Damn, it's really troublesome. The next morning, I muttered this resentfully in the classroom. It's too difficult for me to recruit people into the club.

The embarrassing scene from yesterday's first attempt immediately came to mind. It was truly humiliating.

Yesterday, among the solo students, I found a beautiful girl and couldn't resist the urge to approach her.

"Um, good afternoon," I said. Unexpectedly, she turned her face towards me, causing me to nervously raise my voice.

"Afternoon?" The girl had a cold expression on her face, showing her confusion.

"It's 'good afternoon,' good afternoon," I immediately corrected my pronunciation.

"I didn't expect your Chinese pronunciation to be so bad. Luckily, we're from the same country. If I were a foreigner, I would expose you and you would have to face the consequences from the government," she said.

"It's not that scary, right? It's just a pronunciation mistake," I replied.

"No wonder you think that way. No wonder your Mandarin is so bad. You should go home and practice your Mandarin properly before coming to school, and make sure there are no mistakes in your pronunciation," she lectured me.

"My Mandarin is already very standard," I defended myself. After nine years of compulsory education, how could my Mandarin be bad?

"Just now, you said 'Fu' instead of 'Pu,'" she pointed out accurately.

"It's 'Fu Tong Hua'," I explained.

"Fu and Pu are not the same. I think someone like you should go to another planet so that you don't hold back our country," she said.

"I know it's Mandarin, 'Fu Tong Hua'," the more I tried to explain, the more my tongue became tied.

"Please just stop talking. It's a form of self-protection," she interrupted me.

"I..." I wanted to say something, but she said, "Being able to speak Mandarin is basic common knowledge for a citizen. If even we, who have received higher education, can't speak Mandarin properly, then we might as well go back home and farm."

"I..." I didn't manage to finish my sentence as she told me to stay away from her because she didn't want to talk to someone who would hold her back. After saying that, she ran away, leaving me alone standing there. I never expected a stranger could be so formidable. Is my Mandarin really that bad? I was so consumed by this feeling of frustration that it stayed with me from yesterday afternoon until I fell asleep at night.

Now that I think about it, am I really sulking because of a slight mispronunciation in Mandarin? What's wrong with saying 'Fu Tong Hua'?

"Are you still feeling down because of the mispronunciation in Mandarin?" He Yuqing always likes to disturb me, and always has this expression that suggests no matter what difficulties arise, we can solve them as long as we keep smiling.

"It's shameless of you to bring up someone else's frustrations from last night," I said.

"But Youjie was really troubled last night. She even asked me if she really couldn't distinguish between 'fu' and 'pu'. It seems like her pain brings you joy. Do you have a conscience, He Yuqing?" I muttered resentfully.

"I'm sorry," He Yuqing immediately toned down, seemingly sensing my resentment.

"The next class is a PE class, right? How about we run 19 laps around the track again?" he suggested. What a sports idiot. Can't he stop dragging me into these activities? No matter what, I already ran a few laps this morning. Let's just stop there.

"I'm sorry, I can't accept." I couldn't say those words straightforwardly. I'm not the girl who doesn't care about anything like I was yesterday.

"Why? Didn't we sweat together this morning?" He Yuqing pouted dissatisfiedly.

"It's precisely because we sweated together this morning that I don't want to do these things again today. Can you not imitate girls? It's quite disgusting."

"Please, just this once." Hey, you annoying little boy, you're being way too disgusting.

In order to prevent him from disgusting me further, I reluctantly agreed. I used to think that girls are difficult to deal with, but I never thought that little boys could be so difficult as well. By the way, physical education classes are separated by gender.

On the school field, after the PE teacher finished the free activities, He Yuqing, who had been itching to go, immediately pulled me in.

"Let's run five laps first." What kind of humane statement is this?

"When I count to three, start running."

"I got it, let's start quickly." If I don't run with him, he will annoy me to death. Anyway, let's just finish this quickly.

"One, two, three, run!" The dust rising from the track was the result of He Yuqing and I running at full speed. Even so, He Yuqing always stayed ahead of me, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't keep up with him. This guy is really a freak.

"Youjie, you look like you're struggling." He said mockingly while running. This guy's attitude is really nasty.

"Don't celebrate too soon, I'm ready to strike back." The truth is, I can't catch up with this guy He Yuqing at all, we are not even on the same level. But no matter what, I can't lose in terms of momentum.

"But you're still far behind." I think he means the distance between him and me.

"Just focus on running, okay? Don't talk to me while running." I can still say this smoothly, I'm really trying my best, but my heart is racing and my chest hurts. This is the side effect of running hard.

"Youjie, it seems like I'm leading by half a lap, no, I'll be leading by a full lap soon." How can He Yuqing have so much energy? Can't he slow down when running? As I watched the distance between him and me grow further and further, I didn't want to be mocked by him every time. I decided to push my physical endurance and surpass him.

This idea was really dumb. After a while, I felt shortness of breath, dizziness, and then I stumbled and fell hard to the ground, feeling a kind of pain I had never felt before.

"Are you okay, Youjie?" It seems like He Yuqing noticed that I fell and ran over, looking very concerned about my condition. He even went to call the PE teacher. After that, I was probably placed on a stretcher. The memories after that were fragmented after I passed out, and when I woke up, I was on a bed in the health room.

"That really hurts, teacher."

"There's nothing we can do, after all, your knees are scraped." After the female teacher in the health room cleaned my wound with alcohol and applied iodine to it, the latter was somewhat better, but the former almost killed me with pain.

"Just endure it for a little while."

"I want to endure it as hard as I can."

"You're a little boy, aren't you?"

"Please don't treat me like a child."

I didn't expect the female teacher in the health room to be so smooth-tongued either.

"Okay, the disinfection and medication for the wound are done. Take this time to rest and avoid running for now. Also, be careful not to let water touch the wound while bathing to prevent skin infection," the teacher instructed.

"Okay, thank you, teacher," I replied.

"Take your rest then, I have other things to attend to," the female teacher in the sick bay said as she left. Now, I was alone in the sick bay. It was quite pitiful. In trying to prove myself, I never expected to end up with scraped knees. Now, even lifting my leg was painful. It would probably take at least ten days or half a month for this kind of injury to heal. The future seemed troublesome, but amidst the misfortune, there was also something to be glad about. At least, He Yuqing would no longer ask me to go running with him. Just thinking about that made me strangely satisfied.

Physical education class should have already ended, and with my current condition, there was no way I could attend class. It would be better to take a nap first. With that thought in mind, I decided to rest for a while. Not long after, I fell asleep. When I woke up again and glanced at the time in the sick bay, I was shocked.

"Three o'clock?" I exclaimed, not because I had missed the afternoon classes, but because I remembered something important. It was about finding someone in a formal society for Wen Xiaojing. But in my current state, there was no way I could go out and find someone.

"I fell today and injured myself, so I can't find someone to join the society," I sent this real-time message to Wen Xiaojing on LINE. By the way, apart from the current situation, I had hardly exchanged a word with her.

"This is a promise. Even if our senior is handicapped or dying, they must fulfill this task," came the quick reply. However, the content infuriated me. I was completely misunderstood and my life was disregarded. She was like a demon.

"If it's after the designated time, I'll post pictures and articles of our senior flirting with a junior on the school's official website. If possible, I'll give them to the news agency and let them create a sensational news article. I believe the students at the school will have a big reaction to it," a demon, she was truly a demon. To shamelessly utter such despicable words, only Wen Xiaojing could do that. How did I end up meeting someone like her and getting caught up in this mess? It was really unfortunate. I thought I could get some understanding, but there was no effect at all. Was I expecting too much from her?

"At least give me one more day," it was my final request.

"If I give you an extra day, you'll only become more lazy and think that tomorrow will be better. It's a never-ending loop. Therefore, rejected. The original arrangement stands. No negotiation," was the response.

"I'm really injured right now, otherwise, I wouldn't say this," I sent the message, but there was no reply even after ten minutes.

"I'm telling the truth, I'm not lying," I pleaded, but time passed another ten minutes without any response.

"Damn it!" I threw my phone aside. This was probably the most desperate moment I had experienced in my life. I had already envisioned the articles and photos of me flirting with a junior being posted on the school website and reported by the news agency. Although it wasn't true, public opinion wouldn't give me a chance to explain. What should I do? In an instant, I lost all desire to live for the future.