𝙋𝙝𝙤𝙩𝙤𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙝 ➝ Zhuo Zhi

34: Family's Permission

Days after the one-week training with Yu Feng, Yu Qing resumed their trainings in the school's tennis courts. Coach Qi Na immediately swept them off with loads of practices. She made them run a hundred of laps and practice swinging their rackets right after their jogs. Jia Li thought to herself how Coach Qi Na was much more harsh when training the players. She could clearly see how exhausted they all were including the rookie players, but they didn't have any guts to protest against their strict coach.

Assigned in different training areas, Lu Xia and Zhuo Zhi were practicing individually from the others, swinging their rackets left and right as the tennis machines continued throwing balls at them. Xing Long and Bai Yang were assigned to exercise in the gym. Da Yong and Jia Le were thrown under Zhi Ming's supervision, who was training them through a new plan wherein the two players were only going to use one racket to determine how firm their coordination was.

After noticing Bai Yang and Zhi Ming's doubles game last time, Coach Qi Na decided to let them practice against the Golden Partners. The match was pretty intense and surprisingly difficult for Jia Le and Da Yong as they struggled against the new doubles players. When Bai Yang performed his 'Snake Ball' move, Jia Le yelled for his partner, who was able to return the ball back in time.

"Nice move, Senior Da Chi!" Mu cheered from the side, who was watching along with Coach Qi Na, Jia Li, Huang Jing, and Xiu Wen.

Coach Qi Na placed her hands on her waist as she squinted at the game, "Just now, Da Chi didn't react quickly enough. If Bai Yang hadn't insisted his 'Snake Ball', Da Chi and Jia Le could have lost this round."

"Oh, okay, I see." The three rookie players nodded, watching the game intently.

"What are you three doing here by the way?" Coach Qi Na turned to them. "Don't you have training?" The three sheepishly looked at her and scurried off to resume their training, which made Jia Li chuckle at how scared they were of the coach.

Jia Li then watched with worry as Da Yong stumbled in pain, attempting to reach for the ball thrown in their court. However, he missed it, letting Zhi Ming and Bai Yang win the game. From behind her, Jia Li could hear Qiao Chen mutter in shock, "The Golden Partners lost to Bai Yang and Zhi Ming."

She turned to him, but he was too engrossed in disbelief at the situation. Her head snapped at Zhuo Zhi's direction, who yelled for Qiao Chen and served a ball which flew past an inch away from Qiao Chen's forehead and got stuck in one of the fences' holes. Jia Li glared at Zhuo Zhi, who cheekily grinned, "That was scary!"

"Yeah, what Jia Li said!" Qiao Chen cried. "Instead of reminding me, you scared me!"

He sighed and put down his racket, reaching upwards to retrieve the ball that got stuck. Once he was able to grab it, Jia Li watched as Qiao Chen fell to the ground. He stood up immediately and turned his back, not noticing how his pants got stuck on one of the wires, ripping it apart from the fast speed he just did. Jia Li's eyes widened, and she gasped as Qiao Chen faced her, biting his lip in embarrassment. She quickly turned around and walked away.

Once she reached the shed, Zhuo Zhi tilted his head at her, noticing the red color painting her cheeks, "Are you okay? Your face is red."

"Um..." Jia Li mumbled, embarrassed to tell him how she just had unintentionally seen Qiao Chen's underclothes. She shut her eyes tightly to throw away the image from her head, biting her lip hard.

"You know, if you're going to bite your lips that hard, it's going to bleed." Jia Li shot her eyes open as Zhuo Zhi smiled at her and raised a hand to touch her forehead, "Are you sick? You're really red."

Her hands shot up to touch her warm cheeks, stuttering as Zhuo Zhi leaned his ear to hear her clearly, "Qiao Chen's pants got ripped and I-I didn't mean to see what was, um...it just happened."