However, Zhao Zhitong was listless and didn't want to compete with him. "No, I don't want to compete with you."
Qiao Muchen had come here to challenge Zhao Zhitong, so how could he let her go easily? "You don't dare to compete with me, do you?" he said. "Are you afraid of losing to me?"
The provocative strategy was still very effective against Zhao Zhitong.
Instantly, her fighting spirit was ignited, and she shouted, "I will not lose to you!"
"Then let's have a good competition."
Zhao Zhitong pouted and said angrily, "You just said I could choose what we compete in, right?"
Receiving his nod of confirmation, Zhao Zhitong declared, "Competing in music, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, and mathematics is too cliché. If we're going to compete, let's do something new and interesting."
Qiao Muchen asked, "What's new and interesting?"
Zhao Zhitong held her small head high. "I'm just asking if you dare."
How could Qiao Muchen back down? He agreed in a heartbeat. "What's there to be afraid of? Let's do it!"
"Fine, follow me."
「A short while later」
Then, Zhao Zhitong led Qiao Muchen to a big tree in the school front yard.
Pointing at the tree, pursing her lips proudly, she said, "Let's compete by climbing this tree!"
Looking up at the towering tree, Qiao Muchen was dumbfounded.
How is this different from what he imagined?
Meanwhile, Zhao Yue, ever the pot-stirrer and drama enthusiast, had deliberately spread the news of Zhao Zhitong and Qiao Muchen's competition throughout the school. Soon, everyone knew.
As the two walked, a crowd of curious students followed behind them.
Therefore, even though Qiao Muchen's page vehemently tried to dissuade him, warning that his body was too weak for tree climbing, it did nothing to dampen his competitive spirit.
Zhao Zhitong, on the other hand, blinked innocently. "Shall we compete?"
Hmph! He wants to compete in tree climbing with an expert like me? He's bound to lose so badly he'll be crying!
Zhao Zhitong's smug look was, in Qiao Muchen's eyes, a blatant provocation. His competitive spirit was instantly ignited, and he no longer cared about getting injured.
"Let's do it! Who's afraid of whom?"
With those words, he took off his outer garment and rolled up his sleeves.
Zhao Zhitong, in contrast, appeared relaxed. "Let's get started then. We should finish quickly so we can go home for dinner. To keep it simple, whoever reaches the first big branch wins."
Looking up at the branch Zhao Zhitong indicated, Qiao Muchen nodded, readying himself. "Alright, I got it."
As soon as the signal was given, the two began scrambling up the tree with all their might.
Cheers from the students on the sidelines rang out from time to time, creating a very lively scene.
Qiao Muchen always thought, I'm a young man! Even if I'm physically weak, I can't be that much worse than Zhao Zhitong, who's just a girl! But this, in the end, was merely his imagination.
Zhao Zhitong was a veritable little monkey, and her climbing speed was testament to why.
Indeed, while Qiao Muchen was still struggling to haul himself up the trunk, his feet barely off the ground, Zhao Zhitong had already shot to the top.
At that moment, she stood on the branch, laughing loudly down at him. "The outcome is decided! You lost!"
Qiao Muchen was left speechless.
Is she part monkey or something?!
Qiao Muchen jumped down, his small face flushed with frustration and anger. "It doesn't count! It doesn't count!" he exclaimed. "That was my first time climbing; I wasn't used to it! Let's go again! Do you dare?"
Zhao Zhitong stood on the tree, looking down at him condescendingly, laughing like a triumphant villain. "What's there to be afraid of?" she retorted. "Hahaha! No matter how many times we try, you'll never beat me!"
Qiao Muchen's face turned crimson with shame and anger. "Again!"
And so, this cycle repeated several times, leading to a peculiar scene: Zhao Zhitong sat leisurely on the branch, while Qiao Muchen, at the foot of the tree, hugged the trunk, panting heavily and looking utterly wretched.
Zhao Zhitong called down with a mischievous grin, "Well, Qiao Muchen? Still want to try again?"
Perhaps because Zhao Zhitong had thoroughly wounded his pride, Qiao Muchen lost his grip and tumbled from the tree trunk, landing hard on his backside.
He sat on the ground, stunned, for a good half-minute before tears welled in his eyes. Then, he scrambled to his feet and yelled up towards the tree, "Next—next time, I'll definitely beat you!"
After delivering this threat, he turned and stormed off in a huff.
I can't believe I actually made him cry! Zhao Zhitong hugged the tree trunk, watching in a daze as Qiao Muchen ran off into the distance.
By then, Mr. Meng, having heard what happened, had rushed over. Qiao Muchen was the Qiao Clan's precious child, frail and sickly since birth. He had only just recovered from an illness, and it was crucial he avoid any injury.
However, when Mr. Meng arrived in haste, he was met with the sight of Qiao Muchen storming off without a backward glance.
Then, he spotted Zhao Zhitong sitting on a tree branch, which scared him badly. "How did you get up there?" he exclaimed. "Come down quickly! Come down!"
Seeing her favorite Teacher approach, Zhao Zhitong happily showed off to him, "Teacher, I climbed up here all by myself! Aren't I super amazing? Qiao Muchen couldn't even make it up!"
Meanwhile, Sun Mei, having finished her kitchen chores, couldn't find Zhao Zhitong in the backyard and came looking in the front yard. Hearing about the incident en route, she rushed over.
Seeing Zhao Zhitong grinning smugly from the tree branch, Sun Mei felt a headache coming on. However, since Mr. Meng and the other students were present, she couldn't lose her temper. "Tongtong," she called, "a young lady shouldn't be climbing trees! Come down now, we're going home."
So, on the way home from the school, Sun Mei lectured Zhao Zhitong at length, hoping her daughter would start acting more like a proper young lady and stop her tomboyish tree-climbing.
"Tongtong, you can't keep being so wild. You're a girl; how can you climb trees?" Sun Mei's head was truly aching this time.
Fortunately, she wasn't used to this era's open-crotch pants. Her family of three all wore modern underwear from their space's inventory.
If she hadn't been wearing them and had accidentally exposed herself while climbing the tree in front of so many people today, it would surely have become a mortifying childhood memory she'd recall when she grew up.
Zhao Zhitong leaned on Sun Mei's back, her little head bobbing. "Mom, Tongtong gets it now. But today, it was that Qiao Jiaojiao who insisted on competing with me. It wasn't my fault."
'Qiao Jiaojiao' was the nickname Zhao Zhitong had given Qiao Muchen upon their first meeting. It was because, despite being a boy, he not only had fairer skin than her but was also thin and delicate-looking.
Her mother had told her that he was two years older, yet he wasn't even as tall as she was.
"Don't make up nicknames for others." Sun Mei gently patted Zhao Zhitong on the bottom as she held her. "Qiao Muchen is thin because he's been sickly since he was little. I heard that in the Qiao Clan, only his mother and grandmother are left. He's their only descendant. He's not a little wild monkey like you. You need to be more considerate. Don't drag him out to play rough like that in the future, understand?"
"Oh, I get it," Zhao Zhitong replied obediently, though whether the words had truly sunk in was another matter entirely.