CHAPTER 808: CHAPTER 729: DISLOCATED LIVES 7

After dinner, they washed their dishes. Wen Shuangshuang and Wang Xiao headed back to the dormitory together, along with Meng Jiao. This girl was still lost in her own thoughts, head down, sniffling to herself. Neither Wen Shuangshuang nor Wang Xiao, who had a bit of a tomboy nature, could understand where all her tears were coming from.

They washed up and went to bed at the designated time, but when it was the middle of the night, Meng Jiao could be heard tossing and turning in bed. She probably found the small window’s food unappetizing and didn’t eat anything, and now she was hungry.

Her restlessness kept Wen Shuangshuang, who was a bit picky about where she slept, awake. She looked enviously at the unaffected Wang Xiao, who was snoring away.

Not sleeping was not an option; otherwise, she wouldn’t be able to handle the training the next day. Wen Shuangshuang could only press a pillow to her ears and force herself to sleep.

Early the next morning, before daybreak, a sharp whistle sounded, and someone at the door shouted, "All students, get up in fifteen minutes and gather in the courtyard out front! Move quickly!"

Wen Shuangshuang and Wang Xiao immediately climbed out of bed, quickly folding their blankets and putting on clothes. Looking back, they saw that Meng Jiao was still sleeping. They remembered the coach had talked about fostering team spirit.

Wen Shuangshuang and Wang Xiao weren’t foolish; they knew leaving Meng Jiao like this would show a lack of team spirit and wouldn’t be looked upon favorably by the coach. So they went over to shake Meng Jiao awake. Her eyes were so swollen from crying that she couldn’t open them.

After crying all night, Meng Jiao’s eyes were hot and dry, and she was very fatigued. Having been woken up by hunger in the middle of the night, she couldn’t get up. When Wen Shuangshuang and Wang Xiao lifted her, she slumped down as soon as they let go.

Seeing that the gathering time was approaching, Wen Shuangshuang and Wang Xiao had no choice but to hurriedly grab clothes and dress Meng Jiao, quickly folding the bedding with deft movements. Then, without worrying about whether their dressing was neat or not, they both propped up Meng Jiao and ran outside.

They thought they’d be the last to gather, but surprisingly, when they got to the courtyard, they weren’t the latest. More than half of the students still hadn’t arrived.

Once they had brought Meng Jiao to their spot and let go, Meng Jiao’s body went soft, and she sat right on the ground. It was quite awkward.

Fortunately, the fall woke Meng Jiao up, and she glanced at the surrounding people trying to stifle their laughter. Her face turned red, and she stood up straight, her shoulders heaving as she bowed her head. Wen Shuangshuang and Wang Xiao were dumbfounded—she was crying again, without fearing she’d cry her eyes blind.

The coach in front had already arranged the formation and stood in a line. Wen Shuangshuang counted; there were fifteen coaches in total. The lead coach was the one who had taken Wen Shuangshuang and the others to the dorm the previous night and had ordered Mo Siqi to be confined.

Although they were told to gather on the courtyard in fifteen minutes, half an hour passed before everyone finally trickled in and formed two lines, with boys in one and girls in the other. The lead coach, seeing the group complete, inspected them with a cold expression.

With a frown, he began, "First, let me introduce myself. My surname is Wang. You can call me Coach Wang. From now on, I’ll be primarily responsible for your training."

After speaking, Coach Wang surveyed everyone sharply, "I won’t talk about formation just yet, but based on your speed, I’m quite disappointed. Having fifteen minutes to gather, only about a dozen of you managed it. The rest did not."

"I’m not here to waste words. I’ll say this once: those who gathered in fifteen minutes will run ten laps and eat at the big cafeteria. Those who didn’t will run twenty laps and eat at the small cafeteria. Now I’ll call names. Those called will run the twenty laps. Step forward voluntarily if your name is called."

Coach Wang moved to the center and, without any notes, began calling out names. To everyone’s surprise, every name he called belonged to those who were indeed late. This display of memory impressed the students immediately. Amazing.

"Wen Shuangshuang, Wang Xiao, Meng Jiao!" As soon as she heard her name, Wen Shuangshuang stood straight and stepped forward with Wang Xiao, not dawdling like the others. Seeing the two of them step out directly, Meng Jiao hesitated for a moment before reluctantly following them.

Unexpectedly, Coach Wang didn’t make Wen Shuangshuang and Wang Xiao run the twenty laps. He stated, "Wen Shuangshuang and Wang Xiao, you two have performed well. Your clothes are tidy, indicating you got ready quickly. Your support for Meng Jiao shows excellent team spirit. This understanding is good, so you don’t need to run twenty laps—only ten laps and then eat at the big cafeteria. Now, return to the ranks."

Wen Shuangshuang and Wang Xiao immediately stood straight, shouted "Yes" resolutely, and returned to their original positions. This left Coach Wang’s sharp gaze directly on Meng Jiao. As he looked at her, her body shivered, and her just-stopped tears began to fall again.

With a frown, Coach Wang looked at Meng Jiao’s eyes, which were so swollen they resembled slits. He thought the girl was hopeless and knew such a personality wouldn’t be liked anywhere.

He worried about her crying herself blind, considering if she kept it up for a few days, she might be sent back home to avoid the summer camp having to take any real responsibility if something severe happened.

Still, Coach Wang didn’t abandon necessary discipline. He frowned and said, "Meng Jiao, as part of the team, if you don’t put any effort, you’ll only hold others back. With such a personality, you’re not qualified to team up with anyone else. Your training will be categorized with the lowest performers, and you’ll eat at the small cafeteria."

Coach Wang’s words were very direct. Perhaps Meng Jiao had never faced such hardship before, so she completely ignored Coach Wang’s comments and, after being scolded, squatted down and openly wept loudly, entirely in a non-cooperative mood.

Coach Wang ignored the still-crying Meng Jiao. Even if at home she was the little princess and the family pampered her, that wasn’t the case here. Directing the lined-up children, he said, "Now, everyone, follow me to start running."

The group immediately followed in line and began running, but Meng Jiao remained crouched on the ground, crying to herself, completely disregarding Coach Wang’s instructions.

Wen Shuangshuang felt that her and Wang Xiao’s luck was quite bad. Among so many children, there were those unwilling to train, but no one flat-out refused like Meng Jiao, ignoring the coach to continue crying.

Out of all those who signed up, it was just her and Wang Xiao with such bad luck, ending up with Meng Jiao, who only knew how to cry, and Mo Siqi, who was extremely troublesome, in their group.