Chapter 117 (2/2)

Ma all the kids, including Fu Lei, to the faculty cafeteria

When Zheng Tan caun He jumped onto his wall and stretched He liked the spot No one could block his view

Xiong Xiong got second place in the shot put contest and was deeply upset about it Besides, when he was cheering for his friends, he kept a straight face Su An and Lan Tianzhu participated in long-juh-jump and did ok They didn't make it into the top three but still came in fourth and fifth

As for the 800-meters, Fu Lei came in third His classmates had told hi The 1500 meters race had probably h for the class to be happy They were still first in their year on the scoreboard

Zheng Tan went home early He didn't wait for Jiao Yuan and Maer

That night Jiao Yuan described today's events to Youzi then went to bed early He had to participate in the 400-meter race and the relay tomorrow

The next day the whole family went to watch the tournament It was a Saturday, and they all deserved some rest

Zheng Tan sat with the family on the bleachers Most of the parents from the quarters were there

Jiao Yuan ca the preliroup went out for lunch that day Fu Lei's parents didn't co to the restaurant

The kids discussed the upcoed their tactics

They measured the distance every runner had to run The school had th They decided to have Fu Lei go second and have Jiao Yuan as also quite fast go last

Jiao Yuan came in third in the 400-meter finals He was quite satisfied with hi all in the preli third

When every other event had ended, that meant the last and most important race was about to start

The girls of their class had the highest points a to do very well in the women's relay The boys were ranked second in points

Everyone in their class wished the boys would do well in the relay so they would finish with two first places Even their homeroom teacher promised to buy them basketballs and other sports equipment if they came in first

Zheng Tan sat on Papa Jiao's shoulder The race had begun Fu Lei was excellent at sprinting, he e

Sotheir best

The afternoon sun ar up

Zheng Tan squinted his eyes in the sun

These two daysunusual to so

These two days, there weren't good students or bad students People ere fighting over trivial things the day earlier were helping each other; people who never crossed paths were cheering for each other

Zheng Tan thought back to when he was this age He couldn't recall much The memories were a blur He remembered there were sports tournaed to le one He would skip school with his friends and go to the arcade

He had never thought the event orth participating It happened every year after all He didn't understand why his classhed He believed no one would remember a sports tournament that happened in middle school when they went on with their lives

Noever, what he thought was boring didn't seem so dull anymore

Zheng Tan saw Fu Lei wipe a tear when Jiao Yuan helped hi al-ju his pants to fall off

What did he miss those years?

He looked at his furry paws, then at Jiao Yuan as running as fast as he could, then at his class at the finish line

This time, he was only a bystander He could watch these kids run, juh in the sun

He envied them

At this age, kids were si-term Their happiness and sadness were pure They had just started a new chapter of their lives and were doing their best to color it bright

They ht learn to wear a mask and hide their emotions, but when they looked back some day in the future, these days would always shi+ne

Life was too short and so much of it was lost in the tide that is tied to store would be wealth beyond iination for the years to come

He felt a pat on his forehead Zheng Tan looked up Papa Jiao was looking down at him

”Charcoal, let's go home”

He took a deep breath and stretched He yahile squinting his eyes

It was tio home