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Chapter 5 Part 1: The Night's New Game
So boring.
Yesterday, Situ Qiong and a few other groups were chosen to do cross-country mountain trekking, so today it was the other groups' turn.
As for her group, they stayed at the resort, drilling lineup formation, standing at attention, marching...
I want to go home...
I really want to go home and cling to senpai!!!
...
After the day ended and after her shower, Situ Qiong climbed into bed, casually opening another one of the novels Ye Shengge had sent her.
She hadn't relieved herself in the past two days even as the water ran, she forced herself to hold back... Today's physical exertion wasn't so bad, so she planned to go upstairs tonight and take care of herself again.
"Situ Qiong have you showered already?"
"Eh? What is it?"
Climbing off the bed, she heard her groupmate Lin Qing the girl from the mountaintop who hugged her suddenly call for her, and she had a bad feeling at once.
"Didn't you listen when the instructor spoke?" Lin Qing came to the side of her bed, looked up, and said helplessly, "Our group has an activity tonight!"
"What...?!"
She nearly burst into tears.
It looked like she wouldn't be able to relax again tonight... So she climbed down, changed clothes, and went with Lin Qing to the resort plaza to assemble.
Only two groups gathered at the plaza a total of sixteen people. The others, by request, had to remain in the dorms and not go out.
Once everyone arrived, the instructor read the rules for the night's activity.
"Tonight, Group Two will run a treasure hunt showdown."
"Treasures are hidden throughout the resort. Your two groups will compete to find them. Time limit is two hours, ending at ten. Afterward, the number of treasures found will be tallied..."
Ah... that kind of game.
Her interest was so-so; most things didn't mean much to her.
If Xia Wenxue had been there, she might have tried her best for the sake of hearing one word of praise, but what did a sophomore have to do with freshman military training? Her motivation vanished.
Forget it others will work hard anyway. I'll just make a token effort...
After reading the rules, the instructor handed each group a resort map and sixteen flashlights, and asked them to huddle up and discuss plans while waiting for the start at eight.
"So what's the plan?" someone asked.
Ye Shengge spread the map out on the ground, with the others gathered around. He said, "We should divide into different areas for efficiency... but best in pairs. Alone at night, it's easy to miss things. Two people provide redundancy."
She noticed that, unconsciously, he seemed to become the center of their group.
Not surprising he had a good temperament, good family, good manners, good capability, and proactively social. It was natural he'd take the lead.
"How do we divide choose ourselves?"
"No. Let's do two rounds of rock-paper-scissors to form four pairs."
He shook his hand and said, "We'll still be together for nearly a month, and we should deepen mutual understanding so the military training can be a happier time. Gotta find joy in hardship."
Hearing that, the others nodded in unison... Not a bad idea.
A few rounds later, the four pairs were set, and she found herself standing next to him, a little surprised.
"What a coincidence, Situ Qiong." He smiled and waved. "Please take care of me."
"Oh."
She was, indeed, surprised that they just happened to be paired...
He was surprised too he'd planned to keep his assigned search area close to hers if they weren't paired, to make it easier to interact. But this was better; they were paired directly. Convenient.
When areas were assigned, he specifically chose places with fewer light sources and more cover. His stated reason: please leave the tricky areas to us.
First, he took on the hardest task to earn goodwill. Second, it was less likely others would catch him if he decided to get handsy. He'd only need to focus on her.
Seeing them paired, someone in the group laughed. "Oh? Doing good brings good luck. You carried her up the mountain yesterday, and you're paired with her tonight."
A boy who liked to stir the pot whistled and said, "You two new students are really fated~"
Another girl chimed in playfully, "People who have fate red threads tie them together even without effort, hm?"
"You don't get it. That's just the tacit bond of people in love~"
He listened for a while, faintly pleased. He didn't mind if they assumed things about them.
Moreover, if he wasn't mistaken...
"We're nothing."
She said this calmly and turned her head. Rather than sounding strictly factual, it felt like the shy refusal of a girl whose pride had been poked.
"Sure, sure~" everyone replied with knowing smiles.
As expected.
He knew she wouldn't directly say she had a boyfriend after all, her situation with Xia Wenxue was unique
They were three people dating at once, and Si Jiao was a rather popular idol. If their secret got out, who knew what kind of scandal it would stir.
It looked like they'd decided that Si Jiao was the "official" partner publicly, while Situ Qiong would be the secret girlfriend, dating him quietly with Si Jiao's permission.
A boy on his other side patted his shoulder: "Go for it, man!"
"Ahaha... It's not like that. Don't overthink it," he said sheepishly, waving his hand. Naturally, he looked like he was just being shy.
Eight o'clock came fast. With the instructor's announcement, the treasure hunt began.
Once they reached their search area, he kept up the role of the earnest student. "Sorry, Situ Qiong..."
"I wanted to explain you have a boyfriend, but I figured the situation might be complicated, so I didn't say it."
"No problem." She glanced at him and said coolly, "At least you knew to keep quiet."
"Normally... senpai and Jiaojiao are the official couple, and I don't declare myself as his girlfriend."
"Mm. Sorry though people probably got the wrong idea about us."
"Hmph. I couldn't care less about other people's eyes." She snorted and strode ahead, eyes sharp as she searched.
He was more casual with the searching; more important than the game was her...
She was competitive. At first she planned to halfheartedly search, but once the competition began, her refusal to lose took over and she committed fully.
Her flashlight swept swiftly across the area. Just as he wondered how that would help
"Found some," she said.
"Huh?!"
She took a few steps in different spots and returned with four treasure boxes in hand.
"Damn!"
He couldn't help but exclaim.
He'd heard from Zhuang Yuxia about her absurd five senses, but he hadn't expected her eyesight to be this good.
With all the cover, the dark night, and dark-colored boxes, it was nearly impossible to spot them without close inspection yet she found them in a single sweep.
"I'll submit these." She turned to leave. "Keep looking."
"Ah..."
He twitched a smile.
Soon she came back and they continued searching together.
His planned "set-piece moments" were all ruined she was too efficient, with no time for his moves.
She went back and forth between the search area and the collection point. Even the instructor was stunned by her speed.
Fortunately, that didn't last she grew tired soon enough, her weak stamina catching up, and then she realized: why was she trying so hard?!
Once aware, she stopped working so diligently.
"I'm tired," she said, giving him a thumbs-up. "You got this."
"Ahaha... It's fine. You spot, I'll carry."
"Mm... alright."
As they searched, she suddenly paused and looked toward the trees by the resort boundary.
"What is it?"
"... I'll check over there!"
She hastened into the trees, and he had to hurry to follow.
"Knew it...!"
Deeper in, near the resort wall, she exclaimed.
He was about to ask what she meant when he heard a faint meow.
Hmm...?
He walked closer and saw her shining her flashlight up a tree. Following the beam, he froze.
A small cat perched there, meowing pitifully as it looked down in fear.
This...
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This novel has 30 chapters
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