MTL - Close to You - Chapter 103

He was supposed to be the next big thing.Three years ago, Riku Aoyama was Japan’s rising basketball prodigy…Until a devastating injury and a brutal betrayal shattered everything.Now? He’s just a ghost of his former self—until one empty gym, one dusty court, and one crazy idea reignite the fire.Form a team of nobodies. Start from zero. Take on the monsters ruling the court.With broken players, forgotten schools, and no sponsors backing them—Riku’s team, Kaizen High, isn’t just here to play...They’re here to change the game.No powers. No shortcuts.Just sweat, soul, and skill.In a world where basketball is war—Only the crownless will rise.

The Shao and Cheng families have been sworn enemies for generations, though few outsiders know the exact details of their feud.

What is known to all is the Shao family’s three cardinal rules:

The Shao family must not cooperate with the Chengs, must not intermarry with the Chengs, and must never appear with the Chengs at any public event.

One day, an adorable little girl looking like a doll, wearing a puffy pink dress, pink hair clip, and pink backpack, walked into the lobby on the first floor of the Shao Group building.

The receptionist thought she was some child who had wandered away from home. But the little girl solemnly said, “I want to see your Shao Group CEO, Shao Chengze.”

Seeing the girl’s pink outfit, the receptionist knew she must be from a wealthy and noble family to dare to address their CEO by his full name. She couldn’t be the daughter of some high-ranking Shao Group executive?

Smiling warmly, she asked, “Little one, could you tell me your parents’ names?”

The girl tilted her head. “My mommy is Cheng Jinlan.”

Cheng…Jinlan?!

Second Miss Cheng Jinlan of the Cheng family?! She never thought she’d see the day a Cheng would set foot in the Shao Group building. What a miracle!

“As for my dad, I’ve come today to get some of Shao Chengze’s hair for a DNA test. Once I have his hair, I’ll know if he’s my dad or not.”

The girl’s crisp words rippled outwards from the front desk through the bustling first floor lobby. Everyone who heard froze in shock, jaws dropping.

Everyone except Shao Chengze, who had just stepped out of the elevator surrounded by a group.

He looked at the girl in pink through narrowed, fox-like eyes.

Cheng Liqi recognized Shao Chengze and covered her mouth in an “ah-oh”.

She decided that even if Shao Chengze wasn’t her dad, she’d have to help Cheng Jinlan get this man. She liked his eyes.

They were just like hers.

So pretty.

The most beautiful woman in Jinggang, Hua Nong, spent the night with the legal circle tycoon Lu Jing'an, and upon waking up, tossed him a piece of steel coin.The next day, Hua Nong pleaded in front of Lu Jing'an, and the man smirked coolly: “Mr. Lu is just a beast in clothes, worth only one yuan?”Hua Nong smiled on the surface but cursed inside: “Young Master Lu may not know, in certain moments, 'beast in clothes' is a compliment.”“For example?” Lu Jing'an's tone was cool.“In bed,” Hua Nong tried to explain further....In the second year of Hua Nong's marriage to Lu Jing'an, their married life was sweet and became a model couple in Jinggang, until... Lu Jing'an's ex-girlfriend returned...Hua Nong drowned her sorrows in alcohol and posted a Weibo: [Single, lonely, waiting for love...]

After dying from a strange terminal illness, Ling Lan was reborn into a world 10000 years into the future. Although she dearly wished she could just live a peaceful and uneventful life in her new healthy body, fate had other plans ...Forced to disguise herself as a boy just so she could inherit her deceased father's premium military benefits, Ling Lan's journey to adulthood was full of challenges. After much difficulty, she finally turned sixteen when she could drop the charade. But before she could grasp her newfound freedom to get married and start her own family, a twist of fate results in her being thrown into the Federation's top military boys' school.With these twists of fate, Ling Lan had little choice but to walk further and further down a path of no return, one of cold and aloof dominance ...~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*ryuxenji the translator here. :3 Here are some other things you should know:1) This story is NOT primarily a romance. QI's system right now categorizes all novels taken from the female novel Chinese site (起点女生网) as 'romance' without fail, regardless of whether they truly are romance. So, if you are here just for the romance, you might want to find a different novel. There will be some romance eventually, but most of this novel is Sci-Fi/Xianxia with a lot of world-building and character development.2) I use British spelling. So, please ensure spelling errors are really errors before reporting them.3) No matter what the release rate up top says, the guaranteed release rate right now is 1 chp/day (a.k.a. 7 chps/week). All else is extra at my discretion. (I'll try my best, but RL responsibilities come first.)