Chapter 63: You’re Not Suited to Be a Soldier p2
Yu Aijun and Zhou Wanfeng were demonstrating the movements. Jin Hongjie glanced at Liu Shupei next to her. The two of them exchanged a look. They both felt that the squad leader had called Zhou Wanfeng’s name too many times today.
It felt like they had a break during the training, but Zhou Wanfeng was always being called by the squad leader to do this and that.
Zhou Wanfeng had been cooperating all along.
After dinner, Cao Baoshan, He Wei, and the other squad leaders were in their dorm, looking at Yu Aijun. They couldn’t help but speak up for Zhou Wanfeng. “Old Yu, I was training next to you today, and I heard you call ‘Zhou Wanfeng, step out’ all day. You’re being too obvious.”
Cao Baoshan was a straightforward person and spoke very directly.
He Wei nodded. “That’s right. I even heard Old Yu’s loud voice,” he said, even imitating Yu Aijun and shouting, “Zhou Wanfeng, step out!”
“Not only that, but he’s also deliberately picking on her. Isn’t Zhou Wanfeng’s leg raised high enough? I thought it was very standard. When everyone else is resting, he calls her out. Old Yu, that’s a little out of line.”
Yu Aijun was washing his feet. He also put his dirty socks in the foot basin and stepped on them. He would wash them with soap later. “What do you guys know? This cadet is competing with me. You all saw it. She knows it in her heart too.”
Zhou Wanfeng’s silence, her doing whatever she was told to do, was by no means cooperating with him. It was more like she was saying, Come on, I’ll play with you to the end.
But this feeling was probably only known to Yu Aijun himself. Zhou Wanfeng was resisting him.
As they were talking, there was a knock on the door.
“Squad Leader Yu, it’s Zhou Wanfeng. I have something to talk to you about,” they were just talking about the main character, and she had appeared.
A few of the squad leaders were changing their clothes and immediately zipped up.
“Wait at the door,” Yu Aijun said, slowly drying his feet and putting on his shoes.
“Yes, squad leader.”
Cao Baoshan grinned at him, telling him to hurry up. He even directly snatched the foot-drying cloth from his hand, wiped his feet perfunctorily, put on his shoes, pulled him up, and pushed him out.
Zhou Wanfeng was standing at the door, her gaze cold.
Yu Aijun glared at Cao Baoshan, then turned to look at Zhou Wanfeng. “Zhou Wanfeng, what do you want to see me about?”
“Squad Leader Yu, I want to know why you’re targeting me. If it’s just because you dislike me personally, and you’re bringing your personal emotions into the training, I think that’s mixing public and private. If you really hate me, you can transfer me to another squad.”
The door behind Yu Aijun was ajar, not closed, so Zhou Wanfeng’s words were clearly heard by the few surprised squad leaders inside.
They didn’t dare to make a sound, but their eyes were all exchanging messages.
“I told you Old Yu was being too obvious.”
“This Zhou Wanfeng is really tough. She’s asking directly.”
“Can she be transferred to my squad? I want to lead Zhou Wanfeng. By the time the final new recruit field exercise comes…” Cao Baoshan directly made a gesture, his eyes sparkling. With Zhou Wanfeng, he felt that he could look forward to getting first place.
A few of the squad leaders closed their eyes in disgust, telling him to give up the idea.
Yu Aijun stared at Zhou Wanfeng, his lips pressed into a thin line, his expression serious. “Zhou Wanfeng, for you to ask this, even if you have all the abilities to be a soldier, you are not suited to be a soldier. The first duty of a soldier is to obey orders and follow commands.”
(Second update)
Facing Yu Aijun’s scolding, Zhou Wanfeng stood there, her silent gaze calm and sharp. You couldn’t see through her thoughts at this moment.
She just looked at you quietly, as if she were silently mocking you, and then she would turn and walk away in front of you without a sound.
After a few seconds, when the few squad leaders in the room were pricking up their ears, ready to hear the follow-up, all they heard was the sound of footsteps fading away.
Cao Baoshan tiptoed to the door, opened it a little, and poked his head out. “Where’s Zhou Wanfeng?”
Yu Aijun glared at him. He had put on his shoes without drying his feet properly. His feet had been washed for nothing.
“Old Yu, what you said was too harsh. She was just a high school student a month ago. Your standards are too high,” even He Wei couldn’t stand it anymore. He admired Zhou Wanfeng in his heart and had to help her explain. “If there’s a problem, she’ll ask directly. She’s here to solve the problem. We know what you’re thinking, but Zhou Wanfeng doesn’t. Look at you, you’ve been calling ‘Zhou Wanfeng, step out’ all day. She wants to understand, but you, you just tell her in a loud voice that she’s not suited to be a soldier? She’s already been admitted. Are you telling her to drop out? You can’t discourage people like that.”
Seeing that Zhou Wanfeng had left, Cao Baoshan sat on He Wei’s bed, indicating that the two of them were on the same side. “Exactly. She just wanted to know the reason. And she even helped you think of a solution. If you don’t want to, then you can just find a leader and transfer her to another squad. Look at you, you just denied her right away. She didn’t do anything else to violate the discipline. She just came to ask, to clear up the misunderstanding. You don’t even let her ask. Obeying orders and following commands is not like this.”
Yu Aijun soaked his feet in the foot basin again and washed them a second time, his brow furrowed into sharp angles. “What do you guys know? Did you see the look in her eyes before she left?”
“What look?”
“A general has a sword, but he does not cut a fly,” Yu Aijun said, a sense of frustration in his heart. After he had finished speaking, Zhou Wanfeng’s silent expression, her demeanor. He would not have felt so frustrated and uncomfortable if she had cursed or argued.
“Pfft, hahaha! A general has a sword, but he does not cut a fly,” Cao Baoshan was taken aback, then he leaned back and laughed out loud, giving him a thumbs-up. “High, really high. If it were the company commander who had scolded me and said I wasn’t soldier material, I would have definitely gotten angry. I would have had to pull him aside and ask him clearly where I was not suitable, and why he had said that. Was my physical fitness not up to standard? Was my thinking backward? Was my internal affairs not good? I’ve learned something. When others deny you, they don’t even want to waste another word on you. Hahaha, Old Yu, Zhou Wanfeng just treated your words as a passing wind.”
He Wei was not as thoughtless as Cao Baoshan. He couldn’t see Old Yu’s ashen face. He just tried his best to suppress a smile, but Cao Baoshan’s laughter was too infectious. He couldn’t suppress it and could only lower his head.
Yu Aijun dried his feet, changed into a new pair of socks, and before he left, he pointed at the stinky socks in the foot basin and said to the loudest laughing Cao Baoshan, “If you still want to smoke my cigarettes, then help me wash my socks.”
Cao Baoshan’s laughter came to an abrupt end. “Damn, Old Yu, that’s not how it works! You come back!”
As a future soldier, you also had to be able to sing military songs. They had played tug-of-war, but not a singing competition. Mainly because they didn’t know many military songs.
After dinner, after a short rest, the squad leaders went into each squad’s dorm one after another. Unity, Green Flowers, The Soldier. The order was different.
Yu Aijun heard the squad next door singing Unity at the top of their lungs. The tune was all over the place. They were just shouting and howling.
The female cadets’ singing of Green Flowers was not so fierce, and their voices were not so loud.
But the squad next door was too loud and annoying.
Yu Aijun called the squad leader next door out to discuss. “You can’t just be loud. You have to teach them the tune. I thought you were teaching some new song. You have to shout slogans during training tomorrow. If you shout your voice hoarse tonight, will you be out of commission tomorrow?”
Sure enough, the voice next door became softer.
“Come on, sing it once, loudly.”
The twelve of them were sitting in two rows, facing each other, with a songbook in their hands. Yu Aijun couldn’t help but look at Zhou Wanfeng.
“Zhou Wanfeng, you sing it once.”
Zhou Wanfeng stood up, looked straight ahead, and sang properly, with ups and downs, with a steady and even tone.
Learning to sing was not tiring. And it was sitting down, so it was comfortable.
But during the training the next day, the crawling tactics gave the new cadets an unforgettable memory.
“Get down! Low crawl, ready! Forward!”
The squad leader had demonstrated and had also broken down the movements. The body was flat on the ground, as low as possible. The abdomen was pressed against the ground, the right leg was bent, and the left hand was extended. With the push of the right foot and the pull of the left hand, they moved forward with all their might, alternating the movements.
Not only was there the low crawl, but also the high crawl and the side crawl. Different crawling methods were used for different scenarios, and the key points of the movements were also different.
The training was not only about standard movements, but also about speed.
For the 10m low crawl, 30 seconds was a pass, and 20 seconds was excellent. It required the soldiers to be able to move quickly and covertly when carrying out a mission.
If the drill practice before was boring, then the crawling training was an experience of pain.
They crawled on the ground over and over again. The squad leader was holding a stopwatch and shouting “ready” over and over again.
Their elbows were scraped and bleeding, their bodies were covered in bruises, and their knees were especially painful, swollen and high.
There was pre-prepared medicine at the duty officer’s.
“30 seconds is just a pass. You have to be fast. Those who are under 30 seconds have to work hard to improve their speed.”
“The last row, step out!”
Zhou Wanfeng, Liu Shupei, Jin Hongjie, and Wei Jiahui stepped out in unison.
“Get down!”
“Low crawl, ready!”
“Forward!” With one command,
the four of them’s eyes were like torches, fixed on the front. With the command to move forward, everyone gritted their teeth and desperately moved forward. For the ten-meter distance, their arms and knees did not feel any pain. All they had to do was move forward, forward.
Zhou Wanfeng’s speed was the fastest among the four, followed by Liu Shupei. On the yellow mud ground, her movements were exceptionally standard, powerful, and fast. She alternately extended her left and right arms, and at the same time, her left and right legs moved forward in turn. Zhou Wanfeng’s body balance and coordination were very high. After years of weight training, her feet were powerful when she pushed off the ground, and she could move forward the fastest.
“Keep your head a little lower.”
“Faster.”
Yu Aijun pressed his lips together, watching Zhou Wanfeng and at the same time, silently counting.
Until he saw Zhou Wanfeng crawl past first, followed by Liu Shupei, Jin Hongjie, and Wei Jiahui. The three or four of them stood up and looked straight at the stopwatch in the squad leader’s hand.
“One excellent, one pass,” the squad leader announced. Jin Hongjie had a look of regret on her face, and Wei Jiahui’s expression was a little frustrated.
Liu Shupei looked at Zhou Wanfeng and saw that she was dusting off the mud and dry grass from her body, her expression extremely calm. As the second place, she had clearly seen how Zhou Wanfeng had surpassed her to get first.
It was precisely because she was so clear that she understood her formidableness even more.
“Zhou Wanfeng.”
Zhou Wanfeng stood up straight. “Here.”
Yu Aijun pointed at the other few female cadets. “You go and help them correct their movements. If even one of them can’t pass today, then you won’t have dinner. You’ll just stay here and have extra training.”
“Next group, step out!”
Zhou Wanfeng went to the other side, to the three cadets who had been singled out by the squad leader.
“Don’t be in a hurry to crawl. Follow my movements,” Zhou Wanfeng said, getting down. The three cadets followed.
“Imagine that there’s a hail of bullets in front of you. In order to survive, you have to be fast, and at the same time, you can’t expose yourself. For the low crawl, if you only use your elbows, your waist and lower limbs will be a burden. Only when the three are coordinated can you be fast. If you miss any part, you won’t be able to pass.”
Zhou Wanfeng demonstrated, and then had the three of them continue to move forward.
She directly pressed down on a cadet’s thigh. “Don’t let your thigh rub against the ground. It’s the sole of your foot that pushes off. Rubbing will affect your strength.”
Yu Aijun turned and glanced at Zhou Wanfeng. Seeing that she was serious and responsible, he didn’t ask any more questions.
By the time it got dark, Yu Aijun was tidying up the line. At this moment, the cadets were all in a sorry state. “Today’s training is over. The new recruit training is for three months. There are many items to be trained. It’s impossible to stop and wait for you to be proficient, to wait for you to pass. All the cadets who have not passed will have to find time to do extra training. When you’re ready, you can come to me to register your results.”
“Reporting, squad leader! I want to stay for extra training! I’ve decided not to eat dinner!”
“Reporting, squad leader! Me too!”
“Reporting, squad leader! I want to be with them!”
Yu Aijun looked at the few of them with a deep voice. “Alright,” he said, and then he said in a low voice, “Pay attention to the time.”
Ten minutes of cleaning time.
They changed out of their dirty clothes. The area around their elbows was a bloody mess. They got some saline and medicine from the duty officer, and the girls helped each other to apply it.
“Ah, it hurts, it hurts!” Jin Hongjie cried out in pain, which was completely at odds with her image.
Zhou Wanfeng went to the faucet and just washed her wound with water.
When Liu Shupei was about to help her disinfect it with a cotton swab, she waved her hand. “No need,” she said, but she was grabbed by Liu Shupei and pressed down on the bed to sit down. She directly lifted her pant leg, and her entire bruised knee was exposed.
“How did you…” Liu Shupei was a little surprised. Zhou Wanfeng’s knee was actually so badly injured.
A cadet next to her saw it, and her eyes were a little red. “Zhou Wanfeng led us over and over again, one by one. Her training volume is more than ours.”
“I’m sorry, Zhou Wanfeng. You’ve already gotten an excellent score.”
“It’s fine. Let’s go to the cafeteria. We still have to bring food back for those few,” Zhou Wanfeng said nonchalantly. When Liu Shupei was applying the medicine, her brow only furrowed slightly.
“That’s right. We have to secretly bring them food. If they don’t eat, they’ll be so hungry they’ll be rolling around all night. After dinner, let’s go to the training ground too, to cheer them on.”
Outside the dorm, Yu Aijun was standing at the door and heard the conversation inside. He took a few steps back. He was holding a bottle of iodine solution in his hand.
He suddenly shouted, “Get ready! Assemble downstairs!”
The cafeteria had a rule that food was not allowed to be taken out. When they were eating, Yu Aijun turned a blind eye.
When he was leading the squad back to the dorm,
Liu Shupei took the lead in reporting, “Reporting, squad leader! We don’t want to go back to the dorm now! We want to go to the training ground for extra training!”
Yu Aijun approved. “Zhou Wanfeng, stay behind.”
The few of them looked back, but they didn’t dare to look openly. They were all a little curious about what the squad leader wanted with Zhou Wanfeng.
The two of them looked at each other coldly.
Yu Aijun’s brow was furrowed. “Zhou Wanfeng, why did you choose to be a soldier?”