The next morning, the prestigious academy was completely transformed into a sea of corporate banners and cheering crowds for the mandatory Annual Sports Day.
Attendance and participation in the athletic track events were strictly compulsory for every student, leaving Jow with absolutely no option to escape.
As he stood near the edge of the sprawling school field, his fragile frame felt incredibly weak inside his loose white sports uniform.
The fresh fabric hid the dark, agonizing reality beneath—the painful purple bruises blooming across his slender back and chest from Teng’s brutal wooden rod assault inside the abandoned room.
Every breath he took felt like a sharp blade twisting inside his lungs, his porcelain skin looking dangerously translucent under the hot morning sun.
Yet, Jow held his head low, his long eyelashes casting soft shadows over his anxious eyes, desperately praying that could survive the day without collapsing in front of the elite crowd.”All students for the senior 100-meter sprint, report to your assigned lanes immediately!” the authoritative voice of the sports director blared through the massive stadium loudspeakers.
Jow’s heart completely dropped into his stomach, a sudden wave of nausea hitting his senses as he checked his assigned track.
To his absolute horror, standing just two lanes away from him was Teng.
The multi-billionaire heir looked breathtakingly handsome and effortlessly powerful in his customized sports gear, stretching his long, muscular legs without a single care in the world.
Teng lazily turned his head, his dark, calculating eyes locking onto Jow’s pale, trembling figure.
A cruel, slow smirk played at the edge of his lips.
Teng knew exactly what state Jow’s body was in, and seeing the fragile transfer student being forced to run a high-speed race sent a sick thrill of supreme satisfaction deep into his immense ego.Jow walked slowly toward lane number four, his knees shaking so violently that he could barely keep his balance on the red synthetic track.
He knelt down carefully, every single movement causing a sharp, burning wave of agony to radiate across his bruised ribs, making his vision blur for a brief second.
He tightly clenched his small fists against the starting blocks, his mind racing into a chaotic storm of memories—his sick grandmother waiting at home, his urgent cashiers duties at the supermarket, and his desperate dream to complete his education despite his penniless background.
Jow clamped his jaw shut, forcing a spark of quiet, unbreakable defiance to flare deep within his gentle soul.
‘I cannot fail here,’ he whispered to himself, his innocent eyes focusing entirely on the white finishing line waiting a hundred meters away.
‘I won’t let him see me cry.’
“On your marks…
Set…”The sharp, deafening blast of the starting pistol ripped through the stadium air.
In a split second, the runners exploded forward like wild predators, their shoes tearing aggressively into the synthetic track.
Jow pushed off the block with his last ounce of physical strength, his slender legs pumping furiously as he threw his fragile weight into the sprint.
The wind rushed past his ears in a deafening roar, but within the first thirty meters, the severe physical trauma from last night completely revolted against his iron will.
A crushing, white-hot pain exploded violently across Jow’s lower back, radiating down his thighs and making his chest tighten until he couldn’t breathe.
His lungs burned as if filled with broken glass, his vision fragmenting into chaotic dark spots.
Yet, driven by pure, raw adrenaline and his unyielding resilience, Jow stubbornly refused to stop, his beautiful, sweating face twisting in absolute agony as he remarkably managed to stay near the front of the pack.At the sixty-meter mark, Teng surged effortlessly into the lead, his tall frame cutting through the air with a terrifying, dominating speed.
As he raced toward the climax, Teng glanced slightly to his left, expecting to see Jow trailing far behind in complete humiliation.
Instead, his dark eyes widened in sharp disbelief as he saw the fragile transfer student just a few steps away, his teeth clenched so hard that blood was lightly pooling at the corner of his pale lips, his eyes burning with an unyielding determination.
Teng’s immense pride instantly converted into a toxic, burning rage.
He hated that even after being completely crushed in the darkness, Jow’s spirit refused to shatter.
Teng pushed his legs even harder, crossing the finishing line in first place, his imposing figure instantly turning around to watch his prey’s ultimate destruction.Jow could no longer feel his feet; the entire stadium had twisted into a terrifying, spinning vortex of absolute blackness.
The white finishing line was less than five meters away, right beneath his blurred gaze, but his fractured body had officially reached its absolute breaking point.
The severe lack of oxygen and the crushing pressure on his bruised ribs completely shut down his nervous system.
Just as his foot was about to cross the marking, Jow’s knees buckled violently, his beautiful eyes rolling back as his entire body turned completely limp.
He crashed heavily into the synthetic track, his fragile frame rolling through the dust and collapsing into a silent, unmoving heap directly at the feet of the cheering crowd, completely senseless to the chaotic screams that instantly erupted across the entire stadium.The chaotic screams of the student crowd resonated across the massive stadium as Jow’s motionless body lay sprawled on the red synthetic track.
Within a matter of seconds, the homeroom teachers and the school medical staff rushed frantically toward lane number four, their faces tight with sheer panic.
The entire track event descended into complete disorder as a thick wall of elite spectators gathered around the fallen transfer student, whispering furiously among themselves.
Jow’s pale face was resting against the dusty ground, his long eyelashes entirely still and his white sports uniform now stained with dirt.
He was completely senseless to the intense commotion surrounding his body, his frail spirit trapped inside a dark void where the severe physical pain from his bruises could no longer torture his senses.
The medical team quickly brought a standard canvas stretcher, carefully lifting Jow’s light, limp frame with urgent whispers,scrambling to carry him away toward the school’s campus clinic for immediate emergency care.Teng stood completely frozen just a few meters across the finishing line, his tall frame emitting an incredibly powerful, dominating presence amidst the growing hysteria.
He didn’t rush forward to help, nor did he order anyone to step in.
He didn’t bring any private cars or personal doctors today.
Instead, Teng just stood there completely alone, his arms crossed carelessly over his chest as his dark, calculating eyes locked onto Jow’s fragile, unconscious silhouette being carried away on the stretcher.
A wave of twisted satisfaction and toxic possession flared deep within his massive ego.
He watched with a sinister calmness, his handsome features completely unreadable to the crowd around him.
Teng knew exactly what had broken Jow’s unyielding resolve on the track today, and as the medical staff disappeared around the corner of the building with the senseless boy, Teng let out a low, dangerous chuckle, his mind looking forward to the next customized phase of his living hell.Inside the quiet, sterile environment of the school clinic, the ticking of the wall clock was the only sound cutting through the heavy silence.
Jow’s long eyelashes fluttered weakly as a faint trace of consciousness slowly returned to his exhausted mind.
The crushing white-hot pain in his back had settled into a dull, agonizing throb, and his fragile hands trembled against the white sheets of the medical bed.
The school nurse was busy preparing a temporary pain-relief injection at the far desk, leaving Jow completely alone with his suffocating thoughts.
He forced himself to stare at his dusty, ruined sports uniform, a fresh wave of panic washing over his soft chest as he suddenly remembered his urgent night shift duties at ‘The Daily Fresh’ supermarket.
Jow bit his pale, bleeding lip to suppress a helpless sob, knowing that despite his broken body and the living hell Teng had upon him, he couldn’t afford to lose the only job that kept his sick grandmother alive for another day.As the school nurse stepped out of the room for a brief moment to fetch a fresh ice pack, Jow didn’t hesitate for a single second.
With his small, fragile hands shaking violently, he forced his numb and heavily bruised legs to slide off the medical bed, his teeth gritted firmly to suppress a sharp cry of physical agony.
He grabbed his dusty school backpack from the side chair and practically stumbled toward the rear exit of the clinic, his pale skin drenched in a cold, anxious sweat as he escaped into the fading evening light.
Meanwhile, out on the empty sports field, Teng remained standing completely motionless under the bloody red twilight sky.
He watched the quiet clinic building from a distance, a dangerous, possessive madness swirling deep within his dark eyes as he slowly adjusted his leather wristwatch, silently promising himself that this temporary escape would only make Jow’s ultimate submission in his private domain taste sweeter.”He dragged his broken body out of the school gates to reach his supermarket shift, completely blind to the fact that his hidden evening sanctuary was no longer a secret to the predator.”