Chapter 16. The Midterm Results Announcement and the First Time Playing Football

    The next morning, Bai Zhe woke up early to practice his qi before walking to school. There was one thing that surprised him when he arrived at his classroom.

    “Hey, Bai Zhe. Are you free at lunch? Let’s go play football.”

    A boy with red hair and red eyes invited him to play football. If Bai Zhe was not mistaken, this boy’s name was Mu Si Cheng.

    According to the original Bai Zhe’s memory, the boy was the leader of a group of boys who loved to play sports during the lunch break. They did not have a problem with the original Bai Zhe, unlike Yi Han’s group.

    Bai Zhe swiftly searched through the body’s memories. He found the rules for football as well as how to play it in the memories not long after that. Unfortunately, the original body only had a surface-level knowledge of the sport.

    ‘This boy’s group is as big as Da Tong’s. If I could join their group, it might help reduce the clashes with Da Tong’s gang.’ After he had this idea, Bai Zhe immediately agreed.

    “Sure thing.” The boy smiled.

    “Eh? Bai Zhe is going to play football? I want to watch,” said one of the female classmates. Then, the other girls started to talk about watching Bai Zhe play football during the lunch break.

    Especially the group of girls that had almost compromised Bai Zhe the other day, the warm liquid could be felt streaming down their noses.

    There was also the recent event where Bai Zhe fought Mr. Jang. Every single classmate had heard that the teacher still felt pain in the area that had been hit by Bai Zhe. In his class, currently, the students were the ones who demonstrated sports. Mr. Jang would only explain the theories and the rules.

    The head girl entered the classroom a moment after that.

    She stood in front of the class and then clapped her hands to make everyone stop and listen to her.

    “Everyone, I just saw the administrative teacher putting up the midterm results. Instead of going to watch the boys play sports, you should give greater importance to the test results,” said the head girl.

    “Hey, why do you have to bring that up? I could barely do the test.” A boy brought his hands up to clutch at his head.

    “My mom told me to send a picture of the results to her. I am doomed. This is clearly an execution day,” another boy started to grumble.

    “Why are you grumbling? Even Bai Zhe who left the test room before everyone for almost all of the subjects doesn’t appear to be stressed out.” A boy pointed at Bai Zhe.

    “That’s right. Bai Zhe, don’t your parents worry about your test scores and your grade?” asked the head girl. Lately, actually, she had not worried much about Bai Zhe, because whenever the teachers asked Bai Zhe questions, he could give the correct answers and give explanations to help his classmates understand, too.

    “I came well-prepared this time. And my parents will not scold me because they know I have to work. I barely have time to rest, and I sleep like a baby when I get home. Lately, I have found a much easier job, so I have energy left to study,” explained Bai Zhe. (Lying through his teeth.)

    “We still have time left. Shall we go take a look?” one girl suggested. Everyone decided to go.

    “Wait. Should I go? Could a male friend with a smartphone come with me?” said Bai Zhe.

    “That’s right. We just need one person to take all the pictures and send them into the class’s group chat, so we don’t have to waste time shoving at each other to try to see the test results.” The head girl immediately understood what Bai Zhe was planning to do. Why had she not thought of it in the first place?

    “Great. I will go with Bai Zhe,” Mu Si Cheng slung his arm around Bai Zhe‘s neck. His other hand held up a smartphone.

    ‘Is this guy too friendly?’ thought Bai Zhe, glancing at Mu Si Cheng.

    “We’ll leave it to you,” all the classmates said together.

    While they were walking down to the announcement boards on the first floor, Mu Si Cheng said something that made Bai Zhe pause his steps.

    “Bai Zhe, I saw you with 10 girls from our class doing that thing behind the building. You are so cool, man.” Mu Si Cheng was talking about the scene that he had witnessed the other day. It was when Bai Zhe had been trying to put his shirt and his pants back on after the girls had taken them off, and the girls were lying unconscious around him.

    “Oh, they came to ask me about me shaking hands with Xi Mo and someone took our picture. But then, they started to smell my hand and do more than that. So, I struggled, trying to free myself from them. That’s why my shirt was off—because I was struggling too hard. Then, I pushed them. They lost their balance and their heads hit the ground and they lost consciousness,” Bai Zhe said, breaking into a sweat. Who would say that the girls had been about to take advantage of him? It would be embarrassing.

    “Really? That’s disappointing. I wanted you to teach me how to flirt with girls. I can call you my teacher if you like,” said Mu Si Cheng.

    “What is your name? I don’t even know your name,” asked Bai Zhe, trying to bring up a new topic.

    “Oh, right. My name is Mu Si Cheng. Nice to meet you,” Mu Si Cheng introduced himself.

    “I will call you Si Cheng, then,” said Bai Zhe.

    “Great, so we can be closer.” Mu Si Cheng did not speak idly; he wrapped his arm around Bai Zhe’s neck as if Bai Zhe was his best friend.

    “Hmm?” Mu Si Cheng started sniffling.

    “Si Cheng, what’s going on? I didn’t step on dog poop,” asked Bai Zhe.

    “Nothing.” Si Cheng started sniffing. His face was getting closer to Bai Zhe, making the boy freeze and recall what the girls had done to him.

    “Bai Zhe, what cologne…ummm…brand of soap you are using? Why does it smell so nice?” asked Mu Si Cheng. He was about to ask after the brand of cologne but remembered that Bai Zhe’s family was poor. Bai Zhe might not have had an extravagant thing like cologne.

    “Just normal soap. But my body odor is just like this,” answered Bai Zhe. Before Mu Si Cheng could ask anything more, the two arrived at the announcement board with the midterm results, where there was a crowd of students looking at their results.

    “Is your camera still clear when zooming?” asked Bai Zhe.

    “Of course. This is the latest model. I might look like this, but I’m rich, man. The reason why I study here is because this school is a whole other province away from my house. That way, I could ask my family to live alone,” Mu Si Cheng said while he was trying to raise his smartphone and take a picture of the results. Still, he was not pleased with the pictures he got.

    “Come here.” Bai Zhe squatted down and turned to look at Mu Si Cheng.

    “What is it?” Mu Si Cheng was still confused.

    “Get on my shoulders. Nobody will block us from a high angle. So, you can see whether the camera focuses on the place that you want or not,” said Bai Zhe.

    “That’s great. Pardon me, comrade.” Mu Si Cheng jumped onto Bai Zhe's back immediately. He started to zoom in on the results board that belonged to his year, then took pictures and checked them for clarity and accuracy.

    “All done,” Mu Si Cheng leaned down to tell Bai Zhe. The boy stooped down to let Mu Si Cheng get off.

    “Let’s go. We have pretty much all day to look at the results,” said Bai Zhe, leading Mu Si Cheng.

    “Hey! Wait for me,” said Mu Si Cheng. The two went quiet again.

    “Bai Zhe, you are so strong. You can really carry me easily?” asked Mu Si Cheng, trying to break the silence between him and Bai Zhe.

    “You are ridiculously light. With just those muscles, you’re not heavy at all. The cement and sand that I carry when I do my job are heavier,” answered Bai Zhe.

    “Bai Zhe, you only just glanced at me, and you are already telling me that you have seen all my muscles?” Mu Si Cheng’s hands covered himself like a girl trying to hide herself when she was being leered at.

    “Yes. Because I roughly guessed your weight. If you were overweight, I would have used you as the base,” said Bai Zhe.

    “You speak so darn brutally,” said Mu Si Cheng. After that, the two of them burst out laughing.

    The classroom

    When they arrived at the classroom, Mu Si Cheng sent the pictures to their group chat. Everyone opened the group chat to look at the pictures immediately, then they showed different facial expressions.

    “I’m doomed. Mum will kill me.”

    “What should I do? Dad will scold me. Even though I went to tutorials, my midterm scores are worse than last semester.”

    “Hahaha, awesome. I got triple zeroes. You lost to me because you got zeroes in only two subjects. You have to buy me food to comfort me, buddy.”

    “Hey, that’s cheating. You meant to do this, didn’t you?”

    Then the voices of many girls sounded. Their eyes were fixed on their smartphone screens, which showed Bai Zhe’s midterm scores.

    “Wow, Bai Zhe. This is excellent. Bai Zhe’s scored first place in our year.”

    “He got first place in every subject. He used to be at the bottom. How unbelievable!”

    “You tried really hard, didn’t you? Good job. Effort has never let anybody down.”

    It was certain that the boys quickly scanned for Bai Zhe’s scores after they heard the girls talking. And they found the number ‘100’ for all of Bai Zhe’s subjects.

    “Oi, someone slap me. Am I dreaming?” Mu Si Cheng said while walking toward Bai Zhe. If he asked for it like that, why would Bai Zhe not give him what he wanted?

    Slap…Bam.

    Mu Si Cheng’s head was struck, making it slam down hard into a desk. The boy quickly looked up and used his hand to rub at his forehead which had just struck the desk.

    “Woke up yet?” Bai Zhe felt like he was getting more comfortable with Mu Si Cheng, so he teased the boy. It did not only make him get closer to Mu Si Cheng, but it also increased his sense of camaraderie with his other classmates.

    “Bai Zhe, if you are going to slap me, next time, please reduce your force to half of that. It hurts, you know!” said Mu Si Cheng.

    “Is that no good? How will you know that you are not dreaming if you don’t feel hurt? I got full marks because I did my best,” Bai Zhe said to annoy Mu Si Cheng.

    “Waah, Bai Zhe, when did you turn to be such a bully? Head girl, help me. He hurt me.” Mu Si Cheng parted from Bai Zhe and went to cling to the girl’s leg. He made a face like a puppy that was about to cry while pointing at Bai Zhe.

    “Let go of me, you bad dog. You should be hit by your owner,” replied the head girl coldly, trying to shake her leg to free it from Mu Si Cheng’s clinging. Bai Zhe looked at the scene and could not help but feel sad that the original Bai Zhe had never experienced such a scenario, because Da Tong and Yi Han’s group had bullied him. Yi Han’s group had left school for rehab and Da Tong’s group had been suspended. There was only Da Tong left. However, Da Tong skipped almost all of the classes. It allowed the classmates to be friendlier to Bai Zhe.

    While Bai Zhe was lost in his thoughts, Mu Si Cheng was shaken off with force to land at Bai Zhe’s feet.

    “Bai Zhe, look at our head girl. She is cold-hearted,” Si Cheng pointed his finger at the head girl this time. Bai Zhe thus defined Mu Si Cheng as “the class clown.”

    “Good enough she didn’t call you a psycho that molested her when you clung to her leg like that,” said Bai Zhe, making the boy realise what he had done.

    ‘Oh, right. I was one step away from jail,’ thought Mu Si Cheng.

    “Thank you for telling me. I took the teasing too far.” Mu Si Cheng stopped playing and stood up, fixing his clothes.

    Homeroom started not long after that. The homeroom teacher entered. She praised Bai Zhe for his midterm scores and told him to maintain this standard for the final examinations.

    Lunch break

    Bai Zhe’s female classmates hurriedly bought lunch and snacks from the cafeteria, then swiftly found seats near the school’s football field. They chose to sit in the area under the shade of the trees so they would not be hot; plus, there would be a cool breeze.

    Bai Zhe was stretching and warming up his body while Mu Si Cheng and his friends went to change into shorts and t-shirts because they did not want their student uniforms to get stained by the dirt. Of course, Bai Zhe had not brought a spare shirt. He did not care whether his clothes got dirty or not, though. Just using qi to clean his clothes would make them as good as new.

    Mu Si Cheng divided people into teams by drawing lots. Team number one would have five members, from year 1 to year 3. The result was that Bai Zhe was in a different team from Mu Si Cheng.

    “Bai Zhe, though you cannot move freely because of your clothes, I will not go easy on you, man.” Mu Si Cheng pointed in defiance to Bai Zhe, who had been assigned to be the midfielder.

    After the boy who was the referee signalled for them to start, Mu Si Cheng, playing as a forward, stole the ball from a boy who was on the same team as Bai Zhe, then he ran toward Bai Zhe, aiming to challenge him one-on-one. But Bai Zhe stood up straight, hands behind his back. His manner was like when he fought with Mr. Jang. It made Mu Si Cheng focus on Bai Zhe’s feet. Unexpectedly, a boy from Bai Zhe’s team easily stole the ball from him.

    “Beautiful distraction, Bai Zhe,” another team member shouted to Bai Zhe, praising him.

    Yes. Bai Zhe had planned to distract Mu Si Chen and had his team members seize the ball because Bai Zhe knew from his team members that Mu Si Cheng was very good at football. Thus, he had to use a bit of strategy.

    “Argh!” Mu Si Cheng quickly retreated.

    The boy who got the ball was marked by 2 players from Mu Si Cheng's team, with Mo Si Cheng about to follow in order to take the ball back. Suddenly, a dark shadow swiftly took the ball from the team member who was marked.

    “Leave it to me,” said Bai Zhe. He swiftly dribbled the ball away, using the strength he had been holding back, this was enough for Bai Zhe to brush off the players who tried to stop him or steal the ball from him.

    “I won’t let you pass.” A year 2 boy ran toward Bai Zhe, intending to take the ball from him.

    ‘Flower Dance Step.’ Bai Zhe used this opportunity to practice his technique so that his current body could get more used to them. From then, his steps changed. At first, he moved to the left slowly, then quickly moved to the right, and swiftly to the left again. The movements happened in just a few seconds. The year 2 boy who was planning to steal the ball lost his balance because he could not keep up with Bai Zhe's movements.

    At this moment, Mu Si Cheng was approaching Bai Zhe from behind, and there were two boys blocking Bai Zhe in the front. Thus, Bai Zhe stomped his feet onto the ground, making the ball bounce to the front, and then he used another movement technique to move away.

    ‘Cloud Touching Step.’ Bai Zhe jumped into the air. While he was floating, the leg that he had lifted up was stretched out straight which made him look like he was stepping on the air.

    Bai Zhe decided to kick the ball that was floating up high to the left corner of the goal.

    With the distance that Bai Zhe was at, his classmate who was the goalkeeper of Mu Si Cheng’s team thought that the ball would go to the right, so he moved to the right.

    The moment he moved to the right, the ball suddenly curved in the air in the opposite direction and went to his left instead.

    “What on earth was that? How hard did the ball spin to make it curve like that?” said that classmate.

    Si Cheng’s team was surprised by the bizarre shot. It changed their perspective about Bai Zhe having just normal sports skills because Bai Zhe could jump high to the point that it seemed as if he was floating in the air and his movements looked like he could walk in the air for some time. These special movements showed that he had greater physical ability than normal people.

    The girls were screaming. They had never thought that Bai Zhe could be good enough to challenge Mu Si Cheng's group, whom they always saw playing football.

    “It was just one goal. The match is not over yet. Don’t give up. We can still win,” Mu Si Cheng encouraged his team.

    Bai Zhe whispered something to his team as well, then turned to give Mu Si Cheng an evil smile. He knew that Mu Si Chang had excellent football skills. His team only had boys from year one and year two, who have just intermediate skills. Mu Si Cheng had gotten all the people who were good at football onto his team from the drawing of lots.

    What should be done then? Have you ever heard these words: “to win by hook or by crook”? If it could be gained by trickery, then it had to be gained with one’s soul.

    In scoring the last goal, Bai Zhe used his soul power to support the spinning of the ball, which made the ball change its direction and move to the place where the goalkeeper was not present. This was his special skill; it did not count as cheating. Because from the original Bai Zhe’s memory, there was no rule to prevent the player from using his soul power. Or was there? Hehe.