When there were fifteen minutes left before the match started, An Siyao received a call from Liu Manman.
Xia Yu had already more or less guessed Liu Manman’s intention. He took An Siyao’s phone and pressed the answer key.
“Cough, cough, cough,” Liu Manman’s weak voice came through the phone, “I caught a cold and can’t make it today.”
“Do you think I believe you?” Xia Yu replied.
“I’m not calling An Siyao?” Liu Manman exclaimed in surprise. Knowing that Xia Yu was hard to fool, she had planned to feign illness to An Siyao.
Letting her come to the court again to slack off and be a tool, she couldn’t bear it.
“Wasn’t it you who wanted to participate in the match?” Xia Yu had no intention of calling Liu Manman over either, but he still habitually challenged her.
Perhaps some unexpected benefits could be extorted this way.
Liu Manman thought for a while. Although she couldn’t figure out that Xia Yu wanted something in return, at this moment, only some benefit could make up for it.
“What do you want?” she said, reluctantly.
“Just owe it for now. Let me know when you have anything good.” With the match approaching, Xia Yu stopped talking to Liu Manman. He hung up the phone and handed it back to An Siyao.
Together, they went to the referee on the court.
An Siyao looked slightly regretful, but Xia Yu could do nothing about it. He couldn’t force Liu Manman to come either.
He had even brought a camera, originally intending to film An Siyao.
After hearing Xia Yu’s explanation, the referee frowned.
“Sick?” The referee flipped through the match form, “Which one is she?”
Xia Yu pointed to Liu Manman’s name.
The referee crossed out Liu Manman’s name and then asked Xia Yu, “What’s your name?”
Xia Yu gave his name and felt puzzled—why did the referee need his name?
His question was soon answered when he saw the referee writing his name next to the crossed-out Liu Manman.
“The match can’t be canceled. Since you’re short one player, just find someone to fill in,” the referee said, putting away the form and addressing Xia Yu and An Siyao.
Could it really be this casual?
Xia Yu thought about it being a school sports event, not even involving the sports college, just a recreational activity, so there was no need to rigidly stick to the rules.
Thus, Xia Yu and An Siyao became teammates.
Xia Yu placed the camera from his waist on a nearby table and picked up a racket.
During the preparation time before the match started, he was thinking about one thing.
He didn’t care much about the match itself; what he truly wanted was to see An Siyao running around. From the stands, it was easy to enjoy such a view, but how should he enjoy it once he was on the court?
It seemed like there wasn’t much difference, except that he was closer now.
Soon, Xia Yu made his decision.
The first serve was from Xia Yu. He wasn’t particularly skilled at serving—not relying on technique, but rather on the help of other skills to dominate.
He served an ordinary ball, and the match between Xia Yu and the two opponents began.
The two opponents were somewhat stronger than the two boys from the first match yesterday. However, Xia Yu was now using his own body, and after some practice yesterday, his skill had improved significantly compared to yesterday.
The shuttlecock quickly flew back and forth on the court. Seeing that only Xia Yu was receiving the shots, the two opponents intentionally hit the shuttlecock left, right, front, and back to exhaust Xia Yu’s stamina.
They each covered half the court, needing to run less, but Xia Yu alone had to cover a larger area.
If it were an ordinary person, their strategy might have succeeded, but Xia Yu had the Endurance Level 3 skill.
After a minute of intense play, no points had been lost by either side.
An Siyao simply loitered behind for a whole minute.
After such intense smashing, the two male opponents began to struggle. One of them intentionally hit the shuttlecock toward An Siyao while receiving a shot.
He wanted to use An Siyao to block Xia Yu and cause him to make a mistake.
However, he underestimated Xia Yu’s physical condition. With Strength Level 2, Xia Yu forcefully jumped, hitting the shuttlecock in front of An Siyao.
After landing, Xia Yu took a deep breath. He glanced at the boy who had just received the shot. Using An Siyao’s body to block him was a practical strategy but somewhat despicable.
The muscles in his arm, gripping the racket, tensed.
With Agility, his hitting ability was superior to the two opponents, but since they were two against one, the match remained at a stalemate.
If agility wasn’t enough, then add strength.
When the shuttlecock was hit back, Xia Yu forcefully jumped. Power transferred from his waist to his arm and then to the racket, striking the shuttlecock.
Previously, when he was in An Siyao’s body, fearing he might hurt the girl, Xia Yu had never dared to fully use Strength Level 2. At the beginning of using his own body, he was afraid of making mistakes due to excessive force, so he hadn’t used it fully either.
Now, he had found his rhythm and believed he wouldn’t make mistakes because of the force.
The shuttlecock let out a sharp cry as it flew toward the two boys at an extremely fast speed and powerful momentum.
One boy barely managed to touch the shuttlecock. The force from the hit caused his swing to go off, and the shuttlecock failed to clear the net.
Xia Yu scored the first point.
Next, it was still Xia Yu’s serve. After the two boys returned the ball, Xia Yu jumped and forcefully smashed it. This time, the two boys managed to return the shuttlecock. But before they could even feel relieved, Xia Yu swung his racket with force again.
They couldn’t save that shot in time, and the shuttlecock landed on their side of the court. Xia Yu gained the second point.
At the start of the third round, it was still Xia Yu’s serve.
This time, the two boys had improved significantly. They managed to return Xia Yu’s first full-strength hit and also the second one.
On the fourth hit, the shuttlecock suddenly dropped halfway and landed on the two boys’ side.
The shuttlecock broke apart.
The two boys looked at each other, astonished.
Huada’s shuttlecocks shouldn’t be substandard products. For the shuttlecock to break after just a few hits—what kind of force was that!
However, soon they realized that the broken shuttlecock was nothing compared to what was coming.
At the ninth point, the racket in Xia Yu’s hand directly snapped.
Before the two boys could feel delighted, he immediately grabbed An Siyao’s racket to replace it.
An Siyao stood behind, empty-handed, idling around.
As the match progressed, Xia Yu’s scoring became increasingly effortless. The two male opponents had already lost their strength and fighting spirit.
The two boys grew more and more desperate, watching the score reach twenty to zero. One more point and they would lose.
This serve was still from Xia Yu, but after serving, he didn’t return the ball.
“Hey!” An Siyao hit the shuttlecock hard, but it struck the net and didn’t go over.
The referee awarded one point to the two boys.
Taking the camera from the nearby table, Xia Yu turned it on and pointed it at An Siyao, urging the two boys, who had gained the serving right, to serve quickly.
He couldn’t wait to see the cute way An Siyao played.
His expression hurt the two boys. They felt like mice caught by a cat mother and tossed to the kittens for play.
The two boys served the shuttlecock. An Siyao’s skill was still consistently poor, and the two boys kept winning points, but the more they played, the more frustrated they felt.
Watching Xia Yu holding the camera and filming An Siyao from all 360-degree angles, they felt their dignity was being insulted.
They exchanged glances, their eyes becoming resolute.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage