After returning, Qiu Xi put the half-packed items in a corner, planning to deal with them after this matter was settled.
Teacher Qi was right; that evening, Qiu Xi received a message from her teacher.
It was a mobile text message, asking them to join a group.
This was the first time they were receiving information this way after starting their postgraduate studies.
Qiu Xi, sighing with emotion, added herself to the group according to the information provided.
Upon entering, Qiu Xi found that the group seemed to be complete.
One teacher and she, who had just joined, made a total of four people.
"Hello everyone, I am Qiu Xi."
The second she sent the message to join the group, the responsible teacher immediately replied.
"Three people, everyone is here now."
"Time is tight, so I won't waste time in the group. We will have a meeting tomorrow for specific details. The meeting will be held at 9 AM in Conference Room 203 of the administrative building. I hope you will not be late."
Qiu Xi hadn't expected the teacher to be so straightforward, giving instructions without any preamble.
"Received!"
"Received!"
"Received!"
A neat, unified response.
Besides this, there was nothing else from them.
"Alright."
"Then I'll see you all tomorrow. Please get some good rest today."
After reading this, Qiu Xi exited the group.
It seemed there would be no more messages tonight. Seeing that there was nothing urgent to do, Qiu Xi simply lay down.
Since the teacher had told them to rest well, she might as well do so.
9 AM tomorrow meant she had to get up early. So, sleep it was.
It had been a long time since she had slept so early; she would enjoy it.
...
She slept soundly and sat up in bed at 7 AM.
After a period of busyness and morning exercises, she started her breakfast.
At 8:30 AM, she arrived at Conference Room 203 of the administrative building, as the teacher had mentioned yesterday.
When Qiu Xi arrived, she found that the conference room door was already open, but upon knocking and entering, she saw no one.
After looking around, Qiu Xi found a seat not too far from the screen.
After sitting for a while, someone walked in.
Qiu Xi glanced at him and stood up.
"It's fine, you can sit."
As soon as the sentence was uttered, Qiu Xi's voice followed.
"Hello teacher, I am Qiu Xi."
After speaking, she sat down again.
"Yes, hello."
"Please turn this on for me," he said, pointing to the display stand next to him.
Qiu Xi nodded, got up, and said, "Okay."
Then the conference room fell silent.
The silence lasted only a moment before footsteps were heard from the doorway, and a man and a woman walked in.
Now, finally, everyone was here.
Qiu Xi, who had just finished setting up the equipment, thought this to herself.
"Teacher, this is ready."
"Okay, thank you," he said, giving Qiu Xi a gesture.
Qiu Xi nodded and sat back down.
"Since this is our first time meeting, let's introduce ourselves first," said the teacher.
"I am Ma Feihong."
"Hello Teacher Ma," the three greeted.
"Yes, hello to you all."
"Then let's start from the first person here," Ma Feihong said, pointing to Qiu Xi, who was closest to him.
Seeing this, Qiu Xi stood up. "Hello, I am Qiu Xi."
After Qiu Xi sat down, the other two also stood up one by one.
"Hello, I am Fu Wen."
"Hello, I am Su Yuehan."
"Good! Since everyone is acquainted, I won't say too much more."
"This matter is quite urgent, which is why we are all here now."
"Let me give you a brief overview of the situation..."
What Teacher Ma said next was not much different from what Qiu Xi had heard from Teacher Qi yesterday.
"That's roughly how things stand."
"As for what we can do now, honestly, there's not much we can cram at the last minute."
"So today, I will simply introduce you to the lineup of the three opponents."
"It's better to know yourself and your enemy to win every battle."
"Understood." The three nodded.
This was sufficient.
As for anything else, they didn't believe that this one meeting could give them a complete grasp of the situation.
If it could, they wouldn't be in this situation.
"Alright, then let's begin."
For the next half hour, Ma Feihong gave the three a general introduction to the information they had.
"Alright!"
"This is all we can tell you. From now on, it's up to yourselves."
"One more thing, you must remember."
"Your turn to compete is the day after tomorrow morning."
"Remember this time. We will all gather tomorrow morning before heading over together."
"I will send the collective information to the group chat, so please pay attention."
"Okay, we've noted it down."
"Good."
"Then, our meeting is concluded. You have some time left, so prepare yourselves well."
"See you the day after tomorrow."
"Okay."
"Goodbye, Teacher Ma."
Unfamiliar with each other, Qiu Xi and the others left the conference room directly after speaking, without exchanging any further words.
...
After returning, Qiu Xi was busy with one thing or another, but couldn't figure out what to do.
With no thread to follow, Qiu Xi put down the materials and picked up her phone to browse the campus network and some school forums.
Indeed, the internet was a useful thing.
There was really no privacy online.
After scrolling through several pages, Qiu Xi finally found some relevant information.
It was shared by people who had attended the event in the past couple of days.
However, the news didn't look very good.
"What kind of discussion forum is this? It looks more like a fighting arena, and one where substitutions aren't allowed."
"I agree with the previous comment! I went there too, and it was almost embarrassing to watch."
"The people who went up there, weren't they just connections? They looked so easily defeated?"
"They weren't! I heard the other side acted unscrupulously first..."
"Is that true?"
"Confirmed information, traceable source!"
"..."
Ghosts and monsters, there was truly everything on here!