COMPETITION FOR FOOD
Translator: Sylph
Editor: Reki
On the second day, they were loaded up with even heavier sandbags and sent off to run.
The recruits were miserable, because a new rule was introduced, meaning another reason for the head instructors to add more laps. When they get up in the morning for count, their appearance must be neat, tidy and sharp.The bed they sleep in must be neatly made before departure the next morning. If messy, an extra lap to their routine would be added.
An extra round, who’s going to do it? Amidst the cries for their fathers and mothers, the recruits’ appearance and discipline were quickly rectified. In just over a half month, the fresh recruits, though not capable of being armed with swords and arrows yet, were already decent, at least in appearance.
He Yan looked at Xiao Jue and sighed in her heart. Although Xiao Jue’s heart was darker than hers in her previous life, his methods were quite powerful. Compared to General Xiao, He Yan only felt that her previous method of training troops was simply too benevolent.
It seems that she still had much to learn from Xiao Jue.
While the recruits ran lap after lap, the head instructors took advantage of the gap between the recruits to speak with each other.
Chief instructor Shen Han looked at Liang Ping and asked, “Don’t you see the one from your team… Um, the weakest kid?”
These days, everyone knew that among the weakest recruits who came to Liang Zhou, was a recruit under the name Liang Jiao, a young boy with a thin figure and poor physical strength. Therefore, he often fell behind half of the people while everyone ran in the morning. A day or two might be fine, but after three days, almost everyone knew about such a person.
It could be said that he was notoriously weak.
“Are you talking about He Yan?” Liang Ping nudged towards the mountain road in the distance and said, “Ahead, there, the one running in the middle is him.”
Shen Han looked over unamused, but saw that on the long trail, the teenager ran forward with his sandbag on his back. Although everyone was uniformly dressed in red clothes and looked somewhat strong, the youngster was too thin and short, so it was easy to spot him at a glance.
Shen Han was a little surprised, “So, he isn’t lagging anymore?”
“How could it be?” Liang Ping’s face showed a little mixed emotion. “This kid is very determined.”
Speaking of which, Liang Ping was not optimistic about He Yan at first either. To be honest, he’d been a trainer for many years and had seen countless recruits. Just one glance at the adolescent and Liang Ping could judge whether or not he could become a fierce soldier. He Yan’s physical qualifications were terrible. Perhaps he grew up in a pampered way, so it was clear that he couldn’t muster much strength. On the first day of the morning run, he ran like a snail, and Liang Ping decided in his heart that He Yan could at most become a guerilla or paramedic soldier.
Unexpectedly, he didn’t expect the boy, who was in poor health, to have such a strong temperament. Even though he fell behind every day, he ran with the team. Liang Ping also noticed that from the first day till now, he was never once lazy, instead, he ran very seriously.
If the son of a rich family came as a soldier, it would be amazing to have this will and perseverance. What’s more, He Yan never implemented any useless work.
He seemed to have mastered some kind of trick, as he gradually began to adapt to this weight-bearing long-distance run. He initially lagged behind everyone in the beginning, but gradually began to slowly catching up with the others , and now could even keep up with the team. Liang Ping even had the illusion that if he went on like this, and ran for a few more days, he might be able to overtake every other recruit.
While he was thinking, he suddenly heard the voice of Shen Han beside him.
“What’s the use of hard-heartedness, a qualification is a qualification.If he can barely keep up with the run, then the skill training in the future will be too difficult for him… I don’t know if he’ll be able to pass the skill training.”
The last morning run was to evaluate the physique and potential of the recruits from each team before they could start skill training. But too many people fell behind. Since manpower was already limited, there was even a possibility that they couldn’t provide the skill training to such people. It was impossible to allocate such skills to those who were not worth it.
Wars were cruel and brutal, so they could only choose people who could afford the battle.
“I think he can.” Liang Ping said.
Shen Han and several other passing by instructors looked at him. Someone said, “Instructor Liang, are you sure? Don’t change your mind later. From your years of experience, you should know that such weak people…don’t survive on the battlefield for long.”
After he listened to what he believed was mere nonsense, Liang Ping smiled,”You must also know that severe training and hammering makes any type of person unfathomable. Who can be too sure of these kinds of things?”
He looked at He Yan. The young man’s forehead was covered with shiny beads of sweat. In the summer heat, while his companions ran and gritted their teeth, mostly from impatience, he was the only one with a smile on his face and no complaints.
This kind of will was really rare.
…
He Yan did not know that her minor role had become the center of discussion among the head instructors. She finished the last lap and put the sandbags away. Suddenly she was met with a shoulder punch hammered by Hong Shan.
“Hey, boy, aren’t you something?” Hong Shan looked at him while he stroked his chin. “Now, you can keep up with us. Are you happy that you don’t have to be a guerilla soldier?”
He Yan laughed, “Of course.”
Seeing that she was much better now as compared to when after she had finished her run and almost collapsed a few days ago, Hong Shan also felt happy for her. At this time, Mak waved to them from afar, “Brother He, Brother Shan, hurry up, there is a steamed bun today!”
After coming here for so long, finally, they had a meal of meat. He Yan heard the words, and suddenly felt her mouth full of water, Hong Shan also licked his lips and said, “Finally, a good meal, let’s go quickly!”
There was porridge in the iron pan, one bowl for each person, and the steamed meat buns were in the large wooden barrel next to it. The head soldier responsible for distribution stood in front of the barrel, and each person was given one.
He Yan also received one.
She held the porridge bowl but there was no room for her there to sit down, so she thought of finding a cool place to sit and drink the porridge. She saw the little clever ghost, Mak, beckon to her from under the tree from a distance, which seemed to be a good place to cool off.
He Yan planned to leave.
Halfway to her destination, someone rudely and forcefully nudged her shoulder, and caused her to stumble and spill half of the porridge from her hand.
She didn’t have a firm grip on her steamed bun either, and it rolled off. He Yan was about to reach out to catch the bun in the air, but suddenly a hand stretched out and snatched the steamed bun.
She stood still. In front of her was a tall man with a mustache, and an old scar on his left forehead to cheek. The scar-faced man was born powerful and aggressive. He got the steamed bun as if it could be taken for granted. He didn’t even look at He Yan and continued to move forward.
A foot was laid in front of the man.
The man paused and looked at the person before him.
The teenager withdrew his feet, and there was a polite smile on his face as if he did not understand what had happened. He Yan said, “This Brother, you seem to have taken the wrong thing.”
“The bun in your hand is mine.”
The scar-faced man gave her a weird look. After a while, he suddenly laughed out loud, as if he heard a funny joke. He opened his mouth, his voice hoarse, “Do you know what you are talking about?”
“I said,” the boy replied with a calm expression, “The bun in your hand is mine.”