The server intentionally served a gentle shot. After An Siyao caught it, neither of the two boys moved; they simply watched the shuttle drop to the ground.
Both boys inwardly sighed in relief. The match was finally over.
An Siyao, who scored the point, was also happy. The only one feeling unhappy was Xia Yu.
The current score was 21-12. If the other two hadn’t held back, he would have at least seen An Siyao running around eight more times.
Reflecting on the game, he felt that he had probably pressured the opponents too much initially, leading to this result.
In the next round, he learned from this experience and decided to let An Siyao get a 20-point lead before he started to catch up.
Both An Siyao and Xia Yu were quite happy, while the opposing team became the unhappy ones.
By Wednesday’s semifinals, Xia Yu continued with this strategy, only to discover that An Siyao was actually holding her own against the opponents.
The other pair intentionally played poorly, occasionally deliberately not returning the shuttle, allowing An Siyao to score quickly.
The two were a couple. They were smiling and seemed to be playing with their neighbor’s child rather than competing in a badminton match.
They didn’t really want to do this. Although they outwardly appeared cheerful, they were internally panicking.
Who doesn’t care about winning or losing? They really wanted to win the championship as a couple and then brag about it online. However, after watching yesterday’s match, they clearly knew that they couldn’t beat Xia Yu. Not only could they not beat him, they would be one-sidedly dominated.
No one likes being dominated, so losing to An Siyao without alerting Xia Yu was the best choice.
Fifteen minutes later, the opposing team reached 21 points and lost.
The referee announced Xia Yu’s team’s victory.
An Siyao also realized they had held back, but she didn’t mind. She hadn’t come to the competition for the sake of winning or losing.
As long as Xia Yu was happy watching from the sidelines, that was enough.
Xia Yu was indeed somewhat happy. After the opponents held back, An Siyao played longer, and he got to watch her longer too.
Next was the semifinal between two other teams. Eventually, a team consisting of two boys won and would face An Siyao and Xia Yu in the final in the afternoon.
In the afternoon’s final, this team also adopted the same approach as the morning team and lost to An Siyao.
The referee announced An Siyao’s team as champions, although the certificate and prize would be awarded together after the sports event.
After the match, Xia Yu and An Siyao went home.
They didn’t know that someone had recorded the match.
On the Hua University forum, a post quickly appeared:
[Shocking! It turns out the badminton level of Hua University students is not even as good as elementary school students!]
Below were video links from the semifinals and the final.
Only a few students had actually watched the match; most students didn’t know what had happened. Seeing two boys and a girl playing poorly, many believed it was real.
[The final was played like this?]
[Those who watched in the afternoon can tell you, it’s true #Sarcastic]
[I should have signed up for badminton too! Such prizes are just given away freely, and there are even bonus points!]
[Although those three are bad, they still showed professionalism. But who is that boy filming at the back?]
…
The Hua University forum wasn’t only filled with Hua University students; there were also some students from other schools lurking around. The traffic was huge, and soon this post became the hottest one on the forum.
Letting the rumors fly for an afternoon, at midnight, the original poster made another post:
[Shocking! I originally thought it was a skill issue, but I didn’t expect them to be afraid to perform. Is this a matter of financial dealings or threats of power?]
Below were videos of the two teams from the semifinals and final showing their previous performances.
This post, riding on the wave of the previous one’s popularity, touched on the topic of industry secrets, which the public loved. Soon, the heat reached a new peak.
Xia Yu also noticed these posts. He originally thought it was a group of playful media students manipulating opinions. Next, they should release videos of him battling other competitors, clarifying that it wasn’t any conspiracy but simply that they were afraid of him.
However, after posting two posts, the account didn’t release a third one for a long time.
Students who knew the truth tried to explain, but under the already heated situation, they couldn’t clarify everything.
Fortunately, the school also had videos. In the evening, the official account released videos of Xia Yu’s previous matches, ending the matter.
Under the video, comments quickly appeared.
[Turns out they were afraid of the big monster. That’s quite impressive.]
[Looking at the opponents being dominated in these videos, I would also choose to lose to the girl.]
[I was wondering how a simple campus badminton competition could have any conspiracy.]
The humorous netizens’ emotions stabilized quickly. They soon accepted the explanation and found this twist quite interesting.
But Xia Yu didn’t think so.
Soon, the counselor called him about the incident: “It was the students from the broadcasting station who manage the forum. They didn’t expect it to get so big. Their original plan was to post the third video ten minutes after the second one, but there was a technical failure and they couldn’t send it out. The person responsible was also busy going out for spicy hotpot, and the videos were all on his computer.”
After explaining the reason, the counselor mentioned the resolution: “The broadcasting station’s station chief can personally apologize to you. It’s up to you how you want to handle it.”
“Was it really a technical failure?” Xia Yu directly asked the counselor.
“It should be. You don’t compete for anything, so no one would target you. An Siyao rarely comes to school, and you don’t even have a love rival. The information about you and An Siyao wasn’t exposed either. The final video will probably become a meme. It definitely has nothing to do with the broadcasting station chief,” the counselor defended the broadcasting station chief.
The video quality of the posted footage wasn’t very good, and it was filmed from behind the stands, only showing silhouettes without clear facial features. Those who knew the truth didn’t maliciously spread the names of Xia Yu and An Siyao, so the video didn’t cause much trouble.
“Then forget it,” Xia Yu said.
After hanging up the phone, Xia Yu opened his laptop and technically checked the account that posted the videos. He found no flaws; everything seemed to align with what the counselor said.
His telepathy also didn’t react. Probably because this event wouldn’t affect him in any way.
After Xia Yu let go of the matter, his phone rang.
It was a message from Zhong Yunxin.
Zhong Yunxin sent a photo. It was a somewhat blurry picture of roadside scenery.
The blurriness was due to the high speed of movement. The camera couldn’t accurately capture the image, meaning Zhong Yunxin was currently on a fast-moving object.
Zhong Yunxin sent another photo. This one was a selfie. She was sitting on the backseat of a motorcycle that was speeding.
[How cool is this!] Zhong Yunxin proudly said.
[So-so. Who is the person in front of you?] Xia Yu looked at the figure driving the motorcycle in the photo.
[It’s the friend I told you about last time!] Zhong Yunxin replied.
Previously, Zhong Yunxin had messaged Xia Yu saying she had made a friend and even sent a photo of her friend.
It was a girl wearing heavy makeup, scary enough to frighten people at night.
[Be careful, don’t get reported], Xia Yu tried to coax Zhong Yunxin into revealing the street name, but she didn’t.
[Ah, we just overtook two guys with yellow hair. Do you think they might retaliate?] Zhong Yunxin said.
Unable to get the street name, Xia Yu zoomed in on the first photo. There was a street sign in the photo, though the text was very blurry.
He cropped the part with the street sign and sent it to the driver he had previously added on QQ.
[Do you know where this is?] he asked.
After sending this message, Xia Yu was just about to go back and talk to Zhong Yunxin when he received a reply from the driver:
[It’s Shenle Road, senior. Be careful.]
Slightly puzzled by the second half of the driver’s message, Xia Yu replied: [Thanks.]
After exiting the chat with the driver, Xia Yu opened the chat with Zhong Yunxin again.
He replied to Zhong Yunxin:
[Yeah, yeah. I heard those little guys who like drag racing have extremely narrow minds. If they can’t beat someone, they call the police.]
After saying that, he took out his spare phone and dialed 110.
“Officer, I want to report two underage girls drag racing motorcycles on Shenle Road.”
The police said they would investigate quickly.
Xia Yu waited.
After three minutes, Xia Yu saw a new message from Zhong Yunxin: [The police are chasing us from behind. It’s so exciting!]
Along with it was a photo of a police motorcycle following them.
Two minutes later, Xia Yu received a call from Zhong Yunxin’s number.
However, it wasn’t Zhong Yunxin who was calling, but the police.
“Are you Zhong Yunxin’s parent? Your child was caught drag racing motorcycles by us. Please come to Shenle Police Station to pick her up.”
Xia Yu happily agreed.
Putting down the phone, he didn’t rush to go. The police wouldn’t spoil Zhong Yunxin; it was just right for her to experience a bit of the harshness of society.
After watching an episode of a TV drama, Xia Yu slowly got up and headed to the police station.
Shenle Police Station was somewhat far from where Xia Yu was, and it took him another thirty minutes to get there.
Entering the station, Xia Yu saw Zhong Yunxin sitting with her head down, looking dejected.
Beside Zhong Yunxin was an ordinary girl wrapped in a blanket.
Following procedure, the police explained the situation to Xia Yu in a room next to where Zhong Yunxin was, to take care of her feelings.
The young officer emphasized the seriousness of the incident, talking about the dangers of motorcycles and the consequences of falling.
When the officer described how they chased the two and how they ran, Xia Yu couldn’t help but find it somewhat amusing. Just like in prank shows, where the prankster feels joy seeing the victim’s pitiful state.
Seeing Xia Yu’s cheerful expression, the officer couldn’t help but feel annoyed.
He said seriously, “Do you even understand how serious this is!”
“I know,” Xia Yu replied with a smile.
“And you’re still smiling!” The officer frowned.
“I was the one who called the police,” Xia Yu answered.
The officer’s expression became complicated.
The officer felt there was a lot to criticize about this situation, but he couldn’t accurately express it, which made him feel somewhat uncomfortable.
He didn’t say anything else, just let Xia Yu complete the procedures and take Zhong Yunxin home.
Approaching Zhong Yunxin, Xia Yu casually asked, “What about your friend? Has she been picked up by her parents or taken away by the traffic police?”
Zhong Yunxin merely rode on the motorcycle; whether it was illegal or not was still unclear. However, her friend, who was driving without a license and drag racing, had indeed violated traffic laws.
“She’s right here,” Zhong Yunxin pointed to the girl wrapped in the blanket beside her.
Xia Yu looked at the girl in surprise, not expecting this somewhat cute girl to be the heavily made-up delinquent biker.
The girl glanced at him and lowered her head again.
The officer who had been talking to Xia Yu came over, gave a dry laugh, and explained, “She resisted arrest and tried to run, but missed a step and rolled into the river.”
The girl looked up, glaring at the officer with a fierce expression but saying nothing.
It seemed she had already been disciplined.
“Let’s go,” Xia Yu said, helping Zhong Yunxin up as he asked in confusion. He had delayed coming for so long, so why had this girl’s parents arrived even later than him?
He was just slightly puzzled. He had no interest in this delinquent girl who was even more rebellious than Zhong Yunxin.
“Liuliang, I’m leaving first,” Zhong Yunxin said goodbye to her friend and followed Xia Yu out of the police station.
Stepping outside the door, Zhong Yunxin sighed in relief. She had been scared since being stopped by the police and remained fearful until now, finally able to leave.
Glancing at Zhong Yunxin, Xia Yu felt that the girl lacked a father’s firm discipline. He believed that occasional punishment could resolve all her issues.
“Are you going back to school or coming to my place?” Xia Yu asked.
“Going to your place,” Zhong Yunxin replied. This was the first time she had been taken to a police station, and the way the police had apprehended her friend Liuliang had scared her.
Four burly officers had rushed forward, grabbing her arms and pressing her to the ground. It was too frightening.
With Zhong Yunxin, Xia Yu returned home.
In the second-floor living room, Youxue and An Siyao were playing games.
Seeing An Siyao, Zhong Yunxin immediately hid behind Xia Yu. She held his hand and whispered, “You didn’t even tell me An Siyao was here!”
“Don’t worry. With me here, she won’t be mean to you,” Xia Yu patted Zhong Yunxin’s hand.
Zhong Yunxin was doubtful.
But in the following interactions, she indeed found An Siyao to be behaving in a gentle and obedient manner, like the type of girl she usually liked to bully.
However, how could the An Siyao who had single-handedly beaten her be someone without backbone? This must be a disguise!
She had heard that wicked women often pretended to be refined ladies in front of the people they liked. An Siyao must be one of those types!
How terrifying! She was wicked enough, and now she could also pretend.
Zhong Yunxin’s fear of An Siyao deepened even further.
With An Siyao around, Zhong Yunxin stayed calm. After An Siyao left in the evening, she didn’t cause any trouble and just played games.
At bedtime, Xia Yu lay in bed thinking about Zhong Yunxin.
This friend named Liuliang couldn’t be allowed for Zhong Yunxin to spend much time with. He needed to find a way to separate them.
It would be even better if he could win Liuliang over for his own use. She looked like a tough one. If she could keep an eye on Zhong Yunxin, Zhong Yunxin definitely wouldn’t dare to act up.
He needed to think of a way to make contact and see.
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