Always Provoking Me

Summer in Jiangcheng always lingered, dragging its feet before leaving. The early autumn mornings were still wrapped in a layer of thick, unyielding dampness.

Chen Zhi stood barefoot against the white wall in the living room, the back of his head pressed firmly against the cold plaster, his heels pushing hard against the baseboard.

Lin Wanwan held a long, transparent plastic ruler, holding it level above Chen Zhi's head with an air of absolute seriousness.

She stood on her tiptoes, her fair wrist hovering back and forth over his head. Finally, she made a tiny black dot just above the pencil mark drawn last year.

"Chen Zhi, you really can't keep up, huh~"

Lin Wanwan pulled her hand back, spinning the plastic ruler rapidly between her fingertips as a string of silvery laughter echoed through the living room.

She leaned in close to him, using her hand to measure the height difference between their heads. Her youthful face, brimming with collagen, was written all over with undisguised smugness.

"I'm two centimeters taller than you. Two whole centimeters!"

Lin Wanwan reached out and patted Chen Zhi's shoulder. Her condescending attitude made the veins on his forehead throb.

Chen Zhi stared down at the patterns on the floorboards, fuming at her words.

In this life, his family was wealthy. He drank milk like water and snacked on spare ribs. How was it that his physical growth was still overshadowed by this girl?

His current height was 1.65 meters, which was fairly average among seventh-grade boys.

But Lin Wanwan seemed to have undergone a genetic mutation. Over a single summer vacation, she had shot up to 1.67 meters. Those long legs of hers made Chen Zhi inexplicably annoyed.

"It's just two centimeters. I'll start taking calcium supplements tomorrow. I'll surpass you sooner or later."

Chen Zhi turned around and spat at the black dot on the wall that symbolized his humiliation, scheming in his mind about how to turn the tables.

"Calcium won't help. You just have a weak foundation."

Lin Wanwan bent down, her delicate little face almost touching his nose. The warmth of her breath brushed against his face.

"Remember to call me big sister at school from now on, hear me, Little Short Legs Chen Zhi?"

Chen Zhi stared at her swaying ponytail, the fire of resolve burning ever brighter in his heart.

In his previous life, he had been a six-foot-tall man. To think that after being reborn, he was being mocked for his height by his childhood friend!

This was intolerable. Absolutely intolerable.

He had to close this gap of a few centimeters before Lin Wanwan fully stopped growing; otherwise, he would be living in this girl's shadow for the rest of his life.

"Just you wait. Next month, I'll be looking down at the crown of your head."

Chen Zhi dropped the harsh words, turned around, and ducked into his bedroom, digging out a dusty pair of running shoes from under his bed.

5:30 AM the next morning.

The alarm clock vibrated wildly under his pillow. Chen Zhi abruptly shot his hand out and smacked the noisy thing right into the gap next to the bed.

He struggled to get up, haphazardly splashed his face with cold water, and pushed open the front door. The hallway was still filled with the lingering aroma of the neighbor frying dough sticks.

The early morning in Jiangcheng carried a biting chill, and a thin mist rolled beneath the streetlights lining the road.

Chen Zhi jogged all the way to the track and field ground of Jiangcheng No. 10 Middle School. The front gate was left ajar; the security guard was probably still playing chess with someone in his dreams.

Under the dawn light, the synthetic track displayed an oppressive dark red hue. The entire field was so empty that he could hear his own heartbeat.

At this hour, the middle schoolers were probably fighting their final, desperate battles against their warm blankets, while the high schoolers were still in their classrooms frantically finishing up homework.

Chen Zhi stomped on the track; the elastic feedback was pretty good.

He briefly stretched his stiff ankles and started jogging around the outer lane.

"Just you wait, Lin Wanwan. In a few days, you'll be obediently looking up at me."

Chen Zhi muttered to himself softly.

He planned to run three kilometers a day to forcefully stimulate his growth, striving to return to his peak height of 1.8 meters as soon as possible.

However, while his ideals were grand, the reality of this thirteen-year-old body was harsh.

Since his rebirth, aside from using his brain to outsmart people, he had barely done any proper exercise.

After just one lap, Chen Zhi felt like his lungs no longer belonged to him. Every breath brought a burning pain.

His footsteps became messy, and with every stride, his calves trembled uncontrollably.

"What a weakling, this stamina is utter trash..."

Chen Zhi panted heavily, cursing his disappointing body.

Just as he was about to slow down to a walk, a highly rhythmic sound of footsteps suddenly came from behind him.

Without looking back, Chen Zhi instinctively moved further to the outer lane to make room for the person behind him.

A gray figure brushed past him lightly.

It was Xu Min.

The student council president of Jiangcheng No. 10 Middle School, a ruthless character whose self-discipline earned her endless praise from all the teachers.

Xu Min wore a tight gray sports tank top, her long hair tied up in a neat bun, and her skin radiated a healthy rosiness in the morning light.

She ran three kilometers on the track every single day without fail before eating breakfast, a habit she had maintained for two full years.

In the past, hers was essentially the only breathing sound on this field.

Seeing Chen Zhi today brought a hint of surprise to Xu Min's heart.

"A freshman?"

From the corner of her eye, she caught his wobbly steps and breathless panting.

Although his form was absurdly amateurish, the fact that he could get up at this hour meant his willpower was worth a bit of respect.

Xu Min mentally pinned a hardworking label on this unfamiliar student.

Among runners, there often exists a special, unspoken sense of camaraderie.

She decided to give this fellow runner, who looked ready to collapse, a little encouragement from a senior.

Xu Min adjusted her breathing, turned her head slightly, and softly said something as she passed by Chen Zhi.

"Keep it up."

Following that, she suddenly accelerated. The muscle lines on her legs looked incredibly explosive in the morning light, instantly pulling ahead by over a dozen paces.

Chen Zhi froze in place.

Keep it up?

He looked at the rapidly retreating gray figure. He had been planning to call a truce and continue tomorrow.

What was this?

Was she mocking my pace?

Or was this girl showing off her textbook running posture?

Chen Zhi's leg muscles, which had been on the verge of going on strike, suddenly felt as if they had been injected with a shot of adrenaline.

"Provoking me?"

Chen Zhi gritted his back teeth, shifted his center of gravity forward, and pushed his feet hard against the synthetic track.

I'm a reincarnator! Am I going to be looked down upon by some little girl on the track today?

He burst into a sprint, his running shoes squeaking against the ground.

Chen Zhi was getting serious.

He didn't care about his breathing rhythm or how fast his heart was beating; he only wanted to catch up to that bobbing bun in front of him.

Xu Min was maintaining a steady pace according to her own rhythm when she suddenly heard hurried and heavy footsteps from behind.

The sound carried a desperate ruthlessness and was rapidly closing in on her.

Before she even had time to wonder, Chen Zhi had already sprinted up beside her.

"Keep it up, classmate."

Chen Zhi mimicked her earlier tone and threw the phrase right back at her. Then, like a crazed little donkey, he forcefully overtook Xu Min.

Xu Min was genuinely shocked this time.

She looked at the figure ahead, swaying from side to side and clearly overdrawing his physical limits, and her brow furrowed slightly.

Is this guy crazy?

The biggest taboo in long-distance running is this kind of chaotic, unstructured sprinting; it is practically making a joke of one's own body.

She had not planned on making a fuss about it, but seeing Chen Zhi's deliberately swaying backside after he overtook her, an inexplicable surge of anger flared up in her heart.

As the student council president, she had always been the frontrunner at school. When had she ever been so blatantly overtaken?

Xu Min took a deep breath, exerted force in her legs, and instantly widened her stride.

She lightly passed Chen Zhi again, dropping a single phrase without even looking at him.

Keep it up.

Just as Chen Zhi was about to catch his breath, seeing that flash of gray appear in his line of sight again sent his anger shooting straight through the roof.

She is provoking me.

He sped up again.

The distance between the two on the track continuously closed, reversed, and closed again.

On the empty track and field ground, two figures engaged in a baffling, desperate struggle on the dark red running track.

Chen Zhi felt as if his heart was about to leap out of his throat, and his lungs felt like they were being pierced by ten thousand steel needles.

But he could not stop.

Stopping would mean losing to a junior high school girl who had just mocked him.

You run pretty fast, classmate.

When Chen Zhi overtook her once more, his voice carried a slight tremor due to a lack of oxygen.

Xu Min also started panting heavily.

Looking at Chen Zhi's flushed, blood-engorged face, she felt a bit irritated herself.

Why was this guy like a piece of sticky gum you just could not shake off?

Keep it up.

She clenched her teeth, pumped her arms wider, and chased after him again.

The two ran side by side for nearly half a lap, neither willing to yield a single step toward the inside lane.

Chen Zhi turned his head, staring fixedly at Xu Min's profile.

Xu Min turned her head as well, returning an incredibly stubborn glare.

Classmate, a little faster and you will be able to see my back.

Chen Zhi squeezed the words through his teeth, each syllable carrying a heavy taste of rust.

Xu Min gave a cold snort, leaned forward, and once again pulled ahead by a body length.

As she passed Chen Zhi, she lightly dropped two words.

That is it?

Those two words smashed accurately onto Chen Zhi's most sensitive nerve.

He felt all the blood in his body rushing to his head.

Classmate, if you run slow, please go to the outside lane. Do not be an eyesore here.

Chen Zhi let out a low growl, his legs spinning wildly like flaming wheels.

He was running this last hundred meters with the intensity of a hundred-meter dash.

Watching Chen Zhi's almost self-mutilating sprint, Xu Min felt a bit panicked.

Does this guy really have a death wish?

She instinctively wanted to keep up, but found her legs as heavy as lead; her rhythm had been completely thrown off.

Chen Zhi crossed the imaginary finish line, his body stumbling forward a dozen steps due to momentum.

He bent over sharply, his hands gripping his knees tightly, dry heaving heavily.

His vision was a blur of double images, and his ears were filled with the roaring sound of his wildly beating heart.

But he won.

He turned his head and looked at Xu Min, who was stumbling to a halt a few meters away, revealing an extremely fierce and abstract smile on his face.

Xu Min leaned against the railing, her chest heaving violently, sweat dripping down her cheeks onto the synthetic track.

She stared at the swaying but still standing boy, her eyes full of disbelief.

Where on earth did this lunatic come from?

Chen Zhi wiped the sweat from his face and was about to utter a few more mocking words when a wave of nausea churned in his stomach, forcing him to only let out a muffled groan.

The two of them stood a few meters apart, confronting each other in the morning mist, neither willing to sit down and rest first.

Just then, the crisp ringing of a bicycle bell came from the school gate.

Lin Wanwan, riding her pink bicycle, slowly appeared at the edge of the track and field.

At a glance, she spotted Chen Zhi propped up on the track like a dead dog.

Chen Zhi, what kind of acrobatics are you performing here?

Lin Wanwan stopped her bike, propped one foot on the ground, and waved with a grin.

Hearing this voice, Chen Zhi's body stiffened. He forced himself to stand up straight, trying to hide his sorry state.

Xu Min looked at Chen Zhi, then at Lin Wanwan in the distance, her frown deepening.

She took a step with her long legs and slowly walked up to Chen Zhi, her sweat-streaked eyes staring straight at him.

Your name is Chen Zhi?

Although Xu Min's voice was still panting, her authoritative aura as the president had not diminished in the slightest.

Chen Zhi rolled his eyes, getting ready to activate his abstract mode to retort.

His name is Short-legs Chen, do not mind him, senior.

Lin Wanwan had already walked over pushing her bike, smiling so widely her eyes narrowed into crescents.

Chen Zhi felt that Xu Min's gaze on him became extremely complex in that instant.

Make sure you sign up for the long-distance race at the next sports meet.

Xu Min left this sentence behind and turned to walk toward the locker room, her steps extremely steady.

Chen Zhi stood stunned in place, watching that gray silhouette, with only one thought in his mind.

Was this girl ordering me around just now?

Lin Wanwan leaned in and waved her hand in front of Chen Zhi's eyes.

Hey, she is already gone far, and you are still looking?

Chen Zhi turned his head, looking at Lin Wanwan who was two centimeters taller than him, and that surge of anger flared up again.

What are you looking at? Let us go back to the classroom!

He limped toward the teaching building, leaving behind a bewildered Lin Wanwan.