Chapter 31 You Will Regret It

After the bell rang, Shan Qingrong arrived in the classroom and began to take attendance from the podium.

After calling out the names once, of the 52 students in the class, 51 were present—Song Sheng was absent.

The classmates also realized that Song Sheng was not around. Due to his inexplicable scream during the military training and a fight in the class, his presence was strongly felt; everyone in Class 8 knew his name.

Shan Qingrong knew the reason. That morning, Song Sheng's parents had called, saying he had broken his leg and was asking for a month's leave.

School hadn't even started yet, and already a student was missing, which made Shan Qingrong feel strangely uneasy.

With a grand gesture, Shan Qingrong announced,

"The boys in the last three rows, come with me to Building 2 to move books."

At the start of the school year, many tall boys would sit at the back of the classroom by choice, so Shan Qingrong's decision was quite reasonable.

So Guo Kunnan, Dan Kaiquan, Hu Jun, Ma Shicheng, and others followed Shan Qingrong outside, with Jiang Ning among them.

Geng Lu saw Jiang Ning leaving and gave him a hand signal.

Although Huang Zhongfei was sitting at the front, he raised his hand and indicated that he would also help move the books; faced with such initiative, Shan Qingrong immediately agreed.

"The rest of the students stay and study on your own." Leaving this message, Shan Qingrong also left.

Self-study was never completely quiet, especially with Wang Yong seated in the third row; it wasn't his turn to move books, so he took this chance to attend to the task Lin Zida had assigned him.

Wang Yong targeted Dong Qingfeng to gather some information:

"Qingfeng, Song Sheng isn't here today; do you know what happened to him?"

Hearing Wang Yong's question and glancing at him, Dong Qingfeng, who shared a desk with Wang Yong and felt they were on the same level, thought they could become friends, replied:

"Not sure, but it's better that a guy like Song Sheng stays away from school."

Dong Qingfeng wasn't afraid of Song Sheng, but he didn't want to provoke the madman—who notoriously made no sense.

"Oh, okay." Wang Yong hadn't really had any hopes, he simply used this to start a conversation.

He glanced around and noticed everyone else chatting, with no one paying attention to them, and then continued,

"By the way, do Jiang Ning and Song Sheng have any conflicts? Like during the military training?"

Dong Qingfeng was curious why Wang Yong suddenly asked this, but he happened to know something,

"There might be a conflict." His tone was somewhat uncertain.

Wang Yong's eyes lit up, an unexpected delight!

"What conflict?"

Dong Qingfeng, who had a good memory, thought for a moment and said,

"On the first day of military training, Instructor Li had us march in step. When we did it wrong and Instructor Li questioned us, no one in the class answered."

"Instructor Li kept shouting, and then Jiang Ning said 'Understood', and only after that did the other students echo 'Understood'."

"You remember that, right?" Dong Qingfeng noted, as the military training had occurred only a few days ago.

"Right, I remember. Instructor Li was so fierce that time; no one dared to answer." Wang Yong carefully recalled and realized Jiang Ning was indeed exceptional; in such a situation, he still dared to stand out.

Dong Qingfeng continued, "After Jiang Ning had responded with 'Understood', Song Sheng said something under his breath, mocking Jiang Ning for always trying to stand out; it was definitely not anything nice."

"I was standing nearby, so I heard it clearly, and Jiang Ning must have heard it too, but he didn't say anything."

"Later, Song Sheng suddenly went crazy and started screaming." Dong Qingfeng remarked,

"It really was retribution."

"Song Sheng didn't show up today; maybe he went mad again," he cursed.

After hearing this, Wang Yong's eyes flickered—he firmly remembered it, planning to see Lin Zida after class and recount it to him.

He could have just sent Lin Zida a message on QQ, but he decided to go in person to become more familiar, as face-to-face conversation would help foster closer relations.

…

Before long, the students who went to move the textbooks came back, with Jiang Ning carrying a stack of books, acting very ordinarily.

Under normal circumstances, Jiang Ning didn't like to stand out; he just wanted to quietly cultivate.

As the textbooks were distributed, the desks were piled high with thick stacks of books.

Ma Shicheng and others were thrilled. With the books providing cover, using their phones in class would be even more concealed, wasn't that just awesome?

"Alright, has everyone got their textbooks? Next, let's elect the class officers."

"Class leader, committee for student life, study committee, sports committee, arts and culture committee."

Shan Qingrong briefly explained the duties of each class officer, and finally said,

"Those who want to be class officers, come up to speak now. We'll determine the candidates based on the number of hands raised; if no one runs for a position, I'll make the appointment," Shan Qingrong said, his round face wearing a smile.

As Shan Qingrong finished speaking, the crowd below buzzed for a while.

Ma Shicheng said, "Brother Nan, aren't you going to run for class president? Afterward, you could manage this whole area."

Guo Kunnan as class president? He was still thinking about playing games during class!

"Forget it, I think you would be good at it. You're smooth-talking; why don't you go up there and try?" he said.

Ma Shicheng actually wanted to run, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Speaking in front of the whole class was too embarrassing for him.

"Jiang Ning, I think you could try for the sports representative. You have good physical fitness, and your military posture is also standard," Ma Shicheng said, pleased that Jiang Ning hadn't fought with him over WiFi earlier, feeling inclined to give him some advice.

Dan Kaiquan interjected, "Indeed, my Brother Ning could give it a try."

Jiang Ning declined. The role of sports representative, who organized daily exercises and led from the front, also meant he had to record and report to the teacher any students who skipped the exercises. More so, the workload would increase during sports events, and he wasn't interested.

When the class was noisy, Shen Qing'e left her seat and walked up to the podium.

Ma Shicheng saw someone going up and quickly looked over.

Shen Qing'e had her ponytail tied up, wearing a beige T-shirt with denim shorts, and white shoes below her fair legs, looking youthful and beautiful.

Guo Kunnan muttered, "Brother Ma, out of ten, what score would you give?"

Ma Shicheng glanced over, "Deduct one point for the face, two for the body; I give her seven."

"Wow, deducting that much for her figure? I think it's great, skinny, I like this type," Guo Kunnan disagreed.

"You don't understand," Ma Shicheng said, feigning deep knowledge.

"What about you, Kaiquan?" Guo Kunnan asked.

"I think she's good-looking; I give her 9 points, my type," Dan Kaiquan said.

The honest-looking Hu Jun spoke, "I think she's a six tops."

Even Ma Shicheng was stunned by that; he considered his standards quite high and his seven points were already low, but Hu Jun went for a six, piquing his curiosity:

"Brother Jun, what type do you like?"

Hu Jun calmly responded, "Older women."

"How old?"

"Above thirty-five."

Ma Shicheng, Guo Kunnan, and Dan Kaiquan were dumbfounded.

"You really are a character."

While they were chatting, Shen Qing'e finished speaking, followed by applause from the audience, and Ma Shicheng joined in clapping.

"By the way, what position was Shen Qing'e running for?" he asked.

The guys looked at each other, and Jiang Ning timely said,

"The cultural affairs representative."

Shan Qingrong then spoke, "Any other students running for cultural affairs representative?"

Another girl went up, it was Jiang Ning's deskmate, Geng Lu.

Geng Lu gave a self-introduction.

After waiting a minute with no other students coming forward, Shan Qingrong had everyone vote by raising hands.

Shen Qing'e narrowly defeated Geng Lu.

Shan Qingrong settled it:

"The position of cultural affairs representative will be held by Shen Qing'e."

He wrote Shen Qing'e's name beside the cultural affairs representative title on the blackboard.

"Wow, Qing'e, you really got elected?" Yu Wen exclaimed excitedly.

Hearing her deskmate, Shen Qing'e wore a reserved smile, her joy not quite showing on her face.

From the corner of her eye, she glanced at Jiang Ning's still messy, inconspicuous corner, while her own was the center of the class.

This thought gave her more self-satisfaction:

'See, Jiang Ning, school has barely started, and I'm already ahead of you.'

'Our differences will grow over time, and one day, you're going to deeply regret your change of heart.'

'By then, no matter how heartbroken you are, I won't bother giving you a second glance!'

She imagined Jiang Ning heartbroken and full of regrets.

At that moment, Shen Qing'e felt a vindictive thrill.