Chapter 510: Love the Person and Everything Around Him
"Why are you so late?" Yu Rong came over and asked.
"I got lost... I got lost... I couldn't find the stadium," Hao Ren said.
He looked around and asked, "Yujia didn't come?"
When Zhao Yanzi heard the question, she pinched Hao Ren's shoulder hard.
"She organized this event and got us here to the game. But I think she has some personal stuff, so she can't make it." Yu Rong looked at Hao Ren in surprise. "Didn't she tell you?"
"She did tell me, but I just wasn't that sure..." Hao Ren said vaguely.
He thought Xie Yujia would come with Xie Wanjun.
On the basketball court, there were dozens of pretty girls cheerleading. Zhao Jiayi was sitting by the court and looked depressed.
"What are you looking at!" Zhao Yanzi saw that Hao Ren was looking on the court, so she put her hand in front of his eyes.
"This pretty little girl is very bossy. I'm not sure if Hao Ren is happy or sad..." Zhou Liren thought.
"I'm not here to see pretty girls. I'm looking at my friend." Hao Ren took her arm away and looked toward Jinghua University.
Compared to East Ocean University, the home team Jinghua University was full of energy. The captain of the Jinghua University's basketball team was about two meters tall and was discussing the strategy of the second half of the game with his team.
"Go, Jinghua University! Go, Jinghua University! Go, Jinghua University!"
A uniformed and loud cheer sounded on the stands across the court.
The stadium could fit tens of thousands of people, and there were over 5,000 students and alumnus from Jinghua University here. They had packed up almost half the stadium.
Most of them were wearing school uniforms, so they looked very organized and aligned. They also had a lot of banners to cheer for the Jinghua University's basketball team.
In contrast, only a few hundred people from East Ocean University came to Beijing to watch the match, and they sat scattered around the stadium.
"What should we do?" Zhao Yanzi sounded a bit worried.
Because of Hao Ren, she still had some feelings for East Ocean University. Especially since East Ocean University represented East Ocean City, and Zhao Jiayi was a great friend of Hao Ren. For many reasons, she didn't want the team to lose.
After some thought, she took out her phone and dialed a number.
"What are you doing?" Hao Ren, who was watching the match, turned around and asked Zhao Yanzi.
"Nothing!" Zhao Yanzi pouted.
The special music sounded, signaling the start of the second half of the game.
Zhao Jiayi was exhausted, but he shook his head and headed toward the court. Even with his exceptional jumping abilities and stamina, he was still nervous when he faced the players of Jinghua University who had an average height of two meters.
As expected, Jinghua University that was leading by ten points was not nervous at all. In comparison, East Ocean University was a bit rattled.
Hao Ren didn't understand the flow and the strategies of basketball games before. But after practicing sword energies and learning architecture from Zhao Hongyu, he was able to somewhat see through the game and comprehend the strategies.
There were five players on East Ocean University's team who were all running in at their own pace, so they were destroying their own defense-line. However, Jinghua University's team was calm, and each person stood a position that was part of their overall strategy.
Hao Ren observed for a while and suddenly realized that the new captain of Jinghua University's basketball team emitted a blue light; a Kan-level cultivator.
For dragon cultivators, it was easy for them to reach Zhen-level, so Kan-level was extremely weak. However, for ordinary people, a Kan-level cultivator was equivalent to a martial arts master!
Hua, hua, hua, hua, hua, hua, hua...
Just then, a bunch of people suddenly rushed into the stadium.
They were all wearing white training clothes, and each one of them was more than 1.8 meters tall.
This large crowd sat at the seats on the top, looking down on the supporters of Jinghua University.
When the referee of this basketball game saw this large white crowd come in, he was a bit shocked and almost forgot to pay attention to what was happening on the court.
"Go, East Ocean University! Go, East Ocean University!"
The cheers for East Ocean University was louder and covered up the cheers for Jinghua University. The students of Jinghua University were all shocked to the point that they were scared and became afraid of cheering out loud.
"Where did they come from?" Hao Ren asked Zhao Yanzi.
"Elder Sun's Martial Arts Dojos are opened all across the country. There's a big one in Beijing not far away from here," Zhao Yanzi said with a smile.
Hao Ren turned around and didn't a rough count. There were about 6,000 of them!
Zhao Yanzi only gave a call to the manager of Sun Yun Martial Arts Dojos' Beijing branch and got 6,000 people to come and support East Ocean University!
On the basketball court, Zhao Jiayi wasn't able to score when he shot the ball. However, he suddenly heard the loud cheers and looked up. He saw a big banner spread across the top of the stadium and read, "Hao Ren said: Good brother, you can do it!"
Suddenly, Zhao Jiayi let out a dazzling smile.
"Damn bro, you finally came... and you made such a scene out of it!" he thought in excitement.
He turned around and looked at his teammates. "Brothers! The era for East Ocean University has come!"
"Yes!" The players on East Ocean University's basketball team were all encouraged by the big white crowd of supporters.
They weren't fighting alone!
Hao Ren turned around and looked at the banner, and he couldn't help but smile. This banner was temporarily made from a big red cloth, but the characters on it were bold and strong. It didn't look anything less than a fancy one!
The words on this banner were indeed things Hao Ren wanted to say to Zhao Jiayi!
He turned to look at Zhao Yanzi and suddenly admired her for her quick wits. Zhao Yanzi smiled sweetly and made a V-sign with her fingers.
"She is becoming cuter..." Hao Ren thought. He didn't dare to say this out loud since she would hit him for sure.
On the basketball court, East Ocean University's basketball team was now inspired and had returned to their usual selves...
Zhao Jiayi dribbled the ball agilely, and he turned around and passed the ball. The ball bounced and was in the hands of PlayerNno.6, who was under the net. This player caught the ball and successfully shot the ball into the net. He got two points for the team.
"Great..." Over 6,000 members of Sun Yun Martial Arts Dojo cheered all at once.
The shouts made the rest of the audience a bit scared. Zhao Jiayi actually wanted to hear the loud, high-pitched cheers from girls, but these manly cheers made them look stronger.
"Go, go, go..."
Zhao Jiayi ran on the court while also giving orders to his teammates. He had thought about giving up, but with Hao Ren showing up, he recalled the time when they fought Jinghua University at East Ocean University's stadium. He couldn't give up because of the grudges between these two universities.
Although the captain of Jinghua University's basketball team was at Kan-level, he wasn't that far away in terms of strength compared with Zhao Jiayi, who had subconsciously absorbed some of Hao Ren's nature essence.
Xie Wanjun played basketball for more than ten years and reached the level of martial arts master, which was equivalent to the third level of the Spirit Concentration Scroll. However, Zhao Jiayi slept under Hao Ren's bed while Hao Ren was cultivating, so a part of that energy had leaked into Zhao Jiayi's body. Right now, Zhao Jiayi was equivalent to the second level of the Spirit Concentration Scroll.
Basketball matches were not only a competition of physical strength. Zhao Jiayi's reaction and skill, as well as the ability to manage his teammates, were all superior to the new captain of Jinghua University's basketball team.
Shoo... Shoo... Shoo...
East Ocean University's basketball team were on a roll and had got back six points in a row.
But even with this, they were still behind by two points!
The third quarter of the game ended!
Zhao Jiayi's basketball uniform was soaked, and even his shoes were wet. However, he was the core player on the team, so he had to play all four quarters.
"Dammit. You've gotten to the finals; don't lose!" Cao Ronghua, who was sitting next to Zhou Liren, said anxiously.
"Dammit! Shut your bad mouth up!" Huang Jianfeng glared at Cao Ronghua.
He liked to watch movies when he had time and didn't show much interest in basketball. However, he wanted to support Zhao Jiayi this time, so he had paid for the trip out of his own pockets to take the train with Zhou Liren and the other guys to come to Beijing.
Zhao Yanzi didn't understand bromances and the things that went on between guys, but she could tell that Hao Ren was very devoted. She knew that this basketball match was very important to him, so she hoped that they could win.
On the basketball court, Zhao Jiayi was wiping off his sweat with a towel. Suddenly, he felt his phone vibrate on the long bench.
Zhao Jiayi saw an unfamiliar number on the screen. He hesitated for half a second but still took the call.
"I'm Xie Wanjun." A mature voice sounded on the phone.
Zhao Jiayi straightened up immediately. Xie Wanjun had trained him like a devil, so those memories were still fresh in his mind. Now that he heard Xie Wanjun's voice, he was fully alerted.
"There are only two minutes. Put your phone on speaker and call everyone over," Xie Wanjun commanded on the phone.
Zhao Jiayi hurried and called everyone over in a hurry. The break between the third and fourth quarter was only two minutes long.
"I wanted to go there personally, but I'm in the U.S. and couldn't find time for it. That's why I've been watching the game live online. There are only two minutes, so listen closely." Xie Wanjun's voice could be heard from the cell phone speakers.
"I saw the first three quarters of the match and noticed that Jinghua University changed captains. We can't use the strategy we used before to defeat them. Jinghua University used to have long passes and fast offense to take advantage of their dunks. However, even though the new captain is tall, he's good at shorter passes and fast offense. Their strategy focuses on their captain, so in the fourth quarter, you guys have to play like this..."
The players on East Ocean University's basketball team had played under Xie Wanjun. Now that they heard his voice, they were all touched.
Although Xie Wanjun was in the U.S., he still paid attention to the team. A lot of players were in their fourth year, and they would be graduating after the game. This was their last chance to shine, so they wanted to win even more.
"Our goal is..." Xie Wanjun asked on the phone.
"Become the champion!"
The players who surrounded the phone and cheered together.
Special music sounded again, signaling that the fourth quarter of the match was about to begin.
The basketball players of East Ocean University went back to the court. The way their eyes looked and how they walked were much different from before.
"What if they win?" Zhao Yanzi leaned against Hao Ren's shoulder and asked with a smile.
"All thanks to you," Hao Ren looked at her and said with a smile.
"If they win, I'll let you kiss me once," Zhao Yanzi shrugged her shoulders and said.