Chapter 38 Sports Meet: She's definitely cut out for this.
Ye Yuying had thought that Cheng Mingdu would teach her how to play tennis, and she was thinking about how to make her movements appear natural. However, in reality, he always kept a certain distance from her, and many of his suggestions remained just words.
She walked over and I took the ball with my racket. My movements were clumsy, and I switched hands several times, trying to find a less awkward posture.
Cheng Mingdu demonstrated for her using his own racket, and she learned quickly, adjusting her stance and grip.
"Don't use too much force, keep your center of gravity low, watch the ball, don't dodge." After he finished speaking, he stepped back to the other side.
"bring it on."
Ye Yuying took a deep breath, gently tossed the ball up, and swung her racket—
With a muffled thud, the ball grazed the sideline and bounced away. She paused, as if in disbelief that she had actually hit it.
"That was quite powerful." Cheng Mingdu caught the ball, replied to her, and then tossed the ball back.
The two seemed to tacitly avoid all heavy topics, and the ball bounced lightly between them as they went back and forth.
Ye Yuying made several mistakes, and the racket even slipped out of her hand. This process was no less difficult than learning any new skill. However, today was the day she re-established her interaction and connection with Cheng Mingdu after avoiding him for several days.
She finally felt a long-lost sense of relaxation, and the emotions that had been tormenting her seemed to subside somewhat.
*
It was a new day. Ye Yuying came to her morning reading class and casually stuffed her schoolbag into the desk drawer, but then she heard the sound of crumpled paper inside.
She opened it and saw that it was the test paper she had left behind. It had been crumpled up and thrown into her desk by someone, and there were footprints and black ballpoint pen scribbles on it.
This battered exam paper holds countless personal grudges, but she has no way of verifying them.
Ye Yuying stared at the test paper, now reduced to rubbish, her mouth agape, unsure where to begin her analysis.
The only word she could think of was "coward." How cowardly must a person be to not dare to confront her directly, and only dare to do such a thing secretly behind someone's back with an exam paper?
In the morning, the homeroom teacher came in to explain the test paper to everyone. She slowly unfolded the paper, trying to smooth out the wrinkles, but the paper could no longer be the same as it was, carrying overt and covert hostility.
During the break, the classroom gradually became lively. Some people passed by her, their laughter slightly deliberate, but their eyes made no attempt to hide their glances at her.
She didn't look up, but simply folded the test paper and stuffed it deep into her schoolbag, without losing it.
She walked out of the classroom and repeatedly rubbed her fingers in front of the sink, as if the dirt on the paper had stained her knuckles.
The tap was running, and the sink reflected the sky and the sycamore trees outside the window.
She looked at her reflection in the water, shook the water off her hands, and went back to the classroom.
She remained calm and opened the test paper. She rewrote the wrong questions from memory on the draft paper. Only after confirming that there was no room for improvement on the test paper did she throw it away.
The students sitting near her gradually noticed something and stopped laughing and joking. Some looked at her, wanting to speak, but were silenced by her unchanging expression.
It was a kind of stubborn calm.
This incident did not affect any of her classes today. She remained focused and completed every class, even paying more attention than usual in physical education class.
During free time, the physical education teacher took out a registration form, and the homeroom teacher also came down from the office.
The PE teacher is a senior female teacher, which is quite rare in schools. However, it is said that she was a sports champion in her youth and won many awards. She came to this ordinary middle school to be a PE teacher purely because she was bored and it was close to home.
"I have something to tell you all. The spring sports meet is coming up, mainly track and field. Each class needs to send at least three boys and three girls. You can discuss and decide on your events first. If you want to participate, just contact me." The PE teacher said, holding a ballpoint pen and flipping through the registration rules.
As expected, the boys were more enthusiastic about signing up, but no girls volunteered for a long time.
Several girls who don't usually like to move around immediately started making excuses:
"I'm not physically strong enough..."
"I just sprained my ankle..."
The homeroom teacher watched coldly from the sidelines and said without any mercy, "It's all about participation. Someone has to compete. It's not like you're expected to win first place."
Ye Yuying stood still, not moving. She didn't understand why a school sports meet didn't completely follow the principle of voluntariness.
After a long silence, no one volunteered. The homeroom teacher directly pointed out that the two tallest girls should participate, saying that their long legs gave them a natural advantage.
With one person still missing, the homeroom teacher's eyes, behind his glasses, quickly swept over the head of a girl with a ponytail, as if he was thinking about who would be suitable.
Someone in the crowd whispered, "Teacher, Ye Yuying is quite fast; she's the best person to talk to."
Ye Yuying never thought about participating in the sports meet because she knew she was now the "enemy of the whole class." She didn't want to run under so many eyes that hated her, like a clown on stage, with everyone watching her make a fool of herself.
Moreover, my grades are currently on the rise, and participating in the sports meet will inevitably involve daily training, which will naturally reduce my study time.
But she also knew that, given the homeroom teacher's personality, there was no way to avoid it.
Sure enough, a short while later, the teacher walked up to her with a form in her hand.
"Ye Yuying." She called out, "Your physical education grades are usually not bad, and there are not many girls in the class who run. You can choose between 400 or 800 meters."
"Teacher, I..."
Before she could finish speaking and give her reasons, her homeroom teacher glanced at her and said, "Go to the sports committee after class to measure your height and weight and register as athletes. After school, go to the gymnasium to train. Teacher Yang was a key player on the provincial team when he was young. He has a lot of methods and will personally guide you."
Ms. Yang is their class's physical education teacher and also the head of the physical education group.
Ye Yuying was only slightly taken aback at first, but in the school setting, this was tantamount to accepting the teacher's arrangement.
Moreover, her homeroom teacher had just begun to change her opinion of her, and she didn't want to appear ungrateful.
The school sports meet was in two weeks, and it felt like they were being forced into it. The three boys and three girls had to go to the stadium to train every day after class.
The other two tall girls signed up for the sprint first, so the responsibility of the long-distance race naturally fell to Ye Yuying.
Nobody wants to train for long-distance running. Not only will you not achieve results in a short period of time, but you also have to exert too much physical effort every day, which is not worth it.
This wasn't the first time this unlucky task had fallen on Ye Yuying's shoulders; she had grown accustomed to her bad luck throughout her life.
Assigned to the 800-meter event, she would run laps around the track during daily training. Coach Yang would time her at the finish line. Fortunately, she maintained a stable mindset, never competed for the lead, and completed each lap with an even stride frequency and steady breathing, neither too fast nor too slow.
After two weeks, my long-distance running speed has improved and my stamina has gotten a little better, but not by much.
She wasn't aiming for good grades; participation was the most important thing. She did whatever Teacher Yang asked her to do, never slacking off, but she never showed anything particularly special.
On the day of the school sports meet, something unexpected suddenly happened.
That day, the sun was blazing, much harsher than usual.
Ten minutes before the women's 400-meter race, one of the registered runners suddenly turned pale and squatted down, unable to even stand up.
"She has low blood sugar!" someone shouted.
"Are you too nervous!"
The medical team quickly helped the person down, and the list of substitute players was completely blank, leaving the teacher in charge of the event speechless for a moment.
Teacher Yang made a quick decision and glanced at the three-person team standing by the track watching the race.
"Ye Yuying, you go."
She paused for a moment, intending to say that she wasn't in the 400-meter group.
With no one available right now, the other female participant must prepare for the upcoming sprint.
"……All right."
She was appointed to this critical position almost by being forced into it.
But she stood at the starting line, wearing ordinary running shoes, not spikes. She hadn't even had time to warm up; the track beneath her feet still felt damp from the morning watering.
The surrounding competitors were all dressed in competition-specific tight-fitting suits, some with knee pads, and their shoes had gleaming spikes, giving them an imposing presence.
It is said that the school sports meet sprint records are still held inside.
At the starting line, she practically had to write on her forehead that she was there just to be a runner-up.
A minute before the starting gun fired, she looked at the familiar track, feeling somewhat lost, because her knowledge of sprinting precautions was limited to the basics taught in regular physical education classes, and she didn't know how to proceed.
Then she came up with an idea, trying to recapture the feeling of being chased off campus a few days ago, that feeling of gritting her teeth and desperately running forward to escape for her life and protect herself, sparing no effort...
Thinking of this, she quickly found her rhythm, the feeling of escaping for her life, not the feeling of a competition.
At the start, it was like a white light, cleaving through the silence of the track.
She had no skill in circling, and didn't even know what explosive power and rhythm were, but her body seemed to be taken over by some kind of instinct.
The calf muscles tighten and contract at the moment of starting, like two ropes that have been soaked in water and suddenly twisted, creating a short and powerful explosive point when pushing off the ground.
The thigh muscles work in conjunction with core stability to precisely execute an unchoreographed collaboration.
Her shoulder and back muscles rippled with the swing of her arms, the speed perfectly synchronized with her breathing.
For the first 100 meters, she simply stayed steadily in the middle of the group.
In the later stages, she suddenly accelerated without warning, like a wild horse suddenly unleashed, and overtook the two fastest girls.
In the final fifty meters, she had already surged to the front, her feet seemingly treading on an invisible wind, her pace quickening, leaving those behind her in the dust. The wind whistled past her ears, mingling with the footsteps and shouts of her pursuers, like torn pieces of cloth fluttering in the air.
The moment she crossed the finish line, it felt as if she had stepped into another dimension.
All sounds suddenly faded away, and the playground, the track, and the crowd of onlookers seemed to be separated by a thick layer of glass.
She slowed her pace, her chest heaving violently, and all she could hear was her own heavy breathing—dull and deep, like an echo rising from the deep sea.
Her gaze lingered briefly in the air, staring at some empty space ahead, her expression even showing a hint of bewilderment.
The world seemed to stand still, and even victory seemed unreal.
The applause and gasps returned a few seconds later, like a delayed sound effect, slowly pulling her back to reality from that moment of silence.
She subconsciously looked down at her fingers, which were trembling slightly. She wasn't sure if it was because of the cold wind or because her body hadn't fully recovered from the outburst.
Teacher Yang, who was sitting in the audience, suddenly stood up, her eyes more focused than ever before.
She didn't shout "Okay," but instead frowned and stared at the time displayed on the big screen—
"This girl..." she murmured to herself, "This is not the kind of academic performance an ordinary student would achieve."
The homeroom teacher next to her leaned closer, completely stunned: "I really didn't expect Ye Yuying to be a dark horse in track and field."
"63 seconds is considered passing for girls at the average school level; they usually need close to 80 seconds," Ms. Yang explained.
Teacher Yang pondered for a moment, then looked at Ye Yuying's back: "It's not that she's fast, it's that her stride frequency, her breathing... are all good. Although her running form is not standard, her coordination is extremely strong, and her muscle reaction is also very good. If this is the result of no training, then she is definitely destined to make a living in this industry."
"What's the meaning?"
“She has potential,” Teacher Yang said with certainty. “If we push her a bit, she could make it into the city team, or even… the provincial team.”
The homeroom teacher looked at the girl in ordinary sportswear standing at the finish line, panting and clutching her knees, her hair wet and clinging to her face, but her eyes were calm and clear.
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Author's Note: 50 red envelopes [Cat emoji]
Off to work now. Writing this suddenly makes me a little sentimental, reminding me of how the female lead looked at the beginning...
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