The Almighty Ring

“Big man! You be careful! The opponent is looking to drill your crotch!” Zhao Feng roared from outside the court.

“Haha…”

“Little fatty, you’re too mean!”

“Hahahaha…”

One sentence from Zhao Feng, and everyone was laughing. After all, the center from the sixth class was over two meters tall. The tallest Japanese student there was 1.6 meters, and the shortest was 1.5 meters. They were much shorter than the big man. It did not take much for them to drill into big man’s crotch!

As the Chinese students laughed, the Japanese students outside flushed in anger and embarrassment. If Zhao Feng was not hidden amongst the crowd, he would have been beaten up! However, the three students on the court remained expressionless, especially the guy leading the team. On the contrary, he seemed relaxed!

“This guy is no joke!” Jiang Fei made a mental note to keep an eye on him.

“My name is Tokugawa Shingi, please take care of me!” The Japanese guy leading the team politely bowed to Jiang Fei and the others. However, his eyes were ice-cold.

Perhaps the others have not yet taken notice of him. Regardless, Jiang Fei was watching him like a hawk,

“Hoho, guests first!” Since the other side had already bowed out of courtesy, Xu Hao felt that it was inappropriate to continue teasing them. He passed the ball to them.

“We won’t stand on ceremony then!” Tokugawa Shingi did not delay the game either. He immediately passed the ball to the point guard.

As soon as the game began, Jiang Fei could tell that the three guys were pretty skilled. However, Xu Hao and the others were pretty much on the same level. There was nothing special about Kato and Matsui, but Jiang Fei could not shake off the dangerous vibes coming from Tokugawa.

As Jiang Fei had his eye on Tokugawa, he did not participate much in the offense. Instead, he tried to pass the ball to the giant Xu Hao as much as possible. Jiang Fei’s performance throughout the entire game ended up being a little dull, which left students wanting to see him in action disappointed.

The scores of both sides grew side-by-side, and Jiang Fei became frustrated. He was having trouble determining what tricks these Japanese guys had up their sleeves.

Suddenly, Tokugawa Shingi spoke to the two guys beside him in Japanese, and the playstyle of their team changed all of a sudden. They had been executing long shots since the beginning, but now they were trying hard to get the rebound!

“Hmm?” Jiang Fei frowned. This was not normal. If they were evenly matched, it would make sense for them to try to get the rebound. However, they were 1.5 meters tall, and they were trying to rebound with someone who was two meters tall. If there was no secret trick behind this, what them?

“Ah!” After a few bumps, the big man suddenly screamed and fell to the ground.

“What happened to you?” Xu Hao immediately ran over to check on him.

“What’s wrong?” Jiang Fei also asked with concern.

“He sprained his ankle!” Xu Hao said after checking.

“They boxed me in and the two of them suddenly pushed me really hard. I wasn’t prepared with the landing so I ended up spraining my ankle!” The big man grunted through his pain.

“Big man, you go get some rest for now. Hu Zi, come on up!” Xu Hao looked a bit cross. However, the opponent had been discreet, so they were not in a good position to call them out. But the entire team was undeniably more cautious now.

The game went on again. In less than five minutes, Kato deliberately turned his knee slightly while doing a layup and struck Hu Zi’s stomach! This heavy blow instantly caused Hu Zi to fall to the ground in pain!

“F*ck you! You did that on purpose, didn’t you!” Xu Hao could not rein his anger in anymore. He had even raised his fists and was winding up to throw punches.

“The f*ck! Is this MMA or basketball?” Jiang Fei’s schoolmates outside the court started booing and lambasting the Japanese players.

“Basketball has always been a full-contact sport. You can only blame your own players for being too soft!” Kato responded clumsily in Chinese. As it was an unplanned match, there were no referees present. This gave the Japanese players room to become somewhat unscrupulous.

Jiang Fei looked up at the three Japanese and noticed that Tokugawa was mouthing some words at him — Sick man of East Asia![1]

“Oy you japs. Remember this. The rules were your own choice! Don’t you quit on me now!”

Jiang Fei’s face darkened as he spoke those words in a menacing voice!

At that moment, Xu Hao’s eyes were also blazing. After he found someone to substitute Hu Zi, the game continued.

“Give me the ball!” This was the first time Jiang Fei had asked for the ball since the start of the game!

“Okay!” Xu Hao passed the ball to Jiang Fei. He was rather pleased. He knew that things were going to go badly for the Japanese. The real beast in their team had finally been released!

After receiving the ball, Jiang Fei shot through the court. With his Cat Spirit Boots of Accuracy and additional 10 Agility, he broke out with full force. Kato who was guarding Jiang Fei did not even have time to react.

Jiang Fei was not a very rough player by nature. Usually, he would dribble around everyone else and then jump and do a windmill dunk to show off his skills. However, these Japanese guys had actually played dirty twice in a row and hurt two of his schoolmates. Everyone had a temper, let alone the particularly prideful Jiang Fei.

Jiang Fei feigned a jump before crouching down low. Then, he released all the strength from his legs and shot upwards like a cannonball.

“Boom!” Jiang Fei’s shoulder rammed into Kato’s chest, but that was just the beginning!

As he now had an additional 10 Strength, Jiang Fei was practically a human beast. His ascent was not slowed by the slightest. He sent Kato flying upwards by over a meter. Then, Jiang Fei broke away from Kato who had flown out of the court and continued to rise. At the same time, with both his hands, he did a slam dunk, sending the basketball right through the net!

“Cough cough…” Kato was seeing stars and foaming at the mouth.

“Baka! Are you trying to kill him?” The Japanese guys became anxious.

“Hoho, basketball has always been a full-contact sport. You can only blame your own players for being too soft!”

Jiang Fei quoted their own words back at them.

“Your Excellency, you’re pretty good!” Tokugawa Shingi’s Chinese was fluent. Initially, all his attention had been on Xu Hao, and he did not take much notice about Jiang Fei who had been laying low. However, it would be difficult to ignore him now!

“Hmph! We Chinese people never like to stir up trouble, but we are never afraid of trouble! What now? Do you still want to continue?” Jiang Fei looked at Tokugawa Shingi coldly.

“Who’s fighting? Who’s fighting?” At that moment, a balding, middle-aged fat man who started squeezing through the crowd.

“Oh my, Kato, are you okay?” As soon as the middle-aged fat man saw Kato lying on the ground, he ran over there.

“Dean Wang, don’t just look at the Japanese students, two of our own are wounded as well!” Zhao Feng called out.

The full name of Dean Wang was Wang Huairen (王怀仁). He was the Dean of the Office of Academic Affairs, and he was a greedy man. The students in the school often called him Wang Huairen (王坏人)[2] behind his back. This time, the get-together with the Japanese students had been his idea. He was hoping to rope in some money from the Japanese students while creating a harmonious atmosphere where people from both countries got along well. He hoped that the Japanese could peacefully settle down in China to remedy the disputes that had arisen due to the double-dealing acts of the Japanese. Perhaps he could run for office someday!

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Translation note:

[1] The phrase “sick man of Asia” or “sick man of East Asia” (Chinese Simplified: 东亚病夫, dong ya bing fu) originally referred to China in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when it was riven by internal divisions and taken advantage of by the great powers. China was forced to sign a series of unequal treaties, culminating in the Japanese invasion of China during World War II. The phrase may be considered derogatory, as it mocks the Chinese government and the Chinese people for being weak. The phrase was intended as a parallel to “sick man of Europe,” referring to the weakening Ottoman Empire during the same period. Like the “sick man of Europe” term, it has also been used to refer to numerous other Asian countries.

[2] The real name of the Dean, Wang Huairen (王怀仁) is read the same way as the nickname that the students use to refer to him behind his back (王坏人). The only difference between both is the second character. “坏人” translates to “bad guy” or “bad person.” Here, the students are making a pun out of the Dean’s name.