No. 27 A Plea Beyond Silence
The game resumed.
“Hey, girl, you’re really putting in the effort. No offense, but your team is pathetic. Having to rely on a girl to play…”
The boy in the center position smirked at me as he prepared to inbound the ball. “Hey, do you have a boyfriend? I’m not going to lie, you’re pretty. Seriously, if you dressed up a little…”
“No, thank you.”
I cut him off flatly. “Maybe if you were a girl, I’d consider it.”
“You…” He sputtered, then turned to Tan Lijiang. “Lao(senior,old) Jiang, are you giving up by putting her as point guard?”
Tan Lijiang snorted. “Since when did you become so talkative?”
At least he had some pride.
He could insult his own class, but no one else could.
—He’s my brother. Only I can hit him. Anyone else tries, and they’ll face the consequences.
“Fine, don’t blame it on the girl when you lose, heh.”
The basketball arced through the air.
Everyone scattered, the initial formations forgotten.
It was just a middle school game, after all. No need for strict rules.
“Jiang Ge(brother)! Rebound!”
Under the watchful eyes of over a hundred students from both classes, Tan Lijiang, who usually looked like a bookworm, suddenly unleashed a burst of energy. He dashed into the crowd, snatched the ball, and quickly passed it to a teammate.
“Three-pointer! Shoot!”
The teammate’s position wasn’t ideal, but spurred on by Tan Lijiang’s shout, he threw the ball towards the basket from beyond the three-point line.
“Clang!”
The ball bounced off the rim. As our team hesitated, the Class 12 players swarmed the basket.
“Defense!”
Tan Lijiang, the first to react, tried to block the boy who had grabbed the rebound, but it was too late. The ball was passed to their point guard, who turned and effortlessly sank a three-pointer.
“Three points! Score is 45 to 11!”
We were a disorganized mess.
“Tan Lijiang, pass me the ball next time.”
I pulled my cap lower and walked over to him.
“Okay.”
He didn’t argue, his face dripping with sweat.
“Dude, give it up. There are only nine minutes left. You can’t win.”
One of the Class 12 players patted Tan Lijiang’s shoulder, then looked at me. “Hey, little sister, if you like basketball so much, you can play with us after school. We won’t treat you like this in Class 12. It’s just a game. Have fun.”
He inbounded the ball.
“Jiang Ge!”
“I know.” Tan Lijiang, his spirit broken, lacked his earlier energy, but he still managed to grab the rebound.
I moved into position for a three-pointer.
Since I hadn’t taken a single shot so far, the defenders only halfheartedly guarded me, their attention focused elsewhere.
“Jiang Ge! Over here!”
One of our teammates called out, running towards the basket.
Tan Lijiang hesitated, glancing at me, then at his teammate.
Finally, he passed me the ball.
“Seriously?”
The small basketball sailed through the air, landing in my hands.
“Yi Yao, pass the ball!”
“You can’t make it from that distance!”
“Pass it to me! Quick!”
Pass my ass.
I jumped, without hesitation, and threw the ball towards the basket.
“Swish!”
The ball sailed through the net, bouncing a few times before rolling out of bounds.
The entire court fell silent.
Three seconds later, cheers erupted.
“Holy shit!”
“Yi Yao, you’re amazing!”
“Three points! Mark it down!”
“Okay… okay, three points for Class 11! The score is 21 to 45!”
Only 24 points to go…
I brushed my hair away from my eyes and returned to my position.
“Yi Yao, you play basketball?”
“Was that just a lucky shot?”
My teammates stared at me in disbelief.
“You also said my perfect score on the test was a fluke.”
I pointed towards the court. “Let’s focus on the game.”
The tide turned, and our team started scoring point after point.
“Thirty points for Class 11! The score is 27 to 45!”
“Another three-pointer! Thirty points!”
Tan Lijiang and the others focused on grabbing rebounds, while I focused on shooting.
Our relentless scoring spree drew a larger crowd. Even some teachers and staff from the cafeteria came over to watch. The basketball court became my stage.
The Class 12 players, desperate to stop me, assigned their best defenders to guard me.
Their strategy worked to some extent. They managed to steal the ball from me once.
“Forty-six points for Class 11! Forty-seven points for Class 12! One minute left!”
As the game reached its climax, everyone was exhausted, their heavy breathing filling the air.
I wiped the sweat from my forehead, my heart calm, and looked at my classmates.
I was starting to feel tired.
No matter how hard Yi Yao trained, she was still a girl. She couldn’t match the stamina of her male peers.
The opposing team inbounded the ball.
“Yi Yao, two points! It all comes down to you!”
Tan Lijiang passed me the ball, then collapsed onto the sun-baked ground, utterly spent.
All eyes were on me.
Three or four tall boys immediately surrounded me.
“Still trying for a three-pointer?”
They chuckled, their faces flushed with exertion.
“Even two points will win the game, right?”
I smiled and charged towards them.
I had barely moved from my spot throughout the game, just catching the ball and shooting. They had probably dismissed me as a one-trick pony.
Habits were dangerous things. Sometimes, they could save you from darkness. Other times, they could lead you to ruin.
I feinted a pass, effortlessly slipping past two defenders, and headed straight for the basket.
“Shit! Stop her!”
Their captain shouted, and two more players rushed towards me.
Too late.
My eyes fixed on the basket, I jumped, soaring through the air, and slammed the ball through the hoop.
“Boom!”
The backboard rattled from the force of my dunk.
Mission accomplished.
I released the ball and landed gracefully, looking around the court. Everyone was staring at me as if I were a monster.
Silence.
“Yi Yao, you…”
Tan Lijiang finally found his voice, his jaw hanging open. “Was that a dunk?”
“I guess so.”
I walked back to my spot, grabbed my water bottle, and took a long drink.
Yi Yao had trained her legs extensively. She had often attempted dunks while playing with Hua She and the others. It was child’s play for her. And since the defenders weren’t expecting it, I had easily scored.
“Did we… win?”
Luo Xiaoning, who was holding my water bottle, still looked dazed, her eyes wide with disbelief.
“Yes, we did.”
I waved at the girl who was keeping score. “Flip the board. Forty-eight points.”
“Oh, oh.”
She snapped out of her daze and flipped the scoreboard. “Game over! Forty-eight points for Class 11, forty-seven points for Class 12! Class 11 wins!”
…
As I wheeled my bike out of the school gate, I saw a group of familiar faces waiting for me. The same group from Huang Tianhai’s dinner party.
And they were all carrying steel pipes.
“Huang Qinghao sent you?”
I parked my bike casually.
“Yi Yao Jie(sister)…”
The leader of the group hesitated.
“Just spit it out. I’m in a hurry.”
“Qinghao Ge wants us to avenge him, but you know… Hai Ge forbade us from messing with you. So…”
“So, what are you going to do?”
His words surprised me. I had assumed they were all blindly loyal to their “brotherhood.” It seemed not all delinquents were hotheaded fools.
“It’s not about what we want to do. It’s…”
He glanced around and lowered his voice. “I think Qinghao Ge has… lost it.”
“Lost it?” I frowned. “Isn’t he your brother?”
“That’s why I’m worried. You know he likes A-Pian Jie, but she refuses to go to a hotel with him. So…”
“So what?”
“Yesterday, he asked me to organize a karaoke party and slip something into A-Pian Jie’s drink. I refused, and he got really angry. I’m worried he might do something stupid.”
I knew it.
I took a deep breath. “Where’s Xiaodie now?”
“Still at school.”
“I understand. I’ll handle this.”
I walked back to my bike, then turned to them. “Thanks for the heads-up.”
