My Mister Ostrich

Chapter 15

The kids switched off. When you lost five times, you would switch out. Pang Qian couldn’t play, so she would always lose five times in a row. Watching at the side, Xie Yi couldn’t stand it any longer. “Crab, let me show you how to serve. Your serving is really too poor.”

He walked over to Pang Qian to demonstrate. He bent over, tossed the ball with his left hand, and whacked with the paddle in his right hand. The ball flew over the net to the other side. Hu Tianli received it, but then it went out of bounds.

Pang Qian thought to herself, “So cool.” And then she looked shyly towards Xie Yi.

“You see? This is a very easy method of serving, but the ball curves, so your opponent won’t be able to return it.” He demonstrated a few more times, and then told Pang Qian to try it. Pang Qian boldly followed as Xie Yi demonstrated. She hit it with her right hand, and she served the ball. But it just flew away.

The girls at the side laughed. Pang Qian knew that she’d embarrassed herself. Xie Yi didn’t say anything, but just went to fetch the ball. He raised his eyebrows toward Qiu Lina, “What are you laughing at? Pang Qian hit the ball on her first time. That’s talent right there, okay?”

He handed the ball over to Pang Qian. He very naturally grabbed onto Pang Qian’s right hand that was holding the paddle. “Toss the ball and then watch carefully what I do.”

Pang Qian’s heart was thumping. She threw the ball up with her left hand, and Xie Pi pulled her right hand to swing the paddle. With a crisp sound, the ball bounced on the other side, and Hu Tianli couldn’t return it, once again. With a huff, he went to pick up the ball.

Xie Yi released her hand and smiled, “Got it? That kind of strength, just like that.”

Pang Qian, “Mm.” She lowered her head and looked at her wrist. There was still a trace of the warmth left by Xie Yi’s hand. It made her face burn up.

After playing, the few kids walked back to the classroom covered in sweat. Xie Yi walked quietly next to Pang Qian. He started talking to her in a soft voice, “Crab, what’s with you and Gu Mingxie? Why don’t you talk to him at all this semester?”

Pang Qian felt a pang of surprise. What Xie Yi said was right. She really hadn’t spoken to Gu Mingxi in a long time.

They’d always been together since they were young. But these few months, even though they were neighbors and classmates, Pang Qian felt that the distance between them had grown a lot.

She didn’t even meet Gu Mingxi when they left for school. She adjusted the time that she left for school, from 7 to 7:30, but regardless, she’d never run into Gu Mingxi. And then ten minutes after she arrived at school, Gu Mingxi would walk into the classroom.

Later on, Pang Qian realized that Gu Mingxi purposely waited for her to leave before leaving himself.

Pang Qian didn’t know how she should react to Xie Yi’s words. After a long time, she finally gave a reason, “Because all the stupid boys in class kept talking about me and Gu Mingxi. It was really annoying.”

Xie Yi was caught by surprise and asked, “Just because of that?”

Pang Qian silently nodded.

Xie Yi thought that was incredulous. “I heard Jian Zhe say that you’d been good friends with Gu Mingxi since you were younger. But just because of that, you’re ignoring him?”

Pang Qian, “…”

“That’s not really good. Can you bear it?” Xie Yi was hitting the ball with his paddle as he walked. He was really amazing. The small, white ball started bouncing on the paddle. He raised his head and casually looked at something. A bit lazily, he turned to Pang Qian and said, “Crab, did you know, Gu Mingxi was just watching us play.”