chapter 38

Hou Ran thought that the wound on his waist was no big deal, but it could be dragged into becoming a disaster by Kou Chen.

This one hug of his was extremely tight. Huo Ran’s elbows were squeezed further and further into his body and he felt as if he could barely gasp for air.

Fortunately, right at this moment, Xu Chuan came over and grabbed Kou Chen’s elbow. “Okay, okay, Huo Ran’s been squeezed so hard by you that he can barely speak.”

Kou Chen continued squeezing for a few seconds before letting go of Huo Ran. He looked at Huo Ran and clicked his tongue. “Just this, and you can barely speak? Rookie1.”

Huo Ran originally thought that he finally got a glimpse of Kou Chen’s true feelings through that hug and was even moved a bit himself, but the moment Kou Chen let go, he suddenly reverted back to his normal antics.

He sighed, “I have an injury after all.”

He lifted up the clothes and looked at it again. This time the wound looked better; the bleeding had stopped and it was starting to scab over.

After they sent Tao Rui back to the medical site, she took out her cell phone and started to make a call. As to whether she was notifying authorities or the ex-boyfriend’s parents, they didn’t really need to know, so they didn’t listen and walked over to their class’ bleachers.

“Huo Ran, you’re a true fucking friend indeed.” Wei Chaoren could have said that seven or eight times along the way.

“Your reaction speed is also pretty fast,” Jiang Lei said, “If it was me and I saw the person and then something in their hand, I’d have to think over and over about whether to pounce and how to pounce…”

“Where would I have the time to think about that,” Huo Ran said, “You’ll understand if you experience it once.”

“Huo Ran,” Kou Chen looked at him, “In the future, as long as you say the word, no matter what…”

“What are you saying,” Huo Ran laughed, “Even if I didn’t try to stop him back then, it’s just a nail file; he wouldn’t be able to stab a flower with it even if I gave him ten minutes.”

(This isn’t cannon.) “He did stab a Hua Ran2 though…” Kou Chen muttered.

“That was only because we found out that it was a nail file after; at that moment we all thought that it was a knife. You also thought so too, no?” Xu Zhifan patted Kou Chen’s shoulder. “No matter what3? Keep going.”

Kou Chen immediately turned his head to look at Huo Ran.,“Just say the word. No matter what, I’ll go through all the difficulties and dangers4.”

“Nice,” Xu Zhifan smiled and slapped him on the back again.

“What are you doing clowning along?” Huo Ran looked at Xu Zhifan. “Since when did you become so unstable.”

“Am I unstable?” Xu Zhifan asked.

“The most stable out of all of us,” Xu Chuan said, “Every time I see you I want to call you big brother.”

“Don’t ah~ Big brother Chuan,” Xu Zhifan spoke while laughing.

After returning to the bleachers and resting for a short while, the afternoon activities continued.

The 100m final was the first to start, and while Huo Ran was waiting to sign in, their class had already actively divided themselves into two groups which occupied the favourable terrain for cheering at the starting line and at the finish line.

“That injury of yours,” Kou Chen stood behind Huo Ran and placed his arm around his shoulder to whisper into his ear, “It won’t affect you too much, will it?”

“It’s about the same as a mosquito bite,” Huo Ran said.

“Are you really that miserable,” Kou Chen said, “For a mosquito bite to become like that?”

“Shut up. Save some of your breath to shout when you’re cheering for me,” Huo Ran said. He heard the referee call his name, and flicked Kou Chen’s hand, “Let go of my hand.”

“Good luck!” Kou Chen released his hand and turned his head to lean on Xu Chuan once more.

“Don’t run with me. Save some energy for the 400 meter dash,” Huo Ran said.

“Mm,” Kou Chen made a noise.

“Mm,” Kou Chen made a noise of agreement.

Except for Liu Yu, Huo Ran had no other worthy opponents in the 100 meter dash.

Last year, he didn’t participate in any events or he would’ve known sooner that participating in them could deteriorate his relationship with Liu Yu to such an extent. If he knew Liu Yu cared so much about these events, he would’ve joined all the events he participated in.

Fuck those guys.

The players took their positions. Liu Yu was in the first lane, and Huo Ran was in the second lane. Kou Chen was satisfied with this positioning. “I’m heading over,” Kou Chen said.

“Didn’t you say you weren’t going to run with them?” Xu Chuan said.

Many people wanted to watch the final race and the sides of the track were filled with spectators. It was unlikely that he could accompany them and run this time around.

“I’m not gonna follow them,” Kou Chen said. “I’ll just stand there, one on each side of him5, and scare him to death.”

“… Is that effective?” Xu Chuan was a bit unconvinced.

“Effective as long as Huo Ran doesn’t tell me to fuck off,” Kou Chen said.

“I feel like he’ll definitely tell you to fuck off,” Xu Chuan said.

Kou Chen grinned and walked over, standing by the side of the track and softly hopping on the spot.

Huo Ran immediately spotted him and turned his head.

Kou Chen smiled at him and winked at Liu Yu. Huo Ran was expressionless at first, then seemed to understand what he meant and the corners of his mouth quirked up.

So, they both just stood there, one on each side and smiled calmly at each other for a few seconds.

Liu Yu was a little uncomfortable, glancing left and right.

This person’s mentality really wasn’t alright. When the gun went off, Kou Chen could clearly tell that Huo Ran rushed out first.

“Huo Ran let’s go! Huo Ran let’s go!” Everyone in their class immediately started shouting, and the cheering immediately travelled over to the finish line. “Huo Ran! Huo Ran!”

“The fuck! I really didn’t know Huo Ran could run so fast!” Jiang Lei popped up and roared. “Did you see! First place! Liu Yu can’t catch up to him!”

“I saw,” Kou Chen calmly looked at Huo Ran, who was two or three lengths ahead of Liu Yu. His heart was beating with a bang bang, feeling like his ribcage would pop if the race didn’t finish.

The people by the finish line screeched out; Huo Ran was first.

The people on this side then ran towards the end of the track.

Huo Ran squeezed out of the crowd of people and pointed over to the runway, “Kou Chen, you have to run the 400 meter dash now!”

“Mm,” Kou Chen bounced with a disinterested look,“The check-in hasn’t even started yet.”

“In a while, the triple jump will also start,” Huo Ran said. “I thought about it. After running the 400 meter dash then going immediately to the triple jump, won’t you be a bit too tired? Maybe you should give up one of the events…”

“No need,” Kou Chen said, “I’m really excited right now.”

“Excited about what?” Huo Ran looked at him.

“In this lifetime, I can actually run into a person who willingly blocked a knife for me,” Kou Chen bent down to tighten his shoelaces, “Just for this, after running the 400 meter dash and jumping in the triple jump, I can still run another 5 kilometers.”

Huo Ran looked at him without saying anything.

“Really,” Kou Chen finished tying his shoelaces and smoothly rubbed his hand on Huo Ran’s calf a few times, “I’m gonna call my sister later.”

“You’re gonna call your sister?” Huo Ran quickly lifted his leg up.

“To tell her someone blocked a knife for me,” Kou Chen straightened up and smiled brightly.

Huo Ran didn’t know that Kou Chen would be so concerned over this matter; in fact, if it was Xu Zhifan who was standing there instead, he would’ve blocked the knife as well.

Truthfully speaking, before all this happened, he really didn’t think he was such a person.

So gallant6.

Simply heroic.

Hou Ran pondered for a few seconds and then stared at Kou Chen, reminding himself not to so easily be influenced by Kou Chen’s personality again.

However, it was clear that Kou Chen wasn’t purposefully exaggerating his mood; he was genuinely excited.

No tricks were pulled during the 400 meter dash this time; Kou Chen raced directly to the lead and was widening the gap between first and second further and further every second. By the time he was nearing the finish line, the gap between him and second was already around 50 meters. The audience enjoyed this tremendously; Hou Ran could hear a few girls next to him shouting until their voices cracked.

The triple jump was starting right after the 400 meter dash. Huo Ran ran over to go help Kou Chen sign in first.

“Why are there this many people watching the triple jump?” One of the girls in charge of signing in asked aloud.

Only then did Huo Ran notice that many people had gathered round.

“Look who it is,” A girl pointed to a name on the sign-in sheet and reminded her, “It’s Kou Chen.”

“Oh,” The girl looked up to assess Huo Ran.

“I’m not Kou Chen,” Huo Ran hurriedly said, “He’s coming right over. I’m just signing in for him.”

“Oh,” The girl responded.

Huo Ran turned his head and was relieved when he saw Kou Chen approaching, and hurriedly left the sign-in desk.

“Aren’t I kickass?” Kou Chen asked.

“Kickass,” Huo Ran nodded, “In a while, go be kickass again. Your fans have all arrived.”

“I actually,” Kou Chen smiled, “Won’t.”

“What?” Huo Ran looked at him.

“Triple jump. Don’t know how; never learned,” Kou Chen said. “Only the spirits know how to fucking triple jump.”

“Then hurry up and learn from the spirits right now,” Hu Yi was a little worried, “Or else how will you compete?”

“Learn my ass,” Kou Chen said with a relaxed face, “Let this bunch of girls be disappointed and leave. Do you love me so much that you fear for me…”

“Liu Yi!” Huo Ran didn’t listen to the madman. He directly called over a former phys-ed student from their class. “Are you also jumping in a bit?”

“Yeah,” Liu Yi walked over and said hello to a few of them. “What’s wrong? I won’t let down the match7.”

Huo Ran sighed, “Letting out a fart8, who told you to let down the game…”

“Farting9 isn’t okay either.” Liu Yi said while smiling.

“Hey!” Huo Ran was helpless. “Hurry up. Go give Kou Chen a lesson on how to jump the triple jump, just the steps and stuff, or he’ll be running and doing a standing long jump in a moment.”

“Sorry to bother you,” Kou Chen said.

Huo Ran looked at him with a bit of shock. He originally thought that with Kou Chen’s character, he would definitely refuse, but he didn’t expect such cooperation.

However, given how little time they had, Liu Yi couldn’t teach him much; he could only explain the general rules and essentials and then give a small demonstration.

Kou Chen followed along and also tried twice, while Liu Yi corrected his posture.

“You haven’t learned this before?” Liu Yi was a bit puzzled. “It doesn’t seem like you’ve never learned it before.”

“I’ve really never learned it before. In junior high, I’d just get together with my classmates and randomly jump like a psycho,” Kou Chen said.

“Not bad~ You have talent~” Liu Yi said. “Are you interested in joining the school’s track and field team?”

“He’s on the basketball team,” Huo Ran hurriedly cut in.

“There’s no rule stating that you can’t join two teams, right?” Liu Yi said.

“Don’t steal my people from me at a time like this, okay buddy?” Huo Ran frowned, feeling depressed.

“Fine,” Liu Yi looked at Kou Chen, “I’ll look for you in a few days, Kou Chen.”

“Mm,” Kou Chen responded.

“Mm what huh?” Huo Ran waited for Liu Yi to walk away and then glared at Kou Chen. “What mm?”

“Just a random mm mm,” Kou Chen said.

“You’re on the basketball team, one of my man, got it? You’re only there three and a half times out of ten at my practices, and you still want to join track? If you go to the track team, I’ll just remove you from the school basketball team,” Huo Ran said.

“I won’t go,” Kou Chen tsked, “I only joined the school basketball team because of you, why would I go to the track team?”

Kou Chen was indeed a good track and field athlete; he was surprisingly good at running and long jump.

There weren’t many people that knew how to triple jump in the first place; the top three were always athletic students. This year, two athletic students were on the leaderboard and after rushing to learn how to jump, Kou Chou immediately jumped to third place.

Huo Ran was in a bit of a trance when he saw his figure cutting through the air.

This skill could have been trained from jumping fences since he was a child?

“This braggart,” Jiang Lei said, “So jealous. When can I have this ability…”

“Aren’t you gonna go participate in the three-legged race?” Huo Ran said.

Jiang Lie wasn’t able to get Lu Huan to be his partner and compete in the three-legged race with him, but Lu Huan promised to cheer for him and Wei Chaoren tomorrow afternoon, so he had to force Wei Chaoren to sign up.

“Superman10 is gonna hold me back,” Jiang Lei sighed.

“I’m holding you back? If you’re so legendary, you can pick me up and run,” Wei Chaoren said.

“I’m depressed,” Jiang Lei said, “Can’t pick you up.”

After the sports meeting, several people went to the cafeteria to eat. Kou Chen walked to the far side to make a phone call.

“Did you get into trouble?” This was the first thing that came out of Kou Xiao’s mouth as soon as she picked up the phone.

“Can’t you think of me as a better person….” Kou Chen said.

“Then what happened?” Kou Xiao asked, “No more money?”

“That’s not it,” Kou Chen said, “Today, Huo Ran blocked a knife for me.”

“WHAT!” Kou Xiao’s voice immediately rose. “Who stabbed Ranran? Who did you fight with? Which fucker is so powerful that they dare use a knife! You actually let Ranran shield you from the knife…did you let someone beat you to a pulp then? Where is this? I’m heading over right now with Old Yang…”

“Sis, sis, Kou Xiao!” Kou Chen interrupted her, “Hear me out, okay? Huo Ran is fine, it was just some broken skin.”

“What kind of knife?” Kou Xiao said, letting out a sigh of relief.

Kou Chen described to her briefly what happened at noon. “How about it, Huo Ran really is something else, huh?”

“You two come out,” Kou Xiao said, “And I’ll treat Ranran to dinner.”

“We’re going to the cafeteria right now,” Kou Chen said.

“Come out for a late-night snack then,” Kou Xiao said, “I’ll pick you two up at 8:30.”

“A late-night snack at 8:30?” Kou Chen froze.

“What else? Your dormitory closes at ten. Do I need to arrange accommodations for the night to be able to treat you both to a meal?” Kou Xiao said.

When being pulled out of the school entrance by Kou Chen, Huo Ran was a bit speechless. “There’s no need to be so grandiose, right? Really, even if it was another person I would have pounced on them as well.

“But at that moment, it was me,” Kou Chen pushed him into the back seat of the car.

“Sis, Brother Yang,” Huo Ran greeted Old Yang and Kou Xiao.

“Ranran, you don’t need to be polite with your sister,” Kou Xiao said, “I invited you to dinner to suppress your shock; the person that should kowtow and offer their life as a sacrifice later11 is Kou Chen. In the future, just order him and make him do whatever you want him to do.”

Offering their life as a sacrifice again; Huo Ran strongly felt that this (habit) was something Kou Xiao probably passed down to Kou Chen.

“Actually…” Huo Ran didn’t manage to finish his words before he suddenly felt something panting into his ear. Frightened, he hurriedly turned his head, and immediately shouted “Oh my god!”

Shuaishuai’s12 head peeked out from the trunk of the car and proceeded to dash towards Kou Chen while panting.

“Good boy. Big brother missed you to death,” Kou Chen held Shuaishuai’s head and pulled it forward. With his help, Shuaishuai quickly squeezed into the back seat from the trunk. Kou Chen wrapped his arms around him and gave him a few rubs, “Why did you bring this stupid thing out?”

“Dad said you reposted another family’s dog in your Wechat Moments yesterday, and it was actually even a Shiba Inu. Shiba Inus are really stupid, so we thought that you probably missed this stupid thing and brought him out to meet you,” Kou Xiao said.

“Go hug brother Ranran,” Kou Chen pointed at Huo Ran.

“Don’t…” Huo Ran didn’t have time to finish before Shuaishuai pounced on to him, wildly rubbing his face into his shoulder. Huo Ran hugged him. It kind of felt like hugging a quilt; really addictive.

“Comfortable, huh!” Kou Chen followed along with Shuaishuai and pounced on to him. He then proceeded to squeeze Shuaishuai completely off of the back seat and ended up laying on top of Hou Ran.

However, Shuaishuai didn’t give up and threw himself up using Huo Ran’s leg.

“Ah…” Huo Ran tilted his head and leaned against the car window.

There was a person and a dog making a fuss on top of him together; Huo Ran’s temper was worn down to nothing. With his face pressed against the car window, he felt like there were two dogs spreading merriness right beside him.

When the car stopped at an intersection for a red light, Huo Ran saw a man standing across the street in front of the crosswalk. Others were crossing the road, yet only he stood there, motionless.

After seeing the man’s face, Huo Ran sat up straight.

“What’s wrong?” Kou Chen asked.

“Nothing,” Huo Ran stared at the man for a little bit longer and fished out his phone.

“Zhi Fan, wanna go across the corridor?” Jiang Lei asked. “Brother Chuan asked us if we wanted to play cards.”

“In a bit. You guys go over first,” Xu Zhifan turned off his phone.

After waiting for the people in the dorm to leave, he picked up his phone again and turned it on. On it was a message from Huo Ran.

I just saw your dad. He was staring out into space at the intersection. Do you want to give him a call?

I called him. He didn’t pick up

Xu Zhifan sent his reply.

No news from your mom yet?

Nope

“Who are you talking to?” Kou Chen scooched over.

“Nobody,” Huo Ran quickly put his phone back in his pocket.

“Shit,” Kou Chen froze, “I didn’t want to see it anyways. I just asked in passing.”

“I know,” Huo Ran smiled at him. “It’s just…”

“Secret, secret,” Kou Chen plopped down beside him, hugging Shuaishuai and burying his face in the fur on his neck, “I got it!”

Huo Ran looked at him and felt that his action just now was a bit too obvious, so he reached out and flicked him on the tip of his ear, “Angry, huh?”

“Don’t get too cocky. You don’t have the skills to make me angry,” Kou Chen slapped his hand away and smothered his words into Shuaishuai’s fur.

“What a liar,” Kou Xiao “You’re always the angry one.”

“I’m gonna sever our sibling bond,” Kou Chen said.

“See?” Kou Xiao pointed to him and said to Huo Ran, “One second he’s mad at me and I bet you that the next second, he will turn around to choke Old Yang if Old Yang says one more word.”

Huo Ran laughed and scratched the fur on Shuaishuai’s head.