Qin Zixin loathed physical education, especially during the summer months. She despised the sensation of sweating, and this aversion extended to exercise itself. It was a complete and utter disdain.
Nanning had long been celebrated as one of China’s “furnace cities.” Qin Zixin distinctly remembered the neighbor’s boy suffering second-degree burns on his backside from a bike seat while cycling outdoors just this past summer.
Evidently, Qin Zixin was a master of cunning, laziness, and gluttony. She disliked exercise and abhorred the scorching sun, and PE class often combined both of these undesirable elements.
Whenever she made any expansive movements, the ample bounce of her “giant rabbits” invariably agitated the nerves of others. During such times, her conspicuousness only intensified, drawing a torrent of gazes imbued with indiscernible emotions that clung to her like tung oil.
She detested these overtly direct stares, just as she disliked this perilous feeling of losing control.
September marked the period when Nanshi High held its annual school sports meet.
High school sports meets were almost universally held in September across the nation, a tradition spanning from south to north. This month offered agreeable weather, and with the school year having just begun, students were not yet burdened by academics, their spirits still restless and eager for activities that allowed them to indulge.
The teacher responsible for half of the first-year PE classes was delivering his motivational speech for the sports meet. He read through the document with extreme perfunctoriness, holding his phone against the light, his expression blank as he recited the message the school had sent to the teachers. He couldn’t even be bothered to finish it.
Qin Zixin stood under the blazing sun, feeling utterly drained.
She perspired easily, and her athletic coordination was remarkably sluggish. While the sight of a beauty glistening with sweat could indeed be captivating, Qin, the person experiencing it, found the sensation far from pleasant. The moment she broke a sweat, she felt a slick film cover her skin, a semi-drenched state that made her feel overly sensitive to every movement, as if some peculiar transformation was about to occur.
Moreover, her natural body fragrance, intensified by the evaporating sweat, became even more intoxicating. Liu Tanxiong, standing behind her, inhaled the sweet scent emanating from Qin Zixin. He observed how her luminous white skin, now beaded with sweat, appeared as slick as if coated in glaze, reflecting an inexplicably alluring sheen.
Liu Tanxiong furtively slipped his hand into his pocket, adjusting his ‘trajectory’; it was too tight and uncomfortable.
Nanshi High’s PE classes were notoriously strict. Taking leave required a legitimate reason, including but not limited to medical leave with a hospital certificate or family events substantiated by family documentation. The core requirement was always the same: proof from a reliable institution or individual. This sudden shift caught Qin Zixin, who had almost made a habit of skipping PE, completely off guard.
Despite being early autumn, Nanning’s outdoor temperature still hovered around twenty-seven or twenty-eight degrees Celsius.
For Qin Zixin, such weather called for lounging in a cool room, engrossed in her phone. Yet, here she was, standing on the sports field, staring with an expression of utter despair at Teacher Yang, who had just instructed them to run five laps. Nanshi High’s track, a standard four hundred meters per lap, was typical. By 2013, most school tracks in Jiangsu Province had been converted to plastic surfaces, which, when exposed to the sun, emitted a pungent odor.
With the sharp blast of a whistle, and urged on by the running PE teacher, Qin Zixin reluctantly joined the main group, beginning her run.
[Two thousand meters, goddammit, this is going to be the death of your old man! System, I feel like my bra is too small; I can’t breathe when I run.]
[That’s enough. Yours are too big; complain when you can’t fit into it. If you shake them any more, they’ll fly off. Clamp them with your elbows, you unlucky thing!]
[I am clamping them! They’re called arms, you fool!]
[You weren’t clamping them just now!]
[Your dad hadn’t even started running just now!]
****
Qin Zixin and the system exchanged a barrage of curses, a colorful array of expletives, as she ran, panting with every step. Before even completing one lap, Qin Zixin felt she was nearing her limit. One delicate hand protectively cupped her ‘rabbits’ to prevent them from bouncing too wildly, while the other was firmly held by Zhang Wanbai.
Zhang Wanbai ran swiftly, pulling Qin Zixin along. Her athletic ability far surpassed Qin Zixin’s, and even dragging this ‘burden,’ she wasn’t overly strained.
However, to those observing, the scene unfolded quite differently.
The sight of the peerless beauty, panting delicately while being led by the hand, her almond eyes losing focus from exhaustion, her skin, as fair as snow and jade, glistening with fragrant sweat and radiating an alluring glow, her fatigued expression imbued with the languid charm of post-euphoric exhaustion…
The term ‘seductive glance’ seemed tailor-made for her in that very moment.
At this instant, Qin Zixin was like a powerful magnet, drawing all eyes, yet she herself felt like a grass carp flopping blindly on a cutting board, utterly dehydrated.
She felt as though another step would kill her.
White flashes flickered before her eyes, and her life’s memories began to parade before her. A metallic, coppery taste, both sweet and腥, filled her throat.
[This deadbeat teacher, no, I have to find a way. If I run any more, I’ll die!]
[Whether you want to run or not, isn’t that just a thought?]
[The teacher is watching; what should I do?]
[You’re so stupid. Can’t you just pretend to tie your shoelaces? How many classes does that PE teacher have to manage alone? His job is just to make sure you don’t die on school grounds. Do you really think he cares about your exercise?]
The system nonchalantly corrupted the child, seemingly unaware that Qin Zixin’s transformation from an innocent little devil to her current cunning self owed much to the internet’s influence, and no small part to its own ‘contributions.’
Qin Zixin decided to slack off, seeking an opportunity to slip away.