“This Chief Instructor is a bit excessive, making us run 10 laps right away is too harsh for female students.”

Ning Xue frowned.

Running 10 laps wasn’t much for her—she often went on outdoor sketching trips, and learning architecture required physical stamina.

But for other students, 4 kilometers was too much. Who remembered to exercise in high school when they tried to split every minute into two? During one PE class, they could finish two sets of test papers. Since PE wasn’t tested in college entrance exams, PE classes were completely suspended before the exams, and students paid even less attention to it.

Under these circumstances, military training should be gradual for new students.

However, Ning Xue didn’t speak up.

Xia Xiaolan happened to hear these words and couldn’t help defending Zhou Cheng:

“Without rules, nothing can be accomplished. We just agreed to follow military training discipline and obey orders, so when we failed to complete self-grouping in one minute, we should accept punishment. Besides, the instructor initially said 10 laps for males and 8 for females, considering women’s physical conditions. It was because someone blindly pursued gender equality that it became 10 laps for everyone!”

Gender equality refers to equality in thought, social status, and work treatment.

Equality in intelligence, career pursuits, and even marriage relationships—Xia Xiaolan would support these with both hands and feet! If she got married, she wouldn’t demand the “four major items” from the man; she could achieve these material conditions herself!

At work, she never set lower goals for herself compared to male colleagues because of her gender.

But demanding physical equality between men and women?

This was about physiological differences between genders. Professional female athletes certainly wouldn’t lose to average males their age, but compared to male athletes their age, they still fell short.

Demanding women be physically equal to men? Why not demand men be able to give birth? That would be true equality.

Of course, it was also because Ning Xue was criticizing Zhou Cheng—if it were someone else, Xia Xiaolan might have disagreed with the statement but might not have spoken up. At this point, if Ning Xue wanted to criticize someone, she should criticize the person who ignored reality and shouted slogans, causing all female students to run 10 laps instead of 8.

Ning Xue looked at Xia Xiaolan with surprise; everyone around them dared not speak.

Wow, was this a confrontation?

What right did Xia Xiaolan have to challenge Ning Xue?

Would Ning Xue be angry?

To everyone’s surprise, Ning Xue suddenly smiled.

“We women shouldn’t view ourselves as inferior to men. Depending on men will never lead to good results. At Huaqing, we can rely on ourselves!”

Ning Xue left after saying this. Their 10-person unit was originally composed of students from Rooms 305 and 307. More complicated was that although Ning Xue lived in Room 305, she was from Class 2, and Room 305’s people naturally followed Ning Xue.

Uh, could Xia Xiaolan say she was somewhat relieved that including Ning Xue there were only 3 people?

As she was thinking, a girl in front turned around: “Huang Weiwei, aren’t you all coming?”

Huang Weiwei was number three in Room 307, and along with numbers four and seven, they were from Class 3. Though living in the same room as Xia Xiaolan, they weren’t as close to her as Su Jing and others.

When called by her classmate, Huang Weiwei gave Xia Xiaolan an apologetic smile and moved her exhausted body to catch up with Ning Xue’s pace.

Once she left, numbers four and seven from Class 3 also had to leave.

Xia Xiaolan sighed, “You all are still loyal. I was worried that after I contradicted Ning Xue, you would abandon me too.”

Ning Xue’s aura wasn’t small, and Su Jing usually acted like her devoted fan, now appearing particularly uncomfortable: “Military training just started, and you’ve already caused our 10-person unit to split. You know how to make trouble!”

Zhou Limin strongly agreed: “Don’t you think you already have enough rumors about you?!”

About those rumors, Xia Xiaolan couldn’t announce the truth through a loudspeaker across campus, but she needed to explain to those around her. Setting aside personal living habits, her family was from rural Yunan Province, making it impossible to have connections to get her into Huaqing. She didn’t look poor because her family wasn’t farming in the village but running a private business in the provincial capital.

Private business owners might be financially better off, but they have no social status. Forget getting Xia Xiaolan into Huaqing—they couldn’t even get her into a local university in Yunan Province. They had heard of “replacement admissions,” but with Huaqing’s strict screening, if Xia Xiaolan were replacing someone else’s identity to study… Being from a farming family, even private business owners couldn’t manage it.

With the replacement admission suspicion resolved, since Xia Xiaolan’s family was financially comfortable, wasn’t it normal for her to wear nice clothes?

Even the water fee for bathing wasn’t a burden.

The eldest, Yang Yonghong, had said that when they first met, she simply couldn’t believe Xia Xiaolan was from the countryside, saying that Xia Xiaolan’s mother and aunt were completely city people.

If someone had money, weren’t they allowed to spend it?

Moreover, after being “criticized,” Xia Xiaolan consciously tried to align with their poorer masses, even buying a second-hand bicycle.

Zhou Limin and Su Jing both said this was good—gradually, classmates’ impressions of her would change, provided she didn’t suddenly contradict role models like Ning Xue! What Ning Xue said was considered correct in most people’s eyes; popular people’s farts even smelled sweet… no, no, how could Ning Xue fart, that description was too vulgar! Though crudely put, the logic was sound—if Xia Xiaolan contradicted popular people, she would be misunderstood even more!

Lu Yan showed her little tiger teeth, “Not good, fighting isn’t good.”

“Hey, can we all be reasonable? I’m the one being criticized here—how am I not independent?”

Xia Xiaolan wanted to cry.

The Zhou family thought she was too independent and too straightforward.

Now Ning Xue was saying she shouldn’t rely on men.

How did these two extreme evaluations come about?

Also, you three plastic sisters, what do you mean by standing on my side while looking down on me?

However, Ning Xue’s words made Xia Xiaolan realize something—that “disdain” wasn’t an illusion, but why would she think she wasn’t independent? And would teachers have strange attitudes because of this? Surely not!

The freshmen were all worn out by Zhou Cheng’s move.

They were already tired from several hours on the bus, and now running 10 laps on empty stomachs—they were both exhausted and hungry.

After being led to empty rooms serving as dormitories to drop off their things, students asked when they would eat. The instructor was ruthlessly cold: “We’ve already passed mealtime. Wait until evening—the training center’s cafeteria isn’t a restaurant!”

What?

The evening was still so far away!

Some people had heard they wouldn’t eat well during training and secretly brought snacks, but the instructors found them all.

Female students’ luggage also needed inspection. They put away personal private items, and the instructor would check the remaining items one by one.

“Whose are these?”

“Report, they’re mine.”

The instructor pointed at unlabeled bottles in Xia Xiaolan’s luggage: “What are all these?”

“For bathing, washing hair, and laundry… The report, they’re not food.”

Bathing and washing hair—wasn’t soap enough? One bar of soap could solve all hygiene issues. The instructor didn’t understand but opened and smelled them; they indeed didn’t smell like food.

He wanted to lecture Xia Xiaolan about bringing such things to military training, but someone outside called: “Squad Leader, the Chief Instructor requests your presence!”

“Alright, organize your items, arrange your quarters properly, and pay attention to assembly orders. When the assembly whistle blows, those who aren’t there within one minute—don’t forget those 10 laps you just ran around the field!”