"Lin Feng, I'm really sorry!"
The pretty girl's cheeks flushed pink. Her fingers twisted nervously at the hem of her clothes, her voice sickly sweet—yet the words that came out were like ice picks, stabbing straight to the heart:
"The one I like is LeBron James from the UConn basketball team."
"Dammit! Failed again? For the nth time?!"
Lin Feng roared wildly in his heart, feeling his heart shatter with a crisp crack, splitting into eight pieces on the spot!
THE FIFTY-FIRST TIME!!!
"Pfft—hahahaha!"
"Oh my god! This is too funny to handle!"
A chorus of infuriating laughter suddenly erupted from the side.
There, led by Long Yi, four of his most annoying friends had snuck up without him noticing. Each was doubled over in laughter, tears nearly shooting out of their eyes.
Long Yi: "Congratulations, Lin Feng! You've set a new record—rejected by fifty girls."
Long Er: "Fifty times dumped! Wow!"
Long San: "Not just anyone can break a record like that."
Long Si fished a handful of plastic flowers out of his pocket, tossing them around while howling: "Confetti! Confetti!"
"You bunch of jerks! Asking for a beating, huh?!"
Veins popped on Lin Feng's forehead, his eyes bulging like copper bells.
Without a word, he lowered his head and charged like a tiger descending a mountain.
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Four thunderous headbutts landed.
The four guys toppled like dominoes kicked over, howling "Ouch! Ouch!" as they collapsed to the ground, clutching their heads and grimacing.
Finally, the world was fucking quiet!
But Lin Feng's heart felt icy cold, like someone had dumped a bucket of snowmelt on him in the dead of winter!
He roared madly in his heart: Why? Why?! God, are you specifically out to get me? (The classroom ceiling fan creaks as it spins, with chalk dust and the unique sweat smell of adolescence floating in the air.)
Long Er, with a shifty look, leans in toward the other three: "Hey, guys, see that? How's our Brother Lin holding up now?"
Long San curls his lip and says: "Still slacking off, locking himself in his own little world like a withdrawn hermit, not having recovered at all."
Long Si pushes up his glasses on the bridge of his nose, his face serious: "I thought he'd get back on his feet after entering college. But he's always been introverted, which is probably why he has that head of red hair."
"Sigh, poor guy..."
Long Er, showing deep sympathy, blurts out a "comfort" full of brotherly loyalty:
"Hey! Lin Feng! Stop getting stuck in a rut! Cheer up, man! Those big lugs on the basketball team are nothing! What's so great about them..."
The words "basketball team" are like a red-hot branding iron, searing precisely onto Lin Feng's most fragile and sensitive nerve with a "sizzle"!
Lin Feng, who had been listless and immersed in his "sad little world", suddenly lifts his head!
In his eyes, two small flames labeled "grief and anger" and "the urge to kill" instantly ignite!
"What! Did! You! Say!!"
Before the words finish! Lin Feng zooms over to Long Er in a flash!
The "brotherly affection" on Long Er's face freezes instantly, leaving only a capital "DANGER"!
The next second—"Duang!!!"
Long Er collapses right where he stands, seeing stars.
Long Yi covers his face with a look of "this fool is hopeless", squats slowly beside the groaning Long Er, and mutters softly:
"I said, Long Er... can't you be more careful? Didn't I tell you? Talking about basketball is strictly forbidden now, not allowed to mention it!"
His tone is full of disappointment at the lack of progress and a tinge of schadenfreude that says "you deserve it".
A random classmate, chatting with someone, says: "Let me tell you, I found a videotape of Autumn in My Heart yesterday, it's such a tearjerker—"
Before he finishes, Lin Feng, who is slouching nearby, suddenly jolts! A "buzz" goes off in his ears as his brain automatically translates: "B... basketball?!"
In the next second, he jumps up like a spring, delivering a headbutt straight to the classmate's forehead!
With a dull "thud", the guy squats on the ground holding his head, groaning.
Then, another classmate, chatting with his deskmate, says: "I think you'd better lose some weight, this figure—"
Lin Feng just passes by, and suddenly his ears act up again!
His brain automatically replaces it with a mosaic: "It's better to play some basketball?!"
"Whoa! Still dare to bring that up?!"
Lin Feng glares, jumps up on the spot, and delivers a mountain-crushing headbutt, slamming the classmate against the wall with a "dong", leaving him in a daze. In the corridor, Lin Feng shoves his hands into his pockets, each step thudding heavily against the floor.
He's still ranting nonstop, spittle flying:
"Fuck! What the hell is that bald egg LeBron from UConn's basketball team? So he chucks a lousy ball into a hoop—who the hell does he think he is? I swear, basketball is now my lifelong enemy! Anywhere within a hundred meters of a basketball is my absolute destruction zone!"
He's just finished his angry tirade when he suddenly falters, his brows knotting into a tight "川" shape:
"Wait… that's not right! Didn't LeBron get drafted into the NBA straight out of high school? How the hell is he in college now? That girl must've stayed up all night watching games and fried her brain!"
This rejection reason is so absurd, it's like absurdity itself showed up at the door—completely off the charts!
As he's venting at the air, his inner monologue spamming "Basketball die! LeBron die!", a sweet, dewy voice drifts into his ears, tentative and soft as a feather:
"Sorry to bother you… do you like basketball?"
BOOM——!!!
The words "basketball"!!! Hit like two perfectly thrown gasoline bombs, exploding "bang" on Lin Feng's already volatile nerves! A wildfire instantly races from the soles of his feet to the top of his head!
"Fuck! Basketball again?! Is this never gonna end? Who the hell's dumb enough to walk into the crosshairs? Just wait till I—"
Lin Feng spins around, seething with rage!
His fire-spitting eyes scan like searchlights, sleeves rolled up, his well-honed (headbutt-specialized) skull tilting back, ready to strike!
Today, this fool's gonna learn why the flowers are so red!
But the second his gaze locks onto the target—all his angry roars, his coiled headbutt, his blazing chakra… freeze! Evaporate! Vanish without a trace!
Lin Feng freezes like a paused cartoon, mouth hanging open, pupils blown wide!
Holy! Shit!
This isn't some random schmuck—this is a goddess straight out of a teen campus movie!
She's probably 175cm, with impossibly long legs. Blonde hair like sun-woven silk cascades over her shoulders, fluttering softly in the corridor breeze.
Her skin is blindingly white, so smooth not a single pore shows, with a hint of soft, youthful baby fat on her cheeks, collagen practically oozing.
Her big blue eyes, clear as freshly melted Alaskan glacial lakes, gaze at him with a little curiosity, a little shyness—innocent and unassuming.
Beneath her small, perky nose are lips like rose petals dusted with morning dew, slightly pursed in a natural curve that quickens the heartbeat.
Best of all, near her ears, a few faint, playful freckles dot her fair cheeks!
She's in a simple white T-shirt and light blue jeans, clean and fresh, radiating an unpolished yet dazzling purity unique to youth!
Just standing there, she turns the drab corridor into a scene with ten layers of soft focus and a BGM filter!
Lin Feng feels his eyes might pop out of their sockets! His head buzzes, his brain crashing and rebooting a hundred times!
Holy! Shit! This girl… that face… the blonde hair, blue eyes, freckles… those legs… this pure, sweet onslaught!
This is literally a young, limited-edition Taylor Swift!
While his brain's offline, his soul adrift in the existential questions "Who am I? Where am I? What am I seeing?", the "young Taylor" blinks those drowning-worthy blue eyes, tilts her head slightly, and repeats her soul-piercing question in that sweet voice:
"Do you like basketball?"
"I...!!!"
Lin Feng's throat bobs. The icy rage that could've frozen someone solid evaporates in a blink, leaving not a trace.
He straightens his 198cm frame (even sucking in his abs subconsciously), his face instantly shifting to a never-before-seen "kind" expression—grinning with a forced eight-tooth smile, though his lips twitch from nervousness.
His voice, strained into the softest tone of his life, booms out, each word deliberate:
"I!!! LOVE BASKETBALL THE MOST!!!"
Meanwhile, around the corridor corner—Long Yi, Long Er, Long San, Long Si, all four cling to the wall, poking their heads out like a row of adorkable mushrooms.
They've witnessed Lin Feng's ultimate double standard, a transformation worthy of Sichuan opera face-changing!
Long Yi: (⊙_⊙)??? (Jaw hanging loose)
Long Er: (;ﾟДﾟ)!!! (Chips "plop" onto the floor)
Long San: (ΩДΩ) Ho… ly… (Taking a deep breath, he instinctively covered his forehead)
Long Si: (;ﾟдﾟ) Sss—! (Glasses sliding down his nose, forgottento to push them)