Gan Lan leaned close to the person who was eating shrimp until her eyes and mouth were swollen. She nudged Guo Daixuan with her elbow, her eyes filled with suspicion. "I say, are your friends coming or not? I have two pots boiling shrimp right now."
"Where would she get friends? Her social skills are terrible!" Before Guo Daixuan could speak, Guo Dacheng seized the opportunity to relentlessly mock her. "You don’t know, but in all these years, I’ve never seen her bring more than a few friends home. The ones she did bring over once never came back." Guo Dacheng slowly peeled a shrimp, making TSK TSK sounds.
Guo Daixuan glared at Guo Dacheng and waved her fist at him.
Seeing that Guo Dacheng had finally shut up, Guo Daixuan nodded in satisfaction and replied to Gan Lan, "They’re definitely coming! They’ll be here in a bit!"
Guo Daixuan clenched her fists. She swore that if they didn’t show up, she would march right over to their homes. The person who dared to stand her up hadn’t been born yet!
After receiving a definitive answer, Gan Lan still had her doubts, but she didn’t press the matter further, afraid of making her shut down in depression.
Mingyang Star, First Military Academy.
"Captain, I can’t reach our junior. Can you contact her? Did something happen to her?" Gao Haiyang had deliberately dragged his heavily injured body to stake out the entrance of Yan Yifei’s private training room. After waiting for two consecutive days, he had finally caught someone. Without even getting a clear look at the person, he blurted out his question. But when he looked up and saw Yan Yifei’s outfit, he let out a snorting laugh, entirely oblivious to the fact that his wounds had torn open.
Lu Ziyu also burst into laughter, though his laugh was broken and raspy, making one’s scalp tingle just hearing it.
Gao Haiyang was laughing so hard it looked painful, while Lu Ziyu actually sat up straight, pointing a trembling finger at Yan Yifei, laughing with great difficulty.
Despite the hilarity, Gao Haiyang hadn’t forgotten his purpose for coming here. After safely escorting Gan Lan to Red Demon Star, they had returned to school. As one could imagine, given the strict rules of their military academy, the fact that the three of them dared to knowingly commit such an offense meant that the series of punishments upon their return made Gao Haiyang suffer unspeakably.
Although he didn’t know what punishments the other two received, they must have been incredibly brutal as well—perhaps even more brutal than his.
The moment they returned to school, the three of them had been separated. He hadn’t seen their captain, nor had he seen Lu Ziyu, even though it had only been a short two days.
The reason he sought out their captain was that his messages and calls to Gan Lan weren’t going through. He had suffered so much and wanted to play the pity card with her. Maybe Gan Lan would soften her heart and send him an overwhelming amount of delicious food. That way, he would have the motivation to face the even crueler punishments to come.
But he simply couldn’t reach her. Panic setting in, Gao Haiyang dragged his battered body to the training room to lie in wait. Asking their captain was definitely the right move. Right now, the most worried person would undoubtedly be him. He was also the one most likely to know their junior’s whereabouts; otherwise, how could he be so calm?
As soon as he arrived at the door, his numb limbs gave out, and he leaned against the training room wall, waiting in silence.
While waiting, he saw Lu Ziyu being carried over and set down at the entrance of the training room. He was wrapped in bandages from head to toe, with only his mouth and eyes exposed. He looked much more miserable than Gao Haiyang.
Even though there were treatment chambers available, the two of them weren’t allowed to use them. They could only endure the daily cycle of old injuries piling on top of new ones, which then became old injuries to be topped by even newer ones. This feeling was sheer, agonizing torture. He would rather the school just give him a major demerit.
The only reason they didn’t receive a major demerit was because the principal was Yan Yifei’s eldest uncle. However, the punishment Yan Yifei received for this incident was even stricter and harsher than theirs.
As for what that punishment entailed, he hadn’t managed to find out yet. But the moment he saw Yan Yifei, he finally understood. Even though he really wanted to sympathize with him, it was just too damn funny.
He never expected that Yan Yifei’s terrifying punishment would include such a dreadful stipulation. The methods were simply outrageous. Why did their captain’s family have such a twisted sense of humor?
Yan Yifei proudly raised his head, staring straight ahead, with no intention of acknowledging the two of them. After they had seen him in this getup, he had already made up his mind to pretend he didn’t know them.
However, inside, he was extremely angry and ashamed. He had been hiding for two days just to avoid these two. Who could have imagined that even after being beaten into such a state, they could still crawl over to find him? He had miscalculated.
Clutching the purse dangling from his wrist, he tried to act as natural as possible. He had no intention of striking up a conversation with either of them. He could just take a detour, right?
Kindergarten was one thing; he was still a child back then. But now he was a sophomore in college! His mother and uncle had colluded to force him to crossdress during his punishment period. The clothes, shoes, and dresses were all prepared by his mother, whose fashion sense was on par with Gulu’s. It was only after his strenuous protests that he managed to fight for slightly more normal clothing, though it was still only marginally better than Gulu’s style.
They had even explicitly stated that if he wanted to know Gan Lan’s current situation and attend the finals to watch her, he had to accept this punishment. It was to teach him a lesson—and they warned him to think carefully, as the next time would involve an outfit even more terrifying than this one.
If it weren’t for Gan Lan, he would have resisted to the bitter end!
"Hey! Captain, don’t go! Answer my question before you leave! Did Aunt Yan pick out this long red dress for you? It really suits you. Seriously, you look just like a fairy right now. If your chest was a little bigger, it would be absolutely perfect," Gao Haiyang called out. Realizing Yan Yifei was about to bolt, he ignored his injuries and scrambled up, chasing after the hurrying Yan Yifei until he managed to grab a corner of his flowing dress.
Yan Yifei furrowed his brow and cast a bewildered look at the person clutching his dress. Pitching his voice high, he feigned ignorance. "Did you mistake me for someone else? Who is this ’Captain’? Use your words. Why are you grabbing my dress like this? And throwing personal attacks, no less?"
Despite his innocent act, he was itching to inflict some new injuries on Gao Haiyang, beating him until he couldn’t even crawl. No, he had to hold back! He had to endure!
Clutching the sparkly handbag on his wrist tightly, he tried to break free from Gao Haiyang’s grip on his dress. Unfortunately, the grip was too tight. Not wanting to blow his cover, he had no choice but to play the delicate maiden.
"Captain, stop... stop pretending. We grew up together. Even if you wear a long, curly wig with bangs, put on eyeshadow, paint your lips red, get a manicure, and slip into a red fairy dress, you still can’t fool us! Seriously, drop the act..." Lu Ziyu struggled over. Yes, he literally crawled over. His legs were fractured, leaving him temporarily unable to stand. He now propped himself up with one hand on the floor while grabbing the other corner of Yan Yifei’s dress with his free hand.
"I really don’t know who you’re talking about~" Yan Yifei maintained an innocent expression, attempting to bluff his way through.
"You just walked out of Yan Yifei’s private training room, and you’re still trying to say you’re not Yan Yifei? Captain, seriously, stop pretending." Gao Haiyang wasn’t buying it. His grip on the dress tightened to prevent Yan Yifei from escaping. "Where is our junior? Did something happen to her? Tell us, and we’ll pretend we never saw this ethereal, fairy-like version of you today. We also won’t tell her that you look prettier in women’s clothes than she does!"
"That’s right, we promise! I just recorded everything. As long as you tell us if our junior is safe and where she is right now, I’ll delete it immediately," Lu Ziyu rasped, chiming in with a threat of his own. He raised his wrist—or rather, the Light Brain secured inside his bandage-wrapped wrist.