Chapter 16: Participating in the Long Walk

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

After Lin Zhao finished collecting the homework, he looked at his watch. There were still 15 minutes left before the morning reading. He estimated that it was about time, so he gestured for the sports committee member, Liu Qiang, to go on stage and talk about the school’s sports meeting.

Liu Qiang received the hint and strode to the podium with the competition form. He said loudly in a hoarse voice, “Students, quiet down. The school is holding a school sports meet at the end of the month. I’ve already sent the number of people signing up for the sports meet to the class’ group chat.”

As the saying went, smart people usually weren’t athletic. In S City, No. 3 High School was one of the best in terms of academics, but in terms of sports, they were subpar.

Usually, everyone spent all their time studying. PE classes were often taken up by the teachers of the various subjects. If not for the fact that PE gave them extra points in the college entrance examination, PE classes would probably be useless for the senior grade.

After Liu Qiang finished speaking, more than ten active people in the class who often exercised took the initiative to sign up for some sports.

When Liu Qiang asked again, the classroom was silent.

Liu Qiang was also very helpless. It was like this every year at the school’s sports meet. He always had to beg for mercy before he could desperately gather enough people and report the list to the form teacher at the last moment.

Liu Qiang knew that it was useless for him to continue standing. He planned to step down and follow the routine of the past two years to force them to participate.

Seeing this, Lin Zhao stood up and stood on the podium. He looked at the list of names in Liu Qiang’s hand.

When he saw Qiu Ying from the podium, Lin Zhao’s eyes lit up under his gold-framed glasses. He said gently, “The top three in our school’s school’s sports meet will get academic credits. Students who want to compete for scholarships can consider it. Qiu Ying, you transferred here last semester and have never participated in the school’s sports meet like us. Do you want to sign up for the women’s 3,000-meter run?”

Qiu Ying was a little tempted when she heard about the academic credits. She usually practiced dancing and exercised a lot. In addition, she ran to catch the bus everyday. She felt that she should be able to do long-distance running, so she replied, “Alright, I’ll sign up.”

When Bai Zhen saw that Qiu Ying was participating, she also joined in the fun and chose to participate in the jumping activity.

Lin Zhao took advantage of the situation. “Ah Lin, you have good endurance. Why don’t you sign up for long-distance running?”

Jiang Lin woke up when the school’s sports meeting was announced. He got up and leaned back in his chair as he twirled his fountain pen. When he heard his name, he looked up and glanced at Lin Zhao, who had a meaningful look in his eyes. He said readily, “Then I’ll run 3,000 meters.”

Liu Qiang looked at Lin Zhao, the new class monitor, with admiration.

Lin Zhao continued, “I’ll also sign up for two events. The high jump and the 50-meter sprint. Can you see if you can add another one?”

Seeing that Jiang Lin and Lin Zhao had both signed up for activities, how could he fall behind? He signed up for a push-up competition, thinking that this sport should attract more girls’ admiration at the school’s sports meet.

Then, Lin Zhao picked a few more students in the back row who usually didn’t like to attend classes and were more mischievous. Although Lin Zhao had only transferred over a little more than a week ago, the contrast between his usual authoritativeness and the ruthlessness he showed when fighting with Jiang Lin made him very popular in the class.

When the participants were confirmed, the bell rang for the morning study hall. Lin Zhao informed them of the topic he was going to submit on Thursday and left the podium.

At this moment, Liu Qiang was dumbfounded as he looked at the various sport activity sections that had been filled in in 15 minutes. He felt that it was blasphemy to use the word ‘worship’ to describe his feelings toward Lin Zhao. He couldn’t use words to express his excitement.

The school would have two PE classes every week. In order not to delay the college entrance examination in the second semester, the province where S City was located had arranged for the college entrance examination’s PE examination to be during the school term. In addition to the school’s sports meeting, the only time when high school PE classes could all be attended was this semester.

The first weekly PE class was scheduled for Monday and Wednesday afternoons.

PE.

After everyone ran two laps around the field to warm up, the students who didn’t participate in the competition were arranged to play volleyball by the PE teacher. The students who participated in the school sports meeting arranged their own training and instructed everyone to look for them at the volleyball court if they encountered any problems.

The men’s and women’s long-distance running were 1,500 meters and 3,000 meters. These two events were relatively special. They were both individual competitions. Two people from each class competed in the other sports.