Chapter 56: The Ultimate Humiliation!

"Fine then!" He Chen did not refuse any further.

Even if he gave away the first possession, he had plenty of ways to make Fang Yifan lose without a word of complaint.

Fang Yifan immediately lowered his stance slightly to defend, his eager eyes clearly betraying his intention to intercept the ball and launch a counterattack at any moment.

Seeing He Chen dribbling sideways, he immediately closed in, applying pressure and attempting to poke the ball away with his hands.

The moment they made contact, he knew something was wrong.

Although He Chen possessed a dashing and heroic kind of handsome look, his build was not intimidating; normally, he didn't look muscular at all. But now, as he pressed close, it felt like crashing into a solid wall that he simply couldn't move.

Instead, he was being forcefully pushed backward by this moving wall, his ribs aching from the impact. Within a few moments, he couldn't take it anymore and actively retreated, clearing the attacking path.

He watched helplessly as He Chen dribbled in for a layup, the ball brushing against the backboard and dropping through the net.

For a split second, he felt a wave of regret.

Had he known He Chen was this solid, he shouldn't have yielded the first possession to him.

When skill levels were fairly close, whoever had the first possession might actually win the game.

However, he quickly realized something was amiss. Hearing the murmurs rising around him, he was suddenly ecstatic, pointing at He Chen and laughing out loud, "You traveled! Haha! You actually traveled!"

"What travel?" He Chen asked knowingly, in no rush to win yet—he wanted to play with him for a bit first!

"As expected of someone who only plays streetball, you haven't even fully grasped the basic rules of basketball!" Fang Yifan sneered. "A layup is three steps, not four! You took an extra step! That last basket doesn't count!"

"Nonsense!" He Chen laughed. "This is the classic King James layup, how could it possibly be a travel?

Do you know better, or does the NBA know better?

If this counts as a travel, how did King James ascend the throne and earn the title of Vice-GOAT?

The greatest of all time in NBA history, second only to the true GOAT Jordan, even surpassing the Black Mamba, the Little Flying Warrior.

Are you telling me he has been doing traveling layups all along, and none of his baskets ever counted?"

"..." Fang Yifan and many NBA fans around them instantly fell silent in unison, their expressions exceptionally distorted.

Was what He Chen said right or wrong?

It was spot on!

Yet this was an open secret that everyone knew but never dared to speak aloud!

They couldn't just admit that the NBA was a complete joke, and that as long as the league wanted to hype someone up, anyone could be elevated to a king, a GOAT, or a vice-GOAT as the greatest player in history, right?

If that were true, wouldn't they, as passionate NBA fans, turn out to be the biggest jokes of all?

This He Chen was as sharp-tongued as ever, and his perspective, much like a venomous snake's, could always strike where they least expected.

And what a vicious hater he was!

Not just a casual hater!

He was a mega-hater!

He really dared to hate out loud!

Qiao Yingzi and the other girls might not follow these topics closely, but hearing the boys nearby quickly explaining the situation, they immediately guessed that He Chen was deliberately messing around, using this method to concede the point.

"Alright, fine, I traveled. It's your turn!" True to his word, He Chen admitted to the travel, nullifying the first basket and handing the possession over to Fang Yifan.

Seeing He Chen toss the ball over, Fang Yifan instinctively raised his hands to shield his face. But remembering the crowd of onlookers, such a defensive gesture looked too cowardly, so he forcefully aborted the weak reflex and instead instinctively imitated He Chen's earlier fancy catch. With ultra-smooth dribbling, he brought the ball back to the kickoff spot and signaled He Chen to come over—he was going on the offensive.

He Chen cooperatively stepped up to block him.

Fang Yifan immediately got into the groove, crouching slightly and dribbling the ball rapidly between his legs, shoulders twitching as he constantly looked for an opportunity to break through.

Nothing would be better than crossing He Chen over right in front of everyone and making him stumble to the ground; that would avenge all his grievances in one go.

Unfortunately, He Chen remained completely unfazed, refusing to be thrown off balance by his increasingly exaggerated ball-faking maneuvers.

Fang Yifan muttered a silent regret, but still decisively chose to drive forward anyway.

Since he refused to bite on the fakes, he couldn't blame him for accelerating past him.

Even if he couldn't break He Chen's ankles, scoring on him, winning the match, and making He Chen call him daddy would still count as sweet revenge!

Just as he dribbled past He Chen and was about to turn his head at the very last split second to give him a provocative, mocking, close-up stare, he felt his hand suddenly lighten. The basketball he expected to bounce back down never arrived. His heart skipped a beat, and looking down, he saw that the ball had indeed vanished.

Amid the uproar of the surrounding spectators and the deafening cheers of the girls, he knew exactly where the ball had gone without even looking.

Raising his eyes, he saw that He Chen was already leisurely dribbling the ball, showing no intention of catching him off guard to launch a fast break for another point.

Damn it!

What kind of utter contempt was this?!

Fang Yifan felt a surge of vexation, yet he kept his wits about him. Seizing the moment, he stepped up to defend again, refusing to give He Chen any chance to counterattack. Waving his arms, he attempted to copy He Chen's ball-stripping technique.

Yet, he simply couldn't pull it off.

He couldn't even see how He Chen had stripped the ball from him in the first place; He Chen's movements were simply too fast and too fluid.

Sure enough, struggling against the might of He Chen's "King James impact," he could only watch helplessly as He Chen shoved past him and once again went in for a layup.

One step, two steps, three steps!

This time, He Chen didn't take four steps—it was a standard three-step layup, the ball brushing the backboard and smoothly dropping through the hoop!

"That makes it 1-0, right?" He Chen asked with a smile, looking at Fang Yifan.

"… Again!" Fang Yifan clenched his teeth, enduring the deafening cheers echoing in his ears.

He refused to believe... he would actually get shut out 7-0!

That's right!

By now, his confidence had plummeted dramatically. His expectations had shrunk from crossing He Chen over to humiliate him, down to simply winning a point, and finally, facing a dark premonition of defeat, he desperately wanted to avoid ending up like the loser Ji Yangyang, getting beaten 7-0 with "no face left to save."

Though he didn't know the meme behind 7-0, he instinctively felt it was the ultimate humiliation!

"Why on earth did you have to go and provoke him?!" Qiao Yingzi couldn't help but complain bitterly.

By now, how could she not realize that He Chen was merely toying with Fang Yifan? The initial four-step layup was both a mockery and an act of conceding a point, ensuring Fang Yifan had no excuse not to admit defeat.

And for He Chen to dare pull off such a stunt meant he undoubtedly possessed absolute, crushing skill.

Knowing full well how extraordinary He Chen was—given that even Ji Yangyang had been forcefully crushed and his dreams shattered in his most prized field of car racing—how could Fang Yifan dare provoke He Chen in basketball, a lower-threshold sport that anyone could dabble in?

The crucial point was that basketball wasn't even your genuine strong suit!

If you were a star athlete recruited specifically for your basketball prowess, she wouldn't have said a word.

But you clearly weren't!

You knew a little bit about everything, yet mastered nothing!

"What else could it be for?" Huang Zhitao's lingering, teasing remark caused Qiao Yingzi's expression to freeze, making her feel even more awkward and unsettled.

Toward Fang Yifan, she truly didn't harbor the slightest shred of romantic interest.

And toward He Chen...

Now that the two of them were clashing like this, what did that make her?

Didn't it look suspiciously like Fang Yifan fighting Ji Yangyang over her best friend Taozi?

Especially when spoken so casually by her best friend—who was both the original insider and privy to everything—it sent her emotions churning wildly.

Embarrassment, shame, shyness, trepidation... a chaotic mixture of feelings left her completely at a loss. She could only bite her lips and keep quiet, terrified that if she blurted out some cliché drama line like *"Stop fighting, you guys shouldn't be fighting over me,"* it would truly become an untypable dark stain on her reputation for the rest of her life.