“Ah? Qingjiu, what’s the matter with you?”
Only then was Gu Qian able to detect that.
“Nothing.”
Gu Qingjiu quickly shook her head and masked her unsettled state with a smile. “Aren’t we going to go out? Let’s go.”
She decided not to think about that matter for now. Since she would find out the answer tomorrow, she better hold it in for the day.
With that thought, she went out with Gu Qian and Chu Lian for dinner.
After the competition ended, an award-giving ceremony was to take place the next day. Gu Qingjiu was due to go onstage and be commended for her victory since she won first-prize in target shooting.
The three of them ate fish outside.
Although the food served in the school canteen wasn’t too bad, it wasn’t as scrumptious as what one could find outside.
The three of them ate to their hearts’ content and returned to the dormitory at night with filled bellies.
The next day, the award-giving ceremony officially began.
The principal of the National Military University of China, who was also the deputy chief of a troop of land combat soldiers in the capital, was giving a speech with a beam onstage.
“Now, let’s welcome the top three winners of the schoolwide competition. Of course, a noteworthy point is that two of the first-place winners are first-year students!”
The audience broke into cheers and applause underneath.
Gu Qingjiu walked out and went up the stage with everyone’s gaze upon her.
When she received the first-place medal from the principal’s hands with a beaming face, she once again fell into a trance.
Everyone below the stage was accordingly staring at her. Onstage, she basked in the attention of tens of thousands.
Even the Chief Instructor was nodding imperceptibly as he stood with the other instructors and watched her.
This…
Wasn’t this what she had been looking forward to?
To strive hard and live a different life now that she was reborn?
And hadn’t she accomplished that now?
But why did she feel an emptiness in her heart?
She felt like a person who was used to leading a life of wandering, and that she didn’t have a fixed place to live.
Though she was leading a stable life now, it still felt unreal.
Just like the others, she went down the stage after receiving her medal. From now onwards, perhaps once every two months, she would register a win on her school records.
This was considered normal to her, but to other students, it was proof of her glory in school.
Even after graduation, with these proofs of excellence, she would have a meteoric rise in her career.
She truly was reversing the tide of her life!
She came down the stage amid the congratulatory gazes of her classmates with a dazed feeling in her heart.
It was as though suddenly, all this wasn’t what she should be striving for.
The thing that truly agitated her about the document Lu Ziyang brought to her was the horror of having someone know everything about her.
It was as though the rebirth secret she had been carefully concealing was merely something that they could easily discover.
That this secret—which had been her greatest pillar of support—would become completely exposed.
Even if she was basking in glory now. Even if she was the newly emerged genius in shooting…
She knew that she still had much to improve on.
Some people might even easily crush her with a wriggle of their finger.
What shooting genius? What outstanding student? All those would turn into a joke.
At the thought of all this, she lowered her gaze, and a cold glint flickered across her eyes as she clenched her fists.
She only had to wait a while more before she found out what exactly was going on.
And what was the deal with that Lu Ziyang guy!
