Chapter 443: Master of Stacking Shields
"Why do I feel like it's always a good sign?"
Jiang Nian wanted to back out and shake the fortune again.
"You...," Qingbao reached out, took back the phone, and said, "Who shakes a fortune twice? What about your validation?"
"Can't I do that?"
"Of course not; it's enough to know it's a good sign." Qingbao was a bit speechless, squinting at the mischievous guy in front of her.
"I've never seen you this nervous before; what are you up to?"
"There's nothing." Jiang Nian waved his hand quickly, "Nothing...nothing at all. By the way... there's not much to see at the championship match."
"I'll be watching." Qingbao stared at him, with a look that seemed to see through what he was up to, "To see what tricks you're playing."
Jiang Nian instantly broke out in a sweat. A person can die, but not socially die.
"Teacher, aren't you busy this afternoon?"
Qingbao leisurely took a sip of tea and said slowly, "I only have a class next to your classroom today, resting in the afternoon."
"Teacher, life is about being busy."
"Stop talking nonsense."
After leaving the office,
Jiang Nian thought for a moment, then turned and entered the English office. After some casual chatting, Qianbao immediately expressed that she would watch the match in the afternoon.
Once he achieved his goal, he withdrew.
During the third class in the morning, the math teacher glanced at his watch.
"Five minutes left, let's go over this question. You'll have your next PE class, borrowing a few minutes from break time."
The math teacher was quite stern, not the fake stern like Qingbao.
Having gone through one class, no one dared to cause a ruckus at the end. They could only grumble a few words and listen attentively.
"Old coot, will he return the time he borrowed?" Li Hua looked pained.
If you don't take the field before PE class, you'll end up like stray dogs without one. You'd have to humbly plead with others.
"Oh, playing soccer, that's okay then."
"Your math is almost perfect; can you take this?" Jiang Nian was also a bloodthirsty spectator, "Hua, don't lose face."
Ma Guojun sat upright, his voice squeezed through his teeth.
"Li Hua, it's all riding on you."
"Chi Shi."
Three minutes before the PE class, the math teacher coughed. He said one word, dismissed them, and left the classroom with his teaching materials.
"Sigh!"
"Constantly dragging on, my bladder's about to burst."
Complaints filled the classroom, with people grumbling behind the math teacher's back.
"Hey..."
Jiang Nian felt a poke on his waist and turned to look at his deskmate.
"What's up?"
Zhang Ningzhi glanced at him, seeming a bit shy, and asked in a low voice.
"Do you want to play badminton during PE class?"
"Sure, after we disperse..." He paused as if he remembered something, "Oh, maybe not."
"Huh?" Zhang Ningzhi stared at him.
"Speaking of which, it's all Li Hua's fault. Aren't we supposed to play in the championship this afternoon? Useless as ever, he wants us to practice with him."
Even while refusing, Jiang Nian avoided choosing between playing with Zhang Ningzhi and the class monitor, while also showing he preferred badminton.
"Oh, you're so bad." Zhang Ningzhi wasn't as roundabout as Jiang Nian, pouting with her displeasure visible on her face.
"True, completely useless."
.....
"I'm off to play soccer; they're waiting for me over there." Jiang Nian waved at Li Qingrong and rephrased his statement.
The class monitor is quite reasonable, except when she's angry.
"Okay." Li Qingrong nodded.
"You go on; I'll take care of the class monitor." Nie Qiqi giggled, holding a badminton racket and striking a few poses.
She even justified her actions, "You guys playing badminton, sweating all over, smelling worse the more you play."
Jiang Nian shook his head, "Your moves are pretty good; you're clearly a novice posing for photos, struggling even to pick up a ball."
Nie Qiqi was instantly lost for words, her skills indeed lacking, having the class monitor toy with her like a plaything.
But she liked it that way.
Jiang Nian, such a simple guy, couldn't understand the fun between her and the class monitor. Annoying idiot Jiang Nian, hurry up and leave.
At the sports field.
He just got off the stairs and saw Chen Yunyun and Wang Yuhe by the wall. The two girls were arm-in-arm, ready to stroll on the track.
"Why not play badminton in such nice weather?"
"Don't want to sweat, just watching you play soccer." Chen Yunyun wore a full tracksuit, her hair tips resting on her white neck.
Jiang Nian gave her a once-over, "Then why dress like that?"
"Because it looks good."
With one sentence, the conversation died, leaving Jiang Nian speechless.
"Exactly." Wang Yuhe arrogantly lifted her chin, looking at him, "Jiang Nian, do you believe I can play soccer?"
"Is that so?" Jiang Nian raised an eyebrow, "Then later when I kick the ball out, how about you kick it back in?"
"Sure, sure!" Wang Yuhe immediately got excited.
The back of the sports field faced the senior two teaching building, and from a certain classroom came a commotion due to something the teacher said.
The three turned to look over, drawn by the noise.
After a while, Jiang Nian coughed.
"Well, I'm heading over now."
"Alright." Chen Yunyun nodded, smiling with closed lips, "Do your best this afternoon; our class will definitely win."
"It's not our class that won, it's me."
"Hmph, half of the team this afternoon are athletes," Wang Yuhe said, "If you really win, we'll treat you to a big meal."
"Really?" Jiang Nian looked at Chen Yunyun.
"Yeah." Chen Yunyun nodded.
After a while, she watched Jiang Nian run towards the last patch of grass. The wind, carrying the slow warmth of winter, brushed past her ears.
The sunlight created a long line of shadow on the field, and the boy who crossed through that wall of intertwining light and dark instantly brightened up.
"Let's go."
"Oh...Yunyun." Wang Yuhe asked as she walked and turned her head, "Do you really think Jiang Nian will win this afternoon?"
Chen Yunyun thought for a moment then nodded.
"Yeah."
At the center of the field, Sun Zhicheng joined as a substitute. After all, it was just practice; having more people wouldn't hurt.
Their opponents were eight or nine guys from a parallel class.
They also participated in the soccer match but were defeated in the first round against athletes, unable to win despite their full effort.
Bitterly defeated, they became just a stepping stone.
"Damn, how can you guys make it to the championship?" The guys on the other side couldn't hold back, "Did you guys rig it with a biased referee or something?"
"Who's your captain?"
"Nonsense, I haven't even warmed up yet," Li Hua loudly refuted, "I'm the captain, come on and challenge me!"
"That's tough, buddy, you just kicked the ball into your own goal."
The other side burst into laughter, and the atmosphere was pretty amicable. After kicking the ball back and forth for two minutes, they suddenly saw someone running over and couldn't help but comment.
"Another one joining?"
Sun Zhicheng heard the words and looked in the direction of the voice. He saw Jiang Nian running over with Chen Yunyun not far behind him.
His heart sank, and he started feeling troubled again.
The photo Yang Qiming showed him was like a tornado destroying a parking lot, completely shattering his anxious heart.
They had pixelated the photo, but it would have been better not to.
"You're finished, the worst player on our team is here!" Li Hua boasted again, "Know about the Motivational Star?"
"Our class bookworm, all they do is hold a book and stare at it, and they're not even a tenth as good as me at soccer."
Upon hearing this, Tao Ran stiffly turned to look at Li Hua.
"Who?"
He suspected this guy was taking a jab at him but found no evidence of it, wondering who he meant by holding a book and staring blankly!
Does a Kemonomimi encyclopedia count as a book?
Seriously!
"What are you all looking at?" Jiang Nian took off his jacket and tossed it to Ma Guojun, who was guarding the goal, "Let's play soccer."
Five minutes later, Class Three scored two goals.
"What the heck?"
"Did he single-handedly get past three people?"
"No wonder they made it to the finals; it's all thanks to the striker. If this main player were in our class, we could make it to the finals too."
"Stop talking, just block that messy midfielder."
Li Hua happened to be on the attack and suddenly stopped. His eyes widened in disbelief, looking at the opponent.
"Chi Shi! Who's messy?"
After scoring two goals, Jiang Nian began deliberately holding back. If he completely crushed the opponents, they wouldn't be pleased.
Just then, from the corner of his eye, he glimpsed Wang Yuhe and another girl "passing by" on the track, so he pretended to kick the ball off target.
The ball drew an arc in the air and landed accurately in front of the excited Wang Yuhe.
"Kick it back!" he shouted across half the field.
"Oh."
With a thud, the ball flew back crookedly.
Not as high as Jiang Nian kicked it.
After school at noon.
The team from the parallel class left, as they had no chance to participate in the afternoon's championship and weren't obliged to be sparring partners for Class Three.
Jiang Nian continued practicing with the team, and announced the afternoon lineup, with Tao Ran replacing Sun Zhicheng as starting defender.
Upon hearing this, Yang Qiming felt nothing.
He was a substitute anyway, joining the team just to add some flair. Next time he was chasing a girl, he'd have more to talk about.
Even though his confession to Lv Xuan failed, he felt it wasn't a complete failure.
She just didn't plan to date during high school, but that didn't mean she wouldn't want to date him after the college entrance exam.
Getting ahead of the game also counted as being noted.
Not a loss.
Thinking of this, the sight of Sun Zhicheng's bark had stoned expression from yesterday made his defeated heart feel better.
Lv Xuan was just messing around with Jiang Nian, at least there wasn't any lap pillow massage.
Before lunch break.
Jiang Nian finished eating in the cafeteria, took a stroll around the school, and found Xu Qianqian and Song Xiyun at the pavilion in the small woods.
The two girls were sitting there, with a few books on the stone table.
"What are you doing here?" Xu Qianqian was surprised, gave him a few glances, and fixed her eyes on his hand, "What's that you're holding?"
"I just bought it at the West Gate outside, it's milk tea for you guys." Jiang Nian placed the bag on the stone table and sat next to them.
"Do you always rest here during lunch?"
"Occasionally, sometimes we can't find a table," Song Xiyun said, "There are too many couples, and it's awkward for us to share a table."
"They're always snuggling." Xu Qianqian added.
"Tch, sounds great." Jiang Nian touched the cold stone table with his fingers; he was there to give Xu Qianqian and Song Xiyun a heads-up.
The number of people watching the soccer match this afternoon was likely to be more rather than less, and when the game started, no one could predict what might happen.
So, they needed to guard themselves.