Chapter 128 Sandbags
New week begins.
Because she knew in advance that the school sports meet would be held at the end of the month, Xu Cailing did not sleep in this morning. She got up early and went for a morning run with Fang Wei.
In the misty morning, the two ran all the way from Donghua Village, and finally stopped breathlessly in front of Liu Zhiyi's yard in Shayang Village.
After resting for two days over the weekend, Liu Zhiyi's illness had almost recovered.
It’s worth celebrating that my annoying period also left yesterday. Although I still have a slight cough and runny nose, I seem to be in much better spirits than before.
Since her period came and she got sick in the middle, Liu Zhiyi hasn't run for five days.
Feeling in good shape today, she changed into her sportswear and running shoes early as usual and waited for Fang Wei to come over at the door.
When Liu Zhiyi saw Xu Cailing, he was a little surprised:
"Hey, Cailing, are you running today too?"
"Huh... That's right! The school sports meet will start at the end of the month! Huh... So hurry up and practice!"
"Practice?"
Liu Zhiyi was curious about her choice of words. Perhaps only Fang Wei could know what kind of picture was in this girl's mind - it should be like in "Dragon Ball", in order to prepare for the world's number one martial arts tournament, and then seize the time to practice.
He saw this girl making sandbags by herself yesterday!
Just use a few cloth bags, fill them with some sand, and then tie them to your feet as weight-bearing exercises. Then when the competition starts, take off the sandbags and you can run fast!
Weight-bearing exercises are a very classic training method in sports.
Without any professional equipment or teacher's guidance, the girl, who was eager to get good results in the school sports meet, made her own sandbags and started training on her own.
"hey-hey."
Xu Cailing lifted her heavy legs to show Liu Zhiyi: "Look, I'm still wearing sandbags!"
Liu Zhiyi then noticed that there were two cloth bags filled with sand tied to Cai Ling's ankles. She was stunned:
"You were running with these two sandbags tied to you just now? How heavy are they? A-choo..."
"Well, one is two kilograms, so two is four kilograms. It's not heavy. I want to put more sand in it, but if you put too much, it will leak out and it won't be tied firmly."
"Four pounds!"
"Yes, although it's not very heavy, it feels very effective! I didn't feel anything when I started running, but after a while I felt heavy. Now I feel very tired after running this distance."
Xu Cailing jumped up and down on the spot. After running this distance, she gradually got used to the extra four pounds of weight on her legs.
As she tried to untie the sandbag and take it off, her expression immediately turned into shock:
"Fang Wei! I feel so light now! It's like I can fly if I just exert some strength!"
“…Alright, alright, you’ve flown high enough.”
Fang Wei was both angry and amused. It was a pity that there were no professional weighted sandbags. Supplies were scarce on the island and this thing was not available even if he wanted to buy it. This kind of self-made sandbag was actually not comfortable to wear. Firstly, it was easy to fall off, and secondly, the rope would tighten the feet. Only Xu Cailing would be willing to endure this uncomfortable training.
"It's so heavy. Can I really run so far with this thing tied to my feet..."
Liu Zhiyi took the sandbag that Cai Ling had just taken and weighed it. If it were her, her legs would probably break after running for a while.
"It's very effective! Zhiyi, do you want to try it?"
"I can't do it..."
Liu Zhiyi shook his head and returned the sandbag to Cailing with great self-awareness.
Xu Cailing took the sandbag, squatted down again and tied it back to her ankle.
The movements were a bit clumsy, and the quality of the sandbags I made myself was uneven, which was quite a test of my tying skills.
Like many professional track and field athletes, they use very standard weighted sandbags, or simply run with car tires behind them.
Xu Cailing didn't care about these things, but Fang Wei couldn't help feeling distressed when he saw the red marks on her slender ankles left by the rope.
It was useless to persuade her, so Fang Wei had no choice but to stand by her side and support her.
Fang Wei squatted down and took the sandbag from her hand.
"What? You want to use it?"
"Stand still, I'll help you tie it."
"Oh……"
Xu Cailing was stunned for a moment, then stood there obediently, looking down at Fang Wei who was squatting in front of her, helping her tie the sandbag gently and skillfully.
"Doesn't it hurt when your ankle is tied up?" Fang Wei scratched the red mark on her ankle with his fingers.
"It's okay, I didn't pay much attention."
"..."
Fang Wei spread the sand in the long cloth bag as evenly as possible, then wrapped the long sandbag around the girl's slender ankles. Finally, he took the rope and wrapped it around the sandbag, tying it tightly. This way, the rope would not directly strangle her ankles.
Xu Cailing was stunned.
After Fang Wei tied it up, she couldn't help but move her legs and exclaimed, "It's so comfortable! So firm! It doesn't squeeze my feet at all!"
"You tied it so badly, okay? How do you feel now?"
"very good!"
"Your sandbag is so badly made. I'll make you a new one later."
“It’s not that bad.”
"Do you want a new one?"
"want!"
Xu Cailing was delighted to hear that. Yesterday when she was making sandbags, her parents said that she did not do anything serious all day. Only Fang Wei would spoil her so much. Not only did he help her tie the sandbags, he also promised to make her a new one!
Xu Cailing had great trust in Fang Wei's craftsmanship. Whenever she wanted something but had no money to buy it, he would make it for her, such as lanterns, tumblers, slingshots and the like.
Many of the things he made for her when she was a child, she was reluctant to throw away even if they were broken, and locked them in her drawer like treasures.
It's just that she never told Fang Wei about this secret "collecting of garbage" because she didn't want to be laughed at by him.
With such a childhood sweetheart growing up together, Xu Cailing never felt that her childhood was missing anything, even though she grew up on a small island where everything was lacking.
Liu Zhiyi watched from the side with some envy.
In fact, she didn't know what she was envious of. Was she envious of the new sandbags that Cai Ling You Fang Wei had made? Or was she envious of Cai Ling You Fang Wei, such a childhood sweetheart who loved her so much?
While she was in a daze, Fang Wei had already tied the sandbags for Cai Ling.
He stood up and saw Liu Zhiyi's dazed look again, so he naturally reached out his hand and touched her forehead.
Liu Zhiyi did not avoid or evade. When she saw his hand reaching out, she stood still obediently.
The warm palm was pressed against her smooth forehead. Every time at this moment, her mind went blank and she thought of nothing. She felt inexplicably safe and comfortable.
"You don't have a fever anymore, but you still have a minor cold. Zhiyi, do you want to take a leave this morning? If you are not feeling well, take another day or two. I can ask for leave from Teacher Wen for you." Fang Wei withdrew his hand and asked with concern.
"Ah?" The cold air once again occupied the skin on his forehead, and Liu Zhiyi came back to his senses.
"Do you want to ask for leave?"
"No please."
"Are you feeling better?"
"Yeah, that's a lot..."
Although it was just simple concern and questions, Liu Zhiyi felt warm in her heart. She inexplicably felt that those things that she had just envied for some reason, she actually possessed.
Recalling the day when Fang Wei took her to see a doctor and drove her home, she had never told anyone else the details, but she herself would often think about it, savoring it slowly...
What happened?
Liu Zhiyi didn't dare to think too much about it. Seeing that Cailing's sandbag was tied and Fang Wei had almost rested, he took the initiative to greet her:
"Come on, let's run together today!"
"Guard the door~! Come and eat the dog~!"
"gogogo!"
Fang Wei started running first, and the two girls followed him, looking at his back and running along with him. …
After the midterm exams and the parent-teacher meeting, it is already mid-November without us noticing.
Because winter school uniform jackets do not need to be washed every day, more and more students in the class wear blue and white school uniforms five days a week. Even if they wear regular pants on Tuesday or Thursday, they often wear blue and white school uniform jackets.
The popular topics in the class also change as time goes by.
Because the school sports meet had not been made public yet, when the Pineapple Island quartet arrived at the classroom, everyone in the class was chatting animatedly about Teacher Wen's home visit.
"It's so scary! When I was playing games at home yesterday, Teacher Wen suddenly knocked on the door for a home visit!"
"Huh?! Did Teacher Wen visit our home? How come I didn't know about that?"
“I didn’t know at first either!”
After everyone's testimonies, they found out that the people Mr. Wen visited at home were all his classmates who lived on Baitan Island.
Because there are many students from Baitan Island, after checking around, everyone found that only four or five students from the town had been visited at home.
The rest of the students who also lived in the villages around Baitan Island were also worried, not knowing when the astronomy teacher would suddenly visit their homes.
Fang Wei and Liu Zhiyi came and sat down.
Ye Xiaoli and Wang Qiaoyun at the front table turned around and started gossiping.
"Class monitor, have you heard that Teacher Wen is visiting students' homes? He has visited four or five students in Baitan Town!"
"It was yesterday, right?" Fang Wei asked with a smile.
"Yeah! How did you know?"
Ye Xiaoli and Wang Qiaoyun looked at each other, then looked at Fang Wei in surprise and asked, "Did Teacher Wen go to your house again?"
"Yes, on Saturday, Teacher Wen went to Pineapple Island."
"… Class monitor's family, Zhiyi's family, Cailing's family, Asheng's family, have you finished visiting all four families?!"
"We are all from the same island, so we must have visited everyone's homes."
"So, how was Mr. Wen's home visit? Did you say anything?"
"It's nothing. I just chatted with the parents and visited the family. Are you still worried that Teacher Wen will complain?"
"Huh... That's good. I heard from my classmates in town that it seems that Teacher Wen really doesn't say bad things."
Ye Xiaoli and Wang Qiaoyun felt relieved and asked, "Then monitor, do you know which island Teacher Wen is going to next time?"
"I don't know that."
"..."
The two of them collected new information from Fang Wei and turned around to tell other students.
"In addition to visiting families in town this week, Teacher Wen also went to Pineapple Island!"
"..."
In those years when entertainment was scarce, even the most trivial things could be talked about for a long time in class.
However, the topic of home visits did not last long and was soon overshadowed by another new topic.
During the afternoon class meeting, Wen Susu announced something important -
"As everyone knows, our national team has achieved quite brilliant results in the Olympics this year. In order to respond to the call for national sports, our Baitan Middle School will hold the first sports meeting in the history of the school on Thursday and Friday of the last week of this month, which is the 28th and 29th!"
"Sports meet?!"
After hearing this, the class suddenly became lively and everyone was discussing it.
"Sports meet... Mr. Wen, what do you mean? Is it like hosting the Olympics, a sports meet held by our school?"
"Haha, that's not as exaggerated as the Olympics, it's just the school sports meet, haven't you heard of it before?"
How could anyone have heard of this thing! Not to mention that their elementary school only had 30 to 40 students in total, even Baitan Middle School had never heard of any sports meeting before!
Although I'm not sure what the sports meet is like in detail, I can tell from just thinking about it that it must be related to various sports. The boys and girls in the class are at the age where they love to play, so they became excited as soon as they heard about it.
"Teacher Wen, do we still have to go to class during the two days of the sports meet?"
"...Can you please focus on something else first?"
Wen Susu was both angry and amused, but she still told everyone: "Since it's a sports meet, there will be no classes these two days. The school will hold competitions in various events, and these two days are for participating in the competitions!"
[Pa pa pa——!]
The class applauded! As long as there are no classes and it doesn't take up weekend time, no matter how the sports meet is held, it will definitely be exciting!
"Then Mr. Wen, will there also be an opening ceremony for our school's sports meet?"
“Yes!”
"Art performance?!"
"Well, that's not that rich."
Wen Susu gave a brief explanation, which was basically that all the classes in the school would line up in a square, shout slogans together, go through the motions, and the principal or relevant leader would give a speech and announce the opening.
As for the school sports meets in big cities in later generations, where students put on all kinds of fancy performances and fancy costumes, there weren't any of that. The main focus was to be down-to-earth and do business!
After all, school funding is limited, and money must be spent where it is needed most.
Although the opening ceremony was almost non-existent, the school still put a lot of thought into the specific projects and the distribution of awards.
Taking into account the limited facilities of the school, the events of this first school sports meet will mainly focus on track and field events.
“This includes both individual and group projects!”
"Individual events include the 100-meter sprint, 200-meter sprint, 1,500-meter and 3,000-meter middle-distance running, as well as the high jump, long jump, and shot put competitions!"
"The group events include the 4*100m relay, group rope skipping, and class tug-of-war!"
"There are also some interesting events, such as the three-legged race and the paper clothing relay race..."
"The individual events will be divided into men's and women's groups, but there will be no grade division! In other words, your opponents may be seniors in the second and third grades of junior high school!"
"Ah? Then we are going to be tortured miserably!"
"Have some confidence!"
Wen Susu smiled and continued:
"This is our school's first sports meet. The school takes it very seriously. All students who get the top three in individual events will receive rewards!"
"Teacher Wen, what are the rewards?"
"Medals! In addition to medals, there are also prizes! The champion in the individual event will receive an extra pair of running shoes as a reward!"
hiss!
I've never seen a school so generous before! They actually gave me a pair of running shoes as a reward! Everyone in the class was eager to try it out after hearing this!
Xu Cailing was also excited after hearing this. She had been expecting to get a medal, but she didn't expect to get running shoes as a reward!
"Teacher Wen, if you win several championships at once, how will the reward be calculated?"
Wen Susu looked over when she heard the voice and found that it was Cai Ling who asked the question.
The girl felt a little embarrassed when she looked at her and her face turned red, but the confidence and eagerness in her eyes did not fade at all.
"If you win several championships, the rewards can be stacked, but there is only one reward for each. For example, if you win running shoes, the second reward may be a pair of table tennis rackets or badminton rackets."
That’s pretty good too!!
These sports equipment are what Cailing usually doesn’t want to spend money on. It would be great if she could purchase them from school!
After talking about the competition items and rewards, Wen Susu took out another form.
"This is the registration form for the school sports meet. In addition to group events, we also hope that everyone can actively sign up for individual events. This is a rare opportunity! The teacher also hopes that everyone will not only excel in academic performance, but also in all aspects, and win more honors for yourselves and our class!"
"The registration deadline is this Friday. There are only about ten days left until the opening of the school sports meet. Everyone should prepare well!"
"Cai Ling, I'll leave the registration form with you. Since you're the sports committee member, you'll be in charge of this matter."
"Uh-huh!"
Xu Cailing nodded, walked up to the podium, and took the registration form handed over by Wen Susu.
She looked up at Fang Wei who was sitting in group four.
He laughed even happier than she did.
(End of this chapter)
