Chapter 22 Playing Ball “Fang classmate is so amazing! Can you teach me?…”

Fang Chuning never imagined she would sit next to Xu Muzhou. They had been in the same class since childhood but never shared a desk. What kind of feeling was this? It felt a little strange.

Boys and girls are indeed different. When she shared a desk with Gao Qiong, Gao Qiong’s desk was always messy, as if ravaged by a Siberian Husky, never tidy for a single day. Looking at Xu Muzhou’s desk, everything was neatly arranged, as if he had obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Even the air carried a faint sweet fragrance. Fang Chuning guessed he had applied perfume.

Xu Muzhou lightly held his ballpoint pen, the young woman’s body temperature fluctuating beside him, making him a bit uneasy. After a while, he slightly turned his gaze, only to see the young woman leaning against the chair, one hand on the backrest, the other on the desk, fingers dexterously spinning a pen.

Xu Muzhou’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he silently averted his gaze.

As soon as the class ended with the teacher’s incessant reading, the bell rang, and Gao Qiong ran over, sitting in the empty seat in front of Fang Chuning, complaining, “That boy is so boring. During class, he only listens and doesn’t talk to me at all.”

“Not everyone is like you, not listening in class.”

Gao Qiong pouted dissatisfiedly, then shifted her gaze to the right, suddenly changing to a mischievous smile, “But if I could sit next to the vice president, I would definitely listen attentively in class.”

The young man was slightly stunned, then just smiled shyly.

Gao Qiong leaned closer, her expression serious, “I’m telling the truth.”

Xu Muzhou slightly pursed his lips, his eyes lightly turning to glance at the indifferent girl beside him, then lowered his gaze and said softly, “Then Gao classmate should study hard and strive to be in the top ten of the grade.”

Top ten in the grade was an impossible task for Gao Qiong. She immediately became dejected, “Vice president, you’re discouraging me. If I had your brain, I’d be the student council president!”

Fang Chuning said, “Why do you want to be the student council president so badly? Next time I’ll recommend you to the teacher.”

“No, no, no,” Gao Qiong waved her hands hurriedly, “I’m just joking. Although it’s prestigious, there’s too much work. I can’t handle it!”

As the two girls were joking and laughing, Xu Muzhou’s fingertips lightly pressed on his pen. He suddenly turned his head, interrupting their chat, “Fang classmate, can I borrow your notes to look at? The blackboard was erased too quickly just now, and I didn’t have time to finish writing.”

The young man spoke so gently that it was impossible to refuse.

“Sure.” Fang Chuning handed him her notes.

“Thank you.” Xu Muzhou smiled at her, his eyes curving.

He was incredibly handsome, Gao Qiong sighed inwardly, resting her chin on her hand.

Xu Muzhou opened the girl’s notebook. The handwriting in black ink was neat and beautiful, obviously practiced intentionally. He took out his own notebook, which contained the content the teacher had taught today, recorded without missing a single point.

Turning over the full page, Xu Muzhou picked up his pen and began writing on a blank page.

At this moment, if Fang Chuning had glanced over, she would have discovered that the young man was imitating her handwriting, copying it word for word as if using copy and paste.

In the afternoon, there was a physical education class. The content of the PE class was actually just running two laps around the field and then dispersing to play individually, but they weren’t allowed to return to the classroom. Occasionally, the teacher would come to check if any students had snuck back to the classroom.

Gao Qiong came over to invite her to play tennis, but Fang Chuning wasn’t interested at the moment. After running two laps under the sun, she was covered in sweat, and her wavy ponytail occasionally sticking to her sweaty neck made her feel uncomfortable.

Fang Chuning casually took a towel handed over by a male classmate to wipe off her sweat. From the corner of her eye, she caught sight of an interesting scene.

On the basketball court, Xu Muzhou, dressed in white casual sportswear, was awkwardly attempting to shoot a basketball. Basketball wasn’t as popular as tennis, and few boys played it.

She walked over, and after he failed another shot, she caught the bouncing ball, dribbling as she walked. When she was still some distance from the basket, she raised the ball, lightly jumped, and threw it, making a perfect three-pointer.

Xu Muzhou turned around, his eyes bright, “You’re so good!”

It was the first time she had seen an expression close to admiration on the young man’s face. Fang Chuning felt a bit proud and dribbled the ball again, approaching the basket and easily making another clean shot.

Xu Muzhou smiled and applauded, “You’re so amazing! I can’t even make a basket.”

“It’s very simple.” Fang Chuning demonstrated for him: dribbling, raising the ball, jumping, and the ball simply passed through the hoop and bounced away on the ground. “You try.”

“But… I’m not very good at it…”

“It’s okay, just try.”

Xu Muzhou bit his lip and nodded, picking up the ball from the ground and imitating her movements to dribble and shoot. His form was standard, but his strength and accuracy were lacking.

“Don’t push the ball forward, you need to throw it upwards. Your posture should be like this.”

Fang Chuning rarely had the patience to teach a complete novice. She repeated the shooting motion for him, explaining it, but the young man couldn’t make a single basket.

“Ah, you’re so clumsy.” After ten minutes, Fang Chuning finally couldn’t help but tease.

The young man’s forehead was covered in a thin layer of sweat, his fair face slightly flushed from the exercise, and his eyes seemed to be sweating too, looking moist and a bit aggrieved as he looked at her.

Fang Chuning felt a bit embarrassed being looked at by those pitiful eyes, “I didn’t mean it like that. I’ll teach you for five more minutes. If you still can’t do it, we’ll continue next time when we have a chance.”

She stepped forward and directly adjusted his posture for holding the ball. As she got closer, she realized that even his sweat smelled fragrant. Could it be that this wasn’t perfume but his natural scent?!

Fang Chuning dismissed the strange thoughts in her mind and seriously adjusted his posture, then let him shoot in this position. However, the ball still didn’t go in, though it came very close to the hoop.

“Good, that’s progress,” Fang Chuning encouraged him with applause.

Xu Muzhou’s eyes sparkled, “Really?”

“Mm-hmm.”

Seeing that class was about to end, Fang Chuning prepared to leave, but she saw the young man, as if encouraged, pick up the ball again to shoot. Unexpectedly, as he was walking over, his left foot stepped on his right, and he stumbled towards her.

Her eyes widened, and she instinctively raised her hands to catch him. The next second, she had caught him in her arms, the two of them pressed together without a gap between them.

There were others on the basketball court, and some had already taken out their phones to start taking pictures.

Fang Chuning was a bit dazed, “Are… are you okay?”

The young man was nestled in her arms and slowly raised his head as if just realizing what had happened. His face still showed some bewilderment, the blush on his ears visibly deepening. As if suddenly becoming aware, he hurriedly pushed away from her and stepped back, giving her a light glare before turning away with a red face.

Fang Chuning was a bit flustered by his soul-stirring glare and quickly waved her hands, “I didn’t mean to take advantage of you!”

Xu Muzhou lightly bit his rosy lips, his fingers gently pinching the leg of his pants, his voice very soft: “I’m not blaming you…”

Was he not blaming her for doing it on purpose, or did he know she didn’t mean it and therefore wasn’t blaming her? Fang Chuning felt like she couldn’t explain herself clearly.

“Class is about to end, the teacher will be gathering us soon. Let’s go,” Fang Chuning said, wanting to leave first.

“Fang classmate.” Xu Muzhou called out to her, his eyes showing hope, “Next time, can you teach me again?”

Fang Chuning’s heart paused slightly. For a moment, she seemed to see the young man longing for something. After hesitating for a bit, she nodded, “Okay, next time.”

Xu Muzhou beamed, his eyes like stars, “You go ahead, I’ll put away the balls here and then come over.”

Fang Chuning waved and ran off.

Only the young man was left on the basketball court. He stood there motionless for a long time. After a while, he suddenly pulled up his loose top and buried his face in it, taking a deep breath.

He murmured dazedly: “It smells so good…”

It’s all her scent.

…

After school in the afternoon, Fang Chuning, who hadn’t been to the night market for a long time, was craving it badly today and said she must go once no matter what.

However, it was still early, and the night market hadn’t fully come to life yet. The food options weren’t complete, but Fang Chuning, who was craving to a certain extent, didn’t care about these details. She just sat down at a random stall and started eating.

It wasn’t even dark yet, and nearby schools had just let out, so there were quite a few students coming and going.

Fang Chuning had just finished eating a few skewers when she saw a familiar face not far away. She felt a bit annoyed, wondering why someone always had to interrupt her when she was enjoying her food.

This familiar person was none other than Su Qi, who often visited her home. Fang Chuning remembered that he seemed to live around here. With him was a girl wearing the same school uniform as him, from the same school as Fang Tianli.

The two seemed to be entangled in something. The boy’s timid resistance looked more like coy refusal in others’ eyes, while the girl held his hand with an agitated expression.

Originally, Fang Chuning thought about not getting involved, after all, boys have their own privacy. If the two were a couple, it would be awkward for her to interfere.

But during the argument, Su Qi inadvertently glanced in her direction and saw her. Even from a distance, Fang Chuning could clearly see his body stiffen for a moment. Then his resistance became more intense, and taking advantage of the girl’s inattention, he pushed her away and ran towards Fang Chuning.

And the girl was still chasing after him.

Fang Chuning was about to roll her eyes to the heavens.

Su Qi stopped in front of the young woman, slightly out of breath, his big eyes looking at her happily, “Ningnin sister, why are you here?!”

Fang Chuning glanced at the girl who had followed him, and twisted her mouth slightly: “I came to eat.”

Su Qi looked at the pile of skewers in front of her, his brows slightly furrowed, “Ningnin sister, the food here is very unsanitary. If uncle finds out, he will definitely scold you.”

Fang Chuning ate her skewers indifferently and said, “If you don’t tell and I don’t tell, how would he know?”

Su Qi was at a loss for words.

While the two were talking, the girl behind had caught up. Without a word, she grabbed the boy’s hand again and said excitedly, “Why are you always like this! I’m so good to you, aren’t you satisfied?!”

Su Qi struggled to push her away, then hid behind the young woman, timidly refusing, “I’ve already told you, I don’t like you. Please stop bothering me.”

The girl became more agitated, “I don’t believe it!” She circled around to the back of the young woman and grabbed his hand, “What other gifts do you want? Tell me, and I’ll give them all to you! Qiqi, won’t you be my boyfriend?”

“Don’t be like this…” Su Qi, afraid that the young woman would misunderstand, simply picked up the drink from the table and poured it directly on her face, “If you keep doing this, I’ll only dislike you more and more!”

Fang Chuning, who had only managed to take one sip of her drink, had her back to them, her expression frozen.

Damn it, she hated herself for choosing such a conspicuous stall to eat at!