Falling Dreams, Rising Hopes: Saving Mr. Boyfriend

Mei Qingyang tried to stand up but fumbled down. She was feeling really dizzy right now. Perhaps the impact from that throw buzzed her brain too. She shook her head to come back in focus. Sweat droplets flowed down her forehead, blurring her vision more. She could hear her own heartbeat that was almost reaching the moon. Everything around her had stopped/

After a few seconds of struggle, she finally saw her opponent standing a few feet away in another attack stance.

Was it already her limit? Was her training all this time with dad and brother Hanyu waste? Wasn't she letting them both down with her display like this?

She knew that if she did not find her footing within next few seconds, she would lose the second hit too. It would be utterly difficult to make a comeback after that. She did not have enough strength to pull what the guy did to her, she could only try another lock on him.

Oh wait! She had completely forgotten that it was a freestyle match! Why was she trying to match the guy's style this whole time? She could use one of her stealth strikes from Muay Thai.

From the movements of this guy, he probably had no idea about Muay Thai. She regained her confidence and composure. She took a deep breath in and calmed down properly before standing up straight. She then tried a rally of few fake punches and kicks to startle vice-captain Xu, however, with little success.

She kept at it and finally started hitting his legs with her low kicks. The people sitting around did not think much of her not so powerful kicks. But no one knew how her small kicks were chipping away the big guy's strength. Only the other vice-captains and the two captains were seeing her effort.

It was taking much of her strength to find opportunities to hit the same point on vice-captain Xu's legs while defending herself from his own ruthless attacks. In the end, when it seemed like she was going to lose her own strength first, she finally found a chance to go for a full blow strike when the big guy slightly tripped on one of her own clumsy moves.

It was definitely a lucky chance for her. She went all out for her final kick and was finally able to make the guy buckle from her strength. That was a fantastic move and even the vice-captains applauded on her first strike.

Her two supporters jumped from their seat, this time in elation rather than worry. The guys in the gym were seeing the two captains showing these many emotions for the first time. They seemed more humane to them now.

Everyone knew Yu Tian was cold and strict. But Su Lang used a totally different strategy for the people under him, hot and cold treatment. If he was happy by performance of someone, he would shower them with so much praise that others would start feeling envious of that person.

If he was upset with someone, he would humiliate the person before everyone so ruthlessly that the other party would rather not come to gym after that. On the top of that he would use his prettiest of smiles to do so, which looked so sarcastic but no one could really hate him for his charming smile. Everyone was more afraid of Su Lang than Yu Tian.

Yu Tian and Su Lang finally relaxed and announced her first hit joyfully to the whole gym. The team members were still confused though. They did not process what had happened for two minutes.

The girl was constantly hitting, trying to hit anyway, their vice-captain. But she was not getting much traction. And then she kind of tripped on her foot or slipped or something happened which made the vice-captain lose balance too because they were in a close combat.

And the next thing they knew, vice-captain Xu was on the floor with his face in the dust. How did this happen? Should it not be counted as cheating?

Only Mei Qingyang knew that she had lost her balance because her head was still spinning. She herself was not happy to have earned her first point this way but she could not really say no to it.

"You guys are done with one strike each. You can take a few minutes break before we begin again.", seeing the condition of both, but especially Qing Qing, Su Lang stood up and suggested this.

Other guys gave him a weird look as if they were disgusted by the obvious partiality their captains were showing towards this girl. Mei Qingyang was the first one to reject this idea.

First of all, she could tell that no one was counting her point as a real point. Now if Su Lang showed her more favor, the other people in the gym would definitely go crazy.

Furthermore, her future two strikes would not be judged genuinely by others. Plus, she didn't want to give any time to the guy to recover. The element of surprise would be gone by then.

She could perhaps use the same technique one more time before vice captain Xu got used to it. She again waved her hand for Su Lang to announce that no break was required.

"I don't need any break and it seems like my opponent doesn't want any either. We would like your permission to continue.", vice-captain Xu spoke up. He was observing the girl very closely. She was on the verge of losing her consciousness and barely standing.

But she was still not interested in taking any rest. As a martial artist, he developed a huge respect for the girl right then and there. Earlier strike might have been a fluke on her part, and he was sure everyone thought that. But he himself knew how much her kick hurt.

She was also not a person who was battling blindly. He understood she was using proper strategies and he was actually looking forward to seeing more from her.

If she were to use the same tactic again, he would definitely not be able to use his leg for the rest of his match. Right now itself, he was struggling to lift his legs for his kicks. He needed to defeat her on the ground then. He had the weight advantage.

He would take her by surprise using wrestling techniques. He planned in his mind and waited for instruction from the two captains.

"But Qing Qing…", Su Lang was about to protest and force her to take a break.

"Ahem…", Yu Tian cut him off in between. Why did Su Lang have to use her nick name before everyone? This dropped her credibility. Su Lang looked at Yu Tian cutting him off and taking lead with suspicion. What were these guys cooking?

"It's okay. If both parties agree, you guy can go ahead. Let's start the second round.", Yu Tian announced. He looked reassuringly towards Mei Qingyang, who was looking towards their direction listlessly, to assure her that she had in her what it would take to defeat this guy. This movement didn't escape any of the guys sitting on the opposite side of the match. There was this weird atmosphere around these three. What was it again?

"Let's do our best for next two rounds.", vice-captain Xu came forward to shake Mei Qingyang's hand with a stiff expression. He never thought a feeble girl like her would have tied up the score with him. He was regretting underestimating the girl earlier. He had thought that he would finish the match in three seconds, just like any other guy in the gym. But she was putting up a great fight.

"Yes.", Mei Qingyang smiled and shook his hand congenially. This was start of a legendary friendship that surpassed her relationship with the two guys sitting over there but that would be in the future.