Ten-Year Loyal Dog’s Road to Chasing Her Wife (GL) - Chapter 44

Chapter 44

On such a beautiful afternoon, meeting someone she didn’t particularly want to meet made Qiao Wan’s mood a living embodiment of “f*ck my life” (lit. grass mud horse).

“Why is it that whenever he plays basketball, the whole world knows about it?” Qiao Wan glanced at those girls who clearly didn’t understand what was happening on the court but were still cheering for Yuan Tianci. Yuan Tianci wasn’t even on the school basketball team, requiring training every Saturday, so how did these people know?

Because of Yuan Tianci’s presence, the basketball court was exceptionally lively.

No. 1 Middle School had a total of three basketball courts located in different places, and the sizes of the courts varied. The one where Yuan Tianci was located was the largest; usually, if there were any basketball competitions, they would be held on this side.

Qiao Wan had no interest in sports. She bought some water at the small shop next to the court and planned to leave, but she couldn’t withstand someone’s eyes which were like radar automatically discovering her trail and following her: “Qiao Wan! Xiao Qiao!”

“…” You’re the “Xiao Qiao,” your whole family is a “snake-skin-baton” Xiao Qiao.

The boy had long legs and height; one of his steps equaled two of Qiao Wan’s. He caught up quickly. Because they were close, the two girls could faintly smell the scent of moisture, but the butler must have sprayed him with cologne before he left, so the smell of sweat was mostly covered up, not to the point of being repulsive. “Are you two out playing alone on the weekend too?”

Qiao Wan: “…” If half a person were out playing, wouldn’t you be scared out of your wits?

Perhaps because he had just played basketball, the boy’s face still carried a flush. His skin was very fair, so this flush was very obvious. “Dinner… do you want to eat at my house? Grandma invited you.”

Qiao Wan thought to herself: I’ll believe your nonsense. Was it actually his “Buddhist-style” (indifferent/zen) grandmother who invited her, or was it him? Besides, the Yuan house had many children; the Yuan parents were exceptionally hospitable and loved the company of kids, often bringing over neighbor’s children or even distantly related kids to play at their house.

They also loved to crack jokes.

The first time she went to the Yuan house, Qiao Wan was very small. After the Yuan parents asked for her name, they laughed in front of Father Qiao: “Qiao Wan? Isn’t that the name of the younger of the two Qiao sisters from Jiangdong during the Three Kingdoms period? Why don’t you just give her a nickname, ‘Xiao Qiao’ (Little Qiao)?”

From then on, the people of the Yuan family all called Qiao Wan “Xiao Qiao,” even more intimately than her biological parents did.

At least Father Qiao, in most cases, called her by her full name.

Opening his mouth it was “Qiao Wan,” closing it was “Qiao Wan.”

“Not going.” Qiao Wan rejected his suggestion expressionlessly.

“Go on, there’s good food.” Yuan Tianci had probably grown up eating pig feed; at the age of ten-plus, he was already 1.8 meters tall. Standing with Qiao Wan, it was the “cutest height difference”; he had to lower his head to give Qiao Wan enough respect. Qiao Wan struggled to look up, looked him straight in the eye, and once again rejected his proposal: “Not going.”

“Give me a reason?” Yuan Tianci said. “Let me have at least one reason to report back to Grandma.”

Qiao Wan thought for a moment and said, “You’re too tall. I’m afraid that if we’re walking on the road, people will think you’re trafficking a little girl.”

Yuan Tianci: “…” Wake up, lady! You’re only two years away from being a legal adult! Short is just short; what “little girl”?

However, by this time, halftime was over. Yuan Tianci’s teammates began calling him back. Yuan Tianci could only helplessly ask the two Qiao “sisters” if they had tissues. He sloppily wiped his sweat and went back, and the game started again. Only this time, many people’s gazes on the court no longer just chased Yuan Tianci; a portion of them turned their attention to Qiao Wan. They had all seen it just now: Yuan Tianci had spotted Qiao Wan from afar and proactively walked over to chat. Most importantly, they heard Yuan Tianci call her “Xiao Qiao.”

Xiao Qiao, Xiao Qiao my foot. Such an intimate nickname. And back then, she had vowed she had nothing to do with Yuan Tianci and no interest in him.

Who knows when they already “got together.”

“How hypocritical.” Xia Hanyin slightly tightened her grip on her canvas bag. She was working hard to lose weight and had indeed gotten much lighter; today, she was even rarely wearing a dress instead of the school uniform. But who could compare to Qiao Wan? She seemed to glow naturally, possessing an exquisite face mismatched with her age. On the forum, some people with poor vocabularies even described her as an “angel with broken wings from heaven.”

A deathly sour (jealous) metaphor.

Because of this matter, Xia Hanyin didn’t give Qiao Wan a good look for a long time as if Qiao Wan didn’t participate in this “male god chase,” she would have a much higher chance of winning.

…

Before the mid-term exams in December arrived, the gymnastics competition came first. The school, of course, couldn’t allow the tenth graders to continue being carefree. Why should other grades have to do radio gymnastics while the tenth grade could rest during this period?

It wasn’t fair. The seniors wouldn’t stand for it, and the eleventh-grade student union reported the issue. The school leaders suddenly realized: Oh right, the tenth grade’s interval exercises have been suspended for a long time. It’s time to give these high-energy little brats something to do.

Thus, it was decided that a radio gymnastics competition would be held in November.

Actually, the students were reluctant to perform the “Eighth Set of Radio Gymnastics” in front of so many people, but “the arm cannot twist the thigh” (you can’t fight authority), so they could only obey.

Consequently, the whole school saw that almost every afternoon, the tenth-grade “brats” would be dragged out by their homeroom teachers for overtime training. Several neat legions lined up on the open ground doing the same movements; the scene was quite spectacular. Moreover, the tenth graders were still young and put in effort unlike the “old oil-sticks” (veterans) in the eleventh grade, who did gymnastics like zombies with their spines removed, limbs limp as if they might collapse the next second.

Because he had to look after his sister, Qiao Rui didn’t go home for dinner either. He leaned against the railing with Hua Zhiyun to watch the tenth graders train.

“Recalling our time back then…”

Qiao Rui sneered and said dismissively, “What ‘back then’? How old do you think you are now?”

Hua Zhiyun gritted her teeth and changed her phrasing: “When we tenth graders were in intensive training, your hands were always ‘itchy’ and you’d keep messing with my clothes!”

“That’s because my arms are long,” Qiao Rui said with king-like disdain, “and the distance between you and me wasn’t wide enough.”

“One of your arms can be a meter long? Give me a break, can you have some shame?”

Qiao Rui looked at her face and chuckled foolishly for a while, finally deciding not to explain. Yeah, back then he did it on purpose; his hands were “itchy,” and for some reason, he just wanted to use the torso-rotation movement to steal a glance at this girl, so the arc of his movement was especially large, and then they bumped.

Once, twice, three times, four times.

Eventually, he was chased into the restroom by Hua Zhiyun.

Looking at Class 11’s training now, it seemed to be the same way: the girls were all striving to turn back and look at the tallest, most handsome boy in the back row.

Meanwhile, the most beautiful School Beauty, because of her height, was buried in the crowd. Aside from those closest to her, no one else could see a single strand of her hair. Qiao Rui swore that he would never again complain about his sister being too short. After all…

Compared to Qiao Wan, his sister was practically a giant.