Some teenage boys were gathered around a few stone benches by the basketball court, watching idly from the side. Grace Miller was among them. At this moment, there happened to be someone he knew playing on the court.

Mark Bennett, who grew up in the same compound as Grace Miller. Although Grace Miller wasn’t particularly close to him, and his family lived in another assigned building, after more than ten years of seeing each other, they could be considered friends. Mark Bennett was a strong, tall, and athletic guy who liked sports—both basketball and soccer. He was lively and not bad-looking, so he was pretty popular in the compound. However, Grace Miller didn’t go over to say hello. Mark Bennett was a bit too outgoing—if he spotted a familiar face watching from the sidelines, he’d insist on dragging Grace Miller onto the court to play.

Grace Miller stood on the side for a while.

“If there’s still nothing going on, I’ll just head to the arcade.” Usually, there were often scuffles and fights at this basketball court. So, the teens who dared to play here all thought of themselves as pretty tough. Naturally, that meant even more friction. In his previous life, whenever Grace Miller passed by, he often saw fights breaking out here.

Just as Grace Miller was getting a bit impatient, something finally happened on the court.

For some reason, the two teams started crowding together and shouting insults at each other, pushing and shoving as well. The young people outside the court immediately perked up and got rowdy—maybe this was what they’d been waiting for all along.

Grace Miller saw what happened clearly: it seemed that a girl from Mark Bennett’s team had been hit on the head by a ball from the other team. Usually, there were very few girls on the basketball court, and they were always protected by their teammates. Now, with a ball suddenly hitting her, these big, strong players immediately got fired up.

Seeing this, Grace Miller was secretly pleased and immediately rushed out from the crowd, running straight onto the court.

“Mark Bennett!” he shouted loudly as he ran over.

Mark Bennett heard the voice in the crowd, turned his head, and immediately looked happy. At a time like this, the more people, the better, and he recognized Grace Miller right away.

“Grace Miller, what are you doing here?” But his voice was quickly drowned out by the shouting from both sides.

“Fuck your mother! Calling for backup, huh? Sam, go get Mouse and the others!”

“If you’ve got guts, don’t chicken out! Bastard! Come on! Weren’t you yelling just now?”

“I’ll remember you all, do it! I dare you to make a move!”

The loudest guy on the other side, a blond with yellow hair, ripped off his T-shirt and slapped his chest hard, his face twisted in anger.

“Hit me here! Come on! Hit me! Hit!”

Naturally, Mark Bennett’s side couldn’t hold back their anger anymore. No one knew who threw the first punch. That blond guy took a hard punch to the chest and staggered backward.

“You dare hit me!?”

“They started it! They started it!” Cries of surprise erupted from the other side.

“They actually dared to hit Brother Young!!”

Grace Miller immediately sensed something was wrong. It seemed this Brother Young with the blond hair was someone not to be messed with. The girl who’d been hit by the ball had only been anxiously watching from the side, but now, seeing things getting heated, she wanted to step in and say something, only to be held back by one of her teammates.

Very soon, in less than a few minutes, the two sides were in a full-on brawl. Just as Grace Miller was about to jump in, suddenly the sharp sound of police sirens rang out, getting closer and closer. Two police cars, lights flashing, screeched to a halt by the court. The doors banged open, and six or seven uniformed officers jumped out, rushing over in a hurry.

With the police cars arriving, it was obvious they were here for them. Mark Bennett’s group was instantly stunned. They were just ordinary high school students with no connections. Faced with this kind of situation, everyone was immediately scared stiff, their bravado gone, and as the police approached, a deep sense of panic set in.

“What’s going on here!!” A slightly chubby officer walked up to the two groups and shouted loudly.

“Gathering to cause trouble! Fighting and brawling! Want to spend a few days in the station, is that it?!” The chubby officer’s face was dark as he waved his hand.

“Take them away!!!”

Immediately, several officers behind him surged forward.

……

……

One minute later…

Grace Miller, Mark Bennett, and the others stared in shock at the departing police cars, standing on the court completely at a loss.

“That blond guy is done for.” One of Mark Bennett’s buddies suddenly blurted out.

Just now, when they saw the police rushing over, they thought they were going to get arrested, but the officers didn’t even bother with them. They went straight for the blond guy who’d been shouting the loudest and took him away.

“Let’s break it up.”

“Everyone go home.”

“Mark Bennett, we’re heading out first.”

“Oh. I’ll talk to my buddy for a bit. You guys go ahead.”

After watching the team leave, Mark Bennett patted Grace Miller on the shoulder and said, a bit moved,

“You’re a real one!”

Grace Miller smiled, about to say something, when he suddenly caught sight of a familiar figure out of the corner of his eye.