What ball game It's a fight

Ignoring Qi Tao, Jiang Yunlu made a “pause” gesture and walked to the sidelines to take a sip from her water bottle.

Under the bright lights of the court, her slender neck glistened with sweat, droplets tracing down from her hairline, along her sharp jawline. She radiated a vibrant, unstoppable energy.

This was exactly why Jiang Yunlu had earned the reputation as one of Guangba’s most famous school beauties.

Though such titles were spread quietly behind the scenes, it did nothing to diminish Jiang Yunlu’s popularity.

As she drank, her gaze swept over to the staircase on the right.

There stood Lin Mo and Wang Yiping, chatting casually while glancing in her direction.

Seeing Lin Mo there instantly calmed Jiang Yunlu’s previously restless mood. She immediately waved at him.

Lin Mo smiled and nodded in return.

“Lin Mo, are you really sure you won’t reconsider?” Jiang Yunlu asked.

Lin Mo shook his head.

“No. Our ambitions just don’t align. Watching the match is fine, but I won’t be playing.”

Wang Yiping didn’t say much. After all, badminton was something you couldn’t force someone to do. If they weren’t willing, what was the point in pushing?

But when it came to Lin Mo, Wang Yiping could tell this student was different. Poise and composure were his baseline.

When Wang Yiping had just come over, Lin Mo had simply smiled and greeted him politely, “Hello, coach.”

“This must be the promising talent you mentioned,” Jiang Yunlu said.

Wang Yiping nodded and introduced, “That’s Lin Mo. His skills are strong. If he had entered the boys’ singles at the school games, he would have definitely taken the championship.”

Qi Tao approached with a smile, then gave Lin Mo a once-over.

“Looks pretty good. Want to play a match with me? I can give you a five-point head start.”

Lin Mo was not interested in proving himself. He shook his head and walked past Qi Tao toward Jiang Yunlu.

The boy who had been practicing with Jiang Yunlu noticed Lin Mo immediately. Without a word, he picked up his racket and moved aside to rest.

Qi Tao’s pride was bruised, and though he was annoyed, he said nothing.

Instead, he glanced at Wang Yiping. “Coach, this talent doesn’t seem very obedient. If he were at the training base, he’d probably have been taught a lesson by now.”

Wang Yiping frowned and looked away at the young man who seemed full of himself. Because of his excellent results, he had been sent to the training base and might even join the national team in the future. Was he starting to get arrogant?

But Wang Yiping didn’t say anything further.

He was genuinely proud of this student.

It was just that after returning from the training base, Lin Mo had become a bit smug.

Young people were like that.

Honestly, Wang Yiping had hoped Lin Mo would accept Qi Tao’s challenge.

But Lin Mo was even more composed than he had imagined.

He walked over to Jiang Yunlu, looking at her flushed cheeks glowing with the healthy redness of exercise, then took a nearby towel and wiped the sweat from her face.

“I already spoke with Coach Wang. He said I can go with the team to watch the matches.”

Jiang Yunlu had actually discussed this with Wang Yiping before, but hearing Lin Mo say he had taken the initiative made it feel different.

Either way, Jiang Yunlu felt a little happy.

But at times like this, there’s always someone annoying who shows up.

“Yunlu junior, so you actually know him?”

Jiang Yunlu heard the voice but didn’t bother to look over.

She wasn’t really interested in paying attention to Qi Tao in the first place.

Everyone else could see what was going on — how could Jiang Yunlu not notice?

Qi Tao’s gaze on her was off, constantly drifting down to her legs.

Still, she turned her head to glance at Qi Tao, then looked at Lin Mo.

“This is my deskmate and also my good friend.”

Hearing “good friend,” Qi Tao relaxed a bit.

He sneered at Lin Mo.

“So, you’re good friends, huh?”

He emphasized the word “good” with a heavy bite, probably thinking Lin Mo was just a simp.

“But this is the badminton team’s training ground. Even if you’re a student of this school...”

“Are you kidding me? When I was just standing next to Coach Wang, were you blind? Or do you have the seven-second memory of a goldfish?”

“Just now you were asking if I wanted to play a match, and now you want to kick me out? Are you some kind of idiot sent by monkeys?”

Lin Mo cut off Qi Tao’s act with a single sentence.

When dealing with these pretentious, spoiled types, the best method is to roast them mercilessly and just enjoy it.

“You… you…”

Qi Tao’s anger flared, but he couldn’t curse back like Lin Mo.

“You what? You’re wasting your talent if you’re not acting. What are you doing here pretending to be some kind of fool?”

Lin Mo waved his hand like shooing away a fly.

“Go play in the mud somewhere else. Your grandpa here has no time to waste on your petty squabbles.”

Qi Tao looked like smoke was coming out of his ears, fists clenched tight, as if he was about to throw a punch at Lin Mo any second.

But he couldn’t.

For starters, he was a G3 student, a senior with a high status, and technically the captain of the badminton team.

No matter what, he couldn’t be the first to throw a punch.

As for Lin Mo, he had plenty of ways to deal with him.

Qi Tao glanced at Jiang Yunlu and feigned helplessness, spreading his hands.

“Lin Mo, I think you might have misunderstood something.”

Wow, so patient, huh?

Lin Mo stepped forward, raising a finger to poke at Qi Tao’s nose.

“Misunderstood you my ass. You think everyone’s stupid? Your dirty little thoughts — who do you think you’re fooling? Acting all big and bad like you’re some kind of big shot?”

“You think you’re tough? You can’t even beat one of my fingers!”

Finally, Qi Tao couldn’t take the verbal abuse anymore and shouted angrily, “Say that again?! If you’ve got the guts, fight me! Right now! Immediately!”

Lin Mo grinned, “Alright, let’s do this.”

He lifted his foot and kicked out.

Qi Tao was sent flying.

But that wasn’t enough — Lin Mo pounced, tackled him down, and started throwing punch after punch.

Qi Tao barely had time to raise his hands to block his face.

But somehow, he threw a couple of wild punches back.

Lin Mo was sent flying, his face scratched and bruised.

On purpose.

Then Lin Mo lunged again. This time, no holding back — he aimed straight for the sore spots.

From the perspective of traditional Chinese massage therapy, where there is pain, there is blockage.

Lin Mo’s divine perception swept over the scene. As a model youth of Yangcheng, he felt it was his duty to really give Qi Tao, the provincial champion, a good lesson.

So Lin Mo didn’t hold back—he pressed down and started beating Qi Tao.

“Are you going to admit defeat or not? Tell me! Hurry up and admit it!”

Every punch landed precisely on Qi Tao’s most excruciating pain points. Lin Mo even used his spiritual energy to amplify Qi Tao’s pain nerves.

He was attacking with a one-two punch strategy.

Before long, Qi Tao was wailing in agony.

Finally, Wang Yiping rushed over with others and quickly pulled the two apart.

“Everyone heard it—he was the one who told me to hit him. I was just fulfilling his wish.”