Chapter 112: I'll take the bullet for you guys

  Lu Ziyan listened to their words and thought of the two people's demeanor when they fought today, feeling a pang of envy in her heart.

  "You two are so fierce, why not teach us a few moves? Next time we encounter something like today's incident, we won't need those boys, the few of us can take them down." Lu Ziyuan heard this and excitedly jumped onto Ji Xin'an's bed, thinking that if she had Ji Xin'an's skills, it would be great.

  "How come you haven't had enough, want to come again?" Ji Xin'an saw her coming over and sat down beside him, making room for her, but seeing that she actually advocated violence like this, he thought to himself that indeed people from military school are not peaceful.

  "No, I'm not just being cautious, besides, who doesn't know a thing or two when they're in the army? Once I learn from you, I can show off to my parents at home." Lu Ziyuan felt a bit embarrassed after hearing her words, but thinking about being able to show off a few moves at home made her feel delighted.

  "Alright, as long as you're willing to learn, I'll teach. However, wanting to persist isn't that easy. To have a beautiful skill, one must be prepared to endure hardship." Ji Xin An nodded in agreement, but based on her own experience over the years, they would probably give up halfway after learning for a few days because they couldn't take the suffering. Back then, if she hadn't been reborn and had a strong desire to become a soldier, it's uncertain whether she could have persisted or not.

  "An An, you're really great." Lu Ziyuan hugged Ji Xin'an and smiled, directly ignoring her second half of the sentence. The others also showed happy expressions.

  "You think learning martial arts is as easy as jumping rope? I'd be surprised if you can even master military boxing." Lu Jia-yi had just gone through thick and thin with everyone, but her personality wasn't so easily changed.

  "It's none of your business, we're not learning from you." Lu Ziyuan retorted back, not giving in at all.

  As they glared at each other, a knock on the door came from outside, "No talking after lights out, go to sleep quickly."

  Several people stuck out their tongues and snickered as they crawled back into their own quilts.

  In the morning, the wake-up call rang out as usual on time. In room 436, only Ji Xin'an and Luo Jia-yi got up immediately in response to the call, while others didn't even open their eyes, thinking that the ringing had nothing to do with them.

  "Hurry up and get out of bed, today is military training day, don't be late." Ji Xin'an sat up and put on her clothes while calling everyone to wake up.

  Zhang Xiaoxue got up next, while several others turned over and continued sleeping.

  "If you don't get up now, be careful and get punished. Don't blame me for not reminding you." Lu Jia-yi said coldly, instantly startling the few people who were still sleeping.

  As several people got up, the entire room seemed to shrink instantly. Ji Xin'an put on his camouflage uniform and jumped onto the floor, only to be bumped by Yan Tingting.

  "What's wrong?" Looking at her flustered and disheveled appearance, as if searching for something.

  "My pants are nowhere to be found." Xinting had finished putting on her top, but no matter what, she couldn't find the camouflage pants. She should have put them aside yesterday.

  "Stop arguing, let me sleep a bit more." But Lu Ziyuan was still not moved, and actually murmured incoherently, completely unaware of the severity of the situation.

  "Yi Xuan, you're wearing my pants." He Yimei shouted at her, pointing, after seeing that she had already put them on.

  "Then just wear mine, they're all the same size anyway." He Yixuan looked down and saw that the name was indeed wrong, but taking it off now would be too much of a delay.

  Ji Xin'an saw the commotion and decided to step out to give them space. She called Lu Ziyan again before leaving with Luo Jia-yi, one after the other. Outside, the new students and old students were clearly distinguishable. Although they wore the same uniforms, their images differed greatly. The old students were neatly dressed, not a single hair out of place, while the new students held their clothes, hats, and even belts in their hands.

  They arrived at the gathering place relatively early, with only a few people standing there. Their team, however, consisted of only Zou Ze and another person, Ji Xin'an, who seemed to be called Bi Hui. The two of them stood up straight after the rest of their teammates gradually came out. The girls were more mindful of their appearance, at least they had finished dressing in the building before coming over. As for the boys, they didn't care that much, some even ran out holding their clothes and hats to put on after standing up.

  When the new students gathered, a row of neatly lined up officers stood in front of the team, with both men and women. The one at the very front was surprisingly a colonel, which made Ji Xin'an feel a sense of awe. Military schools are indeed different; if it were an ordinary university, having a lieutenant colonel would be impressive enough, but this military school actually had a colonel, and the others were at least captains.

  Ten minutes after the wake-up call, the senior colonel who had been standing still in front suddenly spoke up, or rather, yelled. "From now on, any cadets who come out will stand here and are not allowed to return to their squads." As he spoke, he pointed to the empty space beside him.

  Two student union members who had been helping to maintain order in the square ran forward in a neat line, and each time one came out, another stood outside, and soon they formed a small square.

  Ji Xin'an looked around and found that among the seven girls in their team, only six had arrived, missing Lu Ziyan. So she quietly asked Yan Tingting, who was the last to come out, "Hasn't Lu Ziyan gotten up yet?"

  "She's already dressed when I came out, but why hasn't she come out yet?" Yan Tingting said worriedly, looking at the situation, the person who was late would definitely be punished.

  Just as the two were talking, Lu Ziyuan finally ran over from the direction of the dormitory, but was also stopped outside the team and stood together with a group of people who were late.

  The people in front stood more and more until no one came out, then the head teacher shouted. "Student union members roll call."

  Then each team stood out a student league member to report, and then reported to the chief instructor. It seemed chaotic but was actually in order. Apparently, these members were also well-trained.

  "I didn't expect that this is the so-called elite student of the military school I'm about to train. On the first day, just gathering and there are 52 people late, three absent from roll call. Is this what you call excellent freshmen? Not even as good as a high school student's military training. I think it's better for you to drop out now before training starts, otherwise, you'll suffer later and be persuaded to leave by the school, which would be embarrassing." The head instructor said with disdain in his tone.

  The crowd below suddenly buzzed with noise, and some even shouted at the front, "We're just late, our grades are all excellent, we can go to Tsinghua or Peking University, and we've all passed the physical exam, what makes you think we're not good enough?"

  "What are we, soldiers? A soldier's time is life. Don't mention how late you were, even one second can cost your life. What does it matter if a soldier has excellent grades or passes the physical exam? As long as you have such poor qualities, you will never become an excellent soldier." The chief instructor didn't use any amplification equipment, but his voice could be heard by all new recruits.

  Everyone who heard his words also stopped talking, indeed everyone's understanding of the truth that time is life for soldiers may not be so profound, but they all came in with high scores and naturally understood and knew these things. Everyone then lowered their heads in shame.

  "Those who are late will run five laps on the playground, and the others will stand at attention." Although it was mainly said to those who were late, not even a glance was given to them.

  "Five laps, isn't that two thousand meters?" someone complained. After running two thousand meters, who knows how exhausted they'll be?

  "That's right, how can this be done." Others also complained.

  The instructor, as if he hadn't heard their complaints, shouted to the people in front of him, "Everyone stand at attention, and maintain that posture until they've finished running." Then he stood at attention himself, eyes fixed straight ahead.

  Those who were punished also understood that as long as they didn't run away, all new students would have to stand here.

  Then some people started running, and after someone took the lead, others followed suit. Finally, the last few stubborn ones also followed when they saw that no one else was left behind.

  At first, most people were able to maintain a consistent speed, but from the second lap onwards, some began to fall behind. By the last two laps, some had already given up and started walking.

  The instructor on the other side frowned, probably thinking that these students' physical fitness was too poor, and they couldn't even finish a few laps. It seems that we need to train them well during military training.

  Lu Ziyan was also among them. Although she didn't make it to the end, she was one of the last few. She ran until she was out of breath, looking like she might collapse at any moment.

  The front few people ran to the back and waited for a long time before everyone finished running, while the last few people sat down directly after running enough laps.

  "Everyone stand up, no one is allowed to sit down." Seeing everyone sitting on the ground, the instructor shouted loudly.

  "This is too inhumane, isn't it? Running to the point of exhaustion and not even allowing us a break?" The people on the ground said weakly, refusing to get up no matter what.

  "The instructor is for your own good, get up and walk around quickly. You can't rest immediately after running." Some physically strong students went to pull their classmates who were sitting on the ground to stand up and walk slowly.

  The instructor saw that everyone had rested and then called everyone back to their posts.

  "My name is Yu Bo, and from today on, I will be your overall instructor for military training. And the people behind me are the instructors for each of your teams." The chief instructor loudly introduced himself to everyone.

  Several people behind him remained standing at attention, motionless, making one feel that even their eyelashes did not move.

  "Perhaps you've also noticed that there are a few female instructors among them, which is something new. In the past, your school's military training has always been conducted in units without separating boys and girls, with unified standards, one instructor per class, mostly male instructors. However, the school and army leadership considered it might be inconvenient for male instructors to train you female students. So starting this year, you will be trained separately by female instructors. The school has especially invited a few female instructors from the reconnaissance company for this purpose. I hope you can train diligently and not disappoint the efforts of your leaders."

  The female students heard that they no longer had to train with the male students under the male instructor and burst out laughing, thinking that training under a female instructor would be easier, but little did they know, their tough days were yet to come.

  After the head instructor finished speaking, each team's instructor went to their respective classes. The boys were basically trained in units of one class, while the girls, due to fewer numbers, mostly combined two or three classes together for training.

  Ji Xinan and the seven girls from their class joined forces with the eight girls from Class One to practice together. Although they were all in the same grade and department, today was actually the first time they had met, but there wasn't even time for them to get to know each other.

  Because after dividing the training class, their instructor has arrived.

  "First, let me introduce myself. My name is Wen Rou, and I'm the deputy captain of a certain Marine Corps' female amphibious reconnaissance team. From today on, I'll be your instructor." Wen Rou's appearance and voice were both gentle, giving off a Jiangnan beauty vibe, her soft voice was far removed from what one would expect from a Marine Corps identity, if she didn't say so herself, people might even believe she was an artistic soldier.

  It was precisely her somewhat deceptive appearance that made more than a dozen girls reveal a smile of relief on their faces, thinking that such an instructor would definitely relax a lot for them, which also meant that they could at least suffer less.

  Just because of her weak appearance, even Ji Xianan looked down on her a bit, thinking to herself, is she really a member of the women's marine corps?

  "Now you are all considered half a soldier, I want to ask you a question. If we were on the battlefield, would you take a bullet for me?" The gentle question left all the new recruits standing opposite him stunned.

  A gentle walk came over and stood in front of a female student beside Ji Xin'an.

  "I...I will, because you are my instructor." The female student didn't expect to be asked first and stuttered in response, but it was clear that she was just being perfunctory.

  He listened to her gentle reply without expressing satisfaction or dissatisfaction, and then stood in front of Ji Xin'an, looking at her.

  "I will, because you're not just my instructor, but also my comrade. As long as he's my comrade, I'll take a bullet for him." Ji Xin'an's words rang out loud and clear.

  Her answer also made Wen Rou look at her in surprise, then she returned to the front of the team, facing them and standing upright, putting away her smile, looking at them seriously. "I want to tell you that if we were on a battlefield, I would take bullets for you, not just because I'm your instructor, but also because you're wearing the same uniform as me, as long as you're a member of the People's Liberation Army, I'll take bullets for you, no matter if I know you or not."

  Soft words can make everyone feel refreshed.

  At this time, Ji Xin'an also put away her previous disdain, and the gentle aura that Wen Rou was now displaying made her realize how shallow she had been in judging people by their appearance.