Redemption from the Abyss: The School Beauty Insists on Pulling Me Out of the Mire

[The following morning, 8:30]

After a night of rest, the second day of the sports meet had a more intense atmosphere, like the prelude to a decisive battle.

The air still carried the cool, damp air characteristic of an early autumn morning.

Next to the check-in area, Su Qinghe was warming up before the competition.

Today, she tied her long, jet-black hair up high, revealing her slender and graceful neck. To make running easier, she changed out of her usual trousers and wore a dark blue professional sports short-sleeved shirt and shorts.

In the morning light, the girl's exposed arms and legs were almost dazzlingly white, her skin as smooth as porcelain, gleaming with an almost cold, elegant sheen against her dark sportswear. Her legs were straight and long, with muscles that were not exaggerated but perfectly proportioned.

Many boys from other classes were secretly glancing in their direction, their eyes filled with amazement.

Xie Wang stood beside her, subtly turning to block most of her view, and casually handed her a bottle of glucose.

Are you nervous?

Su Qinghe took the drink, took a sip, shook his head, then nodded: "A little."

"Don't be afraid."

Xie Wang bent down, his gaze level with hers, his peach blossom eyes filled with certainty:

"Do you remember those two months during summer vacation? Every morning at five o'clock, you would run a lap around the lake. You persevered through that time, so this 800 meters is just a warm-up for you."

He reached out and gently tidied the stray hairs at her temples, whispering:

"I'll stay right here with you. Go on, Teacher Su, and bring back a gold medal to play with."

"Please welcome the women's 800-meter athletes to the field!"

……

Women's 800m Final

As the starting gun fired, a group of girls rushed out of the starting line.

The 800-meter race is the critical point between anaerobic and aerobic exercise, and it is the most grueling. Su Qinghe's start was not particularly fast, and he steadily followed at the back of the leading group.

By the time I got to the second lap, my breathing started to become rapid, and my lungs felt like they were on fire.

Just then, that familiar figure appeared on the grass inside the track.

Xie Wang followed her pace, running alongside her on the lawn. He ran backwards, shouting to her as he went:

"Breathe! Teacher Su! Adjust your breathing! Swing your arms!"

Just then, the campus radio, which had been playing monotonous instrumental music, suddenly emitted a piercing static sound.

Immediately afterwards, that familiar voice, tinged with a touch of cynicism, rang out:

"Hello? Sound check... cough cough!"

In the broadcasting room, Lu Wen, who had somehow slipped in, pushed the bewildered announcer aside and took over the microphone:

"This is off-field support from Class 1 of Senior Three! A battle song, on behalf of Xie Wang, is dedicated to a certain heroine who is fighting hard on the track! Charge!"

The next second, a crisp and melodious guitar strumming sounded, along with that melody etched into the DNA of countless people.

"Rice Fragrance".

Don't cry, let the fireflies carry you away.

Country folk songs, an eternal refuge.

Let's go home, back to the beauty of the beginning.

At that moment, Su Qinghe felt that the phrase "eternal reliance" had transformed into a gentle yet powerful driving force.

She turned her head instinctively.

Xie Wangzheng was seen running alongside her across the white running track lines on the inner lawn.

Those were her fireflies, the light that guided her as she ran.

Su Qinghe gritted his teeth, and miraculously, his originally heavy steps regained their rhythm amidst the light yet powerful drumbeats.

can't stop.

He was at the finish line.

Amidst the overwhelming singing, Su Qinghe abruptly adjusted his breathing. His originally fair face flushed crimson from lack of oxygen, but his eyes became sharper than ever before.

accelerate!

One step, two steps!

To everyone's astonishment, she was like a white bird that had broken free of its restraints, overtaking the first-place runner just five meters from the finish line!

Crossing the finish line!

The inertia carried her forward several steps, and then she crashed headfirst into an embrace that was already open, filled with the scent of sunshine and grass.

"Got you?"

Xie Wang grabbed her and steadied her, whispering a soft laugh in her ear:

"Teacher Su, you've won the championship!"

Su Qinghe gasped for breath, leaning against him, listening to his rapid heartbeat. Although she was too tired to speak, a smile still played on her lips.

……

[15:30 PM · Men's 3000m Final]

The afternoon sun became scorching.

As the grand finale of the sports meet, the men's 3000-meter race attracted the attention of the entire school.

Xie Wang stood at the starting line, looking relaxed, while Zhao Qiang, on the track next to him, stared at him with a gloomy face.

What's that kid doing here again?

A gunshot rang out!

Game start.

For the first two laps, everyone was packed together, but by the fifth lap, the gap had widened.

Although Xie Wang looked lazy, his endurance was amazing. He steadily led the pack, while Zhao Qiang, a player known for his explosive speed, had long since fallen to the back of the pack and had even been lapped by Xie Wang.

The seventh lap.

Xie Wang maintained a steady speed and was about to overtake Zhao Qiang, who was already a lap behind, from the outside lane.

Just as their bodies were about to intersect, Zhao Qiang, who had been pretending to catch his breath with his head down, suddenly had a sinister glint in his eyes.

Without warning, he suddenly changed lanes, even subtly extending his right foot to hook Xie Wang's landing ankle—

When running at high speed, even a small pebble can cause a person to lose their balance, let alone being tripped by someone.

"Grass!"

Xie Wang only had time to utter a curse before he lost his balance and his right ankle twisted violently, causing him to fall heavily onto the red plastic track!

Due to inertia, he slid more than a meter on the rough track, instantly scraping his knees and elbows until they bled profusely.

Zhao Qiang then deliberately fell to the side, pretending to be a victim as well, lying on the ground groaning and moaning.

"Thank you, Wang!!"

A gasp of surprise erupted from the stands.

The first one to rush over was Su Qinghe.

She practically sprinted over the fence and rushed into the field.

In that instant, her usual poise and composure vanished. She rushed to Xie Wang's side, her face turning deathly pale as she looked at his ankle, swollen and red at an abnormal angle, and the blood seeping from his knee. Her hands trembled uncontrollably.

"Don't move! Don't move!"

Xie Wang was in so much pain that he was covered in cold sweat. He gritted his teeth and tried to sit up: "I'm fine... hiss..."

After confirming that Xie Wang had not broken any bones, Su Qinghe suddenly stood up.

She turned her head and looked at Zhao Qiang, who was lying next to her, still pretending to cry out.

For a moment, the surrounding air seemed to freeze.

Su Qinghe's gaze was as cold as if she were looking at a dead man. She walked step by step to Zhao Qiang, looking down at him. Her voice wasn't loud, but every word was icy, carrying an unprecedented and extremely oppressive anger:

"Is this your sportsmanship?"

Zhao Qiang felt uneasy under her gaze, and forced a smile, shouting, "What do you mean? I fell too! He bumped into me!"

"Shut up."

Su Qinghe's sharp rebuke interrupted his sophistry; every word she uttered struck Zhao Qiang's face like a whip.

"As an athlete, to maliciously change lanes and trip someone while being lapped in a long-distance race, Zhao Qiang, you not only lost the race, you've completely lost the most basic principles of being a human being. You've tarnished the very name of 'athlete'!"

The entire room fell silent.

No one had ever seen the usually gentle and aloof Class Monitor Su so frightening when she got angry.

"You son of a bitch, Zhao Qiang!! I'll kill you!!"

At that moment, a furious roar shattered the silence.

Shen Hao charged forward like a bull with bloodshot eyes. If the people next to him hadn't held him back, he would have kicked Zhao Qiang in the face.

Lu Wen followed closely behind. Unlike Shen Hao, he wasn't impulsive. Instead, he walked straight over, grabbed Zhao Qiang by the collar, and lifted him off the ground like a chick, sneering:

"Pretend? Keep pretending? Are you wailing here because your leg is broken? Should I take you to the hospital to have it amputated?"

Looking at the group of senior high school boys surrounding him, especially Lu Wen and Shen Hao whose eyes seemed to want to kill, Zhao Qiang finally started to back down, but he still tried to put on a brave front:

"He's the one who hit me! You're bullying me because you outnumber me?!"

……

[Two minutes later]

The school doctor rushed over with a first-aid kit.

"A ligament sprain and some minor skin injuries. You need to go to the infirmary for treatment. You can't run around anymore," the school doctor diagnosed after examining Xie Wang's foot.

Two boys carried in a stretcher.

Su Qinghe squatted beside the stretcher, her eyes a little red, tightly holding Xie Wang's uninjured hand.

Seeing her like this, Xie Wang, despite the excruciating pain in his ankle, felt his heart melt. He squeezed her hand, still in the mood for a joke, a weak smile playing on his lips:

"Teacher Su, don't be so fierce...you scared me."

Su Qinghe glared at him: "What time is it and you're still being sarcastic?"

"What a pity." Xie Wang sighed, pointing to the finish line. "I was hoping to win both titles and then ask you for a reward. Now I can only leave lying down, and I won't even get a kiss..."

He hadn't finished speaking.

Su Qinghe suddenly bent down.

On a noisy playground, amidst the shocked gazes of all the students, teachers, and even the school doctor.

She kissed Xie Wang's dry, pale lips gently yet firmly.

A dragonfly skimming the water's surface speaks volumes more than a thousand words.

"..." Xie Wang's pupils dilated in shock, and he was completely dumbfounded.

Su Qinghe straightened up, her cheeks flushed like the sunset, but her eyes were open and honest. She touched the blank-faced boy's face with the back of her hand and whispered:

"Come on, let's go to the infirmary and get our wounds treated properly."

……

[Center of the playground]

The turmoil over there has not yet subsided.

Zhao Qiang's cronies also gathered around, insisting that Xie Wang had lost his strength and changed lanes, causing the collision. The two sides were deadlocked, and it even alarmed Director Yan.

"Everything must be based on evidence! Don't slander people without evidence!" one of Zhao Qiang's buddies shouted, sticking his neck out.

"evidence?"

A cold, ethereal voice came from outside the crowd.

Everyone turned around and saw that Lu Yi had walked down from the stands at some point.

He still held the black camera in his hand, his steps slow and deliberate. He looked at Zhao Qiang as if he were a pitiful ant, and slowly began to recite a line of poetry:

"Baseness is the passport of the base, nobility is the epitaph of the noble."

"It seems Mr. Bei Dao was right."

Zhao Qiang's face turned ashen: "What are you saying, you bookworm?!"

Lu Yi ignored his shouts, simply walked up to Director Yan and the referees, raised his camera, pulled up the replay screen, adjusted his glasses, and spoke in a calm tone as if he were reading a verdict:

"Unfortunately, as the class photographer, my lens happened to capture this 'dirty' scene."

"A 200mm telephoto lens, 12 frames per second continuous shooting. From the moment you turn around to observe and deliberately slow down, to the moment you stretch your leg and hook your foot, every frame is crystal clear."

Lu Yi turned the camera screen towards the crowd.

In the high-definition footage, Zhao Qiang's insidious leg-stretching gesture was completely exposed.

Ironclad evidence.

Lu Yi put away his camera, looked at Zhao Qiang's ashen face, and added insult to injury in a calm tone:

"Some things can't be covered up by just falling to the ground and yelling a couple of times."

"The ugliness of your soul cannot be saved even by a beauty camera."