Chapter 9 (4)

  Song Shih-ping deliberately sat on the outside, and a reporter ran over to ask him first: "What do you think about the summer training?" Song Shih-ping didn't hesitate, opened his mouth to speak, but the reporter saw that it wasn't going well, whispered to Song Shih-ping: "Wait, the cameraman said start when he starts." Then made a gesture to the cameraman and said: "Start!" The words Song Shih-ping wanted to say earlier were now nowhere to be found, and he stuttered: "This... it can improve... my... physical performance, making me progress." The female reporter looked satisfied, thanked him, and walked over to Liu Zhi-zhang's side, asking: "Teacher, you're also working very hard, coming out in the scorching heat to organize training. Do you have anything to say to our audience friends?" Liu Zhi-zhang said in a mixed Mandarin dialect: "This, training is about perseverance and not just a temporary burst of energy. This year's sports students are better than last year's, but they're also working too hard!"

  The female journalist put down the microphone, pondered that these words seemed not to be in harmony, chewed them over several times and found out the root of the problem, then said to Liu Zhi Zhang: "Can you say it again? For the last sentence 'they... are also too hardworking', please don't say 'too'. We can start now, thank you."

  Liu Zhi-zhang shook his head, removing the "too" and repeated himself. The female reporter thought for a moment, then leaned in to say: "This - you'd better add a bit more, such as combining student quality education with cross-century talent cultivation plans."

  Liu Zhizhang's expression stiffened and he pushed away the microphone, saying: "I won't say it, you can ask someone else."

  The reporter was taken aback, then smiled and said, "Well, thank you." He reeled in the microphone cord, walked 30 meters away, and when he felt safe, turned to the cameraman and said, "Who does he think he is? We're giving him face by interviewing him, but he's not even willing to give us any. Forget about that previous segment." The cameraman asked, "What about the part on quality education and..."

  The reporter said, "What's the big deal? He won't say anything, someone says that in the studio, they will write a paragraph for the host to read, called 'After Watching Small Discussion', and it will be clearer than what that old man said." After saying this, he couldn't take the heat anymore and quickened his pace running towards the interview car.

  Liu Zhi-zhang made the sports students get up and said, "Don't mind them," then ordered each person to run ten laps. Lin Yu-xiang pretended to be calm while tying his shoelaces, but his legs couldn't stay still and were shaking nonstop. After running one lap, he thought it was no big deal and sped up, but by the second lap, his eyes and nose were wide open, and his strength gradually decreased. Liu Zhi-zhang asked about their condition on the side, and the two high school sophomores who took the lead in running hurried to answer, "It's fine, no problem." It is said that during the Anti-Japanese War, Eric Sevareid, a famous commentator of American ABC, interviewed Dr. Kong Xiang-xi, the administrative director of Chongqing, and Kong said that China's inflation situation was like a person falling from the 30th floor to the 15th floor, shouting "So far, so good!" in mid-air! If Kong Xiang-xi were still alive today, he would definitely take back that metaphor and give it to these two high school sophomores.

  As expected, the two boys were talking too much and couldn't keep up, starting to fall behind. Yuxiang bit his tongue and stuck with the one in front of him, but didn't dare to overtake, fearing that he would trigger his potential. After following for half a lap, he felt that the speed was getting slower and slower, and his competitive spirit rose, so he tentatively brushed past him and then retreated. Seeing that the boy had no big reaction, just a look of hatred on his face, but unable to take action, Yuxiang boldly overtook him.

  After running five laps, he reached his limit several times, and saw that Yu Xiong had pulled away by more than half a lap. His fighting spirit was gone, but fortunately, there was still one poor guy behind him who boosted Yuxiang's only confidence, giving him a spiritual pillar. However, the pillar didn't last long and collapsed to the ground to rest, leaving the last place to Yuxiang.

  Yuxiang's only comfort tool was also gone, feeling dizzy and dark, taking two or three breaths for every step, his hands and feet numb, his chest burning, his throat on fire, the air he inhaled seemed not to enter his lungs, but just circled around his mouth and came out. His last bit of willpower disappeared, but he didn't want to give up like the first one did, so he used his hand to cover his stomach, using this action to announce to everyone that Lin Yuxiang was only suffering from stomach pain, not physical exhaustion, shifting the blame from his legs to his stomach. He then collapsed to the ground with a thud, and after a daze, he sat up again, looking at others' fatigue to alleviate his own burden.

  Song Shiping originally also thought of covering his stomach to pretend to be in pain and rest, but didn't expect to be preempted by Lin Yuxiang. He had no choice but to run with all his might to prove that his physical strength was limitless. When facing Yuxiang, he had a carefree expression as if strolling in the clouds, but once his back was turned, his suppressed expressions were all released, his mouth open like a snake intimidating its prey, his eyes closed, unable to bear the sight of his own suffering.

  After ten laps, Song Shiping collapsed to the ground motionless, pretending to be dead to gain sympathy. Yu Xiong's face was expressionless, and he patted Song Shiping a few times before walking over to Yuxiang and saying: "How did you get hurt here? You must have drunk too much water before running!"

  Yǔ Xiáng Dào: "Shì ā, kǒu tài kě le!"

  English Translation:

  Yu Xiangdao said: "Yes, I'm so thirsty!"

  Yu Xiong took off his clothes, squeezed out a lot of sweat and said: "Go take a bath."

  Yu Xiang laughed and said: "The sweat you squeezed out is enough for me to take a shower! Can you stand it?"

  Yu Xiong smiled faintly and said: "In the junior high school, we ran 30 laps, 12,000 meters at a time."

  Yu Xiang was startled and didn't dare to think, took off his shirt, propped himself up on the ground and stood up, walked a few steps, and felt like his feet were floating in mid-air. The three of them had just finished taking a bath and were planning to go to San Ta Yuan to escape the heat, but when they reached the entrance, they saw a large crowd of students rushing in, and were shocked, thinking that they had run too fast and exceeded the speed of light, seeing the future scene of the start of school, confirming Einstein's theory of relativity. Only after looking at the notice at the entrance did they realize it was the exam for the first year students' class division. The cars in front of the school gate were stopped for hundreds of meters, with no end in sight. Song Shi Ping said unfairly: "Why didn't we have a class division exam?" Yu Xiong said: "Us? You don't even think about what kind of people we are, like leftover meat, casually assigned to any class."

  Three people smiled at each other and continued on their way to the Three Pagodas Garden. The Three Pagodas Garden is said to be where Li Tianwang, the heavenly king of the pagoda, descended to earth to suppress evil spirits in ancient times, throwing down three pagodas to press the evil spirits underneath. As the three people entered the garden, they suddenly felt a chill run through their bodies. The garden was full of trees, which helped lower the temperature, but unfortunately, there were also many insects flying about, which didn't need tickets to enter and had gathered in the garden to wreak havoc. There were few tourists in the garden, with Rainside's group of three being the largest tour group.

  Yǔ Xiǎng said: "I didn't expect there to be so few people, and yet so many bugs——" He made a shooing motion with his hand, "It's like when we go sightseeing, it's as if the bugs are watching us."

  Three people walked to a martyr statue, where there were fewer insects, and sat down to rest. Yu Xiang pointed at the sign under the statue and said, "Climbing is strictly prohibited", with a tone of confusion, thinking that modern outdoor rock climbing had developed to this point. Song Shi Ping said, "This sign is useless, later someone will definitely climb up to take pictures!" The three chatted for a while, but soon lost interest and didn't feel like admiring the three towers built by Li Jing, so they hurried back to school to sleep. At that time, the first subject of the class exam had already ended, and people were dispersing outside. Yu Xiong saw Hu Jun chatting with a high school athlete and told Yu Xiang, "In the future, you should spend less time with him." A parent nearby, who was opening a can for their child, overheard this and said to them, "Hey, listen, in the future you cannot hang out with athletes, they look so sloppy. It's not easy to get into Municipal Third Middle School... In the future, if they talk to you, just ignore them..."

  Song Shipei was furious and wanted to go defend the reputation of his group, but Yu Xiong pulled him back, saying "What's the point?"

  The days flew by in the morning and evening training sessions. The summer training period had already passed halfway, and everything in school was familiar, no longer fresh, and the days were getting harder to get through. At night, a sports room was crowded with twenty or so athletes, even the tables were filled with people sleeping, those who couldn't sleep high up could only spread out on the floor, using chalk to draw a circle to mark their territory, warning others not to enter, like dogs marking their territory with urine, making it feel like walking through a graveyard when going to the bathroom at midnight. Those who didn't snore were most afraid of sleeping next to someone who did, because the rhythmic snoring would attract attention and make them forget to sleep, twenty or so athletes exhausted from training during the day, relying on snoring to vent their dissatisfaction at night, the snoring sounded like a 19th-century European bourgeois uprising, one side quieting down while another corner started up again; first northeast then southwest, this surround sound-like snoring stirred up Rain翔's dreams, making him want to sleep in segments.

  There were many people from junior high school in his dream, making Yu Xiang feel suffocated and unbearable in a foreign land.

  The next afternoon, Yu Xiang plucked up the courage to call Susan, but no one answered. Thinking that she must have gone for military training, Yu Xiang felt a pang of melancholy in his heart.

  In three days, it will be the new semester's registration and military training. This year's scorching heat is still going strong, without any signs of weakening. The rain that should have fallen in Shanghai all went to Wuhan instead, leaving only the scorching sun beating down, occasionally not even bringing a few drops of rain. The sports students are like Arabs, praying for rain every day but getting none. The result of training under the blazing sun is that their entire body becomes dark and shiny, and at night, their skin can reflect moonlight, saving the school a lot of electricity on lighting.