Stringy Wind in the Ear - Chap 22
After paying the bill, they sat on a bench by the roadside to drink, the street lights illuminating the corner where they were.
“That’s what happened,” Song Yang smiled bitterly and patted the shopping bag, “They said I can only get this in exchange.”
Li Xun took a sip of iced sour plum juice, which had a sweet and sour aftertaste. He said nonchalantly, “It’s just an arrow. If it’s gone, it’s gone.”
“What do you mean by just an arrow?” Song Yang slapped his thigh and said with great momentum, “That was the arrow that helped you win the prize in the championship! It means a lot!”
Li Xun discovered that this little guy liked to attach special meanings to some things.
First time watching a game, first photo, first pair of chopsticks, first arrow…
The jasmine flowers on the roadside were in full bloom, and the breeze brought a scent. Li Xun leaned on the bench and couldn’t help but think of the scene when Song Yang was a child, lying on the fence and smiling at him.
Eleven years have passed.
He turned his head and stared at Song Yang.
At first, Song Yang glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, but soon he lowered his head, and his whole body looked like a wheat ear that was about to fall over.
We’ve known each other for such a long time, and I don’t know why you’re so shy all day long.
Although Song Yanglao regarded him as an idol, he really didn’t think that there was anything about himself worthy of his admiration.
In terms of performance, the best he got was just a silver medal in the Asian Games, and he didn’t even make it to the World Championships.
In terms of attitude, I no longer dare to take the step forward and accept failure.
It is easy for people to mistakenly associate another side of a person based on their first impression. Song Yang’s so-called idol is probably a perfect Li Xun that he imagined.
How old was Song Yang eleven years ago?
Smaller than Li Chuzhi, tiny and thin, only reaching his thighs, and could be picked up in one hand.
In Song Yang’s eyes, isn’t he the omnipotent champion?
But what is the truth?
He was just an ordinary archery athlete who lost his original intention and gave up halfway.
“Why are you staring at me?” Song Yang said.
“Is your foot okay?” Li Xun asked.
“Uh.” Song Yang came back to his senses, “It’s okay, but there’s a blister on the side of my little toe, it hurts a little.”
“Did you puncture it?”
Song Yang shook his head fiercely: “I’m afraid of needles, so I put a Band-Aid on it.”
No wonder his walking posture was so strange just now. Li Xun said speechlessly: “Then how are you going to run tomorrow?”
Song Yang said comfortably: “Let’s talk about it tomorrow. Maybe it will break while you sleep.”
“Then wait for me here for a while.”
Song Yang opened his mouth a beat late, but before he could say “Where are you going?”, Li Xun had already turned the corner and disappeared.
The cell phone in my trouser pocket vibrated.
Jiang Luo: [Calling Little Sheep. Are you lost again? It’s been more than half an hour. You should be back after going out to buy something!]
Zhou Junlin: [I don’t know how to choose, so I took a photo and sent it here. ]
Song Yang: [I’ve bought it, I’ll be right back.]
Yu Le: [Hurry up, the lights will be turned off soon. ]
Li Xun came back from the supermarket in a hurry. Before he could even catch his breath, he sat down with the back of his left hand resting on his knee.
Song Yang asked: “Where did you go?”
Li Xun didn’t say anything, just hooked his finger.
“What?” Song Yang was a little confused, but he still reached out and held his large palm. Li Xun’s skin was a little cold because he had just drunk an iced drink. He also felt the calluses at the base of Li Xun’s palm.
Li Xun stared at the back of his hand for two seconds, then burst out laughing: “I asked you to lift your feet up so I can help you get rid of the blisters.”
“Ah!” Song Yang let go as if he had been electrocuted. His head instantly swelled and he spoke incoherently, “I, I, I, that, no need! Really no need! Just wait for it to break by itself!”
Li Xun took out disinfectant and a needle from the bag: “I’ve bought them all. If you don’t get rid of it now, it will only get bigger tomorrow, and it will hurt even more then.”
Song Yang hesitated and refused to compromise.
“What’s wrong?” Li Xun asked in confusion, “Do you have athlete’s foot?”
Song Yang blushed: “Of course not!——”
It was almost a year since they met, but this was the first time Li Xun saw Song Yang’s feet. They were thin and narrow, with the protruding bones of the ankles particularly obvious. Due to the white skin, the meridians on the instep of the foot were clearly visible.
Li Xun could hold his ankle with one hand: “Why are your feet so thin?”
Song Yang raised his big toe and interacted with him: “It’s natural. Will it affect archery practice if your feet are very narrow?”
“That won’t happen. It depends on whether you can keep it steady for a long time. But if your arms are too thin, that won’t work. You won’t have the strength to draw the bow.”
“I heard from a senior that body shape is also important when selecting athletes.” Song Yang pinched his arm, “Is my figure OK?”
Li Xun understood what he meant: “You want to join the archery team?”
Song Yang nodded.
There are no very strict standards for selecting archery athletes, but as long as it is a sport, there will definitely be talented athletes who are most suitable for it.
What makes the difference between geniuses and ordinary people is often their innate advantages.
For example, Bolt, the sprinter, has slender and strong Achilles tendons, like two long springs, which allow him to break world records again and again; Sotomayor, the high jumper, is 1.94 meters tall, with calves longer than thighs, which allows him to jump over an astonishing height of 2.40 meters; Phelps, the swimmer, has a pair of size 47 feet, like flippers with extremely strong thrust, an arm span of up to two meters, and strip-shaped muscles with good stretchability, light weight and low resistance.
Archery will certainly have an absolute advantage.
First of all, the forearms must be long, and the muscles must not be naturally tight. The exaggerated muscles of bodybuilders cannot exert force at all. The shoulders need to sink, and right-angled shoulders are not good. It is best to have a round face or a slightly wider jaw, like Europeans and Americans, because when the bowstring is pulled to the spreading position, the jaw is needed as a support.
An interesting phenomenon is that there are almost no world-class athletes with small faces and pointed chins, and the athletes who have ranked well either have square faces or round faces.
“It’s over, it’s over, it’s over.” Song Yang covered his cheeks in fear, “I don’t have a round face or a square face.”
As he spoke, he observed Li Xun’s chin. His face was not very square, and there was a slanted curve under his ears.
“What should we do then?”
“I don’t know.” Li Xun laughed self-deprecatingly, “Maybe it’s because my face isn’t round enough, so I always get silver medals.”
“No way.” Song Yang suddenly felt that his immortal spirit was sucked away. “Do you think that the current medical technology can change people’s faces into square ones?”
“…You really dare to think so.”
“I think with my delicate facial features, even a square face is completely hiss–” Before he finished speaking, a thin needle pierced into his blister and burst it. Song Yang gasped and stared at Li Xun’s hand and said, “Why didn’t you even give me a high-energy warning!”
Li Xun didn’t say a word. He lowered his head and applied some disinfectant on him, then put a Band-Aid on him. His hands were extremely fast, not giving him the slightest chance to break free.
Song Yang rested his arms on his knees, supporting his chin. Their hair touched each other under the light, but neither of them noticed.
Li Xun’s attention was focused on his wound, while Song Yang’s eyes fell on the pale blue Band-Aid, mumbling: “Why is it a cartoon pattern?”
“Hatsuchi uses this all the time. I think it’s cute, and it’s waterproof.”
Song Yang was very dissatisfied with Li Xun’s behavior of often classifying him as a child.
“But it’s a bit strange for a grown man like me to use this color.”
“How are you older?” Li Xun flicked his head. “It’s good enough that I bought it for you, but you still complain about this and that.”
He stuffed band-aids, disinfectant and other things into Song Yang’s shopping bag: “A gift for your military training.”
Song Yang: “I’ll keep it and post it on my Moments to show off.”
“I’m leaving.” Li Xun stood up and said, “Go to bed early. I haven’t seen you for a few days and you have dark circles under your eyes.”
“Ah? No way?” Song Yang was shocked by the dark circles under his eyes. When Li Xun walked away, he suddenly remembered something. He didn’t have time to put on his shoes, so he stepped on his sneakers as slippers and chased after him for a few steps, shouting, “Can I go to the archery team to find you after the military training is over?”
“Sure, but whether you can join the school team is not up to me alone. It depends on the team leader’s opinion.”
Song Yang didn’t know the leader, nor did he care about his choice. He was just curious about Li Xun’s thoughts, so he asked, “So what do you think of me?”
Li Xun did not give a direct reply, but left him with a mysterious smile, which seemed to carry some expectations.
“You must do well in the school sports meet in October.”
The kid took a deep breath, showing off his abundant lung capacity: “Then remember to watch me perform!”
After the long military training, everyone gradually adapted to the new life. Song Yang’s schedule became more regular. He got up at five in the morning to do morning jogging with Li Xun, attended classes or went to the library during the day, and went to the archery hall to practice archery whenever he had time in the evening, and went to bed before lights out.
Since his free time was mostly at night and he had no conditions for outdoor training, he often took Li Xun’s car to go home and go to the wetland park on weekends.
After his parents found out, they didn’t do much about it. They just told him not to let it affect his studies.
His life went on without any suspense. The only thing that could be called a surprise during this period was an incident concerning Zhou Junlin.
He was not feeling well at noon that day, so he asked for leave early and went back to the dormitory to rest. Not long after, he heard the door open. He had just taken medicine and was half asleep, so he didn’t say hello.
Then he heard Zhou Junlin open the voice chat and chat with a man.
To be precise, it’s flirting.
Vulgar and indecent content such as “Get the condom ready”, “You’ve seen my size before”, “I want to cum in your belly”.
The topic was hotly debated, private, and shameful. He was a young and inexperienced homosexual, but after hearing it, he was completely awakened and his face was filled with shock.
In just a few minutes, it was as if someone had crushed his worldview and rebuilt it.
But he did not hate this feeling, because this unknown side of Zhou Junlin had a wonderful connection with a certain desire deep in his heart. He even wanted to understand this group and wanted to know how they got along, how they fell in love, and how they did those love things.
Is that feeling painful or pleasurable?
Zhou Junlin hung up the video, packed up and prepared to go out for class. Song Yang buried his head even deeper. He didn’t have the courage to ask, nor did he want to embarrass Zhou Junlin, so he wanted to keep the secret to himself.
However, his secret was discovered after less than five minutes.
Because when Zhou Junlin was going downstairs, he happened to run into Jiang Luo who was delivering food to Song Yang in the elevator.
When Zhou Junlin noticed that Song Yang avoided his gaze, he guessed everything.
At night, he sent his two roommates away and asked Song Yang alone: ​​”Did you hear everything about my phone call during the day?” His tone was neither high nor low, and his expression was indifferent, as if this was just an ordinary topic about what to eat tomorrow morning.
Song Yang admired his courage and his calmness.
“Don’t worry, I’m not homophobic and I keep my mouth shut. I won’t spread your affairs around.”
Zhou Junlin shrugged: “It doesn’t matter if I tell anyone. My family already knows about it anyway. I’m just worried that you guys might be a little disgusted. After all, we still have to live together for four years.”
Song Yang asked curiously, “Then your family doesn’t object?”
“I was against it at first, but it got better after we started talking. I was born to like men. Even if a woman slept naked next to me, I couldn’t get hard. What else could I do?” Zhou Junlin looked at Song Yang’s frozen, shocked expression and added, “But not every man can make me hard.”
Song Yang really didn’t know what to say.
This sounds like something that should be sympathized with, but it feels a bit strange to express sympathy, as if this group of people is abnormal. In the end, I nodded and said, “I understand. It’s not a big deal.”
The moonlight was a little thin at night, and they leaned on the balcony railing and talked about trivial secrets.
Zhou Junlin’s boyfriend is six years older than him. He is a print model and works in another province. The two met on a dating website, played games together, and gradually developed into a romantic relationship.
When her boyfriend is on vacation, he will come to Nancheng to see her, have a date, and do some naughty things.
When Song Yang heard this, he lay on the balcony and asked shyly, “Well, was it painful when you did it for the first time?”
“Hmm?” Zhou Junlin’s facial features twisted into an exaggerated expression. “Why are you curious about this?”
Song Yang’s heart skipped a beat: “I’m just asking casually.”
Zhou Junlin pinched his shoulder and said meaningfully: “Little comrade, your curiosity is not casual.”
