Ch34.1 - The Rules of Raising a Dog-Type Boyfriend (4)

To be honest, Xu Qichen felt a little bit afraid.

Okay, fine, not just a little bit. 

But he chose to attribute this fear to the phobia of dogs that his character had been given.

Chen Qingyu, dense as he was, did not notice anything wrong. Upon seeing Mu Yao, he even happily said, “Ai, Ye Han said you weren’t coming. Come on in!”

Xu Qichen frowned, unable to understand what this person’s deal was.

Didn’t he reject him very straightforwardly? 

With unhappiness clearly visible on his face, Mu Yao walked up to Xu Qichen, “Senior Ye, are you angry with me?”

What’s this move?

Aren’t you the one who’s angry?

With an expression that said ‘I don’t understand what you’re saying’, Xu Qichen shook his head, “No ah…”

“Then why didn’t you reply to my text?”

What text…? Xu Qichen reached into his pocket, took out his mobile phone, and pressed the home button but the black screen did not react at all.

“Ah, it seems to have run out of battery…” Xu Qichen laughed. Looking at the dead phone, Mu Yao’s expression relaxed.

Chen Qingyu called the team members over, “This is a freshman from our school, he might be joining us…” 

Before he could finish his introduction, Mu Yao interrupted him very blandly, “Senior, I haven’t agreed.”

The atmosphere immediately became awkward.

Just as Xu Qichen was thinking of maybe mediating, the person in black who had called out to him earlier responded angrily, “You, newcomer, what’s up with your attitude?”

Mu Yao remained silent. 

Chen Qingyu: “Leave it, Ah Feng.”

“Leave it?” Another boy, who was relatively shorter, stood up and slowly walked to the centre of the court. He picked up the ball on the floor and began bouncing it. In a mocking tone, he said, “Perhaps he’s just a tall guy with no skills, here to inflate his own ego.”

With that, he skillfully dribbled the ball forward, and soon came to Xu Qichen’s side. He held the ball in his right hand for a layup and jumped lightly.

The easy score Xu Qichen was expecting did not happen. 

Rather, he watched as the black shadow beside him flashed by and, with agility and speed that surpasses that of normal humans, leapt, reached out, and viciously slammed the ball out of that guy’s hand and onto the floor.

A merciless block.

Everyone’s eyes were focused on the hoop.

As his feet hit the floor again, Mu Yao stuck his right hand back into his pocket. 

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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“Yg sbe’ii yf rfaalcu sbegrfio eq obg fjrs ojmf-rijqqlcu, rfclbg.”

We Hlmtfc’r meggfca wbbv mbeiv bcis yf vfrmglyfv jr ecfjrs. 

Pr atf Ze Tjb lc ogbca bo tlw gfjiis atf rjwf qfgrbc jr atf Ze Tjb ktb tjv agfjafv tlw ab cbbvifr atlr joafgcbbc?

The innocent basketball bounced off the floor a few times before finally stopping.

The basketball court became silent.

Xu Qichen was expecting the situation to become even more awkward when Chen Qingyu unexpectedly began applauding. For a moment, Xu Qichen thought he had begun hallucinating. 

“Amazing, amazing, as expected of the person who caught my eye.” Chen Qingyu laughed out loud, “Ah Ming is a famous small forward in our school, but you actually managed to block him! Good job, good job.”

As expected, he was truly unable to comprehend the thought processes of straight men ah.

Interestingly, Ah Ming also began applauding, “You’re good, junior.”

Thankfully, they were all really good people. Relieved, Xu Qichen wiped the sweat on his forehead. He asked in his mind, “0901, why is Mu Yao so fierce? I didn’t write him to be so murderous…” 

“0901 doesn’t know, 0901 has no idea.”

Xu Qichen: …

Xu Qichen gave up on seeking help from this AI who had never been of practical use and focused on the present. Chen Qingyu was asking Mu Yao about his highschool basketball experience while Mu Yao was replying intermittently. Seems like all is well.

“Good, join us ba.” Chen Qingyu patted Mu Yao on the shoulder. 

Mu Yao turned to look at Xu Qichen, “Senior Ye, are you also on the team?”

Xu Qichen shook his head, “I’ve already quit.”

“Then forget it,” Mu Yao replied straightforwardly.

Chen Qingyu spoke up anxiously, “Don’t ah, Ye Han quit because he didn’t see much point in continuing, but you have so much potential ah.” Seeing Mu Yao’s lack of reaction, Chen Qingyu grabbed onto Xu Qichn, “I know, why not Ye Han take on the role of the basketball team manager so Mu Yao stays? How about it?” 

Xu Qichen frowned, “Aren’t all team managers girls?”

He had never seen a male team manager before…

Chen Qingyu immediately disagreed, “Who says they have to be only girls? Right, Ah Feng? I think Ye Han will be good.”

Ah Feng crossed his arms and grinned, “I agree. If we let a girl join the team, everyone would be distracted by the idea of romance.” 

Oomf.

Why did it sound like an arrow just hit someone’s chest?

“Then it’s decided lah.” Chen Qingyu patted Xu Qichen’s shoulder, “Don’t worry, we won’t make you do anything difficult. Just come over to watch over the newcomers’ training every once in a while. You come here all the time anyway.”

Xu Qichen first looked at Chen Qingyu’s [Never have I ever been rejected by Ye Han] face, then at Mu Yao’s [Senior if you don’t agree I’ll leave right this moment] face and could only silently sigh in his heart. 

“Fine.” Then he added, “But I’ll be busy, so I’ll only drop by when I’m free, okay?”

Chen Qingyu’s only intention was to make Mu Yao stay, never to make Xu Qichen do the actual job of the manager, so he was not overly concerned about whether he would be able fulfil his responsibilities. “No problem, just help out whenever you’re free.”

Xu Qichen nodded. It seems the problem has been solved using such an unconventional method.

He sat down cross-legged in a corner and rested his head on his hand and watched Chen Qingyu and a few other members chat with Mu Yao. 

“Ye Han.”

Hearing Chen Qingyu call his name, Xu Qichen stood up and walked over, “What is it?”

“Record his measurements ba.” Chen Qingyu gave him a form and pointed towards a corner of the gym, “The measuring equipment is over there.”

“O.” Xu Qichen took the form. 

“Jiayou ah, basketball team manager.” Ah Ming reached out towards Xu Qichen with his fist.

Does he want a fist bump?

Xu Qichen, who had always been quiet, was not used to such an overly hot-blooded way of communication, but he still made a fist and knuckle bumped Ah Ming.

Beside him, Mu Yao suddenly chuckled. Xu Qichen glanced at him. 

This feeling was a bit familiar.

The first and most basic thing to measure was, of course, Mu Yao’s height and weight. Xu Qichen led him to the equipment in the corner, “Stand on it ba.”

Mu Yao obediently stepped on it.

Xu Qichen lowered his head to read his weight, “82.5kg.” Then looked up to check his height, “1.92m…” 

So tall.

“Now let’s measure your arm span.” Xu Qichen picked up a measuring tape and unrolled it. He handed the tip to Mu Yao, “Hold this.”

Mu Yao nodded and obediently held it. Stifling his smile, he stretched out his arms. Holding the measuring tape roll, Xu Qichen slowly walked to the other side and stopped at Mu Yao’s fingertips of the other hand.

Xu Qichen was working with a serious expression on his face. He narrowed his eyes slightly, to carefully focus on the value, while Mu Yao stared at him. 

This unintentional half-hug brought him unparalleled happiness.

“Wah,” Xu Qichen was surprised, “1.94m…” He looked up at Mu Yao with shining eyes, “Plus your fingers are curled up on that side, so it should be about 1.98m, so long.”

Mu Yao raised his eyebrows, his expression full of childish pride.

The following evaluation needed the help of others. So Xu Qichen led Mu Yao to the middle of the court. Chen Qingyu took Mu Yao to conduct tests such as vertical jump and high-intensity shooting, while Xu Qichen wrote down the results. 

Mu Yao’s physical fitness test results were very excellent. Even Chen Qingyu, who had been playing for many years, was surprised. He began to look at Mu Yao as though he had found a precious treasure.

Although Xu Qichen himself was not very good at playing basketball, he had often watched it silently by himself, so he understood it. And he of course knew better than anyone that Mu Yao had held back on many tests.

The results of the German Shepherd settings were truly amazing.

Tall and powerful, agile, aggressive, and with strong working ability, these were all the characteristics of a German Shepherd. 

Although at the time of writing, Xu Qichen had simply thought that the black German shepherd was the most handsome dog in his mind, so he wrote the setting in this way.

But now that the result was in front of him, he had mixed feelings about it.

“That’s great!” Chen Qingyu looked at the form with an extremely gratified expression. “In a few days, after we’ve trained together and worked on our coordination, getting into the finals would be no problem at all!”

Mu Yao nodded without speaking and glanced at the daydreaming Xu Qichen. 

Somehow, Xu Qichen felt the gaze and subconsciously turned towards its source.

Their eyes met.

And then were quickly averted.

Once again, that familiar feeling. 

Chen Qingyu clapped, “Since we have a new member today, we should celebrate properly.”

Ah Ming began to cheer, “Yes! Let’s have barbecue! I’m so hungry~”

“Let’s go! Supper time!”

Xu Qichen hesitated, wondering if he should refuse. 

Suddenly, he felt a hand gently rest on his shoulder. Strangely, it did not make Xu Qichen uncomfortable at all.

He turned and saw Mu Yao.

“You’ll be joining, right, senior?”

“Ah?” Xu Qichen thought for a moment. He didn’t know why he couldn’t say no. It wasn’t like when he was facing Chen Qingyu and had to agree to whatever he said in order not to expose Ye Han’s abnormality, but simply a matter of not being able to refuse. 

Somehow, he was unable to reject Mu Yao.

“Okay… ba.”

He clearly felt the palm resting on his shoulder relax.

Xu Qichen eyed the hand for a while, and yet he said nothing. 

“That’s great.” Mu Yao smiled and his eyes once again curved, looking like a completely different person from the one who had slammed the door.

Xu Qichen felt very confused.