Translator: Re

Editor: Mims

    "When your strength arrives at your waist and continues to travel up your spine, your arm can begin to prepare to shoot – this is "two"."

    "En."

    "Then, when you throw the ball out, imagine the curve of the ball in the air, imagine the distance from your fingertips to the basket. A parabola is a vector force that can be broken down into its vertical and horizontal components. Can you understand this?"

    "Can," Nie Chuan nodded. 

    "The strength of your upper arm determines the height of the ball and your forearm determines the force behind it when moving forward. When you stand at a different distance from the basket, your upper arm and forearm need to cooperate to achieve the perfect arc."

    Reece dribbled the ball under the basket and started shooting from the starting line, retreating step by step until he was outside the three-point line.

    Nie Chuan couldn"t help but sigh in his heart, Reece is too powerful!

    "Nie Chuan, there may be many in this world who are gifted with excellent physical qualities and sense of coordination but even if they"re talented, they also need to make countless shots to gain the experience that will allow them to shoot no matter where they stand."

    "Between you and Ewing, who is the better shooter?" Nie Chuan asked subconsciously.

    After asking, Nie Chuan suddenly felt as though he has no brains. 

    This question…… there is only one answer here. It"s the tall, handsome, and overbearing Reece who"s better than Ewing!

    "It"s Ewing of course."

    "Ha?"

    This answer completely exceeded Nie Chuan"s imagination. 

    "If we could have made it to the semifinals last year, Ewing would be the MVP. but unfortunately we didn"t."

    Even with Reece, DK actually didn"t make it to the semifinals. This made Nie Chuan can"t help but wonder just how many experts were in the league. 

    "As for three-point shooting practice, the amount of time Ewing puts into practice is at least three times that of mine. There is a saying in Chinese, "tiāndào chóu qín", which should be referring to Ewing." 

    [T/N: tiāndào chóu qín (天道酬勤) – "heaven rewards the diligent"]

    Reece took a step back and scored easily. 

    Nie Chuan suddenly understood that Reece"s sharpness wasn"t conceit. On the contrary, he is very humble in the face of hardworking people.

    "Alright, throw a few more shots before the court"s lights are turned off. Remember that rhythm."

    "En! I got it!"

    Nie Chuan held the ball and silently recites "one—— two—— three!" in his heart.

    He took off in the air and sent the ball out.

    The ball moved along Nie Chuan"s line of sight in an arc before falling steadily into the basket.

    Nie Chuan was still immersed in the feeling of that shot when Reece threw the ball back to him,  "Remember this feeling, one more time!"

    Nie Chuan caught the ball and jumped, landing another basket. 

    "Very good, remember this feeling, this way of exerting force. On the real court, your opponents won"t give you any time to prepare nor can you shoot with as much concentration as you are now. That is why your must let your body develop a natural response to shooting. From pushing off the ground to using more force, everything must be done in one fluid motion without any hesitation and as a whole."

    Nie Chuan caught the ball and jumped, the ball once again entered the basket. 

    "Nie Chuan, there is no 100% scoring rate on the basketball court; even 35% is already high. But you don"t need to feel burdened when you shoot because even if the ball hits the rim, there is still Montenegro and Carlo under the basket. Their rebounding strength is very powerful."

    "Understood……"

    The moment Nie Chuan took off, Reece suddenly rushed in front of Nie Chuan and jumped, the palm of his hand easily covered Nie Chuan"s ball. 

    Nie Chuan was about to fall back in fright when his wrist was caught by Reece and he was pulled back.

    Nie Chuan"s heart was about to jump out of his chest as everything about shooting rhythms was thrown to the back of his head. 

    "You look terrified, but this is a common occurrence on the court." Reece loosened his hold on Nie Chuan"s wrist, "If one block can fl.u.s.ter you this much then you will lose the whole match."

    Nie Chuan"s mentality was completely seen through by Reece. 

    "If you get blocked, you must immediately be on the defensive. Do not forget, you are the organizer of the offense and defense as well as the one who links it all together. You must quickly return to defense, cut off the person who just cut you off, and reverse the situation."

    There was a cold detachment in Reece"s voice. 

    "En."

    "But if you haven"t been blocked, a.s.suming you respond quick enough, you still have two choices." Reece extended a finger. "First, pa.s.s the ball to a teammate who is in a better position to score than you. Second, shoot again but this time the shot is faster than the previous one."

    Nie Chuan nodded despite knowing that the basis of the second option is that the rhythm and feel of shooting has been completely integrated into his muscles.

    "Let"s see if you can still recover your original rhythm after getting interrupted by me."

    Nie Chuan /takes a deep breath, silently counts in his head, and then jumps. With the force of his upper arm and coordination from his forearm, the ball was delivered from between his fingers and once again entered the basket. 

    Right at that moment, the whole court"s lights dimmed down.

    "Pick up the ball and go back to your dormitory," Reece"s voice became the only thing on the court. 

    Nie Chuan packed his backpack and followed Reece out of the court. 

    The two were silent the entire way back. 

    Nie Chuan once again enjoyed the special treatment of being sent back to the dormitory by Reece. 

    By the time he turned back to say "thank you." Reece had already walked away. 

    Back in his dormitory, Nie Chuan saw Zhou Bin sitting on the bed while talking to his girlfriend on the phone with a bright smile on his face. Nie Chuan directly threw a pillow at his face on his way to the bathroom for a shower. 

    As the water flowed from the top of his head down the rest of his body, Nie Chuan suddenly thought of Reece"s hands.

    How he had lifted him up, the temperature of his palm on his leg, how his fingers had traveled up his spine. 

    Time seemed to flow backwards as Nie Chuan"s head was full of Reece"s hands.

    "…… depressed……"

    After washing, Nie Chuan returned to his bed and rolled into his blankets to go to sleep.

    On the opposite bed, Zhou Bin had just finished his call. Seeing Nie Chuan"s back facing him, he opened his mouth to ask, "Ah Chuan, did you just come back from playing basketball?"

    "Yeah. I"m so tired, going to sleep."

    In fact, he couldn"t sleep at all. Nie Chuan felt as if Reece"s hands were still on his calf. 

    It was very warm, so warm that it was hot. 

    "You"re not eating any chocolate? It"s imported from Belgium."

    "Not eating."

    "It"s better not to eat. You"re always eating chocolate after brushing your teeth, be careful about cavities."

    "Aiya, my teeth are so strong even moths won"t be able to eat a hole through them." Nie Chuan waved his hands impatiently.

    Zhou Bin smiled.

    When Ewing accompanied Nie Chuan to practice shooting the next afternoon, Carlo"s eyeb.a.l.l.s almost fell out. 

    "Allen, you"ve made great progress!"

    Ewing pushed Carlo"s face aside and said, "Well, of course, how can Allen be the same as you? Allen, did you practice late last night?"

    Nie Chuan nodded with embarra.s.sment, "En. But it"s just like you said, my scoring rate was much higher after finding that feeling."

    "You can"t slack off, you need to practice a lot!"

    "I know."

    "I"m going to show off my skills this Sat.u.r.day!" Ewing blinked. With his freckles and his large eyes, Nie Chuan suddenly felt that it was unfair; obviously Ewing was more like a kid than him!

    "But that guy Reece is really no fun! We worked so hard practicing with Allen but he would say he either has group work or a presentation every time." Carlo said discontentedly. 

    Nie Chuan wanted to open his mouth to argue for Reece but then remembered that Reece had once said that he didn"t want anyone to know that he was teaching him and could only stiffly swallow back his words. 

    "Forget it, Reece isn"t suitable to teach others anyways. It"s enough if you have us!" Ewing patted Nie Chuan on the shoulder.

    It was finally Friday night. When he thought about how he had to partic.i.p.ate in the practice match tomorrow, Nie Chuan felt extremely nervous even though he was meeting privately with Carlo and the rest. 

    He tossed and turned in his bed, completely unable to fall asleep.

    On the side, Zhou Bin couldn"t help but sit up and say "Ah Chuan, if you really can"t sleep then get up and heat up some milk ba!"

    "Ah, right!"

    Nie Chuan thought of how Reece had said that he could still grow taller by drinking milk. He quickly heated himself a cup of milk and gulped it all down. 

    After much difficulty, Nie Chuan finally fell asleep. However, that cup of milk really worked; it wasn"t even daybreak when Nie Chuan couldn"t hold it in anymore and had to go use the restroom. 

    This entire night, he really didn"t get a good rest!

    Early in the morning, a car parked outside Nie Chuan"s apartment building. It was Carlo"s Mercedes. 

    "Nie Chuan, let"s go!"

    Ewing and Montenegro were also in Carlo"s car. When Ewing saw Nie Chuan"s face, he was amused and slapped Nie Chuan on the shoulder. "Hey…… well aren"t you particularly nervous! I feel like you didn"t sleep at all last night!"

    "It"s all the milk"s fault," Nie Chuan mumbled. 

    Carlo couldn"t help laughing, "This is just a practice match! Our opponent"s strength is only in the top 32, and with their center"s graduation last year, they may not be as strong. What are you feeling so nervous about!"

    Of course he was nervous!

    He also didn"t want to hold anyone back ah!

    In the end, Montenegro was still the most considerate. "Turn off the music, let Nie Chuan sleep for a while." He told Carlo.

    "What about Reece?"

    "That guy should have left a long time ago?"

    The grounds for their practice match was in a nearby city where Connor"s hospital was.

    When the car was about to enter the highway, Carlo received a call. 

    "h.e.l.lo, Reece. Where are you? Which restaurant? Oh oh…… ok, we"ll see you there!"

    "What"s the matter?" Ewing asked.

    "Reece said he"s getting breakfast at this Chinese restaurant and then going. It"s just that…… I"ve already had two hamburgers this morning!" Carlo said. 

    Montenegro replied, "But looking at Allen, he probably didn"t eat this morning, right? Going to a Chinese restaurant to get something to eat would be good."

    Ewing nodded. 

Re: Nie Chuan… just how big was that gla.s.s of milk

By the way, there is a giveaway event on CG! Go check it out ?

MadMadamMims: I"m thinking about Reece"s hands too ?