I was about to respond when suddenly Zhong Yuan rushed into the room. I almost thought that I was seeing things. Wasn’t this guy supposed to be at a soccer match? Unless he was a reserve player again…
When Senior Ling Ling saw Zhong Yuan, she turned into a hurt rabbit, her eyes watery with tears. She looked over at Zhong Yuan excitedly and slowly tried to speak. “Oh… Dong… Wan…”
Zhong Yuan was still dressed in his uniform, which proved that he’d been on the field. He was covered in sweat too. He came over and grabbed me, checking me from top to bottom. “Are you all right?”
I felt so touched. I quite enjoyed Zhong Yuan’s recent bouts of ‘turning into a good person’. I nodded. “I’m fine.”
Senior Ling Ling kept calling, “Dong… Wan…”
Zhong Yuan glanced over at her and then asked me, “Did you do that to her?”
I replied, “No, it was Miss Fourth… But aren’t you supposed to be at a game? Why are you already back?”
Zhong Yuan said, “I heard that you were beaten to a pulp so I came to retrieve your corpse.”
!
I wiped my sweat. “OK, thanks.” Although he was a tyrant sometimes, at least he was loyal. Mm, Zhong Yuan totally had it in him to become a good person.
Zhong Yuan asked, “So what happened exactly?”
I didn’t quite know how to explain it. “Um… Haha…”
Zhong Yuan’s eyes swept over Senior Ling Ling again and he said, “Let’s talk outside.”
“But Senior Ling Ling…” I hesitated. Although I didn’t like Senior Ling Ling much, she was still in this wretched state because of me. I felt bad leaving her like this all by herself.
Zhong Yuan didn’t say anything else and just dragged me out the room, leaving behind an inarticulate, whimpering Senior Ling Ling…
—
Zhong Yuan pulled me over to a sitting area in the hospital corridor and asked fiercely, “Blockhead, you’re all grown up now, huh? You even learned to fight?”
I scratched my head. Something felt strange. “Zhong Yuan, shouldn’t you be at H University right now? Reserve players are important too, you know. You shouldn’t take your role lightly…”
Zhong Yuan shouted, “Shut up! Who said I’m a reserve player?! Have you ever seen a reserve wearing the number one?!”
I carefully looked at his uniform, and indeed, there was a one on it. “Oh, then, what does number one do?”
“Goalkeeper.” Zhong Yuan started pacing, his expression dark. “No, wait, we weren’t talking about that. You’re getting me all confused… Hey, who told you to fight? Look at yourself. Who do you think you could beat in a fight?”
Zhong Yuan seemed very angry. I thought that if I told him the whole story, he would be get even angrier, so I just scratched my head and laughed. “Zhong Yuan, you’re mistaken. I just wanted to learn some martial arts from Senior Ling Ling. Haha…”
“Learn. Martial. Arts?” Zhong Yuan asked, emphasizing each word. He looked at me with narrowed and sinister eyes. Suddenly, he put his hand up against the wall and narrowed the distance between us. Coldly, he said, “Did you really think no one would have told me what happened?”
Miscalculation. Miscalculation! How could I have forgotten that there were a lot of club members who knew about this? Maybe someone had called Zhong Yuan right away after they saw me get knocked down? They probably hadn’t gotten the story straight, which is why Zhong Yuan thought I’d been beaten up. Hm… I don’t know if he was genuinely worried about me or if he was worried about the trouble that it would bring him. If he’d really been worried for me, shouldn’t he be relieved now after seeing I’m OK? Shit. He must be really angry right now because of all the trouble I created. Since Senior Ling Ling got hurt, his share of problems wouldn’t be small. Wait, wait a minute. Why did he think that my getting into an accident would naturally bring him troubles? He wasn’t my guardian!
Sweating… The more I thought about it, the more confused I became. So without thinking, I put on a flattering smile. “I’m sorry. Senior Zhong, I really didn’t intend on making a bet on you with Senior Ling Ling…”
“A bet? You made a wager over me?” Zhong Yuan’s words were chilly. The hospital was already chilly as is, but now I started shivering.
I lowered my head, unable to look at Zhong Yuan. I suddenly realized that Zhong Yuan must have been trying to get me to reveal what happened. In such a short time, he couldn’t have found out the whole story with such detail. Too bad that I only just now figured that out…
“Blockhead, if you don’t tell me the truth now, forget about getting next month’s pay. Don’t try to test my patience.”
I suddenly grabbed Zhong Yuan’s arm, my eyes moist as I spilled the whole story to Zhong Yuan. At the end, I added, “Senior Zhong, I told you everything. Please don’t deduct my pay.”
Zhong Yuan’s expression was unclear. After he listened to my explanation, he pushed away my hands and stomped off to the side. Unable to hold back his anger, he shouted, “Great! What a great thing you’ve done! You made a bet on me?! With a third-degree black belt?! You really wanted to lose and get rid of me, right?!”
Stuck in a tough spot, I looked at him. “You’re not mine anyway. Whether I lose or not, it’s all the same.”
“Right, I’m not yours. I’m… not yours.” Zhong Yuan muttered a few times and then he suddenly looked me in the eyes. “It’s true that I’m not yours, but you are mine!”