The green top is the eight-ball table, and the blue top is the nine-ball table.
Here is the blue table, which is also her competition event.
"This is an amateur," Su Wei pointed at Lin Yiyang's back, and whispered softly to Yin Guo, "Berry said that he is challenging a regional champion here."
Yin Guo nodded slightly, it turned out to be an amateur.
Berry was talking, and Su Wei was relaying: "And this regional champion has already won three games in this ball room. This is his blessed land. Berry also said that three thousand dollars is too hasty."
Yin Guo didn't know the amount of gambling here, so he didn't say anything.
Three thousand dollars is indeed not a small sum.
Lin Yiyang held the orange ball by himself, and handed the opponent a yellow ball.
Yin Guo knew that they were about to compete for the kick-off right.
He and the regional champion walked to the side of the table and each put the ball on the service line.
All around quiet down.
Yin Guo and Su Wei stopped talking softly. Both of them know very well that in nine balls, the right to serve is very important, and the chances of winning will be much greater if they get it, so when the two players start the game, they have to win the right to serve once.
The rules are simple, two people have to hit the ball together from the service line, and each ball hits the opposite bank and bounces back. Whoever's ball is closest to him when it stops wins.
In the silence that filled the room, there were two slight knocking sounds.
The two balls rolled out almost at the same time, drew a straight trajectory on the blue table, hit the opposite bank together, and bounced back at a uniform speed.
The speed of the two balls is getting slower and slower.
Yin Guo stared at them, she almost knew the result——
Slowly, slowly, Lin Yiyang's orange ball surpassed the opponent's yellow ball. The ball rolled in front of Lin Yiyang and stopped close to the edge of the table, no more, no less, to the shore, no closer than this.
The yellow ball also stopped in the applause, only 1cm behind.
Facing the gap of 1cm, Lin Yiyang won.
"Who will be the referee?" Lin Yiyang picked up the white ball and put it on the serving line.
"I, I'll do it." Barry volunteered.
He was originally here for the regional championship, but after watching Lin Yiyang's beautiful attack, his mood was even higher.
He came to be the referee, and he came to ensure fairness. In fact, he wanted to make sure that Lin Yiyang was just a fluke.
On the pool table is a long low light that casts a soft white light on the blue tabletop. The light was very low, so low that it could only illuminate the area below his waist. Berry quickly put the ball into place, forming a beautiful diamond shape on the table.
He changed to green powder and painted the club head.
On the side of the table, leaning over, the eyes fell on the white ball, and the club head was aligned. One hit.
If a colored ball is pocketed, the kick-off of the first inning is valid.
At the same time that the ball fell into the pocket, the other person had already circled to the right side of the billiard table, caught up with the next blow, and another ball fell into the pocket. As soon as Yin Guo saw the pocket, he changed to the next position again and hit the ball quickly.
Is this for fastball?
In general competitions, very few people can play fastball, because it is all about career and world ranking games, so you have to play steadily. On the contrary, in the ball room, there will be a chance to meet the masters of fastball.
Some people just pursue speed and beauty, but they have high requirements for positioning and accuracy.
Nine balls are different from middle eights. You must always hit the ball with the smallest number on the table in order. Shoot down one by one. That is, when you hit the 2 ball, you should have thought about where the white ball would land, allowing you to drop the 3 ball.
The faster you are, the more accurate you are.
Ball 1, Ball 2, Ball 3...
In the end, when there were three balls 7, 8, and 9 left on the table, he hit the No. 7 ball with the white ball, and the No. 7 ball hit the No. 9 ball, and the two balls fell into the bag one after another.
The round ended with applause.
It doesn't matter how many balls are knocked down. In the nine-ball game, whoever can score the No. 9 ball is the winner.
He won. Cleared the table with one stroke.
She stared at Lin Yiyang's back, looked at him, and painted the head of the club with fine powder again.
If you don't play fastball, in the official game, every shot is very important, and every shot needs to be powdered, which is to stabilize the mind and prepare for the next shot.
Unlike tonight, it was more of a show.
"It's still too late, everyone," this time it wasn't Lin Yiyang who was inviting, but the excited Berry, who said in English with a smile, "We can still raise, there are fifteen rounds in total. Don't miss it, everyone."
Everyone laughed and raised money one after another.
Lin Yiyang's first game conquered all the strangers present, including the regional champion. Perhaps before, he was still the champion in this ball room, and tonight, I am afraid it will be a terrible match.
...
Lin Yiyang has always maintained the advantage in the opening game.
It wasn't until the sixth game that he lost to his opponent, allowing the regional champion to leave his seat and open a game. But soon, in the eighth game, the opponent made a mistake, and Lin Yiyang won and regained the right to serve.
Finally, he hit faster and faster.
You don't see him stop at all, aim, nothing, just the ball keeps getting in the pocket and he keeps going to the next position. This is the first time that Yin Guo has seen someone playing fastball at close range. The viewing and refreshing feeling is really indescribable.
In the tenth game, the No. 9 ball was hit under the eyes of everyone and fell directly into the bottom pocket.
Lin Yiyang stood up straight.
He has won tonight's bet without finishing fifteen rounds. Perfect ending.
The regional champion who sat on the pool chair and watched the last game stood up, stretched out his right hand to him, and smiled happily. This is the hearty feeling of meeting an opponent. The defeat was convincing, and naturally there was no complaint.
"It's an honor." Lin Yiyang held the club in one hand and shook hands with the opponent.
The other party patted him heavily on the side of the arm: "Young man, tell me, is there you in this year's US Open? You must have signed up, right?"
Lin Yiyang smiled and shook his head. He put the cue back in its original position and put it on the cue rack.
Unlike these professional players, even if he came to gamble with such a huge amount of billiards, he did not bring his own cue, but only used the public club provided by the ball room.
The owner of the ball room smiled and handed him a towel, as a bonus, a cup of hot water, which Lin Yiyang had requested from the owner just before the last game. He is thirsty.
Lin Yiyang held the mouth of the cup, drank half a sip, and moistened his throat. He has been drinking water with his head down for a few old miles beside him. It seems that he has spent a lot of energy and is seriously short of water. Almost, after drinking a small half cup. He raised his head, as if he had just seen Yin Guo just now, he cast his gaze on her, and smiled to himself: "Hi."
She was going to wait for Lin Yiyang to finish drinking the water before going forward to greet her, but he suddenly preempted her, and she seemed passive.
"Hi." She waved her right hand lightly.
Because I was nervous watching the game, I didn't speak for a long time, and my voice was still a little hoarse.
Unknowingly cleared his throat.
"You know each other?" Su Wei asked Yin Guo in surprise.
"Are you friends?" the regional champion who lost also asked Lin Yiyang at the same time.
"We just met each other not long ago," Lin Yiyang put the water glass on the billiard chair, looked at her seriously, and said in English to the gossiping people present, "I really hope she treats me as a friend."
...
"Of course," Yin Guo said under the glare of everyone's eyes, as if he had done something bad and admitted his mistake, with a correct attitude and a sincere tone, "We have always been friends."
Lin Yiyang was amused by her seriousness, and switched back to Chinese: "I'm just kidding, don't take it seriously."
He seemed to be in a good mood. He took out a half-glued post-it note from his trousers pocket, handed it to the regional champion, and told him that this was his classmate's account, and he could deposit money into this account if he lost money.
The regional champion readily took over, and said with a smile that he would save money and wait for another round of betting with Lin Yiyang.
The crowd dispersed quickly, and each returned to their own tables or the open sofa at the entrance. Some continued their game, and some were chatting about the Open after the winter.
Only they are quiet here.
Yin Guo introduced Su Wei to Lin Yiyang: "Su Wei, you came with me."
Lin Yiyang nodded.
He handed a bill to the waiter, ordered two drinks, and handed them to Yin Guo and Su Wei.
Su Wei was quickly called away by Berry. After getting to know each other with a male player, they chatted happily and started a round of practice.
Yin Guo was biting her straw and sitting next to Lin Yiyang's billiard table, on a billiard chair against the wall. She stepped on the rail under the chair with both feet, quietly watching half of the round at the next table. Noticing that there was no one around Lin Yiyang, she glanced back and smiled at Lin Yiyang.
Lin Yiyang was leaning against the pool table, playing with a white ball.
Quiet.
This was the first time for the two of them to be alone without Meng Xiaotian present.
Lin Yiyang put the white ball in his hand on the line of scrimmage: "Why did you come so far?"
He knew the hotel where Yin Guo was staying, and naturally he also knew that it was far away from here.
"Berry, who was talking to you just now, was brought by him. I heard that there are many contestants here tonight. Come and have a look." Yin Guo thought for a while, and introduced herself, "I signed up for the Open Competition."
Lin Yiyang nodded. Actually he knows.
On the first day at the bar, on top of the three suitcases in the corner, there was a cue case. Lin Yiyang knew at a glance that he was here to participate in the Open. Blizzard brought a custom-made cue and hid in the bar, only because of this reason and this identity.
Seeing that he didn't speak, Yin Guo continued to bite the straw.
I have a lot of questions in my heart, but I am not familiar with them, and I am not used to chatting like friends, so I have to hold back.
Lin Yiyang took out the balls he scored just now from the bag one by one, put them on the table, and arranged the nine balls into a diamond shape. She thought he wanted to restart the game, but he just wanted to clear the table.
After everything was settled, he picked up his winter clothes from the chair: "That friend of yours lives in the same hotel as you?"
He pointed at Su Wei with his eyes.
Su Wei was leaning over, aiming at the ball she was about to hit, at the table next to the door in the distance.
"It's not a family, but it's not far away." She also thought about the question of going back. "But she's staying in Flushing tonight, at her boyfriend's house. I guess I'll have to go back by myself."
Lin Yiyang had already put on his winter clothes and zipped it up: "I'll take you home."
give me?
"Are you on your way?"
Probably not, the first night I took a taxi, the driver clearly said that he was taking Yin Guo and the others to the hotel, and that he was taking a detour to Queens.
"I'm a man, it doesn't matter how late I go back." Lin Yiyang glanced at the wall clock on the wall, "You are different."
It is quite late. Friends also seriously warned her that in New York, apart from living in Manhattan, she should never go out alone at night as a girl. Knowing that Yin Guo would practice in the ball room until dark every day, he told her to pick her up and go back to the hotel every day.
But it's too far away from the hotel, and let him take a detour to see him off?
It's not safe to eat too many favors, right?
Yin Guo is still struggling.
"Are you afraid that I will sell you?" Lin Yiyang joked at her.
"No, no," Yin Guo shook her head, "I don't want to trouble you all the time."
"It should be," he said, "I'm a man, and there's nothing to shirk about sending girls home."
Lin Yiyang didn't give her a chance to think about it, and pointed to Yin Guo's clothes and bags piled up next to the billiard chair, meaning to let her put them on, and he directly picked up the cue bucket for Yin Guo, carried it, and walked to the front desk , Check out with the boss.
The old rules, whoever wins the ball, gets the table rental.
Yin Guo didn't have time to think about it, and returned the cup to the bar, said hello to Su Wei, put on a down jacket, carried a bag, and followed Lin Yiyang who pushed the door out.
In less than fifteen innings, it was already snowing outside.
"I'll make an appointment for a car, wait a minute," Yin Guo took out his phone from the pocket of his down jacket.
"It's been so long and you still take a taxi? Why don't you take the subway?"
"I came here last year and sat wrong several times, and then I didn't dare to sit casually." She was also depressed.
Yin Guo was also depressed. In fact, the entrance of her hotel is the subway entrance. There are more than a dozen lines of the New York subway, so it is reasonable to not need to take a taxi all the time. But when she thinks of the subway, she has a psychological shadow.
The subway here has a history of hundreds of years, and many carriages are very dilapidated. She is not afraid of dirt, but is afraid that there are no electronic displays in the subway carriages. Because she does not announce the stations in her mother tongue, she has to listen carefully to the station names throughout the journey.
The worst thing is that the station announcement horn is often broken in this kind of broken car.
Once there is no radio notification tone, he becomes even more foolish.
She once sat in a subway car twice in a row without an electronic display screen and no station announcement, and just happened to encounter a convulsion in the subway, non-stop for four stations, and she felt like she was going to be taken away and sold if she got on a black car...
Lin Yiyang smiled in the snowy goose feathers all over the sky.
He pressed Yin Guo's cell phone and pointed to her hat: "Put it on, we have to walk three intersections, and it will take at least fifteen minutes to get to the subway entrance. Follow me, you won't lose it."
After speaking, he put Yin Guo's cue bucket on his back and walked into the wind and snow.
Yin Guo put on his hat and followed him closely. It was so cold that he dared not take his hands out of his pockets.
Her boots kept making fresh footprints on a layer of fresh snow, following Lin Yiyang's footsteps. Lin Yiyang was originally looking at the condition of the car, but when he lowered his head, he saw the pair of small boots walking extremely fast, making him tired just looking at them.
He was used to striding, and he never tried to slow down for anyone. Tonight, it was very personable and slowed down.
When he slowed down, Yin Guo heaved a sigh of relief.
She breathed a sigh of relief, and walked silently with him for five minutes. It's not right to keep quiet like this, I have to find something to say.
"Do you like to gamble?" She took the initiative to chat.
"generally."
"It's all such a big amount? Or does this side like such a big gamble?" Yin Guo was shocked when he heard the number just now, he didn't expect the amount here to be so large.
Lin Yiyang shook his head: "A classmate of mine gambled with others. He bet heavily and dared not come. He kept begging me for half a month."
Lin Yiyang stopped in his tracks. After a while, they had already reached the intersection.
There is a red light in front of you, and you have to wait for the green light.
Seeing Yin Guo being so quiet, he looked down at her: "Why don't you ask?"
"I was thinking, are you a good friend?"
The rush from Washington to Flushing, New York must be for a very important friend.
Lin Yiyang shook his head, not counting.
"I want to treat someone to dinner, I don't have any money." When he realized that the light had changed to green, he put his hand on Yin Guo's back, pushed her onto the sidewalk, and walked to her right side. "It's an exchange."
So it turned out that Yin Guo was crossing the road, thinking, he really likes to treat people to dinner.