The 228 quartet headed straight back to their dorm room the moment they returned!
"Qiuli, you've got some nerve sitting right next to Jiang Ran!" Qin Huai blurted out, finally able to voice the thoughts he had been holding back for over an hour.
"I'll say, Qiuli, you're pretty bold! From what I know about Jiang Ran, she's had a notoriously icy reputation ever since she was a kid. You could say not a single male creature has ever been allowed within three feet of her, let alone guys!" Qing Ke chimed in with a worried look.
It wasn't that he was exaggerating. Back in high school, he had seen with his own eyes a guy who got too close to Jiang Ran get beaten up on the spot, and even the company run by that guy's parents had been targeted! After that incident, no boy ever dared to approach Jiang Ran again!
"Going by the two of you, could it be that Jiang Ran actually prefers girls?" Li Nuo asked thoughtfully.
"That's entirely possible! There were rumors before that Jiang Ran was a misandrist and a lesbian!" Qing Ke pondered for a moment and nodded.
"Actually, I had no idea Jiang Ran was sitting there at all. It was just a bit crowded, so I grabbed the first open seat I saw! If I had known she was there, I would've rather stood than sat down," Ye Qiuli said with a bitter smile.
As someone with severe social anxiety, forget Jiang Ran—just having someone sit next to him was enough to terrify him.
...
"Holy cow, look, Ye Qiuli's already asleep!" Li Nuo exclaimed in surprise as he looked at Ye Qiuli, who was already fast asleep on the adjacent bed.
"Qin Huai, turn down the volume on those short videos! Ye Qiuli's asleep!" Qing Ke whispered from the opposite bed, signaling to Qin Huai, who was sitting nearby and giggling at his phone.
"No way! It's only nine-thirty! He's asleep this early?" Qin Huai asked in disbelief.
"Whatever, I'm turning in too. Lights out, brothers!" Li Nuo said, making a resolute decision to put his phone away after turning off the lights.
"I'm sleeping too. Qin Huai, put on some headphones if you're going to watch videos!"
"Seriously, you guys? Fine, I'm going to sleep too!"
And thus, the record for the earliest lights-out time in room 228 was officially set!
What the three of them didn't know was that Ye Qiuli hadn't slept much during the entire train ride here, which naturally made him drowsy much earlier than usual.
The rest of the night passed without incident!
The next morning, roused by his alarm clock, Ye Qiuli got up bright and early to wash up! Once finished, he made sure to wake the other three as well.
"Seriously, Ye Qiuli, why are you up so early?"
"Get up quickly, or we'll be late for military training! Our meeting spot is the First Playground," Ye Qiuli reminded them, checking the message notifications in the class chat group.
By the time the four of them arrived together at the First Playground, it was already packed with people!
Fortunately, the class monitors for each section had arrived early, standing high with their flags hoisted at their respective assembly points. After all, since school had only started a day ago, practically no one could recognize what their classmates looked like!
"Why are you wearing so many layers?" Qin Huai asked, eyeing Ye Qiuli, who was fully bundled up beside him.
The military training uniforms for Kyoto University this year consisted of short-sleeved shirts and shorts, but Ye Qiuli had insisted on wearing an extra jacket over his, complete with a cap and a thick face mask, making him stand out conspicuously in the crowd.
"Did you forget about those dark spots all over my body? It wouldn't be good if I scared my classmates," Ye Qiuli explained with a helpless shrug.
How he wished the military training uniform came in long sleeves! The weather in Kyoto was still scorching hot!
"Quiet, fall in!"
Before Ye Qiuli could reply, a stern voice rang out.
The newcomer was dressed in a full green military uniform, wearing a fierce expression that demanded authority—it was none of other than the military training instructor!
"Students, my name is Pang De, and I am the instructor for Geography Class 1. For the coming week, I will be leading your military training, and I expect every single one of you to actively cooperate with my training!"
Pang De swept his gaze across the class standing before him, quickly spotting a figure that stood out from the rest.
"Are you serious about this outfit, student? Do you think the weather today is freezing cold?" Pang De stopped right in front of Ye Qiuli and demanded sharply.
"Re—report! I—I can't wear short sleeves!" Ye Qiuli stammered, clearly startled.
"What do you mean you can't! This is military training! So what if a young man gets a bit of a tan? Don't wear something like this just because you're afraid of the sun! Since you're clearly not hot, jog two laps around the playground to warm yourself up!" Pang De barked with a rigid face.
"Instructor, I—"
"Go run right now! If you hesitate, make it four laps!" Pang De interrupted, giving Ye Qiuli no room to explain.
"Instructor, Ye Qiuli really can't wear short sleeves!"
"What do you mean he can't? Since you're defending him, you can go run with him!" Pang De glared at Qin Huai, who was standing next to Ye Qiuli.
Ye Qiuli shook his head at the other three to signal that they didn't need to speak up for him, then turned and broke into a run along the track!
"Running is fine, aren't they just two laps anyway!" Qin Huai muttered angrily as he watched Ye Qiuli's retreating figure.
"You can run four laps now!" Pang De pointed directly at Qin Huai.
"Run it is!" Qin Huai said defiantly.
With that, he chased after Ye Qiuli!
"Hah, anyone else want to speak up for him? Go run four laps yourselves! I refuse to believe I can't whip you lot into shape! A bunch of pampered students! What good are you for anything other than rote memorization?" Pang De scoffed coldly.
"Report, Instructor, I object!" Qing Ke shouted loudly.
As soon as he finished yelling, he bolted after them as well!
"Report, Instructor, I object too!" Li Nuo chimed in at the top of his lungs!
"All four of you, keep running until I say stop! No one stops without my command! Let's see if I can't keep you brats in line!" Pang De roared, his face turning completely dark!
In no time at all, the attention of everyone on the Kyoto First Playground was firmly drawn to Pang De and the four running students!
"Holy crap, those four guys have guts! Daring to talk back to the instructor on the very first day of training!"
"Look at that guy over there, why is he dressed like that?"
"The guy with the glasses is so handsome! Someone help me secretly take a picture so I can post it on the confession wall to find him!"
...
The sight of the four figures running relentlessly captured the widespread attention of the new students!
"What... on earth... are you guys doing?" Ye Qiuli asked in disbelief as he saw the other three pacing alongside him.
"We're brothers! How could we let you hog all the spotlight by yourself? Hahaha!" Qin Huai laughed, slapping Ye Qiuli on the shoulder.
Qing Ke and Li Nuo nodded in complete agreement from the side.
"Thank... you guys!" Ye Qiuli said, his voice choking with emotion.
"Don't mention it! We're buddies!"
"All right, brothers, let's spread out a bit. That old coot is watching us!" Li Nuo warned.
After ordering Geography Class 1 to practice standing at attention, Pang De trotted over to a nearby shaded resting area to scroll through his phone, showing no intention of calling a halt to the four runners.
This was exactly the method he wanted to use to teach Ye Qiuli and his friends a lesson for defying him! Besides, with the medical staff on standby, he wasn't worried about anything going wrong anyway!
...
Time quietly slipped away. The rest of the students in Geography Class 1 had already been dismissed to rest in the shade, and students from most of the other classes were taking breaks as well, yet Ye Qiuli and his four companions were still running.
Only, Ye Qiuli and Li Nuo's stamina was visibly giving out, their clothes thoroughly soaked through with sweat. Qing Ke and Qin Huai were holding up better; both of them had past habits of working out, so a jog of over an hour wasn't too much of a challenge for them!
"Go check which instructor's class those four students belong to! I've been watching them run for over an hour now! With the sun this blazing, what are we going to do if someone collapses?" At that moment, the chief instructor sitting up on the grandstand turned to ask an instructor beside him.