Chapter 1124: NO.29: No Fresh News

NO. 29: No Fresh News

How is her condition?

Although there are still many details to discuss about a certain proposal, there is obviously something more pressing at the moment.

Aomo pulled over a stool and sat down, looking at Bai Ren, who had pulled back the shading curtain and lay on the bed breathing slowly.

"Going to another clinic would probably take some effort, but here it's much easier," Qianming emerged from the nearby washroom, shaking her hands without using a dryer, "The newly renovated strong-setting agent from yesterday can just stabilize her condition; after that, it's just about nurturing her body."

"But what exactly is wrong with her?"

She happened to pull over a chair, placing it in the empty space between Aomo and Dazhenhan on the nearby sickbed, sat sideways on it, rested her elbows on the back, and directed a questioning gaze at both.

But before they could answer, she turned her gaze back to Bai Ren, who had fallen into a peaceful sleep due to the drowsy side effect of the medication.

"Rather than saying it's from overusing source energy, it's more like muscle spasms from intense exercise, accompanied by mild rhabdomyolysis—just how far did she run? Is her stubbornness acting up?"

In the Tresen infirmary, such symptoms are not uncommon; precisely because skilled swimmers can drown, it's actually easy to develop bodily abnormalities from pure overexertion.

But it's not exactly common either—preventing such conditions is precisely the duty of the staff.

When a horse girl under one's charge actually shows this condition, the parents have the right to hold the trainer accountable.

However, since this condition usually stems from the individual's own judgment, trainers often fail to stop or even notice it, so parents who insist on pursuing liability are few and far between.

Who is Narita Bai Ren? Her trainer is what kind of rationalist? As a veteran of Tresen, and as a friend of both, Qianming naturally knows this all too well.

In her view, the most likely cause of this condition is Bai Ren's stubbornness acting up.

She had long known that the other had emerged from the slump, and recently had begun formal rehabilitation; regardless of whether the change stemmed from Aomo, Qianming thought it perfectly reasonable that Bai Ren, on her own, was stubbornly pushing herself with extreme training.

It couldn't be more reasonable!

Since long ago, Bai Ren has always been silent, gritting her teeth through any difficulty, which is why she shows such extraordinary endurance; in Qianming's eyes, she is already 'rather than a lone wolf, more like a stubborn ox'.

Even the bodily changes that can still grow at this age are completely ox-like!

Leaving aside someone's recent clothing inspection that revealed extra emotional judgment, Aomo felt a bit embarrassed and instinctively glanced at the brown-haired girl on the nearby sickbed.

That girl, naturally, had no injury.

Having just finished an all-out run, Dazhenhan was brought to the infirmary by Aomo before she could catch her breath, fortunately finding a bed to lie on—only regrettable that the infirmary lacked a shower.

If there were, it would be a finishing move, surely allowing her to prop herself up for a wash first.

But since there wasn't, she could only lie down here for now.

Recuperation?

Never mind recuperation—the girl had just had her championship snatched by a bizarre Ultraman, her mind in utter chaos, she didn't even know how to start speaking.

Facing Lin Dun's trainer's gaze, she merely lifted her arm and waved it.

What does that mean?

Even Aomo, who is well-versed in body language, couldn't decipher it for free; she could only tentatively treat it as an expression of permission and indulgence, then turned her gaze back to Qianming:

"She must have run to an unprecedented extent, perhaps..."

"She's faster than she was at the Arima Memorial before."

Dazhenhan suddenly spoke, lifting her head as if waking from a dream, looking at the somewhat startled Qianming and Aomo: "Senior Bai Ren has fully recovered her condition, but precisely because of that..."

Her gaze drifted to the distant bed, seeing the other's unexpectedly gentle sleeping face, which only made the brilliant golden glint she had caught sight of before the finish line harder to forget.

That wild determination easily outweighs the nonsensical appearance of some Ultraman who came out of nowhere.

"But that ultimately was the result of a misjudgment."

Aomo took up her unfinished words, gazing with extraordinary helplessness at the second person she had ever seen who would sacrifice herself, running herself into trouble—a horse girl.

Thank goodness for today's excellent medical technology—although back then she probably would have been full of resentment.

"She could indeed go faster, but not now—just like on the Chun Gu Ma track before, she was so self‑forgetting as to be unbearable."

"But how could a horse girl's ardor be so easily curbed?"

Once a Triple Crown champion, she had also been a challenger beset by setbacks later in her career; Qianming spoke these words with deep feeling, for sometimes even when giving one's all and running until the socks are soaked in blood, the desired result still cannot be attained.

By comparison, Narita Bai Ren's feet are at least not delicate.

She is simply too self‑forgetting, too frenzied, just like the former track star Aimu Zhiji, each run rushing toward self‑immolation.

It is precisely that wild demeanor that draws countless viewers' hearts, and it also allowed her, after the Triple Crown, to receive a second set of battle attire designed by fans—this set is named the Hungry Wolf.

Unfortunately, compared to the similarly named character in the neighboring manga's remake who is akin to a heaven‑chosen one, the Hungry Wolf of the horse girls meets her downfall while bearing the cost of that wildness.

Fanatically pursuing instinct while disregarding reason results in prematurely touching the body's limits.

This is a realm many horse girls will reach.

The true burden lies not in flashy attire nor in horseshoes on running shoes, but in the body itself.

Their souls are so swift and light that the body strains to follow their trail; only by catching up does one reclaim oneself.

And Narita Bai Ren's will, from the moment the gate opens, has already locked onto the finish line.

This, however, is the unattainable aspiration of countless horse girls and their trainers.

Even the data‑obsessed, system‑tinkering trainer Po Tian Lingxiang is powerless to stop it.

This is like a gacha mobile game where, no matter how many stars you upgrade, the level cap for an R‑rank character is only seventy‑eighty, while an UR‑rank character can have its initial level cap raised to one hundred twenty.

What holds her back is proficiency, not height.

Yet such will constantly urges her on, urging her to run toward the limit and beyond it.

Some poor soul who can't afford to lose a championship keeps shouting that she has no limits, but an Ultraman‑like ultimate being is definitely something a horse girl can't afford to brush against.

A certain secretary holds the greatest authority to speak on this matter.

Ten battles, ten victories, seven of which opened new records.

Even while ill, she could suppress everyone of her era by a horse length, and over eight hundred meters she could open a legendary lead of eight horse lengths.

What a dream‑like miracle—dream‑like enough to be called a phantom horse girl—yet she vanished just as abruptly and cleanly.

Amid all the speculation, countless people firmly believe it was her nonchalance, believe it was the satisfaction of following her interests, and even more believe it was her masterly grace in making way for the next generation.

Even if the guess is slightly off, they say it's a grand, atmospheric prank that leaves a deep impression on people before vanishing quickly—just like the incarnation of the three goddesses coming to play a joke on everyone.

All kinds of guesses, all kinds of possibilities have their supporters, except that one possibility, which has the lowest support.

——That is something she lacks the strength to pursue, and even with all her effort there is no hope.

A nonexistent possibility, an outcome that ought not to happen.

Clearly there were no omens at all, so no one would be willing to believe that baseless speculation, as if it were the malicious slander of black fans and internet mercenaries.

But……

"Bai Ren, classmate!"

Suddenly, the green-clad lady who burst into the infirmary, holding in her hand the small medicine box that occasionally hangs from her arm, saw at the moment she entered that the three people inside were all making a silencing gesture with a finger to their lips.

"... Sorry, sorry."