The starter pistol fired, and Zhu Niao sat at a relatively safe spot beside the track, watching as Gou Yu was the first to burst out from the starting line, head down and charging ahead.
Her gaze was serious, which made Ye Qingchang, who had sneaked up behind her intending to do something mischievous, lower her hand that was reaching for the sun hat.
“Why that expression? Did something happen?” Ye Qingchang sat down next to Zhu Niao, nudging her shoulder.
“He seems to have forgotten to give me money for water just now.”
Ye Qingchang rolled her eyes, then snatched the sun hat right off the top of Zhu Niao’s head and pressed it onto her own.
With the sun so bright it was almost blinding, she could barely open her eyes, especially since she wasn’t wearing her glasses at today’s sports meet.
“You had something this good and didn’t bring it out sooner? Sneaking it for yourself?”
Ye Qingchang reached out and pinched Zhu Niao’s neck. “Tell me, what crime do you deserve for this?”
“It’s not mine, it’s Second’s little brother who brought it. I just grabbed one while passing by.” Zhu Niao swayed back and forth with Ye Qingchang’s movements.
“Second’s little brother is here?”
“Yeah, the one who was sitting on the rostrum at the beginning. I think he’s from the sponsors.” Zhu Niao touched her hair, which was getting hot from the sun. Now she wanted to find a shady spot to rest for a while.
Better wait until Gou Yu finishes running.
“I don’t know, when I was watching from below, all I saw were a few blocks of mosaic sitting on the rostrum.” Ye Qingchang pointed to her eyes that were missing their glasses.
She paused. “So, are you sitting here because those two drove you away?”
“No, it was Old Gou who asked me to bring him water. He seems to have a lot of events today.” Zhu Niao sat on the ground, knees bent to the side, a bit like a mermaid out of water, though she felt it was more like roasting her whole lower half instead of just her butt.
She had originally planned to sit on the ground as casually as usual.
Then Gou Yu came over to correct her posture, pointing at her skirt and at the students around them who were pretending to warm up but kept sneaking glances in their direction.
So now, obediently sitting by the track waiting for Gou Yu, Zhu Niao and the onlooking Ye Qingchang made for quite the scenic sight.
“That’s just how the Physical Committee Member is. Once the sports meet is over, he won’t have any more work.” Ye Qingchang sat down beside Zhu Niao.
Except Ye Qingchang sat cross-legged, since she was wearing athletic shorts.
“After this hundred meters, he still has the four hundred, the thousand, high jump, long jump, and shot put.” Zhu Niao counted off all the events Gou Yu had yet to do.
Ye Qingchang fell silent for a moment after hearing that. “Looking at him now, I don’t envy him at all, even if he gets extra points for being a class committee member.”
“What about you? Why are you wandering around here?” Zhu Niao shot back.
“Because I just realized my event is in the afternoon. Xiao Yi’an’s is in the morning.”
Suddenly, a shadow loomed over them, and Zhu Niao heard heavy breathing by her ear.
In an instant, her hair stood on end, and like a startled cat, she leapt up and crashed into Ye Qingchang.
Two cries of pain rang out at once.
Once Zhu Niao recovered, she realized that the person who had just bent over, hands on knees, next to her ear was Gou Yu—the one she had been waiting for.
Right now, he was scratching his head a bit sheepishly.
“You’re done running?” Zhu Niao propped herself up on Ye Qingchang and stood up, hearing another pained yelp that sounded like she had caused a second injury.
“It’s just a hundred meters, doesn’t even take as long as warming up.” Gou Yu patted his chest.
It seemed that even the intensity of a hundred meters was nothing to Gou Yu, because aside from the two breaths he’d exhaled near her ear, Zhu Niao couldn’t see a drop of sweat on him.
After patting his chest, Gou Yu coughed twice, and Zhu Niao immediately shoved a bottle of water into his hand.
“If you’d run any slower, this water would be warm by now.” Zhu Niao patted her own butt and stood up. “So, how did it go?”
“I made it to the finals.” It was clearly good news, but Gou Yu’s face looked like he had just eaten something foul.
Zhu Niao knew what that meant—it meant Gou Yu now had one more event: the hundred-meter finals.
“Tough luck for you.” She sighed, rising up on tiptoe to pat Gou Yu’s shoulder.
“I have a feeling,” Ye Qingchang said, rubbing her chin thoughtfully, “your photos are going to be everywhere soon.”
Zhu Niao didn’t care about what might happen later. She reached out and patted Gou Yu’s rock-hard waist and stomach.
“Can you keep running?” She frowned, carefully watching Gou Yu’s expression.
He still had a lot of events to go. She genuinely wanted her good buddy to do well, but she was also really worried he’d run himself into the ground.
“It’s fine, honestly. This kind of pace isn’t even as stressful as when I was delivering overtime takeout.” Gou Yu waved his hand, showing it was no big deal.
“Still, let’s find somewhere to rest. I don’t want you dropping dead on the track.” Zhu Niao looked around and found a patch of shade.
Under a huge sun umbrella, there were even a few seats.
Gou Yu grinned, patted Zhu Niao’s shoulder, and made the little bird yelp in pain twice. “Look at you, finally know how to care for your old man?”
“It’s only because you still owe me for that bottle of water.”
Gou Yu pulled his hand back and his expression flattened. “Is our brotherhood only worth five yuan?”
“Ten. Five for the water, five for the delivery fee.” Zhu Niao held up both index fingers, making a cross.
“That’s cold-hearted.”
The two of them, along with sun-hat-wearing Ye Qingchang, walked over to the only place with a sun umbrella.
They saw two tables under the umbrella, two microphones, and a whole stack of papers covered in writing.
“What’s this for? Why is there seating here but no one using it?” Ye Qingchang craned her neck to look at the writing on the papers.
Zhu Niao went over and grabbed a sheet.
“Youth in full bloom…” She glanced over it. “Looks like these are the cheer scripts for the broadcasting station.”
“Then where are the broadcasting people?” Gou Yu looked around, but didn’t see anyone nearby.
“Doesn’t matter, let’s rest for a bit.” Gou Yu sat down first, taking one of the seats and picking up a microphone to examine it.
As soon as Zhu Niao saw Gou Yu sit down, she instinctively went to sit on his lap.
Just like in high school, when during breaks the boys would pile on each other for fun.
Then she noticed the surprised looks from passersby.
So both of them hurriedly stood up from their seats.
“Hey, you from the broadcasting club, what are you doing? Not a single script has been read in ages.” Out of nowhere, a middle-aged man in a blue shirt with a clear air of authority showed up.
“No, we aren’t…”
“I’ll allow you to slack off a bit, but this is too much. If you don’t read even one script, it’ll be hard to justify giving you the extra bonus at the end.”
Ye Qingchang was about to explain, but Zhu Niao, who had caught the key word, pulled her back.
“Sorry, we’ll start working seriously right now.” Zhu Niao even pulled Ye Qingchang into a bow.
Dazed, Ye Qingchang looked at Zhu Niao and saw two words in her eyes.
Bonus
Suddenly, she smiled in understanding.