Chapter 115: The Difficult First Hurdle

  The whole process was gentle and didn't look back, but still felt that someone was following behind a few people. I thought that after a few laps, these students would not be able to keep up, but unexpectedly, they had run more than 5,000 meters and there was still one person closely following behind.

  Five kilometers was just a starting point for her, but the girl behind her was only a new recruit who had been standing at attention for an hour and was still able to keep up with her pace. She couldn't help but speed up again, and as soon as she did, the person behind her immediately fell behind.

  Ji Xin'an finally started breathing heavily after running a thousand meters, but she could still barely keep up.

  "Attention." Gentle footsteps stopped, turned around to look at Ji Xin'an, the girl who was the first to start doing push-ups when punished. Although she was a bit out of breath now, it could be seen that she had not reached her limit yet. If she hadn't sped up, she could have continued effortlessly. She didn't expect this seemingly weak little girl's physical strength to be so good. Can't help but look at her with new eyes. "What's your name?"

  After gently turning around, Ji Xinan stood at attention, after all her command was to stand at attention and not disperse. Although she was tired, she didn't collapse. She simply replied to the question, "Reporting officer, my name is Ji Xinan."

  "Your physical strength seems pretty good." He smiled warmly and looked at her, sizing up Ji Xin'an from head to toe, instinctively feeling that this was a new student worth cultivating.

  "I've been insisting on training since junior high school, and I've never stopped for so many years." Ji Xin'an still maintained her upright posture, not relaxing because of her smile. Who knows if she didn't say a word well, she would make herself run another five kilometers. She wanted to be a soldier, but not to the extent of seeking abuse.

  "Just to take the military school exam?" Wen Rou was slightly surprised, then let it go. Having such good physical strength obviously wasn't something that could be achieved in just one or two days, but she had the determination to do so, which was indeed admirable.

  "Yes, just to take the military school entrance exam and become an excellent soldier." Ji Xin'an said proudly. Now she has already achieved half of her dream, what's left is the epaulette on her shoulder.

  "Is there a soldier in your family?" It's not surprising that Wen Rou asked so gently, generally people like her are usually from military families.

  "No, except for the fact that my grandfather fought for two years under Chiang Kai-shek, there hasn't been a single soldier in our family since then, and we basically have nothing to do with the military." Ji Xin'an replied seriously without showing any dissatisfaction towards her question.

  "Why think of becoming a soldier then? It's rare for girls to like being in the army." Wen Rou was slightly surprised.

  "Because this is my dream, the dream I've been striving for since childhood, to become an excellent soldier, it gives me a sense of accomplishment that surpasses anything else, and satisfaction that no amount of money can match." Ji Xin'an's eyes shone brightly.

  "Is that so, but are you prepared? It's not easy to become an excellent soldier." Looking at Ji Xin'an in front of her, Wen Rou saw herself from years ago, and she was even better than herself back then, with more culture.

  "I'm already prepared, no matter how much suffering I have to endure." Ji Xin'an said firmly.

  Gentle didn't think she would come here and still be able to bump into him like this. Originally, letting her come as an instructor was unwilling, letting a Marine Corps member train these so-called military academy students, who were actually just a group of spoiled single children, she hadn't held out much hope.

  It turned out that Wen Rou also discovered a good seedling, she was not the daughter of a military family, but she could be admitted to this military school, which means her grades must have been excellent. Moreover, while having excellent academic performance, she also had such good physical strength and hoped to become a soldier. Although other aspects are unknown, these few points are enough for Wen Rou to cultivate her with great effort.

  "Everyone gather." Seeing that others were almost done resting, he called out for everyone to assemble. When he saw someone walking over slowly, he shouted a few more times.

  "I won't get up, no matter what you say, I'm not practicing anymore." Yu Hui lay on the ground and refused to budge, no matter how they pulled her, with a very spoiled look.

  "If you lie down again, your whole class will have to run another five kilometers. You won't be allowed to eat until you finish." A gentle voice echoed from a distance.

  But Yu Hui heard it clearly and immediately jumped up, no longer pretending to be dead. It seems that this threat is still quite effective for her.

  "Attention!" Seeing that all the girls were gathered, she began to give orders. "Turn right, attention! Based on standing at attention, turn your head 60 degrees to the right, and move your feet in small steps forward, backward, left, and right until you are aligned with the person to your right. You should be able to see the ear of the person two places away from you. Do not lower or raise your head. Yu Hui, don't just stand there without moving, it's not like you can stop moving once you're in line. And you, don't tilt your head back, is there an airplane up there?"

  "Look ahead." Seeing that the formation was still quite tidy, he gave the order, and everyone immediately returned to attention posture. This movement made Wen Rou nod slightly.

  "Look at you all, fifteen people in the whole team, and only three of you finished the five kilometers. And two of you can't even keep up. I'm telling you, the speed of a five-kilometer cross-country run will only get faster, not slower. Do you want to be eliminated as a whole?"

  Her words made everyone's heart skip a beat. If it was rejected like this, then there would really be only a few who could complete it. To reach such speed, wouldn't they have to work themselves to exhaustion?

  "Report." Lu Ziyuan was the slowest runner, and now that she heard her words, her heart was trembling with fear. Although she didn't like coming here, if she got kicked out, she would lose face in front of that person.

  "Work harder." He looked at her gently, she was the weakest in terms of physical strength and also the most delicate one. If he didn't push her hard, she might be the first to be eliminated.

  "Do we all have to run five kilometers at the speed just now to pass?" Lu Ziyuan thought that she couldn't keep up with the speed of just a few hundred meters, how could she possibly complete it if she really ran five kilometers.

  "It's just a passing grade here." He replied gently, without hesitation.

  "This is just barely passing, isn't it too difficult?" The people below heard this and immediately forgot about the team's rules and regulations, and began to complain.

  "It's already good that we can run down, and now you're asking for speed, this is too demanding." Seeing someone speaking out, others also started shouting, the team was in a temporary chaos, while Ji Xinan stood still with her back straight and didn't say a word from start to finish.

  "I know what you're thinking, that it's impossible to achieve such results in just three months. But I'm here to tell you that in a soldier's dictionary, there is no such word as 'impossible'. If you want to leave an excellent military training record, there's only one way: 'practice'. I believe that if you train diligently, you can all reach this level. But if you continue to respond to military training with your current attitude of just getting by, then you might as well wait to be dropped from the records. If you're expecting me to show mercy when the time comes, it's not going to happen. As long as any one of you is even slightly unqualified, I won't let them pass." Wen Rou didn't press the issue of whether they had said their reports this time, after all, their emotions were understandable. But her words did quiet everyone down.

  Everyone looked at each other, possibly shocked, and fell silent, lowering their heads as if thinking about something.

  Although Wen Rou said so, she didn't let everyone run again in the subsequent training sessions. After all, some things can't be accomplished overnight and need to be done gradually. Today, letting them run five kilometers was just to give them a mental preparation.

  After resting for ten minutes, they began to stand at attention with the other teams. All the instructors seemed to have agreed on this, letting the students do this exercise when the sun was strongest. The entire playground was quiet, except for the occasional sound of an instructor correcting a student's movements. But the quieter it was, the slower time seemed to pass.

  Ji Xin An stood in her team, having already stood for an hour and run five kilometers. Now she felt even more tired than before, wondering if it was just her imagination. The sun seemed to be burning hotter than before, making her face sting with pain. Just when she thought at least two hours had passed, the gentle voice of the timer announced that only half an hour had elapsed. Ji Xin An finally understood what Wen Rou had said - becoming a soldier wasn't easy, and just this first test was already proving to be not so easy for her.

  Just as Ji Xin'an felt her legs were numb, several students came from afar and dispersed her attention, looking at them at least didn't have to think about the passing of time second by second.

  Ji Xin'an's eyesight was better than others, when others only saw a few figures walking over, she had already seen their faces clearly. The one leading in front was the Zhao Fan she had met before, and beside him was that sloppy soldier again.

  Ji Xin'an didn't know what she did, but now it seems that her position in the student council shouldn't be low either. However, Ji Xin'an was not impressed by people like her. If it were another school, she wouldn't think much of it, but this is a military academy. Since she came to this sacred place, she should take it seriously. The existence of such people made Ji Xin'an feel that it was a blasphemy against her ideals.

  Watching them walk over slowly, I don't know what new recruits are doing with military training, but looking at a few human landscapes is much better than looking at the monotonous trees in front of me, so as soon as they come over, they become the focus of everyone's attention.

  Before long, they arrived at the new student military training venue. Since Ji Xinan's squad was standing on the edge, Zhao Fan walked over and started talking to Wen Rou directly.

  "Sorry, Instructor Wen, we're a bit late because of some issues with our leave requests. But starting tomorrow, we'll be able to keep up with your training." Zhao Fan said apologetically after bowing. They were actually the security team, led by him, and were supposed to follow the new recruits for three months. They should have arrived this morning, but there was a small problem with their leave requests, which delayed them until now.

  "It's okay, you've arrived just in time. Nothing's wrong yet, but it's possible someone won't be able to hold on much longer." Gentle smiled as she saw them arrive, and for the first time, she lived up to her name. Actually, seeing them arrive also made Gentle breathe a sigh of relief. If they hadn't come, facing what might happen next would have been too much for just the few instructors to handle.

  It turned out that nothing was delayed, and Zhao Fan finally breathed a sigh of relief.

  "Wen instructor, how are the students this year? Have you discovered any with potential?" Zhao Fan asked casually, not expecting to find any stocks with potential among these girls.

  "A good student has been found, but there is still more to be observed. If it's possible, we can focus on cultivating them." The attitude towards these older students was much warmer, after all they were not under his own tutelage but could be considered comrades in arms, so when he heard their question, he smiled and replied.

  "You've really found someone worth cultivating, congratulations then." Zhao Fang heard this and was somewhat surprised, looking towards the group of girls to try to find the one she was talking about who was worth cultivating, but none of them seemed like it.

  "I hope so. Now these students, although their cultural level has improved, but their physical fitness is getting worse and worse, and they can't even compare with the new recruits."

  Zhao Fan knew they had some reservations about the new students, but he was also from that time and the other party was an instructor, so it wasn't easy to say anything. He just shook his head and smiled along with them, but the meaning was quite different.

  Just as a few people were talking, a girl in the class finally couldn't hold on and fell to the ground.

  "Shu Xue, quickly help the person up and see how they are doing. If it's not okay, send them to the infirmary immediately." Zhao Fan saw someone fall down and hurriedly called Ou Yang Shu Xue, who was one of the leaders among the few girls with her identity.

  Ouyang Shuxue was also very experienced in this regard. If Zhao Fan didn't say anything, she would have come over and had someone take her to the infirmary after a quick examination. This was what their group of people had been doing for the past three months, aside from fetching equipment, guns, ammunition, and other things later on. To put it nicely, they were ensuring the safety of the squad; to put it bluntly, they were just doing odd jobs.

  Although everyone is a member of the student union, basically no one wants to come to this kind of activity, so it's usually the president and various department heads who lead the team. Last time, Ouyang Shu Jie found another excuse to avoid coming, but this year, just when everyone thought he would do the same again, Ouyang Shu Jie surprisingly applied to come here first. This made Ouyang Xue think that her younger brother had finally grown up, but little did she know, his intention was not for work, but rather another goal altogether.

  The students standing at attention on the playground, after the first one fell down, it was as if someone had given an order, and people began to fall down one after another. Zhao Fan and others also started to get busy, some were not seriously affected, just having weak legs, and sitting in a cool place for a while and drinking some water would be fine, but some directly fainted and needed to be sent to the infirmary, so they had their hands full.

  The boys were a bit better off, originally the number of boys who fell down was small, and many old students came. The scene at the girls' place was different, sometimes one hadn't even been sent to the infirmary when another person would fall down over there. Ouyang Shuxue was exhausted, no less than those standing at attention.