2 The Campus Rival

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Chu Xiang crouched down, reaching out to pick up the textbooks, then turned to the girl who had fallen and asked, “Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself anywhere?”

Yang Yunan adjusted his breath and squatted down to help him gather the books.

The girl, using Cheng Jin’s momentum, stood up, moved her body, and hesitantly said, “I think I’m fine.” She subtly rubbed her hip.

Chu Xiang saw it but pretended not to notice, stacking the books in Yang Yunan’s hands. “He’s not lying. Go see the school nurse first. If you still feel unwell, get a hospital checkup. If there’s any problem, Class 3, Grade 2—contact Yang Yunan.”

Yang Yunan chimed in, “Yeah, what’s the point of holding onto me? If I’m not in a hurry, I can even escort you all. I really have urgent things to do!”

Chu Xiang replied, “Mm, we haven’t finished our summer homework, and it’s due before the 7 PM evening self-study. Time’s tight.”

Yang Yunan shot him a glare. Did he have to be so specific? Didn’t he know it was embarrassing?

The two girls stared wide-eyed at them, especially at Chu Xiang’s calm and composed face.

The girl who had fallen chuckled softly and waved her hand. “You guys go ahead. I really seem okay. If anything happens, I’ll come find you.”

Yang Yunan relaxed his expression and quickly shoved the textbooks back into his bag. Opening his mouth, he added, “Sorry about that.”

Cheng Jin hurriedly took the books, her face awkward but silent. The girl who had fallen smiled and said it was fine, urging them to leave quickly.

Chu Xiang smiled at them and pulled Yang Yunan to walk quickly forward—

Cheng Jin held her books and twisted around, emphasizing heavily, “Senior, no running in the hallway!”

The two froze for a moment, then stepped out onto the walkway beside the corridor, sprinting wildly until they reached the stairs of the Grade 2 teaching building, then darted inside.

Cheng Jin stood there with her mouth agape, stunned. The girl beside her burst out laughing.

“These two seniors are so funny.”

Cheng Jin wiped off her surprise and grunted, looking at her friend: “Are you really okay?”

“Yeah…”

Chu Xiang and Yang Yunan ran all the way into the classroom, found their seats, and began frantically searching their desks. They found a test paper that hadn’t been brought home all summer.

Yang Yunan immediately sought out like-minded comrades: “Where’s your test paper? Hurry, give it to me!”

Chu Xiang looked around. The original owner had almost no friends and seemed unable to find anyone to “borrow homework” from...

He couldn’t bring himself to ask either...

After Yang Yunan painstakingly borrowed all the test papers, he saw his friend who was supposed to split up sitting at his desk, watching him. He sighed and skillfully split half the papers over to him. “Take turns.”

Chu Xiang took the test papers and copied them while feeling ashamed inside: Amitabha, this is the original owner’s fault. Next time, next time I’ll work hard myself.

Chengnan High School is a private high school, adjacent to the First High School, which is a top provincial key school. Chengnan claims to share the teaching resources of the First High School, and its college admission rate is indeed not bad.

Chengnan also has a middle school division, which is famously excellent. Although private, most students after the high school entrance exam can enter the First High School. Those who don’t make it but have good grades can enter Chengnan’s high school division or other high schools.

Putting aside the middle school division, the high school division of Chengnan consists of two groups of students: one group is those who didn’t do well enough in the middle school exam to enter the First High School but could enter Chengnan and didn’t want to attend worse high schools, so they transferred directly; the other group is wealthy families who bought their way in.

It’s clear that the original owner and Yang Yunan are in the latter group. Since the First High School doesn’t allow buying admission, their families spent money to get into the neighboring Chengnan High.

Such students often don’t study hard during their three years of high school, and most plan to study abroad in the future.

After finishing copying the homework, Chu Xiang spread out the newly issued textbooks but his mind kept turning over the current situation. So far, the original owner’s life had lasted only 17 years but had been quite miserable. Although wealthy, his parents and grandfather had passed away one after another. At this moment, he was truly lost, living alone in the world as if all motivation had vanished.

The junior schoolmate Chu Xiang met today, Cheng Jin, was a very energetic girl full of ambition and drive for the future. According to the original owner’s description, Cheng Jin was like a beam of light illuminating his otherwise confused and dim life.

But that light only shone into his courtyard by chance; she belonged to the neighboring Yang Yunan.

Chu Xiang sighed, touching his chest, silently telling himself, “This light isn’t the sun. If there’s an extra one, Houyi will shoot it down. If I lose this light, I can look for other lights, or I can shine on my own. Borrowing someone else’s light my whole life just to illuminate my own yard—it must be miserable!”

Something seemed to surge within his heart, something he both felt and didn’t feel. Without expression, he put away the new books, pulled out the Grade 1 textbooks, and began to review from the beginning.

Although he felt that the setup of this life was already perfect—living here a lifetime would be enough—he still had a loftier dream: eternal life, life after life! Dreams were necessary, and preparations had to be made, just in case they came true.

Chu Xiang’s first preparation for this dream was to study hard.

High school knowledge was explosive in volume; if he ever went to ancient times, he might need the knowledge he was learning now. He had to review and consolidate it carefully.

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Besides, he felt the original owner’s despondency was largely due to a lack of life goals. Now that he had become Chu Xiang, inheriting Chu Xiang’s memories and feelings, he could understand and even feel the same kind of despair. Yet thinking of Xie Yunchuan’s past life immediately invigorated him.

Despondency came from not struggling! Anyone who has experienced the struggle of three years of high school study won’t have time to be downhearted! Just thinking about the scores on the test papers instantly filled him with fighting spirit!

After opening the Chinese textbook and reciting a few times the essay “On Teachers,” his phone vibrated.

Yang Yunan sent a text: “Starving to death, wanna go out and get something to eat?”

Chu Xiang’s stomach grumbled obediently twice. He rubbed his belly; if he didn’t mention it, it was fine, but once he did, he realized he was really hungry. To rush through the mountains of summer homework, he had been copying for over two hours without dinner.

Looking up in Yang Yunan’s direction, their eyes met as Yang Yunan rested his head on his arms watching him.

Chu Xiang hesitated but still replied by text: “Let’s go after class.”

Yang Yunan sent a string of “!!!”

“I’m starving to death, seriously gonna die!”

Chu Xiang: “I think I just saw the homeroom teacher at the back window of the classroom.”

Yang Yunan immediately sat up straight and quieted down.

Chu Xiang smiled, rubbed his stomach, and continued reciting. After finishing a round, he sighed deeply—he was indeed hungry.

For students like Yang Yunan, the start of school was still carefree and pressure-free, but he was shocked that Chu Xiang had started studying seriously, even carrying a huge backpack home after school!

Yang Yunan reached out to touch Chu Xiang’s forehead: “Chu Xiang, you’re not sick, right?”

Chu Xiang hugged his backpack to dodge his hand, frowned slightly, and said softly, eyes fixed on some distant point without focus: “I’m alone at home too, nothing to do, empty inside. Reading before bed is like a lullaby.”

His words instantly silenced the car.

Yang Yunan turned his head to look at him, moving his mouth but unsure what to say.

Chu’s grandfather had passed away half a year ago. This time, Chu Xiang’s reaction wasn’t as strong as when he lost his parents as a child. But the families close to him were all very worried, afraid the kid was too young to bear it. Yang Yunan, his good brother, stayed with him daily until he saw him return to normal before feeling at ease.

Today when they played ball and Chu Xiang was so happy, Yang Yunan secretly breathed a sigh of relief...

But it was true—being alone at home was really empty. Yang Yunan, whose parents had always been busy, deeply understood that feeling.

“Let’s play games, I’ll help you rank up!”

Chu Xiang rested his eyes: “No games, the more I play, the more excited I get, and then I can’t sleep.”

Yang Yunan was stunned, realizing that was why he always dragged him to play games, thinking he was keeping him company... No wonder Chu Xiang always looked like he hadn’t slept enough.

He slumped back in his chair, gloomily saying, “Then I’ll come sleep at your place. I’m alone at home too.”

Chu Xiang opened his eyes and turned his head: “You’ll keep me company while I study?”

Yang Yunan: … Why does it have to be studying?!

But... he had to keep Chu Xiang company.

“Study then, study!”

Chu Xiang gave a smile.

The driver overheard the two boys’ conversation and silently drove the car to Chu’s home.

That night, after bathing, the two sat on Chu Xiang’s big bed, one holding a Chinese textbook, the other an English book, reciting.

Yang Yunan fell asleep after two pages; English was his ultimate sleep aid.

Chu Xiang finished his set goal for the night before putting the book down, smiling at the peacefully sleeping Yang Yunan, then turned off the light and went to sleep.

Yang Yunan was indeed a very good friend. Though often a bit overbearing and unreasonable, he was sincerely kind to Chu Xiang. Just today alone, this friend had warmed him several times.

Since learning that Chu Xiang slept poorly alone at home, Yang Yunan frequently found excuses to stay over. Although each time he was handed a book to review or had to help Chu Xiang drill words and texts before bed—painful and torturous—he could come home for a day or two, enjoy a few rounds of games, and instantly recharge!

He had also gotten used to Chu Xiang’s new habit of studying seriously whenever free, understanding it as Chu Xiang trying to keep busy to avoid falling into a low mood.

For this reason, he became even more active in pulling Chu Xiang out for sports, even rallying other childhood friends from their school dormitories—from Grade 1 to Grade 3—to come together. Every few days, a group of them would drag Chu Xiang out to play ball.

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Before long, the school sports meet began.

Yang Yunan’s grades were average, but sports were his strong suit. The sports committee chair was worried about not having enough participants, but when it came to Yang Yunan, it was like seeing an angel. This guy was surprisingly cooperative—he signed up for every event and even dragged Chu Xiang to join.

Chu Xiang: “... Let me check my memory. Can the original owner handle this?”

After checking—oh, except for long jump, no.

Calmly, he stood up from his seat, walked over to Yang Yunan, and gave his head a good thump.

Yang Yunan howled in pain but protested, “For class honor, just give it a try! Awoooo—winning first place, no, friendship first, competition second, it’s the participation that counts, ahhhh...”

“Before the sports meet ends, stay at my place and study with me.”

Yang Yunan froze, trying to find an excuse: “Well, my parents—”

Chu Xiang cut in, “Your driver said your parents aren’t home these days.”

Yang Yunan: “...” Struggling and bargaining, “I can’t be out every day, or I’ll get mixed doubles with them when I come back. How about half and half?”

Chu Xiang: “I’ll tell them.”

Tears almost welled up in Yang Yunan’s eyes as he earnestly asked Chu Xiang, “Why do you like studying before bed so much? Haven’t you had enough at school? You could listen to music! Radio dramas! Just chatting is fine!” He almost transformed into a roaring king.

Chu Xiang thought about how the original owner felt about these things and shook his head: “Without difficulty or a sense of pursuit, I can’t get interested or feel meaningful.”

Yang Yunan stood there with his mouth slightly open, speechless.

Chu Xiang went back, but everyone nearby heard Yang Yunan’s outburst and looked at Chu Xiang curiously. However, Chu Xiang was always solitary, and no one was close enough to approach him or gossip.

Instead, Yang Yunan was surrounded by several classmates, all curious about what had changed in Chu Xiang.

Yang Yunan never spoke about Chu Xiang’s matters. His sour face instantly turned proud as he waved them off: “Go, go, none of your business.”

Chu Xiang was telling the truth—he no longer cared for many things. Only challenges and difficulties could attract him even a little.

This sports meet was the same. Although he wasn’t good at two of the three events, he signed up for them anyway and tried to prepare, all to let the original owner experience their beauty.

During training, many students from different grades and classes practiced on the field for the sports meet. Chu Xiang saw Cheng Jin, her face flushed, sweat dampening her hairline, practicing long jump.

The long jump pit was adjacent to the basketball court. Just as she landed in the sand, a basketball flew over from afar, hitting the ground in front of her and kicking up sand.

“Hey, help me out—throw the ball back!”

Cheng Jin brushed off the sand covering her body, turned to the caller with a scowl, stood up without picking up the ball or responding.

Yang Yunan chuckled and came over. Destiny had brought them face to face again.

“Again you!”

Cheng Jin: “Yeah, I thought it was some clumsy idiot, turns out it’s you again!”

“What did you say??”

They immediately started bickering. Neither played ball, nor did Cheng Jin continue her jump practice—they argued for quite a while.

Chu Xiang watched from afar, not approaching.

That night, Yang Yunan still harbored a grudge over the quarrel and complained to Chu Xiang: “Remember the Grade 1 student I bumped into last time? That sharp-tongued girl, unbearable. Today she came to scold me again. How can there be such a arrogant girl!”

Chu Xiang: “You’re pretty arrogant yourself.”

Yang Yunan: “... Where did that come from?!”

Chu Xiang: “If you don’t like her, just don’t talk to her next time. Walk away. The more you argue, the angrier you get.”

Yang Yunan: “No! Next time I see her, I’ll perform even better. I won’t lose!”

--- End of excerpt ---