Chapter 157 - 73: Top Star of the 1960s Cultural Troupe (12)
Chapter 157: Chapter 73: Top Star of the 1960s Cultural Troupe (12)
The stakes on both sides were priceless and irreplaceable. The rivalry between the South Courtyard and the North Courtyard was a long-standing one, their friction accumulating since childhood. Now, it had reached a boiling point.
Both sides were convinced they would win. The North Courtyard thought the South Courtyard crew was pathetic; they always lost so badly in basketball it was a joke, so hiring one ringer wouldn’t make much of a difference.
Meanwhile, the young men of the South Courtyard held an almost religious reverence for Huo Tianhao, believing him to be omnipotent and invincible. Thus, they were also certain of their victory.
And so, the two groups decided to settle their decade-long feud with a single basketball game. Afterward, they would go their separate ways, wave goodbye to their unrestrained youth, and shoulder the responsibilities of being sons, husbands, and even fathers.
That was why the stakes were exceptionally high this time!
Huo Tianhao glanced at the South Courtyard crowd, a headache already starting to form. ’What is with these people?’ he thought. ’Can’t they just let me enjoy a day off in peace?’
He had always preferred a decisive, lightning-fast battle. While the North Courtyard was still trying to devise a strategy to figure him out, he burst forth like a tiger from its cage, sinking shot after shot—all of them three-pointers!
The North Courtyard guys started to get desperate, putting him under maximum-pressure defense. But Huo Tianhao was too agile, effortlessly breaking through their containment, dodging their attempts to trip him up or shoulder-check him. With a casual flick of his wrist—another three-pointer...
He had been scoring at a steady, methodical pace when he suddenly faltered, and the ball was snatched from his hands.
’Her surname was Dou, given name Ni Wan. Heh, is she kidding me?!’
Huo Tianhao laughed, but it was a laugh of pure anger. Before the South Courtyard guys could even shout encouragement, he took off, intercepted the ball in a few long strides, and launched a ferocious assault. By the end of the first half, the South Courtyard had utterly crushed the North Courtyard, 150 to 6.
What made it even more infuriating was that every player from the North Courtyard was sweating buckets and gasping for air, while the South Courtyard team looked as if they were on a casual stroll, not even breathing hard.
"Brother Hao, that was awesome! We’ve got this in the bag!" Liu Mingkun laughed, draping an arm around Huo Tianhao’s neck. "After the game, let’s go grab a big meal at Old Mo’s, then go shoot some pool. Tonight, we’re having a barbecue at my place. An aide-de-camp just delivered a whole lamb to my grandfather, and I managed to snag half to share with the bros..."
"If you have any friends you want to bring, Brother Hao, invite them too!" This "friend" was usually code for a member of the opposite sex.
Huo Tianhao grunted in acknowledgment and pointed toward the cultural palace. "Any events going on over there lately?"
"When isn’t there an event at the cultural palace? But I think they’re holding the preliminaries for the Golden Microphone competition right now. Xu Weilin’s new girlfriend is competing, otherwise we would’ve just played ball in our own courtyard. To hear him brag, you’d think the trophy was already his."
"I bet he pulled some strings for his girlfriend," Liu Mingkun added with a pout. "That guy... he probably arranged for all those pretty girls to be in the competition just so he’d have an audience while he’s busy wooing his new flame..."
"Alright, I’m tired. I’m going to take a walk. You guys are on your own for the second half." After wiping off his sweat and gulping down his water, Huo Tianhao left the stunned South Courtyard crew behind and strode away on his long legs.
"Wait, bro, no!" Liu Mingkun panicked. "My family’s ancestral, four-courtyard mansion, the one that belonged to a First-Grade Official! Whether or not I get to keep it is all up to you!"
Huo Tianhao sneered. "How old are you? Don’t you think before you act? If you can’t afford to lose, don’t make the bet. Besides, we’re ahead by more than one hundred and forty points. If you guys still manage to lose, you might as well change your last name to ’Loser’!"
"And remember to get my keys and helmet for me later!"
The young men of the South Courtyard were filled with anxiety. They were so used to being dominated by the North Courtyard that even with a lead of some one hundred and forty points, they felt the win wasn’t secure.
"Brother Kun, what do we do now?" the underlings asked fearfully.
"We fight. We fight like our lives depend on it! Just play good defense, score a few more random points, and the win is ours," Liu Mingkun said. He couldn’t show his panic in front of the others, so he put on a stony face, gritted his teeth, and spoke with forced bravado.
"We’re just getting warmed up, and they’re all exhausted. So we can’t afford to be cowards..."
His words instantly put everyone at ease. Sure enough, they gave it one hundred and twenty percent in the second half. Scoring wasn’t easy, but boxing players out and running interference was simple enough for them.
Besides, after playing against each other for a decade, who didn’t know the other’s game?
This was a do-or-die battle. If they still lost after all this, they’d never be able to live down the shame.
With a dark expression on his face, Huo Tianhao asked for directions until he found the venue for the Golden Microphone preliminaries.
It was a small auditorium with a capacity of over two hundred. But since it was the final day of the preliminaries, the audience—including the contestants and their friends and family—was sparse, with only a hundred or so people scattered throughout the seats.
Although it was only the preliminaries, the competition rules were strict and formal, set up to simulate the atmosphere of the finals. The stage was brightly lit, while the audience seating was cast in darkness.