Cycling: Racing into the Headwind

Chen Junyi’s sudden shift in mood caught Huang Chong completely off guard.

He genuinely had no idea how his suggestion had upset her so suddenly, and for a moment, all he could do was remain silent.

But from Chen Junyi’s perspective, she had every reason to be unhappy with Huang Chong’s proposal.

The way he’d phrased it made it sound as if she were only in it for the money.

The things she’d said to Huang Chong in Qinghai about salary and the like had been complete jokes.

That was also why she hadn’t accepted any payment or perks after helping Huang Chong negotiate with those two Pro Teams.

But to her surprise, Huang Chong had taken her jokes seriously.

She fell silent for a moment, her mind drifting back to the celebration banquet Dewey had arranged for Huang Chong. She remembered how Wu Fang had chatted with her at the dinner table, telling her all about Huang Chong’s personality.

That was why she could, on some level, understand that he was like a blank sheet of paper when it came to expressing his feelings.

Wooden, timid, painstakingly cautious—

He seemed to be a little bit of all of them.

And he was incredibly passive by nature.

He clearly wanted her to go abroad with him. He couldn’t manage without her help and even needed her, with all her overseas experience, by his side just to feel a sense of security. Yet, he had to go and use this painfully awkward framework of an employment contract to ask her to come along—

It was just so hard for her to accept.

’I’ve been working for so long, with subsidies from the provincial team and a salary from the cycling team. Do I really look like I need the money?’

’We’ve known each other for a year and a half. If he’d just asked me for a favor, of course I would have said yes.’

’It makes no difference to me whether I go abroad now or later, anyway.’

’Besides, my major is in sports data analytics, and my master’s thesis has been focused on analyzing his data for ages.’

’Following him around, constantly collecting information and building data models, not only provides the country with valuable training data but also directly contributes to my graduate thesis. The two are one and the same.’

And so, after Chen Junyi’s rare bout of anger, they drove the rest of the way in silence. Only when she had pulled up in front of her apartment building did she finally break the quiet.

"Let’s eat at my place first. After lunch, I’ll take you to Dewey’s."

Huang Chong mumbled an "Mm," but a thought nagged at him. ’I just made her mad and haven’t even apologized. Now I’m going to her house to eat? That’s pretty shameless of me.’

After a moment’s thought, his face flushed as he summoned his courage and apologized.

"Uh—did I say something wrong just now? Did I upset you?

I’m sorry. Please don’t hold it against me.

You know I’m not good at expressing myself. Just tell me what I said wrong, and I’ll fix it, I promise!"

Hearing him say that, and seeing how incredibly cautious he was being, made her heart soften.

She wasn’t an unreasonable person, and she couldn’t stand seeing him act so meek and humbled just because of her mood.

’Sigh... What a blockhead.’

She hesitated for a moment before speaking with equal sincerity.

"Huang Chong, I was a little angry, it’s true.

Because I feel like we’ve known each other for quite a while now.

We’re not just colleagues, are we? We’re friends in our personal lives too, right?

Do you really think I’m that materialistic?

That I only do things if there’s money involved?"

Hearing this, even an emotional simpleton like him could grasp her meaning. He immediately shook his head back and forth like a toy drum and replied without hesitation:

"No, of course you’re not.

If you really cared that much about money, there’s no way you would have spent the last year and a half doing more than just your job. You wouldn’t have helped me with so many personal things just so I could focus on riding without any worries.

I know, really. It’s the little, everyday things that are the most draining, and you can’t put a price on them.

Like when I was training in Ali. You weren’t just managing my training schedule. There were several times we couldn’t make it back to a city before dark and had to camp in the middle of nowhere. You still had to cook for me, taking care of everything I ate and needed—

None of that was part of your job description, but you still did it all so perfectly!"

"So you do know my character and what kind of person I am."

Chen Junyi breathed a sigh of relief, seeing that Huang Chong remembered everything she had done for him.

’I was honestly worried he was just a clueless oaf.’

’If he’d taken everything I did for granted, I would have been so disappointed.’

She said frankly,

"You know, if you had just asked me for help as a friend, I would’ve said yes."

Huang Chong felt a surge of shame when he heard that.

On second thought, he realized he really had handled things far too awkwardly. He quickly tried to recover.

"Right, right, you’re right.

My emotional intelligence was just in the gutter. I was rude and didn’t consider your feelings at all. Let me try again.

Could you please come to Europe with me? I really, really need you!

Without you, I’ll be a nervous wreck! I won’t feel safe at all!"

When Chen Junyi heard those last two sentences, her face suddenly grew warm.

She’d never been in a relationship before, and no one had ever spoken to her with such ambiguous, almost intimate, words.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Back in school, especially in college, plenty of guys had tried to woo her on social media with what they thought were romantic lines but which, in reality, just made her cringe.

She’d just ignored and instantly blocked them all!

But no one had ever dared to say something like that to her face.

She knew, however, that Huang Chong didn’t mean it in a romantic sense. So, after a brief flicker of emotion, she quickly regained her composure.