"Huff, huff, huff…" Li Wei came panting, shoving his way through the crowd; he saw Zhao Chen. "Old Zhao, I thought you'd be coming in the A entrance — I waited over there for you an age. Let me tell you, these Heaven's Glory Noble Starship Military Academy people are a rotten lot, every one of them so arrogant that—"
As Li Wei spoke, he only then noticed the two vice-deans present.
He hurriedly coughed a few times, feigned to look away, said no more, and sidled quietly over to Zhao Chen's side.
"Where's your sister? I saw the state of your sister's ship just now…"
"Gone to prepare for the next duel," said Zhao Chen.
"The next duel?" Li Wei was surprised.
Xue Xiaoxiao put in from the side, "You didn't see how magnificent Wan'er's brother was just now — laid straight into that vile woman, and thrashed her flower-guarding lackey to boot. And now Wan'er's brother's having Wan'er go pilot his ship for another round. Wan'er's brother — that'll be the Blizzard Zero from before, won't it? Do I get to see your giant gun again!"
Xue Xiaoxiao blinked at Zhao Chen in anticipation.
"Not Blizzard Zero," said Zhao Chen.
"Not Blizzard Zero — then what ship?" Xue Xiaoxiao was a touch let down, but curious all the same.
"You'll know when you see it in a while," His piece said, Zhao Chen asked, "Where's Senior Su Lan? Isn't she usually with the two of you? And by the look of it, the other side seems to have come at you deliberately — is there some quarrel?"
"Senior Su Lan is at an exchange meeting between the Northstar Academy and the Heaven's Glory Academy right now. She's the sixth-year student representative; the teachers always bring her to occasions of that sort."
Xue Xiaoxiao explained, then fell to recounting Zhao Wan'er's affair, seething all the while.
"This is entirely that vile witch bringing it on herself — can't keep her own man in check, so she takes it out on us!"
Then Xue Xiaoxiao laid out the whole of what had happened.
It turned out the Heaven's Glory Academy had visited the Northstar Academy a week ago, and would spend a half-month in academic discussion and exchange.
Over this time, the outstanding students of each year would exchange with one another too.
And girls like Zhao Wan'er and Xue Xiaoxiao — the reigning beauties of their academy — naturally became targets of every eye.
Over these days, one noble student of the Heaven's Glory Academy had come round to Zhao Wan'er every other day; his designs were plain as day for any passerby to see!
Zhao Wan'er had flatly refused him each time, telling him outright to stop pestering her.
But every day this Heaven's Glory boy still had exquisite natural-food dishes and all manner of gifts delivered to her, even promising that if only Zhao Wan'er would be his girlfriend—
—he'd make her a gift of a T3 ship.
"A T3 ship? Such an extravagant hand, for chasing a girl?" Zhao Chen was a little surprised.
A T3 ship's build cost alone ran to around 10 million star coins, and its market price to several hundred million.
To pursue a girl with a lure this great — an ordinary girl would likely have no power to resist the temptation.
"If you ask me he's just a playboy — first win you over with these sugar-coated shells, and once he's had his fill of you, kick you aside with one foot. I had my girls look into this fellow of the Heaven's Glory Academy on purpose, and sure enough, that's exactly the sort he is! He's toyed with who-knows-how-many girls, one after another! There's even a rumor he's already had dalliances going with several girls in this stretch of time at our academy! Human filth! Bah. And it's this Zhou Min witch who's set her heart on this man — well matched, the two of them," Xue Xiaoxiao said in disgust and loathing.
Li Wei added from the side, "That so many girls fall for it, though, is also because of that boy's standing. He's the second young master of the Hurricane Conglomerate — Feng Xiaowei! The Hurricane Conglomerate is a rising financial group riding high in the Starlight Empire just now, with a great commercial map in the grain trade, in interstellar transport-trade, and above all in the starship-technology trade. The best-selling T2 Hyena-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer of the last dozen-odd years is a product their conglomerate put out; from release to now, it's built and sold over 100,000 units! Rumor has it that on this one ship alone, the Hurricane Conglomerate has raked in wealth in the hundreds of billions of star coins over these decades. And it's this very T2 Hyena that carried the Hurricane Conglomerate from an obscure interstellar financial group to a newly risen great imperial conglomerate! So when a young master of a conglomerate this great says he'll give you a T3 ship, those little fangirls are of course willing to believe it and give it a try — and if they really did net a T3 ship…"
Here Li Wei said no more; those who understood, understood.
When Li Wei mentioned the T2 Hyena a moment ago, his expression had gone a little awkward — for the ship he'd bought before was a T2 Hyena.
"This man didn't come?" Zhao Chen swept a glance around; were the young master present, he'd surely be the target of every eye.
Xue Xiaoxiao folded her arms and gave a cold snort. "What that fop does best is keep his own skin clean; a matter of women fighting over him, he never once takes part in."
There was still a while before the two ships would finish preparing and enter.
"Xue Xiaoxiao, Li Wei — a question for you. Do you know how one can skip grades in a short span?"
Seizing the interval, Zhao Chen first asked about the matter of grade-skipping.
"Skip grades?" Xue Xiaoxiao looked at Zhao Chen, puzzled — not knowing why he asked such a thing; but on account of Blizzard Zero's giant gun, her impression of him was quite good. Still, this she didn't know. "I'm not too clear on it either."
"By our academy's grade system, so long as you bank enough assessment credits at each grade, that counts as completing that grade's assessment, and the next term you advance to the following grade. If, within a single school year, you can accumulate three times a grade's assessment credits, then you can skip straight to the next grade. But if, in the study that follows, you fail to reach the assessment-credit standard of the grade you skipped to, you'll be held back." A voice sounded from the side.
Zhao Chen looked over; it was that Vice-Dean Hong who'd stepped forward earlier.
"Within one school year, is there a limit on the number of grade-skips? Skipping, say, from first grade straight up to third?" Zhao Chen asked.
Vice-Dean Hong was taken aback a moment, then said, "In theory there's no such limit. But a grade's assessment is itself of no small difficulty, and to accumulate three times its credits, to skip two grades in the same school year, and to make sure of not being held back besides… In the history of our Northstar Academy since its founding, it has never once happened; nearly all skip a single grade, then smoothly meet the credit standard of the grade skipped to. To be sure of not being held back, so that the next term they may advance again in the ordinary way."
Zhao Chen now had a rough measure of it in his heart.