Insufficient balance

  "Is there any medicinal liquor? Give me a bottle." Lin Xiaoyu asked Lin Cijie, the female manager of the ball team sitting next to her on the school bus.

  After that night, Lin Xiaoyu had a pleasant conversation with the team's female manager when sending her home. The relationship between Lin Xiaoyu and Lin Cijie has become very friendly, and they would chat for a few sentences when together. So Lin Xiaoyu asked the team's female manager, who was in charge of treating minor injuries of players, for some medicinal oil. This was something that Lin Xiaoyu would not have done a few days ago, as she would rather endure the pain on her body and go home to find medicine to apply herself. However, after interacting with the team's female manager over the past few days, Lin Xiaoyu discovered that Lin Cijie seemed not as savage as she had initially thought. Lin Xiaoyu also developed some good feelings towards this girl who was serious and responsible for all the logistical work of the team.

  "Yes, here." Lin Cijie rummaged through her small medical box and handed a small bottle to Lin Xiaoyu.

  After Lin Xiaoyu took over the medicine bottle, she took off her coat and T-shirt inside. Although it was still early spring now, the temperature was still quite cold, but the temperature in the carriage was still very high, plus Lin Xiaoyu had just finished a game and there was still residual heat from the exercise all over her body, so Lin Xiaoyu didn't feel any coolness.

  Lin Cijie suddenly saw Lin Xiaoyu beside her with his upper body completely exposed, and for a moment she felt very embarrassed. However, as the female manager of the men's basketball team, Lin Cijie had already gotten used to these boys being shirtless in front of her, so Lin Cijie quickly regained her composure. Nevertheless, facing Lin Xiaoyu's robust chest at such close range still made Lin Cijie blush and dare not look straight.

  Lin Cijie was still a bit worried about where Lin Xiaoyu was injured, so she took a peek. She saw that Lin Xiaoyu's muscular body had several places with purplish bruises. These injuries looked shocking to Lin Cijie. She knew the game just now was a bit tough, but Lin Cijie didn't expect one game to leave an athlete with so many scars. The injuries made it seem like they hadn't just finished a basketball game, but a fighting match. Lin Cijie knew these injuries were from this game because it was Lin Xiaoyu's first time on the court recently.

  Lin Cijie recalled the scene where her opponent, a chubby defender, had maliciously punched Lin Xiaoyu in the face during the game. At that time, Lin Cijie was sitting right next to the field where Lin Xiaoyu was standing and clearly saw the chubby guy punch Lin Xiaoyu in the face, causing Lin Cijie to involuntarily exclaim in shock. Fortunately, Lin Xiaoyu dodged the chubby guy's punch, and luckily, the players on the field quickly restrained the chubby guy who wanted to continue attacking Lin Xiaoyu and Lin Xiaoyu who wanted to fight back, otherwise, the game would have turned into a collective brawl. The biased referee surprisingly sent off both Lin Xiaoyu, who was attacked by someone, and the chubby guy who threw the punch, which left Lin Cijie very dissatisfied. Anyone with some knowledge of sports ethics knew that this was clearly the chubby guy's malicious provocation, and Lin Xiaoyu was not at all in the wrong. However, no matter how biased the referee was towards their opponents, they couldn't take away the victory from Experimental Middle School, which ultimately won the game with a sharp offense that didn't give their opponents any chance to counterattack.

  Lin Cijie secretly looked at Lin Xiaoyu's face, which was slightly distorted due to the medicinal oil, and found that she really couldn't see through this clean-faced boy. Originally, Lin Xiaoyu was a weak boy in Lin Cijie's heart who didn't dare to talk back when scolded, and Lin Cijie always looked down on those effeminate boys. However, when Lin Cijie encountered the harassment of those thugs that night, it was this boy who stood up for her and helped her out of trouble. When Lin Cijie saw Lin Xiaoyu fighting with the three thugs like a lion bursting out of its cage, she realized how wrong her impression of him had been...

  Lin Cijie found Lin Xiaoyu to be very approachable. In the team, everyone had a good relationship with Lin Xiaoyu, who was always selfless in passing the ball on the field. On his clear face, there was always a smile that was a bit childish. Lin Cijie knew that when she first met him and scolded him harshly, this boy had been tolerant of her and didn't argue back. Lin Cijie clearly remembered the momentum he showed that night when facing those thugs, like an angry lion.

  In the school bus, team members were discussing the game in twos and threes. Everyone was indignant about Lin Xiaoyu being penalized by that black-hearted referee, but winning the game still put everyone in a good mood. The topic of discussion on the bus was where the school would take them to celebrate with a banquet. Coach Bian Guohui also didn't have his usual coaching demeanor at this time, and he chatted and laughed with these young players who had just won the victory.

  Lin Cijie looked at Lin Xiaoyu, who was sitting by the window and carefully applying medicinal wine to her bare skin, seemingly oblivious to the discussion among their teammates. As Lin Cijie watched Lin Xiaoyu struggling to apply the medicine to a bruise on her back, she softly said to Lin Xiaoyu, "Let me help you with that, you can't do it like this."

  Lin Xiaoyu, who was struggling to reach the wound on her back with her hand, heard Lin Cijie's words and was stunned for a moment. She then handed the bottle of medicinal wine to Lin Cijie and smiled awkwardly: "Oh, thank you... this wound on my back is really hard to apply medicine to by myself."

  Lin Cijie took the medicine bottle, lightly dripped some onto her palm, and then applied it to the purplish-blue wound on Lin Xiaoyu's back. When Lin Cijie felt the warmth from Lin Xiaoyu's body on her palm, her face involuntarily flushed, but she quickly calmed down and carefully rubbed the medicine into the injured area on Lin Xiaoyu's back.

  The medicinal wine for this kind of bruise needs to be rubbed vigorously on the affected area, so that the blood stasis can dissipate faster and achieve better efficacy. The bruise was originally painful, and during the rubbing of the medicinal wine, this pain became even more pronounced. Under Lin Cijie's rubbing, Lin Xiaoyu felt her back ache vaguely, but she had long been accustomed to this feeling.

  When Lin Xiaoyu was young, whenever she got hurt from fighting, it was always Li Jingru who helped her apply medicine. Lin Xiaoyu felt that girls were supposed to be gentler than boys. As soon as Lin Cijie's palm started rubbing the injured area on her back, Lin Xiaoyu felt the same way she did when Li Jingru applied medicine for her - it was always a delicate and gentle touch that only girls could provide. Lin Xiaoyu had tried letting her male teammates apply medicine for her before, but the rough hands of those boys rubbing her wounds vigorously made her feel even more painful than the injury itself, so Lin Xiaoyu had always preferred to apply medicine herself rather than asking her teammates for "service".

  Feeling the faint pain coming from the wound on his back, Lin Xiaoyu remembered that this scar was left by a fat guy who had been blocked behind him during a basketball game. Of course, Lin Xiaoyu also gave the fat guy an elbow as a "gift" later on. Lin Xiaoyu knew that the fat guy's scars wouldn't be much better than his own. During the game, Lin Xiaoyu followed the fat guy and played basketball, making small movements while avoiding the referee's gaze, like they were wrestling. Originally, Lin Xiaoyu never made those shameful moves when playing ball, but facing a fat guy who used despicable tricks to interfere with him, Lin Xiaoyu fought back with even more despicable tactics. Lin Xiaoyu thought that when an enemy uses sinister plots against him, he should use even more sinister moves to restrain him.

  Lin Xiaoyu felt a sense of revenge and pleasure in his heart when he thought of that fat guy. When the fat guy punched him, Lin Xiaoyu saw the distorted face of the fat guy, and he had an urge to burst out laughing. Because Lin Xiaoyu knew that this fat guy had been thoroughly defeated by himself on the basketball court, and the fat guy who couldn't bear being humiliated by Lin Xiaoyu everywhere on the court could only use his fists to hide his weakness after having his confidence shattered on the court.

  When Lin Xiaoyu dodged the punch of the fatty, Lin Xiaoyu was ready to use his own fist to tell this fatty who had bullied him before that he is no longer his opponent! However, when Lin Xiaoyu was about to go up and give the fatty a few punches, Lin Xiaoyu was pulled back by his teammates on the scene. This made it impossible for Lin Xiaoyu to leave painful memories on the fatty's ferocious face.

  Lin Xiaoyu did not expect that the referee would be so biased towards the fatso's team, and before she could even react, Lin Xiaoyu and the fatso who had hit her were both penalized by the referee and sent off the field. Lin Xiaoyu was extremely dissatisfied with this, but when she saw the fatso leaving the field with his head hung low in shame, Lin Xiaoyu felt that the grudge from being bullied by him a few years ago had been well avenged.

  "Alright, the medicinal wine has been applied. You'd better put your clothes back on quickly, be careful not to catch a chill." Just as Lin Xiaoyu was recalling the scene from the basketball court earlier, Lin Cijie had already finished rubbing in the medicinal wine.

  "Oh, thank you." Lin Xiaoyu slowly put on her clothes according to Lin Cijie's words.

  "No need to thank me, by the way, what about your girlfriend? Why hasn't she come to watch you play in these few matches?" Lin Cijie suddenly thought of the long-haired beautiful girl who often came to watch Lin Xiaoyu play basketball and asked casually.

  "Girlfriend?" Lin Xiaoyu was taken aback by Lin Cijie's words: "I don't have a girlfriend or anything!"

  "Isn't that long-haired girl who was with you all day your girlfriend?" Lin Cijie found it strange that Lin Xiaoyu didn't react.

  "That... that's not my girlfriend. She's just a good friend of mine." Lin Xiaoyu knew that the person Lin Cijie was referring to was Yan Nan, and she quickly explained. Lin Xiaoyu felt a bit embarrassed by Lin Cijie's misunderstanding of her relationship with Yan Nan.

  "Oh? So that girl isn't your girlfriend?" Lin Cijie had always thought that the pretty girl who followed Lin Xiaoyu around every day was his girlfriend. Only now did she realize that they weren't like that. For some reason, when Lin Cijie found out that the girl wasn't Lin Xiaoyu's girlfriend, she felt a thrill of excitement rise up in her heart...

  PS: Sorry for not updating the past two days, I've been really busy lately. Real life is always full of things we can't control, please forgive me. I'll work hard to write this book well, and I guarantee it won't be a bad ending, hehe, so everyone can rest assured and collect it with confidence! Thanks for the support! Welcome to join our discussion group, group number 58801975