Chapter 16
“Each episode of Sports Forward! will make everyone fall in love with a sport! But before revealing this week’s event, the sports team will first play a mini-game!”
The camera panned to the decorated stage entrance. The PD’s voice rang out with enthusiasm:
“Please welcome our guests!”
“There’s no time!” In the waiting area, Yu Tong hurriedly patted Ning Zhou’s shoulder. “Relax, since my brother asked me, I’ll definitely cover for you. Go on stage first!”
“Thank you, Sister Yu!”
Yu Tong wore a tight-fitting camouflage vest, showing off toned arms. Passing by a camera, she blew a kiss, instantly setting the livestream comments ablaze:
[Sis! Give me a chance!]
[So gorgeous, a true sports goddess—my ultimate type!]
[That cartilage piercing is so cool. Anyone got a link? I want the same one.]
[Forget it. She’s the Yu family’s eldest daughter—those are definitely real diamonds. Normal people can’t afford it…]
Ning Zhou copied her, waving at the same camera. The cameraman suppressed a laugh and reminded him, “The feed already switched to the camera behind you…”
“!” Ning Zhou stiffly turned around—only to see the cameraman behind him laughing so hard the camera shook.
“So whichever one has the red light is the one I should look at, right?” Ning Zhou concluded, his ears turning red as he forced himself to stay calm.
From then on, as the PD explained the rules, the audience realized something—Ning Zhou always found the camera.
It was like he was playing hide-and-seek with them. No matter how stealthily the director switched shots, Ning Zhou immediately locked on and stared straight at the lens.
[I randomly screenshotted ten frames—without exception, the “ vase” is staring at the camera…]
[How does he do that!? Some cameras are really far away, yet his eyes tracked them instantly—even through the gap between two other guests!]
[Same question. Is this some bizarre natural talent…?]
[The director must’ve noticed too. They kept switching, but still couldn’t shake him off. /shocked/]
[Don’t get competitive over weird things!]
The PD finished reading the rules, only to see Ning Zhou still twisting around, sneakily looking for something.
“Ahem. Did everyone remember the rules?”
Looking guilty, Ning Zhou nodded along with the group. The PD then called him out, “Good. Then, Ning Zhou, please repeat them for us.”
Ning Zhou: ……
[LOL this feels just like school—if you weren’t paying attention, the teacher would 100% call on you!]
[My favorite kind of cringe: watching people curl their toes from secondhand embarrassment. /smirk/]
[But wait… do we even remember the rules? /sweat/]
[Smile fading. Maybe I’m not qualified to laugh at the “vase”…]
[Same, I didn’t listen either—I was too busy watching him chase the cameras…]
When embarrassed, people pretend to be busy. Ning Zhou sniffled, smoothed down a few stray hairs, then decided not to waste everyone’s time, “Sorry, I didn’t quite catch it…”
The PD sighed, smiling meaningfully.
“That’s alright. Once you see the demo, you’ll understand!”
The guests exchanged glances, sensing something was off…
A staff member was blindfolded to act as the “test subject.”
He spun in place ten times with another’s help, then ripped off the blindfold.
Dizzy and stumbling, he was immediately shown a tablet by the PD—a picture of three little ducks floating on the water.
Five seconds later, the screen went dark. “How many ducks?”
The “test subject,” still swaying, managed to hold up three fingers.
The PD revealed the picture again, “As long as one of you answers correctly, the whole team succeeds!”
Yu Tong flicked her earring and shook her head, “Looks simple enough…”
“Exactly!” A man in his thirties agreed eagerly. “I’ll go first and show everyone how it’s done!”
The PD gestured toward the staff, “Alright, our first challenger—Zeng Yunsheng!”
Zeng Yunsheng looked plain, the type who could vanish in a crowd.
He put on the blindfold, spun ten times, then ripped it off—only to collapse in one direction like a felled tree.
A staffer caught him in time, “Hold it together! Don’t fall!”
Barely able to speak, Zeng Yunsheng staggered like a drunk, clinging to the staffer for dear life.
The other guests urged him on, “Quick, count the ducks! Look at the tablet!”
He tried to lift his head, but his eyes spun like spirals, clearly disoriented. By the time he regained focus, the tablet was already turned off.
“Challenge failed!”
“No way!” Zeng Yunsheng clutched his head, his earlier confidence gone. “This game is impossible! Honestly, after spinning, I didn’t see ducks—I saw stars. Endless stars…”
“Seriously? It’s that hard?” Yu Tong frowned, unable to watch, and questioned him, “Have you stopped training since you retired?”
“Of course not!” Zeng Yunsheng’s brows shot up.
Another male guest, Fu Binhong, patted his beer belly and calmly analyzed, “Table tennis players aren’t good at visual focus. I used to do shooting. My eyesight’s sharp—it won’t be a problem.”
Zeng Yunsheng gave him a complicated look, “Fine, don’t believe me. Go try it yourselves. You’ll need the luck.”
Within five minutes, Yu Tong and Fu Binhong both failed their challenges one after another…
[I don’t believe this either! I’m going to try.]
[Hey, are you okay up there?]
[Aba aba, the whole world just flipped upside down…]
[I get it now—the hard part of this game isn’t counting ducks, it’s spinning in circles!]
[Speaking of spinning, isn’t there a spin master in the sports team?! /eyes sparkling/]
The guests realized it too, and all turned hopefully toward the “team’s greatest hope”—
Tong Rong. As a figure skater, spinning was a required skill, and spinning ten times on the spot was no challenge for her at all!
Tong Rong was 22 years old, with captivating phoenix eyes, about 1.6 meters tall, and looked especially cute on camera.
Accepting everyone’s expectations, she solemnly said, “I’ll do my best to try!”
After ten spins, she only swayed slightly, managing to stand more steadily than any challenger so far.
“She did it!” Zeng Yunsheng cheered, “Not being dizzy already counts as 99% success!”
Yu Tong, seeing hope, shouted, “Quick, look at the tablet, now it’s just about counting!”
The staff removed Tong Rong’s blindfold, and she immediately looked at the PD, confidence shining in her eyes…
But the moment the tablet lit up, her smile froze, then slowly vanished—
On the screen, a large flock of ducks floated on the water. This was no longer something a simple single-digit math problem could handle…
“Wait! This…”
Five seconds later, the PD mercilessly blacked out the screen: “How many ducks?”
Tong Rong widened her eyes and tentatively stammered, “It looked like twenty… three?”
“Wrong! Challenge failed—”
“Then twenty-four!” she struggled to correct herself, but the result was still “Challenge failed.”
“But it was twenty-four ducks!” Ning Zhou rushed in to defend her. “She counted right!”
The PD remained stone-hearted, “You only get one chance to say your answer. Tong Rong said twenty-three first. That means failure.”
Fu Binhong spread his hands, “It was just single-digit ducks before, now you’re making things hard on the poor girl?”
The PD was unmoved, explaining, “As everyone adapts, the difficulty increases. During your recent challenges, the number of ducks has been gradually rising.”
[I get it—the production team simply doesn’t want the sports team to succeed…]
[It’s over now. The only one brave enough to spin circles got done in by the rules.]
[Looks like the evil-minded producers want a total wipeout!]
[Why so pessimistic? There’s still one member who hasn’t challenged yet!]
[The ‘vase’ can’t be counted on, he’ll never get past the spinning part!]
[But what if? Didn’t you guys notice the ‘vase’ casually gave the right answer earlier?]
[Oh right! In just five seconds, I couldn’t count them all either…]
If Tong Rong was the “team’s greatest hope,” then Ning Zhou was the “last hope”…
Whether the first mini-game of the first episode ended in total defeat now rested on Ning Zhou.
At twenty, Ning Zhou was the youngest of the team, and his four seniors gathered around him anxiously, “Ning Zhou, you volleyball players should have good resistance to dizziness, right?”
He stood there honestly, “I don’t know, but for me personally, I really can’t handle it.”
“!” Yu Tong closed her eyes in despair. “It’s okay, it’s our fault we couldn’t do it, leaving you such a heavy burden…”
Zeng Yunsheng refused to give up, encouraging him, “Come on, you’re young, you’ll definitely beat the dizziness!”
Ning Zhou calmly said, “I don’t plan on resisting it. If the dizziness comes, there’s nothing I can do anyway. I’ll just collapse directly.”
“?”
Zeng Yunsheng couldn’t understand why this kid ten years younger than him spoke with such detachment, as if he had fully grasped the idea of “life and death are fate, wealth is up to heaven”…
[The ‘vase’ hasn’t even tried yet and he’s already giving up?]
[Not giving up, more like he’s just chill about it…]
[If you can’t beat it, just collapse. Well said, Master Ning. The youth of today need a guide like you! /thumbs up/]
[‘The world kisses me with pain, and I stick out my tongue.’]
[Hahaha the person above is a genius, really knows how to enjoy it! /clap/]
Ning Zhou walked to the center, the staff helping him put on the blindfold.
“Old Fu, what does he mean by ‘just collapse directly’?” Zeng Yunsheng asked Fu Binhong.
With his beer belly pushing up his shirt, Fu Binhong stroked it and pretended to be wise, “‘When the enemy is strong, I retreat; when the enemy retreats, I advance.’ In military strategy, that’s a highly flexible tactic showing great wisdom. For little Ning to already have such thinking at his age—it’s impressive!”
“I see!” Zeng Yunsheng was suddenly enlightened. “So Ning Zhou really does have his own way of thinking!”
Beside them, “figure skating goddess” Tong Rong listened in confusion, completely lost: “Is… is that really it?”
“Let’s just say it is!” Yu Tong, in big-sister mode, concluded. “At this point, all we can do is trust Ning Zhou.”
Carrying the team’s last hope, Ning Zhou began spinning.
“…Eight, nine, ten.”
The staff waited for him to finish, removed the blindfold, and supported his arm—so smoothly practiced it was heartbreaking. Ning Zhou, dizzy and unstable, slid neatly out of the staffer’s arms, showing not the slightest will to resist, and lay flat on the ground…
The other guests gawked, shocked, “‘Collapse directly’ actually meant literally!?”
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