“Mm.”
“…”
Lin Zhexia didn’t want to talk anymore.
Chi Yao carried her on his back to the infirmary.
Lin Zhexia, lying on his back, smelled the scent of laundry detergent that had been warmed by the sun.
Then, belatedly, she felt her ears burning.
“How embarrassing.”
Lin Zhexia buried her face in his clothes and said, “So many people watching.”
“You finished the race,” Chi Yao said, “Nothing embarrassing about that.”
—But you saw it.
The first thought floating in Lin Zhexia’s mind was this sentence.
She had been inexplicably concerned about him watching from the side even before she ran, and then she ended up falling in front of him.
The infirmary was at the back of the stadium.
After Chi Yao carried her away from the crowd, she couldn’t help asking: “Just now when I…”
“What?”
“When I fell, did I look ugly?”
“…”
There was a moment of silence.
Lin Zhexia regretted asking because it wasn’t like something she would normally ask.
When had she ever cared about such things in front of Chi Yao? Even that time when it was raining and she accidentally fell into a puddle, after getting up, she wouldn’t have asked, “Did I look ugly just now?”
But recently, she had started to become unlike herself.
She had begun to care about how she appeared in front of Chi Yao.
Trying to cover up her embarrassment, she explained: “After all, there were so many people. I have my pride, too. As the mighty Lin Shao, I can’t lose face like that.”
After a while, Chi Yao broke the silence: “It was okay.”
Lin Zhexia: “…Just okay?”
Chi Yao added: “Not that ugly.”
Lin Zhexia threatened: “I’ll give you one more chance. Answer again.”
Chi Yao demonstrated what it meant to give a new answer: “A bit ugly, but still acceptable.”
“When I asked you to answer again, I meant for you to give a different answer,” Lin Zhexia said, “not to elaborate on the phrase ‘not that ugly.'”
Chi Yao: “Oh, I thought you didn’t understand the meaning of those three words.”
Lin Zhexia: “…”
Lin Zhexia: “Just give me a different answer.”
The person carrying her asked back: “Are you sure?”
Lin Zhexia made an “Mm” sound.
Chi Yao paused, then answered again: “Pretty ugly.”
“……”
They were getting closer to the infirmary.
She lay on Chi Yao’s back, neither able to see the other’s face.
Lin Zhexia didn’t need to deliberately hide her burning earlobes, and she couldn’t see Chi Yao’s expression as he spoke, but that deliberately provoking “pretty ugly” seemed to have a hint of gentleness in its tone.
At the infirmary, the school doctor in a white coat examined her injuries.
“It’s not too bad, just some abrasions. Once we disinfect it, there shouldn’t be any problem,” the doctor opened the medical kit. “Disinfecting might hurt a bit, as the scraped area on your knee is quite large.”
The disinfection did hurt a bit, but it was bearable.
Lin Zhexia instinctively grabbed Chi Yao’s arm, closed her eyes, and after a while the pain gradually subsided.
“After disinfection, you can rest here for a bit. Just be careful when moving around. You don’t have any more events, right? Good, because in this condition you can’t run.”
The doctor closed the medical kit and finally reminded her, “If you feel discomfort anywhere else later, come back to the infirmary to find me.”
There seemed to be other emergencies on the field, so the doctor didn’t stay long in the infirmary, quickly picking up the kit and leaving.
The infirmary wasn’t very large, with only three or four beds, separated by white curtains.
Lin Zhexia sat on the bed and said, “I want to sleep for a while, about an hour. If I’m not awake in an hour, remember to come and wake me up.”
Chi Yao pulled the curtain closed for her and said, “Got it.”
After saying this, Lin Zhexia noticed that Chi Yao had no intention of leaving.