“Attention! At ease! Count off!”

“Everyone’s here. Two laps to start! Keep up! Stay in formation!”

In the afternoon, the sunlight grew even harsher and hotter. The air over the track shimmered as if it were melting. The moment Ning Chu stepped into the sun, sweat sprang up on his skin, leaving him sticky and uncomfortable.

Because of his height, Ning Chu had ended up near the front of the line, with the fearsome instructor right beside him. He didn’t dare slack off, so he kept his head down and ran like a good student.

Fortunately, the stomach pain had eased a lot that afternoon. It wasn’t bothering him at all anymore.

At noon, he’d made sure to eat a proper meal: two meat dishes, a vegetable dish, and a cup of yogurt. He’d eaten until he was nearly stuffed, then taken a nap.

As long as he ate and slept well, he was confident he wouldn’t repeat the humiliating scene of being the first to faint during standing-at-attention drills.

After two laps, Ning Chu was breathing hard.

The instructor called for a break. Ning Chu plopped down on the grass, rubbed his aching calves, then picked up a bottle of mineral water and gulped down nearly half of it.

“Oof~ I’m dying~” Wang Jie was a total shut-in who never exercised. Those two laps had nearly killed him, and he kept complaining from the side. “Why make us work this hard first thing in the morning? Are they trying to kill us?”

Ning Chu glanced at him, but Wang Jie caught him after just one look.

Wang Jie scooted over to Ning Chu and asked, “How are you feeling?”

“Much better. It’s not a problem.”

“Oh~” Wang Jie sighed. “If my stomach hurt, I’d definitely ask for a few days off.”

“I heard military training counts for credits. If you take time off this year, you have to make it up next year with the freshmen.”

“Seriously?”

Ning Chu pressed his lips together without confirming or denying it. His university in his previous life had worked that way, anyway.

During the break, his gaze swept across the track before settling on a lively girl in the class next door.

Hmm... He thought it was probably time to find himself a girlfriend.

In a world full of gorgeous girls, surely it wasn’t asking too much to find a girlfriend and enjoy life—in between making it his mission to wreck the plot, of course?

But that girl looked a little over 1.6 meters tall. She was even taller than him.

Short girls usually had baby-faced loli looks. He knew all the girls on the track were over eighteen, but this wasn’t a world of anime. For some reason, making a move on a loli-type girl made him feel guilty.

Besides, why had there suddenly been an extra layer of soft flesh on his chest when he showered at noon...?

The moment he remembered how his chest had felt in the shower, Ning Chu’s thoughts of romance vanished. He flopped backward onto the grass and stared blankly up at the bright blue sky.

During his first week after transmigrating, little red beans had appeared on his chest. Now, as if he’d suddenly started developing, those little red beans had turned into little soup dumplings.

There had to be some connection between the two, right?

“Why’s the counselor here?”

The conversation beside him brought Ning Chu’s attention back. He turned around and immediately spotted the counselor carrying a cardboard box toward them.

The plot involving the counselor from the book surfaced in Ning Chu’s mind, and his impression of the man was already terrible. He muttered under his breath, “A polished creep...”

“Come on, come on! I bought you some water and bread. It’s all in the box.” The counselor had a sunny smile. With his refined, handsome looks and easygoing manner, he quickly won over the students. “I’ll leave the box here. Grab something during the break. Make sure you take your training seriously, and afterward we’ll all go out for a good meal and replenish our energy.”

Ning Chu yawned and discreetly sized up the counselor. He watched him walk over to the instructor and whisper something to him.

As far as he remembered, the counselor’s part in the story came much later. There was no need to worry that they were plotting anything weird.

Wait! If the counselor was still a normal person and not a pervert, was there still hope for him? Like that goofy idiot Zhang Shaoqing?

And if there wasn’t, he could send the counselor to prison ahead of time. Then none of the counselor’s plotline would happen!

The idea suddenly popped into Ning Chu’s head.

He didn’t have to wait for the plot to unfold before messing it up. He could plan ahead and deal with the key characters first.

To do that, the original novel that had come with him in his computer was going to be very important!

He’d only just come up with this brilliant idea when a sudden chill ran through him. He looked up and saw the instructor and the counselor staring his way, talking about something.

Are they talking about me?

I haven’t even turned into a girl because of the plot yet! Why am I already being watched?

Could he be into both men and women? He was that much of a pervert?!

Ning Chu watched the counselor warily. His relaxed posture stiffened, and his muscles tensed on instinct, like an alert cat.

Fortunately, their attention didn’t stay on him for long. The counselor chatted with the instructor for barely a minute before heading straight to the front of the students.

“We’ll have a class meeting tomorrow at five in the afternoon in classroom D203. If anyone’s thinking of running for class representative, you can prepare ahead of time.”

Only an idiot would want to be a class representative~

Especially the class monitor or vice monitor. There were no perks, and you’d be running errands all day. Plus, you’d have to handle every job that was bound to piss someone off.

Ning Chu glanced at his three roommates. They were all looking down at their phones, completely uninterested.

Military training resumed.

After the two-lap warm-up, they were back to the long, boring standing-at-attention drills.

Their training area was at the edge of the track. The trees nearby cast a patch of shade, but unfortunately, only Ning Chu’s feet could hide in it. The sun above his head was getting hotter by the minute.

“Ning Chu, are you going to run for class representative? I heard it earns you credits, and makes it easier to get a scholarship.”

Behind him, Wen Yang asked in a quiet, hesitant voice while the instructor wasn’t paying attention.

Ning Chu was just about to shake his head when a sudden idea struck him.

If he wanted to deal with the plot’s characters before anything happened, he’d have to get close to the counselor and find out whether he was already acting like a pervert...

Being a class representative would make the perfect cover.

Besides, he hadn’t become one of the girls in the story yet. Getting close to the counselor shouldn’t be dangerous.

He didn’t think it over too much. He just gave a slight nod.

“You want to run too?”

Too?

Ning Chu turned back curiously, about to check Wen Yang’s expression, when the instructor lightly smacked the back of his head. “Why do you keep moving around?”

Ning Chu glanced at the instructor’s six-foot-two frame and hurriedly snapped back to attention, not daring to move a muscle.

The novel hadn’t said much about Wen Yang’s background... But after spending over a week together, Ning Chu could tell that Wen Yang was short on money.

Wen Yang was the one who most often teamed up with Zhang Shaoqing to get the discount on takeout.

The thing was, despite being tall and solidly built, Wen Yang only ate one meat dish and one vegetable dish per meal, keeping the total to nine yuan. He never bought snacks like fruit or milk tea, either.

Even Ning Chu, who was only 1.6 meters tall, ate at least two meat dishes every meal. He was afraid he wouldn’t get enough nutrition and would never grow any taller.

“You’re after the scholarship, aren’t you?” After thinking it through, Ning Chu understood what Wen Yang was getting at. “Then you should run. I’ll vote for you.”

“Mm.”

Then Wen Yang could get on the inside, earn the counselor’s trust, and find out what was going on.

That would also keep Ning Chu from walking straight into a trap if the counselor really was into both men and women.

“You over there! Can’t keep your mouths shut, can you?”

Ning Chu went pale and quickly shut his mouth, not daring to say another word.