Chapter 103 In his second year of high school, Ye…
During her second year of high school, Ye Yuying's name became increasingly well-known throughout the school.
Her science scores were particularly outstanding; her science exam papers were often used as models by teachers because of their concise steps and clear thinking.
More importantly, she achieved excellent results in almost every race on the city and even the provincial track, and her figure was even briefly shown on local TV sports news several times.
It was on that occasion that her mother, who had previously been indifferent to her, learned about her "excellence" from others.
"Madam came by this afternoon and said she heard about you. She heard you went to run some kind of race and she wanted you to come to the tea room to see her."
That evening, Ye Yuying returned from her studies with her suitcase. After dinner, her aunt was clearing away the dishes when she tentatively started to speak.
For a moment, Ye Yuying froze, stunned for a long time.
The word "mother" resurfaced just when she had almost forgotten its existence.
This word caused her both pain and hatred.
But on her way to the teahouse, a cool breeze swept by, and for a moment she felt a surge of pride and anticipation, as if... had she finally been noticed by Jiang Xinxue?
Is it because... is it because she has really become outstanding, outstanding enough to be noticed by her mother?
The tea room in the west wing is separated by a moon gate. The wind chimes under the eaves are gently tinkled by the evening breeze.
Ye Yuying pushed open the door and entered, the aroma of sandalwood mingling with the scent of freshly brewed Biluochun tea.
Jiang Xinxue sat by the window, a white Suzhou embroidery handbag beside her. Her fingertips were slender and her nails were flawless, like a perfect still life painting. Outside the glass window, there was a gardenia, its flowers falling on the windowsill, dazzlingly white.
She looked up, saw Ye Yuying, and said indifferently, "Sit down."
Ye Yuying instantly tensed up, sat down opposite her with her back straight, and her palms began to sweat.
"I heard you've been running in a race lately?" Jiang Xinxue asked directly, her words slow and deliberate. "And you were even in the news?"
Ye Yuying hummed in agreement and said softly, "It's just a local TV station text message; it'll be over soon."
"Are you smug?" Jiang Xinxue looked at her and gave a noncommittal sneer.
She put down her teacup, her watch flashing under the light, and said in a flat voice, "I'm not praising you. Since you were lucky enough to get into Rongcheng No. 1 High School, you should focus your time on your studies. You can put competitions aside."
Ye Yuying paused for a moment, then said, "I didn't miss anything. I ranked in the top fifty in the grade in the mock exam, and my science teacher also said I—"
"Is being in the 50s a good thing?" Jiang Xinxue interrupted her, her voice cool and icy, and she snorted coldly.
Ye Yuying looked up instantly, staring at the other person in disbelief, her mouth half-open, as if she wanted to say something but couldn't.
Why is it bad? My life almost turned into ruins, isn't it good now? What's wrong with it? How could it be bad?
But he didn't dare utter a single word.
The moment Jiang Xinxue raised her hand, the ring on her hand bumped against the tea tray, the slight porcelain sound like a signal.
"Don't think you're so great just because you got into Rongcheng No. 1 High School. Now you even dare to look at me like that. What will you do if you actually get into university?"
Ye Yuying raised her chin and looked directly at her for the first time: "Yes! It's amazing. I'm spared from going back to my hometown to attend vocational high school, and I'm spared from being sold to a big boss for a dowry. From this moment on, my life is full of possibilities. I will not give up my studies, nor will I give up track and field. I will live a better life than you!"
Jiang Xinxue's eyes suddenly narrowed, as if she hadn't expected such a counterattack.
"Ye Yuying, say it again?" She narrowed her eyes, her voice as cold as ice.
Ye Yuying's heart pounded like a drum, but she did not back down. From childhood to adulthood, she had always been forced to lower her voice and posture, but now it was as if a crack had been split open by a thunderbolt.
“I said—” she said slowly and deliberately, her eyes clear and firm.
"Do you know what talent is? I've been bullied since I was a child and you've never cared about me for a moment. I don't even know if my talent is because of my genes or because I've always known how to run away and outrun everyone so I won't get beaten up."
Jiang Xinxue suddenly stood up, spilling a few drops of tea and wetting a corner of the tablecloth embroidered with egrets.
She pointed a finger at her, her voice trembling: "Who do you think you are? Without me, would you even be in this room? You think running a few laps or taking a few exams will turn your life around? Don't dream!"
Ye Yuying's fingers gripped the fabric on her knees tightly, her knuckles turning white, but she forced herself to look up and meet Jiang Xinxue's eyes: "I can live without you. If you don't care about me, then please never care about me again."
After she finished speaking, she got up and pushed open the door to the tea room.
The wind chimes rang behind her, their tinkling sounds jarring and jarring.
The night wind rushed into the corridor, and Ye Yuying's heart burned as if it had been scorched by fire, yet it was also chilled to the bone.
As she walked out of the tea room, she suddenly felt a little dazed.
For the first time in many years, she confronted her mother directly, and for the first time, she no longer cautiously sought reconciliation.
But this time she held back her tears; she would never again seek even the slightest bit of care from this woman.
She ran to Cheng Mingdu's indoor tennis court, circling the white lights again and again until her throat ached, her lungs felt like they were filled with burning coals, and her sweat and tears mingled together.
She will keep running.
No one understood why she had to train so hard while having a heavy academic workload.
But she knew.
Her ultimate goal is to win at least one national gold medal, and at least once, to personally deliver it to her aunt.
Let the only person who cares about her see her shine.
*
Fallen leaves swept across my feet; autumn had arrived in Chengdu.
The playground was cool. She bent down at the starting line, tightened her shoelaces, and heard Teacher Yang's short commands in her ears.
She ran with more focus than ever before. The wind whistled past her ears, burning her lungs. She tried to leave every word her mother said behind, but she couldn't help but think back, and could only force herself to stare at the white line ahead.
Teacher Yang put away the stopwatch, pointed to the finish line, and said with some surprise in his eyes: "You're already at this level and you can still break through so quickly."
"Is he really going to become a powerful fighter trained by a wild trainer like me...?"
Ye Yuying ignored him. She knew that this was the limit she could reach as a non-athlete, because she was not up to the standards of a sports school in any aspect. It was understandable if she was inferior to others.
"One more set!"
"good."
After finishing her last set of runs, she rested her hands on her knees to catch her breath when her phone suddenly vibrated—it was a call from the hospital.
"Student Ye? The patient has a slight fever today, and the doctor recommends observation."
Her heart tightened: "I'm coming right away."
The curtains in the ward were light green, and sunlight filtered through them, falling on my aunt's pillow. She had a fever patch on her forehead, and when she saw me enter, she smiled and said, "I'm fine, I scared you."
Ye Yuying put down the fruit and tucked the blanket around her, saying, "The doctor said you should rest more."
“Don’t worry about me,” her aunt said, holding her hand, her fingertips warm. “The most important thing for you right now is to take good care of yourself. Ah Ying, I support you running, but don’t overexert yourself.”
Ye Yuying nodded, her eyes a little hot: "Hurry up and get discharged from the hospital. I will be Chu Xi's substitute in the national competition. If I ever get a chance to play, I might actually win a medal."
“Okay.” Auntie smiled, her eyes crinkling. “I want to touch it and see how heavy it really is.”
“It’s heavy,” she said, “but it’s not pure gold.”
*
In the days that followed, she divided her time into segments: morning training, daytime classes, and nights spent organizing German vocabulary cards and reviewing her mistakes in science subjects. Her classmates didn't understand why she was putting herself through this, and she didn't explain.
Her legs had scratches that were both new and old, her insoles contained fine grit, and there were replacement gauze patches tucked into her desk.
The notebook was filled with chemical reactions and physical derivations, next to a table of German noun declensions circled in red.
She compressed her days like a compressed biscuit, so tightly that even a single bite could choke you.
With the national competition approaching, she was only a substitute and might not even have a chance to play, and the media didn't give her any screen time.
That day was a dramatic one.
The athlete considered the champion suffered a recurrence of an old injury during warm-up and had to withdraw from the competition.
Ye Yuying was given the opportunity to play, but she was never given any expectations.
But she knew that this was the last competition before the college entrance examination, and afterwards she would have to devote herself to preparing for the exam.
The wind suddenly shifted on the track, making the flag flutter wildly. A moment of hesitation before the finish line was overcome by her gritted teeth—
With a crisp click of the electronic gun, she crossed the finish line by a tiny margin.
"First place, Ye Yuying!"
When the medal was hung up, she didn't dare to look up. Her shoulders felt heavy, but her heart felt as light as if it had been lifted up by the wind.
She accepted the bouquet of slightly prickly flowers, her smile restrained yet radiant, as if she had grasped a spark secretly handed to her by fate.
The first thing she did was find a quiet corner and call her aunt. The signal was intermittent, but she still held the gold medal up to the camera, knowing that this moment would be recorded.
*
The return flight landed in the evening. Ye Yuying carried her bag and walked through the airport terminal, where the lights were so bright they had no warmth at all.
The announcements kept playing in my ears as passengers pulled their suitcases past, the wheels making a soft clattering sound as they pressed against the cracks in the brickwork.
After collecting my luggage and stepping out of the airport, I saw a tall figure in the crowd heading towards the parking lot.
The surrounding noise seemed to have been half turned off. She could hardly believe her eyes. She quickly ran a few steps forward and shouted excitedly only after confirming it for sure.
"elder brother."
There are hundreds of millions of brothers in this world, but he managed to recognize this one voice, stopped in his tracks, and turned around.
Cheng Mingdu had just stepped out of the international arrivals gate, dragging his black suitcase steadily. The dust of the journey hadn't worn away his composure; instead, it had made his eyes even more deep and thoughtful.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, his voice low, a hint of surprise in his calm eyes.
She held up the box in her hand, unable to suppress her smile: "National competition, gold medal."
He glanced at her for a second, a faint glimmer in his eyes, like a silver back briefly rising from beneath the surface of the sea.
After a long pause, he finally said, still in shock, "Congratulations."
"I was thinking of... stopping by the hospital to see my aunt." She hesitated for a moment, then added, "You should go home first."
"Let's go." He didn't ask any further questions. "I'll take you there."
The night road stretched long, the car headlights casting a white ribbon. The dashboard needles pointed to a quiet speed, and the city lights outside the window receded one by one.
Ye Yuying placed the medal box on her lap, her fingertips tracing the rim of the box. She wanted to say so much to her aunt—about the past year of training, about her resentment towards Jiang Xinxue, about her expectations for university, her dreams…
*
The night air carried the dampness of grass and trees, and the pine trees in front of the hospital cut the moonlight into fragments, which fell to the ground.
When she changed into her sterile gown and went inside, her aunt was dozing against the headboard. She gently moved a chair over, sat down on the edge of the bed, and whispered, "I'm here."
When her aunt woke up and saw her, she was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "It's Aying."
Ye Yuying took the gold medal out of the box and hung it by the bedside. The lamplight fell on the gold, like a sunrise.
Auntie reached out and touched it, but wasn't sure if she could lift it: "It looks really heavy."
"Yes, it's heavy." She held her aunt's hand, her palm warm. "I'm going to study hard from now on. I'm already very satisfied with my track and field career."
That night, they didn't talk much about grand principles. Cheng Mingdu went to the water room to get hot water for her, adjusted the IV drip level for his aunt, and stayed with her through the night, taking turns watching over her until the nurses made their rounds.
Once her aunt was fast asleep, she would secretly observe Cheng Mingdu's profile through the darkness.
There was a breeze outside the window, and it gently pushed up the corner of the curtains, as if it were thinking about something.
The weekend flew by.
Before leaving, the doctor examined her again and said, "Your condition is stable; please rest."
Her aunt saw her to the door, smiling and telling her, "Go and prepare for the college entrance exam without worry. Don't worry about me too much. If anything happens, I'll send you a message."
"Send a WeChat message." Ye Yuying handed her the newly bought smartphone and patiently explained the interface from beginning to end. "Tap here, type or send a voice message, it's all fine. Send me a message if you miss me."
My aunt held her phone and nodded earnestly, like a child learning a new skill.
*
On the way back, the sky was still hazy, and the city looked like a blue eye about to awaken.
The lights at the gas station were blindingly white, and the coffee at the service area was unbearably bitter.
Ye Yuying leaned back in her seat, drowsiness and fatigue sinking her down, but she couldn't fall asleep. Her body felt like it was sewn into the seatbelt.
She held back for a long time, then turned to look at him and couldn't help but ask in a low voice, "You... will you be staying for a long time this time?"
"The chairman is looking forward to staying in China." He paused, "He needs to start taking over family affairs."
"That's great!" she smiled, her eyes sparkling.
He glanced at her, his gaze like a breeze passing through deep water, without asking why.
Ye Yuying nodded, rested her forehead against the cooler glass, and her heart softened.
She suddenly realized that her senior year of high school would be memorable for a long time, not only because of a medal, but also because of her life about to be revived and the coming-of-age ceremony she could finally experience.
As the car drove into the light of dawn, the city awoke, and the wind gently brought back the scent of summer.
She said to herself: If I walk a little further, by this time next year, I will be able to fulfill all the wishes I have ever spoken or never spoken.
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