The weather in late September was neither too hot nor too cold. It was perfect for the opening of Changchuan No. 1 High School's sports meet.
Class 1's position was excellent, right beside the main stage, offering a clear view of the entire field. Fu Ziming directed the cheerleading squad to raise their banner, which displayed bright yellow characters on a red background: "Class 1, Class 1, Not Ordinary! Class 1, Class 1, striving for the Crown!"
Class 2 was positioned right next to them, with each student a placard, which, when combined, read, "Beyond Ordinary, Exceptionally Outstanding, Youthful Spirit Soaring, Watch Class 2 Shine!"
Fu Ziming saw Class 2's slogan and immediately grew angry, "What do they mean by 'beyond ordinary'? They're clearly trying to pick a fight with us!"
Nie Qingzhou, standing below the viewing platform, placed a hand on Fu Ziming's shoulder and said earnestly, "Their slogan does seem a bit more… profound."
Fu Ziming slowly turned to look at Nie Qingzhou, who quickly raised his hands in defense, "Not much, just a tiny bit. What do you think, Xia Yi?"
Xia Yi was doing warm-up exercises. She had her hair in a ponytail with clips securing loose strands, wearing the school's T-shirt and shorts that showed her long limbs.
She looked up and carefully read the banners of the two classes, and said, "Ours rhymes better."
[T/N: It is - yībān yībān, jué bù yībān! Yībān yībān, yǒng zhēng guìguàn!]
Fu Ziming gave a thumbs up, "The deputy class monitor has good taste. Deputy monitor, your race starts first, good luck!"
Just as Fu Ziming finished speaking, the announcement for the second year women's 400-meter preliminary race check-in came over the loudspeaker. Xia Yi waved to Fu Ziming and Nie Qingzhou before heading to the registration area.
"Go Xia Yi! Lead us off!" Fu Ziming suddenly shouted.
Nie Qingzhou cupped his hands around his mouth and joined in, "Come on, Xia Yi!"
Xia Yi paused in surprise as several loud cheers erupted from Class 1's crowd.
"Xia Yi jiyaou!"
"Xia Yi jiyaou!"
"Jiayou ahh!!!"
Xia Yi stood there looking at her familiar classmates and their unfamiliarly enthusiastic expressions, feeling a bit dazed as she mechanically waved back before heading to check-in.
She wasn't used to such enthusiasm.
But this proved to be just the beginning of their enthusiasm. When the starting pistol fired and Xia Yi shot off like an arrow, quickly leaving her competitors behind, Class 1 went wild.
"Xia Yi! Xia Yi! Xia Yi!"
"Quick, quick, quick, leave them behind!"
"Oh! Wow! First place!"
"Class 1, Class 1, We'll Win the Crown!"
"See? We took first place right off the bat!"
Someone from Class 2 retorted, "What's so great about being first in preliminaries?"
"It is great! Better than being eliminated in preliminaries like you!" Class 1 shot back immediately.
Throughout the day, Class 1's excitement never died down, cheering from "Xia Yi" to "Nie Qingzhou" to "Fu Ziming" and then to "Wen Zhong." Perhaps due to diligent practice, besides the dark horses Xia Yi and Nie Qingzhou, other Class 1 participants also performed remarkably well.
While the grade's female athletes battled fiercely in the 100m, 200m sprints and 800m long distance races, Xia Yi managed to win the second grade women's 400m championship. She also placed fourth in the highly competitive 800m race, making Class 1 ecstatic enough to praise her to the skies.
Nie Qingzhou took third place in the men's 1500m.
In addition, several other Class 1 participants won the rankings that could win points. Fu Ziming kept real-time track of everyone's rankings and points like an old rich merchant counting money by candlelight, his eyes gleaming with excitement.
At the end of the first day, when the main stage announced each class's points and Class 1 was announced in eighth place, they erupted in thunderous cheers.
"Did you hear that? Did you hear? We're in eighth place!"
"This time we definitely won't be last!"
"Of course not, we have a grade champion! And a third place winner! How can we be last!"
But Fu Ziming wasn't rushing to celebrate. He gathered everyone participating in the next day's 4x400-meter mixed relay and solemnly shared his analysis.
"Class 2 won two championships today, and with their other points, they're currently ranked seventh, just one place ahead of us. By my calculations, tomorrow our class monitor's 3000m has no specialists, so getting into the top five shouldn't be a problem, earning us more points. Class 2 has someone good at field events, they relied on him last year, so they'll probably score points in shot put and long jump tomorrow."
"Besides that, Class 2's sports prodigy still has the 4x400m mixed relay event tomorrow. This competition is the top priority for us to surpass Class 2. We must enter the top five, and beat Class 2!"
Like a general deploying troops, Fu Ziming commanded, "I'll run the first runner, Song Yuxi the second, Xia Yi the third, and Nie Qingzhou the fourth. I've observed Class 2's runners. Their second runner is about as fast as Song Yuxi, their first and third are slower than ours, but their fourth runner is that sports prodigy."
Fu Ziming then looked at Nie Qingzhou with burning eyes, "You watched him compete today, what do you think?"
Nie Qingzhou pondered for a moment. "If you can give me a thirty-meter lead, I think I can give it a shot."
Fu Ziming readily agreed, "Then it's settled!"
During the 4x400m race the next day, when the two classes' teams met, the smell of gunpowder was particularly strong. While other classes maintained an attitude of "friendship first, competition second," these two classes' atmosphere was more like "screw friendship, bring it on!"
When the starting pistol fired, everyone burst forward, and the competition in the stands also began, with Class 1 and Class 2's cheering reaching the sky, creating an atmosphere of either the east wind prevailing over the west, or the west wind overwhelming the east wind.
As predicted, Fu Ziming quickly pulled ahead of Class 2's first runner by about ten meters. But perhaps due to nervousness, he and Song Yuxi fumbled the baton handoff, actually dropping it.
By the time Song Yuxi frantically picked up the baton and started running again, Class 2 had caught up. Fu Ziming jumped anxiously in place, shouting: "It's over, it's over!"
Song Yuxi became more flustered and couldn't keep up with Class 2. By the time the baton reached Xia Yi, Class 2 was far ahead. Xia Yi took the baton and charged forward without looking back.
Wind filled her clothes, her ponytail streaming behind her like a swift deer as she rapidly closed the gap with Class 2.
Class 1 students went wild in the stands - this was their 400m grade champion!
Just as Xia Yi was about to surpass Class 2's runner in the next lane, an accident happened.
They were very close, and their figures suddenly overlapped. Xia Yi suddenly fell to the ground, while the girl in Class 2 stumbled and continued to run forward.
Class 1's stands erupted in huge gasps, but before the sound died down, Xia Yi was seen getting up with the baton. She ran even faster than before, like an arrow riding the wind, passing four people in half a lap - including Class 2's runner. Xia Yi looked calm, she didn't even glance at the other girl as she left her far behind.
"Blood! Blood! Xia Yi is bleeding!"
Zheng Peiqi shouted, and Class 1 students gasped in shock. Xia Yi's knee was badly scraped, and as she ran quickly, blood flowed down her leg in three streams, soaking into her ankle sock, staining it red.
Nie Qingzhou was waiting for Xia Yi at the fourth baton exchange position. For a moment he couldn't see anything else, his eyes fixed only on the glaring red.
Until that red came rushing toward him, and Xia Yi passed him the baton, uttering a single word that rang like thunder in his ears.
"Run."
Nie Qingzhou gripped the baton tightly and burst forward.
He had only one thought in his mind.
—Forget the thirty-meter advantage, forget the sports prodigy, I have to win.
Under the extreme boost of adrenaline, Nie Qingzhou ran the fastest sprint of his life. When he crossed the finish line, his brain briefly went blank from lack of oxygen.
Then he immediately turned back to look for Xia Yi, his gaze blankly scanning the bustling field. The surrounding clamor became background noise, with only his heavy breathing thundering in his ears.
Until Fu Ziming excitedly put his arm around Nie Qingzhou's shoulders, "Damn it all, let's go confront Class 2! That girl from Class 2 definitely did it on purpose! Let me tell you, she's the one who fell last year, she must have held a grudge and took it on Xia Yi!"
"How is Xia Yi?"
"Zheng Peiqi already took her to the infirmary."
Nie Qingzhou collected himself and walked back to the stands with Fu Ziming. Class 1 and Class 2 were already arguing fiercely about this incident - if there had been rotten eggs available, they would have been flying already. Just as Fu Ziming was rolling up his sleeves to join the fray, they saw Gao Juanmei patrolling with a red armband, coming over fiercely and shouting: "What's all this arguing about! Keep arguing and I'll deduct all your discipline points!"
Out of respect for Gao Juanmei, the verbal battle subsided somewhat. Gao Juanmei called over both class monitors, telling them to manage their classes and stop the loud commotion.
Nie Qingzhou calmly said, "Teacher, if someone deliberately crashes into another runner, their results can be disqualified, right?"
Class 2's monitor looked at Nie Qingzhou, speaking relatively calmly, "You can't conclude that our class deliberately hit someone, even the teacher hasn't made that judgment. Besides, our class didn't get any results anyway, so what's there to cancel?"
Nie Qingzhou was taken aback. He returned to the Class 1 stands and asked Fu Ziming, "What were the relay results just now?"
"Monitor, you don't know?" Fu Ziming opened his eyes wide in surprise and said, "Our class got third! We dropped the baton once and had a fall, but still got third! You and Xia Yi performed exceptionally well, especially Xia Yi - it was so inspiring when she overtook them!"
Nie Qingzhou waved his hand and asked: "What about Class 2? How did they do?"
Fu Ziming scoffed, "Them? They dropped the baton during the third-fourth handover and it rolled really far - that's karma! What good is having a sports prodigy? They still came in sixth, no points."
Nie Qingzhou suddenly remembered that when he just finished running, among all the distant, blurry images and sounds there had been one figure. That tall, athletic boy had patted his shoulder, seeming to want to say something but ultimately only uttering, "I'm sorry."
That person was the Class 2's sports prodigy.
He shouldn't have dropped the baton, and it was unlikely that he would only get sixth place.
Nie Qingzhou rubbed his temples and said to Fu Ziming, "What happens on the field should be resolved on the field."