She’s a Passerby, But Can See the Protagonist’s Halo

On the fifth day of indoor military training, Yan and Yi Zhi went together to participate in a special training session for the elite students selected from each college, preparing for the final competition. The rest of their roommates continued with the regular training.

The intensive training for CPR was quite physically demanding. Under the guidance of the instructors and medical school teachers, they aimed to perform more standard and perfect techniques, correcting minor details.

Most of the elite students from each college who participated in the special training enjoyed shooting practice, and everyone was highly self-disciplined.

Yi Zhi observed that each college had selected 2-3 students for the training, and most of them could easily score above 90 points after practice.

In a college with so many students, it was like finding a needle in a haystack to spot someone talented, but Bin University was a gathering place for top students in all fields.

During the continuous training, quite a few students managed to score over 100 points in ten shots. As Yi Zhi gradually regained her form, her performance became increasingly stable, securing her the top spot in the shooting category.

However, seeing that many students besides Yan also performed exceptionally well—at least a dozen of them scored over 100 points—she began to doubt her own judgment.

Shooting is a skill that heavily relies on talent.

If so many students could perform well, it wasn’t surprising that Yan, who admitted to having practiced before, could also do well.

“I was on the shooting team in high school, practicing air pistol. I wanted to pursue sports as a specialty, but my family didn’t allow it,” said a male student from the physics department.

“The military museum has shooting practice equipment, but that’s more for kids to have fun. Anyone can score nine or ten points there.”

“I’ve never practiced before. My college just picked the best among the mediocre, and I ended up here for training, only to meet all you experts,” a female student said with a bitter smile. When she first arrived, her scores were the worst, around 70 to 80 points. But after two days of training, she quickly got the hang of it, no longer missing the target, and could now score around 90 points with focus.

“I’m from Bin City. Back in elementary school, our PE class included shooting. The PE teacher would even select some students to join the city team’s training camp.”

Some students performed well on their first try and were directly selected for the special training. According to Yi Zhi’s observations, Yan wasn’t slacking off either, but among so many talented students, her performance didn’t stand out.

“You’re all top students from across the country, selected by your colleges for your talent. In my eyes, you’re all highly intelligent geniuses,” the instructor said with a smile.

The instructor’s words made Yi Zhi pause. Yes, she had always been used to comparing things with her past life experiences, forgetting that the environment she was in now was different.

This was Bin University, a gathering place for geniuses selected from across the nation. Everyone here was among the top 50 students in their province, young and brilliant, with minds at their sharpest. They naturally learned things faster than others, with focus and absorption abilities far surpassing their peers.

In her past life, during the apocalypse, most of the people she interacted with were ordinary individuals of varying ages, slowly learning and accumulating experience.

But here, with instructors providing hands-on guidance and precise teaching, it would be strange if these already outstanding students didn’t improve and excel.

Yi Zhi silently reflected on her own narrow-mindedness, realizing she had overlooked the changes in her environment.

The students participating in the special training all had their own strengths. In the first aid bandaging category, students from families of doctors and nurses stood out. In the CPR practice, those who volunteered in rescue teams also scored full marks.

With so many students excelling, why did she keep doubting Yan?

It was because of her prior carelessness in using her abilities that she had preconceived notions about Yan, always harboring suspicion. Combined with her habit from her past life of being overly sensitive to her surroundings, she had become overly paranoid, which wasn’t good.

The Freshman Military Training Skills Competition was held on the final day of the training.

The shooting category, first aid bandaging category, and CPR category were contested by over a hundred elite students selected from dozens of departments.

For this, Bin University even set up a live broadcast of the competition. On the final day, the rest of the students gathered in classrooms to watch their representatives compete.

The results were no surprise to Yan. As the only “halo figure” among the freshmen, Yi Zhi secured the top spot in the university with her far superior shooting skills.

In the first aid bandaging category, unless students made mistakes due to nervousness, most scored well, with scores ranging from 8 to 9 out of 10. The CPR competition also didn’t see large score gaps. However, in shooting, even a slight tremor or nervousness could lead to a huge difference in scores, significantly affecting the rankings.@@novelbin@@

Even professional athletes in the Olympics could miss the target or shake, let alone freshmen participating in such a competition under the watchful eyes of the entire university.

Yi Zhi achieved a double perfect score, with an average of 10.6 points per shot, securing her a landslide victory!

Yan ranked fifth overall, while her childhood friend Zhu Jue came in seventh.

The second, third, and fourth places might be remembered with a hint of regret, but after fifth place, no one really paid much attention.

Her results weren’t bad, but not top three either. She didn’t fall behind, didn’t embarrass her college, and neither stood out too much nor performed too poorly. Both she and Zhu Jue successfully earned their credits, and Yan was very satisfied with the outcome.

After the competition, Yan secretly observed that Yi Zhi’s attention had finally shifted away. She even made plans with the second and third-place students to go shooting together sometime, seemingly no longer focused on Yan. Yan quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

Being silently watched by someone with supernatural abilities was a blessing Yan couldn’t handle. Over the past few days, Yi Zhi had been subtly probing, watching her intently during training. Every time Yan accidentally looked up, she’d find Yi Zhi secretly staring at her, which was downright terrifying!

The short week of military training ended, leaving less than half a day of rest before the official start of their first year of university.

Chu Bingbing complained angrily in the dorm, “Even though the first week was military training, having five consecutive days of classes afterward is no different from having twelve straight days of school without a break!”

She was really afraid that a time-limited spending task might pop up during class, leaving her helpless and desperate.

With little time to leave campus, Chu Bingbing had the staff at the Lan family’s boutique handle her Weibo giveaways, shipping the items directly from the store. This avoided disputes and protected her personal information.

In the first semester at Bin University, freshmen didn’t need to choose their courses; they were all arranged by the school. Yan was in the same class as Gu Jiasui, so their schedules were mostly the same, keeping each other company.

Both the College of Liberal Arts and the Medical School had packed schedules. Yan only had time to have dinner with Zhu Jue after seven or eight classes each day, taking a stroll around campus. Due to different colleges, she only saw her roommates Yi Zhi, Chu Bingbing, and Ding Ling in the mornings and evenings.

Especially since Yi Zhi left early every morning and Ding Ling returned late every night, no one knew what they were up to.

Around 7 PM on Wednesday, as the sky darkened, Yan and Zhu Jue walked hand in hand after dinner to aid digestion.

“I can’t escape roll call when I’m in class with Gu Jiasui,” Yan said with a look of resignation.

Some teachers would call on Gu Jiasui as soon as they saw her name on the list, asking her to answer questions. After one question, they’d naturally turn to the student next to her—Yan—for the next one.

Originally, the teachers didn’t know her, but after being called on a few times for grades, she became familiar to several of them.

How was she supposed to skip class now? There were bound to be days when she didn’t feel like getting up for early classes.

“Look on the bright side, Gu Jiasui has it worse,” Zhu Jue comforted her.

Yan sighed deeply. Gu Jiasui indeed had it harder. As a star student, skipping class would easily make her a target for teachers.

At the start of the semester, both teachers and students had their eyes on these halo figures. Yan just hoped that after a week or two, everyone would get used to them and stop paying so much attention.

As they chatted, they unknowingly wandered onto a secluded path on campus, where even the streetlights were absent, making the area feel chilly.

Zhu Jue’s phone flashlight was on, and Yan opened her phone’s navigation.

“I remember we were heading toward the old teaching building. Huh? Why is the signal down to 3G?”

With poor signal, the navigation couldn’t refresh the real-time location. Yan tried to recall the campus map while using her phone’s flashlight to illuminate their surroundings.

The white beam of the flashlight swept across the surroundings, and the two of them could see the walls covered with flowers and plants, as well as the century-old Western-style buildings nearby.

"Si Xue Residence? Or the Archives Building? The Little Green Building?"

Using their phone lights, Yan and Zhu Jue successfully found the wrought-iron main gate wrapped in vines, but after scanning the area, they couldn't find any plaque.

"There's no plaque," Yan said, feeling a bit puzzled.

"This place is probably a building left over from the Republican era, and since it's on the Bin University campus, it's likely a protected cultural relic. Let's see if there's a sign from the Cultural Relics Office."

As she spoke, the two continued to scan the area with their phones, one on the left and one on the right.

Suddenly, Yan's hand froze mid-motion.

She tried to suppress the tremor in her voice as she called out, "Jue, come over here. I think I just saw some talisman paper."

"I see some too," came Zhu Jue's calm voice. He walked over to Yan, and their hands instinctively clasped together, sharing warmth.

Yan crouched down, and the light from her phone illuminated the scene more clearly.

Yellow talisman paper—not just one sheet, but several. The color had faded somewhat, suggesting they had been there for a long time. The symbols on them were written in red cinnabar, and they were incomprehensible. The talismans were hidden beneath the green hedges along the wall.

The night breeze whispered softly, and the creaking of the wrought-iron gate suddenly turned into eerie murmurs in Yan's ears, like the mournful voice of a woman.

"I know where we are now," Yan said, shivering slightly despite her short sleeves.

"This must be Mingzhi Hall."

Legend has it that a hundred years ago, during the Reform Movement, Bin University was one of the few coeducational institutions. However, due to the harsh societal expectations for women, many talented young women who were admitted to Bin University were still bound by parental or marital constraints. Some female students were forced by their families to abandon their studies and marry, and in despair, they took their own lives. This place was once the female dormitory.

Because of the conflict between the conservatives and the reformers at the time, and the fact that many of the female students came from influential families, such tragedies occurred more than once on campus. Several female students chose death to make their stand, and since then, this place has been known as Mingzhi Hall.

Over the past century, it has become one of the campus ghost stories at Bin University. Tales abound of people encountering a girl in a white blouse and black skirt while walking at night, or hearing a woman's voice softly reciting the next line while studying on campus...

Yan had even looked up some related information before, which said that Mingzhi Hall had been abandoned and was no longer open to the public. She never expected that she and Zhu Jue would accidentally end up here tonight! And there really were talismans.

Could it be that there really are ghosts here? Or even vengeful spirits, and the talismans are here to suppress them?

She quickly reminded herself that there was a Ghost King living next door in her dorm, so there was nothing to fear.

"Let's go. Now that we know this is Mingzhi Hall, we can find our way back," Zhu Jue said. The two stood up and turned around, only to freeze in their tracks.

Four eyes—no, eight eyes—met face to face.

The light from their phones shone on the two figures approaching them. One was a short-haired girl wearing a light blue cheongsam with wide sleeves and small leather shoes, holding what looked like a stack of books in her arms. The other was a slender, pale girl with delicate features, wearing a loose, long-sleeved dress. It was none other than Yan's roommate, Ding Ling!

The light from their phones was bright enough to clearly cast shadows of Yan and Zhu Jue on the ground.

But the two figures in front of them cast no shadows at all.

A ghost and a Ghost King.

Yan's face lit up with relief. "Ding Ling, it's great that you're here! We got lost and ended up here. Do you and your friend know how to get back to the dorm from here?"