Chapter 66: The Loser Has to Dance to a Girl Group Song

For Xia Chiyi, he actually did not like to be called a "sharpshooter," because he was capable of much more than just three-pointers.

His brain had been influenced by Zhou Zhexiao for a full two quarters, and the continuous heating made Xia Chiyi's blood boil along with it.

The heaven-defying stunt of flying past three defenders was something Xia Chiyi could not pull off.

However, he desperately wanted to try a post-up followed by a turn-around fadeaway jumper.

His first turn-around fadeaway jumper was disturbed by Yuan Yang, throwing off his balance, and the ball missed. Zhou Zhexiao grabbed the rebound and fired it straight back to Xia Chiyi.

Xia Chiyi chose to post up and battle Yuan Yang once again.

Yuan Yang finally understood: Xia Chiyi was using him as a practice dummy right here!

The psychological damage was minimal, but the disrespect was off the charts.

Nursing a head of steam, Yuan Yang swiped the ball away the moment Xia Chiyi turned.

After several rounds, Xia Chiyi was as stubborn as a mule, determined to practice his turn-around fadeaway jumper right in front of Yuan Yang.

"If I let you score that, I'll change my last name to yours!" Yuan Yang's anger was boiling over as well.

Xia Chiyi smiled so brightly that his left canine tooth showed. "Xia Yang? You know, that actually sounds pretty good!"

The other teammates also supported Xia Chiyi. In their view, any skill Xia Chiyi honed in a scrimmage would be an asset in official matches.

"Don't chicken out, shoot it!" Shuai Bei shouted from beneath the basket.

Du He also clapped his hands. "Practice makes perfect! Second time's a charm, third and fourth time you nail it!"

Ye Chaoying bared his teeth in a grin. "If you make it, I'll buy Zhou Zhexiao's milk tea for a week!"

"Why is it that if I score, you're the one buying Zhou Zhexiao's milk tea?"

Finally, Xia Chiyi executed his third turn-around fadeaway, but the ball still hit the rim. Another "Battle of the Gods" ensued under the board as the ball bounced between the fingertips of several towering players, eventually ending up in the hands of Xiangnan Institute of Technology.

Before the start of the final quarter, Zhou Zhexiao asked Xia Chiyi, "Do you really have to learn this?"

"Yes, this move is too useful!" Xia Chiyi wiped the sweat from his chin.

It wasn't that Xia Chiyi couldn't do it, but his rhythm, accuracy, and body control against defensive contact in mid-air didn't seem as stable as Zhou Zhexiao's.

"Don't let Yuan Yang disrupt your rhythm. The position between you and Yuan Yang before the turn determines whether he can interfere with you. Everything depends on what happens before the turn, not after."

Zhou Zhexiao draped a towel over Xia Chiyi's head and pressed down on the top of it through the fabric. "Close your eyes, forget my rhythm, and forget Yuan Yang's containment. Refresh your brain and start fresh in the fourth quarter."

Xia Chiyi lowered his head, regulating his breathing. He understood what Zhou Zhexiao meant.

He kept missing his previous turn-around jumpers because he kept trying while repeating the same flawed process. The real key was the positioning before the turn, not the fadeaway jumper itself.

Ye Chaoying squatted in front of him with a smile and said, "I'll keep passing to you, keep practicing!"

Feeling the support of his teammates, Xia Chiyi felt his blood surge with passion.

The final quarter began. Although Xiangnan Institute of Technology was behind in score, their playing style remained full of drive and vigor, showing no signs of dejection whatsoever.

Such opponents commanded the utmost respect from Ningchang University, and everyone went all out on defense.

Ye Chaoying intercepted another pass. He originally intended to give the ball to Zhou Zhexiao, but Zhou Zhexiao indicated Xia Chiyi's position with his chin.

Despite being tightly marked by Yuan Yang, this guy actually dared to ask Ye Chaoying for the ball, his eyes practically screaming "Give it to me, give it to me."

"Here you go—" With a tricky-angled pass that avoided Yuan Yang's interception, Ye Chaoying genuinely delivered the ball into Xia Chiyi's hands.

You brat, if you miss this shot, I'm going to paddle your backside when we get back!

Xia Chiyi caught the ball, accelerated past Yuan Yang while keeping tight to him. Yuan Yang desperately tried to block Xia Chiyi's path, but just as they reached the edge of the three-point arc, Xia Chiyi suddenly spun. Unable to stop due to momentum, Yuan Yang could only scream, "Help defense—!"

A tall player rushed over for a block, but Xia Chiyi executed a light and graceful fadeaway jumper. The ball traced a melodious arc through the air, completely out of reach even as the defender stretched his arm to the absolute limit.

"Bravo!"

Even though the ball hadn't entered the basket yet, Zhou Zhexiao praised it in advance.

The ball calmly slipped through the net.

Yuan Yang stared blankly before covering his eyes. "No way..."

His teammates were certainly quick to kick a man when he was down.

"From this moment on, your name is Xia Yang!"

"Captain Xia, don't forget you still owe a hundred frog leaps because Ye Chaoying stole the ball from you!"

Yuan Yang pointed at Xia Chiyi and declared, "Just for today, only for today my name is Xia Yang, but I am not changing my ID card for you!"

Xia Chiyi chuckled. "It's fine, if I make one more shot, you'll be Xia Yang tomorrow too."

"Bring it on! Bring it on! Bring it on!" Yuan Yang lifted his chin.

Although Xiangnan Institute of Technology was known as a pack of wolves, Xia Chiyi suddenly realized... they might actually be a pack of Huskies.

In the end, the score of the scrimmage between Xiangnan Institute of Technology and Ningchang University settled at 91 to 113, with Zhou Zhexiao scoring 62 points single-handedly.

When the whistle blew, Ling Huanzhen let out a deep sigh of relief. Thank goodness... that grand demon king Sheng Xingming didn't make him dance a girl group choreography. If he had to sacrifice his first time while acting as a coach, that truly would have been...

"Ohhhhh—ohhhhh—we get to watch Xiangnan Institute of Technology dance a girl group routine!" Xia Chiyi turned around excitedly and hugged Ye Chaoying.

"Girl group dance! Girl group dance!" Ye Chaoying bounced up and down right along with Xia Chiyi.

Shuai Bei exhaled. "Do these two add up to even six years old?"

"I... I want to see it too..." Du He mumbled softly.

Thinking the players from Xiangnan Institute of Technology would be shy and hesitant, they were surprised when Yuan Yang put his hands on his hips and asked, "Do you want to watch it now, or after lunch?"

"What? Don't you guys need to rehearse? You can perform immediately?" Xia Chiyi was stunned.

"Isn't it just a girl group dance? It doesn't even burn that many calories."

"Yeah. There's another scrimmage tomorrow, and there's no telling who will win or lose. How about we give you a preview? Who knows, you might be the ones dancing it tomorrow." Yuan Yang said with a carefree expression.

"Wait... let's wait a moment..."

"What is there to wait for? Are you waiting for us to buy girls' skirts online, put them on, and then dance for you? Even if we wanted to wear them, they don't make our size!" said their power forward.

"Judging by that tone, sounds like you guys have bought them before?" Ye Chaoying asked.

With an expression that said "you guys really haven't seen anything yet," Yuan Yang raised his voice and said, "Of course we have."

What kind of basketball team was this, anyway?!

Ultimately, Ningchang University decided that life still needed a sense of ritual. Since they were going to appreciate a girl group performance, they decided to go to the showers, clean up, change into fresh clothes, sit in a neat row, and genuinely enjoy Xiangnan Institute of Technology's performance.

"Can we record it on our phones?" Du He asked.

The opponents gave him a look that said "you are truly uncultivated."

"Why record on your phone? You can search and find piles of them on short-video websites!"

With that, Xiangnan Institute of Technology had already formed their formation, turning the music up to maximum volume on a phone's external speaker.

Never in their wildest dreams did they expect that when it came to girl group dances—Xiangnan Institute of Technology were absolute professionals!

Every swaying waist and hip-shaking movement came naturally to them, and they were remarkably synchronized.

Even their facial expressions were utterly on point. After several winks were shot their way, Xia Chiyi felt as though he had been hit straight through the heart.

A blend of bewitching charm and athletic power, the movements were so rhythmic that they didn't feel pretentious in the least.

" Wow, the kings of dance..."

"I originally thought it would burn my eyes, but now I want to shout 'encore!'"

"Why are you guys even playing basketball? Why not debut right here on the spot?"

The four-minute dance ended in the blink of an eye.

Ningchang University was left wanting more, shouting for "one more time."

Yuan Yang smiled. "Then you guys will have to beat us in tomorrow's scrimmage again."

Ling Huanzhen asked Coach Zhao next to him with surprise, "Their girl group dance is seriously practiced. You can tell they have deep foundations, huh?"

Coach Zhao chuckled. "They just love to mess around. During team scrimmages, the losers have to dance the girl group routine. For some reason, they have quite a bit of exhibitionism when it comes to this, and when our basketball team performed at the school anniversary, the routine was a girl group dance too. It was quite popular."

Ling Huanzhen: You can actually do that?

Despite losing the match, Yuan Yang and his crew weren't heavily打击 (demoralized). Instead, they enthusiastically led Xia Chiyi and the others to their school cafeteria to experience Xiangnan's culinary delights.

Xiangnan's flavor profile was relatively similar to Ningchang's, except that Ningchang favored salty and fresh tastes, while Xiangnan's dishes were much more fragrant and spicy.

Xia Chiyi had a great appetite and wolfed down two large bowls of rice.

His phone buzzed. Xia Chiyi took it out and saw a message from Yang Huaiyu.

[How many points did you win by in the scrimmage against Xiangnan Institute of Technology?]

Xia Chiyi sniffed his spice-reddened nose and replied: [Won by over twenty points.]

Yang Huaiyu: [Then Qincheng University must still be stronger, right? When are you coming over to play another scrimmage?]

Xia Chiyi: [But I like Xiangnan Institute of Technology more!]

Yang Huaiyu, who was also eating at the moment, rested his chin in his hand with a puzzled expression: [Do they have an opponent at my level over there?]

It wasn't Yang Huaiyu boasting; outside of the national top four, finding an opponent of his caliber should be quite difficult.

Xia Chiyi: [Because their stir-fried beef with pickled peppers in the cafeteria is insanely delicious! And they can dance girl group routines, can you guys?]

Seeing this message, Yang Huaiyu almost choked.

Ke Yan, sitting across from him, immediately protected his own meal tray! "Yang Huaiyu, are you okay?! You can choke on steamed clams with eggs!"

"Ayan... looks like we might need to learn girl group dance!" Yang Huaiyu said with a serious tone.

"Huh? Why? Is this Liu Daji's punishment for you?" Li Shunchuan turned his head to ask.

"No, no, no... Liu Shuchen's demands would probably be even higher, making me learn electric guitar to accompany him or something... It's Xia Chiyi, he's been seduced by Xiangnan Institute of Technology's girl group dance."

As soon as Yang Huaiyu finished speaking, they started searching online, and a bunch of people bowed their heads to look at their phones.

"Hisss-ha, hisss-ha... Gotta give credit where it's due, those guys at Xiangnan Institute of Technology really dance well!"

"They really are multi-talented! It makes Qincheng University look so boring..."

"Should we come up with something too?"

"Like what? Breaking boulders on our chests?"

A group of people looked at Yang Huaiyu, giving him a bad premonition.

"Don't look at me like that, I charge money."

Ke Yan: "We were thinking... you could practice a striptease."

Yang Huaiyu raised an eyebrow. "Ke Yan, are your skin itching for a beating?"

However, now that they had the match results, Ke Yan used a burner account, logged onto Weibo in high spirits, found the comment ridiculing Qincheng University, and replied: [Ningchang University beat Xiangnan Institute of Technology by over 20 points! The idiots who mocked Qincheng University for only beating Ningchang University by 2 points should vanish into thin air now!]