Ten-Year Loyal Dog’s Road to Chasing Her Wife (GL) - Chapter 22

Chapter 22

The distance from Longting to the city was not particularly far, roughly an hour’s round trip. Those who hadn’t been scheduled yet sat in a shaded spot waiting for the bus, but even in a so-called “cool” place, they could still feel the scorching heat of the sun outside.

The ground was blindingly bright. If one accidentally let the sun hit their back, the skin would sting with pain even through a layer of clothing.

At an age where they were beginning to understand the love of beauty, most of the girls wanted themselves to be fair and clean, looking like they lived a life of leisure. Usually, when the sun got a bit strong, they would huddle under umbrellas and dive for the shade of the trees.

Qiao Wan didn’t like sunbathing either. Her schoolbag always contained a small, exquisite umbrella. Whenever the sun was strong, she would open it and hide in the school’s shadows, where flecks of light would scatter across her snow-white skirt. That splash of bright white had become the color of many boys’ dreams.

However, the girls complained, saying her skin was only white because it never saw the sun and was “smothered” into that state. How many typical high school girls would apply a layer of sunscreen and primer every single day before heading out?

They said if they had Qiao Wan’s family background, they would certainly be glowing white too.

But it was undeniable that while Qiao Wan was glowing white, she was also strikingly beautiful.

She wasn’t just white.

What was most hateful was her face, which was better-looking than everyone else’s—so good-looking that girls wanted to leave a few scratches on it, especially those blinded by jealousy.

Why did a girl from a wealthy family also have such a beautiful face? They say God is fair, but in their eyes, God wasn’t fair at all. “Damn it, with the sun this strong for military training, we’re probably going to turn into charcoal by the time we get back.”

“I wonder if Qiao Wan will turn black.” Someone thoughtfully turned their gaze toward Qiao Wan, who was sitting quietly beside Qiao Mei. These two really acted like the “Qiao Sisters,” always inseparable, with at most Qiu Liannan added to the mix. “In this kind of weather, any kind of sunscreen is probably useless.”

“Count us unlucky. The previous grades all went to military training in winter, around November or December. There was basically no sun then, and while it wasn’t particularly cold, it felt great to have that bit of sun shining on you while standing at attention outside.”

Someone said chillingly, “Yeah, really great. Especially when showering a bucket of cold water poured down, chilling you to the bone and making your heart fly. Going now, at least the blankets are thinner, so folding them into ‘tofu blocks’ is easier. You can even leave them unfolded while sleeping at night so you don’t have to fold them again the next day. But you try not unfolding in winter? A layer of your skin would freeze off.”

The others hadn’t thought of that yet and were speechless for a moment. It took a while before they found their tongues to retort: “Well, even October would be fine. The temperature then is just right, not too hot and not too cold.”

“Two days of rain and it can turn completely cold,” Qiu Liannan chimed in, having apparently overheard their discussion. “Anyway, whether it’s a blessing or a curse, you can’t dodge it. You guys should just go obediently.”

As she spoke, the two Qiao sisters were leaning against each other, seemingly whispering secrets. The most beautiful and the ugliest person sitting together was truly a stinging sight for the eyes. But after looking for a long time, one felt it was actually okay.

It’s said that friendship among high school girls is mainly reflected in going to the bathroom together, but Qiao Wan and Qiao Mei seemed to never have that “bathroom friendship.” There was more of an “office friendship” as expected of top scholars; as soon as one said, “Want to go to the office?”, the other would surely grab a problem they didn’t understand and readily reply, “Okay.”

This damn scholar friendship.

But whether they liked it or not, going to military training was now a set-in-stone reality. The girls all wanted to live with people they were familiar with. Qiao Mei and Qiao Wan felt it didn’t matter who they lived with; aside from Qiu Liannan, they didn’t know anyone else, so living with anyone was the same.

So truly, they didn’t care at all. Some say fate is a thing that deserves a beating, specifically manifesting in the way of “I just won’t let things go your way.” Basically, the more you want something, the more it won’t give it to you.

Xia Hanyin desperately hoped to be in the same dormitory as An Xiaolei and Qi Jun but didn’t get her wish, while the two Qiaos, who had no desires, ended up living together.

Actually, it wasn’t that big of a deal it was only for about a week, which was quite reasonable. But for Xia Hanyin, she felt she was being wronged and couldn’t stand it.

The instructor, however, didn’t care whether she could stand it. He led the group of girls to the place where they were supposed to stay, then walked away with a stiff face, saying they had forty-five minutes to tidy up their quarters and should go down to assemble on their own when time was up.

You couldn’t blame the instructor for his businesslike manner. Primarily, the instructors were all men, so appearing in the girls’ dormitory wasn’t very appropriate. Besides, there were still boys downstairs who hadn’t been settled yet.

It was said the boys’ dormitory was very far from the girls’ but very close to the instructors’. At night, instructors would even go there to patrol. As for the girls’ dormitory, there weren’t as many rules.

After all, the female biological creatures in the military base were basically concentrated in the cafeteria. The instructors were all hot-blooded men. It was evening now, and even entering the girls’ dorm was inappropriate, let alone patrolling late at night. Even if they did patrol, they would just do a symbolic lap around the first floor and leave; it was impossible for them to actually go up to the second or third floor where Qiao Wan and the others were.

The one who brought them in was a slightly stout male instructor. Looking at his age, he might have been in his early twenties. His face looked kind and approachable, but when his face was set, he was particularly fierce. According to the upperclassmen, the instructors at the base had a common trait: the kinder they looked, the more fiercely they actually scolded people, and vice-versa.

Looking at this instructor who looked almost like a life-sized teddy bear, Xia Hanyin was about to cry. Just how fierce must one be to grow into such a harmless-looking face? She would rather have an instructor who looked like a ferocious demon.

At least then there would be a little bit of something worth expecting.

A place like a military training base was essentially like an assembly line. Batches of students would come, and then batches would leave. Soon after, new students would be welcomed, and perhaps new instructors too.

But no matter how many batches of people changed, the dormitories remained the same, and the supplies inside were the same; not much change would ever occur.

It was clear that people had lived in the dormitory not long ago; the floor was clean. A dormitory had four bunk beds, which could sleep eight people in total, not much different from the layout of the dorms at Longting First Middle School.

There was a semi-transparent glass door leading to the balcony. The biggest difference from the First Middle School dorm was on the balcony; on both sides of the balcony, there was a room that was a mixture of a shower and a toilet.

Qiao Wan went inside for a circuit, like a cat inspecting its new territory, and found the two small rooms were identical. Two showerheads hung on the wall, and there was a squat toilet on the floor.

She was confused and completely couldn’t understand the reason for such a design; it felt as if the designer’s brain had suffered a “twitch.”

Finally, she forced herself to be convinced by the reason that “one of the two showerheads is for hot water and the other is for cold water.”

But the two showerheads didn’t look like there was any difference between them, and they were coincidentally scattered in two different directions.

On the balcony, there were many hangers, buckets, and thermoses. It seemed that students in previous years rarely remembered to bring such things, so the training base prepared them. But who would dare use things prepared by the training base? Although some looked quite new, no one could guarantee their previous owner was clean.

Therefore, they didn’t dare use them at all.

Qiao Wan washed her hands with great distaste and went to organize her luggage. She heard that after they went out, the instructors would come and observe their dormitory’s internal tidiness through the small transparent part of the door. If anyone hadn’t tidied up well, the entire dormitory would have points deducted together.

By then, it would be hard for the instructor not to remember them.

No one wanted to be remembered by the instructor, so everyone was working hard to tidy up, hoping not to leave too deep an impression on the instructor at least not to be remembered on the first day.

Their doors were all open. While Qiao Wan was halfway through tidying and went out to throw away some trash, she heard Xia Hanyin’s loud, boisterous voice coming from across the hall: “Anyone want some snacks?”

Qiao Wan nearly failed to keep her balance and almost fell flat on her face. Why was this woman so inescapable?

Xia Hanyin had obviously seen her too and approached until she was almost pressed against Qiao Wan’s body: “Oh, isn’t this the eldest Miss Qiao? Your family is so rich, why are you also staying in the training base’s dormitory? I originally thought your family would at least send a car and a dedicated driver to pick you up and drop you off, but it turns out the eldest miss isn’t much different from us. What do they call this? The prince enjoying himself with the commoners?”

“Mental case!” Qiao Wan glared at her fiercely and turned to walk away, but Xia Hanyin still followed her relentlessly, almost like a disgusting slug.

“Don’t walk so fast, Elder Miss Qiao. Tell me why you don’t stay outside? Isn’t your family very rich?”

Qiao Wan originally didn’t want to bother with her at all. Comparatively, Xia Hanyin looked like she had significant “tonnage,” while Qiao Wan had thin arms and legs; if they truly came to blows, she wouldn’t be able to win against this excessively robust “female warrior.” But that didn’t mean she had to tolerate everything. With Xia Hanyin riding over her head like this, it was impossible for her to keep enduring: “Move!”

However, the angrier she got, the happier Xia Hanyin became. “Just say it, why don’t you rent a house outside? Isn’t your family particularly rich? Your cosmetics could probably fill an entire room, couldn’t they?”

At this moment, Qiao Wan calmed down instead. She looked at Xia Hanyin very strangely and asked back: “Why do you care so much about whether my family is rich? Could it be that because you aren’t a ‘rich second-gen’ yourself and your parents aren’t capable, you feel particularly inferior? Is that why you have such great malice toward me?”