Chapter 441: 305, Article 10 Dragon Fish (Request for monthly tickets)
In the past few days, Li Ke felt like he was engaging in guerrilla warfare, changing assembly locations frequently just to avoid those students who wished to rejoin the morning exercise squad.
Indeed, on the evening of the sixth day, some students' parents had already shown up at his doorstep with gifts in hand.
At that time, his father was still working overtime at the Privy Council, and it was he and his mother who entertained the guests.
Not everyone in this large household lived a comfortable life, there were families whose ancestors had made mistakes and thus had been marginalized by the clan in terms of power.
For these families, they were very clear about how tempting power could be; marginalized themselves, they hoped their children would hold important positions within the clan in the future.
Only then could their branch of the family be considered to have hope again.
The mother and son who visited Li Ke's home engaged in light conversation for more than an hour before finally revealing their purpose: they hoped Li Ke would speak to the teacher and let their child rejoin the morning exercise squad.
It must be said that this mother was quite clever; at that time, Li Su and others hadn't even returned from the military, and she had merely heard that Li Yinuo was participating in the morning exercises, prompting her to keenly sense something. Your next read is at My Virtual Library Empire
However, Qing Chen had specifically told Li Ke that if this path was walked by those who sought shortcuts, it would be meaningless and might even lead to the leakage of the secrets of cultivation in the future.
And Qing Chen's method of simply weeding out those who could not endure hardship was also approved by the old man.
At this moment, perhaps Qing Chen himself had not yet realized that this power of selection actually had a significant impact.
Some clever people could even foresee that in the next few decades, the prospects of those who fell behind and those who didn't would be worlds apart.
The watershed moment had begun from this instant.
At that time, Li Ke politely refused the mother and son, saying that he was not the one to decide, and that it would be up to the teacher to make the final call.
On the morning of the seventh day, as soon as Li Ke entered the school, a chubby boy sneered, "Look who's here, isn't this Li Ke who likes to hog everything to himself?"
"Li Ke, you're really something, running all the way to the sniper field behind the mountain just to avoid us?"
"We're all brothers and sisters of the Li Family, do you really need to do this?"
They didn't care whether it was Qing Chen's instructions or not; they didn't dare to attack Qing Chen, so they targeted Li Ke, who was tasked with carrying out the orders.
In the school, most of the children had been screened out, and everyone had their servants look in every direction for half the morning, unable to find out where Li Ke and the others were gathering or running.
After all the commotion, today Li Ke simply set the assembly point at the sniper field on the back mountain—who would have thought that a morning run would take place in such a location?
There were even those who waited at Li Ke's front door at 5:30 in the morning, a tactic indeed advised by a wise person—since you're engaging in guerrilla tactics, I'll just block your front door, right? You have to leave the house eventually, right?
However, they found out that Li Ke hadn't slept at the Peak View Courtyard at all that night, but had run straight to Li Yinuo's Qing Shan Villa and slept next to Qing Yi.
This move had caught many people off guard; some speculated that it was the instruction of the teaching master.
By this time, other students had already sensed that something significant was going to happen to those who persisted in the running, and they couldn't hide their jealousy anymore.
Even those who ran with him did not speak up for him.
Everyone just let the verbal attacks fly at Li Ke.
However, facing all the mockery and ridicule, Li Ke still attended class and listened to lectures with an emotionless expression as if he was not affected in the least.
In the afternoon during the first break, Li Ke returned from the restroom and sat down, only to be shocked to find his chair had been doused with water at some point, resulting in his pants getting soaked as he sat down.
It was winter now, and wet pants could not possibly dry with just body heat, and the cold sensation felt like a knife stabbing into Li Ke.
A chubby boy started laughing, "Li Ke wet his pants!"
Li Ke calmly glanced at him but still did not speak a word.
This time, a few students who had been running with Li Ke couldn't hold back anymore; they stood up and glared furiously at the chubby boy and the group around him, "It's your own fault for falling behind, lay a finger on him again and see what happens? We are all brothers and sisters of the Li Family, don't go too far!"
Li Ke stopped one of the students, "Let it be."
The countdown to return is on, 7:00:00.
Seven hours remaining.
In the evening, he walked alone towards the Autumn Leaf Courtyard.
After entering the courtyard, he found that Qing Chen was still lying on the lounge chair, resting with his eyes closed.
Li Ke thought for a moment, and as usual, went to the kitchen to cook the meal, to prepare fish, without saying a word all the while.
Today, he cooked the fish with extra care, because for some unknown reason, the teacher had not visited Dragon Lake yesterday, making today the ninth Dragon Fish.
Li Ke knew that if the teacher ate tonight's Dragon Fish, there might be some astonishing changes.
However, while cooking, Li Ke somehow became overwhelmed with emotion, and tears began to fall drop by drop.
He quickly looked up to prevent the tears from falling into the pot.
After all, he was just a 14-year-old boy, and despite his strong inner self, the collective mockery from his classmates was becoming too much to bear.
He sneaked a peek at Qing Chen in the courtyard.
Qing Chen seemed utterly unaware of this, lying on the lounge chair without moving an inch.
Li Ke quickly wiped away his tears and continued to make braised fish.
Today, Qing Chen had pushed the target of the sniper training to 2100 meters, leaving just the last 500 meters to be considered 'graduated.'