Chapter 37: 37

As Kou Chen predicted, the first place guy went for the record. He was a first year athlete, and was only a centimetre off, so he could probably break it next year.

Huo Ran got second place, and he couldn’t keep the promise Kou Chen made impulsively to Old Yuan. 

But the others felt that he could be first place.

“Since you’re not an athlete after all, right?” Jiang Lei said. “And Huo Ran’s better looking than that guy.”

“Exactly.” Xu Zhifan nodded.

“Right, that’s very reasonable.” Wei Chaoren said. “That means Kou Chen probably beat the 1000 metre record, right? Since he outran all the athletes.” 

“Right!” They all nodded.

They passed the first-aid station as they headed to the cafeteria. There was an ambulance stopped there, and Tao Rui and a doctor were disinfecting somebody’s scrapes.

“Where are you guys going?” Tao Rui smiled at them.

“Bathroom.” Xu Chuan said.

“Really?” Tao Rui looked at him, “You won’t be eating anything then?”

They all laughed, and Xu Zhifan patted Xu Chuan on the back: “We’re gonna go take a break in the cafeteria.”

“Do you wanna come, Jie?” Kou Chen asked. 

“I’m fine, are you guys sneaking food in?” Tao Rui walked over and whispered, “I don’t really like barbeque and stuff. Bring us some drinks when you come back. The school got us water but I want iced tea.”

“Okay.” Xu Zhifan nodded.

“Here’s the money,” Tao Rui said. “Treat yourself to some drinks too.”

“It’s fine,” Xu Chuan stopped her, “We can’t even afford some iced tea?” 

“Oh?” Tao Rui smiled, “Then you guys can treat us all to drinks?”

They agreed, and as they were about to leave, Xu Chuan nudged Xu Zhifan and nodded in another direction.

They all looked over.

Beside the field was the gymnasium, and under a tree beside the gymnasium stood a man. 

“Holy shit.” They all exclaimed.

“Why is he back again?” Kou Chen looked to Tao Rui.

“Ignore him.” Tao Rui frowned, “Who knows what he wants.”

“Did he do anything?” Xu Chuan asked. 

“No, he’s just following me.” Tao Rui said. “Alright, don’t worry about it. Go on, don’t forget our drinks after you’re done eating.”

With Tao Rui’s refusal, they couldn’t really do anything about it, so they glared at the guy the whole way to the cafeteria.

“What’s wrong with him?” Jiang Lei said. “Like seriously, there might be something wrong with him?” 

“Maybe.” Huo Ran glanced back. “If not, then what’s he after?”

“Money?” Kou Chen said.

“What kind of money does a school nurse make?” Hu Yi asked.

“That you don’t know, her shoes are Chanel. She has four pairs in different colours.” Kou Chen said. “Even more than my sister.” 

“What's that?” Hu Yi asked.

Kou Chen looked at him.

“The point is that Tao Rui’s been ignoring him for so long, he still hasn’t got the hint?” Wei Chaoren said.

“People who can’t tell the difference between harassment and love,” Xu Zhifan said. “Probably thinks that Tao Rui’s heartless for doing this.” 

“He needs someone like Old Yuan to teach him a lesson.” Kou Chen stretched.

“Spare Old Yuan, he’s still recovering.” Huo Ran said.

There were a few tables of people in the cafeteria playing cards or chatting. All people who didn’t sign up for anything and had no interest in watching. 

“Auntie.” Kou Chen ran over to the kitchen, “We’re here~”

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.

“Get out, you’re not allowed in the kitchen.” One of the lunch ladies shooed him away. “We’ll bring it over in a bit.”

“Ktjcx sbe.” Bbe Jtfc uba j mbeqif bo vglcxr ogbw atf mbbifg. “Vtbeiv kf ufa atfw atflg vglcxr olgra?”

“Yo mbegrf.” We Itlojc jcv We Jtejc mjwf bnfg jcv ugjyyfv jii bo atf lmfv afj yfobgf gjc boo. 

“Bbe Jtfc,” Aljcu Ofl rdeffhfv lcab atf rqba yfrlvf Bbe Jtfc jcv ktlrqfgfv, “Tbe xcbk Oe Lejc qgfaas kfii, gluta?’

“Nope.” Kou Chen replied.

Jiang Lei stared at him.

“Go ask her yourself.” Kou Chen said. 

“…How did you know I needed to ask her something?” Jiang Lei was shocked.

“Look at the longing on your face.” Kou Chen said.

“They added a new event this year for fun, right? Three-legged race.” Jiang Lei said. “You can pick your own partner. I wanna ask her.”

“Isn’t it a bit late now?” Huo Ran said. “A bunch of people like Lu Huan, the race is tomorrow and you still haven’t asked her?” 

“Then I don’t have a chance now, do I?” Jiang Lei sighed dejectedly.

“And don’t try to make other people ask for you. Go find her right now.” Kou Chen said. “Just ask her if she wants to be partners.”

“What if she already has a partner?” Jiang Lei asked.

“Ah,” Kou Chen looked annoyed, “Then say that you’ll cheer for her. If she doesn’t want to participate, ask her to cheer for you, and… make Chaoren be your partner.” 

“Holy shit.” Jiang Lei stood up, “You’re good at this.”

“Take some drinks with you.” kou Chen pushed the bottles towards him. “Give her one and you guys can drink and chat. If she’s with her friends, then give them all one and leave.”

“Why?” Jiang Lei questioned, “Am I not supposed to chat with her?”

“You have to give her some time to think about it, if you’re there, how is she supposed to ask her friends?” Kou Chen waved him away, “Hurry up.” 

“Thanks.” Jiang Lei ran out with the drinks.

Huo Ran looked at Kou Chen in shock.

“What?” Kou Chen looked at him.

“And you say you’ve never liked anyone before?” Huo Ran stared at him. 

“I really haven’t.” Kou Chen smiled and said quietly, “If I really liked someone, all I need to do is to stand there.”

“Seriously?” Huo Ran said, “Someone like you…”

“Beep.” Kou Chen suddenly tapped his nose with two fingers. “My handsome card.”

Huo Ran stared at him. 

“Beep. Balance: 300 million.” Kou Chen said.

Opposite them, Wei Chaoren was laughing his head off, and he went and tapped Hu Yi’s head: “Beep.”

“Insufficient IQ, please top-up as soon as possible.” Hu Yi replied.

“Holy shit.” Wei Chaoren froze. 

They all started laughing.

Huo Ran looked at Kou Chen, who had his head thrown back laughing.

Kou Chen really was handsome. Not just handsome, when his bragging had actual skill to back it up, it wasn’t just his face that was attractive.

Or else he wouldn’t have gone from hating him to yelling with everyone else as he cheered for him, nor would he be so excited over him crossing the finish line that the hairs on his arms stood on end. 

When he was cheering Kou Chen on, he was as genuine as the girls yelling ‘Jiejie loves you’.

Kou Chen suddenly turned to him.

“…Hm?’ Huo Ran snapped back to reality and looked back at him.

Kou Chen didn’t say anything, he only blinked a few times. 

Huo Ran froze for a couple seconds before laughing: “Don’t act cute.”

“I’m not acting cute, I’m batting my eyelashes.” Kou Chen said. “You’re the one that thinks I’m cute.”

Huo Ran looked at him for a while, before finally nodding: “Sure.”

  

Jiang Lei’s mom brought them quite a lot of food, but for some reason they still weren’t satisfied. They asked the lunch ladies to join them but they refused, and Jiang Lei never came back, but even so, half of the food just disappeared. To make sure they still had some for the afternoon, they could only grit their teeth and ask the lunch ladies to put the other half away.

“We shouldn’t eat too much anyways.” Xu Chuan rubbed his belly. “You guys still have to compete in the afternoon, right? 100 and 400 metre finals, and Kou Chen’s triple jump.”

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“I wanna sleep.” Kou Chen said. “I just wanna sleep after I eat.”

“You can go back to the dorms?” Xu Zhifan asked. 

“I want to sleep in the sun.” Kou Chen looked up, “The weather’s great today.”

Right as Huo Ran sat down on the bleachers, Kou Chen laid down on his legs: “Don’t move.”

Huo Ran didn’t say anything, and he started to bounce his leg.

“Fuck you.” Kou Chen’s voice vibrated. He could only sit up and look at him, “Looking for a beating?” 

“Come.” Huo Ran said.

Kou Chen leaned over and kissed his cheek without a second thought.

“Ah…” Huo Ran was gonna go crazy. All the girls in their class and Humanities 2 had immediately turned their phones over to them. He ran a hand through his hair in frustration, “Are you tired of living or what?”

“You can lay on me then.” Kou Chen patted his legs. “You think I keep taking advantage of you, right?” 

“Can’t you…” Huo Ran was about to say ‘can’t you nap like a normal person’, but he turned around and saw that Jiang Lei was sitting with his legs spread, and Wei Chaoren was on the step below him, leaning back onto his crotch with his eyes closed.” Fuck.”

Kou Chen looked back as well, and laughed so hard he choked. He spread his legs too: “Like this?”

Huo Ran stared at his crotch.

“Hey!” Kou Chen froze for a moment before putting his hands over his crotch and growling, “I’m warning you, think before you act, what…” 

Huo Ran sighed, and he leaned back and closed his eyes.

Kou Chen didn’t continue his sentence, leaning over onto his lap.

There weren’t any events at noon, but there were still a lot of people on the field. They all treated Sports Day as a big party as they ate, drank, and talked. There were even quite a few people playing basketball. 

Huo Ran only dozed off for a little while before waking. He didn’t have a habit of napping during the day, but Kou Chen was still asleep so he could only remain seated. He got his phone out and panned it around the field.

For most of his life, he felt that school life was pretty boring. Only his friends were the highlight.

But now, he also felt that the classes he didn’t want to attend, the exams he stressed over, the teachers he liked and disliked, and the classmates whose names and faces he remembered or not, were actually pretty interesting. Seeing as this would be their last memory of school life before adulthood, just like right now.

The two girls to his left who were huddled together giggling at their phones, the guys playing cards to his right, the group fooling around under a tree in front of him with at least two couples who’s smiles were brighter than the sun, and the… guys sleeping on each other’s crotches behind him. 

And the Kou Chen sleeping on his lap.

Huo Ran took a picture of Kou Chen, before going back to recording the field.

As he swept past the first-aid station, he paused.

When they came back, the ex-boyfriend was still there. But now the doctors and Tao Rui were all away for lunch, and the ex-boyfriend was seemingly gone as well. 

He left?

Or did he go after Tao Rui?

Huo Ran zoomed the camera in, and saw that two doctors came out, but there was no sign of Tao Rui. He suddenly got a bad feeling.

“Zhifan,” He nudged Xu Zhifan who was lying beside him, “Ask Tao Rui where she is.” 

“What’s wrong?” Xu Zhifan opened his eyes and got out his phone as he sat up. “She said she was gonna get sushi for lunch when we brought the drinks.”

“Her and that dude are both gone.” Huo Ran said.

Xu Zhifan hopped off the stands as he called her.

Huo Ran woke up everyone, and they all ran over there. 

A few steps out, Xu Zhifan said: “She picked up… Hello? Jie?”

“How is it?” Xu Chuan asked. “Is she okay?”

“Hello?” Xu Zhifan looked at the screen, before putting it back to his ear and repeating himself. He frowned, “Nobody’s speaking… Wait!”

“What?” They all leaned over. 

Xu Zhifan put it on speaker and raised the volume to max. They could hear rustling, and some faint speaking.

“This…” Wei Chaoren whispered.

“Go to the sushi place,” Kou Chen said, “I think she picked it up in secret…”

Before he could finish, a clearer voice sounded through the phone. It was Tao Rui: “Let’s go to the cafe on the corner, if you want to talk then we’ll talk…” 

“Come on,” Xu Chuan said. “Over the fence by the haunted building.”

They all ran in that direction.

There were four cafes around the school, and the one on the corner was about ten metres past the fence by the haunted building. It was a small street, and Tao Rui was probably giving them a signal, or else she wouldn’t have said it like that. 

There was only a couple listening to music together under a tree on the way there, and they didn’t even turn to look at them as they passed by.

Apart from Kou Chen, the rest of them didn’t climb fences that often, but now they all made their way over like they did it every day.

Just a few steps forward, they saw Tao Rui with her ex-boyfriend.

“Don’t say anything.” Xu Zhifan whispered. 

As they rushed behind Tao Rui, the ex-boyfriend heard their footsteps and turned around. He immediately went to grab Tao Rui when he saw them.

But Xu Chuan was faster, and he pulled Tao Rui aside.

Xu Zhifan went and shoved the ex-boyfriend, and he stumbled backwards.

“Stop following me.” Tao Rui pointed at them. “The reason I haven’t called the police was out of consideration for auntie and uncle. I didn’t want them to know how crazy you were being! If you don’t stop, I will call the police this time!” 

“What did I do?” The ex-boyfriend approached slowly, looking hurt. “I just don’t want to let you go. I only wish for you to calm down and consider your decision! What did I do to hurt you? What are you gonna tell the police, that I’m following you?”

“What did you do? This is fucking harassment, do you understand? What’s your problem?” Huo Ran was astounded.

“Let’s go back.” Xu Zhifan said. “Don’t bother explaining.”

As they escorted Tao Rui back, the ex-boyfriend yelled: “Tao Rui! Think about it!” 

“I have thought about it!” Tao Rui yelled in annoyance, “If I see you one more time, I’m calling the police!”

The ex-boyfriend was silent, and then he suddenly ran forward.

Huo Ran was at the very back, and to his left was Kou Chen, then everyone else surrounding Tao Rui. The ex-boyfriend charged over for Tao Rui.

“Kou Chen!” Huo Ran yelled, wanting to warn Kou Chen, but Kou Chen didn’t even need to worry about such a puny attack. 

But the next second, he saw the glint of something metal under the light.

He felt like he moved like lightning when he jumped in front of Kou Chen.

Please call me The Flash.

He appeared too suddenly, the ex-boyfriend couldn’t stop in time and crashed into him. His hand brushed past his side. 

As Kou Chen turned around to steady Huo Ran, he only heard him say: “He has something in his hand!”

“Go fucking die!” Kou Chen tugged Huo Ran behind him and aimed a kick at the ex-boyfriend’s chest.

The ex-boyfriend fell to the ground, and the thing in his hand rolled away from his hand.

It was a nail file. 

As everyone was stunned by the ‘something’ in his hand actually just being that thing, the ex-boyfriend jumped up with a hand over his chest and ran away,

“Are you okay?” Kou Chen turned around and yelled at Huo Ran.

“…Fuck.” Huo Ran startled. He touched his side and realized that there was a hole in his shirt. He lifted it and saw that there was a line of blood.

The thing probably nicked him. 

Huh, nail files can do that?

“Holy shit!” Kou Chen saw the blood and grabbed his arm, “What’s your fucking problem?! Why would you jump in front of me?!”

Before Huo Ran could react, he was on Kou Chen’s back and he had already ran ten metres.

“Hey!” He yelled, “Kou Chen! Put me down! I’m not hurt!” 

“You’re bleeding!” Kou Chen said as he ran.

“I’m not, it’s just a scratch!” Huo Ran patted his shoulder and looked back. He couldn’t even clearly see the others running behind them, “Fuck, stop being so embarrassing, put me down!”

“Let me see!” Tao Rui yelled. “Let me take a look, I’ll see if it needs to be dealt with.”

Kou Chen finally stopped, and Huo Ran hopped off his back. He lifted his shirt and showed everyone: “See? It’s just a scratch. Take a look before it closes up.” 

Tao Rui bent down to take a look before sighing heavily. “You scared me to death, seriously. It’s just a scratch, disinfect it later and you’ll be fine… You should’ve told the teachers, or called the police, why did you run here by yourselves? You better not do this again, you scared me to death. Good, good, it’s just a scratch…”

“Really?” Kou Chen turned him around and looked at it before letting out the breath he’d been holding. He stayed there bent over for a long moment.

“Huo Ran.” Xu Chuan squeezed his shoulder, “That was cool.”

Kou Chen straightened up and stared for a few seconds, before hugging him. 

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