After Meng Hao endured two English classes in a row, then endured two physics classes in a row, the morning’s lessons finally came to an end.
To be honest, these sophomore and senior-year high school courses were truly hard to get through.
Even the top students in the class would occasionally show signs of fatigue.
Meng Hao first went to the cafeteria with his deskmate for lunch. Speaking of which, Yan Cong really was far too absorbed in reading novels!
The top students ate while holding textbooks, while this kid ate with a novel in his hands.
So no wonder the top students could get into 985 universities, and no wonder this kid might one day get ten thousand subscriptions on Qidian!
Meng Hao carefully observed every little thing around him. He really did miss the cafeteria from his high school days.
The prices were cheap, the dishes were plentiful, and the taste was decent too.
High school students studied hard, exercised a lot, and were still growing. Whenever they ate in the cafeteria, the food tasted unbelievably good.
Meng Hao hurriedly finished lunch and arrived at a newly built tennis court on campus.
This tennis court had begun construction the year before last, which was when he had just entered his first year of high school. It had happened to ride the momentum of “Sister Na” winning the French Open.
In the summer of 2011, that expanse of red at Roland Garros in Paris swept across the land of Huaxia.
Li Na claiming the French Open title could be considered a milestone moment in the history of Huaxia sports, and all the major media outlets reported it as front-page headline news.
At last, a Huaxia athlete had won one of the four Grand Slam titles in tennis, with all their long history and prestige.
Of course, some reporters also used the topic to go further: Where are our male players? Alas, the women are flourishing while the men are declining!
Forget winning the title—even getting into the main draw was difficult, and there were a full 128 spots in the main draw of each of tennis’s four Grand Slams.
Meng Hao looked at the blue hard-court tennis court before him. It was completely empty, while the basketball court next door was packed with people.
What had the principal said back then again?
This newly built tennis court was not only to celebrate Li Na winning the French Open, but also in the hopes of promoting tennis on campus, which was why they had applied for a considerable sum of funding.
Though the words had sounded lovely, two years had passed, and there seemed to be no movement at all.
Usually, only a few PE teachers or foreign teachers came here to play tennis.
Random people from society who wanted to come in were all refused—unless they knew the school leadership.
Meng Hao sat there for a little while and was just about to leave when he saw a few people walking over with tennis rackets in hand.
Two of them were foreign teachers. He had some impression of them—the man was from Switzerland, the woman from Norway. And the other person was actually his homeroom teacher, his English teacher Yu Fang.
“Meng Hao?” Yu Fang was also surprised to see this student. “What are you doing at the tennis court? Shouldn’t you be playing basketball?”
For high school students of this age, basketball was their true love!
The boys in the class, even some of the top students, would rush to the basketball court en masse whenever they had free time.
Boys simply loved basketball too much!
Of course, she was different.
Yu Fang felt that since she was an English teacher, she naturally had an international outlook.
So an international sport like tennis, which also carried its own social and aristocratic attributes, suited her better. She could even play with the foreign teachers.
“Teacher… I like playing tennis. I just wanted to come here and see if there were any fellow enthusiasts!” Meng Hao said very directly.
He stared at the tennis rackets in their hands, his eyes darting around as if he were plotting something.
This key high school was semi-closed. One needed to ask for leave to go out through the school gate at noon. Meng Hao’s original plan had been to go home after school in the evening, withdraw his savings, and then buy a tennis racket.
“You know how to play tennis?” Teacher Yu asked in disbelief. “You’re sure it’s tennis, not table tennis?”
Homeroom teacher, you can look down on my grades, but you absolutely cannot look down on my tennis skills!
“I can play table tennis, and I can also play tennis!” Meng Hao raised his eyebrows and said seriously.
The male foreign teacher seemed to understand some Chinese as well, and he asked, “This young man knows how to play tennis? That’s great. Let’s have a hit. This is the first high school student I’ve met in China who knows how to play tennis.”
He was a tennis fanatic, and before coming to China as a foreign teacher, he had specially looked up China’s level in tennis.
Tennis was very popular in Switzerland, and Switzerland had produced tennis superstars like Federer, Hingis, and Wawrinka.
But Switzerland was, after all, a small country. If one checked the top 1,000 players in professional tennis, whether men or women, Switzerland had far fewer than China.
China should also be a tennis powerhouse!
But after he came to this third-tier city, he discovered that far too few people knew how to play tennis. The boys in high school seemed to prefer basketball, and not a single one knew tennis.
“Oh, Roger, don’t listen to him brag. I’ve never seen him play tennis before.” Although the foreign teacher clearly understood some Chinese, this homeroom teacher insisted on showing off her English.
Ah, so he was called Roger too, and he was Swiss!
“Roger is an amateur expert from Switzerland. When he was young, he even practiced at the same club as Federer!” the homeroom teacher said somewhat proudly. “But although his name is Roger, his surname isn’t Federer.”
The foreign teacher named Roger asked Meng Hao again in clumsy Chinese, full of expectation, “Young man, you really know how to play tennis?”
“Of course!” Meng Hao gave a confident smile. “I play very well. If you’re only an amateur expert, it’ll be very hard for you to beat me.”
The female foreign teacher said excitedly, “Roger, you two should play. Every time I see that smug look on your face after you beat me, I want to punch you. What’s so impressive about beating a woman!”
“Handsome boy, jiayou!”
“Defeat that arrogant Swiss guy!”
Yu Fang rolled her eyes. “Mina, don’t listen to him brag! Boys this age love to boast. I’ve never seen him play tennis. He can’t even beat the two of us!”
The female foreign teacher named Mina replied, “Not at all. I think this boy’s eyes are very clear and innocent. He doesn’t look like he’s lying.”
What was this?
A female foreign teacher kept speaking up for him, while his own homeroom teacher kept belittling him.
Meng Hao walked straight up to the female foreign teacher and said with a smile, “Beautiful lady, could you lend me your tennis racket? I promise I won’t disappoint you.”
“Uh… Of course!” The female foreign teacher handed the tennis racket in her hand to Meng Hao.
This was the first time a Chinese boy had praised her for being beautiful. Her heart felt sweet.
Although this female foreign teacher did have some looks, the main reason Meng Hao found her pleasing to the eye was because she was kindhearted.
Meng Hao took the tennis racket and immediately began swinging it on the spot.
Forehand, backhand—he swung a total of ten times.
Sure enough, on that attribute panel, there were 290 swings remaining.
“Wow, your form is very professional!” the male foreign teacher exclaimed.
“Your swing is so handsome!” the female foreign teacher said, covering her mouth.
As for Meng Hao’s homeroom teacher, her face was full of shock. His movements were far more standard than hers.
“You serve first!” the male foreign teacher said generously. “We’ll play three games. You’ll have two service games.”
In front of the two ladies, he decided to act like a gentleman.
“I serve first?” Meng Hao took the tennis ball. “Then you’d better be ready!”
He walked straight to the baseline, holding the racket in one hand while slowly bouncing the tennis ball with the other.
The movement looked extremely professional.
The male foreign teacher held his racket with both hands and stood at the baseline on the other side, staring intently at his opponent.
Meng Hao tossed the bright green tennis ball high into the air, bent his knees, pushed off the ground, and swung!
The ball was not very fast, but it carried fierce sidespin.
To return the ball, the male foreign teacher had already run quite a distance outside the court, yet he still failed to touch it.
An ace!
In other words, the opponent hadn’t even grazed the ball. Only then could it be called an ace.
The female foreign teacher watching from the side cried out in surprise, “Oh, my God!”
…