CH 43.2

Gentle Youths (2)

Not many people were looking at him. Fu Songhua was still surrounded by all of the Class 1’s students, bustling with excitement. Someone eagerly peeled the chocolate package and handed it to Fu Songhua. “Old Fu, quickly replenish.”

Following the command from the referee teacher, Fang Li suddenly parted his two legs and jumped up amidst the cool breeze.

His movement was small but highly coordinated. To Fu Songhua, he was like a swift bird, soaring high up in the sky.

He landed softly then, bringing up a burst of sand grains…

The referee teacher bent down and measured for a moment, his astonished voice sounding from the edge of the sandbox. “Aiyo, this student isn’t bad, ah. To jump this far with this height? 2.92 meters!”

Fu Songhua had just stuffed a piece of chocolate into his mouth, nearly choking on it.

The long jump required strong coordination between the lower limbs and hip muscles and coordination with the upper limbs. The student’s dexterity skills couldn’t be lacking at all. Fang Li’s height surely didn’t pass 175 meters, but how could he jump with such a landing distance?

Fang Li’s result was only 10 cm less than his. That meant he was good at sports, right?

Fuck. How come he didn’t know that Fang Li was actually so powerful and agile?!

The students who watched at the side finally reacted, and someone whispered, “Isn’t this Class 9’s Fang Li who was especially cowardly usually?”

A girl whispered back, “He’s not a coward. I never realized before that he’s so cool. His posture in the air is very good-looking!”

“Hey, did you guys feel that his jump was so effortless? He didn’t look like the others who clenched their teeth.”

“That’s right!” A girl from another class chuckled. “I snapped a photo just now. Wait for me to post the two photos in the grade group.”

The school usually forbade them to play with a cell phone in public and the sports competition day was one of the few times the school eased up on their restrictions. Almost every student held a phone and openly took a picture and chatted.

Fu Songhua pricked his ears, hurriedly took out his phone, and quickly looked at the grade group, almost spurting out a mouthful of blood.

“Beautiful woman, do you have a grudge against me?”

The top one was of Fang Li, jumping gracefully in mid-air, and his pretty face welcoming the sunshine. As expected,  he wasn’t deformed from any of the exertions but looked more heroic and beautifully poised than usual at that instantaneous moment of effort.

And below it was Fang Li’s photo was his photo as a comparison and it was so fucking eye-catching.

It caught the moment Fu Songhua jumped, the muscle on his handsome face distorting and looking fierce while baring a mouthful of white teeth like he wanted to eat people.

That girl wasn’t from his class. She mustn’t like how arrogant Fu Songhua was acting and posted this photo as revenge. “I didn’t PS* it. It’s all straight-out high-definition, thanks.”

*T/N:  photoshopped

Fu Songhua turned his head, pinching the boy beside him in grief. “Where were the agreed pictures?! We’re shedding blood and sweating in the front line, but you guys on the logistics side didn’t even take a cool picture. Do you want the people from other classes to smear my heroism!?”

He spoke while quickly saving that picture with Fang Li, then swiftly grabbed a bag of snacks and ran to Fang Li’s side.

“For you.” He grinned, showing his white teeth, carefully peeled open the chocolate, tore open the yogurt lid, and handed it over. “Replenish a bit of your energy so that you can jump farther later!”

Fang Li, who was silently exercising his ankle alone, looked at the food handed to him but didn’t accept it.

“There’s no need,” he softly said.

Fu Songhua’s hand froze in mid-air for a long time in embarrassment before finally muttering dejectedly, “Then, good luck to you.”

Fang Li looked at his disappointed expression and hesitatingly explained, “If I’m too full, it will upset the stomach, making it uncomfortable to play any sports.”

“Ohh, it makes sense.” Fu Songhua suddenly understood. “You have a small appetite like a cat. You should eat after finishing jumps then. I will save these snacks for you.”

On the other side, Class 1’s boys shouted at the top of their voices. “Sports representative, stand at the edge of the sandbox and make a pose. We will take a cool picture of you!”

Fu Songhua suddenly reached out and pulled Fang Li, turning his head and shouting at his classmates, “Here, take a picture of the two of us!”

The picture was taken with a “click,” and their smiles were frozen on their lips.

The morning sun gradually rose in the sky and became more dazzling.

Under the dazzling sunshine, the cool breeze blew and swept through the youths’ flying black hair and sweating cheeks.

It was reckless, warm, passionate, and gentle…

At the logistic point of Class 1, Qin Yuan held a score table while urging the publicity representative. “Fu Songhua’s final result is going to come out soon. Just fill in the rank later and immediately hand it to the broadcast station.”

Their class publicity representative was a quiet girl and she nodded her head. “Okay. It has been written already. This is the first result of today’s event. We have to win this!”

Qin Yuan nodded and lowered his head to look at his wrist.

Although he had several quite pricey wristwatches in his house bought by his father that were suited to be worn by someone in his age group, he had never put them on until now.