The Marathon Check-up

There were a lot of medical checkup items.

Huang Xiu had never had a full body checkup before, but he felt that the checkup at Tiandu University probably had even more items than a full body one.

From the basics like vision, color blindness, blood pressure, blood sugar, and ECG to advanced X-rays, urine routine, blood routine, and so on.

They went through every test the hospital had.

Huang Xiu finally understood why Baldy Liu had been so generous about not confiscating their phones and telling them to rest after the checkup.

It was exhausting, really exhausting!

“Damn! How much longer do we have to wait in this line!”

Huang Xiu looked at the line bending back and forth in front of the X-ray room and felt like crying.

Behind him, Shi Lei’s face was full of despair.

Too many people!

With the first and second year students from No.1 High School plus the hospital’s regular patients, the number of people waiting for each item was just terrifying.

They had started together as a class, going through each item one by one.

But they quickly realized that wasn’t working at all. The efficiency was too low.

So they split into several small teams and fought their own battles.

“How many items do we have left?” asked Shi Lei.

“Let me see.”

Huang Xiu glanced at the checkup form in his hand. The items were listed in two crowded rows.

The completed items had red stamps and signatures, but over half the form was still empty.

“About a dozen more. We’ll take it slow,” Huang Xiu said helplessly, spreading his hands.

“You know, Xiu Ge, sometimes I think everything about Daxia is great, except there are too many people,” Shi Lei complained.

“Think of it this way: even though we have a lot of people, our per capita is small!” Huang Xiu patted Shi Lei on the shoulder.

“No, that just makes me sadder,” Shi Lei said as he shuffled forward two steps with Huang Xiu.

“You know, Uruguay has a population of 3.457 million. Meanwhile, Australia alone has 47 million kangaroos. If the kangaroos decided to invade Uruguay, every Uruguayan would have to fight 14 kangaroos,” Huang Xiu said, squinting.

“But Daxia has 1.4 billion people, so on average, every 28 people get one kangaroo. That’s not nearly enough to eat. And you don’t care. You only care about standing in line.”

“LOL.”

Shi Lei was busy swiping his phone without looking up. “But I don’t like eating kangaroo, Xiu Ge. You’ll have to eat my share too.”

“Wait, I was just joking. You’ve actually eaten kangaroo!” Huang Xiu was dumbfounded, his big eyes full of shock.

“You can buy it online! You should try it.”

Shi Lei recalled the taste of kangaroo meat, his face full of disgust. “It’s terrible, really. Not even dogs would eat it.”

Even Shi Lei, who would eat anything and was like a garbage disposal, didn’t like it. The kangaroo meat must really be bad. Huang Xiu silently crossed it off his list of foods to try.

He had kept a list since middle school with a series of foods he wanted to try.

Actually, while waiting in line, the hardest part wasn’t the waiting itself, but the boredom. When conversation was lively, time seemed to vanish.

The line at the hospital got shorter, the red stamps on the checkup form got more numerous, and the sun outside the window slowly moved westward.

Huang Xiu finally finished the last item.

He handed the form, now full of red stamps, to the doctor collecting them in the lobby.

Then he hurried outside to find his class’s bus.

“Xiu Ge, Lei Zi, come eat something to fill your stomachs first.”

Class monitor Wu Qing had already finished his checkup and was handing out the school-prepared dinner on the bus.

Many of the checkup items required fasting, so the school hadn’t arranged lunch. They had only given everyone some candy to prevent low blood sugar.

The group was famished.

The school dinner was meager: just a bread roll, a carton of milk, and a cold egg.

Huang Xiu was used to the school’s stinginess. He took his dinner, sat in his original seat, and started eating.

He turned to look out the window. Students were still coming out of the lobby after finishing their checkups.

Today’s checkup was finally over, but his own trial was not yet done.

After all… what he feared most was the blood routine… and the results weren’t immediate.

Huang Xiu felt uneasy.

Blood routine results usually come out in 1-2 hours.

But with so many people, it would likely be delayed. At most a day or two.

If it was fast, maybe the results were already out…

Thinking this, he subconsciously looked at his phone.

As if fearing something would bring it on, his Honor phone suddenly lit up and began to vibrate.

A call!

Huang Xiu’s pupils contracted sharply, but when he saw the caller ID, he immediately relaxed.

He answered the call.

“Mom, what’s up? Why are you calling me today?”

“Can’t I call you for no reason? You little brat, you only call when you need money. When you don’t need money, I don’t see a single call all week,” his mother said bluntly.

“Mom, don’t wrongly accuse me, okay?” Huang Xiu sounded deeply wronged.

“I called you just two nights ago.”

“And I mean, how did you know my phone wasn’t confiscated today?” Huang Xiu asked curiously.

Usually on Mondays, his phone would be handed in. His mother knew that.

Maybe the homeroom teacher posted in the parent group? Possible.

“Hmph, do you think I’m your mom for nothing?” came a smug voice from the phone. “It was WeChat Sports. I saw you walked over 10,000 steps today, more than me. So I knew your phone wasn’t confiscated and the school probably had an activity.”

“I bought something for you online. Make sure to pick it up when it arrives.”

“What is it?” Huang Xiu was curious.

“You’ll know when you get it. It’ll arrive on Thursday.” Just then, a loud “Bam! Won!” came from the other end of the line.

“Alright, I gotta go. I’m continuing my mahjong game,” his mother said loudly.

“Okay, Mom. Win a lot.”

Huang Xiu smiled and hung up. He turned to put the bread wrapper into a plastic bag and saw Fang Miaoqing in front of him turning around to look at him.

As their eyes met, a flush of pink crept up Fang Miaoqing’s ears.

Huang Xiu wasn’t much better. He froze as if electrocuted, then quickly looked away like a thief.

‘I feel like… Xiu Ge has suddenly become a lot more handsome these past few days,’ Fang Miaoqing thought to herself as she rubbed her earlobe.

She and Huang Xiu were just classmates.

But she knew clearly that Huang Xiu seemed to have some vague feelings for her.

She hadn’t cared about it before.

In high school, everyone has one or two people they suddenly develop a crush on for no reason.

Maybe it’s a sudden mutual glance, maybe it’s just liking their appearance.

It’s hard to find a specific reason.

It’s normal.

As long as you don’t respond or reject them, that’s how Fang Miaoqing always handled it.

She always believed that with time, those vague first-love fantasies would become the best memories of their youth.

‘Maybe I should find time to talk to him face to face,’ she decided.

She resolved to cut ties with Huang Xiu and make things clear. It would be better for both of them.

Before entering Tiandu University, she didn’t want any distractions.