Chapter 52: The Vicious Rich Family’s Fake Young Master · 52

If a fifth person were to enter this dorm room right now, they’d find their current position absolutely scandalous.

Two of them were holding his ankles down. One was pinning his shoulders. Su Wenyu couldn’t even struggle free.

Su Wenyu felt a fish on a chopping block hadn’t suffered this much injustice. At least a fish could still flop its tail.

Xia Yehang was clearly a veteran user of the massage gun, his technique incredibly practiced.

Tears of pain were streaming from Su Wenyu’s eyes. He wailed, “I really can’t take it anymore.”

“A man can’t say ‘can’t’,” Xia Yehang said, switching positions with Shen Yi, starting to loosen the muscles of Su Wenyu’s other leg.

He’d barely gotten used to the aching pain in one leg, and before he could even catch his breath, the other leg started.

At this point, Su Wenyu had given up all hope of life.

After Xia Yehang swapped the massage gun head and gave both his legs another full round of treatment, Su Wenyu felt like a dead, soulless fish.

“Alright, get up and try moving. See how it feels.” Xia Yehang and Shen Yi released his ankles. Zhou Xu extended a hand to him, offering to pull him up.

Hugging his pillow, Su Wenyu didn’t move a muscle, looking half-dead. “My legs aren’t my own anymore. I can’t get up.”

Zhou Xu: “Then should I carry you up?”

At this, Su Wenyu didn’t even need help. He scrambled up from the floor faster than greased lightning, his hands and feet moving with an agility that completely betrayed his moments-ago cries of dying.

Zhou Xu was caught between being pissed and laughing again.

Trying to pretend nothing happened, Su Wenyu took a couple of laps around the room, shaking out his arms.

Unexpectedly, Su Wenyu found his legs indeed weren’t so tense, and they didn’t hurt as much. There was just a slight soreness, but Xia Yehang had said that was normal and would fade in a bit.

Su Wenyu sat back down on the mat, kneading his own calves with his hands, and nodded in approval, “Mm, okay. They really don’t hurt as much.”

Smiling, Xia Yehang put the massage gun away. “Starting tomorrow, do this every time you finish a run—use this to relax the muscles. That way your legs won’t hurt the next day.”

Su Wenyu: “…”

“Ev… every time I finish a run? I have to do that?”

So every time he finished running from now on, he’d be subjected to this cruel torture, pinned to the ground by the three of them, wailing?

“If you don’t want to use the massage gun, I could also use my hands to massage you, teach you some stretches,” Xia Yehang offered.

A flicker of hope lit up in Su Wenyu’s eyes.

“But if I use my hands, it’ll take longer, and it’ll still hurt,” Xia Yehang added.

The hope in Su Wenyu’s eyes instantly popped and vanished.

“Never mind. The massage gun it is. Better to get it over with quick.” Stretching, Su Wenyu got up from the mat and headed to the restroom to shower. “Are any of you in a hurry to shower? If not, I’ll go first.”

The other three weren’t in a rush. So Su Wenyu grabbed a clean set of clothes from his closet and ducked into the bathroom.

An afternoon of exercise, plus all the screaming and shouting that had him work up a sweat again—Su Wenyu felt his clothes were soaked and sticky against his skin. It was really uncomfortable.

After showering, he finally felt clean and refreshed. Under Zhou Xu’s watchful eye, he conscientiously dried his hair.

The weather had been growing colder lately. Exiting the bathroom in just a long-sleeved pajama shirt, Su Wenyu felt a bit of a chill.

Seeing his hair was dry, Zhou Xu told him to get into bed.

Bundled under his blankets, Su Wenyu checked the weather forecast and immediately let out an, “Ah.” “The highest temperature tomorrow is only 14 degrees.”

Shen Yi added, “The wind’s supposed to be pretty strong too. Remember to wear an extra layer.”

Su Wenyu obediently agreed.

The other three took turns washing up. By the time they were out, Su Wenyu was already fast asleep, slumped over his pillow, his hand still positioned as if holding his phone. Zhou Xu, with a resigned sigh, turned off his phone screen and pulled the covers up properly.

Su Wenyu didn’t stir in the slightest, sleeping soundly until dawn.

Around five-thirty in the morning, Zhou Xu’s alarm rang. Su Wenyu groggily opened his eyes too.

“Su Wenyu, want to get up and run?” Zhou Xu knelt at the foot of the bed, gently shaking Su Wenyu’s foot.

“Run? Oh, right, run.” Su Wenyu had gone to bed early the night before, so he actually managed to wake up. It was just the thought of running that filled him with agony.

But no matter how agonizing, Xia Yehang and Shen Yi were also getting up. He could only resign himself to fate, climb down from the bed, his hair a messy bird’s nest.

With the three of them getting up early just to accompany him on a run, how could he possibly say “no”?

Twenty minutes later, the four, having washed up, biked to the track. Xia Yehang taught Su Wenyu to do his pre-run warm-up exercises first.

Following Xia Yehang, Su Wenyu jumped, bounced, and stretched. After a full set of warm-ups, Su Wenyu was panting heavily from exhaustion.

“I feel like… my stamina’s already… gone,” Su Wenyu felt half his soul had already left his body.

“Slow your breathing. You’ve just been inactive for a long time. You’ll be fine after a couple of days of adjustment,” Xia Yehang motioned for Su Wenyu to jog with him, lifting his knees. “You don’t need to run fast this morning. Just focus on finishing two and a half laps. Now, lift your feet. Don’t drag them. Swing your arms.”

Xia Yehang jogged backward, facing the direction of the track, correcting Su Wenyu’s running form.

At that moment, neither Zhou Xu nor Shen Yi interrupted. They just jogged silently behind Su Wenyu. After all, when it came to running, neither of them was as professional as Xia Yehang.

Xia Yehang clapped his hands to set the rhythm. “Inhale through your nose, exhale through your mouth. Sync it with your strides. Now, follow me. Nose, inhale—”

Su Wenyu copied him, inhaling through his nose.

“Exhale—”

Su Wenyu exhaled through his mouth.

“Good! Excellent! You’re a fast learner,” Xia Yehang encouraged, coaxing him.

The almost childlike tone of coaxing made Su Wenyu want to laugh, but he held it in, afraid of getting a stitch.

“Now, keep going. Inhale—”

“Exhale—”

“Don’t slow your pace. Lift your feet. Don’t look down at the track. Look up, straight ahead. Look at me.”

So Su Wenyu kept his eyes on him, learning how to breathe and how to swing his arms.

When they finished one lap, even though Su Wenyu felt his legs getting sore and tired, he still had plenty of energy to keep going.

Xia Yehang encouraged him the whole way, leading him along.

There were quite a few other students on the track for their morning runs. Whenever one of them passed Su Wenyu, the breeze they kicked up seemed to give Su Wenyu a tiny boost of motivation.

A few of the morning runners even recognized Xia Yehang and greeted him.

Xia Yehang waved back at them, explaining to Su Wenyu, “Classmates from my department.”

Su Wenyu couldn’t speak. Just controlling his breathing was taking all his effort. He could only nod to show he understood.

When they finally finished two and a half laps, Su Wenyu leaned forward, hands on his knees, panting heavily. The rusty taste was back in his throat, and his calves were trembling slightly from exhaustion.

“Not bad! Your first time completing the full distance. Great job.” Xia Yehang held him by the arm, making him keep moving, leading him in a few slow laps around the area.

“How long… did I… take?” Su Wenyu asked between pants.

“We didn’t time it today. Just wanted you to try finishing the whole thing. We’ll time it tomorrow.” Xia Yehang had Su Wenyu take a couple of sips of water to wet his throat, then led him through some stretches at the side of the track.

After the stretches, Su Wenyu’s breathing had returned to normal, but his eyes had that glazed, soul-left-the-body look. Even during breakfast, he seemed checked out.

“Just get used to it. After a couple more runs, we can start working on speed.” Xia Yehang peeled a boiled egg and put it on Su Wenyu’s plate. “Replenish your nutrients.”

Su Wenyu obediently ate the egg.

For the next week, this was Su Wenyu’s routine: a morning run with his three dorm mates, and then a few more laps on the track in the afternoon after class, before dinner.

There was no denying that consistent running really did have an effect. Even though Su Wenyu still looked like a strong wind could blow him over, under Xia Yehang’s tutelage, he was now able to scrape past the pass line at 4 minutes 30 seconds!

What’s more, after the run, Su Wenyu actually felt he had a tiny bit of energy to spare. At least he no longer wanted to just collapse onto the ground the moment he finished.

Even Xia Yehang was surprised by how quickly he’d adapted. Watching Su Wenyu make the pass time made him even more excited than winning a competition himself.

“The test is on Saturday. On our last practice run before dinner today, try to pick up the pace a little at the end. Honestly, a lot of students probably can’t run as fast as you now. Just relax and don’t put so much pressure on yourself on the day.” Xia Yehang knelt on one knee, massaging Su Wenyu with the massage gun.

Now even accustomed to the sore ache of the massage gun, Su Wenyu hugged his pillow and nodded. “Okay.”

That evening, Xia Yehang accompanied Su Wenyu on his two-and-a-half-lap run. On the final half-lap, he told Su Wenyu to lengthen his stride and gradually accelerate. In the last fifty meters, he pushed him to run as fast as he could.

Shen Yi stood at the finish line, and as Su Wenyu crossed, hit the stopwatch and checked the time.

“Four minutes, eleven seconds.”

Nineteen seconds faster than the pass standard.

Su Wenyu immediately cheered, “I’m having hotpot tonight!!”

To celebrate Su Wenyu making the pass time, the four of them went off campus for a hotpot feast.

Finally, Saturday arrived—the day of Su Wenyu’s fitness test.

From eight in the morning, every track on campus was alive with noisy, chattering students.

Zhou Xu and the others accompanied Su Wenyu to the track but didn’t interfere with him taking the test alongside his classmates.

As expected, Su Wenyu’s weight-to-height ratio failed. He was just too skinny.

But perhaps due to all the running that week, his lung capacity easily passed.

Next were the sit-and-reach and the standing long jump. Passed.

The level of flexibility he showed in the sit-and-reach even drew surprised looks from some of the girls in his class.

Pull-ups. Failed.

But there was no helping that. Su Wenyu huffed through two before decisively giving up.

With a crowd of classmates around, no one dared laugh at him. After all, he wasn’t the only one failing pull-ups.

In the 50-meter sprint, Su Wenyu unexpectedly passed. The moment he got his result, he bolted for the middle of the field where Zhou Xu and the others were waiting, eager to share the good news.

And finally, it was time for the 1000-meter run—the one he’d trained so hard for all week.

First up were the girls, running their 800-meter test in batches. Then, sorted by student ID number, the boys started their 1000-meter runs.

Su Wenyu was in the first batch of boys. Because his looks and background made him somewhat famous on campus, quite a crowd of onlookers had gathered around the track for the 1000-meter run.

Xia Yehang and Zhou Xu had him limber up on the inner grass field. The moment the whistle blew, both of them started running alongside him on the grass inside the track.

Some of the other guys in Su Wenyu’s class noticed, puzzled. “Who are those two? What class are they from?”

“Who are they running with? Su Wenyu?”

One guy scoffed contemptuously. “Getting people to run with him for a 1000-meter? Does he think he’s in some campus romance drama?”

“A romance drama would be waiting at the finish line to hand him water,” someone added.

Shen Yi, who was carrying a bottle of mineral water and heading toward the finish line right then, overheard this and gave them a deeply meaningful look.

The look seemed to say, ‘Good eye.’

The two escorts ran the whole way, giving Su Wenyu every possible encouragement. Xia Yehang called out, reminding him to watch his breathing, to swing his arms.

Zhou Xu didn’t say a word, but his presence was the ultimate show of support.

Shen Yi stood at the finish line, Su Wenyu’s jacket draped over his arm. When Su Wenyu finished his first lap, Shen Yi waved and cheered him on, “Keep it up! Last lap.”

The scene was more romantic than any campus love drama could ever hope to be.