Zhai Yao muttered a curse, “What a pain in the ass,” under his breath, but ultimately stayed behind in the waiting area.
The final match officially commenced, with Shen Heng facing off against Lu Liang from 3rd High School, and the one who emerged victorious between the two would be crowned the champion of the fencing competition.
During the split second when Shen Heng made his move, Zhai Yao suddenly understood two things: one, that Shen Heng’s prior coaching sessions with him were conducted in an outright edutainment approach, and two, where exactly his impressive physique came from.
The foil seemed to possess a life of its own in Shen Heng’s hands. Each angle of attack was executed with precision as if meticulously calculated, employing deceptive techniques and exerting immense pressure that denied Lu Liang any chance to observe or probe.
Once again, the spectators were ignited by his performance, their screams reverberating throughout the venue without pause.
For a fleeting moment, it felt as if the entire stadium was echoing with the cacophony of countless kettles boiling all at once.
“Ahhhhhhhh—!!!”
Zhai Yao leaned against the wall with his hands cupped over his ears, fixing his gaze intently on the competition arena.
With Shen Heng scoring the first touch on Lu Liang, the latter pulled back and retreated. Despite being in a disadvantageous position, Lu Liang’s eyes still glinted with a smile beneath his mask.
“You’re in pretty good shape today, aren’t you,” he said. “And here I thought you’d been slacking off on your training.”
Shen Heng remained silent, completely unaffected by Lu Liang’s attempt to divert his attention.
Lu Liang readjusted the bend of his foil. “But I can’t afford to lose today… Shen Heng, I’m gonna get serious now.”
As soon as Lu Liang finished speaking, he swiftly advanced with the intention of launching a rapid attack, closing the distance with Shen Heng at astonishing speed.
Both of them struck their foils simultaneously, the clang of metal echoing briefly in the air.
Clang.
Shen Heng bent his knees and flicked his wrist inward as he shifted his target to stab towards the side of Lu Liang’s abdomen, who once again parried his attack.
Shen Heng abruptly halted and swiftly retreated, widening the distance between them. Meanwhile, Lu Liang, shifting tactics from his earlier cautious and probing approach, aggressively advanced and lunged forward into an attack, scoring a point.
“Way to go!!!”
“That was slick, Liang-ge!!!”
Unwilling to yield an inch, 9th High School’s crowd countered with thunderous cheers.
“Boss Shen! Boss Shen! Boss Shen!”
“Husband’s too badass!!!”
“Attack! Attack! Attack!”
Lu Liang once again shifted back, widening the distance between them, and asserted control over the bout with a steady pace.
Regardless of the type of sport, grasping and controlling the rhythm on the field is of utmost importance, and that was precisely Lu Liang’s motive.
The score gradually levelled out and remained neck and neck amidst their exchanges, with neither side gaining a decisive advantage.
With every spectator’s eye fixed, and every breath held, the once bustling venue from just a second ago abruptly descended into an eerie silence.
After distancing himself once more, Shen Heng’s gaze briefly shifted towards Zhai Yao in the waiting area.
Catching Shen Heng’s gaze, Zhai Yao raised his eyelids, lazily lifted his hand, and brought his index and middle fingers to his lips, mimicking a smoking gesture.
Shen Heng nodded subtly.
Throughout the ordeal, Lu Liang observed the two engaging in their silent charade, raising his eyebrows and asking, “What are you two doing?”
Turning back his head, Shen Heng said indifferently, “Hurry up.”
“Eh?”
“I’m going to go smoke with him.”
“Hah?”
…
In the blink of an eye, the final countdown commenced.
Less than 60 seconds remained of the 9-minute bout.
Shen Heng seized control of the field, no longer allowing Lu Liang to dictate the pace. He closed in on Lu Liang to force the latter into engaging in close-quarters combat, launching a series of attacks at varying speeds that completely disrupted Lu Liang’s tempo.
And that was where Lu Liang’s Achilles’ heel lay. He hurriedly leapt backward to execute a parry, while also probing and waiting for Shen Heng to expose vulnerabilities, searching for an opening to capitalize on.
Concurrently, the timer emitted its final series of beeps.
10—
9—
8—
7—
Suddenly, Shen Heng leapt forward into a jump.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
In response, Lu Liang hastily moved his foil blade to defend.
Yet, in the next moment, Shen Heng unexpectedly capitalized on the opportune timing of his natural landing, flicking his wrist inwards to swiftly redirect the tip of his foil.
In the waiting area, Zhai Yao’s eyes trembled as he recognized the manoeuvre Shen Heng had just executed as the exact move he himself had used on the latter during their practice session the previous night.
The foil stabbed towards Lu Liang’s chest. Upon touching the target area of his torso, it elegantly bent upward, coming to a graceful stop after contact.
At that moment, the timer emitted its final “beep.”
“Match concluded!”
Shen Heng vs. Lu Liang, 15:14.
9th High School emerged victorious!
“Hell yeah! Hell f*cking yeah! Ahhhhhh!”
“Buzzer beater!!! This is such a fricking clutch playyyyy!!!”
Director Liu stared dazedly at Hou-ge, who was visibly overwhelmed with excitement, and asked, “Did I hear that right? W–who won?!”
Hou-ge’s face lit up with a victorious glow. “Director, it’s Shen Heng who won! 9th High School! We’ve got the win!”
Director Liu’s legs went weak, nearly buckling beneath him and threatening to collapse to the ground.
Heaven knows, throughout his long career in education, he had always been singled out and criticized as a negative example at conferences. But at long last, today finally marked a day of triumph for him to hold his head up high.
Warm tears welled up in his eyes and poured down in two streams before he could even wipe them away.
Director Liu sniffled forcefully, his voice breaking with suppressed sobs. “Wuu wuu wuu Principal… leaders, Mom, Grandaunt!!”
Lu Liang loosened his grip on the foil in his hand, removed his mask, and sighed with a smile. “I still lost in the end. Just like last time, one thrust away from victory.”
“The rules were unfair to you.” With that, Shen Heng turned his head towards the waiting area and cast a fleeting glance. “But I couldn’t afford to lose today either.”
Lu Liang murmured, “Shen Heng, it’s a real shame that you’re not continuing your fencing training.”
“Not a shame.”
With a casual remark, Shen Heng turned and made his way towards the waiting area.
As he departed, Lu Liang’s gaze remained fixed on him, his eyes subtly revealing a tinge of deep pity for Shen Heng’s decision.
Upon noticing Shen Heng coming his way, Zhai Yao pushed himself off the wall and strolled over to meet him.
Shen Heng placed the foil back into its bag and slung it over his shoulder. “Let’s go change clothes first.”
After taking a few strides, he glanced back only to find Zhai Yao still rooted in place, gazing at him with a cold expression.
Shen Heng: “Didn’t bring cigarettes?”
He then lowered his head and took out a new pack of unopened cigarettes from his foil bag. “I did.”
Zhai Yao looked at him and lightly pressed the tip of his tongue against his cheek.
After a while, he slowly stretched out and opened his arms in a very stiff manner, then turned his face away and let out a soft cough.
Shen Heng paused for a moment, a hint of confusion flickering across his features. Then, a gentle easing of tension settled between his brows as he grasped the meaning behind Zhai Yao’s gesture.
Seeing Shen Heng still standing motionless, Zhai Yao uttered a “tsk” in impatience.
He then hurried forward and hugged Shen Heng at lightning speed, intending to pull away immediately after.
“Don’t move.” Shen Heng’s voice dropped as he continued, “You’ve got something stuck onto you.”
“Oh, help me get it off then.”
“Zw.”
Shen Heng’s fingers curled slightly at his side as he lifted his arm and wrapped it around Zhai Yao’s back.
Then, he stayed in that position for quite some time.
“Is it gone?” Zhai Yao asked with a frown.
It was only then that Shen Heng gently patted his back, which had nothing on it, and softly replied, “It’s gone.”
…
*
The afternoon competition marked the final event of the sports competition, the 4×100 metre relay race.
9th High School currently held the second place in the overall rankings, pulling ahead of 2nd High School by a significant margin, and was tightly locked in a fierce tug-of-war with the district’s sole provincial key school, 3rd High School.
This meant the opportunity to create the legend of a miraculous comeback, where the underdog chicken prevailed over the majestic phoenix, was at stake!
Throughout the entire afternoon, Director Liu was wired, as if he had downed a gallon of energy drink. He even went as far as throwing out a bold promise: if they could win the 4×100, there would be no evening self-study sessions for the entire next week!
Although for the students at 9th High School, whether the self-study session was cancelled or not didn’t matter much to them. After all, there weren’t many who could actually endure sitting through it until the end on regular days anyway.
But winning the championship was still something they had to achieve. Just the thought of being able to ruthlessly slap those who always treated them like trash in the face made their blood boil with pleasure and excitement.
Director Liu came to a stop in front of Zhai Yao, adopting a gentleness never seen before and offering his heartfelt concern, “How are you feeling, Student Zhai? Is your leg still hurting?”
Zhai Yao slightly leaned his body backward. “I didn’t sign up for the 4×100.”
“Aiya, I’m not trying to push you to compete, just showing soooomme concern for you!” Director Liu remained all smiles, sending the nearby students goosebumps, as he rubbed his hands together and continued, “But you know, if you’re up for another round of competition… that would be fantastic! Oh, only if your leg isn’t hurting, though.”
“Are you for real, Director? Don’t go putting all the pressure on my husband, ahem, our class Zhai Yao! We’ve got plenty of folks here at 9th High School for you to ask from.” Yang Ning said discontentedly.
“Yeah, Director. Zhai Yao’s been competing for two days straight. I think it’s best we let him rest.” Hou-ge also chimed in from the side, silently criticizing in his heart: Director Liu sure is heartless!
Director Liu sighed. “You guys don’t get it. Other schools are also banking on the afternoon relay. They’re all sending out their A-team.”
He uttered weakly, “Well, isn’t the original runner, Chen Yuan, still recovering from a twisted foot? He was the fastest in the preliminaries, and the only one I can think of to sub for him now is Zhai Yao.”
“Zhang Saiyang from Class 3 can sub too!”
“And Wang Yong from Class 5!”
“Our class Zhu Zichao runs pretty fast too.”
“Let’s forget about Zhu Zichao—” Director Liu drooped his head. “That kid always got caught whenever he tried to climb over the wall for being late; never once did he successfully escape from me.”
“Ah, it does seem to be that case when you put it like that…”
The surroundings lapsed into a momentary hush.
After all, everyone present wanted to win, and they also knew fully well that trying to charge ahead solely relying on fervour right now wasn’t the wisest strategy.
Eventually, Director Liu stood up with a dejected air, mustering a forced smile as he said, “It’s alright, we’re already breaking records with this ranking! Let’s do our best this afternoon and leave the rest to fate.”
He turned to Hou-ge and instructed, “Xiao Hou, quickly help me contact the other homeroom teachers and the sports committee members. Let’s have a meeting to discuss our next steps.”
“Gotcha,” Hou-ge said.
Director Liu patted Zhai Yao’s shoulder once more, expressing genuine sincerity. “Take a good rest, Zhai Yao. You’ve truly brought great honour to our school this time!”
With that, he turned to prepare for the meeting.
The whistle dangling from his waistband shimmered in the sunlight, gleaming with each sway.
Zhai Yao quietly twisted open a bottle of sports drink and took a sip before bending over to massage his calf.
After a noon of rest, it seemed to have eased somewhat.
He pursed his lips. “So, about my… leg—”
In an instant, a hand firmly held him back.
Director Liu spun around eagerly. “Student Zhai Yao, your leg’s feeling better now?!”
“No, he meant to say, ‘let me recommend someone’,” Shen Heng interjected.
Let?
Leg?
Director Liu grasped that he might have misheard and instantly felt a pang of disappointment.
Nevertheless, he still asked, “Oh? Whom do you wish to recommend?”
Zhai Yao shot Shen Heng a sideways glance, his expression silently conveying: Let’s see how you wriggle out of this one.
With calm composure, Shen Heng said to Director Liu, “Me.”
…
In truth, Zhai Yao did indeed have complete faith in Shen Heng’s speed, especially considering their past sparring experiences.
Still, he didn’t foresee that the other party would actually take the initiative and volunteer himself.
After Director Liu happily skipped away, Zhai Yao turned and gazed expressionlessly at Shen Heng. “What’s this, planning to battle in your father's stead?”
Shen Heng didn’t retort, simply saying, “Behave yourself and stay quietly on the sidelines.”
Ha, ‘behave’ you say?
There was never such a word in Zhai Yao’s dictionary.
He rolled up his sleeves and gestured to Shen Heng with a beckoning hand. “Come, why don’t you show me how does one ‘behave’ first?”
Shen Heng tilted his head, his gaze lingering on Zhai Yao’s face momentarily before he said, “Some railings on the side of the stands have been removed by someone. You can squeeze through it and get into the field from there.”
Zhai Yao was puzzled. “I’m not even running anymore, why the hell would I sneak into the field?”
Shen Heng pursed his lips and said lightly, “Watch me run.”
“?”
This again?
…
The author has something to say:
Shen Heng: So, I'm actually pretty impressive.
Itjl Tjb: …Jtlivlrt!
Random rambling
So, I had a real tough time translating that “let, leg” joke into English. I went asking around for some ideas and got a bunch. Thought I’d share a few with you guys; maybe you’ll get a good laugh out of them (we sure had a blast trying to figure it out lmaooo 
). In the end, I came up with and chose the version that’s more or less close to the OG since I didn’t want to change up the characters too much and went completely OOC.
Raw
“那什么，我腿——”
“你腿是不是不疼了？！”
“不是，他说他想推荐个人。”
推？
腿？
Liona
“Qfii, ws ifu–”
“Tbeg ifu offir yfaafg gluta?!”
“Rb. Lf kjr rjslcu tlr gfmbwwfcvjalbc lr kf tjnf rbwfbcf firf. “
Ofu?
Efm?
PiaPia
“Yt, ws if…”
“Tbeg ifu vbfrc’a tega jcswbgf?!”
“Rb, tf rjlv ‘bt ws, ifwwf gfmbwwfcv j mjcvlvjaf.'”
Yt, ws ifu?
Yt ws, ifwwf?
Kuonji
“Fw, rb, P’w jmaejiis jigluta–“
“Your leg is all better now?!”
“No, he’s saying his left leg is in so much pain that he’s ‘all right’ now. He wants someone else to take his place.”
All right?
Alright?
“Um, so, my leg–”
“Your leg is all better now?!”
“No, his mileage is zero. He’s too hurt to continue and wants to recommend someone else.”
Mileage?
My leg?
IsaCat
“Well, I ca—”
“You ca? Your calf’s feeling better now?!”
“No, he said he’s got a candidate to recommend.”
Candidate?
Calf?
Feel free to share your own version~
Thanks for the leg…uh, wha?…update 🤣🤣🤣
Well… wife always need to see the husband cool moments 😁😁
Thanks for the chapter!
lol I guessed it was 推荐 but didn’t realize just how much effort you went thru to translate it
honestly the one you ended up going with is the best version
Thanks for the update!
One could say that wordplay, in general, is just not my strong suit 🤣🤣
Thanks for commenting!! ❤️