ATLAS TRANSLATES

Jiang Qi Huai had no idea how she had come to the conclusion that boys were better than girls.

Thinking back to the simpleton Li Shuang Jiang, he wasn’t even as good as the girls.

Students gradually left the classroom to go to the cafeteria. The corridor outside was noisy, with intermittent sounds of laughter and conversation drifting in.

Li Si Jia was still waiting outside, while Tao Zhi just stood there clutching Jiang Qi Huai’s sleeve, feeling somewhat at a loss.

She realized her current behavior probably seemed completely unreasonable and incomprehensible to Jiang Qi Huai. She had no right to manage his affairs or make decisions — they weren’t even that close.

They had only known each other for barely a month, weren’t very familiar with each other, and their relationship hadn’t even been very smooth at first. They were just ordinary desk neighbors.

She had been… too presumptuous.

Upon realizing this, she withdrew her fingers from his uniform sleeve as if electrified, then slowly curled them back, pulling away.

She lowered her head to compose herself and settle her suddenly chaotic emotions, letting out a shallow breath before looking up again.

Jiang Qi Huai hadn’t left. He stood beside her with drooping eyelids, watching her.

Tao Zhi waved at him and quickly turned around: “Your Highness, go ahead. Don’t keep Noble Consort Li waiting too long.”

As she spoke, she lay on her desk and pulled out her phone to play. The mahjong app’s cheerful opening sound broke through the somewhat unreadable atmosphere.

Tao Zhi absent-mindedly started a Sichuan mahjong match with tile exchange, listening to footsteps behind her.

Then came very soft voices of girls from the corridor, drowned out by footsteps and noise, making it unclear.

Tao Zhi couldn’t help but lean her body slightly toward the door, but still couldn’t hear.

“Your ears are about to stretch out into the corridor,” Fu Xi Ling suddenly said.

Tao Zhi abruptly sat up straight, pretending to continue playing her game casually.

Fu Xi Ling took out her thermal lunch box and unscrewed the lid. Ever since her mother found out about Tao Zhi helping her in the girls’ bathroom that time, she would pack extra food every day and ask her to invite Tao Zhi to eat together.

She took out a layer of rice for Tao Zhi while asking curiously: “Why do you care so much about Scholar and Li Si Jia dating? Is it because you don’t want him to be distracted from studying?”

Fu Xi Ling was always good at giving people a way out.

Tao Zhi took the rice and quickly nodded along with her words, making up an excuse: “He’s our class’s top student. Dating affects studies.”

Tao Zhi opened the rice container and puffed her cheeks: “But, I was meddling where I shouldn’t.”

Fu Xi Ling took out the container with chicken wings: “Friends advising friends isn’t meddling.”

Tao Zhi bit her chopsticks: “We’re just… ordinary desk neighbors at best.”

“But I think Scholar considers you a friend,” Fu Xi Ling lowered her head as she took out the thermal containers one by one, saying very seriously, “He only seems somewhat approachable when you’re around. Li Shuang Jiang told me before that if it weren’t for you, he wouldn’t dare talk to Scholar.”

Fu Xi Ling looked up: “I think it’s because he considers you a friend that he started integrating into our class.”

Tao Zhi bit her chopsticks absent-mindedly without speaking.

For some reason, Fu Xi Ling’s conclusion that Jiang Qi Huai considered her a friend didn’t seem to make her very happy.

But it was still a bit better than being not-so-familiar desk neighbors.

Tao Zhi finished her lunch without tasting much, tidied up the desk afterward, and lay down for a nap.

She dozed in and out of sleep, not too deeply, vaguely hearing people coming and going outside, hearing the chair behind her being moved away and pulled back, until finally there was silence.

Tao Zhi didn’t turn around or ask Jiang Qi Huai how things went with his Noble Consort Li, what the result was.

Even if Jiang Qi Huai had agreed, it would be a beautiful story of scholarly love between two students scoring above 700 points — talented boy meets beautiful girl, a perfect match, growing and progressing together.

It’s just that from now on, she would have to keep her distance. He would be someone’s boyfriend, and one should maintain some distance from the opposite sex. She couldn’t always seek him out to play.

Thinking of this, Tao Zhi felt inexplicably stifled again.

The noon sunlight streamed in, creating a light red world through her closed eyelids. Tao Zhi took off her uniform jacket and pulled it up to cover her head, continuing to sleep.

All afternoon, Tao Zhi had little energy.

During math class, Wang Er specially called on her to tease her a bit, expressing great dissatisfaction and jealousy that she could score over 100 in Chinese and English but only gave him 40 points in math.

With monthly exams finished and the seven-day National Day holiday coming up, everyone had relaxed. The efficiency of going over test papers in class was low, so Wang Zhe Zi simply cancelled the last class and gave them PE instead.

The boys went out to play ball, while girls who didn’t want to move huddled in the classroom chatting. Tao Zhi sat up and stretched, put on her jacket and left the classroom, planning to buy some yogurt from the school store.

She left the teaching building, walking through the long tree-lined path in the campus to its end.

The school store was noisy, with several boys carrying balls leaning against the glass counter, drinking water and chatting.

Tao Zhi went around them to get a bottle of aloe yogurt from the refrigerator, paid, opened it, and slowly walked out of the store.

Li Shuang Jiang and the others were playing basketball on the outdoor court on the other side. The basketball bounced across half the court, Ji Fan reached up to catch it, skillfully dribbled past people, and raised his hand to send it into the hoop.

Jiang Qi Huai was playing with them too.

Tao Zhi had never seen Jiang Qi Huai play ball. This person usually seemed like he had no other recreational activities besides studying. They were probably divided into teams for a small game, with Jiang Qi Huai not on their team.

Tao Zhi glanced to the side, seeing a group of girls squatting by the flower bed near the court, with Li Si Jia among them holding a bottle of mineral water.

So it’s started already — watching him play ball while I cheer, and bringing water for my boyfriend.

Tao Zhi rolled her eyes at the sky. Just as she was feeling annoyed, she heard Ji Fan call out: “Zhi Zhi!”

Tao Zhi turned her head to see an orange basketball flying straight at her face, instantly growing larger in her vision, about to hit her in the face.

Jiang Qi Huai stretched out his long arm, rushing over very quickly, but it was still too late.

Tao Zhi instinctively tilted her head to dodge the ball that looked like it would break her nose the next second. Her hand not holding the yogurt reached back, her fair palm hooking the ball and forcefully pulling it forward, absorbing its forward momentum. The ball was slapped onto the ground by her feet, then bounced high.

Ji Fan stopped with some cursing, while Jiang Qi Huai stood in front of her breathing heavily, a thin layer of sweat on his forehead, his chest rising and falling with his breaths.

Tao Zhi glanced at him very lightly, placed her half-drunk yogurt on the flower bed, and skillfully dribbled the ball, walking forward.

She brushed past Jiang Qi Huai while dribbling all the way to the basketball court, stopped at the three-point line, held the ball with both hands and turned it twice, then let out a light breath, jumped high, and raised her arm to throw.

The basketball flew from her hands, drawing a smooth arc through the air, then steadily fell into the hoop.

A “clang” broke the silence on the court.

Li Shuang Jiang and Zhao Ming Qi still wore shocked expressions.

Ji Fan stood to the side and laughed, wiping sweat with the hem of his shirt: “What’s up? Itching to play?”

Others didn’t know, but he was very clear that Tao Zhi was good at basketball.

She had always had good athletic talent since childhood. When she was little, there weren’t many girls her age willing to play with her near home, so she would play ball with Ji Fan and Song Jiang.

Whether it was volleyball, basketball, or badminton, Ji Fan had never won against Tao Zhi. It wasn’t until later when the boys grew up and their physical advantage started showing that she couldn’t beat him one-on-one anymore. Then in middle school when they started playing pool, Tao Zhi began dominating him at the pool table again.

Ji Fan was quite unwilling to accept it when he was young, always feeling that for this person, there seemed to be nothing she couldn’t do well, and he couldn’t match her in any aspect.

Later he gradually started feeling proud of it.

Beside them, Li Shuang Jiang finally came to his senses, howling while pouncing over with arms spread wide: “My big brother is awesome! Big brother, want to play a game?”

Tao Zhi looked at the people on the court. Jiang Qi Huai had already returned, holding her half-bottle of yogurt from earlier, bending down to place it on the flower bed tiles by her feet.

Tao Zhi didn’t look at him, asking Li Shuang Jiang: “You don’t have enough people?”

“We do,” Li Shuang Jiang said with a grin. “But we can kick Ji Fan out to sit on the bench, and you can replace him.”

“What the hell!” Ji Fan looked at him shocked. “How can you welcome the new and forget the old like this? Without me how will you beat Jiang Qi Huai? This guy made half of their nine baskets!”

Ji Fan pointed at Tao Zhi: “Besides, she plays point guard well, which doesn’t conflict with my position! You’re making our PG sit on the bench.”

Jiang Zheng Jun, who had been pulled in to make up numbers as point guard, nodded frantically on the side: “I agree, let the class monitor replace me. I want to go back to class and sleep.”

“Dream on,” Li Shuang Jiang pointed at him. “Have some awareness of your role sitting on the bench watching drinks. Just stay on the side and help big brother watch the yogurt.”

Jiang Zheng Jun weighed his options between running around the court and watching yogurt, then decisively chose the latter.

Li Shuang Jiang called to the others about changing players. As Ji Fan pulled Tao Zhi over, she glanced at Jiang Qi Huai from the corner of her eye.

Although it was just PE class playing casually, they still made it look proper, somehow getting hold of a whistle from somewhere.

Because there was no time limit, they used a point system — first team to score ten baskets wins.

The game started with Ji Fan jumping for the ball. The young man had strong jumping ability, hooked his arm back to get the ball, and dribbled toward the opponent’s basket.

Jiang Qi Huai was paired with Zhao Ming Qi. As the PE representative, Zhao Ming Qi was already well-rounded and very quick to react. The two quickly moved in, blocking Ji Fan tightly from front and back, leaving no openings.

Ji Fan had an aggressive personality in doing things, never considering any defensive aspects. He glanced to the side, raised his arm high, and directly slammed the ball against the backboard.

The basketball hit the backboard solidly with a huge “thud” and bounced out. Jiang Qi Huai looked up and reached out his arm, his fingers hooking forward slightly, but still wasn’t in time — the ball brushed past his fingertips and flew out.

He looked back to see that before anyone else could get there, Tao Zhi was already standing at the ball’s landing point, as if she had known Ji Fan would do this.

Zhao Ming Qi stared in shock as he defended: “Is this twin telepathy or what?”

Jiang Qi Huai had already run over.

He was very fast — Tao Zhi had barely touched the ball when he was already pressing in. The young girl’s movements were quick and clean, her black eyes looking at him, calm to the point of coldness.

Jiang Qi Huai’s movement paused for an instant.

Tao Zhi licked her lips, using this second to brush past him out of his defensive range.

The point guard position is the initiator of the entire team’s offense on the court, quickly arranging offense and defense by observing teammates’ positions, essentially acting as the team’s brain.

Tao Zhi glanced at Jiang Qi Huai from the corner of her eye, quickly pressing toward the basket.

She didn’t particularly like playing ball anymore. She had liked it a lot when she was young, but after growing up and not being able to beat Ji Fan anymore, it didn’t give her much sense of achievement.

Plus it made her sweat a lot.

But now Jiang Qi Huai wasn’t on her team.

Tao Zhi didn’t know when it started, but this whole afternoon there had been a stifled feeling in her heart that she couldn’t get rid of, making her feel very unhappy.

She wanted to beat him.

She wanted him to kneel under the basket and beg her for mercy.

She wanted to win so thoroughly that he would submit completely and call her daddy.

She wanted to trample him under her feet.

Jiang Qi Huai’s team defended quickly. At nearly 1.7 meters, Tao Zhi was like a tiny dot surrounded by giants in a forest of boys. While dribbling back to press toward the opposite basket, she found a gap and called back: “Li Shuang Jiang!”

Li Shuang Jiang was already at the three-point line.

Tao Zhi raised her hand, making a motion with her palm facing back as if to hook the ball backward.

Everyone looked back toward Li Shuang Jiang’s position.

Tao Zhi’s wrist suddenly turned, instantly changing the motion. From the corner of her eye, she saw Jiang Qi Huai reach forward, perfectly blocking the ball’s path.

Tao Zhi panicked inside.

The next second, Jiang Qi Huai’s arm moved down slightly. The basketball left Tao Zhi’s hand, brushing past his fingers to fly directly toward Ji Fan under the basket.

Ji Fan seemed to flash into existence, jumping high under the basket to catch it, then slamming it into the hoop mid-air with a clang.

Jiang Zheng Jun on the side excitedly grabbed the whistle and blew it while gesturing wildly: “Was that a fake? What kind of fake was that just now? I’ve never seen it before!”

The sharp whistle sound rang out on the outdoor court. Li Shuang Jiang in the distance hadn’t reacted yet and howled from afar: “Boss! You even trick your own teammates?! I thought you were going to pass to me!”

Zhao Ming Qi hadn’t reacted either: “Is this what twins are like? Huh???”

Jiang Qi Huai stood to the side catching his breath, hands on his knees.

Tao Zhi was also breathing hard. She let out a long breath to calm her breathing, then turned her head: “Which basket was that?”

“Ten!” Ji Fan bounced up and down. “We won, we won! Zhao Ming, you guys don’t play dead! Treat us to drinks!”

Li Shuang Jiang was also jumping and shouting in the back: “Don’t play dead! Häagen-Dazs, Häagen-Dazs!”

Tao Zhi shook her ponytail and walked up to Jiang Qi Huai.

Jiang Qi Huai propped his hands on his knees, raising his eyelids.

Her tied-up long hair was somewhat messy from the intense exercise, with loose strands stuck to her forehead with sweat, her rosy lips slightly parted as she caught her breath.

Like a victorious cat with tail held high, she looked down at him: “Do you submit, Your Highness?”

Jiang Qi Huai looked at her and laughed.

His voice was somewhat hoarse, his icy tone covered with a layer of mist, carrying uneven breathing sounds, low and deep: “I submit, Princess.”