Chapter 34: He stood at the back door of the classroom.

In the end, Qiao Rui came in second place. He was very close to the first place winner, almost neck and neck. After finishing the race, Qiao Rui collapsed exhaustedly on the grass lawn in the middle of the stadium.

Yu Na came over carrying a few bottles of water, together with Xiao Chen. Qiao Rui was lying spread-eagle on the grass. His chest heaved violently as he panted heavily. His bangs were soaked with sweat, sticking to his forehead. Beads of sweat trickled down. He stared vacantly at the sky with his mouth slightly open.

Yu Na ran over to him and handed him a bottle of water, “Have some water.”

Qiao Rui took it but seemed unsatisfied. He gave it back, “I want a cold one.”

“No way,” Xiao Chen’s voice came from behind Yu Na. “You can’t drink cold drinks after intense exercise.”

Qiao Rui didn’t argue further. Xiao Chen pulled him up to sit. He was in low spirits, perhaps too tired, or perhaps because he didn’t come in first.

Xiao Chen was unexpectedly nice to him for once. He didn’t mind Qiao Rui was drenched in sweat and squatted down, putting his arm around his shoulders. “I’ll treat you to dinner tonight?”

Qiao Rui held the water bottle. “Don’t feel like eating.”

Xiao Chen: “Hot pot.”

Qiao Rui took the tissue Yu Na handed him and wiped the sweat from his face. “Really?”

“Yeah.”

He looked dejected. “I wanted to come in first, then...”

“Alright,” Xiao Chen casually comforted him. “With a bum leg, you still came in second, almost neck and neck with first. Not bad.”

“......”

Somehow the attempted comfort felt awkward.

Yu Na also squatted down. “I thought you wouldn’t make it. Not only did you finish, you came in second place. That’s really impressive.”

Qiao Rui glanced at Xiao Chen, “See, this is how normal people comfort someone.”

Xiao Chen rolled his eyes. “Ungrateful punk.”

...The school sports meet officially ended in the afternoon. Not one event did Class 3 win first place.

Yu Na returned to the classroom. She walked up to the podium. The students were lifeless, completely lacking the usual liveliness.

She said amusedly: “Why the long faces?”

For the first time, Yu Na stood at the podium taking a careful look at every student in the class.

“So what if we didn’t come in first? I asked you all to participate and sign up actively so that amidst your busy studies, you’d take some time to exercise and enjoy your youth and sports. And you all did that. You accomplished what I hoped the school meet would achieve for you all.

“Although our class has no first place award, look at all the other awards we have. Aren’t second and third place awards still awards? And there’s also—“

The students curiously looked up at her.

Yu Na signaled the class monitor. Understanding her intention, the monitor smiled and nodded. She took out a brand new award from the drawer and walked up to the podium.

The award was unfurled. The class monitor read out the award word for word: “Class 2 (3) demonstrated outstanding performance, good sportsmanship and stellar participation at Star Ocean High School’s 15th annual school athletics meet. Awarded Most Spirited Class.”

The students still looked clueless.

Seeing that, Yu Na rapped her knuckles on the desk. “We won Most Spirited Class! Liven up!” She joked, “Or do I need to assign more homework to make you all happy?”

In an instant, the classroom erupted into thunderous applause and jubilant cheers.

Yu Na: “......”

The atmosphere finally lightened up a bit.

Song Kang asked: “Teacher, what’s the Most Spirited Class award?”

Yu Na said: “It means our class had the best atmosphere! Think back these two days. In the entire stadium, which class do you think had better spirit and was happier than ours?”

After a moment of silence.

Indeed there seemed to be none.

Yu Na didn’t impose too many rules on them. And their class was highly motivated for the sports meet to begin with. Whenever someone was competing, the whole class would roar in encouragement, welcoming them back like returning heroes regardless of how well they did.

Yu Na got two tall students to hang up the award certificate in the most prominent central spot on the back wall of the classroom.

She said: “Rarity implies value. Understand? The other events have several awards across all the placing, but there’s only one Most Spirited Class award in the whole school and we got it.”

The classroom erupted into laughter again.

After a round of applause, Yu Na was in good spirits and said some more: “So you see, placing isn’t the most important thing. Even if we didn’t get any first places, we stood out in other ways and still got an award. Isn’t that something to be happy about?”

...Class 2-3 happened to be at the stairwell.

After the sports meet ended, Xiao Chen did not rush to leave school.

The back door of Class 3 was open. He walked to the stairwell where he had a view of the classroom scene.

He overheard Yu Na telling stories of when she was young.

She said when she was little, her school sports meets also had a variety of events. But there wasn’t a strong collective sense of honor amongst the classes. One time when they didn’t win first place in tug-of-war, it actually sparked in-fighting and brawls in her class.

In contrast, although none of their events this sports meet had come in first, everyone was united and cheered for every athlete. Regardless of their eventual placing, they would receive the most thunderous applause.

It made for a stark contrast.

Everyone listened intently, captivated by her childhood stories.

Perhaps she kept too much of herself hidden that when she occasionally talked about herself, it piqued the students’ interest. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

She deliberately concealed details about her family background and only talked about things at school.

There was a harmonious atmosphere in the classroom.

Leaning against the back stairwell entrance, Xiao Chen couldn’t help letting his gaze linger at the podium for a fleeting moment before leaving.

It was but a cursory glance.

...Xiao Chen waited at the school entrance for Qiao Rui. Qiao Rui walked out with a bunch of his buddies. Seeing Xiao Chen’s car, he bid his friends goodbye before getting into the passenger seat with a cup of milk tea in hand.

Xiao Chen noticed the milk tea and asked: “Where’d you get that milk tea from?”

“Our form teacher treated us,” Qiao Rui shook his cup. “To be honest, I actually don’t like drinking this stuff. But it was Teacher Yu’s kind intentions after all.”

“......”

Xiao Chen was suddenly reminded of Qiao Rui blowing a “flying kiss” at Yu Na when he was running the 5000m earlier that morning.

His tone was calm but meaningful: “I don’t recall you showing that much respect to your teacher this morning.”

“This morning?” Qiao Rui racked his brains hard but couldn’t figure out what he was referring to. “What did I do? I was fighting for glory for our class this morning!”

It wasn’t exactly easy for Xiao Chen to directly bring up what had happened. Yet he couldn’t restrain himself and could only discreetly yet gravely remind him: “Don’t keep acting rudely in front of your teacher everyday. Just because she doesn’t say anything doesn’t mean she doesn’t mind.”

Qiao Rui was increasingly confused by his words.

He leaned against the car door frame swinging the milk tea cup as if it were a wine glass. He pondered seriously trying to recall what had happened. In a flash, Xiao Chen’s dark yet disapproving look from that morning suddenly resurfaced in his mind. He snapped his fingers. “Oh I remember now!”

Xiao Chen: “......”

“You mean the flying kiss?”

“You just got back from Great Britain. How can you still be so feudal? It was just an expression of a student’s fondness and admiration for his teacher. Don’t Westerners kiss the back of a lady’s hand too?”

“Oh—“ Amused, Qiao Rui said: “Could it be you’re jealous of me?”

The car had been driving steadily forward. But this rapid three-hit combo seemed to hit like a bomb. Xiao Chen jerked the steering wheel and abruptly pulled over to stop at the road shoulder. He reached out and smacked Qiao Rui’s head. “You think you’re doing me a favor huh. How is that feudal?”

“My bad, my bad.” Qiao Rui instinctively tried to dodge but was a beat too slow. He took the slap meekly. “Hey, I’m so exhausted today. Can’t you be nicer to me? You were trying to comfort me this morning.”

Xiao Chen ignored him and continued driving without another word.

As they turned a corner, he suddenly spoke up again: “Hasn’t your form teacher been taking such good care of you recently? How come you haven’t even treated her to a meal?”

Qiao Rui: ?

Xiao Chen: “Do you not have a conscience?”

Qiao Rui: ?

He mechanically responded: “If you wanna treat my teacher then go ahead. No need to use me as an excuse. Tsk, men.”