“Ahem, it’s time for the basketball game!” Fatty Fang rounded everyone into a circle for the game. “Okay, when I count to five, everyone will find a partner based on what I say. Ready?” Fatty looked around as everyone nodded. “Find someone who is a similar height!”

Everyone heads turned in different directions and the scrambled to take a position next to the person with similar height. Fatty Fang watched as everyone beelined around in circles until everyone was paired up.

“Now do rock, paper, scissors,” Fatty Fang instructed. “Winner will be Team A and Loser will be Team B.”

Fatty Fang’s partner, Qi Sho, was 5 centimeter shorter, but they were both tallest in height. Qi Sho got on team A after winning with paper to cover Fatty Fang’s fist. The other pairs also quickly decided their teams.

“Daddy, I want to play too,” Little Nai, the five-years old girl, begged Butao.

“All right, Little Nai will be my hands,” Butao lifted his daughter up over his shoulder.

Team A Team B Qi Sho Fatty Fang Bufu Li Yun Wu Bin Bu Tao/Little Nai Yang Kang An Luchang Fan Geng Wu Ling Ju De Lui Jing Song Meilin An Zhang mi Mi Xuan Li Ching

Xuxu volunteered to assist as the referee to even out the players. With the teams decided, everyone took their position on the court. The two teams of eight players were evenly matched.

Wu Bin looked at everyone on Team A. He knew Fatty and Bufu knew how to play a little, but they weren’t particularly good.

“The doctors know how to play?” Wu Bin turned back to ask the group of doctors on his team.

“Eh…” The doctors all responded with a blank look.

“Anyone play regularly?” asked Wu Bin.

“Little Sho, didn’t you play in college?” asked Mi Xuan.

“It was (American) football,” Qi Sho replied, there was nothing better than playing defensive tackle and knocking down the quarterbacks.

“This isn’t going to end well,” Wu Bin thought.

Team B wasn’t any better.

“Fatty, why basketball out of all sports?” Li Yun complained. “Wu Ling is the only one that regularly plays.”

“Hey, it’s the most popular sport right now, no one here knows how to play?” asked Fatty Fang.

“Just a little?” Lui Jing replied.

Butao didn’t want to say he was handicapped, but his daughter was sitting on his shoulder.

“Doesn’t matter, I think we can do it,” said Wu Ling.

"What's the reward?" Li Yun asked.

"Losers will be in charge of cleaning up!" Fatty Fang announced. "Winners can go home early."

"Too much talking," said Xuxu. "Just start the game." Xuxu, as the ref, threw the ball in the air. Fatty Fang (B) touched the ball first, moving it to his side of the court.

Li Ching (B) caught the ball, but since she did not know how she had to dribble, started running along with the ball in her hand. She tried her first shot, but missed.

“So close!” Li Ching (B) cried out, although the ball flew by the basket hoop more than a meter away.

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Wu Ling (B) caught the ball and she easily finished the shot.

Everyone reset their position for the next round. Wu Bin (A) started off first by dribbling the basketball like a pro. As a basketball coach, he could outplay everyone, but as a high school teacher, he knew the importance of sharing the ball. He passed the ball over to Ju De (A), who passed it onto Fan Geng (A), who passed it onto Mi Xuan (A), and then finally back to Wu Bin (A).

Wu Bin (A) felt some pain in his chest, after all that work, the ball came back to him. “You f***ers, yall worse than my kids!” Wu Bin jumped and made the shot.

“Hey! One point penalty for swearing!” Ning Xuxu yelled, giving team B a point.

Wu Bin (A) cursed internally, he forgot there were children around.

Wu Ling (B) led the next round and passed the ball over to little Nai, who made an easy basketball on top of Butao.

Wu Bin (A) started off again, and passed the ball over to Fatty Feng, who made a dunk.

Wu Ling (B) took charge of the next one, and passed the ball over to Qi Sho (B). Qi Sho (B) slammed the ball into the backboard, and Wu Bin took the rebound and scored.

Wu Ling (B) took the ball again and passed it to Zhang Mi (B). Zhang Mi (B) tried shooting, but the ball landed on An Luchang (B), who wasn't anywhere near the hoop. An Luchang stared at the ball, trying to think of his options. He could shoot the ball, but it likely wasn't going to make it in. He should just pass it along.

"Just shoot the damn ball!" Someone shouted.

An Luchang shot the ball, but missed.

“Why isn’t it going in?” An Luchang thought as he looked at the hoop. He was sure he had calculated the projection correctly.

“You need more muscles in your arm!” Li Yun (B) shouted as he reached for the ball.

Unfortunately, Wu Bin (A) got there before him and took the rebound.

“Little Meimei!” Wu Bin shorted as he threw the ball far and into Rouxi’s hands.

Rouxi (A) caught the ball and tried dribbling with both hands as though she was a first grader, but gave up afterward as it seemed like a pain.

“Who’s f-ing idea to play this game!?” Rouxi (A) passed the ball to Bufu who was closest to her.

Bufu (A) wasn’t much of an athlete either. As he waited for the ball to land into his hand, Wu Ling (B) quickly passed by and stole the ball.

“Hey!” Bufu shouted, but as soon as he saw Wu Ling, he ignored her.

“This is horrible,” Tingting said from the sidelines after the match played itself out for 10 minutes. She was cheering for her husband and child.

“This is great!” Xuxu cried, recording the game in progress, hoping to use it as blackmail materials in the future. “Nothing better than a bunch of grown adults failing so hard at basketball.”

“The Wu siblings are carrying the game,” Mu Lian added. “They scored most of the points so far.”

The rest of the game consisted of everyone running and recovering the fumbled ball. In the end, team A won. It didn't matter who won, everyone chipped in to clean up after the party.

After midnight, Li Yun drove Rouxi back to Dong Xuan Clinic.

“So, how much were you holding back?” asked Rouxi when they got home. The Dong Xuan Clinic felt more like home than most places.

“I haven’t played basketball since high school,” Li Yun took Rouxi’s coat and placed it in the closet.

He had used Zuowang on a few NBA games, but his dribbling was still bad so there wasn’t a need to pretend. He couldn’t dribble like a professional even if he tried. It was a friendly game, and he scored twice when someone passed him the ball. Most of the time, he was passing it along to give others a shot.

“So if there was a shoot-off, you would win?” Rouxi was curious about his ability.

“Probably.” He wouldn’t deny that his accuracy and sight were sharper than most people, maybe even better than most professional players. His forms were a bit awkward, but only because he wasn’t interested in correcting them.

Rouxi waited for him to put away his coat, and to give her a present. Li Yun was the only one who hadn’t given her a present yet. Instead, he kissed her as he moved her onto the bed.

“Please don’t tell me you’re going to give yourself as a present,” Rouxi teased as he nibbled her throat.

“A piece of my heart if I could dissect my heart without dying,” Li Yun said as he pulled out a box from his inner pocket. “This is the next best thing.”

Rouxi side-eyed the cheesy comment, but knew he was intentionally trying to make her gag. Instead, she opened the present, revealing a heart shaped jade pendant with strange inscriptions marked on the front. It was similar to the luck blessing he had already given her, but was slightly different, somehow.

Li Yun had been creating a jade trigram, to see if the system found it acceptable, but nothing had more than 1000 qi. As he made one for Rouxi, he altered it according to what he felt was right. His intent was to create something special for Rouxi. The more he worked on it, the more it altered and evolved itself into something else. It felt very similar to when he was working on copying the Taoist texts. There were some lines that looked better angled, deeper, or lighter.

Rouxi took the pendant out of the casing and touched the carving. She wasn't surprised that he carved her something for her birthday. He always liked to hand out talismans to people he liked. However, this particular pendant felt special.

Five Happiness Pendant: +1 luck, +1 prosperity, +1 fertility, +1 health, +1 peace

Rouxi wasn’t sure if her eyes were failing her, but she thought for a moment the pendant had glowed in her hand. Li Yun took the pendant and placed it around her neck.

"Happy Birthday Rouxi."