ATLAS TRANSLATES

Chu Zhi stood at the check-in area, lost in thought.

In the afternoon, after all the event finals were over, the relay was last.

Chu Zhi had taken second place in the women’s 200 meters, just barely behind first place. She was assigned to run first leg for the girls’ team.

The relay race was probably one of the most anticipated events. Several people gathered around to listen to the sports committee member share tips about baton passing. Chu Zhi kept her head slightly lowered, deep in thought.

Suddenly, she raised her hand and touched the corner of her lips.

The soft sensation remained, seemingly still holding the temperature and feeling of someone’s fingers.

When they were face to face, she hadn’t thought much of it, but after he left, things started feeling strange.

The skin of her lips was thin and sensitive. His fingers had been cool, and when they brushed against her skin it created a slight rustling sensation.

Chu Zhi confusedly checked her heartbeat, wondering if she had run the 200 meters too fast earlier—why was her heart rate still abnormal after so long?

As the relay race was about to begin, Chu Zhi adjusted her breathing and touched her warm ears. Just as she felt ready and turned around, she met a pair of dark eyes in the distance.

Lu Jiaheng stood behind the check-in area near the stands, leaning against the wall, his head tilted as he watched her.

Chu Zhi shrank her neck, her ears starting to burn again.

Her gaze lingered, but before she could react, someone called out to her.

It was a clear, young male voice, clean and bright: “Sister!”

Chu Zhi turned around to see Yuan Ci jogging over, waving at her.

Early that morning, Cheng Yi had been kicked awake by Lu Jiaheng, reluctantly lounged until noon, and then slowly dragged himself out after taking a shower, finally looking somewhat presentable.

By the time he recognized what was happening, Lu Jiaheng had already disappeared. He called two or three times before getting an answer.

Cheng Yi stood at the bottom of the dormitory building, hand on his hip, yelling into the phone like a fishwife: “Lu Jiaheng, what the hell? You kick me awake and then disappear yourself?”

Lu Jiaheng drawled lazily: “Attending the sports meet.”

Cheng Yi froze, not processing it: “What?”

“Sports meet.”

“Sports meet?”

“Mm.”

Cheng Yi said with fake sincerity: “Wow, young master, you’re amazing! This is truly a positive, sunny, energetic, and passionate life!”

Lu Jiaheng ignored him and suddenly fell silent.

Cheng Yi didn’t mind and hung up the phone while walking toward the sports field.

As soon as he entered, he saw Young Master Lu standing in the shadows below the stands, secretly watching something, expressionless with a gloomy gaze.

Cheng Yi followed his line of sight and laughed when he saw what it was.

The young master’s soft girl was wearing a fresh and cute white sports outfit, talking to a young man and smiling adorably.

Looking back at Lu Jiaheng, his expression seemed even worse.

Cheng Yi’s smile was brilliant, his mood quite good as he sauntered over: “Oh! Young master, what a coincidence!”

Lu Jiaheng didn’t even look at him, his eyes fixed on Chu Zhi.

After a while, he clicked his tongue softly, looking extremely displeased.

Cheng Yi watched with curiosity: “Aheng, your little sister seems quite popular.”

Lu Jiaheng said coldly: “More than that.”

As he spoke, he seemed to think of something else and frowned.

Cheng Yi raised an eyebrow: “You’re just going to watch? She won’t come over by herself. You need to take the initiative and chase after her bravely, Prince.”

Lu Jiaheng gave him a light glance, and surprisingly didn’t deny it. He licked his lips: “You know how to chase?”

Cheng Yi fell silent.

When it came to flirting with girls, he was definitely skilled—so skilled he could write a complete answer key with detailed explanations.

But chasing girls and flirting were completely different things. The concept of seriously pursuing a girl was entirely foreign to their group.

Cheng Yi didn’t dare share his flirting and casual dating techniques, since his brother seemed serious this time and might actually kill him.

Cheng Yi thought very carefully and analyzed based on his limited understanding of Chu Zhi: “I think with your little Zhi’s type, subtle hints probably won’t work. She likely won’t understand them.”

“…”

Lu Jiaheng thought to himself that he already knew this without being told.

“So you need to be more direct, straightforwardly let her know you like her,” Cheng Yi paused, still somewhat uncertain, “You really like her?”

Lu Jiaheng didn’t speak.

Cheng Yi still couldn’t let it go, or rather found it hard to believe: “You really like her.”

The relay race had already started on the other side. At the sound of the gun, the girl almost instantly shot forward, her lips slightly pursed, her long hair swaying.

The next runner was the boy from this morning who had high-fived her and almost poked her lips. The two ran forward side by side, one passing, one receiving, their coordination extremely smooth as they maintained first place.

Lu Jiaheng pursed his lips, his dark eyes lifting slightly as he suddenly asked: “How direct?”

Cheng Yi: “?”

“What counts as direct?”

Lu Jiaheng seriously felt his previous actions had been direct enough. In the past, he didn’t even need to say anything—the girls would take the initiative themselves.

Cheng Yi pressed his temples, saying with a headache: “Come on, young master, do I need to teach you step by step? Ask her out, confess, and don’t just use words. Show her your sincerity, let her feel how much you like her through actual actions.”

As he said this, he couldn’t help but ask again: “Just how much do you like this girl?”

Lu Jiaheng wanted to say he didn’t know.

He also wanted to say he didn’t like her that much.

The words rolled around in his throat twice, but for some reason, he couldn’t say them.

The Advertising Class 2 did well at the sports meet. After collecting the prize money, the sports committee member asked those who had won places, and they finally decided to use the money for everyone to go out for a meal together.

Their advisor, who had just graduated from university himself and was leading his first class of students, saw their enthusiasm and made a grand gesture, heroically stating that if the money wasn’t enough, they could come back to him for reimbursement.

Everyone cheered and ran to the self-service barbecue restaurant, occupying an entire row of seats in the back, eating until the business owner nearly cried.

Two weeks after the sports meet, the drama club that Chu Zhi had casually joined also started getting busy.

In early December, A University would celebrate its anniversary, and the drama club was scheduled to perform as usual.

Chu Zhi had originally thought that as a new member who was just there to help out, she would work backstage, doing odd jobs and continuing to be invisible. But the next day, during the meeting, the club president smiled and beckoned to her: “Sister, come here for a moment.”

Chu Zhi had gotten used to Yuan Ci calling her sister. She put down the prop she was holding and walked over: “Senior, what is it?”

The Octopus and others had also gotten used to these two daily calling each other “sister” and “senior.” Their endless urge to make fun of it had been worn away by time, and after several months they even found it somewhat uniquely interesting.

Yuan Ci handed her a script, and Chu Zhi took it.

Yuan Ci grinned, his little tiger teeth gleaming white: “Sister, would you like to play the female lead?”

Chu Zhi’s eyes widened.

Yuan Ci scratched his nose, wearing a pleading expression: “Sister, if you don’t play it, I’ll have to play the female lead.”

Chu Zhi’s eyes nearly popped out.

She felt that her previous eighteen years of life had been quite normal, but why was it that after starting university, the term “cross-dressing” began frequently appearing in her world, almost becoming a part of her life.

The Octopus nearby heard this and immediately hugged Yuan Ci again, starting to wail dramatically: “Ci-lang!!! What’s wrong with playing the female lead?!!! Didn’t you play Belle the princess last year?!!! Wasn’t the response great?!!!”

His acting was superb—even his eyeballs turned red as he expressed his love heartbreakingly, making the scene quite intense for a moment.

Ci-lang raised his hand and mercilessly pushed him away, saying with a fake smile: “I don’t want to be in love with you anymore.”

The Octopus let go, wearing a meaningful expression: “Oh, you want to be in love with someone else.”

Yuan Ci ignored him and looked expectantly at Chu Zhi.

Chu Zhi had never performed in shows before. Even in middle and high school class performances similar to this, she had never played a living thing. She held the script, feeling a bit lost: “Can I do it? I only acted in one play in high school, I don’t have much experience…”

Yuan Ci’s eyes brightened: “Having acted before is already great, that’s very impressive. I never even acted in a play in high school.”

“Really?”

“Really,” Yuan Ci smiled encouragingly at her, “What did sister play?”

Chu Zhi said excitedly: “A potted plant.”

Yuan Ci: “…”

Octopus: “…”

There wasn’t much preparation time. November flew by, and autumn was about to end in the blink of an eye.

The female lead in “The Shopkeeper” had many lines.

Chu Zhi felt that this was the first time in her life she had been entrusted with such an important responsibility—half the glory of the entire drama club rested on her shoulders.

She didn’t dare slack off at all, running to the drama club as soon as classes ended each day, wishing she could split herself in two: one part for eating, attending classes, sleeping, and doing homework, the other part for memorizing lines.

Her classmates were also very busy.

Xiao Yi had even started preparing to look for internships for the winter break. In his words, these things had to be accumulated early, and you should try to produce something during the internship period.

It seemed that Lu Jiaheng was the only one who wasn’t properly occupied.

After the sports meet, Senior Lu seemed even more free than before, often popping up from somewhere every few days.

Sometimes he would just show his face briefly to remind her of his existence, occasionally bringing her an ice cream, standing under the girls’ dormitory building, waiting for her to come down while ignoring the various gazes from all directions.

When Chu Zhi refused, he would always use “bought one too many, can’t finish it, it’ll be thrown away if you don’t eat it” as an excuse.

The first few times, Chu Zhi was called down alone while Gu Han and the others secretly watched from the balcony. Later, when the girls happened to be heading to the library together, they all went down together.

Lu Jiaheng leaned against the wall under the tree, looking casual and idle. When he saw Chu Zhi come out, he slightly curved his lips.

Chu Zhi walked over, frowning slightly: “Did you buy too much ice cream again?”

Lu Jiaheng laughed softly: “Yeah.”

Lin Tong and the others didn’t go over, walking ahead to wait. After a while, Chu Zhi came back with an ice cream.

Gu Han felt she couldn’t understand: “What’s going on with this guy? Doesn’t he have a girlfriend?”

Lin Tong lazily yawned beside her: “No, I asked his friend,” she paused, turning to explain to Chu Zhi, “Cheng Yi.”

Gu Han turned her head, looking amazed: “Eh, he doesn’t? But didn’t A-Nan hear him say he had a girlfriend last time?”

Lin Tong smiled mischievously: “Who knows? Maybe for some reason or another, he just didn’t want to give his number to someone.”

Chu Zhi walked beside them quietly listening, slowly lowering her head as she peeled the ice cream wrapper.

Halfway through peeling it, she suddenly stopped walking and slightly turned her head back.

Lu Jiaheng hadn’t left yet, still leaning there, head lowered as he used his phone.

He looked completely lazy and casual.

Chu Zhi licked her lips, hesitated for a moment, then handed her ice cream to Lin Tong: “You guys go ahead and save me a seat, I’ll be there soon.”

Gu Han raised her hand: “Hey, where are you going?”

Lin Tong immediately slapped her once.

Chu Zhi didn’t say anything, turning to run back.

There happened to be a small milk tea shop below her dormitory. Chu Zhi ran over and ordered a hot oolong milk cap tea, occasionally looking back to see if the person in the distance had left.

He was still looking down at his phone.

After another two minutes, he put his phone in his pocket and finally stood up straight.

Chu Zhi became a bit anxious, repeatedly urging: “Auntie, auntie, please hurry!”

The milk tea vendor quickly put on the lid. Chu Zhi couldn’t even wait for it to be bagged, directly taking it and quickly saying thanks before turning to run. Lu Jiaheng had already walked some distance, and Chu Zhi called out to him twice as she chased after him.

Lu Jiaheng turned around.

Chu Zhi quickly ran over, standing in front of him.

He seemed completely surprised that she would come back, looking somewhat astonished.

Chu Zhi let out a long breath, slightly adjusting her breathing, then lifted her head to look at him.

In the northern late November, the weather was cold and dry. The young girl wore a thick fluffy coat with a hood that had two long rabbit ears sewn on top and two small pompoms hanging in front, making her whole person look warm and cozy.

Her round doe eyes looked at him without speaking, her arm raised high as she held out the oolong milk cap tea in front of him.

Lu Jiaheng froze, not taking it.

Chu Zhi rose slightly on her tiptoes, lifting the oolong milk cap tea a bit higher.

She pursed her lips, looking at him seriously, her tone somewhat stern, as if explaining something to a mischievous child: “Senior, the weather is so cold now, you shouldn’t eat so much ice cream anymore.”