Chapter 53 - Those who ought to come would make it in the end
*Bang! Bang! Bang!*
The moment the first round of the Crisis grade assessment ended, Qiu Xiangji was once again knocking on Ye Jingshan’s office door.
“Come in!” Ye Jingshan called out gravely.
Qiu Xiangji walked into the room laughing as he patted his big belly, only to find three chairs set in front of Ye Jingshan’s desk. Ma Jian and Hou Baishan were already seated, leaving the third seat for his eventual arrival.
“Good afternoon, battalion commander Ye,” Qiu Xiangji smiled as he greeted Ye Jingshan, taking his seat on the chair prepared for him.
“Are you three still planning to enroll Xia Fei with your special enrollment?” Ye Jingshan said with a sullen face.
Qiu Xiangji beamed, “Battalion commander Ye, the first round of the assessment had just ended. As expected, Xia Fei had successfully made it through the first round. From the potential he had demonstrated, I believe he would be most suited to train with the command training division, don’t you think?”
Ma Jian heard Qiu Xiangji and immediately spoke up in his usual loud and brash manner, “Battalion commander Ye, Xia Fei is able to scare off a swarm of merciless black scorpions by just staring at them. This shows his good potential to become a beast tamer; the exotic beast division not only takes care of the beasts, but we also need to scare and shock some of the more stubborn exotic beasts sometimes. That is why I wish to get Xia Fei to join our exotic beast division, specializing in training some of the more crafty and ruthless beasts.”
After a good moment of silence, Xia Fei somewhat guiltily apologized, “I’m sorry. I’m not in a good mood right now. I was a bit rash before, but I should not have scolded you or made you cry.”
Avril wiped her tears and put on a brave front as she stubbornly blurted out, “Who cried? I had only… Only…”
“Only tearing up because you’ve gotten sand in your eye from the breeze?” Xia Fei chuckled as he asked.
“That’s right! That’s exactly what happened!” Avril pouted her lips and stubbornly insisted.
Xia Fei was speechless. He lit up a cigarette, took a few puffs before softly saying, “Okay. There is a breeze in your bedroom.”
“You’re mean!” Avril’s pouty face turned into laughter, as her sunny temperament returned. That was the thing about women with a cheerful personality. They were not the sort to bear a grudge and were much easier to cajole.
“What’s the unhappy thing that happened to you?” Avril tilted her head sideways, casually pulling out a pink handkerchief to wipe the tear streaks on her face.
“Not much, really. It’s all in the past,” Xia Fei was being evasive, not mentioning what happened to Xiao Yu.
Avril flashed a mischievous smile, “I don’t know what trouble you’re in right now, but I do know that you will soon run into a really huge problem.”
“What problem?”
“Do you know what’s the second round for the Adjudicator Union’s assessment?”
Xia Fei shook his head, “How did you know I joined the Adjudicator Union’s assessment?”
“Hmph! I could even find out your anonymous account, so of course, I know what you’re doing right now. Your name is Xia Fei, age 17. You’re currently participating in the Adjudicator Union assessment on Earth that was upgraded to the Crisis grade at the last minute. Furthermore, you’ve managed to get past the first round, right?” Avril acted like she was really smart, looking very cute as she did so.
Xia Fei was dumbfounded. He simply could not make sense just what sort of godly saint this Avril was. Just how did she find so much about him? Could she even be aware of his bank account number as well?
“The second round for the assessment will be a swiss system tournament, which means two people will get up on a ring and compete with each other. There are 723 candidates participating in this second round, and you’re ranked the last. Meanwhile, the opponent you’ll be put up against is the number one ranked candidate. The last candidate going up against the ranked one candidate, you’re going to be in trouble.”
“Ranking? What’s that about?” Xia Fei was all the more confused. He had never heard a word about the candidates being ranked.
“Didn’t you know about this? You’re really such an ignoramus. Every assessment, those betting companies would rank all the candidates and set different wagers for people to bet on. It’s been the same for all these years. Do you know what are your odds?”
“Nope.”
“1:1000! Your opponent, Chen Dong, is the most promising candidate in this entire assessment according to the betting companies. Everyone is convinced that you will lose.”
“What did you say his name was?” Xia Fei’s heart seized up. Could it be the same battle maniac that he had met back in the rain shadows, Chen Dong?
Avril adopted a sly look, “Chen Dong. He’s from the Lombard Empire, possessing the terrifying Freeze Special Ability. He is 100% insane, so you better be careful. Otherwise… Hehehe.”
“It’s really him!?” Xia Fei took a lungful of smoke and muttered to himself.
All of a sudden, Avril lowered her voice and very mysteriously said, “Oh no, it’s almost time for my music lesson, I need to hurry up and get back on my bed to pretend I’m sick. Otherwise, I’ll have to spend an entire boring afternoon with that loathsome old coot again.”
“Wait a minute!” Xia Fei hastily called her to stop. “You know everything about me, but I know nothing about you. Just how did you find me?”
Avril placed her slender finger on her lips and giggled, “That is a secret. I’ll tell you if you treat me to some ice cream.”
Just as she finished her sentence, the enigmatic video message abruptly came to an end, and the long list of candidate names reappeared in front of Xia Fei.
After Avril’s interruption, Xia Fei actually felt much better than before. The girl was like a cheerful sprite, spreading happiness wherever she went. She had a very sunny disposition as well as, which made her a very decent lady.
“Chen Dong. Who would have thought we’d meet so soon,” Xia Fei talked to himself for a bit before he calmed down and continued his search for Xiao Yu’s name in the list.