In a corner of the playground, there was a rest area, which served as a temporary supply station for each class. Many logistics staff were busy helping their classmates who were participating in the competition.

The class monitor and a few others from Class One confirmed the list of participants, ensuring that everyone would show up on time without any omissions.

Hearing the announcement, the class monitor handed the list to Yang He and picked up his own number cloth. “I’m heading to the long jump first; you guys take care of things here.”

Yang He waved his hand dismissively. “Go ahead, and bring back first place.”

The class monitor and his friends went to the long jump area, leaving behind seven or eight students from Class One, including Yang He, at the supply station.

“There’s the 200-meter final this morning. Why hasn’t Xie Ci arrived yet?” A girl was flipping through the event schedule, looking around.

Yang He glanced left and right, pointing in one direction. “Isn’t that him coming?”

As soon as they heard Xie Ci’s name, a group of boys and girls, along with students from other classes nearby, turned to look.

The playground was packed with people, but they didn’t need to search hard; they could spot the tall figure of Xie Ci in the crowd at a glance.

In the chilly weather of over ten degrees, he wore only a short-sleeved shirt with a black sports jacket draped over it, and his sports shorts were cut above the knee, showcasing the muscular lines of his legs—powerful yet not exaggerated.

His steps were calm, and his expression was indifferent. With his upright posture, he exuded a strong presence, giving off a sense of security just by standing there.

Whenever there were sports meets or basketball games, Xie Ci became the backbone of Class One, a trump card to show off. Even those who usually found him annoying would set aside their prejudices and feel a collective sense of pride.

Following Xie Ci was Gu Yufeng, who was about the same height and also dressed in cool sportswear. His delicate features still bore the sleepy look of just waking up, yet he radiated a strong aura, making his presence felt even beside Xie Ci.

The two walked together, chatting about something, creating a harmonious atmosphere that completely blocked out Zhang Ruochuan and the others walking alongside them.

“There are so many people in the stands this morning.”

“Most of them are here to see Xie Ci. Isn’t it like this every year?”

“His relationship with Gu Yufeng is really good.”

“They’re desk mates, and Gu Yufeng is so proactive. Xie Ci, being the kind of person who seems cold on the outside but is warm on the inside, definitely can’t resist his advances.”

Yang He listened to the girls’ conversation, feeling a bit unconvinced. “How do you know he’s cold on the outside and warm on the inside? You haven’t even talked to him in the two years we’ve been in the same class, right?”

The girl was taken aback and a bit angry. “I just know! Do you have a problem with that?”

“Of course, I have a problem.”

Yang He muttered under his breath, “I’ve been publicly humiliated by him before; he was so fierce. Where’s the warmth?”

The girl shot back, “Isn’t that because you have a big mouth?!”

Yang He pressed his lips together, watching as Xie Ci and his group approached, and didn’t continue the conversation.

Both Xie Ci and Gu Yufeng smoothly entered the sprint finals on the first day.

Once they reached their class’s rest area, Xie Ci did some stretching for a while. Soon, Xiang Haibin came over, bringing him a pair of spikes.

“Everyone else is wearing them, so I got you a pair too.”

Xiang Haibin placed the shoes on the steps and turned to Xie Ci, shouting passionately, “Take the 200 meters! Take the 1500 meters! Show them the strength of Class One!”

Xie Ci: “…”

What got into this old man today? He’s so hyped up.

Jiang Chenyu snickered, “What a cringy slogan. We don’t even shout like that anymore, old class.”

“What do you know? Morale is the most important thing in a fight!”

Xiang Haibin then looked at Gu Yufeng. “You can’t be as laid-back as usual today. Class One not only has to take first in academics but also in sports!”

Gu Yufeng stretched his legs and casually replied, “Didn’t you say not to let it affect our studies? Just have some fun?”

Xiang Haibin: “Since we’re competing, we need to show our best spirit!”

Gu Yufeng: “…”

You can say whatever you want.

Perhaps influenced by the atmosphere of the competition, the old man was unusually cheerful today, showing some smiles. After chatting with them for a bit, he grabbed a few bottles of mineral water and went around the venue, hyping everyone up, more excited than anyone else.

Xie Ci’s 200-meter final was about an hour and a half later. Hearing the high jump announcement, he and Jiang Chenyu went to watch Gu Yufeng’s competition first.

Gu Yufeng said lazily, “You all came? What if I get too nervous and mess up?”

Xie Ci replied nonchalantly, “What else can happen? We’ll just laugh at you in public.”

Gu Yufeng smiled brightly at him. “You better not mess up today.”

“That’s hard to say.”

Xie Ci said with no expression, “There are usually a lot of people who laugh at me. If you’re not waiting for me at the finish line, you won’t even get a chance.”

“Just say you want me to wait for you at the finish line. No need to beat around the bush.”

Gu Yufeng was just teasing him as usual, waiting to see Xie Ci’s cold face and hear his frequent line, “Can you be serious for once?”

Xie Ci turned to look at him, his tone unchanged. “Come pick me up.”

Unexpectedly, Xie Ci went along with the banter, leaving Gu Yufeng slightly stunned and a bit amused. “Alright, I’ll definitely be there on time to pick you up.”

The high jump venue had already started calling names before the competition.

Jiang Chenyu and Zhang Ruochuan saw students from other classes cheering for their classmates and joined in, completely forgetting who had just mocked Xiang Haibin for being cringy.

Xie Ci took Gu Yufeng’s number cloth and pinned it to his back. “I was just joking earlier; don’t mess up.”

Seeing him so serious, Gu Yufeng’s lips curled up slightly, and then he heard Xie Ci say, “If you mess up in the high jump, it usually looks really bad.”

Gu Yufeng: “…”

Zhang Ruochuan laughed and shouted, “Winning doesn’t matter; just make sure it looks good!”

Jiang Chenyu chimed in, “Our Class One’s image absolutely cannot collapse!”

Hearing this, students from other classes thought they were too arrogant, looking down on everyone else.

Amidst the banter of the young students, the high jump competition began.

Xie Ci held Gu Yufeng’s jacket and water bottle, watching him easily win the competition, his form in the air graceful and light, like a beautiful mermaid.

In the middle of it all, Xiang Haibin, who was patrolling the area, came over and shouted with a fist raised, “Gu Yufeng! Go for it! Our Class One students are not weak!”

As Gu Yufeng passed by, he looked indifferent and said, “Don’t make me laugh; I’ll lose my strength.”

Xiang Haibin was taken aback, scratching his nose and walking away dejectedly.

Jiang Chenyu and Zhang Ruochuan were laughing so hard they could barely breathe. Since they had no events in the morning, they acted as cheerleaders, cheering loudly for Gu Yufeng after he won first place, providing plenty of emotional value.

Other students watched as Gu Yufeng left surrounded by Xie Ci and the others, looking a bit dumbfounded.

The gap in strength was just too big!

They never expected that even in their senior year, Class One could add another powerhouse. Is this reasonable?!

Xie Ci draped Gu Yufeng’s jacket over him and handed him the water bottle. “You did well.”

Gu Yufeng twisted the cap open and took a sip. “Is that just verbal praise? No tangible rewards?”

Xie Ci: “Let Old Xiang reward you with a big red flower.”

Gu Yufeng laughed in anger. “I only joined the sports meet because of you.”

Xie Ci thought for a moment. “How about a luxurious upper and lower bunk for a night, plus a meal from the star-rated cafeteria?”

Gu Yufeng: “…That reward is quite generous.”

Xie Ci: “It’s only right.”

They then went to watch the javelin competition along the way. Fang Sizhe’s performance was outstanding, and in the final round, he even broke the school record.

Watching Fang Sizhe come off the field wearing glasses, Jiang Chenyu muttered, “Old Fang’s last throw must have had some pent-up frustration behind it.”

Zhang Ruochuan understood. “No wonder he’s usually so stable; he must have thrown all his frustration out.”

Xie Ci laughed at them. After Fang Sizhe finished, the group returned to the Class One rest area.

“Wow!”

Zhang Ruochuan quickly picked up the soaked spikes from the steps and looked at the overturned water bottle on the steps, turning to Yang He and the others. “Who did this?”

A few boys and girls just noticed and gathered around.

“Are these Xie Ci’s spikes? They’re completely soaked!”

“How can he wear these? The 200-meter final is about to start.”

“What’s going on? Who drinks water and doesn’t screw the cap back on?”

The girl who had previously clashed with Yang He came back to her senses and looked at him. “Was it you? You have a grudge against Xie Ci, so you soaked his shoes.”

Yang He’s face immediately turned ugly. “Which eye of yours saw me do it?!”

The girl shot back, “You’re the only one with a grudge against Xie Ci! You’ve said plenty of bad things about him in class before!”

“I didn’t!”

Yang He, under the scrutinizing gazes of everyone, felt aggrieved and defended himself, “I just went to the shot put area to deliver water and just got back!”

Seeing the girl about to say more, Xie Ci raised his hand to interrupt. “It shouldn’t be him.”

Yang He was a bit surprised.

He didn’t expect Xie Ci to speak up for him.

Xie Ci: “Although he doesn’t look very smart, he shouldn’t be stupid enough to do this.”

Yang He: “…”

Even when helping him, he still managed to insult him a bit.

【The 200-meter final for the senior class is about to begin. All participating students, please head to the starting line for pre-race preparations!】

【Repeat: The 200-meter final for the senior class is about to begin…】

Jiang Chenyu frowned, stretching his neck to look for Xiang Haibin. “I’m going to find the old class and see if he can get another pair.”

“There’s no time.”

Gu Yufeng said to Xie Ci, “We wear the same shoe size; you can wear mine.”

“I’ll go get it!” Zhang Ruochuan immediately rushed toward the Class One classroom, but was stopped by Xie Ci.

Xie Ci looked at Gu Yufeng. “You don’t mind if I wear your shoes?”

“In an emergency, let’s just say—”

Gu Yufeng looked indifferent. “Even if you have athlete’s foot, you would have passed it on to me long ago.”

Xie Ci: “…”

Still thinking about athlete’s foot?

Just then, a girl from another class quietly approached, leaning next to a girl from Class One, whispering, “I saw Jiang Shuo from Class Two deliberately pour water on the spikes when your class wasn’t around.”

“Class Two?!” The girls exploded.

“They’re playing these underhanded tricks again!”

“We can’t let this go! Let’s go confront their class!”

“That’s really sneaky.”

Yang He, holding the shoes, angrily went to find Class Two for a showdown.

“What should we do?” Fang Sizhe asked Xie Ci. “Aren’t you going to change your spikes?”

Spikes have strong grip and are advantageous in sprinting competitions.

“I’m not changing.”

Xie Ci took off his jacket, intending to hand it to Fang Sizhe, but seeing Gu Yufeng looking over, he tossed it to him instead.

After the pre-race roll call, Xie Ci went to the starting line to prepare.

In a group of six, he was the only one not wearing spikes, and Jiang Shuo, who was running in the second lane, was right next to him.

Noticing Xie Ci’s gaze, Jiang Shuo provocatively smiled, looking confident.

Xiang Haibin rushed over to watch. Seeing that Xie Ci hadn’t changed shoes, he panicked and grabbed Fang Sizhe beside him. “Where are his shoes?!”

Fang Sizhe: “They got soaked and can’t be worn.”

“How can he be so careless?!”

Xiang Haibin initially wanted to borrow a pair from another class in the last moments but was stopped by Gu Yufeng.

Gu Yufeng glanced at the densely packed crowd in the stands, his gaze locking onto Xie Ci at the starting line, his tone lazy yet firm. “He doesn’t need them.”

With a bang, the starting gun fired, and everyone dashed from the starting line.

The stands erupted in excitement, filled with shouts of the names of the participants, with “Xie Ci” almost drowning out all other voices.

“Xie Ci! Xie Ci!” Xiang Haibin squeezed to the front, shouting excitedly, completely disregarding the image of the class teacher.

Jiang Chenyu and the others shouted at the top of their lungs.

“Old Xie! Go! Take them down!”

Gu Yufeng’s gaze followed Xie Ci as he quickly moved, watching him take the lead with absolute advantage, even speeding up in the latter half, gradually widening the gap with the others, and crossing the finish line first without any suspense.

The surrounding cheers and applause were deafening. In that moment, Gu Yufeng deeply realized that the old fox who would raise a glass with him in the quiet of the night had once been the center of attention on the sports field, dazzling countless people in his youth.

The teacher’s group looked at the stopwatch and announced that Xie Ci had broken his own 200-meter record from last year.

At the finish line, Jiang Shuo was bent over, gasping for breath, glaring at Xie Ci with a mix of anger and disbelief.

Xie Ci hadn’t even changed shoes, yet he could win so easily?!

But Xie Ci didn’t even spare him a glance, completely ignoring him.

Gu Yufeng went to meet Xie Ci, passing by Jiang Shuo and casually dropping a line, “What’s the use of having a lot of stationery if you’re a bad student?”

Hearing that Class Two had played tricks, Xiang Haibin angrily went to find their class teacher.

Jiang Shuo had just come off the field when two class teachers called him over for a talk, his face unable to express just how bad he felt.

On the last day of the sports meet, the biggest highlight was the 4×100 meter relay race for each class.

Class One’s lineup was Xie Ci, Gu Yufeng, Jiang Chenyu, and Fang Sizhe.

The four of them had practiced passing the relay baton specifically, but Xie Ci and Gu Yufeng always had issues with the baton exchange.

Every time Gu Yufeng saw Xie Ci running towards him, he would have flashbacks to the last life when Xie Ci came to rescue him on an island, causing him to zone out.

And when Xie Ci saw Gu Yufeng running towards him, he couldn’t help but want to catch him along with the baton.

In the end, Xie Ci adjusted the order based on everyone’s situation: he would go first, followed by Fang Sizhe, Jiang Chenyu, and finally Gu Yufeng would take the last leg.

Class One was assigned to the second lane, which was closer to the inside.

The starting gun fired, and the crowd cheered.

As expected, Xie Ci took the lead, smoothly passing the baton to Fang Sizhe.

As Fang Sizhe took off, he caught a glimpse of the first runner from another class approaching and thought that as long as he maintained this gap, they had a great chance of winning.

Fang Sizhe finished his leg successfully and passed the baton to Jiang Chenyu. Unexpectedly, the second runner from the adjacent lane suddenly fell, crashing heavily into Jiang Chenyu, who was turning to focus on the baton.

In the stands, everyone gasped as they saw the accident on the field.

Jiang Chenyu fell, and everyone from Class One felt their hearts leap into their throats, holding their breath and not daring to blink, worried about Jiang Chenyu and feeling disheartened.

In such a short sprint event, if you fall, you’re basically out of the running for first place.

After struggling to squeeze out time from heavy homework to train, exhausting themselves every day, only to end up with such a result felt like all their efforts were in vain. A group of students driven mad by academics empathized deeply.

In that brief moment, runners from other lanes began to overtake from both sides.

Jiang Chenyu, ignoring his bleeding knee, snatched the baton from Fang Sizhe and took a few steps before barely stabilizing himself, sprinting after the others.

Xiang Haibin, seeing this, shouted at the top of his lungs, “Jiang Chenyu! Don’t give up! Just finishing is a victory!”

Hearing this, other students also began to shout Jiang Chenyu’s name.

By the time Jiang Chenyu passed the baton to Gu Yufeng, the lead that Xie Ci had created was long gone, and the last runners from the other five teams had already taken off.

Gu Yufeng received the baton smoothly and began his final sprint.

Everyone in the stadium watched as Gu Yufeng, at an incredible speed, overtook his opponents one by one, gradually closing in on the last runner from the formidable Class Two.

Students in the stands stood up, shouting Gu Yufeng’s name, and even the host on the podium excitedly shouted into the microphone, “Gu Yufeng! Gu Yufeng, catch up! Gu Yufeng takes—first!”

As he approached the finish line, Gu Yufeng overtook Class Two, crossing the finish line first.

The entire venue erupted.

Gu Yufeng took a few steps out, leaning on his knee to catch his breath, his ears buzzing, and couldn’t help but ask himself how many years it had been since he had pushed himself so hard.

Was it really necessary to go all out for a high school sports meet?

Listening to the cheers around him and seeing Xie Ci coming from a distance, he found his answer.

It was necessary.

Because he didn’t want this person’s efforts to go to waste, and he wanted to leave an indelible mark in this person’s youth.

“You did great.”

Xie Ci smiled lightly, extending his hand to Gu Yufeng.

Gu Yufeng straightened up and high-fived him, habitually leaning in to touch his face. When he realized what he was doing, he quickly pulled back, only to find that Xie Ci didn’t dodge at all.

“Are you not going to tell me to be a bit more reserved this time?” Gu Yufeng’s breath was still a bit unsteady.

Xie Ci replied calmly, “It’s just a face touch; I can handle it.”

Gu Yufeng: “…?”

Before he could delve into Xie Ci’s change in attitude, he caught sight of Xiang Haibin excitedly rushing over from the stands.

The two seemed to sense a thousand-word reflection paper waving at them, and they instinctively pulled their hands apart, feeling an inexplicable sense of being caught in the act.

Jiang Chenyu, with a knee injury, was being supported by Fang Sizhe as he walked over. Seeing them, he laughed heartily, “Hey, you two look like the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl being separated by the Queen Mother!”

Gu Yufeng replied with a double entendre, “I actually hope he’s the Cowherd.”

Xie Ci said slowly, “If it weren’t for the heavy academic load in senior year, it wouldn’t be a problem to do this occasionally.”

Gu Yufeng looked at Xie Ci in confusion. “Did you take the wrong medicine today?”

Xie Ci countered, “Aren’t desk mates supposed to be on the same wavelength?”

Gu Yufeng: “…”

Jiang Chenyu processed their conversation in his mind twice before turning to Fang Sizhe and asking, “What they’re saying isn’t the same as what I’m saying, right?”

Fang Sizhe adjusted his glasses, realizing he wasn’t wearing them, and replied solemnly, “Kids shouldn’t ask so many questions.”

Jiang Chenyu: “…”