The Taming of the Ruffian Hero

The girls of the female Dorm No. 419 invited Zhao Yuan to tea.

“You embarrassed him so much in public! You overdid it!” Zhang An’an said. “Did you see his gaze earlier? It was as sharp as a knife! It was so cold that it made one’s liver and lung shiver! Moreover, he deserved credit for maintaining discipline and even when he was punished, he didn’t show the slightest bit of reaction. He really knows how to grasp the bigger picture. I think Zhao Yuan will have a hard time nailing him.” Zhang An’an was still having lingering fears over Lin Wenxi’s gaze when they were in the square-shaped military boxing parade.

“No... I was doing it to vent anger on behalf of Wanxin,” Zhao Yuan retorted self-righteously.

“Venting anger? That’s one way to do it. But if you overdo things, how will you ‘bend’ him?” Shu Xiaoman interrupted.

“I think... it doesn’t matter... whether he’s ‘bent’ or not. We don’t have to go all the way,” Chen Wanxin suddenly said.

Zhao Yuan’s eyes immediately brightened. “Why don’t we drop this? We’ll just let it be.”

“No way, no way! That’s completely insincere! What you have to do next is to treat him kindly! Suppress him and then praise him! When conditions are right, success will naturally follow!” Zhang An’an laughed while clapping.

After thinking about it, Chen Wanxin reluctantly nodded.

“I think the two of us must do something to suppress him or success will be far out of grasp,” Zhang An’an said, smiling.

“What are you going to do?” Inevitably, Shu Xiaoman was on guard.

Zhang An’an flashed her a faint smile. “I care so much for Lin Wenxi; how could I bring myself to do anything to him?” She whispered into Shu Xiaoman’s ears and the latter couldn’t stop herself from howling in laughter.

“Could it be that you want me to make the move myself?” Chen Wanxin asked.

“No. If it’s you, he’ll either be dead or injured. Didn’t you just make Zhang Liang from the next class swallow the love letter he wrote to you while crying the day before yesterday?” Shu Xiaoman immediately raised a hand to stop her. ƒr𝙚𝙚𝘸e𝚋𝐧૦ѵ𝒆𝒍.𝒄𝒐m

“I heard there’ll soon be a camp. There will be plenty of chances,” Zhang An’an said, smiling.

The camp that Zhang An’an mentioned was the cruelest part of the military training for freshmen of Jifu University. The so-called training could be better described as a countryside survival contest. Students were free to form their own groups. Food was limited and each group would have to find a depot to replenish their stock. This year, the freshmen and sophomores would train together. There would be three thousand students in total. Only the first three hundred students to reach the depot would be qualified to enter the second round. The students would keep getting eliminated until the champion, first runner-up, and second runner-up were crowned at the final depot.

Wang Xiang was loudly reading the rules while slowly rubbing the stubble on his chin. He cast a sideward glance at Lin Wenxi’s sleek-as-jade neck and chin and clicked his tongue while sighing.

“How boring.” Zheng Kai smiled faintly. To him, any sort of university-level military training was nothing more than child’s play.

“Don’t tell me you’re afraid, Brother Kai?” Wang Xiang chuckled. Then, he heard a loud noise as the board that supported his bed creaked miserably and a force penetrated the board to deliver a stinging pain on his butt. Wang Xiang glared at Zheng Kai with a grimace. Zheng Kai withdrew his hand, acting as if nothing had happened.

Zheng Kai indeed thought of such training as child’s play. Being a graduate of the Green Fields Military Academy, he was a strong and sturdy person who had long experienced many battles. There was no way he could accept Wang Xiang mocking him like that.

Zhao Yuan changed his position after hearing their conversation and neatly made a paper airplane. When Wang Xiang opened his big mouth to ask again, the paper airplane flew straight into his mouth. He took out the paper airplane moodily. Zhao Yuan leisurely said, “Unfold the airplane and read what’s inside.”

Wang Xiang’s mouth widened as he read. Zheng Kai also couldn’t help holding his breath as he listened with rapt attention. Lin Wenxi maintained the state of being fast asleep or being dead. Zhao Yuan turned Wang Xiang’s No. 23 jersey in his hands and tried to measure it against his body.

Jifu University was established five years ago by the Education Bureau Chief of the town, Lin Ziwei. It was a university that operated among commoners and had an incredibly strict militarized supervision and terribly harsh admission conditions. Every year, they would admit only one thousand and five hundred students to its nine majors of English language, Chinese language, sports studies, international trade, computer science, law, physics, communications engineering, and machine automation. The university would never publicly or directly attract new students, only leaving their faculty to gather students with proper qualifications from all over the country. Thus, in the first year of the university’s operation, only a little more than one hundred students were recruited. Later on, the admission criteria were even relaxed until the talents of Lin Wenxi and Zhao Yuan’s batch were fully recruited. However, students from all over the country rushed to enter this university for the sole reason that of the more than one hundred students of the first batch, ten were sent to the United States as exchange students. It was said that they went to Harvard, Yale, and MIT. That was only when everyone found out that the origin of the reputation of Jifu University was abroad.

Even the investment to establish the university that the omniscient Lin Ziwei garnered came from overseas. They might not be able to write recommendations for students to study in the top universities in the country, but the ivy leagues overseas were offering their olive branches to Jifu University instead. This way, the faculty didn’t even have to run around. Students from all over the country who didn’t wish to go the ordinary way would take the initiative to enter Jifu University.

However, the number of students who could receive a recommendation for the ivy leagues overseas was small and there were countless tests that the students would have to endure before getting their wish. The military training at the beginning of their admission in the past three months was a cudgel that aimed straight for their faces. The results of the military training and the countryside camp were their best rewards. The rewards of the past years weren’t as good as this year’s simply because the first student who graduated from Harvard in the past five years was too remarkable and helped Jifu University obtain an incredible advantage. Thus, the countryside camp was abruptly turned into a countryside survival contest for both freshmen and sophomores. The only thing was that the reward was so great that the five obstinate and unreasonable old men concealed all the details of the camp. In the beginning, they planned to only announce it at the first turning point. Unexpectedly, the granddaughter of one of the obstinate old men stole the information and it eventually ended up in Zhao Yuan’s hands.

What sort of rewards were there?

The first thirty students to reach the endpoint would receive ten recommendation credits each. What was the use of recommendation credits? According to the final-year credit accumulation ranking of the university, the higher up the ranking one was, the better the university one could choose. For example, one could opt for Harvard or Cambridge. This was significant as the top scorer of every grade for cultural and societal practices would be eligible to obtain one credit. The top rankers of the various knowledge competitions organized by the university would also receive only one credit. If one was elected as the leading youngster of the small town or given a courageous award, one would receive five credits. Only those who were selected as having “moved the world” and made a name for themselves on the cultural or national competitions on various television stations would receive ten credits. Thirty credits would be awarded to those whose papers, inventions, and the like received national-level and international recognition. That was to say that the first thirty students who reached the endpoint would basically receive the treatment of someone who has “moved the world”!

The top three guys and three girls out of the thirty people would receive 30 recommendation credits. The champion for both genders would be eligible to apply for the recommendation for Harvard and receive a scholarship of 500,000 yuan.

“My brothers and sisters, could I be dreaming?” Wang Xiang felt as if he had been awakened from a dream but his words seemed to have plunged his listeners into dreamland instead.

Everyone in the dorm was burning with desire. Even Lin Wenxi, who was internally and externally cool, was inevitably moved. Simultaneously, he was also a little displeased. There was no word from his father at all about this sort of reward.

Very soon, someone came to investigate. This information was top secret before its announcement. The senior sisters had stolen the information and passed it onto Zhao Yuan. Naturally, she would have to collect it back from Zhao Yuan. Several soldierly-looking crews of the defense studies stared long and hard at the regulations that was once again folded into an airplane but left without saying a word. Later on, they heard that the senior sisters was expelled by the university. They also heard that Zhao Yuan was indifferent toward the outcome and didn’t put on a show of being so touched that he would give himself to the girl. Due to this, the other senior sisters felt their enthusiasm dampened a little. It wasn’t that Zhao Yuan was indifferent. Rather, he had simply picked up a paper by the road. He was simply thinking of teasing Lin Wenxi with it. After all, the kid hadn’t spoken to him for several days.

Fortunately, the guards came to the conclusion that this had nothing to do with Zhao Yuan. Even so, this was a confidential matter that couldn’t be publicized. Zhao Yuan was also rather happy and unrestrained to have many disappointed senior sisters stop bothering him. f𝐫ee𝘄ℯ𝚋no𝐯𝐞l.c𝘰m

The information on the reward had spread far and wide. The freshmen and sophomores now had a vested interest in the upcoming survival contest.