Chapter 29
Arriving at the playground, after a quick look around, Ren Qiao'an regretted his decision. In the dim light, amidst the scattered crowd, Ren Qiao'an spotted a familiar figure! It was Jin Xi. It was just a distant figure, but Ren Qiao'an was absolutely certain that the person stretching on the horizontal bar was Jin Xi.
Damn! Why hadn't she noticed before that Jin Xi was everywhere?
Yan Yiyi didn't see Jin Xi, nor did she notice the unusual look on Ren Qiao'an's face. She rolled up her sleeves and ran as fast as she could as soon as she stepped onto the track. "Let's go! Keep up!"
"..." Watching Yan Yiyi's figure getting farther and farther away, Ren Qiao'an sighed secretly. Never mind, no one saw her. Even if they did, so what? She had no reason to feel guilty. Besides, there were so many people on the playground, so many people running. Ren Qiao'an was not conspicuous or special. Only she saw Jin Xi, and Jin Xi might not see her.
As Ren Qiao'an ran slowly behind Yan Yiyi, she imagined various possibilities: she might meet him, she might not, she might not necessarily meet him, and even if she did, she could pretend not to see him. But when Ren Qiao'an finished her lap and looked around carefully, she didn't see the figure in her mind anymore.
Depend on!
"Xixi, you're back so early today." Tang Mu was still drying his wet hair. He glanced at the time. It was a little past eight o'clock, which seemed a little earlier than the time Jinxi usually returned to the dormitory.
"Yeah." Jinxi sat down, removed her ankle and wrist braces, and stretched her joints. With the competition approaching, the team's training sessions had increased in frequency and intensity. Typically, Jinxi would train until five or six in the morning. After a quick dinner, she would return to her dorm, put down her bag and racket, rest for a bit, and then head back to the playground for another run. This was partly because she already had a habit of running, and partly because she was deliberately training for the competition, she needed to be in top shape.
Jinxi doesn't like dormitory life. Even though they have been "living together" for nearly two years, Jinxi still has a lukewarm relationship with them. The only one she is familiar with is Tang Mu. As for the other two people, one of them can be said to "hate" Jinxi, and the reason, Jinxi thinks it is ridiculous. The other one has a completely transparent physique. Jinxi has no doubt about it. She can't even remember this person's name unless she thinks about it. Therefore, except for training days, Jinxi generally does not choose to live in the dormitory. In the past, Jinxi lived in school for two or three days a week at most. Recently, because of the competition, she has been at school most of the weekends.
"Xixi, how is the competition going?" As the vice president of the college student union, Tang Mu is no stranger to all the big and small competitions in the school.
"The points tournament starts on Saturday." Jin Xi answered. Their team qualified as the first in the previous elimination round. The top six teams will be divided into two groups and play a round-robin tournament. The ranking will be determined by points.
"Are you confident?" Tang Mu asked.
"Yeah." Jin Xi was not worried about Saturday's game. They were lucky in the draw this year, and they could probably go for the championship.
"Hmm?" Tang Mu thought of the strength of their college's badminton team, which seemed to be consistently ranked fourth/third all year round. "Do you want me to bring the student union to cheer you up?"
"No need. It's just a game." Apart from the finals, Jin Xi estimated that there wouldn't be many people watching.
"Hey, really not?" Tang Mu suddenly remembered an interesting thing, "I just found out recently that Yan Yiyi next door is from the Culture and Sports Department, and Ren Qiao'an is..." Tang Mu, who had been paying attention to Jin Xi, clearly saw that Jin Xi paused when she said the three words Ren Qiao'an, "From the Propaganda Department." Tang Mu said with a smile.
Ren Qiao'an... Jin Xi was indeed stunned, and was distracted for a while. Because Jin Xi had "ran into" Ren Qiao'an more than once today. She returned to the dormitory early tonight, and she had some relationship with Ren Qiao'an. Jin Xi didn't expect to meet her on the playground. After jogging a few laps and warming up, Jin Xi leaned against the sports equipment to stretch as usual. When she turned around, she saw Ren Qiao'an on the track. Jin Xi didn't know why, but there were so many people on the track, but she noticed the man at first sight. Seeing Ren Qiao'an's figure getting closer and closer, Jin Xi seemed to see the little expression of effort and pain on Ren Qiao'an's face, and she found it a little funny. However, when the little person in her eyes became clearer, Jin Xi suddenly panicked. She turned around hurriedly and ran out of the playground. Jin Xi suddenly felt that running around the campus was not a bad idea.
Jin Xi, for some reason, avoided Ren Qiao'an, even at lunch. While she and Gao Yu were selecting their lunch in the cafeteria, she caught a glimpse of Ren Qiao'an and his companions. Jin Xi was certain they were gazing at her. Her first reaction wasn't to greet them (besides, they weren't familiar with each other), but to avoid them, feeling strangely guilty.
How come Jin Xi didn't notice before that Ren Qiao'an could be seen everywhere on campus?
"No need to make a big fuss, it's just a group stage." Jin Xi emphasized again, "There's also the basketball team's game on Saturday." The implication is that the basketball team is more attractive than the badminton team.
"Yeah, it's a four-to-two competition over there, and the academy should send some people to cheer them on." Their academy's men's basketball team has always been strong and is a favorite to win the championship, but as for Tang Mu herself, "But, I want to watch your game more."
"..." Jin Xi looked at Tang Mu in surprise, and the other party gave her a sincere look. Uh, what did Tang Mu mean... "I'm not forbidding you to watch the game, so there's no need to ask people to cheer. It's not necessary." It would be better to wait until they reached the finals before asking people to cheer.
"Okay." But Tang Mu's focus has never been on this. "Then how about I ask the people on the other side to go watch your game together?"
"..." Not so good! Jin Xi didn't want to see Ren Qiao'an, okay?! Just thinking about the badminton incident in gym class, not to mention the last time Ren Qiao'an sent her home, that memory made her want to dig a hole and bury herself. Even if we take a step back and exclude those things, Ren Qiao'an still has another identity! Her online CP!
Jin Xi couldn't be as comfortable with Ren Qiao'an as she was with other people. "Are you close?"
"It's okay. Yiyi and I get along pretty well. We've even climbed mountains together, eaten together, sang songs together, played ball together..." Tang Mu listed all the times she'd interacted with Yan Yiyi, "and Qiao An..." Tang Mu and Ren Qiao An didn't communicate much, but that didn't stop her from wanting to get to know them better. After all...
“…They don’t like me.” Jin Xi stated. Yan Yiyi had never liked her, and even Ren Qiao’an… seemed to hate her.
“…Hmm.” Tang Mu was not blind. On the contrary, she was too perceptive. She could see Yan Yiyi’s attitude, and even more so, she could see that Jin Xi had a different attitude towards Ren Qiao’an… Ever since Jin Xi asked her for Ren Qiao’an’s Penguin account, or rather, when Jin Xi took the initiative to mention mountain climbing, she had other intentions. Tang Mu really wanted to know what kind of connection these two seemingly unrelated people had.
"But I have a feeling that you two will become friends." Because Tang Mu had never seen Jin Xi treat someone like this, "special" and "peculiar" in all senses of the word, so what was different about Ren Qiao'an?
"I don't need it." Jin Xi's face turned cold. She didn't need a few more so-called friends, and she certainly didn't need Ren Qiao'an to be this friend. "If you want to come, come alone. Don't invite the people next door. Just assume that I don't like them."
Seeing Jin Xi's serious expression, Tang Mu stopped forcing her and gave up the idea, "Okay. I'll come and cheer for you alone." Maybe... they will take the initiative to watch the game.
"Hey, hurry up."
"Why are you in such a hurry? It's not you who will be playing in the game." Wu Nianzhi staggered and walked slowly following the hurried Yan Yiyi.
Yan Yiyi turned around and urged, "But I want to flip the cards." She didn't know what was wrong with their department head, suddenly asking her to go to the stadium to help flip the scoreboard. Couldn't the freshmen do this kind of work? Yan Yiyi, who didn't plan to stay in the department, was not joining in the fun and doing any work!
"Tsk, a tool man." Wu Nianzhi made an accurate assessment. The student union was full of trouble. Look at one or two of them, they still had to do voluntary labor in their sophomore year. "An'an, can you use it?" Wu Nianzhi's gaze shifted to Ren Qiao'an who was standing beside her. She saw that she was carrying a camera bag and fiddling with a SLR in her hands.
"I haven't used it for a long time, so my hands are a little unfamiliar with it." Ren Qiao'an is getting familiar with these buttons. He thinks back to when he was a freshman, he used these equipment frequently.
"What is your Propaganda Department going to shoot?" Wu Nianzhi asked casually.
"Our college basketball team's game is in the quarterfinals, so I guess I need to write a promotional article," Ren Qiao'an replied. She'd done a lot of this kind of work during her freshman year, but after the second semester of her sophomore year, she'd rarely participated in college activities. But Ren Qiao'an didn't mind. She really enjoyed photography; otherwise, she wouldn't have joined the publicity department just to learn photography for free.
"When does the basketball game start? Aren't you in a hurry?" Wu Nianzhi had no interest in basketball.
"It's okay. The game doesn't start until four o'clock. Let's go to the stadium and watch other games first." Ren Qiao'an also wanted to try the shooting effect first to see if he needed to adjust the parameters or something.
Wu Nianzhi turned her gaze to Yan Yiyi again, "Yan Yiyi, what game are you playing?"
"How should I know? They notified me at the last minute and said there were not enough people and it was urgent. Damn it!" If it wasn't for the fact that the director of their Culture and Sports Department was a super handsome guy, and he said he would treat her to a meal, yes, Yan Yiyi went to the Culture and Sports Department for the sake of his looks, otherwise, she wouldn't have come at their beck and call!
"Tsk, it's not your 1.9-meter-tall minister who asked you to go, is it?" Wu Nianzhi knew Yan Yiyi's personality very well. The only possibility that could make her go even though she didn't want to was that the other person was a handsome guy.
"Uh." Wu Nianzhi guessed so accurately, "Why are you following me?" Yan Yiyi understood that Ren Qiao'an also had a mission and had to sacrifice the good time of the weekend, but what was going on with Wu Nianzhi?
"Watch a game." Wu Nianzhi heard that there seemed to be a badminton match today. Since they were both in the same gymnasium, she decided to watch a badminton match.
"Tsk, that's rare." It's rare for a lazy guy to go out to the stadium to watch a game on weekends.
By the time the three of them had hurried to the gymnasium, it was already packed. Perhaps due to the hot weather, many matches had been scheduled there first, and since it was Saturday, the gymnasium was packed.
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The author has something to say:
Author: I wonder if you guys have this feeling: if you care about someone, you can often see her in the crowd at a glance. Before we met, the world was so big, so big that we were in the same school, the same college, and the same building, but we felt like we had never met before. After we met, the world was so small, so small that we were not in the same class, the same major, or the same city, but I felt as if I were in a trance, and there was your figure in the crowd, and suddenly, there was your voice in my ears.
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