Chapter 41 – I’m Super Brave!

Zhou Ziyi scored 147 points in this round, and before he even left the court, the news had already spread across his circle of friends.

It wasn’t just Tang Shirong who spread the news; several people took photos and even videos of the big screen and the scoreboard, and posted them one after another on their WeChat moments.

Originally, these people had come to watch the excitement between Zhou Ziyi and Sheffield. Now that Zhou Ziyi has scored 147, Sheffield is no longer the focus. The captions on their WeChat Moments were all like “amazing,” “awesome,” “as expected of a little rocket,” and so on.

Even the girls posted, adding a “so cool” to their captions, mainly praising his looks.

The circles of these people overlapped with Yan Xiuzhi’s circle of friend, and Yan Xiuzhi happened to see it when he casually checked before going to bed.

“147 points…”

President Yan raised his eyebrows and looked at the photos on his phone screen, feeling a bit unable to move for some reason.

In the photo, a young man was wearing a white shirt with the sleeves slightly rolled up, revealing his well-defined wrist bones. He held a cue stick in one hand and wiped his cue with the other, his head slightly tilted towards the pool table, eyes fixed on the tabletop. In the slightly dim background, his waist outlined by the white shirt and belt was particularly striking. Clearly a quiet white photo, yet it conveyed a kind of captivating meaning.

Yan Xiuzhi looked at it for a few seconds, then finally swiped to the next photo.

This one was taken of Zhou Ziyi playing, and the angle of the photo was very good, capturing his face clearly. He was leaning on the table, his eyes tightly focused on the ball. The sharpness in his eyes made Yan Xiuzhi seem to feel the tense atmosphere. The Zhou Ziyi Yan Xiuzhi usually saw was lively, relaxed, and lazy, with occasional hints of gloom, but he rarely saw such a sharp side of him.

It’s like a taut bow, about to break through the air and go straight for the jugular!

When the photo was scrolled down, there was the scoreboard with 147 points.

It wasn’t a wooden or metal handmade scoreboard, but an LED scoreboard, with the bright red “147” clearly visible. Silent and indifferent numbers, yet representing a game of super snooker that was extremely calculating.

Yan Xiuzhi didn’t play snooker much, but he knew how rare this achievement was.

Zhou Ziyi liked to act weak and obedient in front of him, and would even deliberately make some annoying jokes. But at this moment, he suddenly became powerful, confident, and invincible.

Yan Xiuzhi suddenly realized: I still haven’t investigated enough… I don’t understand him enough.

Unconsciously, he swiped back to the previous photo.

This time, Yan Xiuzhi’s gaze inadvertently fell on the young man’s fingers holding the cue stick.

Slender, very white, holding the cue stick steadily.

It was these hands that had once gently caressed Yan Xiuzhi’s face, wiping away the remnants of eye drops.

Yan Xiuzhi stared at the photo, and some elusive thoughts flashed through his mind, finally converging into a sentence.

— How about… giving him some pocket money to congratulate him?

*
Zhou Ziyi didn’t pay attention to what happened behind him. He played a total of three games with Sheffield and then left the court.

During the third game, Zhou Ziyi didn’t score a 147, and he didn’t even attack with much effort. He was just crazily snookering and giving away penalty points for Sheffield. Sheffield was already angry and had an unstable mindset. With Zhou Ziyi acting so recklessly, it was… penalty points that led to a breakdown.

The comrade who was helping with the scoring looked at the scoreboard and asked the person next to him, “Um… negative points, do you still record it?”

The person next to him laughed gleefully.

A few seconds later, Tang Shirong saw the negative number on the scoreboard and burst into laughter.

“Hahaha, negative points! Oh my god, Sheffield, you have negative points, hahaha!!!”

Sheffield stared at him with a grim face, and Tang Shirong pretended to cover his mouth and said, “Oops, shouldn’t I have disturbed the game? Then I’ll punish myself with a hundred dollars, hahaha…”

Tang Shirong covered his mouth, after all the game was not over yet.

In the extremely targeted situation by Zhou Ziyi, Sheffield’s score became more and more negative. He angrily threw the cue and turned to leave. Zhou Ziyi spoke to Tang Shirong behind him in English, loudly enough for anyone to hear, “Hey? Brother Tang , didn’t you pay for this game?”

Tang Shirong is more aggressive, with a louder voice than Zhou Ziyi: “You won’t pay until you finish the game, right?”

Sheffield heard it clearly, so he had to write another check and tear it off for Zhou Ziyi. His voice was filled with anger as he handed it over: “You actually make money this way. It seems that your husband is really not that good to you.”

This was deliberately offensive. Zhou Ziyi calmly put on her pink sunglasses and smiled: “Do you still want to fight?”

Fight again?

Fighting again would be like throwing your face on the ground to be stepped on!

Sheffield slammed the door and left.

Tang Shirong helped Zhou Ziyi put away the check and sighed: “Temptation is the original sin.”

This was a bit arrogant. Everyone looked at Zhou Ziyi and Tang Shirong, wondering if Sheffield would teach them a lesson.

But then again, Zhou Ziyi had Yan Xiuzhi behind him, so he didn’t need to worry. Zhou Ziyi dared to stir up trouble for Sheffield, it seemed he wasn’t afraid.

However, Zhou Ziyi was really amazing, being able to provoke Sheffield to this extent with just a cue stick. People no longer cared about the money, Zhou Ziyi’s skill was really being wronged if he wasn’t paid for playing.

In the next moment, these people posted Zhou Ziyi’s achievements on their social media.

No one left in a huff, but negative comments kept coming, continuing to criticize Zhou Ziyi. However, many of these people’s friends had already privately messaged to ask who had been beaten so badly, and Sheffield’s name was spreading all over the country.

Later, someone even posted a screenshot on Weibo, praising Zhou Ziyi’s amazing skills and good looks, and it instantly caused a stir. But that’s another story.

President Yan, before going to sleep, saw the negative comments. Somehow, when Yan Xiuzhi saw this, he unconsciously smirked.

— This is him.

— So shameless, that’s him.

— However, his pocket money can be increased a bit…

Zhou Ziyi still didn’t know that money was about to fall from the sky, although Sheffield had already lost a lot to him.
He had finally vented his anger at Sheffield’s insults, put on his coat stylishly, pocketed the checkbook, and raised his chin to Tang Shirong: “Let’s go, Brother Tang, I’ll treat you to a drink!”

Tang Shirong laughed, “Are you going to treat me with the hundred dollars I just gave you? Does the wool come from the sheep?”^[1]The wool come from the sheep, It means that on the surface, others have given you a benefit, but in fact, the benefit has been added to the price you paid.

Others at the scene also joined in the fun, “We’ll go too, we’ll pay for ourselves!”

“No, Brother Tang and I are going to the roadside stall, you don’t have to lower yourselves.” Zhou Ziyi half-jokingly cut off their words, finished the wine in his glass, glanced at Tang Shirong, “So, are you coming or not?”

Tang Shirong: “Let’s go!”

When Zhou Ziyi and Tang Shirong left the venue, it was almost two in the morning.

By the time they found a ride-hailing car to go for a late-night snack, it was already half past two in the morning. The place was lively, with many people, and the smell of smoke and barbecue mixed in the air. Fortunately, Tang Shirong didn’t insist on driving the sports car after drinking, otherwise, it would have been quite out of place.

As soon as the skewers were served and the beer was poured, the two of them, still in casual suits, started to indulge in eating and drinking.

At this moment, Zhou Ziyi was in a very good mood. It was the first time in years that he felt so carefree, even the burp after drinking beer made him feel happy.

Sitting on a small stool by the street, pouring wine and sighing, he said, “Brother Tang, I’m so damn happy today, I feel like I’m on cloud nine!”

“I understand, brother! You played incredibly today, you made Sheffield look like amateurs, getting rid of that grudge must feel great.” Tang Shirong clinked glasses with him, “Zhou Ziyi, cheers!”

Zhou Ziyi didn’t respond, just clinked glasses with him and downed another whole glass.

What he didn’t say was that he was not only happy because he had severely beat Sheffield today, but also felt that a lot of pent-up frustration from the past few years had been released, making him feel much more relaxed. When he scored 147 points, his mind was highly focused, almost suffocating himself. When he succeeded, it wasn’t just his breath that was released, but also the long-held frustration in his heart.

Even the pressure that had been tightly binding him for several years seemed to have loosened somewhat.

These two things clearly had nothing to do with each other, yet they had such unexpected effects, even Zhou Ziyi himself hadn’t anticipated it. He thought that perhaps he had been suppressed for too long, always unable to find a way to release his pent-up emotions. Today’s game unexpectedly played such a role.

Later, when he made Sheffield give away penalty points, it was purely because Zhou Ziyi was in the zone, toying with Sheffield, trying to disgust him. Zhou Ziyi considered himself a civilized person, not one to resort to violence, but this game was equivalent to slapping Sheffield’s face, the longer it went on, the more slaps were delivered. In the end, Sheffield left the game early, leaving Zhou Ziyi feeling inexplicably exhilarated.

How long had it been since he was able to completely control himself and make things develop in the direction he wanted?

Zhou Ziyi turned over similar thoughts in his mind, but didn’t voice any of them, just clinking glasses frequently with Tang Shirong. Tang Shirong seemed to have caught onto something, yet also seemed oblivious to everything, but in any case, Zhou Ziyi wanted to drink, and Tang Shirong wouldn’t leave the scene early.
This drinking session lasted until dawn.

Zhou Ziyi’s mind was already in a mess, and his stubbornness was barely keeping him on his feet. Tang Shirong, on the other hand, could barely walk a few steps, but he kept mumbling nonsense, which gave Zhou Ziyi a headache after the alcohol had washed over him.

In the end, it was Zhou Ziyi who called the ride-hailing car, and sent Tang Shirong home first.

Tang Shirong lived in a row house, and after getting out of the ride-hailing car, he almost had to crawl up the steps. Fortunately, his housekeeper came out immediately to pick him up and carried him inside. Zhou Ziyi faintly heard Mr. Tang scolding him, and didn’t dare to stay any longer, so he fled.

By the time Zhou Ziyi got home himself, it was already past seven in the morning.

As soon as he entered the door, he couldn’t hold on at all and fell down immediately. If he hadn’t instinctively used his hand to support himself, his knee would have hit the floor directly. Zhou Ziyi half-knelt and half-lay on the ground for two seconds; his mind really couldn’t control his body. Instead, he rolled over and lay directly on the ground, closing his eyes.

— Wherever I fall, that’s where I’ll sleep!

— I don’t care…

But before he really fell asleep, Yan Xiuzhi’s voice sounded from above.

“Why are you sleeping here?”