Chapter One: After the Final Buzzer

Above her was not her apartment's yellowing lamp but the white ceiling of the Harbor training center's treatment room. The wall clock read April 16, 10:47 p.m. She sat up. Her right knee held none of the old injury's deep ache, only the tightness of overtraining. Her phone lit with a headline: PLAYOFFS BEGIN TOMORROW: CAN THE HARBOR STORM GET PAST THE YUNZHOU BLAZE? The night before the first playoff round, five years earlier. The door opened. Conditioning coach Sun Bo leaned inside. “Still here? Mr. Luo added shuttle runs at six tomorrow. Your body-fat number missed the target. Don't be late.” The words unlocked a buried memory.