As soon as he stepped into the gym, he caught sight of Cheng Yan—
Cheng Yan was currently wearing a pair of black athletic shorts with white edges, revealing a pair of slender, straight legs underneath. The young girl's skin was fair and tender. On her upper body, she wore a short athletic tank top, exposing her waist without a hint of excess flesh, along with her gracefully curved collarbones, neck, and arms. On her feet, she wore a pair of Asics running shoes, and it felt like snapping a random photo with a mobile phone could land her on a magazine cover or make her go viral online.
Sure enough, no matter how guilty and eager to hide she felt, she wouldn't let herself make a wasted trip.
Cheng Yun quickened his pace and walked over.
Wearing boxing gloves, Cheng Yan stood beside the punching bag, appearing to practice combat.
She spotted Cheng Yun as well, but instantly withdrew her gaze and kept it fixed on the punching bag in front of her. With a twist of her body, she threw another punch, producing a dull, muffled thud.
Quite a few men and women working out nearby were watching her. The men were a bit better behaved, mostly stealing glances, while the women were completely open about it, even pulling out their phones to pretend to take selfies while secretly framing her in the shot.
Stepping closer, Cheng Yun saw that she was wearing earphones with her phone plugged into her pants pocket. He couldn't help frowning immediately and asked, "Why didn't you answer my phone?"
"Watching you chat it up so warmly with that beauty at the entrance! I wanted to leave you a bit more time so I wouldn't disturb your flirting." Without looking at him, Cheng Yan stared fixedly at the punching bag, suddenly threw a straight punch, and then continued, "You've really grown some backbone, Cheng Yun. In just that short while, you actually managed to hook up with the gym's reception beauty and even had her willingly take the risk of letting you in!"
"Stop trying to change the subject with me!" Completely ignoring her words, Cheng Yun asked, "Has your brain short-circuited? Why did you apply to Yida?"
"I... where I apply is my freedom!" Cheng Yan said with a guilty conscience, "You seem even more nervous than I am."
"How can I not be nervous!?" Cheng Yun subconsciously raised his volume, and only lowered it again after realizing he had drawn the attention of the people nearby. "I'm your brother! Your only legal guardian!"
"Oh please, I just saw you flirting!" Cheng Yan's gaze was like electricity, and her punches were equally electric!
With a thud, the punching bag swayed!
"She's my college classmate." Cheng Yun was utterly helpless.
"Ha! I've spoken with her a few times too. She hasn't even graduated from college yet!" Turning her head, Cheng Yan shot him a cold glance. "Are you going to tell me she's your junior again?"
"I damn well..." Cheng Yun was left speechless. "Fine, even if I was hitting on a girl, what does it have to do with you?"
"Th... then me applying to colleges is none of your business either!" Cheng Yan threw another vicious hook punch, speaking as if acting willfully.
"But why would you? Has your brain short-circuited? There's such a huge difference between Yida and Tsinghua or Peking University. You at least have to give me a reason!" Cheng Yun said, "Didn't you always want to go to Yanjing before?"
"It's too far from home, I wouldn't adapt to the water and soil!" Cheng Yan said.
"Aren't you going to climb the Badaling Great Wall anymore?"
"Too many people. My feet could leave the ground and I'd still walk the whole way, I'm afraid of getting groped!" Cheng Yan continued, "I'll go by myself when I have money, to Jinshanling and Simatai."
"What about your sliced mutton then?"
"It has a gamey mutton smell!"
"What about roast duck! Quanjude, you know!"
"You can't eat roast duck every single day either, and I'm not used to northern cuisine." Saying this, afraid he would keep pressing the matter, Cheng Yan paused slightly and quickly shifted the subject again, "You're lecturing me? What about you? Didn't you always want to be a glorious criminal police officer before? Now you're still just like a salted fish..."
"...You still remember that." Cheng Yun felt inexplicably awkward. "That was from when we were kids, how can that count?"
"That was just a childhood thought of mine too."
"You're still a kid now!" Rolling his eyes, Cheng Yun found half his inexplicable anger vanishing. She really was exasperating. "If you do this... how do you expect me to explain it to Mom and Dad?"
"Them?" Cheng Yan's gaze softened slightly, yet the corners of her mouth twitched. "Mom has always respected my opinion, and as for Dad... with that casual, nothing-matters personality of his, do you think he'd care about me? You'd better spare yourself the worry."
"..." Cheng Yun was left completely speechless.
Only then did Cheng Yan stop and let out a breath. Raising her hand, she bit open the velcro of her boxing glove with her teeth, pulled off one glove, and then normally removed the other.
"Go wait for me outside, I'm going to take a shower and change back into my clothes first." Tossing the gloves aside, Cheng Yan walked toward the shower room.
"Sigh." Cheng Yun let out a deep sigh.
In a daze, he recalled the scene of the whole family sitting together eating dinner on the eve of the college entrance examination. That very night, they happened to be talking about Cheng Yan's future.
Cheng Yan had obscurely hinted that she wanted to go to college in Yanjing, so as long as her scores were high enough, it would be either Tsinghua or Peking University.
Cheng Yun had always been very confident in his younger sister's grades.
Professor An had been a bit anxious because Cheng Yan kept hesitating on which university she wanted to attend, failing to get recruited through special admission and missing the opportunity for independent recruitment. Both of those chances could have greatly reduced the risk of her college entrance examination.
Instead, Cheng Yan remained extremely calm.
Professor Cheng was even calmer.
At the time, Professor An had asked him this: "What are your thoughts on Tsinghua and Peking University?"
Pushing up the glasses on the bridge of his nose, Professor Cheng had replied, "They're pretty much the same, it doesn't matter, just pick one at random!"
As speechless as he was today, Cheng Yun had said, "This concerns your daughter's entire future, you know! Can't you offer some reference opinions? Why is everything just casual and random? Did you casually pick Mom when you married her back then too?"
Professor An had paused for a moment, finding his words rather baffling instead, and replied, "Yeah, your mother was just someone I picked randomly back then, and look, aren't things turning out fine now?"
The scene back then felt as if it had happened just yesterday.
"Sigh." Helplessly walking out of the gym, Cheng Yun could only lament that a grown girl couldn't be kept at home.
"That beauty is your sister?" Pan Shimeng at the front desk suddenly looked over and asked.
"Yeah, you know her?"
"Chatted a few times, not really close, though I remember her name is Cheng Yan." With that, Pan Shimeng showed a sudden realization. "Cheng Yun, Cheng Yan, Yun and Yan—you really are a brother and sister."
"Uh..."
None of Cheng Yun's relatives would ever guess that the names of the siblings actually came from Professor Cheng, who was completely incapable of making decisions. Back then, Professor An respected him more, so she decided to hand the naming rights over to him. Professor Cheng, however, simply stated that they could just pick a random name to call them by, since a hundred years later, everything would just be passing smoke and clouds. Thus, the two names Cheng Yun and Cheng Yan came to be, with the boy intended to be called Cheng Yun and the girl called Cheng Yan.
After giving birth to Cheng Yun, since there was still one name left, the two professors simply decided to have another child.
Shaking his head to snap out of it, Cheng Yun smiled at Pan Shimeng. "Sorry for the trouble today."
"It's fine, I've got nothing to do during summer break anyway, just doing some part-time work here while discussing with the boss to settle my future internship agreement form. Even if the boss caught me red-handed letting someone in, nothing would happen." Pan Shimeng certainly wouldn't mention that the boss here was her boyfriend's dad. "Your sister is so pretty, having good genes really makes a difference! Among the girls working out here, your sister is the prettiest and has the best figure I've ever seen."
"Your figure is great right now too."
Not long after, Cheng Yan finished showering, changed her clothes, and walked out carrying her change of clothes.
She wore a pair of stretch-fit black cropped harem pants and a heather-gray athletic t-shirt, forming a sharp contrast with her snowy white skin. The collar of a light gray pair of socks peeked out above her sneakers, her hair was dried to a half-state, and her bare face was shockingly refreshing. Her entire aura exuded confidence as well, sporting a cold expression that drew quite a few gazes as she walked out.
"Help me carry this." Cheng Yan handed the paper bag in her hand to Cheng Yun, cast a sideways squinting glance at Pan Shimeng, and walked straight ahead. "Let's go home."
"Then we'll head off first, we can chat on WeChat." Cheng Yun turned and smiled as he said to Pan Shimeng.
"Okay."
Cheng Yun caught up with Cheng Yan, casually glancing inside the bag: Oh, an athletic tank top and athletic shorts, plus some toiletries in a blue plastic bag. Huh, and this thin piece of fabric with a corner sticking out is...
He guiltily glanced sideways at Cheng Yan.
Good grief, he ran right into Cheng Yan's astonished gaze!
"Are you perverted or what!" Cheng Yan rolled her eyes. "I told you to carry it for me, and you start playing peeping tom on the street!"
"What kind of phrasing is that... can you call this peeping?" Cheng Yun argued reasonably, "You just made me carry it without telling me what's inside, and now you blame me just for taking a look! If there's anything in there that can't be seen, why'd you have me carry it?"
"Then what did you see?"
"What could I see! Just toiletries packed in a plastic bag! How boring!" Cheng Yun waved a hand. "I'll buy you a nicer storage pouch when I have time."
"Did you get that beauty's WeChat too?"
"Hey, your train of thought is... a bit too jumpy!" Cheng Yun felt that talking with her was truly exhausting. "Didn't I tell you! We've known each other for ages, we've had each other on WeChat for a couple of years already, alright! There was even a time before when we sat by the roadside together eating skewers and drinking beer!"
Turning her head to glance at him, Cheng Yan kept walking forward.
Before going far, she stopped again, sized up Cheng Yun's figure, and said with a mix of disgust and helplessness, "Look at you, it's about time you got some exercise. Your waistline is a size thicker than before, I bet you've got extra flab by now!"
"I'm telling you, your train of thought... seriously, it's way too jumpy!" Cheng Yun said helplessly.
Yet Cheng Yan's remark hit home.
While he might not actually have rolls of fat just yet, compared to his past physique—where he had both abs and chest muscles, and looked leaner yet weighed more than he did now—he was far worse off. He could clearly feel his physical decline just doing ordinary things nowadays.
"Yeah, I'm a man who's going to deal with countless dimension-crossers and protect the world, how can I be this weak?" Cheng Yun made a silent resolve. A good body is the capital for doing anything. I've indulged myself for so long, it's about time I start working out.
"I'll start right from this summer vacation!"
Hesitating for a moment, I think I'll update another chapter!
No contract, no contract; no recommendation, no recommendation, couldn't care less.
Thanks to the reader bosses for the daily update reminders!
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