Chapter 35: 35

Because of Kou Chen waving it around so fiercely, Huo Ran realized that half of the banner on Kou Chen’s side had fallen off.

“Fucking calm down!” Huo Ran snapped, “You can’t even see half of the slogan now!” 

“Who cares?” Kou Chen said indifferently. “We’re already done with it. As long as I didn’t fling the banner into the principal’s face, it’s completely fine.”

Huo Ran ignored him and looked straight ahead, suddenly realizing that Wu Xiaochen had also joined in on the sign waving and now her sign was backwards, with the Humanities 1 text facing him and Kou Chen.

“Class monitor,” Huo Ran said, “Your sign is backwards!”

What?” Wu Xiaochen was stretching her arms. 

“Your sign is backwards!” Kou Chen said.

“Ah,” Wu Xiaochen flipped the stick around, and continued forward.

“…Can you tell the difference between 180 degrees and 360 degrees?” Kou Chen stared at the sign that was still facing them and laughed.

“What?” Wu Xiaochen was shocked, looking up at the sign, “Oops.”

She turned the stick again, and this time it faced the right way.

Huo Ran heard giggles behind him and stifled his own laugh as they followed Wu Xiaochen around and into the middle of the field to line up.

The weather was pretty nice, and although the temperature was a bit low, it wasn’t windy. The girls didn’t end up handing out pants to the guys, since they all said that they weren’t cold when asked.

They were all still consumed by the excitement, how could they be cold? We want to be the only class with our bare legs out! 

Good thing the principal didn’t have much to say, with only some praise at everyone’s spirit and a few words of encouragement to do good, before it was the athletic representatives and referees’ turn. And so, Sports Day had swiftly begun.

The preliminaries were in the morning, with finals in the afternoon. As they all went back to change, the teachers and student council members went to work setting up the equipment.

The girls who needed to change went back to the dorms while the guys just shut the rest of the girls outside and changed in the classroom.

“We wanna come in!” Someone yelled as she banged on the door. 

“Bet!” Jiang Lei yelled as he took off his shorts.

“We’re coming!” The girls jiggled the doorknob.

“Holy shit.” Huo Ran hastily put his pants on. “It feels like they’re actually gonna come in.”

“Let them.” Kou Chen was in no rush at all as he put his pants on slowly. “I’m growing so well, why would I be scared of them looking?” 

They all laughed.

Huo Ran sighed and didn’t say anything. He felt that he couldn’t just say anything, it was too easy for him to follow Kou Chen’s logic now, how scary.

He didn’t look in Kou Chen’s direction either, scared that he’d suddenly ask if he wanted to see the front…

  

After everyone had settled down back on the field, the preliminaries began. For 100 metres, Huo Ran was set for the second heat.

Everyone who had just sat down on the bleachers all got up and ran over to the track.

There was also shot put and other field events going on, but nobody from their class signed up. But there were quite a few people for high jump and long jump in the afternoon. All of the girls signed up for high jump.

“That’s not bad,” Kou Chen stood with him by the track. “Liu Yu is in the first heat, you two can see each other in the finals.” 

“You’re so confident I can make it in the finals?” Huo Ran said.

“Of course. I couldn’t catch up to you last time when we ran from the dorms to class.” Kou Chen said. “And I’m pretty fast.”

“Oh.” Huo Ran stared at the start line.

Liu Yu was warming up and looking all professional. Feeling his gaze, he turned around and gave him an exaggerated sneer. 

Huo Ran smiled at the guy from Humanities 3 beside him, and they waved at each other.

Liu Yu’s sneer froze on his face.

There wasn’t much competition for this heat, Liu Yu would for sure come in first place. If it were based off of their times, he would probably be the only one to go to finals too. The difference in ability was a bit too much. 

Because it was the first race, there were a lot of people watching, and they erupted in cheers as the starting pistol went off.

Liu Yu’s take off was noticeably faster than everything else, and he widened the distance with just a few steps. As he crossed the finish line, his classmates were cheering like he had already won the championship.

Next was the second heat, and Huo Ran got ready.

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

“Zhifan and the others are over there,” Kou Chen said. “So I’ll keep you company here.”

Huo Ran looked towards the finish line. The whole class had pretty much moved there. Although Huo Ran wasn’t the hope of the whole of humanities for 100 metres, he was still Humanities 1’s hope.”

Although except for the girls in high jump, they pretty much had a hope for everything they signed up for.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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“Get set—” The referee continued.

Huo Ran perked his ears, and shot off at the moment the pistol went off.

The guy on his right was noticeably slower than him, but the one on his left pretty much matched up, and they were neck and neck. 

People were cheering all around him, and he continued forwards while maintaining his rhythm.

“Huo Ran!” Kou Chen’s voice suddenly sounded on his left. “Come on! You can do it!”

Huo Ran was a bit confused, wasn’t this guy at the start line?

Out of the corner of his eye, he was shocked to see that Kou Chen was running beside them, and he was pretty fast! 

Holy shit?

“Mind your rhythm!” Kou Chen yelled, “Save your stamina!”

Huo Ran was speechless.

Shut up! You’re injuring my pride. 

Someone that wasn’t even competing in the race, was keeping pace with them while he had his head turned and yelling!

At the final sprint, Huo Ran adjusted his breathing and sped up, shaking off the guy that was close on his heels, as well as Kou Chen.

His classmates all cheered loudly as he crossed the finish line.

“Huo Ran! Huo Ran! WOOOO!” 

He could make out his name at the beginning, but then it just dissolved into crazy screams.

He kept going for a couple metres before coming to a stop, and Xu Zhifan came and patted him on the back as he was panting. “Was that your fastest?”

“Probably not, I just needed to shake off the guy in second place.” Huo Ran said.

As well as Kou Chen. If he had crossed the finish line before him, then that would be crazy. 

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

“That’s it!” Jiang Lei jumped over, “Liu Yu is done for!”

“Quiet, are you looking for a fight?” Xu Chuan whispered.

Some of the girls came over and shoved the others aside to hand him water and a towel as they praised him and cheered about how he was so amazing. 

After the girls left, Huo Ran finally saw Kou Chen swagger over with a happy smile.

“You should’ve signed up for 100 metres.” Huo Ran said, wiping his face hastily. He didn’t sweat that much.

“I should’ve signed up for everything.” Kou Chen smirked. 

“Fuck off.” Huo Ran said.

“For real,” Hu Yi laughed, “He almost could’ve gotten first.”

“Nah, I fell off at the end.” There was Kou Chen’s once in a lifetime humbleness. “The best I could’ve gotten is third.”

“Save your strength, it’s almost time for 400.” Xu Zhifan said. 

“It’s fine,” Kou Chen said nonchalantly. “I’ll give them a lap first.”

Huo Ran looked at them, thinking that that was something only this lunatic could say, and he couldn’t help but remind him: “Don’t be so careless, what if you can’t make it to the finals? There’s only one lap for 400 metres.”

“Are you gonna run with me?” Kou Chen suddenly put an arm around him and asked quietly.

“Lord, spare me please.” Huo Ran startled. “I don’t have as much energy as you. And I’m not good at long distance, I can only sprint.” 

Kou Chen tsked, seemingly a little disappointed. But a second later he raised an eyebrow: “Scared I’ll lap you?”

“…There’s only one lap.” Huo Ran was suddenly worried for him. “Do you understand? Only one lap.”

“I got it, I got it. Wait for me at the finish line.” Kou Chen said. “No wait, then you can’t cheer me on halfway through… Why don’t you just run across the field?”

Huo Ran cut him off: “I’ll run with you.” 

“What if you can’t catch up?” Kou Chen’s face lit up as he smiled.

“I’ll run across the field then.” Huo Ran said.

“What if you don’t have the energy for your finals in the afternoon?” Kou Chen asked again.

“No way, just because I can’t catch up to you doesn’t mean I can’t still run.” Huo Ran sighed. 

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“It’s fine if you can’t,” Kou Chen said happily, “As long as I know you’re behind me.”

Huo Ran smiled.

He’d never run with anyone before. The only reason he said yes to Kou Chen was because he saw the tiny bit of disappointment on his face.

If he wasn’t looking at Kou Chen, he wouldn’t even have known someone like him would have such a moment. 

Poor kid.

Ranking for 400 metres wasn’t that much pressure to Kou Chen. It was the fact that he still had to run 1000 metres after that, and all the decent competition weren’t doing 400.

Huo Ran felt that Kou Chen’s inflated ego was already deep in his DNA, and that’s why he signed up for both. 

But it was different for everyone else in their class, seeing as in other people’s eyes, Kou Chen was just amazing.

Huo Ran and the others stood at the start line with Kou Chen, who smiled at them calmly. There were also a bunch of girls with their phones raised.

“Control your speed, and save some energy!” Xu Chuan reminded him.

“We’ll see.” Kou Chen said. 

“Fuck.” Huo Ran said.

“On your marks!” The referee yelled.

Huo Ran got ready, and Xu Zhifan looked at him: “You’re running with him?”

“Mhm.” Huo Ran nodded. 

“Are you two trying to drive the girls crazy?” Xu Zhifan said.

Huo Ran glanced at them: “What?”

“Good luck.” Xu Zhifan patted him on the shoulder.

The pistol sounded, and Kou Chen started running. Huo Ran didn’t think too much about it and ran out after him. 

Kou Chen didn’t rush towards first place, and for the first one hundred metres he was at the very back. The guys at the front sprinted forwards with no care. The ones with no experience were always like that, trying to match the others for speed without considering how much distance was still left.

Good thing Kou Chen wasn’t trying to show off now, as he kept a steady pace.

He even turned around and smiled at him.

“Focus on your damn running.” Huo Ran said. 

“Heheh.” Kou Chen said, keeping his place at the end.

At two hundred metres, Huo Ran believed he could start speeding up, so he wasn’t too far behind everyone else.

But Kou Chen obviously had no intention of doing that, and he kept his pace.

Everyone at the finish line was jumping up and down and screaming. 

“Keep an eye on the distance.” Huo Ran couldn’t help but remind him.

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

“No thanks,” Huo Ran refused, “Please just be normal.”

Kou Chen laughed. 

“You’re not gonna be able to catch up!” Huo Ran knew what he wanted to do. There were always a couple people every year who wanted to show off, especially when their opponents weren’t very strong. But there really weren’t many people who kept such a wide gap like Kou Chen. He felt that there was no way Kou Chen could catch up in the last hundred metres.

“I’m going.” Kou Chen suddenly said.

Before Huo Ran could react, Kou Chen suddenly sped up and shot forwards.

Cheers immediately erupted from both sides of the track. 

It’s just the prelims! Huo Ran sped up, do you need to yell so loudly?!

But as he watched Kou Chen catch up to third place within fifty metres, he couldn’t help but curse along with everyone else: “Holy shit!”

Kou Chen passed first place at the last fifty metres, and crossed the finish line a few metres ahead, where he was then buried under a crowd of people.

As Huo Ran reached the finish line, Kou Chen was just squeezing through everyone, with a towel from a girl in his hand. 

“How was that?” Kou Chen walked over. “Couldn’t catch up, could you?”

“You better not do that for 1000 metres.” Huo Ran said. “Everyone’s strong, if you do that again you’re gonna get last place.”

“I know.” Kou Chen smiled as he reached out and attached himself to him, “You don’t need to run with me for that.”

“Walk properly.” Huo Ran said. 

“I don’t know how.” Kou Chen steered him towards Xu Zhifan and the others.

Huo Ran finally realized what Xu Zhifan meant earlier. Countless girls were currently looking at them without even trying to hide it.

“Everyone’s looking at us.” Kou Chen whispered in his ear.

“Yeah,” Huo Ran said. “If you hold on tighter there’ll be even more.” 

Kou Chen laughed.

Huo Ran was suddenly nervous, afraid that Kou Chen would open his mouth and say:

Come.

Now that would be brilliant. 

“Water?” Xu Chuan waved a bottle at them.

“Yeah!” Kou Chen nodded, letting go of Huo Ran, touching his face while he was at it, before taking the bottle Xu Chuan handed over.

Huo Ran sighed.

  

There was no one from their class in the rest of the prelims, so everyone returned to their spot on the bleachers.

Huo Ran and the others sat at the very top. Apart from him, they were all slumped over. Kou Chen himself took up the space of three people and put his head on his lap.

“Ranran.” Kou Chen said. “You’re doing high jump later, right?”

“Mhm.” Huo Ran nodded, looking over to the high jump equipment. There were a lot of people who signed up, so it was divided by year. Right now it was still the first years’ turn. 

“Can you still make it to 1000 metres?” Kou Chen asked.

” I dunno.” Huo Ran looked down at him. “I thought you said I didn’t need to run with you?”

“But you have to cheer me on, Chuan-ge said they’ll have one person at every fifty metres to cheer me on.” Kou Chen said.

Huo Ran laughed and turned to Xu Chuan and the others. 

“The hope of the humanities.” Xu Chuan said. “You’re the only one out of two years and eight classes, I heard Wu Xiaochen say that everyone’s coming to cheer you on.”

“Holy shit,” Huo Ran was shocked. “That many people? Did the hope last year get the same treatment?”

“There wasn’t one last year.” Jiang Lei said. “They all went extinct last year.”

“…So weak.” Huo Ran sighed, and looked down at Kou Chen again. “Our hope.” 

“Yes?” Kou Chen replied.

They all started laughing.

Their hope Kou Chen’s 1000 metre race was pretty much at the same time as the second years’ high jump. It wasn’t far from each other, and as Huo Ran was checking in, he saw Kou Chen was already standing there. 

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

There were also two first year science students that Huo Ran didn’t know the names of. He remembered they might’ve been pretty good last year. On the outermost track was a first year, obviously an athlete. Just looking at those three made Huo Ran worry a bit for Kou Chen.

He was the first one to jump, so he couldn’t run over and cheer Kou Chen on at the start. He could only look.

Kou Chen waved at him, and he hurriedly waved back, mouthing a ‘good luck’, but he didn’t know if Kou Chen saw or not. 

“Huo Ran.” His name was called.

Huo Ran raised his hand.

The referee called out the height, but he wasn’t really listening. All he was thinking about was getting it over with so he could watch Kou Chen, when the starting piston over there sounded.

Bang! 

Probably because he was too focused in that direction, so he also started running at the sound of the pistol. As he jumped up, he saw Kou Chen running.

The first round wasn’t that hard, so he had his eyes on Kou Chen’s direction the whole time.

Kou Chen suddenly turned around, put his fingers by his mouth and whistled at him.

The whistle was loud, and he could hear it even over all the cheering. 

As he landed on the mat, he immediately went and whistled back without a second thought.

Behind him, the girls all screamed and laughed, and a couple guys joined in on the fun and whistled as well. In a couple seconds, it had spread to everyone else and they were all whistling.

Huo Ran ran off the mat and over to the track as everyone else was jumping. He joined Xu Zhifan and a couple of the others at the first stop to cheer Kou Chen on as he passed: “You can do it! Go Kou Chen!”

Kou Chen ran past with a smile, and raised his hand to blow him a kiss. 

“Fuck off!” Huo Ran cursed! “Come on! Our hope!”

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