deltrittennovels Chapter 35's initial intention was that Hyotei deserved it.
Chapter 35's initial intention was that Hyotei deserved it.
Mochizuki Ryo's straightforward approval stirred something in Atobe's heart, and the smile in his eyes deepened.
The warm yellow light in the study fell on the bookshelves, the desktop, and the gold-embossed title of the white book.
"Ring." Atobe leaned back in his chair, his left hand unconsciously touching the beauty mark at the corner of his eye, and suddenly spoke.
"I have one more question."
"Oh, you asked."
"On your first day at Hyotei, you watched our practice match and wrote the first draft of this book that very night." Atobe's gaze fell on the white book, then shifted to Mochizuki Ryo's face. "Why did you write it?"
Wang Yueling's pupils widened slightly when asked the question, but she remained silent.
"You don't plan to join the tennis club, so why waste your time and energy?" Atobe's voice was calm, but his question was serious. "What are your reasons for helping Hyotei? What was your initial motivation?"
Atobe had actually been holding this question in for a long time.
He couldn't understand why, judging from this white paper, Mochizuki Ryo clearly possessed tennis knowledge and skills far exceeding those of ordinary people, yet he avoided joining the tennis club like the plague; why then was he willing to expend so much energy to write such a priceless book of advice for Hyotei.
These things puzzled him greatly.
Upon hearing this, Wang Yueling's smile faded slightly, and she turned her gaze to the deepening night outside the window, falling into a brief moment of contemplation.
The original intention?!
There seem to be many reasons.
He slowly closed his eyes, and the scene of his first day of school appeared in his mind.
The first one to emerge was Sakaki Taro.
His cousin sincerely invited him to join the tennis club, but he refused almost immediately because he didn't want tennis to become a responsibility he had to bear. He just wanted to keep it as a pure passion.
But after refusing, I felt a void in my heart.
My cousin truly cares about Hyotei and these young boys. He can see that while Sakaki Taro excels at developing potential, he's not good at meticulous tactical analysis or mental adjustment. Hyotei's group of prodigies are like fine knives, but they lack someone who truly knows how to hone them.
He owed his cousin a favor and wanted to do something to repay that debt.
Then, there were the Hyotei players in the practice match. The boys' hair was damp with sweat, their eyes gleaming in the sunlight, and every swing of their rackets carried undisguised passion and pride.
In that instant, he suddenly remembered himself from his past life.
At nineteen, he stood on the Olympic podium, his eyes welling up with tears as the national flag was raised; at twenty, he lifted the Australian Open trophy, and the cheers from the entire stadium were deafening; even when he later fell into a trough and his fingers trembled during rehabilitation in a sanatorium, he never truly put down his racket.
He was once just as spirited, single-mindedly focused on moving forward and reaching the top of the world stage.
The group of people in front of us are highly talented, have solid skills, train hard, and lack nothing, yet they stumbled in the most inappropriate place—their mentality.
A sense of superiority fostered by family background, overconfidence born from academic achievements, and eyes blinded by pride. Playing brilliantly when things are going well, but easily collapsing when things go wrong.
Despite being a team capable of standing at the top of the nation, they repeatedly squandered matches they should have won due to their mental weaknesses.
As a tennis veteran who has experienced both the peak and the trough, he couldn't bear to see these promising young players take the wrong path, nor could he bear to see them waste their talent because of mental issues.
But the deepest reason...
He himself thought about it for a long time before he understood it.
He actually... always had a preference for Hyotei.
In his past life, when he watched "The Prince of Tennis" over and over again in the sanatorium, his favorite team was not Rikkai University, the champion team that Yukimura played for, nor Seigaku, which had a large number of main characters, but Hyotei.
The reason is simple: they can get back up after they lose.
He didn't feel anything when Seigaku, as the main group, won so many times. But when Hyotei lost, he would sigh in front of the screen.
Also because of Keigo Atobe, the department head.
Despite his privileged background and talent, and the fact that he could have easily won everything, he worked harder than anyone else on the team. Others only saw his glamorous self-admiration, but only he, after experiencing ups and downs, understood how much untold sweat and perseverance lay behind that glamorous facade.
Furthermore, because every member of Hyotei has their own pride, yet they are willing to gently set aside that pride for the sake of the team.
Ryo Shishido was dropped from the starting lineup, but he harbored no resentment, only a relentless dedication to training; Chotaro Ootori stayed up late with his teammates for extra practice; Jiro suppressed his sleepiness and gritted his teeth to persevere in training for the sake of the team…
He felt that these people were all very genuine.
They have pride, but also weaknesses.
You can win, and you can lose.
You'll feel sad after losing, but you'll get back up after feeling sad.
He didn't like the way Hyotei lost to Seigaku time and time again in the original storyline.
It's not that we can't lose, it's that we lose too hastily.
Many times it's not because of a lack of strength, but because... how should I put it... because the opponent is the protagonist.
The protagonist has to win, so Hyotei can only lose.
He was unconvinced.
Tennis shouldn't be like this.
There should be no predetermined winners, no destined losers, and the outcome of a match should not be determined by so-called halos.
The essence of tennis is not about whose protagonist shines brighter, but about sweat, effort, perseverance, growth, respect for every swing of the racket, seriousness in every match, and winning a well-deserved victory through one's own strength.
It should be fair and pure, not those vague and illusory biases.
Every member of Hyotei is talented and hardworking enough; they deserve to stand on a higher stage and win more spectacularly. He simply wanted to bring these boys back on track, to make them see their weaknesses, and to transform Hyotei's pride into genuine confidence, rather than being trapped by regret and failure.
Perhaps, this thought was planted in his mind when he watched anime in his previous life, but back then he couldn't change anything and could only sigh from across the screen.
It wasn't until that night, when he finished writing the last page of the white paper and closed his computer, that he realized how many pages he had written.
Only then did I realize how serious and caring I was.
It wasn't a spur-of-the-moment decision, nor was it a deliberate attempt to please; it was simply his deep love for tennis, his compassion for the young players, and his respect for Hyotei that drove him to do all this.
"What are you thinking about?"
Atobe's voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Nothing. I was just thinking about how to answer you." Wang Yueling raised her head and slowly opened her eyes. Her azure eyes were calm and sincere, without the slightest pretense.
He couldn't reveal his truest thoughts, so he could only choose the most convincing parts and said softly, "Because my cousin cares a lot about the tennis club, I refused his invitation, so I should do something for him."
He paused, glanced at Atobe, then at the white paper on the table, and finally looked away, adding a sentence seriously.
"Moreover, because... Hyotei deserves it."