Wen Li wasn't lying.
She really had been sneaking in extra practice behind her parents' backs lately—waking up two hours early every day. Some of the movements were still rough, but at least she'd regained a bit of her feel for it.
The next day, Wen Li went to the affiliated hospital for her follow-up.
The sky was still overcast when she left, as if holding in a heavy rain.
She took a cab to the hospital, and a long line was already forming outside the examination room. After grabbing her number, she found a seat by the window and sat down.
She was scrolling through her phone when she caught fragments of a conversation drifting from the end of the hallway.
"Doctor, please be honest with me… Can I ever go back?"
Wen Li instinctively looked up.
The speaker was a tall, slender girl wearing a simple athletic jacket, looking somewhat dejected. Wen Li recognized her at once—Song Ying, the gold medalist in snowboarding at the Winter Olympics four years ago.
That year, she was twenty, draped in the national flag on the podium, her smile so bright it seemed to radiate light. In her post-race interview, she'd looked into the camera and said, "This is just the beginning. I'll win more gold medals."
Wen Li never expected to run into her in a place like this.
Was she injured? She hadn't seen any media coverage about it.
The doctor across from her sighed, keeping his tone as gentle as possible. "This is a new injury layered on top of an old one. Your meniscus is too badly worn. If you keep pushing yourself to train, it won't just affect snowboarding—even normal walking will be impacted. For the sake of your health, retirement is the safest option right now."
The word "retirement" fell lightly into the air.
But Wen Li's heart clenched hard.
Song Ying's shoulders shifted slightly. After a long pause, she finally said, "But if I retire, I don't know what else I can do."
"You're still young. Focus on recovering first. Once you're healthy, there's nothing you can't do."
"Thank you, doctor."
Their voices faded into the distance, and the hallway fell quiet again.
Wen Li sat where she was, her phone still lit, the Weibo feed she'd been reading frozen on the screen. But now she couldn't take in a single word.
Song Ying was actually retiring. If she remembered correctly, Song Ying was only twenty-five now—not much older than herself. She was in the prime of her life.
But competitive sports were cruel by nature. The spotlight only ever chased the winners on the podium; countless others could only struggle through injuries, wavering between persistence and giving up.
Looking at Song Ying, Wen Li felt like she was standing before a mirror—and the person in the reflection wasn't Song Ying, but herself five years from now.
She'd have her day too, wouldn't she?
No matter how hard she tried, that day would come.
She wasn't being dramatic. She just suddenly felt a little sad.
"Number 43, Wen Li, please proceed to the examination room."
The call from the reception desk snapped her out of her thoughts. Wen Li took a deep breath, stood up, and walked into the examination room.
_
At six in the evening, Xiao Jinyu walked out of his department and immediately spotted someone sitting by the flower bed downstairs.
She was wearing a cap, the brim pulled so low it hid her face, but the droop of her head made it obvious she wasn't in a good mood.
He paused mid-step.
Her usual image instantly flashed through his mind—walking with light, brisk steps, her ponytail swinging side to side, as lively as the rabbit in her WeChat profile picture. But now, that rabbit's ears might as well be dragging on the ground.
Xiao Jinyu stood there for a moment, when someone suddenly patted his shoulder from behind. "What are you staring at? Not heading home yet?"
It was Su Yucheng.
He leaned in, following Xiao Jinyu's gaze. "Her again? She's still here?"
Xiao Jinyu raised an eyebrow. "Still?"
"Yeah. She came by the duty room looking for you this afternoon. I didn't tell her you were in—just made up some small talk and sent her on her way. No need to thank me."
Xiao Jinyu's brow furrowed slightly. "She came looking for me?"
"Yeah, about an hour ago. I figured she hasn't given up yet. You should just ignore her. Girls like that are just a passing whim—give it a while, she'll see some other handsome guy and forget all about you. She won't pester you for long."
Su Yucheng muttered, "Though she doesn't look too happy. You think she had a fight with her boyfriend?"
The word "boyfriend" pricked at his chest like a thorn—not deep, but enough to stir up an inexplicable restlessness.
Xiao Jinyu glanced toward the flower bed again.
That small figure was still there, completely still, like a tiny, helpless mushroom.
"She's young, so why does she have to be such a player?" Su Yucheng chewed on a biscuit, gossiping.
"She's not a player." Xiao Jinyu corrected him instinctively.
"Hey, now you're defending her? How is she not a player? She's got a boyfriend and she's still flirting with you—what do you call that?"
"She's not flirting with me. She's never said anything out of line to me."
"That's exactly the problem." Su Yucheng shook his head in exasperation. "That's what makes her a pro. She gives you a little hint now and then, pulls you in, then lets you loose. By the time you take the bait—bam—she yanks the hook away and looks at you all innocent, asking if you misunderstood. Isn't that infuriating?"
Halfway through, Xiao Jinyu had already stopped listening.
"You're not actually into her, are you? I know you and Ji Cheng don't get along, but you're all classmates after all. You can't go stealing someone's girl."
"Why can't I?" he asked suddenly.
Su Yucheng's brain took a moment to catch up. "…What?"
Xiao Jinyu's expression was calm, but Su Yucheng could somehow read a kind of "I'm not joking" seriousness from his face.
"No way, are you for real?"
"Ji Cheng isn't good to her," he said.
"So what does that have to do with you? They're a couple—one's willing to hit, the other's willing to take it."
"…"
Yeah, what did it have to do with him.
He just thought she should always be radiant.
Xiao Jinyu didn't answer. He lifted his leg and walked out.
Su Yucheng stood there dumbfounded.
He hadn't known Xiao Jinyu for a short time—starting from their freshman year when he'd carried him through their group lab experiments, it had been nearly five years now. He'd never seen him this unsettled. The attitude this guy showed the world had always been one of indifference. He didn't care about anything—not scholarships, grades, his future, and not relationships either.
Back in freshman year, plenty of girls had made moves on him, and all of them had been turned away cold by his iron-wall personality. They'd pour their enthusiasm in and not even hear an echo, and gradually people stopped coming to court rejection.
He walked alone, steadily forward, faster than everyone else, yet with no idea where he was going. Dean Wu said Xiao Jinyu had extraordinary talent, but his heart wasn't in it. He was like a blade that hadn't been sharpened—keen, but with no idea where to strike.
Now that blade seemed to have found its direction, even if the direction was a bit absurd—he'd set his sights on someone else's girlfriend!
Su Yucheng thought to himself, this is going to be a real disaster. Should he go warn Ji Cheng? Or keep Xiao Jinyu's secret? The two biggest academic grinders in the med school, after fighting over the direct-admission PhD slot, were now fighting over a girlfriend?
What the hell was going on!
_
"Wen Li!"
The voice landed as Wen Li was burying her head between her knees, playing Plants vs. Zombies with great enthusiasm. She'd played this level six times and was down to the last sun.
Hearing the voice, she jerked her head up and saw her idol's slightly cold face.
The setting sun happened to be wedged right between the buildings behind him, and the orange-red light poured over without obstruction, making her squint slightly.
Xiao Jinyu?
Wen Li froze, her mind going completely blank, just tilting her face up and staring at him dazedly.
It was a long moment before she heard her idol speak: "Your brain got eaten by zombies."
"?"
Why was her idol cursing at her out of nowhere?
Wen Li was dazed for a while before she snapped back to reality and looked down at her phone. Oh no, her brain really had been eaten by zombies. She fumbled to exit the game before asking him, "Is something up?"
"No."
"Oh."
Just passing by, not here for her.
Wen Li dropped her face in disappointment and started another round of the game. Five minutes in, out of the corner of her eye, those shoes were still there.
She couldn't help but look up again, speaking cautiously: "Were you looking for me?"
"You…"
He said just one word, then stopped.
People came and went—patients and their families—and occasionally a gaze would drift over and linger on them, probably thinking it was strange that the two of them were just standing there not talking.
Actually, Xiao Jinyu didn't know why he'd come either. He wasn't an impulsive person. He must have been so annoyed by Su Yucheng's blabbering just now that his head was full of her, and that was why he'd somehow wandered over this way.
But what he'd come to say, he didn't know either. He just didn't want to see her looking dejected, but he wasn't good at comforting people.
The wind blew between them, tousling her hair a little.
A couple passed by beside them—the guy had his arm around the girl's shoulder, coaxing her softly: "Don't be upset. I'll buy you some milk tea."
"Two cups."
"No problem."
The voices faded into the distance and disappeared into the crowd.
"Do you want some milk tea?" he suddenly spoke.
Wen Li blinked in confusion, still feeling like she was in a dream: "You want to buy me milk tea?"
"Yeah." He nodded.