"Chiba Prefecture... Ichihara City Seaside Stadium... Hmm, no mistake, this is the place."

Looking at the not too large nor too small baseball stadium standing in front, Wang Siyang kept glancing around, trying to take in all the surrounding scenery:

Since it was a weekday, the audience at Ichihara Seaside Stadium today wasn't very large, except for a small portion of Waseda Industries supporters, most were fans from Narashino School who had rushed here from Narashino City to cheer for their own team.

Although Narashino School is a well-known baseball powerhouse in the Chiba Region, with a history of winning the Summer甲 twice, those victories happened decades ago; since the turn of the century, they've only participated in the Koshien tournament twice, with their best result being knocked out in the third round—

For this strong team from Chiba Prefecture, today's Kantou Conference match is a decisive battle that their players have long anticipated; and to better create an atmosphere, the host supporters had gathered early outside Ichihara Seaside Stadium.

Amongst the sea of Narashino fans, people like Wang Siyang were particularly rare—especially with his distinctly Chinese face.

As a student studying abroad from mainland China, Wang Siyang was also an extremely passionate baseball enthusiast.

Like most Japanese people, Wang Siyang first came into contact with baseball through Adachi Mitsuru's manga—his favorite manga, which had just concluded early last year, was "Four-leaf Game," with the character Tsukishima Aoba leaving a deep impression on him.

In China, baseball is still a relatively niche sport, not to mention playing real matches; even those familiar with the rules are few and far between—Wang Siyang chose to study in Japan largely to experience the atmosphere of this baseball-loving land.

Taking out a camera from his backpack, Wang Siyang started photographing the Narashino fans around him—upon noticing someone taking pictures, the old and young, tall and short, fat and thin, male and female, all eagerly posed for the camera in various ways, shouting slogans while continuously cheering for their home team.

After recording footage from outside the venue before the game, Wang Siyang put the camera back into his bag—he had prepared several batteries and storage cards just to document the pre-game, during game, and post-game content and edit them into a video as a memento, while sharing it on a niche platform called Bilibili in mainland China.

Yes, apart from being a student, he's also a blogger, with a Bilibili ID of Aobaあおば, dedicated to sharing every little bit of his baseball-related experiences during his study abroad in Japan with everyone.

The phone in his pocket buzzed, and when Wang Siyang took it out and lit up the screen, he was surprised to find his QQ messages had reached 99+.

[Mang小果: Aoba, Aoba, how's it going, have you entered the stadium?]

[Liuzc: Aoba, do something—can you send back some photos from the scene—brothers and sisters in the group are all anxiously waiting!]

[Breaking ball: Sigh, there's no live broadcast source for the Kantou Conference games domestically, we're counting on you, Aoba brother.]

[Sea Dragon Frog Soldiers: Aoba, Aoba...]

Scrolling up to the top of the chat history, Wang Siyang pulled it down in one go and finally finished reading the messages from his group friends, unable to help but chuckle wryly.

This is a baseball discussion group initiated by Wang Siyang, where group friends from all over China gather through various channels and platforms, often discussing Koshien, Nihon Professional Baseball, and Major League topics together.

"These group friends usually keep silent, but once they hear I'm watching a Waseda Jitsugyo game, they all pop out," he thought amusingly as he began typing responses in the group with his keyboard clattering away.

[Aobaあおば: Sigh, that's how group friends are—usually, they ignore me when I post videos, but the moment they hear I'm going to watch Waseda Real and Lin Guanglai, they all pop up—I refuse to accept it, I don't want to be human anymore!]

Accompanied by a series of question marks, the chat bubbles on the screen started scrolling continuously, and Wang Siyang began enthusiastically engaging with his online friends in conversation.

Including Wang Siyang, most members of this group are supporters of Waseda Industries—whether it was the victory driven by Saito Yuuki's heated pitches in 2006 or Lin Guanglai's emergence last summer, they've certainly left a strong impression amongst these Chinese fans.

Particularly, Lin Guanglai, the current captain of Waseda Real, has already become the most popular high school player among the current Chinese baseball fan community.

He is exceptionally good-looking, with a tall and slender physique.

His pitching is extremely dominant, whether it's fastballs or breaking balls, he handles them with ease.

His batting stance is bold and extravagant, full of violent beauty.

Anyone who has watched Lin Guanglai's games is inevitably attracted by his style, which not only secures victories but makes the games exciting and beautifully won.

But for these Chinese fans, the emotional connection runs even deeper—Lin Guanglai's unique identity provides them with broader imagination.

For the sake of promoting baseball, the World Baseball Association has established a series of rules and policies beneficial for developing baseball in smaller countries, one of which is allowing any player with ancestry from a participating nation in the World Baseball Classic to compete as a player of that ancestral country, even if their nationality differs or they have represented another country.

From the perspective of Chinese fans, although Lin Guanglai's nationality is still China, considering the desert-like state of baseball there, expecting him to give up joining the Japan National Team to pursue the World Baseball Classic championship and return for technical support is clearly asking too much;

Even the most optimistic Chinese baseball fans merely hope that when Lin Guanglai turns 30+ and enters the latter half of his career, he might join the Chinese Team and wear the red jersey for one or two major tournaments.

As long as this bond of shared ancestry exists, these Chinese fans will unwaveringly support Lin Guanglai.

Having completed the ticket-checking phase, when Wang Siyang reached his seat on the stand, he found both teams' players already warming up on the field.

Filled with joy, he quickly took out his camera from the bag and pressed the shutter toward Waseda Real's position—he had specifically bought a ticket for the area near Waseda Real's players' zone to closely capture Lin Guanglai's performance.

At 10 AM, after both teams saluted each other, the Kantou Conference showdown officially began.

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