KMYB | Chapter 49

Xi Shui was called to draw lots. He drew number 5, out of a total of twenty people, which put him pretty far up front.

After changing into the black little athletic vest, Xi Shui went back into the tent and sat down, leaning against Zhou Zeqi as he whispered, "There's something weird about that person."

"Which one?"

Xi Shui pointed him out.

Zhou Zeqi followed the direction Xi Shui was pointing and looked over. The other person happened to look back too. Their eyes met, and the other person hurriedly looked away. It was the Jingxue boy who had verbally attacked Xi Shui yesterday.

Zhou Zeqi told Xi Shui.

Xi Shui calmly bent down, took a bottle, and unscrewed it. He took a sip.

"Not angry?" Zhou Zeqi asked.

"Not angry." Xi Shui shoved the water into Zhou Zeqi's hand. "Okay, I'm going to do a trial jump."

Xi Shui was delicate in a way that was almost unbelievable. He stood there quietly, and only raised his hand after his name was called. "Here."

Zhou Zeqi leaned back and kept his eyes on Xi Shui the whole time.

The starting bar for the high jump was one meter. After each round, the bar was raised by ten centimeters. The last one left standing would be first place, then second, then third, in order.

Meng Kewen sat next to Zhou Zeqi, chin lifted proudly. "At this height, it's nothing." He sounded like he was the one jumping.

Xi Shui rolled up his shirt sleeves. He wasn't wearing shoes with much elasticity either.

He stepped back to the run-up line and took off at a pace that wasn't really fast, more like a jog. As he neared the bar, he gave a light leap and cleared it easily, not even brushing the bar with his clothes, landing steadily on the foam mat.

One meter, after all.

No one was eliminated in the first round.

No one was eliminated in the second round.

Three people were eliminated in the third round.

…

By the time the bar was raised to 1.9 meters, only Xi Shui and the boy who had verbally attacked him were left.

Xi Shui instinctively turned back to look at Zhou Zeqi. But before Zhou Zeqi could even look over at him, he had already withdrawn his gaze.

By then, Xi Shui's back had been soaked through with hot sweat. The thin shirt had turned semi-transparent and clung to his back, and with the little vest over it, it was like he was wrapped up in heat.

Sweat slid down from Xi Shui's pretty brow bone and stung his eyes. He looked at the bar, which was already ten centimeters higher than his own height, standing right beneath the brightest patch of sunlight.

The one named Liu Yue jumped first. He was a little taller than Xi Shui.

He lengthened his run-up, then accelerated right before takeoff. He almost made it over, but his fingers knocked the bar to the ground, and he crashed heavily onto the foam mat as well.

Xi Shui didn't feel much schadenfreude. He was only nervous about whether he could succeed, whether he could take first place.

When Xi Shui stood at the run-up line preparing to start, Meng Kewen stood up and shouted, "Xi Shui, go for it!"

As soon as he shouted, Wu Fengyi shouted too.

And once Wu Fengyi shouted, everyone else started shouting as well. Old Zhou's boyfriend, after all, cheering for him was only natural.

Xi Shui smiled at Meng Kewen, then looked toward Zhou Zeqi.

There was a hint in that look, and expectation too.

Meng Kewen nudged Zhou Zeqi. "Old Zhou, that's your boyfriend. We've all cheered for him. You're not going to join in? That's not very nice."

There was still a bandage on the corner of Zhou Zeqi's mouth, making him look even more unruly.

He lowered his head, fished the student council megaphone out from under the table, pressed the power button, patted it a couple of times, cleared his throat, then lifted it to his mouth and drawled, "Xi Shui, Xiao Xi, baby, gooooo~"

He did it on purpose, calling him like that.

Xi Shui's face instantly turned bright red. The teasing around him swelled up too. Zhou Zeqi was so irritating, baby and all that, that kind of nickname should only be used in private.

The referee was a teacher from the sports institute. After watching the show, he blew his whistle. "All right, all right, quit fooling around. Let baby jump first."

For Xi Shui, the competition came first and shyness second. He temporarily pushed the shyness to the back.

When the whistle sounded, he treated the field as a stage. He didn't like losing.

The bar stood a solid ten centimeters above Xi Shui's height. When he took off, he clearly felt the part from his waist to his hips being yanked hard. It stung a little, but not enough to keep him from clearing the bar.

When he landed on the foam mat, the first thing he did was look up to see whether the bar had fallen. It was still steady up there.

Xi Shui laughed out loud.

Cheers rang in his ears.

Zhou Zeqi strode over, grabbed Xi Shui's hand, and helped him up. "What's wrong?"

Xi Shui sat up, still a little dazed from the fall. After a moment, he answered, "I pulled something in my waist, but it's fine." It hurt only for that moment, and the pain had already gone away.

The next event was the women's high jump. They needed the space.

Xi Shui was already moving normally. He stood in the tent drinking water, and after finishing the whole bottle, he stuffed it into Zhou Zeqi's collar. He got a look for it, and quickly took it back out. Only then, gripping the bottle, did he notice Liu Yue standing not far away, staring over here the whole time.

It was that boy from yesterday who had said, "Ballet dancers are so girly."

The other person walked toward Xi Shui.

Then stopped in front of him.

Zhou Zeqi lifted his eyelids. "Got something to say?"

"I want to apologize to him," Liu Yue said to Zhou Zeqi, while looking at Xi Shui too. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that to you yesterday."

Xi Shui clutched the mineral water bottle and shook his head. "You're only apologizing because I won. If I had lost, you'd think you were right. Even if you apologize to me, that doesn't mean anything. I'm not winning just to show you."

Liu Yue looked a little embarrassed. His lips moved. Thinking of the way Xi Shui had jumped just now, the powerful energy in him, so different from the dancing boy in his impression, he said, "I'm sorry."

Xi Shui nodded. "Okay."

Zhou Zeqi pulled Xi Shui to sit down, then looked up at Liu Yue. "All right, it's nothing. Just be more careful next time. Not everyone is as easy to talk to as I am."

Liu Yue's expression stiffened. Easy to talk to? Zhou Zeqi was easy to talk to? He had almost kicked him all the way to heaven!

After watching Liu Yue leave, Lin Xiaojin came back right after finishing his own event and rinsed his mouth with water nearby.

"I'm not good at long jump, okay? Can triple jump even be done by a human? I went straight down face-first, with sand all over my mouth," Lin Xiaojin complained.

"What are we going to eat tonight?" Lin Xiaojin asked.

Xi Shui said, "I'm going home. I haven't really been practicing these past few days."

Zhou Zeqi squeezed Xi Shui's fingers. "I'll make you crab roe noodles."

Xi Shui agreed instantly. "Okay!"

After hearing their conversation, Lin Xiaojin turned back in disbelief. "So you're just going home to eat good food by yourselves!"

Xi Shui looked at Zhou Zeqi and thought about taking Lin Xiaojin along too.

Zhou Zeqi spoke up in time. "You can find yourself a boyfriend too, then have your boyfriend take you home to eat good food."

Xi Shui suddenly understood. "Oh, right!"

Lin Xiaojin: "?" Xiao Xi has been corrupted by Zhou Zeqi!

–

Xu Wei posted in the class group chat saying that even though it was a holiday because of the sports meet, rehearsals for the stage play couldn't fall behind. There must not be any mistakes in the performance at the Grand Theater.

Xi Shui sat in the practice room at home wearing his rehearsal clothes, analyzing the final variation of Sorol in the video on his tablet.

When Zhou Zeqi came in, he did it silently and startled Xi Shui.

"Dinner's ready?" Xi Shui dropped the tablet, his face full of surprise and delight as he was about to stand up.

Zhou Zeqi pressed a hand to his shoulder and laughed. "Am I your cook?"

"…No." Xi Shui answered.

"Didn't you strain your waist in the high jump this afternoon? I brought some medicinal oil." Zhou Zeqi opened the bottle, and the smell of herbs came drifting out. "Our coach bought this from a very famous old Chinese doctor who specializes in treating sprains and bruises."

Zhou Zeqi looked at Xi Shui, and Xi Shui looked back at him very seriously too.

After a moment, Zhou Zeqi dragged Xi Shui closer. "Lift your shirt."

The practice clothes were pure white, a low-necked white long-sleeve top. The back was a little sheer, like the hazy wings of a white butterfly. The fitted pants and the white soft-soled shoes seemed to blend into one. Xi Shui sat cross-legged on the floor and lifted the hem of his shirt.

"It doesn't hurt," Xi Shui said softly. "Maybe my posture was just off at the time."

Zhou Zeqi didn't say anything. He poured some of the medicinal oil into his palm and gently pressed it against Xi Shui's waist.

The cold liquid made Xi Shui shiver. He even let out a "hiss."

It hurt inside.

"If you leave it alone, tomorrow you might hurt so much you won't be able to get up," Zhou Zeqi said slowly as he gently rubbed it in.

Put nicely, Zhou Zeqi was a free and carefree young man. Put harshly, he was a selfish and defiant bastard who didn't care about the dean's attempts to keep him, and didn't care about his father's beatings or scoldings either.

Anyway, the Zhou Zeqi Xi Shui had known before was half good and half bad.

Xi Shui tilted his head and looked at Zhou Zeqi very seriously, thinking.

Zhou Zeqi should be a very good person.

"Done." Zhou Zeqi withdrew his hand, and when his gaze shifted, he saw that Xi Shui had been staring at him the whole time.

Xi Shui rested his face on Zhou Zeqi's knee like a cat. "I don't want to go abroad anymore."

If he went abroad, no one would cook for him, and no one would rub medicine on him. Most importantly, there wouldn't be Zhou Zeqi abroad.

Zhou Zeqi screwed the cap back on the bottle, wiped his hands, then bent down and lifted Xi Shui up in one motion, making him straddle his lap.

Zhou Zeqi's eyes were pitch-black. Looking into the mirror, Xi Shui's lower back was only a little wider than one of his palms. His toes touched the floor and instinctively rose onto tiptoe, revealing a faintly visible line of smooth muscle along his back.

"Why?" Zhou Zeqi asked softly, pressing his forehead against Xi Shui's nose.

Xi Shui shifted forward a little and wrapped his arms around Zhou Zeqi's neck. "I was just saying it. I still want to go."

"…" Zhou Zeqi lifted the hem of his shirt with his fingers and searched upward along the curve of his waist. "A spur-of-the-moment idea?"

Xi Shui leaned into Zhou Zeqi's arms. "I just suddenly had that thought, so I said it. But that's normal, isn't it?"

Zhou Zeqi's movements stilled. "How do you mean?"

Xi Shui sat up straight, both hands resting on Zhou Zeqi's shoulders like little cat paws. "I thought about it. If I really couldn't bear to leave you, and I left without hesitation and without feeling sad, that would be wrong. It would mean I don't like you enough."

"But when you were putting medicine on me just now, I already couldn't bear to leave you in advance."

"When I thought about not being able to see you for a year, I felt so sad."

Xi Shui said it frankly and directly. He was fine, but Zhou Zeqi's eyes slowly turned red instead.

A thin glimmer appeared in Zhou Zeqi's dark eyes. He caught Xi Shui by the chin, leaned in, and kissed him densely and thoroughly, biting at Xi Shui's soft lips. Xi Shui had always been very obedient when being kissed, and he would even slowly learn how to respond on his own.

The lingering kiss ended just as lingeringly. Xi Shui panted in small breaths. He still had something to say.

"Then what about you?" Xi Shui looked steadily at Zhou Zeqi. "When I told you I was going abroad, you didn't seem to say you couldn't bear to part with me. You accepted it right away."

Zhou Zeqi's hand on Xi Shui's waist was shaking.

Xi Shui was like a star fallen into the mortal world, rare and precious. He had thought everyone was like him, that if you liked someone, you said it, if you couldn't bear to part with them, you said it, if you were sad, you said it too. Anyway, he didn't hide things.

Zhou Zeqi was restrained, was patient, because he knew Xi Shui would not only say "I like you, I like you, I like you," he might also say,

"Don't block my way."

"You're affecting my future, I want to break up."

Or,

"You're so annoying, don't interfere with me."

Zhou Zeqi held Xi Shui's back. "Didn't you also say that I couldn't affect your decision?"

"That's two different things," Xi Shui said seriously. "You have to be unable to bear losing me."

Zhou Zeqi smiled, his eyes growing redder and redder. "When did I ever say I could bear to lose you?"

He hadn't said it.

But he also hadn't said he couldn't bear it.

Xi Shui was just about to question the flaw in Zhou Zeqi's words when he saw a tear fall heavily from Zhou Zeqi's left eye. Zhou Zeqi leaned toward him and bit hard into Xi Shui's cheek. "There are still a few months before you go abroad, and you have to bring it up now. You're just dying for my heart to hurt, aren't you?"

Xi Shui winced and shook his head repeatedly.

He leaned in and kissed Zhou Zeqi's left eye, the salty tear there. "Did I make you cry?"

He was uneasy, his heart shrinking into something tiny, like a peach pit.

"No," Zhou Zeqi said hoarsely. "It hurt me into tears."