The moment Sang Xue stepped forward, however, she paused when a sudden thought struck her mind. She decided against going over to the referee’s side and instead looked at the results of the individual rankings while scowling. “Gu Mang’s been performing badly all this while during the military training, so how could she possibly do so well in the race? It makes no sense at all…”
What she said made the others turn to look at the leaderboard too.
“Yeah. There are differences in stamina between genders, on top of that. Even though the petition is calculated based on our total scores, all classes have an equal mix of girls and boys.”
“It’s hard to believe that she could achieve such a record.”
“Don’t tell me…” Her words trailed off.
The others turned their heads to look at her. “’Don’t tell me’ what?”
“Maybe I’m just overthinking it.” She flashed them a reassuring smile. “I doubt Gu Mang would do such a thing.”
Someone instantly understood what she was insinuating. His eyes widened in shock as he looked around at the others. “Did she use some sort of special method…”
“Are you saying that she used…” A girl whispered the words. “performance-enhancing drugs?”
A small, surreptitious smile crept up Sang Xue’s face when she heard what she was insinuating.
“Gosh! If that’s true, it explains everything! To think I was wondering why she didn’t even look tired after running the entire four kilometers!”
“Just look at her time! It’s unbelievable! I won’t believe her even if she denies the use of drugs!”
The more the others thought about it, the more certain they became that Gu Mang must have used drugs to enhance her athletic performance, for she could have never otherwise achieved such fantastic results.
One of the girls fumed. “That’s going too far! How could she resort to using such a despicable method just to win a petition?!”
“What do we do now? Are we just going to sit back and let her win dishonestly?”
The class chairperson of the law school, who was looking equally displeased, thought about it for a moment before saying, “Let’s go report this matter to the referee.”
“Agreed.” Everyone unanimously agreed to his suggestion.
Sang Xue did not make any ments as she watched her classmates march over to the referee’s side.
…
The moment the results were announced, everyone in the traditional chinese medicine department crowded around Gu Mang. They buzzed with excitement.
“Gu Mang! Sister Mang, that was awesome!”
“Ahhhh! How did you achieve such a sick time, Sister Mang?! You totally carried us!”
The corners of her lips lifted upwards as she said nonchalantly, “It just happened.”
When they recalled how she had cooly walked backwards to cross the finish line and how she had even broken Red Scorpion’s record for the 4km race, they said, “You have no idea how cool you looked earlier!”
Gu Mang smiled and wordlessly tugged the brim of her cap downward. Tang Xiaoxiao handed her a bottle of water from the side. “Have some water, Gu Mang.”
“Thank you.” She took the bottle from her and then proceeded to uncap it.
Everyone could not calm themselves down as they looked at her. A slightly plump boy asked curiously, “Did you deliberately finish last up until now, Sister Mang?”
Gu Mang raised an eyebrow slightly after gulping down some water and replied, “Take a guess.”
Seeing how she could even crack jokes with them, the others felt that she was quite easy-going and was not as aloof as they had thought.
…
Meanwhile, on the law school’s side.
After hearing what the class chairperson had to say, the referee looked at the group of students. “You guys suspect that Gu Mang might have used performance-enhancing drugs?
“Yes, that’s right! Otherwise, there’s no way she could achieve such results!” cried the class chairperson in righteous indignation.
The others echoed along angrily. “Don’t you find it suspicious at all, instructor? She was last for every event up until now. Shouldn’t you give her a drug-test to protect the integrity of the military training?”
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