Did He Qingzhi deserve pity?

He did.

As someone from Blue Star, Ji Changqing understood all too well the struggle of having to fight tooth and nail just to carve out a path for oneself—of having to work exponentially harder to obtain the rights that another gender possessed by default.

But did he need help? Or rather, did he need this kind of help?

Not necessarily.

If he truly needed help, the only way Ji Changqing would approve of was for him to ask for it openly, for everyone to lay their cards on the table. If they could reach an agreement, great. If not, they would go their separate ways.

She didn’t want to dwell on whether Gu Changge had done this of his own volition, or if He Qingzhi had done something to prompt such a gesture.

She simply told Gu Changge with disgust, “Stay away from me.”

I’m afraid when the lightning comes for you, it’ll hit me by mistake!

Huh??

Gu Changge stared at her, completely bewildered.

He felt rather guilty about the whole thing. The reason everyone had agreed to remove He Qingzhi from the kill list was probably that He Qingzhi had never made any lewd remarks to them.

But later, Ji Changqing and the others had also removed the few people from the fifteen candidates who hadn’t made any lewd remarks.

So, to be precise, their kill list this time only had nine people on it.

But this action made Gu Changge realize that the group didn’t seem to care much for He Qingzhi and had no interest in helping him become the Chief Student.

When he encountered He Qingzhi on the field, he didn’t know why, but seeing his small, battered team stubbornly refusing to give up, fighting desperately to prove themselves, he had, on a whim, given them half of his team’s ammunition.

He wasn’t an idiot. After acting on impulse, he had been feeling quite uneasy.

He had expected Ji Changqing to scold him or express her displeasure, but he never imagined she would react like this—it was pretty much the same as no reaction at all, right?

Ji Changqing couldn’t be bothered with him. After nearly ten hours of fighting to the death without food or water, was she not tired, sleepy, hungry, or thirsty? Why should she waste her energy lecturing Gu Changge?

Besides, someone would teach him a lesson eventually!

Sure enough, after the student competition ended, Eve, who had entered the field much later, found out about Gu Changge’s brilliant maneuver and was so angry she grabbed a blade and chased him around.

“Gu Seventeen, I see you haven’t had a good beating in a while, have you?” Eve was so furious she called him by his family ranking, utterly failing to understand how her cousin’s train of thought could be so bizarre. “Has your brain gone bad? Are you going to be happy when everyone thinks we’re He Qingzhi’s lackeys?!”

“I just gave him some ammo,” Gu Changge argued, feeling a little guilty. “It was my personal action.”

Eve grew even angrier at his words. Who would think it was his personal action?!

Frustrated at his failure to improve, she smacked Gu Changge hard a few times with the flat of her blade. “Just you wait. There will be plenty of people to deal with you when we get back!”

Seeing Eve both hitting and scolding him while Gu Changge just dodged without daring to fight back, the others finally felt the frustration in their chests dissipate.

It wasn’t that the matter was terribly serious. It was just that everyone had been having fun, acting without any ulterior motives, and Gu Changge’s brilliant move had made them all feel as if they’d been forced to swallow a fly.

It was utterly disgusting.

The Gu family was large and prosperous, with many outstanding members in this generation. Therefore, although Gu Changge was a bit lazy, the family didn’t see it as a major problem. After all, in a large family, not everyone could be exceptional. Gu Changge was a bit of a slacker who liked to have fun, but he wasn’t a bad person, had no terrible habits, and had never bullied others with his family’s influence. He was countless times better than the profligate sons of other families, so they were a little lenient with him.

After beating Gu Changge up, Eve said wearily, “For the match against the instructors, let him play by himself. We’re not taking him with us.”

Gu Changge lowered his head, feeling a little wronged. After impulsively giving away the ammunition, he had a nagging feeling that it wasn’t the right thing to do, but he hadn’t expected everyone to react so strongly, to the point where they didn’t even want to play with him anymore.

The others felt bad too. On one hand, they thought he deserved it; on the other, they felt sorry for him.

Their plan to disrupt the competition had been proceeding smoothly. They had successfully ensured that the nine people on their blacklist “died” at their hands, and they had been happily venting their frustrations when they heard what Gu Changge had done.

Because of an outsider, everyone’s good mood was ruined.

“Alright, let’s leave it at that for now. Everyone go back and get some rest. We need to recharge for the match against the instructors.”

The group dispersed.

But when they woke up the next day, they were all dumbfounded.

“What do you mean the match against the instructors was changed? It’s been replaced with a mixed-year-level team battle?”

“The instructors all left ahead of schedule?”

“What’s going on? They were all here before the competition.”

Ji Changqing silently read the new notice, listening to the endless questions from those around her.

Everyone was disappointed. They had been rubbing their hands together, eager to get revenge where revenge was due, but just when the time came, they found that the instructors, who were the targets of all their hatred, had slipped away. Their pent-up frustration had nowhere to go. It was a tale so sad it would make the listener weep.

Having lost their motivation for revenge, the freshmen were all a bit listless, like defeated roosters, completely dejected.

The result of their lost fighting spirit was being completely crushed by the mixed upperclassman teams.

The brutally defeated freshmen became even more dispirited.

These freshmen had always been the best among their peers, and during training, they had competed against their own classmates, feeling they were in no way inferior.

Being beaten by the instructors was one thing—they were instructors, after all, professional soldiers. It was only natural for them to be stronger.

But to be slaughtered and utterly dominated by upperclassmen who had only enrolled three or four years before them left a complicated taste in their mouths.

How could the gap be so huge after only three or four years?

Some were shocked, but of course, some were inspired. Heh heh, just think, if others can be transformed after three or four years at the Fourth Military, then we can become that strong in the future too.

The freshmen had mixed feelings about the match. While carefully mending their shattered egos, they secretly looked forward to a bright future.

Even the news that the Chief Student position had gone to the dark horse, He Qingzhi, failed to spark much discussion.

After the final competition, the freshmen received their class schedules and various textbooks, met their class counselors, and were given the routine admonition not to slack off on their studies and cultivation during the holiday. After a brief overview of the next semester’s arrangements and the various intensive training programs and assessment requirements available to first-year students, the holiday began.

Their New Year holiday was nearly two months long. As military academy students, they were already entitled to military benefits, including free round-trip transportation, though they still had to cover their own expenses on the starships.

Although the Alliance was vast, thanks to the development of jump drive technology, most destinations could be reached within seven days, unless the planet was particularly remote.

For remote planets, the travel time was uncertain.

Blue Star didn’t have established transport routes yet. After a quick calculation, Ji Changqing figured that even if she could hitch a ride on a ship, the holiday might not be long enough for a round trip. Going back was impossible. So, what was she to do with this two-month vacation?

The First enthusiastically invited her to spend the New Year on the Capital Star.

“Your travel is free anyway, and the New Year is much livelier on the Capital Star than at your military academy. Let’s invite Pencil and the others. The more, the merrier!”

Ji Changqing agreed.

On festive occasions, one misses one’s family more than ever. If she stayed at the academy, there would be no one to tutor her and few people to spar with. She might as well go to the Capital Star for the New Year and get together with a few friends.

The military academy’s vacation schedule was different from other universities. The students had two holidays a year: a two-month New Year holiday and another that was only three weeks long.

During the shorter holiday, various military academies jointly organized training camps. Interested students could apply, and if they passed the assessment, they could attend for free.

But there were no such arrangements during the New Year holiday; it was more like the family leave granted to soldiers in the army.

Of course, if you wanted to stay at the school, that was fine too. A small cafeteria would remain open for the faculty and students who stayed behind. A training room would also be open for students to pass the time.

But that was about it.

This was the main reason Ji Changqing had readily accepted the invitation.

The planet where the Fourth Military was located was in a border region and its conditions were not the best. After their fourth year, students would frequently be sent to military camps to train while assisting with security patrols and the like.

It was precisely because of this that the combat effectiveness of the Fourth Military’s students grew stronger and stronger, allowing them to continuously win awards in inter-academy leagues, earn more resource allocations, and ultimately squeeze their way into the ranks of the top military academies.

Since she was going to the Capital Star for the New Year, she would be traveling with the other seven.

On the day of departure, everyone gathered at the entrance of the dormitory area and took the school’s levitating vehicle to the spaceport together.

There were no direct flights from the Fourth Military to the Capital Star. They needed to take a half-day starship ride to another planet for a transfer, followed by a three-and-a-half-day journey to the Capital Star.

The tickets had been booked in advance, and the timing was perfect. As soon as their ship landed, they could go directly to the other side to queue for boarding.

For the trip from the transfer planet to the Capital Star, they had booked rooms. The first thing they did after boarding the ship was return to their rooms to shower and change from their military uniforms into casual clothes.

When they saw Ji Changqing in her casual attire, the other seven exchanged subtle glances.

They were absolutely certain that Ji Changqing was from Blue Star and was usually quite unkempt, yet the clothes she wore were all impeccably tailored.

Of course, it wasn’t her fashion sense that made them look at her strangely.

What surprised them slightly was the quality of the fabric.

If the eyes of all seven of them weren’t collectively failing, the material of Ji Changqing’s clothes, while not exactly special issue, wasn’t something you could buy just with money.

It required a sufficient number of contribution points and a high enough rank to even place an order. Then, the order number for the fabric had to be sent to a tailor, along with measurements and style requirements, and it would take a month to receive the finished product.

It wasn’t that they didn’t own clothes made of this material. It was especially suitable for military academy students and soldiers. Not only was it comfortable to wear, but it could also adjust its temperature according to the surrounding environment, ensuring the wearer felt comfortable in all but the most extreme weather.

For military students or soldiers, its greatest advantage was its exceptional flexibility and durability. Ordinary fabrics were easily damaged during combat. After all, once one’s Physique reached level seven, any fight would involve tremendous force, and a careless move could easily lead to a scene of torn clothes.

But with this material, there was no need to worry about such wardrobe malfunctions during a fight.

Seeing Ji Changqing’s usual calm demeanor, they wondered if she knew about these properties or not.

Their underlying question was, how could Ji Changqing, who was poor as a church mouse and had very few credit points, possibly have such a large sum of contribution points?

Fine, even if she did, would this stingy person be willing to spend them like that?

They all knew that during the entrance exam, this character had only deigned to rescue Gu Changge for the sake of credit points.

Everyone else managed to keep their composure, but Gu Changge, feeling curious, blurted out, “Hey, did someone give you these clothes?”

This guy had been getting the cold shoulder from everyone since the competition and they hadn’t been talking to him much. In Eve’s words, it was to let him suffer a bit and learn his lesson.

Being cold-shouldered by his friends, suffering from “school bullying,” had left Gu Changge feeling gloomy for a long time. The holiday finally rescued him, and in just a few short days, he was back to his energetic self.

He asked casually, and Ji Changqing replied just as nonchalantly, “Major General Xie’er.”

Gu Changge’s eyes widened. He suddenly felt that the outfit Ji Changqing was wearing was incredibly precious, priceless even. He stared at it with a mixture of envy, jealousy, and resentment, feeling a sour pang in his heart.

As he stewed in his jealousy, he mused dreamily, “When will Major General Xie’er ever give me something!”

Ji Changqing shot him a sidelong glance. He’d have better luck dreaming; you could have anything in your dreams.

The other six: …

Like hell we believe you!

Gu Changge, that simpleton, actually believed her. He! Believed! Her! Are you an idiot?

They looked at Ji Changqing, then glanced at Gu Changge.

How could the difference between two people be so vast?

One really dared to say it, and the other really dared to believe it.