Fake Slackers

Chapter 39: Love and Peace

"Stay strong! A true man has ambitions and goals! Darkness before his eyes is not darkness at all." The gym teacher had gotten tired of squatting and sat down on the ground, too. He glanced down at the time, then blew his whistle.

He Zhao had just lifted his body up. Hearing this, he had to lower himself again. He hesitated a moment and found that he really couldn't continue staring at a certain little friend of his. If he kept looking, he probably wouldn't be able to complete even ten push-ups. So he turned his head away and his Adam's apple rolled involuntarily.

This time, He Zhao didn't stay down too long. He hastily finished the push-up.

Now that the two had averted their eyes, He Zhao stared attentively at the floor of the indoor court, as if flowers would sprout if he looked long enough. Then Xie Yu asked him, "How many?"

"Ah." He Zhao couldn't think properly and he had not been paying attention to the count at all. "I don't know. You weren't counting, either?"

Xie Yu had turned his head away, and was looking up and to the side. There were several exposed beams on the roof of the indoor court, and above that, glass panes arranged in a grid. Xie Yu paused before saying, "I didn't count."

"Probably more than ten."

As He Zhao finished speaking, he found that he couldn't keep staring at the floor. His gaze drifted, slowly coming to alight on Xie Yu's neck; the line of it was surprisingly beautiful, and in the end he said—whether to himself or Xie Yu, who knew—"... Just bear with it for a little longer."

All right, he could do that.

He'd bear with it.

When Xie Yu had first lain down, he had really wanted to raise one knee and send this guy flying. He maintained a cold expression, feeling very foolish. His mock exams had been right there and instead of doing them, he had come to attend this absurd gym class.

After he calmed down, he started to think about who he would kill first after he got up.

Luo Wenqiang, who had dragged Xie Yu to gym class on pain of death, was currently training at the quad. For some reason, he felt a chilly wind at his back. He rubbed his arms and wondered how the weather could cool so quickly.

He Zhao usually liked to play pranks, but even he was quite restrained at a time like this... Xie Yu got the impression that He Zhao was aching to run away, as though he was tensed to jump up at any second, but was restraining himself.

Xie Yu wasn't sure if the heartbeat he heard ringing in his ears was his own or He Zhao's—especially when He Zhao lowered his body and the two were chest to chest for several fleeting seconds.

Xie Yu watched the ceiling beams and faintly felt that something wasn't right. Or should he say that this feeling—that something wasn't right—had been around for a long time, but it was especially strong today.

A wild beast had long since taken up residence in his heart, and while it ordinarily napped quietly, today it was charged with excitement and started wildly roaring. It was unnerving, but at the same time... very thrilling, somehow.

The gym teacher had started the exercise out counting, and somewhere in the middle he had replaced the count with the whistle. Some of them couldn't help thinking he was trying to surreptitiously make them do a few more. They were still complaining internally when the gym teacher blew on the whistle again and then reported, "Twenty! Very good, keep going!"

A student expressed his doubt. "Teach, only twenty? I feel like I've done thirty."

The gym teacher didn't flinch. "Student, you're imagining things."