Chapter 57

The match between Sui Houyu and Hou Mo went very smoothly, and they advanced all the way to the finals. Their opponents in the final were Jiang Wei and Lu Qinghui from Dongti Affiliated Middle School.

The match was scheduled for the second session on the morning of November 7th.

Hou Mo’s men’s singles final was set for the second session in the afternoon of November 7th, against Liu Mo from the provincial sports team.

Over the past few days, Hou Mo had gotten used to playing two matches a day, and he was starting to feel somewhat exhausted.

At first, he could still fool around a bit with Sui Houyu, but after the 5th, he became noticeably more subdued and started sleeping a lot more.

Sui Houyu knew Hou Mo was naturally someone who loved sleeping, so resting at this time was normal. He usually didn’t disturb him.

On the night of November 6th.

Hou Mo returned to his room and fell asleep. When he woke up, he found Sui Houyu was not beside him. The room was completely dark and silent.

He took a moment to collect himself, then turned on the bedside lamp and sat up, looking around—but he couldn’t find Sui Houyu.

He got out of bed and went to the bathroom door, peeking through the crack. There was no light inside.

Sui Houyu always turned on the light when he went to the bathroom, and he would even scroll on his phone while sitting there—there was always at least some glow.

Just as he was wondering, he heard Sui Houyu’s voice outside the door. He opened it and stepped out, immediately seeing a familiar scene.

The last time he saw Sui Houyu squatting by the door was when he was secretly eating sweets outside the dorm.

This time, Sui Houyu was crouched by the door sending voice messages.

“Why are you here?” Hou Mo asked, leaning on the door in confusion.

“Didn’t want to wake you.”

“It’s not that serious.”

Sui Houyu stood up and followed Hou Mo back into the room, still sending voice messages as he walked. It seemed he was arranging a gathering and discussing things with Su Anyi.

From the conversation, it sounded like they were preparing a birthday party for Ran Shu.

Hou Mo sat on the bed and only spoke after Sui Houyu put his phone down. “Ran Shu’s birthday?”

“Yeah, November 7th. The same day as our finals.”

Hou Mo checked the time on his phone. “Wow, only two hours left. Planning to wish him a happy birthday at midnight?”

“No. We’re going to pretend to forget and give him a surprise when we return to the city tomorrow. Just act like you don’t know.”

“Cliché,” Hou Mo laughed. “What is it, a whole group hiding somewhere with cake and gifts? Don’t tell me you’re even planning fireworks?”

Sui Houyu was silent for a moment. “Not fireworks in the sky… just sparkler sticks.”

“I think Ran Shu will fall for it and be pretty happy.”

Sui Houyu stared at him and hesitated. “You don’t like this kind of thing?”

“Yeah, I don’t really like birthdays,” Hou Mo said, then got up and went to the bathroom.

Watching him leave, Sui Houyu felt a faint heaviness in his chest.

The day before his birthday was also the anniversary of his father’s death. It wasn’t strange that Hou Mo would dislike birthdays.

He looked at the messages from Su Anyi and replied: You handle the arrangements. Hou Mo’s awake, I’ll discuss tactics with him.

Su Anyi: Okay, I’ll take care of it.

When Hou Mo came out of the bathroom, he picked up a bottle of water, opened it, and took a sip, looking at Sui Houyu.

Sui Houyu was also looking at him. They met each other’s gaze, neither speaking.

But Hou Mo understood. He put down the bottle, grabbed a notebook, and started drawing a court diagram.

“Jiang Wei and Lu Qinghui mainly use two formations. One is a wild goose formation, the other is a double baseline. If they use the wild goose formation, we use double baseline. If they use double baseline, we switch to the I-formation.”

“Okay.”

“In the I-formation, you need to follow my commands. It requires a lot of coordination.”

“Mm.”

Sui Houyu had become so familiar with Hou Mo that he could actually understand even his strange tactical diagrams now.

Sometimes he had to lean closer to see clearly, otherwise he couldn’t distinguish the positions.

Hou Mo suddenly stopped talking. Sui Houyu looked up, and because he had leaned in, their faces were very close—so close that their breaths almost tangled together.

Hou Mo felt something stir in his chest.

Sui Houyu suddenly leaned back awkwardly, bumping into the chair.

Hou Mo glanced at him but said nothing.

Sui Houyu took a sip of water and asked, “Why did you stop talking?”

“I haven’t figured out the tactics yet.”

They both fell silent again.

After a long pause, Sui Houyu said, “We’ll just respond to whatever comes. It’ll be fine.”

Hou Mo gave a strained smile. “Yeah. The biggest issue with our pair is having too many tactics, which causes confusion. We don’t actually have that many yet, so we won’t get disorganized. Staying optimistic is fine.”

“What are we most afraid of?”

“Their aggressive double baseline play, and strong serving and net attacks—we can easily fall into a passive position.”

Hou Mo tore up the previous sheet and drew another diagram.

“Look at this. Your positioning after serving and switching sides is a bit weak. If your movement is like this, it will compensate.”

Hou Mo felt that since there were no perfect solutions yet, the best approach was to fix their weaknesses and improve themselves.

As long as they became strong enough, many problems would naturally resolve.

The next morning, during warm-ups, they ran into Lu Yanxin, who was preparing for her match.

She had only recently switched to tennis and had made it to the provincial competition, now competing for third place.

Hou Mo suddenly called out, “Good luck, daughter-in-law.”

Lu Yanxin had been about to greet them but froze. “Who’s your son?”

“Pick anyone from our team. Whoever you like is my son,” Hou Mo replied shamelessly.

Lu Yanxin laughed. “What about your partner?”

“Nope. He’s my ancestor.”

She waved her racket in protest. “I’m about to go play and you’re still showing off your relationship! Having a partner really is something, huh!”

She walked off dramatically.

Soon after, Ran Shu and Su Anyi came over. Ran Shu bounced excitedly to Sui Houyu’s side, smiling without saying anything.

Sui Houyu stopped warming up and looked at him. “Did you eat breakfast?”

“Not yet. I was about to.”

“Then eat more.” Sui Houyu said, and continued warming up.

Ran Shu’s smile slowly faded, and he walked off disappointed with Su Anyi.

Hou Mo glanced over. “Ran Shu really wears his emotions on his face.”

“Yeah, he’s very simple.”

When they entered the rest room, they met Jiang Wei and Lu Qinghui.

Jiang Wei greeted Hou Mo. “Take care of us later.”

Hou Mo nodded. “Sure.”

They were originally trained through amateur sports schools and had later joined provincial training.

Their coach had once been on the national team and had a very professional training system. The provincial team environment was more structured than Hou Mo and Sui Houyu’s.

As they were about to go on court, Sui Houyu realized he was actually the shortest among them.

In daily life, Hou Mo’s 188 cm height and Sui Houyu’s 183 cm wouldn’t be considered short at all.

But now, their opponents were taller—Jiang Wei at 192 cm and Lu Qinghui at 190 cm, even slightly taller than Hou Mo.

Tall, but not bulky.

Due to the nature of tennis, their bodies were lean, well-proportioned, and strong-looking.

Jiang Wei and Lu Qinghui had a clear height advantage in doubles.

Not too tall, not too short.

And technically excellent.

No wonder everyone favored them.

They finally stepped onto the court, flipped a coin, and chose serve and sides.

Hou Mo chose to serve first.

During the photo session, Lu Qinghui suddenly chuckled. “Look at the words printed behind them.”

Jiang Wei leaned in. “We should get ours printed too.”

“Print ‘My partner is a wooden block’?”

“Tch,” Jiang Wei rolled his eyes. “Stop joking and focus.”

“Alright…”

A nearly 190 cm tall man stood there looking pitiful, eyes full of innocence as they took the photo.

First game: Sui Houyu to serve.

His serve was powerful and fast, clearly intended to give the opponents a warning shot.

Lu Qinghui made a clean interception.

Hou Mo returned the shot.

Jiang Wei, at the baseline, sliced the ball with heavy backspin.

The ball skimmed over the net and dropped sharply.

Sui Houyu rushed forward and swung—but missed completely.

He watched helplessly as the ball landed just under his racket and didn’t bounce back up.

A slice shot.

Also known as a drop-spin ball.

Such shots were rarely used in matches because they were slow and easy to read—but this one stayed extremely low.

Sui Houyu had judged the trajectory correctly.

But it was too low—he simply couldn’t reach it.

He was already very close to the net. Any closer and his racket would have hit it.

A point he had no way of saving.

Just like that, they lost the first point.

Next time he served, Sui Houyu glanced at the opponents before serving again.

After a few rallies, he saw Jiang Wei use another slice.

He quickly checked the net distance, rushed forward, and lifted the ball back.

The net trembled slightly—not from contact, but from the airflow of his swing.

Lu Qinghui was ready and returned the shot.

Sui Houyu smashed it back with force. The ball slammed down and bounced out with heavy momentum.

Lu Qinghui turned to watch it, feeling like the ball itself had gotten angry—like a furious grasshopper kicking off in rage.

He looked at Sui Houyu and smiled. “Shorty’s got a temper.”

Sui Houyu was stunned. “Shorty?!”

“Then little guy? Cute one?” Lu Qinghui raised an eyebrow.

Hou Mo immediately walked over. “Don’t tease my partner.”

“No, no,” Lu Qinghui said with a relaxed smile.

In the stands, Deng Yiheng was nervous, shaking his legs nonstop.

“Ahhh, what do we do? Brother Yu must be under so much pressure.”

To him, Jiang Wei and Lu Qinghui were absolute pros—unreachable opponents.

But Ran Shu beside him was calm, sitting lazily.

“No way. Brother Yu isn’t ordinary.”

“You don’t get it! This is his first real competition!”

Ran Shu pointed at Sui Houyu. “Look at his eyes. Can you see it clearly?”

He even pulled out binoculars and handed them over.

He was really prepared.

Deng Yiheng actually used them.

Sui Houyu returned to the serving position.

He needed to hold serve—pressure was huge.

A month of training, entering a provincial final, facing the second-best doubles team in the country.

Most people would be nervous.

But Sui Houyu wasn’t most people.

He never got nervous—instead, he smiled.

That smile was sharp, mischievous, slightly wild.

His eyes shone with excitement.

The stronger the opponent, the more excited he became.