“Hello everyone, I am your Chief Instructor Zhou Cheng. During this military training, I will lead all instructors in conducting your two-week training program…”

“Here, all instructors hope that students must: maintain the correct mindset for military training, overcome fear of hardship and fatigue, overcome your arrogance, increase your determination, and treat this training as a real test! Obey orders, follow commands, and execute without hesitation! Observe military training discipline and strengthen your sense of discipline!”

The earlier part was all standard rhetoric.

Perhaps because Zhou Cheng’s presence was too commanding, though his voice wasn’t particularly loud, no student dared to whisper, making his voice exceptionally clear.

Later, Zhou Cheng raised his voice, switching to a rhetorical mode as he interacted with the freshmen:

“You are all Huaqing University freshmen, the nation’s most outstanding university student group. During training, can you learn humbly, not be ashamed to ask questions, seriously shout every training slogan, and carefully execute every training movement? Can you fully demonstrate the demeanor of university students and showcase the comprehensive qualities of Huaqing University students? Tell me, can you do it?!”

Even if they couldn’t do it, no one would admit it.

Zhou Cheng’s provocative approach stirred up many people’s fighting spirit.

Huaqing students had never backed down—without the guiding principle of “challenge accepted,” how would they have fought their way through the millions of college entrance exam competitors?

Of course, they relied on their brains, not physical strength.

Looking around, skinny stick-like male students still formed the majority.

Though well aware of their physical limitations, they wouldn’t verbally admit defeat. Their passionate spirits were all stirred up by Zhou Cheng—he looked young, and many instructors standing behind him still had traces of youth.

If Zhou Cheng and the instructors could do it, they, as peers, could do it too!

“We can do it!”

“Instructor, we can do it!”

Amid the scattered voices, Zhou Cheng frowned, “Didn’t eat before coming to training? Louder!”

“WE CAN DO IT!”

This time, many people shouted at the top of their lungs, including many usually quiet female students.

“Good, now follow my command: all male students turn right, all female students turn left, march in step!”

Such a simple thing?

Why couldn’t some people even distinguish left from right? Xia Xiaolan and a male classmate turned to face the same direction.

They stared at each other, and Xia Xiaolan kindly reminded him, “Wu classmate, I think you turned the wrong way.”

“Really?”

Wu’s voice was trembling.

Damn, hadn’t he gripped his writing hand—his right hand—to help distinguish left from right? Why did he still turn wrong? Standing next to Xia Xiaolan in formation had already made him nervous enough. Xia Xiaolan’s hair smelled so nice—the more nervous he got, the easier it was to make mistakes!

Xia Xiaolan nodded—classmate, you didn’t distinguish left from right, stop struggling.

Fortunately, Wu wasn’t the only one who couldn’t tell left from right. There were both males and females—no one could laugh at others. When mixed it wasn’t noticeable, but once they separated left and right for marching, it became obvious at a glance that Huaqing’s female students were fewer than male students.

Not only did the Architecture Department have a terrifying 10:1 male-to-female ratio, but the situation in other departments wasn’t optimistic either.

Ji Jiangyuan, mixed in with the male students, commented precisely: “Getting into Huaqing is hard, finding a girlfriend at Huaqing is harder. Friends, look at this shocking gender ratio—if you don’t act quickly, how will you find girlfriends?”

His roommate was equally sharp in retort, “You tried to act quickly, but Xia’s classmate already has a boyfriend!”

Ji Jiangyuan immediately fell silent.

He felt he might have brought trouble to Xia, as some unfavorable rumors had spread about her at school.

“Listen up, men and women! Form into small units of 10 people each, separate formations, you have 1 minute to complete this!”

The whispers were momentary, and Zhou Cheng was letting them form their units!

How to divide?

Those familiar with each other are naturally grouped.

The most familiar were dormitory mates, classmates, and department mates.

Xia Xiaolan naturally grouped with Su Jing and others.

Because Ning Xue was in their “unit,” even though they had 10 people, others still tried to squeeze in.

Indeed, Room 307 had 7 people excluding Yang Yonghong, with Ning Xue making 8, and finally, 3 people from Room 305 joined. The female students from Architecture Department Classes 2 and 3 formed a military training unit!

A girl from Room 305 even glared at Xia Xiaolan.

Su Jing immediately objected, “Hey, what’s her problem, Class 1 trying to squeeze in?”

Though Ning Xue wasn’t warm in personality, she was likable—Xia Xiaolan used to have this treatment too, but unfortunately, that was history.

Wanting to be close to Ning Xue was fine, but wanting to push Xia Xiaolan out?

Director Xia wanted to say, get lost!

Zhou Cheng’s self-grouping task seriously exceeded expectations—no one completed it within one minute. Xia Xiaolan was still admiring Zhou Cheng’s strategy; with this separation, given how few female students there were at Huaqing, he would surely spot her at a glance… Zhou Cheng’s gaze swept over, then quickly moved away.

What was going on?

Director Xia suspected she had a fake boyfriend.

Because Zhou Cheng showed no regard for his girlfriend being among the training freshmen, and because students exceeded the time limit for self-grouping, Zhou Cheng instantly transformed into a demon king, punishing male students with 10 laps around the field and female students with 8 laps!

An extremely foolish female student blurted out: “Instructor, this is discrimination against women, you don’t respect gender equality! What men can do, we women can do too! Right, fellow female students?”

Some female students supported her.

Zhou Cheng nodded: “Fine, then women will run 10 laps too. During military training, I won’t make the mistake of gender inequality again. Huaqing’s female students are truly impressive!”

Everyone was used to competition.

Not yielding in academics, now not yielding in running laps either.

What could Xia Xiaolan say? She suspected her fake boyfriend was using this as an excuse.

Zhou Cheng’s gaze never looked at her from start to finish, so Xia Xiaolan simply didn’t court embarrassment.

Was Zhou Cheng in a bad mood?

Was he angry after reading her letter?

Xia Xiaolan was completely confused—she hadn’t mentioned breaking up in the letter.

Instructor Zhou’s show of authority had thoroughly subdued the freshmen; even those who disagreed had no energy left to challenge the instructor. Except for a few with excellent physical condition, like Ji Jiangyuan among the males and Xia Xiaolan among the few females who exercised regularly, the training field was a standard 400-meter track—10 laps meant 4 kilometers… For those without previous exercise habits, suddenly running such a distance meant most people completed the final two laps panting and stopping intermittently.

They had to run—the instructors were shouting in students’ ears, asking if this was all the capability Huaqing students had. For Huaqing’s honor, they couldn’t give up!

Xia Xiaolan wiped her sweat; she wasn’t tired from running but from dragging along Lu Yan. This petite girl lacked exercise usually—running was killing her!

Many were bent over catching their breath, and quite a few collapsed on the ground, refusing to move.

“Don’t sit down, or your legs will be extremely sore tomorrow!”

Not far away, Zhou Cheng had a faint smile. Even without separating males and females, he could see Xiaolan at a glance; with separation, he saw clearly. But nothing was clearer than now—when others had all collapsed from running, among the few still standing was Xiaolan.