A Matter of Principle

Under the hisses, Bai Sheshan couldn't concentrate on playing basketball and made many mistakes. After resting for five minutes, he finally regained his composure.

After the game, he came to Xia Yu's side and swayed for a while. Just as he was about to speak, he was scolded by the girls again.

"If you have the ability, come down and let's compete!" Bai Sheshan's face turned red with anger.

Originally, he just wanted to provoke Xia Yu a bit and see his unhappy expression, but Xia Yu remained happy and looked like he was watching a monkey show.

Especially the girls around Xia Yu, they kept speaking up for him.

As a popular guy, Bai Sheshan was usually favored by girls, but today, because of Xia Yu, he was mocked by a group of girls and couldn't swallow his anger.

Xia Yu didn't speak, and the surrounding girls helped him answer: "Why don't you try playing the guzheng, violin or piano? Have you no shame!"

"Men are talking, what are women interrupting for!" Bai Sheshan was so angry that he became dizzy.

His words enraged the girls.

"Why do you care if we interrupt or not!"

"What kind of person do you think you are!"

Seeing the girls getting a little out of control, the PE teacher hurriedly came to maintain order and pushed Bai Sheshan out of the gym.

His departure didn't affect others. His team and Gui Zixiao's team shook hands and continued playing together.

It's a rare opportunity to have everyone together, so they didn't want to waste it.

The two teams from the previous game didn't leave, and everyone played together.

"Brother, why does that guy keep staring at you?" Yuxue asked Xia Yu. She wasn't worried about Xia Yu's safety. Compared to the previous gangsters, Bai Sheshan was nothing.

Besides, Bai Sheshan was only one person and had no helpers.

"Maybe it's because he's jealous of my face!" Xia Yu touched his face. The only good thing his father left him was this face.

"Thick-skinned." Yuxue pretended to be disgusted.

"Let's go, let's go shopping." Xia Yu stood up and was about to leave with Yuxue.

At this moment, a basketball flew out of the court and headed towards the stands in front of him.

The stands were full of girls, who only screamed at the sight of the approaching basketball.

Xia Yu quickly took two steps forward and grabbed the basketball with one hand.

The basketball's power was not small. Even though he subconsciously unloaded some force, his hand still hurt a bit.

"Are you okay?" The boys on the court were scared and gathered around.

The boy who threw the ball turned pale. He had just thrown the ball from the edge of the three-point line, and because of his excitement, he had exerted too much force.

"It's fine." Xia Yu threw the basketball back to them and felt normal.

Who hasn't been hit by a basketball while playing?

Even flying balls hitting the face were common occurrences.

"Are your hands okay?" The girls were more delicate than the boys. The girls closest to Xia Yu directly grabbed his hand to check, and the other girls gathered around, as if looking at a rare treasure.

After the girls confirmed that he was fine, the boys resumed their activities.

Gui Zixiao took the opportunity to invite Xia Yu: "Come down and shoot a few balls!"

Yuxue's eyes lit up and she encouraged Xia Yu: "I'll take pictures of you and send them to Lili to make her envious!"

Xia Yu agreed and jumped down while holding onto the railing in front of the stands.

The boys threw the ball to him and watched him shoot.

So many spectators, particularly the girls who accounted for half of them, could be said to have been drawn by Xia Yu. Showing off in front of so many girls was not an ordinary opportunity, and they didn't know how many times they could have it in their lifetime.

So the boys had a good impression of Xia Yu.

Since Xia Yu had said before that he didn't know how to play basketball, Gui Zixiao specifically led him to the free-throw circle.

A group of people gathered around, waiting for Xia Yu to shoot.

In this life, Xia Yu really hadn't played basketball. This life's physical education classes were running, long jump, and swimming, and basketball was not in the teaching scope. However, in his previous life, basketball was a sport that spanned throughout primary school, middle school, and college physical education classes.

Among them, shooting was a subject he had taken during his college years in his previous life.

Standing in the free-throw circle with ten balls, he could make six of them.

But that was in his last life, and Xia Yu was not sure about his abilities in this life.

He recalled the techniques, spun the ball to find the right feeling, and threw it towards the basket.

The ball hit the basket and flew out.

A boy beside him caught the ball and threw it back to Xia Yu.

The boys comforted Xia Yu, "Bad luck, just a little bit more and it would have gone in."

However, they thought to themselves: Such good luck that it almost went in.

They thanked Xia Yu for bringing the girls over, so they didn't tell him this cruel truth. They had already decided that if Xia Yu didn't make any shots, they would go easy on him when it was their turn to give him some face.

That's right, they were planning to go up one by one and shoot after Xia Yu's turn.

In this way, they could claim to have beaten Xia Yu in the future.

When they grew old and watched TV with their granddaughters, they would point at the old artist Xia Yu on the screen and say, "Although Xia Yu is good at playing piano, violin, and guzheng, his basketball skills are not that great. In our younger days, your grandpa fought against him and won!"

Then, their granddaughters would look at them with admiration and ask for more stories.

Thinking about this, their eyes fervently looked at Xia Yu.

Xia Yu didn't notice this. He held the ball and recalled the feeling from just now.

He raised his hand, and the muscles in his arm moved. Lv4 dexterity commanded the muscle army, coordinating their strength from upper arm to forearm, from fingers to the basketball.

The basketball flew out, without touching the edge of the basket.

It fell right into the basket.

The girls cheered for Xia Yu, while the boys were dumbfounded.

It actually went in?

They handed the ball to Xia Yu, feeling that his luck was extraordinary. If a beginner scored one in two shots, wasn't it because of good luck?

For the third shot, Xia Yu had completely understood the necessary amount of force. The ball entered the net without any suspense, making a pleasant sound as it rubbed against the net.

The boys looked at each other and gave the ball back to Xia Yu.

After the fourth and fifth shots entered the net cleanly, they couldn't stand it anymore.

Gui Zixiao pulled Xia Yu to the three-point line and said, "Try from here."

Xia Yu threw the ball, it hit the board but still went into the basket.

A gasp rang out from the surroundings.

In the sixth round, Xia Yu regained his level, and the basketball went straight into the net.

By the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth ball, the boys had become numb.

At this moment, Xia Yu was also satisfied. He handed the ball to the boys around him: "Do you want to play?"

"No, no," the boys hurriedly declined.

No one was willing to step forward and play in a losing situation.

The atmosphere suddenly cooled down.

Guizi Xiao cautiously suggested: "How about we try 1v1?"

The boys immediately agreed:

"That's a good idea!"

"This is good, this is good!"

"Exactly, what's the meaning of just shooting? It's only interesting when we play directly."

"Xia Yu, you go first. Don't worry, we'll be careful."

In their view, Xia Yu, who played the guzheng, had some impressive hand skills, but he would surely be useless in a full-body sport like basketball.

Their fantasies were beautiful, but reality often turned out to be cruel.

Returning home angrily, Bai She Shan took out his cell phone and was surprised to see a crying emoji repeated multiple times in the basketball team group chat.

What was going on?

He asked a close friend and received a video.

The video showed Xia Yu.

At the beginning, Xia Yu shook his head and said, "I don't know how to play basketball."

Then, the scene switched to Xia Yu standing at the free-throw line, as he shot the basketball in his hand four times in a row.

The video was continuous, only speeding up during the ball-picking portion, so it was evident that the shots were consecutive.

Bai She Shan sat up straight: "This Xia Yu has some skills."

Next, the video sped up, and Xia Yu was guided to the three-point line, where he scored five in row.

Bai She Shan unzipped his jacket as he felt a little hot.

Later, they started playing 1v1 on the court. At first, Xia Yu was a bit unfamiliar, letting the opponent score twice, but afterward, the opponent couldn't do anything else but stand there with empty hands, looking bewildered.

Bai She Shan went to the window to cool off, feeling extremely hot.

On the phone, after the 1v1, a group of people started playing scrimmages. Xia Yu didn't shoot, but moved nimbly around with the ball, continuously making layups.

All five opponents together could only make his layup times slightly longer.

In the end, the opening scene appeared again, with Xia Yu shaking his head helplessly:

"I don't know how to play basketball."

If he doesn't know how to play basketball, then what am I?

Turning off his phone, Bai She Shan took out a cigarette and sighed.

He knew that he had no chance of winning against Xia Yu, but Xia Yu didn't seem to care about his provocation at all.

No wonder Yan Wei chose him. Besides the gaps in talent and appearance, was there a difference in life experience between Xia Yu and him?

Lighting his cigarette, Bai She Shan took a fierce drag.

The irritating smoke stimulated his insides, contorting his face.

He looked out the window at the setting sun, furrowing his brow.

As the sun set, the city lights came up, shrouding the entire city in a brilliant glow.

After playing on the street with Yuxue until ten o'clock, they returned home. Xia Yu felt relieved as he watched the girl rush to finish her homework.

After telling Yuxue that he was going to bed and encouraging her to finish her homework, Xia Yu went to bed after washing up.

He quickly fell asleep.

But on the other side, lying next to Yin Shulan, Yin Ling tossed and turned, feeling uneasy.

Today, she had taken some candy to school and was discovered. It wasn't a teacher who found out, but the school bully, who demanded she bring five more tomorrow.

The candy was given to her by her eccentric grandmother, and there were still thirty-two left. Five was not a large number.

However,

How could she give away something meant to be eaten?

Yin Ling furrowed her brows.