Chapter 98: Isn’t playing tennis
Despite how emotionally stable these top level executives were, they couldn’t help but laugh when they heard the name ‘Yang Xijiu’.
The movie named 《The Eagle Shooting Heroes》 was quite popular, as a result the bunch of people very quickly understood the meaning behind Yang Chen’s words. However, after all that laughter, they suddenly realized that the situation wasn’t right. This man was facing Dongxing Group’s Young Master Zhou Dongcheng, the crown prince of Zhong Hai’s east region’s underworld. This brat dared to make a joke out of him, does he not want to live anymore!?
But strangely, Zhou Dongcheng didn’t react to that with anger, he instead pursed his lips into a smile and said, “Mr. Yang sure knows how to crack a joke, but I do like men with humor.”
His voice was gentle and sweet, it seemed to even contain a little bashfulness and joy as well.
Yang Chen could only feel goosebumps all over his body. He drew out a cigarette from his pant’s pocket and lit it up. Only after he blew out a breath of smoke did he manage to calm down and say, “I don’t like being liked by other men.”
“You don’t like being liked, but that doesn’t mean I can’t like you.” Zhou Dongcheng blew past that obstacle by saying that.
Yang Chen held the cigarette in his hand, then combed his hair with the same hand, he wasn’t afraid of the cigarette burning his hair. This soft and sticky Dongxing’s young lord was more troublesome than he imagined. If it was a fiendish tall and sturdy type of man, Yang Chen wouldn’t be afraid at all, but this fella was like a bunch of cotton, strength was useless against him.
The guests in their surroundings had already begun doing their own thing, there were also several people on the tennis court slowly volleying the ball.
The warm sunlight scattered all over the court, Yang Chen stretched his waist and no longer breathed a word.
Zhou Dongcheng stared at Yang Chen smoking with a frown for a long while, then continued speaking with a smile, “I know that there may be some kind of misunderstanding between Mr. Yang and I, but I sincerely wish to be friends with Mr. Yang, I wonder if I have that chance?”
“Friends?” Yang Chen vaguely replied, “Your way of making friends is to send a car to tail me?”
Zhou Dongcheng did not deny it, he frankly nodded and said, “That did happen, but that was just an accident. I did not expect Mr. Yang to adopt such extreme measures either, but I can guarantee that I will not pursue that matter. Actually, the order I gave them was merely to investigate Mr. Yang’s situation.”
“I don’t like people investigating me.” Yang Chen dully said.
Zhou Dongcheng stared at him face to face without the slightest bit of fear and said, “Mr. Yang Chen, I guarantee that it won’t happen again. As a man who I see as magnanimous, I believe you would forgive me for my one reckless move.”
Already being addressed with honorifics, Yang Chen truly couldn’t bring himself to spout curses, so he just indifferently nodded, “Fine, forget it, I’m also too lazy to create trouble.”
“In that case, as friends would you play a game of tennis with me?” Zhou Dongcheng suddenly asked.
“I’ve never played before.”
“It doesn’t matter, what’s important is the friendship formed, not the comparison of points.”
Zhou Dongcheng’s words were impossible to refute, utilizing his spontaneousness to form favorability to the point of having no other choice.
Yang Chen sighed, took the initiative to stand up, walked to Tang Wan’s side and said, “Boss Tang, lend me a tennis racket.”
Tang Wan had been keeping an eye on Yang Chen and Zhou Dongcheng’s conversation. Although she couldn’t hear what they were saying, she guessed that the two had known each other before. She didn’t say any superfluous words and nodded, signalling an employee to bring Yang Chen a standard racket.
Zhou Dongcheng’s attendants also brought out a pink tennis racket immediately, it was of the same color as his shirt. This strange choice of color didn’t attract the attention of the people, because in their circles, the secret of Zhou Dongcheng liking men and being fond of adopting feminine styles wasn’t a secret at all, they had all seen it before and were used to it.
When Yang Chen and Zhou Dongcheng walked to the court together, the two ladies who were initially playing obediently got out of the way.
Many of the businessmen and politicians present began to doubt their own judgement, for Yang Chen to chat with Zhou Dongcheng, then play tennis with him, could his true identity be that of someone extraordinary? But there wasn’t someone like him known in Zhong Hai. They began to guess that perhaps he was the young master of a big family in another region.
“Erm……” Yang Chen walked to the side of the court, and asked Mo Qianni who was in the midst of chatting with other people, “Miss Mo, how do you play tennis?”
Mo Qianni was stunned. Although she didn’t know why this man asked such a silly question, she still gave a simple explanation, “When someone knocks the ball over and after it bounces off the ground once then you may knock it back. It has to fall into the opponent’s court, if it falls out of the court, points will be deducted.”
“Oh, I understand.” Yang Chen recalled what he saw on television in the past, and had a rough understanding of how to play.
“You don’t know how to play?” Mo Qianni realized a problem, and doubtfully asked.
Yang Chen honestly replied, “I’ve never played before, but I now have a rough understanding of how to play.”
People who have played tennis are basically all very clear of this, despite how large the tennis racket is, and how much bigger the tennis ball is in comparison to ping pong, the truth is that in this court that doesn’t seem very large, trying to hit a ball that bounces off the ground isn’t a simple matter at all.
Many beginners who try tennis for the first time would feel the same thing, which is how they obviously see the ball in front of their eyes, yet they’re unable to hit it no matter how they try. As for scoring a point with a counter, it was even more difficult.
Under the watchful gazes of the bunch who were expecting a good show, Yang Chen swaggered over with a cigarette in his mouth and racket in hand onto the court, then spoke to Zhou Dongcheng on the other side, “Bring it, I’ll play a few shots with you.”
At the sides of the court, many people understood what he was referencing and displayed queer expressions. Even Mo Qianni blushed a little. This fella always speaks so crudely.
Yet Zhou Dongcheng just warmly smiled, tossed up the ball, and performed a serve! His movements weren’t considered perfect, but his jump and swing looked very graceful.
The ball streaked across with an arc, went over the net, fell onto the ground on Yang Chen’s side of the court and bounced up at an oblique angle!
Yang Chen was already standing at where the ball bounced up from. As he was holding on to the cigarette with his right hand, he very naturally held the racket in his left, and casually swung it at the ball!
“Bang!!” The collision between the ball and the racket created a loud crashing sound!
Under everybody’s astonished gaze, after the ball flew past the net, it continued to fly out of the court!
Like a missile fired towards outer space, it flew in a diagonal line, going past another thirty meters or so, even flying past the ten meter tall wire fencing, then began to fall towards the parking lot outside the court.
Several ladies cried out in alarm, was this a ball hit by someone using his left hand!?
Even if it hit on target, and was swung out of the court, that would be acceptable. But this man just casually swung it with his left hand, and it actually flew way over the wire netting!
Even if a comfortably shaped stone with a perfect weight was given to the them, none of them would dare say they could easily toss it over this wire netting!
Seeing everybody including Zhou Dongcheng’s reactions in his the surroundings, Yang Chen realized that he had used too much strength. Actually he didn’t really use too much strength, he just underestimated the way the tennis ball would react to the tennis racket.
Yang Chen awkwardly smiled and tapped away the ash on his cigarette, then said, “My apologies, this ball is rather bouncy, I’ll go pick up the ball after finishing the game.”
The others stiffly smiled, then oddly looked at Yang Chen’s arm which had muscles that didn’t seem that developed. If someone actually gets punched by that fist, that someone would probably lose their life.
“Mr. Yang truly has godly strength.” Zhou Dongcheng was someone who had seen the world, and he also had prior knowledge of Yang Chen possessing abnormal strength, so he managed to quickly regain his calm. Zhou Dongcheng retrieved a new ball from his attendant and said, “Let’s continue then.”
This time Yang Chen didn’t use that much strength, he just calculated how much strength was needed to send to ball to the opposite side of the court, as for the angle and speed, he didn’t really care about that, the trajectory of the tennis ball was simply like a crawling tortoise in Yang Chen’s eyes, it didn’t give him the slightest amount of pressure.
Everybody watched Yang Chen slowly walking on the court, and every time he stopped right at where the ball would bounce at, then he would return it with a casual one-arm swing. The ball would always fall at where Zhou Dongcheng stood, there wasn’t much movement needed for Zhou Dongcheng to receive the ball.
In everybody’s eyes, Yang Chen wasn’t playing, he was simply toying with the ball!
Although the forms Yang Chen took when playing tennis belonged to the ‘extremely ugly’ category, this didn’t affect the crowd’s evaluation of his skill.
Many young ladies had their eyes glowing as they watched him. Yang Chen with the cigarette in his mouth, hair rustling with the wind, and his slight frown along with that leisure expression. These were all embedded into their minds.
Tang Wan sighed as she noticed Mo Qianni at the side who was blankly looking at Yang Chen, in her eyes there was the same bewitchment as the other ladies.
In Tang Wan’s opinion, Yang Chen was without a doubt a playboy. This opinion was set in stone ever since the first time they met at the river when he wanted her to be his one night stand, and was further reinforced when they bumped into each other at her daughter’s school with Li Jingjing. She didn’t expect that this time it would be Mo Qianni.
Li Jingjing was an innocent type of girl, it was normal if she was tricked by Yang Chen, but a famous PR like Mo Qianni, an outstanding administrator actually fell into his trap? This made Tang Wan ponder how Yang Chen managed to capture the hearts of these two ladies who had totally different personalities yet were both remarkable women.
At this moment, seeing the man wantonly swinging with a crappy form, yet able to fully grasp where the ball goes, Tang Wan began to understand. It seemed like the unique trait this man possessed was something other men couldn’t possibly possess.
Yang Chen didn’t know that Mo Qianni who stood outside the court was looking at him in a way she never had before, and moreso didn’t know that he had entered Tang Wan’s blacklist. All Yang Chen noticed was that Zhou Dongcheng on the other side was almost lacking the strength to return the ball. It seemed like after continuously smacking the the ball dozens of times, Zhou Dongcheng was burnt out.
When the ball once again shot towards him, Yang Chen directly caught the ball with his hand, casually spat the cigarette butt out of his mouth, and shouted towards Zhou Dongcheng, “Still playing?”
Zhou Dongcheng perspired profusely, ‘delicately’ bent forward, and propped himself up with his hands on his knees. He tossed away the racket, waved his hands with great difficulty, and said in an aggrieved manner, “No… not playing anymore……”
“Then I’m leaving.” Yang Chen truly wished to stay here for not a moment longer. Originally, due to Rose, Zhou Dongcheng was inevitably his enemy, but this enemy kept giving him enchanting smiles, how could he bear it!?
Zhou Dongcheng became a little panicked, he didn’t care about the strain and gasped as he shouted, “Yang… Mr. Yang please wait, I wonder… I wonder if I have the pleasure of inviting Mr. Yang to dinner?”
Invite your sister!
Once Yang Chen imagined himself at a candle-lit table sitting with a gorgeously dressed man who flung flirtatious glances at him on the opposite side of the table, he felt chills all over. He walked over to the side of the court and grabbed hold of Mo Qianni’s little hand and said to her, “Let’s go, I’m hungry and want to eat!”
After he said that, he didn’t even give Mo Qianni a chance to reply, and forcefully dragged her out.
Feeling the intimate contact with Yang Chen from her hand, feeling that scorching heat, she couldn’t help but blush. Her heart started to beat like a drum, but she didn’t have the strength and didn’t feel like pulling away her hand, so she could only turn her head and hastily bid farewell to the several bosses and leave the tennis court with Yang Chen.
After Zhou Dongcheng’s attendants supported Zhou Dongcheng who had a regretful face to the side of the court, one of them woefully asked, “Young Master, that Yang Chen failed to appreciate your kindness, shall we get some brothers to send him a little present?”
Zhou Dongcheng gloomily swept a glance at him, nearly making that man pee in his pants.
“Yang Chen is my friend, he’s a true man, don’t you dare speak ill of him in my presence in the future!”
“Yes… yes… yes Young Master……”
Zhou Dongcheng looked towards the direction Yang Chen left, and once again displayed a look of infatuation.