Before Lin Wansheng could even snap out of his memories from last night.
Mark's voice, brimming with laughter, pulled him back to reality.
“Seriously,” Mark said, flexing his wrists as he looked at him, an uncontainable grin on his face.
“You and your little girlfriend make a pretty good couple.”
“Your thought processes are practically identical.”
Mark picked up a football, tossing it in his hand. Just thinking about last night's scene made him want to laugh.
“I still can't get over it—her tiny frame holding up a phone.”
“Solemnly pointing out the stadium's floor plan for us with that dead-serious expression.”
“How did you guys even think to look up something like that?”
Hearing this, Lin Wansheng corrected him with a speechless tone:
“First, she's not short. You're just too tall, okay? For Chinese girls, five-five is a perfectly normal, standard height.”
“Second, she's really not my girlfriend.”
“Third,” Lin Wansheng looked at Mark. “I always thought quarterbacks were supposed to be smarter. What's your deal?”
Mark choked on this sudden jab, then burst into loud laughter.
He hurled the ball in his hand toward the center of the practice net, hitting the bullseye dead-on with a sharp swoosh.
He turned around, walked quickly up to Lin Wansheng, and punched him in the shoulder.
“Am I not smart enough? Do you know what my seventy-five percent completion rate last season means?”
“That besides passing, you can't do anything else?”
“Hey! Say that again, and I'm really going to hit you!”
Lin Wansheng looked at his “angry from embarrassment” expression and simply spread his hands.
“What? Resorting to fists when you can't win with words? I don't think the quarterback playbook teaches that, does it?”
Just as the two were fooling around, a crisp female voice came from the sidelines.
“You two finally done messing around?”
They turned to see Ashley, the cheerleading captain, standing with her arms crossed, leaning against the railing of the stands.
“Hurry up and change. The pre-game pep rally is starting soon.”
When Mark and Lin Wansheng reached the sidelines, Ashley naturally hooked her arm through Mark's and leaned into him.
Mark lowered his head and lightly kissed her forehead.
Only then did Ashley turn her gaze to Lin Wansheng, a smile on her face.
“Jimmy, you still haven't told Amanda what kind of dessert you like.”
“She just texted me complaining that because she didn't know what you liked, she had to guess and made you a cheesecake. She wanted to surprise you at your house but came up empty.”
“That girl's practically worried sick.”
“I told her to just go to the locker room and find you later.”
“Huh? But...” Lin Wansheng instinctively wanted to refuse. “I already ate this morning.”
The memory instantly flashed through his mind—this morning before dawn, when Li Shuyao had knocked on his garage door.
Handing him a box of still-warm soft cookies.
Ashley, however, seemed not to notice his predicament. She let go of Mark and walked up to Lin Wansheng.
“That won't do.”
She reached out a finger and poked Lin Wansheng in the chest.
“You have to eat the dessert your rally girl made for you. It's our team's tradition.”
She winked at him, her tone turning mysterious.
“Eat it, and you'll win!”
Mark walked over smiling, putting his arm around Ashley's shoulders.
“Don't be so superstitious, okay?”
Hearing this, Ashley turned her head to look at him, her face wearing an “are you kidding me?” expression.
She reached out a finger and lightly poked Mark in the chest.
“Oh, yes, yes, yes. You're not superstitious.”
She spoke in an exaggerated, sickly-sweet tone.
“Who knows who it is who has to wear the same pair of socks before every game and kiss that poster in his locker.”
Lin Wansheng was shocked hearing this. “Wait, bro, if I recall, isn't the poster in your locker a horse?”
Ashley couldn't hold it in anymore, laughing so hard she couldn't straighten her back.
“Yes! It's a horse!” She finally caught her breath, pointing at Mark's embarrassed face.
“The poster was a prank by Kevin and the others. They secretly hung it up for him.”
“As a result, he accidentally bumped into it when opening his locker and 'kissed' it.”
“It was right then that our starting quarterback got injured and left the game, and he went in as a substitute.”
“And in that game, he threw a game-winning Hail Mary pass in the final second. You remember that?”
“After that, a certain someone had to go kiss that horse before every game to feel at ease.”
Lin Wansheng looked at Mark's flushed face and couldn't hold it in anymore. He bent over, erupting into earth-shaking laughter.
Laughing while pointing at Mark, he couldn't catch his breath.
“Oh my god... so... our team's star quarterback has to... kiss a horse before every game?”
“Shut up, Lin!” Mark flew into a rage from humiliation and lunged forward to put him in a chokehold.
Seeing this, Lin Wansheng immediately turned and ran, shouting as he ran, “Come look! The king's secret has been exposed!”
Ashley watched the two boys chasing and roughhousing on the field like grade-schoolers, laughing until tears nearly came out.
...
...
...
In the gymnasium, massive speakers were blaring deafening music.
Lin Wansheng sat in the players' exclusive front-row seats, struggling to swallow the last bite of cheesecake.
The soft cookies Li Shuyao had brought that morning hadn't even digested yet.
He'd just been cornered in the locker room by Amanda, who'd forced a huge piece of homemade cheesecake on him.
Now he was uncomfortably full. Coupled with barely sleeping last night, he was growing increasingly drowsy.
Right at this moment, the pre-game pep rally officially began on the elevated platform in the center of the gymnasium.
Cheerleading captain Ashley ran onto the stage with her squad amidst a wave of cheers.
The music's beat suddenly shifted. The girls on the high platform instantly dropped their smiles, replacing them with an explosively intense focus.
A series of back handsprings rolled from one side of the stage to the other like waves, drawing gasps from the students in the stands.
Immediately after, all the squad members leaped high into the air at the same time, executing a beautiful toe touch in midair.
The music cut off abruptly after one final heavy beat.
In an instant, Ashley was steadily lifted to the highest point. She stretched out her arms, forming a perfect V in the air.
Looking down at the crowd below, she shouted with all her might: “GO TITANS!”
Just then, Avery finally arrived, plopping down beside him.
He looked at Lin Wansheng's utterly defeated expression and couldn't help but want to laugh.
He nudged Lin Wansheng with his elbow and whispered, “I told you we should've gone on Wednesday. Then you could've rested on Thursday.”
“You insisted last night would have the best effect.”
Lin Wansheng yawned, replying weakly, “Obviously. If we did it Thursday night, they wouldn't find out until this morning.”
“Their mentality would be completely broken—the kind of broken where they'd have no time to retaliate.”
“That's what would mess with them the most.”
“Today on the field, we're going to destroy them!”
Begging for monthly tickets and continued reads—save this new book, my dear fathers!