On the day of the sports meet, Ke Bu was woken early in the morning by music. With one hand shoved under his shirt scratching his belly, he walked out of Zhi Li’s dorm room. The music was even more energetic than yesterday. Looking down from the dorm building, Ke Bu had to admit that Sheng Jie Academy’s student council really didn’t mess around. In a single night, they had transformed the school into something resembling a concert venue. Countless students were squeezing in some last-minute exercise, while the more enthusiastic classes had even dressed in matching outfits to serve as cheering squads.
Yawning, Ke Bu went back to his own dorm room and returned to sleep. There was no point getting up early anyway. When he opened his eyes again an hour later, Chu Hao Yu had already changed into his sportswear and looked far more energetic than he had yesterday. “Since I can’t release what my body needs to release, I can only work it off through exercise. I’ll make it. I’ll make it. As long as we say a few more words and do a few more things, we’ll reach Chapter 10 in no time.”
“Nobody asked. Just make sure you don’t lose.”
“Easy for you to say. The whole school is competing. We’ve got experienced third- and fourth-year seniors above us and energetic first-years below us. I’m going downstairs to run a couple of laps and look at some women in short skirts to recharge myself. You go get Zhi Li.”
“He’s probably still asleep.”
Ke Bu only brushed his teeth; he couldn’t even be bothered to wash his face properly and just splashed on some water. When he opened the door to Zhi Li’s dorm room, however, Zhi Li was nowhere to be found. Where did he go? Don’t tell me he went to exercise too? Impossible. Ke Bu wasn’t particularly confident about today. He couldn’t set his expectations for Zhi Li too high when it came to things like this, or he would end up repeating what had happened with the piano.
As though matching the occasion, the gloomy skies of the past two days had turned bright and clear. Sunlight wrapped the campus in warm colors. Youth, energy, music, sunshine… everything blended together into something fresh and alive. Ke Bu stretched for a full minute, allowing himself to be swept up by the atmosphere. “Today might actually be pretty good,” he murmured. After going downstairs, he headed straight for the athletic field, which was already packed and buzzing with noise. Some people were practicing cheers, others were practicing their running, and there were all kinds of assorted weirdos everywhere. Sheng Jie Academy was practically a gathering place for strange people. Then again, maybe strange people were precisely the ones who chose Sheng Jie Academy. As reluctant as Ke Bu was to admit it, Sheng Jie was a highly sought-after school. Its unconventional teaching methods and first-rate facilities meant that not just anyone could get in. Ke Bu himself had needed connections to secure admission back then.
Ying Xiu Jie practicing on the track in his tiny red athletic briefs had become a spectacle. This time, he had even taken off his shirt. Ke Bu did his best to ignore him and found the area assigned to his own class. The class monitor had somehow gotten hold of a pile of little cheering horns and had even hung up a banner.
“If you people lose after doing all this, that’s going to be a huge waste of money.” Ke Bu was immediately met with cold looks from everyone. “The competition hasn’t even started yet. Stop saying discouraging things. Everyone from our class is here except Zhi Li. Where is he?”
“Am I supposed to follow him around twenty-four hours a day?” Ke Bu listlessly dragged over a stool and sat down. Remembering that he still hadn’t eaten breakfast, he looked around for Zhou Xin He. When he finally spotted her hiding at the very back of another class’s area, Ke Bu waved. “Xin He, you definitely made food, right?” Zhou Xin He’s obsession with food had already become a full-blown fixation. She walked over carrying a ten-tier lunch box. “Th-This is for Lord Zhi Li.” Even now, Ke Bu still couldn’t understand why both Gong Zhu and Xin He always added the honorific “Lord” whenever they talked about Zhi Li.
“He can’t eat all of that. Give me some.”
The class monitor and the others watched enviously. “You’ve got it good. A girl even made you a lunch box with love.”
“I do not have it good. This lunch box with love is for Zhi Li.”
“Your relationships are way too complicated. Who exactly is with whom in that group of yours?” Even now, very few people at school knew about Ke Bu and Zhi Li’s relationship. Zhi Li’s behavior was too difficult to decipher, and since the group was constantly doing strange things together, everyone else had long since given up trying to seriously figure them out.
Ke Bu picked up a spring roll and put it into his mouth. He heard girls nearby whispering among themselves, and mixed into their conversation was a name Ke Bu knew far too well. He scoffed. These women are unbelievable. It’s not like this is their first time seeing Zhi Li. Do they really need to make such a fuss? That was what he thought, yet he was already urgently searching the crowd for Zhi Li himself. Two seconds later, Ke Bu stopped chewing. He had almost never seen Zhi Li in sportswear. The famous sports brand had combined black and blue perfectly, neither too loose nor too tight, as though the outfit had been tailored specifically for him. Not only was Zhi Li wearing a baseball cap, he had also pulled the hood of his jacket over it, obscuring most of his face. Zhi Li wasn’t deliberately trying to create some mysterious, seductive aura. He simply disliked the sun.
Ke Bu regretted making Zhi Li participate in the sports meet. Now this version of him was exposed to the entire school, teachers and students alike. Ke Bu also regretted not washing his face properly that morning. Zhi Li walked toward him. Pouting, Ke Bu stood up, dragged a stool beneath the shade of the large tree behind them, and Zhi Li went straight over and sat there.
“Aren’t you going to warm up?”
“I don’t like my body getting hot.”
“It’ll be really embarrassing if your leg cramps halfway through the race.”
“With a face like mine, nothing I do could be embarrassing.” He calmly stated it as fact, and the fact made Ke Bu’s teeth itch.
“Who normally says something that shameless out loud?”
“I do.”
Not far away, Zhou Xin He tossed the only carton of milk she had toward Zhi Li. Since Zhi Li served as her taste tester whenever she experimented with new dishes, she hoped to keep his nutrition balanced and maintain his indestructible body. Ke Bu, who happened to be thirsty, intercepted it first with an entirely legitimate excuse. “I’m testing it for poison.” He drank half of it in one go before handing it to Zhi Li. “No poison.” Zhi Li accepted the milk and put his mouth around the same straw Ke Bu had just used. The sight gave Ke Bu the strange illusion that Zhi Li was biting his lower lip instead. Ke Bu cursed himself internally. What nerve in your brain malfunctioned? After all this time, you’re actually still getting excited over an indirect kiss?!
Zhi Li handed the empty milk carton back to Ke Bu. Ke Bu crushed it and reached toward the trash can behind him, but his hand stopped midway. He had clearly gotten carried away by the atmosphere. No matter how he looked at it, losing his head over an indirect kiss was something that might happen to an innocent young girl. Having it happen to him was completely ridiculous.
Just to confirm it one more time, Ke Bu stared at the straw and slowly brought it to his lips.
“You’re going to take my—” Zhi Li had only spoken a few words when Ke Bu’s rational mind came crashing back in terror. In his panic, he threw the milk carton down beside Zhi Li’s feet. “I didn’t do anything.”
“You did.”
“Do you have proof? If I say I didn’t, then I didn’t.” Ke Bu stubbornly refused to admit anything.
“You stepped directly onto the floor that night and then climbed into my bed, didn’t you? Wash my bedsheets.”
“So that’s what you were talking about?! Stop bringing things up ages after they happen!”
As though he hadn’t heard him, Zhi Li turned his attention toward the track. The corner of his mouth curved by the tiniest degree. Ke Bu tried to decipher the expression. Had Zhi Li seen what he had just done or not? Whatever. Even if he saw it, who cares? If there’s something to admit, then just admit it.
What was there to resist about being flustered by something as insignificant as an indirect kiss? Ke Bu didn’t want the kind of overwhelming, heavy love where a lover killed or committed arson for him, jumped from a building, or suffered as though their heart and insides were being torn apart. Love was like color: stronger and darker didn’t necessarily mean more beautiful. Sometimes, pale colors were far more pleasing to the eye. Ke Bu liked light colors.