"You learn quickly. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe that today was your first time riding a horse," Eli said to Jake.
"Perhaps I have a bit of a talent in this area," Jake smiled and replied. He naturally understood that this was related to his attributes, but it was something he couldn't explain to Eli.
"Since you have such a good talent, you shouldn't waste it. You should ride horses freely on the battlefield," Eli shifted the topic back to their previous discussion. It was evident that he was determined to persuade Jake to join the military formally.
"Captain, we agreed that I would take some time to consider this. Let's talk about it later," Jake said.
"Alright," Eli didn't press the matter further.
After training for a while longer, as the sky grew darker, the two of them returned. Jake immediately entered his tent. After waiting for about ten minutes, he was transported back to the real world.
In the morning, on Princeton University's campus, Jake encountered Wendy again on the sports field. However, today's Wendy seemed colder than usual. She didn't respond at all to Jake's friendly greetings, and there was no interaction between them until the exercise ended.
"What's wrong with her? Did something happen with her relatives?" Jake speculated with some confusion. If Wendy knew what he was thinking, she might explode.
After the exercise ended, Jake didn't leave today. Instead, he went to the office for class. As expected, Jake was the first one in the office again. Soon, the other professors arrived .
"Jake, you're here?" Professor David said.
"Yeah, I have a class today," Jake replied.
"I envy you. You come when you have class, and you don't when you don't." Professor David said with envy.
"Hehe," Jake smiled and didn't say much.
When Bill arrived, his attitude towards Jake wasn't as friendly. He snorted coldly and treated Jake like air. On the other hand, Jason and Hillary felt a bit awkward when they saw Jake.
These two had always been Bill's lackeys and hadn't hesitated to speak ill of Jake before. However, they realized that perhaps Jake wasn't as ordinary as they had thought. After all, Bill himself didn't drive Jake away, and Jake even received recognition from the school. This made Jason and Hillary perceive Jake differently.
Clearly, in Jason and Hillary's eyes, Jake had a strong background. Otherwise, the school wouldn't handle things this way, allowing him to come and go as he pleased. It was something both Bill and Verna couldn't achieve. Perhaps Jake's background was even stronger than theirs.
However, Jake usually kept a low profile and didn't act as ostentatiously as Bill. Bill and Hillary both wanted to get on Jake's good side, or at least mend their relationship with him. They didn't want Jake to have a negative impression of them due to their previous actions.
But since they had always been following Bill's lead and cheering him on, suddenly changing sides, especially when Bill was present, was a bit inappropriate. If they ended up with nothing on both sides, it would be troublesome. So, when they looked at Jake, their expressions were awkward, showing their desire to get closer but not daring to express too much.
Jake naturally noticed the expressions of those two, but he didn't care much.Jake had no feelings towards them and didn't want to have too much interaction.
"So, the big star actually came," not long after, Verna also entered the office. Seeing Jake, she teased, "What a big star."
"What big star?" Jake laughed.
"You're practically a big star here at our school. Your fame is undoubtedly the highest among all the teachers, and your popularity is through the roof. There have been quite a few reports about you on the school's internal network," Verna laughed. "I heard that the three beauties of our school got into a fight because of jealousy over you. How does that feel? Do you feel accomplished?"
"Who said that?" Jake immediately protested, "That's not true."
"It's all on the school's internal network," Verna smiled. "They've depicted your tangled relationships with those four in such a dramatic and sensational way. The click rates are quite high."
"Hmph, you don't act like a teacher at all, always so unclear with your students. I really don't understand why the school hasn't fired you," Bill chimed in.
"All those things are just baseless rumors, fabricated by the students," Jake said. As for Bill's words, he chose to ignore them completely.
"This also shows how popular you are," Verna said, "And, it's true that those three girls actually visited your booth. Besides you, it seems no one else could gather them together. Especially Wendy and Xenia, they're from the same year, but their personalities are like polar opposites. It's rare to see them together."
After all, Verna had been teaching at the school for a while, so she knew a bit about the internal dynamics.
Jake also thought about the completely different personalities of Wendy and Xenia. One was cold, the other fiery—there seemed to be some inherent incompatibility. Thinking about his upcoming swimming class and having to face the difficult Xenia again, Jake felt a headache coming on.
However, he couldn't avoid it. Even if he didn't want to face Xenia, he had to attend the class. After all, he had already signed a contract with the school.
"Wow, Jake is here!"
"Jake, we missed you so much."
"Jake, let's take a picture together."
As soon as Jake entered the swimming pool, he was greeted with enthusiastic cheers from the students. It was a completely different treatment from the first time he had been there. Initially, the students were startled, but now they seemed eager and excited.
Even though they had already met once, Jake still felt a bit awkward when he saw these young and energetic students again. He didn't know where to look.
These students, intentionally or not, had all already changed into their swimsuits. And compared to last time, Jake clearly felt that there were fewer people wearing conservative swimsuits. Numerous youthful and attractive figures were moving around in his line of sight.
Xenia was among this group, but she didn't join in the excitement. Instead, she sat there with a smile, looking at Jake with a playful expression. It seemed she enjoyed seeing Jake a bit flustered.
"Cough, cough," Jake pretended to cough a couple of times, trying to say something. However, when he saw all the girls staring at him intently, he felt a bit overwhelmed. He mumbled, "I'm going to change," and hastily made his way towards the changing room, leaving behind a chorus of laughter from the girls.