Chapter 19
AFTER GU FEI TOLD Lao-Xu he’d enter the basketball tournament, Lao-Xu’s excitement was so palpable that Jiang Cheng felt it was as if Gu Fei had made it into Peking University. The moment classes ended that afternoon, he called all five of the players he’d picked to his office.
Jiang Cheng glanced at everyone, finally putting faces to Guo Xu and Lu Xiaobin’s names.
“No reserves?” Wang Xu asked. “Just the five of us playing the whole game?”
“You can see if any of your classmates would be good on the bench,” Lao-Xu said. “As for team captain…” Lao-Xu glanced at Gu Fei as he spoke. Gu Fei lifted a finger and pointed it at Wang Xu. “Him.”
Wang Xu immediately tilted his face up, putting on a reluctant expression.
“Nah, I can’t. I don’t want to be team captain; it’s such a pain.”
Just the look of him made Jiang Cheng want to laugh—what a bad actor.
“Wang Xu, then. You can all start practicing tomorrow.” Lao-Xu gave the basketball on his table to Wang Xu. “This is a good ball. I checked the equipment in our gym—none of the balls there are any good, so I went out and bought this one for you. They’ll use a new, good ball for the tournament, so we might as well get used to it during practice.”
Guo Xu took the ball from Wang Xu’s hand and bounced it a couple of times. “Thanks, Xu-zong.”
Jiang Cheng watched his movements; Guo Xu seemed decent. Maybe not overly impressive, but he could dribble, at least. Wang Xu seemed quite proud, so he was probably a decent player, too. He might even think he was good at it.
And though Lu Xiaobin never spoke, he was the tallest—about six foot two— and pretty buff. He was built like a brick shithouse. That was good.
It was easy enough to find benchwarmers. Though their class was in the humanities stream, there were still a lot of boys. Since it meant they could play basketball during self-study period, quite a few people wanted in. Team Captain Wang Jiuri called out everyone from the back row measuring six feet or taller, and that was that.
Lao-Xu already booked a court for them. Just watching his proactive positivity made Jiang Cheng feel exhausted on his behalf. As the head of a shitty class in a shitty school, where their grades were even shittier and they didn’t even have athletic prowess to fall back on, Lao-Xu somehow remained spirited and driven.
Holding the ball, Wang Xu stood in the center of the court with the air of a team captain. “Let’s see you guys’ skill levels first.”
“We’ve played together a bunch of times before,” one of the guys said.
“What else do you need to see?”
“We all need to get familiar with each other!” Wang Xu put on a serious face, then looked toward Jiang Cheng, who was crouching by the court. “How about you start, Jiang Cheng? Since you just transferred here, I don’t know how well you play.”
“Okay.” Jiang Cheng rose and took off his jacket. “How do we do this?”
Wang Xu passed him the ball and moved into an intercepting stance.
“Bring the ball past me.”
“Sure.” Jiang Cheng caught it. He dribbled a few times to get a feel for the ball’s bounce, then charged toward Wang Xu.
Wang Xu stood in place. By the time he reached out to stop Jiang Cheng, Jiang Cheng had already woven past on his left, stepping into a layup and sinking the ball into the basket.
“Nice!” Guo Xu cheered.
“Wait.” Wang Xu looked a little embarrassed. “I didn’t say ‘start’—you caught me off guard.”
“Ah.” Jiang Cheng caught the rebound and walked back, standing in front of him.
Once again, Wang Xu took his time to get into position. He finally lifted his chin and said, “Bring it!”
Jiang Cheng barely moved before Wang Xu launched himself forward, waving his arms in an attempt to block his way and to steal the ball at the same time. Jiang Cheng paused for a moment, then simply jumped and shot for the hoop. It went in.
“That’s a three-pointer,” Gu Fei called out from the courtside bench.
“Damn! We’ve got a chance this time!” someone hooted in excitement.
Wang Xu didn’t look too pleased. Just as he was about to say something, Gu Fei cut him off. “Hurry up. It’s cold.”
The heating in the gym was garbage, and everyone had already taken off their jackets at this point, so they were all wearing single layers. Grudgingly, Wang Xu nodded.
“How about this: We’ll split into two groups and try playing half a game to start.”
Everyone agreed.
Lao-Xu had been watching them the whole time, and now he came over and said, “Let’s split up Gu Fei and Jiang Cheng. We’ll have one on each side.”
“Why?” Wang Xu asked. “They’re both good. Let them work in tandem.”
“Easy for them to partner up, but if the two of them are on the same side, we might as well not play,” Lu Xiaobin said. “Split them into two teams and everyone can get some practice.”
“All right, then.”
This time Wang Xu didn’t put on any team captain airs as he finished splitting everyone into teams. Gu Fei’s team was Lu Xiaobin, Guo Xu, and two other guys Jiang Cheng wasn’t familiar with; Wang Xu himself was on Jiang Cheng’s team, along with three people he didn’t know. Jiang Cheng now had a deeper appreciation of how dire his emotional state had been recently: After all the time he’d spent here, he still couldn’t recognize everyone in his class. Of the ten people on the court, he only knew five. He had to differentiate them based on their clothes; two of them he’d only just managed to tell apart today… Lao-Xu grabbed a whistle and stood by the court. “I’ll referee.”
“It’s only half a game, what’s there to ref?” Gu Fei said.
“Play by regular rules anyway.” Lao-Xu put one hand on his hip and held the whistle with the other. “We’ll start with a jump and play as usual, just with a shorter time limit.”
“All right.” Wang Xu called the rest of his team over. “Each of you guard someone. Pin Da-Fei down and pass the ball to Jiang Cheng every chance you get—don’t bring it to the basket yourselves. As soon as Da-Fei gets close, pass to someone else. That bastard’s killer at stealing the ball.”
“All right.” The team nodded.
“We’re counting on you for points.” Wang Xu raised a hand, but just before it landed on Jiang Cheng’s shoulder, he took it back. “Oh, I forgot— you’re fussy, you don’t like to be touched.”
Jiang Cheng sighed.
To nobody’s surprise, Jiang Cheng and Gu Fei were the jumpers for the opening tip. Lao-Xu stretched out his hand, holding the ball between them.
“Focus, now! I’m about to throw.”
“What kind of referee says that?” said Gu Fei.
“Focus!” Lao-Xu stared daggers at him.
Glancing behind at Wang Xu, Jiang Cheng wondered how quick his reflexes were. Jiang Cheng had always played point guard—he’d never jumped for the tip in an official match before. He figured Gu Fei’s side would probably get this one.
With a lift of his hand, Lao-Xu tossed the ball up. Jiang Cheng trained his eyes on the ball, calculating the trajectory of its fall. Then, he jumped.
In the moment, he thought he timed his jump perfectly, but as he stretched out his hand, about to touch the ball, Gu Fei’s hand was already there.
As he expected.
Jiang Cheng landed and turned around. The ball was in Guo Xu’s hands now. He ran it to the basket with Wang Xu on his tail. Jiang Cheng took one look and was struck speechless. They’d all agreed to guard their marks before the match started. It was bad enough that Wang Xu was running after the ball, but two others on their side were chasing after it, too. Only one guy in a blue shirt was guarding Gu Fei.
Meanwhile, Lu Xiaobin guarded Jiang Cheng tightly.
Guo Xu was decent; he carried the ball well. He just wasn’t fast enough.
When Jiang Cheng caught up with him, he’d only just entered the key and was about to make a pass. The other team’s strategy was probably the mirror of Wang Xu’s—get the ball, pass to Gu Fei.
Jiang Cheng eyed Gu Fei’s position, then made a hard swerve to the right. As Lu Xiaobin followed his feint, he forced his way between Lu Xiaobin and another player, charging forward.
His timing was good. By the time Guo Xu caught sight of Jiang Cheng, the ball had already left his grasp. Jiang Cheng intercepted him with one hand.
“Head back, head back!” Wang Xu reacted swiftly, turning immediately to run.
Jiang Cheng turned to bring the ball up, but Lu Xiaobin got in his way.
The guy was massive—when he rushed up, his towering stature filled Jiang Cheng’s entire field of vision. He took two more steps before seizing a chance to pass the ball to Wang Xu. But that numbskull was so preoccupied with sprinting ahead, he didn’t see the ball coming his way at all.
“Wang Xu!” Jiang Cheng was forced to shout.
Only then did Wang Xu turn and dash back, grabbing the ball moments before it flew out of bounds.
While Lu Xiaobin was distracted by the ball, Jiang Cheng turned and broke free, dashing toward the basket. No one was guarding Wang Xu now. If he brought the ball over, Jiang Cheng could snag the chance to score.
But not even two steps later, just as Gu Fei ran up to guard him, Wang Xu decided to pass the ball back with a loud “Jiang Cheng!”
The hell are you shouting for? Are you trying to pass to Gu Fei?!
Jiang Cheng was flabbergasted. The moment he caught the ball, he saw Gu Fei’s hand reach out at the same time with astounding speed. He immediately dribbled it between his legs, shifting it between his hands as he lowered his center of gravity, planning to break free from the side.
Gu Fei didn’t give him the chance. He moved almost in tandem with Jiang Cheng. Not even Jiang Cheng’s jumping feints could deceive him; the bastard didn’t budge an inch.
Fuck!
Fortunately, Jiang Cheng wasn’t the only one with deadweight teammates —Gu Fei was just as lucky in that regard. Nobody was guarding Blue Shirt, who’d managed to slip behind Gu Fei easily. Jiang Cheng passed the ball to him between Gu Fei’s legs.
“God damn it.”
Lost for words, Gu Fei turned to find Blue Shirt already under the basket with the ball. But now that he had possession, Blue Shirt hesitated. Jiang Cheng could tell he wanted to pass the ball, even though he was right at the basket.
“Just shoot!” Jiang Cheng hollered.
Blue Shirt finally jumped and threw the ball.
It didn’t go in. Jiang Cheng knew it wouldn’t. With a stance like that, they were lucky the shot didn’t fly out of bounds. The ball bounced off the backboard, miles away from the rim.
Everyone waiting under the basket jumped to grab the rebound, some faster than others; several hands tangled in the air as they fought a grudge match for the ball, fighting even between teammates. Jiang Cheng reached in through the crowd and retrieved the ball, bringing it to the sidelines.
All at once, three opponents surrounded him in a semicircle. He needed to pass it off to a teammate.
“I’m open,” said someone to his right.
Jiang Cheng swiftly passed the ball over, just barely within bounds. As it sailed through the air, he suddenly realized: That was Gu Fei’s fucking voice!
Sure enough, when he turned to look, he found the ball solidly in Gu Fei’s grasp. Jiang Cheng couldn’t stop himself from cursing. “Fuck!”
That sneaky son of a bitch!
Gu Fei quirked his lips into a smile.
“Jiang Cheng, what the hell?!” Wang Xu roared.
“Guard him!” Jiang Cheng snapped. “He’s running all over the place by himself! Keep up!”
But it was too late to guard him now; Gu Fei was fast when he had the ball. Two others on the opposing team held Jiang Cheng back, and by the time his deadweight teammates reached Gu Fei, he was already at the foul line. Jiang Cheng could only watch helplessly as Gu Fei leaped in the air, sending the ball gently into the basket with a flick of his wrist.
Jiang Cheng had handed the ball to Gu Fei himself! He wished he could go over and shake Gu Fei by the collar. How could you be so treacherous?!
“Hey, make sure you know who you’re passing to, Jiang Cheng,” Yellow Running Shoes said. “Can’t you tell us apart yet?”
“Nah,” Jiang Cheng said. “Sorry about that.”
“Pass to your teammates,” Captain Wang said with a glare, “not your deskmate!”
“You need to stand somewhere I can pass to.” Jiang Cheng glared back at him. “Their guys were the only ones in my vicinity. It was either pass to him or throw it out of bounds.”
Wang Xu’s brow arched right up to his hairline, plainly displeased now.
Just as he was about to say something, the ball came flying over from one side.
“Don’t waste time,” Gu Fei said.
Jiang Cheng caught the ball and handed it to Wang Xu. “You throw in, I’ll bring it up to the basket. Block them and don’t let Gu Fei get close to me. Stick to him like a potsticker. Pull his arms, step on his feet—foul if you have to! Just don’t leave him any openings.”
Wang Xu glowered at him. “Got it.”
Lu Xiaobin was probably the most dutiful of all the players. He stuck by Jiang Cheng as Wang Xu was about to throw in, and as a result, Wang Xu was stuck there for ages still holding the ball. Eventually, Jiang Cheng was forced to rush over and run past Wang Xu, who finally seized his chance to pass the ball to him.
Wang Xu wasn’t a bad player, though. When Jiang Cheng advanced, he escorted him down the court, vying for space with Lu Xiaobin and squeezing against him so tightly that they might’ve had to resolve it with fists if it’d gone on any longer. Gu Fei didn’t come to stop Jiang Cheng this time—Blue Shirt and Yellow Shoes cut him off, one in front and one behind, all but holding him in an embrace. But by the time Jiang Cheng reached center court, Gu Fei had managed to escape them both.
There was no time for a slow layup. Fueled by his fury at Gu Fei’s dirty trick, Jiang Cheng charged straight to the three-point line. He didn’t stop and adjust; before Gu Fei could block him, he took his shot.
The ball went high, curving in a massive arc through the air before falling through the hoop.
“Holy shit, nice shot!” Wang Xu shouted.
Jiang Cheng exhaled in relief. He glanced at Gu Fei.
“Beautiful,” Gu Fei said.
There wasn’t much enjoyment to be had in a half-match, especially one like this with absolutely no coordination, where the only strategy on either side was to run all over the court. They were playing as hard as they could, but points were few and far between.
Lao-Xu blew the ending whistle and clapped. “Not bad!”
What part of that wasn’t bad? Jiang Cheng wanted to say.
“The good news is we’re a team with two strong players, now,” Lao-Xu said. “But why didn’t any of you break a single rule the whole time? You can’t play like that! Be brave! Be foul! You need to be bolder on the court. What do you think about the match, Gu Fei?”
“It was a total mess,” Gu Fei said.
Unsatisfied with his answer, Lao-Xu turned to look at Jiang Cheng. “Jiang Cheng, what about you?”
“Ditto,” Jiang Cheng said.
“It’s only the first day of practice.” Lao-Xu soldiered on by himself.
“There’s plenty of room for improvement! You need to believe in yourselves!
Do you think you can do it?”
Nobody uttered a word.
“Do you?!” Lao-Xu waved his arms. “Answer me at the top of your lungs!”
Again, he was met with silence.
Jiang Cheng could already tell from the half-match they played that apart from himself and Gu Fei, no one here played basketball on a regular basis. Even those who knew how to play were all average at best.
“Do y—” Lao-Xu continued his rousing speech.
“Yes,” Jiang Cheng answered—he couldn’t bear to watch Lao-Xu’s great efforts met with no response.
“Yes,” Wang Xu chimed in.
The whole group of them murmured “yes” with zero enthusiasm.
“That’s it! That’s right!” Lao-Xu beamed. “Our goal is to make it to the semifinals! Now, do you think you can do it?”
Everyone replied with a half-dead “yes.” Lao-Xu nodded, apparently satisfied.
“There’s still a couple of weeks until the tournament. We have plenty of time. Outside of gym class, you can practice during the afternoon self-study period.”
This special privilege was nothing to be sniffed at. Instantly invigorated, the group of them promised to practice properly.
For the rest of the practice, Captain Wang didn’t continue with the match, but switched to three-on-three games—the first group to score would win and the losers would be swapped out for another team.
Gu Fei didn’t play again. He sat on the bench by the court and watched.
None of them were particularly good, but Jiang Cheng hadn’t relaxed like this in ages, so it still hit the spot once they got into it.
“Could you stop blocking me?!” Guo Xu said helplessly, holding the ball.
“Jiang Cheng, why don’t you take a break?”
“Jiang Cheng, take five,” Wang Xu said. “With you here, no one else will get a chance to play.”
“All righty.” Jiang Cheng chuckled and let Lu Xiaobin replace him. He sat next to Lao-Xu and watched.
“So, what do you think?” Lao-Xu asked.
“Of what?” Jiang Cheng looked at him.
“The team,” Lao-Xu said.
Jiang Cheng said nothing. He could feel the intensity of Lao-Xu’s hope.
“Why don’t you two try playing on the same side tomorrow and see how it goes?” Lao-Xu asked.
Jiang Cheng nodded. “Sure.”
“Getting to the semis might be hard. Don’t get your hopes up,” Gu Fei chimed in. “It depends which teams we meet in the knock-out rounds. If it’s Class Two, we might as well just go home.”
“Don’t be such a downer. Cheer up!” Lao-Xu said.
“Okay.” Gu Fei looked at Lao-Xu. “Ha. Ha.”
As the final bell rang, people started to pour into the gym.
“Let’s go,” Wang Xu said. “They’re all here to practice. We can’t let them know our secret.”
“What secret?” Jiang Cheng asked “Our real ability. We need to still look like a shit team in front of the other classes,” Wang Xu said with a completely straight face. “We can’t let anyone know that Da-Fei is playing, or that Jiang Cheng’s a damned good player.”
Everyone nodded in unison, expressions of excitement mixed with self-sacrifice across their faces.
“Yeah!”
“We’ve got two trump cards now!”
“Everyone coming in now can already see that I’m here,” Gu Fei pointed out.
“No worries,” said Wang Xu. “Let’s put on a show.”
Gu Fei sighed. He stood, put on his jacket, and turned to walk out the door.
“For fuck’s sake!” Wang Xu yelled at the top of his lungs, startling Jiang Cheng. Glaring at Gu Fei’s back, he said, “Can’t you be a fucking team player for once?!”
Gu Fei simply flipped the bird behind himself without turning.
“Wang Xu,” one of the students who just came in said with a laugh as he took his jacket off. “That’s an improvement! At least Da-Fei actually came this time.”
“C’mon.” Wang Xu rose and led them out of the gym.
Jiang Cheng wanted to applaud Wang Xu for putting on an excellent performance; his acting skills had improved exponentially since he pretended to turn down the team captain role.
Jiang Cheng didn’t see Gu Miao and her skateboard at the school gate.
“Gu Miao isn’t waiting for you today?”
“She doesn’t necessarily come every day. Sometimes she goes off to play by herself,” Gu Fei said. “Are you still going back on foot?”
“Yeah.”
“Want a ride?”
Jiang Cheng hesitated. “Okay.”
As Gu Fei grabbed his bike, Jiang Cheng remembered the “I’m open” line from earlier and felt vexed all over again. “Hey. I notice you play dirty.”
“I was just messing around.” Gu Fei clambered onto his bicycle and pushed off. “I didn’t think you’d actually pass me the ball.”
“Why would you say it for no reason?!” Jiang Cheng climbed onto the back of the bike. “Lunatic.”
“It’s useful on the court. Who knows, some idiot from the other team might actually pass it to me.”
“You fucker!” Jiang Cheng cursed.
“I’ll call up some guys to practice with us tomorrow,” Gu Fei said. “It’s no fun playing like this.”
“Who?” Jiang Cheng remembered that Gu Fei had brought “Out” and “Jail” with him the last time he played basketball. “Fresh Out of Jail?”
“What?” Gu Fei asked, confused.
“…Nothing.” Jiang Cheng quickly corrected himself. “I mean, the guys you were playing with the last time?”
“Who’s Fresh Out of Jail supposed to be?” Gu Fei laughed. “Am I included in there?”
Jiang Cheng fell silent.
“Yep, them.” Gu Fei didn’t press him on it. “Fresh Out of Jail.”
Jiang Cheng sighed.
They didn’t speak again for the rest of the way. Jiang Cheng stared at the snow piled by the side of the road, his thoughts drifting. He was getting absent-minded lately. Every time there was silence, he would grow distracted, overthinking. He hadn’t always been like this—when his mind wandered in the past, it would get so thoroughly lost he wouldn’t even know where it went off to.
He wondered when he would finally escape this Mariana Trench of emotional lows.
Gu Fei cycled fast. It wasn’t too long before they reached the corner of Jiang Cheng’s street and he squeezed the handbrakes, slowing down.
“Thanks,” Jiang Cheng said as he leaped off.
Gu Fei didn’t reply. He was looking down the block.
It was then that Jiang Cheng noticed the swearing and screaming from down the street, near Li Baoguo’s building. He turned in time to see several people gathered around someone who’d fallen to the ground, kicking and stomping.
“The fuck.” Jiang Cheng frowned. This street and its never-ending hubbub. “What is it now…?”
Gu Fei got down from his bike and locked it against a tree by the road, then turned to him. “The guy on the ground is Li Baoguo.”