After packing up the surgical instruments, Zhao Yuan patted the White Cat's head and said, "You can go now. Remember to come find me for a dressing change every day."
The White Cat turned its head, extended its tongue, and licked Zhao Yuan's hand. It meowed twice, as if to say, 'I understand.' Then, with a leap, it jumped off the operating table and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Yu Ke clicked her tongue in amazement. "Well, I'll be. This cat can actually understand human speech?"
Zhao Yuan said with a smile, "It's very intelligent."
Yu Ke shook her head and said, "Only with you. It's always ignored us."
After a bit more small talk, Zhao Yuan said, "Teacher Yu, if there's nothing else, I'll be heading out."
"Alright, you can go." Yu Ke waved her hand.
"Goodbye, Teacher Yu." After saying his goodbyes, Zhao Yuan strode out of the anatomy lab.
Watching his retreating back, Yu Ke narrowed her eyes and muttered to herself, 'I've never told anyone at the university that I'm sick. How did he know? Could he really have figured it out just by looking at my complexion? That's impossible. I've run into my colleagues who teach diagnostics several times these past few days, and none of them noticed I was sick. I even chatted with Elder Xiao and Elder Liu for a bit during a meeting yesterday, and even those two national treasure-level experts didn't see anything wrong with me! Zhao Yuan's skill in diagnostics can't possibly be better than theirs, can it?'
Yu Ke was utterly perplexed.
This question was destined to trouble her for a long time.
After leaving the anatomy building, Zhao Yuan first went to eat dinner, then headed straight back to his dorm. To his surprise, besides his three roommates, there were several other classmates visiting—every single one of them from the class basketball team.
When they saw Zhao Yuan enter the room, they all stood up in unison, startling him.
"What are you guys doing?"
"Welcoming you, of course," Liu Zhu said, quickly walking up to Zhao Yuan with a huge smile on his face. But his grin was like a crooked merchant's, sending a shiver down one's spine.
Zhao Yuan couldn't help but shudder and quickly asked, "Boss, what's this all about?"
"It's like this. The school is about to hold the Freshman Cup basketball tournament. All the first-year classes from every major will compete to determine the strongest team. Last time we played against those guys from Orthopedics, you stepped up in a crisis and showed some serious skill. So, we all agree that if we want to get a good ranking in this tournament, we have to rely on you! Third Brother, how about you do your big bro a favor and join the basketball team?"
After speaking, Liu Zhu stared eagerly at Zhao Yuan, his eyes filled with anticipation.
Zhao Yuan didn't disappoint him. After a moment of consideration, he nodded and agreed, "Sure."
This was about class honor, so of course Zhao Yuan wouldn't refuse. Besides, exercise was also a great help for his Body Refining.
"That's great!" Liu Zhu and the rest of the basketball team howled with excitement, as if they had already won the Freshman Cup championship.
After the excitement died down, Liu Zhu tossed a brand-new jersey to Zhao Yuan. "Let's go, time to train. Third Brother, I noticed from the last game that your physical fitness is excellent, but your technique is a bit lacking. Over the next few days, we'll focus on training your technique. We'll try to get your skills up to the next level before the tournament starts!"
"Sure," Zhao Yuan agreed, but also made a request. "The training intensity has to be high!"
'The higher the training intensity, the better for my Body Refining!' It was obvious that Zhao Yuan was treating basketball practice and games as another form of Cultivation, separate from his Four Saints Technique.
Liu Zhu gave a sly laugh. "I like that kind of request! Don't worry, the intensity will be so high your jaw will drop!"
Zhao Yuan frowned. "Why do I get the feeling that sounded really dirty?"
Liu Zhu cried foul. "How was that dirty? You're obviously the one with a dirty mind, okay?! I'm not taking the blame for this one."
After changing into his basketball uniform, Zhao Yuan followed the team downstairs. After walking for a bit, he said in confusion, "Boss, are you going the wrong way? The basketball court isn't in this direction."
"We're going to practice at the Art Academy's basketball court," Liu Zhu said without turning his head. "Our school's courts are definitely crawling with people from other departments and classes, spying on us. We have to be secretive and can't let them know our true strength ahead of time."
"Are you sure you're going to the Art Academy for secrecy, and not to pick up girls?" Disbelief was written all over Zhao Yuan's face.
"Are we that kind of people?" Liu Zhu was displeased and demanded righteously.
Zhao Yuan looked at him, then at the other members of the basketball team, and said with a completely serious expression, "Yes!"
"Damn it!" everyone cried out, and they all flipped him the middle finger.
The Art Academy was two streets away from West Hua Medical University, about a ten-minute walk.
When they arrived at the Art Academy's basketball court, disappointment was written all over the faces of Liu Zhu and the others.
"How come there isn't a single girl at this basketball court?"
"Yeah, seriously. Just like at our school, the court is full of dudes. Aren't there supposed to be a lot of girls at the Art Academy? Why can't we see a single one here?"
"So disappointing! On the way here, I was even fantasizing about making a beautiful layup and hearing the girls cheer. Now, that fantasy is totally dead."
As the basketball team members chattered back and forth, Zhao Yuan couldn't help but roll his eyes. He retorted, "And you said you weren't here for the girls?"
Disappointed as they were, the training still had to go on.
The rest of the basketball team gathered together to practice as a group, while Zhao Yuan was pulled aside by Liu Zhu to begin one-on-one technical training.
"We'll start with the most basic thing: dribbling. Your dribbling skills in the last game were pretty bad. You were basically just muscling your way through on physical strength alone. That only worked because your opponents weren't very good. If you faced someone strong and skilled, they'd easily steal the ball from you. The key to dribbling is coordination..."
Liu Zhu actually knew a thing or two about basketball. He first explained the theory and technique of dribbling to Zhao Yuan, then performed a few demonstrations before tossing the ball to him.
"First, we'll practice dribbling without a defender. Once you've gotten the hang of it, we'll move on to practicing how to get past opponents. For now, your job is to dribble the ball around the court for fifty laps! If you lose control of the ball, you have to start counting the laps all over again!" Liu Zhu said with a fierce grin, putting on the air of a drill sergeant.
"Alright." Zhao Yuan nodded, completely unfazed by his deliberately fierce expression.
For the first five laps, Zhao Yuan's dribbling was very clumsy, causing Liu Zhu to watch with a deep frown.
Starting from the sixth lap, Zhao Yuan's dribbling technique began to show clear improvement, and Liu Zhu's frown started to relax.
By the time he was twenty-some laps in, Liu Zhu was astonished to find that Zhao Yuan's ball-handling skills were now no worse than his own—and he had been playing for several years! Before he could even cry out in alarm, after thirty-some laps, the technique Zhao Yuan displayed had already far surpassed his!
And in the final ten laps, Zhao Yuan achieved a state of perfect unity with the ball! The basketball was like a part of his body, completely obedient. He even started pulling off a number of dazzling, fancy moves while dribbling, leaving Liu Zhu utterly dumbfounded.