Yingxing Industrial University, School of Economics and Management, Building Five.
The gray-and-white campus was paved with palm-sized stone slabs.
Three flagpoles, one tall and two short, stood in the square at the center of the campus.
Two of the flagpoles were bare, while the tallest one in the middle was slowly raising the Federation's green flag with three colored stripes.
Building Five of the School of Economics and Management stood to the left of the square. The whole building resembled a hiking boot lying on its side.
In the early morning, the large clock above Building Five slowly turned its hands toward eight thirty.
Groups of adults streamed in from outside campus, carrying bags and purses as they entered the building.
It wasn't the weekend, but it was the Federation's annual Founding Day, so the students were on holiday.
But while the students were off, the management training course hosted by the School of Economics and Management was in session.
Mature-looking professionals, carrying textbooks and course materials, were entering Building Five through the main entrance.
The classroom for the management course was Room 301 on the third floor.
Quite a few people were already seated in the large lecture hall. Most wore formal clothes and looked mature.
A few, however, looked young, hardly any different from the students outside.
A young man with short black hair, sitting toward the back on the right side of the classroom, was one of them.
He wore a simple red T-shirt and white jeans, and sat casually flipping through his textbook.
Compared to the people around him, he looked far too young—not even twenty-seven or twenty-eight. There was also something unusual about his bearing.
Though he wasn't old, he somehow gave off a steady, dependable air.
Most striking was his face. At first glance,