The next day, the stuffy weather started to get windy.

The wind blew across the scorching hot rubber track, through the treetops, and across the entire stadium, bringing a rare hint of coolness.

Lin Zhexia’s relay event was the last one in the morning.

She pinned her contestant number on her back and waited for her number to be called over the broadcast.

“Would the participants for the second-year girls’ relay race please go to Area A to prepare—”

Contestants needed to arrive fifteen minutes early to line up. After hearing the announcement, Lin Zhexia followed the others down from the side of the stands.

When she arrived at Area A and had just lined up, she saw two extremely familiar people sitting by the track.

Xu Ting waved at her: “Hi, Lin Shao.”

Lin Zhexia was a bit surprised: “Why are you here?”

After saying this, she turned to the other person, “And you, shouldn’t you be sitting in the stands?”

Chi Yao wasn’t wearing his school uniform today. Many students weren’t, taking advantage of the fact that there were too many people for the school to monitor effectively—and many people needed to change clothes after their events, so the school tacitly allowed not wearing uniforms on the second day.

He was wearing a simple T-shirt paired with jeans, his legs excessively long. Perhaps to avoid the sun, he had a jacket draped over his knees as he sat side by side with Xu Ting on the inside of the rubber track.

Almost simultaneously, both the person and the dog spoke—

Xu Ting: “We came down to cheer you on.”

Chi Yao casually: “Had nothing better to do, came down to watch the turtle race.”

“…”

“You spend all day with Xu Ting,” Lin Zhexia said, holding her breath, “you should learn from him how to talk like a human.”

Xu Ting nudged him with his elbow: “Did you hear that?”

Chi Yao: “Can’t hear, gone deaf.”

Lin Zhexia: “You’re the turtle. I’m in the fourth position, just wait and see what amazing speed looks like.”

Chi Yao didn’t speak, but his whole demeanor expressed one thing.

A contemptuous meaning: You? Amazing? Really?

As they were talking, her team started to take attendance.

Lin Zhexia stopped talking to Chi Yao. In the past, she would have silently recited “The doubts of my enemies are my greatest motivation to move forward, I must make that dog Chi Yao look at me with new eyes,” but now she found her thoughts were completely different.

The closer it got to her turn, the more nervous she became.

But this nervousness wasn’t because of the referee’s starting gun, but because she realized Chi Yao was watching her from the sidelines. And he would be watching her the entire time.

It was strange.

This awareness suddenly made her start to feel nervous.

The relay race proceeded quickly. As she prepared to receive the baton, she tried to reassure herself: So what if he’s close by? So what if he’s sitting at the side watching her run?

So what if…

Lin Zhexia ran toward the finish line with these thoughts, but halfway through, she realized something was wrong.

She hadn’t warmed up, plus she was under psychological pressure, and she had exerted too much force at the start. After running just a few steps, her calf started to cramp.

By the time she realized what was happening, her knee had scraped hard against the rubber track, burning with pain.

Xu Ting shouted “Holy shit.”

“How did she fall?”

He instinctively wanted to rush over to help, but quickly realized that if anyone should go help, it should be Chi Yao. When he turned around, however, he found Chi Yao hadn’t moved. “Aren’t you going to help her up?”

“Let her finish the race.”

Xu Ting thought this was outrageous and couldn’t help saying: “She fell and you still expect her to run…”

He wanted to say you’re too cold-blooded, but was surprised to find that Chi Yao was very tense right now.

The young man’s Adam’s apple moved with difficulty as he spoke: “Rather than being helped off midway, she would prefer to finish. Because this is a relay race, not just about her but the whole team. With her personality, she would blame herself if she didn’t finish.”

“So… let her finish the race.”

Xu Ting was stunned.

He looked back at the track and saw that Lin Zhexia indeed hadn’t let anyone help her. She pushed herself up from the ground as quickly as possible and continued running forward.

But after that fall, Class 7, which had been in the lead, was now behind the others by quite a distance.

“Is this what it’s like when people grow up together?” Xu Ting rubbed his nose and said, “It is different from ordinary friendships. Before, I just thought you two were very close, but I didn’t realize it was to this extent, knowing what each other is thinking without saying a word.”

Finally, to no one’s surprise, Lin Zhexia was the last to cross the finish line.

Chi Yao waited for her at the finish line, crouching down: “Get on, let’s go to the infirmary.”

Before climbing onto his back, Lin Zhexia emphasized: “If I hadn’t fallen, I definitely would have been first.”

This time, Chi Yao didn’t retort, just made an “Mm” sound from his throat.

“That ‘Mm’ better not be just humoring me.”

“Mm.”

“…”

Lin Zhexia didn’t want to talk anymore.

Chi Yao carried her on his back to the infirmary.

Lin Zhexia, lying on his back, smelled the scent of laundry detergent that had been warmed by the sun.

Then, belatedly, she felt her ears burning.

“How embarrassing.”

Lin Zhexia buried her face in his clothes and said, “So many people watching.”

“You finished the race,” Chi Yao said, “Nothing embarrassing about that.”

—But you saw it.

The first thought floating in Lin Zhexia’s mind was this sentence.

She had been inexplicably concerned about him watching from the side even before she ran, and then she ended up falling in front of him.

The infirmary was at the back of the stadium.

After Chi Yao carried her away from the crowd, she couldn’t help asking: “Just now when I…”

“What?”

“When I fell, did I look ugly?”

“…”

There was a moment of silence.

Lin Zhexia regretted asking because it wasn’t like something she would normally ask.

When had she ever cared about such things in front of Chi Yao? Even that time when it was raining and she accidentally fell into a puddle, after getting up, she wouldn’t have asked, “Did I look ugly just now?”

But recently, she had started to become unlike herself.

She had begun to care about how she appeared in front of Chi Yao.

Trying to cover up her embarrassment, she explained: “After all, there were so many people. I have my pride, too. As the mighty Lin Shao, I can’t lose face like that.”

After a while, Chi Yao broke the silence: “It was okay.”

Lin Zhexia: “…Just okay?”

Chi Yao added: “Not that ugly.”

Lin Zhexia threatened: “I’ll give you one more chance. Answer again.”

Chi Yao demonstrated what it meant to give a new answer: “A bit ugly, but still acceptable.”

“When I asked you to answer again, I meant for you to give a different answer,” Lin Zhexia said, “not to elaborate on the phrase ‘not that ugly.'”

Chi Yao: “Oh, I thought you didn’t understand the meaning of those three words.”

Lin Zhexia: “…”

Lin Zhexia: “Just give me a different answer.”

The person carrying her asked back: “Are you sure?”

Lin Zhexia made an “Mm” sound.

Chi Yao paused, then answered again: “Pretty ugly.”

“……”

They were getting closer to the infirmary.

She lay on Chi Yao’s back, neither able to see the other’s face.

Lin Zhexia didn’t need to deliberately hide her burning earlobes, and she couldn’t see Chi Yao’s expression as he spoke, but that deliberately provoking “pretty ugly” seemed to have a hint of gentleness in its tone.

At the infirmary, the school doctor in a white coat examined her injuries.

“It’s not too bad, just some abrasions. Once we disinfect it, there shouldn’t be any problem,” the doctor opened the medical kit. “Disinfecting might hurt a bit, as the scraped area on your knee is quite large.”

The disinfection did hurt a bit, but it was bearable.

Lin Zhexia instinctively grabbed Chi Yao’s arm, closed her eyes, and after a while the pain gradually subsided.

“After disinfection, you can rest here for a bit. Just be careful when moving around. You don’t have any more events, right? Good, because in this condition you can’t run.”

The doctor closed the medical kit and finally reminded her, “If you feel discomfort anywhere else later, come back to the infirmary to find me.”

There seemed to be other emergencies on the field, so the doctor didn’t stay long in the infirmary, quickly picking up the kit and leaving.

The infirmary wasn’t very large, with only three or four beds, separated by white curtains.

Lin Zhexia sat on the bed and said, “I want to sleep for a while, about an hour. If I’m not awake in an hour, remember to come and wake me up.”

Chi Yao pulled the curtain closed for her and said, “Got it.”

After saying this, Lin Zhexia noticed that Chi Yao had no intention of leaving.

“Aren’t you going?”

Chi Yao sat in a seat outside the curtain: “I’ll keep watch here.”

Lin Zhexia said slowly: “You don’t need to worry about me this much.”

“Who’s worried about you?” Chi Yao said, “It’s too sunny outside.”

Finally, Chi Yao added: “Don’t be so full of yourself.”

“…”

Oh.

Lin Zhexia lay down on the bed. The infirmary air conditioning was a bit cold, so she pulled up the blanket.

Perhaps because she had spent two days in the sun at the stands, she was indeed too tired, and soon she fell asleep.

She slept very deeply.

In this year’s hot summer, she secretly took a very deep afternoon nap.

Chi Yao sat in a place separated from her by only a translucent white curtain, keeping her company.

Lin Zhexia seemed to have a dream about summer, but it was very vague. In the dream, a girl was calling “Chi Yao.”

That girl seemed to be saying: “You’re Chi Yao, right?”

As her consciousness gradually returned and she opened her eyes, she realized she was awake, but the “dream” hadn’t ended.

Because the girl’s voice came through the curtain: “I saw you playing basketball. I’m He Yang’s classmate, and I asked him for your contact information… I didn’t expect to run into you here.”

Lin Zhexia realized this wasn’t a dream.

A girl was talking to Chi Yao; she had been awakened by their voices.

The girl continued: “Are you feeling unwell?”

Hearing this, Lin Zhexia felt that inexplicable stuffiness again.

But this time, the stuffy feeling didn’t last long—

From outside the curtain, Chi Yao’s familiar voice said, “Do you need something?”

“…”

His attitude was as terrible as ever.

Lin Zhexia thought, if she were that girl, she would definitely turn around and leave immediately.

But that girl’s defense was stronger than she had imagined, rising to the challenge: “Yes, I do have something.”

“Your friend request was rejected,” the girl said, “Could you add me instead?”

Chi Yao maintained the same tone: “No.”

“Let’s be friends.”

“I don’t need more friends.”

“Then…”

The girl wanted to say something else, her gaze falling on the phone he was holding in his hand.

“I don’t have a phone,” Chi Yao said casually, stretching his wrist and putting the phone into his pocket, “Too poor, the phone I’m using is borrowed.”

“……”

Author’s Note:

Impoverished little Chi