Chapter 22
The news of Xu Jianguo being chased away by security guards in the alley spread quietly among the students in the grade. Although the details were vague, the news that "Xu Nianlei's alcoholic father is causing trouble for her again" still spread like wildfire. In the gazes cast upon her, sympathy, curiosity, and even a hint of barely perceptible contempt were mixed together.
Xu Nianlei became even more silent, like a frightened clam, wrapping herself tightly in her hard shell. She no longer made eye contact with anyone, and during breaks she would always lie on her desk as if asleep, but Lu Baiyan knew that her slightly trembling shoulders betrayed her inner turmoil.
Lu Baiyan saw this and was anxious. He knew that the hurt from the rumors was secondary; what truly eroded her was the inescapable shame and despair about the future. He couldn't silence everyone, but he could try to shift the focus and create a space for her to breathe.
The opportunity soon arrived. The school was holding an autumn sports meet, and each class needed to register for events. The sports monitor wandered through the classrooms with registration forms, amidst widespread lamentations.
"Three thousand meters! That's insane! Anyone who runs that is a fool!"
"High jump is out of the question too, I'm afraid of heights..."
"The pressure in relay races is too great; you'll get yelled at if you drop the baton."
Xu Nianlei, as always, huddled in the corner; such group activities were never her thing. Her athletic performance was mediocre, and she had no desire to perform.
As the class monitor, Lu Baiyan was required to take the lead in signing up. He glanced at the registration form and wrote his name after the men's 3000-meter and long jump events. Then, seemingly casually, he asked the sports committee member, "What events are we missing for the women's events?"
"We're still missing the 800-meter race and shot put," the sports committee member said with a bitter face. "The girls don't want to sign up."
Lu Baiyan's gaze swept across the classroom, finally landing on Xu Nianlei. His voice was calm yet clear: "Xu Nianlei, why don't you try shot put? It doesn't require too much technique, it's mainly about strength. I think you... have pretty good arm strength." He remembered how strong her arms were when she wiped the blackboard on her turn to clean.
The entire class's eyes immediately focused on it.
Xu Nianlei abruptly raised her head, her face filled with astonishment and panic. Her? Shot put? Are you kidding me?
"I...I can't do it..." she waved her hands repeatedly, her face turning bright red.
"Give it a try," Lu Bai said casually, with an encouraging tone. "Anyway, no one else is signing up, so it's good to just fill in and contribute to the class. The PE teacher will teach you the techniques; it's not difficult."
His words were reasonable, prioritizing "participation" over "competition," which greatly lowered the psychological barrier. Several classmates around him joined in the jeering.
"Yeah, Xu Nianlei, why don't you give it a try!"
"The shot put is great; you don't have to run, you can just stand and throw it."
"It's better than 800 meters!"
In an atmosphere that was half encouraging and half joking, Xu Nianlei found herself in a difficult position. She looked at Lu Baiyan, whose eyes were clear and filled with a pure, unadulterated expectation, as if he genuinely believed she could do it.
As if by some strange twist of fate, she wrote her name very slowly and crookedly on the registration form handed to her by the sports committee member, after the women's shot put section.
After finishing writing, she immediately regretted it, feeling like a fool. But deep down, there was a faint, almost imperceptible, stirring feeling—for the first time, she had been thrust into the spotlight in a way that made her feel "you can."
Lu Baiyan watched her write her name and breathed a slight sigh of relief. He had her participate in the group activity not to win awards, but to give her a sense of belonging, to let her know that she had a place in this class, even if it was just a spot for throwing the shot put.
In the days that followed, a clumsy figure appeared on the playground after school. Xu Nianlei indeed went to find the physical education teacher and practiced gripping the ball, sliding, and pushing the ball over and over again in a corner of the empty field. Her movements were awkward, and her results were unremarkable, but she practiced very seriously, and fine beads of sweat appeared on her forehead.
Sometimes Lu Baiyan would jog slowly at the other end of the track, his gaze occasionally drifting to the slender figure practicing repeatedly in the setting sun. He didn't offer guidance or encouragement, but simply watched silently. He knew that some paths she had to walk herself. All he could do was create opportunities for her to take them.
Meanwhile, another battle was also being fought quietly.
Through that anonymous account, Lu Baiyan continuously posted high-quality articles and real-life case studies on topics such as "cultivating psychological resilience in teenagers," "how to effectively communicate with teenagers," and "self-growth of single mothers" in the online spaces that Wang Xiuqin might come into contact with. He was like a patient programmer trying to fix a system riddled with bugs.
He even anonymously sent information about a lecture on "Employee Mental Health and Family Relationships" to the union email address at Wang Xiuqin's workplace. He didn't know if it would work, but even if there was only a one in ten thousand chance, he was willing to try.
He did one more thing. He spent his weekend visiting the county library and archives, looking through old newspapers and local government announcements. He wanted to understand Xu Jianguo and Wang Xiuqin's past more deeply, to understand the root of that family's distorted nature. He knew that only by understanding the cause could he possibly find a cure.
The process was tedious and slow-paced. But he had plenty of patience. The cycle gave him not only a prophetic quality, but also a maturity and resilience beyond his years.
On the day of the sports meet, the autumn sky was clear and the air was crisp. The playground was filled with a surging wave of people and deafening cheers.
The women's shot put event was scheduled for a relatively quiet time slot, with few spectators. Xu Nianlei stood in the throwing circle, holding the heavy shot put in her hand, her palms sweating with nervousness. She could feel the sporadic glances directed at her, and her heart pounded as if it would burst out of her chest.
She took a deep breath, recalled the movements her PE teacher had taught her, awkwardly glided, turned around, and forcefully pushed the shot put away.
The shot put traced a low, flat arc through the air before landing in a nearby sandpit, creating a shallow crater. The result was mediocre, even somewhat poor.
There was no applause, no cheers. She silently stepped out of the throwing circle, her cheeks flushed from the effort.
Just then, a clear and calm voice pierced through the not-so-noisy scene and reached her ears:
"The movements are much smoother than during practice."
She turned her head sharply and saw Lu Baiyan standing not far away by the track, holding a notebook (he was a student council member, responsible for coordinating some projects), his gaze fixed on her. He didn't smile, and there was no pity or encouragement in his eyes, just a pure statement after observation.
That one sentence instantly lessened Xu Nianlei's disappointment and embarrassment. She lowered her head, her lips curving upwards almost imperceptibly before quickly tightening again.
Although she didn't place, when she returned to the class's rest area, the sports committee member patted her on the shoulder: "Good job! At least our event was full and we didn't give up!"
Several classmates who didn't usually interact with her smiled at her.
At that moment, Xu Nianlei suddenly felt that the autumn sunlight overhead seemed a little warmer than usual. She was still relatively unknown, but it seemed... she was no longer so completely out of place.
Lu Baiyan carefully wrote down Xu Nianlei's score in his notebook, next to her name. The number wasn't impressive, but he knew that for her, simply standing in that throwing circle was already a small victory.
He looked at Xu Nianlei, who was sitting with her classmates in the distance. Although she was still silent, her back seemed to be straighter. He felt a little more at ease.
Leilei, look, the world isn't all thorns. Occasionally, there's a small patch of grass where you can relax and stand still. And we're working hard to make that patch of grass a little bigger.
As the clamor of the sports meet gradually subsided, Lu Baiyan knew that the real battle, the undercurrents hidden beneath daily life, were still surging. But he was no longer as anxious and helpless as he had been at the beginning. He had found his own rhythm, a slow but firm rhythm, like water dripping on stone.
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