Love Began with the First Meeting

The sight of Claire standing by Edgar's side really upset Maggie.

She glanced at Cain, who looked as casual and lazy as usual. For some reason, she sensed that he had looked at her moments before. 'Am I thinking too much?' she asked herself.

"Attention." Edgar spoke as he looked at the students with a cold, calculated look. His eyes burned into theirs, forcing them to pay their upmost attention to him. "You've met me and gotten to know me. This instructor." He pointed to Cain. "He's Cain Nan." Edgar introduced Cain to the students and then he introduced Claire. While the students looked the two new instructors up and down, he continued in his calm and emotionless voice, "For the first emergency assembly, 78 students arrived here in time as specified. Now the others will run 20 circles around the playground."

As soon as he gave the order, the students whined and groaned, creating a cacophonous roar. One student even spoke up and suggested that the assembly not start until the morning.

"It's half past midnight now. The assembled training has begun." Instead of Edgar speaking, it was Cain who spoke now. While Edgar's voice was deep and sonorous, Cain's was much softer to the ears, with a pressing feel. When he spoke, everyone become nervous in spite of themselves.

"20 circles in an hour. Instructor Cain will supervise you!" Edgar barked, his gaze falling on each student who arrived, taking a moment for each one to sense his authority.

It was half past midnight, which meant that it was a new day now, and it would be the first day of training. Whining and cursing the instructors under their breaths, the students who were late started to run, not able to do anything about it. While they ran, the 78 students who arrived on time were overjoyed at not having to run circles. In fact, some of them applauded themselves, proud that they had gone to sleep in their clothes, just in case an emergency happened. Instead of scrambling for their clothes, they were able to run out of their dormitories as soon as they heard the horn.

However, they underestimated Edgar, who had been in the army for more than 20 years, and Cain, who was a military genius. It was impossible for them to hide their tricks from the two instructors. As a result, these students soon received their punishment of 25 circles in an hour. If they could not finish 25 circles in an hour, they had to continue running. But if they could run 25 circles in an hour, they were free to go back to their dormitories and sleep.

Whines and groans filled the night air again.

After these students went to run, only less than fifty students were left. They were not late, nor had they slept with their clothes on, but they were still given drills to complete: 500 push-ups on the spot.

A military order could not be disobeyed. Even though the students were unwilling to follow them or found the order unreasonable, they had no choice but to do what they were ordered. Some of the students peeked over at Maggie, hoping that she would speak up and make Edgar dismiss them. They figured that she had leverage because of her special relationship with the instructor.

To their delight, Maggie stepped forward, but to their dismay, she got down on the ground and started to do the push-ups as ordered. The students were surprised and horrified.

Since Maggie did as ordered, the rest of the students knew that they would not escape. So while they did their exercises, they not only cursed Edgar but also cursed Maggie since she did not speak up for them.

With a faint smile on his lips, Cain gazed at Maggie. Then he glanced quickly at Edgar. "This young first lieutenant seems to have high expectations for herself," he said. "I think she could do with more training."

Hearing that, Maggie was so surprised that she lost balance, almost falling face flat on the cold ground.

The corners of both Monica's and Benjamin's mouths twitched. They wondered what Cain meant by saying that. The rest of the students were rejoicing that they hadn't been too anxious to perform like Maggie had done. Otherwise, they would also have attracted Cain's attention and gotten extra drills to do.

The facts would prove that they were too simple-minded. The military had dispatched Edgar and invited Cain for this special training, which indicated that the higher leadership paid great attention to and expected much from the training. The students would not get it easy. No matter whether they were eager to perform or not, all of them would receive a torturous amount of training drills and exercises from the instructors. Over the next three days, the students would learn this the hard way. No matter how hard they worked, and no matter how many exercises they did, the instructors would only add more and more drills to their training. Finally Maggie suggested that they should all be united as one. Everybody should fulfill the training in the specified time without fearing that somebody else would hinder them. It shouldn't be a competition.

What Maggie said proved to be true as two more days passed. When the students worked together instead of competing against each other, even though they did not complete all of the exercises they were given, the instructors would lessen the load. Because of that, a rumor began spreading among the students-

Maggie learned the loophole of their training because she was in a relationship with Edgar.

At first, Maggie didn't care much about the rumor or what the other students said. It was just a few of them who would talk, and she would rather have her hands empty. However, as time progressed, the rumor spread even more, and more of the students were talking about her behind her back or even around and in front of her. Eventually, everybody was involved in the gossip and she could not keep calm any longer.

She had tried hard to figure out the secret of how to reduce the training not only for herself but for all of the students, but suddenly she was met with the rumor that she had weaseled it out of her lover. In fact, she had not talked with Edgar since she had sent the text message to him the day before, nor had she seen him before showing up to the first day of training, and all of their phones and electronic devices were taken from them. She and Edgar had not spoken at all since then. She didn't know how the other students could misunderstand her kindness. O☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐