How I Accidentally Bent My Best Friend - Chapter 33

“Look, the 800-meter race is starting!”

“Is it your turn this time?” Lu Wei waved the megaphone in her hand.

Chen Yushu quickly waved her hands. “You do it.”

Lu Wei helplessly ruffled her hair and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “Let’s do it together.”

The two were cheering enthusiastically, completely unaware that the bustling art department next to them had already set their sights on her.

“Look who that is!”

“Lu Wei? Why is she with the chemistry department? That traitor!”

“Right, traitor!”

Then, a sudden shout came through the megaphone: “Lu Wei, you traitor!”

Startled, the person in question turned toward the voice, immediately pulled Chen Yushu in front, and hid behind her.

“Hahaha, you’ve been found out.” Chen Yushu turned her head and blinked at her.

“Ungrateful wretch, who am I doing this for? And you’re gloating!” Lu Wei buried her face in Chen Yushu’s neck, grumbling.

However, the art department didn’t let her off that easily. Louder and louder chants of “Lu Wei, traitor!” echoed across the bleachers.

Aside from the art department, all the other departments were roaring with laughter, with the chemistry department laughing the hardest.

Lu Wei couldn’t handle the pressure and quickly crouched down, hugging Chen Yushu’s calf pitifully. “If someone comes to hit me later, you have to rally your class to protect me!”

“Hahaha.” Chen Yushu leaned on the railing, laughing so hard she couldn’t straighten up. Glancing down, she found Lu Wei’s expression both pitiful and adorable and couldn’t resist patting her head. “Don’t worry, we’re not that kind of ungrateful people.”

“Mhm!” Lu Wei closed her eyes in relief, rubbing her cheek against Chen Yushu’s calf. “At least you have some conscience.”

Chen Yushu swallowed, feeling half of her leg go numb from the rubbing.

Just then, a message came on her phone, calling for the long jump athletes to gather and enter the field. Instantly, Chen Yushu’s blood pressure spiked, and she nervously called out to Lu Wei, “The long jump is about to start.”

“Then let’s go. You’ve practiced so long just for today.” Lu Wei stood up. “Don’t be scared, I’ll be right there with you.”

Chen Yushu took a deep breath, took off her jacket, and nodded.

The two left the bleachers together and headed to the field.

Arriving at the competition area, Chen Yushu glanced at the bleachers a sea of people and her palms immediately broke out in sweat. Her adrenaline surged, and her cheeks flushed red.

Just then, Lu Wei walked in with a few volunteers. As she passed by, she winked at Chen Yushu and then stood firmly near the sandpit.

Seeing this, Chen Yushu relaxed a little and did some simple full-body warm-ups.

The competition started quickly. She was second to last, with over ten people ahead of her. As she stood by watching, she grew more and more uneasy.

How is everyone jumping so far?

Chen Yushu slowly furrowed her brows, looking as if she were about to suffocate from lack of oxygen.

Is it too late to withdraw now?

She instinctively looked toward Lu Wei, who had just finished flattening the sand and turned to meet her gaze. Lu Wei then walked straight over to her.

“Lu Wei, they’re all jumping so far!” Chen Yushu immediately grabbed her sleeve and whispered by her ear.

Lu Wei patted the back of her hand. “They’re all from the sports department, we don’t need to compete with them.”

Chen Yushu was still nervous, her face full of despair. “I’m not going to come in last, am I? Wuwu, that would be so embarrassing.”

“Why do you care about them?” Lu Wei said. “Just focus on your own jump. You’re already really good now!”

“Really?”

“Have I ever lied to you?” Lu Wei said with certainty, smiling as he rubbed the back of her head. “Go for it. I have to go now. Don’t be afraid, you’ll be fine.”

“Okay.” Chen Yushu nodded and let go, only then noticing that she had crumpled Lu Wei’s sleeve into wrinkles. This subtle mark suddenly filled her heart with something indescribable.

The competitors ahead finished their jumps one after another, and just as Lu Wei had said, aside from a few professional athletes from the sports college, everyone else’s skill levels were fairly similar.

Chen Yushu breathed a sigh of relief, her tense muscles relaxing involuntarily. She even rubbed her hands together, feeling a growing excitement.

Just then, Lu Wei glanced over at her again, raising his eyebrows slightly as if to say, “See? I told you so.”

Chen Yushu couldn’t help but lower her head and smile, gradually gaining confidence.

The person before her finished, and it was finally her turn.

The stands immediately erupted with cheers from the Chemistry Department. Chen Yushu looked up and couldn’t help but feel nervous. She quickly adjusted her breathing, and as soon as the starting gun fired, she dashed forward.

Lu Wei stood by the sandpit, swallowing nervously. When he saw Chen Yushu land successfully, he let out a huge sigh of relief.

With the success of her first jump, her second attempt yielded an even better result. Only the final jump remained.

Chen Yushu was already feeling a bit tired as she walked back to her starting position, still breathing a little heavily.

The atmosphere in the stands, however, was incredibly lively, with people waving glow sticks from who-knows-where and shouting encouragement.

“I never would’ve guessed! Chen Yushu seems so quiet, but she can jump pretty far!”

“I see her running on the track every night. It’s really not easy.”

At that moment, Chen Yushu just wanted to finish her jump as quickly as possible. She swore to herself she would never participate in this again.

After adjusting her state slightly, Chen Yushu mustered all her strength and charged forward. However, as she reached the latter part of her run, her energy began to wane, and her take-off posture changed as a result.

Chen Yushu hurriedly tried to correct it, but her body surged forward uncontrollably. The next second, her knees hit the ground, and her upper body slammed hard into the sandpit, immediately filling her mouth with sand.

Instantly, she felt dizzy and disoriented. In her daze, she heard Lu Wei calling her name, and then someone supported her by the arms.

“Are you okay?”

“What happened, classmate?”

Several unfamiliar voices spoke up at once. Chen Yushu braced her hands on the sandpit and lifted her head. The first thing she saw was Lu Wei’s face, close and full of concern. “Are you hurt? Are you alright?”

Chen Yushu shook her head and, with the help of a few people, slowly stood up.

Once outside the sandpit, she quickly spat out the sand in her mouth and said to the students who had helped her, “Thank you, I’m fine now.”

“Don’t mention it. If it’s serious, remember to go to the campus clinic.”

“Okay.” Lu Wei took over, then turned to ask Chen Yushu, “Can you still walk? I’ll carry you.”

With that, he crouched down in front of her.

Chen Yushu still had the taste of sand in her mouth. She frowned and said, “I can walk, but my mouth is full of sand.”

Hearing this, Lu Wei immediately stood up and carefully wiped the sand from around her mouth and chin with his fingertips. “Let’s find a place to sit first. I’ll go get you some water.”

“Okay.”

He supported her all the way to the steps outside the track field. Once Chen Yushu was seated, Lu Wei quickly turned to fetch water.

Chen Yushu kept wiping her mouth. At that moment, a burning pain shot through her knees and elbows. She looked down and saw large patches of scraped skin, all red, with sand still clinging to the surface.

The pain brought tears to her eyes, swirling in their sockets.

“Shushu, are you okay?” Jiang Yuran ran toward her, holding a jacket. “Where’s Lu Wei?”

“I’m fine, just a few scrapes,” Chen Yushu replied. “Lu Wei went to get some water for me.”

Jiang Yuran reached her and draped the jacket over her shoulders. When she saw the wounds, she couldn’t help but gasp. “You need to go to the school clinic for this. Let’s go.”

Just then, Lu Wei returned, holding two bottles of mineral water. She hurried over, panting as she unscrewed the cap and handed it to Chen Yushu. “Here, rinse your mouth quickly.”

Chen Yushu hummed in acknowledgment, took the bottle, tilted her head back to take a big gulp, and then spat it out into the bushes.

Suddenly, she heard Lu Wei say, “Stay here and wait for me a moment.”

Chen Yushu wanted to ask where she was going, but her mouth was still full of water. By the time she spat it out, Lu Wei had already run off into the distance. She turned to Jiang Yuran and said, “You should head back. I’m fine. Lu Wei will be back soon.”

“But your injuries.” Jiang Yuran hesitated.

“It’s okay. I’ll have Lu Wei take me to get them checked.”

“Alright, alright. I get it you have Lu Wei.” Standing there wasn’t helping, so Jiang Yuran thought for a moment and said, “I’ll go back and see if anyone has any medicine. Call me if anything happens.”

“Okay.”

After Jiang Yuran left, Chen Yushu took out her phone and sent a message asking Lu Wei where she had gone, but there was no reply.

The small scrapes on her palms began to sting as well. She quickly put down her phone and gently blew on the wounds.

Just then, a shadow fell over her, accompanied by a noticeably heated presence rushing toward her.

“Lu Wei, where did you…” Before she could finish her question, she saw Lu Wei squat down, grab her hand, and blow on it gently. Then, Lu Wei took out a bottle of iodine from a bag, dipped a cotton swab in it, and said, “It shouldn’t hurt too much. Let me know if it feels uncomfortable.”

“Mm.” Chen Yushu glanced sideways and noticed it was a bag from the school clinic. The clinic wasn’t exactly close by, and making two trips back and forth at that speed seemed unusually fast. The thought stirred something in her heart.

With that, Lu Wei lowered her head and gently applied the iodine to the wounds with the cotton swab, occasionally looking up to check on Chen Yushu. Seeing no unusual reaction, she continued her task.

Chen Yushu watched her from above. Lu Wei’s chest was still rising and falling rapidly, but her hands remained steady as she applied the medicine.

Gradually, Chen Yushu’s attention shifted upward, settling on Lu Wei’s face. Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the trees, casting shadows under Lu Wei’s long eyelashes. Her eyelids shimmered with tiny specks of glitter, sparkling with fragmented light.

Even though she had seen this face thousands of times, it never failed to ignite a new flutter in her heart. Each time, the feeling compounded, making every subsequent moment an even grander surge of emotion.

She couldn’t help but recall the last time she was here after fainting during military training, she had come to this spot with Lu Wei, testing the waters, feeling disappointed, making resolutions.

But now, returning to this familiar place, she realized:

Her feelings for Lu Wei had never faded. Instead, they had only grown stronger with time.

She began to waver. Was she truly content with being just friends with Lu Wei for the rest of her life?

The moment the thought arose, a wave of bitterness washed over her heart. What did it matter if she wasn’t willing? Matters of the heart were never decided by one person alone.

Plop

Tears had unknowingly started to fall, splashing like droplets on her arm and tearing a painful gash in her heart.

“Does it hurt? Why didn’t you say anything?” Lu Wei looked up, flustered, and quickly blew gently on the wound, asking cautiously, “Was I too rough?”

Chen Yushu choked up, unable to speak, desperately trying to hold back her tears. She had already cried too many times in front of Lu Wei these past few days.

“I told you to be gentle look, you made Shushu cry.” Lu Wei lightly tapped the hand that was applying the medicine, then smiled at her, wiping away her tears. “I scolded it for you. Next time, I’ll be more careful. Just bear with it a little longer.”

She sniffled and called out, “Lu Wei.”

“Yeah, what is it?”

Chen Yushu fell silent again, though countless words swirled in her heart.

She wanted to say, “Lu Wei, don’t be so good to me. The kinder you are, the more it hurts. You give so much as my friend, but I can’t accept or return it in the same way.”

She harbored too many selfish desires and foolishly hoped to change the nature of their relationship.

But to Lu Wei, it was all unwarranted.

Chen Yushu opened her mouth but could only manage to say, “Thank you.”

“For something so small?” Lu Wei tilted her head, hesitating.

“It’s not small.”

“Alright then, I’ll accept your thanks. When we live together someday, you can repay me by washing my smelly socks.”

“That’s disgusting! Get lost!”

After the wound was treated, Lu Wei helped her to the bleachers, saying she’d wait for her after the event, then returned to the art department’s area.

Her gaze unconsciously followed Lu Wei, who was immediately surrounded by a group of girls as soon as she arrived. It seemed they were about to hit her, but Lu Wei quickly crouched down, clasping her hands in a plea for mercy.

Probably because of the megaphone incident.

Chen Yushu couldn’t help but lower her head and chuckle softly.

Just then, Jiang Yuran nudged her arm. “How’s your injury? I just got some ointment from Senior Jiang. You should put some on.”

“Thank you, but Lu Wei already applied some medicine for me. It’s fine now.” Chen Yushu showed her hand.

“Alright then.” Jiang Yuran pouted slightly. “Of course, as long as your Lu Wei is here, everything’s fine.”

“Hahaha, not at all.” Chen Yushu laughed helplessly. “By the way, how are things with Senior Jiang?”

At this, Jiang Yuran immediately grew shy, leaning in to whisper, “Progressing incredibly fast.”

“How fast?” Chen Yushu’s interest was piqued.

Jiang Yuran smiled coyly, too embarrassed to elaborate. “Oh, you know what I mean. We’re just one step away from making it official.”

“That… that fast?” Chen Yushu was stunned, thinking to herself, But they’ve only known each other for such a short time!

Jiang Yuran nodded modestly. “Well, when two people are mutually attracted, things just move quickly.”

Chen Yushu couldn’t help but let out a soft sigh. The next moment, a thought flashed through her mind: Yes, mutual affection makes everything swift, while one-sided love is destined to go nowhere.

A wave of melancholy washed over her. She turned her head, searching for Lu Wei again, and found her easily.

Lu Wei was leaning against the railing with another girl, each holding a megaphone, both beaming. Lu Wei must have said something, because the girl suddenly hooked an arm around her neck, half-laughing, half-scolding, their closeness unmistakable no different from how Lu Wei acted with her.

Chen Yushu watched quietly, struggling to suppress the strange feeling in her heart. But when she saw Lu Wei ruffle the girl’s hair and hug her, her defenses crumbled. All her emotions surged forth like a torrential flood, impossible to hold back.

A suffocating feeling washed over her, wrapped in an irritating jealousy. She stood frozen like a wooden statue, unable to move for a long while.

Suddenly, the burning pain from her wound flared up. Chen Yushu lowered her gaze to look at it, her expression barely changing. She only wished it could hurt more, hurt enough to bring her some relief.

When she looked up again, the two people on the railing were gone.

Uncontrollably, she began wildly guessing where the two might have gone. Wave after wave of jealousy churned inside her, threatening to drown her completely.

Chen Yushu closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly adjusted her breathing. She told herself that this was just normal playful banter between girls, and that her overreaction was just being petty.

Even so, the stifling feeling in her heart refused to dissipate.

Forget it, forget it. Chen Yushu abruptly opened her eyes. Maybe it was for the best if this helped her feelings for Lu Wei fade away.

No sense of boundaries, treating everyone the same just a social butterfly! From a lover’s perspective, she was completely unqualified!

Ugh! Absolutely terrible!

Chen Yushu let out a heavy sigh, pulled out her little notebook, and added another page.

Philanthropy. Loving all, charitable and benevolent.

After writing it down, she flipped back through the previous pages, slowly recalling the story behind each word.

Stupid Lu Wei! She’s not good at all! She didn’t want to like her anymore!