When the name of the first-place winner was announced, all the freshmen were shocked.
They turned in unison towards a person in the crowd.
There, a rather short young man stood in place, looking somewhat bewildered, at Lin Weidong.
This person was Li Yu.
He himself had never expected to be the first-place winner!
When Lin Weidong had been slow to call his name, Li Yu had thought Lin Weidong had overlooked him.
He had been about to inquire after the announcement...
"How is this possible? Li Yu only had twenty-something flags?"
A freshman asked doubtfully.
Clearly, Zhang Shaohua's duo had forty-seven flags. The first place should have belonged to Zhang Shaohua's duo, no matter what!
With the first question, others also began to question the result.
Many demanded an explanation from Lin Weidong.
Of course, they weren't defending Zhang Shaohua, they were just surprised!
"That's right, I remember clearly, Zhang Shaohua had forty-seven. Regardless of how he got them, he should have been first!"
"Perhaps Zhang Shaohua's actions have already displeased the Dragon Squad. After all, stealing a classmate's flag isn't a good look."
"Let's hear what Old Lin has to say first!"
After a period of discussion, everyone fell silent when Lin Weidong lightly cleared his throat.
Most people assumed Lin Weidong had done it on purpose.
Didn't they see that everyone else had a score, whether passing or failing?
Yet, only Zhang Shaohua and Ouyang Feng had no scores at all.
Wasn't that enough to show the seriousness of the matter?
Listening to the discussions, Lin Weidong nodded approvingly.
Most of the freshmen this year had good character.
They were just a little pampered.
But that was alright.
After going through the freshman training camp, they would surely shed the bad habits from their families!
When everyone had spoken their piece, Lin Weidong raised his hand slightly. "Everyone, please be quiet for a moment. I know you all must have questions about the current results."
"Therefore, you can ask freely now, and I will provide systematic answers later."
Upon hearing that they could ask questions, everyone became eager!
After all, since the training camp began, the Dragon Squad had often only provided a basic standard of judgment.
But they didn't know the specific detailed criteria below!
If they knew, they could achieve higher scores during the training camp!
"Old Lin, I want to ask, isn't our ranking this time based solely on the number of flags?"
A freshman inquired.
He noticed that although his flag count was one or two less than others, his rank was higher than theirs.
Moreover, looking at Li Yu, the first-place winner,
This ranking was not a mistake by Lin Weidong; there must be another scoring standard!
Lin Weidong looked at the person who asked and nodded slightly. "When you first arrived on the island, the rules were distributed to you. Didn't you read them carefully?"
The crowd exchanged glances.
Of course, they had read them, but it only stated that the final ranking would be based on the number of flags, not mentioning any other scoring standards!
Prompted by Lin Weidong, most of them took out their rulebooks and reread them.
After another flip through, they still couldn't find any other rules!
Zhang Shaohua couldn't hold back at this point.
He had risked so much to steal flags, and had even been injured.
Now, the first place announced by Lin Weidong wasn't him?
Zhang Shaohua's first reaction was that there must be something shady!
Either Li Yu's family patrons in the observation group had struck some deal with the Dragon Squad.
That's why the current outcome occurred.
Or perhaps Zhou Yu had badmouthed him to Lin Weidong.
Leading Lin Weidong to deliberately score him this way!
Either way, Zhang Shaohua felt it was unfair.
He believed himself to be very clever, having exploited a loophole in the rules to maximize his flag count.
He should have been first!
"Old Lin, isn't what you've done unreasonable?"
"The rules clearly don't state that stealing or snatching other people's flags is prohibited. Why do the two of us have no scores at all!"
Zhang Shaohua spoke out loudly.
Ouyang Feng, standing beside him, nodded in agreement. "That's right, Old Lin. If you've forgotten about us, then re-rank us quickly!"
Although Ouyang Feng was Zhang Shaohua's lackey and followed his lead,
He also couldn't afford to offend Lin Weidong or the Dragon Squad!
So, his words were more tactful than Zhang Shaohua's.
He even subtly tried to give Lin Weidong an easy way out.
Unfortunately, Lin Weidong didn't need such a way out.
Instead, he smiled at the two of them and said, "Why do you think the rules don't state that?"
Zhang Shaohua was stunned, then felt a surge of anger.
He had already decided that Lin Weidong was just being deliberately obscure!
"It's written in black and white on the rules, that the final score is determined by the number of flags. Old Lin, you can't possibly not be clear about the rules you set." Zhang Shaohua said with a dark face, daring not to express his anger directly, resorting to tactful words.
In reality, Zhang Shaohua had probably cursed Lin Weidong a thousand times in his heart!
Lin Weidong chuckled.
He pointed to the second item in the rulebook.
"During the training period, maintain a basic standard of morality and unite with other freshmen..."
Including the third and fourth items in the rulebook, they were basically all about the power of unity, the eight honors and disgraces, and so on.
These regulations were posted everywhere in the freshman training base!
Because they were so common,
The freshmen, upon seeing these familiar phrases in the rulebook, dismissed them as mere slogans and subconsciously ignored them.
It wasn't until now, when Lin Weidong pointed them out,
That everyone suddenly understood!
This was a rulebook.
If these statements were just slogans, why would Lin Weidong go to the trouble of writing them into the rules?
Since they were written, they were meant to be followed!
At this, everyone looked at Zhang Shaohua with strange eyes.
It was obvious that Zhang Shaohua had stolen the fruits of others' labor while they were asleep.
This violated the second rule of the rulebook, lacking a moral bottom line!
Therefore, it was only natural that he received no rank or score!
Hearing Lin Weidong's explanation, everyone finally understood.
As for Zhang Shaohua, his face turned green then white, a truly remarkable sight!
He had thought he had found a loophole in the rules, as it didn't explicitly forbid snatching flags.
But his cleverness had backfired...
"Actually, with your skills, you could have honestly collected flags like everyone else and still secured first place." Lin Weidong added, as if fearing Zhang Shaohua wasn't frustrated enough.