Who would still play tennis after being reborn?

Chapter 12: Professional Player Pretends to Be a Tennis Enthusiast and Randomly Challenges Passersby (4.6K)

Are you serious?
Want to go to an internet cafe and play games together?
It's hard to imagine that such words would come from Xia Zhitong's mouth.

However, Xia Zhitong probably has no idea what internet cafes or playing games together mean!

"There are no internet cafes around here; it would be quite a long walk to get one."

"Let Uncle Lu come and pick us up."

Gu Cheng was somewhat helpless. He had made his point so clear, but Xia Zhitong didn't even know this basic social etiquette. After thinking for a moment, he could only say, "Before we go, answer one question for me."

Xia Zhitong nodded her head like a chick pecking at rice.

"Can you tolerate a large group of people smoking and swearing around you?" Gu Cheng looked at her seriously.

The vast majority of people who go to internet cafes like to smoke.

Even in some internet cafes with better environments, the tolerance for smoking in public places is actually quite high these days. Even if you go to a private room, the smell of smoke will still circulate to every corner of the internet cafe with the air.

He didn't care; he was used to that smoky environment anyway.

Upon hearing the word "smoking," Xia Zhitong subconsciously frowned, her slightly flushed face showing hesitation. After a moment, she gave up her plan to go to the internet cafe to play games.

Gu Cheng breathed a sigh of relief, and the two continued walking towards the south entrance of the small commodities market.

As Xia Zhitong passed an adult products store, she cast a curious glance at it and even considered getting closer.

Gu Cheng quickly pulled her back.

"This is a store that you can only enter after you turn eighteen."

“I just saw a student who is about our age go in.”

"You're mistaken. He just looks young; he's actually eighteen years old."

"Oh."

What is a vibrator? Do adults all use them?

"No, some people use it, too..."

Gu Cheng realized his mistake halfway through his sentence and quickly stopped, saying, "Alright, let's not look at this shop anymore and keep walking forward."

"Why is there a fluffy tail at the back of that metal plug? Do adults play with toys like that? Why don't I have one at home?"

"You're still young, don't pry into adult matters."

"Oh."

Xia Zhitong nodded obediently, and Gu Cheng thought he could finally continue walking forward. Unexpectedly, the girl turned her head and focused her gaze on the row of underwear that the merchant had placed at the door.

Why are all those underwear transparent?

"Also, is that one with only three stripes also underwear? So adults wear it like this?"

Gu Cheng was on the verge of tears. He quickly pulled Xia Zhitong forward, knowing he wouldn't know how to explain himself if the girl continued to ask questions.

The main problem is that Xia Zhitong had absolutely no experience with this kind of thing, so when she asked questions, she completely ignored the passersby. Although her voice wasn't loud, the passersby could still hear her. One or two questions weren't a big deal, but after asking a lot, many people started casting curious glances at her.

Stared at by a group of people, Xia Zhitong looked clueless and indifferent, her eyes crystal clear, and she even adopted a haughty attitude, but Gu Cheng was in a real bind.

He wasn't intimidated by being the center of attention; he was used to it in the world of Prince of Tennis. But being the center of attention for discussing adult products was a first for him.

Strangers are a bit better, but if it's someone you know, or even someone who's a friend of your parents, you'd be scared out of your wits on the spot.

If this gets back to my parents, it'll be like mud falling into their pants—even if it's not shit, it'll still look like shit.

After pulling Xia Zhitong along for a few steps, they turned a corner and stopped, only to realize that they had arrived at the south entrance of the small commodities market.

Looking at the time, I realized it was almost eleven o'clock.

Are you hungry? Want to go get something to eat?

"it is good."

There are quite a few restaurants in the small commodities market, but since he had already come out, Gu Cheng didn't plan to go back. He remembered that there was a good hole-in-the-wall restaurant near the Tennis Tennis Center, which he had eaten at a few times before and found to be very delicious.

The key point is that the shop is run by a middle-aged couple, with an open kitchen, and the hygiene is exceptionally well maintained.

The south entrance to the small commodity market was not far from that store; the two walked for about ten minutes.

When I went inside, there were already quite a few people sitting down.

However, they came and left, and it's only a little past eleven o'clock now. There aren't many people eating at this time, and there are still seats available in the restaurant.

Gu Cheng found a seat near the door, picked up the menu, and asked, "Are you afraid of spicy food?"

"Never eaten."

Gu Cheng was in a bit of a predicament. This restaurant served typical Quzhou cuisine, and it was hard to find dishes that weren't spicy. Even if he specifically asked for it to be mildly spicy, it would still be mild.

The mild spiciness of Quzhou cuisine is equivalent to extreme spiciness for those who don't eat spicy food.

Although geographically this city belongs to Zhejiang, its temperament and eating habits are nothing like those of Zhejiang. Jiangzhehu cuisine is either rich and oily or light and mild. However, once you sit on the table of Kecheng people, you will understand why Quzhou cuisine is Quzhou cuisine.

However, this is also related to the geographical environment.

After all, Kecheng is right next to Jiangxi, a region known for its spicy food.

"How about changing to another one?"

"The food at this restaurant is quite spicy, I'm afraid you won't be able to handle it."

"Try it."

Xia Zhitong looked like a curious child, so Gu Cheng didn't say anything more. It wouldn't hurt to give it a try.

Isn't life all about trying out all sorts of new things?
With a smile, Gu Cheng ordered lichen scrambled eggs, freshwater fish, stir-fried green tomatoes, and the only non-spicy tomato and egg soup from the menu.

There weren't many people eating at the restaurant at this time, so the food was served very quickly.

Although Quzhou cuisine is spicy, every dish is very appetizing, and Gu Cheng finished two bowls of white rice in no time.

Looking at Xia Zhitong, she kept fanning her mouth with her fair little hands, her cheeks were flushed red from the spiciness, and beads of sweat kept rolling down her forehead. While shouting "So spicy, so spicy," she still couldn't help but keep picking at the food.

This is probably the first time this young lady has ever experienced such spicy food.

Half an hour later, when Gu Cheng got up to pay, Xia Zhitong opened her small purse, took out two 100-yuan bills, and slapped them on the table.

"Keep it. We can't expect you to pay when we're out eating."

Xia Zhitong stared at him: "It's my treat."

There was no room for rejection in his tone.

Left with no other option, Gu Cheng had Xia Zhitong pay the money.

As the two came out of the store, Gu Cheng was about to ask the girl if there was anywhere she wanted to go next when he saw Xia Zhitong staring at the Tennis Tennis Hall not far away for a long time.

"Come with me to watch a tennis match." Xia Zhitong pointed to the Tennis Tennis Center.

"Look? You're not going to hit me?"

"I won't fight, I'll just watch."

"Then...okay!"

Helpless, Gu Cheng had no choice but to accompany Xia Zhitong into the tennis court.

As soon as Gu Cheng entered the tennis hall, the receptionist spotted him: "Oh, you're the high school student who played against Xiao Fan the other day. What brings you here? Did you arrange to play tennis with Xiao Fan?"

"No."

"How about I find a coach to play a match with you? It's free." The receptionist wasn't giving up. Gu Cheng's performance in the match against Xiao Fan was so outstanding that people were still going to the property management office to check the surveillance footage late last night.

If another match could be arranged, it would definitely benefit the tennis arena.

If the match video could be used as promotional material, it would definitely attract a lot of people, especially that last topspin serve, it was just so cool.

As more people come, the tennis court's reputation will grow, and customers will keep coming in.

Yesterday when she was leaving get off work, the manager specifically instructed her that if Gu Cheng came to play basketball, she shouldn't charge him, and it would be best to arrange a good coach for him...

Anyway, after saying all that, it boils down to one sentence: keep a close eye on Gu Cheng, this high school student. He's the living advertisement for the Tennis Tennis Center. With the manager giving the order, how could the receptionist dare to disobey?

"No need, I just came to take a look and will probably leave in a bit." Gu Cheng shook his head and declined the receptionist's invitation.

Seeing this, the receptionist looked disappointed, but then turned her gaze to Xia Zhitong, who was following behind Gu Cheng. When she saw Xia Zhitong's appearance clearly, she was stunned: "Is this your sister? She's really beautiful."

"No, we're friends."

"Oh? A friend!"

The receptionist smiled, giving him an "I understand" look that left Gu Cheng both amused and exasperated.

However, he was too lazy to explain. This kind of thing was probably impossible to explain no matter how you tried. Anyway, they weren't acquaintances, so let the misunderstanding be!

The two walked into the Tennis Tennis Center. At this time, perhaps because of the midday heat, there were some people practicing on the outdoor courts, but not many spectators, only a few scattered individuals, probably friends and family.

Indoor courts are different. Because there are fewer indoor courts, not many people come to play at midday. The only courts with matches have a lot of spectators.

Gu Cheng found a seat a little further away, and Xia Zhitong sat down in the same row with him. Then the two of them looked at the court at the same time.

At this moment, two young men, who looked to be in their early twenties, were playing tennis on the court.

Gu Cheng made some judgments with his professional eye. In terms of technique, these two were far behind professional players, but they were not bad among amateur tennis enthusiasts. They had obviously been practicing for several years.

Moreover, the two players were evenly matched, and the game was quite exciting with several points going back and forth.

To be honest, matches between evenly matched teams are the most interesting to watch, as you can learn a lot from them. If the skill gap is too large and the match becomes one-sided, it's actually not very entertaining.

"Thirsty, Wahaha."

Gu Cheng had only glanced at the match a couple of times when Xia Zhitong suddenly stretched out her fair, jade-like hand, her eyes fixed intently on the plastic bag Gu Cheng was carrying—or rather, the bottle of Wahaha AD Calcium Milk inside the plastic bag.

"Na."

Gu Cheng opened the AD calcium milk and placed it in Xia Zhitong's hand. Just as he was about to take a few sips of water, he suddenly heard a "beep beep beep beep" sound coming from his pocket.

It's QQ's most classic notification sound.

Upon opening it, I discovered that Li Yang had sent several QQ messages in succession.

"Holy crap! Cheng, guess who I saw when I came out of the internet cafe?"

"Alright, I won't keep you in suspense any longer. It's Lin Huaiman. I can hardly believe it. Didn't she go to Shanghai with her mother before? I didn't expect her to come back to Ningbo to study. I asked around and found out that she's also at No. 1 Middle School, in our Class 2."

"Lin Huaiman went to Shanghai for a year and she really changed a lot. She became more beautiful, but it seems that she wore a lot of makeup. She can't compare to Xia Zhitong at all, but she is still very beautiful."

"That woman, Lin Huaiman, was trying to get close to me, asking about your situation. I couldn't be bothered with her. Back in the second year of junior high, you wrote her a love letter, and this woman just threw it in the trash. You idiot."

Gu Cheng wanted to curse. Why did you have to bring up something you didn't want to talk about?
He had completely forgotten about it, even forgetting who Lin Huaiman was. He never expected this guy to remember it so clearly.

"By the way, are you free this afternoon?"

“Zhou Xiao asked us to play basketball at school. He said he was afraid of running into other people and wanted to bring you along. That way, we won’t be afraid of them if they want to play.”

Gu Cheng casually replied that he was busy.

"You're not still at the small commodities market, are you?"

"No."

"We've arrived at the tennis court."

"Playing tennis?"

"No way, Acheng, you really went to learn tennis? With your skills, don't go and embarrass yourself. I can't even watch you play. You can't even serve properly. Don't kid me, okay?"

"Even if you want to learn, it's too late now. Didn't you hear Yu Xinjie say yesterday that tennis needs to be learned from a young age? You'd be better off practicing basketball than learning tennis!"

"However, the anime 'The Prince of Tennis' that you recommended to me before was really good. I stayed up all night to finish watching it, but unfortunately, the World Championship training camp only had 13 episodes, so it was like watching nothing at all."

Gu Cheng was speechless. How could someone talk so erratically? One second he was talking about his tennis practice, and the next he was talking about anime.

However, this guy is really fast at typing on his phone.

Gu Cheng remembered that Li Yang was using a 26-key keyboard, which even dogs wouldn't use.

However, the 26-key double-pinyin input method is indeed quite good, and it's incredibly fast. At least that's what Li Yang said; he hasn't tried it himself.

Gu Cheng originally wanted to reply to Li Yang, but seeing that the guy had sent too many messages, he simply decided not to reply.

"Do you still want to watch?"

"Still watching."

"How about I play a couple of games with you?"

For someone who knows how to play tennis, making them sit on the sidelines and watch others play is pure torture.

"We won't fight, we'll just watch."

Xia Zhitong sipped her AD calcium milk, but spoke very clearly, her eyes fixed on the court, looking quite interested in tennis.

"Why don't you come with me to practice Sanda (Chinese kickboxing)?"

"Me?" Gu Cheng pointed to himself, looking at him as if to say, "You're not kidding me."

"Ah."

"Never mind, I won't."

"I teach you."

Xia Zhitong looked at him very seriously.

At this point, Gu Cheng finally believed Xia Mingxuan's claim that his sister knew Sanda (Chinese kickboxing), and became even more unwilling.

Although he didn't think Xia Zhitong could pose any threat to him, after all, he had learned a few moves from Momoshiro Takeshi and Viper in the world of Prince of Tennis, so he had some skills to his name.

But rather than going to practice Sanda (Chinese kickboxing), it's better to sit here and watch others play ball.

It was clear that Xia Zhitong was staring at him intently, so Gu Cheng could only say helplessly, "We'll talk about it later."

"Ah."

The two returned to their previous state, staring at the court.

Just then, outside the tennis courts.

"Look, it's a tennis court."

"Zhang Ming, want to play a couple of games?"

The young man called Zhang Ming was somewhat interested: "Playing ball is so boring, let's try something different."

"how to say?"

"I'll put on a mask and go inside to play a match with the people there. Win or lose, I'll give the other person a racket, and the winner will get an extra 10,000 yuan. You record a video, and we'll upload it online with the title:..."

After thinking for a moment, Zhang Ming smiled and said, "What do you think of a professional player pretending to be a tennis enthusiast and randomly challenging passersby?"

The young man accompanying Zhang Ming's eyes lit up: "This is good, but to be honest, the conditions you set are a bit too harsh. You can only get 10,000 yuan if you win. Who the hell can beat a professional player ranked over 100th in the world?"

"It would be more likely to get one cent from you, but even so, I doubt anyone could get the ten thousand yuan."

"Then one cent."

"Then what are you waiting for? Let's go."

Zhang Ming smiled slightly, and without anyone noticing, he pulled a mask out of his pocket and put it on: "We still need to keep things confidential. Passersby might not recognize me, but tennis enthusiasts could be a different story."

"Our strategy is to maintain an air of mystery, play the novice, hold back a bit first, and then unleash our full potential to shock everyone."

"Stop talking, let's go inside. I can already see the look of surprise on their face as they look at you."

"Haha, I thought he was just a passerby, but he turned out to be a professional player ranked over 100th in the world. The contrast is simply unbeatable."

The two chatted and laughed as they turned and walked into the tennis court.

(End of this chapter)