There’s no escape now
Sheng Xiaowen: [Anran is done for]
Sheng Xiaowen: [Good thing Chen Luobai isn’t a player]
Sheng Xiaowen: [Otherwise, he’d have her wrapped around his finger]
Zhang Shuxian: [What happened? What happened?]
Zhang Shuxian: [Can’t you give us the situation before your thoughts when you’re live reporting?]
Zhang Shuxian: [This is such a cliffhanger]
Sheng Xiaowen: [Didn’t Chen Luobai ask Anran to come watch his game?]
Zhang Shuxian: [Yeah]
Zhang Shuxian: [And then?]
Zhang Shuxian: [You’re at the venue now, right?]
Sheng Xiaowen: [I originally thought he invited Anran to stake his claim in advance, after all, our Anran is quite popular now]
Zhang Shuxian: [Isn’t that the case?]
Sheng Xiaowen: [Then just now, Chen Luobai came over to Anran in front of everyone and stuffed his clothes into her arms]
Zhang Shuxian: [Isn’t that staking his claim?]
Sheng Xiaowen: [Let me finish]
Zhang Shuxian: [Then type it all out at once!]
Sheng Xiaowen: [I was a bit overwhelmed by the PDA too]
Zhang Shuxian: [Stop beating around the bush, just say it]
Yan Xingqian: [I’ll tell you]
Yan Xingqian: [After Chen Luobai stuffed his clothes into her arms, he also put his phone in Anran’s hand, saying that charging the person instead of the ball is a personal foul, asking if she remembered the rules she taught Yan Xingqian]
Yan Xingqian: [Then he held both his phone and Anran’s hand together]
Yan Xingqian: [He asked Anran if she was willing to protect him herself this time]
Zhang Shuxian: [Ahhhhhhh]
Zhang Shuxian: [I’m dead]
Zhang Shuxian: [He’s making up for her regrets, isn’t he?]
Zhang Shuxian: [He’s so smooth, damn]
Zhang Shuxian: [Wuwuwu, I approve of this match]
Zhou Anran didn’t know her friends were chatting in the group.
From the moment Chen Luobai finished saying those words and walked back to the sideline, she had been in a dazed state, blankly staring at his back.
It wasn’t until the game officially started and the players from both sides took to the court for the jump ball that Zhou Anran came back to her senses. She looked down at his phone.
Whether he had reset the screen lock time or not, several minutes had passed, and the screen hadn’t gone dark, still showing the video recording interface.
On the court, the Law School got the first possession.
Zhou Anran slowly picked up the phone.
During that game in her first year of high school, she only dared to secretly hide her feelings for him in her heart, so even when she was filming him mixed in the crowd, she didn’t dare to be bold. She had to film others first before daring to move the camera to him.
Later, her phone was taken away by He Jiayi, and that video was deleted.
But this time, he put his phone in her hand.
It was as if he was telling her that no one had more right than her to openly film him.
Zhou Anran suppressed the belated sourness rising in her nose and pointed the phone camera directly at him.
He should be playing point guard again this time.
After all, it was an inter-department game, and most players on the court were at the level of ordinary basketball enthusiasts. Zhou Anran could see that his skills were a cut above the others. Perhaps because of this, even though he was just a freshman who had recently entered the university, several players from the Law School team were listening to his commands.
Under his organization, the Law School’s offensive rhythm seemed particularly relaxed and effortless.
He never played selfishly, mostly passing the ball to his teammates or helping them shake off defenders.
When the opportunity was right, he would shoot himself, and because he seized the chances well, coupled with his good form today, he rarely missed.
At these moments, the cheers from the crowd would be louder and more enthusiastic than at other times.
In contrast, the Foreign Languages Department team was struggling.
The Foreign Languages Department had always been female-dominated, and it was evident that one or two players were just there to make up the numbers, having their ball stolen by Chen Luobai several times in succession.
If Chen Luobai were to seriously defend full court, they would probably struggle even to bring the ball past half court.
This game indeed had no suspense.
In the first quarter, the Law School led the Foreign Languages Department by 10 points.
At the end of the second quarter, the Law School finished the first half with a 25-point lead.
There was a ten-minute break at halftime.
Players from both sides walked towards the sidelines.
Whether it was because the morning’s “rumors” hadn’t spread widely enough, or because not enough people had seen the scene before the game started, as soon as Chen Luobai walked to the Law School’s seats, Zhou Anran saw a girl with a blushing face offer him a bottle of water.
Her fingertips tightened on his phone.
At this moment, the young man on the sideline suddenly looked up at her.
Caught in his gaze, Zhou Anran felt a bit uncomfortable and averted her eyes first, also moving away from the phone camera that had been filming him continuously, placing the phone back on her lap.
She lowered her head slightly.
A second later, she heard his voice: “I’m sorry, someone’s already given me water.”
The girl who brought the water was probably from their Law School too. Some guy came out to help smooth things over: “Classmate Zhao came to bring us water, thanks!”
Zhou Anran was still looking down when she soon saw a tall figure in a black jersey stop in front of her.
He hadn’t rested much in the first half, and even from a distance, she could feel his whole body was warm.
“Zhou Anran,” Chen Luobai called her name in a low voice, “Where’s my water?”
Zhou Anran slowly looked up and saw fine beads of sweat on his collarbone, sharp Adam’s apple, and beautifully contoured jaw. His black hair was half-wet, and his whole body exuded that strong contradictory sense of hormones and youthfulness, easily making one’s heart race and face flush.
She gripped his phone tightly and said softly, “You didn’t say that coming to watch you play also meant bringing you water.”
Chen Luobai: “Who told you to agree without asking last Saturday night? Coming to watch me play means bringing me water.”
Zhou Anran: “…?”
Wasn’t he the one who knew best why she agreed without asking that night?
Seeing her face quickly turn red again, Chen Luobai’s lips curled up slightly, and he reached out his hand to her: “Where’s the water? Don’t tell me you didn’t bring any?”
Yan Xingqian poked her head out from the side: “She brought some. She secretly bought a bottle at the supermarket earlier.”
Zhou Anran couldn’t help but glare at her.
Yan Xingqian quickly pulled her head back.
The young man in front of her seemed to smile even more, his gaze becoming more intense.
Zhou Anran’s ears started to heat up too. She didn’t know why she had impulsively bought a bottle of mineral water when they passed by the small supermarket earlier.
But she was also glad she had bought that bottle of mineral water.
Zhou Anran slowly took out the bottle of water from her bag and handed it to him.
Chen Luobai took it.
Zhou Anran watched as he tilted his head back to drink, his Adam’s apple becoming even more prominent. She couldn’t tell if it was water droplets or sweat rolling down his sharp Adam’s apple, sliding over his collarbone and disappearing into the black collar of his jersey, inexplicably exuding a hint of sensuality.
Her ears grew even hotter, and she averted her gaze.
Chen Luobai stuffed the not-quite-empty water bottle back into her hand: “Keep holding it for me.”
The girl nodded, obediently saying, “Oh.”
Chen Luobai’s fingertips twitched slightly as he turned and went back to the sideline.
Yan Xingqian took out her phone.
Sheng Xiaowen also took out her phone again.
Yan Xingqian: [I was wrong]
Zhang Shuxian: [What happened now?]
Yan Xingqian: [I thought with so many people watching the game]
Yan Xingqian: [Two more light bulbs like us wouldn’t make a difference]
Sheng Xiaowen: [But we’re the closest to them]
Zhang Shuxian: [Can you explain clearly first?]
Yan Xingqian: [It’s nothing much]
Yan Xingqian: [Just that Chen Luobai refused water from a girl, then came to the stands to ask Anran for water]
Sheng Xiaowen: [Then they flirted shamelessly as if no one else was around]
The halftime break wasn’t even half over.
Players from both sides were resting and discussing tactics for the second half.
Zhou Anran felt too embarrassed to keep filming him at this time, so she turned her head slightly and saw the two people next to her lowering their heads and typing on their phones.
The interface looked like their WeChat group chat.
Zhou Anran leaned over to take a look.
Zhou Anran’s face heated up again: “What flirting? You’re exaggerating again.”
“If it wasn’t flirting, what were you two doing just now?” Sheng Xiaowen thought for a moment, “Courting?”
Zhou Anran: “…?”
“And another thing,” Yan Xingqian put down her phone, leaned over in her seat, and asked in a low voice, “What happened between you two last Saturday? Why did your face turn so red when he mentioned last Saturday?”
?
She was usually so oblivious when it came to Dong Chenchi, how did she suddenly become so perceptive?
Zhou Anran shook her head, “Nothing.”
“Hmph.” Yan Xingqian didn’t believe her. “I’ll interrogate you when we get back to the hotel tonight.”
The third quarter of the game quickly began.
Perhaps not wanting to lose too badly, the players from the Foreign Languages Department suddenly started to give it their all this quarter. Their defense and enthusiasm for rebounds greatly increased, as if they had become a different team.
The Law School side was caught off guard at first and lost a few points, but Chen Luobai quickly stabilized the rhythm.
The Foreign Languages Department couldn’t catch up anymore. Whether it was due to anxiety or something else, halfway through the third quarter, their No. 4 player suddenly collided with Chen Luobai as he was shooting.
Chen Luobai had just jumped and was in mid-air, making it impossible to dodge. He was knocked backward and fell.
Zhou Anran’s heart suddenly tightened.
The referee blew the whistle promptly.
He called a personal foul on the Foreign Languages Department’s No. 4.
A Law School player quickly walked over and extended his hand to help Chen Luobai up.
From a distance, Zhou Anran saw the young man stand up with that helping hand, seemingly uninjured. Her tightly clenched heart finally relaxed a little.
But in the next moment, she saw a glaring red mark on his elbow.
The Law School team on the court also requested a player substitution from the referee.
Zhou Anran saw Chen Luobai high-five a substitute player who was running onto the court, then walk towards the sideline himself.
Was he going off the court?
Was he injured?
Just moments ago, when she publicly handed him water, Zhou Anran had felt a bit embarrassed. But at this moment, she seemed unable to think about much else.
Zhou Anran casually placed his clothes, phone, and bag on the seat, turned to Sheng Xiaowen, and said, “Can you watch these for me?”
Before Sheng Xiaowen could answer, she saw the girl had already stood up and was quickly walking towards the young man who had returned to the sideline.
Chen Luobai saw her coming and was unusually startled for a moment: “What’s wrong?”
Zhou Anran hurriedly asked, “How’s your hand? Are you injured anywhere else?”
Chen Luobai had thought she had some urgent matter, but hearing this, he relaxed. He instinctively hid his hand behind his back, not wanting her to see the blood: “I’m not injured, my hand is fine, it’s just a scratch—”
Before he could finish speaking, his wrist was suddenly grasped by a soft, cool little hand.
The rest of Chen Luobai’s words froze on his lips.
Zhou Anran pulled his hand over to look at it, confirming that it was indeed just a scrape. The heart that had been in her throat finally settled back down.
When she looked up again, she saw the young man looking at her with an ambiguous smile.
“!”
Zhou Anran belatedly realized what she had just done. He had been hiding it from her earlier, and she thought it was something serious.
Her face suddenly turned a deep red, and she quickly let go of his hand.
“Don’t you want to take a closer look?” Chen Luobai asked her with a smile.
Zhou Anran shook her head vigorously.
As the sense of urgency subsided, her other senses returned in full force. Zhou Anran could feel countless gazes on them from the court. The Law School substitute players who weren’t on the court were all sitting on the nearby rest chairs, looking at them with gossipy expressions. Even on the court, glances were occasionally thrown their way.
Zhou Anran felt like her entire body was about to burst into flames. She lowered her head, not daring to look at him: “I’m going back.”
Just as she took a step, her wrist was caught by him.
This time there was no clothing between them; he had genuinely grasped her wrist.
The young man had been playing for nearly three-quarters, and his palm was extremely hot.
Zhou Anran’s wrist and heart seemed to be scalded simultaneously. She suddenly looked up at him.
But Chen Luobai was looking down at her hand.
The wrist in his palm was even more delicate and soft than he had imagined.
He had been restraining himself from touching her, but this time she had initiated contact first, so it couldn’t be considered him losing his composure.
Chen Luobai’s gaze slowly moved upward, and unsurprisingly, he saw a small face flushed red again.
“Since you’ve come down here, why don’t you help me treat the wound before you go?”
Zhou Anran looked at the wound on his elbow again. Although it wasn’t serious, it was still an eye-catching red. She hesitated for a moment: “Do you have any medicine here?”
Chen Luobai lowered his eyes to look at her: “I don’t know. Didn’t you bring iodine swabs?”
Zhou Anran nodded instinctively.
Chen Luobai’s thumb happened to be right on her pulse point, and he could feel her blood vessel pulsing under his hand, beating a bit fast. His fingertip itched, and he instinctively wanted to caress it, but he held back and released her hand to let her go: “Go get them?”
Zhou Anran returned to her seat, took out the swabs, and only then did she belatedly sense something was off. She had been too nervous earlier, all her attention stolen by the hand gripping her wrist. Only now did she realize—
How did he know she had a habit of carrying iodine swabs?
Zhou Anran also took out a band-aid and returned to the sideline.
Chen Luobai was already sitting on the second rest chair near the edge, with an empty seat next to him, as if left for her.
Zhou Anran sat down next to him and saw that his arm from elbow to wrist was wet, probably from rinsing the wound with water.
Without the earlier rush of worry driving her actions, Zhou Anran didn’t dare to hold his hand in public again. She bit her lip, enduring the gazes falling on her from behind and the curious looks from the Law School players nearby, and said softly: “Turn your hand this way.”
Chen Luobai lowered his eyelids, seeing her ears so red they seemed about to drip blood, her head almost buried against his hand. The words that had come to his lips to tease her were swallowed back, and he obediently turned his elbow towards her.
Zhou Anran broke off one end of the swab, and the iodine in the swab tube immediately flowed to the cotton tip on the other end. Still, worried about controlling the pressure, she bit her lip and gently grasped his wrist with one hand first, then used the other hand to apply the swab to the wound.
Then she heard him let out a very soft “hiss.”
Zhou Anran looked up: “Does it hurt?”
Chen Luobai’s gaze moved slowly from her small hand gently holding his wrist, gradually upward, finally landing on her face, meeting those clean and beautiful eyes.
His Adam’s apple involuntarily bobbed twice, his gaze shifting away for a second before returning: “It’s not pain.”
Zhou Anran was stunned. She was about to ask what it was if not pain when she heard his voice again.
“Aren’t you going to apply the medicine?”
“If you want to hold it longer, that’s fine too.”
As he said the latter sentence, his tone had already taken on a teasing, laughing quality, and his face showed a somewhat ambiguous, playful expression.
Zhou Anran’s face started burning again.
She lowered her head and ignored him, gently helping him apply the medicine, then quickly withdrew her hand as if not wanting to linger a second longer.
Chen Luobai smiled, the corners of his mouth curling up: “What about the band-aid?”
Zhou Anran: “…”
Seeing that he still had the heart to tease her, he probably wasn’t in much pain. What was the point of putting on a band-aid?
But…
It was cold outside, and he would put on more clothes after the game. It wouldn’t be good if it rubbed against the wound.
Zhou Anran bit her lip, still lowered her head, and gently helped him put on the band-aid.
After applying it, she still had doubts in her heart and couldn’t help but look up again, asking very softly, “How did you know I usually carry swabs and band-aids?”
Chen Luobai felt that the arm she had touched was still itching, the sensation spreading to his heart: “What do you think?”
Zhou Anran’s fingertips trembled: “That day… you saw it was me?”
“No.”
Chen Luobai lowered his gaze to look at her heavily trembling eyelashes, his mind suddenly recalling that night when he had slightly raised his head and seen those long, slender legs, and that small black mole on the white skin that was dazzling beneath the black skirt hem.
Zhou Anran was stunned again.
If he hadn’t seen, how did he know?
Lost in thought, the young man suddenly leaned in close, his voice this time truly and sounding right next to her ear, his breath almost scalding her earlobe.
“If I had seen clearly, you wouldn’t have been able to run away that night.”