Chapter 12

For a moment, the scene was on the verge of spiraling out of control.

In contrast, Cen Shi faced the noisy chaos without the slightest unnecessary expression. The second question he asked was, “I heard the school issued basketball uniforms before. You all still have them, right?”

A bucktoothed guy on the team laughed and said, “Mine’s with my mom. She wears it for square dancing.”

The one beside him said, “What basketball uniform? I don’t think I ever wore one.”

Another replied, “I still have the top. Threw the shorts away.”

While everyone was talking over one another, Su Yican stared at Cen Shi in a daze.

When she had helped him fill out his forms earlier, she had taken the chance to learn a little about his basic information. He was twenty-one this year, from Florida in the United States. Logically speaking, a boy his age should still be in college. Su Yican didn’t know why Cen Shi had suddenly stopped going to university and come all the way to China.

Judging from her mother’s tone on the phone a few days ago, something might have happened in his family. And it probably wasn’t a small matter. Otherwise, her parents wouldn’t have suddenly planned to go to Miami after finishing their trip. If Cen Shi didn’t intend to bring it up himself, Su Yican figured the best plan was to wait until her parents came back before asking around.

Cen Shi listened to everyone’s chatter without much of a reaction. Then he briefly explained the training period, the content, the location, the points to note, and a few things they needed to bring and were not allowed to bring.

Apart from the time wasted by those students making a racket, the whole meeting only lasted seven or eight minutes. Cen Shi did not say a single word of nonsense, so fast that even the people below were somewhat caught off guard.

Only when they were about to disperse did he say mildly, “Go home today and each of you come up with a suitable team name. We’ll vote on it tomorrow. Also, everyone must wear their basketball uniform to training. If you can’t find it, find a way to look for it when you get home.”

Of course, his calmly delivered words did not draw much attention either. And so, his first meeting with the basketball team ended hastily.

On the way back, Su Yican was still riding her little red bike. Cen Shi walked beside her, and the two of them headed home. Seeing that he was silent, Su Yican guessed he had witnessed firsthand how hard the basketball team was to manage, so she could not help saying, “How much of a bonus did Principal Yu give you to organize training for everyone?”

Cen Shi replied, “He just said it’d be the same treatment as the previous coach.”

“…”

In other words, not even a single hair.

The sun was blazing overhead, making people deeply uncomfortable.

When Su Yican thought about how she would have to accompany him in this scorching heat for the next half month, she felt a wave of utter lifelessness wash over her. She complained at him, “Then why are you still so enthusiastic? Too full and bored out of your mind?”

Cen Shi glanced sideways at her, the corner of his mouth curving slightly. “Then what does Teacher Su think I should do? Muddle through my days like the last coach, then leave and still be despised as useless? Is that Teacher Su’s attitude toward handling things? Like knowing there’s something wrong with the car and not fixing it, like being too lazy to deal with the broken porch light, or like throwing your youth into something and then deciding to let it go just like that?”

Su Yican had not expected that after one casual complaint, Cen Shi would fire three sentences back at her, every single one leaving her unable to refute him.

Since she could not refute him, she simply stepped down on the pedal and rode off.

Cen Shi had indeed lit her temper. The reason was that his words were too sharp. Every sentence had pierced through Su Yican’s current state. She didn’t even know when she had become increasingly Buddhist about everything. She clearly hadn’t been this kind of person before, but when faced with many things, she had slowly developed a mindset of, *Forget it. This is just how it is. What else can I do?*

She disliked this version of herself very much.

And yet, she also seemed to feel there was no longer any need to change.

Cen Shi walked back on his own over ten minutes later. Although Su Yican had returned home first, she had not locked the courtyard gate and had left a crack open for him.

After he got home, he found Su Yican in her room with the door shut. He knocked, but she ignored him.

Only then did Cen Shi realize he had stepped on the tail of Teacher Su’s youth.

And now she could not be coaxed.

That evening, Su Yican had just come out of her room and walked into the living room when she noticed that the porch light had been repaired at some point. It had even been changed to an especially bright, high-wattage LED bulb, illuminating the entire courtyard so clearly that she could see at a glance the Volkswagen parked in the yard with its hood lifted. The chassis was propped up by a jack, and the driver’s door was open too, but there was no one in sight.

Su Yican went down the steps and had just started walking over when Cen Shi suddenly emerged from under the car, startling her. She could not help asking, “What are you doing?”

The sleeves of Cen Shi’s T-shirt had been rolled up, revealing strong, tensed arms. His white T-shirt had also become mottled with dirt. He stood up, patted the dust off himself, and said to her, “Checking the malfunction. It should be that the fuel pump pressure is too low, causing insufficient fuel supply. When we get back from training, I’ll buy a new one and replace it.”

“…Didn’t you say you didn’t know how to fix cars?” Su Yican still looked lukewarm.

Cen Shi touched the tip of his nose. With his head half lowered, the corner of his mouth lifted faintly. “When I was in my teens, I secretly drove my dad’s car and crashed it a few times. I felt my way through fixing it afterward. Doesn’t really count as knowing.”

“Does your family know you’re staying here to work?”

The smile at the corner of Cen Shi’s mouth turned a little distant and indistinct. “They can’t control me.”

Su Yican thought about it and figured that was true. People over there seemed to stop being managed by their parents once they turned eighteen. So she did not ask any further and turned back toward the house.

Seeing that Su Yican no longer seemed to be holding a grudge over him stepping on the tail of her youth, Cen Shi locked the car door and followed her inside. He asked, “Hungry?”

Su Yican looked back and teased him, “If I’m hungry, are you going to cook for me?”

“Sure.”

Unexpectedly, Cen Shi agreed right away. He washed his hands, went to rummage through the fridge, and found a bag of shredded cheese. Then he simply made a dish of baked mashed potatoes with cheese. The fragrant smell filled the entire old house. One spoonful brought silky mashed potatoes together with stretchy, melted cheese. It was no worse than what she could eat at a restaurant outside.

Su Yican ate until she was very full. When she lifted her head to look at Cen Shi, he was still wearing that already dirtied white T-shirt. Suddenly, she felt that Cen Shi might not necessarily be some pampered little ancestor. Sometimes, he was actually quite manly. For example, when he was fixing the car. And for another example, when he was finding roundabout ways to take the initiative and apologize.

So, magnanimous adult that she was, she decided not to hold it against the petty child. After eating, she took the initiative to say, “Take off your T-shirt and I’ll wash it for you. Look how dirty it is.”

Cen Shi smiled brilliantly and said, “Okay.”

Then, right in front of Su Yican, he directly lifted off his T-shirt and handed it to her. Under the dim ceiling light beside the old-fashioned wall painting in the living room were the unhidden muscle lines of a man. Su Yican had never imagined that beneath those loose, oversized clothes he wore all day was such a lean, powerful physique, carrying a sense of strength that could not be violated. There was also that narrow, perfectly proportioned waist. Paired with his height and that face, it directly stunned Su Yican into a daze.

She said blankly, “Why are you taking your clothes off?”

Cen Shi was also very puzzled. “You told me to take it off so you could wash it.”

“I meant go back to your room, change into another shirt, then bring me the dirty one.”

Cen Shi made an “oh” sound and reached out, about to ask her for the shirt back.

Su Yican turned away and said, “Forget it.”

After saying that, she felt something was off. She turned back around and stared at the pattern on the left side of his chest, somewhat surprised. “You have a tattoo?”

She could not imagine that a little brother who looked so clean and sunny on the outside would have such a peculiar tattoo on his body.

It was a very complex design, resembling a black weapon of some kind, but it had been designed with great aesthetic sense. On Cen Shi’s body, it inexplicably carried a wild edge.

Su Yican stared at the pattern for a while and asked, “What is it?”

“The Spear of Victory.”

“It even has a name?”

Cen Shi lowered his gaze and told her, “In ancient Greek mythology, Zeus’s lightning spear, Poseidon’s trident, and Hades’s bident combine to form the Spear of Victory. No living being can stand against it.”

When Cen Shi said this, his tone was very calm, as if he were simply introducing the origin of the tattoo. But Su Yican heard an inexplicable resilience in it, especially in Cen Shi’s final sentence.

When she looked at that black spear again, the totems twining around it, along with the flickering lightning and flames, seemed to have taken on a different meaning. It was also Su Yican’s first time learning of such a weapon, so she could not help moving closer to take a clearer look.

Cen Shi stood where he was and lowered his eyes to watch Su Yican seriously studying the area in front of his chest. Her warm breath spilled across his chest, making him suddenly feel a wave of heat.

Su Yican finally realized why this tattoo looked so domineering.

Because…it was three-dimensional.

She could not help praising it. “This tattoo artist is really skilled. The flames around it look so real, and they even bulge out.”

Seeing Su Yican so engrossed, Cen Shi tilted his head and laughed softly. He asked, “Want to touch it?”

Su Yican had just been about to raise her hand when she stopped halfway, suddenly feeling that something was not right. A lone man and woman alone together, and she was going to touch a child’s chest? What kind of thing was that? No matter how she thought about it, her behavior seemed a little perverted.

So her eyes shifted. She withdrew her hand and walked into the bathroom, saying to Cen Shi, “Go back to your room and put on some clothes.”

While Su Yican washed Cen Shi’s clothes, Cen Shi did not stay idle either. Seeing that Su Yican’s luggage no longer fit and had been piled on the floor, he quietly helped her rearrange everything.

By the time Su Yican finished and returned to her room, all her luggage had already been put back in place by Cen Shi. He even looked rather experienced at it. Truly, he was a master of space utilization.

…

Speaking of which, Cen Shi’s mother and Su Yican’s parents really did not have an ordinary relationship. Apparently, if not for Cen Shi’s mother back then, Su Yican’s parents would never have gotten together. So strictly speaking, Cen Shi’s mother, Cen Peiying, counted as Su Yican’s parents’ matchmaker.

When Su Yican was still little, her mother would often mention this auntie who had married far away to America. Occasionally, she could even see her mother writing letters to that auntie. Every New Year, Su Yican would receive chocolates and imported candies this auntie sent back from the United States. So even though her mother and that auntie gradually lost contact later, Su Yican still had an impression of her. She just had never met the auntie herself.

Although Su Yican truly did not want to participate in some summer training camp, after seeing what had happened during the day, she really did feel a little uneasy about leaving Cen Shi alone to face so many problem youths. After all, they were all at an age where blood ran hot.

If it had been a coach she did not know, she could have hung the matter high up and let it have nothing to do with her. But after all, he was the son of her parents’ friend. For the sake of the chocolates she had eaten as a child, she could only risk her life accompanying this child.