The eagerly awaited dumplings were finally ready. Pang Hu and another person brought up two large bowls. As soon as they placed them on the table, everyone pounced on them like hungry wolves, dividing them all up in less than a minute.

Qing Ye sat in her seat completely dumbfounded. She was still holding her bowl but hadn’t had a chance to take any – they were all gone. Gone?

While she was still in a daze, Xing Wu grabbed her bowl and directly poured half of his seized dumplings into it, whispering in her ear, “You were quite foresighted. If I hadn’t come, you could have starved to death.”

“…”

Since everyone had made them themselves, they all found them especially delicious. Even Qing Ye, who rarely ate dumplings usually, thought the ones they had wrapped were particularly tasty.

After she finished eating, she glanced to the side and realized Xing Wu’s bowl was already empty. He was sitting next to her looking down at his phone, waiting for her. Qing Ye asked him, “Are you full?”

He stood up with his long legs: “More or less.”

Qing Ye stood up too and said, “You aren’t full.”

Xing Wu glanced at her: “Missing one meal won’t kill anyone.”

Qing Ye knew his appetite well – these few dumplings weren’t even enough to fill his teeth.

After leaving the dining hall, there was half an hour of free time. Some people walked towards the tents, while most stood chatting in the open space by the dining hall entrance.

Fang Lei pulled Qing Ye aside: “Will you come with me to find Wei Dong?”

Qing Ye turned to look at the group from Jin Zhong School. Fang Lei said somewhat nervously, “I’m a bit embarrassed to go alone.”

Qing Ye turned back to Xing Wu and Pang Hu, saying, “Fang Lei and I have something to do.”

Xing Wu nodded slightly. Fang Lei immediately linked arms with Qing Ye, looking very nervous. Qing Ye found it amusing – usually when she saw Fang Lei at school, whether in their class or facing the girls from Class 4 like Cao Fan’s group, she had never panicked. But now she had such an anxious expression. Indeed, even the fiercest women could instantly turn into little girls when facing someone they liked. Qing Ye felt she had deep personal experience with this point.

Even during free time, the clear division between the two schools was apparent – all the Jin Zhong students huddled together. So when two An Zhong girls walked in their direction, everyone turned to stare at them.

Qing Ye asked quietly, “Which one?”

Fang Lei told her, “The one on the left wearing glasses.”

Qing Ye looked over and saw just one guy wearing glasses in that area – tall and thin, with delicate features, giving off a very refined impression.

Fang Lei called out to him: “Wei Dong.”

To Qing Ye’s great surprise, this young man blushed. She had always thought that given Fang Lei’s wolf-like temperament, the guy she liked would have to be quite manly, but who knew the one she was so infatuated with would turn out to be this cream puff type?

When the Jin Zhong boys around Wei Dong heard Fang Lei call him, they all started teasing and pushing him. He was embarrassed and ran over in two steps. Fang Lei said to Qing Ye, “Wait for me, okay? I just need to say a few words to Wei Dong.”

“Go ahead.”

So Qing Ye stood waiting. Fang Lei and Wei Dong walked a few steps away. Qing Ye wondered if they weren’t plotting the time and location for some scheme – the more she thought about it, the more she couldn’t bear to watch.

But there she stood alone next to the Jin Zhong group, wearing a crisp olive green fitted coat with a large fur collar – warm but not bulky – with black skinny pants and short Martin boots, her slightly curled ponytail giving her a clean and neat look with an unapproachable cool air.

Her natural grace and pure, gentle features soon had the Jin Zhong students whispering among themselves, many trying to find out her name.

Just then, a boy from the crowd walked directly up to Qing Ye and said, “Hello, Qing Ye, what a coincidence that you signed up for the winter camp too?”

Qing Ye turned to see Ye Ying Jian, whose hairstyle looked hurricane-proof. Mixed in with all the Jin Zhong students wearing the same clothes, she hadn’t even noticed him.

She looked him up and down, a faint smile playing on her lips. This guy was truly ridiculous – coming to a winter camp with his hair styled like he was attending a wedding. If it weren’t for all his classmates around, she wanted to take a photo to send to Liu Nian for a good laugh.

Of course, despite mentally mocking him a thousand times, Qing Ye’s expression remained mild: “Not really a coincidence, since it’s just our two schools participating. Given our respective grades, as long as you don’t have health issues, the probability of us meeting is 100%.”

Ye Ying Jian asked in surprise, “Why would I have health issues, not you?”

Qing Ye tilted her head, smoothing her ponytail: “Who knows?” She had just said it randomly.

Her clear expression carried an air of casual indifference, her skin glowing fair and rosy in the light, quite beautiful.

But Ye Ying Jian took it seriously. He puffed up his chest, patting what he considered to be his robust chest, and very seriously told her: “Qing Ye, I think you might have some deep misunderstanding about me. I’m a person with a very regular lifestyle. I wake up half an hour early every morning to run, ensuring daily exercise. Also, I take swimming lessons on weekends. I haven’t had a cold or fever for over half a year.”

“??? Why are you telling me all this?”

Ye Ying Jian probably didn’t want to leave Qing Ye with the impression that he was weak and sickly, so he gave this explanation. But now he didn’t know why he had explained, so he just stood there awkwardly staring at her.

Seeing this, Qing Ye couldn’t help but laugh, having mentally called him an idiot no less than ten times.

Ye Ying Jian touched his rock-hard hairstyle and said very seriously to Qing Ye: “I’ve heard about your score in last month’s exam. One good performance doesn’t guarantee every performance will be good. In tomorrow’s David Cup, I’m determined to win and won’t show you any mercy.”

“…” What kind of person was this?

After last month’s exam, Qing Ye had heard that Jin Zhong’s highest score was 639, from the international class – presumably this was this “my family owns a mine so I’m awesome” Ye Ying Jian.

Face to face with a worthy opponent, Qing Ye made a gesture of invitation, smiling as she said: “Don’t show any mercy at all, we have no friendship to speak of.”

Ye Ying Jian saw Fang Lei walking back towards Qing Ye and turned away with an unconvinced expression.

Qing Ye asked Fang Lei, “All done?”

Fang Lei nodded: “Let’s go.”

Just as Qing Ye was about to turn around, she suddenly heard someone in the Jin Zhong crowd say: “It looks quite nice, I want to buy one too.”

Another girl said in a sarcastic tone: “I saw the same parka online, it’s only one or two hundred yuan, what’s there to be so proud of?”

Qing Ye turned back to look at the short-haired girl, her face expressionless as she withdrew her gaze. Fang Lei also looked at Qing Ye’s coat.

As they walked back, Fang Lei couldn’t help asking: “Qing Ye, is your parka only one or two hundred yuan?” If it was, she wanted to buy one too.

Qing Ye asked with a half-smile: “What do you think?”

Fang Lei hesitated, touched the two-toned fur collar, and asked again: “Is your family very wealthy?”

“You’ve been classmates with Xing Wu for three years – don’t you know if his family is wealthy?”

“…” Fang Lei was left speechless.

Qing Ye walked towards Xing Wu, who was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. He gave her a sideways glance and said coolly: “Had a nice chat?”

Qing Ye looked at him in surprise: “You mean with Ye Ying Jian?”

“Mm, that rich family’s foolish son.”

Thinking of all the nonsense Ye Ying Jian had just said, Qing Ye instantly lost control and burst out laughing, covering her mouth and patting Xing Wu’s shoulder: “Don’t say that, I quite like him.” After all, there were odd people every year, but he was one of a kind.

Xing Wu’s face darkened. He turned his head aside, removed her hand, even dusted off his shoulder, stuck his hands in his pockets, and started walking towards the sports field.

Qing Ye quickly caught up and bumped into him: “Hey, you’re not very picky about who you get jealous over, are you?”

Xing Wu moved a step away to distance himself: “Please maintain your dignity, young lady.”

Qing Ye kicked at him. Xing Wu narrowed his eyes and gave her a sideways glance, leaving Pang Hu, Fang Lei, and the others following behind completely shocked – since when had Xing Wu become so good-tempered? Indeed, the big sister was truly the big sister!

When they reached the sports field, they found the afternoon’s competition events had already been set up – it turned out to be an insane obstacle course. Qing Ye slapped her forehead: “No way…”

But Xing Wu said indifferently: “Looks quite fun.”

“…” How was this fun?

Instructor Wang ran over, and called out “Fall in!”, and the Jin Zhong and An Zhong students lined up with red and blue lines as boundaries.

Instructor Wang announced that lunch had been their second competition item, called “Do It Yourself, Clothe and Feed Yourself”, aimed at cultivating everyone’s teamwork ability and self-reliance capability.

Based on observation, both Jin Zhong and An Zhong students had performed well in the second round, being able to fill their stomachs with the available ingredients, but since Jin Zhong had performed more excellently, they won the second round.

“???”

The An Zhong side immediately erupted in dissatisfied boos, while Jin Zhong refused to back down and started shouting. With their greater numbers, their shouts immediately drowned out An Zhong.

Qing Ye had no idea what the evaluation criteria were. In terms of hands-on ability, the An Zhong group made more varieties from the flour. Was it about who ate faster? If it was about eating speed, their table would be first.

She immediately raised her hand. Teacher Dong ran over and asked: “Qing Ye, what is it?”

“I’d like to borrow your megaphone.”

As soon as she said this, Xing Wu directly took the megaphone from Teacher Dong’s hand and passed it to Qing Ye. Without hesitation, Qing Ye raised the megaphone and asked clearly: “Instructor Wang, could you please announce the evaluation criteria for the second round? So we know where we fell short?”

A visible twitch crossed Instructor Wang’s face. Qing Ye’s lips curved slightly as she stared at him contemptuously.

Instructor Zheng beside him quickly took the megaphone and said very diplomatically: “The Jin Zhong students actively helped the cafeteria aunties clean up the tables after eating – behavioral habits are also one of our evaluation criteria.”

The smile faded from Qing Ye’s lips. Clean up my ass – when they left the cafeteria, those Jin Zhong people were also standing outside sunbathing. Qing Ye’s challenge plus Instructor Zheng’s response made it obvious to anyone with eyes that this was just an excuse.

Xing Wu said quietly beside her: “Let it go.”

Qing Ye said stiffly: “Thank you.”

As she turned off the megaphone and handed it back to Teacher Dong, she seemed to hear Teacher Dong sigh softly.

Then Instructor Wang began announcing the content of the afternoon’s third competition. Twenty female and male students from each school would participate in a “Brave Warriors’ Challenge”, including crawling through obstacles, walking across single-plank bridges, rock climbing, etc. During the process, both sides could arrange for non-participating students to throw sandbags from outside the ropes to interfere with the other team’s progress.

Xing Wu looked down at Qing Ye, who appeared to be holding back great anger.

He pulled her hair: “Is it worth getting so angry?”

Qing Ye pursed her lips unhappily: “I’m not angry about their unfairness, I’m angry that why are the people from our school such cowards? Look at those three teachers not daring to say anything. If we’d eaten our fill it would be fine, but the key is we didn’t even eat enough.”

“Still hungry?”

Qing Ye looked up at him: “I’m worried you’re hungry.”

Xing Wu’s eyes curved slightly: “I can handle hunger. Later, Big Brother will help you fly.”

“Little brother.”

Xing Wu gave her an unfriendly look to interpret as she wished.

Qing Ye told him very confidently: “I’ve done this kind of obstacle course before during military training.”

Xing Wu smiled without speaking. Sure enough, when it came time to discuss the list of participants, she volunteered to join the sandbag-throwing team.

She even seriously stamped her Martin boots in front of Xing Wu: “It’s just that I’m not wearing the right shoes, otherwise I’d compete.”

“…” What Xing Wu was thinking, however, was that given her accuracy when throwing the shot put that day, it would be thanks enough if she didn’t hit their people.