“Wrong direction?” The first to stop was Luo Shiyu, or rather, he had also sensed something was amiss.
When everyone stopped running, Lu Zhi noticed that the speed of the gears turning around them had also slowed down, and the path behind them that had been disintegrating no longer disappeared.
Lu Zhi’s heart pounded, and he voiced his confusion, “Have you guys noticed that as long as we all stop running, the gears slow down?”
This reminded him of a hamster wheel, and they were the hamsters; the faster they ran, the faster it spun.
“I-it does seem to have slowed down.”
The boy in second place behind Luo Shiyu gasped for breath and joked, “Isn’t this just a physical training session? It wouldn’t be testing students’ observational skills too, would it?”
A flash of inspiration struck Lu Zhi. That was it. How could he have overlooked the most obvious problem?
The freshman test only served the elite students who reached the finish line. The wheel had already given clear hints, but they hadn’t thought in that direction.
“There are only five minutes left, and I don’t have time to listen to your wild guesses. Physical training means what it says. If I thought about it too much, I’d have reached the finish line by now.” The boy who said this started running again.
Lu Zhi remained silent. He had no standing to stop them. They weren’t close friends, and anyone with a brain should be able to figure out the problem.
“What have you discovered?” Luo Shiyu, apart from his slightly disordered breathing, was still very full of stamina.
Besides Luo Shiyu, two other freshmen remained. One was the girl Lu Zhi had saved, Gu Weiyu. She said, “I’ve felt it too. In my line of sight, the distance was shortening, and the target would appear larger. But from beginning to end, the finish line never changed at all. It was as if the faster we ran, the further the finish line became.”
“I-I’ve also noticed,” the other boy who stayed was seemingly shy, his voice soft and gentle. “Shall we… shall we talk while running with everyone else? Th-the path… the path seems to be about to collapse behind us.” httpδ:/m.kuAisugg.nět
Lu Zhi also noticed and nodded, “Okay, we don’t need to run too fast; conserve your energy.”
Luo Shiyu had no objections, nor did the other two.
Lu Zhi asked the boy, “What’s your name?”
“I-I’m Lan Yushan. Lan for blue, Yu for rain, Shan for mountain. I’m nineteen this year.” Lan Yushan scratched his head, looking embarrassed. “I grew up in the mountains. The day I was born, my mother happened to be going up the mountain to find my father. When she came down, she encountered a heavy rain and took shelter in a cave. Not long after, I was born. That’s why I was named Yushan.”
Gu Weiyu instinctively replied, “Good thing they didn’t name you Cave.”
“Cough…” Lu Zhi hadn’t expected this seemingly aloof girl to enjoy telling dry jokes.
“Right? I thought so too,” Lan Yushan chuckled foolishly. “If I were walking down the street and someone called me ‘Cave,’ it would be so awkward.”
Lu Zhi couldn’t help but imagine calling out “Cave” to Lan Yushan and let out a snicker.
“Alright, long story short, what did you discover just now?” Luo Shiyu, though he had interrupted their conversation to cut the awkwardness, recognized that it wasn’t the time for idle chat.
Lan Yushan’s eyes became serious. “Listen carefully, do you hear a ticking sound?”
Lu Zhi’s expression shifted slightly. When the gears turned, there was a faint sound of metal colliding. There was the pattering sound of their feet on the path as they ran, and carried in the wind, that almost imperceptible tick…
A thought struck Lu Zhi. “I know! It’s a clock! We’re all inside a giant clock!”
Luo Shiyu immediately understood and stopped running. “So that’s why we can’t reach the finish line? Because we’ve been running clockwise, the finish line has always been behind us?”
Lu Zhi hadn’t expected Luo Shiyu to grasp it so quickly.
“I-I don’t understand. Even if we’re inside a giant clock, what’s the problem with running towards the finish line?” Lan Yushan asked cautiously, also stopping.
At this moment, several exclamations came from the path ahead, obscured by fog. The phantom gears reappeared.
“Ah–”
“Shit, grab my hand–”
“Careful!”
Then came several screams of terror as they fell.
The four frowned in unison.
Lu Zhi suddenly said, “Let’s try running back.”
“Huh? Running back?” Lan Yushan was stunned. “B-but there’s no path behind us.”
“I know,” Gu Weiyu’s eyes lit up, and she asked Lu Zhi, “Is it that from the beginning, the finish line was fixed in one place, and we were just going in circles by running in the same direction? How did you figure it out?”
Lu Zhi stopped and pointed to the finish line, explaining, “Have you noticed that we’ve always been on the same parallel line as the finish line? The straight-line distance we ran hasn’t shortened or lengthened. There are only two possibilities: either we’ve been going in circles, or the finish line isn’t on the same path as us.”
“We’ll know if we try,” Luo Shiyu mused, making a decisive move. “Let’s run back.”
Lan Yushan looked bewildered but obediently followed Lu Zhi.
When they ran to the point where the path was almost gone, something magical happened. The path that had been collapsing and disintegrating quickly laid itself out as they approached. And the clockwise-spinning gears, with a click, stopped turning.
“We guessed right,” Lu Zhi’s tense heart finally relaxed. He estimated the time as he ran; there should be three minutes left.
The fog parted before them, and the distance to the finish line finally changed. However, just then, Luo Shiyu, who was running at the front, stopped and said, “There’s no path. We have to jump.”
Lu Zhi stood shoulder to shoulder with Luo Shiyu, looking down at the final obstacle to the finish line: floating steps that moved up and down, like black and white piano keys. If they missed a step, they would fall into the vast sea.
“I’ll go first.” Of the four, the only girl, Gu Weiyu, resolutely tightened her ponytail and, before the others could react, leaped forward with a boldness that even Lu Zhi, a boy, admired.
“She, she, she’s too brave!” Lan Yushan gasped.
Seeing Gu Weiyu land steadily on the floating steps of the black keyboard, Lu Zhi and the others breathed a sigh of relief.
“Time is running out,” Luo Shiyu said, then jumped down as well.
Lan Yushan looked terrified, cautiously poking his head out, then patting his chest and lamenting, “I-I don’t dare to jump.”
Lu Zhi patted his shoulder and said, “We’ve come this far. Even if you don’t jump, when time runs out and the path disappears, you’ll still fall.”
Lan Yushan’s face paled slightly. He gathered his courage, shouted, and closed his eyes as he leaped down, “Aaaahhhh…”
Lu Zhi took a deep breath and jumped. The feeling of falling and losing control was not pleasant at all. Although it was only for a few seconds, it was enough for Lu Zhi to experience the fear and unease of being unable to control his own body.
“Ding dong~ Congratulations to the four freshmen for successfully passing the finish line and completing the freshman test, becoming one of the elite students of this school. All other freshmen who failed have been eliminated.” The wheel’s cute eyes flashed red. The path dissolved, and the panicked cries of freshmen could be heard.
“The freshman test wasn’t a physical training session,” Gu Weiyu murmured, looking down.
Luo Shiyu pondered and looked at Lu Zhi, “You discovered it long ago?”
Lu Zhi shook his head, “No, I only discovered the problem midway.”
“So, we’ve truly passed the freshman test, right?” Lan Yushan, being rather simple-minded, didn’t think too much about it.
The wheel happily circled the four of them, then suddenly transformed in front of them into a muscular, strong physique, with the same gears on its head. “Physical training begins. I am your coach, Xiao Lun. Please guide me.”
The four looked at each other. So, this was the real training.
…
“This person… what’s his name?” On the yacht, Hao Yunyi stared dazedly at the projection in front of Shen Qi.
Shen Qi remained silent, his silver-gray eyes calmly fixed on Lu Zhi’s flushed face in the projection, a result of training. His index finger, resting on his knee, twitched unconsciously.
A sense of familiarity…
And…
A sense of long-lostness…