Xing Wu strode across the field with his long legs. Qing Ye, panting heavily, chased after him and grabbed his arm. “Where are you going? Aren’t you competing?”

Xing Wu stopped and turned around. “It’s boring. I’m going to find a place to smoke. Why did you come out?”

Qing Ye looked at him and said frankly, “Then I won’t go back either.”

Xing Wu lowered his gaze and gently stroked her nose with his finger. “Does it hurt?”

Qing Ye immediately smiled. “What pain? It was just a stupid sandbag.”

“Then why did you cry like that?”

Qing Ye tugged at his sleeve, smiling mischievously. “Actually… I’m an actress.”

She pulled him toward the tents. Xing Wu’s long arm yanked her back, making her fall against his chest. Looking down at her, he asked, “Were you worried about me?”

Qing Ye gazed at him intently, her eyes flickering. “What do you think? This is their home turf. I was afraid they might give you trouble. Don’t be impulsive later.”

Then she tilted her head and stared at him. “But how did you notice someone hitting me while you were still rock climbing?”

Xing Wu’s lips twitched, his eyes enchantingly gentle. “I just happened to look that way.”

“Looking at what?”

“Checking if you were watching me show off.”

Qing Ye pulled him forward with a suppressed smile. “How could I not watch? Didn’t you hear all those girls screaming for you? Feeling proud of yourself!”

Xing Wu let her lead him, responding lazily, “Whatever you say. Where are we going?”

“To get food.”

Worried that Xing Wu hadn’t eaten enough, Qing Ye had asked Shi Min earlier where the food was kept, then led Xing Wu directly to their tent.

Since it was a girls’ tent, even though no one was there, Xing Wu didn’t go inside. He sat on the ground outside waiting for her.

Qing Ye went in and found an instant noodle cup, then poured hot water from the thermos. She also grabbed her preserved plums and walked out.

Their tent was positioned between several others, sheltered from the wind with warm sunlight streaming down. At this time, everyone was at the competition, and it was peacefully quiet. The two sat side by side, quite contentedly.

Qing Ye handed the prepared Sour and Spicy noodles to Xing Wu. When opened, the aroma wafted out immediately.

She watched him eagerly and asked, “Is it good?”

Seeing her hungry expression, Xing Wu picked up some noodles and held them to her mouth. Qing Ye took a bite and praised sincerely, “It’s really good.”

They took turns eating, and soon finished the cup of noodles, even splitting and drinking all the soup.

Qing Ye sighed and lamented, “Why are we so pathetic? Why did we pay eighty yuan to come here and eat instant noodles? I suddenly really want to go eat at that casual dining place. Wouldn’t steak be better?”

She popped a preserved plum into her mouth. Xing Wu leaned back on his hands, looking at her lazily. When she turned her head, the warm golden light danced in his pupils, reflecting a tiny version of her. His prominent Adam’s apple moved up and down, and his gaze swept across her lips as he suddenly asked, “Is it sour?”

“Mm… a little.”

“Let me taste.”

Just as Qing Ye picked up the jar of preserved plums, Xing Wu leaned forward and captured her lips, his warm tongue parting her teeth to easily steal the preserved plum from her mouth. He greedily slid across her lips and tongue, brazenly taking her breath away.

Qing Ye was still holding the jar of preserved plums, and by the time she realized what had happened, the plum in her mouth had vanished, and someone had thoroughly taken advantage of her.

She raised her small fist and punched him, saying, “How dare you do that?” Xing Wu didn’t dodge, just lowered his gaze with a slight smile.

She asked him, “Was it sour?”

“Sweet.”

Around four o’clock, people started returning. Pang Hu, wearing only a short-sleeved shirt due to the heat, spotted Xing Wu and Qing Ye sitting leisurely in front of the tent from far away and exclaimed, “I, I say, where did you two go? W-why didn’t you call me?”

They both gave Pang Hu mysterious smiles.

Qing Ye asked, “How did it go?”

Pang Hu angrily threw his jacket on the ground. “We l-lost. Brother Wu’s round wasn’t even counted. Otherwise, we might have had a chance. It’s so frustrating. I wanted to argue about it, but Old Dong wouldn’t let me. Said participation was what mattered. What b-bullshit.”

The others came back too, and Xing Wu noticed everyone’s angry expressions. He asked, “Did another conflict break out?”

Xiao Ling Tong ran over, lifting his shirt to wipe sweat as he said, “We cursed at them a bit. If we can’t win the competition, at least we can feel better verbally.”

Xing Wu coldly snorted, “How impressive.”

Then his eyes narrowed as he told him, “Pull your shirt down.”

Before Xiao Ling Tong could react, Pang Hu reached over and pulled his shirt down, saying, “Y-yeah, why are you lifting your shirt? There are g-girls here.”

Xiao Ling Tong finally noticed Qing Ye belatedly, but she hadn’t been paying attention to him at all, remaining quite silent. Xing Wu glanced at her, and though she showed no expression, he knew she was probably upset inside.

She wasn’t the type to care much about winning or losing in these unimportant competitions, but her sense of justice made her quite disapproving of this situation.

However, some teenagers exchanging insults would soon blow over, and it didn’t affect everyone’s mood to fool around together.

At dinner time, they finally had a proper meal to eat, but the annoying part was that before eating, they had to watch Jin Zhong award the medals for the 8th Winter Camp to stimulate the An Zhong students.

Although it was just a medal to wear around their necks, the Jin Zhong students each raised theirs to show off to the An Zhong students, their behavior no better than Xiao Ling Tong’s that morning.

This led to Pang Hu eating three big bowls of rice at dinner, as if he was trying to spite someone.

During dinner, Qing Ye learned there would be a bonfire party that night. Although the two schools were on bad terms due to the day’s competition, it didn’t affect these young people’s enthusiasm for the bonfire party. Take Pang Hu for example – after eating his fill, he became energetic again, hanging on Xing Wu’s shoulder and saying slyly, “Brother Wu, shall we try to hook up with some Jin Zhong girls tonight?”

Qing Ye was standing right next to Pang Hu, looking up at Xing Wu. Xing Wu felt her gaze and said with a half-smile, “Get lost, they’re all ugly anyway.”

Pang Hu immediately protested, “There’s one who’s quite c-cute.”

Since boys always get caught up in discussing girls, Pang Hu pulled Xing Wu aside, talking with animated gestures.

As night fell, the area used for the obstacle course in the afternoon had been cleared, with a large bonfire platform set up in the middle. Everyone gradually walked over.

There were quite a lot of people, and the bonfire instantly ignited that vague, ambiguous feeling between the young men and women, especially among so many unfamiliar peers from the two schools. Everyone’s faces were beaming with excited smiles during this bold, passionate time of their youth.

They gradually sat around the bonfire, with bursts of chatter rising and falling. The mobile speakers around them played popular songs on a loop. Without anyone noticing how it started, the two schools suddenly began to battle – Qing Ye was talking to Shi Min at the time and didn’t notice how it began.

When everyone around them suddenly started shouting excitedly, Qing Ye and Shi Min stopped their conversation and looked over together. They saw a short guy from Jin Zhong suddenly break into street dance along with the energetic music, making provocative gestures toward the An Zhong side while a crowd of Jin Zhong students behind him whooped and hollered.

Xiao Ling Tong ran around anxiously calling out, “Quick, quick, we need to show some special talents too!” Everyone looked at each other uncertainly.

Qing Ye thought they were just asking for humiliation. She wondered who had started this.

In her class in Beijing, it would have been hard to find someone without special talents. Parents there generally started developing their children in various directions from kindergarten. Just from the incident of An Zhong’s parents protesting to cancel evening self-study, you could see that people here generally didn’t place much emphasis on their children’s education, let alone developing other special skills.

However, what surprised Qing Ye was that while An Zhong students might not have any proper talents, they were incredibly skilled at peculiar tricks.

After one high school sophomore demonstrated the special ability to move his eyebrows up and down independently, there followed performances of swallowing fists, putting coins in nostrils, holding water in collarbones, and a Class 5 male student even showed the completely incomprehensible pose of sitting on the ground with his leg behind his neck, leaving the Jin Zhong students opposite absolutely dumbfounded.

However, since An Zhong had fewer people, dealing with Jin Zhong’s students required everyone to participate, so they simply went from left to right with each person showing a special trick.

Qing Ye asked Xing Wu with a dark expression, “What should we do? Should we sneak away?”

Xing Wu sat cross-legged, looking at her sideways. “Is that all you’ve got? Aren’t you supposed to be multi-talented?”

“I can play most instruments, but there aren’t any instruments here. What do you plan to do?”

Xing Wu turned his head and asked Fang Lei and the others, “Do you have paper and a pen?”

Fang Lei threw him a pen and then borrowed a notebook from a Class 3 girl.

Just as Xing Wu received them, it was Pang Hu’s turn, who was sitting to his left. Everyone turned to look at Pang Hu, who suddenly stood up, pulled up his down jacket that had ridden up, and suddenly sucked in his stomach, gathering his breath.

When he released his first note, everyone’s hearts – including An Zhong students, Jin Zhong students, and the surrounding teachers and instructors – jumped. The previously noisy environment instantly fell silent.

Qing Ye could never have imagined that he would open with the climax of “Nessun Dorma,” Pavarotti’s classic piece. Everyone’s emotions rose and fell with this magnificent, emotionally charged song. Pang Hu’s powerful voice seemed to have built-in amplification. When his rich, solid high notes came out, everyone instantly got goosebumps. Qing Ye stared at him in disbelief, as if even the flames in the bonfire were dancing and leaping with his voice.

His final “se tu” grew increasingly powerful, with continuously explosive high notes releasing his internal power like a bursting dam, igniting everyone’s passion and moving them deeply. Many people instantly had tears in their eyes. His gradually weakening ending allowed those tightly wound emotions to suddenly clear with his voice. The entire venue froze.

Pang Hu had been singing with his eyes closed, totally absorbed. When he opened his eyes and looked around, he was startled himself, cursing “Damn,” not understanding why everyone looked so stunned.

The next second, as a short guy from Jin Zhong stood up, almost everyone rose and frantically applauded and whistled at Pang Hu. Xiao Ling Tong and several other boys directly jumped on him.

At this moment, there was no distinction between Jin Zhong and An Zhong. Everyone was moved by the song and gave Pang Hu their applause. However much ridicule Pang Hu had suffered during the day, he now received that much praise.

Even Qing Ye gave him two thumbs up and shouted, “Amazing! You could debut right now!”

Pang Hu lowered his head with an embarrassed smile. Perhaps in all his life, except for his few hundred fans on Changba, this was the first time he had been praised so directly by people, and it felt quite awkward.

However, while everyone was excited for Pang Hu, Xing Wu remained seated on the ground, head lowered, writing something in the notebook that no one paid attention to. After several minutes, as the excitement gradually subsided, Xiao Ling Tong started taunting the Jin Zhong people again.

The next performer from Jin Zhong was a girl, small in stature with a round face and big eyes. Coincidentally, she also sang, performing “Girl with Fluttering Wings.” Although her voice was quite pure and clear, compared to Pang Hu’s explosive male soprano just before, she was outmatched.

As the girl sang toward the end, she became self-conscious and blushed, not finishing the song. Originally there was only scattered applause, making the girl feel quite embarrassed, but unexpectedly, Pang Hu suddenly led the applause and shouted, “Great!”

The girl looked up at Pang Hu gratefully. Pang Hu nudged Xing Wu beside him and said, “Look, look, this is who I was talking about. Isn’t she cute? I just found out she’s Jin Zhong’s school beauty.”

Xing Wu glanced up briefly then lowered his head again, capping the pen and returning it to Fang Lei. At this point, everyone’s eyes turned to Xing Wu.

Qing Ye leaned over and whispered in his ear, offering sincere advice: “Why don’t you break the speaker and then perform an on-the-spot repair?”

“Are you crazy or am I?”

“……”