The students quietly discussed among themselves, Li Xi took the initiative to walk up to Xia You and said, "I’m the sprint champion of our city, so I’ll run the last leg. Those two will run the first and second legs respectively, and you’ll run the fourth leg. Is that okay?"
The sequence had already been decided, and there was not much point in Xia You objecting. Since they had all chosen Military School, she assumed that everyone in the dormitory must be pretty good at track events. After deciding the running order, each dormitory went to draw lots from Ren Minghang. Xia You’s dormitory had Li Xi draw the lots, and they picked number 15.
"Competing dormitories with the same number but different colors, race against each other, starting with the male dormitories." Losing would mean extra running as a penalty, and losing face, so the competition heated up fiercely from the beginning.
"This batch of male students has good overall quality; a few even ran under 46 seconds," said Ren Minghang, timing them. The 400-meter relay was a true test of mental and overall resilience, requiring preparation for the final 100-meter sprint while maintaining good stamina. The inter-dorm relay helped foster team spirit and strengthen dorm unity. This was very beneficial for these students who had not been together long.
"The female students won’t be much worse," Lu Xun deliberately pointed at Zhang Fangxiao’s group who were warming up. The female students in Zhang Fangxiao’s dormitory averaged 1.7 meters in height, and their warm-up posture was very standard.
Ren Minghang searched through the crowd and finally spotted Xia You sitting far away. Unlike the other girls who were warming up, she had her eyes closed, resting and holding her phone.
"Li Xi, go and get her to warm up. Don’t let her slack off now; otherwise, we all may have to run a penalty," two roommates urged Li Xi to remind Xia You.
Li Xi glanced at Xia You, then looked down and noticed her sports shoes covered with quite a bit of wet soil. Xia You always seemed unhurried, and for some reason, Li Xi didn’t want to disturb her. "No need, she probably already warmed up."
Fifty minutes later, Xia You opened her eyes. According to "Military Road" time, she had rested sufficiently for over eight hours. After the intense two-hour morning sprint, she had already warmed up.
The girls’ competition had already started. Li Xi and her group were standing nearby, their faces and ears red with exertion. Standing next to them was Zhang Fangxiao’s group. "How can you not follow the rules? You clearly picked number 18 earlier," Li Xi looked displeased at the draw papers Zhang Fangxiao was holding.
Normally, Xia You’s group was supposed to compete against another group with number 15, but just minutes before the competition was about to start, Zhang Fangxiao insisted on switching draw numbers with another group.
"Instructor didn’t say we couldn’t switch the draw papers. Are you scared?" Zhang Fangxiao’s words were directed at Li Xi, but her gazes and gestures were aimed at Xia You. After the military training yesterday, Zhang Fangxiao had arranged for several people to wait for Xia You to leave the cafeteria to teach her a lesson, but Xia You, the coward, didn’t even dare to eat and hid in her dorm. Now, with this golden opportunity, she was determined to make Xia You unable to hold her head up in public or private.
"Who’s afraid of you," Li Xi looked pleadingly towards Instructor Lu, but he hadn’t noticed the verbal conflict by their side. Indeed, the instructors hadn’t said anything about being unable to switch draw numbers.
"Li Xi, they’re clearly targeting Xia You," the other two girls in the room started to lose hope, "With Zhang Fangxiao’s group, who are all tall and strong, how can we compare?" Aside from Li Xi, everyone else in their dorm was of average ability, and they felt inferior in spirit to Zhang Fangxiao’s confident group.
"What targeting nonsenses," Li Xi couldn’t help but loudly scold, "Targeting anyone from our dorm is targeting our whole dorm. If you don’t have confidence, then step aside. We two can complete the whole race by ourselves."
College friendships should be pure and without such baseless suspicions. Li Xi was straightforward and had been holding back her frustrations for several days. She had barely finished speaking when Ren Minghang called out, "Female group 15, be ready."
The hot rubber relay baton was passed into the hands of the first-runner. Zhang Fangxiao looked at Xia You standing in the third leg position, made a gesture to her dorm mates, and positioned herself in the third leg as well. Having already known Xia You’s capabilities, Zhang Fangxiao was determined to put in all her strength to leave Xia You far behind.