The Court of Hidden Truths and Whispers Chapter 1

"Hold the ball! Run! Intercept him!"

With fifteen seconds left in the fourth quarter, the two teams on the court were once again in a stalemate after a tactical instruction.

This is the school playground of Shizhong.

The students standing outside the court and watching were crowded together. They could see six boys, all around 1.80 meters tall, rubbing their hands and testing their skills on the court.

The tallest boy was standing in the middle of the field. As soon as he caught the ball, he bent his palms, slightly concave them, and dribbled the ball at high speed, bypassing the two defenders of the opponent on the field and heading straight for the opponent's den!

This is walking.

He is a member of the school basketball team who is a top-notch player with great skills and is regarded as a great figure in the eyes of most people.

In the battle, he was confronting the attacking party of the enemy team, standing firmly in horse stance, upper body leaning forward, breathing heavily, and his whole body was extremely aggressive.

The basketball kept switching between his left and right hands, and the cheers and applause from the people around him were endless, leaving him no room for any ambiguity.

But he was distracted.

Because Ethan Ning was sitting under the one-arm basketball hoop where he was going to shoot the ball.

Ethan Ning, who lived downstairs from his house and had always been followed by him since he was a child.

The one who is three years older than him is Ethan Ning.

Still wearing his jersey, Ethan Ning was holding a popsicle bought from the convenience store and applying it to his arm that had just been hit by the huge impact of the ball. He had a calm expression as he observed the situation on the court.

His hair was cut short and was wet with sweat so that it couldn't stick to his forehead. It was too hot, so he lifted up his shirt a little to fan himself, revealing a section of his white and well-proportioned abdominal muscles.

Ethan Ning breathed a sigh of relief, as if enduring some pain, and applied the popsicle to his arm again.

What Carter Xing didn't know was that Ethan Ning's eyes had actually been following him alone.

But as soon as Carter Xing caught him looking at him and their eyes met, Ethan Ning quickly dodged away.

Watching Carter Xing scoring points one after another on the court, he suddenly felt a cool breeze around him, and his eyes were filled with the summer he loved.

"Get into the lane! Block his shot!"

This is Shizhong, located on the edge of the first ring road of the city. The transportation is very convenient, there are plenty of food, and the school is also very beautiful. Only the high school department is here, so it is not crowded and the students can feel relaxed.

Carter Xing just entered his second year of high school this year. He is tall and handsome, and is a small forward on the school team. He is focusing entirely on basketball. His skills have become famous throughout the district, and his playing style is top-notch, fierce and neat.

But he was different from other boys of the same age. His attention was not on girls, but on Ethan Ning, who had just entered the senior year of high school.

In his own opinion, it was a wasted effort.

When I was a kid, the kids in the yard would gather in groups of three or four after dinner to chat and tell ghost stories. The story of the glass marbles upstairs was particularly popular at the time. It was said that the sound of the marbles was actually made by falling eyeballs...

Xiao Ethan Ning pretended to be calm and said he was not afraid.

But only Xiao Carter Xing, who was secretly watching him from the side, knew that he was really scared.

The two of them lived on one floor, upstairs and the other downstairs. After returning home, Xiao Carter Xing would play marbles upstairs every evening.

After playing for two or three days, Xiao Carter Xing felt that he had done something wrong, so he used a rope to hang comic books, CDs and toys for Xiao Ethan Ning outside his bedroom window. Although Xiao Ethan Ning always refused them, he simply closed the curtains so that he wouldn't be annoyed.

After a while, Xiao Carter Xing was no longer a big shot.

Later, the two children grew up. Xiao Carter Xing ran downstairs and knocked on Xiao Ethan Ning's door every day: "Brother Ethan Ning, can we play together? Anything is fine!"

Little Ethan Ning, who was already much taller than him, opened the door and threw a basketball to the ground: "Come and play."

Little Carter Xing was so amused by little Ethan Ning, who was three years older than him, with a basketball that he lost his guard and admitted defeat. The two of them were considered to be connected from then on, but they were always incompatible.

When practicing ball in the community yard, little Ethan Ning would put the ball bag in the middle of the court as the "38th parallel" and look at his younger brother Carter Xing who was standing outside the court.

"If you dare come over here, I will beat you up."

Carter Xing played basketball so hard since he was young, and finally became the pillar of the school team, all he wanted was to defeat Ethan Ning once. However, this dream was only fulfilled in one game in his first year of high school, but he did not feel much satisfaction at the time.

As long as he was playing against Ethan Ning, even if he won, in Carter Xing's heart, he had lost.

Those who act first will never win back.

Ethan Ning has always been the "other people's child" in the eyes of Carter Xing's parents. She has good grades and looks good. Although she looks cold to everyone, she has a warm heart.

Apart from his imperfect family and the fact that he did not do well in the exam last year and had to repeat a grade, Ethan Ning did not have any worrying problems. However, his true character was unclear to almost everyone around him.

Carter Xing swore that this was his last time on the court this week. He was supposed to represent the school team to bravely fight against the challengers from other schools, but he met Ethan Ning who felt that the pressure of senior year was too great and wanted to go down to the court to play ball.

Once you get distracted, it seems like you can't come back.

Suddenly, a hysterical roar exploded in his ears: "Carter Xing! Cut him off!"

A buddy guarding the water dispenser in the team cheered passionately, which made him want to laugh. How could he steal the ball quickly after saying this?

Ethan Ning laughed and followed suit, with the corners of his mouth raised, which made Carter Xing dazed again.

At this time, the defense time was almost up, and the person confronting him took the lead and came over to steal the basketball from his hand. The situation on the court did not allow him to delay for even a second. Although Carter Xing was stunned, he immediately came to his senses and stepped aside!

He quickly changed hands to carry the ball, rushed into the offensive zone, jumped up, and dunked with a hook shot...

Two seconds on the buzzer, the ball goes in!

The orange ball went through the net with a "swish", and the tie was instantly turned into a win!

The crowd cheered and whistled: "Wow! Carter Xing is awesome today!"

Carter Xing stood firmly on his feet, and his first reaction was to turn his head to look at Ethan Ning.

Ethan Ning was also sitting there, the popsicle in his hand was almost melted. He had handsome eyebrows and eyes, and was so good-looking that Carter Xing, a rebellious boy in his youth, couldn't stop beating his heart.

The teammates who were squatting nearby rushed into the field, looked at Carter Xing who was in high spirits, and were about to be happy for him.

Carter Xing was surrounded by a group of people in the middle of the field, and he was almost lifted up and thrown away. However, he was indeed taller and stronger than many of his peers, so no one dared to throw him.

He turned his head and glanced at Ethan Ning again, with an elusive look in his eyes...

The latter was looking elsewhere and took the popsicle apart and put it in his mouth. Judging from the color of the popsicle, it should be quite sweet.

Ethan Ning lowered his eyes, and the wound that had just been covered by the popsicle and his hand was revealed. It was a slightly swollen abrasion, not serious, but it looked crimson from a distance.

The team was fighting fiercely. The player who had hurt Ethan Ning before glanced at Ethan Ning with an unfriendly look. Carter Xing immediately picked up the mineral water bottle in his teammate's hand, raised it and pointed it at the man's forehead, with the bottom of the bottle almost touching the opponent's forehead.

Carter Xing's gaze seemed to lock the person in front of him in place, "Look at him one more time, and you can try."

Both sides had a few friends behind them persuading and pulling them back, and no one dared to move.

Carter Xing couldn't keep calm when faced with this: "Apologize to my brother, or have a one-on-one bullfight..."

Ethan Ning did not bother to offend Carter Xing, but said coldly to the boys who played dirty tricks on him: "Basketball is about technique and tactics, but you are not as good as others and still play dirty tricks, who are you provoking?"

Carter Xing's brows were furrowed, and he clearly felt Ethan Ning with his hands behind his back, quietly pulling the hem of his short-sleeved shirt.

He calmed down a lot in an instant, and the irritable emotions surged in his heart, but were quietly calmed down by Ethan Ning's hand.

Carter Xing watched Ethan Ning walk to the one-arm basketball hoop, pick up his school uniform jacket and the short-sleeved shirt he had changed out of, stand still, and then turn around.

He waved his hands, and his tall figure cast a slender shadow under the summer sun.

"It's boring,"

Ethan Ning yawned, covered the wound on his arm with his school uniform, and said to Carter Xing, "Let's go home."

After saying that, Ethan Ning turned his back and walked away without waiting for him. Carter Xing loosened his hand and took a step back. The teammates around him all dispersed and watched his movements, a little nervous about what he would do next.

Carter Xing said nothing, but threw the mineral water bottle in his hand to the ground.

He strode to the basketball hoop, took off the sweaty wristband and threw it into the trash can, then silently followed the figure in front of him.

A ball game on campus on a summer afternoon ended just like that.

Carter Xing could have not participated in today's game, as he had already decided to study hard.

When he was divided into arts and science in the second semester of his senior year, he also chose arts, just like Ethan Ning, even though the liberal arts major was particularly difficult for him.

In order to study and be with Ethan Ning, he changed from living on campus to being a day student and got up half an hour earlier every day.

That year, Carter Xing was in the first grade and Ethan Ning was in the fourth grade. Carter Xing finally got promoted and Ethan Ning went to junior high school. When they finally went to the same high school, they could walk to and from school next to each other, and the time they met in the corridor was almost the same.

Carter Xing, a freshman in high school, was recruited into the school team as an exception. He obviously had the ability to start, but he insisted on sitting on the bench and being a substitute for Ethan Ning, a senior in the third year of high school.

By the time Carter Xing was in his second semester of high school, he was doing very well as a substitute and was very popular. Ethan Ning had also quit the basketball team to concentrate on his studies, although the relationship between them was, in a sense, one-sided.

Carter Xing couldn't quite remember when he realized that he liked Ethan Ning, and naturally he didn't know what Ethan Ning was thinking.

He had a vague impression that after he followed Ethan Ning into this high school, he saw a slogan painted on the wall on the basketball court. The words were very large, and almost one word took up a small area of   the wall.

"Exercise for an hour every day and live a healthy life forever."

He stood on the court holding a basketball, his hair warmed by the sun, his eyes fixed on the dashing and agile Ethan Ning on the court.

At that time, he felt that before he graduated from high school, he must take a photo with Ethan Ning under the wall of "A Lifetime".

① Starting lineup: The first few players to take the court in a basketball game are called the starting lineup.