"Okay, Nie Chuan, let's go to the restaurant to eat! I wonder if the school's Asian restaurant has shrimp dumplings and siu mai!"

Perhaps sensing that the atmosphere was a bit stiff, Carlo spoke up to liven it up.

"Well, Reese, let's go have breakfast together?"

"Well, let's go."

The three of them walked into the Asian restaurant at a leisurely pace. Nie Chuan knew that Carlo, like Ewing, liked to eat things like barbecued pork buns and siu mai, so he specially chose Cantonese style.

Nie Chuan specifically ordered milk this time, took a sip from the cup, and the milk foam formed a circle on his upper lip.

Carlo laughed. “Are you playing Santa Claus or Grandpa Friedman?”

Nie Chuan ignored him and searched in his pocket, only to find that he didn't bring any napkins, so he stretched out his tongue and licked it.

Carlo smiled even more happily: "I think Alan is especially suitable to be the mascot of our basketball team!"

Nie Chuan glared at him, but Reese, who was sitting opposite him, stretched out his arm and gently pressed a napkin on Nie Chuan's mouth.

"Thank you." Nie Chuan smiled widely.

Although he was a little afraid of Reese sometimes, there were also many times when Reese was very... friendly to him, probably...

Nie Chuan looked over Reese's shoulder and saw Serin. She was sitting behind Reese, and turned around to look at Reese's back with an expectant look. This look made Nie Chuan feel inexplicably painful.

Nie Chuan didn't know why Serin chose to have breakfast at the Asian restaurant, but when his eyes met Serin's, Serin turned her head away, as if they didn't know each other at all.

Nie Chuan sighed in his heart. Although he was angry that Serin always wanted to use him to invite or get close to Reese, Serin did nothing wrong. She just liked Reese.

"Hey, Allen." Carlo suddenly nudged Nie Chuan with his shoulder.

"What's wrong? The barbecued pork bun almost fell."

"When I was running with you today, I realized that your legs are quite long in proportion to your body."

"Of course."

Nie Chuan thought to himself, I am not Wu Dalang.

"If you were a girl, you would definitely be a long-legged oriental beauty." Carlo half tilted his head back, lost in fantasy.

Nie Chuan felt a chill down his spine, but someone had already knocked Carlo on the head.

"Don't waste your time thinking about unrealistic fantasies." Reese said coldly.

Carlo covered his forehead and said, "You hit my head too! Has everyone been corrupted by Ewing?"

"You deserve it." Nie Chuan lowered his head and whispered in Chinese.

"Ah! Alan is saying something I don't understand again! But I know Reese must understand!" Carlo leaned towards Reese, "Hey, hey, what did Alan say?"

"You deserve." Reese said this coldly without any emotion, and Nie Chuan felt particularly refreshed.

"Ah, it seems that the package contact of the senior coach has made the two of you become more and more in sync! No, I have to ask Coach Gordon to join in this weekend too!"

"You're so redundant." Reese replied indifferently.

Carlo immediately showed an ambiguous expression, pointed his finger at Reese and said, "Ah, ah, I see, you don't want me to be a light bulb, right? It was you who gave Alan a massage today! You actually enjoyed the feeling of holding his calf, didn't you?"

Nie Chuan was dumbfounded and quickly covered Carlo's mouth: "Do you want to die? Talk nonsense!"

Reese breaks your arm! Idiot!

Carlo showed a smug expression. This guy just wanted to see Reese angry.

But Reese was not angry. He just slowly swallowed the last bite of steamed buns, stood up, and leaned towards Carlo with one hand on the edge of the dining table.

There was a heart-pounding smile on the corner of his lips, but the coldness in his eyes made Carlo subconsciously step back.

"Yeah, I really enjoy the feeling of holding up Nie Chuan's calf."

Carlo half opened his mouth, but no words came out.

"So if anyone but me touches him, I'll break his arm. Do you want to try?"

“No… no need… hahaha… hahaha…”

"That's right." Reese tapped Carlo's eyebrows with his fingers, like a warning, but also like a joke.

Then he stood up, put his hands in his pockets and smiled playfully.

"You guys keep eating, I'm going back to shower."

After saying that, he left.

Carlo patted his chest and let out a long breath: "Oh my god - when Reese makes jokes... it's really not funny at all."

"I told you not to talk nonsense! If someone said that you liked another man's legs, wouldn't you beat him up?" Nie Chuan knocked on Carlo's chest seriously, "Next time if you compare me with a woman again, I will beat you up too."

"I understand! But Alan, the muscle lines of your calves are really beautiful..."

"You still say that!" Nie Chuan was angry.

"I'm not kidding! When I was jogging this morning, several girls stared at your calves for a long time!"

"……real?"

"Really!" Carlo nodded. "As long as you continue to play basketball, the lines of your legs will become longer and longer, and your muscles will become more and more beautiful! And these are not the muscles you see in the gym that you can only look at but cannot use. These are truly explosive muscles!"

Nie Chuan felt a little secretly happy.

After the class this afternoon, Nie Chuan did not give up practicing because of the muscle cramps in the morning, and continued to practice catching the ball with Reese as usual.

Reese adjusted the machine's serve speed and also reduced the intensity of Nie Chuan's other training.

At eight o'clock in the evening, Nie Chuan sat on the ground beside the basketball court to rest, and all the nerves in his body became lazy.

I really want to lie down and sleep like this!

But Nie Chuan knew that Reese would definitely ask him to clean the basketball court, so he felt so cheated!

But what Nie Chuan never expected was that Reese actually cleaned the court himself and put the serving machine back in place, but he had no intention of asking Nie Chuan to get up.

Nie Chuan had no expression on his face, but he was very happy in his heart: Hahahaha! You also feel guilty because you have been training me inhumanely recently.

Just at this moment, Nie Chuan's cell phone rang. It was Nie's mother calling.

"Hello, Mom." When Nie Chuan heard his mother's voice, he remembered that he hadn't called home this week.

The two chatted about family matters, such as Nie's father's work and whose children were going to  study .

"Mom, what delicious food did you make tonight?"

"Noodles cooked in bone soup, it's your favorite."

"Ah... bone marrow soup! Just thinking about it makes it smell so good!"

Nie Chuan thought of his cramped calf and pressed it twice subconsciously.

I really want to drink pork bone soup, it is fragrant and can supplement calcium.

Nie Chuan swallowed his saliva, and Reese had already cleaned the court.

"Let's go."

"okay."

Reese drove Nie Chuan to the school gate, but Nie Chuan suddenly shouted, "Reese, wait! I need to get off for a while!"

Reese parked the car and Nie Chuan walked towards a flower shop next to the school, where the clerk was packing up and preparing to close the shop.

"Hey, good evening. I want to order a bouquet of flowers. Can you send it to me on Friday?"

"So what kind of flowers do you want to wrap? Roses? Our red roses are very fresh."

"It's better not to have roses." Nie Chuan lowered his head and smiled helplessly.

Roses are too eye-catching.

"Are there any goldfish flowers and hydrangeas?"

"Of course."

"Then these flowers."

The clerk wrote down Nie Chuan's order.

When Nie Chuan turned around, he saw Reese standing at the door of the flower shop with his arms folded.

Wasn't he in the car? Why did he end up in the flower shop?

"Is it for the girl named Serin?"

"Yeah, didn't I tell you that Friday night is her birthday party?"

"Will you go?" Reese's voice was chilled by the icy white light of the street lamp behind him.

"I won't go. He already hates me." Nie Chuan shrugged helplessly.

"If you give her flowers, she will like you?"

"How is that possible?" Nie Chuan sighed with amusement.

"I'll deliver the flowers for you." Reese raised his chin.

"Ah?" Nie Chuan wondered if he had heard it wrongly.

"Do you like goldfish flowers?"

Reese walked over and glanced at Nie Chuan's order.

"Yes, I do. But Seren should like roses more."

"Then why don't you give her roses?"

"Because... I didn't expect her to like me." Nie Chuan lowered his head and walked towards the door with his hands in his pockets.

Maybe what Zhou Bin said was absolutely right, those blonde and blue-eyed foreign girls did not belong to his world at all.

"You're not really going to send flowers for me?"

"If I go to send flowers for you, can you stop liking her from now on?"

"I...how can I possibly do this!?"

Nie Chuan found that Reese tonight was completely incomprehensible.

Of course, he couldn't understand him normally.

Besides, what does it have to do with Reese whether he likes or dislikes Celine?

Reese said nothing and got into the Land Rover.

"Wait, will you still send flowers?" Nie Chuan asked uncertainly.

"I will go."

"Oh, thank you so much!"

If Reese went, maybe Celine would forgive him.

Reese pressed his arm against the car window and looked at Nie Chuan. The smile that slowly rose between his lips carried a hint of danger.

"Because I can ask her not to like you."

"Ah? What?"

Before Nie Chuan had time to digest Reese's meaning, the other party drove away.

Does Reese like Celine?

That's impossible. Judging from his attitude towards Serin, he totally ignores her. Serin shouldn't be his cup of tea...

Or was Reese playing a trick on him, just as he had done in response to Carlo's joke in the restaurant?

Nie Chuan went back to the apartment.

The next afternoon, when Nie Chuan returned to his room from the  library  , he found a thermos bucket.

He opened the thermos and found that it was filled with thick bone soup! The aroma hit him and Nie Chuan swallowed hard.

He held the thermos and gulped down a few big gulps.

“Wow, it’s so delicious!”

At this time Zhou Bin came out of the bathroom, and Nie Chuan quickly asked: "Abin, has my mother been here?"

"No, why do you ask?"

"Then...why is there bone marrow soup here?"

"Reese sent it." Zhou Bin replied.

"Reese..." Nie Chuan was dumbfounded. He picked up the thermos and looked left and right, "But this thermos looks like ours."

"Reese really sent it to you. Didn't you have a calf cramp yesterday? It must be because you have been exercising a lot in the past two days, and you are growing taller. So you need calcium supplements."

Nie Chuan thought about it, how did Reese know that he wanted to drink bone marrow soup?

Ah, now I remember that when I was sitting by the basketball court and talking on the phone with my mother yesterday, maybe Reese heard it?

Nie Chuan called his mother.

"Mom, did you make bone soup for me?"

"Yes. This morning, your classmate named Reese passed by our house and told me that you really wanted to drink the bone soup I stewed. I said that I would stew it for you and bring it to you in the afternoon. He said that he would pass by our house again in the afternoon, and you can take the soup away then."

Nie Chuan was stunned. He really didn't expect Reese to bring him bone marrow soup.

"Your classmates are so nice to you. Mom is relieved! You should get along well with Reese and invite him to your house for dinner during the holidays!"

"Got it, Mom."

Nie Chuan suddenly felt that his understanding of Reese had been completely overturned.

"Hey, Zhou Bin... the bone marrow soup was really brought to me by Reese from my house!"

Zhou Bin was wearing glasses, underlining on  a book and occasionally flipping through an electronic dictionary.

"That's right, didn't I tell you that?"

"But that's Reese, why would he bring me bone marrow soup?" Nie Chuan came in front of Zhou Bin and kicked him.

Zhou Bin frowned and moved Nie Chuan's feet away: "Did you change your socks after playing basketball? They stink."

"I'm discussing Reese's problem with you!"

 Zhou Bin put the book aside helplessly : "I say Nie Chuan, some people are very nice to the whole world, so no one is special to them. Some people are only nice to those who are important to them. Now Reese is nice to you, which means that your existence is meaningful to him."

Nie Chuan thought for two seconds, smiled widely, and lay down directly on Zhou Bin's bed.

In other words, Reese recognized his efforts as a teammate?

Am I getting one step closer to that guy?

"Hey, is there any soup left? It smells so good, give me two sips." Zhou Bin was also a little greedy.

"No, I just finished my drink."

"You drank all that? Are you a bucket?" Zhou Bin reached out and pressed Nie Chuan's abdomen, and found that it was hard. "Hey, Chuan, have you grown abdominal muscles?"

"Really?" Nie Chuan happily rushed to the bathroom and lifted up his T-shirt in front of the mirror.

Although not as obvious as Reese and Carlo, they are really abdominal muscles, really, really abdominal muscles!

It seems that my recent workouts in the gym with Reese have paid off!

"Achuan, please don't smile foolishly in front of the mirror. It's so tasteless." Zhou Bin knew Nie Chuan very well. He knew every time he farted.

"You are the one smiling foolishly at the mirror!"

He is smiling triumphantly!

"Remember to say thank you to Reese."

"Got it, I'll go talk to him now!"

It just so happened that two international students from the same department asked Nie Chuan for help and asked Reese to solve some advanced math problems.

He threw on a sport coat and went out to Reese's apartment.

When he knocked on the door, he became nervous. Although Reese would bring him soup, it didn't mean they were particularly familiar with each other.

"Who?" Reese's emotionless voice came, and Nie Chuan couldn't help swallowing his saliva.

Before he could open his mouth, Reese asked again, "Is it Nie Chuan?"

"You...how do you know I'm Nie Chuan?"

The door opened and Reese was seen wearing khaki pajamas, his expression looking much softer than on the court.

"The shadow in the door."

"How is that possible!" Nie Chuan thought to himself that there was nothing special about his shadow!

"Is there a problem?"

As Reese spoke, he walked into the kitchen and heated a cup of milk for Nie Chuan in a mug.

"Thank you for bringing me the soup." Nie Chuan said with a smile.

"Just on the way. Milk can supplement calcium, but you don't seem to like it."

Reese's voice was faint, but he responded to every word Nie Chuan said, which made Nie Chuan feel very happy.

This is a necessary step for a good teammate relationship!

"Because I always think milk has a fishy smell."

"Like little kids."

Reese chuckled.

Although the corners of his mouth drooped slightly, Nie Chuan's eyes followed subconsciously. He knew why so many girls were obsessed with Reese, not just because of his handsome appearance or unique cold temperament, but because he made people want to see the real him.

What kind of expression would he show when he took away all the distant and indifferent appearances?

But Nie Chuan saw it at this moment.

It is a subtle softness that needs to be experienced carefully.

"Why are you looking at me?" Reese sat opposite Nie Chuan, propping up his chin and looking over.

The relaxed posture, with a hint of ridicule, left Nie Chuan completely unable to react.

"because……"

"Because of what?" Reese's posture did not change, but his sidelong glance seemed to attract Nie Chuan's attention, and the world around him became tortuous.

"No reason! You're more handsome than me, okay?"

Rather than seeing Reese teasing him with a smile, Nie Chuan would rather he had a cold expression.

"Oh - although this kind of compliment is direct and without any skills, it is still quite useful."

Reese's lip line is more obvious than before.

"Well, I have two classmates who are about to take the midterm test for advanced mathematics. Can you help them figure out how to solve these two problems?"

Nie Chuan handed him the paper with the questions copied on it.

Reese didn't raise his hand to take it. Instead, he asked another question: "How's your leg? Are you still having cramps?"

"No. It was probably just an accident that day."

"Nothing is left to chance. After athletes finish intense training, they usually have assistant coaches or special technicians to massage them to help their muscles relax."

“Oh, I’m not a professional athlete.”

"Lie down and I'll give you a massage. Starting tomorrow, we'll gradually resume our training intensity."

Reese stood up and walked towards the bathroom, not giving Nie Chuan any chance to refuse.

Huh? Reese wants to give him a massage?

Think about it, this is truly god-level treatment!

Wait, does this mean tomorrow's practice is going to be hard?

Reese came out with a towel, and when he saw Nie Chuan still sitting stupidly on the sofa, he frowned, "Why haven't you gotten down yet?"

"oh……"

Nie Chuan quickly turned over and lay down on the sofa.

Reese covered Nie Chuan's calves with a hot towel, and Nie Chuan felt the sofa beside him sink. It was Reese sitting next to him. When his palm completely covered him through the towel, Nie Chuan's blood seemed to rush from his head to his calves, and he subconsciously kicked slightly.

"What's wrong? Are you having a seizure again?"

Reese leaned down and spoke to Nie Chuan's ear. The heat from his voice seemed to bypass Nie Chuan's ear.

"No! No! I'm just a little nervous, that's all."

"Why are you so nervous?"

Of course I was nervous that the person massaging my calves was Reese Reddington!

"Well, this is the first time someone gave me a massage...haha..." Nie Chuan really wanted to hold his head up with both hands.

Reese's fingers moved up from Nie Chuan's ankles, and his palms slid up through the towel to his legs. Nie Chuan didn't know what kind of massage technique it was, but he really felt very comfortable.

Then he remembered Carlo's joke in the restaurant and couldn't help laughing.

"what are you laughing at?"

"I just remembered Carlo said..."

It’s better not to mention Carlo’s joke in front of Reese, okay?

"Carlo is right."

"ah?"

"Your calves have beautiful lines."

"What? Are you also following Carlo in making fun of me?" Nie Chuan turned his head and looked back at Reese.

When he noticed Reese's expression, it was an icy force that seemed to lock everything he saw before him tightly.

Nie Chuan subconsciously wanted to retract his legs, but the other party grabbed his ankles even harder.

Reese's eyes dropped, and his fingers slid slightly along Nie Chuan's ankles: "From here, the lines become slender and smooth."

Reese inserted his fingers under the towel covering his calves and slowly moved them upwards.

"The muscle lines here are very powerful, which makes people wonder how high you can jump? How fast can you accelerate instantly?"

Nie Chuan didn't dare to look at Reese's expression again, although he didn't know why.

Reese's palm covered Nie Chuan's calf and moved upwards. The picture that Nie Chuan imagined in his mind was particularly charming.

Until Reese's fingertips touched Nie Chuan's back knee: "Then here, when you stop suddenly, how much control can you have over inertia?"

Nie Chuan felt as if his breathing was being strangled by Reese.

"The towel is cold." Reese took the towel away from Nie Chuan's calves. At that moment, the air and skin were freed, and the coolness brought by the evaporation of water made Nie Chuan turn sideways and put his legs away.

"Next time, remember not to walk around at night wearing such short sweatpants."

"Ah?" Nie Chuan was confused.

Reese raised his eyebrows, with a hint of playfulness at the corner of his lips: "Because it will make bad people think bad things about you."