The next day was sunny as usual with the southern sun rising earlier in summer. The break of dawn in the east was around 4:20am in the morning and the sky would brighten up completely in less than 20 minutes.
Yun Jian woke up at 4:30am. The air at this time was the freshest where one would feel thoroughly refreshed and rejuvenated with a deep breath. Pulling the zipper, Yun Jian came out of her tent and did a light stretch.
The other students were still sleeping in the tents around her. Their wake up time was set at 6:30am and those who were joining the outdoor survival activity would be sent to the activity location by the school bus at 7:00am.
“Yun Jian, you’re up early,” Drillmaster Zhou said with a smile after he came over from the side and glanced at Yun Jian.
“It’s not that early.” Yun Jian smiled and wore her white canvas shoes to get up and go to the forest.
“What are you going to do, Yun Jian?” Drillmaster Zhou was surprised.
“Morning workout,” Yun Jian answered with a stretch of her body and jogged toward the forest.
Drillmaster Zhou who stood rooted to the spot chuckled and shook his head complimenting, “What a great potential…”
It was already 5:30am by the time Yun Jian came back from her morning run. The students had yet to wake up while a few instructors were already up and sitting on the grass.
Drillmaster Zhou waved at Yun Jian when he saw her. “Hey, Yun Jian, you’re back? The other students will only wake up an hour later. Come, let’s have a chat.”
Yun Jian wiped the sweat dotting her forehead and went toward the instructors before she plopped herself down on the grass, turning to look at them.
“The students who aren’t participating in the outdoor survival activity today will end their military training in advance, so they were asked to submit the memo of whether they’re joining the activity last night.”
“There’s a total of 15 classes in a year and the number of students participating can’t even make up one class. How are we supposed to compete with Woolim Military School from An Province?”
One of the drillmasters slammed a bunch of memos on the ground and gritted through his teeth.
Yun Jian asked with an arch of her brow, “Our school’s competing with another province’s military school in this outdoor survival activity?”
Drillmaster Zhou answered her directly, “Yes, the competition will be which school has more students passing the outdoor survival activity. I’ll talk about it in a while.”
Yun Jian pressed her lips together and ceased asking.
Mu Ying woke up at 6am while the rest of the students woke up at 6:30am.
The students who were not joining the outdoor survival activity were getting ready to head back to school and go home for a rest after ending their military training while those who would go on to join the activity were staying.
After sending the students who did not want to join the outdoor survival activity off at 6:30am, there were only 30 students left from the freshman year—which also meant that these 30 students were willing to participate in the outdoor survival event.
As these students were sent to a seaside not too far away from Min City, Drillmaster Zhou mentioned that they would have to compete against students from Woolim Military School of An Province’s Zhima City and the location was set at an uninhabited island.
The desert island was huge with dangerous animals in there. Drillmaster Zhou would give each student an SOS button before they entered and once the button was pressed, the troop would know that the particular student had given up competing and would send a helicopter to take them away. One was allowed to give up in the middle of the competition.
Yun Jian and others met Woolim Military School’s freshmen at Min City’s seaside after they got out of the bus and before they entered the desert island.
Some students from Woolim Military School began to bluster when they saw Yun Jian and peers who were from Min City Military School looking thin and weak. One of them had even snorted, “Pft, look at them! There are so many girls too and they want to compete with us men from Woolim Military School? Jokes on them!”
