Chapter 34: Group

Bai He returned to the dormitory building and unexpectedly found that Qi Lang seemed to be waiting for her.

He leaned against a tree with his hands in his pockets, looking down at his phone lazily and casually. The collar of his clean white shirt was slightly open, and his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, revealing his wheat-colored skin.

As if he sensed something, he turned around, raised his head slowly, and stared at her with his dark eyes.

The moment his eyes met Bai He's heart, it began to beat like a mad rabbit and she couldn't control herself.

As if she had deliberately forgotten what happened in the store yesterday, she raised her hand and greeted him: "Old friend, what do you want to talk to me about?"

Old friend.

Three words that make things more obvious when you try to cover them up.

Qi Lang walked towards her and asked directly, "Why did you hide when you saw me last night?"

"Did I hide?"

Bai He's acting skills have been honed over the years. She shrugged her thin shoulders and said naturally, "Oh, there's a fried chicken shop in the food court that always has a long line. I'll go and wait in line first, and let Xiao Jing and the others pay first."

Qi Lang didn't want to bother about it and reached out to hand over the bag from the beauty store.

"What?"

"I bought it for you," he said frankly.

Bai He opened the bag and saw a bag full of high-end facial masks.

She had only seen one or two of this brand's products at her friends' shops before, but seeing such a full bag gave her the same feeling as if she were walking down the street and a guy selling skincare products was secretly opening the bag and asking her if she wanted any.

Bai He frowned and said, "What is this for?"

"It's military training, and I see a lot of girls buying skincare products. Aren't you short on money?" Qi Lang said to her in a gentle and considerate manner, "You should be happy to have such an excellent friend like me."

"I'm so happy!" Bai He said sarcastically, "You know I'm short of money, yet you still bought me so many expensive things! I don't have the money to pay you back!"

“No need to return it.”

"Then I can't have it."

Qi Lang frowned, a little impatient: "If you don't want it, just throw it away."

After saying that, he threw the bag at her feet and turned away.

What a bad temper!

Bai He shouted in dissatisfaction: "You scumbag, you already have a girlfriend but you still give other people this and that, aren't you afraid that your girlfriend will misunderstand?"

Qi Lang turned around: "Who said I have a girlfriend?"

"The girl I met in the store yesterday."

Qi Lang remembered: "Oh, you mean Xu Li, she is not my girlfriend."

"Isn't it?"

Qi Lang explained, "She's a poor student from the mountainous area that my mother has been supporting since she was in elementary school. This time, she was admitted to Beili University. My mother was very happy. She even took her to Gangcheng for a two-week trip a while ago. I found out that she would secretly send the living expenses she usually gave her back home to her brother. She was worried that she would lack financial resources for her university life, so she asked me to take good care of her."

"Oh, I see..." She was visibly relieved.

Qi Lang looked at her, raised his eyebrows and smiled: "Are you jealous?"

Bai He feigned anger and said, "I'll eat your head! You have so many girlfriends, if I get jealous of all of them, I'll be doomed!"

Qi Lang walked over and grabbed her neck with one hand, just like when they were wrestling as children, and whispered in her ear, "We are best friends. Do you have any objections?"

Bai He's chest was painfully pressed by his strong arms, and she struggled to break free from him: "Even the best of friends have grown up, so you should stop touching me in the future."

"Why don't you and Yan Yi seem to have grown up together?" Qi Lang asked back.

"How can it be the same? He is my brother."

Damn brother.

Qi Lang sneered and said nothing, looking at the bag on the ground: "Do you want it or not?"

"don't want."

"If you don't want it, just throw it away. I can't take back things I give away." After saying that, he turned and left.

"Qi Lang!" Bai He called him angrily.

Qi Lang turned around and saw the little girl awkwardly pointing at the bag on the ground: "Pick it up and hand it back to me."

Qi Lang wasn't known for his good temper, but his patience and tolerance for her were stretched to the limit. He walked over, bent down to pick up the bag on the ground, dusted it off, and handed it to Bai He: "You're welcome."

Bai He looked at the exquisitely packaged facial mask inside. She really didn't have the money to pay him back, but she felt embarrassed to take advantage of him, so she said, "I'll give you a birthday present as a replacement. What do you want?"

"I want..."

Before he could finish his words, Bai He interrupted him immediately: "Forget it, I can't let you mention it. I can't afford it even if you mention it. I'll do it myself."

Qi Lang chuckled: "That's fine."

…

Bai He returned to dormitory 233. The gossiping roommates who had been peeking at her from the balcony for a long time had already blocked the door. As soon as Bai He entered, Zhan Xinyue took the bag from her hand and saw a large bag full of facial masks: "Wow! Bai He, you are really friends with that legendary department star from the business school!"

"Not just any friend," Su Xiaojing added, "but the best, best friend since childhood."

Zhu Lianqiao added, "Look at the cheap things he bought for Xu Li. His girlfriend is treated far worse than this childhood sweetheart."

Bai He quickly explained: "It's a misunderstanding, Xu Li is not her girlfriend."

"That's not important." Zhan Xinyue returned the bag to Bai He enviously, "I also want to have a rich second-generation childhood sweetheart!"

"He's not just any rich second generation, he's the fourth son of the richest man in Hong Kong!"

Bai He distributed the facial masks in the bag to her roommates, one box per person, and said helplessly, "Thank you for waiting for me by the door for so long."

“Ahhh!”

“Ahhhhhhhhh!”

Zhan Xinyue and Zhu Lianqiao stepped forward and hugged Bai He: "My precious roommate! I love you for ten thousand years!"

Su Xiaojing stared at her and smiled meaningfully: "Xu Li is not his girlfriend, are you happy?"

"Not bad."

Bai He sighed, said nothing more, went back to his desk and closed the curtain.

The three E-level roommates wanted to eat and live in the same place, so naturally there were no curtains. Only she created a small space exclusively for people with social anxiety.

Turning on the desk lamp, a warm yellow glow enveloped her little world, and she carefully put the remaining boxes of facial masks into the cabinet.

I feel sad.

If it’s not Xu Li, it will soon be some other girl.

After four years of college, are we going to repeat the past?

Her emotions were controlled by him, making him the direction and destination of her sight. She masochistically became friends with him and even helped him chase girls.

Just then, her cell phone vibrated. The handsome guy named "Wei" on WeChat, who she had invited to play in the escape room on the street, added her again.

This time, Bai He somehow accepted the friend request.

Fu Siwei did not send her a message directly, but shared a folk song with her.

Bai He put on headphones and listened to the gentle and distant folk song, and his soul seemed to calm down.

Bai He finished listening to the song. Fu Siwei didn't bother her any further. She went to the bathroom to take a shower and lay back on the bed, about to fall asleep. He finally couldn't help but send her a message -

Wei: "Thank you for passing through me."

Lily: "I thought you wouldn't take the initiative to speak."

Instead of sending a text message, Fu Siwei sent her a 30-second voice message.

Bai He quickly put on his headphones and listened, and heard his extremely magnetic bass voice coming -

"I'm a little overwhelmed. You might have misunderstood me as the proactive type, but I'm not. Your friend invited me to play in an escape room, and my instinct was to refuse. But then I thought, maybe my routine life deserves a break from the norm, so I agreed to play with you strangers."

These words, spoken in voice and coupled with his sincere and earnest voice, suddenly made Bai He deeply empathize.

Zhu Lianqiao and Zhan Xinyue’s invitation may not be worth mentioning to them, but for people like Bai He, it is really a great challenge to break through themselves.

Bai He often fantasizes that one day he will be able to break the routine of life and do something outrageous without worrying about other people's opinions.

How exciting it would be.

Wei: "It was only in the secret room that I realized that you and I are the same person."

Lily: "With these three friends, I'm helpless too."

Wei: "I guess so. [covering face and laughing]"

Wei: "Lily—lily?"

Lily: "Well, my name is Bai He."

Wei: “It’s a beautiful name.”

Lily: "Goodnight."

Wei: "[Moon]"

…

This was the first time Bai He had so many private conversations with boys other than Yan Yi and Qi Lang.

Looking back on her lonely adolescence, it seemed that apart from these two childhood friends, she had no friends of the opposite sex.

She always felt that she was not beautiful, and the scar on her neck was just adding fuel to the fire. She hid herself in the crowd, which was her only source of security.

Like someone silently and don’t let him find out. When one day you no longer like him, and time has passed, maybe you will have the courage to tell him.

She patted his shoulder casually: "Hey, I liked you before, didn't you expect it?"

Bai He hopes for such a day.

The military training the next day was not held at school. The students packed their luggage and were taken by several buses to a military training ground specially opened for freshmen on the back mountain of the school for a closed military training lasting half a month.

After a half-hour drive, we arrived at the training camp, where the female instructors took the female trainees to the dormitory where they would be staying for the next half month.

This dormitory is not as comfortable as the four-person room in school. It is a sixteen-person room. Apart from the iron bunk beds, the room is bare and has nothing else. There is not even a bathroom. There is a public bathroom at the end of the corridor on each floor.

When Zhan Xinyue saw this dormitory, she nearly fainted and pinched her own Ren Zhong. "I saw someone on the forum say that the military training conditions were poor, but I didn't expect it to be this outrageous! There's not even a bathroom! How are we supposed to shower?"

Bai He said, "It seems to be a large bathhouse, and there are certain bathing time requirements."

Su Xiaojing's eyes lit up: "A big bathhouse!"

After saying that, he looked at Bai He with naked eyes. Bai He quickly protected himself: "What are you doing!"

"Nothing, hey, let's take a bath together tonight."

"You're a girl, can you please stop being so lewd?"

"I don't care, you can look at it as you like."

"I don't want to look at you!"

The female instructor said sternly, "Put down your luggage and go down to assemble in formation! No more laughing and joking around here! This is military training time, and we must strictly observe discipline. No loud noises, no laughing or joking!"

When going downstairs, Bai He noticed that among the next row of girls being led upstairs, there was a thin figure who looked like Xu Li.

She withdrew her gaze and didn't look any further.

Each class forms a platoon, and instructors are assigned to each academy class by the head of the flag squad.

The National Flag Class is the national flag guard of Kitasato University. It is a club directly under the Communist Youth League Committee. The seniors in it are carefully selected from various colleges. Boys must be over 185 cm tall and girls must be over 165 cm tall. Becoming a member of the National Flag Class will give you the opportunity to become a member of the national flag guard at the flag-raising ceremony every Monday.

The military training instructors for freshmen every year are also members of the national flag squad.

What Bai He never expected was that the instructor assigned to her class... was actually Fu Siwei!

The four roommates looked at each other in bewilderment, and Zhan Xinyue and Zhu Lianqiao almost screamed!

They randomly picked up some boys on the street to play in the escape room together, and it turned out that one of them was their military training instructor, Fu Siwei, a senior from the sophomore flag class.

Bai He was going crazy. She had just had a brief heart-to-heart chat with him yesterday. And it was obvious that Fu Siwei adding her as a WeChat friend was more than just a simple friendship.

Bai He also showed a little willingness to continue contact.

As fate would have it...

Fu Siwei naturally recognized them, especially Bai He who was standing at the front of the line.

The little girl was wearing camouflage military training uniform, with thin arms and legs, a neat ponytail, and no makeup on, looking like a freshly peeled bud.

He forced himself to withdraw his gaze, raised his head and chest, and stood straight as a wooden stake in the front row of the team. He said in a strong voice: "Stand at attention!"

The students straightened their postures.

"My name is Fu Siwei, and I'm your instructor. Starting today, I'll be in charge of your two-week military training!"

"Instructor, you are so handsome. Can I pursue you?" a bold girl teased.

A low chuckle broke out in the crowd.

Fu Siwei blushed and said seriously, "No."

"Can I add WeChat?"

"No!" He cleared his throat. "Tease the instructor, and you'll be punished by running three laps!"

The girls fell silent instantly.

Bai He could actually understand him. An introverted instructor would easily be "bullied" by extroverted students, and they could see through the instructor's nature at a glance. She was afraid that there would be more "teasing" in the future.

"Today I'm teaching you how to goose-step. You'll need it at the graduation parade," Fu Siwei said sternly. "I don't ask you to be first in the company. My only requirement is that you don't be last."

Zhu Lianqiao couldn't help but say, "Instructor, you are so Buddhist!"

Zhan Xinyue took over the conversation: "The instructor is being gentle and considerate to me."

The classmates were amused.

Fu Siwei also did what he said and cleared his throat: "The two girls who spoke, please step out!"

Zhan Xinyue and Zhu Lianqiao stood up.

"Go run three laps!"

The two girls realized that the instructor was not joking, so they had to go to the playground one after the other to run laps. Now no one dared to tease him anymore.

The stern instructor trained them seriously for the entire day. Although he was quite relaxed and did not try to compete with other students for first place, he also let them off when necessary. However, the freshmen, who had just experienced a crazy vacation, were used to being free and undisciplined. How could they withstand such high-intensity training? During the break, they sat slumped under the shade of a tree, looking extremely exhausted.

The other three girls in the dormitory were chattering about Fu Siwei.

Who knew it would be such a coincidence? Although we knew each other, the instructor had no intention of letting me off the hook. He seemed to be an iron-faced and cold instructor. Any idea of getting closer to me and gaining the privilege of being lazy was nipped in the bud.

Bai He thought that he was not actually aloof, but just introverted. He didn't know how to deal with many social situations and could only follow the rules seriously. Unlike other platoon and company instructors, he could not laugh and chat with the students.

Bai He drank some water, turned his head, and saw Qi Lang standing under a tree opposite the camp training ground.

Lush green camouflage students can be seen everywhere in the countryside, and the feeling of him wearing military green camouflage uniform is completely different from the people around him. The clothes are tucked into the waistband of his pants, and his skeletal frame with a bear back and a wasp waist gives off a faint sense of strength.

He seemed to have shaved his hair short, and the sharp contours of his facial features were stretched out, making his brow bones and nose more profound.

There were a few friends around him, standing or sitting casually, but it was obvious that they were gathered around him.

No matter what kind of group he joins, Qi Lang always has that kind of temperament that makes him the center of the world.

They were chatting and talking, and several boys were laughing. Qi Lang would occasionally laugh along with them. When he turned around, he just met Bai He's eyes.

In a flash, there was a crackling sound.

Bai He quickly averted his gaze, his heart pounding, and he lowered his head and subconsciously licked his dry lips.

Qi Lang's eyes were fixed on her. He was carrying a half-empty can of ice cola that he had gotten from somewhere, and was about to walk towards Bai He.

The whistle blew, announcing the assembly.

Bai He went back to the team with the other girls. Unexpectedly, when they passed by the chief instructor, he stopped Bai He and said, "Wait a moment."

At first, Bai He didn't realize he was calling her, until the serious chief instructor appeared in front of her, she suddenly realized: "Uh, what's wrong?"

"Shout report!"

"Report!" She immediately straightened her posture and stood at attention.

"Which platoon? Who's the instructor?"

"Company 3, Platoon 7, the instructor is... Fu Siwei."

The chief instructor looked at her seriously and asked, "Did your instructor explain the military training discipline to you?"

“I have.”

"So what's that fancy thing you're wearing around your neck?"

Bai He touched her neck, which was the lace neckband she used to cover her scars.

During military training, students are strictly prohibited from wearing any accessories. Girls' earrings, necklaces, bracelets, boys' watches...all must be taken off to maintain a clean appearance.

However, Bai He kept wearing the lace neckband. Instructor Fu Siwei saw it but did not make things difficult for her. He just pretended not to see it.

"Take it off." ordered the chief instructor.

Bai He didn't move.

"I told you to take it off, did you hear me?" The chief instructor raised his tone, obviously angry.

Although Bai He was socially phobic, he was stubborn and didn't move. He just said, "You can't pick it."

Su Xiaojing was secretly worried for her, and Zhan Xinyue and Zhu Lianqiao even covered their mouths.

I didn’t expect that the usually silent girl would dare to confront the chief instructor.

"Alright, rebellious, huh? You have a personality, right?! I'll ask your instructor to come over here!" The chief instructor shouted, "Fu Siwei! Come here and see who you're in charge of!"

"It has nothing to do with the instructor." Bai He said, "Even if he comes, I won't pick it if I say so."

"Oh my god!" Zhan Xinyue opened her eyes wide. In the past, Bai He was embarrassed for them, but now in this stressful moment, the three of them began to dig their toes into the ground.

Bai He is too tough.

The chief instructor has taught two classes of freshmen and has naturally encountered many rebellious ones. If they were to become too intimidating, not only would they not be able to control the students, they would probably not even be able to control the instructors under them.

He took a step forward and tried to tear off Bai He's neck strap with his own hands, but Bai He stepped back and dodged.

Fu Siwei strode over and said, "Captain! Don't lay hands on my students!"

The next second, the chief instructor was thrown out by a strong force. If Fu Siwei hadn't caught him behind him, he would have fallen.

Bai He looked up and saw a tall camouflaged figure standing in front of her.

That was the back she had gazed at thousands and tens of thousands of times, tall and straight, with the vigorous feeling of midsummer.

Bai He's breathing became tense.

The chief instructor rushed over angrily. Qi Lang was a few centimeters taller than him, and when he confronted him, his aura was obviously more overwhelming.

"Which company?"

"I can't remember." Qi Lang looked at the instructor and said calmly, "Business School, Qi Lang."

"You don't remember, right?" the instructor roared. "You really don't remember!"

Qi Lang smiled lightly and said, "I suddenly remembered. 2nd Company, 3rd Platoon."

Bai He pulled Qi Lang's hand, not wanting him to argue with the chief instructor.

This is only the first day of military training, and the chief instructor has really been pissed off. I’m afraid he won’t have a good time in the next few days.

"Hero saving the damsel, huh? Well, if she refuses to take off her fancy clothes, then it's your turn to take off your clothes." The chief instructor had some tricks up his sleeve for these unruly boys. "Two hundred push-ups on the spot."

"No big deal."

Qi Lang took off his clothes and lay down.

The chief instructor said coldly: "I mean, one-handed."

When these words were spoken, the whole audience was stunned.

Even Bai He couldn't stand it anymore: "It's my own problem, punish me if you want, it has nothing to do with him!"

Qi Lang pulled her and said, "From childhood to adulthood, the three of us have been bound together and punished enough."

It’s just that there is no translation this time.

Bai He looked at him worriedly. He had already laid down, doing push-ups with one hand, one after another. His muscles were tensed, and beads of sweat the size of beans slowly fell along the texture of his muscles, gathering into a puddle on the ground.

The girls gathered around him, their eyes wide open. If they had cell phones at that moment, the flashes would probably not stop.

This body of powerful muscles is full of tension and explosive power.

Fu Siwei calmly stood in front of Bai He and said to the chief instructor, "Company Commander, I will take him back and discipline him properly..."

The chief instructor rudely pushed him aside and looked at Bai He: "You have two choices. One, take that thing off your neck; two, run thirty laps around the playground. Your choice."

Bai He didn't make a choice, she decisively ran towards the playground.

When passing by Qi Lang, he felt the gentle breeze she brought.

It was as if they were back to their youthful days when the three of them used to hang out together, fearless and fearless.