With the arrival of the two teams, fans shouted and waved banners in the air.
You’d think it was the finals by the way the stands filled up, but it wasn’t. It was the semi-finals—the Juren Champions versus the Ying Eagles. A rare matchup for this stage, but no one was complaining. Their clash was legendary last year, and people felt like they were getting a bonus round before the actual finals.
David and Gina were back in the commentator booth, monitoring the live stream as the two teams warmed up. Gina tapped the mic as her eyes flitted between the court and the comment section on her screen.
"Wow, guys, we’re already trending! The stream’s blowing up," Gina said, glancing at David, who nodded while scrolling through the messages pouring in.
"Of course! It’s Juren and Ying. Feels like the final game, but in the semis. I can’t believe we’re getting this early treat," David replied. "Alright, let’s read some comments. Uh—user ’EagleMeOut’ says, ’Go Eagles!
Show them why we own the sky!’"
Gina snickered. "Oh, someone’s confident."
David kept scrolling. "Here’s one from ’ChampionInBed.’ Looks like we’ve got a Juren fan. ’Don’t sleep on the Champs. We’re here for that back-to-back!’"
"The live audience is also half and half," Gina observed. "Although this is the home court of the Ying Eagles, there are a lot of supporters that came from Shanghai for the Juren Champions. As expected from the most popular team in the league!"
"The game this morning, too, was a full audience," David added. "It seems like a lot of people are really tuning into this season!"
As they continued with the livestream hype, out on the court, Chaoxing was finishing up his stretches when he noticed something odd.
Jimmy appeared really annoyed. He always looked annoyed, but Chaoxing felt he was more brooding than usual. He had barely said a word since they stepped on the court.
Chaoxing wandered over and threw an arm around Jimmy’s shoulders, trying to bring some life into him. "Hey, man, what’s up with the face? You look like you lost all your daddy’s money or something."
"Well, I would be sad too if I lost that amount of money," he muttered, going off-topic. Discover stories with freewebnovel
Jimmy didn’t respond. He just kept messing with the strings of his shorts, his eyes focused on the floor like it had done something personal to him.
"Come on, talk to me," Chaoxing persisted, nudging him playfully. "Did your dad say he’ll cut your allowance again?"
Still nothing.
Chaoxing sighed dramatically. "Alright, fine. Be moody. But just so you know, Kimmy told me that you watched the game this morning."
Jimmy’s head snapped up, his expression shifting from grumpy to defensive in an instant. "I didn’t."
"Dude," Chaoxing said, raising an eyebrow. "Kimmy literally told me you watched it. Like, you got up and sat down in the VIP area. With her. You watched it."
Jimmy muttered something under his breath and pulled away from Chaoxing’s arm, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah, okay, I watched a little. So what?"
Chaoxing grinned, leaning in. "So what? I thought you swore you never wanted to watch them, especially Kai."
Jian, who was nearby stretching his legs, overheard and looked up, confused. "Wait," he said, squinting at Jimmy. "You watched the game? As in, the Shizi Dogs game?"
Jimmy rolled his eyes. "It wasn’t a big deal."
"It is a big deal, man," Chaoxing teased. "You were always the one going on about how you don’t care about other teams, especially that Kai guy."
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"Plus, you’ve never watched their games before," he added, now staring at Jimmy as if he had just confessed to a crime. "Why now?"
Jimmy’s face reddened. "Kimmy forced me, alright? It wasn’t like I was interested."
Jian frowned for a moment. "Kimmy," he muttered. "Is she going to watch now?" he asked, a hint of jealousy in his voice. However, since it wasn’t obvious, the other two didn’t pick up on it.
"She won’t," Jimmy muttered. "She said she’s too tired, and she’ll just watch the games with Kai in it."
Jian clicked his tongue, and that’s when Chaoxing noticed it. "Why?" he chuckled. "Is little Jian jealous that Kimmy doesn’t like him anymore?"
Jian threw a towel at him. "Shut up. I’m just saying it’s weird, that’s all. Kimmy watched our games last year. Now, she’s all about Kai."
"Dude, don’t even start with that," Jimmy muttered, clearly trying to avoid talking about Kai any further. He grabbed a basketball from the rack and started dribbling furiously, trying to drown out the conversation.
But Chaoxing wasn’t about to let it go. He grinned, trotting over to keep up with Jimmy. "Hey, come on, admit it. Kai’s good, right?"
Jimmy stopped dribbling and looked at him, his jaw set. "He’s fine."
Chaoxing let out an exaggerated gasp. "Fine? You’re really gonna downplay it like that? Man’s out here breaking records, and you’re saying he’s just ’fine.’"
"Anyway, we need you to liven up," Chaoxing continued, nudging Jimmy’s shoulders. "We’re playing with our biggest rival in the league. We can’t afford you going on temper tantrums."
Jimmy’s expression soured even more, but before he could respond, Jian held onto Chaoxing, realizing something.
"Record?" he asked. "What do you mean by record?"
Chaoxing turned to their star player with raised eyebrows. "Oh, they didn’t inform you?"
"Inform me about what?" Yuze asked, feeling some kind of dread forming in the pit of his stomach.
Chaoxing scoffed. "That’s what you get for not updating yourself with the events of the league."
Jian’s hold on Chaoxing tightened further, causing the latter to groan in pain.
"Tell me," Chaoxing urged.
"Alright, alright!" Chaoxing said, pulling his arm back. "Geez," he muttered. "One moment, you say you don’t care, then the next second, you want to castrate my arm just to hear about updates."
Chaoxing let out a deep breath before looking Jian in the eyes.
"Your record has finally been broken!" he excitedly exclaimed.
"Kai just scored 53 points in the game this morning! Isn’t he amazing?"