“And also, I asked for Chairman Zhuo’s WeChat on behalf of a friend.”
Lin Shuxue didn’t know why she suddenly felt the need to add this sentence. A vague thought lingered in her mind that Jiang Zong’s inexplicable confrontation earlier today might have something to do with this matter.
Hearing this, a glimmer of amusement lit up Jiang Zong’s eyes. He lightly poked the inside of his cheek with the tip of his tongue and responded lazily.
“Yeah.”
In the end, he still couldn’t suppress his secret satisfaction. A low chuckle escaped his chest, forcing him to stiffen his face and pretend to be serious as he stood up and patted the top of Lin Shuxue’s head.
“Tell your friend to stay away from him too. The romantic debts he owes are too numerous to count.”
Aren’t you exactly the same? The thought suddenly popped into Lin Shuxue’s mind, but she felt too embarrassed to say it out loud.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t hide anything in her eyes. With a slight flicker of her gaze, Jiang Zong saw right through what she was thinking.
“For every single one of his ex-girlfriends, in the end, the girls always end up thinking that the breakup was their own fault.”
Jiang Zong stopped there. He had always refrained from commenting on other people’s love lives, and it was only because it involved Lin Shuxue that he said these few extra words.
Lin Shuxue grew thoughtful.
Ten minutes later, Lin Shuxue looked at the Hua’an City Center Gymnasium in front of her, a look of doubt appearing on her face.
Jiang Zong wouldn’t think that when she said she was “bored,” she meant the level of the school basketball game was too poor and tedious, so he brought her to watch a more professional basketball game, would he? Lin Shuxue silently worried in her heart.
Fortunately, as soon as they walked in, she saw a banner reading “The 15th Hua’an City Shooting Championship,” and Lin Shuxue breathed a sigh of relief.
In the distance, a familiar head of red hair stood out. Guo Peng ran over in a rush and let out a long sigh of relief.
“You’re finally here! I’ve been calling you the whole way, why didn’t you answer? Hurry inside to warm up, it starts in about ten minutes.”
So the phone ringtone she had been hearing all along was Guo Peng calling. Jiang Zong had simply claimed the alarm hadn’t been turned off and calmly silenced it.
From what Guo Peng meant, Jiang Zong was a contestant?
Lin Shuxue subconsciously turned her body to look at him.
Jiang Zong glanced over casually: “What’s the rush, it’s not time yet.”
Guo Peng: “The other contestants came in the afternoon to get familiar with the venue. You’re something else, showing up right before it’s time to compete.”
Jiang Zong lazily lifted his eyelids halfway, rarely choosing not to retort. He wanted to escort Lin Shuxue to the spectator stands first.
Unexpectedly, a notice came over the broadcast requesting the contestants to go to the competition room to check in.
Seeing this, Lin Shuxue said softly: “Go ahead first, I can go by myself.”
Jiang Zong frowned: “I’ll walk you.”
Guo Peng quickly interjected: “I’ll do it, I’ll escort the little sister. Go check in quickly, I’m practically begging you, bro.”
Jiang Zong hesitated for a moment. The broadcast urged them once again, leaving him with no choice but to leave.
Seeing his figure walk away, Guo Peng grumbled under his breath: “Acting as if I’m going to eat people alive.”
Thinking he was speaking to her, Lin Shuxue didn’t hear clearly: “Hmm?”
Guo Peng instantly changed his tune, flashing a smile and waving at Lin Shuxue: “Hi, Little Sister Lin, we meet again!”
Lin Shuxue had always thought that shooting competitions were considered a niche sport, but she didn’t expect the stadium to be packed with people. Many people even held up support signs similar to those used for celebrities.
They were a bit far away, so even when Lin Shuxue narrowed her eyes, she could only vaguely read the characters “Lu” and “Yu.”
The seats Guo Peng brought her to were in the second row, offering an excellent view directly facing the competition stage. He jokingly called it the exclusive seating for the contestants’ families. Noticing that Lin Shuxue kept staring blankly at the spectator stands opposite them, he asked her what she was looking at.
Lin Shuxue smiled shyly and pointed at the support signs held by those spectators.
Guo Peng understood and explained to her: “Those are fans of Lu Jiayu, a shooting athlete who is very popular on the internet.”
“Is he good?” Lin Shuxue asked curiously.
Guo Peng answered without a second thought: “He’s amazing! He just won the championship at the Huaying Cup Shooting Competition not long ago.”
“Better than Jiang Zong?”
Guo Peng hesitated: “Hard to say. Xiao Jiang’s level is definitely unmatched among amateur shooters, but Lu Jiayu is an athlete who has undergone professional training.”
Lin Shuxue nodded. She silently prayed for Jiang Zong in her heart. Perhaps because the young man’s unbridled freedom on the sports field was too vivid, she subconsciously did not want to see him lose.
Seeing the girl’s worried expression, Guo Peng ransacked his brain for another topic to try and cheer her up: “Actually, Xiao Jiang was once offered an olive branch by a sports school teacher, asking if he wanted to pursue sports professionally.”
Lin Shuxue: “And then?”
Guo Peng couldn’t help but laugh every time he recalled that scene: “Before he even had a chance to speak, the Dean of Students came over and dragged the sports school teacher away, saying this was the prime candidate their school was relying on to get the city’s top scorer in the college entrance exams!”
Lin Shuxue’s eyes curved into smiles.
Guo Peng babbled on again: “Xiao Jiang hasn’t participated in a shooting competition for over a year. I thought he was going to wash his hands of it for good.”
Just as Lin Shuxue was about to ask something out of curiosity, a burst of enthusiastic cheers erupted from the crowd.
“Lu Jiayu—!!!”
“Jiayu, Mom loves you, ah ah ah!!!”
Guo Peng pointed at a figure not far away and shouted in her ear: “That one! That’s Jiang Zong!”
Lin Shuxue looked in the direction his finger was pointing. The young man had changed into the uniform competition sportswear, his back looking clean and elegant.
The announcer began to introduce the contestants one by one over the broadcast. Thanks to their fans, Lin Shuxue finally saw the legendary Lu Jiayu.
His face still carried a bit of baby fat, making it look round and soft. Paired with his droopy eyes, he possessed a boyish, innocent cuteness. When combined with the sudden, piercing sharpness in his eyes the moment he aimed his gun, it created the ultimate sense of contrast.
No wonder he was adored by so many people.
Jiang Zong happened to come out right after Lu Jiayu, and the treatment he received was noticeably downgraded. The major cameras in the spectator stands were all chasing after Lu Jiayu’s back, leaving only a few scattered claps for Jiang Zong.
In fact, it was the same for all the other contestants, but coming right after such a passionate opening for the guy in front of him, Jiang Zong’s entrance seemed exceptionally desolate.
The person in question didn’t seem to care at all, strolling at his standard lazy pace, completely at ease. He even found the leisure to turn his head and look toward Lin Shuxue in the spectator stands.
Lin Shuxue noticed Jiang Zong’s gaze, but unfortunately, she couldn’t see his expression clearly. She waved her hand at Jiang Zong with all her might.
The youth on the field raised his left hand high, then let it drop.
Lin Shuxue struggled internally for a few seconds, then placed her hands on both sides of her cheeks, doing her best to call out loudly: “Jiang Zong, keep it up!”
Probably because she didn’t speak much when she was a child, the tone of her normal speech was always soft and her volume was small. At this moment, even though she exerted all her strength, these few cries still scattered into the wind, sounding very light.
Lin Shuxue wasn’t sure if Jiang Zong had heard her either.
She saw Jiang Zong’s footsteps pause for a split second, and that highly raised left hand made a blurry gesture toward the direction of the spectator stands.
Only then did Guo Peng beside her snap out of it, hurriedly joining the cheering squad: “Xiao Jiang, keep it up!”
Lin Shuxue could see clearly that it was an “OK” sign.
She couldn’t help but raise the corners of her mouth, her eyes curving into crescent moons.
The rule of the competition was 24 shots. The first ten shots would eliminate the bottom two contestants, and then every two shots would eliminate the lowest scorer until the champion and runner-up were decided.
This kind of strict competition rule was an even greater test of the contestants’ psychological resilience.
The first ten shots ended very quickly. Guo Peng watched the score rankings on the scoreboard nervously.
His eyes lit up, and he couldn’t help but pat Lin Shuxue’s shoulder: “Look quickly! Xiao Jiang’s total score ranks second! Right under that Lu Jiayu!!”
Hearing this, Lin Shuxue raised her eyes. It was actually true; the two of them were even neck-and-neck in their scores, with only a 0.2-point difference.
People around them gradually began to notice the scores and started whispering.
“Who is this? To be able to match Xiao Yu evenly?”
“Never heard of him. Looking at his profile introduction, he seems to be an amateur.”
“An amateur?”
The whistle blew again, and the second round of elimination began.
Scores were announced after every two shots, and contestants on the field gradually began to leave one after another with regret.
This likewise brought immense psychological pressure to the contestants who still remained on the field.
Some people’s marksmanship began to warp. While they could steadily stay within the ninth ring for the first ten shots, they gradually produced absurd scores in the seventh or sixth ring.
Jiang Zong seemed completely oblivious to it; the hand pulling the trigger remained entirely steady.
The competition entered the final four shots. Only three contestants were left on the field.
However, the gap between the third place and the two of them was too large. Unless one of these two missed the target entirely, the contenders for the champion and runner-up titles were obvious.
Lu Jiayu glanced at the youth beside him. He had been participating in various major shooting events for two years, and this championship was also a venue where the organizers had eagerly invited him to bring buzz so they could sell tickets. He had looked at the list of contestants; most of them were amateur players, and he had never heard of this tough opponent who could match his scores so tightly.
Jiang Zong, on the other hand, was perfectly candid, letting him judge all he wanted. His pitch-black eyes fixed intently on the bullseye ahead. He only felt his long-dormant blood gradually rising to a boil.
Back when Lu Jiayu hadn’t started competing yet, Jiang Zong rarely met anyone who could be a match for him.
The final two shots would decide life and death.
Lin Shuxue’s body leaned forward unconsciously, her heart growing tense along with the only two solitary figures left on the massive competition field.
She rapidly calculated the score difference between Jiang Zong and Lu Jiayu: 0.13 points.
As long as, as long as.
Two gunshots interrupted her frantic thoughts.
The entire audience looked toward the scoring screen in unison.
—In the column for the contestants’ names, Jiang Zong’s name silently shifted up by one slot.
Everyone was in an uproar.
On Lu Jiayu’s second-to-last shot, his muzzle shook, resulting in a score of only 8.7 points. Meanwhile, Jiang Zong seized his mistake, hitting consecutive ten-ring shots to successfully complete the turnaround.
Lu Jiayu’s face looked a bit crestfallen, but his eyes held more of a refusal to admit defeat.
He asked the youth beside him: “Are you really an amateur player?”
At that moment, Jiang Zong accepted the champion medal and prizes handed over by the official staff. He lazily lifted his eyelids: “When did you start competing?”
Lu Jiayu: “Two years ago.”
Jiang Zong kept one hand in his pocket, his tone casual: “Then you can go look at the competitions from three or four years ago to see who the champion was.”
After saying that, he turned around and walked toward the spectator stands, leaving Lu Jiayu with nothing but an arrogant view of his back.
Lin Shuxue was right at the entrance of the spectator stands, waiting for him with a radiant smile.
Jiang Zong looked up, his peach blossom eyes with their slightly upturned corners curving a bit more. With a lift of his jaw, his footsteps quickened.
Just as he was about to say something to her, another sweet voice snatched the words away.
“A-Zong.”
“Long time no see.”
Lin Shuxue turned her gaze back.
The girl who spoke had gentle facial features, her flaxen-colored wavy curls draping casually behind her shoulders. She had a palm-sized oval face and snow-white skin.
She saw Jiang Zong’s expression suddenly darken. He immediately bypassed Lin Shuxue, walked quickly up to the girl, grabbed the other party’s wrist, and led her away directly.
It was a rare display of panic and anxiety from him.
Lin Shuxue stood rooted to the spot as the sounds of the crowd around her clamored and boiled over.
“Hey! This champion who beat Lu Jiayu has a massive background!! Look at what I found from searching!! He swept the championships for all major city-level events two years ago!!”
“I even caught a photo of his face. Not going to lie, compared to the good little younger-brother type like Lu Jiayu, this kind of handsome guy who looks like he really knows how to date makes my heart flutter even more!!
Very few people knew that Lin Shuxue actually liked looking at the sky very much. The drifting clouds, the layered evening glow, or the deep and shallow sky could heal her mood to a great extent.
Yet at this moment, she couldn’t hear the surrounding noise clearly, and lifting her eyes, she could only see the semi-translucent glass roof built by the municipal government at great expense.
The distant night sky was blocked out by the hazy white glass panels, appearing oppressive and distant.
Guo Peng hurried over and found that Lin Shuxue was still standing in place.
“Come take a seat here, little sister!” he greeted.
Lin Shuxue moved her feet as a reflex, only to find her body exceptionally heavy, her movements particularly stiff as she shifted.
She asked despite already knowing the answer: “Where is Jiang Zong?”
Guo Peng felt a bit guilty, his gaze darting away as he explained hesitantly: “He… he has some words to clear up with a friend.”
“Oh.” Lin Shuxue nodded, indicating she understood. She slowly followed Guo Peng back to the seats, wondering to herself what exactly she had run all this way for.
Watching competitive sports really did stimulate hormone secretion, making her do things that she herself couldn’t even understand.
Lin Shuxue lowered her eyes to look at the competition field. Lu Jiayu was still staying in place, with a long line forming in front of him consisting entirely of fans who wanted a group photo.
Seeing the young girl remaining quiet and silent, Guo Peng kept Jiang Zong’s dark-faced instructions firmly in mind. He cautiously leaned closer and asked: “Are you hungry? I have some small buns prepared here, do you want to grab a bite first, little sister?”
Lin Shuxue shook her head, her voice very soft, as if it would scatter the moment the wind blew.
“Is that his ex-girlfriend?”