After the Thousand-Meter Run, Everyone Started Talking to Me

Although some said Pei Du was a bit aloof, he personally thought Pei Du had a good personality.

At least he wasn’t like some weird guys who played just to show off in front of girls or would cheat and foul without admitting it.

“Young Master, when did I say we were playing badminton?”

“Just now.”

Zhao Yu’s expression froze, not reacting immediately.

“I can’t play at all, Young Master! I used up this week’s quota for physical activity last week.”

“You need to exercise properly. You get out of breath just going downstairs.”

Pei Du looked expressionlessly at Zhao Yu, whose forehead was already beaded with sweat and who was panting from just descending the stairs.

“You’re too out of shape.”

“Young Master, I challenge you to a one-on-one! How dare you say a man is out of shape?!”

“Eleven points per game, best of three. That’s it.”

“I forfeit.”

Zhao Yu surrendered instantly.

The badminton he imagined was playing three points then switching; that would be fine for some light exercise.

Eleven points? Just running back and forth across the court would be the death of him, let alone playing eleven-point badminton after running a thousand meters.

“Not accepted. Please defeat me fairly and squarely.”

“I forfeit!!!”

The cool weather was perfect for running.

You wouldn’t sweat too much, nor would your nose feel uncomfortable from the cold air.

Pei Du quite enjoyed the thousand-meter run.

For him, the feeling of sitting in the classroom for long periods was unpleasant.

When he had more time in his first and second years, he had developed a habit of exercising.

Now, running not only didn’t make him uncomfortable, but it made every cell in his body thrum with comfort.

“I can’t… I really can’t move anymore.”

The unidentified life form collapsed on the lawn was Zhao Yu.

From the second half of the run, he felt like his stomach and lungs were in excruciating pain.

Enduring it to finish, he felt as if his skeleton had been disassembled.

Pei Du then forced him not to sit down immediately after running, but to walk around slowly, only allowing him to rest after that.

This back-and-forth left him completely drained of strength.

“Want some water?”

“Yes! I want ice-cold cola.”

“Only mineral water.”

Pei Du ignored Zhao Yu’s groaning on the ground and went alone to the small store by the playground to buy water.

They had actually brought water bottles down, but they were finished in a couple of gulps.

The water dispenser near the teaching building tasted much better; the one over here tasted slightly astringent, as if too much bleach had been added.

Going back to the teaching building was too far, so it was easier to just buy water nearby.

“Pei Du, Pei Du.” Two girls called out to him as they approached. “You’re buying water too?”

“Yes.”

Pei Du recognized them as the twin sisters from their class, Chen Xintian and Chen Xinmei.

Out of politeness, he still responded.

“You ran so fast just now in the thousand meters.” The older sister, Chen Xintian, moved closer to compliment him. “Even the P.E. monitor, Zheng Zhengbo, couldn’t keep up with you.”

After spending time with the twin classmates, one could still tell them apart.

For example, the older sister Chen Xintian’s face was thinner, her features more defined.

The younger sister Chen Xinmei had a bit of baby fat and a cuter appearance.

“He wasn’t running seriously.” Pei Du replied casually, not intending to continue the topic.

“But you didn’t seem to be running seriously either. You’re hardly even sweating.”

Chen Xintian pretended to check if Pei Du was sweating, closing the distance a bit more. Clearly, she wanted to say something else.

“Are the girls finished running?”

This topic wasn’t interesting. Pei Du didn’t know how to respond.

Should he boast that he was better than Zheng Zhengbo? Or play humble and say it was nothing? Both felt unnecessary.

Better to casually say something else and brush it off.

“My sister and I didn’t run.”

The two girls giggled.

“We’re not feeling very well.”

…Did they need to tell him this?

Pei Du knew Chen Xintian seemed to have some liking towards him, often striking up conversations intentionally or unintentionally and trying to bring up more personal topics.

He wasn’t an idiot.

Guys who can’t tell when a girl is interested in them only exist in GalGames.

Most normal guys would rather imagine a girl is interested than believe she isn’t.

Chen Xintian had been very keen on discussing private topics with him since they were in the same class, so even if it wasn’t liking, she was at least interested.

If he were the type to disregard boundaries between guys and girls, he could have picked up on these cues and even made the conversation more ambiguous.

But in the final months of high school, he truly had no intention of developing a male-female relationship beyond friendship.

“Mn.”

He neither cared to ask why they weren’t feeling well nor said any greasy flirtatious words.

He simply responded with an indifferent “Mn.”

He hoped they could read the hint that he didn’t want to say more.

Pei Du quickened his pace.

“Pei Du, you’re so cold.”

Chen Xinmei, seeing Pei Du brush off her sister, joined the conversation.

The sisters were actually quite popular in their grade because of their looks and style.

Both the older sister and herself had been confessed to by many boys.

But for some reason, her sister always liked hanging around this seemingly sexually indifferent Pei Du.

Yes, in Chen Xinmei’s eyes, Pei Du was no different from being sexually indifferent.

Tall, handsome, good grades, yet he didn’t even have a girlfriend in high school.

If that wasn’t sexually indifferent, what was?

Rumor had it he was also an otaku. Maybe he spent all day calling anime characters ‘waifu’ and had lost interest in the 3D world?

“Oh.”

Efficiently buying two large bottles of room-temperature mineral water, Pei Du returned to the gathering circle of boys on the playground.

“That classical Chinese passage on this morning’s Chinese test paper was so hard.”

“Yes.”

“How did you do on yesterday’s math quiz?”

“Alright.”

On the way, he tried to respond to the sisters’ topics with as much idle talk as possible.

Most people, seeing Pei Du like this, would have long since found an excuse to slip away.

But for some reason, Chen Xintian, despite Pei Du’s being left on read, kept enthusiastically finding new topics to chat about.

“Young Master, you’re finally back. I’m dying of thirst.”

The two sisters went back to chat with the girls’ circle.

Zhao Yu looked at Pei Du eagerly.

“Such a big bottle of water.” Zhao Yu took the liter-plus bottle of mineral water and tilted his head back to drink deeply.

“Drinking water helps…”

“Drinking water helps with physical health, drink lots of water, and your quality of life will improve. Young Master, you say this every time. Even I get tired hearing it.”

“Tired of what?”

Pei Du drank water much faster than Zhao Yu; more than half the bottle was already gone.

“Such a long string of lecturing. Aren’t you tired of saying it? I’m tired of hearing it. It doesn’t sound like Young Master talk; it sounds like old man talk.”

Wiping the water from his mouth, Zhao Yu teased.

“Then I can simplify it.”

“Huh?” Zhao Yu was puzzled. Simplify? How?

Pei Du screwed the cap back on, swallowing the last mouthful of water.

“Good hydration leads to good performance.”

“Pfft.”

Zhao Yu, who had just taken another sip, spat all the water onto the lawn and coughed for a while.

He thought he was hallucinating from the run. Had the Young Master ever been this improper?

Pei Du sat cross-legged on the lawn, as if nothing had just happened.

He stared at a magnolia tree planted in the distance, his focused expression as if he were studying some great experiment.

Eighteen years old, focused on exercise, respectful of sleep, diligent about drinking water, not fond of indulgence.

If not for his focus on academics, even Pei Du himself didn’t know how exaggerated and absurd he could be.