I'm in Wuha, and the whole internet is shipping me and Song Yuqi as a couple.

Chen He's body reacts even slower than his brain.

The moment the ball crossed the net, he only had time to raise his hand halfway before the volleyball hit his chest.

With a dull, heavy impact, he was thrown off the sand.

His back slammed heavily onto the sand, raising a cloud of white mist.

"vomit--"

Chen He rolled halfway on the ground, clutched his chest, gagged twice, and stared wide-eyed.

"Is this a volleyball or a cannonball?"

Zero to one.

Ah Yong withdrew his hand from the other side, exchanged a few words with his teammates in dialect, and everyone laughed.

There was no malice in that smile; it was simply because he felt the outcome of the match was predictable.

Wu Zheng picked up a megaphone on the sidelines, and the sound spread across the entire beach.

"Keep it up! You guys are the best! Although you're behind for now, your spirit is fantastic!"

Chen He climbed out of the sand and roared back at Wu Zheng.

"Shut up!"

Wu Zheng put down the megaphone, picked up the lemonade, and took a sip.

On his second serve, A Yong changed his angle, and the ball flew in an arc towards the right side area that Lu Han was responsible for.

Lu Han judged the direction and sidestepped the ball. The ball bounced low, but barely stayed in bounds.

Song Yuqi saw the ball flying towards her from the middle and back and quickly reached out to catch it.

The ball hit her wrist, making her gasp in pain, but she still pushed the ball away.

The direction was exactly towards Jiang Che.

Jiang Che turned sideways to catch it, and with a flick of his wrist, pushed it over the net.

The force wasn't great, and the opponent easily caught it.

The opponent organized a short pass, and the main attacker, A Yong, jumped from position three.

His jumping ability was astonishing. He leaped above the net, raised his right arm high, palm down, and chopped down heavily.

The ball, still spinning, landed in the backcourt of the five-man team.

Deng Chao lunged forward, his fingertips barely grazing the ball, but he couldn't save it.

Zero to two.

The third ball was faster.

A Yong's teammate on the opposite side served the ball, using a jump serve, aiming directly at the gap between Chen He and Song Yuqi.

Both of them hesitated for half a second, and neither of them went up.

The ball landed.

Zero to three.

Wu Zheng then raised the megaphone again.

"It's 3-0! My premium seafood bento boxes are heating up. How about you consider surrendering? If you admit defeat now, I'll give you a 10% discount."

Chen He was so angry that his face turned green, and he blurted out a sentence to Deng Chao.

"What did I say? He hired outside help to deal with us!"

Deng Chao, panting heavily, patted the sand off his knees and looked towards the net.

Jiang Che stood less than half a meter from the net, without making any unnecessary movements from beginning to end.

Of those three balls, two were outside his defensive zone, and he received one but failed to complete the subsequent attack.

He turned his head and waved to Song Yuqi.

Song Yuqi rubbed her wrist, which had been hit and turned red, and ran over.

"Does it hurt?"

Song Yuqi shook her head, even though a faint red ring had appeared on her wrist.

"You serve the next ball."

Song Yuqi was stunned for a moment.

"Me? My serve is terrible."

"It's okay, just throw it over the net."

After Jiang Che finished speaking, he glanced at the back of the field.

"Chao-ge, He-ge, you two retreat to the baseline and make room. Han, give me space on the left."

Chen He opened his mouth as if to ask why, but seeing Jiang Che's expression, he swallowed his words back.

Deng Chao pulled him back, and the two obediently retreated to the back field.

It's Wuha's turn to serve.

Song Yuqi stood behind the service line, holding the volleyball in both hands, looking extremely nervous.

She looked up at the five burly men opposite her, then looked back at Jiang Che.

Jiang Che nodded to her.

Song Yuqi closed her eyes, tossed the ball up, and weakly slapped it with her right hand.

The ball slowly rolled over the net, so slowly that even the wind could blow it off course.

The player receiving the ball on the opposite side barely moved, using one hand to baffle the ball and pass it to the setter in the middle.

The setter flicked the ball with her wrist, sending it flying high towards position three.

Ah Yong took two steps to run up and jumped in front of the net.

The height he soared was terrifying. At the highest point, he swung his right arm down with all his might, his palm slamming onto the ball with a dull thud.

The ball was thrown at a tricky angle with tremendous force, heading straight for the gap in the middle of the front row of the five-man team.

The first reaction of everyone present was that no one could catch the ball.

Then they saw Jiang Che.

To be precise, I saw a figure that bounced up from the sand.

The moment Jiang Che pushed off the ground with both feet, sand sprayed out from under his feet, and his body rose into the air at an abnormally fast speed.

He rose to a height of half a meter above the net, and continued to rise.

Before A Yong's arm could fully swing down, Jiang Che's palm was already directly above the ball.

Spread your five fingers and press your palm precisely on the top of the ball.

block.

Single-person net blocking.

The ball was firmly held in his palm, its direction changing from attack to vertical downwards, falling straight back into the opponent's court.

With a muffled thud, the ball bounced twice near A Yong's feet and rolled to the far side of the goal line.

The beach was quiet.

Ah Yong's arm, which had been hanging in mid-air, stopped. After landing, he looked at the person opposite him who was almost ten centimeters shorter than him, opened his mouth, but said nothing.

His four teammates all stood still, their expressions almost like they'd swallowed a volleyball.

Chen He was in the backcourt, his legs were still shaking, but his mouth had already started moving.

"Holy crap..."

Deng Chao picked up where Chen He left off.

"How high did he jump?"

Lu Han, on the left, stared at the spot where Jiang Che landed for three seconds.

"At least one meter."

After landing, Jiang Che patted the sand off his palms and turned to walk back to Song Yuqi.

He raised his right hand.

Before Song Yuqi could recover from the shock, she instinctively reached out and gave him a high five.

"Your serving form is very standard."

Song Yuqi's mind was in a state of confusion at this moment, and her mouth acted faster than her brain.

"You call that a little bit of knowledge?"

Jiang Che didn't answer; he had already turned around and walked back to the net.

One to three.

On the sidelines, Wu Zheng slowly put down the megaphone in his hand.

He stared at the replay on the screen, his hand holding the lemonade frozen in mid-air, his expression unpleasant.

The assistant director leaned over and muttered something under his breath.

"Director Wu, that jumping ability...did he train before?"

Wu Zheng didn't say anything, but took a big gulp of lemonade.

The game continues.

The situation changed completely after that.

Ah Yong also realized what was happening and stopped attacking Jiang Che head-on, instead starting to widen the angle and look for openings.

The ball flies towards the gap between Deng Chao and Chen He in the backcourt, or directly to Song Yuqi's position.

Although Deng Chao's pass went astray, his reaction was indeed quick. He desperately scooped up the ball and sent it to the front row in a crooked and awkward manner.

Lu Han's positioning was precise; he appeared on whichever side was missed and used his body to block the ball back to the middle.

After two attempts, Chen He gradually found his rhythm. Although his posture was still terrible, at least he wasn't knocked over again.

Once the ball reaches the front row, they don't need to worry about what happens next.

Jiang Che's coverage area in front of the net is ridiculously large.

Blocking on the left, blocking in the middle, and leaping on the right are all within his range of movement.

A-Yong jumped and smashed for the second time, changing the angle of the shot.

Jiang Che took two steps to the side, leaped into the air again, and slashed the ball back from the side with his arm.

Four to three.

A-Yong's teammate launched a powerful jump serve from the back row, with extremely high ball speed.

Lu Han sidestepped and rose, Jiang Che took three steps to get into position, exerted his strength from his waist and abdomen, and chopped down with his right hand from the highest point, his palm striking the surface of the ball.

The sound was even crisper than Ah Yong's spike just now.

After the ball crossed the net, it flew almost skimming the sand. Two players in the back row on the opposite side lunged out at the same time, but neither of them touched the ball.

Seven to five.

Chen He jumped up in the backstage area and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"He's not human! He's from outer space!"

Deng Chao got sand in his eyes and rubbed them while shouting at the camera.

"Viewers, please remember, he said he knows a little bit of volleyball!"

"I know a little!"

Song Yuqi, her heart pounding wildly, watched Jiang Che's profile as he bounced up from the sand again and again.

Her expression had changed from shock to a sweet helplessness.

She should have known long ago.

When someone says they "know a little," it means they can beat their opponent to a pulp.

The score was closing in quickly.

Ah Yong finally scored a point when the score was 9 to 7, by using a feint.

He pretended to spike a cross-court shot, then suddenly changed his wrist and hit a drop shot.

The ball floated lightly to the empty area in front of the net, and Jiang Che couldn't catch it.

But that's all it takes.

When the score was 11 to 8, the opponent's rhythm had been completely disrupted.

Every time they attacked, they first had to confirm Jiang Che's position, and then circle around him to find an angle.

But Jiang Che's movement speed and jumping speed are completely unreasonable.

They thought they had found an opening, but when the ball flew out, they realized that the person was already there.

Fifteen to ten.

The first game is over.

Chen He knelt on the sand, his hands raised above his head, looking like he had won the lottery.

Deng Chao lay in the sand, limbs outstretched, panting heavily.

Lu Han walked to the sidelines to drink water, her hands trembling slightly from running too much.

Song Yuqi stood in the middle of the court, her hair stuck to her forehead with sweat, her chest heaving.

Jiang Che walked up to her and glanced at her reddened wrist.

"Does it still hurt?"

Song Yuqi withdrew her hand.

"It doesn't hurt anymore."

Jiang Che took something out of his pocket—a sun protection wipe he had casually tucked into his pocket while collecting seashells on the beach.

He tore open the packaging, grasped Song Yuqi's wrist, and rubbed the reddened area twice.

The wet wipe felt cool, but Song Yuqi's ears started to burn again.

A sharp whistle suddenly rang out from the sidelines.

Wu Zheng stood up and waved to A Yong across from him.

Five barefoot men ran up to Wu Zheng, their heads huddled together.

Wu Zheng spoke hurriedly in a low voice, gesturing with his hands.

Chen He got up from the ground, brushed the sand off his buttocks, and gave a sarcastic remark in Wu Zheng's direction.

"Director Wu is calling a timeout to arrange tactics."

Deng Chao sat up and spat out the sand from his mouth.

"He even hired foreign players and still couldn't win, and now he's acting as a temporary coach?"

Jiang Che glanced at Wu Zheng, then looked away and walked to the middle of the four people.

"They will change their strategy in the second game."

Chen He leaned closer.

"What new playing style should we switch to?"

Jiang Che took the mineral water bottle, took two gulps, and handed the bottle to Song Yuqi.

"Keep an eye on me, five people are watching me alone."