Chapter Seventy-Four: The Final Four!

After this match ended, the internet was in an uproar. Everyone knew how strong Qingshui No. 1 High School was, and some were aware that Huangnan Provincial Experimental High School was no pushover either. Yet no one expected that this game would be won so easily by Qingshui No. 1, all thanks to the power of their fans. A significant factor was that drum!

Fans from other cities began to wonder if they should bring a drum to their own matches in the future, using it to rally their teams. Anyone who had watched Huangnan Provincial Experimental High School play knew that in their match against Qingshui No. 1, they hadn’t even shown half their strength before being eliminated so miserably. Some felt sorry for them, but there was nothing to be done; Qingshui No. 1 hadn’t broken any rules—just that their fans were overwhelming.

After this battle, many high school coaches warned their players, including Coach Gorilla, who spoke to Lin Nan and the others on their way back to school: “You all felt the power of the fans today, didn’t you? And you noticed the opposing team didn’t seem to play up to their potential. I’ll tell you this: although today’s away game felt like a home game, and we played with a lot of spirit, you need to understand that someday, we might find ourselves in their shoes. So remember: your own ability is what you can always rely on. As long as you never slack off in training, you can face any situation on the court with confidence. True strength comes from what you possess—look at Lin Nan and Zhao Zhongshe, proud in victory, unbowed in defeat. That’s power!

“There aren’t many strong opponents left in the coming games, but you must keep training as you always do. Don’t underestimate weaker teams. I believe in all of you—a spot in the national top four is within reach!”

After finishing this speech on the bus, Coach Gorilla was deeply moved inside. The national top four! Barring any surprises, the national top four! Of course, he wouldn’t let his players see his excitement.

Coach Gorilla was twenty-nine this year, about the same age as Liuchuan Mu, the streetball legend from Lingnan City. He fell in love with basketball in high school, perhaps not as passionately as Liuchuan Mu, but not far behind. Fortunately, Coach Gorilla’s life had followed the path he had planned. Back in high school, he had already decided he would return to his alma mater after university to become a PE teacher. Easy, joyful, and able to play basketball every day—he couldn’t have dreamed of a better life. Reality had unfolded just as he wished, and he spent several years enjoying this ideal existence.

Sometimes, Coach Gorilla thought it wouldn’t be bad to live this way until retirement, though at times he felt a tinge of monotony. Then came the birth of the Teachers’ Forum, the national high school basketball league, the arrival of the prodigious Lin Nan, and the joining of the sharpshooter Zhao Zhongshe. Coach Gorilla realized that the championship dream, shared by all who love basketball, was once again ignited in his heart. Only now, he would pursue it as a coach.

Of course, Coach Gorilla understood that his high school skills weren’t even as strong as Zhu Bo is now, let alone Lin Nan or Zhao Zhongshe. And so far, Qingshui No. 1 had never used any real tactics in matches, winning purely by overwhelming strength, except for the time when Lin Nan fought alone and lost. That meant Coach Gorilla’s role was mostly to comfort and motivate his players. But after years of watching the NBA, he knew well that this was only because Qingshui No. 1 hadn’t met an evenly matched opponent yet, nor experienced a real battle. After reaching the top four, such battles would be inevitable.

At that point, the quality of both teams’ tactics would decide the course of the match. So, whenever Lin Nan and the others trained morning and evening, Coach Gorilla constantly reviewed the classic NBA games he had watched, analyzing the victorious tactics employed by brilliant coaches. His own basketball time was nearly gone; he was frantically absorbing everything he could about the game. After all, he was simply a high school PE teacher who loved basketball, not a professional coach. But he was determined not to let himself hold back these outstanding young players.

......

In the following games, Qingshui No. 1 grew stronger with each match, defeating every opponent by a stable and absolute margin, regardless of the venue. Though they never again played in an “away game that felt like home,” their sheer strength made it clear—they would win, home or away.

Finally, just before winter break, the four national finalists in the high school basketball league emerged:

1. Yangcheng High School, with Wang Shiying at the top of the composite scoring rankings, along with Su Yuxiang at eighth and Yang Wendong at ninth. The team boasted several other strong players not in the top ten, as Yangcheng was a storied basketball powerhouse, home to many children of CBA stars—truly a gathering of elites. Yangcheng High School was the hottest favorite to win the championship.

2. Jiangyuan High School, featuring Tiramisu, ranked third on the composite scoring list. Thanks to their geographic location, their playing style was tough, and every player had extraordinary stamina—a very difficult team to face.

3. Dongshan High School, boasting Takayama Tai, ranked fourth, standing 2.07 meters tall and living up to his name, giving opponents the impression of a mountain. Their region produced tall, burly players, dominating all comers on the inside, with rebounding stats far ahead of second place.

4. Qingshui No. 1, with crowd favorite Lin Nan ranked second, and the sharpshooter Zhao Zhongshe. They were the dark horse, unlike the other three famed schools. Before this league, almost no one in the basketball world had heard of Qingshui No. 1, nor had any streetball legends or pro players graduated from it. It was like a comet suddenly blazing across the sky. Their greatest strength was an exceptionally stable dual-core scoring system that made them impossible to target.

......

When Lin Nan and his team won the final match of the third round, they could scarcely believe they had entered the national top four. For an ordinary county-level key high school, this achievement was already extraordinary. Yet every player who enters the court, regardless of skill, shares one goal: the championship.

So, during the month-long winter break, except for the two days around Spring Festival when they went home to reunite with family, the Qingshui No. 1 basketball team trained in isolation at the Lingnan City Sports Complex. When Coach Gorilla approached the staff, they immediately agreed to lend the venue for free. The air conditioning ran twenty-four hours, and hot water was always available.

When the citizens of Lingnan City learned that the Qingshui No. 1 team was training in closed quarters throughout the winter holiday, everyone sprang into action. The owner of a five-star hotel offered to cover all their meals, delivering freshly prepared sports nutrition food for every meal, determined to keep them well-fed and energized for training and the semifinals.

The city’s largest massage parlor dispatched their best therapists to the sports complex, providing daily muscle treatment for the players. The municipal sports bureau sent coaches to discuss tactics with Coach Gorilla and assigned experts to guide the players’ training.

At this moment, the Qingshui No. 1 basketball team represented Lingnan City, Jiangnan Province, and even all of South China. They would compete against teams from East, West, and North China, defending the honor of their region!

Regional rivalry was completely ignited, and all resources Qingshui No. 1 requested were given unconditionally. The staff at the sports complex soon understood why Qingshui No. 1 was a dark horse, why this unknown team had reached the top four. Every morning when they woke, the players were already training on the court; every night when they went to bed, the players were still there.

Eventually, someone calculated: The players rose at five in the morning, trained until eleven, then ate and napped for half an hour. At two in the afternoon, they resumed training until six, then ate again and rested for half an hour, before training from seven to ten. After washing up, they went to sleep. That meant thirteen hours of training every day.

What was rarer still, they kept this up for more than a month, never missing a day. If these boys weren’t the dark horse, who could be? The staff admired them deeply, knowing that even many professional adult players didn’t train so hard. Truly, diligence is rewarded!

Yet what the Qingshui No. 1 players respected most was Lin Nan’s father. Though they were grateful to those providing facilities, meals, massages, and coaching, they were most thankful for the herbal baths Lin Nan’s father sent. It was miraculous.

To be honest, with such intense daily training, even if their spirits held up, their bodies would not. But after soaking for half an hour in a barrel of herbal water and getting a good night’s sleep, they would wake up fully restored. Every day, the most anticipated moment was the bath.

Fifteen large wooden tubs in the bathhouse, fifteen boys reclining in them, hot water soothing their tired bodies and nerves—it was truly blissful.

Supported by so many, the Qingshui No. 1 basketball team trained day after day. One day, Screw finally managed a powerful tomahawk dunk in practice. He turned, expecting everyone to look at him in awe, only to see Lin Nan performing a windmill dunk on the other side. Everyone was dumbfounded.

From then on, Screw never allowed himself to rest on a single achievement. He knew that everyone was improving. In a race against the current, not advancing means falling behind.