My second life is a bit strange?

He got up and planned to go to the locker room to find Yuyuki and go home together.

As soon as I opened the door, I heard their coach giving a summary.

"Is he Yuxing's younger brother? We've met before. We're still summarizing, can we wait a bit?" The teaching assistant in the suit had met him once before.

"Sorry to bother you." Feng quickly retreated and waited at the door for a while, then heard a chorus of shouts from inside.

"Championship!!!"

Another round of applause followed, and the teaching assistant was the first to come out, giving him a polite smile as she passed by.

When Kaede went inside, she saw Miyuki chatting with Momoi, and Momoi was covering her mouth and laughing.

"Ahem." He coughed twice from the back.

Yu Xing immediately turned around and grabbed his neck, but Feng pushed him away in disgust: "Don't come any closer, you're all sweaty and smell awful."

"Oh, you actually look down on me?" Shirogane Miyuki chased after Kaede in the locker room.

Akashi, with a lemon in his mouth to replenish his energy, looked at them with envy: "Miyayuki and his younger brother have such a good relationship."

"Murasakibara, quickly stop him for me, I'll offer two delicious sticks."

"Oh!" Murasakibara, who was sitting on a bench eating snacks and watching the show, immediately perked up upon hearing this. He stood up and blocked the middle of the road. His tall figure blocked the sunlight, and Kaede felt the light suddenly dim. When she turned around, it was too late to dodge, and she bumped into his chest.

Murasakibara's hands gripped him tightly like vises.

Yu Xing took the opportunity to rub his face hard, pinching his cheeks until they turned red.

After teasing Yuuki enough, he ordered Murasakibara to release Kaede. Kaede rubbed her face in pain and said speechlessly, "He only offered two delicious sticks and he bought you off?"

"This is a brother's price, you know?" Yu Xing's smug look made you want to punch him. Ever since his cheap older brother started playing basketball, his personality had become much more confident and cheerful.

"I'll treat him to a barbecue, and you help me get back at him," Feng said fiercely. "I have way more pocket money than him, so you can eat as much barbecue as you want."

"Oh! Yuyuki's younger brother is very generous. From now on, I'll call you Fengzi."

“Fengzai…”

"It's his habit to add 'zai' to the end of the names of his close friends."

"Oh, okay, then I'll call you Zizai too." Feng patted him on the shoulder.

Seeing Kaede mingling with his teammates, Yuyuki felt a little panicked and tried to sneak away, but unexpectedly, Aomine Daiki blocked the doorway, leaning against the door panel with his arms crossed, looking like he didn't care about making things worse.

"Can I join the barbecue? I'm starving."

"Of course, everyone is welcome to come if you have time."

"You, how could you betray me? Aren't we brothers? We're a team, a team!" Before Yuyuki could finish speaking from the corner, he was picked up by Murasakibara in mid-air.

Aomine Daiki and Kise Ryota each grabbed a leg, spread them apart, and rubbed them against the cabinet. Everyone controlled their strength, so it wasn't very painful; the main torment was the psychological torture.

Yu Xing's face contorted in pain, feeling a burning sensation on his cheeks. The girl he liked was laughing beside him, saying, "Let me die, I'm too ashamed to live."

After the joke, everyone put Yu Xing down. Yu Xing sat on the ground with his back against the cabinet, his hands gripping the floor, looking helpless and utterly hopeless.

"Alright, let's change our clothes and go eat barbecue. It's on me today."

As Yuki walked out of the locker room with his sports bag on his back, he saw Kaede and Akashi walking ahead, chatting and laughing. He even wondered if he was a fake teammate.

"Wait for me!"

The setting sun cast long shadows of the group, which intertwined before receding into the distance.

Chapter Forty-Six: I was just kidding.

Kaede brought Eriri, who was waiting for him at the door, and the eight of them went to a highly-rated barbecue restaurant. Looking at their physiques, they ordered several set meals in one go.

This restaurant serves all the dishes together at once, which is a bit slow. Everyone was already starving after exercising, and the aroma of meat in the air made them even more tempted.

They chatted about some interesting things that happened during their training sessions, and Feng learned about everyone's quirks.

Midorima Shintaro enjoys watching morning fortune telling, and is even a bit superstitious, insisting that his accuracy is only 3/4 thanks to the Cancer lucky charm he always carries with him.

They didn't mention at all how hard they worked and how diligent they were.

Aomine Daiki is the team's top scorer. He loves playing basketball but is frustrated by not being able to find an opponent. He also has the special skill of catching cicadas and catching two crayfish at the same time with 100% accuracy.

Because Yuyuki was abused by them, he retaliated by revealing his private information: "Ahui likes girls with big breasts and also likes to look at Mai's photobooks."

"You!" Qingfeng's dark face actually turned red.

"What's wrong with that? It's normal to like girls with big breasts, and I'm the same way." Feng raised his fist and touched it with Qingfeng's.

He didn't realize that his joke had led the other person to mistakenly believe that they were kindred spirits.

Her grateful eyes seemed to say that she regretted not meeting him sooner, and wished she had met him sooner.

Eriri glanced at her chest discreetly, a hint of jealousy in her expression.

"Stop staring, or you'll start shooting sparks! The food's all served, let's eat." Momoi Satsuki quickly interrupted their staring contest, looking at her childhood friend with disdain. Didn't she see how embarrassed the other person was?

Feng poured himself a full drink, stood up, and said, "Thank you everyone for taking care of my brother."

Akashi: "That's not true. We've also received a lot of care from Miyuki."

Murasakibara: "I really like Miyuki-chan. He buys me snacks."

Midorima: "He helped me a lot with my studies."

Qingfeng: "He has great physical fitness, which allows me to have a great time and learn from each other."

"Haha, I'm not that great." Shirogane Miyuki was a little embarrassed by the praise, and he grabbed his hair and raised his glass in return.

Momoi: "Shirogane-kun..."

Kaede and Yuki looked at him at the same time.

Feng Lingji quickly said, "Just call me by my name, it'll be easier to communicate that way."

Momoi blushed slightly, glanced at Miyuki, considered her words carefully, and continued, "Miyuki-kun is a very reliable person."

Feng quietly gave Yu Xing a look.

This is all I can do for you.

Shirogane Miyuki gave him a thumbs-up with one hand behind his back.

[Nice, bro!]

Eriri looked at the two of them with a puzzled expression. Why was there still team voice chat? Was she not in the channel? She couldn't understand it.

After finishing their meal, Yuyuki went to see his classmate off, so Kaede and Eriri left first.

By this time, the sound of cicadas was already filling the streets.

"Look, the cicada is molting."

Eriri looked in the direction Kaede pointed, and the moment she looked up, the streetlights and the interlacing shadows of the trees were dappled and varied, like a spilled galaxy.

She searched for a long time without finding the cicada, then looked at the boy, who was looking at her tenderly. A sudden evening breeze blew, swirling around her heart.

Kaede escorted Eriri to her doorstep, and as she was leaving, she suddenly said, "Oh, by the way, it's a lie that I like big-breasted girls. I don't care about that."

Eriri's face flushed red: "H! I-I-I-I don't care about that!"

"Alright, I'm going back." Feng waved his hand, took out his keys, and opened the door.

Eriri stood at the door for a long time without turning around, constantly struggling with her dilemma.

What did he mean by saying that to me?

"I don't want to think about it anymore, it's so embarrassing."

……

As darkness fell, the editorial department of Shinazugawa Bunko was bustling with activity. The editors' eyes darted rapidly across the screen, and their mouths were constantly moving.

"What are these things? The main character is so greasy, yet he's so confident."

"No, I need to wash my eyes."

Machida Sonoko stood by the window, smoking a cigarette, and muttered to herself as she looked at the people around her, "Newcomers still need experience, they can't handle this."

After resting for a while, Editor Machida extinguished her cigarette and returned to her private office. She browsed through her emails, marking many submissions as substandard simply by looking at the names.

Suddenly her hand stopped: "Love Metronome?"

It wasn't that the name was particularly appealing to her, but it was one of the more visually pleasing titles among a bunch of random ones.

When she clicked on the link, she saw that the author's pen name was Xia Shizi. She remembered that she had rejected this person's novel before, and although she had put it very tactfully, the other party was very upset.

"It's all fixed so quickly?"

Machida Sonoko looked at the main text with anticipation. Time passed quietly, and when she finally relaxed her dry eyes a little, she realized it was time to leave work.

"It really surprised me. With just one revision, the writing style has completely changed, but the plot hasn't changed much. It's like pickling cabbage in a new jar, it still tastes the same. However, the character descriptions, dialogues, and inner monologues are very comfortable to read."

"How wonderful, when will I meet a guy who embodies the essence of autumn?"

I wrote my review of the book, sent it to the editor-in-chief, closed my laptop, stretched, and said, "Time to go, time to go~" Humming a cheerful tune, I picked up my bag, clocked out, and left work.

...

Hey~

The editor-in-chief happened to be working from home with his laptop. He was a little surprised when he received Machida's message, wondering why the other party would send him a message at this time.

[This is an excellent work and can be published directly.]

"It's rare to see Machida, the editor, give such a high rating to a novel. I'll have to take a good look at it."

His wife, a sensible and virtuous woman, helped heat up some miso soup and prepared some pickled cucumbers and sake: "Honey, I'm going to bed now."

"Okay, thank you for your help."

He was captivated by the article, holding the warm miso, gently blowing on it, the mist dampening his glasses, but taking him back to his youthful days.

He savored it slowly, and his love transformed into a salty and savory flavor, filling his mouth and then flowing into his stomach, leaving him feeling warm all over.

"It's so wonderful to have married her."

He savored the characters in the book, noting their youthful innocence and bittersweetness, but something was missing. The editor poured himself a glass of sake and said confidently, "This author has never been in love, yet he yearns for it."

Before I knew it, I had finished reading the whole volume.