Chapter 123: Military Training 1

On the fourth night of military training, Jiang Ji leaned against the desk and texted Qin Qingzhuo, asking if he had gone home.

The roommate opposite him was named Hu Yuyang, who turned around and asked, “Jiang Ji, do you know Ren Xi?”

“No, who?” Jiang Ji looked up at him.

“You see, he’s trending with you,” Hu Yuyang handed over his phone, “He came out of a talent show last year. He came to give you water while we were playing ball on the playground at noon.”

Jiang Ji took the phone and scrolled through the trending topics. Seeing the pictures on the trending topics, he vaguely remembered. A boy did come to give him water at noon, and people were indeed shouting the name “Ren Xi” around him. However, he didn’t accept the water bottle and just said “thank you” before leaving, leaving only a vague impression of “even boys come to bring water”.

So was this water-delivering part arranged? Just to create this trending topic for publicity?

… They really went to great lengths.

Jiang Ji glanced at the trending topic content, handed the phone back to Hu Yuyang, and said, “I don’t remember.”

“Boys don’t usually bring water for other boys,” Hu Yuyang muttered, “Does he like you…”

On the screen, Qin Qingzhuo sent a message back, “Still at the studio, Zhong Yang came over, I’m chatting with him for a while.”

Looking at this message, Jiang Ji thought to himself that it was almost eleven at night, and he was still at the studio chatting with Zhong Yang?

His fingers tapped on the screen, and he replied to Hu Yuyang, “I don’t know, I already have someone I like.”

The roommates opposite were all stunned.

Although “Jiang’s love life” had been widely circulated outside, no one had dared to ask Jiang Ji directly about it since the beginning of the semester. Unexpectedly, he took the initiative to mention his relationship status.

After a moment of silence, Hu Yuyang jokingly asked the question they all shared, “It’s not Qin Qingzhuo, is it?”

As the question came out, the other roommates looked at Jiang Ji, waiting for his answer.

Jiang Ji remained calm and said, “Yeah,” then added, “I thought you all knew.”

“We knew, but…” Hu Yuyang was somewhat surprised, “We thought it was a deliberate publicity stunt by the production team. We didn’t expect it to be true.”

“I’ve always felt it was true,” another roommate chimed in, “but I didn’t expect you to admit it directly. Doesn’t your agency forbid you from saying this?”

“His agency is Qin Qingzhuo’s studio…” someone nearby added with a hint of sarcasm.

The other roommates simultaneously elongated their voices in an “Oh,” then burst into laughter.

“There’s nothing you can’t say,” Jiang Ji also chuckled. “Being in love is not something to be ashamed of.”

In the studio, Qin Qingzhuo returned the score sheets to Zhong Yang and brought up the scene he witnessed at the school gate when he dropped off Jiang Ji at the beginning of the semester: “So you know my senior brother, huh? How did you meet?”

“What?” Zhong Yang seemed taken aback. “He’s your senior brother? Qingzhuo, you’re such a good person, how could you have such a scumbag senior brother…”

“My senior brother is knowledgeable and well-mannered. Everyone I know speaks highly of him. How come he’s turned into a shady character in your eyes?” Qin Qingzhuo smiled. “What did he do to you? Tell me.”

“This is a long story…” Zhong Yang scratched his head. “Long story short, I took money to attend classes for someone, and it happened to be your senior brother’s class. Before attending, I inquired about the situation. Your senior brother is extremely eccentric. In one semester, more than half of his students failed his class. So, in order to earn that thirty thousand yuan for the tutoring fee, I attended every class seriously… Your senior brother would ask me questions in every class. Qingzhuo, I’m not exaggerating, I answered every question correctly, and he praised me several times. Despite all this, do you think I should have passed the course?”

“So you didn’t pass?” Qin Qingzhuo asked with interest. “Why not?”

“I didn’t pass! I got 59 points!” Zhong Yang exclaimed angrily. “I was curious too… I waited for him at the school gate, and guess what he said to me? He said he knew from the beginning that I was attending classes for someone else, and under such circumstances, he couldn’t pass me.”

Qin Qingzhuo nodded knowingly. “Ah.”

“F*ck,” Zhong Yang continued, “so he had decided not to pass me from the first class! He tortured me for a whole semester! Do you know how crazy the questions he asked me in every class were? Do you know how hard I worked every day just to answer his questions and earn that thirty thousand yuan tutoring fee? I’ve never worked so hard even during my college entrance exam! … Just thinking about it makes me angry f*cking angry. How could there be such a person!”

Zhong Yang’s tone was full of resentment as he spoke about the incident, and Qin Qingzhuo couldn’t help but laugh. “What happened next?”

“Later,” Zhong Yang took a deep breath, calming his emotions, and continued, “I couldn’t have worked hard for a whole semester for nothing. Now that I’ve failed, I can’t get that thirty thousand yuan. So, I asked your senior brother to compensate me for my mental anguish. And guess what he said? He actually said that outside institutions pay him eight thousand yuan minimum per hour for teaching. There are 64 classes this semester, so I would need to pay him over five hundred thousand yuan in tuition fees… Brother Qingzhuo, think about it, is this even reasonable! Now I not only didn’t earn any money, but I also owe a ton of debt. I definitely can’t afford over five hundred thousand yuan. What a world…”

Qin Qingzhuo laughed heartily. “Eight thousand yuan per hour, according to my senior brother’s rate, he didn’t cheat you.”

“No,” Zhong Yang retorted urgently, “don’t speak up for him. Why are all you guys from Central Conservatory like this!”

As he held the phone, it vibrated slightly. Zhong Yang took a look: “Huh? What’s going on? Jiang Ji suddenly asked me for the scores…”

“What scores?” Qin Qingzhuo asked.

“I don’t know. He’s the one who wrote them. He should have them, why is he asking me…” Zhong Yang muttered, then looked up at Qin Qingzhuo. “He says he needs them urgently. Brother Qingzhuo, I have to go home and find the scores for him.”

“Go ahead,” Qin Qingzhuo nodded. “I’m heading home too. I’ll go downstairs with you.”

As they walked downstairs, Zhong Yang rushed out the door, but Qin Qingzhuo was stopped by Li Zi.

“Qingzhuo, take a look at this.” Li Zi handed him a phone.

Qin Qingzhuo took it and saw the entry “Ren Xi delivering water to Jiang Ji.”

He clicked on the entry, and there were several related images posted by a marketing account.

The boy standing by the basketball court was half a head shorter than Jiang Ji, reaching out to hand him water with a sincere expression.

“Delivering water is one thing, but deliberately staging it for hot searches…” Li Zi grumbled. “Don’t they understand the principle of not breaking up a CP? Their marketing tactics are as low as ever… Anyway, why don’t we buy a hot search too and suppress him?”

On the seventh day of military training at noon, when Jiang Ji came out of the shower from the dormitory, his roommate Hu Yuyang was chatting with Pang Miao.

“It’s about shoulder-length hair, quite fair and slender, not tall, probably about 1.6 meters…”

“Damn, that’s too vague. How are we supposed to know who that is? There are no distinctive features at all?”

“In fact, he looks quite unique, but I can’t describe it…”

“In that case, you’re just wasting your breath. Let me give you an idea, recreate the scene,” Hu Yuyang said, looking at Jiang Ji. “Jiang Ji, are you going to play basketball?”

“You guys go ahead,” Jiang Ji said, “I’m not going.”

“Come on,” Hu Yuyang persuaded as he walked over, “just consider it helping Pang Miao out.”

“What’s going on?” Jiang Ji glanced at Pang Miao across from him.

“Hey, Xiao Pang has a crush on a girl, the one who was watching you play basketball by the court a few days ago, love at first sight, but he didn’t have the courage to ask for her contact information at the time. Now he has no idea which department she’s from, and he’s so anxious he can’t eat or sleep. So, I was thinking, why don’t we go play basketball again, maybe that girl will show up again. You don’t have to worry about anything else, just let Xiao Pang handle it himself.”

Hu Yuyang added fuel to the fire, making Pang Miao a little embarrassed.

Pang Miao touched his temple. “If it’s not convenient for you, it’s okay. The school isn’t that big, maybe we’ll meet her again someday…”

“Are you stupid,” Hu Yuyang teased, “how long will that take? By the time you bump into her, she’ll probably have been chased away by someone else.”

“Then let’s go,” Jiang Ji stood up straight, grabbed a bottle of mineral water from the side, and readily agreed to the plan, “to the playground.”

“Really?” Pang Miao looked very happy, “Thanks, Jiang Ji.”

Originally, Jiang Ji didn’t want to go. He had just taken a shower and didn’t want to sweat again by playing basketball. Besides, two days ago, when he went to the playground to play basketball for a while, there were too many onlookers, making him seem like he was deliberately showing off. He didn’t like that feeling.

However, his impression of Pang Miao was pretty good. Right after school started, Pang Miao had privately told him that he really liked Qin Qingzhuo and even showed him a playlist on his phone to prove his sincere affection.

“I also really like Qin Qingzhuo.” Jiang Ji had said just then.

Pang Miao just chuckled and didn’t ask further questions, only saying, “I know.”

After that, Jiang Ji had a good impression of him, thinking that he was not complicated and quite enthusiastic—a bit like Zhong Yang, who always had a lot to say but didn’t take things too seriously.

Today was Qixi, and it seemed like all the couples in school had come out in droves, and you could bump into a bunch of couples with just a few steps.

*Qixi – 7th day of the lunar year/ Chinese valentine’s day

Jiang Ji’s mood wasn’t particularly good—last night, when he called Qin Qingzhuo, he mentioned this matter, implying that Qin Qingzhuo should come to school to see him. However, Qin Qingzhuo said he had an important appointment today and might not be able to make it, and even if he did, it might be very late.

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Ji made a plan. If Qin Qingzhuo really didn’t come, then he would sneak out of the school and confront Qin Qingzhuo to clarify what appointment on Qixi Day could be more important than their own appointment—He had ways to make Qin Qingzhuo admit that he was the most important one.

On the basketball court, there were several students from other departments. They all looked surprised when they saw Jiang Ji and his roommate approaching.

Hu Yuyang walked over quite casually and asked if they wanted to play together. The several boys immediately nodded in agreement.

“Sure,” the boys agreed, nodding their heads. “Let’s play together.”

As soon as Jiang Ji appeared on the basketball court, the area that had been empty just a few minutes ago was quickly crowded with people. Many girls also dragged their boyfriends over to watch.

With more girls around, both sides playing on the basketball court became noticeably more serious.

At first, Jiang Ji played absentmindedly because the main purpose of coming here to play basketball this time was to help Pang Miao find the girl he had fallen for at first sight.

However, as the game progressed, Jiang Ji gradually realized that these boys were quite skilled, completely unlike the amateur opponents he had encountered before. Since quitting the high school team, he hadn’t encountered opponents of this caliber, so he also began to take the game more seriously.

“Tomorrow night’s lecture will be held here,” the academic staff member nearby pointed to the nearby lecture hall. “Qingzhuo, do you want to go take a look at the venue in advance?”

“No need, I’m very familiar with this place,” Qin Qingzhuo’s gaze swept over the playground and towards the direction of the lecture hall. “It’s too hot at noon, and there are students playing basketball…”

He turned to the academic staff member next to him. “Teacher Zhou, you don’t have to accompany me specially, I’ll just wander around on my own.”

With that, he walked towards the direction of the playground.

On the playground, a tall and long-legged young man raised his arm and made a three-pointer from a distance.

Instantly, there was a burst of cheers all around.

Jiang Ji noticed that Pang Miao seemed distracted. Following his gaze, he saw a girl with shoulder-length hair, fair and slender, not particularly tall, standing on the edge of the playground.

—It seemed like Pang Miao had found the girl he had fallen for at first sight.

“Still playing?” The basketball went into the hoop, and Jiang Ji walked over to Pang Miao and asked.

Pang Miao withdrew his gaze, his face turning red instantly.

“Let’s stop playing, Pang Miao, you go quickly, don’t end up unable to find her again later,” Hu Yuyang also ran over.

Pang Miao nodded, took a deep breath, and jogged towards the direction of the girl.

Meanwhile, Jiang Ji walked to the edge of the basketball court to drink water. As soon as he approached the edge of the playground, there was another round of screams around him.

He unscrewed the bottle cap, tilted his head back to drink water. Just as the screams around him subsided, there was another even louder burst of screams behind him.

It sounded like there was something exciting happening over there, but Jiang Ji wasn’t interested and didn’t bother to turn around.

His roommate called him softly from beside him, “Jiang Ji.”

Jiang Ji turned his head and saw his roommate pointing in the direction behind him. “Look over there.”

Only then did he follow the direction and his eyes suddenly lit up—

Among the crowd in camouflage uniforms, a man wearing a light blue shirt stood tall, shining under the noon sun.

Jiang Ji walked towards Qin Qingzhuo’s direction, and with each step closer, the cheers grew louder.

He heard people around him shouting Qin Qingzhuo’s name and some saying, “Wow, Qin Qingzhuo is so handsome,” and even the thought of “Even if he’s good-looking, he’s still mine” came to his mind.

From a distance, Qin Qingzhuo watched as Jiang Ji walked towards him, his eyes shining as if they had condensed the afternoon sunlight.

At first, when Jiang Ji was facing away drinking water, Qin Qingzhuo gestured for the students around who were screaming to quiet down, but now he couldn’t care less. His eyes were fixed on Jiang Ji, and he couldn’t help but smile.

As Jiang Ji approached, standing in front of him.

There was a wire fence between the two.

They looked at each other silently for a moment—although they had been together for so long and had said everything at home, now Qin Qingzhuo, under the gaze of everyone, was somewhat unsure of what to say.

Jiang Ji didn’t say anything either, just looked at him intently, his eyes sparkling.

“So many people watching us play basketball,” Qin Qingzhuo finally broke the silence, with a smile in his tone. “We seem to be quite popular.”

As soon as he spoke, the screams around them grew even louder.

Qin Qingzhuo was truly worried that these music students would damage their voices if they kept screaming like this.

“Don’t you like it?” Jiang Ji still looked at him. “Then let’s not play anymore in the future.”

“Don’t…” Qin Qingzhuo chuckled.

Phones were raised all around the playground, all aimed at the two of them, snapping pictures incessantly.

After laughing, Qin Qingzhuo didn’t know what else to say. There were many things he wanted to say, but it seemed inappropriate to say them in front of so many people.

It felt like they had reverted to the state they were in when they were sixteen or seventeen and just started dating. When teased, it didn’t seem appropriate to say anything.

“Don’t just stand there,” Qin Qingzhuo looked at him through the wire fence. “Aren’t you coming out?”

But Jiang Ji didn’t move, saying, “Wait a moment.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m afraid if I walk out now,” Jiang Ji whispered, “I won’t be able to resist kissing you.”

Amidst the chaotic cheers, Qin Qingzhuo actually read Jiang Ji’s lips and thought, “Some things never change, he dares to say anything.”