Chapter 59: A New Hero Emerges

"Alright, let's have Ma Guojun do the shot put," Liu Yang muttered to himself.

Unless he went up against track-and-field specialists who strictly trained in the shot put, the fat guy actually held a distinct advantage in throwing it. It was basically a Beast Titan wingspan combined with a spinning attack!

Very few people chose to do cartwheels; it was downright surreal.

While Liu Yang went to communicate with Jiang Nian, the rest of the class was chattering away about the upcoming sports meeting this Thursday.

"Heh, I'll find a chance to slip out and play LoL," Sun Zhicheng said with a lewd smile. "Guessing the attendance checks won't be too strict the next day, and with the sports meeting leading right into the weekend, it's going to be absolute bliss."

He had zero interest in sports. In Class Three, he was the kind of person who stuck out like a sore thumb in a crowd. He had a penchant for niche hip-hop music and obscure brands that supposedly showcased his refined taste.

Obscure, pretentious, and in all likelihood, an all-talk runaway artist.

"Cut the crap, Sun Zhicheng. If you actually run off and skip it, I'll call you dad for a whole week," another boy, Lin Dong, scoffed. "If you don't run, you call me dad for a whole week. Deal or no deal?"

Lin Dong was a boarder.

He was tall and imposing, which was quite a feat in Class Three, where the average exam score exceeded 510. Among the academically gifted, he was arguably the best at sports, dabbling in a bit of everything.

His popularity in the class had always been consistently high, quietly positioning him as the unofficial leader among the male boarders of Class Three.

Sun Zhicheng was also a boarder, placed in the same dormitory group as Lin Dong. Once these groups were formed, they basically remained unchanged for the entire senior year, and even seat reassignments only shifted the whole group forward.

The two were well-acquainted, and their loud banter soon attracted the attention of others.

Two pretty-looking girls were giggling nearby. One was named Chen Yunyun, and the other Wang Yuhe. Both were boarders and shared the same dorm room.

In a science class heavily skewed in favor of boys, the two of them easily ranked in the top five when it came to looks.

"Lin Dong, what events are you planning to sign up for?" Chen Yunyun was only about 1.6 meters tall, making her look rather petite. She had a quite outgoing personality and frequently bantered and bickered with Lin Dong.

"The hundred-meter dash, I guess, or maybe the relay," Lin Dong replied indifferently. "Just messing around. High jump or long jump are fine too, or maybe I won't sign up for anything at all."

On the other side, the sports commissar Liu Yang somehow overheard and hollered out, "Lin Dong, you have to sign up! Otherwise, our class definitely won't have enough people!"

Lin Dong spread his hands in a gesture of helpless resignation, though what he was really thinking was... the 800-meter and 1,500-meter runs were too exhausting, and the 3,000-meter looked utterly pathetic. The 100-meter, high jump, and long jump worked to his advantage.

If he won, the payoff was huge; if he lost, he wouldn't lose face, and in a relay race, he could always pass the blame.

"Yuhe and I are planning to sign up for the 4x100 relay, and the long jump as well," Chen Yunyun said. "Yuhe wants to do the long jump individually too; she's really good at it."

"Really?" Lin Dong asked, surprised.

"No! I was just joking," Wang Yuhe pulled Chen Yunyun back. She was taller, around 1.7 meters with a pair of long legs, and possessed a much more introverted personality.

The four of them formed the core of a small clique, with Sun Zhicheng being the only day student in the group. He looked perpetually energy-drained—typical of an obscure-obsessed hipster, and his little clique had to reflect that obscurity too.

They also had a few peripheral members tagging along, most of whom were boarders.

"What is Sun Zhicheng signing up for?" Chen Yunyun asked.

"I'm not entering anything. I might as well..." The hipster was about to continue acting arrogant, but fearing that Lin Dong would roast him, he quickly changed his tune. "Put me down for the high jump and long jump to snipe Lin Dong."

"You?" Lin Dong laughed. "What are we betting?"

Sun Zhicheng gave a dramatic, fierce-tiger-over-the-shoulder look. "You kid, don't you know gambling is illegal? Careful or I'll report you to the central authorities."

"Ha, moron."

Conversations continued to buzz inside the classroom. Lin Dong turned his head, instinctively shifting his gaze toward the other side of the room.

There were quite a few small cliques in the class, and the line between boarders and day students wasn't strictly drawn; plenty of them mixed and played together. But what really caught his attention was... Jiang Nian's group.

Li Hua, Yao Beibei, and the fat guy Ma Guojun had known each other since childhood, becoming even closer after ending up in the same class in high school. Li Hua's father worked at the procuratorate, and Yao Beibei's family was with the tax bureau.

As for Ma Guojun, the fatty, his dad was the executive vice president of the county people's hospital.

Their backgrounds couldn't be considered exceptionally wealthy in Zhennan County, and they were hardly worth mentioning if placed in a major city, but in this small classroom, they stood out starkly.

Lin Dong was a small-town youth whose parents ran a small business, meaning he had some modest family assets. With good grades, decent looks, and athletic ability, coupled with having some spending money, logically speaking...

For some reason, he just couldn't seem to click or fit in with those three.

Of course, Lin Dong didn't particularly want to make friends with them either. It was just that when three new students had just been promoted to the class, two of them were immediately absorbed by that trio.

This had dealt a minor blow to Lin Dong's ego. What was that supposed to mean? They only hung out with people holding county-urban household registrations, is that it?

What you can't get is always the best.

What's more, Zhang Ningzhi, who had just been promoted to their class, had caught his eye. There were already very few girls in this class, and pretty girls were an even rarer commodity; girls as pretty as the class monitor were rarer still.

She lived in Nanjiang Bay. Lin Dong remembered his parents mentioning last year that they were also considering buying a property in Nanjiang Bay. Essentially, he and she were on equal footing.

If he could manage to get a girlfriend like Zhang Ningzhi, taking her out would definitely give him plenty of prestige.

What's that? Why didn't he pursue the class monitor?

Ha, give me a break—ask Yu Tongjie, who actually had a wealthy dad, why he didn't pursue her first.

He wove through the crowd and stopped near the inner circle of the girls' queue. He flashed a smile at Zhang Ningzhi, putting on what he assumed to be a warm and friendly expression.

"What events are you planning to sign up for?"

Taken aback by someone she wasn't very familiar with striking up a conversation, Zhang Ningzhi instinctively looked around for Yao Beibei. Seeing that Yao Beibei was chatting with Li Hua over on the other side, she lowered her head and hurried over there.

Lin Dong stood frozen in place. "???"

What the hell... Did I somehow load stealth mode?

Zhang Ningzhi skirted around the back of the formation, held her breath, and expertly located the back of Jiang Nian's head. He was way too easy to recognize—even easier to spot than Yao Beibei, that woman with a dirty mind.

As soon as she got close, Zhang Ningzhi heard sports commissar Liu Yang let out a startled exclamation.

"The three-thousand-meter run? Brother Nian is an absolute beast!"

Hearing this, Zhang Ningzhi froze. He actually chose to run three thousand meters?

For a physically frail girl like her, just hearing about the 800-meter test during PE class made her face turn pale. Let alone a grueling 3,000-meter race; it sounded like hell on earth.

Jiang Nian also noticed Zhang Ningzhi's arrival and gave Yao Beibei a tap on the shoulder.

"She's looking for you."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Ningzhi wanted to open her mouth and offer a weak denial.

Instead, she watched as that yellow-minded woman Yao Beibei laughed, lunged forward, and pulled her into a tight hug, drawing a startled gasp from her. In the end, the words stayed unsaid—it wasn't just Yao Beibei she was looking for...

Hearing the sudden news that Jiang Nian had chosen the 3,000-meter race, the boys and girls in Class Three's running formation turned their heads in unison.

"He instantly locked in the 3,000-meter? Jiang Nian is seriously hardcore!"

Following the commotion with his eyes, Lin Dong spotted Zhang Ningzhi standing right beside Jiang Nian, and a wave of irritation washed over him.

Did I just swallow a stealth-buff pill or something?

"Jiang Nian is actually entering the 3,000-meter? Is he really that crazy?" Wang Yuhe asked with curiosity.

"Indeed, way more hardcore than most of the guys in our class," Chen Yunyun remarked, unintentionally pouring fuel on the fire as she looked at Lin Dong. "Lin Dong, why don't you sign up for it and give it a try?"

Annoyed and speaking before he could think, Lin Dong blurted out, "Only an idiot would sign up for that."