Lost in her thoughts, Mo Hua didn't hear anything going on around her until there was uproar again from the crowd.
The commentator was announcing names of contestants one by one and each contestant would exit from the locker room walking towards the position they were assigned to.
"Tang Wang – Mathematics Department"
.
.
"Si Quin - Geography Department"
Just as commentator announced, "Rong Chi – Computer Department", crowd started cheering him. It was clear that after Yan Xuan, Rong Chi was the second-best swimmer and best coder of University.
He was a pale toned tall man with sharp chestnut eyes and arched eyebrows. He had pointed chin and clean-shaved face with thin lips. He had a wicked smile pasted on his face hiding the kind and gentle man he was famous for.
XiXi was looking at him in awe when she saw Rong Chi. She was fascinated by the handsomeness of the man standing in front of her in blue swim shorts and sculpted abs.
Mo Hua laughed at her friend drooling over almost every man standing in front of her but also knew that XiXi was a sweet girl with no bad intentions. She belonged to Military background and so has always been disciplined and single due to the strict rules from family.
The announcing which Mo Hua was eagerly waiting for happened and brought her random thoughts to halt when she heard:
" Next come our last contestant, who has won many medals till now and has always been undefeated, none other than our Aqua King Yan Xuan…!"
With that the crowd went crazy. Girls were shouting trying to gain his attention.
Now that Mo Hua had a chance to take a good look at him, she was even more stunned by his appearance. He was wearing Red swim shorts making his long-muscled legs and sculpted abs more visible.
He had an athletic build and clean shaved face, lustrous chestnut brown hair enhancing his looks. Looking at his face more clearly, Mo Hua saw that he had straight nose, chiselled chin and thin lips.
His smile of amused friendliness and pleasure aroused feelings of warmth, and something more, in many women.
Mo Hua was looking at the girls who were madly in love – that's what they were yelling all the time actually- with complex thoughts.
Suddenly out of nowhere, a girl sitting in front row screamed, "Yan Xuan, be my boyfriend."
Entire crowd went silent when they heard the confession. Everyone stared at Xu Fei with weird expressions.
She was flaunting a book and then said, "Look I even made a scrapbook of your pictures from all the tournaments you have participated till now. Will you be my boyfriend?"
At first everyone thought that she was a normal girl who is admiring Yan Xuan like everyone else did. But her frantic movements later indicated that she might be obsessed with Yan Xuan.
From alluring smile, his expression turned dark. He had a look of wariness. He knew many girls had a crush on him but he never paid any attention to them.
But today it was different. He now had someone in his heart. He knew Mo Hua was currently sitting somewhere in the spectator stand watching the entire scene getting unfolded in front of her.
He suddenly panicked inwardly worrying that she might misunderstand the situation.
He lifted his lightly-hooded eyes sweeping through the crowd. His sharp eyes were trying to search for the annoying voice but his gaze rested on familiar face which gave him the feeling of inexplicable happiness.
His eyes were glued to her face as if reading every emotion reflecting on her face.
The obsidian black color of his eyes took her by surprise.
The more she looked at his eyes, the more she felt like getting drowned in deep emotions. She averted her gaze immediately thinking what was happening to her.
Unknown to her, she had a tinge of red on her cheeks and neck which was not missed by Yan Xuan.
He was delighted by the thought that she blushed because of him. It was like a soothing air after the turbulent wind calming his heart.
Yan Xuan gave her a dearly smile which sent rest of the girls in trauma. XiXi was the first one to notice. She immediately whispered, "MoMo, Yan Xuan smiled at you... Did he? Do you know each other? Tell me? Did you hide something from me?"
Mo Hua momentarily glanced towards Yan Xuan responding back with a gentle smile. She sat there silently. Looking at MoMo not responding, XiXi also stopped pestering her. She decided to get to the bottom of this matter later.
The University security guards saw that the competition was getting delayed due to the frantic girl, so they decided to make her leave and let the competition continue smoothly.
Everyone silently took their seats and sat down to watch the tournament proceed.
Commentator announced the beginning of the contest when all the contestant took their respective positions.
1
2
.
.
3 (whistle was blown by the referee indicating the contestants to start.)
At the blow of the whistle, all contestants dived into the water and started moving with great speed. Their movements were very agile.
Initially everyone was aligned at same level with equal agility and strength. But after few minutes, some of the contestants started to lag behind.
Amidst everyone's struggle, Yan Xuan started strong harder with his long legs and hands gaining more pace.
Someone from audiences exclaimed, "Look at Yan Xuan. Is he using Butterfly stroke?"
Someone else replied to his question, "Oh my god! Yes, he is."
He was using the most difficult and exhausting stroke that is the butterfly stroke; second only to the crawl in speed, it is done in a prone position and employs the dolphin kick with a windmill-like movement of both arms in unison. Only extremely talented and expert swimmer can use this kind of technique.
Someone again yelled, "Look Look, Tang Wang is closing up to Yan Xuan."
Tang Wang chose underwater fish kick strokes that are considered fastest. These involve moving the legs together up and down while flexing the body and keeping one arm straight out in front in the direction of travel.
Rong chi increased his pace to catch up with Tang Wang by using underwater dolphin stroke which was considered as another fastest stroke. Soon Tan Wang used up his all energy and started lagging behind.