Lin Tao couldn’t quite read the not-so-subtle double meaning in what Jiang Yan had said, and asked him breathlessly, “Where does it hurt?”

Where does it hurt?

He couldn’t exactly tell her where.

Jiang Yan felt like some kind of deviant who had lured an underage girl into his clutches.

Can’t touch, can’t hold.

One kiss and everything goes sideways.

“……”

He might as well just die.

All the way back to the classroom, Lin Tao still had no idea where exactly he was uncomfortable. But since he didn’t look like anything was wrong with him, she didn’t dwell on it.

The matter of the post settled down as well.

Although plenty of people still used passing periods as an excuse to come peek at Class 18’s door, what they usually found was Jiang Yan alone, slumped over his desk asleep — the other person involved was nowhere to be seen.

This was actually Lin Tao’s strategy.

During breaks, the two of them made an effort to keep some distance. Once class started, there wasn’t much they could do anyway — but holding hands under the desk was still entirely possible.

On a few occasions, Hu Hanghang caught them holding hands under the desk during class and secretly snapped photos to post in the group chat —

[Photo]

What has become of the world

A complete moral collapse.

In the past, this kind of situation would have made Lin Tao feel a little embarrassed. But after so much time had passed, she had not only grown comfortable facing it — she’d even learned to clap back —

My boyfriend’s hands really are beautiful.

The four single dogs in the chat:

Hu Hanghang: ……

Xu Yichuan: ……

Song Yuan: ……

Guan Che: ……

Jiang Yan saw the message and posted one of his own —

My girlfriend’s too.

The four single dogs erupted —

Hu Hanghang: This group has no place for us anymore —

Xu Yichuan: Damn, I’m leaving —

Song Yuan: What the hell, you insufferable jerks —

Guan Che: Being in love makes people numb, makes them ugly, makes them unable to tell friend from foe.

The next second.

A system notification popped up in the chat —

Jiang Yan has renamed the group: Jiang & Lin [Heart].

Hu, Song, Xu, Guan: ……

If they hadn’t been in class, Lin Tao felt like Hu Hanghang and Song Yuan sitting in the back rows might have actually charged up and beaten Jiang Yan senseless.

The schedule this semester had been adjusted somewhat, but the weekly physical education class remained unchanged — still on Friday, last period.

After the Start of Spring solar term, temperatures in Xi City had begun to climb. Several days of bright, unbroken sunshine followed, and by Friday the temperature had shot to a new high.

Standing on the field for just a few minutes was enough to feel warmth seeping into your entire body.

This semester’s physical education teacher was the same as last semester — Teacher Zhou Li.

As always, he gathered the students and called attendance, then flipped through the notebook in his hand and spoke in his clear, crisp voice. “This semester, the school has scheduled physical fitness assessments. The results need to be submitted before April, so for now our physical education classes will begin testing each event.”

With that, his gaze swept across the crowd, and he waved toward a particular direction. “Hey — last semester’s physical education class representative, come over here.”

Meng Xin had been in the middle of gossiping with Lin Tao when her name was called, and she hadn’t registered it yet. It was only when a nearby classmate nudged her — “Meng Xin, Teacher Zhou is calling you” — that she snapped to attention.

Meng Xin startled, said a quick thank-you, and stepped briskly out of the lineup.

From where she stood, Lin Tao was too far away to hear what Zhou Li and Meng Xin were saying. She just watched the two of them standing together and found, for no particular reason, that the scene seemed strangely harmonious.

“What are you looking at?” Jiang Yan had appeared at her side without her noticing.

Lin Tao pointed toward the front. “Does it seem to you like Meng Xin and Teacher Zhou make a nice picture together?”

Jiang Yan glanced over in that direction. He couldn’t quite see what was different, but abiding by his principle that whatever his girlfriend said must be right, he nodded obligingly. “Sure, it’s a nice picture.”

“Still not as nice as the two of us together, though.”

“……”

Zhou Li didn’t appoint a new class representative. He kept Meng Xin in the role.

He’d called her over to walk her through the fitness assessment schedule, handing her three sheets — one per class, listing each student’s results for each event.

The fitness tests hadn’t been run yet, so the results column was still empty.

“You’ll be in charge of recording as we go. If someone passes, put a checkmark; if not, circle the entry, and once everything’s been tested, we’ll run those again.” Zhou Li stood with his hands on his hips and looked at her. “Got it?”

Meng Xin nodded. “Got it.”

“Good.” He looked away. “Alright, today we’ll start with the 50-meter sprint. Line up by class and head over to the track.”

With that, he raised the whistle hanging around his neck and blew.

One sharp, ringing blast.

Meng Xin flinched and reflexively jumped a step to the side.

Zhou Li turned and glanced at her, the corners of his mouth curving slightly. He said nothing.

Of the three classes, one was a liberal arts class. The 50-meter test started with that class’s girls, then Class 14’s girls, and finally Class 18’s.

The area around the track was packed with people. The liberal arts girls stood six to a row at the starting line, with the two science classes lined up behind them.

Lin Tao was tall, so she stood in the very last row of girls. Next to her stood Tao Jia, who was about the same height.

The new semester had brought seating rearrangements in class, and Tao Jia had been moved from the last row to somewhere else. The two of them rarely crossed paths in the classroom these days.

If they hadn’t happened to end up standing side by side today, Lin Tao might have almost forgotten she existed.

Jiang Yan had gone with Hu Hanghang and the others to the convenience store to buy drinks and sent Lin Tao a photo —

What do you want?

Lin Tao had just typed two characters when another message came through —

Anything except cola.

She gave a slight curl of her lips, deleted what she’d started typing, and changed it —

The delivery man of nature.

……

Farmer’s Spring water?

Yep qwq

He didn’t reply again. As Lin Tao was putting her phone away, Tao Jia, who had been standing beside her, spoke without warning. “Are you and Jiang Yan dating?”

Lin Tao raised an eyebrow lightly and looked at her with mild curiosity. “Why?”

Tao Jia smiled slightly. “No reason. Just asking.”

“……” A brief silence. Lin Tao looked at her again, as if something had occurred to her, and spoke. “Yes, that’s right. We are together.”

The smile at the corner of Tao Jia’s lips faded slightly. “I can tell.”

Lin Tao gave an indifferent shrug and said nothing.

After a while, Jiang Yan and the others came strolling over through the artificial grass in the middle of the field. Hu Hanghang had a black plastic bag dangling from his hand.

The four of them stopped at the edge of the track. Lin Tao traded places with the girl at the far end of the row, and Jiang Yan opened the bottle of water he’d brought and handed it to her.

Nearby, Hu Hanghang said on purpose, “Brother Yan, someone else also wants you to open their bottle cap.”

Jiang Yan looked at him with idle disinterest, the tail of his eye lifting slightly. “Do you believe I could unscrew the top of your skull?”

“……”

The girls’ 50-meter event moved along quickly. In no time, there were only two or three rows left ahead of Lin Tao. She passed the water back to Jiang Yan and returned to her original spot.

Group after group finished.

Lin Tao stood at the starting line. While waiting for the signal, she turned her head and glanced over at Jiang Yan.

Blue sky stretching wide overhead, the young man stood to one side with no particular expression, a bottle of water held loosely in his hand, his posture calm and unhurried.

Perhaps sensing her gaze, he turned to look at her — and suddenly smiled.

The ready whistle sounded.

Lin Tao drew her attention back, crouched into her starting stance — and in that unguarded moment, her eyes briefly met Tao Jia’s.

For no clear reason.

Something competitive rose from somewhere deep inside her.

She didn’t want to lose.

Not even in something as simple as a fitness test.

The whistle fired.

Six figures burst forward together. But past the twenty-meter mark, two of them pulled decisively ahead, leaving the others behind.

In the instant she launched herself forward, Lin Tao had one thought in her mind: I cannot lose.

Clearly, Tao Jia was thinking the same thing.

The gap between them was razor-thin. Fifty meters isn’t much — just a matter of seconds.

Lin Tao felt the wind rush past her ears. She thought of the smile Jiang Yan had given her just before the start, and her feet seemed to sprout wings.

She won by a margin of 0.01 seconds.

When Jiang Yan and the others came over from the other end of the track, Hu Hanghang looked a little surprised. “It’s just the 50 meters — why were you going all out like that?”

Lin Tao’s breathing was still unsteady, and she couldn’t get the words out for a moment.

Jiang Yan opened a bottle of water and offered it to her. “Have some.”

She took a sip to wet her throat. Her voice came out slightly rough. “You wouldn’t understand.”

Lin Tao leaned against Jiang Yan to catch her breath. Her gaze drifted past the people around them until, through the crowd, it found Tao Jia — who was being steadied by a friend. Their eyes met across the distance.

After a long moment.

Lin Tao slowly curved her lips, the corners of her eyes tilting upward.

She had won.

Whether it was this 50-meter sprint, or anything else — she had won.

Jiang Yan noticed where she was looking and followed her gaze.

Tao Jia’s eyes paused briefly, then she smiled in his direction and walked away with her friend.

Jiang Yan led Lin Tao to a less crowded spot and took out a tissue to wipe the sweat from her face. “Did she do something to you?”

“Hm?” Lin Tao hesitated a beat, then neither confirmed nor denied. “Who?”

“……”

Jiang Yan didn’t press further. They talked for a bit before Hu Hanghang called out, “Brother Yan, it’s our turn to line up!”

Lin Tao let go of his hand. “Go on then. I need to use the restroom — I’ll come find you after.”

He nodded, and when no one was looking, bent down and pressed a quick kiss to her face.

Lin Tao froze, then immediately pushed him away, glancing around guiltily like she’d just committed a crime. “What are you doing?”

“Adding some encouragement,” he said quietly.

The restrooms on the field were tucked inside the grandstand — men’s on the left, women’s on the right, one each.

When Lin Tao arrived, there was already a long line at the women’s restroom door, while the men’s had almost no one.

She snapped a photo and sent it to Jiang Yan —

Why is your side always empty?

He replied quickly —

Less liquid.

……

When she’d finished and came out to the sinks, Lin Tao ran into Tao Jia again. This time, she had no intention of saying anything.

But Tao Jia spoke first. “Do you really know Jiang Yan?”

“What does that have to do with you?”

Tao Jia gave a scornful smile and dropped a bombshell out of nowhere. “Did you know Jiang Yan stabbed someone with a knife back in middle school?”

Lin Tao said nothing.

Tao Jia continued, “The person he stabbed ended up in a vegetative state. He’s still lying in the hospital.”

Lin Tao found her voice. Her tone was calm. “Do you think I’d just believe something like that based on you saying it?”

“The evidence is right here. Believe it or not, it’s your choice.” Tao Jia unlocked her phone and held it out.

Lin Tao looked at the phone screen. The first thing that caught her eye was a photo of Jiang Yan in a detention uniform, head shaved close.

She was silent for a long moment.

Lin Tao reached out and took the phone.

Tao Jia was showing her several images.

Aside from the first one, there was a photo of Jiang Yan crouching in front of a boy with a knife embedded in his abdomen — his hand was positioned right on the handle.

The other images looked like screenshots taken from some bulletin board thread. For some reason the images were a little blurry, but still readable.

Lin Tao finished quickly and looked up, her voice cool. “Where did you get these?”

Tao Jia didn’t hide it. “From a friend. They used to go to the same school as Jiang Yan.”

“This happened when he was in middle school?”

Tao Jia considered, then nodded. “Yes. The middle school he transferred out of. He was in second year at the time.”

Lin Tao clenched her hand tight and looked down for a moment, thinking.

Second year of middle school.

He was only around thirteen or fourteen.

Seeing her remain silent, Tao Jia gave a soft laugh. “See — he’s no good person. I’d advise you to stop associating with him.”

Lin Tao paused, as though she’d just heard something amusing. “He’s no good person — does that make you one?”

Tao Jia faltered.

“Tao Jia, whatever else you want to say, he once saved you.” Lin Tao’s eyes lifted, the usually languid expression in them replaced entirely by cold, sharp clarity. “If not for him, do you think you’d be standing here right now, saying all of this to me?”

“I……” Tao Jia found herself at a loss for words.

“What you’ve told me today I’ll treat as if it never happened. But if I hear any of this floating around school — whether you’re the one who let it out, whether it has anything to do with you or not.” Lin Tao’s eyes curved slightly at the corners, her voice dropping as she enunciated each word deliberately: “I’ll put it all on your tab.”

With that, Lin Tao deleted every last one of the photos she’d just seen from Tao Jia’s phone, then returned the device.

Without sparing a glance at Tao Jia’s reaction, Lin Tao left quickly. Only when she stepped into the sunlight did she notice that her back had gone cold.

During the time she’d spent with Jiang Yan, she’d sensed that he carried a great deal inside him — but he never spoke of any of it, and Lin Tao had never wanted to press him for it.

She believed that two people in a relationship still needed to have their own private space.

But today, when Lin Tao saw those photos, she realized she had been wrong. Some things couldn’t simply be brushed aside by not asking about them.

She couldn’t even begin to imagine how that boy — still a child at the time — had managed to walk out from beneath all the gossip and finger-pointing.

Perhaps he never really had.

At that thought, Lin Tao suddenly desperately needed to see him. She looked around but couldn’t find him anywhere, and it was only when she heard the whistle that she remembered he had just gone to line up.

She didn’t think about anything else. She just needed to see him.

When Lin Tao ran over, Jiang Yan was still listening to Hu Hanghang tell some story.

The evening light was warm and soft. He stood there with arms folded, his eyes slightly downcast, his expression quiet, a faint trace of a smile at the corner of his lips.

“Hey, Lin Tao.” Hu Hanghang spotted her first and called out.

Jiang Yan looked up too. He was about to say something when he caught sight of her eyes — red and wet at the corners. The smile at the edge of his lips stiffened, and he walked quickly toward her.

They were surrounded by people.

Jiang Yan pulled her toward the interior, away from the crowd.

Just up one step, out of sight from most of the others, he turned around. “You……”

Before he could finish, Lin Tao flung herself at him.

Without any buffer, he stumbled back several steps before steadying himself. He wrapped his arms around her waist and lowered his head, the brush of his lips against her forehead gentle, his voice as even and tender as always. “What’s wrong?”

Author’s Note: Tao Jia, MVP supporting villain.