After the trials of the previous year, Zhong Shijie's mindset settled down, and his strength also improved significantly.
Although Fuxian High School lost to Nanjing No. 9 High School in the group stage of this year's national competition, they defeated another group winner, Chushui Experimental High School, in the semi-finals, and together with Nanjing No. 9 High School, they advanced to this year's East Zone finals!
Zhong Shijie had already realized that his strength might be insufficient to become the number one high school student in China... At least, Hu Weidong of Nanjing No. 9 High School was a mountain he found difficult to overcome. However, he had not given up on his dream, hoping to lead Fuxian High School to secure a ticket to the national finals on the East Zone finals stage...
The East Zone finals were also modeled after the preliminary rounds, with groups A and B playing simultaneously in two gymnasiums, and two games per day.
Zhuji High School departed in the morning and arrived at a hotel near the Shanghai Gymnasium at noon. After lunch and a two-hour rest, Zhuji High School, as arranged by the organizing committee, proceeded to Gymnasium A to familiarize themselves with the court and warm up.
Wefang No. 1 High School, the champion of the Shandong region, was warming up ahead of Zhuji High School.
In Group A, although there were four championship teams: Wefang No. 1 High School, the champion of the Shandong region; Nanmo High School, the champion of the Shanghai region; Zhuji High School, the champion of the Zhejiang region; and Hefei No. 1 High School, the champion of the Anhui region.
However, pre-game predictions and analyses considered Wefang No. 1 High School and Nanmo High School to be the two strongest teams in this group. This was because both Wefang No. 1 High School and Nanmo High School had reached the top four in last year's East Zone finals. Although they had narrowly lost to Nanjing No. 9 High School and Huipu High School in the semi-finals, they were still among the top three or four.
As for Zhuji High School and Hefei No. 1 High School, the former was relatively unknown and had not appeared on the East Zone finals stage for several years, while the latter, despite qualifying for the East Zone finals every year, had consistently been a supporting act, with their overall strength being slightly inferior...
Wefang No. 1 High School's team-building model was somewhat similar to Hangzhou No. 4 High School, with their offense and defense strategies revolving around a single star player.
Hangzhou No. 4 High School's star player was Liu Yudong, known as the strongest in Zhejiang!
And Wefang No. 1 High School's star player was Gong Xiaobin, known as the strongest in Shandong!
Furthermore, the two players had many similarities in terms of height, weight, and skill set, and both primarily played the power forward position!
In the previous Eastern Conference regionals, the two had engaged in numerous direct matchups.
In last year's East Zone finals, Liu Yudong and Gong Xiaobin battled fiercely. Ultimately, due to mistakes by their teammates, Hangzhou No. 4 High School was regrettably defeated by Wefang No. 1 High School, narrowly missing out on the East Zone top four.
Therefore, Gong Xiaobin was quite surprised to see that this year, Hangzhou No. 4 High School had been replaced by Zhuji High School, and Liu Yudong was absent from the second stage of the competition!
"I truly did not expect that besides Huipu High School, someone else from the Zhejiang region could defeat Liu Yudong..."
Since Gong Xiaobin was not familiar with Zhuji High School, he did not know who their core player was. However, seeing Zhang Zhenpeng, number 23, walking at the forefront of the team with a proud demeanor and nostrils flared, Gong Xiaobin assumed he was Zhuji High School's core player.
Zhang Zhenpeng was a carefree teenager with a rather quirky thought process. Faced with Gong Xiaobin, who seemed poised to block his path and deliver harsh words, he showed no sign of reverence. He turned and asked He Ximeng behind him, "Who is this guy?"
"Gong Xiaobin, the ace player of Wefang No. 1 High School... Brother, did you look at the information booklet I gave you this morning..."
Before He Ximeng could speak, Zhang Tian'ai quickly ran up and whispered into Zhang Zhenpeng's ear.
"Ah? What booklet? Oh, right, right, the information booklet... Well, I was too tired on the road and hadn't had a chance to look at it yet..."
Zhang Tian'ai covered her face in shame, trying to pull Zhang Zhenpeng back from the front.
However, Zhang Zhenpeng was unwilling to miss such a good opportunity to show off!
"Believe it or not, we'll find out after a game on the court... Don't say I didn't warn you, Old Liu was defeated by my defense!"
Who couldn't boast? Moreover, Zhang Zhenpeng was indeed the primary defender of Liu Yudong at the time. Hangzhou No. 4 High School had indeed lost to Zhuji High School... However, Liu Yudong had scored a game-high 35 points in that game... "Defeated by my feet" was quite an exaggeration!
However, since Zhang Zhenpeng was now defending Zhuji High School's honor, his teammates tacitly remained silent. Their silence led Gong Xiaobin to believe that Zhang Zhenpeng's words were true...
"Then let me help Liu Yudong get his revenge..."
"Be careful not to suffer the same fate as Old Liu... Oh, right, Old Liu asked me to send you a message..." Zhang Zhenpeng shamelessly claimed Liu Yudong's request to He Ximeng as his own, and then turned to ask He Ximeng, "What did Old Liu say?"
He Ximeng was accustomed to Zhang Zhenpeng's nonsensical behavior and had developed a sort of immunity.
"Liu Yudong said he's waiting for you on the professional arena stage!"
"The professional arena... It seems he can't wait any longer... Very well, thank you for relaying the message, I promise not to let you lose too badly in the upcoming games..."
"No! You'd better pray for yourself!" Zhang Zhenpeng stepped forward again to interrupt, "I'm worried you might collapse if you can't handle it... I'm not very good at going easy on people..."
Well, the game hadn't even started, and Zhang Zhenpeng had already thoroughly offended the number one player in Shandong.
Gong Xiaobin was almost amused to the point of laughter. He had seen arrogant people before, but never anyone this arrogant.
Even Liu Yudong and Zheng Wu, the strongest players in Zhejiang, had been polite when they met him.
"You've got guts, kid!" Gong Xiaobin gave Zhang Zhenpeng a thumbs-up. "State your name!"
"I stand by my name, Zhang Zhenpeng of Zhuzhong..."
Zhang Zhenpeng finally had the moment he had always dreamed of, to announce his name, so why waste it? He then used the only classical Chinese phrase he knew to impress.
He Ximeng covered his face and walked past Zhang Zhenpeng and Gong Xiaobin, heading straight for the court.
He Ximeng was well aware of Zhang Zhenpeng's childishness. But he hadn't expected Gong Xiaobin, a prominent figure in high school basketball across the Qilu region, to have such a "jianghu" side... Well, He Ximeng couldn't afford to offend him, but he could certainly avoid him.
"Hey, hey, hey... Don't leave yet... I'm in the middle of exchanging fierce words with my opponent..."
As He Ximeng walked away, the other teammates ignored Zhang Zhenpeng and, mimicking He Ximeng's approach, bypassed the two and walked away from their sides. They completely ignored Zhang Zhenpeng.