Chapter 23: Seniors vs. Juniors—Tension Mounts! (Third Update)

Although Li Shixin felt as though he’d reached his peak, his speed was nothing exceptional. Before his transmigration, he’d only jogged for half an hour each night to keep in shape—never an endurance athlete by any means. So even at his so-called prime, Li Shixin was just an ordinary man. Still, compared to his current state, this felt like flying!

Trotting with small, even steps into the plaza, Li Shixin spotted the old lady from earlier. He adjusted his course and set off in pursuit. The old lady hadn’t gone far and was ambling leisurely into the heart of the square when she heard the slap-slap of footsteps behind her. Turning around, she saw Li Shixin approaching at a pace reminiscent of a military drill.

“Oh my! Old fellow, you just caught your breath a moment ago—how are you running again already?” she exclaimed.

Li Shixin kept a straight face, lengthened his stride slightly, and gradually overtook her. As he passed, he greeted her with a cheerful smile, “I just had a stitch in my side earlier!”

Watching his figure recede, the old lady was left dumbfounded, but she couldn’t help but smile wryly. “Stubborn old man,” she muttered. She’d thought he was just another one of those show-offs trying to impress her—she’d met plenty of admirers before. After all, the emotional needs of elderly people, especially widowers, often run deeper than those of the young.

...

Chewing on his “Peak” bubble gum, Li Shixin jogged slowly around the plaza’s track, pondering a rather feasible question. His peak state, it seemed, was just this—nothing more. Even the system, for all its power to lessen his physical age, could not improve upon his original foundation. This, he realized, was a matter of his own physical base.

But what if, while his “applause points” held out, he used the gum’s peak state to keep exercising? In this state—superhuman compared to his sixty-five-year-old self—might this body, worn down by age and inactivity, become as vigorous as a sixty-year-old Schwarzenegger or Stallone? He was deeply curious.

Lost in these thoughts, Li Shixin jogged along the unfinished track...

...

Elsewhere—

Dressed in sky-blue sportswear, Zhao Jinzhi strolled alone, a glimmer of helplessness in her eyes. Though she was fifty-two, she was still years away from retirement. Money was not a problem, but she could never bring herself to hand her business over to her unreliable and irreverent son. Yet, as the years passed, her energy diminished, whether she liked it or not. Lately, things at the office had been especially chaotic; even her two business departments had started clashing. The endless trivialities left her feeling increasingly drained.

Every evening, she liked to come out for a solitary walk. Not for any particular reason—she just enjoyed being among people, the lively crowds. For a while, she could escape her family, her study, her desk, and truly relax.

Lost in thought, Zhao Jinzhi was suddenly jerked back to the present by a blaring burst of music. Looking up, she couldn’t help but smile. Somehow, she’d wandered right into the midst of two rival dance troupes.

The 1998 Gongti Plaza was a recent project commissioned by the Rongdian government to provide leisure space for residents of the LC district and nearby new housing estates. In reality, the plaza’s construction was only seventy or eighty percent complete. It hadn’t officially opened, but with the land leveled and the running track, basketball, and badminton courts finished, locals had begun to gather on their own. With no formal management yet in place, the only concession was that the lights had been switched on, so residents could use the area at night.

Unsupervised, the place was chaotic, not in terms of safety, but in the use of space. At the moment, no fewer than seven or eight dance teams had claimed their spots. They hadn’t occupied the basketball or badminton courts, but with their sheer numbers, they’d taken over most of the open area inside the track.

On the other side of the track, a group of young people were skateboarding and rapping. With music blasting from both ends—the dance teams playing Phoenix Legend, the youths blasting black rap—the sounds merged into a cacophonous mess.

The dueling speakers made Zhao Jinzhi’s head throb. She shook her head and turned to leave. As she pivoted, she spotted Li Shixin, who had already made a lap around the plaza.

She paused, then waved to him in surprise. “Old fellow, you really can run!”

Li Shixin, flushed and sweat-soaked like he hadn’t been in ages, felt wonderfully refreshed. Seeing the old lady waving, he slowed his pace, gasped for breath, and called out, “Of course! Didn’t I tell you, it was just a stitch earlier!”

Zhao Jinzhi laughed behind her hand, raising her voice above the music. “That must have been some stitch! I thought you’d never catch your breath!”

“Bah!” Li Shixin shook his head, chuckling.

...

“Yo yo, black way dog! BABALA & Dye in the house! Uh! Uh! On some night in October, who knows what day it is, the sky is pitch black with no moon, we strut across the plaza in our VIP jackets, and no one’s better looking than us...”

At that moment, the young crowd across the track was getting wild. A flashy kid in a gaudy baseball jacket, cap askew, grabbed a microphone and unleashed a rapid-fire rap.

“Damn you!”

A few old men at the front of the dance troupe, in the midst of their fitness routine, bristled at the rap lyrics.

“What’s this about fathers and dying? Who the hell are you cursing?”

“Yeah, what was that about ‘way dog’? Are you cursing us because our speakers are louder?”

They were not about to let this slide. The skaters and their friends began to egg on the rapper, and tensions rose. There had always been friction between the older and younger groups over space and speaker volume.

The young people, quick to take offense, were now riled up by their friends and the grumbling elders. The rapper, seeing the reaction, doubled down.

“Yo yo, check it out! Look at those old men and women dancing over there, faces all wrinkled, I never want to grow old, lose my youth like them. I don’t want disgusting age spots on my face, pretending to be kind. Don’t want the stench of decay to bury me, and I won’t forget the hot girls and the wild freestyle, so don’t mind the foul words, let’s get happy, come on...!”

With that, the older crowd, already simmering, exploded.

“Who’s he calling disgusting with age spots?”

“What’s this about the stench of decay? Come here, punk, and say that to my face!”

“Don’t waste your breath! These little brats in their clown clothes, chanting nonsense every day... Old friends, a man can die but not be humiliated—let’s teach him a lesson!”

“Yeah, let’s get him!”

Li Shixin and the old lady stood between the two groups, barely processing what was happening before a horde of old men surged forward.

Li Shixin’s first instinct was to snatch up the old lady’s hand and run.

But the moment he took her hand, he sensed something was wrong.

In his mouth, the last faint sweetness of the bubble gum...

Had vanished!