QTIMP -Chapter 293 Character Persona – Violent (Part 21)

Seeing the others getting tired and slowing down, Teacher Li called for them to walk slowly. Meanwhile, he noticed that Si Qiu had already begun moving her body on her own without being told.

Teacher Li walked over with his hands behind his back. “Girl, you’ve trained before?”

Si Qiu gave a helpless smile. “Teacher, I’m 27. Yes, I’ve trained before. People in our Chen family can basically learn some martial arts if they’re willing to.”

“My talent isn’t that great, but I’ve followed along for almost 20 years, so I’ve got some foundation.”

He nodded with his hands still behind his back, then turned and walked toward the group again, the bamboo strip in his hand snapping as he swung it—pa pa.

“Get up, get up. I told you to walk, so walk.”

After a short rest, everyone lined up again and continued with some basic combat training. Then came a lecture, and only after that did they go to the cafeteria for food.

After eating, they had to attend cultural theory classes. At this time, police instruction had not yet formed a complete system, so the teacher simply used case studies to explain real investigations.

He analyzed investigative techniques during case solving, while the students below took frantic notes and actively asked questions and interacted.

“Alright, that new student over there—do you have any questions?”

Si Qiu stood up and looked at the old man. “Teacher, I think in this kind of situation, we could have an artist draw a portrait based on witness descriptions of the suspect’s appearance.”

“Wouldn’t that be more reliable than passing descriptions by word of mouth? Because details get distorted as they’re passed along.”

The old man gestured for her to sit down and nodded. “That’s a good idea. We actually did that at the time. But when artists draw portraits, they tend to unconsciously beautify certain features.”

“The resulting sketch often doesn’t match the witness’s memory. It’s not that it’s completely wrong—it’s just only about thirty or forty percent similar.”

Si Qiu listened and nodded. That made sense. She had studied sketching for a few years herself, but only because her academic performance wasn’t good and her mother had wanted to see if she could take the art track instead.

After all, getting into art programs there wasn’t too difficult. But Si Qiu really didn’t like drawing, so she eventually didn’t go that route and instead chose a vocational program in veterinary medicine.

After class, they were given homework to analyze the case the teacher had just discussed—figure out the suspect and write up the investigation process.

During lunch, several girls were sitting together discussing the case when a small bowl of braised pork suddenly appeared in front of Si Qiu.

She looked up and immediately stood. “Teacher Li.”

“Mm. The meat I promised you. In the afternoon training session, I’ve got another reward for you.”

Teacher Li smiled so widely his eyes crinkled, but Si Qiu felt there was something sly hidden in his gaze.

Suspicious, she sat down and ate anyway—but she ended up sharing the braised pork with the four girls across from her, giving each of them a piece.

She counted what was left—seven pieces—and ate them all with some steamed corn bread.

After that, the girls who had eaten her braised pork went back to the dorm and started fetching water for her, wiping her desk, and even taking over her task of tending the heated brick bed.

Si Qiu didn’t know whether to sigh at how cheap labor was nowadays, or how genuinely simple people were.

“You girls… it’s just braised pork. Was it really necessary?” she asked.

A nursing class student in the dorm rolled her eyes and said,

“We’re not short on food, but is Qiuqiu short on help? This isn’t a transaction—it’s mutual help. Don’t you get it?”

Zhang Aihong carried a basin of water over, nudged the other girl without ceremony, set the basin down, and said, “Qiuqiu, that massage technique you used on the training field earlier was really effective.”

“I’ll teach you all later. From now on, we can massage each other like this. After exercising, it makes your body feel a lot better, otherwise you’ll wake up stiff and sore the next morning.”

“Qiuqiu, you’re so right. I’ve actually been feeling a bit strained these past few days. During the first days of school, I even had to hold onto the wall just to step over a threshold.”

Si Qiu could already see it—there was still a divide between the two groups. No major conflict, but small frictions were inevitable.

With nothing else to do, Si Qiu sat there and took out some paper, planning to write a letter to Chen Family Village.

She wrote in detail about everything that happened after meeting Chen Shuanzi, and also asked about how things were going back home. Her tone was warm and familiar, as if she truly considered Chen Family Village her own home.

“Qiuqiu, are you writing a letter to send out?”

“Yes. A letter to my hometown. I’ve been busy all this time and haven’t had the chance to reply.”

Li Jing sat down beside her. “We’re not allowed to leave school. We only get one day off per month.”

Then she leaned closer and whispered, “If you’re in a hurry, I can ask my second uncle to send it for you.”

Seeing Si Qiu’s puzzled look, she added a little awkwardly, “He’s Teacher Li Wenbin.”

Si Qiu immediately understood. No wonder she always felt that Teacher Li seemed to be picking on Li Jing during class—so they were family.

Si Qiu didn’t even seal the envelope. She handed over the postage money.

“Then I’ll leave it to our Jingjing student.” She even stuffed two candies into Li Jing’s palm. “Treat you to some sweets.”

Li Jing was naturally carefree, and she had also wanted to get closer to Si Qiu because she admired her strength, which was why she had taken on this favor in the first place.

Now seeing Si Qiu trust her so much and even give her candy, she became even happier. She tucked the letter away, since the afternoon class was live-fire shooting practice.

And it was still taught by Teacher Li, so there was no need to go out of her way to find him.

Although Si Qiu had good physical strength, she was still quite exhausted after a full day of classes. During target practice, especially, the recoil of the gun made both of her arms tremble.

She pretended to take medicated oil out of her luggage and shared it with the others to apply.

“Qiuqiu, this medicated oil of yours works better than my medicinal wine. But… it must’ve cost a lot, right? We should split the cost. We can’t keep taking advantage of you.”

“I only have four bottles in total. I’ll keep two for myself, and the other two you can split between the two of you. But one bottle of medicated oil costs 20,000 yuan.”

Hearing this, the others quickly took out money to pay.

“Qiuqiu, take your time getting used to things these next two days. We’ll help you with your chores,” Zhang Aihong said, and the others all nodded.

Their relationship grew even closer.

As for the others whispering and gossiping, among Si Qiu’s group, only Ma Rongfang had tried to confront them a few times, but she was held back.

They were all a few years older than those people anyway. Since the others weren’t naming anyone directly, confronting them would only put them at a disadvantage.

The next morning, they followed their routine again—washing up and heading to early training.

This time, there was no need to talk about running anymore. Si Qiu went from the back of the pack straight to the front, leading the run.

Teacher Li Wenbin was as satisfied with her as ever, and just as dissatisfied with everyone behind her.

“One by one, you call yourselves men, but you can’t even outrun a girl. What, are you planning not to eat breakfast anymore?”

“Weren’t you all so cocky before? Acting like you were the boss of the world?”

“Oh, oh, oh—Comrade Zhao Jianguo, what were you saying before? Running is useless? ‘People who can’t even walk can still run’? What, are you planning to run your way into flowers blooming or something?”