With over two thousand freshmen present, the entire training ground was filled with their boisterous cheers.
“The ones competing are the best in their classes! They are all aces!”
“‘They are all aces?’ Have you forgotten about Gu Mang?”
“Not her, of course! She’s excluded! She’ll surely be edited out from the final cut, anyway!” The camera crew was there to film a documentary on their training, so there was no way they would include scenes that would damage the university’s reputation.
“Word has it that a guy from the mechatronics faculty met the training base’s standard by completing the obstacle course in two minutes twenty-eight seconds! That’s an incredible feat!”
“I heard about that, too! Our class’s best record was only two minutes fifty-odd seconds. That guy is now a popular candidate for school heartthrob!”
Li Mu, with the help of others, came over to watch the competition as well. As he sat next to Tang Xiaoxiao, he noticed that the students from the traditional chinese medicine faculty looked quite dispirited. Tang Xiaoxiao’s gaze fell onto Li Mu’s ankle. Clasping her hands together, she apologized to him repeatedly, much to his chagrin. “I’m so sorry, Instructor Li. It’s all my fault…”
The person presiding over the competition, Song Han, was from the news station. Song Han was the most famous reporter in the capital as well as the reporter who had interviewed Meng Jinyang back then.
The event started off with the leaders from the university and Red Scorpion giving customary speeches. Lu Chengzhou, as the chief instructor, however, remained seated as he did on the first day of training. Qin Fang gave the speech instead.
The students’ enthusiastic cheers and applause filled the air when Song Han announced the start of the competition and the participants were brimming with zeal and mettle. The instructors then brought the participants to the track.
On the traditional chinese medicine faculty’s side, Chen Liang turned to look at Gu Mang and the rest of the participants. “The first event is the four-kilometer heavy-load run. We need to gain momentum right from the start, so our best students need to start off. As for Gu Mang…”
All eyes gradually shifted to Gu Mang. She lazily looked up and kneaded her wrist while saying indifferently, “I’m fine with anything.”
Despite not knowing Gu Mang’s true identities, Li Mu reckoned, based on how his superiors treated her, that she must have some sort of special background. So when Chen Liang came to relieve him of his instructor duties, he specifically reminded Chen Liang not to offend Gu Mang. This was why Chen Liang sighed with relief when he heard her nonchalant response. She’s really here just for fun. Then again, with such dismal results, that’s all she can do.
Like the others, he had no illusions about Gu Mang’s performance. He looked at her and said, “Alright. In that case, you’ll run last.”
The others happily agreed with his decision, thinking that if Gu Mang were to start in the race, they would probably want to give up competing after seeing the huge gap between their class and the other classes. She was the worst athlete, after all.
The other classmates, meanwhile, could not bring themselves to feel excited as they watched the participating students from the stands. All of them looked demoralized and defeated even before the competition started. Squeezing her fingers tightly, Tang Xiaoxiao stared unblinkingly at the track.
The race started with the instructors competing against each other in the first round. Everyone wanted to come in first because the results of the first round could make or break the momentum of each class. The students hollered the participants’ names as loudly as possible in a bid to cheer the participants on. The desire to win the competition could not be suppressed and it overtook the participants.
“Don’t worry and just do your best. This might be the only chance you guys have to undergo such training,” said Chen Liang. This made the students’ eyes blaze with determination.
Let’s give it our all! We can’t possibly return to school as losers. At the very least, we cannot be last!
