Braggers gaze at the scenery, while those within the scenery watch others brag.
Fang Huai clearly sensed that today he had beco a spectacle, as old soldiers occasionally turned their heads to point at him while chatting.
Being worldly-wise, he knew many squad leaders in his squadron were praising him; he didn’t let them down and stood straight and tall.
But soon he noticed sothing was off.
A few first-class soldiers nearby, for so reason, began fervently discussing a Taiwanese idol drama.
Wang Xinling starred in it, "At Dolphin Bay."
To think that distinguished soldiers of the Republic would watch such stuff...
But soon, their conversation turned to Wang Xinling’s legs...
Hmm...
Fang Huai listened and nodded subtly.
He could confirm that this group was the sa as those who would sway before their kids while watching "Sisters Who Make Waves" on TV more than a decade later.
Fang Huai ntally labeled them: one of us.
"Hey, Fang Huai, that group of first-class soldiers seems to be talking about you," Han Yong ntioned, as his concerns obviously differed from Fang Huai’s. Seeing ng Qiang point at them, he imdiately spoke up to bring it to Fang Huai’s attention.
Upon hearing him, Fang Huai turned to look at the first-class soldiers and saw Zhang Yang and Qi Xiaohui standing like background props, silent.
A short and skinny first-class soldier was chatting with ng Qiang with his hands behind his back, in a posture that seed like he was giving a lecture.
They were quite far away, and he couldn’t hear what was being said.
But as the soldier spoke, a frivolous smile appeared on his face as he looked over, locking eyes with Fang Huai.
Normally, when two strangers’ gazes et, they would quickly look away due to embarrassnt.
But Fang Huai felt the man’s gaze was brimming with confidence, he assessed Fang Huai before waving over a few new recruits from his own squadron.
A few recruits from the First Squadron jogged over and seed to get a few words of scolding.
Then, the recruits lay down next to the first-class soldiers and started doing push-ups.
"Do it faster! Don’t delay the run!" was the only sentence Fang Huai’s side could hear.
The new recruits imdiately picked up the pace with vigor.
The four new recruits from the Second Squadron inwardly clicked their tongues.
As the saying goes, oranges born in Huainan are oranges, while those from Huaibei are trifoliate oranges.
The sa year recruits of the First Squadron seed not to have it as easy as them, all under the thumb of the first-class soldiers.
The older soldiers of the First Squadron didn’t intervene, and what’s more, a few young non-commissioned officers from the nearby Second Squadron seed to have a bit of fear upon seeing that first-class soldier.
Because when they discussed among themselves, their voices noticeably lowered, no longer as hearty as when they had talked about won’s legs.
Fang Huai rely caught a na occasionally ntioned in their conversation.
Wen Jingsong.
As Little Black passed by him with Little White, Fang Huai wanted to ask about it, but it seed Cao Yi and Captain Huang had finished their chat and were signaling for their squadrons to assemble.
The new recruits of the First Squadron were relieved.
However, one of them who jumped to his feet at Captain Huang’s shout got kicked by the first-class soldier. The remaining five, looking rather aggrieved, waited for the first-class soldier’s command before getting up.
The three first-class soldiers joined the formation with complex expressions.
The new recruits noticed that all three from the Second Squadron seed a bit embarrassed. Judging by their lips and expressions as they talked on the way, it was just four words.
Everyone cursing their own.
Even Qi Xiaohui was cursing.
Apart from Fang Huai, the other three new recruits worried: the first-class soldiers might pick a fight later.
But as they approached Fang Huai’s group, Qi Xiaohui and Zhang Yang fell silent, with only ng Qiang walking up to Fang Huai and loudly saying:
"Run faster later! Before the Detachnt’s new recruit evaluation, exceed 40 pull-ups, got it?"
Fang Huai was bewildered but still responded with an "Okay."
Internally, however, he was scoffing.
The Detachnt’s new recruit evaluation wasn’t that three months down the line... mid-late May?
He could only do 29 pull-ups currently; in three months, 40 pull-ups, where did he get such confidence in himself?
Who could normally handle such a thing?
And May... this year’s May was sothing different.
If history hadn’t deviated, by mid-May, all the country’s firefighting Special Duty Forces would rush to the sa location.
Since his rebirth, the most helpless event for Fang Huai was probably this one.
Being in the military barracks as rely a soldier, his freedom already restricted, and as a serviceman, not allowed to spread personal opinions rashly. Even if he were to speak carelessly, likely no one would believe him, and he’d probably be punished for it.
Lest talk about him, even his uncle probably wouldn’t dare to speak out of turn about such matters, let alone have the authority to manage the administrative departnts of another province.
He did have a plan within his power regarding this matter.
But for now, the only thing he could do was to try to make as much money as possible, leaving the rest to be dealt with by his father.
And that required quite a sum of money.
This weekend he needed to call Chen Cang to ask about the song-selling matter. It had been a month and a half now, and considering the ti taken for copyright registration, there should be so inco by now, right?
Company registration... would take ti indeed.
He also wondered if those two songs could achieve the sa staggering revenue as in his previous life.
Fang Huai clicked his tongue, feeling a trace of regret.
All things considered, he only had two and a half months left, and he didn’t know if the money he’d receive would be enough. In hindsight, he should have been less bashful and offered more songs to them.
If the money was short, then so would the motivation be.
Explaining this to his father wouldn’t be easy, but he believed with his dad’s constant demands based on his discharged soldier identity, he could probably be persuaded more easily.
...
Several minutes later, about forty to fifty people stood at the starting line for the five-kiloter run, and at the command, they all started running at once.
This was the first ti Fang Huai had ever seen such a chaotic five kiloters, with so many people running at the sa ti.
While running, he couldn’t help but silently exclaim that the Special Duty Team really had a crap ton of people, nearly seventy with the cadres and old soldiers included.
The county detachnt he was in in his previous life was pitifully small, with just one squadron under a big team, and that squadron only had a dozen or so people, struggling to gather twenty for a group.
With these forty to fifty people running now, they almost filled the entire four-hundred-ter track, thankfully the old soldiers seed to be making way for the new recruits, running on the outer lanes, trying not to hinder the new recruits’ pace.
He wondered how those internal guard squadrons with over a hundred people even managed to test their five kiloters, wouldn’t they have to be split into several groups?
"Don’t let the people beside you affect your pace, steady your breathing!" Hao Chengbin caught up from behind.
"Yes, squad leader!" Fang Huai smiled back.
At this pace, if he were to strengthen his cardio one more ti, he could probably recite "Regulations" aloud while running.
His whole body felt light except for his legs which were full of energy.
Fang Huai tried to lengthen his stride as much as he could, taking four steps per breath, focusing on the ng Qiang ahead.
I heard ng Qiang’s ti was just under twenty minutes. As long as he could keep up with him the whole way and overtake him before reaching the finish line, that would be about right.
Squad Leader Hao seed to be keeping an eye on him the whole ti, with the sound of his breathing constantly coming from behind.
And then, on the seventh lap, Squad Leader Hao finally spoke up from behind: "Not bad! Speed up!"
"Squad Leader, don’t just focus on , huh! You might get breathless trying to keep up!" Fang Huai turned around and tossed a retort filled with feigned filial piety.
"Bullshit! Shut up and... run..."
Heh.
Old but won’t admit it.
Fang Huai sped up his legs as well, enduring the sour sting and tightness, chasing after ng Qiang who was getting farther ahead.
Hao Chengbin gradually fell behind.
In his previous life, he couldn’t imagine what it was like to be breathless while running, yet have legs too sore to move on. Now, he knew the feeling.
It was just like that ti in junior high when his horoom teacher punished him and another troublemaker by making them do squats outside the classroom, 500 total, spanning over two class periods.
Towards the end, while he could still talk big with the other guy, his legs simply refused to squat down anymore.
Entering the last two laps, Fang Huai started to breathe heavily, taking a breath with each step as he surged forward with force.
Five kiloters is a long-distance run, and today Fang Huai felt especially good, and with his recovery ability, he even passed Song Lin in the last few laps. However, he was still left behind by ng Qiang.
Damn, those first-class soldiers are indeed fierce runners.
Qi Xiaohui, who finished first, was almost a full lap ahead of him, neck and neck with that guy called Wen Jingsong. Zhang Yang was half a lap behind, desperately trying to catch up.
At this mont, Wen Jingsong who was slightly behind him shouted out,
"Yang Libing! If you... can’t get ahead of him, just wait... for to deal with you later!"
As he said this, Wen Jingsong caught up from behind, trying to overtake Fang Huai and lap him.
When Wen Jingsong reached Fang Huai, he yelled, "Move aside!"
Fang Huai was already hugging the inner lane’s edge. Hearing that, he couldn’t help but frown.
Damn it, I’m already to the side; you can easily pass with just one step, so why the hell are you asking to make way?
Do you own the stadium? Should I roll out a red carpet so you can run alone, or what?
He had planned to save so energy for a final sprint on the last lap, but now Fang Huai lost the mood for that. He turned his head and shouted back,
"Squad Leader Qi, go for it!"
After yelling, he put his head down and charged forward, gritting his teeth to widen the gap from Wen Jingsong.
Weirdly enough,
The sowhat flagging Qi Xiaohui behind seed to find inspiration from Fang Huai or maybe felt honored that the strongest new recruit was showing him such respect, cheering for him alone.
He actually started to push harder, catching up to Wen Jingsong.
This instantly pissed off Wen Jingsong.
With a new recruit sprinting further away in front and Qi Xiaohui, who wasn’t good at anything else except for those huge feet, relentlessly closing in behind, he just couldn’t shake him off no matter what.
He cursed himself for taking soone’s silly advice during ho training: "Pull-ups can help you grow taller, running too much is bad for your knees and won’t let you grow."
As a result, he beca exceptionally good at the pull-up bar, but after his five kiloters dropped below twenty minutes, he never pushed himself to the limit again.
His foundation was ssed up.
Facing the exceptionally talented Qi Xiaohui, he started struggling in the last half-lap.
When Fang Huai finally crossed the finish line, he turned back, gave Wen Jingsong a glance, and smirked.
Neither misjudged the expression nor the ssage.
It was a mocking smile.
What’s the point of telling to get out of the way if you can’t even get ahead of ?
In the last lap, Fang Huai still couldn’t keep up with ng Qiang and started slowing down due to exhaustion, getting lapped by almost half a lap in the end.
Song Lin also closed in on him in the final sprint.
"21 minutes 18!" Cao Yi read the ti with a look of satisfaction.
This kid really had huge potential. According to Hao Chengbin, Fang Huai’s best ti before leaving the squad wasn’t better than twenty-two and a half minutes.
Now, more than a minute faster and even surpassing Song Lin.
In the whole new recruit group, where the focus was primarily on drill training, they hardly ever trained running, maybe twice a week for three kiloters at most.
Even their late training class only ran five kiloters every two or three days.
With such infrequent training, to improve from failing to such a score, what would happen if he trained more?
Deep down, Fang Huai felt regret, thinking that if he hadn’t gotten into it with that first-class soldier, he might have finished below twenty-one minutes.
Even below twenty-one, after just one core enhancent, he only improved by a minute and a half!
Still not there yet!
As he was mulling this over, that classic line ca once more.
"Kid, you just smiled at , what did you an by that?"
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