"No, Ye Qiuli, how can you sing so well?" a girl in the front row asked, pulling Ye Qiuli by the arm.
Ye Qiuli's voice was much clearer than Qin Huai's, exactly the kind of voice most young girls loved!
"It's... it's just alright!" Ye Qiuli replied in a soft voice.
It was his first time being surrounded by so many people. His face was burning fiercely right now; it must be completely red!
"Jiang Ran, your voice is so commanding! I declare that from now on you are my husband!" shouted a girl in the crowd.
Even Jiang Ran, with her thousand-year iceberg face, couldn't help feeling her cheeks grow a little warm!
"Ye Qiuli, are you really not involved with Jiang Ran?" Qing Ke interrogated Ye Qiuli from the corner of the formation, having just "rescued" him.
"I really have nothing to do with her! I don't even know her!" Ye Qiuli lowered his voice to say.
"No, if you have nothing to do with her, would you sing a song like that? Besides, Jiang Ran is a notoriously cold iceberg—how could she possibly agree to a duet with you?" Qin Huai asked, pressing a hand on Ye Qiuli's shoulder, still unwilling to believe it.
"Is it possible she just wanted to properly finish the task assigned by the instructor?" Ye Qiuli said helplessly.
He really didn't know Jiang Ran! How was he supposed to know why she was acting so out of character?
"Impossible!" Li Nuo and the other two said in unison.
"Six!" Ye Qiuli was left speechless by the three of them.
...
"Fall in! Attention!" Ye Long's voice rang out at just the right moment, rescuing the thoroughly cornered Ye Qiuli.
Ye Qiuli stood ramrod straight, the familiar fragrance still lingering near the tip of his nose. Perhaps because they had just performed together, standing next to Jiang Ran didn't make him nearly as nervous anymore!
"Now I will announce the top five performance groups for tonight's art show!" the chief instructor said into the microphone with a beaming smile.
"Fifth place: Finance Class 3!"
"Fourth place: Art Class 4!"
"Third place: Music Class 5!"
"Second place: Geography Class 2!"
"First place: Geography Class 2!"
"The top five teams can be dismissed one hour early tomorrow! Among them, Geography Class 2 performed exceptionally well and can be dismissed an hour and a half early!"
As soon as the chief instructor's voice fell, cheers and groans of regret erupted from across the parade ground!
Those cheering were naturally the top five teams, while those feeling deflated were the teams that failed to place. The loudest cheers of all came from Geography Class 2, which had swept both first and second place!
"Alright, alright, everyone quiet down! We can be dismissed in a moment. Get some rest tonight, everyone, and tomorrow let's strive to pass on the first try!" Ye Long said heartily.
Looking at the envious gazes of his fellow officers around him, a sudden surge of pride welled up in Ye Long. He had originally just come to go through the motions and hadn't planned on leading military training, but now that he was in charge of Geography Class 2, he felt a deep sense of accomplishment in being able to forge such an outstanding team!
"Look at the instructor, he's getting full of himself," Qin Huai whispered with a laugh to Li Nuo beside him.
"The instructor's smile is so sneaky," Li Nuo nodded in agreement.
"Ahem! Everyone dismissed. Qin Huai, you stay behind!" Ye Long said, looking at Qin Huai with a half-smile.
"Serves you right! Totally serves you right for gossiping about our dear instructor behind his back!" Li Nuo chuckled with a shifty, gloating grin.
"Li Nuo, you're staying too!"
"Hahaha!"
"Qing Ke, you as well!"
"Hehe, not so funny now, huh!"
Ye Long beamed as he looked at the three of them lined up in front of him with expressions of utter despair!
"The instructor is so black-bellied," Ye Qiuli muttered, sitting cross-legged on the ground and sticking out his tongue at the three being chewed out.
"Instructor, I'm reporting this! Ye Qiuli just made a face at you!" Qin Huai blurted out, having clearly caught Ye Qiuli's little stunt.
Just as the three of them were smirking, watching Ye Qiuli get roped into their punishment squad, Ye Long's next words shattered their defenses.
"How could someone as well-behaved as Ye Qiuli ever make a face at me? It's obvious you're just trying to frame him," Ye Long said casually, glancing back at the innocent-looking Ye Qiuli sitting quietly on the ground.
"Get ready for push-ups, thirty each!"
...
"Sister Jiang Ran, what are you looking at? Shouldn't we be heading back to the dorms at this hour?" Xiaoxiao waved a hand in front of Jiang Ran's eyes and complained.
Sitting on a bench by the edge of the parade ground, Jiang Ran remained completely still, lost in thought.
"Sister Jiang Ran! What on earth are you trying to do? Sitting here like this—look, all the benches nearby are already filled with guys!" Xiaoxiao said, looking around in utter despair at the surrounding crowd of young men.
Who knows who had leaked it, but word that the freshman campus belle was sitting out on the parade ground had sent the already empty field buzzing with life once more, packed especially with eager male students!
"If you want to go back, you can go ahead," Jiang Ran's gaze remained fixed in one direction, her cool voice devoid of any emotional fluctuation.
"Jiang Ran! Are you looking at Ye Qiuli?!!" Xiaoxiao asked, staring at her in shock.
As she followed Jiang Ran's line of sight, she quickly spotted Ye Qiuli sitting blankly on the ground!
A woman's sixth sense told her that Jiang Ran was definitely watching Ye Qiuli!
"I am looking at him, so what?" Jiang Ran said calmly.
"Do you even hear yourself right now? Haven't you seen the confession wall posts about Ye Qiuli? Why are you paying attention to him?" Xiaoxiao asked in disbelief.
Although she wasn't interested in Ye Qiuli herself, she hadn't missed a single piece of gossip on the confession wall! Lately, Ye Qiuli was a trending topic on the Jing University confession wall. You could even say that on the confession wall, the freshman campus belle couldn't match Ye Qiuli's level of hype!
"What confession wall? What happened to him?" Jiang Ran pulled her gaze back to Xiaoxiao and asked.
"Here, see for yourself." Xiaoxiao handed over her phone as if she had been prepared for this.
Jiang Ran took it and stared at the screen without even blinking.
Her expression shifted from cold to astonished, and then into something rather strange.
"Wait, isn't he a freshman? Why is the confession wall airing so many things about him?" Jiang Ran asked, reading through the longest paragraph of text on the phone.
"As far as I know, all of this stuff was exposed just ten minutes ago! Word is that he tried to make a move on the real young master just to usurp the position of the fake one!"
"And look at this latest post!" Xiaoxiao snatched the phone back, scrolled to the very top Moments post, and pointed it out to Jiang Ran.
"Walk me back to the dorm! I want to see who on earth is targeting him like this!" Jiang Ran was so furious she almost laughed as she read on!
What about playing two fields at once in high school, what about making an ex-girlfriend get an abortion, and there were even claims that Ye Qiuli had lip-synced his singing just now! Plus a whole bunch of other allegations posted right before that!
"Wait, sis? Now you're willing to go back to the dorm?" Xiaoxiao's head was spinning with question marks. No matter how much she had tried to persuade her to leave just moments ago, Jiang Ran had refused, but now she was actively wanting to go back because of Ye Qiuli!
Knowing Jiang Ran, she used to avoid crowds at all costs. Ordinarily, even if Xiaoxiao didn't drag her along, she would have left on her own!
It seemed she really needed to pay close attention to this Ye Qiuli character. Of course, she still thought the idea of Ye Qiuli playing two girls at once was utterly absurd!