SDC: Chapter 6

The door opened.

A tall and thin male omega walked into the room. He wore a black jacket that he had bought three years ago along with a pair of plush jeans and two year old sneakers that were well-cared for. They rustled when he walked and he had a coordinated body shape. His temperament was clean, like bamboo and jade.

Mu Huan’s eyes fell on his face It was a familiar face that had a faint smile on it. He seemed to be close with everyone but the thing hidden in his eyes was distant indifference that rejected people.

Black hair covered his forehead, revealing light eyebrows that were elegant. He entered the room with lowered eyes, not looking at Mu Huan. It wasn’t until Mu Huan walked to the desk that he raised his head and smiled.

“Long time no see.” Li Xin spoke politely before getting straight to business. “Coach Yu asked me to come over and get your ID card.”

Then Li Xin’s eyes fell on Mu Huan’s messy bed where the bed sheets hadn’t been spread out and wondered, “You still aren’t done?”

He didn’t enter the room any further. He just stood at the door and smiled at Mu Huan.

Mu Huan inexplicably felt a bit nervous. He took two steps back and looked at Li Xin, feeling a bit weird. He was seeing himself standing in front of himself. No one would probably believe this.

Li Xin raised his eyes at the look.

Mu Huan came back to his senses and replied, “Why do you need my ID card?”

“I will help you buy a ticket to Y Province this weekend.”

“Ticket?”

“You don’t know?”

Mu Huan shook his head.

Li Xin told him politely, “I don’t know either.”

Mu Huan’s attention was instantly distracted by the ticket issue. He took out his ID card from his backpack and looked at the unfamiliar photo on the ID card thoughtfully before telling Li Xin, “Stay here for a while. I’ll make a phone call.”

Then he hurried out the door with his phone.

The corridors were still very lively. The doors of the dormitory were wide open and laughter and curses came out. Mu Huan took his phone and walked to the side of the corridor. Just then, someone came out of a dormitory and was surprised when he saw Mu Huan. “Oh!” Then he asked in surprise, “What wind brought you back today?”

Someone else gossiped, “Is the rumor spreading around school today true?”

Mu Huan didn’t bother to answer. He had already called the number so he walked to the window at the end of the corridor as Yu Yiman picked up.

“Hey?” A slightly lazy voice was heard.

Mu Huan asked, “Coach Yu, Li Xin…” He tried to ignore the discomfort and continued, “He came to me to get my ID card.”

Yu Yiman made a ‘hmm’ sound. “I had him go over. This weekend is Y Province’s team assessment. I heard they are going to select the training team members. Didn’t you want to participate in the training team? Then go.”

This weekend? He just came back…

It was Wednesday.

The desperate words he was eager to express stuck in Mu Huan’s throat. After a period of calm silence, Mu Huan just hummed. “Coach, thank you for arranging it for me.”

The short conversation soon ended.

Mu Huan lowered his mobile phone and stared at the flower bed downstairs. The flower buds were tightly together, clustered with the branches and leaves. They had endured days of cold and it wasn’t known when they would blossom.

It was just like Mu Huan’s mood at the moment. It was truly a glimmer of hope in his darkest hour but it was even harder.

Who would believe that Yu Yiman wasn’t deliberately making things difficult? There were still two months to go until the training team members were enrolled. Which provincial team would set the quota so early?

Mu Huan might’ve come out of Y Province but Y Province had obviously set the test this weekend after discussing with Yu Yiman in order to make him give up on the idea of returning to the team. Really…

Mu Huan took two deep breaths and suppressed the fire in his heart. It didn’t matter. The harder and more stressful it was, the more motivated he became. He just had to work hard to see if it would work or not!

Mu Huan returned to the dormitory with a heavy heart and his mood improved a bit when he saw Li Xin sitting at the table.

Li Xin was looking down at the phone with his legs folded together elegantly. He saw Mu Huan coming back and gave a polite smile. “How about it? Do you understand?”

Mu Huan nodded and walked to Li Xin at the table.

“That’s fine.” Li Xin stood up and spread out his hands. “ID card.”

Mu Huan handed the ID card to Li Xin. As the spread out palm gently held the ID card, Mu Huan’s eyes moved to Li Xin’s face.

“Why did you come over to get the ID?”

There was no such thing in his memory. Still, this was also normal. Crossing into this body could be regarded as continuing Mu Huan’s life. The following series of things would inevitably change and they wouldn’t be the same as his memories.

Li Xin gripped the ID card and replied as he walked to the door, “I have to go to Y Province anyway. I’ll just go with you half a month in advance.”

“You are going too?” Mu Huan repeated.

“Yes, I’m going to see an athlete.”

“What do you mean?” Mu Huan really couldn’t remember any plans he had to go to Y Province.

Yet as he spoke, Li Xin had already walked outside the door. He turned around, smiled at Mu Huan and didn’t answer. Then he left.

Mu Huan stood at the door and watched Li Xin’s back. He really couldn’t figure it out. It wasn’t until he couldn’t see this person anymore that his mind snapped back.

Now wasn’t the time to think about these things. He would be assessed in four days! Only four days!

Mu Huan turned around and called Qi Wenfu to ask him to request for leave from school tomorrow. He didn’t care about Qi Wenfu’s nagging and just hung up.

He played some music on his phone. He first confirmed the music for the assessment before taking out a pen and paper. He wrote and drew on the table, quietly watching it before abruptly standing up.

He walked back and forth in the dormitory while muttering words. If a person looked closely, they would see that his eyes were trembling slightly as he fell into a certain type of thinking very quickly.

At a certain moment, his slowly walking footsteps became weird. He staggered and moved forward in a manner that was completely contrary to the posture of a human walking on land.

Gradually, even his body started to tilt slightly, showing an angle of absolutely less than 90 degrees as he swung left and right.

This lasted until a certain moment when Mu Huan suddenly slid his left foot forward and jumped. It was light. There was both light and darkness.

In an instant, the spinning figure seemed to give birth to a butterfly with wings that was spreading out its wings lightly.

Again.

Then he landed leisurely.

The tip of his nose stopped steadily at a distance of less than one centimeter from the wall.

Mu Huan looked at the wall close at hand, his expression unchanged. Only his still trembling eyes showed he hadn’t escaped from the artistic conception of thinking.

He turned around and continued to glide.

Swing.

Jump again. 

Slide again.

Swing again.

Jump again. 

In the process, a complete program was gradually being built, like a building under construction from scratch, growing from short to tall…

***

For three days in a row, Mu Huan was in a state of madness. Apart from the few hours when he had to eat and sleep, all of his mind was devoted to training.

He counted down the days in his heart. In the blink of an eye, it was time to leave.

Mu Huan still woke up early today. There wasn’t a soul on the road when he went to the ice rink and it was the same when he finished the drills and went to the cafeteria in an exhausted manner.

Most of the food in the cafeteria was gone. There were only some cold steamed buns, eggs and some broken cakes left.

Mu Huan didn’t pay attention to this. He was just afraid of stomach pain from eating cold steamed bread so he placed all of the broken cakes on the plate and swallowed them down dryly.

Halfway through the meal, a plain white hand appeared and the fingers tapped on the table in front of him.

Mu Huan looked up and saw Li Xin standing beside him. He was stunned before his mind returned.

He had been too busy the past two days to remember anyway. Yet obviously, he had been analyzing the differences between Li Xin and his own memories on the day they separated.

“What’s the matter?” Mu Huan wondered.

Li Xin asked, “Don’t you want your ticket?”

Mu Huan remembered there was such a thing. He was leaving today but he had forgotten the matter of the ticket.

Li Xin told him, “The plane is at 1 o’clock today. We will eat at 11 o’clock and must leave at 11:30. I have already called a car and I will call you when the time comes.”

Mu Huan nodded and held his ID card. There was still temperature from it. It was slightly hot as if someone had held it closely.

“Thank you.”

Li Xin smiled. “There is no need to be polite. This is originally what I should do.”

“Why should you do it?” Mu Huan disagreed.

They were both athletes yet the booking of the ticket and car itinerary were all done by one person. ‘He’ might not be a person to fuss over minor matters but he didn’t like being made to do trivial things that would affect training.

He must be unhappy.

Mu Huan thought of this and said, “I heard that the beef and mutton in Y Province is very good. Once we get there, I will invite you to a meal.”

“Let’s talk about it later.” Li Xin didn’t directly agree. “The schedule is very tight and there might not be time. It is just a trivial matter of buying tickets. This is originally my job.”

Mu Huan picked words that ‘he’ would love to hear and persisted. “We are all very busy and I delayed your training. I am very touched and should thank you.”

However, Li Xin was silent for a few seconds after listening. Then he smiled. “Right, you shouldn’t know. I am now an assistant in the singles skating group. I am no longer an athlete.”

Mu Huan froze on the spot. He raised his head and stared at Li Xin without moving for a long time.

This lasted until Li Xin frowned. Then Mu Huan stood up abruptly. His long body gradually bent over and slowly pressed toward Li Xin in almost an aggressive posture. The hand on the table had unknowingly clenched into a fist. Blue veins appeared on the back of the hand.

He stared deeply at Li Xin like he didn’t know this person. Who was this? Who entered this body to change his destiny in this way?

“Why are you an assistant?” A hoarse voice as a result of bending over overflowed from his lips and the breath of an alpha poured out unknowingly.

Mu Huan stared into Li Xin’s eyes and couldn’t wait to dig out the person hiding inside.