I Will Never Give Up

The women's 100-meter race.

Jiang Yunlu was in the second heat. She pinned on her bib number, glanced left and right, and finally spotted Lin Mo standing by the side of the track.

Immediately, she happily waved in Lin Mo’s direction.

Unlike the men’s races, there usually weren’t many girls coming to watch.

But for the women’s races, quite a few boys would sneak over to watch.

After all, everyone was at that age of first crushes, and many boys wanted to see how the girls they liked ran—or simply to admire some pretty faces.

With Jiang Yunlu’s looks, she easily attracted a crowd of spectators.

Yet she was the only one who actively greeted Lin Mo.

The students in Class Eight were used to this by now.

“On your marks!”

“Get set!”

Bang!

The girls took off. Though much slower than the boys, the race was still highly entertaining.

Jiang Yunlu took the lead effortlessly. Her running form and speed were far superior to the other girls.

“14.30 seconds!”

Jiang Yunlu truly had excellent athletic instincts.

Breaking 14 seconds was already faster than most average high school girls.

She was even quicker than some boys.

As soon as she crossed the finish line, Jiang Yunlu immediately ran over to Lin Mo.

“How was that? Impressive, right?”

The girl was panting, and Lin Mo handed her a drink.

“Impressive, impressive. Rest a bit before you drink.”

“Mm-hmm~” Her charming, obedient expression made the other boys grit their teeth in jealousy.

Leaning close to Lin Mo, she whispered in his ear, “I held back just now. I can still go faster later!”

“Oh, so you’re hiding your true strength. No wonder you’re the young lady.”

“You’re gonna die,” Jiang Yunlu said, lightly punching Lin Mo’s shoulder.

Lin Mo had long noticed that Jiang Yunlu hated being called “young lady” because it made her seem distant.

The preliminaries continued. Jiang Yunlu pulled the tab and took a sip of her Red Horse energy drink.

As she took her first sip, she suddenly remembered something.

Then, mimicking Geng Xiao’s exaggerated tone, she said:

“Oh, Lin Mo, can you help me pull the tab? Running is so hard.”

Not bad—this sarcastic skill is at least one-tenth of mine.

Lin Mo smiled, “Drink if you want.”

“Tch, then why didn’t you say so earlier?” Jiang Yunlu rolled her eyes and quickly finished the Red Horse in her hand.

“That’s different.”

Jiang Yunlu immediately widened her eyes.

“How is it different?”

“She’s shameless.”

Hearing Lin Mo say that, Jiang Yunlu felt a little happier.

At that moment, Jiang Yunlu suddenly asked, “What events did Xie Yuling sign up for?”

“She didn’t sign up for anything. She’s always cold and distant; even if someone tried to rope her in, it wouldn’t be her.”

“How do you know so much?” Jiang Yunlu pressed.

Lin Mo shrugged, “Because I have a big mouth.”

At this time, Lin Mo could use his divine sense to see that although Xie Yuling hadn’t registered for any events, she was, like Chu Miaomiao, busy copying the cheering scripts.

Those who had signed up basically left the venue to have fun when it wasn’t their event.

Except for the school gates, most areas of the school were accessible.

Besides soccer, there were people playing basketball on the courts, in the gym, and badminton in the gymnasium.

Jiang Yunlu didn’t press for more answers.

She decided to leave it at that.

In her eyes, Xie Yuling was her greatest rival. Even Chu Miaomiao, who was in the same class, didn’t pose such a strong sense of danger.

The two of them returned to the main camp.

Chu Miaomiao already had a pile of notes written down.

But she was still writing.

Seeing this, Lin Mo walked over.

“Aren’t you going to take a break? You’ve written so many.”

Chu Miaomiao paused for a moment, then gave a couple of “oh” sounds before putting down her pen and rubbing her wrist.

On the table lay at least dozens of notes, each about twenty words long, not to mention the ones she had already handed out.

Chu Miaomiao had probably handwritten over a thousand words by now.

Lin Mo frowned. “Besides you, I remember there are others who need to copy this too.”

Chu Miaomiao glanced around, then shook her head. “Don’t know where they went.”

With that, she pulled out two notes from her pocket.

“You’re running the 5,000 meters, right? I wrote these two for you myself.”

By saying this, Chu Miaomiao was implying that these weren’t just copied encouragement notes, but ones she had come up with herself.

Hearing this, Lin Mo couldn’t help but reach out and ruffle Chu Miaomiao’s hair.

“Just as I thought, my little writer.”

Chu Miaomiao closed her eyes comfortably, like a little cat enjoying a good petting.

From afar, Jiang Yunlu unknowingly raised Chu Miaomiao’s threat level in her mind.

After a while, the final race was about to begin.

Jiang Yunlu didn’t tell Lin Mo and walked to the starting line alone, feeling a bit down.

“Lin Mo, you fickle jerk!”

Her heart was full of frustration.

He should know, right? He should be very clear.

If so many girls liked him, why did it have to be her?

Jiang Yunlu liked Lin Mo—this was a clear fact—but she couldn’t accept the girls who lingered around him.

Lin Mo would reject Geng Xiao, which showed he was capable of saying no.

But he wouldn’t reject Xie Yuling or Chu Miaomiao.

That was what she couldn’t accept.

Her mind was a mess of thoughts as Jiang Yunlu stepped onto the starting block.

Bang!

She only heard the gunshot.

Everyone else surged forward, and Jiang Yunlu only reacted a moment later—she was at least half a second slow.

How could this be?!

She clearly wanted to win, so why was she so distracted?

Jiang Yunlu started to accelerate.

She didn’t know why, but she was annoyed.

Despite being slightly behind, she just couldn’t catch up to the others!

Were they all that strong?!

No! I’m strong too!

The refusal to lose was an ingrained strength deep in Jiang Yunlu’s heart.

But the more anxious she became, the wider the gap seemed to grow.

Watching the distance between her and the others stretch, Jiang Yunlu suddenly felt like she was flying.

No, more like she was about to fall.

She could feel herself almost tripping over her own foot.

So she was about to fly forward.

Well, that wasn’t so bad—if she got hurt, she wouldn’t have to play badminton with Lin Mo anymore.

Thinking about it made her chuckle. At first, she was the one pestering Lin Mo to join the badminton match, but now she wanted to give up.

If she was going to give up, then so be it.

Maybe she wasn’t as determined as her aunt said—perhaps it was just a fleeting crush after all.

Jiang Yunlu closed her eyes, unable to bear watching herself fall to the ground.

At that moment, a figure suddenly dashed out from the side of the track.

In just an instant, they scooped up Jiang Yunlu, who was about to hit the ground.

The onlookers around hadn’t even reacted yet, but Jiang Yunlu had already been caught.

Someone immediately recognized who that figure was.

And Jiang Yunlu hadn’t fallen.

With her eyes tightly shut, she felt someone lift her up.

Her heart was pounding.

Cautiously, she opened her eyes and saw only a familiar jawline.

It was Lin Mo.

Lin Mo gently placed her down on the grass beside the track.

He reached out and lightly tapped her head.

“Running is running, why start daydreaming now?”

Seeing Lin Mo’s expression, all those doubts in Jiang Yunlu’s heart instantly vanished.

Give up? No way. This lady is not about to quit!