Chapter 77: Are you gay?

Ma Jian was the impatient sort. The man took big strides to Xia Fei’s side and hurriedly asked, “Do you like animals?”

His tone was heavy, not at all sounding like he was asking a question but more like he was interrogating him, instead.

Xia Fei was stunned for a moment before he gave an ambiguous answer. “Alright, I guess. I’ve seen a few wildlife documentaries before.”

Ma Jian was beside himself with elation. His two large hands clasped Xia Fei’s shoulders, looking down at him. “That’s wonderful! Since you like animals, you should come to our exotic beast division! I can teach you how to tame beasts! It’s really interesting!”

What Ma Jian had said thus far were all positive, yet the tone he used was too forceful, and it instead made Xia Fei feel an involuntary sense of resistance. Adding the fact that the older man had a loud voice like a firecracker, Xia Fei felt as if he were back in middle school, being reprimanded by the headmaster.

Wrinkling his forehead slightly, he asked, “Liking animal means I must join the exotic beast division? It doesn’t sound logical, does it?”

Though Ma Jian had quite a mean mug, he was actually very innocent deep down. The man stroked his chin for some time as he mumbled, “That’s right; it doesn’t sound logical, does it...”

He shook his head violently as he suddenly got an epiphany. “That’s right. When it is normal to reward beasts often when attempting to tame them? Tell me whatever you desire, Xia Fei! I’ll give it all to you if it is within my means!”

Xia Fei was speechless, thinking to himself, ‘Why do I feel that this man is acting like he’s training a monkey toward me? Not everyone from the exotic beast divisions is like him, right?’

Flashing a harmless smile, Xia Fei spoke. “I’ve just arrived at the training camp. I need some time to think about which division I should join. Rest assured that I will keep your the exotic beast division in mind when I make a decision.”

“Are you for real?” Ma Jian believed his words and was beside himself again. “That’s great! Go get yourself registered first, and I’ll bring you to view the exotic beast division tomorrow. Take a look at the beautiful beasts we have. As long as you see those beasts, I’m certain you’ll fall in love with them.”

....

After finally disentangling himself from Ma Jian, Xia Fei walked into the office building so that he could complete the registration process as a new cadet.

The offices in Heaven Execution Training Camp were all automated and highly efficient. Xia Fei was soon able to obtain his uniform and cadet ID.

Walking out of the office, Xia Fei suddenly discovered Ye Xiaohan waiting in the corridor with an icy face as ever.

“Heh, so we meet again.” Xia Fei walked up and smiled.

Ye Xiaohan nodded and walked out with Xia Fei. “I’m here to tell you that you can’t join any one of the exotic beast, reconnaissance, and command divisions. You’re free to choose any other division besides those, though of course, this excludes the internal division. Right now, you still lack the qualifications to join the internal division.”

Xia Fei was slightly unhappy upon hearing this news. There were the three divisions taking the initiative to find him, hoping that he would join any of them. Now, there was Ye Xiaohan telling him that he could join any but those three. Just what kind of acts were they trying to pull here?

Xia Fei sighed. “Is that an order?”

Ye Xiaohan thought about this for a moment. “Nope. It’s just a friendly reminder.”

Xia Fei showed a straight face. “I’m sorry, but I won’t adhere to that even if it’s an order. The right to make a choice is mine alone, and it’s my free will. There’s no need for anyone to interfere with my decision-making.”

Ye Xiaohan did not expect Xia Fei to reject her suggestion so resolutely. Though the Heaven Execution Training Camp was not like a school, its system was essentially no different from a school’s.

It was hard to imagine a student rejecting a teacher’s request, and this was a fairly good-looking teacher to boot.

“Have you already met Ma Jian, Hou Baishan, and Qiu Xiangji?” asked Ye Xiaohan.

Xia Fei nodded.

“The tree of them chose you during the Crisis grade assessment, and each of them wanted to especially enroll you in their divisions. They had quite an argument about it, and if you agree to any of the three, the other two supervisors will have a hard time accepting it. The resulting conflict between these supervisors will affect the overall cohesion of the training camp; do you understand?” clarified Ye Xiaohan.

Xia Fei chuckled. “Of course, I do. Furthermore, I know the more crucial reason for this; it’s because none of the three is willing to admit defeat. This matter has already transcended beyond a fight for a cadet to become a matter of face between the supervisors. It has now turned into an unspoken contest for them.”

Ye Xiaohan was slightly surprised at Xia Fei’s analytical ability, which was completely incongruent with his age. Even in a highly developed extraterrestrial planet, seventeen of age was considered juvenile, yet Xia Fei had just demonstrated a level of maturity and wisdom comparable to an adult, or even better.

She vaguely felt that it was completely logical for the three supervisors to have their eye on Xia Fei at the same time. If possible, she really wished she could crack open this fellow’s head and see exactly what was inside it.

“You’re not wrong. They are indeed competing with one another, and what they’re initially fighting about has become secondary to them now.

“You’re still young, so how come you’re able to determine the root of the matter here? Could you have undergone some special training since young?” curiously asked Ye Xiaohan.

Xia Fei gave a bitter laugh. “Age only proves how old someone has lived, but that isn’t an indicator of maturity. What matters is experience; you’ll understand if you’ve experienced the same things I did.”

“What sort of experience?” asked Ye Xiaohan. She had a faint suspicion that Xia Fei’s childhood might not have been a happy one, which was why he now possessed thinking skills and great survival tenacity beyond that of the average person.

“Sorry, there’s no need for me to tell you about my past.”

With that, Xia Fei quickened his pace and left Ye Xiaohan in his wake without even looking back once.

“Be it what the three supervisors are feeling or the cohesion in Heaven Execution Training Camp, you’ve considered everything, yet why is it that you failed to consider my feelings?

“I am but a powerless cadet. Accepting someone’s invitation will at least let me gain the help of a supervisor in these foreign training grounds, but if I reject those three, then all of them will dislike me.

“Still, I ought to thank you for the kind reminder. Truth be told, I am uninterested in the exotic beast division, reconnaissance division, and command division, but the reason behind it isn’t you but my desire.

“Will rejecting the three supervisors’ invitation create greater cohesion in the training camp? That’s sheer nonsense that won’t even stand scrutiny. I have no concerns about your matters, so you can all do whatever you want; I won’t be involved in this.”

Xia Fei left after saying all that, leaving Ye Xiaohan awkwardly rooted to where she stood.

He had not spoken with much severity, but his words had still pricked Ye Xiaohan’s ears, just like steel nails that drove straight to her heart.

Ye Xiaohan suddenly felt her heart aching, an intense feeling of guilt creeping up on her. She recalled the words Xia Fei had once said to her: ‘I’ll admit that you’re a very beautiful lady, but do you know what you lack?

‘You lack compassion.’

......

There were well over fifty thousand cadets in Heaven Execution Training Camp. In accordance with the standards of a training camp, Heaven Execution was by no means small given these numbers.

However, the population of the entire Endaro Star Region was in the thousands of billions, so for only fifty thousand people to have been picked up from such a tremendously large population showed just how slim the chances were of being chosen.

To become the crème de la crème among the elite cadets in the training camp, the Adjudicator Union had invested plenty of money and effort in cultivating their future pillars. Every cadet’s training, studies, and living standards could be considered topnotch.

The cadet dormitories consisted of six large buildings, each shaped like a goose egg. The walls were made from silver-colored, reinforced glass, and sunbeams would get reflected when they hit these buildings, making for a very dazzling sight.

Every such building could house up to ten thousand cadets; the place was like a miniature city in itself, with malls, entertainment centers, restaurants, and bars abound.

There were quite a number of cadets traveling around in hover discs to go about their respective businesses. Some recognized Xia Fei and began to discuss him with others as they regarded him with a strange expression.

Xia Fei felt a prickly sensation all around him, so he quickened his pace toward his dorm room.

Getting out of the lift on the seventy-first floor, Xia Fei walked down a long hallway in search of his room.

A door suddenly burst open a dozen of meters ahead and out walked a well-built man.

His head was wrapped in a layer of bandage, while his arm was supported in a sling. His eyes were almost murky as if he had suffered quite a severe beating.

Right now was the fall season for Hek, so even though the temperature was not freezing, it was still a stretch to consider it warm. However, the man was just dressed in a pair of black shorts in this weather, his legs bare, revealing muscles that would make a bodybuilder envious.

“Xia Fei!” exclaimed Chen Dong when he saw that it was him.

Xia Fei laughed. “What happened to you? Who has beaten you up so badly?”

Chen Dong walked over excitedly, directing a rather heavy, playful punch at Xia Fei’s chest. “Well, it’s definitely not you. All you know is to duck and weave. Fighting with you isn’t even in the least bit fun.”

The corners of Xia Fei’s mouth twisted into a wry smile. “Not fun, yet you still ended up fighting with me for twenty-one days nonstop. Not fun means we’ll have to fight for the rest of our lives, right?”

Xia Fei and Chen Dong had not only failed to harbor any animosity toward each other during the Crisis grade assessment, they had instead respectfully acknowledged each other, becoming quite decent friends as a result. That was why the two of them could still joke and tease each other the moment they met.

“Why are you here so late? I’ve already been here for over two months,” stated Chen Dong.

“Yeah, I can tell that these past two months weren’t wasted on you,” mischievously pointed out Xia Fei as he eyed the bandage around Chen Dong’s head.

Xia Fei’s room was only a door away from Chen Dong’s, so they would be staying very near each other from here on.

Xia Fei used his cadet ID to gain entry to his room and was immediately shocked by the luxurious suite before him.

There was a living room, bedroom, training room, study, and kitchen. Just the bathrooms alone, and there were four, occupying over four hundred square meters of space. Forget him; even a family could stay there comfortably.

A hologram TV, a marble bathtub, a smart sanitation system—it had everything. He even had a window view overlooking a clear lake a short distance away, with verdant forest right beside it.

Xia Fei opened the window and fresh air immediately rushed into the suite, filling with a sense of freshness.

It could be said that the Heaven Execution Training Camp did well to provide for every possible need their cadets might have. They had thought all details, and staying in such an environment would be very conducive to their training and studies as they would not have to worry about or fret over stuff like their basic needs.

Xia Fei lit a cigarette and stood by the window to admire the view. He had barely taken a drag when he heard the crisp ring of the doorbell.

Opening the door, Xia Fei came face to face with a seventeen-year-old girl, who was lazily standing there by his door. She was not particularly tall, though her figure matched that perfectly slim waist of hers, with curves all in the right places.

If Xia Fei were to describe her, the adjective ‘voluptuous’ would be a seamless fit.

She was even holding a piece of cucumber in her hand, looking at him even as she crunched it with big bites.

Chen Dong was also in Xia Fei’s room, and when he saw this girl, he immediately furrowed his brows as an unfortunate expression crept up his face.

“Call me Moon Song. I’m living between you and Chen Dong.” The girl stuffed the cucumber in her pocket and wiped her hands on her skirt. She smiled as she proffered her hand, speaking to Xia Fei in a sweet voice.

Xia Fei felt that this girl was rather pretty and sounded polite, so he had a favorable first impression of her.

He smiled and extended his hand to shake Moon Song’s. Her soft and tender hand was delicate and pale; one look, and he could tell that she had never done any manual labor in her life.

To find out if a person had a pampered upbringing, a glance at their hands was all it took. It was evident that Moon Song’s hands belonged to a gentlewoman. Her looks corroborated this as well, and it was only her munching on the cucumber, which was quite unladylike, when they first met that spoiled her image, so she could only be considered to be half a proper lady.

What Xia Fei had not expected was for Miss Moon Song, whom he had established in his mind as half a proper lady, to very soon throw this other half down the mouth of a volcano.

She looked at Xia Fei with malicious intentions before glancing at Chen Dong, asking thereafter, “Are you and Chen Dong gay? Can I watch?”