A Young Woman's Heart

However, the atmosphere at the scene was still very enthusiastic. Many people may not understand the rules, but they were excited to see so many amazing people preparing to start the race.

"It's our class's turn?" Mo Xueyao bumped her head against Hua Yinyin's head.

"Yes, Li Hongran is over there, getting ready to start running."

"Where? Oh... I see it."

"Go, Lao Li!" Gao Yuan shouted excitedly from the windowsill. Li Hongran below obviously heard him and raised her head to wave vigorously in the direction of Class 2, Grade 11.

"On your marks—get set—Bang!" The starting gun fired again, and everyone shot off like arrows.

Mr. Xue, who was also watching the game from the window, suddenly exclaimed "Huh?"

"What's wrong, Xiaoxue?"

"He ran too fast."

Isn't being fast a good thing?

“This is a 1000-meter race; running too fast will quickly exhaust you.” Mr. Xue said with some doubt, “He doesn’t seem like someone who doesn’t know this, does he?”

"Uh...it really does seem very fast."

"Wow--!!"

The students' shouts had already echoed throughout the entire school.

Everyone was amazed by Li Hongran's speed and wondered how much longer he could run.

He had already overtaken the members of the training team and was now in first place, with the gap widening. After the second lap, the rules allowed him to enter the inner lane, and he quickly ran to the innermost lane, sprinting at an even faster speed.

Yes... it's like I've been sprinting 100 meters the whole time.

However, he ran as if taking a leisurely stroll, each step effortlessly, without any sense of strain.

Later on, he had even surpassed everyone by half a lap, and those who ran slower had been left a full lap behind.

Exclamations of amazement and cheers mingled together, and many people were asking which class the student was from.

Li Hongran ran straight to the finish line, and in the last fifty meters, she even had the mood to speed up a bit more.

"This guy... is too outrageous!" Mo Xueyao was dumbfounded, and it seemed that he hadn't even used his full strength, because when he stopped, he was only slightly out of breath and stood to the side looking very relaxed.

“We underestimated him,” Mr. Xue chuckled. “He doesn’t seem to have reached his limit yet.”

"yes……"

A short while later, a large group of students from Class 2 returned to the classroom, and Yang Yankai excitedly shouted, "Li Hongran has broken the school record!"

"It looks like he's definitely going to be number one this time!"

Finally, Li Hongran walked in surrounded by people. Everyone was excitedly talking about the exaggerated running speed she had just witnessed. For ordinary students, this was the fastest 1,000-meter running speed they had ever seen in real life.

"So, what was the final score?" Mo Xueyao asked curiously.

Ma Jianhang, who had just run down with them, excitedly replied, "Two minutes and forty-two seconds! If the weather were better, it could probably be even faster!"

"It's not that fast," Wang Jiale muttered. "If we convert it to my sprint times..."

"Pfft, how can you convert it like that! The physical exertion is different..." Mo Xueyao rolled her eyes, quite envious of Li Hongran's physique.

If she could behave like a boy, she would definitely wish she could be that tall and strong.

Unfortunately, her height of 1.62 meters hasn't changed recently.

Thinking about it carefully, even in the women's 800-meter race, she couldn't possibly run it in under three minutes...

Even running for three and a half minutes would be tough.

The first day of the sports meet ended in the still-falling rain.

The vendors were packing up their stalls, and students who still wanted to buy food would approach them. Sometimes, the vendors would even offer a discount on the leftover food. Many senior and junior high school students knew that there would be clearance sales, so they deliberately came over after school to buy more and eat it slowly on their way home.

Duanmu Ji was 'sparring' with Mr. Xue at the school gate, which was actually just imitating the martial arts masters in TV dramas, exchanging moves with each other.

"What kind of move is that?"

"Tai Chi Push Hands," Mr. Xue smiled. "I learned it from an old man in the park. What about you?"

"My style, um... let's call it Mantis Boxing." Duanmu Ji imitated a few moves from the movie and looked quite cool.

"Then I'll use this one."

"This is... Wing Chun?"

"Correct."

"It's quite similar," Duanmu Ji commented earnestly.

As Mo Xueyao and the others walked out of the school gate, Duanmu Ji immediately stopped his childish behavior and coughed lightly at the flower bed next to him.

Mr. Xue, however, still seemed unsatisfied and performed a set of Wing Chun moves, leaving Mo Xueyao somewhat stunned.

Actually, he's not that 'mature' after all!

He sometimes does the same childish things that boys do, but he's just more frank about it than others—simply put, he doesn't feel embarrassed.

So much so that sometimes when Mr. Xue does something childish, no one thinks it's childish anymore.

"Hey, Xiaoyao." Mr. Xue raised his hand to Mo Xueyao.

"What are you two doing at the school gate?" Lu Chengyuan asked on Mo Xueyao's behalf, tilting the umbrella she was holding slightly.

"Nothing." Duanmu Ji turned his head away with a gloomy expression.

Now Mo Xueyao knew what that expression meant; it was just a disguise she had put on herself.

“I’m imitating kung fu from the movies.” Mr. Xue was quite frank, so much so that the girls didn’t know what to say. He paused and then continued, “I invited Xiao Ji to my house for dinner, and we’re waiting for my father to pick us up.”

"drive?"

"Motorcycle." Mr. Xue smiled.

"What's the occasion? Are you inviting him out for dinner?"

"Ordinary days".

"Huh—?"

"What's so strange about that?" Mo Xueyao glanced at Lu Chengyuan sideways. "It's perfectly normal for good friends to stay overnight at each other's houses."

"I know, but I feel like Duanmu Ji and Xiaoxue don't usually talk much. How did they become good friends?"

"It happened when you weren't paying attention?"

"Haha! We met at a science fair. He and I are both very interested in the field of robotics."

"A machine...?" Mo Xueyao seemed to have sensed something. She looked at Duanmu Ji with suspicion and said something that puzzled everyone else, "Uh... the legs are just decorations. The important people above wouldn't understand?"

Duanmu Ji coughed heavily twice, his face full of embarrassment.

Mo Xueyao finally understood what had happened.

These two people, one of whom became a fan of Gundam because of the anime, also known as robots, and because he would buy Gundams to assemble, Mr. Xue considered him a fellow enthusiast.

While hobbies may have some similarities, they are definitely not the same kind of hobby.

The core of robotics is programming, which has nothing to do with assembling a toy.

“He has all sorts of interesting ideas.” Mr. Xue gently patted Duanmu Ji on the back. “He’s now in charge of designing the robot’s appearance and functions.”

"I understand..."

This means that Duanmu Ji was responsible for drawing up the blueprints of the 'fantasy', while Mr. Xue was responsible for bringing it to reality.

In a sense, these two are a perfect match.

She couldn't help but want to laugh, but she managed to hold it in.

Just then, a man who looked similar to Mr. Xue, but much more weathered, stopped his motorcycle beside them.

He was still wearing fairly formal work clothes, clearly indicating that he had just finished get off work.

They look like a white-collar worker or a teacher?

Mr. Xue nimbly jumped into the car first, then reached out and pulled Duanmu Ji up, waving to the girls: "See you tomorrow."

"Bye-bye!" Mo Xueyao called out, then muttered softly, "I hope it won't rain tomorrow..."

"The weather forecast says it won't rain tomorrow," Li Wanyan said softly.

"Let's go, are we going to change the bandages again today? Is the class monitor all better yet?" Lu Chengyuan walked along the paving stones, taking two steps at a time.

"It should be almost done, right?" Mo Xueyao asked Li Wanyan.

"Soon, at most half a month." She nodded slightly and turned the umbrella handle.

"Phew, it's good to be back to normal. I have to be more careful when I walk next time. It's not even safe to walk on the sidewalk..." Mo Xueyao muttered. "If a big truck comes, it's best to be ready to avoid it at any time."

"Walking like that would be too tiring, wouldn't it?"

"Safety first."

"Hurry up!" Lu Chengyuan was already standing more than ten meters away. She turned around and waved her umbrella vigorously at the two of them, splashing rainwater onto passersby.

A burly man almost cursed, but seeing that it was a little girl wandering around, he swallowed his words, wiped the rain off his arms, and left.

A little girl wearing yellow rain boots skipped and twirled as she walked by, seemingly without any concern that she might fall.

Upon seeing this, Mo Xueyao shouted at Lu Chengyuan, "Chengyuan, look, someone even more childish than you is here!"

"I can't understand whether you're praising me or insulting me!" Actually, she understood perfectly well. "You guys aren't much better, you're as slow as snails."

"Safety first!" Mo Xueyao said again.

"Tch~ I'll go first then?" Lu Chengyuan pretended to run a few steps forward, and a pickup truck sped up from behind, splashing water several meters away, as if water was being poured on her.

"How do you drive like that!" she shouted angrily.

"Hahaha—" Mo Xueyao almost laughed herself to death, "Serves you right, you ran so fast, now you're all soaked!"

"Xiao Yao is really gloating—" Lu Chengyuan darted to Mo Xueyao's side, deliberately tilting the umbrella slightly so that a little rainwater would flow into the back of her collar.

"Hiss—it's so cold!"

"Operation a success!"

"Hey, why are you starting to spend silver coins too?!"