Chapter 611: The Big Boss Takes Part in the Competition
Gu Mang walked over to Li Mu’s side, crouched down, and kneaded his injured ankle. Xu Wan frowned when she saw her doing that. “What are you doing, Gu Mang?”
Gu Mang ignored her. After conducting a thorough examination, she withdrew her hand and looked at the instructor. “No fractures, but it’s quite a bad sprain.”
Her calm voice made others believe her. She then took his walkie talkie and asked the infirmary to send people over.
Tears fell from Tang Xiaoxiao’s eyes as she apologized profusely to the instructor, who was sitting on the ground as he slowly adjusted his leg. Just putting weight on his ankle hurt him so much cold sweat began dotting his forehead. Still, he took the effort to pacify Tang Xiaoxiao. “I’m fine. I’ll be alright after receiving treatment at the infirmary.”
The commotion caught the attention of the other class, who was training at the track. They looked over and they saw medics carrying a stretcher over and helping Li Mu onto it. The doctor furrowed his eyebrows when he saw Tang Xiaoxiao’s hand. He had just bandaged it this morning, yet blood was seeping through it already. He shifted his gaze to her face. “Follow me to the infirmary. Your wound needs treatment again.”
Tang Xiaoxiao and Li Mu left together with the medical team. The class, meanwhile, had no idea what they should do next in their instructor’s absence, so the next class’ instructor came over to tell them to continue their obstacle course training.
…
When training ended at 6 PM, everyone decided to pay Li Mu a visit at the infirmary. Gu Mang pressed her cap down on her head as she walked alongside Zheng Miao at the edge of the group. Everyone was glum because their instructor had gotten injured on the eve of the competition.
“Tang Xiaoxiao shouldn’t have pushed herself when she’s hurt. Now even our instructor is injured because of her,” whispered a female classmate. With her getting the ball rolling on this subject, everyone started grumbling and blaming Tang Xiaoxiao.
“Yeah. He told her not to overdo it and report to him if anything happened. If she had gone back to rest, things wouldn’t have turned out this way.”
“How are we going to compete tomorrow when even our instructor is injured?”
“Tang Xiaoxiao has really done us in this time. Reporters are filming our military filming and the competition is the main highlight. What are we to do now?”
Infuriated over what she heard, Zheng Miao could not help lashing out at them. “Who are you all to blame Xiaoxiao when none of you were willing to take her place when she asked for help yesterday? You guys sure have the cheek to say anything.”
Everyone was instantly rendered speechless, for they were unable to refute her words. Gu Mang, on the other hand, seemed quite annoyed, as shown by her knitted eyebrows and pursed lips.
“Besides, it takes team effort to win the competition, not Xiaoxiao’s efforts alone,” Zheng Miao added sternly.
“That’s not what we meant.” Another girl stepped forward to play the role of a peacemaker. “We’re just anxious over what happened. We can’t possibly embarrass ourselves on national TV, can we?”
No one said anything for a while. The silence was only broken when someone else spoke. “Will we be assigned a new instructor to help us compete? If that’s the case, we just need someone to replace Tang Xiaoxiao.”
“And who would that be?”
Silence reigned once more.
Reining her anger in, Zheng Miao said, “We can ask the instructor that once we get to the infirmary.”
…
In the infirmary.
Li Mu did not know what to do with Tang Xiaoxiao, who was blubbering like a child. Each time he tried speaking, the girl would apologize to him and say that it was her fault that he got hurt, so he dared not make a sound. Hence, when Gu Mang and the rest of the girls showed up at the infirmary, his eyes lit up as though he had met his saviors, despite his stoic face. “Zheng Miao, please get Xiaoxiao to stop crying.”
After crying for more than two hours, Tang Xiaoxiao’s eyes were red and swollen. Zheng Miao walked over to her side and took out some tissues from her pocket to hand to her. “Calm down, okay? Let’s discuss our plans for tomorrow’s competition.”
Tang Xiaoxiao’s cries gradually subsided when she heard this and she turned to look at their instructor, who was stroking his flat-top hair. “The captain informed me that he’ll be selecting another instructor to take part in the competition with your class.”
Tang Xiaoxiao pursed her lips, then said in a nasally tone, “But, Instructor Li, I heard that you’re one of the best in the reserve base in terms of athletic performance.”
The compliment caused the instructor’s ears to turn red. It was the first time a girl had complimented him in a while. Tang Xiaoxiao sniffled. “The new instructor surely can’t compare with you.”
“Not at all. My comrades are equally capable,” he told her seriously. However, it failed to convince her for she burst into tears once more.
Li Mu felt helpless about the situation, but there was nothing the students could do as the decision to send a new instructor to replace him in the competition had already been made by the higher ups.
Zheng Miao looked at him. “Instructor Li, we should find someone to replace Xiaoxiao first. She can’t participate in tomorrow’s competition in this state.”
Nodding in agreement, he turned to the others and asked in a hard voice, “Anyone willing to take Xiaoxiao’s place?”
One by one, everyone lowered their heads silently. Fury surged within Zheng Miao once more as she tried exercising patience to say, “Let’s not worry about being a burden to the team. We just need someone to replace her.”
Gu Mang looked up and swept a glance across the group. “I’ll do it.”
Everyone, including the instructor and the crying Tang Xiaoxiao, turned to look at her incredulously at that. Zheng Miao opened her mouth, but it took her several seconds before she could speak. “Gu Mang, I’m grateful that you want to help, but your performance…” Any of our classmates, even chosen at random, would fare better than her.
The students, meanwhile, exchanged looks with one another. They wanted to say something, but they held their tongues.
Standing straight on her feet, Gu Mang tugged her cap, slid her hands into her pockets, and said in a low voice, “I’ll replace her. Enough said.”
With that, she left the infirmary looking proud and cold, leaving everyone else staring dumbly in her direction.