Insufficient balance

  "Great job, you guys showed your momentum in the second quarter. We need to hold on to this momentum and make a final push to defeat them..." Bian Guohui encouraged his teammates who had just come off the court for a rest.

  Lin Xiaoyu sat in the player's seat, her two hands spread out on the back of the long bench, leaning back with her eyes closed. For a whole quarter, Lin Xiaoyu was the only one who scored under the opponent's strong defense, which made this high school student feel overwhelmed. At this time, Lin Xiaoyu just wanted to make the most of the halftime break to recover her strength for the second half. Lin Xiaoyu knew that the second half would be even more severe.

  Suddenly a white hand touched Lin Xiaoyu, and when she opened her eyes, she saw that it was the team's female manager, Lin Cijie.

  "Want some water?" Lin Cijie held out a paper cup filled with water in front of Lin Xiaoyu.

  "Thank you." Lin Xiaoyu took over the water cup and drank it all in a few mouthfuls.

  "Still want some?" Lin Cijie asked, seeing how quickly Lin Xiaoyu had finished drinking the water. This was the first time Lin Cijie had seen Lin Xiaoyu look so exhausted. Usually, when playing basketball, Lin Xiaoyu seemed very casual, but just now in the second quarter, Lin Xiaoyu, who usually single-handedly attacked the opponent's defense line, looked almost like a different person from usual. Experimental Middle School was able to narrow the score gap that had fallen behind in the first quarter entirely thanks to Lin Xiaoyu's efforts alone. In the table where Lin Cijie recorded the players' data on the court, it was clearly written that Lin Xiaoyu had scored 16 points in just one quarter of the second quarter. This was even more than the score First Middle School had obtained in the second quarter. No wonder Lin Xiaoyu looked so tired at this time.

  Lin Xiaoyu waved her hand to indicate that she didn't need anything else, then picked up the towel she had just used to wipe her sweat and said to Lin Cijie: "Help me wet this towel."

  Lin Cijie took the towel and slowly wet it with water from the kettle, then handed it to Lin Xiaoyu. Lin Xiaoyu took the towel and slowly covered her face with it, continuing to lean back and sit on the bench.

  A cool, damp towel covered her slightly feverish face, and Lin Xiaoyu felt extremely comfortable with this feeling. She slowly breathed in the damp air through the towel, and Lin Xiaoyu thought that this would help her recover her strength more quickly.

  Lin Cijie took a deep look at Lin Xiaoyu, who was lying down with a wet towel covering her face, and then went to pour water for the other team members.

  At halftime, a certain leader from the experimental school walked from the podium to the player's seat, speaking in a tone as if inspecting, with a leadership attitude, and told the players something, but the team members who were rushing to rest didn't pay much attention to what the school leader said.

  "Well, you're all great, do your best and bring glory to our school!" After saying a few words that had nothing to do with the outcome of the competition, the leader finally left with a hint of reluctance and returned to his original seat on the rostrum.

  Ban Guohui had long wanted to kick out the school leader who was wasting his time, but as a physical education teacher at Experimental Middle School, Ban Guohui couldn't afford to offend these powerful people. He could only wait patiently for the leader to finish speaking and leave before briefly assigning tactics for the second half of the game and letting the players take a quick rest.

  Bin Guohui glanced at Lin Xiaoyu, who was covering his face with a towel. Bin Guohui knew that the team owed it to this high school student's joining, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to catch up in the first half. The entire second quarter relied on Lin Xiaoyu alone to score points. Bin Guohui was well aware of how difficult it was for a player to continuously score in such an intense game, especially for a 16- or 17-year-old student like Lin Xiaoyu. However, this 16- or 17-year-old kid did it, scoring over a dozen points consecutively on the basket of the city's strongest team. Lin Xiaoyu's strength truly shocked Bin Guohui. Bin Guohui knew that the key to winning this game now lay with this player who had a towel covering his face.

  Ban Guohui glanced at the opposing team's bench, where the new coach who had taken over as leader of the First Middle School team was still constantly instructing those players. Ban Guohui realized that there would be a tough and bitter battle to face in the second half... The outcome of victory or defeat would depend on these twenty minutes in the second half...

  At the entrance of the stadium, a girl wearing a school uniform and carrying a small bag rushed into the stadium. From the school emblem on her uniform, it can be seen that she is a student of Experimental Middle School. The security guard at the entrance of the stadium found it strange that this girl in uniform came to the stadium so late after the game had already started for so long. Today's high school basketball game held at Feicui City Sports Stadium does not require tickets, so the security guard did not stop her from entering the stadium either. However, this beautiful long-haired girl still made the security guard in his twenties take a few more glances. Indeed, such beautiful girls are rarely seen.

  Yan Nan hastily walked to the basketball stadium, where there were not too many spectators in the stands, but about half of the seats on the court were already filled. Yan Nan looked at the court from the entrance of the stands and saw that there were no players on the court, only a few girls wearing bright costumes performing a hot dance to music.

  Yan Nan took another look at the scoreboard next to the court, 39-35. Yan Nan couldn't see clearly from this highest viewing platform which team was leading, but such a small difference indicated that the experimental middle school and the first middle school were having a very stimulating match.

  Yan Nan slowly walked down the stairs of the viewing platform, she wanted to go to the experimental middle school's player seat to see Lin Xiaoyu, and cheer up for her heartthrob.

  It's all because of that hateful class teacher. Yan Nan complained about her strict female class teacher in her heart again. Today was not a weekend, although today was the key match between the experimental middle school basketball team and the first middle school to compete for the qualification to represent Feicui City in the middle school basketball game. However, since the match was held during class hours, the school still had normal classes. Originally, Yan Nan thought that after finishing the first lesson this morning, she would take a taxi to watch Lin Xiaoyu's match, which was just right in terms of time. The match started 10 minutes after the first lesson. But Yan Nan did not expect her hateful class teacher to suddenly change the schedule, forcing Yan Nan to stay in the classroom until the end of the second lesson before sneaking out to come over. Yan Nan's absenteeism record had already reached a dangerous edge, and she dared not skip this strict class teacher's lesson again. So Yan Nan only arrived at the stadium during the halftime break of the match.

  Yan Nan walked down from the spectator stand and along the edge of the court towards the Experimental Middle School players' bench. Yan Nan's eyes immediately landed on Lin Xiaoyu, who was half-reclining in her seat on the Experimental Middle School bench with a towel covering her face.

  Yan Nan saw the female manager of that team take out another towel to help Lin Xiaoyu wipe her face, and then sat down beside Lin Xiaoyu. Yan Nan looked at this beautiful female manager who was slightly taller than herself, taking such good care of Lin Xiaoyu, and suddenly felt a pang of jealousy in her heart.

  "Little Yu." Lin Xiaoyu, who had just put on a cooler and wetter towel to cover her face, heard Yan Nan's voice and pulled open the towel, smiling at him. Lin Xiaoyu was delighted to see that Yan Nan had skipped class to come watch her competition, feeling both happy and grateful.

  Yan Nan saw that Lin Xiaoyu's face had a hint of fatigue, so she felt a bit tense, because Yan Nan had never seen Lin Xiaoyu look like this when playing basketball before. Yan Nan asked with concern: "Xiaoyu, are you okay? Are you injured?"

  "I'm fine, just a bit tired. I need to recover my strength now, and we still have a tough battle ahead." Lin Xiaoyu said with a pretended ease, "Xiao Nan, did you bring your portable music player? I want to listen to some music for a while."

  When Lin Xiaoyu said that he was a bit tired, Yan Nang's heart relaxed slightly. From the score of 35 to 39 on the scoreboard of the stadium, Yan Nang could imagine how intense this game was. Yan Nang now saw clearly the team name on the scoreboard, Shiyan Middle School was four points behind at halftime.

  Yan Nan took out the portable CD player from his bag and handed it to Lin Xiaoyu. Lin Xiaoyu put on the earbuds and continued to cover her face with a wet towel, half-reclining to recover her strength. Yan Nan's portable CD player was a Sony MD, its excellent sound quality providing Lin Xiaoyu with an even more relaxing atmosphere. At this time, Lin Xiaoyu was listening to "Californication" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

  Yan Nan saw Lin Xiaoyu rushing to recover her strength, so she didn't want to disturb Lin Xiaoyu anymore. Yan Nan wanted to find a seat next to Lin Xiaoyu, but the female manager of the team sitting next to Lin Xiaoyu didn't show any intention of letting her sit down, instead, she was writing something with her head down. Yan Nan had no choice but to pout and sit down next to Lin Xiaoyu, separated by the female manager.

  After Yan Nan sat down, his gaze was on the cheerleaders dancing in the center of the court, but his mind was guessing the thoughts of the team's female manager sitting next to him. Yan Nan really didn't understand why this female manager chose to sit next to Lin Xiaoyu instead of taking an empty seat elsewhere. In the past, this female manager seemed to be unfriendly towards Lin Xiaoyu, but recently her attitude had changed... She wouldn't have any intentions towards Lin Xiaoyu, would she? Thinking about it, Yan Nan felt a small twinge of jealousy towards the very pretty team manager.

  PS: This book is dedicated to everyone who keeps struggling in real life. If you like it, please collect and recommend it, thank you...

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