Chapter 3 (2/2)

…

Meanwhile, in Class 5 of the first year students…

“An Ke, I’m going to hand in the student activity list after class. Have you decided on what club you’re joining yet?” the class president asked a tall, male student sitting next to the windows.

“Pres, I’ve already told you, I’m not joining any clubs!” An Ke was annoyed. “Why do you keep asking me? I’m not the only student who’s not joining any clubs in our class!”

“Well, I just think that with your body and height, it’s a shame that you’re not on the basketball or soccer team.”

“Thanks, but no thanks!”

“Okay. The soccer team’s practicing this afternoon on the field. You going?”

“That’s… Why are you even telling me this?”

…

Liang Ke had once again asked the female students from his class to go cheer for the boys during their practice in the afternoon. So, by the time soccer practice began, their cheers could already be heard from afar.

An Ke was making his way towards the field, continuously telling himself, “I’m here for the girls! Not the school team! Just the girls!” And when he made it to the crowd, he could already see everything in front clearly because of his 188-cm height.

The school team was having a drill. They had to try to score a goal using any means necessary (except anything against the rules).

“Yang Pan!” Liang Ke shouted. “You’re up!”

Yang Pan raised his hand in response to the coach and made his way to the ball. As he did that, the girls all started to scream, “Yang Pan! Yang Pan!”

An Ke felt his pride as a man being shattered. He had always considered himself a ladies’ man and this was rather damaging to his pride.

“What’s so great about him?” he said softly. His voice was soft, but still loud enough for the screaming girls to hear. They all turned around and faced him angrily.

“What’s so great about you! You look stupid!”

“That’s right, you pointed mouth chimpanzee! You look like a piece of sh*t!”

“Why don’t you look at your own reflection in your own piss!”

Poor An Ke. The girls did not stop throwing insults at him. Their constant barrage of mean words was enough to make a healthy bull foam in the mouth and die, or even make the goddess, Guan Yin want to murder them. Even the venerable Tang San Zhang from Journey to the West would have ended up kneeling in front of these girls and saying, “My admiration for you is like that of a river: It is unstoppable and never ending; And not just any river, it is as powerful as the Yellow River! So please, please, please, please, please, I beg you all, please say no more!!!”

An Ke had never been insulted this much by any girl before, let alone a whole group. He was usually the kind to smile and act in a gentlemanly manner when dealing with the ladies. But right now, he was boiling with so much anger, he was unable to maintain his usual charm. He made his way through the mob of girls onto the field and shouted, “Yang Pan!”

The whole field became silent.

Yang Pan turned around.

An Ke pointed his right finger at Yang Pan and shouted, “I challenge you to a one-on-one! You attack, I’ll defend! The loser has to listen to the winner’s request! How about that? Are you man enough to accept my challenge?”

The crowd turned to look at Yang Pan.

Yang Pan simply smiled and said, “Sounds fun!”

His response drove the girls crazy again and they all screamed excitedly.

An Ke quickly got changed. He put on a pair of gloves and got in front of the goal.

“You set the challenge, I set the rules. I’ll keep attacking and you’ll keep defending until either you save the ball by hugging it or I score. Any questions?” Yang Pan said.

Amid the girls’ cries of “Hit him in the face!” and “Show him how useless he is!”, An Ke who was still fuming did not think much about Yang Pan’s conditions. “Fine, whatever! Enough chat! Come on!”

The two boys stared at each other.

Despite being frustrated and annoyed, the moment An Ke got into position in front of the goal, he still showed the qualities of an excellent goalkeeper. He was extremely alert, yet very calm. He observed Yang Pan’s every move with a keen eye, ready to react to any of his attacks.

But Yang Pan did not shoot. Instead, he carried the ball further until he was about 30 m away from the goalpost. An Ke had no idea why he was doing that, but the crowd in the stand knew that Yang Pan was going for his signature long-ranged kick.

Yang Pan distanced himself from the ball before sprinting towards it and kicking it with all his might. The ball shot through the air like a cannonball!

An Ke saw the ball being kicked into the air and when the small black dot rapidly grew bigger, he became very shocked. He instinctively put both his hands out to block it.

*Thud!*

Everybody heard the loud sound of An Ke blocking the ball, but An Ke flew into the goal himself. Zhang Jun, who was watching from afar was dumbstruck! This was his first time witnessing Yang Pan’s secret weapon being blocked!

An Ke was still lying inside the goal and the ball he blocked had been deflected back to the field. Yang Pan sprinted towards the spot where the ball landed and kicked the ball hard, sending it towards the goal again. An Ke could only watch as the ball hit the netting. There was nothing he could do about it.

Even though this was his second time seeing Yang Pan’s kick, An Ke could still feel the immense pressure from trying to defend against it. An Ke was now very sure that Yang Pan was extremely gifted, and he would no doubt become the star of Shu Guang High’s soccer team!

Yang Pan then made his way to An Ke.

“I lost, so I’ll do whatever you ask me to,” An Ke said dejectedly.

“Great! Welcome to the soccer team!” Yang Pan extended his hand.

“Huh?” An Ke was confused.

“Well, you said that you’d do whatever I want. I want you to join the team. Everybody here can be a witness.” Yang Pan pointed to the crowd.

“…Why do I feel like I just got conned?” An Ke said as he looked at the crowd.

“You better not go back on your word!”

“That’s right! We’re watching you!” The crowd shouted.

“Who said I wasn’t gonna keep my word? Fine, I’ll join! What’s the big deal?” An Ke got up angrily. Yang Pan finally laughed. He was quite wary about An Ke going back on his promise. An ke kept rubbing his left hand, which was still in pain from making that block.

“Injured already?”

“Man, you must be joking! That kick was weak! Go train some more!”

“Come on, let’s go meet the rest of the team!” Yang Pan dragged An Ke over to the other team members. An Ke’s height caused quite a commotion among the team members. Many of them kept asking him silly questions about how he grew so tall and if he had played basketball before.

Liang Ke looked at them and thought to himself.

Now all that’s left is you, Zhang Jun!

He then turned to look in the boy’s direction, just to find that he had already left.

…

Zhang Jun took off his shoes. His foot was not as swollen as he thought it was after all. He then moved it around a little, and felt that it was not hurting him as much as it did before.

“Has it healed?” His father asked.

Zhang Jun’s dad, Zhang Wei Guo was a freelance photographer and he had not been getting proper work for a while now. Ever since Zhang Jun could remember, his dad had always been running around with a camera in his hand. Almost every photograph in their house was taken by his dad.

“Not so sure.” Zhang Jun did not want to stress about it too much.

“You’ve been kicking balls for almost 10 years. You should be able to tell the difference between a ball and a brick,” his dad joked as he applied some ointment on the injured foot. He was also the other soccer addict in the family as well as the one responsible for Zhang Jun’s soccer training.

“Zhang Jun, do you still want to play soccer?” his dad suddenly asked him in a serious tone.

“I do! If I wasn’t playing, I wouldn’t have injured myself like that,” Zhang Jun replied with a smile.

“I mean, seriously.”

Zhang Jun became quiet. For the past few weeks, he had been quiet when it came to soccer.

“Do you love playing soccer?” his dad asked again.

Zhang Jun nodded.

“Son, you’ve never given your mom or me much to worry about ever since you were young. But, you tend to care too much about what people think.”

“I don’t! I—”

“I’m not finished! I’m your dad! How would I not know my own son?” his father continued. “You keep caring too much about what other people think and you’re just going to end up hurting yourself. So, go do what you want to do!” He patted Zhang Jun on the head and left.

…

Zhang Jun used his uninjured foot and played with his soccer ball. He missed the familiar feeling. He suddenly remembered a memory from a long time ago when he was just four years old. It was his first soccer practice. The coach was talking to a group of 10 or so kids who were about four to five years old, “If you want to play well, then you have to treat the ball like your girlfriend!” The kids were too young to know what a “girlfriend” was, but right now, Zhang Jun suddenly realized just how unfaithful he had been to his “girlfriend”.

…

“Team, we have a new member joining us today,” Liang Ke said. “Zhang Jun!”

“Hi!” Zhang Jun greeted everyone.

The team clapped and cheered. “Welcome! Welcome!”

And amid all of their greetings, Zhang Jun noticed Su Fei smiling broadly at him while standing next to Liang Ke.