I
Xia Yi controlled her expression and sat up as usual. She turned her head left and right to look around. Xu Ji Restaurant was exactly the same as she remembered. The decoration, the proprietress, the workers, and even the number of people coming to eat were almost the same as she remembered.
"Sister Wang Lan, why are there so few people here today?" Xia Yi asked.
"I don't know. There are usually a lot of people here. We just got there by chance." Wang Lan was still studying the video of Xia Yi fighting in the ring.
This small restaurant is right next to the club. There are many students and teachers, and it is very crowded on Saturdays and weekends. She and the people in the team always quietly walk around it when they see it, and find a relatively less popular restaurant. They only come to this restaurant to eat on Monday and Tuesday nights when there are fewer people. Therefore, the Xu Ji Restaurant in her memory is always not crowded.
But today is Sunday, the busiest day of the week.
Did she really travel through time?
"How long has Xia Yi been in our wrestling team?" Wang Lan asked Zhang Duoduo.
"It's been three years, but she's truly talented. Aside from that naive Mingxue, I'm sure everyone on our wrestling team is jealous of her. They're just being polite." Zhang Duoduo's cheeks were puffed up as she chewed while mumbling, "Sister Wang Lan, if you don't work harder, you'll have to give up your position as the leader sooner or later."
"I'm prepared." Wang Lan said.
This sentence sounds like something that Wang Lan in real life would say. She is very gentle and powerful, and would never be jealous of talented younger people.
After finally getting through the night, it was time to gather the next day.
Xia Yi took a deep breath and pushed open the locker room door. The atmosphere in their wrestling team's locker room had always been good, but she was not sure if the locker rooms in this world were still the same as before.
"Sister Yunying, come here. Did you sleep well last night? I heard you snoring in the dormitory next door." Someone came up and said with a smile.
"Yeah, okay." Xia Yi greeted him. She looked through the overlapping crowd to see where Xia Yi was. Xia Yi was not there. His black backpack was placed securely on a low stool, where anyone could open it. She glanced at Ming Xue, who was right next to the backpack. Her heart tightened. She quickly ran to the backpack and asked, "Where's Xia Yi?"
"I just left the house when Senior Sister Duoduo called me out. Senior Sister Duoduo is really nice to Xia Yi. After the video recording yesterday, she gave Xia Yi a lot of suggestions for improvement."
The sound of the team members whispering reached Xia Yi's ears.
Xia Yi stared at the backpack out of the corner of his eye, opened his locker, and changed into the team uniform that Yunying usually wore in competitions.
After taking off her vest and turning her head, she saw Wang Lan sitting next to Xia Yi's backpack. After she unzipped the backpack, she turned her body sideways.
Xia Yi frowned, closed the cabinet door, and approached quietly.
"Sister Wang Lan, what are you doing?"
Her mother would prepare the ingredients in advance on the morning of every game and make a pot of nutritious soup for her to drink when she was hungry.
Everyone in the team knew her habit, and Sister Wang Lan would sometimes tease her and come over to have a sip of her drink.
Now, the soup in the thermos has been opened, and Wang Lan is secretly sprinkling some unknown medicinal powder into the soup.
"Hush." Wang Lan saw Yunying breathe a sigh of relief and put a finger to her lips. She glanced at the people around her. Most of them had already changed their clothes and left. Only Mingxue and two marginal players who were farther away were left in the room. "This competition is very important to me. I'm the oldest here. If I can't perform well, I'll pack up and leave. Yunying, you know I've spent most of my life in wrestling. If I'm suppressed by the newcomers and can't make a breakthrough, I may never be able to make a breakthrough!"
"You said last night that you were prepared, is this it?" Xia Yi laughed angrily, "Zhang Duoduo is helping you lure Xia Yi out?"
Wang Lan smiled and poured all the powder into the thermos. "Of course, Duoduo agrees with my idea. She even offered to help. She'll ask Xia Yi to give her a cup later. This is Duoduo's idea. Think about it, if she's accused of taking stimulants, it will only ruin her performance this time. She's a good prospect, but if she gave others stimulants out of jealousy, then she's learned the hard way. With just a little guidance, I'm afraid Xia Yi won't be able to survive in this circle in the future."
Xia Yi looked at Wang Lan's smug look, clenched his fists, took a deep breath, turned his head to look at Ming Xue who was walking outside, and his eyes turned red.
Ridiculous!!
It was as if a surge of anger was building up within her body. Whether it was reality or illusion, she was going to be destroyed.
Why, just because she is good at wrestling? It's ridiculous!!!
Xia Yi reached out and knocked over the thermos cup in Wang Lan's hand, and the soup with a mellow aroma flowed out of the cup and onto the ground.
"Yunying, what are you doing?" Wang Lan stood up and scolded harshly.
Just as Xia Yi was about to speak, a familiar voice rang out from behind him: "Senior Sister Yunying, why did you knock over my thermos?"
Xia Yi turned around and saw 'Xia Yi', tears streaming down her cheeks. She was still very young, with a face full of collagen and clear eyes. She would be angry when she saw her knock over her thermos, as angry as a gentle little beast whose last piece of meat was eaten. But she seemed not to have been angry for herself for a long, long time: "I'm saving you." Xia Yi said softly, and strode away.
"What's going on? Why is Senior Sister Yunying crying?" Xia Yi's puzzled voice came from the wide-open locker room.
"I don't know. She has been acting weird these past few days. She just suddenly knocked over the water cup." Wang Lan spoke defamatory words to her without any hesitation.
How can people become so bad?
Xia Yi couldn't help but raise his hands to cover his ears.
Xia Yi bumped into a boy running towards him, sending his curly fur flying. Without waiting for Xia Yi to apologize, he stood up, holding up a picture of a completely black cat and asked sweetly, "Sister, have you seen my little cat? Take a look at it. It's beautiful. Its fur is as silky as black satin, and its eyes are azure blue, the color of the sea."
Xia Yi stared at the cat in the portrait for a long time before hesitantly shaking his head: "I haven't seen it, but this cat is very beautiful."
"Well, then I'll go ask the other sisters." The young boy nodded, lowered his head to rummage through the backpack on his back, and stretched out his clenched fist in front of Xia Yi.
Xia Yi was stunned for a moment before reaching out and clenching his fist to touch it with the young boy's. The young boy turned over and opened his hand, revealing two sea salt lemon candies in his palm. He smiled and said, "Sister, you're lucky! This flavor of candy is delicious. The rest of my backpack is full of strong mints. The sisters I'm going to ask questions about later will have to accept only mints. Sister, you're really lucky, even luckier than them."
"Then I'll take your kind words." Xia Yi wiped his face vigorously, with traces of tears still half dry on it.
It feels awkward to cry in front of strangers.
Xia Yi unwrapped the candy and put it in her mouth. The sweet and salty lemon flavor filled her mouth, making her mouth water. She took two steps, suddenly stopped and turned her head, looking back in the direction the young boy had left. What was going on? She hadn't spoken to a stranger in a long, long time. Not to mention Wang Lan and Zhang Duoduo, she was familiar with them after all. They had lived in the dormitory together for several years and were like family. Not to mention so many unusual situations, it was normal for her to blurt out surprise, but she and this young boy had never met even once.
When she was talking, she didn't feel awkward at all.
Could it be that her social anxiety problem was also cured here?
Xia Yi saw their coach waiting by the bus from a distance. She wanted to greet him louder, but the sound she made was so soft that she had to get close to the coach's ear for him to hear it clearly.
The game arrived as scheduled.
Yunying was a substitute in the team competition. Xia Yi didn't even get a chance to play. She looked at the octagonal cage with nostalgia from a close distance. This was a place that once gave her infinite love and passion.
Just like the current 'Xia Yi'.
Xia Yi watched as 'Xia Yi' and Ming Xue performed exceptionally well, and Wang Lan also set an example.
A friendly match ended almost perfectly.
But when she left, no one called her anymore. Wang Lan and Zhang Duoduo no longer came to look for her, and she became alone again, going back and forth.
Xia Yi did what Yunying usually did with a normal expression.
Until the timeline of this fake world came, the day when she was wronged.
As soon as she entered the practice room, she saw Zhang Duoduo being called out by the coach. The same posture, the same expression, and the slight trembling of her fingers all vividly brought back her memory. Xia Yi's heart skipped a beat, and when she followed him out, she heard the conversation between the prosecutor and Zhang Duoduo.
"Of course I can't take stimulants. I can't ruin my future for this one victory. This isn't some big competition that will determine a turning point in my life..."
"I've eaten there. I ate at Chen Ji the day before yesterday. We eat in the cafeteria in the mornings. The inspections here are very strict. Chen Ji has been dealing with our school for many years. We've never had any problems with the food there." Chen Duoduo mentioned it casually. "By the way, I came here this morning and drank a bowl of chicken soup that Xia Yi brought over. Xia Yi's mother always makes soup for Xia Yi before every competition. It's really delicious. I praised her before, so she specially gave me a bowl that day. Unfortunately, Xia Yi didn't have time to drink it that day because Yunying knocked it over."
It was so smooth as if I had drafted it eight or ten times in my mind.
Things still happened as planned.
Xia Yi returned to the practice room and watched the relevant personnel being pulled out for questioning one by one. The knot in his heart seemed to be untied again.
When she was called out, the reporters, not knowing whether they had been bribed in advance, came over like jackals, smelling the scent.
"I didn't. My mother always pays great attention to the soup she makes. She buys the best chicken and there's absolutely no way she would put any stimulants in it..." Xia Yi shook his head, still very determined at this time.
"I believe Xia Yi. If she hadn't been called out suddenly, she would have drunk the soup in the thermos by herself..." It was Ming Xue.
Wang Lan and others stood nearby and said some unclear words.
When more than 20 reporters gathered around him, 'Xia Yi' was obviously starting to lose interest.
She hadn't been in this circle for long, and just as she was beginning to show her talent, she was cut off. How could she not panic in front of so many reporters?
What kind of place is this? It's so disgusting. The good and the evil seem to be reversed.
"I'm sorry... don't interview me... I didn't do anything wrong." Xia Yi listened to 'Xia Yi' being guided to say those three words.
With the three words "I'm sorry", things that happened next went out of control and ran in a chaotic direction.
"Then sister didn't lie, they were the ones who were wrong!"
"Why?" Xia Yi murmured.
"Sister, Xia Yi told me that I should never lack the courage to face the world. She has comforted me in this way. I believe she is not a bad person." The little boy who was only as tall as her chest, with curly hair, chubby little face, and two bright blue eyes seemed to have experienced countless things. He appeared out of nowhere and stood firmly beside her.
In this subverted world, a world where the good and evil in her memory are reversed, she realized it more clearly.
Perhaps some people have extended a helping hand to her.
"I seem to see you around Xia Yi often." Xia Yi asked tentatively, "What's your name?"
"Xiangjiu, my name is Xiangjiu." The little curly-haired boy smiled, as if he had been waiting for her to ask his name.
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