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Chapter 386: Chapter 278 Signing_2
Thinking back now, Shen Xinli was orders of magnitude better than him.
Unfortunately, ever since that incident, Shen Xinli became much more silent and hardly ever spoke.
He’d often stare at the blackboard, lost in thought.
Shi Qianjin noticed that Shen Xinli resembled Xiang Lin from the textbooks, the version of Xiang Lin who is reticent.
Zhang Chi passed by the corridor and caught sight of Yan Tianpeng, their gazes diverted, without exchanging a single greeting.
...
On the way to the sports ground, Guo Kunnan and Dan Kaiquan passed by a row of big trees. Guo Kunnan looked around and said,
"Kaiquan, have you noticed that there are more people on the sports ground lately?"
"I noticed it a while ago. I heard the prize money for the sports meet has increased." Dan Kaiquan, who had lurked in the Fourth Middle School’s forum, large group chats, and small group chats to curry favor with Bai Yuxia by sharing the latest news with her.
Although he doesn’t do that much anymore, he kept these channels.
Guo Kunnan had an epiphany, "That explains it. I remember back in junior high, no one would sign up for sports, and the sports representative had to beg people to register."
"In the past few days, Huang Zhongfei’s place has been bustling, with classmates eagerly crowding around to sign up."
"I wonder how much prize money there will be," Guo Kunnan said expectantly.
"It’s definitely not small. Some famous alumni who donated money during the school’s last anniversary celebration gave millions," Dan Kaiquan said.
He pointed toward the plastic track and the lawn: "I heard the sports field was renovated with money donated by a big boss."
Guo Kunnan was amazed, "So much money. I’ve heard that the plastic track costs hundreds per square meter!"
"Our school has a teaching building that was also donated by alumni," Dan Kaiquan said.
"The sixtieth anniversary of the school, I’m sure there will be many donations, so the prize money for the sports meet will only be higher," said Dan Kaiquan.
"I need to double my efforts and get Brother Ma and Brother Long to come out for a run," said Guo Kunnan.
"The relay race is a bit hard. Brother Ma is fast, but Brother Long slows us down," Dan Kaiquan said.
"If we replaced him with Jiang Ning, I’m confident we could win the relay race."
Speaking of which, Guo Kunnan asked, "By the way, do you know what event Jiang Ning signed up for?"
Everyone had witnessed Jiang Ning’s physical fitness; if he participated, he would certainly not be weaker than the seniors and juniors who specialized in sports.
Guo Kunnan and his friends, usually sitting at the back of the class, weren’t very aware of what was happening in the front, but luckily they had Kaiquan.
Dan Kaiquan mentioned, "Not yet, he probably doesn’t care about the prize money."
The last time he heard from Chen Siyu, Jiang Ning had won a thousand yuan from sand jar tossing.
At that time, Bai Yuxia was also there, and Dan Kaiquan regretted going home too early!
He missed a golden opportunity!
Dan Kaiquan looked around to make sure no one familiar was around and said,
"Brother Nan, when I win a prize, I’ll use the money to buy Bai Yuxia a gift as a confession. What do you think?"
Guo Kunnan knew Kaiquan was heading for a kamikaze mission, yet faced with his good friend’s question, he encouraged,
"I think it’s worth a shot. Are you confident you can win?"
"The prize money is plenty; the athletes will definitely participate." He clarified the difficulty.
Dan Kaiquan was silent for a while and didn’t answer; he continued walking until he reached the edge of the sports ground.
He looked at the sports ground, now filled with many more students than before, under the brilliant and comfortable sunlight, and with his hands in his jacket pockets, he suddenly spoke,
"Brother Nan, everything I do now, whether it’s studying or training, is all for the confession."
"Confessing is like washing clothes in a dark room; you can’t tell if they’re clean, so you keep washing them over and over."
He mumbled to himself, "The moment you confess, the lights turn on."
"You realize that as long as you’ve given your best effort in washing, the clothes will shine like new. Everything I’m doing now is like washing clothes in the night."
Upon hearing this, Guo Kunnan’s expression was one of surprise; he had not expected Kaiquan to be so poetic, and couldn’t help regarding him with newfound respect.
"Kaiquan, I suddenly feel that you can make it," Guo Kunnan said seriously.
Dan Kaiquan took out his phone, casually snapped a photo of the sports ground, opened his draft box, and posted the status update.
Then, he put away his phone, smiled lightly,
"Let’s start training; I plan on running seven or eight laps."
...
Unlike the students sweating on the sports ground,
the classroom was tranquil.
Bai Yuxia had just come back from eating. She listened to Chen Siyu and Jiang Ning chatting without interrupting, instead flipping through the social media updates on her phone.
Suddenly, a post popped up.
Dan Kaiquan: "She’s a graceful sprite dancing on the stage, and I’m the hero pressing forward below."
Picture: The sports ground.
Bai Yuxia’s brows furrowed slightly as she read it, and she clicked back to check Dan Kaiquan’s profile tagline.
This tagline was updated just yesterday:
[Her slightly closed eyes, nostrils dark as the night, and graceful dance moves, captivate me every moment.]
And yesterday, coincidentally, was when she planned to tell others about her intent to participate in the dance festival.
There were also the three messages sent by Dan Kaiquan the night before yesterday.
Bai Yuxia: "He’s sick."
She clicked into her own space and set it to not see Dan Kaiquan’s updates.
After doing these things, Bai Yuxia suddenly got curious about what her classmates’ signatures were. At least for her, the signature could somewhat reflect her personality.
Bai Yuxia first looked at Yang Sheng’s and saw the signature:
[A Raincoat of Smoke and Rain is my life.]
"That fits."
She then looked at Jiang Ning’s signature:
[Heh, back in this ant-like body again?]
Bai Yuxia’s mouth curved up in a smile, finding Jiang Ning quite interesting, at least not as indifferent as she normally seemed.
Next, she clicked on Geng Lu.
[The flower shop may close, but the flowers keep blooming.]
"What does that mean?"
Bai Yuxia simply mulled it over in her mind then moved on to someone else. This time it was Chen Siyu’s:
[The sun’s rays are immense, but they can’t compare to a candle shining for just one person.]
Looking at this phrase, Bai Yuxia clicked on Chen Siqing and found their signatures were exactly the same.
"How nice," she thought.
Chen Siyu and the others seemed like they would never be alone.
Bai Yuxia also wished there was another her in the world.
What would she be like?
Bai Yuxia imagined as she browsed through the list of her classmates’ signatures, getting to Dan Xiao’s:
[I’m actually an actor.]
Then to Huang Zhongfei:
[I’m just a kid.]
And to Ma Shicheng’s [Ever since childhood, I’ve been taking care of the stars alone.]
After browsing through all her classmates’ signatures, Bai Yuxia felt she had a deeper impression of them. She suddenly reflected, "Just don’t know, after we split into arts and sciences in our second year of high school, who will leave?"
...
Ma Shicheng brought Wang Longlong some steamed dumplings.
Wang Longlong had been starving, and he said:
"Thanks, Brother Ma."
He quickly tore open the bag, lifted the lid off the box, and started eating with the chopsticks.
The surface of the steamed dumplings was smeared with deep-fried red chili oil. Just one bite and it was immensely fragrant.
Wang Longlong wolfed down the steamed dumplings, and Ma Shicheng, seeing this, conveniently put the straw in his egg soup for him.
Wang Longlong quickly devoured 3 dumplings and then slowed down.
There were only 6 to start with, and he hadn’t even had the chance to savor the taste properly.
The person in the desk in front called to Lu Qiqi:
"Qiqi, your hoodie looks so good on you, it makes you look so slender, and the color is just perfect."
Lu Qiqi modestly pulled at her clothing: "I tried on several before choosing this one."
Yu Wen: "It really does look good."
Lu Qiqi was quite attractive, and her sense of style was equally impressive.
Wang Longlong picked up a red chili smeared dumpling, gave it a careful look, noticing it was quite good-looking.
Suddenly, someone from behind shouted: "Brother Long!"
Then a smack landed on his shoulder, Wang Longlong got such a fright his arm twitched, the chopsticks twitched along with it, and the dumpling flew straight out.
By a fluke, it landed inside the hood of Lu Qiqi’s new hoodie.
Wang Longlong’s heart nearly stopped in terror, she was going to kill him!
Lu Qiqi and Yu Wen were so engrossed in their conversation they didn’t notice this scene at all.
Wang Longlong, in extreme panic, took a piece of paper from his desk and started gesturing to Lu Qiqi while calling her.
Lu Qiqi turned around and saw Wang Longlong waving a tissue.
Lu Qiqi teased, "Wang Longlong, why are you waving a white flag at me?"
After saying that, she turned back around.
And so, the steamed dumpling stayed in Lu Qiqi’s hood.
Cui Yu was stunned: "Brother Long, I didn’t mean to slap you on purpose!"
Wang Longlong’s face was full of bitterness, what was he supposed to do?
