Zhang Jing-an walked over to sit on the sofa Ling Lan had pointed out. He did not say anything to Ling Lan, instead turning to Qi Long beside her to say with an admiring expression, "Junior Qi Long, you are the valedictorian among the new cadets joining us this year, bringing such glory to our Doha Central Scout Academy! This strength of yours is notable even among the upper ranks of the entire military academy. In future, you will definitely become a central pillar for our Central Scout Academy faction!"
On the surface, Zhang Jing-an was praising Qi Long, but he was in fact trying to plant a thorn in Ling Lan's heart. He wanted her to grow wary of Qi Long and become unable to trust Qi Long fully. Moreover, he also believed that as long as Qi Long was given a chance, with his strong capabilities, he would certainly be unwilling to continue deferring to Ling Lan! Zhang Jing-an believed that, with his abilities, he could definitely convince the simple-minded little Qi Long to join his faction.
Just now, Ling Lan's cold indifference had caused Zhang Jing-an to make the decision to give up on Ling Lan and choose Qi Long. Of course, to get what he wanted, he would need to create trouble between the two to cause Qi Long and Ling Lan to split up. This was also why Zhang Jing-an had praised Qi Long so highly — he was hoping to kindle Qi Long's desire for recognition, thus making him dissatisfied with Ling Lan.
However, Zhang Jing-an's idealistic calculations were destined to fail. As he lauded Qi Long, he carefully observed the changes in Qi Long's expression, but found that Qi Long did not react at all to his words. This made Zhang Jing-an's brow furrow, his heart becoming somewhat unsettled.
Ling Lan naturally knew what Zhang Jing-an was aiming for, but she was not at all concerned. She had already intended to push Qi Long up as a leader from the start — it was just that Qi Long was a battle maniac and had no interest whatsoever in this sort of things.Zhang Jing-an saw the two of them ignoring his words, even sensing some mockery in Ling Lan's gaze, and could only sulkily stop his attempts at provocation. With stilted laughter, he said, "And Junior Ling Lan, I haven't seen you for a few years, but you're still as spirited as ever." The few years he had spent in the military academy had obviously made Zhang Jing-an more mature and tolerant than when he had been at the scout academy.
Since it looked like Qi Long was a dead end, he had no choice but to pick Ling Lan again. Zhang Jing-an's intent shifted instantly, returning to his original target.
Ling Lan was expressionless, still retaining her slackface to say coldly, "Many thanks!"
This voice with no trace of warmth made Zhang Jing-an choke for a moment, only managing to squeeze out a smile after a long while. However, the smile still looked rather forced.
It should be said that Zhang Jing-an had not expected Ling Lan to be so discourteous to him, not even bothering with surface niceties. He had initially planned to use their relationship as senior and junior to close the distance between them and then suggest a partnership, but now it looked like this was impossible.
Thus, Zhang Jing-an went straight to the point. "New to the military academy, Junior Ling Lan, you likely still don't know how the distribution of power is right now in our military academy, right? If you want to pass your days securely in the military academy till you graduate, it won't do if you don't understand this."
Ling Lan quirked a brow and said, "Oh? There's such a thing?" If there was someone willing to voluntarily explain it to her, she naturally would not reject them. It was never wrong to try and understand things a little better."There are many factions of varying sizes within the military academy. There are about ten or so that are strong enough to be ranked, but, there are four strongest factions that stand out from the rest. They are respectively the first faction, Leiting, the second faction, Tianji, the third faction, Wuji, and our Doha Central Academy faction." At this point, a trace of regret appeared on Zhang Jing-an's face. "If the people from the other scout academies in Doha were willing to join us, we would never have ended up as the fourth faction. Even if becoming the first or second may be a bit difficult, third place should have been in the bag. Last year when we had a ranking mecha fight with the Wuji faction, we only lost by about 10 points at the end. What a shame ..."
When Zhang Jing-an mentioned the third faction, his tone and demeanour were clearly disgruntled. He lifted his head to look at Ling Lan and said, "However, I believe this year will be different. We can definitely take back the third position. I know there are a full 300 or so new cadets from the Central Scout Academy this year. As long as we unite and work together, even the position of second faction is worth trying for."
At this point in his speech, Zhang Jing-an was overcome with excitement. He could already almost see the glorious scene of him leading the students of the Central Academy faction strutting around the military academy.
However, Ling Lan's response instantly smacked him back into reality. Ling Lan could be heard to say calmly, "Senior Zhang's thinking is very admirable, but I personally dislike fighting and don't want to take part in this sort of thing. As for the other new cadets, Senior Zhang can go and try inviting them personally."
Ling Lan's words almost made Zhang Jing-an spew blood. He stared wide-eyed at Ling Lan, his face a picture of disbelief. What was he saying about disliking to fight ... wasn't this person before him now the one who instigated that horrific grand armed melee back then?
Zhang Jing-an was about to say something when Ling Lan abruptly stood up and said, "It's been a long day. I'm already very tired. Forgive me for not being able to accompany you any further. Please help yourself, Senior Zhang!"
That said, Ling Lan turned and left the dining hall immediately to return to her own room, not giving Zhang Jing-an any chance at all to continue speaking or to try asking her to stay.
Watching as Ling Lan's figure disappeared, Zhang Jing-an's expression shifted slightly. He repressed the rage in his heart, turning his head to look at Qi Long and invited, "Is Junior Qi Long interested to contribute your strength to our Central Academy faction?"
Qi Long yawned widely, and waved his hand in refusal, saying, "We follow Boss Lan. If he's not interested, then we're not interested. Sorry about that, Senior Zhang! It's really too tiring. I too need to rest now. Bye!" So saying, he too left the hall, returning to his own room to rest.
Being outright rejected by the two strongest people in this year's intake from the Central Scout Academy, Zhang Jing-an could not bear to stay any longer. He resentfully said goodbye to Han Jijyun and the others and then swiftly made his way out of Ling Lan's villa.
"D*mmit, refusing a toast only to drink a forfeit 1 ... does he really think this is still the time for him to have the wind and storm at his beck and call?" The moment he got back to his own villa, Zhang Jing-an flung a teacup from the tea set in his living room savagely against the ground. All the humiliation he had bottled up at Ling Lan's place was finally unleashed at this moment.
"Leader, what do we do next? Do we teach them a lesson?" One of his team members walked close to ask quietly. This was Zhang Jing-an's typical way of handling things — anyone who was unwilling to submit would be harassed by teams till they were forced to submit and joined his faction.
Zhang Jing-an's gaze flashed, a reckless urge rising in his heart to send some people to teach those few damn brats a good lesson. However, he very quickly got a hold of himself, knowing that right now was not the time. After all, the other new cadets had not joined his faction yet — if the others found out he had taught Ling Lan and his team a lesson just because they would not join him, those new cadets might grow wary and become unwilling to join.
Hmph! Wait till he got all of the new cadets into his fold, then he would most certainly teach them a lesson! Zhang Jing-an's gaze was venomous — till death he would not forget the humiliation he suffered in his final year at the scout academy. He would definitely take revenge for the grudge acquired back then.
********
The upper ranks of the other factions soon got wind of the news of Zhang Jing-an's failure. Some of them reacted with contempt, while some reacted with schadenfreude. However, they did not think much of this so-called strongest aberrant of the Central Scout Academy — even though they knew the valedictorian of this year's batch was from the Central Scout Academy, they still were not concerned. This was because there was a valedictorian every year, but the one who could truly become the strongest of the year within the military academy was oftentimes not that valedictorian.
Everyone thought that the Central Scout Academy faction would soon be embroiled in a power struggle between the old and new internal factions, but things were unexpectedly peaceful. Zhang Jing-an did not take any measures, while Ling Lan's side seemed to be focused on their studies, showing no signs of wanting to take power. This made all the various factions somewhat bemused — could it be that Zhang Jing-an could really tolerate this batch of disobedient new cadets?
Meanwhile, it was not that Zhang Jing-an did not want to take action, he just could not. Because he had been continuously trying to invite the other new cadets to join his faction over this period of time, but all he received were rejections. Although Zhang Jing-an had considered trying to force things from the weakest of the new cadets, he found that the bonds among this batch of new cadets were extremely strong. It was all too easy to spark off some unintended effect if he was not careful. This made Zhang Jing-an have no choice but to give up on this avenue of action. He could only tolerate for now and try to think of another way.
Ling Lan was naturally aware of the fact that Zhang Jing-an had been smacking into walls with the new cadets, because Wu Jiong, Li Yingjie, and the other team leaders had discussed this matter with her before.
Ling Lan had stated her decision outright, which was to stay neutral and observe for a year first. After all, their first year was the gruelling physical conditioning; they would not have any energy to participate in this struggle among the factions. When they moved on to the second year and the timing was right, then they could decide whether to join some other faction or create an organization themselves.
Ling Lan's words seemed to give these people direction, so they all decided to temporarily not join any faction either, putting all their focus into completing their training tasks. To prevent Zhang Jing-an and his faction from taking out his anger and frustration on them for not getting what they wanted, they temporarily established a new cadet regiment, supporting each other in their daily movements.
They did not ask for Ling Lan's opinion, directly promoting her as the first regiment commander, with Qi Long as the second regiment commander, Wu Jiong as the third, and Li Yingjie as the fourth. The position of fifth regiment commander would be filled by the other team leaders in turn to facilitate operations.
Ling Lan only found out about all this after the fact and was rendered extremely speechless! Mind you, she had told them to observe the situation for a year just so they would be able to establish their worth in the eyes of the other factions, and not so they could make their own organisation. Moreover, she did not want to be the first regiment commander of this new cadet regiment ... hells, she really did not want to take on any such responsibility, alright?!
However, Ling Lan's face was currently already at the extreme slackface level, all emotions almost indiscernible from her expression. Thus, no matter how dissatisfied she was with the situation, she could only emanate endless cold air to torment these idiot schoolmates who did not understand her true intentions.
Although Ling Lan's cold aura chilled these new cadets to the bone, every time they passed by Ling Lan and ended up shivering in their boots from this frigid air, they were ever more convinced in their decision: See, how formidable was their first regiment commander! With just one look, he could freeze them in their tracks. Under his lead, they would definitely be able to puff out their chests in pride within the military academy, holding their ground.
Heaven knows who revealed the establishment of the new cadet regiment to the other students from the other scout academies of Doha. These new cadets had experienced the great triumph of taking control of the spaceship under Ling Lan's leadership, and so were already fully convinced of Ling Lan's capabilities. As such, quite a significant number of Doha's new cadets also joined the regiment. Only an extremely small number of new cadets joined the other factions of Doha due to personal reasons.
With that, almost 500 new cadets joined the new cadet regiment. The decently sized organisation, not too big yet not too small, made the other factions step lightly in their oppression. If any major violence occurred, the military academy would step out to enforce punishment on all sides, so that would be disadvantageous to them too. Under these circumstances, the new cadets of the new cadet regiment temporarily obtained the space to exist freely ...
