanted to sub but Hu Jian yelled for them to stay: "What fucking sub! I'm not dead!"  

Hu Jian played out the last half minute with blood dripping from his nose. When the final buzzer sounded, he grabbed the ball and slammed it violently on the ground. The ball bounced hard off the floor towards Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng's gaze wasn't in that direction, so by the time he sensed the ball coming it was too late to dodge. He was just thinking damn, probably due to his injured constitution, when Gu Fei reached out and blocked it right before it smashed Jiang Cheng's face, batting the ball away.

"Damn," Wang Xu was pissed now, pointing at Hu Jian, "What's with you? Can't win at ball so you turn pro at hooligan tricks?"

"What's it to you? Think you're the boss?" Hu Jian pointed back at him. The few Class 7 guys also surrounded them, eyes spewing fire, enough for a bonfire party.

"I'm not the boss," Wang Xu said. "Our boss is Gu Fei. What, you wanna find our boss?"

The Class 7 guys didn't reply, just kept glaring at Gu Fei.

Gu Fei didn't even glance their way before turning and walking off.

Class 8's people were too excited to notice the confrontation on court. They surged forward and surrounded their players, shouting loudly and instantly shoving away the Class 7 guys.

"Good job!" Old Xu squeezed among them, struggling to get closer. "Good job! This is the sportsmanship basketball requires! You've finally learned restraint! Good job! I'm very touched..."

“What a block by Jiang Cheng!” Old Lu's voice drowned out Old Xu's completely, ringing in Jiang Cheng's ears. “This skill! Blocked without any temper!”

“You teach Class 7 too, how will you face them tomorrow, such bias,” Guo Xu said.

“They can learn from the Class 4 I taught before, collective protest to drop my class!” Old Lu said. “I admire candidness! Even fighting should be candid. Look last year...”

“Teacher Lu! Old Lu! Don't keep mentioning fights!” Old Xu cut him off, looking to the team. “I'm proud of you! Proud of you!”

Jiang Cheng struggled hard to break out of the crowd, tugging his clothes and shaking them.

"Tired me to death," Gu Fei also squeezed out. "Class 7's stamina really is astonishing."

"They had more subs," Jiang Cheng looked back at the excited people. "What was Old Lu just talking about, something from last year?"

"Last year he fought with the Year 3 seniors," Gu Fei said softly. "Extremely thrilling. Then he got chased out from teaching seniors to our grade."

"...He really has character, huh." Jiang Cheng sighed feelingly.  

“Wait for me in the mornings, we'll go to school together,” Gu Fei said.

“Hm?” Jiang Cheng glanced at him, then back at Class 7. That side had dragged their chairs away despondently, just a few team members left watching.

“Don’t worry about Hu Jian’s gang, they're just some students. Jiang Bin is the real nuisance,” Gu Fei said.

“Who’s Jiang Bin?” Jiang Cheng asked.

“Boar Head,” Gu Fei said. “He’s Monkey’s cousin.”

“Monkey?” Jiang Cheng was confused, taking a while to remember who that was. Then he was a bit speechless. “Your delinquents are a family business too? What's it got to do with Monkey?”

“Obviously, it's not like you're getting into trouble elsewhere, this is still Monkey’s turf,” Gu Fei said.

“Isn’t Monkey afraid of you?” Jiang Cheng asked softly.  

“He doesn’t want to provoke me casually,” Gu Fei stretched lazily. “Not afraid of me.”

“Why not?” Jiang Cheng pressed.

“I don’t care if I live or die,” Gu Fei glanced at him.

Jiang Cheng just looked at him silently.

“Let’s go, go!” Wang Xu ran over to them. “Wash up and watch Class 2’s match later. Dinner together tonight, Yi Jing said class funds can cover it.”

“Misuse of public money?” Jiang Cheng asked.

“Normal expenses! How's that misuse, we won honor for our class!” Wang Xu stood very straight. “The whole class agreed! We even have observers!”

“...The more you say the shadier it sounds,” Jiang Cheng couldn't help laughing.

“Yeah, some girls wanted to join us for the meal,” Wang Xu whispered, sneaking a glance at the girls. “I thought it'd be livelier so I agreed.”

“Personal interest disguised as public,” Gu Fei said.

“Hey,” Wang Xu was a bit embarrassed but then lifted his chin stubbornly. “You two, if you have any targets you can take the chance too!”

“Piss off,” Gu Fei replied.

Class 2's game was similarly one-sided. The opponents were weak, without Class 7's dirty tricks, and were pressed by Class 2 all the way.

"We can't beat them." Jiang Cheng stood under the basket watching Class 2 play.

"Yeah." Gu Fei agreed.

"Their strength is too even, and they're tall," Jiang Cheng said, covering his mouth so Wang Xu next to him wouldn't hear him being discouraged. "They play ball all the time normally right? Look at their coordination."

"They have Principal Liu. When there's nothing to do they play a game," Gu Fei said softly. "And they did gather all the good players."

"How was it!" Wang Xu was holding up his phone to record. "I got some footage. We'll be taking exams soon so there's time to analyze their weaknesses after."

"Yeah." Jiang Cheng nodded.

"None of them are as strong as our Lu Xiaobin," Wang Xu said. "I don't see their coordination as good as you two either. Maybe..."

"Don't get your voice in the recordings," Gu Fei interrupted him. "It'll be annoying listening to it when we review the videos."

"Damn, you're really inflated now," Wang Xu glared at him sideways. "But understandable, I'm inflated too."

After watching Class 2's game, Jiang Cheng had two feelings: they couldn't win, and and their cheer squad was really strong.

As they got ready to leave, Class 2's captain came over.

"He's called He Zhou," Gu Fei whispered to Jiang Cheng. "Don't go randomly calling others again."

"...Oh." Jiang Cheng responded.

Seeing He Zhou come over, Wang Xu immediately went up to greet him, but He Zhou just nodded at him and directly brushed past to stand in front of Gu Fei.

"We'll face you guys next." He said.

"Yeah," Gu Fei smiled. "Want us to take it easy?"

"We never go easy," He Zhou also smiled. "You guys don't need to go easy either... I've waited so long to finally get to play against you."

Gu Fei didn't reply.

He Zhou turned to look at Jiang Cheng. "You're called Jiang Cheng right?"

"Yeah," Jiang Cheng nodded. "Jiang Cheng."

"I'm He Zhou," He Zhou said smilingly, but his gaze held some provocation. "Don't hold back then, Three Pointer King."

After He Zhou left, Wang Xu watched his back, a little unhappy: "That guy's just a smiling tiger."

"Learn from him, Captain," Gu Fei said.

"Damn, let's go eat!" Wang Xu waved a hand. Then he seemed to think of something and looked back at Jiang Cheng. "You've got a Three Pointer King nickname now huh? Pretty awesome, even I as captain don't have your limelight huh?"

"You're amazing." Jiang Cheng gave him a thumbs up.

"I'm amazing my ass," Wang Xu jammed his neck out. "Say, if you're Three Pointer King, what am I?"

"Three Pointer King's captain." Gu Fei and Jiang Cheng spoke at the same time.

Wang Xu stared at them for a while: "I think you two can take the Best Chemistry Deskmates award."

Once they left school, Jiang Cheng immediately saw Gu Miao sitting on the shed railing, skateboard upright against the railing. She had one foot dangling while the other was on the skateboard.

Jiang Cheng waved at her.

Gu Miao kicked the skateboard down with one foot. It landed on the ground and she jumped down directly onto it, riding over on the momentum.

"Cool," Jiang Cheng said.

"So cool, Queen Miao Miao!" Wang Xu clapped.

A group of people praised her, but Gu Miao ignored them all with a cold expression, circling around them on her skateboard.

It was quite cool. Jiang Cheng looked at Gu Miao moving as one with the skateboard. But then he thought again, part of Gu Miao's coolness came from some psychological or physiological problems, which made him feel sad again.

"You," Gu Fei moved closer and said softly, "Get on my bike quickly."

"What's wrong?" Jiang Cheng looked around and didn't see Monkey or the suspected monkey accomplices appearing that would require escaping.

"I don't want to bring girls along," Gu Fei said.

"Oh," Jiang Cheng understood and nodded.

Then he saw Gu Fei rush into the shed to take out a bicycle and pedal forward without caring about his sister.

"Gu Miao, follow up!" Jiang Cheng yelled, then chased Gu Fei's bike and ran a few steps.

He didn't know why Gu Fei was so afraid of the girls in the class. He pedaled so fast that it was simply not a speed a person could reach.

"Damn! Why don't you just fly!" Jiang Cheng had no choice but to grab his clothes and slow down the speed before getting on.

"I'll fly after you get on," Gu Fei said.

Jiang Cheng had just sat firmly when a shadow swooshed past him.

Gu Miao had flown first. At this speed... Jiang Cheng suddenly felt that sitting behind Gu Fei really delayed his take off.

After flying out with Gu Miao in front and him behind for about half a mile, Jiang Cheng heard his phone ring. He took it out and saw it was Wang Xu.

"Hello?" He answered the call.

"If people didn't know, they'd think you two are racing to find a toilet!" Wang Xu was apparently yelling while pedaling, "Do you know where to eat, rushing so fast!"

"......Where?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"Downtown! The hot pot place in the square! Da Fei knows," Wang Xu said, "There's no good food around here! You can only eat Wang Er Xian Bing here!"

"Okay, got it," Jiang Cheng laughed and hung up the phone. Then he patted Gu Fei's back, "Hey, pilot."

"Where to?" Gu Fei turned his head and asked, then whistled to call Gu Miao in front who was charging forward with her head down.

"He said the hot pot place in the square." Jiang Cheng said.

"Must be the place Captain Wang picked. He likes that place." Gu Fei turned at the intersection.

Gu Miao rode over, bent down and reached out a hand to poke under Jiang Cheng's butt.

"Hey!" Jiang Cheng was startled and sat up straight, grabbing Gu Fei's waist, "What are you doing?"

Gu Miao grabbed the rear rack of the bike and looked at him calmly before staring ahead at the road.

"Your brother is carrying both of us along, he'll be tired to death." Jiang Cheng said with a smile.

"She's lightweight like this." Gu Fei said.

"I'll take over and carry you when you get tired." Jiang Cheng said.

"I always thought you couldn't ride a bike." Gu Fei turned his head.

"......I don't have a bike," Jiang Cheng said, then sighed again, "And I'm too lazy to buy one."

"It's quite interesting, too lazy to buy a bike, but not lazy to walk every day," Gu Fei said, "I'll take you there someday, the place I bought yarn last time has a shop."

"Okay." Jiang Cheng agreed.

The two didn't speak again. Jiang Cheng looked at Gu Fei's back, Gu Miao swooshing beside him, the feeling was quite comfortable, with some excitement and fatigue after the race, and some temporary detachment from the surroundings.

But Jiang Cheng always felt something was wrong with his posture. After a long time, he suddenly realized his hand was still on Gu Fei's waist.

This discovery shocked him, but he didn't jerk his hand away like being electrified. He didn't want to be so sensitive.

It was just that his palm, which originally had no feeling, after realising this, he felt he could feel Gu Fei's body temperature through his clothes.

He was simply possessed, Jiang Cheng closed his eyes and sighed again.