The first half scores were very close. In order to break through the opponent’s defense, Chen Qingyu and Ah Ming also joined the offense.
Whenever Mu Yao received the ball, he was blocked under the board. But because of his stable legs, even if the angle was terrible, he managed to score many shots in a row.
“What a solid hook shooting technique.” Even Xiao Cang, who was usually quiet, couldn’t help but sigh.
Gradually, their coordination improved. When Mu Yao received the ball and was blocked by number 8, he dribbled the ball under his left hip, caught it with his right hand, and then dribbled it around his back and executed a beautiful back pass. With a hard push of his fingers, the ball had been smoothly passed to Ah Ming who was under the basket; who performed a wonderful lay-up .
The situation seemed to have improved vastly. As per the new tactics, Mu Yao retreated from the position of the main scorer, decreasing the effectiveness of the opponent’s defense.
But Xu Qichen still had the feeling that numbers 8 and 21 had yet to use their full strength.
The attack rhythm of the whole court was getting faster and faster. Ah Feng got the ball on the outside line and passed it to Ah Ming with a shoulder pass. However, as the main scorer in the second half, Ah Ming was sandwiched by two players and couldn’t find a suitable shooting point.
Mu Yao made eye contact with him.
Ah Ming feinted a shot and passed the ball to Mu Yao. With great speed, Mu Yao made a three-step layup. At this speed, even a skilled centre like number 8 could not catch up with him.
Instead, number 21 leapt up together with him. But at this point, it was already too late to stop him from scoring.
As everyone had expected, the ball went through the hoop.
However, in the next instant, Mu Yao fell heavily, holding his left side.
Inertia also caused number 21 to fall down.
“Foul!”
Xu Qichen shot to his feet. There was a dull pain in his heart.
From his point of view, he did not see what had happened. But he could hear the outrage of the audience not too far away.
“The blue team’s number 21 elbowed him! I saw it clearly!”
“What the fuck, what dirty tactics!”
“That’s a violent foul…”
Chen Qingyu immediately ran up to Mu Yao and helped him up. Number 21 did not seem to feel any guilt for his actions. Rather, his expression was full of provocation and scorn. Ah Feng wanted to punch him in the face, but was stopped by Block-of-Wood.
“Don’t.”
Xu Qichen could not care less about the referee’s decision, or who would get the free throw. The only thing on his mind was the image of Mu Yao falling just now.
His ears were filled with all kinds of noise, as if someone had forcefully put broken earphones over them.
Through the noise, he could only hear his own voice – repeatedly, unceasingly, calling out Mu Yao’s name.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Lf gjc ab Ze Tjb’r rlvf ja atf yfcmtfr, rdeffhlcu atgbeut atf mgbkvfv jevlfcmf jcv qertlcu qjra atf rajoo. Lf tjio-xcfia bc atf oibbg yfrlvf tlw jcv ugjyyfv tlr jgw.
Dea tf mbeivc’a rqfjx j kbgv.
Lf mbeiv bcis tbiv bc ab tlr jgw alutais.
“Tf Ljc, vbc’a abemt tlw, ifa atf qjgjwfvlmr ajxf j ibbx ja tlw.”
Xu Qichen frantically looked over Mu Yao’s body. There were no other wounds or bleeding. He was just holding his chest, frowning tightly, while his forehead was full of cold sweat.
It hurt.
His heart hurt.
Even though the one who was injured wasn’t even himself.
With his other hand, Mu Yao patted Xu Qichen’s hand. He smiled, “I’m fine…”
The medics put Mu Yao on his back and inspected him: “It should be a unilateral rib fracture.” After judging the condition, two of them tied Mu Yao’s left forearm across his chest to protect it.
“Send him to the hospital quickly.”
“I’ll go.” Xu Qichen stood up, “I’ll go with him.”
The paramedic continued, “Just the school hospital is also fine, ensure that his upper body is kept upright.”
With Xu Qichen holding Mu Yao up, they left the gym through the sidedoor. At the exit, Qi Meng and Yu Cang joined them.
“He can’t go to a regular hospital, senior.”
Xu Qichen knew that, but he could not think of anything else at the moment.
It hurt so much that he could not even look at where Mu Yao was injured.
Yu Cang suddenly spoke up, “I- I know a place, I can bring you there.”
The place Yu Cang spoke of turned out to be a private clinic in an old estate. The two-storey building looked quite run down.
“I come here often, don’t worry.”
It was 7 PM. The only person on the first floor was an old lady hooked to an IV, watching an old TV series.
Yu Cang and Xu Qichen first helped Mu Yao to an empty bed. Then Yu Cang went further in and called softly, “Doctor Zhang… are you there?”
A bearded man in a vest came out with a lollipop in his mouth. “It’s you again, little mouse. What is it this time? Did you eat something bad again?”
Yu Cang shook his head and pointed outside, “My- my friend is injured… Can-can you help him?”
The man put on a white coat and walked out. He glanced at Mu Yao, who was sitting on the bed with a pained expression.
“Did he fall down?”
Yu Cang trailed behind Doctor Zhang, “No, he was elbowed by someone (lit. ‘a person’).”
Doctor Zhang stopped and frowned, “A human (lit. ‘a person’)?”
“N-no, a yellow weasel.”
Doctor Zhang nodded. Then his gaze landed on Xu Qichen, “But there’s a human here.”
Qi Meng immediately said, “He’s our friend.”
“Fine, even though I don’t understand you children’s principle of making friends.” Doctor Zhang inspected Mu Yao, then took him to the second floor. After a while, he came back with x-ray films and gave them to Yu Cang, “Two broken ribs, but it’s not too bad.”
Then he went back in and got a chest girdle to help Mu Yao keep the bones in place.
“Don’t do any exercise and don’t put pressure on your chest. If you can, keep it on.” Then he gave Mu Yao two boxes of medicine. “This is a painkiller, eat one when it hurts. And this is to prevent infection, eat two every day.”
Xu Qichen asked, “How long will it take to recover?”
“If he were you, at least 3 months, like that popular human saying, ‘a fracture takes a hundred days’.” Doctor Zhang sat down beside the bed and stroked his beard. “But this guy is not like you. As long as he doesn’t sabotage himself, he should be fine in ten days to half a month.”
His heart, which had been in suspension, finally settled down. Xu Qichen heaved a sigh of relief.
But he still did not understand something. While Yu Cang and Qi Meng helped Mu Yao, he asked Doctor Zhang in private, “Is the difference in physical ability between two demons very large?”
With the lollipop still in his mouth, Doctor Zhang glanced at Xu Qichen, “Naturally. Logically, this guy is particularly strong, he can be counted amongst the strongest of demons.” He took the lollipop out, “I’m also perplexed. It’s strange that a yellow weasel can do this to him.”
Xu Qichen quietly thanked him and left.
Xu Qichen and Mu Yao shared a cab back in silence.
After more than ten minutes, Xu Qichen told the driver, “Sorry, can you make a U-turn? Bring us back to Tianyi Estate.”
Mu Yao finally spoke, “Senior, are you angry?”
He was, indeed.
If he had been more unyielding and refused to let Mu Yao continue playing, this would not have happened.
But thinking like this, Xu Qichen thought he was being very stubborn.
“No.”
Mu Yao frowned. Looking at Xu Qichen who was being short with his words, he asked, “Won’t you send me back to school first?”
Xu Qichen kept silent.
The driver pulled into Xu Qichen’s compound. He got off and paid the driver before going to the backseat.
“From today on, you’ll be living with me.”
Xu Qichen’s voice was very low.
I can’t let you be alone.
Just like this, he brought Mu Yao to his apartment.
It was a strange feeling, like bringing home an injured stray.
When he opened the door, he found that his otaku roommate was already gaming in his room. The game was loud enough that he could hear it through the locked door. He probably turned the volume up because nobody was home.
This gave Xu Qichen a strange sense of security.
He helped Mu Yao to his room and sat him down. Xu Qichen had been reflecting on whether his attitude towards him had been too cold.
Because he was angry. Angry at the person who hurt him, and angry at him for disregarding his warnings.
Most of all, he was angry at himself, for knowing the plot but not being able to change anything.
So many emotions churned inside his chest, transforming into a dark mass that blocked all the concern, tenderness, heartache and pain in the throat, preventing him from saying a word.
It was just an injury.
But seeing Mu Yao’s pained expression, he couldn’t help but think of the original ending.
He was scared.
It’s so dark.
Xu Qichen turned around to turn on the lights, but Mu Yao caught his wrist.
“Don’t be angry at me.”
His voice was low, as though pleading for mercy.
“Haven’t I already… been punished enough?”
Mu Yao raised his head and smiled at Xu Qichen, whose face was turned away.
“Next time, I’ll be good.”
Omgggg ahhhhhh I’m so scared of the original ending thank you for the chaoter
Thanks for the chapter 🥰
Aaaaaaaaa
thank you for the chapter :’]
thanks for the chapter ♡
baby-talk who’s a good boy? it’s you! you are, mu yao!
Thank you for the hard work
🥺🥺 the poor pup… Oh I hope weasels are edible I’ll eat him up! Who dares hurt my precious pup?! 😤
Mu Yao coaxing Xu Qichen was too cute!
thanks for the chapter <3
Mu Yao is such a cute dog 🐶
I think Zichu has a qualification(jk) for their characters. Most of her character plays basketball and they’ve been basketball players every single time nods
*their