Wen Yu put away his phone and gazed across the playground at that empty building. The sun was setting quickly. The light spot soon moved west from the window frame to the building’s outline, then left the empty building’s range. He watched silently for a while, didn’t go over to confirm the figure, and turned to go home.
The twenty-three people selected for the formation had to arrive early. On Monday he got up very early, but the sports meet was held at the district sports stadium. Wen Yu had underestimated the local traffic conditions and almost arrived late.
Although he arrived just in time, “almost being late” would seem rather thoughtless, while “timing it perfectly” would seem more composed.
Usually he was the latter, but today he was the former, which made him unhappy. Before stepping through the stadium gates, Wen Yu forced himself to pull at the corner of his mouth and put on a smile.
“Sorry, I’m late.”
“Not late, just in time.” Ge Ran checked her phone and smiled. “Come on, let’s walk through it once. From here to the front of the podium, let’s mark our positions. We’ll walk through it once then go change clothes.”
After committee discussion, balancing theme, aesthetics, and price, the opening ceremony costume choice was shirts and black dress pants for boys, shirts and plaid skirts for girls—simple but spirited-looking, and flattering to the figure.
Class 6 had used lunch breaks and time after evening self-study to practice marching for several days. Finally it was time for inspection. Wen Yu put his bag by the side of the field, and when he went back to his position, he heard Ge Ran calling Fu Yuhan’s name.
He was here?
He hadn’t seen Fu Yuhan when he first arrived. Only now did Wen Yu notice there was someone in a white cotton T-shirt jogging slowly on the other end of the track.
Hearing the call, Fu Yuhan cut across the field and jogged slowly to the gathering place. The sun was just rising, a bit of light breaking through the clouds, illuminating the scattered sweat beads on his forehead.
“Gathering this early?” He was breathing slightly heavily.
“Everyone’s here. We’ll practice once then do makeup and change clothes.” Ge Ran said.
“Makeup too?”
His brow furrowed as if in disgust. Ge Ran laughed: “You don’t have to do it yourself.”
“…Can we not do makeup?”
“No.”
Wen Yu kept watching him, watching his reluctant expression, but he didn’t raise any more objections.
Fu Yuhan stood in his position and casually wiped his sweat with the white towel hanging around his neck. Midway, he turned his head slightly and met Wen Yu’s unwavering gaze: “What?”
“Nothing,” Wen Yu turned back and smiled. “I find you interesting.”
Where was the interesting part? Fu Yuhan didn’t understand.
But he didn’t want to ask either.
Ge Ran wasn’t walking in the formation—she was responsible for organizing and commanding from diagonally in front of the formation. From the field to about fifteen meters to the left of the podium was regular marching, switching to goose-stepping in front of the podium, then back to regular marching after passing the podium.
Ge Ran led the team over and confirmed with everyone the position for switching to goose-stepping and who would be responsible for calling out commands.
During goose-stepping, faces had to turn toward the podium. Wen Yu could see the back of Fu Yuhan’s head perfectly.
His hair was blacker than most people’s, with a cowlick at the back of his head that looked somewhat cute.
As if possessed, Wen Yu initiated conversation again: “In such good spirits today, running so early in the morning?”
“Warming up. The high jump competition is early.”
“Where did you go Friday afternoon?”
“…Is it any of your business?”
“It’s not really my business, but since you weren’t there, I sat in your seat.”
“Thanks for letting me know. I’ll wipe down the chair when I get back to school tomorrow.”
After a section of goose-stepping, they switched to regular marching, and the position practice ended. Xu Qianyi turned back to look at them both and smiled: “I thought you two had a bad relationship.”
Fu Yuhan: “It’s not good.”
Wen Yu: “It’s okay, I guess.”
Xu Qianyi burst out laughing and smiled at Fu Yuhan: “If your relationship is bad, why were you whispering the whole way?”
Where was the whispering?
It was just that he and Wen Yu were standing in the same row, with distance from those in front and behind. When they talked, others could hear them but couldn’t make out the content, so casual conversation might be misunderstood.
Since they’d be classmates for a year, when Wen Yu initiated conversation, Fu Yuhan couldn’t just ignore him forever.
Fu Yuhan frowned, thought about it, and was too lazy to explain.
Whatever.
After walking through it once, the girls all took their clothes to the restroom to change. The boys were less particular—afraid the restroom would be too crowded, they found a nearby secluded spot with some cover and started undressing.
The uniformly purchased outfits cost less than a hundred yuan for the complete set, probably only wearable once. To save on expenses, Ge Ran required everyone to solve the black leather shoes problem themselves.
High school boys weren’t at the age where they needed to wear formal attire. Some had even borrowed shoes from their fathers, with inconsistent styles and ill-fitting sizes. Several pairs looked particularly tacky on their feet, and the group of half-grown boys gathered together to mock each other.
Wen Yu walked to a corner and took out his own leather shoes from his bag to change into.
At times like this, he would never join the crowd, often forced to stand together with Fu Yuhan, who was equally unsociable.
“Tsk,” Fu Yuhan glanced at his shoes and muttered quietly, “Really rich, young master.”
Wen Yu lifted his eyelids and looked at him, asking back: “Aren’t you doing pretty well yourself?”
“Just this one pair, and…” Fu Yuhan took two steps in the leather shoes he’d just changed into and frowned. “They’re a bit tight now.”
“Not buying new ones?”
“Can’t afford them.” Fu Yuhan snorted lightly.
He looked like he had more to say but didn’t continue. Wen Yu’s eyes moved from Fu Yuhan’s sharp jawline to his brows and eyes, then quickly withdrew.
Looking at someone’s features in a secluded place always felt somehow gloomy.
After changing clothes, they threw their backpacks onto the stands and walked back to where they had gathered earlier.
Formation personnel needed to wait by the field in class groups. The girls began doing each other’s makeup, then came to fuss over the boys after finishing.
Wen Yu was handsome and seemed good-tempered, so several girls volunteered to do his makeup. Fu Yuhan, just a step away, was left unattended. Surrounded by a row of makeup brushes, Wen Yu followed the principle of “if I’m going down, I’m taking someone with me” and pointed at Fu Yuhan: “Why aren’t you doing his makeup?”
“Don’t dare, afraid of dying.” The girls laughed. “Fu Yuhan is too scary when he’s angry. Let Qianqian do it—she’s not afraid of Brother Fu.”
“Me again?” Xu Qianyi snapped her compact mirror shut with a “crack” and rolled her eyes. “Isn’t doing Fu Yuhan’s makeup a waste of cosmetics? His face is whiter than my foundation.”
“I don’t want makeup either.” Fu Yuhan had his hands in his pockets, his attitude cold.
“Even if you don’t want it, you need a layer of foundation.” Ge Ran walked over and stuffed a compact of powder into Xu Qianyi’s hands. “Here, I brought shade number one today.”
“Brought it specially?” Xu Qianyi raised one eyebrow.
Ge Ran bumped her and smiled.
Xu Qianyi took the compact, found a clean powder puff, and walked over. Fu Yuhan cooperatively bent down.
He seemed resigned, gently closing his eyes. When the sunlight hit his cheeks, they were indeed about the same color as the powder in Xu Qianyi’s hands.
He looked quite obedient.
Anyone else hearing this assessment would probably find it horrifying, but Wen Yu really thought so.
Thinking about it carefully, whether it was the bulletin board, greeting cards, or being a leader, whenever it involved class-related matters, no matter how much Fu Yuhan resisted, he would eventually agree.
This made him… even more interesting.
If Fu Yuhan were just an ordinary school bully with no academic skills, Wen Yu might not have been so curious. But now, the more he looked at him, the more amazing Wen Yu found him.
Once the opening ceremony was over, Wen Yu had nothing to do. He sat in the stands with earphones on, his eyes intentionally or unintentionally falling on Fu Yuhan.
High jump was the first event to start. After the opening ceremony, Fu Yuhan changed back into his clothes and shoes, warming up by the field while waiting.
Those with previous records could wait for others to finish and start from higher heights. Fu Yuhan’s starting height was 1.7 meters.
At this height, there were few competitors—besides two sports students from Class 3, there was one person from Class 2 and one from Class 7.
The horizontal bar rose to 1.75 meters, and the student from Class 7 didn’t make it over. He was somewhat disappointed, walked to the side to drink water, and occasionally spoke with the spectators.
The field was on an open space beside the plastic curved track. When there were too many spectators, they easily retreated onto the track, affecting the runners. Nearby referees came to disperse them several times, but the effect wasn’t obvious.
Wen Yu sat lazily in his seat, watching the bar rise to 1.8 meters.
Class 6’s stand seats weren’t too far from there. With his eyesight, he could easily see Fu Yuhan’s expression when preparing for his run-up.
So far, he still looked relaxed.
Coincidentally, while Fu Yuhan was preparing on this side, the starting gun for the 200-meter sprint fired on the other side. The eliminated student from Class 7 was startled by the gunshot and instinctively turned back, taking half a step backward just as the runner from lane 4 swept past in front of him.
Someone moving toward the center of the field was very dangerous for an athlete in mid-run-up. Fu Yuhan naturally had to dodge as well, but because his run-up trajectory changed, he didn’t clear this height.
Wen Yu suddenly stood up.
The sports committee member sitting next to him was startled and looked up in confusion: “What’s wrong?”
“Something seems to have happened over there.” Wen Yu thought for a moment and lifted his chin.
“Brother Fu? Oh no, I’ll go check!” The sports committee member immediately jumped up. “I’m counting on him to get me some points!”
True to being the sports committee member, he took three steps at once, jumping down from the stands in a few moves and darting over to the high jump area like a rocket. Wen Yu watched him say a few words to Fu Yuhan, then turned to look in another direction.
If he hadn’t seen wrong, the person who had just run in lane 4… seemed to be from Class 2?
The Class 2 athlete had started in lane 2. No one could say for sure whether he had accidentally veered off course or done it intentionally.
Wen Yu squinted.
Each height allowed three attempts total, and it didn’t seem to affect Fu Yuhan much. The student from Class 7, seeing that he had affected the school prince’s high jump, looked as mournful as if a relative had just died.
Fu Yuhan glanced at him without saying anything and returned to the starting line.
This time, he easily cleared 1.8 meters.
The Class 2 athlete also cleared 1.8 meters, looking somewhat more strained than Fu Yuhan, but at this height, the other two high jump athletes also began competing.
At 1.85 meters, the Class 2 athlete was eliminated. Fu Yuhan stood at the starting line, took a curved run-up, and leaped at the bar.
His slender back arched backward into a smooth curve, his two long legs swinging in the air. The next second, Fu Yuhan’s shoulder blade hit the soft mat.
He cleared the bar successfully, but his landing wasn’t quite perfect.
The sports committee member was very excited, rushing to the mat to cheer. Wen Yu saw Fu Yuhan lie on the mat for two seconds before standing up.
These two high jump athletes had met the national first-class recommendation standards and were competing for heights above two meters. Fu Yuhan, as a non-professional, brought back a result of 1.95 meters for Class 6.
If not for fear of Fu Yuhan exploding, Wen Yu felt the sports committee member was so excited he might have kissed him directly.
Although intimate physical contact for celebration wasn’t allowed, bringing water was still necessary. As soon as Fu Yuhan returned to the stands, two bottles of ice water were stuffed into his arms.
“Brother Fu,” the sports committee member grinned obsequiously while rubbing his hands, “please drink some water. Triple jump is this afternoon, and there’s a 4×100 relay this morning. We’re counting on your performance.”
Fu Yuhan almost choked before swallowing his water: “Didn’t I say I wasn’t participating in the relay?”
“Me, Zhao Lei, Sun Wenrui—there’s no fourth person in our class who can run faster than you.” The sports committee member said, “We absolutely must beat Class 2 this year!”
“…” Fu Yuhan paused. “You’d better find someone else.”
“There really is no one else!” the sports committee member cried.
He didn’t take it seriously. Everyone in Class 6 knew that although Fu Yuhan would say things, in the end he would still give his all to such matters. So after persuading him for a couple sentences, he ran off with a grin, not giving Fu Yuhan another chance to refuse.
Fu Yuhan sighed speechlessly, tilted his head back to finish all the water in the bottle, then opened the second one.
When the high jump ended, many events on the field had already begun check-in, reducing the crowd by more than half. Although Wen Yu and Fu Yuhan were separated by three empty seats, there was no one else around them.
Wen Yu turned his head, his appraising gaze suddenly falling on the sweat beads at Fu Yuhan’s temples.
Compared to his morning jog, this sweat was obviously much more.
“Hey, Old Fu.” Wen Yu called out to him. “You’re not injured, are you?”
##
