Chapter 59: A Feast for the Eyes
Seeing the astonished expressions on the PE teacher and the sports representative, Chen Mo smiled and walked in slow circles nearby to ease his slightly aching muscles. He looked at Tian Jing and said, "The Olympics? That’s an exaggeration. I’ve just been watching some long-distance running tutorials and practicing a bit, that’s all."
Watching the beads of sweat on Chen Mo’s Adam’s apple glisten in the sun, Tian Jing’s brow furrowed at his dismissive explanation—she had clearly witnessed an extremely professional performance in his run.
That wasn’t something you could achieve just by watching a few tutorial videos.
’If it were that easy, then what about the techniques I teach in class every day? How come no one else has picked it up? Why hadn’t Chen Mo picked it up before now?’
Just then, Su Yuqing took a pack of tissues from her pocket, pulled one out, and handed it to Chen Mo, gesturing for him to wipe his sweat.
Chen Mo accepted it with a smile.
Neither of them spoke a word, but the shared smiles and locked gazes created an atmosphere thick with romantic tension.
Watching from the side, Zhao Yuanyuan broke into the grin of someone fervently shipping a couple.
After the 1000-meter run, Chen Mo’s time shattered the school’s all-time record, causing Tian Jing to pay even closer attention to him.
"Chen Mo, with your talent, you genuinely have the potential to be an athlete. If you’re at all interested, I’d strongly advise you to consider it." Seeing that Chen Mo had already recovered his normal breathing after the 1000-meter run, Tian Jing spoke up again.
"While making a name for yourself as an athlete is a great prospect, they’re also prone to a lot of injuries. For me, sports are just a hobby to stay healthy. I’m not too keen on turning it into something competitive," Chen Mo replied, looking at Tian Jing.
Hearing this, Tian Jing didn’t press the matter.
She simply hated to see such talent go to waste, but students have their own plans, and she certainly wasn’t going to interfere.
She just found it a little unfortunate, that’s all.
Once the boys finished their 1000-meter test, Tian Jing let them rest for a bit while the girls began their 800-meter test.
Su Yuqing might have looked delicate, but she was actually quite athletic.
Her gym grades were about average for the girls in her class. However, she was... particularly well-developed in certain areas, which made running a bit more of a strain for her.
The moment it was the girls’ turn to run, all the boys resting on the grass instantly perked up.
Because when the girls started running, certain parts of them would jiggle involuntarily with the motion, which was quite a sight for many of the boys.
This was especially true for those who liked to spend their days critiquing and ranking the girls’ figures; they loved using this opportunity to verify their assessments.
On a normal day, they could only make objective judgments about size. But now, they could visually gauge a girl’s figure by the way she moved, which naturally made them pay even closer attention.
The instant Tian Jing’s whistle blew, the girls on the track shot forward as one.
The girl with the ponytail leading the pack was none other than the star of the school’s track team, Zhou Xiaolin. Her arms pumped with the rhythm of a professional athlete, and she quickly opened up a thirty-meter lead on the runner in second place right from the start.
"Control your breathing! In through your nose, out through your mouth! Don’t lose the rhythm! If you’re already breathing only through your mouth before you’ve even finished one lap and your throat starts to hurt, that means your pacing is wrong!" Tian Jing’s shout echoed across the field.
Soon, the first lap was over. The boys’ gazes were intensely focused on the girls’ chests, each one of them watching with keen interest.
Su Yuqing was in the middle of the pack, strands of hair plastered to her flushed cheeks with sweat.
By now, she could no longer get enough air just by breathing through her nose. As she began to gasp through her mouth, a metallic, rusty taste flooded her throat—the characteristic feeling of suffocation from an 800-meter race, tearing at her lungs.
Just as she was feeling exhausted, she caught a glimpse of Chen Mo out of the corner of her eye. He was on the grass, watching her with focused attention.
Chen Mo had walked to the edge of the track. He looked at Su Yuqing and Zhao Yuanyuan, who were running one after the other, and shouted to Su Yuqing, "Go, Yuqing! You can start your final sprint soon! Don’t let Little Yueyue beat you!"
Chen Mo’s words of encouragement from the side of the track gave Su Yuqing a surge of new strength.
"You’re playing favorites!" Zhao Yuanyuan immediately protested, puffing out her cheeks at Chen Mo.
Chen Mo laughed and pointed to Huang Mao, who was bent over with his hands on his knees, resting at a corner up ahead. "There’s someone over there waiting to cheer for you," he said.
For once, Huang Mao had actually run with some effort today, leaving him panting like a dog. He was still trying to catch his breath.
Following Chen Mo’s finger, she saw Huang Mao standing there. Zhao Yuanyuan’s face flushed. "Who needs his cheering?"
"Yuanyuan, get ready to sprint."
The phrase ’Release stress through exercise,’ a line she’d once seen on TV, suddenly surfaced in her mind. She bit her lower lip and immediately began to speed up.
The reason her athletic ability was only average for the class was that she would try to do some light exercise whenever she felt stressed.
While this had given her an exceptionally well-proportioned figure, it had also allowed her to release some of her stress.
But it was no use when the stress built up faster than she could release it.
It only slowed down her eventual breakdown.
Now, however, the pressure she felt wasn’t nearly as heavy, making the mental boost from exercise that much more effective.
Seeing Su Yuqing suddenly accelerate, Zhao Yuanyuan refused to be outdone and immediately sprinted to keep up.
And just as expected, when Zhao Yuanyuan ran closer, Huang Mao immediately started cheering for her at the top of his lungs.
This made Zhao Yuanyuan’s face, already flushed from the run, turn an even deeper shade of red.
She never felt the slightest bit embarrassed when she cheered for others, no matter how loudly she yelled.
But when others cheered for her, she felt like she was under a spotlight, as if everyone’s gaze was fixed on her. The attention made her too shy to know how to react.
When Zhou Xiaolin crossed the finish line, the stopwatch read 2:38. Her performance was met with whistles from some of the other boys on the sidelines.
Tian Jing, however, turned to look back at the bend—Su Yuqing was stumbling forward, overtaking the runner in fourth place.
Chen Mo subconsciously took half a step forward.
When Su Yuqing crossed the finish line in fourth place, she was met with the sight of a familiar handkerchief.
"Here, wipe your sweat," Chen Mo said, grinning at Su Yuqing.
Following his mother’s advice, Chen Mo always carried a handkerchief, specifically for a girl who might need one.
That was why he hadn’t taken it out when he was sweating himself. But now that Su Yuqing needed it, he offered it to her without a second thought.
"Wow, Brother Mo, you’re so biased! I want a handkerchief too," Zhao Yuanyuan said, feigning envy when she saw this.
Hearing her, Chen Mo remembered that Lin Yu’an had returned a handkerchief to him that day. He smiled, took it out, and handed it to Zhao Yuanyuan. "There. Not playing favorites now, am I?"
Seeing this from the sidelines, Huang Mao couldn’t help but think to himself, ’Maybe I should start carrying a handkerchief, too.’