MVCFO CH27.2

Truthfully, Lin Xiangqi was looking for Lu Cong. Not because he needed anything urgent—he simply wanted to see him.

Ideally, Lu Cong would be waiting for him at the finish line. That would put his mind at ease.

But Lin Xiangqi didn’t want to say it out loud.

He felt like he was becoming more and more dependent on Lu Cong, which didn’t sit right with him.

Lu Cong wasn’t his personal property. He couldn’t carry him around in his pocket wherever he went.

Lin Xiangqi hoped he could grow out of this subconscious dependency.

Right before the race began, he forced himself not to look down the track again. He had to focus on the start.

Bang—

The starting pistol fired, and Lin Xiangqi shot forward.

He sprinted with his head down, wind roaring in his ears, blocking out everything else.

He imagined his classmates must be cheering, but he couldn’t pay attention. He had no energy to track how far ahead the other runners were.

Lin Xiangqi had only one thought—run.

Truth be told, his classmates’ concerns weren’t unfounded. Lin Xiangqi didn’t look like the athletic type.

No one thought he could beat the sports students. All they expected was that he finish the race.

But Chen Qiutian had gotten one thing wrong.

Omegas aren’t naturally weaker than others.

Omegas were always seen as delicate, clingy, in need of Alpha protection. But that was only because they were taught to be that way. With years of that mindset, they themselves started believing their bodies were inherently inferior.

But Lin Xiangqi was different. He grew up thinking he was a Beta. He hadn’t yet been shaped by those beliefs into a “fragile” Omega.

When a person believes they can, they’re already halfway there.

The rest… is up to fate.

Time seemed to stretch out infinitely. The track grew wider with every step, and the world around him blurred.

Lin Xiangqi could vaguely feel himself losing control of his body.

He gritted his teeth and pushed on, but his vision was starting to blur.

Damn…

He had still overexerted himself.

He couldn’t tell where the finish line was anymore.

Just as Lin Xiangqi realized he was veering off the track, he caught a figure in his peripheral vision—someone running beside him.

Who?

Lin Xiangqi wanted to turn his head to look, but he had no strength left. Every last bit of energy was focused on sprinting with all his might.

That person seemed to be saying something, but Lin Xiangqi couldn’t hear a thing.

Thankfully, he could use that figure as a guide.

As long as he stayed by that person’s side, he wouldn’t run off the track.

He didn’t ease up and kept going at full speed. He had no idea how long he ran like that—his consciousness growing fuzzier by the second.

“Stop—”

Someone was speaking beside his ear.

“Stop, Lin Xiangqi.”

“It’s over. You’ve reached the finish line.”

“Relax now, give me your hand—”

Lin Xiangqi, half-conscious, felt someone tug him, but his feet wouldn’t stop. He ended up stumbling straight into a warm embrace.

The other person took the full brunt of the impact but didn’t budge, catching him steadily.

So tired. So much pain. His ears rang so loudly that he couldn’t hear anything anymore.

He couldn’t breathe.

He gasped desperately for air, collapsed on a familiar shoulder, unable to open his eyes.

He didn’t know how long it took, but eventually, the ringing in his ears subsided, and his breathing slowed. Lin Xiangqi finally began to hear waves of cheering and Chen Qiutian’s high-pitched screaming.

“Brother Qi Zi is freaking awesome, holy crap, how can someone be this badass?!”

“Did you see that?! He actually accelerated in the last hundred meters—what kind of superpower is that?!”

“That was epic! I declare this the most thrilling match of the year!”

Lin Xiangqi propped himself up against the person’s chest, trying to straighten his back a little. He asked, “…What place?”

Lu Cong’s voice came from above, saying, “Second.”

It was good news, yet for some reason, his tone was far from pleased.

Lin Xiangqi couldn’t believe he did so well—he was so excited he could barely stand. “Really? You’re not… cough cough… not lying?”

“Mm.” Lu Cong supported him and slowly walked forward, helping him recover from the strain on his heart and lungs.

Lin Xiangqi let out a long breath. Amid the flood of congratulations, he finally made sense of it. Though he was second, he had tied with a student from another class—and that was already more than good enough.

He clung to Lu Cong, refusing to take another step. Dissatisfied, he said, “I did so well. Why aren’t you praising me?”

Second place!

That was practically a miracle!

And yet so cold.

“You were incredible,” Lu Cong leaned in and whispered in his ear, “But also very naughty.”

Lin Xiangqi froze, unsure what to say.

Lu Cong looked at him for a while but knew this wasn’t the time to bring anything else up. It would only spoil the mood. So he sighed and wrapped his arm around Lin Xiangqi, leading him away.

When Lin Xiangqi returned to class, he was greeted with a hero’s welcome—even the homeroom teacher couldn’t resist patting his head.

“Didn’t think you were hiding such talent,” the teacher said with a smile.

They had all assumed their class would come in last at this sports meet. But Lin Xiangqi turned out to be their dark horse, pulling off an incredible comeback.

Now, as long as Lu Cong could secure wins in his remaining individual events, they might just turn the tide.

“What if they still don’t accept Lu Cong’s scores later?”

Someone voiced the concern.

“Lu Cong already withdrew from all group events—that’s as fair as it gets. The individual events he’s competing in are all against PE students. That’s not bullying anyone. If they still won’t accept it—” Qin Xiao, rarely showing his aggressive side, said, “Then I’ll throw a fit right on the stage!”

Lin Xiangqi, having fought to give their class a second chance, was naturally invested in the outcome too. He chimed in, “I’ll throw a fit too. I’ll sit on stage and cry!”

Others quickly joined in:

“I’ll bring a protest banner!”

“I’ll hijack the mic!”

“I’ll run around the field, drop-kicking people left and right—no one’s getting out unscathed!”

Lu Cong rubbed his temples, getting a headache. “No need to worry. I already spoke with the judges. I’m going to give up some time.”

Lin Xiangqi immediately shot upright. “What?! Why?! Why would you give up time?!”

Even Qin Xiao looked shocked. “They talked to you in private?”

He was the homeroom teacher and hadn’t heard anything about this so-called compromise!

Lu Cong remained calm. “It’s to prevent them from using the ‘fairness’ argument again.”

If he gave up time but still won by a wide margin, no one would dare question the result.

Someone exclaimed, “But that’s not fair to you!”

“You mean you’re letting them catch up in the 1500 meters?”

“How much… wait, 30 seconds?! Why not just hand them the win?!”

Qin Xiao didn’t agree either. “I can accept giving up time, but 30 seconds is too much. Ten… no, five seconds is enough. There are two Alpha PE students too. It’s not like there’s that much of a gap. No way—I’m going to talk to them.”

Lu Cong: “No need. I’m the one who proposed 30 seconds.”

The room fell silent.

Only Lin Xiangqi still couldn’t accept it. “Thirty seconds—isn’t that overkill? Are you sure you can still win?”

Lu Cong said, “I should be fine.”

Lin Xiangqi: “Should be? Don’t you go giving up the championship just because you’re too kind!”

Lu Cong looked at him. “I won’t waste the opportunity you earned for us.”

Which was exactly why he had to give up points.

Otherwise, people would always find a reason to argue.

Their school didn’t have any Omega students, and even Alphas were rare. Among them, only two were elite.

Shen Qiaolan, that rich young master, didn’t care about competitions and hadn’t even shown up today. That left Lu Cong as the only high-level Alpha competing.

As the sole elite Alpha, anyone could easily point fingers at his superior genes.

So the more exaggerated the handicap, the better. He wanted everyone to think, “No way, even with a 30-second lead? He’s definitely going to lose.” The goal was to make everyone except Lu Cong feel he was at a disadvantage.

Seeing how composed and calm Lu Cong was, Qin Xiao didn’t push further. He just reminded him not to overdo it. “Even if you can’t win with the handicap, it’s fine. In Class 7’s eyes, you’re already number one.”

Lu Cong only smiled and said nothing.

“I remember you ran a 4:30 last time. The second place was just a few seconds behind. You two aren’t that far apart.”

Lin Xiangqi leaned closer and asked in a low voice, “If you dare to give them 30 seconds, that means you’ve never run full-out before, right? Be honest—what’s your real time? Can you break four minutes?”

Even the world record was just over three minutes. Lin Xiangqi didn’t dare guess too high.

Lu Cong smirked. “Never tried.”

He’d never gone all out.

Because no one had ever been worth it.

But Lin Xiangqi seemed to misunderstand, thinking his “never tried” meant he had never broken four minutes.

So he nervously grabbed Lu Cong’s hand and said, “Then how about I run for you? If I lose, it’s not embarrassing.”

Lu Cong: “?”

Look at that.

Whose little omega is this, daring to look down on his Alpha?

Expressionless, Lu Cong pinched his cheek and said, “Just sit tight and watch.”

Lu Cong was quickly called to prepare for the 1500-meter race.

Lin Xiangqi sat restlessly in the stands. If he hadn’t just exhausted himself, he’d have run down to warm up with Lu Cong.

Unable to contain his anxiety, he turned to someone next to him.

“Do you think Lu Cong will win?” Lin Xiangqi asked Chen Qiutian.

Chen Qiutian mumbled distractedly, fingers busy tapping on his phone.

Lin Xiangqi leaned over and glanced at his screen—then shouted, “Hey!”

Chen Qiutian jumped. “What? What?!”

Lin Xiangqi: “You’re taking sneaky pics of me and Lu Cong?!”

Right there on the phone screen was a photo of him and Lu Cong, snapped right when Lu Cong pinched his cheek.

Chen Qiutian grinned. “Can it really be called sneaky if it’s for the sake of shipping CP?”

“You still can’t—” Lin Xiangqi started to scold him for taking pictures without asking, but after a closer look, he admitted, “Actually… the photo’s kinda nice. Just don’t overdo the skin smoothing. Keep the natural texture.”

Chen Qiutian: “I didn’t smooth anything—it’s just a filter.”

Lin Xiangqi: “Don’t add filters either. Just send it to me like this.”

Chen Qiutian: “What, you’ve started shipping yourselves too?”

“…” Lin Xiangqi said, “I just think you captured a pretty good shot.”

Chen Qiutian humbly asked for guidance: “What’s good about it?”

Lin Xiangqi looked at it over and over again but couldn’t quite say why: “I don’t know, it just looks… good.”

“Let me analyze it for you.” Chen Qiutian zoomed in on Lu Cong’s profile in the photo and gestured at it for Lin Xiangqi. “See? The key is in the eyes.”

Lin Xiangqi nodded. “Mhm, yeah, his eyes really are nicely shaped. And his nose is very straight too.”

Chen Qiutian: “.”

Lin Xiangqi: “What’s with the eye roll?”

Chen Qiutian: “Don’t look at his facial features—look at his gaze.”

Lin Xiangqi: “What about it?”

Chen Qiutian: “His eyes are full of you. There’s no room for anything else in them.”

Lin Xiangqi: “…”

When people get nervous, they tend to fidget.

Suddenly, Lin Xiangqi started tidying his hair and casually said, “Duh, we were talking. Of course we were looking at each other. His eyes were on me, mine were on him.”

Chen Qiutian shrugged. “Yeah, but he looks at you like that even when you’re not talking.”

Lin Xiangqi pretended not to hear, fixing his gaze on the track instead. “It’s about to start. Hurry, get ready to cheer for Lu Cong.”

“Oh.” Chen Qiutian saved the photo, put away his phone, and looked toward the starting line with Lin Xiangqi, but couldn’t help asking, “Are you really hot? You’re all flushed.”

Lin Xiangqi touched his own face. “Probably. That 400-meter run just now nearly killed me.”

“True, you were insane. Running that fast, we thought you were gonna take off and fly.” Chen Qiutian took the opportunity to slip in a compliment. “But you almost ran into the wrong lane—just one more step and you’d have collided with someone. Good thing class president ran over to steer you back.”

Steer him back?

Lin Xiangqi froze. He hadn’t heard any voice at all during the run…

Wait—so that shadow he caught in his peripheral vision while running wasn’t a hallucination?

It was Lu Cong running alongside him.

Was he surprised?

Not really.

Lu Cong was always like this—reaching out to grab him when he felt helpless and defeated.

Sometimes Lin Xiangqi couldn’t even tell whether Lu Cong had just happened to be there… or had been waiting all along.

As long as Lin Xiangqi needed him, he’d be there.

His heart gave a heavy thump right as the starting pistol fired for the 1500-meter race.

This time, Lu Cong won first place without any suspense.

His final time was critical, because he’d have 30 seconds added to it to account for the “handicap.”

But after watching the entire race, no one even bothered to argue about the 30 seconds anymore.

Because Lu Cong had lapped the entire field twice.

Even if you added a whole minute to his time, he’d still be the undisputed first.

The whole school—teachers and students alike—rose to their feet, clapping wildly.

Even the students who had lost didn’t feel bad, because this was clearly a performance beyond what any normal human could do.

They could console themselves by saying, “Well, Lu Cong is an exceptional Alpha. He’s not an ordinary person.”

In that exhilarating moment, Lu Cong instinctively looked toward Lin Xiangqi in the stands.

To him, the ranking didn’t matter. He hadn’t given his all just to prove something to anyone.

Lu Cong had done it just to make Lin Xiangqi happy—to let him know that the opportunity he had nearly run himself to death to win had been seized.

In the stands, Lin Xiangqi was bouncing up and down with the rest of his classmates, waving at Lu Cong with all his might.

Lu Cong couldn’t help but smile, thinking that this time, giving his all had actually meant something.

But the very next second, as he removed his race bib, he caught a sudden glimpse of that energetic figure collapsing to the ground.

The entire senior Class 7 immediately fell into chaos.

Lu Cong didn’t stop to think why Lin Xiangqi had fainted. His body moved before his brain could catch up—sprinting even faster than he had in the race, he shot across the field, leaped up the stands, pushed through the crowd, and scooped Lin Xiangqi into his arms.

The moment they touched, a sharp ache throbbed at the back of Lu Cong’s neck.

He smelled that sweet, coconut milk-like scent of Lin Xiangqi’s pheromones.

But this time, it wasn’t the faint, subtle whiff from before—it was intense, overwhelming, and utterly uncontrollable.

Lin Xiangqi… had just presented.