Chapter 1281
Competition
Chapter 1281 Competition
6:6
Xu Xin and Shao Jie looked at the scoreboard at the same time, and the air seemed to freeze for a moment.
Shaojie's knuckles were slightly white as he gripped the racket, and the burning breath in his chest had not yet dissipated. Xu Xin's gaze moved from the scoreboard to his opponent, and then back to Shaojie - there was a fire burning in his partner's eyes, the lingering sound of the "charge" just now.
The noise of the stadium suddenly seemed distant.
Xu Xin tapped his thigh lightly with his racket.
Shaojie shook his wrist, his Adam's apple rolled, he didn't say anything, he just stood there.
The opponent served the ball, and Xu Xin twisted and pulled it, making the ball draw an exaggerated sideways arc. Shaojie started almost at the same second, and his steps were half a second faster than usual - as if the ball just now had ignited a fuse.
The sound of the rubber rubbing against each other was short and sharp. When the ball exploded in the opponent's corner, Xu Xin heard Shaojie squeeze out a cry from between his teeth: "Go!"
The moment the ball hit the net, Shaojie's pupils shrank to the size of a needle tip.
The white light paused strangely on the net, as if it was held up by an invisible hand for half a second, and then fell straight into the opponent's forehand small triangle area - it was a dead ball.
"Oh no!" Xu Xin's knees bent subconsciously, but he saw Shaojie rushing out like a hunting leopard.
The racket shrieked in the air, and Shaojie's entire right arm muscles bulged, and his wrist was lifted up at an almost twisted angle. The dull sound of the rubber and the ball hitting each other was like someone swinging a hammer on cotton.
The ball was thrown high up in an inverted U-shaped arc, and when it was about to go out of bounds, it suddenly fell down and was nailed to the edge of the opponent's table as if it was sucked by a magnet.
The opponent's racket just grazed the bottom of the ball, and the referee raised his left hand and the audience burst into exclamations at the same time.
7:6
Xu Xin felt all the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
He saw Shaojie kneeling on one knee in the posture of saving the ball, and the rubber sole of his sneakers rubbing against the floor made a harsh "squeaking" sound.
Blood seeped out from the gaps in Shaojie's knee pads, splashing a few dark red spots on the light blue floor glue.
"Medical timeout!" The referee made a T-sign.
Shaojie stood up suddenly and blocked the team doctor who was trying to go on the court half a meter away.
He grabbed the towel and pressed it on his knees, and the white towel immediately blossomed into a red plum blossom.
When Xu Xin came over, he heard the chattering sound of his teeth - it was not fear, but some kind of nervous tremor caused by excessive excitement.
"Can you still fight?" Xu Xin unscrewed the bottle of energy drink and handed it over.
Shaojie's action of drinking water was like tearing the throat of his prey, his Adam's apple rolled violently, and water mixed with sweat dripped down his chin. "Twenty seconds." He stared at the timer, his throat becoming even hoarser after being moistened by water, "enough for them to recover."
Xu Xin leaned close to Shaojie's ear and said, "In the next serve round, I bet they will attack your forehand corner."
The hot and humid breath made Shaojie's ears feel hot.
He smelled the sourness of the lemon-scented muscle patch on Shaojie's body, mixed with the bloody smell from his knee, strangely twisted into a fighting spirit.
"Then let them come." He pulled off the towel, revealing his cheekbones that were shiny with sweat.
The referee blew the whistle to continue the game.
The opponent's serve came like a blade, with exquisite backspin.
Xu Xin deliberately added three points of force when he made the short shot, and the ball bounced half an inch higher than usual in front of the net - this was a carefully designed trap.
The opponent pounced on him and attacked him violently, but Shaojie had already anticipated it and his whole body leaned back like a fully drawn bow.
"boom!"
The sound of the ball hitting the ball made Xu Xin's eardrum hurt.
Shaojie's counter-attack had a terrifying tail force. After the ball exploded on the opponent's table, it bounced up at a right angle and directly hit the opponent's collarbone.
The opponent player groaned, and the racket slipped out of his hand and hit the backboard.
8: 6.
The opposing player staggered back two steps, holding his collarbone, and his face turned pale instantly.
The metallic vibration of the racket hitting the backboard was still echoing in the stadium, and the referee had already trotted forward to check the situation.
Xu Xin saw the coach suddenly stand up and knock over a whole box of sports drinks, and the orange Pocari Sweat formed a dazzling river on the floor.
Shaojie stood there without moving, sweat dripping down his chin onto the table, making a slight "tapping" sound.
His right wrist was shaking unnaturally; the counter-pull just now had used up almost all of his wrist strength.
Xu Xin quickly stepped forward, blocked the camera by wiping his sweat, and asked in a low voice: "How is your wrist?"
"Enough for another three games." Shaojie curled his lips, but his eyes were fixed on the opposing player.
The team doctor was pressing an ice pack on the injured area. The opposing player's forehead was bulging with veins from the pain, but he gritted his teeth and didn't cry out.
The scores on the sidelines hit everyone's heart like a hammer.
Xu Xin noticed that the other party had been stealing glances at Shaojie's bleeding knee, his eyes mixed with fear and some strange excitement.
"They are calculating your mobility." Xu Xin pretended to help Shaojie tidy up his shoelaces, his voice very low, "The next ball will definitely hit your forehand corner."
Shaojie took off his sweat-soaked wrist guard and re-wrapped it tightly. Blood was faintly visible under the new white bandage. "Just in time," he licked his cracked lips, "I was afraid they wouldn't dare to come."
When the whistle sounded to end the timeout, the opposing player actually stood up again.
His shoulder movements were obviously stiff, but his eyes were more fierce than before the injury. Xu Xin saw the coach make a strange gesture - he put three fingers of his left hand together and stroked his throat.
"We have to fight hard." Xu Xin took a last look at Shaojie before serving. His partner's pupils shrank into two dark flames under the strong light.
When the opponent received the serve, his whole body leaned forward almost falling onto the table, and the return ball went straight to Shaojie's forehand with a suicidal spin.
When Shaojie moved sideways, the bandage on his right knee suddenly broke, and blood immediately soaked his sweatpants.
But he hit the ball without any hesitation. The moment the rubber touched the ball, Xu Xin heard a low roar that was almost like that of a wild beast.
The ball hit the opponent's table like a cannonball, and the ball that Sato barely blocked bounced high.
Xu Xin jumped up, and his whole body stretched out completely in the air.
The sunlight shone through his figure and cast a huge shadow on the court. The moment the racket hit the ping-pong ball, the opponent player consciously raised his hand to protect his collarbone.
"Snapped!"
The ball hit the sideline and flew out of bounds. 9:6.
The opposing coach threw the tactics board, and plastic fragments splashed at the referee's feet.
Shaojie bent over and supported his knees, panting, with blood dripping down his calves into his socks. When Xu Xin walked over to hand him a towel, he found that the muscles in his back were spasming uncontrollably.
"Can you still fight?" Xu Xin asked.
Shaojie looked up at the scoreboard, and the corners of his bloodstained mouth slowly rose: "What do you think?" The opponent was frantically spraying pain-relieving spray on his shoulder, and his eyes had begun to wander.
Xu Xin knew that the outcome of this match was no longer determined by skill. It now depended on who would be overcome by pain first and whose willpower collapsed first.
When Shaojie dragged his injured leg to the serving position again, the entire gymnasium suddenly fell silent.
The audience held their breath at the same time, waiting for the young man covered in blood to deliver what might be the most crucial shots in his career.
Xu Xin saw a little girl in the first row covering her eyes, while her father was staring at Shaojie's bleeding knee with an almost pious expression.
Shaojie's serve was like a poisoned dagger, spinning so strangely that the opponent's serve would hit the net directly.
After the opponent's desperate shot hit the net, Gao Shaojie and Xu Xin jumped up and smashed the ball at the same time. The two rackets crossed in the air. The ping-pong ball was deformed in mid-air after being hit by the double force, and it had become an irregular oval when it landed.
The moment the final whistle sounded, Shaojie fell to his knees.
Xu Xin wanted to help him, but found that his legs were shaking too.
The opposing player sat by the backstop, the can of pain relief spray rolled out of his weak hands, making a crisp rolling sound in the silent venue.
Xu Xin bent down and picked up the deformed ping-pong ball. The warmth of Shaojie's palm still remained on the plastic surface.
He suddenly remembered what Shaojie said on that rainy night three months ago when they were training in the training hall until two in the morning:
“The real game started at 6:6.”
Shaojie stumbled when he turned around, and Xu Xin immediately held him under the armpits. His palms felt something cold and wet - water could be wrung out of the back of Shaojie's competition uniform.
"The last one." Xu Xin tightened the Velcro on Shaojie's wristband again, "Use that?"
Shaojie nodded, took out a mint from his trouser pocket and put it under his tongue.
This is their killer move that they have been practicing privately for three months. Xu Xin's devilish serve combined with Shaojie's violent twisting on the table comes at the cost of Shaojie's wrist joint having to withstand 30% more impact force than conventional movements.
The towel the other person was using to wipe his sweat was shaking.
Xu Xin stood at the baseline and slowly tossed the ball. The sunlight slanted down from the skylight of the gymnasium, making the trajectory of his tossed ball look like a silver line.
The moment the ball was released, Shaojie had already started moving. He arrived at the designated position earlier than the ball, as if the two shared the same nervous system.
But this time the goddess of luck was on their side, and the ball rolled half a circle on the net before landing dramatically on the opponent's table.
The opponent player lifted the ball, and Shaojie's violent twist was already whistling towards him.
The opponent closed his eyes, the ball brushed past his ear and hit the billboard behind him, and the mineral water bottles embedded in the foam board jumped together.
Xu Xin discovered that Shaojie's hand holding the racket was spasming uncontrollably.
In order to keep himself awake, Shaojie suddenly broke off half a bottle of sports drink and poured it on his head, and the ice water flowed down his bangs.
Xu Xin saw Shaojie's determination to play.
When serving again, the opponent's serve unexpectedly produced a rare "barbecued pork ball", a mistake ball with neither topspin nor backspin.
Xu Xin rushed sideways, and Shao Jie moved to the backhand position at the same time, and the two figures crossed in the air, leaving an X-shaped afterimage.
On the table, the silver ball shuttled back and forth like lightning.
Xu Xin's explosive charge with a sharp arc went straight to the opponent's blind spot, but was resolved by a strange slice from the opponent when it was about to touch the table.
The ball brushed the net and bounced lightly on the table on Shaojie's side.
"I'll do it!" Shaojie pushed the ground hard, and the friction between his sneakers and the rubber floor made a harsh sound.
He flew out almost parallel to the ground, and his wrist suddenly turned at the last centimeter.
The edge of the racket brushed against the bottom of the ping-pong ball, and the small white ball rolled half a circle along the upper edge of the net before reluctantly falling onto the opponent's table.
The audience erupted in exclamations like a tsunami.
Xu Xin saw that Shaojie almost knocked Xu Xin down due to inertia, but his left hand was still holding on to the ground to maintain balance.
A mixture of ice water and sweat dripped from his chin, reflecting a diamond-like luster under the blazing spotlight.
When his opponent hurriedly returned the ball, Xu Xin smelled the scent of positivity in the air.
He closed his eyes and swung the racket, hearing his own heartbeat forming a wonderful chord with Shaojie's rapid breathing twenty meters away.
The moment the racket touched the ping-pong ball, he suddenly remembered playing skipping stones as a child. At this moment, the flying silver ball was like a piece of stone cutting through the water, creating seven ripples on the river of light.
boom--!
With a crisp sound like an explosion, the ping-pong ball hit the corner of Shaojie's desk like a bullet, and almost brushed past his nose when it bounced.
9:7, the opponent finally scored a point.
The coach on the sidelines clenched his fists suddenly. The noise in the audience paused for a second, and then broke out into more intense cheers.
Shaojie shook his wet bangs, and the ice water mixed with sweat slid into his collar, and the coolness instantly sobered him up.
He turned his head to glance at Xu Xin, and their eyes met. Instead of being frustrated, they both felt an even stronger desire to fight.
"We can do it!" Xu Xin said softly, rubbing his fingers lightly on the rubber surface of the racket, making a slight friction sound.
She leaned forward slightly, her knees bent, like a fully drawn bow, ready to shoot.
Shaojie took a deep breath and put the tip of his tongue against the roof of his mouth, the sweet taste of the sports drink still lingering in his mouth.
She stared at her opponent's serve, her pupils contracted slightly - the opponent's fingertips lightly rubbed the ball, and this subtle movement revealed the trajectory of the rotation.
Bang! Here comes the ball.
Xu Xin took a step forward and swung his wrist like a whip. The moment the racket touched the ball, the air seemed to be torn apart.
The ping-pong ball drew a strange arc and fell rapidly on the opponent's table, like a diving falcon, straight into the blind spot!
The audience was boiling instantly, and the commentator's voice almost broke: "Xu Xin's super twist! This ball is simply amazing!"
Shaojie's mouth corners slightly raised. He felt the hot blood surging in his chest. The ice water had long evaporated, leaving only the boiling fighting spirit.
The ping-pong ball flew back and forth on the table at such a speed that it almost left an afterimage.
boom! boom! boom!
Every collision was as shocking as the sound of a war drum. The air in the stadium seemed to be ignited, and the audience's shouts were like waves, one higher than the other.
Xu Xin's eyes were as sharp as a knife, his footsteps were as swift as the wind, he slid sideways and swung the racket suddenly.
The ping-pong ball had a strong side spin, drawing a strange arc in the air, heading straight for the opponent's backhand blind spot. The opponent gritted his teeth and growled, stretching his body to the limit, barely able to cut the ball back.
Shaojie had already predicted the landing point, and he jumped out like a cheetah. With a flick of his wrist, he smashed the ball with the racket at an almost tricky angle!
"Bang!" The ball hit the opponent's table like a cannonball. The moment it bounced, it almost brushed the opponent's clothes and flew out, almost falling to the ground.
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