Chapter 77

“Hey, do you guys know Xi Yao, the Grade Three senior from the First High School next door?” the girls at the neighboring table huddled together and whispered.

“Who’s that? The name sounds familiar. I think the boys talk about her all the time,” Wei Chenchen said after a moment of thought. “I heard she’s the school belle at First High. Her family is crazy rich, and she’s so nice that nobody wouldn’t want to be her friend.”

“More importantly, she’s also in the First High broadcast station. I have a friend there, and she said that whenever they have activity periods, the station plays songs they really like. Apparently, Xi Yao picks all of them.”

A girl beside her sighed. “I passed First High once and saw her. She was surrounded by students, and even packed in the middle of everyone else, you could still spot her at a glance. She looks completely on a different level from everyone around her.”

Wei Chenchen blinked in confusion. “That dramatic?”

“Of course!”

Wei Chenchen unconsciously looked at the girl sitting beside her and asked, “Yiran, have you seen her?”

Everyone around them instinctively turned to look at the girl beside Wei Chenchen. She had a sturdy build, a round face, was heavier than the girls around her, and wore blue-rimmed glasses. She looked a little dull and wooden.

Luo Yiran lifted her head from her test paper, quickly glanced at the girls around her who were looking at her, then hurriedly lowered her head again to stare at the black dot she had been poking at with her ballpoint pen for a long time. “I don’t know.”

The girl beside her waved a hand at Wei Chenchen. “You asked the wrong person, Chenchen. Yiran clearly isn’t interested in this sort of thing; she only ever cares about studying. Let’s ask someone else.”

Luo Yiran said nothing; she just adjusted the glasses sliding down her nose.

Wei Chenchen nudged Luo Yiran with her elbow. Luo Yiran turned to look at her, and Wei Chenchen blinked. “What are you having for lunch later? I’ll go get food first.”

Wei Chenchen was one of the few close friends Luo Yiran had in her class. Luo Yiran’s personality was a little withdrawn, and because she was so solidly built, she wasn’t good at sprinting to the cafeteria after class; whenever she ran, the flesh on her body would wobble all over.

Plenty of people had tried to befriend Luo Yiran, but for reasons even she didn’t understand—maybe pride, maybe something else—she only became more and more withdrawn. The classmates had no choice, and gradually they stopped trying to get close to her. Fortunately, Wei Chenchen had sat with Luo Yiran for a long time, and little by little she came to understand the intelligence and attentiveness hidden beneath Luo Yiran’s appearance. Sometimes, she even felt that Luo Yiran had an unusually strong inner core, like being able to watch horror movies alone.

“Kung Pao chicken,” Luo Yiran said softly.

The class bell rang. Wei Chenchen smiled and nodded. “Okay.”

During evening self-study, the homeroom teacher announced some big news: the First High School next door was holding a sports meet next Monday, and their Second High had been invited to take part as part of a friendly exchange between the two schools.

The class immediately exploded. Quite a few people signed up enthusiastically, and more than half the events were filled within half an hour.

“Is there really no one for the women’s four-hundred-meter relay?” During self-study, Wei Chenchen stood on the podium as class monitor and scanned the room before asking again.

The boys below burst out laughing, enjoying the commotion as they nudged the girls beside them and urged them to sign up.

“...We can’t. Our school just finished its own sports meet last month; I really can’t run anymore.”

“Yeah, exactly. All the girls in our class who could participate already signed up.”

“I’m on the cheer squad; I definitely can’t do both.”

Wei Chenchen looked around, anxious to the point of panic. The homeroom teacher had just said the participants needed to be finalized before class ended. There were only three minutes left before the bell, and they were still missing one person.

“What about Fang Shan?” Wei Chenchen asked.

A girl below the podium cried out, “Sorry, my period is next week, and it’s the kind that hurts enough to need medicine. I really can’t get on the track.”

Wei Chenchen sighed and flipped back and forth through the list in her hand.

“Can’t we just borrow someone from another class?” someone below the podium asked. “Even if each class participates and forms a team, shouldn’t it be okay to split one person over?”

Wei Chenchen looked up from the list, about to speak, when footsteps sounded at the door and the homeroom teacher walked in. “How is it? Is the list finalized?”

Wei Chenchen looked at the list, then at the students below, and bit her lip. She handed the sheet over. “Teacher, we’re still missing—”

Before she could finish, the somewhat conspicuous girl seated by the wall in the second row raised her hand. The classroom fell silent at once, and every pair of eyes turned toward her.

“I’ll do it,” Luo Yiran said, her hand still raised.

Wei Chenchen froze for a second, then a smile spread across her face. A few seconds later, concern followed as she looked at Luo Yiran.

The homeroom teacher gave an oh and glanced at the list. “The four-hundred-meter relay? Can you handle it?”

Luo Yiran pressed her lips together and murmured an mm.

The teacher smiled the next second. “Alright then. Monitor, take care of the arrangements.”

The bell rang, evening self-study ended, and the students left in a noisy rush.

On the way back to the dormitory, Wei Chenchen said worriedly, “Yiran, you don’t have to sign up for my sake. You could’ve just told the teacher and let her figure something out. Don’t force yourself onto the track; four hundred meters is really tiring.”

Luo Yiran lowered her head slightly to look at Wei Chenchen, blinked, and after thinking for a while said, “You helped me get food before. I should’ve thanked you a long time ago. Besides, I should get some proper exercise too.”

Wei Chenchen laughed and tilted her head up to look at Luo Yiran. “What are you being so polite with me for? By that logic, I’ve asked you questions a ton of times. What’s helping you get food compared to that?”

The two of them reached the dorm entrance and went upstairs one after the other.

“Oh right, how are you planning to spend National Day?” Wei Chenchen asked from the front.

Luo Yiran’s hand rested on the railing as she slowly climbed the stairs. She looked up at Wei Chenchen. “I haven’t decided. I’ll probably still be at my second uncle’s place.”

Wei Chenchen slowed her pace so Luo Yiran could catch up gradually. She sighed. “Your mom and dad work so much. Don’t they ever get any rest?”

Luo Yiran nodded and said nothing.

Even though National Day was still many days away, students always looked forward to holidays, and they decided very early on where they were going to go.

Wei Chenchen said, “My mom’s going to take me hiking, and we’ll stay in our hometown for a few days too.”

Luo Yiran nodded, her smile gentle. “That sounds nice.”

The dorm was on the fourth floor. When Luo Yiran reached the third floor, she unconsciously stopped to rest there. Wei Chenchen was still chattering ahead of her, and after adjusting her breathing, Luo Yiran hurried to catch up, gripping the handrail.

-

First High’s sports meet was huge; even before it officially began, you could hear the broadcast station’s sound checks coming one after another over the loudspeaker. Most of the students were full of energy and excited for the event.

First High and Second High had been learning from each other ever since the schools were founded. Whether it was competitions or anything else, they often took part together. This year, First High proposed inviting Second High to join the sports meet so the students could interact in a friendly way and build closer ties.

The Second High competitors and cheer squad members had already lined up in small groups and were walking in an orderly fashion toward First High’s school gate.

The class Luo Yiran was in mostly had girls of short stature; even the ones who knew how to dress were around average height. They wore pure white cheer uniforms and light, bright makeup, laughing as they walked in.

Luo Yiran, at one meter seventy, stood out starkly among them. Even as a competitor, she was still a head taller than the others. She was tall, but she was also heavy; she was a full fifty jin heavier than the average girl in the class, and her competition uniform was several sizes too large. The pant legs barely reached the middle of her thighs.

“They’ll draw lots later. As long as you don’t draw last, you’ll be fine. The last leg in a relay carries a lot of pressure, and the crowd reacts a lot too,” Wei Chenchen said beside her. “No matter what, if you feel unwell, tell me right away. I can think of another way.”

Luo Yiran smiled and comforted her. “I didn’t run morning exercises for nothing these past few days. I’m fine.”

Wei Chenchen gave a helpless smile and said nothing more.

The competition format was First High against Second High, with one class from eleventh and twelfth grade competing against one class from the other school. Each class drew lots internally to decide the order of its runners. Unluckily, Wei Chenchen, as class monitor, drew first place.

Some students were anxious, some were happy; some said they hadn’t even finished preparing and already had to start, while others said finishing early meant they could rest early.

In Luo Yiran’s class, the participants were Luo Yiran, Wei Chenchen, and two other girls who, from memory, were pretty good at running. They were slender, like the wind.

Then the First High team wrote down the numbers, and both sides handed them over for the other to draw lots.

Luo Yiran and the others stood in front of the First High students and took the slips from their hands. Luo Yiran unfolded hers and looked at it.

4.

“What number did you get?” Wei Chenchen asked quickly from the side.

Luo Yiran smiled. “Fourth.”

Wei Chenchen froze for a few seconds, and sighs came from the two girls beside them.

“It’s fine, just run casually,” Wei Chenchen said. “Friendship first, competition second.”

The two girls beside her nodded as well, pretending to comfort her. “Anyway, I’m just here to make up the numbers. I actually came to see Senior Xi Yao.”

“So did I..."

Luo Yiran walked to her designated position, looked at the glaring red sun overhead, then looked at the students standing one after another around the track. Even the plastic track beneath her feet seemed to have been heated by the sun; before they even started running, she could already feel waves of heat rising from under her soles.

Friendship first, competition second.

The heart that had just been quiet suddenly began beating wildly. The grandstands were bustling and noisy, but even so, they couldn’t drown out the sound of her own heartbeat. She planted her feet steadily at the edge of the lane, yet in her mind she was already imagining what it would be like to win.

Competition. Who wouldn’t want to win?

And this was at First High, in front of all her classmates, in front of that Senior Xi Yao they’d been talking about.

Luo Yiran glanced at the ground and shook her head, a little puzzled that she had suddenly thought of the senior who’d been the subject of her classmates’ conversation.

“—”

“—Hello everyone, this is the school broadcast station.”

Suddenly, a bright, refreshingly clear voice rang out; it was a young girl’s voice, carrying a distinctive lightness and liveliness. Her tone even had a somewhat mischievous, carefree edge, giving the sports meet atmosphere an oddly humorous touch.

Luo Yiran’s eyes widened slightly. She quickly swept her gaze across the packed playground, her attention repeatedly landing on the railings around the field, then stopped abruptly on a loudspeaker hanging near a corner of the wall not far away.

The grandstand suddenly erupted into shrieks, and some of the other competitors around her got excited too.

“...It’s Senior Xi Yao!”

Xi Yao’s voice sounded again through the broadcast: “I’m broadcaster Xi Yao. In the events to come, we’ll be accompanying everyone with our voices, updating the race situation in real time, and recording every moment of the competition.”

Then another male broadcaster spoke briefly, introducing the event, and the sports meet officially began.

“At 9:00 a.m., the women’s four-hundred-meter relay preliminaries... Please have the corresponding First High and Second High participants stand in the designated positions,” Xi Yao said.

Wei Chenchen looked at Luo Yiran and said she would run first, and Luo Yiran nodded.

With the starting signal, Wei Chenchen quickly sprinted off into the distance.

Luo Yiran stood to the side, her gaze following Wei Chenchen’s movement.

From the broadcast, Xi Yao let out an exaggerated wow, her laughter reaching every corner. “The students from First High and Second High are very fierce indeed! Especially the students from Second High’s Grade Two, Class Eight; their speed is especially fast, and they’re clearly determined to take first place! Our First High Grade Two, Class One, is under a lot of pressure～”

The runner now fighting hard on the track was precisely Second High’s Grade Two, Class Eight’s Wei Chenchen. Luo Yiran clenched her fist slightly, blinking repeatedly. She swept her eyes over the loudspeaker at the corner of the field, then looked back at the four students running desperately on the track.

Xi Yao’s voice was very recognizable; it was fresh and a little sweet. Listening to it somehow made people feel at ease, and Luo Yiran’s English teacher had the same kind of voice, which was why she liked English class so much.

“...What am I seeing! A student is already about to reach the finish line! Oh my, that speed is simply unbelievable. The flags of First High and Second High in the grandstand are being waved so hard; everyone seems really excited. Let’s look forward to who will hand off first!” Xi Yao said.

Luo Yiran looked over and saw that first place was a Grade Three senior from First High, and second was Wei Chenchen from Second High. Wei Chenchen’s face was red from running, and she already looked pained.

Another girl hurried over; the First High Grade Three student successfully completed the handoff, and then Wei Chenchen passed the baton to the classmate already waiting in position.

Cheers sounded from the broadcast station again, though this time it wasn’t Xi Yao; it was a boy.

Luo Yiran just watched them hand off one after another like that.

There were four classes across two grades, and the gap between the four runners wasn’t very large. One would run past, and ten or so seconds later another would catch up.

The relay was a long event. At first the audience was full of enthusiasm, shouting and cheering; later, only the broadcast and the competitors’ friends were left encouraging them outside the track.

The girl before Luo Yiran’s leg of the relay was very capable. By the time she ran over, she had actually left the other three far behind. Luo Yiran had already been standing in position waiting; on the surface she tried to keep calm, but in reality her heart was already pounding.

Wei Chenchen walked slowly outside the track, watching Luo Yiran take the baton with her own eyes. She shouted, “Go, Yiran!”

Xi Yao’s voice sounded through the broadcast once more: “Amazing. It looks like Second High’s Grade Two, Class Eight are all professional athletes; they’ve successfully completed the fourth handoff. Let’s see whether the later teams can catch up quickly?”

Luo Yiran gripped the baton tightly and ran fiercely toward the distance.

The edge of the track was packed with people, all clustered together in a dense mass. Some of them even met her eyes; she yanked her gaze away in a hurry as if it had been burned, then lifted her legs and ran on heavily.

That familiar discomfort spread again from between her thighs. Their athletic pants were very short, only just reaching the middle of the thighs. Every time she ran, the flesh of her thighs would rub hard against each other; with each repeated stride, the pain grew worse and worse.

Luo Yiran drew a sharp breath, clearly feeling the frictional pain on the inside of her thighs.

Her legs felt as though they had been filled with lead, as if someone had forced them into slow motion. Every step she pushed off the ground felt impossible. Luo Yiran clenched her teeth and desperately tried to go faster, faster, but her body wouldn’t listen; she was still slow, painfully slow.

A scream came from the broadcast, a boy’s voice saying that First High Grade Three, Class One had successfully overtaken.

Heavy breathing came from beside her, and then a girl slowly but steadily passed Luo Yiran, laboring toward the finish line.

Another scream rose from the grandstand, sounding like cheers.

A searing, stinging pain spread through her thighs. Luo Yiran gasped, her throat dry and scratchy, her head dizzy and heavy; it felt as if if she kept running, she would faint and throw up at any moment.

The grandstand screamed again, and the broadcast, still in a boy’s voice, said that Second High Grade Three, Class Six had successfully overtaken.

Luo Yiran’s heart tightened violently, and nausea surged hard up to her throat. She swallowed down a mouthful of air and desperately lifted her leg to drive it onto the track.

The plastic track under her feet seemed to soften; her body went unsteady, and her legs instantly sank in, as if she were stuck in a quagmire, making it hard to lift them again.

Luo Yiran looked toward the finish line from afar; there were still a hundred meters left...

The two runners in front of her were already a very long way away.

She needed to win.

Luo Yiran felt so sick she was about to throw up. She unconsciously hunched her back, tilted her head up, and nearly passed out completely.

The male voice in the broadcast sounded again. Warm wind brushed past her side, accompanied by heavy footsteps, and Second High Grade Two, Class Two successfully overtook and began to sprint.

Luo Yiran stared fixedly at the people one after another passing her. Deep in her heart, she wanted to win, wanted to sprint through. But her head was so foggy and nauseated she felt on the verge of unconsciousness; the inside of her thighs hurt like hell, and she even seemed to smell an odd, bloody scent.

Gunshots rang out in the distance, then a second, then a third.

The entire track boiled over. Cheers and applause from the grandstands resounded across the whole playground. People were celebrating their victory, celebrating their comeback, celebrating becoming representatives of their class and school.

Luo Yiran’s face flushed crimson at once; the scorching sunlight burned so hot she could hardly breathe. She didn’t want to look at the people still watching her outside the track. On the track, there was only her; Second High Grade Two, Class Eight; last place.

She seemed to see the faces of the students around her, seemed to feel Wei Chenchen’s gaze, seemed to sense them looking at the red, raw skin on her thighs, seemed to see the people at the finish line waiting impatiently for the gun to go off.

The surroundings seemed to fall silent all at once. Luo Yiran felt like she had lost all her face for this lifetime. If she had known, she never would have forced herself to come. If she had known, she shouldn’t have been curious about First High, shouldn’t have been curious about that Senior Xi Yao.

She clenched her teeth and almost wished she could disappear from this world on the spot.

At times she even felt she wasn’t running at all, but walking, because the people walking outside the track were faster than her.

Luo Yiran tightened her fists, lifted the legs that felt as heavy as several hundred jin, and ran quickly, slowly, toward the finish line.

Beeep—

“Ten minutes and twenty seconds!”

The grandstand was cheering for first place; the area outside the track was in chaos, with everyone checking on the condition of their classmates and friends. No one noticed her here.

Luo Yiran forced herself to stand at the finish line. She didn’t look at the people around her; she wanted to leave, but she couldn’t even take a single step. It seemed as if a gust of wind right now could blow her over without effort.

She could clearly feel the eyes around her, and Wei Chenchen seemed to be right nearby.

“Wow,” came a familiar voice from the broadcast; it was Xi Yao’s voice. “Let’s congratulate Second High Grade Two, Class Eight’s students for successfully reaching the finish line! Persistence is victory; congratulations on completing the baton handoff on your own track!”

The people around her only reacted after a beat; they nodded too, though not with the same intensity as when it was first place. After all, this was last place.

Wei Chenchen came over from a distance and hurriedly helped Luo Yiran up. “Don’t stop; walk slowly for a while... Oh my god,” she cried, “how did your legs get rubbed like this..."

Luo Yiran didn’t speak. Her whole body ached, and spasms churned in her stomach; the urge to vomit clogged her throat so badly she couldn’t even say anything.

She forced herself to stay conscious and not completely collapse against Wei Chenchen, but the pain in her thighs was still unbearable.

Luo Yiran moved her feet, signaling for Wei Chenchen to take her farther away. After all, no one who came in last wanted to stay at the finish line.

“—Second High Grade Two, Class Eight’s Luo Yiran, I sincerely feel happy for you. You’re really amazing.” Xi Yao’s voice suddenly rang out.

Luo Yiran’s heart jolted violently. She stopped walking and instinctively looked back toward the loudspeaker at the corner of the playground. Applause, clear and forceful, followed through the broadcast.

Wei Chenchen beside her was stunned for a few seconds. She shook Luo Yiran’s arm and shouted, “Did I hear wrong? Senior Xi Yao is calling your name!”

“I’ve been listening for so long, and this is the first time I’ve heard her praise someone by name like that..."

The noisy environment just now suddenly went quiet, and then the applause grew louder and louder.

The heartbeat that had just calmed down began pounding fast and hard again. Luo Yiran took a deep breath and unconsciously gripped the fabric of her pants in front of her. The trembling in her heart was so clear, as if it might leap right out of her chest. An emotion she couldn’t explain—nervous and delighted and unwilling to let go—rose up all at once; it was something she had no control over at all.

Senior Xi Yao.

Xi Yao.

Xi Yao...

By the time she came to her senses, she had already said Xi Yao’s name countless times.

Xi Yao’s voice sounded once again through the broadcast: “May you, in the future, do what you want to do and stand firm in your heart, just as you did on the track today; keep running on bravely and persistently.”

Luo Yiran’s eyelashes trembled slightly. The flush on her face hadn’t faded in the slightest. She parted her lips, letting her heart beat wildly without restraint.