She always felt that her grandfather was far too indulgent toward Ning Chen.
If it were up to her, she would have sent Ning Chen straight to the Martial Association's management office for re-education, just to teach him some proper manners.
"I'm done eating."
Not wanting to stay here a moment longer, Ning Chen picked up his tray and stood up.
"Hold on a second."
Wen Yue called out to him, smiling as he pulled a pre-prepared business card from his breast pocket.
"My young friend, my number is on here. If you ever run into any tricky situations, remember to call me."
Ning Chen glanced at it.
Good grief, this old man had quite a string of titles.
Honorary President of Qingzhou University.
Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Wenhe Pharmaceuticals.
Standing Director of the Qingzhou City Branch of the Ancient Martial Arts Association.
Below those were researchers at various organizations and honorary advisor titles at various associations, enough to make Ning Chen's eyes spin.
"Fine, whatever."
Ning Chen accepted Wen Yue's business card with the utmost reluctance, then picked up his tray and walked over to the cafeteria's leftover disposal area.
"Grandpa, why are you giving this arrogant punk so much face? It just infuriates me the moment I look at him—who does he think he is, acting all high and mighty?" Wen Qinglan was extremely displeased with Ning Chen's attitude.
"Nineteen years old and at the External Force Great Accomplishment. Isn't that enough to justify acting high and mighty?"
Wen Yue chuckled bitterly. "You've only just reached Initial Entry into External Force. You'll need to practice hard for at least another five or six years to attain his level."
Chapter 33: Junior Xu, Have You Ever Heard of Dimensional Reduction Strikes?
"Grandpa, why are you siding with outsiders..."
Unhappy and breaking away from her usual cold pride, Wen Qinglan pouted her cherry lips. "I'll work hard from now on. I'll definitely surpass him."
"That'll be tough."
Wen Yue gazed at Ning Chen's retreating back.
Was this young man fearless because he was a newborn calf that wasn't afraid of tigers, or did he truly have something backing him up, since he neither feared the Duan family's revenge nor took the Martial Association seriously?
"Old Man Wen!"
At that moment, a male student walked up to the dining table and looked at Wen Yue with a cheerful smile.
Wen Yue froze for a second, and Wen Qinglan by his side wore a chilling look on her pretty face as she demanded, "Who are you?"
"Hello, Senior Sister Wen. My name is Li Xuanming, and I'm the vice class monitor of Clinical Medicine Class 2. I'm looking for Old Man Wen today to report a small matter." The boy hadn't realized the gravity of the situation yet, a bright smile plastered across his face.
Wen Yue: "..."
"You've got some nerve!"
Losing her temper, Wen Qinglan slammed her hand down hard on the table.
With a loud "Bang!", two dinner trays bounced into the air, and the long table itself was left wobbling on the verge of collapse.
Hundreds of students across the entire ground-floor hall of the cafeteria heard the commotion and turned their heads.
"S—Senior Sister Wen, I just wanted to make a suggestion to the old president. The air conditioning in the student dorms is aging too badly, and it really... really needs to be replaced..."
Startled out of his wits, Li Xuanming collapsed backward onto the floor, his face turning pale as paper.
Even the mere presence of a martial artist at the Initial Entry into External Force level was more than ordinary people could withstand.
"And just how did you address him? 'Old Man Wen' is what you called him! Have you grown tired of living?" Wen Qinglan berated him angrily.
If they weren't in the school cafeteria, she would have beaten the living daylights out of this punk.
"I heard Ning Chen from our class call him that, so I thought the old president liked it..."
Li Xuanming stammered in reply, then scrambled up from the ground in a hurry and bowed ninety degrees to apologize. "I'm sorry, Old President! I'm sorry, Senior Sister Wen! I... I..."
"Enough of that. Go call your class counselor over here!"
Wen Yue wasn't entirely without a temper, either.
A few hours later, the school broadcast system announced a disciplinary warning.
Li Xuanming, vice class monitor of Clinical Medicine Class 2 in the Medical Department, showed disrespect toward the old president. To strictly enforce school discipline and educate the individual, after deliberation by the school leadership, a disciplinary warning has been issued to student Li Xuanming!
When Ning Chen heard the announcement, he was somewhat surprised. You couldn't tell just by looking at him, but Li Xuanming this kid was pretty formidable...
...
The most anticipated event of the afternoon was undoubtedly the men's 100-meter dash.
The final heat of the semi-finals kicked off.
Assigned to lane four, Ning Chen ran forward at a steady, unhurried pace, ultimately clinching second place and advancing to the finals without a hitch.
At that moment, two pretty girls, one tall and one short, happened to pass by the running track. The shorter one pointed at Ning Chen in pleasant surprise and cried out:
"Shuyan, look, isn't that Big Brother Dali?"
The short girl was Jiang Tang.
The tall girl was, of course, Xu Shuyan.
She cast a sidelong glance at Ning Chen, quite surprised. "He actually made it to the finals."
"Who would've thought Big Brother Dali not only has brute strength, but is also super fast!"
Jiang Tang gave her best friend a stealthy nudge with her shoulder and laughed mischievously. "Shuyan, you'll be blessed when you marry Big Brother Dali in the future~"
"What kind of nonsense are you spouting!"
Catching the subtext in Jiang Tang's words, Xu Shuyan glared at her irritably.
"Junior Xu?"
Suddenly, a tall, handsome male student jogged over from the competition area and looked at Xu Shuyan with pleasant surprise.
Even though Xu Shuyan was wearing a sun hat and sunglasses today, that pair of stunning legs had caught the attention of countless students all the way here.
Xing Xufei, in particular, recognized the owner of those peerless legs at a single glance.
"Who are you?"
Pushing her sunglasses down slightly, Xu Shuyan glanced at the boy and immediately knew he was just another annoying suitor.
The boy blinked in surprise. "Junior Xu, I'm Xing Xufei from the track and field team. We were just chatting in the cafeteria a few days ago..."
"Oh, it's you."
Xu Shuyan acknowledged him flatly, her face showing little emotion.
Her memory wasn't that bad; she simply didn't want to engage with him.
Yet Xing Xufei failed to take the hint and still pressed forward with a smile. "Junior Xu, the finals are about to start. Are you staying to watch my race?"
"No, I have things to do in a bit," Xu Shuyan replied coldly.
"The race is starting right away." Xing Xufei tried his utmost to make her stay.
He was at his most handsome on the running track, and he was determined to let Xu Shuyan witness his dashing stride.
At that moment, some passing students recognized him.
"That's Xing Xufei from the track and field team! He really is good-looking!"
"I heard Senior Xing has been practicing sprinting since he was a kid. He's a provincial team member now, and there's a chance he might make the national team. Who knows, we might even see him at the Olympics in the future!"
"Senior Xing's family even owns a company. He's super rich!"
Quite a few freshman girls caught sight of Xing Xufei's handsome profile, their cheeks flushing slightly as romantic fantasies blossomed in their hearts.
Some even thought about stepping up to ask for his contact info, but upon seeing the stunning looks of Xu Shuyan and Jiang Tang, they wisely thought better of it and backed down.
Xu Shuyan didn't even need to show her face; that pair of glowing white, peerless legs alone was enough to utterly eclipse them.
"You're that famous?"
Xu Shuyan cast a sidelong glance at Xing Xufei.
Xing Xufei chuckled. "Just a campus hunk, nothing worth mentioning. Junior Xu should stay and watch me take the gold; the race is about to start."
Xu Shuyan let out a cold snort. "The race hasn't even happened yet, and you already know you're going to win?"
"Heh."
Xing Xufei chuckled again, his face brimming with confidence. "In this school, nobody can beat me in the sprinting events. I am the absolute king!"
"Has Junior Xu ever heard of a dimensional reduction strike? I'm a provincial team member, so participating in the school sports meet is basically a dimensional reduction strike."
Folding her arms across her slender white arms, Xu Shuyan said half-doubtfully, "Is that true? You're that amazing..."
"Junior Xu, I'm heading over first. You'll see what a dimensional reduction strike looks like in just a moment."
Xing Xufei shot Xu Shuyan a wink and blinked, almost disgusting her to the core.
"What an utter show-off!"
Xu Shuyan shook her head. She loathed show-off guys the most. "Xiaotang, let's go... Xiaotang?"
Jiang Tang was gone.
Jogging all the way across the running track, she appeared right behind Ning Chen.
"Big Brother Dali!"
Tapping Ning Chen on the shoulder from behind, Jiang Tang appeared before him with a beaming smile. "Hi~!"
"Xiaotang? What brings you here?"
Taken aback, Ning Chen turned his head and instinctively reached out to rub the top of her head, a smile surfacing on his face.
"Look, isn't that Jiang Tang, number five on the campus belle ranking?"
H"She actually let a guy do a head-rub!"
"Is that Jiang Tang's boyfriend?"
Surrounding gazes filled the air with shock.
Fang the Fatty and Zhang Dachun nearly dropped their jaws to the ground.
"Big Brother Dali, let me tell you something..."
Standing on tiptoe, Jiang Tang whispered a few words into Ning Chen's ear.
Ning Chen's eyes instantly lit up. "Really?"
Nodding earnestly, Jiang Tang replied, "Cross my heart!"
"Alright, no problem!"
Ning Chen patted his chest. "What's a mere gold medal? I could win it with my eyes closed."
"Really, Big Brother Dali? You're that amazing?"
Jiang Tang's pretty eyes filled with pleasant surprise.
"Little sis, don't listen to him blow smoke!"
Chapter 34: Young People Really Do Love to Show Off
The voices of two sophomore boys drifted over.
They were doing their pre-race warm-ups.
"In the 100-meter dash, the gold medal definitely belongs to Senior Xing Xufei from junior year. There's no need to even think about it."
"You'll be lucky if you don't come in last place, and you're dreaming about winning gold... Such utter delusions..."
The two boys sneered from ear to ear, clearly trying to show off in front of Jiang Tang.
Ning Chen couldn't be bothered to pay them any mind.
"Xiaotang, what are you running over here for?"
Chasing after her, Xu Shuyan walked up with a thoroughly displeasure expression.
Just then, the race commenced, and the ten competitors made their way to the track.
A roaring tide of cheers erupted from the stadium seats.
"Shuyan, I just told Big Brother Dali something," Jiang Tang said with a cheeky smile.
"What did you say?" Xu Shuyan asked.
"Well... you can't beat me up after you hear it, okay?" Jiang Tang looked slightly apprehensive.
"Why would I beat you up?" Xu Shuyan was baffled.
"I told Big Brother Dali that if he wins the gold medal, Shuyan, you have to let him kiss you once... Ah!"
Before Jiang Tang could finish, Xu Shuyan raised her hand in indignation, feigning a swipe at her.
"Xiaotang, you've gone too far!"
"Wuwuwu, Shuyan, we agreed no hitting!"
"I never said that!"
...
Bang!
As the starting pistol fired off,
the ten contestants shot forward from their marks like arrows loosed from a bowstring.
"Xufei's starting form looks great. It's in the bag."
Up in the seating area, a few guys from the school track and field team chatted while watching the race.
"Need you even say it? Old Xing is guaranteed first place."
"Out of the ten in the finals, eight are from our school track and field team. What's the deal with the other two?"
"No deal at all. They're just filler because nobody else entered, making up the numbers."
These athletic students had zero doubts about Xing Xufei taking the championship.
With a provincial team member participating in the school sports meet, wasn't that textbook dimensional reduction?
"Is Junior Xu watching me?"
Xing Xufei wasn't even focusing on the race himself. As he passed the spot where he had bumped into Xu Shuyan earlier, he glanced back over his shoulder and sure enough, spotted Xu Shuyan and Jiang Tang!
At that moment, the eyes of the two girls held deep astonishment!
"They must be shocked by my speed."
Xing Xufei chuckled inwardly.
As expected, he was at his most charismatic right here on the running track.
He was already picturing how, the moment he crossed the finish line first, Xu Shuyan and Jiang Tang would blush and hurry over to ask for his contact info.
"No, wait, Junior Xu is a campus belle; she can't be that unreserved. I'd better make the first move..."
Xing Xufei was still immersed in his sweet daydream when—
Suddenly, a dark figure flashed right past him, the resulting gust of wind fluttering his hair.
"What!?!?"
Catching sight of the shadow that had just pulled ahead of him, Xing Xufei nearly popped his eyeballs out of his sockets.
"N—No way! How could anyone possibly pass me?"
"Accelerate! Speed up, dammit!"
Putting his all into it, Xing Xufei squeezed out the fastest speed of his life, trying to catch up to that figure as he even roared out loud.
Yet the only result he got was watching that figure pull further and further away.
The two sophomore boys who had mocked Ning Chen before the race also stared with bulging eyes, one of them so shocked that he caught his foot and took a tumble.
"Ahhhhh! Big Brother Dali is amazing!"
"Shuyan, did you see that! Big Brother Dali is in first place!"
At the edge of the track, Jiang Tang bounced up and down, shouting cheers of encouragement for Ning Chen.
Xu Shuyan stared in disbelieving shock with her pretty eyes wide open. This guy could actually run this fast? Had he specifically trained for it?
"Look at that! Who is that?! He's actually running faster than the sports majors!"
"Holy crap, he left Xing Xufei behind by several meters! Awesome!"
"And Xing Xufei is a provincial team member!"
The audience stands erupted into pandemonium.
The gazes of tens of thousands of faculty members and students tracked rapidly along with Ning Chen's runaway figure, all the way until he crossed the finish line and sealed the victory.
"11 seconds 16!"
The teacher in charge of recording times let out an involuntary shriek, then grabbed his head with both hands. "Holy crap! Th—This is national team level! Who is he? Just who on earth is he?!"
The 100-meter dash naturally drew vastly more buzz than the shot put event; virtually everyone on the scene was watching it.
Seeing Ning Chen cross the finish line first, the students of Clinical Medicine Class 2 reacted with a mix of shrieks and sheer bewilderment.
"Champion! Brother Chen is the champion!" Fang the Fatty and Zhang Dachun hugged each other in ecstasy.
"He really won the gold?" Covering her face with both hands, Su Wanwan couldn't believe that her earlier daydream had actually come true.
"No way, this is impossible!" Gritting his teeth, Li Xuanming was practically dying of jealousy.
"I never imagined Ning Chen could be this formidable..." Class monitor Zhang Xinran's pretty eyes widened as well.
Before long, accompanied by several roommates and holding a bottle of water, Su Wanwan ran down from the stands toward Ning Chen.
Yet just as she drew close, Su Wanwan gradually slowed to a halt.
Because she saw two exceptionally pretty girls surrounding Ning Chen, one of whom was tall with snow-white skin, looking so gorgeous she seemed like a fairy descending to the mortal realm.
"Wanwan, who are they?" her roommate Jiang Ying asked.
"I... I don't know..." Su Wanwan shook her head.
"Well, if that isn't the scumbag Ning Chen—already got Wanwan and still flirting with other chicks. Shameless!" Another roommate, Xu Rongli, rolled up her sleeves and prepared to step forward and demand answers.
"Rongli, forget it. W—We aren't actually a couple..." Su Wanwan tugged on Xu Rongli's sleeve and shook her head.
"Huh?!" Her roommates' jaws hit the floor.
Holding her bottle of water, Su Wanwan quietly watched Ning Chen chat with Jiang Tang and Xu Shuyan, an indescribable ache twisting in her heart.
"The two girls by his side... they really are so pretty."
"Are they his friends?"
"No wonder he didn't have the slightest interest in me."
Su Wanwan couldn't help comparing herself to Xu Shuyan and Jiang Tang, and the comparison plunged her into deep inferiority.
That sense of inferiority stemmed largely from their family backgrounds.
Everything Xu Shuyan and Jiang Tang wore added up to probably no less than a thousand yuan (in reality, it was tens of thousands), whereas she was decked out entirely in cheap street-market clothes.
Jiang Tang's sunny, adorable personality and Xu Shuyan's near-flawless facial features and figure both filled her with a profound sense of self-doubt.
Not far away, another campus-belle-tier girl was also keeping tabs on Ning Chen.
Only she was burning with intense fury!
"Does this guy take me and Grandpa's words as blowing in the wind?"
"Entering the shot put was one thing, but with so many people watching the 100-meter dash, he actually dared to compete in it—and even ran times comparable to the national team!"
"Is he genuinely not afraid of drawing an investigation from the Martial Association?"
Stomping her little foot, Wen Qinglan decided she was going to have a proper reckoning with Ning Chen in a bit.
Upon spotting two outrageously pretty girls standing by Ning Chen's side, however, she let out a cold huff. "Hmph, so he was just looking to pick up girls..."
The most miserable of all had to be Xing Xufei.
He had originally assumed that as a provincial team member returning to compete in university, winning the gold was an absolute lock, and a crushing victory at that.
Yet this was how it turned out.
Sitting utterly defeated on the ground and staring at the universally adored Ning Chen, he fell into a profound crisis of existential doubt.
News that a freshman had clocked in times comparable to the national team swept through the Qingzhou University campus like wildfire.
Campus forums, Tieba boards, Qzone, and all sorts of chat groups were flooded with posts.
Even the school leadership was alerted.
Yet after Wen Yue made a few phone calls, the storm gradually settled down.
Seated in his office, the old school president let out a faint sigh. "Young people really do love to show off, oh well..."
With the 100-meter dash over, Ning Chen had no more events left.
Under the watchful gaze of the fifty-plus classmates in Clinical Medicine Class 2, he walked straight out of the stadium, leaving even class monitor Zhang Xinran with zero chance to strike up a conversation.
"Xu Shuyan, it's time you made good on your promise."
Chapter 35: Taoyuan Grand Hotel
Along a certain shaded path on campus.
Ning Chen looked at Xu Shuyan with utmost earnestness.
"Wh—What promise!"
Pretending not to know, Xu Shuyan flushed with blooming red clouds on her pretty face, radiant as a flower.
"Stop playing dumb, Xiaotang told me everything."
Ning Chen shook his head. "To be honest, I've endured this for a long time..."
"Endured it for a long time?"
A strange look flashed through Xu Shuyan's lovely eyes. Darting a quick glance away, she shook her head firmly. "Xiaotang was just joking! How could you actually take her seriously?!"
"Of course I took it seriously."
Ning Chen said righteously, "Can what you've been cooking up every morning even be called food? The salty stuff is salty enough to kill you, and the bland stuff is completely tasteless!"
"Anyway, since I secured the championship, you are never cooking breakfast for me again. That's what you said, so don't you dare go back on your word!"
Xu Shuyan was left bewildered. "What on earth are you talking about..."
Standing beside them, Jiang Tang couldn't help suppressing a giggle as she quietly stepped back two paces.
Noticing her best friend's strange reaction, a wave of embarrassed indignation quickly surged across Xu Shuyan's face. "Jiang! Xiao! Tang! I'm going to kill you!"
"Ah! Murder! Big Brother Dali, save me!"
...
Ning Chen had been living through sheer agony these past few days.
Because whether out of a desire to repay a favor or a sudden urge to hone her culinary skills, Xu Shuyan had actually been making breakfast for him every single day!
If the food tasted decent, he would naturally be willing to enjoy it, but this young lady had lived a life of pampered luxury for eighteen years and never lifted a finger; was the stuff she whipped up even meant for human consumption?
If you served it to a dog, even the dog wouldn't touch it!
"Ning Chen, you've gone too far..."
Once she figured out what had happened, Xu Shuyan pointed an accusatory finger at Ning Chen, her voice laced with a hint of tears.
"Do you have any idea? Even my daddy has never eaten breakfast made by me! If I weren't trying to repay a favor, I wouldn't have made it for you in the first place!"
Lacking even an ounce of chivalry, Ning Chen nodded and said, "It's a good thing you never made any for Uncle Xu, otherwise Uncle Xu would've had his lifespan shortened by at least ten years."
Xu Shuyan was practically driven half-mad with rage. "You..."
Ning Chen stated solemnly, "You've already repaid the favor. From now on, don't you ever step foot in the kitchen again. Seriously, it's just too awful to eat..."
"Ning Chen, you jerk! I hate you to death!" Finishing her tirade, Xu Shuyan turned and ran off in tears.