"Did I... do something wrong?" Jian Changnian hung her head, looking at her racket. "Maybe I should have let her win a game."
"Have you forgotten who told me that if you respect me, you should give it your all?"
Qiao Yuchu tapped her on the head.
Jian Changnian rubbed the spot where she had been hit and smiled somewhat embarrassedly: "Yeah, but it's not good for me to see her so down either, after all, we've been training together for so long."
"Alright, stop thinking about it so much. Go and prepare for the next match." Qiao Yuchu pushed the person out and said in a drawn-out voice.
After enduring three exceptionally difficult days of competition, Jian Changnian finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel on the fourth day. She won all the afternoon matches without any major incidents, and even managed to earn tenth place, which caused her ranking to rise rapidly to fourteenth place.
After a day of competition, Jian Changnian looked at her ranking on the leaderboard and breathed a sigh of relief. She had finally made it into the top fifteen and was no longer in danger of being eliminated. If she could win tomorrow's competition, she would be able to join the Binhai Provincial Team.
Thinking of this, the boy's lips curled into a wide smile.
Some are happy, some are sad.
In Jian Changnian's dormitory, one of her roommates had also been eliminated and was packing her things when her friend stood next to her, indignantly saying...
"I just don't understand. It was just one point, one point. We're such good friends, what's wrong with letting him win the game?"
Someone chimed in, "Yeah, that's right. Sun Qian and Jian Changnian fought today too, didn't they? At least leave some room for each other, Sun Qian, don't you think?"
No sooner had he finished speaking than Jian Changnian pushed the door open and came in.
The sound stopped abruptly.
She laughed somewhat carefree: "What were you all talking about just now? It was so lively."
Her roommate, who was about to leave, pushed her aside with her suitcase and walked away.
"It's nothing, just talking about some disloyal guys."
Jian Changnian scratched his head, somewhat puzzled, and turned his gaze to his other roommates.
What's wrong with her?
No one paid her any attention; some were working out, some were reading, and some were eating. She turned to Sun Qian for help.
Sun Qian didn't say anything and climbed into bed.
Even someone as oblivious as her finally sensed something was amiss.
It seems like I've been ostracized again.
This suffocating silence easily reminded her of her school days.
Memories flooded back, and Jian Changnian took two steps back, pursed her lips, and having nowhere else to go, she picked up her racket and went out again.
After she left, one of her roommates muttered, "What's she pretending for? It's the last day and she's still working so hard."
Sun Qian, who was tossing and turning in bed, couldn't fall asleep. Instead, she picked up her phone again and received a message from the other party.
"Have you thought it through? Do you want it or not?"
Sun Qian typed and deleted, deleted and typed again, gritting her teeth, and finally asked, "Is this medicine harmful to the body?"
"It's just a regular laxative; it'll give you diarrhea."
Seeing Sun Qian hesitate, the other party said again, "I'm really trying to help you. Prescription drugs are hard to get, but you can rest assured about the quality."
It was her first time doing something like this, and she was a little scared.
"Are you sure there won't be any problems? What if we get caught?"
"Are you stupid? If you do it discreetly, as long as no one finds out on the spot, it's just diarrhea, who would think of that?"
After repeated assurances from the other party, Sun Qian finally gritted her teeth, made a tough decision, and sent an "OK" gesture.
The other person replied with a "happy" emoji.
"Okay, I'll come find you tomorrow morning, see you at the usual place."
***
During a break after morning training, Qiao Yuchu went to the guardhouse to pick up a package. She vaguely saw two people standing by the wall, hidden by trees and flowers, so she couldn't see them clearly.
She took two steps forward: "Who's there?"
The moment she spoke, a figure darted into the bushes, and Sun Qian clutched her chest and turned around.
"It's you! You scared me to death!"
Qiao Yuchuxin said: "Standing there so suspiciously, I'm just glad I wasn't scared to death."
Why did you run outside?
Sun Qian shook the package in her hand, trying to remain calm.
"I came to pick up a package and took a walk around while I was at it."
"Come in quickly, or you'll get scolded again if Coach Yan finds out."
Sun Qian nodded: "Coming right now."
Before leaving, Qiao Yuchu took one last deep look into the bushes. She clearly saw two figures, so why was only Sun Qian the only one who came out? Or was she just seeing things?
Qiao Yuchu shook her head. Perhaps she was just overthinking things. She should hurry back.
Jian Changnian's performance in the morning was commendable, and she won another four points. She counted the whiteboard at the entrance of the training room and found that her ranking had reached eleven. She was so happy that she almost jumped up. But when she looked down again, the smile on her lips slowly disappeared.
Tied for eleventh place with her is Sun Qian, which means that they currently have the same score, making the afternoon's match crucial, as she may run into Sun Qian in the finals.
Having already won once, she somehow couldn't feel happy.
Qiao Yuchu patted her on the shoulder: "Let's go, don't think too much, focus on preparing for the afternoon's match, let's go eat first."
Jian Changnian followed in her footsteps: "Okay."
In the cafeteria.
Xie Shi'an poked at the rice in the plate: "You've been getting quite close to Jian Changnian lately."
He was teaching people how to play ball, and also inviting them to dinner.
For some reason, even though she said it so calmly, Qiao Yuchu felt a strange sense of indignation.
She couldn't help but laugh and gave her the big chicken leg from her bowl.
"Alright, I just take care of them because they are young and their family is not well-off. I am older than you, so I can take care of them as much as I can. Besides, when you first came to the Binhai Provincial Team, didn't I take care of you in the same way?"
"When are you going to get rid of this habit of claiming younger sisters everywhere?" Even though he said that, Xie Shi'an did not refuse her kindness.
The two people were arguing.
"When are you going to get rid of this habit of being jealous everywhere you go?"
"I..." Xie Shi'an was about to retort when he choked on his rice and started coughing, which made Qiao Yuchu burst into laughter.
"See, now you're getting your comeuppance for talking about me like that."
Before he could finish speaking, perhaps because he had choked too badly, Xie Shi'an coughed incessantly, his face turning red, and he was unable to speak.
Qiao Yuchu quickly put down her chopsticks and got up, patted her back to help her catch her breath, poured water from her own cup, and fed her small sips of water.
"Look at you, is it really necessary to make a joke like that? Okay, okay, I won't say it again."
In the moment when she was being cared for, Xie Shi'an could clearly feel that she was treated differently from others.
A warm feeling welled up in the boy's heart, a smile appeared on his lips, and he turned around and took her hand.
"It's alright, let's eat."
***
When Jian Changnian returned to her dormitory after lunch, she opened the door and found only Sun Qian there. Sun Qian was standing next to her desk, seemingly doing something, and looked flustered when she saw Jian Changnian.
"You...why are you back so early?"
Jian Changnian smiled and took her water glass from the table: "I wanted to finish eating quickly so I could play ball, but I realized I forgot my water glass, so I came back to get it. Didn't you go to eat? You're back so early."
"I...I don't have much of an appetite."
"You should eat something too, there's a match this afternoon."
"It's okay, I'm not very hungry. I'll just have some fruit later."
"Fruit? I have some here. I just bought some pears a couple of days ago. Here, take them."
When she said she wanted to eat fruit, Jian Changnian took out the only two pears left in her cupboard and put them in her hand.
Jian Changnian is usually a very frugal person. She was also present when they bought fruit. It cost 1.5 yuan per pound, and she only bought four. She couldn't bear to eat them herself and only used them to satisfy her craving.
Looking at the pear in her palm, Sun Qian moved her lips and called out to the departing woman, "Jian Changnian..."
Jian Changnian turned around with a smile: "What's wrong?"
It's like a thousand words are stuck in my chest.
Sun Qian only said one sentence in the end: "Good luck this afternoon."
"The same to you."
Jian Changnian waved and closed the dormitory door.
After she left, Sun Qian gave a bitter smile and said to Jian Changnian, "Don't blame me. Blame the competition rules and Coach Yan. Only one of us can make it in."
***
While others were taking a lunch break, Jian Changnian continued to train diligently, and Qiao Yuchu was also brought along as her sparring partner.
Where Qiao Yuchu is, Xie Shian is bound to be there too, but she has no interest in being someone's sparring partner. She lazily lies on a bench in the training room's rest area, listening to music and basking in the sun with her headphones on.
Jian Changnian played ball for a while, then suddenly her face changed, and she clutched her stomach and cried out, "Ouch... I can't take it anymore... I need to go to the toilet."
"Oh? Then hurry up and go."
As soon as Qiao Yuchu finished speaking, Jian Changnian threw down her racket and ran away.
Less than ten minutes after she returned, Jian Changnian was squatting down again, clutching her stomach, in so much pain that she couldn't straighten up.
Qiao Yuchu lifted the net and went to help her up: "What happened to you?"
Jian Changnian gritted her teeth, resisting the waves of pain surging through her lower abdomen.
"I don't know... I feel like I need to go to the toilet again."
Qiao Yuchu also put down her racket: "I'll go with you."