chapter 35

Kou Chen kept shaking his pole around, and it wasn’t until they had left the stage that they realized the banner hanging from the pole was almost completely shaken off. Only half of the banner was still attached to the pole.

“Stop fucking around!” Huo Ran said, trying to keep his voice down. “You shook half of the banner off!”

“No shit,” Kou Chen was very indifferent. “It’s over now anyways. I didn’t chuck the banner into the principal’s face while he’s standing at the podium. In my opinion, no mistakes were made.”

Huo Ran didn’t pay him any heed and kept his eyes ahead when he suddenly discovered that Wu Xiaochen had also participated in the ‘Crazily Shake the Pole’ event. The front of the sign was backwards; the words “Humanities Class 1” facing him and Kou Chen.

“Class Rep,” Huo Ran said, “The sign is backwards!”

“What?” Wu Xiaochen, who was in front of him, held her pole with her arms stretched and head held high.

“The sign is backwards!” Kou Chen said.

“Ah,” Wu Xiaochen hurriedly grasped the pole in her hand, turned it violently, and then continued forward all whilst still holding her head high.

“… Can you tell the difference between 180 degrees and 360 degrees?” Kou Chen looked at the “Humanities Class 1” that was still facing backwards, half laughing half scolding.

“What!” Wu Xiaochen was shocked and looked up. “Jesus.”

She grabbed the rod and turned it again, this time facing it in the right direction.

Huo Ran heard a snicker come from behind him, and he himself held back laughter as he followed Wu Xiaochen around in a semicircle to the middle of the playground where they lined up in a square formation.

The weather was pretty good; although the temperature wasn’t high but there was not much wind. The girls doing logistics didn’t give the boys pants. They had asked if anybody was cold, to which everyone replied that they weren’t.

At this moment they were too hot-blooded to be cold. How could they be cold? They wanted to be the only class in the whole school with bare-legged boys!

The principal didn’t say too much, and just praised everyone’s spirits while encouraging them to do well once more this year. After, it was the representatives of the athletes and judges’ turn to take the oath. The games started soon after.

The preliminaries were in the morning while the finals were in the afternoon. As soon as the classes on the field went back to the classroom and dispersed to change, the teachers and the student council members got busy, bringing all sorts of equipment to the middle of the field.

The girls that needed to change their clothes went back to their dorms, but the boys changed directly in the classroom after pushing the girls out.

“We’re coming in!” A girl outside tapped on the classroom door and hollered.

“If you don’t come in you ain’t Chinese,” Jiang Lei hollered back while taking off his shorts. 1

“Entering, entering!” A girl outside grabbed the lock on the door and started shaking it.

“Holy shit,” Huo Ran fumbled with his sweatpants, “Why do I feel like they’re really gonna enter?”

“Let them come,” Kou Chen wasn’t nervous at all and was slowly and methodically putting on his pants, “So well developed. Why would I be afraid to let them see? ”

”

”

Laughter erupted from all four sides.

Huo Ran sighed and didn’t say any more; he felt that he shouldn’t speak. It was getting scary how easy it was for him to keep up with Kou Chen’s psychotic-like personality now.

He also didn’t look at Kou Chen, afraid that Kou Chen would suddenly say something crazy like asking him if he wanted to take a look at the front…

After each class finished changing, they returned to the field and sat in the allocated location for their class. The preliminaries began soon after. Huo Ran was sorted into the second group for the 100m race.

Their class, which had just settled down in the stands, sprang up again and poured onto the track.

At this time, there were other ongoing events. Nobody in their class participated in shotput, but quite a few had signed up for jumping events. All the girls headed to the high jump.

“This grouping is alright,” Kou Chen stood with him on the side of the track, “Liu Yu is in the first group. You’ll meet each other in the finals.”

“And you just know that I can make it into the finals?” Huo Ran said.

“Of course I’d know. I couldn’t catch you the last time we ran back to class from the dorms,” Kou Chen said. “I’m not too shabby at the 100 meter dash either.”

“Oh,” Huo Ran stared at the people at the starting line.

Liu Yu was currently shaking his arms and legs around to stretch in a professional manner. Feeling a gaze on him, he turned his head and spotted Huo Ran looking in his direction. Glancing at him, Liu Yu flashed a very exaggerated sneer.

Huo Ran directed a smile at the classmate in Class 3 standing next to Liu Yu, and the two exchanged a quick greeting.

The cold smile on Liu Yu’s face froze.

There wasn’t much to look forward to with this group. Liu Yu would obviously win first place. Considering the specs of each person in group 1, only Liu Yu would be able to make it to finals. The difference in strength was a little too big.

As it was the first event, the crowd of spectators was very large. The roar of cheers erupted just as the starting gun shot into the air.

Liu Yu started out significantly faster than the others, and after a few paces, the distance between him and the others opened up. After he crossed the finish line, the people in his class cheered as if he had already taken the championship.

The second group was up next and Huo Ran got ready to compete.

He glanced at Kou Chen, who was standing next to the judge. “Aren’t you going to wait for me at the finish line?”

“Zhifan and the others have all gone over,” Kou Chen said. “There’s nobody else here, so I’ll stay here with you.”

Huo Ran glanced at the finish line, and almost all of their class had shifted their way there to the end of the 100 meter race. Although he wasn’t the flame of hope for the humanities classes as a whole, he was the flame of hope for Class 1.

In fact, excluding all the girls that picked the women’s high jump, their class only had one person per event that could be considered a flame of hope.

“On your marks!” The referee raised the starting pistol.

Huo Ran was in the third lane. When he bent down into the starting position, he glanced at the shoes of the students on both sides. Judging from the kickass-factor of their shoes, he figured that making it into the top 3 was achievable; it was practically guaranteed, even. 2

“Ready——” The referee continued shouting.

Huo Ran pricked up his ears and sprinted off the moment the starting gun went off.

The person on the right was visibly slower than him, but the person on the left was running at a similar speed, and Hou Ran couldn’t pull ahead even after a dozen meters.

Surrounded by screams, he couldn’t be bothered to analyze the situation around him anymore. He focused onto the finish line and sprinted forward at a controlled pace.

“Huo Ran!” Kou Chen’s voice suddenly came from somewhere a little ahead on the left. “Fighting! Fighting!”

Huo Ran was a bit confused. Wasn’t this guy at the starting line?

He glanced from the corner of his eye and was shocked to find that Kou Chen was not only running wildly alongside his group, he was running at a slightly faster pace!

The fuck?

“Watch your tempo!” Kou Chen shouted again, “Save your strength!”

Huo Ran was a bit speechless.

Shut up! This was hurting his self-esteem.

A non-participant that was running a bit faster than the actual contestants, all while screaming his head off the entire time…

In the final stretch, Huo Ran adjusted his breathing and sharply accelerated, shaking off the person on his left that had been clinging to him this whole time, and leaving Kou Chen in the dust.

When he crossed the line, he heard his class loudly roar.

“HUO RAN——! HUO RAN——! WAAH——! YAAH——! AAH——!”

The first few words could be interpreted as his name, but after he crossed the line they started howling and had essentially returned to the wild. 3

He rushed forward for another 10 meters before stopping, and was panting when Xu Zhifan came over and patted him on the shoulder. “Did you use all of your strength?”

“Probably not. I was just focused on shaking off the one beside me. I was afraid that he’d overtake me.”

He wanted to shake off Kou Chen too. If that guy actually crossed the line first, it’d be a miracle.

“You were 0.1 seconds faster than Liu Yu,” Said Xu Zhifan.

“Screwed!” Jiang Lei jumped over. “Liu Yu is screwed!”

“Keep your voice down. You wanna start a fight?” Xu Chuan came over and whispered.

The girls doing logistics came over, immediately shoved these hoodlums to the side, and handed him a towel and water all while showering him with lots of praise and encouragement, like “Go, go, awesome, awesome!”

While the girls excitedly rambled on, Huo Ran noticed Kou Chen slowly wander over with a pleasant smile.

“You should’ve signed up for the 100 meter run, yeah?” Huo Ran said, rubbing the towel on his face symbolically; he didn’t sweat much.

“I should’ve signed up for them all,” The corners of Kou Chen’s mouth quirked up in a smile.

“Fuck off.” Huo Ran said.

“Seriously,” Hu Yi said while smiling, “How come I feel like Kou Chen almost came in first place for your group?”

“That’s not true. I didn’t have enough energy to sprint at the end,” Kou Chen was modest for the first time in a hundred years. “I checked. If I were in this group, I’d be third at most.”

“You should save some energy. It’ll be the 400 meter dash in a moment.” Xu Zhifan replied.

“It’s okay,” Kou Chen said with an indifferent face, “They can have this round.”

Huo Ran looked at him and felt that this psycho would really let that happen, so he couldn’t help but give him a few words of reminder. “Don’t play around and end up too tired to make it into the finals. 1 lap around the track is only 400 meters.”

“Will you run with me later?” Kou Chen suddenly hooked an arm around his shoulders, asking in a small voice.

“Are you some sort of fucking mythical creature? Give me a break.” Huo Ran was startled. “I’m not as fit as you are, and I’ve always had poor endurance; I just have slightly above-average explosive power.”

Kou Chen tsked, seeming a bit disappointed, but a second later he raised an eyebrow. “Are you just scared that I’ll lap you?”

“… There’s a grand total of just one lap,” Huo Ran was suddenly a little worried, “Did you remember clearly? A total of just one lap.”

“I remember it clearly, I remember it clearly. Just wait for me at the end,” Kou Chen thought about it for a bit. “No, wait. Then you won’t be able to cheer for me in the middle… How about you run across, or run through the track…”

Huo Ran interrupted him,“I’ll run with you.”

“What if I can’t catch up with you?” The expression on Kou Chen’s face instantly brightened and revealed a smile.

“If I can’t catch up, then I’ll run across the field.” Huo Ran said.

“What if after that you don’t have the strength to run the 100 meter final this afternoon?” Kou Chen asked again.

“That’s unlikely. Just because I can’t keep up with you doesn’t mean that I can’t run,” Hou Ran sighed.

“It’s okay if you can’t keep up,” Kou Chen was cheerful. “It’s alright as long as I know you’re behind me.”

Huo Ran smiled and didn’t say anything.

He’s never run alongside someone to cheer them on; the only reason he agreed to Kou Chen was because he saw the almost unnoticeable hint of disappointment Kou Chen had before.

If he hadn’t looked closely at Kou Chen, he would never have guessed that someone with a character like Kou Chen would actually have a moment where they were like that.

So small and pitiable. 4

For Kou Chen, there was no pressure for him to get into the top rankings for the 400 meter dash. The real pressure was the 1000 meter dash final that he had to run right after. The opponents that would actually pose a threat had all given up on the 400m dash to compete in the 1000m.

Hou Ran believed that Kou Chen’s arrogance and boastfulness was instilled in his genes. That would be the only logical reason explaining why he’d chosen to participate in both events. 5

For the people in his class however, they would definitely feel otherwise. After all, the eyes of others, Kou Chen was just a fucking legend.

Huo Ran and a bunch of them stood at the starting point and looked at Kou Chen. The man smiled at them with a relaxed face, and many girls readied their phones.

“Control your speed and reserve your strength!” Xu Chuan reminded him.

“We’ll see. Depends on my mood,” Kou Chen said.

“Fuck.” Huo Ran said.

“Get in position!” The referee shouts.

Huo Ran moved his ankle around to warm up, and Xu Zhifan looked at him. “You’re running with him?”

“Mhm,” Huo Ran nodded his head.

“You two are just asking for these girls to go crazy,” Xu Zhifan said.

Huo Ran gave him a look, “What?”

“I look forward to a good performance from you two,” Xu Zhifan patted his shoulder.

The gun went off and Kou Chen rushed out. Huo Ran didn’t even bother to think carefully, and followed suit, dashing after him.

Kou Chen didn’t rush to lead the race. In the first 100 meters, he was one of the last competitors. The few running in front were running as if they’d gone completely crazy, not caring to properly pace themselves. Inexperienced people are like this; if others run fast, then they would also try to run just as fast. They don’t care about how much distance is still left.

The good thing is that Kou Chen didn’t pretend to be arrogant in this matter; he sat firmly in the throne of last place.

And still leisurely turned his head around to smile at him.

“Keep running your laughing ass.” Huo Ran said.

“Hee hee.” Kou Chen snickered, turning back around and continuing to run towards the finish line.

After 200 meters, Huo Ran looked at the distance left. At this point it’d be good to catch up a bit, and not pull away too far.

However, Kou Chen clearly didn’t speed up and continued to stay a long way behind.

The whole class was jumping up and down and roaring from the other side of the finish line.

“Watch the distance,” Huo Ran couldn’t help but remind him.

“I’ll show you something fun,” Kou Chen said.

“No need,” Huo Ran decisively refused. “Please stay steady.”

Kou Chen laughed.

“Soon you won’t be able to catch back up!” Huo Ran knew what kind of game he was playing. Someone tried to pull this kind of shit every year, at every school, especially when the opponents weren’t as strong just like now. However, considering how far behind Kou Chen was, he simply wouldn’t be able to catch up to them if they passed the 300 meter mark.

“Let’s go.” Kou Chen suddenly said.

Without waiting for Huo Ran to react, Kou Chen suddenly accelerated and rushed out.

A wave of noise erupted on both sides of the track.

It’s just the preliminaries! Huo Ran sped up to the finish line. There’s no need to shout like this!

However, looking at Kou Chen who was less than 50 meters away from overtaking third place, he still couldn’t help but to whisper a curse along with the shouting spectators. “Fuck!”

In the last 50 meters, Kou Chen overtook the front-runner and crossed the finish line two to three meters before they did, and was immediately swarmed by the crowd.

By the time Huo Ran ran to the finish line, Kou Chen just barely managed to squeeze out of the excited crowd, flinging around a towel that the girls had just given him.

“Well,” Kou Chen came over. “Couldn’t catch up, huh?”

“In the 1000 meter dash, don’t play around like that.” Huo Ran said. “They’re all monsters. If you play around a little bit, you’ll end up in last place. The 1000 meter dash is the finals, remember?”

“I know,” Kou Chen smiled and stretched out his arms to hang onto Hou Ran’s body. “You don’t have to run the 1000 meter dash with me.”

“Walk properly,” Huo Ran said.

“Don’t know how,” Kou Chen continued to hang onto him and directed him towards Xu Zhifan and the others.

Huo Ran finally realized what Xu Zhifan meant before, and was quickly made aware of the countless stares belonging to the girls around them sweeping back and forth between the two of them, not even bothering to hide their intentions.

“They’re all looking at us,” Kou Chen turned his head and whispered into his ear.

“Yeah,” Huo Ran said, “and if you hold on any tighter, even more will look.”

Kou Chen smiled and didn’t say anything.

Huo Ran suddenly got a little nervous, and he was afraid to hear Kou Chen open his mouth and say that word.

Come. 6

That’d just be splendid.

“Gonna drink some water?” Xu Chuan held a bottle of water in front of them and shook it from side to side.

“Yeah!” Kou Chen answered, releasing the arm around his shoulder while smoothly raising his other hand to touch his face, and then ran over to take the bottle of water in Xu Chuan’s hand.

Huo Ran sighed.

No one from Class 1 was participating in the remaining preliminaries, so everyone returned to their places in the stands.

Huo Ran and the gang sat in the top row of the stands. Except for Huo Ran, the rest of them were lying crookedly in one way or another. Kou Chen, that guy, took up 3 spots, laying down and resting his head on Huo Ran’s lap.

“Ran Ran,” Kou Chen said, “You’re participating in the high jumps later, right?”

“Mhm,” Huo Ran sounded, looking at the high jump field over there. The high jump was attended by many people, divided into groups based on grade. The seniors were competing as of right now.

“Then, you won’t be able to catch up to me at the 1000 meter dash, right?”

“Don’t know,” Huo Ran glanced down at him. “I thought you didn’t want me to run with you?”

“Then cheer for me~ Chuan said there’s a station every 50 meters along, relay along and cheer for me.” Kou Chen said.

“Then cheer for me~ Chuan said there’s a station every 50 meters. Relay along and cheer for me.” Kou Chen said.

Huo Ran laughed and turned his head to look at Xu Chuan and the rest.

“The seed of hope for the Humanities classes,” Xu Chuan said, “Just a single flame of hope across the 8 liberal art classes and 2 grades. I overheard Wu Xiaochen say that the entire Humanities class will come to cheer.”

“Holy shit,” Huo Ran was a bit surprised, “Such a big turnout. Did last year’s flames of hope also receive such grand treatment? ”

“What flames of hope last year?” Jiang Lei said. “Last year, the Humanities classes were completely extinct in the 1000 meter dash, okay?”

“… So weak.” Huo Ran sighed, and looked down at Kou Chen. “Kou Seed-Seed.” 7

“Eh?” Kou Chen replied.

Several people burst out in a fit of maniacal laughter.

The 1000 meter dash finals that Kou Seed-Seed was participating in was almost the same time as the junior’s high jump event. The high jump field was not far from the starting point of the race. After signing into his high jump event, Huo Ran glanced over and saw that the Seed was already rooted there.

Next to him was last year’s 1000 meter dash champion, Zhou Haichao.

In addition, there were two others whose name Hou Ran couldn’t remember that belonged to the junior’s science class. These two seemed quite capable last year as well. The person that stuck out the most was the sophomore; one glance and you could tell he was an athlete. Just looking at these three alone, Huo Ran was a little worried for Kou Chen.

He was the first in line to jump so he couldn’t run over to Kou Chen and start cheering; he could only keep glancing over.

Kou Chen waved over at him. He hurriedly waved back and put his hands in front of his mouth to make a cheering pose. He didn’t know if Kou Chen saw it.

“Huo Ran,” The referee teacher called his name.

Huo Ran raised his hand once.

The referee announced the starting height, but he didn’t pay attention and didn’t listen. He was impatient to jump so he could hurry over to see Kou Chen’s situation. Suddenly, the starting gun over there shot into the air.

Pa!

Huo Ran felt that he was a bit too involved. Somehow, the moment that he heard the sound of the starting gun, he too ran and leapt up. At the same time, Kou Chen had already rushed out from the starting line.

”

”

The initial height wasn’t too difficult, so when he crossed the bar, his eyes were still glancing in that direction.

Kou Chen suddenly turned his face, put his hand to his mouth, and whistled at him.

The whistle was quite loud and could be heard over a chorus of cheering.

When he landed on the mat he didn’t even pause to think . He quickly placed his fingers to his mouth to return a whistle back.

Behind him was a sudden burst of girls screaming and laughing, followed by a few boys joining the chaos and whistling. As if it was contagious, the surroundings were filled with whistling within a few seconds.

Huo Ran ran off the mat through a shortcut between the crowds and dashed off to the track to the first stop where Xu Zhifan and a few of the others were cheering for Kou Chen. “Go, Kou Chen, go!”

Kou Chen ran past with a smile, raised a hand, and blew him a kiss.

“Fuck off!” Huo Ran scolded him. “Go! Kou Seed Seed!”