"Hm..."
Lin Jing's mind went blank for two seconds, assaulted by the sound, before she blinked.
She wasn't stupid. Sheng Kuang appearing at her dorm building as soon as he returned to Beijing, she could obviously guess it was related to what happened last night.
In the whole incident, Sheng Kuang wasn't in the wrong; he was also a victim by association.
Logically, she should have been comforting him, the victim. Instead, the roles were reversed, and he ended up comforting her, the victim.
People were already tired after a competition. They had finally relaxed and could get a good night's sleep, yet he had to come and coax her.
When her emotions flared up last night, Lin Jing didn't feel like she had done anything wrong. Now, looking at Sheng Kuang, she suddenly felt incredibly self-indulgent.
She looked at Sheng Kuang, her lips parted, wanting to say something, but nothing came out.
Sheng Kuang, on the other hand, looked at her and laughed again, "Let's eat."
Lin Jing moved her lips. When Sheng Kuang spoke, he didn't seem to carry much emotion, but for some reason, she felt he was being excessively gentle at that moment.
Seeing Lin Jing not moving her chopsticks and just staring at him, Sheng Kuang picked up a piece of sweet and sour pork ribs and placed it on her plate. "What's wrong?"
Lin Jing snapped back to attention, shook her head, and looked down at the ribs he had just placed on her plate. After a two-second pause, she couldn't help herself and looked up. "When you messaged me last night, I was actually awake."
Sheng Kuang picked up a dish for himself. "Hm?"
Lin Jing pursed her lips. "I saw your message and deliberately didn't reply."
"I even deliberately silenced my phone."
After a pause, Lin Jing continued, "I knew you weren't in the wrong, but I just couldn't help but take my anger out on you."
"Before I slept, I was thinking I wouldn't talk to you for the next few days."
"And now?" Sheng Kuang looked at Lin Jing. "Are you still angry now?"
Lin Jing shook her head. "I'm not angry anymore."
She hadn't been angry for a long time.
The moment she saw the Weibo post he had reposted, she had completely let go of her anger.
The more Lin Jing thought about it, the more she felt she was being incredibly self-indulgent. She squeezed her chopsticks hard. "Don't you think I'm too much?"
Although girls were more or less prone to being a bit dramatic.
But now, calming down and thinking carefully, she had seemed to disregard Sheng Kuang's feelings a bit last night, only focusing on her own emotions.
Sheng Kuang seemed a little taken aback by what she meant. "Why do you ask?"
Lin Jing pursed her lips. "I just feel like I was very childish last night. It wasn't your fault, but I deliberately gave you the cold shoulder. Thinking about it now, it feels very self-indulgent and melodramatic."
"Ah?" Sheng Kuang raised his eyelids and met her gaze. "This is called being self-indulgent and melodramatic?"
Lin Jing paused and said softly, "I'll try not to do this in the future."
"Why?" Sheng Kuang paused for a second. "I actually quite like it when you're like this."
Lin Jing's lips moved. She felt as if something had sharply plucked at her heart, making it tremble uncontrollably.
...
Sheng Kuang stayed with Lin Jing until after dinner before returning to the club.
After the third round of the regular season concluded, it signaled the imminent arrival of the playoffs.
Although yLs had achieved the best results in the regular season, they didn't slack off. The day after returning to Beijing, they immediately plunged into intensive training, preparing for the upcoming playoffs.
Concurrently, the school's autumn sports meet also began for Lin Jing.
Lin Jing had signed up for the 1500-meter race. The sports meet lasted for three days, and her event, being a long-distance race, was scheduled for the afternoon of the second day.
She actually preferred sprinting, but other girls in her class had already signed up for the sprints. She couldn't find anyone for the long-distance race, so she had to fill in the numbers.
The women's 1500-meter race was not divided by grade; all registered female participants from the entire school competed together. When Lin Jing went to register her class, a boy in a fiery red tracksuit had just finished the 3000-meter race and was registering results nearby.
He was covered in sweat, tugging at his collar to fan himself. When he saw Lin Jing approach, his gaze immediately fell on her.
Lin Jing didn't pay him much attention and directly reported her name and event to the volunteer.
The boy let out a "Yo" upon hearing her event.
The women's 1500-meter race was already being prepared. Lin Jing glanced at him, and without thinking much, walked towards the starting line.
Compared to other events, the number of participants in this event was slightly lower.
Lin Jing arrived a bit late, so she stood on the outer lane of the track.
She did a simple ankle warm-up and then, after the gun fired, she dashed out.
She didn't set exceptionally high personal standards and didn't insist on getting first place, only aiming to compete with full effort. After the first lap, she wasn't in the lead, but she had moved into the top five. She didn't pay much attention to the people ahead and ran at her own pace. By the end of the second lap, she had surpassed fourth place, and halfway through the third lap, she was in the top three.
The track was 400 meters. The 1500-meter race required approximately four laps. Lin Jing started accelerating after completing the first three laps. In the final 200 meters, she pushed herself to sprint.
She truly hadn't expected to overtake the second-place runner and catch up to the first-place runner.
As the finish line approached, Lin Jing gritted her teeth and continued to surge forward. At the last moment, she overtook the first-place runner and crossed the red line first.
Amidst the cheers of a group from her class not far away, Lin Jing ran a few more steps due to inertia. Someone, she didn't know who, shouted at the top of their lungs, "Watch out—"
Before Lin Jing could react, she was knocked to the ground.
Someone from another grade, thinking the race wasn't over yet, had cut across the track and was running a bit too fast to stop.
Lin Jing was thrown directly onto the ground.
Although she was wearing long sleeves and pants, her arms and legs still burned with pain from the abrasion.
Lan Tingting and others were waiting at the finish line. Seeing her fall, they immediately rushed over.
"Lin Jing, are you okay?" Lan Tingting was the first to bend down and touch Lin Jing's arm.
The next person to arrive was He Lin. "Lin Jing, can you get up?"
Lin Jing took a moment to recover from the pain and tried to get up, but she couldn't.
He Lin handed the bottle of water he was holding to Lan Tingting without a word, then bent down, picked up Lin Jing, and walked towards the infirmary.
Lan Tingting, holding the water and Lin Jing's jacket, hurried to catch up with He Lin, who was walking with brisk strides.
...
Not far away, Yu Zhou, who was on a video call with Sheng Kuang, silently shifted his gaze to Sheng Kuang's face in the upper right corner of his phone as he watched the people in his screen gradually disappear.
The young man had just woken up, his hair messy, his eyes still a bit unfocused.
But the expression on his face was not very friendly.
It was even a little chilling.
Yu Zhou swallowed. "Uh, Bro, I'm going to get my award. I'll hang up now."
Sheng Kuang didn't speak.
Yu Zhou quickly ended the video call. Thinking of Sheng Kuang's gaze just now, he shivered. He felt that when he had called his brother just now, he had intended to be charming, but now it seemed like he had gotten into trouble.