The Ghost of Jasmine and a Lolita Bet

“Zhou Yi.” He called softly.Ancestral Mountain. The girl turned at the sound.It was the first time he had seen her face so clearly in a flashback.

The girl’s cheeks were flushed with excitement, a contented smile blooming on her delicate face. The surging excitement in his chest instantly overwhelmed all restraint. He stepped forward and pulled her tightly into his embrace.

As her soft body nestled against him, the scent of jasmine filled his nostrils.

“Brother Chen?”

A voice from reality abruptly severed the memory.

Jiang Chen snapped back to his senses, finding himself already having completed the handover and standing by the track. Zhou Yi waved a water bottle in front of him, looking at him with confusion.

“Brother Chen, what are you spacing out about? Did your soul leave your body right after the race?”

The bright sunlight shone directly on Zhou Yi’s face.

His vision refocused, his gaze settling on the person before him. Even though Zhou Yi’s features were indeed much softer, and his skin had become fairer, he truly looked… a little too delicate.

Yet, his short, spiky hair and the somewhat slender figure beneath his loose tracksuit unequivocally declared that the person before him was a male!

A powerful sense of absurdity and self-doubt suddenly engulfed him.

‘What was wrong with him lately? Truly.’

‘How could he repeatedly have such preposterous delusions, as if possessed? He kept superimposing the brother he spent every day with, sweated with on the court, and bantered with in the dorm, onto the jasmine-scented girl from his memories.’

‘But why were the contours of that face, and the curve of the eyes when smiling, so strikingly similar to Zhou Yi’s?’

‘And that familiar sensation that surged through his fingertips the moment their hands brushed during the relay handover—where did it come from?’

‘Not to mention, the name he had softly called in those chaotic dreams and flashbacks, with an unfamiliar, tender tone—Zhou Yi?’

‘How could it be Zhou Yi? Could it simply be another person with the same name? Or was it a perfect illusion, conjured by his subconscious, embodying all the characteristics he sought?’

‘But why Zhou Yi? Why not another name? How could so many coincidences be explained?’

“…It’s nothing,” he murmured, his Adam’s apple bobbing slightly.

His reply was noticeably a beat too slow. “Just finished running, a bit… spaced out.”

“You must be high on winning the race, huh?” Zhou Yi chuckled, patting his shoulder and pressing the water bottle into his hand. “Here, quickly drink some water to clear your head!”

Jiang Chen tilted his head back, taking two large gulps of water. The cold liquid slid down his throat, yet his heart rate hadn’t fully settled.

“Let’s go, let’s go,” Zhou Yi said, tossing the empty bottle into a trash can before turning to wave at him. “Time to bring some ‘warmth’ to Haozi!”

Jiang Chen forced himself to disengage from the chaotic fragments of his memory, his gaze involuntarily falling upon the package Zhou Yi clutched like a treasure.

He shook his head with a wry smile.

‘This guy’s obsession with “tricking his brother into wearing women’s clothes” had become utterly maniacal lately.’

He could almost picture Chen Hao’s utterly distraught face when he opened the package.

No, wait!

Before his smile had completely faded, a clearer thread of doubt surfaced in his mind.

‘Zhou Yi… when did he start becoming like this?’

Before, he would at most just talk big, enjoying the verbal banter. He would never have gone to such lengths, planning, ordering, and picking up items in a full-service operation.

This excessively high enthusiasm and execution seemed… a little abnormal.

It, along with the subtle changes Zhou Yi had undergone recently, and his occasional, almost demonic yet profound smiles, all felt inexplicably strange.

‘Were his overt, subtly manipulative actions somehow connected to something deeper?’

Jiang Chen’s gaze darkened slightly. He gently tucked away the doubt swirling in his mind, pretending nothing was amiss, and followed the wide-eyed Zhou Yi, circling half of the bustling track.

They checked the shot put field and the long jump pit, but couldn’t find Chen Hao’s boisterous figure.

“How strange,” Zhou Yi mumbled, shifting the package to his other arm and anxiously tapping his foot. “Could that guy have had a premonition and run off early?”

Just as he spoke, the broadcast suddenly announced: “Students participating in the novelty races—‘Kangaroo Jump,’ ‘Three-Legged Race,’ and ‘Back-to-Back Dribbling’—please report to the central field immediately for assembly!”

This was closely followed by another announcement:

“Now beginning check-in for the second group of the Men’s 3000-meter race. Participating students, please proceed to the starting line for assembly…”

Zhou Yi’s eyes lit up, and he immediately cast aside the search for Chen Hao.

Of course! Zhao Lei had promised to wear a Lolita outfit and perform a cheer dance during the novelty races!

He instantly grabbed Jiang Chen and excitedly turned towards the central field.

However, he looked left and right at the assembly point; most of the students for the novelty events had arrived and were cheerfully warming up, but Zhao Lei was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s Zhao Lei?” he asked urgently, grabbing the arm of another classmate who was stretching.

“Huh? Didn’t he tell you?” The classmate looked utterly bewildered by the question. “He signed up for the 3000-meter race; he just went to check in.”

Zhou Yi: “???”

‘The 3000-meter race? When did that guy sign up for long-distance running?! What about the novelty races he promised?! What about the Lolita cheer dance?!’

He felt the package in his hand instantly become incredibly heavy.

The broadcast urged again: “Novelty race participants, please take your positions! Race countdown begins now!”

“Start!”

Zhou Yi felt a mouthful of old blood clog his chest, unable to go up or down. He could only bite the bullet and enter the field.

Fortunately, he and Jiang Chen had practiced the “Three-Legged Race” repeatedly, allowing them to display considerable teamwork and seamless cooperation during the event.

Yet, amidst this smooth coordination, Jiang Chen keenly sensed something amiss.

The shoulder he held, its skeletal contours and curves, seemed clearer and even more… slender than in his memory, and even more so than during their last practice.

He instinctively wanted to confirm if it was an illusion or something else. But Zhou Yi beside him was already distracted, eager to finish the event quickly so he could hunt down those two ‘pigeons.’

Finally, having endured the novelty races, Zhou Yi couldn’t even be bothered to check his results or ranking. He snatched up the package and sprinted towards the long-distance track, with Jiang Chen reluctantly following behind him.

The 3000-meter race was already two laps in, with numerous figures blurring across the track. Yet, Zhou Yi immediately spotted Zhao Lei in the crowd.

The guy was running, drenched in sweat, his tracksuit plastered to his body, showing no sign whatsoever of wearing a skirt.

“Zhao! Lei!” Zhou Yi roared from the edge of the track, shouting over the crowd.

Zhao Lei, panting heavily, happened to run past him. He jolted at the sound, then struggled to turn his head, forming a peace sign with his fingers and flashing a laugh that was both incredibly innocent and utterly infuriating. “Bro-Brother Yi… wait until I finish… then we’ll talk…”

“Talk about what?!” Zhou Yi was so furious he wanted to hurl the package. “Where’s your Lolita dress?! Where’s your spinning and jumping?! I was waiting for this, and you dared to stand me up?!”

“Th-That’s not…” Zhao Lei shouted as he ran, his voice drifting back in broken bursts. “The c-counselor said… no one signed up… and f-forced me to fill in for the 3000-meter… I’m a v-victim too, Brother Yi…!”