Chapter 46

He silently thought to himself.

“Fine,” Richard said. “There are plenty of options—technique, endurance, or something that combines different skills.”

Elena held her phone up in front of him. A simple random-draw app was already open on the screen.

“This one lets you customize the options. You write down three, I’ll write down three, and once we enter them all, it randomly picks one.”

Richard lowered his eyes to the colorful little interface.

Then he took the phone from her, the warmth of her hand still lingering on it.

Elena rose onto her toes, trying to sneak a look.

Without making a fuss, Richard angled the screen slightly away from her, just enough to keep it out of her sight.

“Don’t peek.”

“I wasn’t peeking!”

“You were standing on your toes.”

“Fine.” Elena dropped back onto her heels with an annoyed huff. “What’s so secret about it?!”

Richard handed the phone back to her.

“You didn’t show me what you wrote either. So let’s leave each other a little surprise.”

The app automatically folded and hid the options after they were entered. They would only be revealed one by one when the draw began.

Once everything had been entered, a wheel appeared on the screen. Six evenly arranged colored sections filled the circle, but each one displayed only a question mark.

The result would only be revealed once the wheel was spun.

Elena held the phone between them.

“Ready?”

“Mm.”

Elena tapped the button.

The wheel spun rapidly, the six colors blending into a blurry rainbow on the screen.

The pointer swept across one section after another.

It slowed.

And finally stopped.

[Rock Climbing]

Elena blinked and looked up at Richard.

“You wrote this? You actually like rock climbing?”

The corner of Richard’s mouth moved slightly, a hint of amusement passing through his deep black eyes.

“I practice occasionally.”

“Fine,” Elena said, steeling herself. “Is there a facility nearby?”

Richard turned and walked toward the other end of the gym.

The two of them went around the rows of cable machines and Smith machines before passing through an inconspicuous interior partition door.

Beyond it was a separate space with an astonishingly high ceiling.

If the main gym had a ceiling height of four or five meters, this area was more than twice as high—easily over ten meters.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Elena tilted her head back, almost having to bend her neck ninety degrees to see the top.

The exposed ceiling was raw concrete, with several sets of industrial spotlights mounted along steel tracks. Straight white beams shone downward, illuminating the entire wall.

The wall was covered in a rough, dark-gray finish, densely fitted with hundreds of climbing holds in different colors.

Red, blue, green, yellow, orange—

they extended from the very bottom all the way to the top, more than ten meters above the ground.

Different colors represented different climbing routes and difficulty levels.

On the far left, the green route had closely spaced holds with relatively short distances between them, making it suitable for beginners.

Moving toward the right, the holds gradually became farther apart, and the angles increasingly tricky.

At the far right, the red route had several holds spaced so far apart that they almost looked impossible.

—Could a human arm really reach that far?

Elena secretly glanced at the man beside her.

About two-thirds of the way up the wall, there was also an outward-sloping section, angled roughly fifteen degrees away from the wall.

That meant that once a climber reached that section, their body would be almost completely suspended, requiring pure upper-body and core strength to get through it.

The bottom of the wall was covered with thick professional crash mats, extending at least three meters outward from the base.

Several climbing harnesses, chalk bags, and multiple pairs of climbing shoes in unusually large sizes hung neatly from the equipment rack nearby.

Elena stared at the wall, more than ten meters high, and felt a little intimidated.

She had been to an indoor climbing gym two or three times before, usually with friends. She had climbed beginner-level walls without much trouble.

But the pull-ups earlier had already drained a considerable amount of strength from her back and arms.

She discreetly squeezed her right forearm. When her fingertips pressed into the muscle, a soft, aching soreness spread through it.

Not good.

She glanced at Richard again.

The man was standing in front of the equipment rack, expertly taking down two climbing harnesses.

Elena:

“……”

Occasionally, my ass.

Judging from the size of this wall and how complete all the equipment was, his definition of “occasionally” probably meant several times a week—for more than a decade.

Elena’s mind went into a fierce internal struggle.

Technically, she didn’t necessarily have to give everything she had to win. After all, she hadn’t been the one who started this competition.

But for some reason, she simply didn’t want this man to look down on her.

At first, perhaps she had only wanted to seduce him—or at least make herself noticeable enough to him to improve her chances of survival.

But as the two of them spent more time together, something had gradually changed.

More than once, she had let her real personality show in front of him.

It was risky. It might even do more harm than good.

And yet, she couldn’t seem to stop herself.

Fortunately, he didn’t seem to dislike her because of it.

So…

Perhaps she was still caught up in that same impulse.

Instead of suppressing her personality, she had started competing with him.

And judging from the results, Richard seemed to be enjoying himself quite a bit too.

“Do you know how to put it on?”

Elena snapped back to reality.

Richard had approached with one of the harnesses in his hands.

Elena looked at the harness he was holding out to her, then looked up at him.

His expression was calm, but there was a faint trace of amusement hidden deep within his dark eyes.

Elena’s spine immediately straightened.

“I do!”

She grabbed the harness and lowered her head, beginning to put it on.

Leg loops. Waist belt. Buckles.

She had worn one in her previous life, so she still remembered the basic process.

But some of the details were a little rusty.

She twisted the main locking buckle at her waist twice without getting it into the right position, leaving it awkwardly stuck.

Her ears turned slightly red, and her fingers unconsciously sped up.

A large, well-defined hand suddenly reached over.

“It’s reversed.”

Richard’s voice came from above her.

His fingers precisely grasped the jammed locking buckle and gave it a gentle twist and push.

Click.

The buckle snapped into place.

The entire process took less than two seconds.

As his hand withdrew, his fingertips brushed across the small strip of skin exposed just above her waist belt.

It was only the briefest touch.

Like the tip of a feather skimming lightly across the surface of water.

Elena shivered slightly.

She narrowed her eyes.

Richard had already calmly withdrawn his hand, as though it had been nothing more than an accident.

He stepped back and began putting on his own harness.

His movements were much faster than hers—leg loops, waist belt, buckles, main lock, all in one smooth sequence.

“Wait.”

Elena suddenly spoke.

Richard raised an eyebrow.

“What?”

Elena lowered her head with a perfectly serious expression, reached out, and tugged at his waist buckle.

Her fingertip brushed over the firm abdominal muscles beside it before she lightly tickled him twice.

Then she casually withdrew her hand.

“No problem. I must have seen it wrong.”

Richard:

“……”

Elena took two steps backward as she spoke.

The next second, the man in front of her suddenly extended his arm, caught her by the arm, and pulled her straight into his arms.