When Fang Huai ca out, two squad leaders were standing at the door, and he still instinctively saluted.
Squad Three Leader looked at his watch, sowhat in disbelief.
He asked, "Are you the third batch?"
"The fourth batch, squad leader."
"Oh..." Squad Three Leader nodded and said, "Then change your clothes and wait here."
Fang Huai quickly put on his pants and shirt, sat on the bench to put on his socks and shoes, and hurried to rest his legs.
A minute later, Squad Three Leader knocked on the door.
"Fourth batch! Hurry up and co out after you wash up!"
Quickly, one ca out wearing only his underwear, and the waistband was soaking wet.
Seeing the squad leaders, his movents were awkward, clearly trying to hide sothing.
"Damn, what are you doing in your underwear?" Squad One Leader was also shocked.
"Squad... Squad leader, I... just washed my underwear too!"
"Take them off! Just put on your pants! Don’t get your pants wet too!"
Squad One Leader roared, and the brother slowly started putting on his pants, shifting positions twice with his back to them.
But there were still new recruits coming out, just in ti to see.
The one who ca out took a glance and then burst out laughing.
The one dressing felt embarrassed at the groin and hurried to move faster, Fang Huai saw his back trembling.
"Cough." Fang Huai gave a reminder.
Still have ti to laugh, if a squad leader targets you later, you will cry from pleasure.
The new recruit saw the two squad leaders beside Fang Huai, and his smile imdiately faded, seriously beginning to find his clothes to quickly put on.
...
Two minutes later, seven or eight new recruits stood at the door, lined up in two rows.
Squad Three Leader ordered, "You can go out now! Stand separately downstairs!"
Once downstairs.
Squad Four Leader stood by the door, and all the new recruits were standing there, so with steam rising from their heads.
The new recruits ford two rows.
Seeing them co down, Squad Four Leader pointed to one side.
"Those who ca down first, stand in the line on the left!"
Everyone realized then: those who ca down later probably had a reward coming.
The ones on the right were already sighing, and now those on the left also didn’t dare to mock anymore, standing quietly.
Fang Huai looked to the right and found that from his squad, there was only Yue Tao; even Lu Zexian wasn’t there.
It seed this guy still sowhat believed what he said in the morning.
Looking again, he just saw Jiang Peng.
Hey, right, that will teach you to laugh.
When Jiang Peng turned his head, Fang Huai also revealed a smile to him.
The guy was dumbfounded and imdiately pointed at Fang Huai and yelled loudly.
"Squad leader, he’s laughing at !"
Squad Four Leader followed Jiang Peng’s pointing finger and discovered Fang Huai, who by now was looking straight ahead with a serious face, without a hint of a smile.
Squad Four Leader turned around, "Shut up, did I allow you to talk?"
Fang Huai felt secretly amused.
Young man, getting angry is bad for your health.
...
Five minutes later, the last group entered the formation, and as they did, their faces looked satisfied.
Squad Four Leader chuckled, "Move to the right, find a spot to stand! Those on the left, make so space!"
The ones on the left quickly made way, the hurried scuffling as if fearing the blood would splatter on them.
"Those on the right, spread out! Prepare for push-ups!"
The ones who had just co down looked confused.
"Reporting to the squad leader! We ca out in ten minutes!"
"Ca out?" Squad Three Leader, who followed them down, roared.
"When did I call you? If the alarm bell sounded, would you also wait until you were comfortable washing up before coming out?"
Squad Four Leader turned his head and looked at Squad Three Leader with so dissatisfaction.
What the hell, you stole my line. What am I supposed to say as the on-duty squad leader now?
Turning back, he also shouted, "Firefighting has regulations! 45 seconds during the dayti, one minute at night, and the patrol vehicle must exit the squadron’s main gate! In other words, you have less than 40 seconds to dress and get on the truck!
Minus the ti to put on your combat uniform, you have no ti to think!
The alarm bell is a command!
The squad leader’s, leadership’s orders, are also commands!
No matter if you’re showering, eating, or in the toilet, you must stop imdiately and rush to the garage with the fastest speed to don your gear and board the vehicle!
I don’t want to tell you that ti is life!
You are not yet qualified to save lives!
But now, ti," is the standard by which you are assessed!
On my command, those on the right, five seconds! Prepare for push-up position!"
The movents suddenly got faster.
But there were still a few who were obviously slow.
"Third row, third place, fourth row, second place, seventh..."
Squad Four Leader pointed at several people who were slow just now: "One hundred and ten push-ups! Everyone else, a hundred! Count them yourself! After you’re done, shout ’report’!"
The new recruits started doing them.
So were quite fast; these push-ups didn’t require the squad leader to adjust their forms or to be standard, so they were a bit easier.
Many were pushing their lower bodies against the ground.
"Eleven, twelve! ..."
Squad Three Leader, with hands clasped behind his back, patrolled behind the new recruits doing push-ups, occasionally shouting.
"Count out loud each one you do! Yell louder! If I don’t hear it, start over!"
...
Squad Nine apparently didn’t have the weakest physical fitness; Fang Huai saw several counting into the twenties before staying put, not moving.
But there were also many who had been propped up for a long ti before coming and no longer had the strength in their hands.
So people saw that others had stopped working and wanted to slack off as well, propping themselves up without budging.
Gradually, so finished their exercises and called out, "Report!"
But the squad leaders turned a blind eye, showing no intention of letting them get up, instead focusing on those who hadn’t finished.
Soon, everyone understood the squad leaders’ ssage: only when the last person was done could everyone rise.
Now we were really suffering.
So had only done 30 repetitions.
Those who had finished began to urge the others, "Hurry up and do it!"
Realizing sothing was amiss, so quickly resud their exercises.
Others, seeing they had held up their comrades and lacking strength in their arms, began to cry out, "I really... can’t do it anymore! Wuuu..."
The squad to the left dared not make a sound, wishing they could ld into the earth and air, invisible to the squad leaders.
Luckily, the squad leaders didn’t seem intent on harshly punishing the right squad and let them off after one or two minutes.
It really ca down to different levels of physical fitness; training effectively wasn’t feasible with just four people watching over dozens.
The physically fit were not even strained, while those at the lower end were already crying for their parents.
"All rise! Left side, close ranks! Five seconds!"
"Quick!"
This ti, they moved swiftly.
Even those who had been crying scrambled up before they could wipe their tears, and everyone lined up in a few seconds.
Squad Four Leader smiled, quite satisfied.
"Good, you didn’t disappoint this ti! About-face!"
Everyone turned and, seeing the direction of the New Training Building, heaved a sigh of relief.
F*ck, that shower was excruciatingly hard-earned.
But then.
"Had enough of hand exercises? Next, let’s work on the legs!"
"Prepare for frog jumps!"
The new recruits’ expressions changed.
Fang Huai had already been idly shaking his legs for half a day, and now, with a sigh, squatted down again.
Whis today! Whis today, for God’s sake!
...
The troops are full of vulgarities.
When they first arrived, there were indeed civilized new recruits. But after a year, you’ll find that if you don’t learn to swear a bit, you’ll be terribly frustrated.
Those damn squad leaders, those rotten sa year soldiers.
Back in the squad room, with the squad leader absent, the new recruits practiced cursing, with the dirtier words all starred out.
Squad Leader Hao was clearly away, having not shown his face since he brought the new recruits down to the formation.
As soon as Squad Nine’s door opened, everyone filed in, pulled out stools, unfolded tables, and started to rest.
Lu Zexian, sowhat indignant, said, "That f*cking Lao Gan Ma, he kicked in the ass during the frog jumps and made tumble head over heels! I’m covered in dirt! What a waste of a shower!"
His neighbor Chen Zhongqiang turned in surprise, "Who’s Lao Gan Ma?"
"Squad Four Leader, Tao Huabi, his na’s exactly the sa as Lao Gan Ma! Guys in Squad Four privately call him that!"
"Hahaha...."
A burst of laughter loosened the atmosphere a bit.
But Fang Huai was in no mood to talk; he quickly took his basin to rinse his hair again.
...
Seeing himself in the bathroom mirror, he seed a bit leaner and couldn’t help but sigh.
This afternoon was just too damn tough.
The regint commander had just inspected us in the morning, saying those words, yet the squad leaders behaved as if deaf, dishing out beatings and punishnts regardless.
The issue was an overemphasis on tradition; no one really took it to heart.
The hardship of military life isn’t sothing you can easily get through even with a system in place, but thankfully, being proactive had saved him from major trouble, and the squad leader valued him highly.
As Fang Huai was reflecting, urgent and chaotic footsteps suddenly echoed from the corridor.
"Damn, is Gold Staff really sneaking around downstairs filming Eighth company?"
"For real! A guy from Eighth company just called, saying Gold Staff’s on the playground with a cara, sneakily filming new recruits on their way to shower!"
"Shit, how long has he been filming? Did he catch us?"
"No idea!"
"We’re screwed! Tao bro led the queue today; he must be scared to death now!"
"Bullshit, you think you guys can escape the bla?"
"Damn it, I’ve got to learn to drive when I get back this year! The squadron has already put my na down!"
As the squad leaders spoke, they headed towards the stairs, so agitated they didn’t even notice Fang Huai in the bathroom.
Fang Huai couldn’t help but smirk at their misfortune.
Still pretending to be Old A, keep it up. The regint commander just visited this morning, and now they’re acting brazenly against orders; let’s see how they feel now.
In fact, Fang Huai could understand them.
The show of authority today was necessary. The new recruits had been calm for a few days, but their true colors showed this afternoon: during the shower, several completely ignored orders and stayed inside for a full thirty minutes before coming out, entering first and only erging with the fourth group.
Yet, the asures today were indeed too severe, especially the journey back. Many new recruits were kicked and shoved the whole way, hurried forward with jumps yet still deed too slow.
Too slow? Get kicked. Call to report? Get kicked. New recruits just deserved to be kicked.
They were new to the military and not at fault for finding such intense training unbearable.
...
By the ti Fang Huai returned to the squad room, the new recruits of Squad Nine looked as ragged as the Eighteen Arhats, each in a different state.
Yue Tao’s feet were injured; he sat with his shoes and socks off, cradling his foot and touching the blister that had recently ford.
Han Yong was staring blankly near Fang Huai’s bed.
A few like Chen Zhongqiang were lying down, asleep.
Zhao Bing stood with his hands behind his back, gazing out the window as if waiting for the loudspeaker to play military songs.
Peng Yingqirui was holding a pen and writing sothing on the materials just handed out; he’d write sothing, then look up, stretch out a hand, muttering to himself. Seeing Fang Huai co in, he imdiately asked,
"Fang Huai, when are we getting discharged in ’09?"
Approaching, Fang Huai saw the paper with "Days until discharge: __" written in a blank space, and couldn’t help but laugh.
"December in, December out! There are still seven hundred thirty-sothing days left, and you’re already counting down?"
Peng Yingqirui sighed deeply, "Ah, the days are hard to endure!"
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