ALL NOVEL 0044 – Exercises And Jane Rousseou
It was a state of finally living for herself.
After warming up with a couple of laps around the lake, Zoe checked her watch: it was exactly 7:20 AM. By now, the wetland park was slowly filling up with morning exercisers, mostly elderly men and women. Their numbers were still relatively sparse, and Zoe deliberately avoided them, heading to a more secluded part of the park to begin her more intense workout.
The previous two laps had merely been a warm-up, even with the heavy drum hammer in tow. The distance wasn't significant, and she hadn't run at a particularly fast pace. It could hardly be considered intense exercise.
Now, in the more isolated areas of the park, Zoe commenced her real workout. This included, but was not limited to, thousands of continuous reps of dumbbell squats, bench presses while lying flat, bent-over rows, and standing lifts—all with the drum hammer substituting for dumbbells.
This level of intensity would be considered inhumane by anyone who knew the details. However, Zoe was very familiar with this area and had the advantage of her "Transparent World 2.0" perception ability, ensuring she wouldn't be noticed by anyone or caught on surveillance cameras.
After a long while, nearing 9 AM, Zoe stopped her workout, having exhausted and then replenished her energy multiple times. Not a drop of sweat on her body, she packed up the drum hammer and jogged a few final laps around the lake to cool down.
By this time, there were even fewer people around the lake. It was a weekday, and most young people were at work. The elderly who had come for their morning exercise had mostly finished by now.
Zoe ran at a pace that was swift enough to be noticeable but not so fast as to draw undue attention. Yet, she hadn't completed two laps when she found herself stopping beside a young man, unable to continue overtaking her.
"Is that you... Jane Rousseou?" Zoe frowned, looking at the somewhat haggard face in front of her. If not for her confidence in her "Transparent World 2.0" observational abilities and her own memory, she might not have recognized this person. The change was just too drastic.
Jane Rousseou had been a friend Zoe met during her factory internship in Hamilton. After discovering her talent for writing novels, Zoe had transitioned to full-time writing. Compared to her former self, Jane Rousseou now looked much more worn out.
"Zoe, is that you?" Jane Rousseou replied. "I wondered who could be lapping me with a sack in hand—it’s you."
"Your physical condition is amazing now," Jane Rousseou remarked, looking at the muscles faintly visible beneath Zoe's thin clothes. She didn’t seem suspicious, just genuinely surprised at Zoe's physical fitness, capable of running laps while carrying weight.
"Not bad, I've been working out," Zoe nodded, not revealing that the sack's weight was far beyond what Jane Rousseou could imagine. Instead, she curiously asked about Jane Rousseou's current situation, noticing the exhaustion on her face.
"What else? Working under a lousy boss who only knows how to speed up the production line and nothing else. It's exhausting," Jane Rousseou shook her head wearily. "Today’s my birthday, so I took a rare day off, but even that took a lot of pleading."
Zoe was taken aback, staring at her friend, who was still struggling with life's burdens, looking utterly worn out. She suddenly realized that this was the life of most people today—endless toil and stress.
Zoe was now living for herself, lucky enough to have gradually diverged from the path most people tread, embarking on a vastly different journey.
