Chapter 49.2

A relay race was a competition that tested teamwork. Each team represented their school, making the scene extremely lively. The moment the starting gun fired, the atmosphere ignited, filled with screams and cheers.

In the relay race, the first runner, a girl, fell a bit behind the other teams. Luckily, the second runner made up a good amount of ground, and by the time the baton was passed to the third runner, they were in third place within their group.

The third runner, nearing the handover, was running out of energy and slowing down considerably, extending her arm forward as much as possible as Yan Mu prepared to receive the baton.

Jiang Zhihuo was closest, his gaze shifting from the competition field to Yan Mu’s hand.

That hand, with a white bandage on the back, was slender and clean; the palm clenched tightly and then loosened.

The moment of the handover seemed to stir up a gust of wind. Jiang Zhihuo couldn’t help but raise the corners of his mouth, yelling along with the audience, “Go Yan-ge!!!”

He Xiezhou was also the eighth runner, responsible for the final run.

He was on the inner lane, with his baton exchange position slightly behind Jiang Zhihuo.

He could see that Jiang Zhihuo was more excited than anyone, screaming wildly at the figure that had dashed out.

He’s just an omega.

His palms were soaked with sweat, and He Xiezhou kept reassuring himself in his mind.

He’s just an omega, just an omega! Every omega is disgustingly fragile; there’s no way he could be faster than him!

Crush him, crush him hard!

The seventh runners from both No. 1 High School and Qixing High School were female. Wen Xin, the athlete, was significantly faster than the girl from No. 1 High School, pulling ahead by a large margin. Her baton passing technique was also quite professional.

He Xiezhou was overly nervous; his heart pounded, and his breathing became rapid. His arm trembled as he prepared to receive the baton.

Don’t lose! Don’t lose! Don’t lose!

“It’s okay! Don’t rush!” Jiang Zhihuo shouted to the girl running the seventh leg of the relay. The girl was already exhausted, staggering in the last few steps, almost tripping.

He Xiezhou sneered and took the baton.

However, he was too nervous and eager to perform, his palms were sweaty and he didn’t grip tightly, so the red and white relay baton fell to the ground.

During this time, Jiang Zhihuo cooperated well with the girl and, taking the baton, dashed off like a little leopard.

“Go, Huo-ge! Aaaaaah!”

The last chance to turn the tide.

There were eight lanes, the team from Group A ranked fifth. Fortunately, the distance between each team wasn’t too great, so everyone watched as Jiang Zhihuo overtook one, then another, and then a third.

“Go, Huo-ge! Team A is awesome! First place comeback!!”

“Go! Go! Go!”

“Go!! Ahhh!”

Yan Mu was waiting for him at the finish line.

In the crowd of spectators, students from No. 1 High School made up the majority, and the entire venue was filled with shouts of “Go Huo-ge, go! No. 1 High School is awesome!”

It was noisy and crowded, but Yan Mu’s gaze was fixed on one person.

He was running towards him.

The running boy was forever bold and exuberant, whipping up the wind and sweeping along the gazes and excitement of the whole field, leaving behind a trail of radiant sunshine and blooming flowers.

Some people were naturally as captivating as light.

He Xiezhou did his utmost to run, but he couldn’t catch up to him.

Jiang Zhihuo propelled Team A from fifth to second place. First place was claimed by Huanglun Qiao High School, whose team included four provincial and municipal-level athletes out of eight members. The early lead they built was too large to overcome; it was no surprise that Team A couldn’t catch up.

As soon as the competition finished, the spectators in the stands rushed onto the field, surrounding the two teams of relay runners.

“Wow, you guys were amazing!!”

“You actually won!! That athlete from the third-place team looked at you guys like their eyes were about to pop out!”

“God Yan and Huo-ge were insane! Even though the third runner fell behind a lot, they still caught up and even passed them!”

“That was way too cool!!”

“Aaaahhhh, No. 1 High School got second place!! Second place!!”

“Everyone did such an amazing job!!!”

This was only the first group of races. After the third senior year relay, there were still two more groups to come. The referee, having noted the results, blew a long whistle to signal clearing the field for the second round. Jiang Zhihuo stepped back with the crowd and then went with Yan Mu to buy two bottles of iced drinks.

Just finished running, and that cold drink felt amazing, like it was opening up every pore in the body. Neither of them wanted to join the crowd on the track, so they sat down on the flowerbed outside the basketball court.

The clear autumn sky was cool like water, with white clouds that looked soft and fluffy like cream, while the warm sun shone down above.

Jiang Zhihuo went to a nearby vending machine again to buy two boxes of ice cream. He handed a box to Yan Mu and asked, “Do you have another match later?”

“Mhm, four o’clock,” Yan Mu said.

Jiang Zhihuo peeled back the lid. The ice cream smelled rich and milky, its sweet aroma filling the air. It melted in his mouth, leaving a pleasant sugary taste. He smiled, squinting his eyes, and said, “A little over an hour left, time to get a good rest.”

Yan Mu: “Mhm…Mhm, mhm.”

“Are you obsessed with ‘mhm, mhm’?”

“You found it.”

Yan-ge being cute is totally unfair.

Jiang Zhihuo gave a soft laugh.

The phone dinged.

The last video clip was also posted on the forum.

In the video, He Xiezhou was beaten so badly that he didn’t dare to lift his head. He lay flat on the ground, miserably hugging his arms to protect the back of his head.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry… Please stop, I beg, I beg you…”

His pants got wet, dripping a small puddle of water.

The video didn’t show Jiang Zhihuo’s face, only his incredulous voice. He seemed to be speaking to someone else. “You jumped off the building because of someone like this???”

After the video was posted, the whole sequence of events became very clear.

It wasn’t Jiang Zhihuo who pushed the person to jump; it was He Xiezhou.

School bullying, the so-called gay curement, and different kinds of verbal abuse shattered Zhu You’s already delicate psychological barriers—barriers that were still maturing and unsettled.

And He Xiezhou, the primary instigator behind the entire incident, actually attempted to twist the situation using an audio recording to shift all the blame onto Jiang Zhihuo!

“Damn, this person is really disgusting!”

“He probably didn’t expect the other party to have kept evidence, otherwise he wouldn’t have slandered him like that.”

“Thank goodness he took a video, or else how could he clear his name after being slandered like that?”

“Shhh… don’t say anything, look.” The person in the middle of the discussion pointed towards a corner of the main camp.

He Xiezhou sat by himself, his expression dark. No one dared come near him, not even the friends who typically addressed him as ‘brother.’

Meanwhile, He Xiezhou was deep in thought. All he had was this recording. Since things had come to this point, he was going to use it to take Jiang Zhihuo down with him!

He opened the audio editing software and imported the recording into it.

Wen Xin and two other girls also entered the main camp. The female participants, fresh from competing, were glistening with a light layer of sweat that hugged their sun-kissed skin, exuding the lively spirit of eighteen or nineteen-year-old girls.

“Wen Xin, it’s He Xiezhou.” The girl nudged Wen Xin’s hand.

Wen Xin frowned. “Don’t mention him.”

With such a terrible character, she didn’t want to get to know someone like that.

He Xiezhou also saw Wen Xin.

“Wen Xin, Wen Xin, no, everything they’re saying on the forum is a lie!” He Xiezhou rushed over and grabbed her hand. But Wen Xin pulled away from him with disgust and quite a bit of force, accidentally hitting the hand he was holding his phone with.

The phone fell to the ground, and no one knew what button it hit, yet the recording he was editing started playing out loud on speaker.

“He Xiezhou! Don’t push me, I swear I’m going to jump, I can’t take you anymore, I really can’t hold it in!”

“It’s all your fault! You messed up my life! So what if I like guys? It’s none of your damn business! Why the hell are you torturing me like this?!”

“So, you think I’m a damn gay?! I’ll die for you to see! I’ll jump from here, and I’ll f*cking haunt you for the rest of your life!!”

This was Zhu You’s voice; He Xiezhou once posted this on a forum.

At the time, everyone believed the words were aimed at Jiang Zhihuo, but surprisingly, Zhu You shouted them at He Xiezhou just as he was about to collapse.

He Xiezhou’s face suddenly changed, drained of all color.

“How could you?! The recording is actually like this!!” Wen Xin was furious. The recording kept playing, and Wen Xin heard the hateful words from He Xiezhou, which made her want to vomit.

“Jump! What else can you do besides bluffing? Take one more step forward! Are your legs weak? Do you need me to give you a hand?”

Wen Xin looked horrified, staring at He Xiezhou in disbelief.

This was actually said by a boy in the first junior year???

What does he take other people’s lives for??!!

“He Xiezhou! You actually told him to jump down?!”

“No, no!” He Xiezhou quickly explained and reached for Wen Xin’s hand. “He wouldn’t dare; he’s too timid. There’s no way he’d jump!”

Wen Xin shook off He Xiezhou; she didn’t want to be in the same space as someone with antisocial personality traits. “Unreasonable.”

Their conversation wasn’t low, so everyone around heard every word and whispered to each other.

“My God, he’s actually telling him to jump…”

“From his tone, it sounds like he doesn’t realize he’s in the wrong.”

“It’s scary… I feel so sorry for that guy…”

“Fortunately, Jiang Zhihuo saved him; if he hadn’t met Jiang Zhihuo at that time, Zhu You would have jumped down, right?”

“This person actually wants to pour black water over someone’s head now; isn’t that antisocial?”

The whispering sounds like mosquitoes, buzzing nonstop right beside his ear.

The more He Xizhou listened, the angrier he got. He kicked the table, knocking it over and cracking a decorative KT board.

He Xiezhou, frustrated and furious, shouted, “What’s the big deal? What did I do wrong? He’s just an omega! Why are you all so protective of him and siding with him?!”

The phone beside him vibrated twice with a notification from the forum. In the gossip thread, someone had posted another video showing He Xiezhou at the participants’ main camp, kicking down decorations the student council had carefully put up, shouting, “What did I do wrong? Isn’t he just an omega?”

“Wow, he dared to say something like this in our school.” Jiang Zhihuo scooped up the last bite of ice cream. “He’s done for.”

After the incident where Feng Zhi maliciously marked omegas, along with the school beauty openly admitting her omega status and the Bai Family’s public release of their will, No. 1 High School became very sensitive about anything related to omegas. They held several class meetings to guide students’ thinking—no matter what a second gender is, everyone is equal, and discrimination shouldn’t happen.

What He Xiezhou said felt like twisting a knife in the hearts of everyone at No. 1 High School—it was painful to see and hard to hear.

At one point, the backlash against He Xiezhou was overwhelming.

– No, it’s not like that, Huo-ge isn’t wrong to begin with!

– What did he do? You’re the one in the wrong, and you won’t even admit it!

– What’s with your attitude? Do you expect people to jump off buildings just because you’re antisocial? And now you’re even dragging in the second-gender discrimination card?

– Someone like you should do everyone a favor and get the hell out of our school. I honestly think you’re dirtying our beautiful campus!

He Xiezhou, nearly losing his mind, gave up on treatment¹[T/N: It’s Internet slang for “I give up, I’m hopeless, I surrender to the chaos.” Super common on Chinese forums.] and went straight to the forum to vent and ask.

The original poster of the second thread was anonymous too and had uploaded a series of videos. No one knew who they were. He Xiezhou seized on this and became aggressive. “Why are you anonymous? Who are you? You’re definitely Yan Mu! I saw it! I saw it that day! The one kissing Jiang Zhihuo in the equipment room— that’s you!! You two disgusting gay!!!!”

“Ah…” Jiang Zhihuo tossed the empty ice cream box into the trash can, walked back, and leaned close to Yan Mu, “Everything else is settled. How are you going to explain the homosexuality thing?”

“Post on the forum in one minute.” Yan Mu said calmly.

“Oh.” Jiang Zhihuo, bored, timed himself with a stopwatch and logged into the forum right after counting to sixty seconds.

The anonymous poster revealed their identity, it was Yan Mu’s account. Jiang Zhihuo already knew this and wasn’t surprised, but he was curious about what Yan Mu had posted that was making the comment count skyrocket.

The milky sweetness of ice cream still lingered in his mouth. Jiang Zhihuo slowly scrolled to the very bottom of the thread, and when he finally saw the few lines Yan Mu had sent, he froze in place.

Yan Mu: I don’t know if he likes the same sex.

But I am.

I am chasing him.

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The author has something to say:

Confession done, hehe… pretty cool, right? Not lying, right~

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  [T/N: It’s Internet slang for “I give up, I’m hopeless, I surrender to the chaos.” Super common on Chinese forums.]