STG 47

Chapter 47: The Flag Bearer

Hearing this, Lin Qiye froze in place.

It was true—when he had been sensing along the floors earlier, he had also noticed that most of those infected by the monsters were female students. Now that Li Yifei mentioned it, he realized something was wrong.

“Could it be that the mythical creature emerged from the girls’ dormitory?” Lin Qiye muttered to himself.

He activated his earpiece and whispered:

“Hong Ying jie, where are you?”

“Just left the administration building. What’s up?”

Lin Qiye shared his speculation, and Hong Ying on the other end immediately nodded. “Got it. While you’re all at the flag-raising ceremony, we’ll head to the girls’ dorm now.”

“Okay.”

As the march played, Lin Qiye’s class filed out of the building and slowly moved toward the flag-raising platform.

The flag-raising ceremony was held in a small open area in front of the teaching building. It wasn’t very large, and students from all three grades of high school were packed together with little space between them.

“Students at the back, keep up! Hurry!”

“Stop pushing me.”

“Hey, can you walk faster?!”

“How fast can I go? The people in front of me are blocked. What can I do?”

“Huh? Where’s the person in front of me?”

“Who was in front of you?”

“Lin Qiye. Where did he go?”

“Not sure. He was here just a moment ago.”

“Hey? Li Yifei is missing too!”

While several students were confused, Lin Qiye and Li Yifei had already slipped out of the line early. They moved swiftly against the chaotic crowd, weaving through various classes.

Lin Qiye’s spiritual perception range was only twenty meters. To fully cover all two thousand-plus students, he had to keep moving constantly.

“Lin Qiye, Lin Qiye! Are you done scanning? The music is ending. The flag-raising is about to start!” Li Yifei struggled to push through the surrounding students, speaking to Lin Qiye ahead.

“Not yet. Half left.”

“What do we do? Everyone is forming lines. Once the music stops, we’ll be spotted!”

At that moment, the looping march grew quieter and quieter. Their figures moving through the crowd became increasingly conspicuous, and many people were already pointing at them.

Lin Qiye frowned. Li Yifei was right—if they kept moving after everyone had settled into formation, they would definitely attract attention. If they forced their way through, teachers might stop them.

But if they gave up now, the only way to fully sense all students, teachers, and leaders across all three grades would be to wait until dismissal and block the gates.

That would take too long, with too many variables. They couldn’t afford to wait.

Lin Qiye’s mind raced. Suddenly, his peripheral vision caught the flag-bearing team in the distance, and his eyes lit up.

He changed direction, quickly pushed through the crowd, and walked up to the flag-bearing team.

“Classmate, hello.” Lin Qiye walked up to the lead student and spoke politely.

The flag bearer was stunned. “Hello…”

“You’re relieved.”

“…” The student looked at him puzzled. “What are you talking about?”

“The school leadership just issued an emergency notice. An outstanding student representative will raise the flag and give a speech afterward, so the flag bearer needs to be replaced temporarily.” Lin Qiye said with a straight face, directly reaching out and grabbing the flagpole from the student’s hands.

“But, this…”

“I’m Li Yifei, the outstanding student representative from the second year. Please hand over the flag. If you have any questions, you can approach the leadership after the ceremony.”

Expressionless, Lin Qiye snatched the flagpole from him and stood in his position, looking solemn.

Li Yifei: “…”

The student scratched his head in confusion. After hesitating for a moment, he chose to return to his class’s formation.

“Lin Qiye, what are you doing?” Li Yifei couldn’t help asking. “You’ll get disciplined for this… No, I’ll get disciplined too!”

“I impersonated you to trick the flag away. It has nothing to do with you,” Lin Qiye said calmly. “Besides, I’m not a student anymore. I don’t need to follow school rules…”

“I am a Night Watchman.”

Solemn and majestic music began to play. Students, teachers, leaders… Everyone in the venue quieted down. Their eyes fell on the flag in the bearer’s hands, waiting for it to be raised.

Following the rhythm of the music, Lin Qiye held the flag high and began marching in precise steps forward.

“Hey? Look at that flag bearer. Doesn’t he look familiar?”

“Yeah, he’s quite handsome. Kind of looks like Lin Qiye.”

“…Are you sure it’s just ‘kind of’? I think it’s him.”

“It really might be!”

“…”

While most people didn’t recognize Lin Qiye, his classmates quickly identified him and began whispering among themselves.

The leaders on the platform didn’t notice the change in flag bearer at all. They smiled as they watched the handsome young man, after all, such trivial matters didn’t require their attention. With so many students in the school, how could they know who was supposed to raise the flag today?

But the teacher in charge of the flag-raising ceremony paled when he saw Lin Qiye.

For some reason, he had a bad feeling…

Under everyone’s gaze, Lin Qiye marched proudly along the flag-raising path. Just as he was about to step onto the platform…

He abruptly made a sharp right-angle turn!

He marched resolutely toward another side of the student formation!

The leaders, who had been smiling ready to receive the flag, were completely dumbfounded.

Their smiles froze on their faces as they stared blankly at Lin Qiye, who ignored them completely. It took them several seconds to react.

They turned in unison to look at the teacher in charge of the ceremony, their eyes full of questions!

The teacher in charge broke out in a cold sweat on the spot.

Meanwhile, the students also noticed this and stared in astonishment as Lin Qiye passed before them. The murmuring grew significantly louder.

“What the hell? Why isn’t he going up?”

“No idea. First time raising the flag? He looks unfamiliar.”

“This is interesting. This is a complete mess!”

“Look at the leaders’ expressions on stage… Pfft-hahaha, I’m dying of laughter.”

“What is Lin Qiye doing?”

“…”

Just then, the voice of the teacher in charge of the ceremony rang out loudly:

“Quiet! Everyone quiet! That student with the flag, you’re going the wrong way!”

Lin Qiye acted as if he didn’t hear, showing no intention of turning back. He even quickened his pace!

His gaze was sharp as a knife, sweeping over the faces of all the students before him.

Their eyes held surprise, confusion, sneers, schadenfreude…

But Lin Qiye’s eyes remained like a deep pool, profoundly calm.

In Lin Qiye’s eyes, they were a flock of sheep being led to the wolves, in grave danger yet completely unaware. Among the over two thousand teachers and students present, only Lin Qiye and Li Yifei… were awake.

‘Everyone else is drunk, only I am sober’—perhaps this was what it felt like.

“Come back! Come back here! Which class are you from?!” the teacher in charge on stage roared!

Finally, having finished scanning all the students, Lin Qiye feigned surprise, quickly turned around, and walked back. He ascended the platform, hurriedly tied the flag to the pole.

The teacher in charge stared fixedly at Lin Qiye, trembling with anger. He seemed to want to demand an explanation, but now was not the appropriate time.

Lin Qiye simply ignored his presence. Right now, he had no mind to care about this teacher’s feelings.

As the music changed and the national anthem began to play, the flag rose slowly…

But at the base of the flagpole, a drop of cold sweat trickled down Lin Qiye’s cheek.

He stared blankly at the leaders around him, then looked down at the sea of students below. His heart felt like it had plunged into an abyss!

“Captain…

You’d better prepare yourself…”

He murmured to himself.