The Stepmother’s Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era
Chapter 684 - 683: Qiao Ya is Pregnant, Shen Baolan Comes Knocking

Chapter 684: Chapter 683: Qiao Ya is Pregnant, Shen Baolan Comes Knocking

"Sis Ren, Sis Ren, you dance so well, you’ll definitely become the greatest dancer. This is a little token from my brother and me."

Seeing Pei Tang’s joyous smile, Ren Jingshu couldn’t help but smile too as she accepted the congratulatory gift from the other.

"Thank you."

"You’re welcome~"

Once the two had finished speaking, Zhao Yun also took the opportunity to present a bouquet and his best wishes.

After Ren Jingshu had removed her makeup and changed clothes, including Dai Yu, the five of them took a taxi to eat Peking duck to celebrate for Ren Jingshu.

The Peking duck restaurant was chosen by Dai Yu, who said it was the best-tasting one in the Capital.

After ordering the dishes, Zhao Yun excused himself to the bathroom and called Pei Ziheng to the back door of the Peking duck restaurant for a chat.

The back door led to the parking lot, and beside it, there appeared to be a school’s sports field with a few kids playing basketball.

"Ziheng, lend me some more money, I’ll foot the bill later."

Before coming, Dai Yu had said he would treat, but Zhao Yun didn’t want to spend another man’s money on his girlfriend’s important day, making him seem useless.

Pei Ziheng clearly had come prepared and immediately pulled out five hundred in cash from his pocket.

Zhao Yun accepted the money with glee, just about to stuff it into his pocket when a basketball flew over from nowhere.

It was heading straight for Pei Ziheng’s head, but Zhao Yun reached out and caught the ball with ease.

"Big bro, sorry about that, my bad. Could you throw the ball back, please?"

The kids were all around ten years old, and Zhao Yun didn’t bother to argue, standing up straight and aiming for the basketball hoop thirty meters away.

Duang~

It went straight through the hoop.

The kids were shocked by Zhao Yun’s display of skill.

Zhao Yun was pleased with himself too; such a long-shot basket was actually not something he was confident about, it was mostly luck.

"Hello, Excuse me..."

On the way back to dinner, a tall, blond foreign man stopped Zhao Yun halfway.

"Ziheng, come here."

Zhao Yun’s first reaction was that the man wanted directions, so he quickly brought Pei Ziheng forward.

After Pei Ziheng muttered a few words to the blond man, he turned to look at Zhao Yun, "He’s looking for you."

Zhao Yun was perplexed, "What does he want with me? I don’t even know him."

Pei Ziheng continued to communicate with the man in English, probably asking the blond man’s intentions on Zhao Yun’s behalf.

"His name is Tom; he’s a basketball coach from M Country. He saw your shot earlier and thinks you have talent, and he wants to invite you to a basketball academy’s tryout for new students."

Encouraged by everyone at the table, Zhao Yun decided to give it a try.

The next morning, he went to the address provided by the blond man, accompanied by Dai Yu and Pei Ziheng.

Ren Jingshu wanted to go too, but to stop her from dating Zhao Yun, Ren’s mother moved up the train ticket, taking her back to Fengcheng overnight.

...

The tryout venue was in a small gymnasium, which was far more upscale than Zhao Yun had expected.

There were several hundred participants alone, plus family members accompanying them, figures from the sports world, and spectators who were there for the excitement, filling the not-so-large gym to capacity.

The selection process was simple.

The first step was to measure height and weight. Those who qualified received a registration form.

After filling out the form, staff members would take them to the testing field to participate in the tests.

There were three events in the test.

The first event was a standing vertical jump to reach a height, done three times, taking the highest result.

The second event was a thirty-meter shuttle run.

Zhao Yun’s results in the first two events were average but within the passing range.

The third event was shooting three-pointers for one minute.

Before Zhao Yun’s turn, the best record onsite was eighteen baskets.

Zhao Yun scored twenty-five, a full seven baskets ahead of the first-place score.

Zhao Yun, the focus of everyone’s attention, was totally bewildered.

He knew he was kind of awesome, but not this awesome.

Before this, his best record in practice had been 20, and that was a one-time thing. He couldn’t reach it again no matter how hard he tried.

In fact, he wasn’t interested in the basketball academy’s tryouts at all and was merely participating for fun.

Perhaps it was his relaxed state combined with an extraordinary performance that resulted in such a record.

Tom the teacher was all excited, like he had struck gold, babbling excitedly to Zhao Yun.

Standing beside him, Pei Ziheng translated concurrently, "Wow, I really wasn’t mistaken, you are a genius, amazing! Really great!"

Zhao Yun generally bragged a lot, but when someone called him a genius, he felt incredibly nervous.

"I’m not, I didn’t, don’t talk nonsense, I just got lucky. Ziheng, hurry and tell him."

When Pei Ziheng translated Zhao Yun’s words to Coach Tom in fluent American English, Dai Yu was surprised.

Since meeting him two days ago, he only knew Pei Ziheng’s name and that he was Zhao Yun’s sworn brother. He knew nothing else.

He had assumed at best Pei Ziheng was a middle school student.

Understanding English as a middle schooler isn’t strange, but providing a live translation from Chinese to English, with perfect pronunciation and expression, was pretty impressive.

"Coach Tom says that luck is also a form of strength and hopes you keep up the good luck in the next round of trials."

Zhao Yun: "...I can’t."

Pei Ziheng turned to Coach Tom, "He said he can."

Zhao Yun understood that much, "Bullshit, I don’t can, don’t can..."

But before he could finish speaking, Dai Yu covered his mouth.

...

The next round of tryouts involved three-on-three basketball.

After three hours of fierce competition, ten candidates stood out and were accepted into the basketball academy as new students.

Zhao Yun was among them.

Compared to the other nine ecstatic selectees, Zhao Yun didn’t feel much of anything, not even happiness.

Although his dream was to become an NBA player, he never actually thought about making it come true.

Moreover, he could not bear to leave Mr. Zhao, his soon-to-be-born sibling, and his close friends behind.

He was self-aware; he simply didn’t have the capability to survive alone in a foreign country.

"Ziheng, go tell Coach Tom, say that I won’t go to M Country, to give my spot to someone else."

Pei Ziheng looked at him, unsurprised.

As brothers who grew up together, he knew too well that despite Zhao Yun’s tough exterior, he was a scaredy-cat at heart.

"This might be the only chance in your life to fulfill your dream. Are you really willing to give that up? If you go to the basketball academy, you will have the chance to enter the NBA draft."

Perhaps it was due to Pei Ziheng’s serious demeanor, or maybe there was a glimmer of hope for that elusive dream in his heart, Zhao Yun was silent for a long while before muttering:

"I can’t even understand what they’re saying, what could I possibly learn there?"

"I can teach you English, guaranteeing you’ll be able to communicate with others within a month."

Zhao Yun scuffed the ground with the tip of his shoe, "I don’t want to go alone, why don’t you come with me?"

Pei Ziheng looked at him, "Then you might as well not go and stay home as a good-for-nothing heir."

Zhao Yun: "..."

...

"Shuhuan, I have a gift for you."

In the evening, just as Zhou Shuhuan arrived home, Qiao Ya mysteriously pulled him into the bedroom.

"Are you pregnant?"

Looking at the pregnancy test report in his hand, Zhou Shuhuan acted very surprised.

For him, already the father of two sons, pregnancy wasn’t something novel, but he knew Qiao Ya would be unhappy if he didn’t show that enthusiasm.

So, it’s not that men don’t know how to please women; it’s just that sometimes they can’t be bothered to please you.

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