The sky was clear and the sun was bright.
The second-year ss one was now marching towards us!
The first-year students had already passed by once, and now they were gathered in their respective squares, chattering away. For high school students, the school sports meet was essentially a holiday. It was rare to have such an opportunity to gossip without being reprimanded, so any little thing was enough to set them off. For example—
"What''s that flying in the sky?"
"Wow, a UFO!"
Are you still in kindergarten or something?
But their attention was only briefly captured by the drone in the sky before it shifted back to the second-year ss one''s square... because the ones leading their formation weren''t humans, but four cats.
And not just any cats—four cats wearing the same set of uniforms!n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
The tabby trotted ahead, leisurely leading the way, with the lion cat a step behind. The other two followed at a distance, but they were more or less on the same level.
Behind them, the students of second-year ss one (thepetition ss) marched, their capes fluttering in the autumn wind. Chang Yixin held the ss sign at the front, his gaze fixed straight ahead, while the others tried their best to suppress their excitement, though it was clear they were thrilled.
...Of course, the juniors didn''t notice.
They thought it was super cool!
And—
"Cats!" "Is the one at the front Chu Tingwu''s?" "Who''s Chu Tingwu...?" "Oh,e on, don''t you ever go online?" "How did they even manage to get the cats to behave like that...?" "Ugh, I really want to pet them!"
Sanwuwu''s ears twitched, lowering in the wind as they approached the podium. She meowed once, turning halfway around, and the other three cats paused for a moment before following her lead.
Thus, when they reached the front of the podium, the four cats were sitting facing the principal and the directors.
Principal: "...?"
The students of thepetition ss stopped in unison, turned around, and, except for Chang Yixin, ced their hands behind their backs.
Although it felt a bit strange, the principal and teachers couldn''t help but smile... even if thepetition ss just strolled around without any preparation, they wouldn''t say anything. After all, these were the best students in the school, and they were bound to receive more favor.
But seeing them full of energy, their faces glowing with excitement, and their expressions brimming with vitality, the teachers were also quite pleased—
["The students of second-year ss one shout their slogan loudly—"]
The announcer''s steady voice came through the loudspeakers, as each ss had toe up with a slogan for thepetition.
["(Sound of flipping through papers, pause)"]
"Meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow meow—meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow meow!"
The first "meow" wasn''t very synchronized at first, since they really hadn''t rehearsed, but after the first line (?), the meows turned into a roar, somehow quite imposing!
Podium: "...?"
Sanwuwu: "=="
Sanwuwu raised a paw, pressing down on the little ck cat that was startled and about to run away. She meowed twice to scold it, and then, after Chang Yixin shouted "One, two," the students turned around energetically and continued marching away with steady steps.
They were supposed to circle half the field and return to their fixed position.
Podium: "...?"
Alright, maybe the academic pressure was a bit high, and the students of thepetition ss had a slightly off direction for their "spirit."
Standing far away, not having to follow the students, Teacher Shi covered his face at one corner of the yground.
Halfway through, Chang Yixin raised the ss sign and lifted a hand, shing it down forcefully—
"Meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow meow—meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow meow!"
Chu Tingwu: "...?"
She opened her mouth, but no sound came out.
But the squares on the yground were alreadyughing hysterically.
Someone nudged Chu Tingwu and asked curiously, "Why is one of those drones always following us and filming?"
Chu Tingwu: Don''t ask me.
Doing something embarrassing together somehow made it less... well, no, it was still very embarrassing! Why not just use the "ss One, ss One" slogan? Who even came up with the idea of meowing, "Anyway, we''ve shouted our slogan, if humans can''t understand, that''s their problem," An Shiyan, you''re human too, okay! And your grammar is wrong!
But whatever... they just didn''t have time to practice grammar.
Chu Tingwu''s gaze went nk as she stood in the ss square, being punished by standing. At first, everyone could stand properly, butter they started leaning left and right, because the cats were in front, and those at the front waved for others to cover them as they crouched down to pet the cats.
The neighboring ss also asionally peeked over—mainly to see their cats. With others looking on with envy, the ones in front crouched even more enthusiastically.
Suddenly, a shout came from the front—
Chu Tingwu didn''t need to look up, as she already knew what had happened, even though those around her were surprised.
It was the third-year ss three''s square. When they reached the middle of the podium, a peacock "flew out" from the middle of the formation, circled once above the students'' heads, and then quietlynded... right on the podium, facing the principal.
Principal: "...?"
Chang Yile in the middle of ss three: Ahhhh!
Eggy, Eggy, you''re too excited, you flew too high,e back quickly! We didn''t practice it like this!
This blue peacock, who had grown up in the school, was not afraid of people at all, so it continued to face the people on the long table excitedly, shaking its tail feathers and opening its tail.
The principal''s mouth twitched.
The students below: "...?"
In theory, the tail should have been quite beautiful, but their perspective... was from behind the peacock! Blue Eggy, your butt is showing!
The drones were still filming!
After showing off its tail and circling once, it finally agreed to fly down and returned to the middle of ss three. The ss managed to shout their slogan in unison before returning to their position, though their steps were a bit hurried.
Perhaps because they had just witnessed two "animal performances," the atmosphere wasn''t as lively for the following sses, until the third-year ss five performed a Beijing opera.
Students: "Whoa!"
It was impressive that the announcer could keep their voice steady and full of energy for over two hours. Eventually, the opening ceremony ended.
Since there wasn''t enough time, only the preliminary round of the 100-meter race was held in the morning. The students participating in the race went to change and warm up, while the others either strolled around the yground or sat in the spectator stands.
Chu Tingwu was one of the ones sitting. Maybe because just sitting wasn''t interesting enough, the drone that had been fixed above her finally moved away.
The school sports meet was also a snack exchange event. Everyone had left their bags in the ssroom, and now a few students had been sent to fetch them, each bag filled with snacks.
Chu Tingwu opened her bag, just taking out a bottle of water, when she noticed the student next to her pulling out a workbook, putting on headphones, and starting to solve problems without a care in the world.
Chu Tingwu: "=="
At least half of the students in thepetition ss were like this. Their second year was equivalent to other people''s third year, so the pressure was considerable—even without teachers urging them, they would study on their own. This school sports meet didn''t have many active participants; most arrangements were passed through in one go because other students didn''t want to participate. The slogan was the same—simple enough not to need rehearsal, who cared if it was embarrassing or not?
No, Chu Tingwu thought, she couldn''t be influenced by this studying atmosphere—
So she climbed to the front row of seats and continued drinking water.
The "seats" they were in were tiered, located on both sides of the podium, forming an arc. Chang Yixin ced the ss sign beside him and saw Chu Tingwu: "Chu Chu, I just asked the teacher, short-distance running isn''t allowed, but during the long-distance race, we can run alongside...”
Meaning that while the participants were on the track, non-participants from the same ss could run alongside on the sides to encourage them, without being affected by the pace of the front runners.
Chu Tingwu: "I don''t need..."
Chang Yixin patted her shoulder: "So, when it''s the 800 meters in the afternoon, you''ll run with me."
Oh, so it''s to apany you.
After removing the daunting task of the 3000-meter race, othermon events such as high jump, long jump, and 100-meter dash were handled by first signing up and then allocating. Finally, for those events that couldn''t be assigned, Chang Yixin had to take them on herself.
She signed up for shot put and the 800 meters, while An Shiyan and another boy in their ss were about to run the 100 meters.
Although it was the first event, An Shiyan was quite excited: "Once I finish the 100 meters, I''m done with my tasks!"
She would then have the next day and a half to just rx and enjoy herself!
After warming up, Chu Tingwu brought Sanwulu down to apany her.
Chu Tingwu looked around: "Should I run alongside you outside the track?"
The school prohibited others from running alongside during short races because the course was already short, and if everyone ran together, it could easily lead to collisions and potentially affect the athletes'' performance.
The 100 meters had preliminary and semifinal rounds, with six people in each heat, and the top two advancing to the semifinals. The semifinals involved all three grades of high school, and the final results were determined directly in the semifinals.
An Shiyan: "Forget it, I''m just here to have fun."
She leisurely took her ce on the track, adjusted herpetition uniform, and then heard someone next to her ask: "Oh, are you from thepetition ss? Is your ss wearing the white suit from the Koreanic ''The Eater'' modified from Kim Jae-do''s outfit? Why is there even a cape?"
An Shiyan: "?"
An Shiyan: "We''re not—"
The person turned their head, and the referee raised the starting pistol.
An Shiyan: Wait!
"Bang!"
The person next to her shot out like an arrow, and An Shiyan shouted "Oh my god" in her mind before turning to chase after them.
Chu Tingwu: "=="
The 100 meters was indeed short. She jogged alongside on the side near the presidential tform, and to others, Chu Tingwu''s speed seemed rather leisurely. Her pace wasn''t fast, but each step she took had arge stride... effortlessly keeping up with the person next to her who was running with a contorted expression.
When she reached the finish line, An Shiyan also arrived, panting and grabbing the person who had been next to her: "You, you..."
"Who are you calling a cosyer!"
Chu Tingwu: Maybe I shouldn''t get involved ==
The 100-meter race was indeed short, and the cheers from above onlysted for a couple of shouts.
But in the afternoon, during the 400-meter ry, the cheering from the spectator stands became even more enthusiastic.
The ry event was one their ss struggled with—they had only practiced it twice during gym ss. The ssmate who had been sitting next to Chu Tingwu in the morning was also running the ry in the afternoon. She stood at her second-leg position and muttered to herself, while Chu Tingwu watched from a distance and then approached Sanwulu to "meow" a few times.
Sanwulu jumped down from the spectator stand.
The cat wandered freely on the yground, and no one bothered her. Even the cameraman, who was holding a camera, crouched down and filmed Sanwulu for a few seconds.
An Shiyan held Chu Tingwu''s hand: "Do you think Fu Ling will drop the baton?"
Fu Ling was the second-leg runner. Seeing her unstandardized posture and the slightly hesitant expression on her face, it seemed quite usible that she might drop the baton.
But just as the first-leg runner was about to hand off, Sanwulu wandered across the track, pounced, and hit Fu Ling''s shin from behind, then turned back to the sidelines.
Fu Ling was startled, instinctively turned her head, and the next second, the first-leg runner handed the baton to her.
She froze for half a second before starting to sprint forward.
The ssmates cheering from above breathed a sigh of relief.
Thepetition ss at Jin City No.5 Senior High School had too few people, so almost everyone had a project. Initially, everyone might have participated casually, but once they stepped onto the ying field, they couldn''t help butpete fiercely. Some even cried after finishing—
"If I had been a bit faster... I really think I could have gotten a ce..."
"Oh,e on, it''s just a school sports meet..."
"But I was distracted during my run, if I hadn''t been, I definitely could have gotten it..."
The wind blew fiercely, and the national g in the middle of the yground fluttered high in the sky. Balloons were released into the air, and someone came over to pat Chu Tingwu on the shoulder: "Chu Tingwu, you have to win the championship! We need at least one gold medal—"
An Shiyan immediately retorted: "Chu Tingwu is willing to run the 3000 meters, that''s enough. Look at other sses, they''re just forcing people to participate. Why push her to get a medal? Why don''t you try to win it yourself!"
The 3000-meter race was the most exhausting, so there was only one race—probably because the school considered that if there were preliminary and semifinal rounds, students who didn''t want to participate might just drop out altogether.
"It''s okay," Chu Tingwu thought for a moment, "I should be able to outrun everyone."
Even without running like a cat, her physical fitness was enough for her to run ten kilometers at a steady pace, which would already eliminate 80% of the contestants.
And she still had the energy to sprint at the end.
The morning and afternoonpetitions concluded, and the results for thepetition ss were neither good nor bad. It is worth mentioning that An Shiyan might have unleashed her small universe during the preliminary round and actually made it to the semifinals, then managed to grab the third ce in the 100 meters. The top two were both athletic special students.
Their school had recruited short-distance runners as athletic special students, scattered across other sses... It was said that because this sports meet had a TV stationing to film (Chu Tingwu: ?), the event was quite grand, and in the afternoon, teachers from a sports school even showed up.
Chu Tingwu didn''t see the sports school teachers, but she did see them after returning home—
"Teacher Zhang? Aunt Mei?"
Tenkuo, who was lying on the head of an old man with a white beard, lifted his head: "Meow~"
The Maine Coon wasrger than Tenkuo, a small local cat, and was now very good-naturedly letting him lie on top without resistance.
The crow stood on top, poking its head out to look at them.
Teacher Zhang and Aunt Mei had brought the cat and crow to visit Chu Tingwu!
Teacher Zhang was on the left with the cat, and Sanwulu jumped to the right, lying downfortably—they hade because of the previous earthquake. Although Chu Tingwu had said she wasn''t injured at all and had even volunteered andpleted her filming work, the parents thought:
"We were worried about your mood, and since we haven''t gone on a trip for a while, we thought we''de and see you."
Chu ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Tingwu: "Hmm..."
Aunt Mei shooed her out of the kitchen to let her take care of things herself. Chu Tingwu sat down next to Sanwulu on the other side, and Teacher Zhang held one of her hands. Neither of them needed to speak; they just listened quietly to the sounds of the cats grinding their teeth, snoring, and softly arguing with each other.
Chu Tingwu: "Meow meow."
Teacher Zhang: "Meow?"
Thus, two more meows were added to the sounds in the living room.
Chu Tingwu told Teacher Zhang about today''s school sports meet in four randomly switchednguages. After going abroad, her spokennguage had be very fluent, and she had practiced with the system regrly. The Russian she had been learning was more orthodox, although she also knew some ng, it was more standard, like her nativenguage.
Zhang Youyi smiled: "Will it be edited into a program? Will it be yed on the inte or on TV?"
Chu Tingwu was a bit embarrassed: "Both."
Oh well, getting embarrassed in front of familiar people bes a habit after a while.
Zhang Youyi: "So you have apetition tomorrow? Can parents enter the school to watch thepetition?"
Chu Tingwu: "Regr parents can''t."
Zhang Youyi: Oh... She''s not exactly a regr parent, with so many students. Jin City No.5 Senior High School, maybe she could find some roundabout connections?
The next day, Zhang Youyi wore a staff badge, holding the curious Tenkuo, with the crow perched on her shoulder, and Aunt Mei, looking a bit helpless, apanying them—
Teacher Zhang didn''t need to find connections, because the child herself had connections.
They were now part of the TV station''s filming crew, and they could even rest in the van!
But Teacher Zhang couldn''t see, and the sports meet was quite chaotic, so Aunt Mei held her hand, trying to keep her from being bumped into by others.
At this moment, the filming team and the sports teachers from outside the school couldn''t help but turn their heads in confusion:
They felt that this olddy shouldn''t be here. With this aura, she should be sitting on the presidential tform, right?
The elderly woman with gray hair had slightly cloudy pupils, and upon closer inspection, she couldn''t see anything, but her expression was curious. When she turned her head, the crow on her shoulder also turned its head. After a while, the crow suddenly flew out, returning with a balloon string around its neck: "Meow!"
Teacher Zhang: "Oh, is the 3000 meters about to start?"
She needed to find a ce to sit and "watch"!
-
The 3000-meter race was about to begin.
When Chu Tingwu stood on the starting line, she noticed that the student next to her was shivering with a worried expression, constantly lifting her left and right feet, pping her thighs, and muttering to herself, "Did I do enough warm-up earlier? Am I going to cramp up?"
You look like you''re about to cramp up right now.
If running a hundred meters was a mix of nervousness and excitement, it was clear that, except for the few students who specialized in short-distance running, everyone else was only feeling nervous and a bit numb.
The few who looked calm were likely used to regr exercise, but Chu Tingwu could hear their heartbeats, feel the flow of their blood, and knew… they were just not hopeful about their ranking. The homeroom teacher next to them was still encouraging, "It''s okay, it''s okay! Finishing is a victory! If you can''t finish, just drop out… but try your best to run, don''t stop and walk!"
A dozen people lined up in several rows on the track, like the start of a marathon. Chu Tingwu stretched her limbs one more time and got into her starting position—
"Bang!"
The starting gun fired, and in that instant, she shot forward.
She didn''t use her fastest speed but decided to stick to the n: start with a steady pace and sprint at the end.
But as soon as she started running, Chu Tingwu realized that the two students next to her were both specialized in short-distance running. They even had time to nce at her.
The three of them ran almost side by side at the front. The one on the left, numbered 15, took the innermostne, Chu Tingwu was in the secondne, and the one on the right, numbered 18, seemed to want to overtake Chu Tingwu and take the secondne. However, after trying a couple of times, she found it too exhausting and would disrupt her own pace, so she gave up and quietly fell behind the innerne''s number 15.
This left Chu Tingwu in the secondne, with the other two in the innerne.
But she stayed close to them.
Next to Teacher Zhang, the sports school coachmented, "Number 15 is a bit too eager. Both she and number 18 are not long-distance runners. They can''t maintain this pace at the front."
He also noted that number 18 was blocking the wind for her.
Short-distance running is about being first, but in a long-distance race like 3000 meters, managing endurance is more important than leading.
Even the sports school coach believed that some of the runners behind might overtake those at the frontter. In long-distance running, anything could happen.
The school''s track was quiterge, exactly 800 meters perp. As Chu Tingwu approached the podium, she just heard her ssmates shouting her name to cheer her on. But before "Chu Tingwu, Go!" could be shouted a few times, it suddenly turned into their ss slogan:
"Meow meow meow—"
Chu Tingwu: "=="
She''d better pick up the pace!
She sped up, overtaking the front runner, number 15, and moved from the outerne to the innerne, bing the de facto first ce.
The sports school coach and other students didn''t think she elerated out of embarrassment. Instead, they assumed she had been wanting to overtake for a while and finally managed to cut in.
An Shiyan even waved her hand and said, "Louder!"
The long-distance race of a dozen people quickly turned from a neat line at the start to a scattered string.
Only number 15 next to Chu Tingwu had a tense expression, staring at her back—
Too steady.
The steps of the student from thepetitive ss in front were too steady. Though not fast, she just couldn''t be overtaken. And under the influence of Chu Tingwu''s pace, number 15 even felt a bit exhausted.
Afterpleting one 800-meterp, number 15 had fallen from being right behind Chu Tingwu to being about seven or eight meters behind.
Number 15 hadn''t originally nned to overtake, but since she couldn''t keep up, it was even harder to catch upter. She held her breath and pushed forward, only to be overtaken by number 18 from behind.
The top three positions changed again, and the sports school coach let out a "Huh."
Actually, the pace of the runners behind was normal, but number 15 had been too anxious and made a small mistake… which made the pace of the girl in front even more abnormal. Eight hundred meters had already been run, shouldn''t your speed drop a bit?
Chu Tingwu didn''t.
She evenpped thest four runners and kept going.
As she approached the podium, she even ran a bit faster—
An Shiyan: "It seems our cheers really reached Chu Tingwu! Everyone, louder!"
You''d better not exin.
Chu Tingwu really wished she couldn''t hear anything… and then she heard a loud: "Meow!"
It was Wu ssmate flying over to watch the fun, but it had forgotten its ws were still wrapped in a balloon string from somewhere. Caught by the wind, the balloon string danced wildly, wrapping around its two ws and causing it to fall straight down.
Chu Tingwu: "……"
She sped up.
Before the crownded on the track, not only did she elerate, but she also jumped slightly, reaching out to catch the crow.
Then, while running, she began to untangle the balloon string from ssmate Wu.
Thepeting student she was overtaking next to her: "……?"
This isn''t fair!
Wu also let out a "Caw."
This isn''t fair!
After untangling it, she coldly and ruthlessly let go, letting the balloon fly away!
That was the crow''s balloon!