A parked car was waiting for them a few steps down the sidewalk.
It was the Yu family’s driver.
It wasn’t his first day, so he immediately spotted the two.
Lin Miao and the Young Master went to Lin Miao’s house. The Young Master’s family were originally troubled by him running all over the place, and the mother followed him whenever she could.
But then they realized it was best to just send the driver. Otherwise, he would sneak out alone, which was even more worrying.
Having someone follow him was always better than letting him run out alone.
The Young Master wasn’t the obedient type; it was impossible to stop him from sneaking off to find Lin Miao.
He even took a taxi once by himself to Lin Miao’s town along with the three dogs and found her without knowing her address.
So the adults soon conceded but under the condition of only riding in their own cars.
The Young Master had quite a lot of freedom.
As usual, the Young Master tutored Lin Miao, in which she exclaimed that he taught better than her teachers. Then, they moved on to play games.
Lin Miao was doughty, but that did not contribute to her chances, of course.
She still only had won once.
Her determination was displayed at her ability to only lose when they increase the grid size.
They were always very rustic, in the sense that they always drew their own boards.
The Young Master grinned at Lin Miao scouring the board for the optimal place to make her move so that she doesn’t lose. Her sight was fixed on the board as she bit the end of her pencil.
Then, she suddenly found a spot and made her move there, satisfied.
The Young Master made his move and drew a line across the paper, signifying that he won again.
Lin Miao lied down on her bed, questioning her life. She held the paper up to her eyes, and then said, “Again, Gege!”
Lin Miao’s father soon found an opportunity in the city, and Lin Miao’s mother continued to manage the worker’s meals.
Apart from her hours with the Young Master, most of Lin Miao’s time at home was spent helping her mother wash and prepare the vegetables.
Her school days were far more simple: She played badminton, learned techniques, attended regular classes, and ran to exercise.
Lin Miao wasn’t totally new to any of those things. She didn’t have much pressure compared to others her age.
Tan Jing still slept with Lin Miao even though she had already overcome her fear of the dark. It was warmer, and they could talk under their quilts.
Their coach outside their room couldn’t hear them when they’re under their quilts during the night.
Tan Jing was a little girl with great dreams. She educated Lin Miao – who blindly chose the sports school – of her Olympic dream.
“My mom said that my dad will like me when I win a gold medal at the Olympics.”
Lin Miao paid Tan Jing all her attention.
Lin Miao was confused. She couldn’t find any definite connection between her father’s love and Olympic gold medals, but it didn’t affect her response, “You’ll definitely get it one day.”
Tan Jing grasped Lin Miao’s hands and asked her quietly, “What about you, Shuishui? What’s your dream?”
Lin Miao blinked. She didn’t have anything comparable to Tan Jing’s goal.
However, it would be awkward for Lin Miao to reply with nothing when little Tan Jing shared her dream with such excitement. “I want to be just like you, I want to win a gold medal, and… and… another one after!” Lin Miao responded. She didn’t need a gold medal to make her father like her, her father already loved her.
Tan Jing felt that she finally found someone who understood her, “I knew it. You’re like me, you set big and far goals.”
She used to be laughed at for telling others that she wanted to be an Olympic gold medalist when she was in a regular school.
Excited, she extended her arm, but jolts of pain and soreness shot up her arm. “Shuishui, how are you not hurting?” She said with a face full of a grimace.
Lin Miao massaged Tan Jing’s hands like how her mother used to rub hers. Lin Miao had felt sore before, but it never got to the point that it became painful. Looking at her in agony, Lin Miao responded, “It had hurt for me before. When I was little, I had to carry pumpkins back home from afar. It hurt so much and sometimes I’d even get blisters on my feet.”
“You had to carry pumpkins?” Tan Jing felt that it was incredible. Having grown up as a city girl, she couldn’t comprehend such things.
“Yeah, pumpkins grow like crazy. There can be so many every vine. I used to carry them back with my mother.” Lin Miao only carried little pumpkins one by one then, but she could definitely carry two great ripe pumpkins at a time now. Unfortunately, she didn’t need to carry pumpkins, nor any other harvest crops anymore. All the daily exercise she did was going to waste.
She kept all of her thoughts in her head. She felt wasteful when they ran with bottles of water during their routine exercise. They were tasked to carry the bottles to the end of the track, only to bring them back to the starting line after. Moving pumpkins around would be way less wasteful...
“Psst… did it stop hurting after you finished with the pumpkins?” Tan Jing’s arm still felt sore under Lin Miao’s gentle massage. She was very envious of Lin Miao, so she asked further.
“No, I had to move on to carry corn and potatoes, but it stopped hurting after that.” Lin Miao recounted, “Yes, it stopped hurting after.”
The two girls fell asleep in their chatter.
The coach found two big pumpkins under Tan Jing’s bed during the next break time health inspection.
Lin Miao had helped Tan Jing to carry the two pumpkins from her home. Tan Jing often carried them around when she was vacant, and she felt that it was working for her.
The relationship between the two further tightened. Tan Jing thought that Shuishui was different from everyone else she knew. She was always transparent and never hid anything from her. She was genuinely treating her as a close friend.
The coach after hearing Tan Jing’s explanation for the pumpkins: “...”
Days flew past. Students continued to drop out, and new ones kept on arriving. However, Lin Miao and Tan Jing remained in the same dorm room. The two slept separately during summer and huddled together when it was cold during the winter.
They wanted to sleep together during the summer too: it was less lonely, but summer was invariantly too hot.
Their coach started to list them in competitions.
Lin Miao still didn’t quite have a complete understanding of competitions. She just perceived it as another set of games.
The only difference was the tall judges’ chair at the side of the court. She was always very curious about the chair. Every time the judge climbs onto the chair, she would wonder what would happen if they fell off of the ladder or the chair.
In a spectator seat, Lin Ye panned around the arena and saw the participants all in the same uniform and haircut. He couldn’t resist but ask the people beside him, “So which one is Jingxuan’s younger sister?”
“You should ask him that.” Gao Xing, who was in seventh grade, responded.
(Gao Xing = 高邢)
Lin Ye turned around and looked at Yu Jingxuan who was a bit shorter than the rest of them. He was staring at the participants with his SLR camera in his hands. He had never lent it out to anyone, it turns out that he used it primarily to take pictures of his sister.
The Young Master didn’t even bother to turn his head around, “The strongest one.”
Lin Ye couldn’t help but complain, “Bro, we know that you’re confident in your sister, but I would still need to know how to evaluate their skill…” They didn’t even know the rules of badminton, not to mention the strength of the players. Their only observation was that every participant looked professional.
They had no idea that the nerd skipped classes to watch a bunch of elementary students play badminton, and not to game in an internet cafe.
They had severely underestimated his siscon abilities.
The Young Master was three years younger than the rest of them as he skipped grades. However, his test scores were better than the other three of them combined. He was also tall for his age and looked more mature, so they had ignored the age gap long ago.
The Young Master turned around, “You’ll see after two more rounds.”
Lin Ye initially thought that the end-stage sister complex Young Master was being blindly confident, but then he saw that Lin Miao had actually made it to the finals.
Lin Ye saw the short girl who looked like she was fighting a war, “I know which one of them she is now…”
The other girl who made it to the finals was also impressive. She was great at low shots. Lin Miao stayed calm, but it had made everyone else incredibly nervous. Everytime the audience thought Lin Miao wasn’t going to make it, she would save it at the last moment.
Even Lin Ye, who was looking all over the place, had started to concentrate on the match.
The tense tie remained until Lin Miao hit a high shot.
Her opponent then started making many mistakes, which might have been caused by her loss of confidence after that shot. Lin Miao then quickly proceeded to win the match.
She thought that she was returning home with a medal, like her first competition.
However, this time, she had also been awarded prize money!
No one had told her beforehand that first place received money!
Lin Miao’s heart was already leaping, and now it felt like jumping through her body!
She was so happy that she couldn’t tell which direction was which.