No, that's not it.
I immediately shouted, "Are you being stubborn? Why don't you try twisting this wheel for a bit?"
The female reporter smiled and said to me, "Team Leader Xiao, gather the team members who played this morning. Let's shoot a short inspirational video, about 10 seconds long."
I looked at them with a puzzled expression: "Did you bring a director? We don't know how to do this."
"It doesn't need to be too complicated; one sentence from each person will suffice."
I pondered for a long time without finding a solution, then awkwardly looked outside the stadium. Something there suddenly caught my eye. I nodded thoughtfully, and then gathered Lin Chong, Zhang Qing, and the others together...
That evening, in the local news, after a token interview with a few teams, the camera switched to Yucai School, with the voiceover: Yucai Martial Arts School is a vocational school with strong teaching staff and abundant teaching resources, which was established under the care of the city leaders... Let's listen to the voices of these athletes!
The scene then shifts again, and Lin Chong smiles憨厚ly at the camera, giving a thumbs-up and saying, "I'm here."
Yang Zhi: "I'm here."
Zhang Qing: "I'm here."
Shi Qian: "I'm here."
The camera focused on the four students, who stood with their hands on their chests in front of the school flag, and proudly declared in unison, "With us, Yucai is strong!"
Chapter Eleven Gongsun Zhishen
After the first team match, the individual competition started the next day. This time, we were familiar with the process; Zhang Shun went to draw lots first, while the Ruan brothers, fully armored, prepared. There was still one spot undecided. My suggestion was to send anyone, but the heroes started arguing again. These guys had been incredibly bored these past few days, so they thought going to the ring to stretch their muscles would be fun. Something no one was initially enthusiastic about, now everyone was scrambling to go, and after arguing for ages, they still couldn't reach a conclusion. Zhang Shun had already returned, bringing the Ruan brothers with him. He said to me, "We'll go report first; you guys hurry up."
Seeing that there was still time, I cut up a bunch of slips of paper, marked one of them, and let them draw. The strategist, Zhu Wu, jumped up, holding his slip, shouting, "I won! I won!" I took his and looked at it; it had a big "Win" written on it. He quickly grabbed his protective suit and tried to pull it on. I pulled him back: "Old Zhu, don't try to be clever with me. Did you write that yourself?"
Zhu Wu chuckled: "Why take it so seriously? It doesn't matter who goes."
At this moment, Hao Siwen looked at the note in his hand and asked in confusion, "What is this?"
Everyone crowded around to take a look and saw that his slip of paper had a little red-faced man with a big mouth drawn on it, posing in a rather flamboyant way as the Chinese character "大" (da, meaning big). I squeezed into the crowd and loudly announced, "Congratulations to Brother Hao Siwen for winning the lottery!"
Zhu Wu said dejectedly, "I never expected that Xiao Qiang would draw a pornographic picture just from a fortune stick."
As I ripped off his protective suit, I said disdainfully, "That's the Joker from playing cards, isn't it?"
After Hao Siwen got dressed, I checked my watch, pushed him towards the door and said, "Hurry up, you're late again. I'll get your ID card ready and send it to you right away."
Hao Siwen hurriedly walked out with her head down, bumping right into someone entering. This person had beautiful almond-shaped eyes and a tall figure, but his scalp was shaved clean. Hao Siwen didn't recognize him, so she shoved him aside and said urgently, "Get out of the way."
The man grabbed Hao Siwen's wrist and asked, "Where are you going?"
At this moment, one of the heroes exclaimed in surprise, "Third Sister?"
Upon closer inspection, he realized it was none other than Hu Sanniang! Hao Siwen finally recognized her and chuckled, "What happened to you?"
Hu Sanniang proudly touched her bald head: "Didn't you say my hair was too long to compete? I shaved it." She looked at Hao Siwen's attire and said, "Are you going to compete?" Hao Siwen nodded. Hu Sanniang turned to me and said, "Count me in."
I spread my hands and said, "There are no more spots left. Brother Hao is the last one."
Hu Sanniang said to Hao Siwen as a matter of course, "Then you don't need to go, give it to me."
"This..." Hao Siwen was a little dumbfounded.
Hu Sanniang glared at her with her beautiful eyes. She said in a sinister tone, "Do you think you can take it from me?"
Hao Siwen shuddered. He'd fought Hu Sanniang years ago, and been captured alive in just a few rounds, which led him to become a bandit. It seemed he still harbored lingering fear of Hu Sanniang. Hu Sanniang didn't waste any time; she quickly stripped off his protective suit and put it on, asking me, "What name did you use for the competition?"
I glanced at the list and said, "Gongsun Zhishen!"
Hu Sanniang stumbled out of nowhere, snatched the list, pointed at a few names, and said, "Can't we use something else?"
"The others have already been taken over by Zhang Shun and his team."
With a sob in her voice, Hu Sanniang said, "Gongsun Zhishen sounds awful. At least give me Huyan Da Niang!"
I said, "Aunt Huyan was beaten to death by Tang Long, so only Gongsun Zhishen is left."
Hu Sanniang stamped her foot and said, "I accept it!" Then she ran off in tears to find Zhang Shun and the others.
Zhu Wu looked at the dumbfounded Hao Siwen and said, "If I had known, I would have been the one to go first, and then nothing would have happened. Nobody would have been left out, right?"
After being randomly grouped, Zhang Shun, Ruan Xiaowu, and Hu Sanniang's matches were scheduled for the morning. All the contestants gathered again according to their ring numbers, took photos, and then went back to prepare for their matches. Ruan Xiaowu was extremely unhappy because he couldn't compete in the morning. Back in the audience, he muttered as he took off his protective gear, "What's the point of taking pictures? I don't even know them. I have to put my arm around their shoulders and fake smile, and I have to shout 'cheese!' Why not 'twist twist'?"
I said, "Don't you think people's mouths look best when they say 'cheese'?"
Ruan Xiaoer said indignantly, "Looks good my ass! I think people look best when they shout 'Ah'."
I immediately flashed that lewd grin typical of men: "I didn't expect Second Brother to be involved in this sort of thing too. So what do you think of 'Dad'? Yam Dad?"
Ruan Xiao'er said, bewildered, "What nonsense are you talking about? The 'ah' I meant was: Kill!—"
...
Whether it was intentional or not, our three contestants were positioned a great distance apart. The heroes split into three groups to cheer them on, and Tang Long, Dai Zong, and I stayed by Hu Sanniang's side to encourage her. As soon as the last match ended, the referee shouted to the group of contestants who were preparing: "Next match, contestant number 1207..." When Hu Sanniang saw that it was her number, she hurriedly stood up, covered her face with one hand, and shouted at the referee: "It's me, it's me, stop calling out names."
The referee ignored her completely and loudly announced, "Gongsun Zhishen, against contestant number 2188—" A burly, black man, as tall as an iron tower, rushed out from the crowd and shouted in a gruff voice, "It's me, it's me, stop calling my name."
The referee continued to do as he pleased: "Fang Xiaorou. Please come up to the stage to greet each other."
The contestants waiting for the match and a few onlookers only then realized that the two people fighting on the stage were a beautiful girl and a big man. They also learned that one was named Fang Xiaorou and the other Gongsun Zhishen. Naturally, they matched the two names according to gender and normal logic, but the name Gongsun Zhishen still caused a burst of laughter.
The burly Fang Xiaorou and Hu Sanniang, who was fighting under the name of Gongsun Zhishen, exchanged a glance. Before the fight even started, they already felt a sense of camaraderie. They both prayed that the referee would not call out any more names, and that it would be fine to just leave it at that.
But this referee was clearly very responsible. After checking the contestants' ID cards, the competition could have started, but he insisted on reading it again: "Contestant number 2188, Fang Xiaorou..." He pointed at the burly man, and some people in the audience started to laugh. The referee continued, "Contestant number 1207, Gongsun Zhishen—" He pointed at Hu Sanniang, "Verification confirmed, the competition begins."