NOVPUB"Go Brother Qing Fan!!!"
At the hundred-meter starting line, Lin Wanning shouted with all her might, heels digging into the ground, her face turning bright red.
With a Nike sweatband tied around his head, Xu Qingfan turned his head to look toward where Lin Wanning was standing; his bangs fluttered in the wind, making an ’ok’ gesture to the little girl.
"On your marks—get set, bang!"
The starting pistol fired, and he was off, legs pumping massivly. Many athletes unaccustomed to the crouch start were left behind by Xu Qingfan by two or three meters right from the start.
"15 seconds 98!"
Xu Qingfan surged ahead, crossing the finish line alone, and the judge at the table immediately read out the time from the stopwatch.
"Not bad~" Hearing his result, Xu Qingfan nodded in satisfaction; being the first to break 16 seconds in the preliminaries of the second-grade group.
"First place, Brother Qing Fan is first!"
"First place, brother!"
After shaking his legs out on the spot, Lin Wanning and Zhang Yiyi ran over hand in hand, bubbling with excitement.
"It’s just the preliminaries; the final hasn’t been run yet. Let’s go watch Xiao Xiao’s race!" He said, rubbing the two little girls’ heads with a smile.
"Brother Qing Fan, you were amazing just now; you left the others more than ten meters behind, and they all asked who that person was. Ningning told them it was you, hehe~
And more than that, they all said our class uniform looks really nice. Ningning told them you designed it, and that it was made in Ningning’s family garment factory!" Lin Wanning chattered non-stop next to Xu Qingfan like a magpie.
The idea for the class uniform was a spark of inspiration from Xu Qingfan. He wasn’t sure when the trend of class uniforms began, but definitely, their class at Experimental Primary School was the first to take the plunge.
In the design of the class uniform, Xu Qingfan hadn’t put much thought into it: a white shirt with the words "Stride out the door with a hearty laugh; we are not men of the lowly sorrel" printed on the front in black regular script, and the back printed with the class number "Sixteen".
Since the contract manufacturer was Lin Wanning’s family garment factory, the best materials and dyes were used. Coupled with Xu Qingfan’s elegant regular script calligraphy, the entire class uniform looked extremely high-end.
"Go Xiao Xiao!!" It was Xia Xiaoxiao’s turn to stand on the track, and Xu Qingfan and his friends cheered on.
Xia Xiaoxiao, who was always aloof in front of others, didn’t respond to them, but once the starting gun went off, she quickly took the lead.
Her single ponytail danced in the wind like flowing silk, swaying gracefully with every step.
"Xiao Xiao is first too!" Lin Wanning exclaimed with surprise as she saw Xia Xiaoxiao cross the finish line ahead of anyone else.
"Let’s go check it out."
By the time Xu Qingfan and the others arrived, Xia Xiaoxiao’s three dorm mates were already enthusiastically helping her with water and wiping sweat, "Xiao Xiao, you were awesome, you were so close to breaking 16 seconds!"
Shrugging her shoulders, Xia Xiaoxiao somewhat stubbornly said to Xu Qingfan, "I’m definitely going to beat you in the finals!"
"Ah, yes, yes, yes." He laughed, grabbing hold of the elastic in Xia Xiaoxiao’s single ponytail, which due to being tightly tied, did not come loose like in the Rejoice shampoo commercials.
"Annoying~" With a look of annoyance, Xia Xiaoxiao swatted his hand away and reached back to re-tie her hair properly.
"Brother Fan, when are the hundred-meter finals for you guys?" Xiao Ruawen asked.
"Should be pretty soon, I guess. Depends on when the teachers finish putting together the top eight list."
No sooner had Xu Qingfan finished speaking than the announcer’s voice came over the loudspeaker, "The following students have made it into the second-grade group hundred-meter finals: Xu Qingfan, Xia Xiaoxiao... Please report to the hundred-meter starting line for check-in before 10:30 AM, at which time anyone who has not checked in will be considered to have forfeited their place! Repeat, second-grade group..."
"Gosh~ the race starts at 10:30, what time is it now, Ningning?" Xu Qingfan asked, tilting his head up.
"Brother Qing Fan, it’s 10:15 now!" Lin Wanning said, checking her pink Casio watch.
"Then let’s go check in first; being late wouldn’t be good!" Xiao Ruawen suggested.
"Mm."
When they got to the check-in area, the remaining six students who had made it to the finals had already arrived—[Three girls, three boys; a perfect gender balance.] Xu Qingfan thought.
"Since everyone’s here, let’s start a bit early. Next group, get ready!" said the PE teacher, looking at the few of them.
"Go Brother Qing Fan!"
"Go Xiao Xiao!"
"Go Brother Fan!!!"
After receiving the news, the rest of the classmates who weren’t tied up in competitions came to cheer. Over twenty students stood outside the track, shouting loudly, their blood pumping with the excitement of youth, and the atmosphere of the competition was instantly heightened.
"Good luck," he whispered to Xia Xiaoxiao, who was in the next lane.
"Hmm!" The little girl’s face showed a determined spirit of not admitting defeat.
"On your marks—get set—bang!"
Almost none of the finalists were there to fill the numbers; aside from two students who fell behind from the start, Xu Qingfan, Xia Xiaoxiao, and the remaining four kept a very tight distance between them.
When there is a target running at a similar speed by one’s side, a person’s physical potential is also stirred by their competitive spirit. Xia Xiaoxiao bit down hard, not letting go of Qing Shan, running shoulder to shoulder with Xu Qingfan.
Suddenly.
Xia Xiaoxiao felt her foot step on a small stone, and her body’s center of gravity shifted forward sharply.
"It’s over," thought the little girl, just before she was about to fall.
"Ah!!!"
From outside the track, the crowd gasped in horror as they witnessed Xia Xiaoxiao about to tumble.
Xu Qingfan had already glimpsed Xia Xiaoxiao falling forward and slowed his pace, eyeing the finish line still dozens of meters away.
Xia Xiaoxiao instinctively stretched her hands forward as her knees and palms skimmed across the rubber track, sliding more than half a meter.
"Are you okay!" Xu Qingfan asked, crouching down anxiously.
With Xu Qingfan’s help, Xia Xiaoxiao got up, her hands and knees scraped raw in large patches.
"I’ll carry you to the school doctor!" he said, not waiting for Xia Xiaoxiao to speak, already squatting down for the little girl to lean on.
Xia Xiaoxiao glanced at the distant finish line, then at Xu Qingfan’s back, and without saying anything, lay on his back.
"Does it hurt?"
"I’m sorry," she suddenly felt the urge to cry and said in a soft voice as she leaned her face against Xu Qingfan’s shoulder.
"Sorry to who? To the track, for grinding it like this? Indeed, you should apologize!" Xu Qingfan joked.
"Pfft—Xu Qingfan, you are so annoying!" Xia Xiaoxiao cried and laughed at the same time, suddenly feeling the impulse to bite Xu Qingfan.
"Always striving to be first is so boring, look, now everyone is cheering us on!" he whispered into Xia Xiaoxiao’s ear with a laugh.
Since the school clinic was set up in front, Xu Qingfan inevitably had to carry Xia Xiaoxiao down the track, with the teachers and students of the whole school watching and cheering for them.
"Come on!!!"
"Wow!!!"
When the two crossed the finish line, cheers erupted from the field, reaching the skies.
"Xu Qingfan..."
Xia Xiaoxiao’s voice was especially low as she continued, but he didn’t catch it clearly.
"What did you say?"
"I won’t tell you, I’ll only say it once!" the little girl said proudly, turning her head away.
"Boring!"
The moment captured by the photographer became eternal.
Fortunately, the Experimental Primary School had a rubber track, and the wounds on Xia Xiaoxiao’s palms and knees only needed simple disinfection and medication. If it had been one of those coal slag tracks or dirt fields, even after washing the wounds with water, they would still be black from the embedded dirt particles, which could accompany one for a lifetime. After the wound healed, the once injured spot would also be a black patch.
"Don’t get the wound wet, you need to change the medicine once a day, and if the wound festers, remember to go to Renmin Hospital for a shot in time!" After treating Xia Xiaoxiao’s wound, the school doctor said patiently.
"Doctor, is there anything she should avoid eating?" Xu Qingfan asked, concerned.
"During this time, it’s best to avoid eating anything fishy, spicy, or heating."
"Did you hear that!" Xu Qingfan glared at her sideways.
Xia Xiaoxiao glared back just as defiantly, the two goofed around for a bit, and then laughed at each other.
...
Both their results in the 100m finals were tied for seventh place, successfully adding four points to their class’s score.
Fortunately, with gold medalist powerhouses like Wu Dongsong, Chen Qiuyue, and Xiao Ruawen in the class, Grade 16 ended up far outpacing the second-place class by over twenty points. They not only received the travelling red flag but also an extra reward of 1000 yuan in class funds from the school.
The 2003 sports meet of Experimental Primary School came to a successful conclusion.
