Who would still play tennis after being reborn?

Chapter 111 You owe Gu Shen an apology!
But some people started to defend Gu Cheng: "Could it be that he has some grudge against Theodore? Gu Cheng has always been gentle and kind, and he is very enthusiastic to everyone. If someone tells him not to play, he won't play. If there's nothing wrong, he probably wouldn't do that."

However, this quickly drew rebuttals from others:
"Even if there's some grudge, you shouldn't use your knuckles to serve and injure someone!"

Some haters even lost their minds: "His appearance in the tennis world was a mistake. How could tennis change because of him? Everyone was playing tennis just fine, and then he came out like he had a cheat code, making everyone feel insecure. And you're still defending him?"

"Hurting someone is wrong, there's no point in arguing about it."

"If there's a real conflict, call the police! Otherwise, what's the point of having police? If everyone acted like him, how chaotic would the tennis world be?"

"I just won't accept it!"

"What right do you have to hurt people?"

……

However, Gu Cheng still has many fans, and soon someone stood up to refute the haters.

"Why are you saying these things before you even understand the truth? I believe that even if Gu Shen injured someone by serving with his knuckles, he had his reasons."

"Yeah, you haters just spout nonsense here! Gu Shen is never the impulsive type, there must be a reason!" a veteran fan commented on the forum.

“I agree with the comment above. Gu Cheng has always been very consistent and has a great demeanor. There must be more to this than meets the eye,” another fan chimed in.

"I'm sure this must be Theodore's problem!"

But the haters clearly weren't buying it:
"Excuses! All excuses! Hurting someone is hurting someone, why bring up grudges? Don't bring your fandom mentality into sports competitions, okay?"

"Exactly! No matter how difficult the situation, you can't joke around with someone else's health! You people are just blindly protecting your own, do you really think you're chasing after celebrities?"

"Gu Cheng is 'gentle and refined'? Ha, I think he's more like a cunning schemer! He says one thing to people and does another behind their backs. He's even resorting to dirty tricks like the knuckle serve, and you expect us to believe he's innocent?"

"If you ask me, he's just too spoiled. Nobody dares to discipline him, so he's become more and more reckless. Now that he's in trouble, a bunch of brainless fans are trying to defend him."

The controversy quickly spread to social media platforms, video website comment sections, and even some well-known sports bloggers were drawn into the fray.

Some people have called for rational discussion: "Regardless of whether Gu Cheng did it intentionally or not, we should wait for the official investigation results before making a judgment, instead of starting personal attacks now."

But some people took the opportunity to fan the flames: "If you use your knuckles to serve the first time, you can say it was an accident, but if you use them a second time after clearly injuring someone, what is that if not intentional?"

"You say he was 'forced into self-defense,' then please tell me, why didn't he call the police? Why didn't he file a complaint on the spot? Why did he have to wait until someone was injured before coming to complain about his innocence?"

Supporters and opponents are clearly divided, and the online debate is intensifying.

On one side are staunch supporters of Gu Cheng, who believe he must have acted out of extreme desperation; on the other side are angry members of the public and some fans, who see it as a betrayal of the spirit of sports.

The online debate intensified, with supporters and opponents clashing sharply.

As public opinion continued to ferment, the conflict between Gu Cheng and Theodore was gradually magnified into a nationwide discussion about "sportsmanship" and "competitive violence".

On social media platforms, related topics include:
#Gu Cheng's finger serve incident#
Should tennis tolerate unconventional techniques?
#Who's to blame for Theodore's injury?#
They all made it to the top of the trending search list.

As more and more people joined in, the power of the haters seemed to have increased like never before. This group of keyboard warriors came together like a prehistoric monster that appeared from ancient times.

Its sole purpose is to destroy this young man who has made a mess of the tennis world and to completely devour him.

On the court at that moment, the referee warned Gu Cheng: "Gu Cheng, if you continue to use that serve, I have reason to believe that you are intentionally injuring someone. In that case, I may apply to the organizers to disqualify you from the competition and impose a one-year suspension."

Gu Cheng was never one to accept things passively. He looked completely innocent and said, "Referee, you heard what he just said. Theodore has already figured out how to break the outside spin serve and the disappearing serve, unless I hit the big blast serve, but that serve is probably more powerful than the knuckle serve."

"As for the knuckle serve, to be honest, I couldn't control the direction of its bounce, and I didn't expect it to hit Theodore."

"Of course, if the referee suspects that I intentionally injured someone, then I will simply not serve with my knuckles."

Although the referee felt that Theodore had brought trouble upon himself, he could not ignore Gu Cheng's act of injuring someone.

Fortunately, Gu Cheng was much easier to talk to than Theodore, and he was more receptive to reason. Theodore even wondered if he had misunderstood Gu Cheng.

After all, given Gu Cheng's skill level, if he really wanted to get revenge on Theodore, wouldn't it be more direct to use the Big Bang serve?
That serve could have seriously injured Theo with a single strike.

As for the knuckle serve, he had watched The Prince of Tennis, and this serve is indeed uncontrollable in terms of direction.

So...it really was just an accident?
"In that case, Gu Cheng, please continue serving!" the referee said to Gu Cheng.

Gu Cheng nodded, and the third ball was served with an outside spin.

Even though it was just an outside spin serve, Theodore, who was hit by two balls in a row, was somewhat terrified. The moment the tennis ball bounced up, regardless of whether it was a knuckle serve or not, he subconsciously took several steps back.

Only after seeing clearly the direction the tennis ball bounced did I realize that it was indeed an outside spin serve.

"40-0!"

Gu Cheng squeezed the ball, then hit a very ordinary flat serve.

Theodore was taken aback. The serve was surprisingly weak, lacking angle, power, and even speed.

Gu Cheng hit the ball towards the right corner, which was far from Theodore.

The speed was still not fast, but the angle was relatively large. Theodore ran and successfully returned the ball.

Gu Cheng continued to pass the ball to the right, making Theodore run back and forth, with each pass kept within Theodore's control.

He can receive the ball and also counterattack, but it requires Theodore to run more distances.

After the two played seven or eight rounds in a row, Theodore became more and more excited and even wondered if this was Gu Cheng's strength after he lost his ball skills.

That's way too weak!
He was so weak that he had the illusion that he could easily defeat Gu Cheng.

Theodore was ecstatic.

Sure enough, he guessed right. Without those ball skills, Gu Cheng was just an ordinary teenage professional player. His basic skills were even worse than some people who couldn't even get past the first round.

"If this is all you've got, then I've already won this match."

Theodore laughed, but at the same time, he was also a little worried.

Although Gu Cheng was warned by the referee that he could no longer use the knuckle serve, he still had the Big Bang serve and the Wave serve, which he could not return.

Theodore frowned as he returned the ball.

"If he hits a big serve, I'll deliberately get injured and then falsely accuse him of intentional injury?" Theodore's last bit of worry vanished instantly when he thought about what the referee had said about disqualifying Gu Cheng or even suspending him.

This time, he changed the one he was running for.

Even though his knees were throbbing, the thought of winning made him even more excited. This excitement was like an anesthetic, making him forget the pain.

But this excitement quickly began to dissipate as the game progressed.

Something was wrong. He had clearly played to his full potential, and his running speed had even increased significantly. Yet, the two had already been playing for over thirty rounds in the fourth point of the first game, and they were still going at it.

at the same time.

Zhu Wen's live stream.

This bizarre scene left Zhu Wen somewhat at a loss for words.

In the past, Gu Cheng's matches were usually decided in one or two points. He had never seen a situation like this where a single point lasted for dozens of rounds without anyone scoring.

"It shouldn't be!"

"With Gu Shen's skill level, even if he couldn't play those specific skills, he shouldn't have had such a difficult time!"

As Zhu Wen watched Theodore running back and forth on the court, a flash of lightning struck his mind, and the scene of Fuji Syusuke and Kirihara Akaya playing a match in The Prince of Tennis instantly came to mind.

"No way!"

"Is Gu Shen deliberately making Theodore run on both sides to increase the burden on his knees?"

"Also, looking at the trajectory of the ball, it seems to be alternating between topspin and backspin. Is it just a momentary lapse in concentration?"

Zhu Wen was a little unsure, but he did notice that Gu Cheng was making Theodore run back and forth. However, the actions were very subtle. If he hadn't been playing Prince of Tennis every day recently, and had played it several times already, he wouldn't have thought of it that way.

He was momentarily paralyzed because the camera angles provided by the director were all too far away, making it impossible to determine the cause. But Zhu Wen quickly confirmed it.

After dozens of rallies, Theodore, who had been swinging his racket with all his might, suddenly froze on the court, his racket flying out of his hand without him even realizing it.

After a moment, Theodore finally came out of that stiff state.

Upon seeing this, Zhu Wen immediately spoke into the microphone: "It was instantaneous paralysis. I knew it looked familiar, and it really was."

"However, I didn't expect Gu Shen to use instant paralysis at this time."

Zhu Wen didn't mention that Gu Cheng deliberately made Theodore run more, increasing the burden on his knees. He now relies entirely on Gu Cheng to make money from live streaming; Gu Cheng is his bread and butter.

The online outcry against Gu Cheng is growing louder and louder. If he were to reveal his speculations at this point, his haters would probably cause a huge uproar.

Moreover, this is just his own guess.

It's hard to say whether that's true or not.

It's better to keep things that aren't true to yourself than to say them.

On the court, the match between the two continued.

The momentary paralysis did not arouse Theodore's suspicion. He was now preoccupied with winning the second round of the match, and he had already achieved half of his goal.

As long as Gu Cheng doesn't use those two techniques from yesterday, his chances of winning the game are very high.

With that in mind, Theodore served.

Another tug-of-war has begun.

After fighting for more than twenty rounds, Theodore couldn't help but frown as a sharp pain appeared in his knees. Especially when he saw Gu Cheng's indifferent face, an unnamed anger rose from his stomach.

"You despicable bastard... die!"

Taking advantage of the moment when he was at the net, Theodore loosened his grip slightly while swinging his racket, and the racket flew over the net with inertia, appearing in front of Gu Cheng almost instantly.

By the time Gu Cheng noticed, the racket was almost right in front of him.

In this situation, there is simply no way to dodge.

Many people at the scene covered their eyes.

The referee was also taken aback by this sudden turn of events. Just as he was about to give a warning, he noticed that Gu Cheng had appeared on the side at some point, seemingly in the blink of an eye.

The racket flew past Gu Cheng's right side, hitting the ground several times before coming to a stop.

Theodore paused for a moment, then gave a forced smile: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I don't know what happened to my hand, it suddenly lost its strength, just like before, I can barely hold the racket."

But his gloomy eyes showed no sign of apology whatsoever.

"Are you alright?" Theodore asked, feigning concern.

Gu Cheng glanced at the racket not far away and sneered, "You might be disappointed."

Theodore's face darkened, and he cursed under his breath for his good luck before walking to Gu Cheng's half of the court to retrieve his racket.

On the second ball, Theodore used the same trick again, and his racket flew towards Gu Cheng once more.

Gu Cheng, who was already on guard, instinctively used the Shrinking Ground Technique when he saw the incoming racket.

The only way to dodge that racket is by using the shrinking ground technique.

After being dodged twice in a row, Theodore's face instantly turned extremely gloomy.

The referee seemed to realize Theodore's intentions and warned him, "Theodore, if you really can't hold the racket, I can have a doctor come and check you. If it's really not possible, then withdraw from the match. There's no need to ruin your entire career for one game."

Theodore smiled and shook his head: "No need, I can still manage."

"you sure?"

"determine."

The referee was too embarrassed to say much. Although Theodore's act of dropping the racket was bad, he was still a bit dazed before and didn't know whether Theodore was really unable to hold the racket or was deliberately not holding it. He could only signal the game to continue.

Theodore tried to use the same trick again, but Gu Cheng didn't approach the net again. Instead, he started to move Theodore around a wide area.

In the seventeenth minute of the match, when the score was 4-0, Theodore had just taken one step when he felt a sharp, excruciating pain in his knee.

"Sigh~"

Theodore grimaced in pain.

Gu Cheng ignored him and continued serving.

This shot was slower than any of the previous ones; it was practically fed straight to Theodore. Theodore took two steps and found that the pain in his knee was more intense than before, and he started to panic.

Damn it!
He was clearly evenly matched with Gu Cheng, so how did his knee injury suddenly become so serious?
At that moment, Theodore dared not run any further. He raised his hand and signaled to the referee, "Referee, I... I'm withdrawing from the race!"

If he keeps running, his professional career may really be over.

Many professional players have to retire from tennis due to injuries, and he doesn't want to be one of them.

"idiot!"

Gu Cheng cursed under his breath.

Judging from Theodore's expression, he knew that Theodore probably hadn't realized that the severity of his knee injury was related to him.

But none of that matters anymore; what matters is that he won the match.

After leaving the court, Gu Cheng picked up his phone to go find Yu Haoyang. Just then, a series of messages on his phone made him stop and take a look. Only then did he realize that the incident of him injuring someone with his knuckle serve had become a trending topic.

Countless haters flocked to his Weibo comment section, with hundreds of thousands of comments nearly flooding it.

Gu Cheng wasn't one to explain himself, but seeing his fans in the comments section trying their best to speak up for him and offer various explanations, only to have them quickly drowned out by the comments from the haters, he still stepped forward, intending to ask the referee for the video footage from that time.

However, he was refused. Just then, Reed appeared out of nowhere: "CHENG, do you want the video of Theodore provoking you before? I have it here, I'll send it to you via Bluetooth!"

Gu Cheng was taken aback, then quickly thanked him.

After getting the video from Reed, he immediately posted the completed video on Weibo.

This video was viewed hundreds of thousands of times shortly after it was released.

Weibo suddenly fell silent, as if the hundreds of thousands of haters had been forcibly put on pause.

A dead silence.

But this silence was quickly broken by Gu Cheng's fans:

"I knew there was a reason why the usually gentle and refined Gu Shen could be that kind of person. If it were you, could you have tolerated such provocation from Theodore?"

"Furthermore, Theodore's repeated swinging motions at the end of the video are enough to show that this guy is even worse than we thought."

"Gu Shen didn't bother with him, and didn't even care about his swinging the racket, but he kept pushing his luck and only stopped after being warned by the referee."

"No, it wasn't because of the referee's warning, but because Gu Shen never moved closer to the net starting from the third time, so Theodore couldn't find an opportunity to swing his racket."

"Those who previously criticized Gu Shen, after watching this video, you should all apologize to Gu Shen!"

You owe Gu Shen an apology!

"Apologize!!"

Under Gu Cheng's Weibo post, everyone was posting the word "apology," while the keyboard warriors hiding in the shadows trembled with fear.

(End of this chapter)