As soon as he entered the basketball hall, Shen Qiang spotted the beautiful teacher Ju Yang.

She was wearing flesh-colored stockings, black high heels, a black pencil skirt that clung to her figure, and of course, a black blazer and a spotless white shirt.

Very pretty.

Her figure was enchanting, extremely seductive, but standing by the court, her expression was unusually tense.

"Ji Liangchuan, come on!"

"Ji Liangchuan, come on!"

Amid the cheering, bang!

Medical University's player missed a jump shot, and Engineering's monstrous Wu Zhaoyang simply muscled Ji Liangchuan out of the way to easily grab the rebound and then immediately made a long pass to Lan Yong.

Lan Yong, having received the ball, coordinated with Engineering's guard for an easy two-on-one, and scored.

Sigh...

The crowd hissed in response.

But Lan Yong didn't care at all.

The Engineering teammates that came with him and a few girls screamed, "Lan Yong, so handsome!"

"Lan Yong!"

"Another one!"

Seeing this scene, Xiu Ju standing next to Shen Qiang said, "It's time for you to go on."

Shen Qiang smiled, "Ji Liangchuan is only eleven points behind, if I go on now, the win will be inevitable. Sure, he'll accept it, but he won't be grateful. What did Ju Yang say before? Best of five games, and if Ji Liangchuan loses, he'll never touch basketball again for the rest of his life."

"And today is the third game. If he loses again, that's the end of it."

"So, I should wait until he's more than twenty points behind before I make my move, because by then, he should already be in despair."

Xiu Ju laughed, "You've become quite scheming."

"I have no choice, if I were simple-minded, I couldn't protect you all," said Shen Qiang.

Xiu Ju laughed, raising an eyebrow, "Ju Yang is already very anxious, can you really bear to wait?"

Shen Qiang smiled, "You seem to still trust your intuition, and you hope I'll act as you predicted. As I've said before, your figure is better than hers."

"But I'm not as pretty as her, am I?"

Hearing Xiu Ju say this, Shen Qiang smiled and simply didn't respond.

Because no matter how he responded, it would be wrong. Given Xiu Ju's state of mind, if he said she was very beautiful in his heart, she wouldn't believe him. If he confirmed she indeed wasn't as pretty as Ju Yang, she'd get angry. So at this moment, silence was undoubtedly golden.

Bang!

Ji Liangchuan, attempting a forceful attack under the basket, was blocked by the over two-meter-tall Wu Zhaoyang, who swatted the ball right out of his hands. Lan Yong, quick on his feet, caught the ball, and in a few moves, completed another layup, triggering another round of screams.

"What do you think of this Wu Zhaoyang?"

Shen Qiang asked, standing at the entrance.

Xiu Ju observed carefully and said, "Nascent Soul Stage, his cultivation isn't as good as Ji Liangchuan's, but he's very stable. From his posture, it's obvious he's the type who practices external cultivation arts, somewhat similar to Cheng Hai. The strength of his body should be the focus of his cultivation."

"Don't you want to help me dig up some dirt on him?" Shen Qiang raised an eyebrow.

Xiu Ju laughed, "You want me to abuse my power for you?"

Shen Qiang laughed, "His cultivation is higher than mine, and he's hostile towards me. Your job is to protect me, where's the abuse of power?"

Xiu Ju shook her head, "The person he really wants to take down is Ji Liangchuan, so I refuse."

"I'll show you my abs tomorrow night." Shen Qiang raised his eyebrows and smiled, "In exchange, look up some information on this Wu Zhaoyang for me."

Xiu Ju's eyes curved into a smile, "I'm not interested."

Shen Qiang's fingers crawled up her arm as he gave a flirtatious look and grinned, "Come on, baby, I'll make you do some naughty things too."

Xiu Ju's face turned a bit red, but she hugged her shoulders and stepped back, "Matter of principle, I can't compromise."

Shen Qiang's face turned serious, "Fine, tonight I'll go find Chu Qing and tell her a story about eight-pack abs."

"You wouldn't dare!" Xiu Ju exclaimed anxiously.

Ignoring her, Shen Qiang kept his eyes on Wu Zhaoyang, "This big guy, without even lifting a finger, has quite a deterrent effect. If I had him as a follower, I'd be a lot safer. Looks like I'll have to get Chu Qing involved. Maybe with just a slight smile from her, this big fella will willingly hang out with me."

Xiu Ju's expression soured, "I think you're becoming unscrupulous."

"Isn't it all to protect us?" Shen Qiang laughed.

"Don't bargain with me, and don't tell anyone the story about the abs!" Xiu Ju raised an eyebrow at Shen Qiang.

Shen Qiang laughed, "The story about abs? Isn't it the tale of the eight-pack abs Monk? Trust me, just look up some info on this Wu Zhaoyang for me, and bring along Lan Yong. I promise I won't tell Chu Qing any of those things."

Xiu Ju laughed, "You've really learned bad things from Bianyi, you're blackmailing me."

Shen Qiang smirked playfully, "You forced me."

Xiu Ju sighed helplessly, then said, "Wu Zhaoyang, from a small county in the Northwest, his family has been blacksmiths for generations."

"The big kind?" Shen Qiang raised an eyebrow.

Xiu Ju shook her head, "Quite the opposite, actually—the small kind. His grandfather, when he was young, ran a blacksmith shop mainly forging farming tools, kitchen knives, sickles, horseshoes, and also operated a cart shop. Wu Zhaoyang's father was a worker at the state-run farm tool factory, specifically a sand-casting worker."

Glancing at Shen Qiang, Xiu Ju continued, "Now that the farm tools factory is closed, his dad has returned to the blacksmith shop."

Shen Qiang asked in surprise, "Does the blacksmith shop still get business? With cheap kitchen knives for eight or ten yuan each in the market, cars on every street, who needs a blacksmith shop?"

Xiu Ju said, "As you say, but Wu Zhaoyang's father knows how to use a lathe. Because it's a longstanding local brand, they do welding, machine part processing, iron art fences and gates, and they've even opened an online store selling iron basin racks. Life is neither good nor bad."

Shen Qiang nodded, "What else?"

Glancing at Shen Qiang, Xiu Ju said, "Not much else to tell. His grades have always been above passing. He hasn't done anything too outrageous. Fought someone on the basketball court during high school, got credit from the store at the school gate for cigarettes, got drunk at school once. The cultivation technique he practices is passed down from his ancestors. It's said that it's derived from their generations of blacksmithing. Probably not very powerful. That's about it."

"What about Lan Yong?" Shen Qiang raised an eyebrow.

Xiu Ju frowned, "He's a troubled teen. Skipped elementary school, played truant, gambled the tuition on games, hung out at the pool hall. He started fighting with others in middle school and was the school bully. In high school, he began to play basketball. His grades were barely passing. He's the kind who disrespects everyone."

"His father is an Ordinary person who runs a 4S shop selling cars in the county. Business isn't great. His mother is a cultivator. The cultivation technique she brought from her parental home isn't complete. If there's anything these two have in common, 1, they both like basketball, and 2, they are both very filial."

Shen Qiang nodded, "If I wanted these two guys to follow me, what do you think?"

Xiu Ju laughed, "Don't joke, Ji Liangchuan already tried to recruit them, and they both rejected him. So if you want them to be your underlings, I'd say you can forget about it."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.