"Not so great," said fifteen-year-old Bai Xue, her tone laced with a touch of disdain. Before going to Harbin for the training camp, she harbored some dreams, thinking that all the attendees were future international stars. She was outstanding among middle and high school basketball players domestically and had long wanted to compete against the top international level.
She originally thought that this training camp would allow her to truly compete with young basketball players from the basketball powerhouse, the United States. Little did she know... "The so-called number one center of the American youth women’s basketball, Dan Ni, is slow, and her shooting accuracy is not high. Their small forward’s stamina is poor, and in the second half of the game, the pace clearly slowed down."
"Big White, don’t be arrogant, didn’t we still lose in the end?" In fact, Ni Shahe also agreed with Bai Xue’s view. As an excellent coach, he recorded every goal and mistake made by players and opponents on the field.
"A team can’t win with just one person; I did my best," Bai Xue put down the camera. What could she do about the final result of the match? The domestic high school basketball players who formed the temporary five-person team with her not only lacked cooperation but were afraid that she would steal the limelight. The whole game was a mess, "If I had a few players who were in sync with me, I definitely wouldn’t let those Americans be so smug."
"Once we return, we’ll do a technical analysis. I’ve already found teammates who can coordinate with you well." Ni Shahe and Bai Xue were already standing outside the gate of Sacred Heart Middle School.
At the gate, the basketball team members were also standing there, with Wang Ke in the forefront, "Coach, captain, welcome back."
"It’s been tough," Ni Shahe looked into the crowd. Before he came back, he had already notified Wang Ke that he and Bai Xue would return to the school that afternoon and asked her to keep all the team members, including the new ones who just joined this term.
"Where are the new members? I heard that the team just recruited two new members, heard they’re not very good. How come they ran off right after school?" Bai Xue greeted some familiar old team members, but she couldn’t spot any new faces.
She was indeed a rather inadequate captain, usually leaving all the team affairs to Wang Ke, even the matter about the new players was casually mentioned by Wang Ke during a phone call. She also said that the new players were extremely poor in basics, still practicing dribbling and shooting.
"Those two new ones? After all, they are just freshmen in the first year, not following the team’s arrangements, probably ran off right when school ended." Wang Ke snorted, she deliberately didn’t notify Zhu Xiao and Zhang Yiyi, just to create a bad impression of them in front of the coach and captain.
"You mean Zhu Xiao and Zhang Yiyi, right? It’s okay if they didn’t come, I’ll call them over separately another day." Ni Shahe wasn’t angry but still wore a smile. It was clear that Bai Xue had made him proud again. Wang Ke gritted her teeth, hiding her resentment behind a fake smile.
Seeing that the coach didn’t criticize, Bai Xue didn’t take it to heart either, perked up, and in a rare display of authority as a captain, repeated the strengths and weaknesses of the Harbin training and other participants.
Zhu Xiao was still in the dark about the events happening at Sacred Heart School. It wasn’t until Monday, when school started and they were reprimanded, that she and Zhang Yiyi learned that Wang Ke had set them up again.
When Feng Xing pulled up to the old apartment building, Zhu Xiao and Zhuo Feng’s conversation had just started. Zhu Xiao briefly explained what had happened at school.
Hearing about the "poisonous quilt" incident, Zhuo Feng immediately started cursing, saying that corruption was everywhere. Even in a hundred-dollar quilt, such filthy things were hidden. The reason she resigned from her unit initially was because she didn’t know how to please her superiors and had privately criticized the leaders’ corrupt practices several times.
"It’s always , don’t be constantly so cynical in front of the kids," as there was no parking space under the old apartment building, Feng Xing had to park on the side of the green belt. Right after he got out of the car, a water pipe dripping water fell from above, hitting the hood of their small Alto car.
The splash doused Zhuo Feng and Zhu Xiao.
"Where did that water pipe come from?" Just as Zhuo Feng was about to pick up the pipe, Zhu Xiao cautiously pushed her to the side. Immediately following the water pipe, several dozen stalks of cabbage and loofah vines also dropped from above.