134: Chapter 134 Freshman Basketball Game

He was just about to say something when English Teacher Sun Wanru, standing at the podium, opened her textbook.

"Next, let's do the dialogue exercise in the textbook," she said, turning to page 47. "Part B covers how to chat with strangers at a party. Which student would like to come up and practice with me?"

The classroom quieted down. Everyone lowered their heads to look at their textbooks; no one volunteered.

English Teacher Sun Wanru's gaze swept across the room and finally landed on Chen Fan.

"Chen Fan, you come up."

Chen Fan stood up helplessly.

Ever since that time in class when he had conversed fluently in English with English Teacher Sun Wanru, this English teacher had remembered him. Whenever he attended class, he was almost always called up to the stage to do dialogue exercises.

He walked up to the podium and stood next to English Teacher Sun Wanru.

English Teacher Sun Wanru cleared her throat and began in fluent English:

"Great party, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it's pretty lively."

"You seem to know quite a few people here. Are you friends with the host?"

"Not really, I actually came with a friend. What about you?"

"Same. I always find it a bit awkward to talk to strangers at these things."

"Exactly. Every time I try, I end up talking about the weather or something."

The two of them went back and forth with tacit understanding, clearly demonstrating how to strike up a conversation in a social setting. Chen Fan's pronunciation was natural and fluent, and his intonation was just right; it didn't sound like they were doing an exercise, but rather like they were chatting at a real party.

After the dialogue ended, English Teacher Sun Wanru looked at Chen Fan with eyes full of appreciation.

"Good."

She paused, then added, "Very natural."

Chen Fan returned to his seat, and Zhang Yuhang immediately leaned over.

"What were you and Teacher Sun just talking about? I only understood the first few sentences."

"Weren't you listening the whole time?"

"I was listening, but you spoke too fast, I could only understand part of it." Zhang Yuhang scratched his head. "You and Teacher Sun were talking too quickly; I couldn't keep up at all."

Chen Fan glanced at him. "It's not that we were talking too fast, it's that your attention was all on Teacher Sun's legs, right?"

Zhang Yuhang blushed. "How could that be? I'm a gentleman."

"A gentleman?" Chen Fan raised an eyebrow, his tone filled with obvious skepticism.

"Fine, I did look." Zhang Yuhang's voice dropped instantly, as if afraid of being overheard by the people in front.

"So you looked, so what? Isn't it normal to like looking at legs? There isn't a man who doesn't like looking at legs." Chen Fan leaned back against his chair, his tone casual.

Zhang Yuhang opened his mouth, hesitated for a long time, and finally asked in a low voice, "Then... did you look?"

"No."

"I don't believe you."

"I have a girlfriend I can look at; I don't need to look at Teacher Sun's."

"Is your girlfriend as pretty as Teacher Sun?"

"Much prettier than Teacher Sun."

"Your girlfriend wouldn't happen to be Tang Tian, would it? If it's Tang Tian, she is indeed prettier than Teacher Sun."

"She's not from our school." Chen Fan shook his head.

However, Zhang Yuhang didn't believe Chen Fan's explanation and was convinced that Tang Tian was Chen Fan's girlfriend.

Chen Fan couldn't be bothered to explain further and let him guess. Anyway, with things like this, the more you explain, the less clear it becomes.

...

After the English class ended, the people in the classroom left quickly.

Chen Fan didn't leave. The preliminary round of the Freshman Cup basketball tournament was at five o'clock, and both he and Zhang Yuhang had to play.

Sure enough, as soon as the English teacher walked out of the classroom, Zhao Zitong stood up on the podium.

"Those playing in the game, don't leave! Hurry to the court now to prepare!" She clapped her hands, her voice crisp and loud. "Girls who are free, go cheer for the boys too!"

There weren't many boys in Commerce Class 1 to begin with, and even fewer who knew how to play basketball. In Chen Fan's four-person dorm, only he and Zhang Yuhang were participating.

Although Liu Zhipeng and Wang Lei hadn't signed up, one was the vice class monitor and had to go to show support, and the other just loved to join in the fun, so they both followed along to the sports field.

The group walked quickly toward the basketball court, Zhao Zitong flipping through the notebook in her hand as she walked.

"Today we're playing against Marketing Class 2." Her tone carried a hint of excitement. "I've asked around; this class has even fewer boys than ours, and not many who know how to play, so we should have a good chance of winning."

"Then do I still need to play?" Chen Fan asked.

"You're a substitute." Zhao Zitong didn't even look up, walking quickly. "Let them play first; once the score gap widens, you can go up and warm up."

She didn't know much about Chen Fan's basketball skills, only that he was tall and had chosen basketball for PE class, so arranging for him to be a substitute was reasonable.

Chen Fan nodded and didn't say anything.

Arriving at the court, Chen Fan took a look at the players from Marketing Class 2.

The five starters—the tallest one was estimated to be just over 1.8 meters—were wearing loose jerseys that looked like they had been borrowed, with sleeves that were too long.

The other four varied in height and didn't look very imposing standing together.

However, there were quite a few girls gathered on their sideline—sitting in a row, holding mineral water. There were also two holding signs printed on A4 paper that read "Go Marketing Class 2"; although simple, they had set the scene.

In contrast, on the Commerce Class 1 side, there weren't many girls. Apart from the class monitor Zhao Zitong, there were only four or five girls, sitting sparsely on the sideline, holding nothing, looking like they had just stopped by on their way somewhere else.

However, what surprised Chen Fan was that Shen Qing had actually come.

She stood quietly by the side of the court, holding a book, completely out of place with the lively atmosphere around her. She didn't speak to anyone, nor did she sit down; she just stood there, as if waiting for something, or perhaps just stopping by as she passed.

Chen Fan took a glance, then looked away.

He sat down on the sideline, unzipped his jacket, and watched his teammates warm up on the court.

After the game started, Commerce Class 1 was indeed playing smoothly.

The strength of Marketing Class 2 was indeed lacking; they couldn't even dribble properly, often passed the ball directly out of bounds, and their shooting forms were bizarre—one shot had an arc that was almost flat.

Zhang Yuhang was controlling the ball on the court; his several drives and passes were very clear, and the rhythm was completely controlled by Commerce Class 1.

Before the first quarter was even over, the score had already widened to an 8-point lead.

When the first half ended, the score was fixed at 30 to 18.

During halftime, Zhao Zitong walked over and asked Chen Fan, "Want to warm up?"

"Sure."

Chen Fan stood up, loosened his wrists and ankles on the sideline, did a few simple laps, and performed a few stretching exercises, which counted as warming up his body.