SAYE [Run Freely]

Chapter 22

His route was very simple: from within the sidelines, straight to beneath the basket, then catch the ball and shoot. If there was someone blocking him, he would pass the ball to Jiang Cheng or some other team member, and Jiang Cheng would eventually pass the ball back to him.

This sort of ball play felt incredibly satisfying but it somewhat exhausted Jiang Cheng. He had to be mindful of everyone's positions on the court as well as pay attention to Gu Fei's unobserving ball passes.

The score did catch up by five-six points, but Jiang Cheng couldn't help but say, "Can you take a look to see where I am first before you pass the ball?"

"I looked," Gu Fei replied.

"I was ten steps away and you already fucking passed," Jiang Cheng muttered.

"But you got there, didn't you?" Gu Fei caught on. "The pass didn't miss."

"... what if it missed?" Jiang Cheng was somewhat speechless.

"It's on me then," Gu Fei answered calmly.

"My ass," Jiang Cheng shot back. "Is a lost point not lost once it's been counted by you?"

"Cheng Ge," Gu Fei smiled and gazed at him. "You were previously the captain of your school's basketball team, right?"

"What does it have to do with you?" Jiang Cheng looked back at him. "I'm just saying you should look around."

"Got it," Gu Fei replied.

After Gu Fei said that he got it, there was a slight change. He would sweep a glance toward Jiang Cheng from the corner of his eyes to roughly approximate his location, but even if that glance was fully carried out, he was nonetheless quite methodical - in the sense that 'since you let me see where you are, I'll look, but how the ball will be passed is how it was going to be passed.'

Jiang Cheng was already not in the mood to repeat himself. Gu Fei and this gang of Bu Shi Hao Niao had the same street basketball demeanor: they didn't have many rules, forced team members to have a 100% tacit understanding, and they played ball as if dogs were let loose in the park - even the two substitutes they brought along acted as if they had been snorting on drugs, ten minutes in and they already counted three fouls.

"Be mindful," Jiang Cheng became somewhat helpless. "There's only so many of us, if we all graduate, should Lao Xu play?"

"Nice!" Guo Xu waved his arm as he ran past him.

The game continued, and Jiang Cheng did not care much about the time and followed.

Wang Xu intercepted the ball from his opponent's substitute player and then shouted as if God had descended: "Ah—"

When Jiang Cheng saw that he was holding the ball and immersed in the excitement with no intention of passing or going into offense, he had no choice but to clap his hands. "Pass the fucking ball!"

Wang Xu returned to his senses and swung his arm, passing the ball over.

Suddenly, Jiang Cheng had an illusion that he was about to have a heart attack. He had ridden himself of Chen Jie's entanglement with great difficulty, and with no one tailing him at this moment, any normal person should know that this ball had to be passed to him.

Who could have expected that Wang Xu's swing of the arm was to pass the ball to Gu Fei... Gu Fei who was in the midst of an annoying embroilment with Liu Fan to the extent that they were almost doing a Lambada dance.[1]

Jiang Cheng could only look at this scene dumbfoundedly.

Gu Fei did not expect Wang Xu to pass the ball to him under such circumstances, however, he actually responded quite quickly for being busy. He reached out and smacked the ball before Liu Fan could touch it.