The Midterm Results Announcement and the First Time Playing Football Part II

“Wow, Bai Zhe. This is excellent. Bai Zhe’s scored first place in our year.”

“He got first place in every subject. He used to be at the bottom. How unbelievable!”

“You tried really hard, didn’t you? Good job. Effort has never let anybody down.”

It was certain that the boys quickly scanned for Bai Zhe’s scores after they heard the girls talking. And they found the number ‘100’ for all of Bai Zhe’s subjects.

“Oi, someone slap me. Am I dreaming?” Mu Si Cheng said while walking toward Bai Zhe. If he asked for it like that, why would Bai Zhe not give him what he wanted?

Slap…Bam.

Mu Si Cheng’s head was struck, making it slam down hard into a desk. The boy quickly looked up and used his hand to rub at his forehead which had just struck the desk.

“Woke up yet?” Bai Zhe felt like he was getting more comfortable with Mu Si Cheng, so he teased the boy. It did not only make him get closer to Mu Si Cheng, but it also increased his sense of camaraderie with his other classmates.

“Bai Zhe, if you are going to slap me, next time, please reduce your force to half of that. It hurts, you know!” said Mu Si Cheng.

“Is that no good? How will you know that you are not dreaming if you don’t feel hurt? I got full marks because I did my best,” Bai Zhe said to annoy Mu Si Cheng.

“Waah, Bai Zhe, when did you turn to be such a bully? Head girl, help me. He hurt me.” Mu Si Cheng parted from Bai Zhe and went to cling to the girl’s leg. He made a face like a puppy that was about to cry while pointing at Bai Zhe.

“Let go of me, you bad dog. You should be hit by your owner,” replied the head girl coldly, trying to shake her leg to free it from Mu Si Cheng’s clinging. Bai Zhe looked at the scene and could not help but feel sad that the original Bai Zhe had never experienced such a scenario, because Da Tong and Yi Han’s group had bullied him. Yi Han’s group had left school for rehab and Da Tong’s group had been suspended. There was only Da Tong left. However, Da Tong skipped almost all of the classes. It allowed the classmates to be friendlier to Bai Zhe.

While Bai Zhe was lost in his thoughts, Mu Si Cheng was shaken off with force to land at Bai Zhe’s feet.

“Bai Zhe, look at our head girl. She is cold-hearted,” Si Cheng pointed his finger at the head girl this time. Bai Zhe thus defined Mu Si Cheng as “the class clown.”

“Good enough she didn’t call you a psycho that molested her when you clung to her leg like that,” said Bai Zhe, making the boy realise what he had done.

‘Oh, right. I was one step away from jail,’ thought Mu Si Cheng.

“Thank you for telling me. I took the teasing too far.” Mu Si Cheng stopped playing and stood up, fixing his clothes.

Homeroom started not long after that. The homeroom teacher entered. She praised Bai Zhe for his midterm scores and told him to maintain this standard for the final examinations.

Lunch break

Bai Zhe’s female classmates hurriedly bought lunch and snacks from the cafeteria, then swiftly found seats near the school’s football field. They chose to sit in the area under the shade of the trees so they would not be hot; plus, there would be a cool breeze.

Bai Zhe was stretching and warming up his body while Mu Si Cheng and his friends went to change into shorts and t-shirts because they did not want their student uniforms to get stained by the dirt. Of course, Bai Zhe had not brought a spare shirt. He did not care whether his clothes got dirty or not, though. Just using qi to clean his clothes would make them as good as new.

Mu Si Cheng divided people into teams by drawing lots. Team number one would have five members, from year 1 to year 3. The result was that Bai Zhe was in a different team from Mu Si Cheng.

“Bai Zhe, though you cannot move freely because of your clothes, I will not go easy on you, man.” Mu Si Cheng pointed in defiance to Bai Zhe, who had been assigned to be the midfielder.

After the boy who was the referee signalled for them to start, Mu Si Cheng, playing as a forward, stole the ball from a boy who was on the same team as Bai Zhe, then he ran toward Bai Zhe, aiming to challenge him one-on-one. But Bai Zhe stood up straight, hands behind his back. His manner was like when he fought with Mr. Jang. It made Mu Si Cheng focus on Bai Zhe’s feet. Unexpectedly, a boy from Bai Zhe’s team easily stole the ball from him.

“Beautiful distraction, Bai Zhe,” another team member shouted to Bai Zhe, praising him.

Yes. Bai Zhe had planned to distract Mu Si Chen and had his team members seize the ball because Bai Zhe knew from his team members that Mu Si Cheng was very good at football. Thus, he had to use a bit of strategy.

“Argh!” Mu Si Cheng quickly retreated.

The boy who got the ball was marked by 2 players from Mu Si Cheng's team, with Mo Si Cheng about to follow in order to take the ball back. Suddenly, a dark shadow swiftly took the ball from the team member who was marked.

“Leave it to me,” said Bai Zhe. He swiftly dribbled the ball away, using the strength he had been holding back, this was enough for Bai Zhe to brush off the players who tried to stop him or steal the ball from him.

“I won’t let you pass.” A year 2 boy ran toward Bai Zhe, intending to take the ball from him.

‘Flower Dance Step.’ Bai Zhe used this opportunity to practice his technique so that his current body could get more used to them. From then, his steps changed. At first, he moved to the left slowly, then quickly moved to the right, and swiftly to the left again. The movements happened in just a few seconds. The year 2 boy who was planning to steal the ball lost his balance because he could not keep up with Bai Zhe's movements.

At this moment, Mu Si Cheng was approaching Bai Zhe from behind, and there were two boys blocking Bai Zhe in the front. Thus, Bai Zhe stomped his feet onto the ground, making the ball bounce to the front, and then he used another movement technique to move away.

‘Cloud Touching Step.’ Bai Zhe jumped into the air. While he was floating, the leg that he had lifted up was stretched out straight which made him look like he was stepping on the air.

Bai Zhe decided to kick the ball that was floating up high to the left corner of the goal.

With the distance that Bai Zhe was at, his classmate who was the goalkeeper of Mu Si Cheng’s team thought that the ball would go to the right, so he moved to the right.

The moment he moved to the right, the ball suddenly curved in the air in the opposite direction and went to his left instead.

“What on earth was that? How hard did the ball spin to make it curve like that?” said that classmate.

Si Cheng’s team was surprised by the bizarre shot. It changed their perspective about Bai Zhe having just normal sports skills because Bai Zhe could jump high to the point that it seemed as if he was floating in the air and his movements looked like he could walk in the air for some time. These special movements showed that he had greater physical ability than normal people.

The girls were screaming. They had never thought that Bai Zhe could be good enough to challenge Mu Si Cheng's group, whom they always saw playing football.

“It was just one goal. The match is not over yet. Don’t give up. We can still win,” Mu Si Cheng encouraged his team.

Bai Zhe whispered something to his team as well, then turned to give Mu Si Cheng an evil smile. He knew that Mu Si Chang had excellent football skills. His team only had boys from year one and year two, who have just intermediate skills. Mu Si Cheng had gotten all the people who were good at football onto his team from the drawing of lots.

What should be done then? Have you ever heard these words: “to win by hook or by crook”? If it could be gained by trickery, then it had to be gained with one’s soul.

In scoring the last goal, Bai Zhe used his soul power to support the spinning of the ball, which made the ball change its direction and move to the place where the goalkeeper was not present. This was his special skill; it did not count as cheating. Because from the original Bai Zhe’s memory, there was no rule to prevent the player from using his soul power. Or was there? Hehe.