That day, Zhou Rui didn't return to Class 3 until after the evening self-study session ended. He seemed quite happy staying in Class 1.
What was most infuriating was that Zhou Rui started taking classes in Class 1 the next day, and no teacher chased him away.
This degree of shamelessness really made Chai Meicen lament her inferiority.
As a result, quite a few people went to Class 1 to watch the spectacle.
Zhuo Wenqian even took photos of Zhou Rui with her phone. When Zhou Rui saw Zhuo Wenqian, he made victory signs and happily posed for her photos.
After taking the photos, Zhuo Wenqian returned to the classroom to show them to Chai Meicen. Chai Meicen was so angry that smoke seemed to billow from her seven orifices. She stamped her feet in frustration.
This kid really had strong survival skills. She wished she could give him a good beating.
On Thursday after the evening self-study session, Chai Meicen could no longer sit still. She went to the sports field to look for Zhou Rui.
At that time, Zhou Rui was playing basketball with some classmates. Chai Meicen walked right over and called out, "Zhou Rui!"
Zhou Rui pretended not to hear and continued playing basketball.
By now, anyone who knew Zhou Rui also knew Chai Meicen. They all looked at each other, and in the end no one responded, pretending not to know anything. Neither side wanted trouble, so they just feigned ignorance.
Chai Meicen walked over and called out again, but Zhou Rui still ignored her.
Alright, now he was giving her the cold shoulder.
Yang Ming hurried over to tell Chai Meicen, "Beauty Sis, Zhou Bro is just a bit prideful. If you make him lose face in public, he'll probably get even more..."
This degree of sulking was really childish of Zhou Rui.
Chai Meicen nodded, then walked to the middle of the court.
Zhou Rui saw the basketball about to hit Chai Meicen, so he reached out to block it for her.
With his large hands, he could grab the basketball directly. He then spun the ball and asked her, "What do you want? School's over, can't I play some ball? Don't you know about developing morally, intellectually, physically and aesthetically?"
"Fine, then let's develop together and play a match."
When Zhou Rui heard this, he laughed. With Chai Meicen's height, she wanted to play basketball?
Could she even touch the hoop?
He tossed the basketball to Chai Meicen and said, "Can you dribble? Show me."
Chai Meicen reached up and caught it. Then with a backwards flick of her wrist, she sent the basketball neatly swishing into the hoop before it bounced out.
When she shot, she had her back to the hoop. She threw the ball immediately after catching it, without even looking. This accuracy made quite a few people cry out in surprise.
Even Zhou Rui was stunned. He would never have believed his mom could actually play basketball.
"One-on-one," Chai Meicen said to Zhou Rui.
"You're on," Zhou Rui replied roguishly.
Zhou Rui was actually quite good at basketball, tall enough with an astonishing wingspan.
With his height and reach, spreading his arms out in front of little Chai Meicen really seemed intimidating.
The two were clearly not in the same weight class.
Chai Meicen weighed a little under 90 pounds.
Zhou Rui weighed over 130 pounds.
He was also a full head taller than her.
Yet the two actually battled fiercely. For a time, they went at it relentlessly.
Zhou Rui was good at rebounds and could even dunk occasionally, looking extremely cool.
As Chai Meicen knew she was height-disadvantaged, she relied on her agility to gain some advantages. She also knew she was short, so she only shot 3-pointers.
When Zhou Rui saw her about to shoot, he would jump up to block her. But Chai Meicen would fake him out with a sudden change of direction and shoot from another angle.
"Not bad, you even know how to fake." Zhou Rui couldn't help but exclaim, momentarily forgetting they were competitors.
"Humph, you're still too green," Chai Meicen retorted.
"Interesting," Zhou Rui slapped his own face. "I'm getting serious now!"
Initially, everyone was just watching for entertainment, waiting to see Zhou Rui toy with Chai Meicen. They didn't expect that gradually, more people gathered to watch. Even Yang Ming recorded a video the whole time.
"Damn, my beauty sis' skills are lit!" Yang Ming couldn't help but exclaim as he recorded with his phone.
"Yeah, you can tell she's in good shape, and she can really play. It's not just flashy moves." Li Xiaonan also commented.
"Beauty sis looks kind of cool playing basketball."
"Yeah, I kind of want to play a match against her too."
Yang Ming turned to give Li Xiaonan a black person question mark look.
When he saw Chai Meicen play basketball, his heart surged with excitement. All he could think was:
Ah ah ah, beauty sis is so cool!
Ah ah ah, beauty sis is so pretty.
Beauty sis, I want to wave a glow stick for you.
Beauty sis! You're the best!
Yet Li Xiaonan simply thought: I want to play a match against her.
If Zhou Rui was single because he was picky, Li Xiaonan was single because he was dense.
He looked around again and realized the other boys seemed to feel the same way. Some were quietly discussing how Chai Meicen really was quite extraordinary.
Most interesting was that the school seemed to have female fans of Chai Meicen.
One by one, they gathered around. Seeing Chai Meicen play basketball against Zhou Rui, they couldn't stop crying out.
"Oh my god, so cool!"
"I think I have a little crush on Chai Meicen now. She's really so pretty, and manly too."
"Yeah! I just like girls with that kind of genuine personality."
"This family's genes are just so great. Zhou Rui is also super cool..."
The girls kept shrieking excitedly.
Later, Zhou Rui stopped playing.
To put it nicely, they reached a draw, but strictly speaking, Zhou Rui had lost.
After all, Chai Meicen had been scoring 3-pointers, so her cumulative score must be higher than his.
He could have bullied her by shooting 3's too since she couldn't block him, but his accuracy wasn't as good as Chai Meicen's.
"You win," Zhou Rui conceded unhappily.
"Come back to Class 3," Chai Meicen demanded.
"Let me think about it," Zhou Rui said.
"What, you're still sulking?" Chai Meicen stood by Zhou Rui's side and asked.
"Don't mention it. I was so angry that day I nearly had liver pain," Zhou Rui said, clutching his torso.
"I told you to study properly, and you say you have liver pain while clutching your large intestine. Are you kidding me?" Chai Meicen was rendered entirely speechless.
At this time, Li Xiaonan walked over and said to Chai Meicen, "Let's you and me play a match."
"Sure," Chai Meicen readily agreed.
Playing one-on-one with Li Xiaonan, Chai Meicen found it a bit more difficult.
Li Xiaonan's 3-pointers were decent. With Chai Meicen's lack of height, she was struggling more to block him. Innate disadvantages were hard to overcome.
Plus, she had already played vigorously against Zhou Rui for a while, so her stamina was lagging.
After playing for a bit, the two decided to stop.
But when they came over, they noticed Zhou Rui's expression seemed off.
Zhou Rui grabbed Chai Meicen by the collar and dragged her away, ignoring Li Xiaonan.
Li Xiaonan wondered aloud, "What's wrong?"
"You two are spreading affair rumors. While you played basketball, a bunch of people whistled and jeered, saying you two looked quite well-matched, with equal skills." Yang Ming explained, rather helplessly.
"How can I explain things?" Li Xiaonan was quite troubled that this matter had spread so wildly.
"You can go on the forums and say you actually love Zhou Rui. That would resolve it," Yang Ming suggested.
"Piss off."
Zhou Rui dragged Chai Meicen away by the collar while she struggled uncomfortably, yelling, "Hey! What are you doing?"
Once they were some distance away, Zhou Rui let go of Chai Meicen and just pressed his lips together silently.
Chai Meicen looked at Zhou Rui as they stood shoulder-to-shoulder, blankly staring off at the bushes in the distance.
"Alright, alright. I was too hot-tempered that day," Chai Meicen finally conceded her mistake.
"Will you do it again?" Zhou Rui asked her.
"Isn't that a rhetorical question? When have I ever controlled my temper? Of course I'll do it again, but I won't get mad this time, okay?"
"Humph."
"And what about you, still not learning anything?" Chai Meicen stood by Zhou Rui's side and questioned.
"I'm studying. I specially went to find Zhang from Harvard to teach me, that genius aiming for Harvard. He's much more even-tempered than you, and explains better too," Zhou Rui rebutted.
As soon as Chai Meicen heard this, she perked up and crowded over, asking Zhou Rui, "Oh, that good? Mom will treat this little classmate to a meal, okay?"
"Don't scare him off."
"Okay, okay, you study properly with him then."
After saying this, Chai Meicen tiptoed and ruffled Zhou Rui's hair, "My son is really not bad, knowing to study hard now. That's great!"
"Of course." Zhou Rui cocked his brows arrogantly at Chai Meicen.
From this incident, Chai Meicen's name inexplicably became well-known.
A girl who even the school tyrant feared, with the looks of an angel and the temper of a devil.
She was a legend.
Many people secretly discussed on the forums just who exactly Chai Meicen was.
Such a fiery temper, yet so capable, playing basketball so coolly, no wonder she was Zhou Rui's relative.
The students on the forum said this explosive temper was really interesting, much better than that inwardly vicious Zhao Bingqing pretending to be aloof.
Soon, it was almost the end of the month, and after that would be the National Day long holiday.
Within these few days, two big events were about to happen: the monthly exam, and the school sports meet.
Chai Meicen's focus was on the monthly exam.
Zhou Rui's focus was on the sports meet.
Aside from academics, their Class 3 did decently in sports.
But in 10th grade, although their class ranked 2nd overall in the year group, it was entirely carried by the boys' events. The girls' events were a total failure, dragging down their score greatly.
There were only five girls total in their class. In other classes, each girl could only sign up for two events. But in their class, each girl signed up for multiple events, practically sticking a note on their foreheads that said "Participation matters most."
Zhou Rui still remembered one girl from their class who ran the 1500m race. Girls from other classes finished after two laps, but she was still lumbering along halfway through the last lap.
When she finally completed the whole race, she moved the entire Jiashan Middle School.
Purely relying on willpower to persevere without any actual skill.
As a result, they were still very worried this time around.
"Your explosive power is still decent," Zhou Rui leaned forward and said to Chai Meicen in front of him.
"I'm looking for cram schools for you, focusing on hand speed and explosiveness. I'll sign you up for three events," Chai Meicen said, looking through messages on her phone.
"Help out and participate in the sports meet. I'll study properly the whole National Day holiday, okay?" Zhou Rui was really going all out.
Chai Meicen looked up at Zhou Rui and asked, "You said?"
"Yes!"
"I can do the sprints, but don't sign me up for the 100m. My legs are short so I don't have an advantage there. I can do the 200m and 400m." Chai Meicen replied.
"But you have to be in the 4x100m relay. There are only six girls total. You and Zhuo Wenqian both look quite agile."
"Fine," Chai Meicen nodded.
"Another high jump, you and Zhuo Wenqian."
When Chai Meicen heard there were so many events, she thought for a moment and then nodded in agreement: "Okay."
"How about a 3,000 meter run?" Zhou Rui looked at the registration form and asked.
"Are you trying to run me to death to inherit my fortune or something?"
"Then 1,500 meters it is."
"800 meters."
"Fine, both together then."
"..." Looking at Zhou Rui writing down names, Chai Meicen couldn't help but doubt whether she really was Zhou Rui's mother or not.
Was this how a loving mother would pit someone against so many events?
Author's note: Time for a big battle.
Giving away 50 random red envelopes in the comments.
This book is participating in a competition on Jinjiang, and needs nutrients - one bottle equals one vote, and this one's free. Also, one landmine equals one vote.
How to obtain: Read any vip chapter of any book accumulating to 300,000 words, and get 10 free bottles.
The nutrients may be cleared at the end of the month, don't waste them - give them to me. The more the better, and I'll update more often. Thank you, love you all! *blows a kiss*
Recommending my new pre-ordered book, can jump to it from the author's page:
"Time Reset"
He Lu did something embarrassing and humiliating, and walked past an antique shop and bought an old watch, adjusting the time to before the embarrassing event happened.
A miracle occurred, she really went back to before it happened, and after making changes, the embarrassment didn't happen.
She was extremely excited, and got some crooked ideas, running off to forcibly kiss her crush.
After the kiss she wanted to adjust the time back, but found she couldn't go back at all.
In front of her was her crush, eyes narrowed dangerously, and around her were her stunned classmates...
This thing...isn't 100% effective.
