Evidently, under such mockery, Ye Qingchang could not hold back. She put on her sneakers and shorts and followed Liu Xie out the door.
Her black shorts accentuated her slender, fair legs. Their slight boniness formed a sharp contrast with the tempting, slightly soft curves of Liu Xie’s legs beside her.
Over a white, quick-dry shirt, she threw on a black windbreaker and haphazardly grabbed a hair tie to pull her hair into a ponytail.
“If you want to regret this now, there’s still time,” Liu Xie said, casually throwing on a white jacket. Compared to the heavily prepared Ye Qingchang, her loose shorts made her look much more relaxed.
“Are you talking about yourself?” Ye Qingchang arched an eyebrow.
“With all that professional gear, you aren’t scared, are you?” Even verbally, Liu Xie didn’t intend to let Ye Qingchang gain the upper hand.
“Me, scared?” Ye Qingchang let out a cold laugh. “Don’t be ridiculous. If I wanted to beat you, it would be as easy as flipping my palm.”
“All right then. I just hope that while we’re running, I don’t suddenly lose sight of you.”
“Likewise.”
Ye Qingchang and Liu Xie headed downstairs together, sparks seemingly flying between them.
Once they reached the starting point required for the campus run, they checked their GPS locations. After confirming there were no issues, they looked at each other.
“If I remember correctly, the requirement for girls is only two kilometers per run. As for the pace, you just need to finish within twenty-two minutes, right?” Ye Qingchang stretched her arms and legs slightly.
This was followed by a series of *crackles* and *pops*. She was so young, yet her body sounded so old.
Liu Xie simply stretched lazily.
This confidence was something she had possessed before becoming a girl. Back then, Ye Qingchang had been the physically weakest of the four roommates in the dorm; even Little Bird was stronger than her.
And now that Ye Qingchang had become a girl, it was even less of a question.
Setting aside the other girl’s skeletal appearance, just looking at the difference in leg length due to their heights, Liu Xie could cover in two steps what took Ye Qingchang three.
Under these circumstances, she couldn’t imagine how she could possibly lose.
“Then I’m starting.” As soon as Ye Qingchang finished speaking, she dashed out, seemingly trying to use this clumsy little trick to gain a slight advantage.
However, such a tactic only made the corners of Liu Xie’s mouth curl upward.
She believed that given Ye Qingchang’s stamina, even though there were two fewer checkpoints to hit than before, she could easily catch up with just a bit of effort.
So, she began to run.
One step, two steps.
But her pace soon slowed from a chase to a crawl.
‘Wait, something’s not right.’
It felt like the muscles in her legs had turned into useless, soft flesh. Furthermore, there were those two things on her chest that would shift her center of gravity whenever she ran.
Running like this was extremely exhausting. She might not even be able to outrun Ye Qingchang.
Moreover, she had only just started. It had only been about 100 meters, so why were her calves already starting to ache?
Normally, you wouldn’t feel even a slight ache in your calves until at least 400 meters, right?
‘Did Ye Qingchang account for this? Is that why she dared to accept the challenge?’
‘This child is terrifying; she must not be allowed to remain.’
Thinking this, Liu Xie waited until she was sure Ye Qingchang had disappeared around the corner of the upcoming intersection before creeping off to the side.
Then, she scanned a shared bike.
‘Sorry, Third. The main difference between humans and other lower creatures is that humans use tools. Besides, before this race between us started, you didn’t specify that items weren’t allowed.’
She was simply using her superior intelligence.
If she really ran the whole way, her chest would probably be numb from all the bouncing by the time she got back to the dorm.
‘It’s scandalous, truly scandalous. This method suits me better.’
Feeling the autumn breeze and humming a little tune, Liu Xie began to cruise on the bike, intentionally maintaining a speed that wouldn’t overtake Ye Qingchang.
Ye Qingchang had indeed considered that Liu Xie’s physical condition couldn’t compare to when she was a boy.
Leaving aside those thighs that looked like they would squeeze against any tight pants, the two lumps of flesh on the other girl’s chest alone proved that Liu Xie’s current physical state might not even be as good as hers.
She might look like a skeleton, but at least she didn’t have all that extra fat, right?
‘I have no fat, which means no extra weight. I’ll win!’
Ye Qingchang pressed on, her steps already growing heavy.
In this moment, she was reminded of when her dear roommates called her an “800-meter gold medalist.” Back then, she truly thought she could restore the glory of the dormitory.
In the end, she had collapsed on the track like a dead dog.
That feeling was terrible, especially the next day when she woke up with her whole body aching. Just getting down from her bunk via the ladder nearly cost her half her life.
Her legs had trembled so much that Liu Xie even questioned if she had hidden something “special” inside herself.
But the truth was, her physical fitness was simply that poor.
After running less than 300 meters, Ye Qingchang felt her condition tilting toward “dead dog” territory once again.
If it weren’t so undignified, she would have stuck her tongue out to vent the heat.
Moreover, she now regretted wearing the windbreaker. She felt like her arms needed to vent heat as well.
She really wanted to give up. More accurately, she had wanted to give up the moment she started. She had only pushed through until now, and she was beginning to regret why she had come out to run with Liu Xie in the first place.
She even began to question her own decision to run just because Liu Xie had provoked her.
‘I really should have thought twice. Even if I live in a luxury mansion and drive a fancy car, I shouldn’t be out here running.’
Ye Qingchang’s legs felt like they were made of lead, making every step incredibly difficult.
It was a bit like the essays she used to write in elementary school. One version was about her mother carrying her through heavy rain to the hospital while she had a high fever; the other was about gritting her teeth to cross the finish line during a sports meet.
Unfortunately, she never caught high fevers during heavy rains, nor did she participate in any sports. Both of those essays, which she had written countless times, were completely made up.
But things were different now. She was actually running, and she was actually learning what it meant to grit her teeth and persist.
Her persistence wasn’t for any sense of honor, nor was it to exercise or grow as a person.
She simply wanted to avoid a situation where Liu Xie caught up to her, ran alongside her, and began to mock her relentlessly.
At her current speed, she had no doubt that Liu Xie could catch up and perform a mocking dance right next to her.
That fellow might even start a video call in their group chat on the spot, so that all the roommates who weren’t there could see her looking like a dead dog.
Because of that, she had no choice but to run for her life.
“Classmate Ye, do you have low blood sugar?”
Xiao Yi’an, who was also out for a run, caught up to her right side. He took off his left earbud and looked at the person before him who seemed to be on the verge of collapse.
Eh something like that.