You're dumping me, huh? Fine, then I'll just pick up the school beauty and make her my wif

"Be careful!"

Seeing that Wang Kai was about to fall, Liu Mengyao cried out in alarm and abruptly stopped in her tracks.

She then instinctively reached out and grabbed Wang Kai's right sleeve tightly.

A tremendous pulling force suddenly came from Wang Kai's arm.

However, Wang Kai was already quite heavy, and now he had completely lost his balance. Liu Mengyao, a young girl, couldn't hold him back at all.

Seeing that the two of them were about to fall down the slope into the drainage ditch full of gravel, Wang Kai became extremely anxious. He was fine if he fell, but he couldn't let Liu Mengyao fall into the pit with him.

In desperation, Wang Kai's adrenaline surged, unleashing an unprecedented power throughout his body.

He clenched his teeth, then suddenly exerted force from his waist, and with his left foot, he slammed it heavily against a protruding rock beside him—

Using this recoil force, the two who were about to fall were actually pulled back to their original center of gravity by Wang Kai!

At the last moment, Wang Kai gathered the last bit of strength in his body into his arm and pushed Liu Mengyao's shoulder hard. Then he fell heavily onto the relatively flat road next to him.

Although Wang Kai's final strength acted as a buffer, Liu Mengyao was still propelled forward by her own inertia and eventually knelt down beside Wang Kai.

After the crisis, both of them were panting heavily.

The moment their eyes met, both of them could hear their hearts pounding uncontrollably.

Are you alright?

Liu Mengyao, disregarding her own injuries, looked on with worry and reached out to check Wang Kai's sprained ankle.

Wang Kai felt a fragrant breeze suddenly waft past him. He was slightly startled at first, then lowered his head and met Liu Mengyao's face, which was very close to his.

The girl's faint fragrance, mixed with the scent of sweat, wafted into his nostrils, making him almost faint from the sweetness.

For a moment, he even forgot the pain in his thigh. His cheeks, which were already flushed from shortness of breath, turned even redder with a touch of shyness.

"No, no, it's okay! I'm tough, I won't get hurt."

Wang Kai stammered in response, then quickly got up by supporting himself on the ground with his hands, while also helping Liu Mengyao up as well.

Seeing that he could still stand steadily and had no injuries, Liu Mengyao was immediately relieved and breathed a sigh of relief.

Then he complained, "Don't you watch where you're going when you run? If it weren't for this rock blocking the way, we'd be roommates in a hospital ward today."

Faced with Liu Mengyao's accusations, Wang Kai remained silent, scratching his head and grinning sheepishly.

Looks like this fall wasn't so bad after all.

It was a blessing in disguise; not only did he receive Yao Yao's care, but their relationship also grew closer.

How wonderful!

Seeing that they had already put a considerable distance between themselves and Jiang Che and Liu Zhenguo, the two of them did not linger any longer and quickened their pace to catch up.

The mountain road becomes steeper as you go up.

The four of them remained silent the entire way, and in the last half of the journey, they pushed themselves up by sheer willpower.

At this moment, the sky was beginning to lighten, and the morning breeze dispersed the layers of mist that shrouded the woods.

Soon, a stone tablet with the five large characters "Qingfeng Observatory" inscribed on it came into view.

This means that everyone has finally reached the finish line.

"We're here. Everyone, walk around a bit. Don't rush to sit down and rest," Liu Zhenguo reminded the group while pressing the stopwatch in his hand.

Wang Kai walked to the stone tablet, put his hands on his knees, and greedily inhaled the air from the mountaintop.

His quick-drying clothes were already soaked with water, and his calves were still trembling uncontrollably.

But he stubbornly refused to sit down and slowly walked around the stone tablet as Liu Zhenguo instructed.

Liu Mengyao walked to where the backpack was placed and took out a few bottles of mineral water.

She first handed one bottle to her father and one to Jiang Che, then took another bottle and walked toward Wang Kai.

"Here, drink slowly, don't choke." Liu Mengyao handed the water to Wang Kai.

Wang Kai took the bottle with both hands, and his fingers accidentally touched the back of Liu Mengyao's hand.

He quickly withdrew his hand, opened the bottle cap and took a small sip, his eyes darting to the side, not daring to look at Liu Mengyao at all.

The two walked over and found a clean rock to lean against, and began to chat casually.

Meanwhile, Jiang Che, after walking for a while with his hand on his waist, had almost calmed down and his breathing and heartbeat had returned to normal.

He tilted his head back and drank half a bottle of water, then poured the rest on his neck to cool down.

"You adjusted quite quickly, not bad." Liu Zhenguo walked up to Jiang Che's side at some point, and nodded in agreement as he watched Jiang Che's breathing gradually become steady.

"That's right, I didn't slack off while you were away."

Jiang Che wiped the water droplets from his face and teased him with a smile.

After pausing for a moment, Jiang Che glanced at the two people chatting enthusiastically not far away, then turned his gaze back to Liu Zhenguo and pointed to the observation platform on the other side of the observation deck.

"Grandpa Liu, I have something I'd like to discuss with you privately for a moment."

Liu Zhenguo nodded, and then the two of them walked towards the viewing platform.

Upon reaching the edge of the railing, before Jiang Che could even speak, Liu Zhenguo asked him, "Just say what you want to say. Do you think the training I arranged today was too much?"

"No matter how much training we do, it's all for the competition. I know that." Jiang Che leaned against the railing, turned his head to look at Liu Zhenguo, and said, "I wanted to talk to you about those three people on the marathon list."

After saying that, Jiang Che took out his phone from his pocket, opened several screenshots of documents, and handed them to Liu Zhenguo.

"After hanging up with you last night, I kept feeling that something was wrong with what I was thinking about, so I asked someone to check the rules for Kyoto University's special sports admissions."

Jiang Che pointed to the lines of text marked on the screen, "This investigation revealed a problem. Look here, all the provinces across the country are holding these kinds of sports events with selection elements."

"In Haishi, which is less than 300 kilometers away from our Lincheng, there will also be a marathon next week."

"The key point is that, based on past data, the results in this competition in Haishi are generally lower, and the competitive pressure is much less than in Lincheng."

Jiang Che paused for a moment, then swiped the screen to bring up Chen Feng's information. "This is Chen Feng, the provincial championship bronze medalist and national first-class athlete you mentioned."

"If it's really as you say, and he participated in the marathon to get a special admission qualification from Peking University, then with his level, if he went to Shanghai to run a marathon, getting a top-three finish would be as easy as buying a cabbage at the market."

"Although Lincheng is not a top-tier city like the capital, it is still quite large, making the competition much more difficult. His position in the top three is definitely not secure."