A bus was already parked at the entrance of An Zhong. Teacher Dong led the team, accompanied by two mathematics teachers from the senior year group: Old Zhu and a female teacher surnamed Hu.

Teacher Dong was checking the attendance list when they approached. After finding their four names and marking them off, he told them, “If you need to use the restroom, go now. Otherwise, get on and find your seats.”

None of them needed the restroom, so they boarded the bus one after another. Upon entering, they found that everyone had arrived early. Students from various classes were present, creating a noisy atmosphere. Most were seniors, with a few high-performing second-year students mixed in.

When people saw Qing Ye and Shi Min board, they waved and called them over. However, when Xing Wu and Pang Hu followed behind, everyone fell silent as chickens.

Both boys were over 1.8 meters tall, their heads nearly touching the bus ceiling, instantly creating an unspoken pressure throughout the cabin. Pang Hu was acceptable as the Class 2 monitor, but no one expected Xing Wu to join this year’s winter camp. It was completely unexpected, and his presence alone changed the entire atmosphere of the bus. Those who had been chatting fell silent with awkward expressions, while girls from other classes became visibly uncomfortable.

Qing Ye sensitively noticed the tension and turned to Xing Wu, saying, “Why don’t you smile?”

He lowered his head expressionlessly and replied, “Why should I smile?”

“Don’t you know how scary you look when you don’t smile?”

He remained expressionless, so Qing Ye reached back and tickled his waist. Xing Wu lazily pulled up the corner of his mouth, and others politely smiled back in greeting.

Pang Hu found two rows of connected seats and said, “Brother Wu, sit here. Shi Min, you all sit behind.”

The three of them sat down, while Xing Wu stood in the aisle, placing Qing Ye’s bag overhead before adding his black backpack. Just then, Teacher Zhu brought up a box of mineral water and announced loudly, “Those who want water can come get it from the front. We’ll depart precisely at 8:10.”

Shi Min glanced at Qing Ye and said, “I’ll go get some water.”

As she got up and walked past Xing Wu toward the front, he took the opportunity to sit beside Qing Ye, who turned to him in surprise: “That’s Shi Min’s seat, you should sit in front.”

The bus seats were quite narrow, and he slightly bent his long legs while adjusting the backrest, saying quietly, “Why?”

“…” His posture indicated he had no intention of moving.

Shi Min returned carrying four bottles of mineral water, surprised to find Xing Wu in her seat. He reached out his long arm and took two bottles from her, saying “Thanks.”

It wasn’t clear if he was thanking her for the seat change or the water, but Shi Min could only return to sit beside Pang Hu.

Although Qing Ye had never been to Jin Zhong before, she had assumed it wasn’t far. She was surprised to learn it was in the development zone on the other end of the county, understanding now why the school had arranged bus transportation.

The bus quickly drove past Zhazha Pavilion, with small saplings lining both sides of the road. Warm sunlight streamed through the windows, creating a cozy atmosphere. When Qing Ye turned from looking out the window, she found Xing Wu watching her. They shared a smile, experiencing a sweet sense of secrecy.

Teacher Zhu couldn’t stay still for a moment, standing at the front of the bus organizing everyone to sing “Defend the Yellow River.” As he explained, they were representing An Zhong in the competition, so everyone needed to show spirit and demonstrate the character of An Zhong students. He suggested starting with a familiar and powerful group song to boost morale.

Initially, no one wanted to sing, but Teacher Zhu’s leading voice was so unbearable that everyone had to join in just to drown him out.

Among them, Pang Hu, sitting in front of Qing Ye, sang the most enthusiastically, with powerful lungs and overwhelming vigor, acting as if he were the lead singer.

Qing Ye and Xing Wu didn’t join in, just smiling as they watched Pang Hu’s cheeks quiver. Soon, Qing Ye felt a hand grasp hers beside her. She turned to look at Xing Wu, suddenly feeling nervous, and tried to pull away slightly, but Xing Wu held firm, giving her no chance to escape, his eyes full of teasing light.

Qing Ye suppressed her smile and looked out the window, no longer struggling. She felt an inexplicable thrill holding hands secretly in such a crowded environment.

Forty minutes later, the bus stopped at Jin Zhong, where a banner for the Eighth Winter Camp was already hanging at the entrance. Everyone rose eagerly, and Xing Wu retrieved both his and Qing Ye’s bags. Qing Ye walked off the bus empty-handed with Shi Min.

Unexpectedly, they faced their first challenge immediately after disembarking. Without even putting down their belongings, they followed Jin Zhong’s receiving teachers to the sports field, where they saw the Jin Zhong students standing in battle formation, all wearing dark red windbreakers, arranged in perfect order.

In contrast, their group was scattered and disorganized. Since it was during the holiday, the school didn’t require uniforms, and many wore bulky cotton jackets due to the winter weather. They had already lost significantly in terms of presence, despite singing “Defend the Yellow River” the entire way.

In terms of numbers, they had scraped together fifty students across all grades and classes, while Jin Zhong’s international senior class required full participation, making their numbers double An Zhong’s. Qing Ye immediately felt like heading back home. Looking around at her fellow teammates, she felt they were just there for laughs.

Just as she was lost in thought, a whistle suddenly drew everyone’s attention to the center of the field. An instructor in camouflage uniform took up a megaphone and announced: “Hello everyone, I’m Instructor Wang Bin, and I’m the training instructor for today. Welcome to An Zi County’s Eighth Winter Camp, students from both Jin Zhong and An Zhong.

Instructor Wang continued, “Instructor Zheng and I will be in charge of today’s three activities. These three activities will be conducted as competitions between the two schools, with the winning side receiving the An Zi County Eighth Winter Camp medal.

This winter camp will continue to use camping as our method. Please notice the two boundary lines on the ground in the distance – the red area is Jin Zhong’s camping ground, and the blue area is An Zhong’s. The tents you’ll need for tonight’s camping are already prepared in your respective areas.

Each tent can accommodate eight people, so please form groups of eight. Instructor Zheng and I will now demonstrate how to set up these military tents. Please pay close attention.

Meanwhile, teachers from both schools should arrange the eight-person group lists. After the demonstration, the competition will officially begin. This is a timed competition – the first three groups to complete their tent setup will receive first–, second-, and third-place prizes. The school with two teams placing in the top three will win the first activity’s team victory. Now, please watch carefully how to set up these military tents…”

Qing Ye suddenly felt deeply regretful. Who told her the winter camp was for a mathematics competition? She had thought they would just take a test and be done with it. How did they end up having to pitch tents right after getting off the bus, without even putting down their bags?

The only tent she had ever dealt with was an automatic pop-up one she used when barbecuing with friends in a Beijing park. She had never encountered anything as complex as this. If she had known they would be pitching tents, she would have just pretended to be sick and slept in this morning.

So she began inching, bit by bit, closer to Xing Wu’s side. She tugged at his sleeve, and Xing Wu lowered his head with a questioning “Hmm?”

Qing Ye whispered, “You know how to do this, right?”

Xing Wu looked at her lazily, giving her a look that seemed to say “What do you think?”

Qing Ye said miserably, “I don’t care, I want to be in your group.”

Xing Wu’s lips curled into a smile: “I don’t want to be in your group.”

Qing Ye glared at him fiercely, saying, “You’d better be in my group. Didn’t they say there are two more activities? Who knows, I might be useful somewhere.”

Xing Wu’s eyes crinkled with amusement: “You’re not even slightly embarrassed about openly planning to slack off.”

Qing Ye made a face at him before sneaking to the back to discuss group arrangements with Teacher Zhu. She had thought it through – even if she watched the demonstration, she wouldn’t be able to contribute much. It would be better to use this time to find capable teammates and increase their chances of winning while helping Teacher Zhu figure out the group assignments.

According to Instructor Wang’s competition rules, they needed two teams to place in the top three to win the team prize. Unfortunately, most of their An Zhong participants were girls, with fewer than twenty boys total, making the distribution challenging.

Each team needed at least two boys, but there weren’t enough remaining boys to form two complete teams. Analyzing the probability of getting two teams into the top three, Qing Ye suggested concentrating on their strength since they were short on numbers anyway. Shamelessly, they put six boys in one team to increase their chances of winning.

Initially, Teacher Dong thought Xing Wu looked physically capable and wanted to put him in the six-boy team, but Qing Ye immediately objected: “We can’t arrange it like that – it would be such a waste. We’ll lose if we do that. Take Xing Wu out and let him lead a separate team. That’s our only chance of getting two teams to place.”

Her confident tone made all the teachers look at her in surprise. Qing Ye laughed nervously: “It’s just… a suggestion, you know?”

After some discussion, the teachers decided to put Xing Wu in a separate team, and of course, Qing Ye managed to slip into his team as well.

So when Teacher Dong announced the groups, she was already standing beside Xing Wu with a smile, earnestly telling him: “It’s all up to you, Boss.”

At her words, everyone assigned to Xing Wu’s group gathered around, calling out: “Boss, can we slack off?”

Xing Wu looked speechlessly at the five girls and two boys before him, really wanting to tell them that his life motto was “never carry when you can lie down,” but today he was faced with seven people wanting to slack off, setting him up to carry the entire team.

After a whistle blew, everyone started running around like headless chickens gathering materials. Although they had seemed confident watching the instructor’s demonstration, when faced with the pile of equipment, they were all at a loss.

Only Xing Wu remained standing in place, hands in his pockets, not moving at all. Qing Ye turned back anxiously and called out: “Are you planning to give up?”

Xing Wu raised an eyebrow: “Give up? That word doesn’t exist in my battlefield.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he called out two girls’ names, assigning them to sort all the support poles, designated another girl for rope-tying, had the two boys spread out the tent, and assigned someone else to mark according to his instructions.

Qing Ye pointed to her nose and asked, “What about me?”

Xing Wu glanced at her sideways, his lips curling into a smile: “Stay with me.”

So while everyone else was still running around like headless chickens, their team had already efficiently divided the work and begun moving in an orderly fashion.

Perhaps due to Xing Wu’s naturally intimidating presence, while other groups got into arguments or endless discussions about what pieces were for what, their team had no such problems. No one dared contradict Xing Wu – when he gave an order, everyone’s execution was incredibly high, afraid he might kick them if they didn’t do well.

Qing Ye truly did slack off following behind Xing Wu, though she wasn’t completely useless. Probably to give her some sense of participation, Xing Wu would have her pass things or help with small tasks.

Qing Ye discovered that Xing Wu was a real hands-on genius – everything that seemed extremely complex to her, he only needed a glance to know where it went and how to use it.

While other groups were still building and rebuilding, trying to figure things out, they hadn’t taken a single wrong step and their military tent was already taking shape, causing the Jin Zhong students across from them to jump with anxiety. Even Instructor Wang ran over with his megaphone, and seeing Xing Wu’s technique in securing the poles while crouching, asked, “Student, have you set up this kind of tent before?”

Xing Wu didn’t even acknowledge him. As the boss’s assistant, Qing Ye appropriately raised her head and answered for him: “Whether he’s done it before isn’t important. His only flaw is that he’s naturally gifted at everything.”

“…” Instructor Wang stared at these two students in bewilderment.

Xing Wu’s lips curled into a smile as he glanced up at her: “Come help.”

“Right away!”