At six o'clock, the sky in Beijing was bright, and a few familiar classmates were scattered around the meeting point.
The man talking to the counselor had a whistle hanging around his neck; he must be the military training instructor.
The counselor saw Xia Minmin, dressed neatly, walking towards them from a distance. "Class monitor, come here, I have something to tell you."
Xia Minmin jogged forward.
“This is our class monitor. Instructor Sun, you can tell her anything.” The counselor turned to Xia Minmin and said, “Class monitor, handle it yourself. If you can handle it, do so. If you can’t, call me.”
In the blink of an eye, it was time to assemble. Instructor Sun blew on the mask, and the students, who had been standing scattered about, straightened their eyes, arranged themselves into a line, and registered and counted off one by one.
There were 30 people expected, 22 people actually attended, and 8 people were late.
Du Lan and Zhong Xi stood to the side with their messy hair. "Sorry we're late. It's all our fault for not calling us."
Instructor Sun has always despised people who shirk responsibility. This wasn't the first time he'd led military training. "You have to shout 'Report!' before you speak!"
Zhong Xi rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath, "He's just a lousy instructor, what's so great about him? He's only a few minutes late."
In the quiet morning, every sound seemed exceptionally loud. Just two minutes ago, Xia Minmin and her friends had already witnessed how formidable Instructor Sun was.
Two students who were one minute late had to run one lap, and three students who were three minutes late had to run three laps. Zhong Xi was in big trouble now...
The counselor sighed, "I've never seen such a stupid person. Yesterday, the mother and daughter argued in the office for over an hour over changing beds. It's not like she can just change them however she wants. If her roommate agrees, that's fine, but if her roommate doesn't agree, there's nothing that can be done. Without rules, there's no order."
"Anyone five minutes late will have to run five laps. The girl who just spoke will have to run three more laps. I'm emphasizing this again: no tardiness allowed! Running one lap for every minute late today is just an appetizer. It won't be that simple if you're late again. You must say 'Report' before you speak. Do you understand?" Instructor Sun's voice boomed, drawing sidelong glances from students in the next class.
Zhong Xi said smugly, "I'm not going to run away, what can you do to me? I'm telling you, I'm going to report you for abusing students."
Seeing that Zhong Xi hadn't run away, Du Lan stood there motionless as well. The counselor gave her a look, but she didn't move.
"Go ahead and report me! Since you two are disobeying orders, you won't be doing military training. I'll give you a zero in your military training evaluation, and a zero will affect your graduation."
The counselor utterly loathed these two; she'd never seen anyone so clueless. They thought they had connections and looked down on everything. This time, they'd really bit the hand that fed them. This year, the school's military training results would be included in the graduation assessment, meaning they wouldn't graduate without a good score.
"Getting zero in military training isn't a big deal, do whatever you want! I'm going back to sleep now. Anyway, my military training score won't affect me." Zhong Xi said and left the assembly point.
Du Lan watched Zhong Xi leave, then shifted his feet, intending to follow.
The counselor was exasperated by Du Lan's expression. He really didn't want to deal with this brainless student. If it weren't for the fact that she got into Peking University, he wouldn't have bothered with her at all. They were all adults, yet she couldn't even make this much judgment.
"Duran, you need to think this through carefully. Do you want to stay and run the penalty runs or leave? This is related to your graduation."
Du Lan's heart trembled upon hearing her counselor's words. Graduation? Surely they wouldn't prevent her from graduating? Besides, Zhong Xi had already left. Her family had connections at the school; if they were going to prevent her from graduating, she would have known long ago.
"Counselor, I'm going to keep Zhong Xi company."
The counselor paused and didn't say anything more, watching her leave.
As the two left, Instructor Sun said without changing his expression, "Squad leader, write down these two names. They don't need to participate in military training anymore; they'll get zero points."
"Reporting, instructor, you understand!"
When the counselor saw that the military training had started, he also left the assembly point.
Zhong Xi and Du Lan returned to their dorm, changed into their pajamas, and lay down on their beds. "Du Lan, don't you think they're stupid? Only idiots like them would listen to such nonsense as saying that military training grades will affect graduation. Isn't it better to lie in bed and sleep in this heat? Why do they have to stand in the sun for military training? They'll look terrible from the tan. I'll treat you to breakfast after you wake up."
"Okay! Thank you, Zhong Xi. I don't believe the school won't let us graduate either."
While standing at attention, Xia Minmin's thoughts had already drifted to outer space. She and her colleague hadn't remembered anything the counselor had told them during the evening self-study session the day before. There were plenty of high-achieving students at Peking University, yet their thinking was still so naive.
Now their class will likely become a typical example in other people's mouths. In the first year of the reform of the military training performance assessment, two people have defied the rules. In the following years, their names will become negative examples in the mouths of various counselors.
Time passed by in the daily grind of military training, and in the blink of an eye, the 21-day training came to an end.
Du Lan and Zhong Xi did not participate in this year's military training. The military training assessment form handed over by Xia Minmin had a score of zero, which was directly uploaded to the computer by the counselor and recorded.
Wu Yue looked at Xia Minmin, who was applying skincare products to her face, and asked, "Xiaomin, how come you haven't gotten a tan at all?"
Xia Minmin was the only one among her roommates who participated in military training who didn't get tanned; the others all got tanned to some extent.
"Her? She's already used six bottles of 50ml sunscreen during these 21 days of military training," Lin Lanzhi said with a smile.
“No wonder. We also applied sunscreen, but it wasn’t as effective as hers. I didn’t even finish one bottle. I deserve to get tanned.” Jiang Lina waved the sunscreen in her hand.
"Is this a high school reunion?" Wang Jing asked.
"Okay, I'll come back after dinner," Xia Minmin said.
"I really envy that all your classmates live nearby."
Xia Minmin stared at the time on her watch. Forty-five minutes had passed since Lin Lanzhi sat down to put on makeup, and she still hadn't thought about getting up.
Ring ring...
Tang Meng's phone call.
"Hey, Mengmeng."
When Lin Lanzhi heard it was Tang Meng, she tugged at Xia Minmin's sleeve, "Xiao Min, turn on the speakerphone."
Xia Minmin pressed the speakerphone button.
"Mengmeng, guess who I am?"
"Lin Lanzhi, no matter how much your voice changes, I can still recognize it. Lin Lanzhi, hurry up! I'm already waiting at your school gate."
"Coming soon, don't rush, I'll put on some lipstick and be right there!" Lin Lanzhi said as she drew her eyeliner.
She'd been working on her eyeliner for twenty minutes and still hadn't finished. Xia Minmin was getting anxious watching her, but unfortunately, she couldn't help.
"I know you well enough. You said there are at least twenty minutes left. I'm hanging up now, hurry up and don't delay my meeting with Xiaomin."
Suddenly, as if blessed, Lin Lanzhi's hands formed two eyeliners in one stroke, her eyes glowing with light. Xia Minmin stood at the door waiting for her, carrying her bag.
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