Accidentally provoking the spring tide

Chapter 112. The Taste of Jealousy

Ji Yanci remembers that it was a Friday.

The senior high school students, unusually, did not have extra classes; instead, they all gathered on the basketball court.

It is a tradition at No. 1 High School to hold a friendly basketball game between the second and third year students before the college entrance examination, which can be regarded as a continuation of the tradition.

Ji Yanci, as a key player, stood in the senior team to face the junior team.

Just before he went on stage, Jiang Jixu ran over to cheer him on. He had a bag slung over his thin shoulders, and it looked quite heavy, with something inside.

Her almond-shaped eyes sparkled as she smiled and waved at him, silently saying, "Good luck."

Ji Yanci was about to respond when his teammate bumped into him and teased with a grin, "Is that your classmate? Boy or girl? Wait, could she be the rumored androgynous Jiang Jixu?"

Hearing the other party's unbridled mockery, Ji Yanci recalled the rumors about girls at school. His eyes darkened slightly, and he lifted his eyelids to reply sarcastically.

"What's it to you?"

The boy, who had been laughing wildly just moments before, froze instantly.

"Ji Yanci, you—"

He was furious, but when he met the boy's cold, peach-blossom eyes, he instantly became weak and silent.

"You should put your energy into the game, or you'll get beaten so badly by your opponent that you can't even speak later."

Ji Yanci coldly tossed out a sentence, walked to the side to start warming up, but his eyes casually swept across the crowd.

It didn't take much effort to find Jiang Jixu in the area of ​​Class One.

The girl was bent over, holding a pen, and writing something.

Ji Yanci's gaze lingered for a moment before shifting to the competition field.

I could almost hear Jiang Jixu's silent encouragement echoing in my ears.

He lowered his eyes and bent down to check his shoelaces.

Lin Feng walked over and said, "Good luck, Ci Ge. The first half is up to you, I'll take care of the second half."

Ji Yanci remained silent.

He hadn't originally planned to participate in the entire basketball game.

After all, in his eyes, this competition was just a game to play casually, and winning or losing was not important.

But now, a sudden desire welled up in the boy's heart to go on stage immediately.

He wanted her to look at him.

Just like those girls screaming outside the stadium, they screamed for him.

The thought flashed through my mind.

Ji Yanci suppressed it again.

He turned around and patted Lin Feng on the shoulder: "Play well in the second half."

Lin Feng puffed out his chest and said, "Don't worry, Brother Ci, with me here, nothing will go wrong!!"

Lin Feng's skills are indeed quite good, so Ji Yanci isn't worried.

The referee blew his whistle, and both teams entered the field, but suddenly the whispers of their teammates reached their ears.

"So short and you dare to participate in a basketball game? Are there no other students in your second year of high school?"

Some people even openly expressed their provocations.

Ji Yanci looked at the person who had sparked the heated discussion.

He was indeed quite short, a whole head shorter than him. Standing in the very middle of the line, the originally flat horizontal line dipped down when he got there, which was quite comical.

But it must be said, that face is indeed good-looking.

Even he couldn't find anything wrong with it.

The boy seemed to sense his gaze and looked over. For a moment, their eyes met in mid-air, and Ji Yanci could faintly smell the tension.

He raised an eyebrow, not understanding the source of the other party's hostility, assuming it was simply a competitor in the competition.

The basketball game officially began after the whistle blew.

A deafening roar of cheers and screams erupted from the audience.

He glanced in Jiang Jixu's direction when he had a spare moment.

As expected, he saw the girl's gaze following him. He smiled slightly, dodged her attempts to grab the ball several times, and held it firmly as if it were part of his body.

He goes for a layup and leaps up.

The ball went into the basket.

Instantly, the audience erupted in unprecedented cheers and screams, all chanting his name.

Ji Yanci smiled slightly, but as he turned around, he caught a glimpse of a figure a head shorter than him, also looking towards the audience.

And it was quite a coincidence.

The boy's gaze fell precisely on the area of ​​Class One.

Ji Yanci paused, then narrowed his eyes.

The game continues.

After receiving the pass, he advanced forward as usual.

But the next second, a dark shadow flashed before my eyes, the ball in my hand disappeared instantly, and I heard my teammates' exclamations.

"Ci Ge's ball has been stolen! Quick! Get back on defense!"

Ji Yanci looked down at his empty palms and stared blankly for two seconds.

Someone actually managed to steal the ball from him.

who is it?

I had a vague guess in my mind.

When Ji Yanci saw the figure nimbly weaving through the crowd, his heart sank. It was indeed him.

Perhaps due to encountering an equally matched opponent, or for some other reason, Ji Yanci began to take this match more seriously.

After the short boy made another three-pointer, all the players on the court gasped.

"How many three-pointers is this now?"

"I can't remember if it was the third or the fourth."

"Which class is he in? He shoots so well, how come I've never heard of him before?"

"Not only is his shooting amazing, but his dribbling skills are also very strong. This is the first time I've seen someone manage to steal the ball from Ji Yanci..."

The murmurs of discussion converged from all directions, Ji Yanci's Adam's apple bobbed slightly, and a hint of impatience flickered in his peach blossom eyes.

Halftime.

Lin Feng walked over.

"Ci-ge, how's your stamina? How about I take over first?"

Ji Yanci's slender fingers tugged at the collar of his basketball jersey, his eyes drooping wearily, revealing a hint of restlessness: "No need."

"But--"

One look from him shut Lin Feng up.

"Drink some water."

A soft female voice rang out, and the boy paused slightly, looking at Jiang Jixu, whose face was still slightly flushed from rushing over.

She was holding a water glass and a clean, soft white towel.

Ji Yanci lowered his eyes, reached out and took the water glass, and twisted open the lid.

It's warm salt water.

After finishing her drink, the girl handed the cup back to Jiang Jixu without saying anything, but instead handed him the towel in her other hand.

Her fair, slender fingers gripped the towel.

Ji Yanci's gaze lingered on it for a few seconds, when he suddenly felt a burning gaze upon him.

His heart stirred slightly, and then he glanced over without making a sound.

Not far away, the boy dressed in black, who had been galloping freely on the field, was sitting in a chair, surrounded by a group of chattering teammates, but his gaze was seemingly casually drifting towards them.

Ji Yanci's eyes darkened slightly.

He had seen that kind of gaze countless times back in junior high school.

They're like a swarm of flies, no matter how much I try to shoo them away, they just keep buzzing and it's so annoying.

A moment later, Ji Yanci curled his lips, put one hand in his pocket, and his voice was slightly hoarse from exercising.

"Can you wipe it for me?"

Lin Feng, standing next to him, was so shocked that his eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

Jiang Jixu paused for only a few seconds before reaching out and gently wiping the sweat from his face with a towel.

In an instant, Ji Yanci felt that the hidden gaze become even more intense.

He subtly curved his lips into a smile, raised his hand, and pressed down on the girl's hand in full view of everyone, his tone languid.

"You have to wipe it like this."

As he spoke, he guided the girl's hand to run over his face. Jiang Jixu, who had been quite calm, now had her cheeks flushed bright red, but she still tried to remain composed: "Oh... I understand, I'll be more careful next time."

Ji Yanci didn't pay attention to what the girl was saying.

Once he felt the annoying gaze disappear, he released Jiang Jixu's hand and said in a calm voice, "Alright, let's continue the competition."

Jiang Jixu nodded, blushing, "Then you guys do your best, I'll head back now."

"Ah."

After she walked away, Lin Feng came over and said, "Brother Ci, you were acting really strange just now."

"What's so strange about that?"

Ji Yanci said calmly, "I'll go on for the second half, and you can come on when you're tired enough."

"it is good."

He originally planned to get back at the top of his game in the second half.

But when they looked over, they found that the opposing team was no longer on the field.

Ji Yanci couldn't explain his feelings at the time.

It was a little boring but also a little satisfying.

After he scored a basket, Lin Feng was substituted in.

While waiting, I overheard the second-year substitute players chatting with their third-year students.

"Who was that number 3 player in the first half? He played so aggressively, how come I've never heard of him before?"

"You mean him? We don't know much about him either."

"Isn't he one of your teammates?"

"Hey, one of our buddies twisted his ankle a couple of days ago and couldn't play, so we had to make a last-minute replacement."

The ball was just finished when the substitute player came on.

During the handover, a second-year substitute player gestured with his lip towards the boy walking over: "Hey, you can ask him, he's the one who dragged the guy over."

The boy who came down looked knowing: "You mean him? He's not from our high school. He's a little younger than us, I think he's only in the third year of junior high."

"Junior high?! Playing basketball this hard?"

"Yeah, he was really good when he participated in the street basketball tournament before. He single-handedly defeated an entire basketball team!"

"Tsk, he's the one who's good, why are you so proud of him?"

"What do you know? This is called sharing in the glory!"

"Why did that guy leave after only half the game?"

The male voice scratched his head and said, "It seems like something happened at home, but I'm not really sure."

Soon, everyone's attention shifted to the competition field, leaving only Ji Yanci sitting there with his eyes downcast, seemingly lost in thought.

……

In the end, the senior students won the competition.

Lin Feng was overjoyed.

"Let's go, Lyricist, let's celebrate with hot pot!"

However, someone from the next group of second-year high school students made a cheeky remark: "It's just that Xiao Lu isn't here. If he were, it's hard to say who would have won the competition."

One sentence instantly escalated the conflict between the two sides.

Seeing that an argument was about to break out, Ji Yanci impatiently frowned and said, "Enough," and the crowd instantly fell silent.

His gaze swept over the crowd: "It's just a friendly match, what's there to argue about?"

It's so annoying.

Then he turned to Lin Feng and said, "You take them with you, I won't go."

Lin Feng paused for a moment, then nodded.

He left with a group of people.

When Ji Yanci reached the door, he saw Jiang Jixu standing there waiting for him.

She was still carrying that black shoulder bag.

He pursed his lips, looking nonchalant, but quickened his pace.

"Give me the bag."

Jiang Jixu shook his head: "It's nothing."

As she spoke, she pulled a familiar notebook out of her bag and handed it to him: "I've finished this week's notes. Remember to hand them in on Monday."

Ji Yanci took it and casually flipped through two pages.

To avoid being discovered by the teacher, Jiang Jixu would imitate his handwriting. After doing so many times, his handwriting became more and more similar, and sometimes even Ji Yanci himself could not tell the difference.

He paused when he turned over to a spot.

"This is?"

He flipped the notebook over; there were traces of it being torn at the base of the paper.

The girl glanced at it quickly.

"Oh, I wrote it on the wrong line, so I tore it up."

Ji Yanci nodded, thanked him, and didn't take it to heart.

As the two walked home together, Jiang Jixu bent down to tie her shoelaces, and a folded piece of paper accidentally fell out of her pocket.

He picked it up casually, unfolded it, and glanced at it.

His gaze suddenly froze.

Simply because the contents of that piece of paper were their Chinese language notes.

But the handwriting on it was unfamiliar.

Although the other party also intended to imitate his calligraphy, compared to Jiang Jixu's natural and skillful style, the strokes and turns were still too stiff, and it was obvious at a glance that something was wrong.

No wonder it got torn up.

Before the girl stood up, Ji Yanci silently crumpled the paper into a ball and held it in his palm.

When I got home, the first thing I did was take out my notebook and turn to the page that had been torn out.

The irregular torn edges match perfectly.

The boy looked at the paper, then expressionlessly crumpled it into a ball again.

After thinking for a moment, he took out his phone and made a call.

"Hey Teacher Wang, I left something on the school basketball court. Could you check the school's security camera footage? Yes, it's quite valuable..."

That evening, Ji Yanci received the surveillance video from the academic affairs director.

He made a phone call to express his gratitude, and the other party was very polite.

"The video is a bit long. If you find any problems, please let me know."

Ji Yanci was not surprised by this, after all, the Ji family had just donated an experimental building to the No. 1 Middle School this year. He casually agreed and hung up the phone, then started to check the surveillance footage with the mouse.

The video is indeed very long.

However, Ji Yanci had a goal, so the actual time spent was not long.

A dozen minutes later, as he looked at the image on the computer screen, his peach blossom eyes became misty and utterly cold.

The probe was positioned precisely in the area where Class One was sitting.

That's why he can see clearly.

How did the person who disappeared in the second half of the basketball game end up in the stands, how did he sneak up on Jiang Jixu, and even help her copy the rest of her notes while she was away?

Ji Yan's words conveyed a sense of coolness.

He glanced at the crumpled paper beside him, squinted, and a better idea popped into his head.

He picked up his phone, opened WeChat, and found the players from the second year of high school in the basketball club's group chat.

We chatted casually for a bit and successfully arranged a dinner.

He easily extracted the information he wanted from one of them.

For the rest, Ji Yanci didn't take action himself. He just randomly found a classmate in the junior class, gave him some money, and asked him to hand over the crumpled paper to the other party and pass on a message.

He remembered that not two days later, the kid came to their school again.

Jiang Jixu had just returned from the teacher's office, carrying a stack of homework in his arms.

Ji Yanci watched as the other party took a few steps up the stairs.

But it wasn't until the boy reached out his hand that he belatedly walked out of the classroom and took the things from Jiang Jixu's hands.

Then, with a casual, yet disdainful glance.

But his face showed a nonchalant smile.

At the time, Ji Yanci never imagined that the boy he had looked down on and toyed with would one day actually take Jiang Jixu away from him.

Thank you, Uncle Ouyang, for the Hongxiu ticket!
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