Disobedience To Control chapter 69

Butterfly

After Yang Xiaobei returned to the team, the training intensity gradually increased. His endurance had never been as good as his speed, even though he had exploded in the last preliminaries, his endurance skills still needed further refinement.

Yang Xiaobei still went back to the rehabilitation center for exercise, where doctors carefully evaluated his physical condition at each stage. Currently, his cardiopulmonary function was no longer significantly affected by competitive matches, but there was still a long way to go to recover the physical fitness he had at the age of fifteen.

And the last promised master class on freestyle swimming, the time kept dragging on until it was already November.

Song Siheng had just finished his business trip to a neighboring country and rushed back to Jiangcheng overnight. When he arrived home, it was already noon the next day. He pushed open the door of his house to find Yang Xiaobei cooking soup in the kitchen.

Song Siheng was exhausted, so he greeted him and went straight to the bedroom to catch some sleep.

When he woke up again, it was already past three in the afternoon.

The curtains in the room were tightly drawn, and someone had their arm around his waist. Song Siheng gently moved the person’s arm away, inadvertently waking them up.

“Are you awake?”

“Mm,” Yang Xiaobei mumbled, resting his forehead against Song Siheng’s neck.

“Are you tired these past few days?” Song Siheng turned to look at Yang Xiaobei, who still seemed sleepy.

“The coach increased the intensity, and my whole body is sore,” Yang Xiaobei gestured to his arms.

Unconvinced, Song Siheng pinched his upper arm.

“Ow, that hurts!” Yang Xiaobei furrowed his brows. “Why are you so mean? I told you I’m sore.”

“You tell plenty of lies too,” Song Siheng replied, getting up from the bed.

But Yang Xiaobei grabbed his wrist.

“What’s up?” Song Siheng looked back at him.

“Do you want to go to the swimming pool this afternoon? I might not have time next week,” Yang Xiaobei said.

“Aren’t you sore all over?” Song Siheng asked.

“I’ll be fine teaching you,” Yang Xiaobei said, recovering his smug smile.

After a year, the two returned to the old swimming pool.

The swimming pool seemed to have been renovated, with the water seepage on the east wall repainted. The broken parts of the glass roof were also replaced with new glass bricks.

That day, there were more than just the two of them in the swimming pool. As they pushed the door open, they heard the sounds of children playing and chasing each other.

But since it was late, it was close to five in the afternoon, so most of the coaching instructors and children who had finished their lessons had already left the pool and were getting ready to leave.

Song Siheng looked around. Most of the children wearing swimsuits were taller than their peers, with longer arm spans, and all very slim.

“Many children start learning swimming when they’re five or six years old,” Yang Xiaobei said, standing by the pool and watching as the instructor on the opposite side led a few children into the locker room.

“Twelve or thirteen is the first watershed,” he turned to look at Song Siheng beside him. “If they haven’t achieved any results by thirteen, there’s no need to continue. And then at fifteen or sixteen, it’s another watershed. If they haven’t won any good national competitions by then, they can give up.”

Song Siheng fell silent for a moment before turning to him. “Isn’t your birthday coming up soon?”

“Yeah. In a month, I’ll be twenty after the Star River Cup,” Yang Xiaobei said before heading to the locker room.

The locker room here hadn’t been renovated and remained the same. Several rows of old green cabinets were arranged, with a long bench in the middle.

Yang Xiaobei took off his jacket and T-shirt, then bent over to rummage through his backpack for his swimming trunks.

After Song Siheng put on his swimming trunks and turned around, Yang Xiaobei had just taken out his trunks and stood up straight.

It was then that Song Siheng noticed a small blue tattoo on the left side of his chest. It was tiny but looked very delicate.

“When did you get this tattoo?” Song Siheng walked over to him.

The two hadn’t seen each other for the past few days, and Yang Xiaobei had never mentioned wanting a tattoo.

“Oh,” Yang Xiaobei chuckled and looked down, “Last week. It was early after training, so I went to the tattoo shop near the school.”

“What is it? A moth?” Song Siheng asked.

“Do you have any sense of aesthetics? It’s a butterfly! The tattoo artist said it’s called Aurora Flash Butterfly!” Yang Xiaobei puffed out his chest, “Don’t be fooled by its small size; it cost me quite a bit.”

“Why get a butterfly tattoo here?”

Yang Xiaobei’s Adam’s apple bobbed, but he didn’t answer immediately. It wasn’t until he had put on all his gear that he spoke up, “To accompany this lonely scar.”

Song Siheng glanced at his chest. The scar on Yang Xiaobei’s chest had faded a lot, looking like a faint brown vine from a distance. And that butterfly seemed to have just taken flight around the vine.

“Are you ready to swim?” Song Siheng noticed that the traces of his tattoo were still quite new, with some faint redness around the edges.

“I am. The tattoo artist said I can go swimming after a week!” With that, Yang Xiaobei stepped onto the starting platform.

Most of the children who came to train had already left. Only one lifeguard remained sitting high up on the shore. The wide lanes of the pool were empty, and there wasn’t a ripple on the surface of the water.

In the twilight of the swimming pool, the setting sun shone through the glass bricks, casting a light golden veil over the blue pool water.

“Now that you’ve learned, what should I teach you in this class?” Yang Xiaobei turned to look at Song Siheng.

“Let’s have a race,” Song Siheng smiled.

“As you wish. Let’s see how well you’ve learned,” Yang Xiaobei raised his wrist and waved their matching watches, “We’ll time each other and see if you can swim for two minutes.”

Both crouched down at the starting line, arms hooked over the edge of the board, feet staggered. As the timer beeped, they almost simultaneously plunged into the calm water.

Splash—a burst of water erupted instantly.

Song Siheng only swam about five or six meters before lifting his head to breathe, executing the technical points meticulously.

Yang Xiaobei surfaced a little later. By the time both started synchronizing their strokes, he had already taken the lead by about a body length.

During Song Siheng’s breathing intervals, he saw Yang Xiaobei’s gradually distancing figure. He still maintained his pace, steadily moving forward through the water.

Smooth turns and kicks off the wall, drawing a beautiful streamline with his body. Waves surged, and heart rates synchronized between the pulses.

When he touched the wall, he raised his head from the water and shook the droplets off his face. It was then that he suddenly noticed that Yang Xiaobei had synchronized with him to the side.

“Congratulations, one minute and fifty-eight seconds,” Yang Xiaobei raised his wrist, showing Song Siheng a wet smile.

Song Siheng took off his swim cap. “Didn’t we agree to race? Why are you waiting for me?”

“It’s too boring to swim alone in front,” Yang Xiaobei said, propping himself up on the pool edge tiles and jumping out of the water.

Only the last red outline of the setting sun remained, and the lights in the swimming pool had not yet been turned on. In the dim daylight, the two of them dried their hair, dangling their legs, sitting on the edge of the pool.

The water shimmered beneath their feet as Yang Xiaobei tore open a candy wrapper and handed a lollipop to Song Siheng.

Song Siheng looked down and shook his head at the pink packaging. “Actually, I don’t like strawberry flavor.”

“Fine, I’ll buy you orange flavor next time.”

Saying this, he still put the strawberry-flavored candy into his mouth.

Yang Xiaobei nudged him with his shoulder. “Hey, last time you sat here like this. I took that picture.”

“Why did you take a picture then?” Song Siheng asked.

“Well,” Yang Xiaobei rotated the lollipop in his hand for a moment before speaking again.

“In fact, swimming is a very lonely sport. When I dive into the pool, it’s just me and the water. I can’t hear anything else.”

“…Since I was a child, it’s only been me and the water in the pool, training back and forth. But that day, when I saw you sitting by the pool, I suddenly felt it was strange.” Yang Xiaobei stopped there.

As the light shifted, the sunset seemed to drop another inch.

“That day, I lied to you on the island,” Song Siheng suddenly spoke up.

“What did you lie to me about?” Yang Xiaobei turned to look at him.

“I lied about the last time I cried, it wasn’t when I was five years old.”

Yang Xiaobei didn’t expect him to bring up this matter suddenly.

“When was it?”

Song Siheng’s gaze was unusually gentle, reflecting the last rays of sunset in the autumn evening.

“It was the day you were rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment,” he said.

“Do you love me that much? Were you afraid I would die then?” Yang Xiaobei hugged his shoulders and shook him twice.

Song Siheng chuckled at his teasing. “Yes, it’s such a pity for such a troublemaker like you to die so early. You have to cause trouble in the world for a thousand years.”

In the empty swimming pool, the laughter of the two echoed between the walls.

Half an hour later, the two changed into clean clothes and trousers, carrying their bags and walking out of the swimming pool one after the other.

The sun had completely dropped below the horizon, the sky was dyed with indigo, and the outdoor street lights gradually lit up.

Under the corner of the wall outside the swimming pool, there was a patch of wild flowers. It was already November, and the previously blooming roses and gardenias had withered, leaving only dry flower branches.

But at this moment, at the foot of the wall, there was still a small cluster of flowers blooming. Pale pink petals and tender yellow stamens swayed gently in the evening breeze.

“It’s amazing, it’s already November, and there are still flowers blooming,” Yang Xiaobei exclaimed, “What kind of flower is this? Do you know?”

“It seems to be a hibiscus,” Song Siheng recalled for a moment. He seemed to have seen such flowers when he went on an outing as a child.

As the two spoke, a butterfly flew over the patch of flowers, circling around the petals for a moment before finally landing on the stamen.

“It’s so cold, yet there are still butterflies,” Yang Xiaobei glanced back once more, heading towards the path illuminated by the streetlights.

“Perhaps there are flowers that bloom later in the season,” Song Siheng said.