No Coveting the Sickly Captain [Sports]

[Foolish, jealous, younger puppy-like top x cold and aloof on the surface, but stubbornly soft-hearted, sickly powerhouse bottom]

Wen Chan never expected to suddenly collapse on the basketball court without warning.

Just as he never expected the vice-captain he'd been grooming as his successor to betray him and leave the team out of nowhere.

One of the team's two star players had suddenly left, and all the burdens fell on Wen Chan in an instant.

Everyone gleefully expected the team's twin stars to fall and the Fengbei team to lose its three-year reign over the CBA.

But against all odds, Wen Chan shouldered the pressure and managed to hold the team together.

It was just that, for those six months, he was practically a regular at the hospital.

Wen Chan thought he'd keep muddling through like this until the day he couldn't go on.

Then, in the second year, a "blockhead" joined the team.

·

Cong Ye was a new player recruited by the Fengbei team that year: young, hotheaded, and rebellious.

"I may act like a slacker most of the time, but I'm still pretty talented."

Cong Ye grinned as he talked on the phone in the locker room. "On the first day of training, I'll make Captain Wen see me in a whole new light and become his favorite in one fell swoop..."

He hadn't finished speaking when a chill suddenly swept over him from behind.

A young man wearing a black face mask and black baseball cap stared at him for several seconds outside the locker room, then silently turned and walked away.

Cong Ye didn't get a good look at his face. He only noticed the handsome but icy phoenix eyes visible above the mask.

He shivered instinctively, somehow sensing a trace of... contempt in the eyes of the slender, refined-looking young man.

"Hey, wait a second!" Cong Ye's temper flared.

He chased after him, only to run into a few of the team's veteran players.

"What's the rush? What got you so worked up?"

"Nothing. I ran into some pretty boy."

Cong Ye stopped and shrugged. "He heard me praising Captain Wen and ran off. He must be new too, and wants to compete with me for Captain Wen's affection."

The veterans exchanged odd looks but said nothing. They just gave Cong Ye a meaningful pat on the shoulder.

Cong Ye looked utterly baffled.

·

And on the first day of training, Cong Ye did make a deep impression on Wen Chan.

He became the only person... Wen Chan had ever trained until he puked.

"See me in a whole new light?"

In the bathroom, Cong Ye was hugging the toilet bowl when a slightly cold voice sounded in front of him.

He looked up and met Wen Chan's delicate yet pallid face.

"Captain's favorite?"

Cong Ye: ???

·

Cong Ye soon realized that Wen Chan wasn't quite what he'd imagined.

He was so cold and indifferent that he seemed to radiate an unmistakable keep-away-from-me aura.

"What is he, some kind of demon king?" Cong Ye complained bitterly.

"He works us like dogs every day, so why doesn't he train himself?"

"Because the captain just got out of the hospital..."

The team's center, who was just as exhausted, lifted his head and panted. The next second, Wen Chan's icy voice rang out from behind them.

"Cong Ye wasn't paying attention during training. One extra set."

Cong Ye: ???

Why am I the only one getting punished?

Cong Ye became even more resentful of Wen Chan, convinced the captain was deliberately picking on him.

He even suspected that Wen Chan was coasting on his past glory, hanging around the team as a pretty boy.

Every day, Cong Ye made it his mission to provoke Wen Chan and challenge him, determined to prove it.

But Wen Chan never seemed... willing to bother going one-on-one with him.

That made Cong Ye even angrier.

Then, during a game where his team was behind, Wen Chan took the court under pressure and turned the game around completely before halftime. Only then did Cong Ye realize how badly he'd been mistaken.

He had a whole list of questions, but before he could ask a single one, he was left in a panic, catching Wen Chan as the captain collapsed unconscious at the sidelines the moment the game ended.

·

The Fengbei players realized that their captain, Wen Chan, didn't seem quite so cold anymore.

The same was true of Cong Ye, once the team's "troublemaker."

The snarling wolfdog of the past had turned overnight into an obedient little puppy, wagging his tail.

Then one day, they saw the former vice-captain appear outside the basketball court, and Wen Chan's face turned deathly pale in an instant.

[Mainly from the bottom's perspective. The bottom really is ill, but not so sick that it affects his ability to compete.]

Theme: Persevere and keep striving