Stringy Wind in the Ear - Chap 66
The beach was just behind the B&B and it only took five minutes to walk there, but Song Yang still chose to run, like a leopard that had spotted its prey. He ran faster and faster until the sand and gravel on the beach got into his shoes and socks, rubbing them so hard that he was forced to slow down.
November is the peak season for tourism in Macau. Although this is not a famous beach, it attracts many individual tourists and a team of photographers taking photos for the newlyweds.
He carefully walked around them, craning his neck to search for the target person on the huge beach.
The light stretched his figure out long and thin.
Li Xun was sitting on a rock on the shore, listening to music with headphones on. When he saw Song Yang coming towards him, he took off his headphones, stuffed them into his trouser pocket along with his cell phone, and took out two small bags of peach-flavored jelly.
Song Yang reached out to take it, but his brows were furrowed. He didn’t put it in his mouth right away. Instead, he held the jelly in his hand and looked at it over and over again. I don’t know what he was thinking about, but it was probably about the competition.
Li Xun patted the reef and motioned for him to sit down.
“I didn’t expect this place to be so beautiful.”
“Yeah.” Song Yang stuffed his socks into his shoes and put them aside. He buried his toes deep into the fine sand and felt a little bit of the residual warmth of the sunlight.
Li Xun was waiting for his next sentence, but after waiting for a long time, Song Yang did not start a new topic, so he nudged Song Yang with his foot.
The wet sand soaked by sea water rubbed against Song Yang’s smooth feet.
“Still feeling bad?”
Song Yang lowered his head, rubbed his palms back and forth on his knees, and his spine was almost bent into a fully drawn bow.
Even if he didn’t say a word, Li Xun could fully feel his mood at the moment. The regret and unwillingness combined together, turning into powerlessness and deep self-blame.
Empty consolation is usually useless, so Li Xun can only change his perspective: “Have I ever told you about my coach?”
“Well, you talked about him during your interview, what’s up?”
“He came today, too, and praised you for playing well.” At the end, he added with a smile, “Especially the match with Yu Shenwei, it was so exciting.”
Song Yang asked uncertainly: “Are you making fun of me?”
Li Xun reached out and rubbed the back of the child’s head. His hair had just been cut not long ago and was still a little prickly.
“It’s normal to be nervous when you play against the Korean team for the first time.”
Song Yang turned sideways and explained seriously: “Actually, what makes me most upset is not because I lost to An Zhiyu, but because I let everyone’s expectations down.”
Li Xun said: “Then you might as well put yourself in my shoes. If it was me standing on the stage and I was also the one who lost to An Zhiyu, would you be disappointed in me?”
Song Yang suddenly realized, shook his head and said: “I will look forward to your next game.”
The wind at the beach stopped, but the tide was still surging up, trying very hard to touch the backs of their feet.
Song Yang curled his toes, still feeling unhappy. Ultimately, it was because he didn’t play well. If he could swap the result of the match with Yu Shenwei with that of the previous round, he would at least be qualified to play overtime with An Zhiyu.
It is still uncertain who will win or lose.
But there is no if.
Li Xun gently pinched the back of his neck: “I know you must be unwilling at this moment, and even feel humiliated. I can understand all this because I have also experienced it.”
Song Yang raised his head. Actually, he was just complaining casually and didn’t expect too much response from Li Xun. These words brought him a little comfort in his loneliness.
It turns out that someone understands his pain.
Li Xun continued, “You have to understand one thing. We are athletes, not gods. It is impossible for us to win smoothly. No one can do that. If you lose, you lose. As an athlete, you have to try to bear it, learn to turn the page, and accept your own shortcomings. If you have played your best, there is nothing to feel bad about.”
But he didn’t. Song Yang was filled with melancholy: “I don’t know why. I was just nervous at the time, and my heart rate was unstable. I became depressed towards the end.”
“Because you take him too seriously. You pay attention to his every move and every look of contempt. Because he is arrogant and conceited, you keep telling yourself that you must beat him this time, right?”
Song Yang didn’t say anything, which meant he agreed with what he said.
Li Xun said: “But this can easily affect your mentality. When you care more about other external factors, you can’t calm down.”
“Hmm…” Song Yang digested every word, “I understand.”
The wind was a bit cold at this moment, the photography team withdrew, the shops renting swimming rings and beach balls closed one after another, and there were more than half fewer tourists on the beach.
Song Yang didn’t move, and Li Xun didn’t want to move either.
The moonlight was dim, and the only sounds on the entire beach were the crashing waves and the rise and fall of their conversations.
Song Yang tore open the jelly, put it into his mouth, and swallowed it without chewing it twice.
Li Xun tilted his head and observed him: “Are you feeling better now?”
“Yeah.” Song Yang also turned to look at him, the smile on his lips gradually deepened, “It’s great to have a senior. Every time you give me advice, I feel much better. Did your coach give you advice in the same way before?”
Li Xun said without shame: “It all depends on my own understanding.”
“Tsk.” Song Yang kicked him with his foot while laughing, neither light nor heavy. Li Xun also kicked him back. After a few rounds, the two of them started chasing and playing on the shore.
Song Yang has strong explosive power, but his endurance is not as good as Li Xun. The more he runs, the closer he feels the panting sound behind him, as if he can be caught in the next second.
When he was about to be caught up, he kicked the ground vigorously, causing fine sand to fly in the air. Li Xun was unable to dodge, and his rolled-up trouser legs were full of sand. He did not bother to shake it off, and chased after him with all his strength.
“Don’t let me catch you!”
In response, Song Yang gave a clear and loud laugh.
The two of them ran around the beach in a big circle, almost back to the starting point. The loss and shame of the day were all swept away by the surging waves.
Song Yang really couldn’t run anymore. He gasped and circled around a huge reef on the shore. When Li Xun went left, he went right. When Li Xun went right, he went left.
Just when he thought he had found the right place and could catch his breath, Li Xun suddenly leaped over the stone and came to him.
They were very close to each other, and Li Xun was so tall that he almost completely blocked the moon behind him.
Song Yang stepped back, but was tripped by a small protruding stone and fell into the sand. Li Xun took the opportunity to bend down, grabbed handfuls of sand, and threw them onto his legs at the fastest speed and with the greatest weight, as if he wanted to bury him. There was no trace of the teacher at all.
Song Yang laughed and cursed as he rolled and crawled. Before he had crawled a meter, he felt his ankle being grabbed. He wanted to resist and kicked his legs, but Li Xun was too strong. He could only allow his body to be dragged away savagely.
Finally, Li Xun sat down on his thighs, blew two breaths on his fingertips with ill intent, and crawled into his clothes.
As soon as their skin touched, Song Yang felt extremely itchy and begged for mercy with tears and laughter. Li Xun had no intention of stopping at that time, but instead made things worse. Song Yang twisted into a collapsed caterpillar under him.
The slightly cool sea water came up and wet their trouser legs and hems. Li Xun then grabbed Song Yang’s arm and dragged him out of the sand.
“Are you still messing with me?”
“It’s obviously you who’s messing with me!”
Song Yang scratched his hair. Sand fell on his head like snow. Some of it got into his clothes and stuck to his back, and some of it ran into his pants. He stood up and tried to clean it up for a long time but couldn’t.
He patted his butt and complained, “What should I do? It seems to have run into my underwear.”
“Really?” Li Xun hooked his trouser waist and leaned over, “Let me take a look.”
Song Yang was startled, grabbed the waistband of his pants, took a step back, and looked at him as if he were a gangster.
However, Li Xun shrugged cheekily: “You asked me what to do.”
Song Yang’s lips moved, but he couldn’t fart for a long time.
Many stars appeared above their heads, and they sat side by side on the shore. Song Yang spread his legs in an unpresentable manner, poked his index finger into the sand, drew a target, and drew an arrow that hit the ten rings accurately.
Li Xun took a look, and Song Yang thought he was going to complain about his poor painting skills, but that was not the case.
“Is this your arrow?” Li Xun asked him.
“Um.”
Li Xun pondered for a while, then added another one and said, “This way it won’t be lonely anymore.”
Song Yang stared at the two intersecting arrows infatuatedly and grinned.
The waves were about to come again, and Song Yang was worried that this masterpiece would be ruined, so he quickly took a photo as a souvenir and set it as his WeChat profile picture.
Li Xun saw what he was doing and said, “Send me one too.”
Song Yang looked at him in surprise, with a lot of thoughts in his mind.
Obviously, every word that Li Xun said and every movement of his hands had nothing to do with love, but he always caught a glimpse of ambiguity. He felt as if he was immersed in a jar of honey and he could no longer suppress his heartbeat.
After uploading the photo, they looked up together and happened to see two boys wearing the same shirt walking past them.
Song Yang followed them and whispered, “They look like they’re wearing couple outfits.”
Li Xun said “hmm” to show his agreement.
His eyes were glued to Song Yang’s clean white instep. After struggling for a while, he added, “We can wear it, too.”
Song Yang turned his head suddenly, but his first reaction was: “Are you talking about the national team uniform?”
Li Xun: “…”
His silence and the helplessness between his brows made Song Yang realize that his answer was not what Li Xun had in mind. Combined with the sudden, frightening kiss at the airport and Li Xun’s abnormal behavior tonight, he would be a fool not to think in that direction.
Song Yang wanted to ask more, but unexpectedly Li Xun spoke before him: “I want to tell you something.”
“What?”
Li Xun asked: “Do you remember what I told you in the car this morning, that I had a dream?”
“Hmm…” This topic was too abrupt. Song Yang didn’t understand how it was related to what they were talking about, but his mouth still opened and closed cooperatively, “Then what?”
“I said I dreamed that you turned into a cat and licked me.” Li Xun paused when he said this, and a not-so-innocent smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.
This abrupt topic and the very rare pause made Song Yang feel that what would follow would be some difficult to talk about content that would make people feel hot all over.
As expected, Li Xun was like a villain who had the upper hand over the protagonist, and laughed even more happily: “Actually, I didn’t fall asleep at all.”
“…”
It was as if a silver light struck Song Yang’s head, lightning and thunder flashed in his head. He stared at Li Xun with his mouth open, and inevitably recalled his obscene behavior last night, feeling very ashamed.
Moreover, this sense of shame was not reduced in the slightest by Li Xun’s indifferent smile. Thousands of words surged into his mind, but his throat was unable to utter a sound. It seemed that what hit his instep was not a splash of water, but a flame. Every inch of his skin, including his internal organs, was on fire.
Li Xun looked at his flustered and distracted appearance and couldn’t help but laugh. He leaned forward inch by inch to look at the reflection in his pupils: “But you seem to have missed something.”
In the chaos, Song Yang tried his best to regain his consciousness and tried to respond, but Li Xun did not wait for his response and spoke on his own, reducing the distance between them to zero.
Their lips touched, their breath blended, Song Yang’s eyes widened, his heart beat faster, and he fell into a world of clouds and mist again, completely confused.
He heard the sound of sea water rushing onto the beach, saw the plane winking at him in the dark, smelled the unique fragrance of Li Xun, and felt a hand tightening behind his waist. Their bodies pressed closer and closer until they were perfectly fitted together.
They are all bronze players in the love field. Li Xun’s experience makes him appear particularly calm and composed in such matters, even a little skilled.
His other hand first covered Song Yang’s eyes for two seconds, then moved to the back of his head, forcing him to tilt his head slightly, and then licked the gap between his lips.
Song Yang shuddered, his thoughts in a mess – or one could say, blank.
He couldn’t see anything, but his heart was trembling, his arms were trembling, his breathing was trembling, his eyelashes were trembling, and every inch of his skin was trembling.
He didn’t know how to kiss, and had never understood the process in depth. He just imitated Li Xun’s movements, gently bit the soft lips, put them in his mouth, felt their warmth, felt Li Xun’s rising and falling breathing and heartbeat, and felt the endless tenderness and tenderness.
