Chapter 355: Chapter 355

During physical training, the men and women trained together. At this moment, someone from the men’s team spoke up for Sang Ning: "Wei, she’s new here and doesn’t understand the rules yet. Do you really need to give her a hard time?"

"I’ve told you many times, don’t call me Wei!" Wei Lejun shouted furiously, her eyes glaring.

"Shut up! This is a training field, not a market square. If you want to argue, take it elsewhere and stop disrupting the other trainees!" Instructor Zheng reprimanded the two of them.

Wei Lejun pressed her lips tightly together, her face full of defiance.

Damn it! Is there no Heavenly Principle anymore? Sang Ning keeps pulling her "female protagonist privilege," and yet she still has so many people backing her up.

"Instructor Zheng, permission to speak!" Sang Ning jogged over to the instructor, her posture upright, and voice clear and loud.

Instructor Zheng gave her a casual glance and said, "Ten laps!"

"Instructor Zheng, I request to run twenty laps as punishment! After all, it was my self-introduction that delayed them, and the root cause of their penalty lies with me." Without waiting for approval, Sang Ning turned to her right, clenched her fists and rested them at her waist, before striding off in a determined run.

"Who’s the instructor here, you or me?" Instructor Zheng yelled at Sang Ning’s back.

This cohort was by far the most challenging he’d ever handled. Did any of them even respect his authority as instructor?

The other trainees all looked shocked.

"Twenty laps?! The new recruit is way too extreme!"

"Ten laps are already brutal for the guys, let alone twenty. That new recruit may look tall, but with those slim arms and legs, can she really manage it?"

"There’s absolutely no need to push yourself . If it kills you, who’s to blame?"

Wei Lejun’s mouth fell open slightly in shock. Twenty laps—was Sang Ning trying to kill herself?

Then she closed her mouth and smirked coldly. Sang Ning shouldn’t think she’d earn forgiveness that easily. The grudge over ten laps was irreconcilable!

"What are you staring at? The new recruit already chose her punishment—why aren’t you moving yet?" Instructor Zheng suddenly turned to the women’s team, making the remaining three tense all over. Without another word, they obediently followed Sang Ning and began running.

The three girls ran ahead while Instructor Zheng’s voice trailed behind them: "After you’re done, fix your uniforms. What kind of sloppy attire is this?"

While the female team was running laps as punishment, the male team continued training. But nobody could focus; they kept one eye on their exercises and another on the female recruits’ running, curious about how many laps the brash new recruit could actually endure.

After five laps, Sang Ning’s forehead only glistened with a faint layer of sweat, while the other three girls were drenched and visibly fatigued. Their pace slowed as they clutched their waists, panting heavily.

Sang Ning seemed to be holding up better than the others. By the time she completed her tenth lap, the other three had barely managed five. It looked like she might actually finish her punishment along with them.

As Sang Ning entered her eleventh lap, she vaguely heard someone sobbing.

At first, Sang Ning thought it was just her imagination, but as she neared Huang Chengzi, the sobbing grew louder until it turned into outright wailing.

"Wahhh, I can’t run anymore! Can you please stop making me run?" Huang Chengzi was genuinely crying.

Sang Ning raised her arm, clenched her fist, and cheered her on: "Come on, keep going! Victory is just ahead!"

With that, Sang Ning picked up her pace and left Huang Chengzi behind.

Huang Chengzi cried even harder, shouting, "Is she even human? Who’s the real new recruit here?"

"Stop crying! All you do is cry, cry, cry—it’s driving me crazy!" Wei Lejun glared at Huang Chengzi, but after running so many laps herself, her body was nearly drained, and her words carried little threat.

Being scolded by Wei Lejun only made Huang Chengzi’s tears pour faster, as if a dam had broken.

Just as Sang Ning had estimated, she almost simultaneously finished the punishment along with the other three.

Even though Sang Ning had been running nightly with Li Juezhou for a while now, twenty laps were undeniably beyond her usual limits.

Unlike Huang Chengzi, who collapsed on the ground crying, Sang Ning bent over slightly, hands on her knees, breathing softly and steadily.

"Unbelievable! The new recruit actually completed twenty laps. She’s a freakin’ monster!"

"Honestly, that newbie’s got more guts than me. If I had to run twenty laps, I’d be bawling my eyes out like Huang Chengzi too."

Hearing praise from the men’s team didn’t brighten Sang Ning’s mood one bit.

What strength was there to marvel at? She was just forcing herself past her limits. After making such a bold declaration, she had no choice—she’d rather collapse than eat her words.

"Huang Chengzi! How many times do I have to warn you? Stop crying all the time. If you keep this up, you’ll get another ten laps!" Instructor Zheng frowned severely as he scolded Huang Chengzi.

Initially sprawled on the grass bawling, Huang Chengzi shot up into a sitting position, tears still streaming but now more restrained, her eyes swollen and red.

"Instructor, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to. I just couldn’t hold back my tears, I swear!" Huang Chengzi tried to force the sobbing back into her chest but failed, her words punctuated by small, hiccupping cries that made her look moments away from passing out. Thɪs chapter is updated by 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭•𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚•𝕟𝕖𝕥

"I’m not crying—hic—I swear I’m not crying—hic—look, see—hic!" Huang Chengzi explained between hiccups, her feeble defense an utter failure.

Instructor Zheng could barely bring himself to look at her. Huang Chengzi had once famously cried herself unconscious, so he didn’t dare press her too hard. Instead, he changed the subject: "The female recruits get a ten-minute break now. After that, we’ll start today’s physical training. Today’s theme is coed wrestling matches. Winners will earn rewards!"

Instructor Zheng’s announcement was partially drowned out by Huang Chengzi’s sobbing, making Sang Ning think she’d misheard.

Seriously? Coed wrestling matches? With the natural disparity in strength between men and women, why hold such a competition?

"Instructor Zheng, isn’t this a bit inappropriate? Huang Chengzi is already sobbing her eyes out—if someone slams her to the ground during wrestling, wouldn’t she end up crying even harder?" Although trainees were discouraged from challenging their instructor’s authority, Sang Ning still took the risk to speak up for Huang Chengzi.

Instructor Zheng cast her a glance, his expression conveying a message for Sang Ning to figure out herself: "I’m afraid it’ll be someone else crying by then."

What? What did he mean? Sang Ning was baffled.

At that moment, Sun Bangyu stood off to the side, gesturing something with her hands. Her movements only deepened Sang Ning’s confusion.

Sun Bangyu didn’t even look her way, her head bowed low, fully absorbed in her sign language.

Sang Ning suddenly felt an ache of sympathy for the girl. Since meeting Sun Bangyu for the first time, she’d never heard her speak. Could this girl be mute?