The Female General Dominates All After Transmigration-Chapter 122 - 121: Shopping, Preliminary Round

The field is limited and there are many teams, so each team only has an hour to practice.

Ling Chengyan watched others practicing teamwork, practicing steals, dribbling, and layups, all of which were very basic and not fancy. Others watched for a while and lost interest, especially Ling Chengyan, who behaved as if she were a defender standing at the back, not very aggressive, without even attempting a layup. However, her command of the court and coordination were excellent. Under her direction, the players moved forward and retreated very methodically and smoothly.

As a result, everyone dropped their guard against Ling Chengyan, assuming she was just a defensive player, not proficient at scoring layups.

After practicing, Advisor Xing happened to return from a meeting. After conveying the tournament schedule and his draw result for grouping, he generously waved his hand: "It’s a rare visit to the provincial city. If you want to go out, you can, just report your coming and going to me. Actions must involve at least two people."

They were all young, full of curiosity, so with permission, everyone wanted to go explore.

Originally, Ling Chengyan didn’t plan to go out, but regarding the matter at the basketball court, she added a rule: groups of three or more, and if someone tries to provoke you, just ignore them.

"...If you fight today and get injured, you won’t be able to participate in the game, even without injuries, you might be punished and lose eligibility to compete, which would be just what others want."

Everyone was cautious and agreed, making arrangements with familiar people to go out together.

Naturally, Ling Chengyan went out with the Automobile Company people, with no particular destination, just taking a casual stroll.

The provincial city had some characteristic attractions, but none of the rough men were interested in looking at springs or lakes, so they casually looked at the street scenes. When they walked to the provincial department store, the four-story building was quite impressive and much larger in area, so they naturally went in for a stroll.

No need to buy food or drinks for now. Ling Chengyan looked around but ended up lingering a bit longer at the clothing counters.

Having been to Hai City and seen the prosperity there, the clothing styles in the provincial department store couldn’t compare, but they had solid material and generous styles. Interestingly, there were high-end clothes that didn’t require fabric coupons, but they were priced ten to fifteen percent higher.

The stationery counters and the small goods counters had some novel items. Since they were to participate in the competition, they could only return after at least the preliminary stage, so Ling Chengyan was not in a hurry to buy anything.

After coming out, they wandered around without any specific purpose. With four people together and Ling Chengyan’s prowess, there was no place they wouldn’t dare to go.

In the alleyways, there were quite a few old courtyards and houses, with green bricks and tiles, displaying ancient charm. Ling Chengyan was interested, and the others followed suit.

Entering the alleys was like stepping into another world. Many courtyards and houses had their doors open to the street without any plaques or signs, but there was a difference from ordinary residences. Aromas wafted from small restaurants, barbershops had their doors open, and with a little focus, the slightly different layouts inside could be seen... There were even mobile stalls for bike repairs, pen repairs, umbrella repairs, and even a whetstone sharpening scissors and knives.

They wandered casually, felt thirsty, and bought some soda from a white wooden box of an elderly woman. The soda cost eight cents, and the bottles were returned for recycling. If you took the bottle with you, it required a fifty-cent deposit.

As they strolled around, unexpectedly they passed an old courtyard filled with old goods, worn furniture, bottles, old books, paper, and even tattered clothes and fabrics.

The others weren’t interested, but Ling Chengyan suggested going in for a look.

She headed straight for the pile of old books and papers; most were notebooks, newspapers, and wrapping paper, but there were quite a few old books as well.

Squatting for a while, Ling Chengyan found seven or eight books. Two were children’s picture books; the rest were quite old, with yellowed pages, handwritten in brush calligraphy. Her companions were puzzled, yet no one dared to ask.

She also checked out the old furniture but didn’t find anything valuable.

Back at the guesthouse, Ling Chengyan found a clean cloth to carefully wipe the book pages. Some were damaged or folded, so she mended them. Finally, she used purchase kraft paper to cover the old books with makeshift dust jackets.

These books were at least a hundred years old, with brittle yellow pages, but the calligraphy was excellent. There were no seals, so the author was unknown, but she was thinking that taking them back for Xiao Xing and Xiao Yu to use as copybooks would be good.

Moreover, the book content was worth a good read.

Finding these few books made Ling Chengyan quite pleased; coming to the provincial city was not in vain.

The next day, the competition began.

The first opponent for the Huicheng Division was a team from the Yu Province Division. Before taking the field, Ling Chengyan had observed, and saw no standout figures. As expected, she played at twenty percent of her capability and led by over twenty points to win the match.

After this practice match, those paying attention to the Huicheng Division team let their guard down slightly. The female captain of the Huicheng Team indeed had some skills, but they were limited; she could handle regular military division teams, but she was not enough to face the representative teams of the major army groups.

As the competition proceeded, Ling Chengyan stopped letting her team wander aimlessly. When there was no match, they went to various courts to watch other teams play to understand their strengths, especially the teams she was interested in.

Through investigation, she roughly figured out the backgrounds of certain individuals; they were mostly reconnaissance soldiers from major army groups, with a couple from the Guard Company—truly skilled people.

She was somewhat satisfied that, although there were plenty of skilled participants, all were scattered across different teams. The largest 6* Army Basketball Team only had two members.

Every other day, the Huicheng Team played two more matches, both against military division teams. Ling Chengyan played even more relaxed, acting mainly as an assist for others. Ultimately, they won both matches with leads of 12 points and 14 points, respectively.

After three consecutive wins, the Huicheng Division Team secured their spot in the group stage advancement.

They then played two more group matches, where Ling Chengyan played more relaxed, letting others strive and hustle, both games resulting in narrow wins.

When someone later reviewed the matches, they discovered the Huicheng Division Team’s five consecutive wins, although seemingly more challenging with lessening leads, as a team entering the second round with a five-match winning streak, no one dared to underestimate them.

Of the more than sixty teams participating, a third advanced to the next round after eliminating two-thirds in the group stage.

As she looked at the list of teams advancing to the second round, Ling Chengyan smirked: All the eliminated teams were from various military divisions, while most remaining teams were from field armies, air forces, or naval representative teams.

It’s like militia compared to professional forces; both military and physical characteristics have disparities.

The draw results for the second-round matches:

Huicheng Team’s first encounter was against a difficult opponent, a naval representative team, which also had a five-win record in the first elimination round.