Outside the canteen, a resting area with several benches had been set up.
Lin Mo pushed An Youyu down onto a bench, squatted down in front of her, and said, "Ask whatever you want to ask."
"You..."
An Youyu did not dare look at Lin Mo. She lowered her head and stammered, "Just now... did Zhao Tiantian bring you water?"
"Yes."
"Then you..."
"Didn't take it."
"Huh?"
An Youyu raised her head, her jade-white face filled with surprise.
Lin Mo smiled nonchalantly. "I sweat a lot during the game and was terribly thirsty. Zhao Tiantian meant well by bringing the water, but men and women should keep their distance. Accepting water from her would seem a bit too intimate."
At this point, he deliberately drew out his tone. "Of course, it depends on the person."
An Youyu lowered her gaze. "I forgot to bring pocket money when I went out today, and the auntie at the canteen won't let me run a tab."
With a soft, nasal murmur, she sounded as if she were about to cry in the next second.
Lin Mo suddenly chuckled and ruffled her hair with his large hand. "Are you a silly goose?"
With that, he pulled out the two hundred yuan his mother had given him last night and shoved it into An Youyu's hands. "Take this money and buy all the bottled water in the canteen for me."
Looking at the money in her hands, An Youyu's eyes gradually turned red as if she thought of something.
This sight completely panicked Lin Mo.
He hurried into the canteen, and when he came back out, he had a pack of tissues in his hand.
Instinctively, he pulled out a tissue to help An Youyu wipe her face. But just as his hand reached halfway, as if realizing something, he placed the tissue in the girl's hands instead.
"Here, wipe it yourself."
"Thank you."
"Little crybaby."
"I-I'm not..."
After muttering her retort, An Youyu fell silent for a few seconds before suddenly saying, "I'm sorry."
Lin Mo did not reply. After An Youyu finished wiping away her tears, a gentle warmth laced his deep voice.
"Don't you go crying over every little thing from now on, you hear me?"
Before An Youyu could respond, a bottle of mineral water with its cap unscrewed appeared in front of her.
"Drink some water."
"...Mm."
An Youyu cautiously took the water bottle. Just as she brought it to her lips, Lin Mo's laughter rang in her ear.
Looking up in a daze, she blinked her misty eyes. "W-what are you laughing at?"
A smile hung on the corners of Lin Mo's mouth, his upturned brows and lips seeming to smile along with him as he spoke with a trace of amusement.
"Little Yuer, you took my water after all."
In an instant, a charming blush flooded An Youyu's jade cheeks as she stared blankly at Lin Mo.
Lin Mo stood up and sat down beside An Youyu. "You've already taken it. It's no use not drinking it now."
The blush on An Youyu's face deepened.
Taking a deep breath, she hugged the water bottle with both hands and, under Lin Mo's gaze, lowered her head to take a small sip.
At that moment, even the air seemed sweet...
***
When they returned to the playground, the match was nearing its end.
Seeing the scoreboard, Lin Mo wore a look of utter astonishment.
They had only been gone for a few minutes, yet the score had actually reached 64 to 63!
That meant Class 1 had gone on a wild scoring spree of 43 points in the past few minutes!
Even playing four against five shouldn't have resulted in being completely steamrolled like this, right?
Gu Fan was drenched in sweat. Noticing Lin Mo standing by the sidelines, he hurriedly shouted for a time-out to the referee.
"Beep—!"
The match was paused.
Lin Mo gave a low instruction to An Youyu beside him. "Just stay here. I'm going to play."
An Youyu lowered her head without a word, but she clutched the bottle of mineral water Lin Mo had just given her tightly to her chest.
Her treasured expression made Lin Mo chuckle inwardly.
He strode onto the court and patted Gu Fan on the shoulder. "Hard work."
Gu Fan let out a sigh of relief. "Brother Mo, this is our Class 2's final match to wash away our humiliation. Is it right for you to just leave halfway through?"
Lin Mo countered, "Didn't I already build up a huge lead for you?"
Gu Fan gave a bitter smile. "The lead was huge, sure, but playing four against five really is impossible!"
Lin Mo glanced at Gu Fan. "Relax, didn't I come back? What are we going to do next?"
Faced with Lin Mo's sudden question, Gu Fan was momentarily dazed. "Do what?"
Glancing at the Class 1 players in the distance, Lin Mo calmly uttered four words.
"Destroy Class 1!"
***
Chapter 24: A Slam Dunk Appears!
The time-out was only one minute long.
Gu Fan silently gave a thumbs-up and hurriedly steered the conversation back to the match.
"Brother Mo, while you were gone, those blockheads from Class 1 caught up in score. The four of us are pretty much out of stamina now. The rest of the game depends entirely on you to carry us—we'll just run interference for you."
"No problem."
After a brief communication with the referee, the game resumed.
Class 1 had possession. Throughout the third quarter, playing five against five, their shooting touch had grown hotter and hotter.
Through fast-passing coordination, they completed an offensive wave in just five or six seconds.
The score reached 64 to 65!
They had successfully overtaken the lead!
Gao Hang waved his fist hard, patted his chest, and shouted at Gu Fan, "Weren't you acting all tough? Try being tough again now!"
"Tsk—"
Gu Fan was not provoked. He turned to look at Lin Mo, raised a hand, and dug into his ear. "Brother Mo, time for your performance."
Lin Mo lifted his chin slightly and passed the ball-in to Gu Fan.
Understanding the cue, Gu Fan immediately passed the ball back into Lin Mo's hands.
Lin Mo bent his knees and leaned his upper body forward.
Exerting force, he launched!
Dribbling past a defender!
Driving through, and going for a slam dunk!
"Bang—!"
The deafening sound of the dunk reverberated in everyone's ears.
Hanging from the rim by one arm, Lin Mo wore a cold expression like a monarch, brimming with dominance.
On the sidelines.
Yi Guoliang let out a vulgar curse. "Holy crap!"
A slam dunk?
A technique that could be called the aesthetics of violence had extremely high physical requirements.
Generally speaking, only professional-level players could use slam dunks skillfully; ordinary people could only show off and found it hard to apply in actual combat.
The most crucial part was that just now, the entire offensive play was completed by Lin Mo alone.
His other four teammates didn't do a thing, didn't even run around, displaying individual ability to the absolute limit.
Among the crowd, a hubbub arose.
"D-d-d-d-dunk?"
"Holy crap!"
"Did it have to be this lit? This is just a class league match!"
...
An Youyu looked at Lin Mo hanging from the rim on the court. For some unknown reason, her cheeks suddenly flushed red.
She hurriedly lowered her head and hugged the water bottle in her arms even tighter.
Gao Hang and his four teammates wore looks of complete bewilderment.
Five people couldn't guard Lin Mo alone?
How were they supposed to play this!
Lin Mo let go of the rim and landed steadily.
He couldn't be bothered with tricks like trash-talking.
To prevent Class 1 from running a fast break, he chose to hustle back on defense immediately.
Clearly, he had overestimated the psychological resilience of the Class 1 players and underestimated the destructive power of that dunk just now.
The fighting spirit Class 1 had just mustered was completely dismantled by that single slam dunk.
The remaining two minutes of the game felt just like sleepwalking.
During this period, Lin Mo attempted three shots and made two, both of which were three-pointers.
In the end, as the final whistle blew, the score was locked at 72 to 65!
Class 2 won the class league match with a 7-point advantage.
"Damn, damn, damn!"
Gu Fan ran over and gave Lin Mo a bear hug. "So satisfying!"
"Brother Mo, did you see the Class 1 monitor's face? Didn't it look like someone who's been constipated for days?"
"All right, the match is won."
Lin Mo pushed Gu Fan away with an expression of utter disgust. "From now on, you'd better put your mind back into reviewing. Don't call me to play basketball again before the college entrance exams."
Dropping these words, he walked toward where An Youyu was standing on the sidelines.
Seeing Lin Mo walking her way, An Youyu panicked.
There were too many people here, so she turned around and bolted.
Lin Mo stopped in his tracks, his expression quite a sight to behold.
Just then, the P.E. teacher, Yi Guoliang, walked over with a face full of enthusiastic smiles.
"Classmate, what's your name?"
With senior year studies being so intense and only one P.E. class a month, he genuinely couldn't remember Lin Mo's name.
"Teacher Yi, my name is Lin Mo, Science Class 2."
Yi Guoliang couldn't remember Lin Mo, but Lin Mo remembered Yi Guoliang.
In his previous life, P.E. class was his absolute favorite, and he had a very deep impression of this P.E. teacher at No. 2 High School.
Yi Guoliang smiled and nodded. "I see your basketball skills are quite good. Have you ever thought about playing professionally?"
"Play professionally?"
Lin Mo was rather surprised.
"Right!"
Yi Guoliang smiled and nodded. "A friend of mine is a coach in the municipal youth team and has always wanted me to introduce some good prospects to him. I watched the match just now, and I think you are very talented in the sport of basketball."
"Thank you for the kind offer, Teacher."
Lin Mo shook his head in refusal. "Teacher, basketball is just a hobby of mine, something I play for fun when I'm bored."
Hearing this, Yi Guoliang instantly understood Lin Mo's meaning.
Yet, thinking of Lin Mo's astonishing performance earlier, he was truly unwilling to let it go and probed indirectly, "Lin Mo, how are your grades right now?"
"Not bad. I got 146 on yesterday's Chinese test."
The corners of Yi Guoliang's mouth twitched frantically as he squeezed out a difficult smile. "V-very good, keep it up."
Lin Mo bid farewell. He had only taken a few steps when Gu Fan chased after him from behind.
"Brother Mo, I arranged everything with Zhao Tiantian and Xiao Yu according to your instructions. As for why An Youyu didn't come to bring you water, I'm not entirely sure either."
Lin Mo chuckled softly. "No worries, the goal has been achieved anyway."
Gu Fan breathed a sigh of relief and held his hand out in front of Lin Mo.
"What are you doing?"
"Reimbursement."
"How much?"
"Two hundred and fifty for Zhao Tiantian and Xiao Yu each, five hundred yuan in total!"
Hearing the figure Gu Fan reported, Lin Mo's brow twitched. "Acting in a play is this expensive?"
He originally had five hundred yuan, but after giving two hundred to An Youyu just now, his remaining family fortune was only a little over three hundred.
He had thought at most it would cost around a hundred yuan, but he never expected it to be five hundred.
Gu Fan shrugged. "It's indeed very expensive. Because of this, I even had to chip in from my own savings."
Lin Mo gave a bitter smile. "I don't have that much cash right now. I'll give you three hundred tomorrow, and you'll just have to wait a little for the remaining two hundred."
"No rush, no rush."
Hearing that Lin Mo was short on cash, Gu Fan waved his hand with a smile. "If Brother Mo is really strapped for cash, don't worry about giving it back."
"Not giving it back?"
Lin Mo looked at Gu Fan suspiciously. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Seeing no one around, Gu Fan lowered his voice. "Just treat it as an early wedding gift envelope. When Brother Mo gets married in the future, remember to invite me for a cup of wedding wine."
Lin Mo's face was filled with speechlessness. "Wedding gift envelope? We're only in senior year, when on earth are we going to get married?"
"Sooner or later."
Gu Fan chuckled foolishly.
Giving him an annoyed kick, Lin Mo retorted, "Stop messing around, I'll pay you back."
Seeing how insistent Lin Mo was, Gu Fan dropped the subject.
***
The last class of the afternoon was math.
Yan Shiming lectured with great verve on the podium, yet quite a few students were nodding off to sleep.
Originally, Lin Mo and Gu Fan were part of this drowsy group.
Due to various factors, however, the two of them had changed their usual habits and were listening extremely attentively.
Noticing their abnormal behavior, a trace of hidden gratification flashed deep within Yan Shiming's eyes.
The after-school bell rang.
Gu Fan twisted his sore neck and sighed, "If it weren't for Brother Mo's guidance, I reckon I'd never experience this kind of hard work in my entire life."
"It doesn't have much to do with me."
Lin Mo shook his head, declining the praise. "If you can't figure it out yourself, it wouldn't matter if I could make lotus blossoms spout from my mouth."
Pausing for a moment, he patted Gu Fan on the shoulder. "Starlight does not betray those who journey onward. Work hard, young man!"
***
Chapter 25: My Name Is Not Nervous
"Brother Mo, listening to you talk in such a literary fashion really makes one wonder if your body got possessed by another soul."
"Go to hell!"
Lin Mo cursed with a smile.
Possession? No, he had just been reborn.
However...
He was still him!
"Hearing you talk like this is much more normal."
Gu Fan smiled and shouldered his schoolbag. "Brother Mo, I'll treat you to dinner this Saturday. You must do me the honor."
"Not going, no time."
Lin Mo flatly refused. "I have tutoring on Saturday."
"Come on, not even the time for a single meal?"
"The harder you slack off beforehand, the harder you have to work now."
Gu Fan gave up crestfallen. He glanced at An Youyu, who was still reading, and then looked back at Lin Mo, reading him like an open book.
"I'm outta here."
"Don't bother seeing me out."
Doing practice problems, Lin Mo waved a hand without lifting his head.
As time ticked by, the sunset glow outside the windows grew increasingly gentle.
After the cleaning duty students left, only Lin Mo and An Youyu remained in the classroom.
An Youyu turned her head to look, and after hesitating for a long time, she walked over and sat down in the seat right in front of Lin Mo.
The fragrance wafting over made Lin Mo know who had come without even looking up.
"When are you planning to go back?"
An Youyu, who was still agonizing over how to open the conversation, heard this and instinctively lowered her head. "A-anything is fine."
Hearing this, Lin Mo raised his head. "Little Yuer, am I really that scary?"
An Youyu shook her head hurriedly.
Propping his chin with his hand, Lin Mo leaned forward a bit. "Since I'm not scary, why are you so nervous?"
"I... am not nervous..."
With her voice completely lacking conviction, Lin Mo chuckled inwardly. Wanting to tease An Youyu, he asked, "What's your name?"
"My name is Not Nervous... No, An Youyu."
Patches of rosy blush bloomed across An Youyu's cheeks.
She raised her head, her crystal-clear eyes carrying a trace of grievance. "You clearly know my name, why are you asking such a question?"
Lin Mo couldn't stop laughing. "Didn't I see you looking so nervous and want to help you relax a bit?"
As he spoke, he noticed that An Youyu's schoolbag on her seat was already packed. Without a second thought, he began gathering the study materials on his desk.
"I'll walk you back."
"...Mm."
Taking a step ahead, Lin Mo picked up An Youyu's schoolbag.
The rosy twilight fell upon his profile, adding a touch of gentle warmth to his already handsome features.
Exiting the school gates, the two of them walked side by side.
Both Lin Mo and An Youyu walked very slowly.
Under the setting sun, their tall and short silhouettes cast against the ground were exceptionally fitting.
It felt rather like selling the twilight of the mortal world, solely to gather tenderness to give to you.
Unknowingly, the two of them had already arrived outside the residential complex where An Youyu lived.
Lin Mo scratched his head. "Why did we walk so fast?"
Catching the look of distress on Lin Mo's face, the corners of An Youyu's lips curved upward. Seemingly afraid of being discovered, she turned her head to look to the left. "Tomorrow is the joint examination. Do I really need to give it my all?"
"Yes."
Lin Mo raised his fist and gently tapped An Youyu on the head.
He really liked this feeling and instructed her with a beaming smile, "No holding back your scores this time. You must put your full effort into it for me."
An Youyu timidly dodged Lin Mo's hand and tentatively asked, "Can you tell me why?"
"It's a temporary secret."
Lin Mo smiled mysteriously. "I'll tell you after the exams."
An Youyu nodded and didn't press further. "Be careful on your way."
Lin Mo tapped An Youyu's left shoulder, and when she raised her head, he smilingly opened his arms. "Do you want to give me a hug to cheer me on for tomorrow's joint examination?"
"No!"
An Youyu's face flushed beet red, and she turned and bolted into the complex.
Lin Mo wasn't surprised at all. "Little Yuer, don't forget you took my water."
The voice coming from behind made An Youyu's body freeze.
Then, her pace quickened.
In the blink of an eye, she vanished from Lin Mo's sight.
Leaning against a willow tree by the side, Lin Mo looked up at the fiery glow of the clouds in the horizon. "Once you take my water, you're mine..."
***
"Mom, I'm home."
No one answered.
Lin Mo put down his schoolbag and searched the house once, finding a note left on the dining table.
[Xiaomo, Mom has work to take care of tonight. There are leftovers in the fridge, just heat them up to eat. Tomorrow is the joint exam, so go to sleep early tonight and don't stay up too late studying.]
Work?
Lin Mo put down the note and frowned.
This situation was not happening for the first time; it occurred almost every interval of time.
It seemed he needed to find an opportunity to figure out what his mother's job actually was.
However, this matter wasn't urgent. Right now, besides studying, there was only one other thing Lin Mo needed to rush and do.
Make money!
An Youyu's living conditions were currently far too poor, which made his heart ache. He had to improve the girl's current situation at the fastest possible speed.
With the memories of his past life, making money really wasn't difficult for him.
There was just one difficult problem laid out before Lin Mo: starting capital.
No matter what method he used to make money, he couldn't bypass this hurdle unless he went to buy the lottery.
The lottery?
Lin Mo's eyes lit up, but before he could even feel happy, he dismissed the thought.
It wasn't because of any lofty morals; he was just an ordinary mortal, and if there were a shortcut, he definitely would have chosen to take it.
The reason he gave it up was because the lottery route simply wouldn't work.
In his past life, he had practically never touched the lottery, nor had he ever paid attention to related news.
That path was a dead end!
Glancing at today's date: April 2nd, the 519th year of the Xiali calendar.
Lin Mo quickly recalled the memories of his past life, and soon figured out how the first step toward building his fortune should be taken.
Before that, he still had to find a way to scrape together some starting capital.
That night, driven by the belief that sharpening the spear before the battle brings some benefit even if it's late, Lin Mo studied all the way until past three in the morning before falling asleep.
When he woke up the next day, his head throbbed dully, and his eyes were bloodshot.
Lin Mo had long been prepared for this scenario, pulling some ice cubes from the refrigerator and placing them in a washbasin.
Washing one's face with ice water—that feeling... tsk!
Exhilarating!
Actually, Lin Mo didn't want to push himself this hard, nor did he want to be this ruthless to himself.
Yet...
If you aren't ruthless, the path to rising up remains unstable!
As usual, Lin Mo went to look for An Youyu first.
On the way to school, An Youyu still maintained her distance from him just like before.
To this, Lin Mo had long since grown accustomed.
Entering the school gates.
An Youyu quickened her pace, leaving Lin Mo far behind.
Walking into the classroom.
Lin Mo instantly noticed Zhou Wenhao's pig-head face and almost burst out laughing on the spot.