Hundreds of people stood here and did not dare to breathe as they faced this chief instructor.
Even the instructors in charge were silent.
Jungkook swept his cold eyes over at the people and said, “Run two laps around the field first.”
The instructors in charge were speechless.
The new recruits were generally not trained like this, but this was the instruction of the chief instructor. The instructors in charge had to follow it.
They immediately gathered everyone and then ran at a uniform speed one by one.
It was really terrible in the early morning of winter.
The sports field where they were was not the kind in schools at all.
It had a big area and one round was equivalent to two rounds in school.
It was at least 2000 meters.
Although Lisa, who usually felt exhausted after running 800 meters, had been doing push-ups for the past few days, this distance of jogging was a little unbearable for her.
Nearing the end of the run, her legs seemed filled with lead that stars appeared in front of her eyes and her heavy breathing sounded like she had asthma. Even Rosé, who was running behind her, almost did not persist.
When Lisa ran to the finishing point, her legs turned weak and she fell to the ground.
She felt like the sky was spinning.
Her old habit of being delicate was back.
Actually, this was unconsidered being delicate, at least she had persevered.
It was a kind of mental strength. The outer body would collapse once it reached its peak.
Her legs were trembling, and she could not get up.
Looking around, there were many people who were no better than Lisa. They had fallen to the ground, panting and were almost half dead.
Of course, most of them had reached the finishing point.
Jungkook stood not far away, his body as straight as a tree, his cold face could not be seen clearly when the light shone on him. It was as if he was living in another painting.
He did not move at all, looking at the scene in front of him. Instead, there was a faint mean curve at the corners of his lips.
Rosé could barely stand up for her legs were trembling, but she managed to move to Lisa and collapsed on her. She looked miserable. “This chief instructor is too cruel! His heart is as malicious as snakes and scorpions!”
Lisa said nothing.
In fact, the 2000 meters training was very normal in the military, but they were unprepared in advance, so when they ran that 2000 meters, some people could not stand it.
But what could they do if they could not stand it? This was the military, some of the trainings were even more difficult.
This was just the beginning.
“Stand up, all of you!”
Seeing almost all of the students in the field were finished, Jungkook said his piece in a cold voice. As for the rest who fell to the ground, before they had even finished their run, he ignored them.
This made some people feel unfair.
They did not finish running!
At this time, there would be no sympathy for each other.
But no one dared to speak.
The mocking smile on Jungkook’s lips was even more obvious. He snarled, “The other training method do it according to your usual way. I will spot-check these new recruits in a week. Don’t let me down.”
“Yes, Commander Jeon!”
“Yes, Commander Jeon!”
The instructors watched Jungkook leave and then they looked at this group of new recruits. They could not say they had any sympathy, but they probably could not bear it and said, “Go and have breakfast first. We’ll give you 20 minutes. Then we’ll gather back here!”
The recruits who got this order finally had some strength back.
Jungkook left under the darkness, his back cold and noble. Some girls looked at him with lingering looks until his figure disappeared.
This man was really someone unattainable.
...
In the canteen, Lisa, who had gotten food, was busy eating.
The 2000 meter run had completely exhausted her, and she came to the canteen with Rosé whilst supporting each other.
And this was just the beginning.
But after such a fierce jog, it did not improve Lisa’s appetite. After eating two steamed buns and a bowl of porridge, she was already full.
Rosé only ate half of a steamed bun.
Lisa was a little surprised. “You barely ate. There’s still training later, won’t you get hungry?”
Rosé rolled her eyes. “Do you think I’m like you? I have a small appetite. I’ll be fine.”
Lisa did not mind hearing what Rosé had commented about her. It was still important to have a full stomach.
After eating, they kept track of the time and went to gather after 20 minutes.
Because they went in batches, the time to assemble was different.
Now, it was 6: 30 a.m.
The jog had lasted for half an hour.
The other veteran soldiers were up and training.
Unlike the new recruits, the training time for them was fixed, and they would not be forced to wake up so early. But in the summer, their training time would be pushed forward.
The people from the seventh squad went to the corner of the field which belonged to the training camp of the new recruits.
Chen Haoyang said, “Today’s training program is to practice your goose steps and assembly. Every time I see you assemble. You look like a group of vagrants.”
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they heard what they were going to train for that day.
But soon, it could be seen that they were too complacent.
They were made to carry out goose steps and walk endlessly. Although they were not honor-guards, they had to look the part. Since they had run 2000 meters in the morning and then was followed by this type of training, of course, it had left their legs heavy and aching.
During the one hour break, Rosé held Lisa and wailed. “I thought it would be that chief instructor who would be training us. In the end, he disappeared after punishing us. How can we survive without any emotional support?”
Lisa said nothing.
What could she say?
After patting her numb legs, Lisa felt that her legs would hurt in the next few days.
There would be such consequences under sudden high-intensity training, not to mention continuous training every day.
It was just a child’s play today.
Rosé patted her legs and complained, “Actually, I didn’t want to be an ordinary soldier. I wanted to go directly to the advanced training camp, but I didn’t meet the requirements.”
Lisa was shocked. “What advanced training camp?”
Hearing Lisa’s curious voice, Rosé seemed slightly proud. “You don’t know about it, do you? Our training camp for new recruits is the most basic one. Fundamentally, we’ll just train for a few years and there is no great future. And the advanced training camp is different. It trains combat soldiers, and they can even touch guns!”
When it came to the last two words, Rosé’s voice suddenly became softer.
With such a large population and strict management of firearms, China naturally had different armed forces that could use firearms.
If soldiers at this level like Lisa did not improve their prospects, they were basically ordinary soldiers. In terms of military rules, they did not have the qualifications to hold guns.
The advanced training camp was to select combat armed forces.
Hearing these words, Lisa felt an inexplicable fluttering of her heart. She could not stop her thoughts like she had known some secret. She asked in a low voice, “We ordinary soldiers can’t get into the advanced training camp?”
“No.” Rosé shook her head. “If you have the connections, you can, but I’m not qualified. So my brother asked me to go into the new recruits’ training camp for a period of time. When the people from the advanced training camp comes down for screening, he could find a way to let me in. The soldiers here are a long way from those soldiers in there! The scope and combat capability are totally different. This is the general training method of the military and both are different.”
Rosé knew all about the military camp situation because her family had an in-depth connection with it. So, she told Lisa about it.
Lisa did not know what to feel when she heard it.
She thought she could get rid of the Yu family after entering the military, but now it seemed that the basic military camp was not taken seriously.
She wasn’t sure whether it could resist the pressure of the Yu family.
It seemed like one needed to climb up everywhere. It was really an unchanging theorem.
Her eyes turned dark when she thought of the Yu family. It was fine if Rosé did not say it, but now that she had, Lisa had a yearning for the advanced training camp. She wanted to get in, but she did not know if she had the strength.
“Do you want to get in? I’ll ask my brother to get you in as well!”
Rosé suddenly spoke this by Lisa’s ear and it had her shocked. She shook her head. “If there’s a screening, I want to get in with my own ability. Otherwise, it will be a joke to get in if I don’t have the corresponding strength.”
“Blockhead, you don’t know how many people got in there with connections!”
Rosé laughed and then waved her hand. “Whatever you say.”
But Rosé’s words still moved Lisa’s heart. This Rosé did not know her that well but why was treating her so well?
However, she was still grateful. When she was about to say, ‘thank you’ to Rosé, the whistle to gather all of them sounded and made Lisa’s ‘thank you’ stuck in her throat.
The whole day of training lasted until the evening and the recruits were basically in a state of being half dead.
They were a group of people who lacked exercise, so a sudden high-intensity of training was a little unbearable for some.
Lisa was so tired she did not want to move. With no other choice, she still went to take a shower albeit reluctantly.
When she got back to bed, she lay there and did not want to move.
Rosé was lying on the top bunk and she looked down over the edge. “I really admire you. You still have the strength to shower. Now that I’m on the bed, I don’t want to move at all. I’d better shower tomorrow.”
Lisa chuckled. “Lazy.”
After lying in bed, she really did not want to even move a finger again.
Looking at the curtains that were hung across the bed, Lisa inevitably thought of the advanced training camp Rosé mentioned in the morning.
A yearning was born in an instant.
She actually wanted to be a real soldier. She wanted to hold the handle of the gun and experience the feeling of shuttling through bullets.
Probably deep in her bones, she was not the kind of good girl who liked to follow the rules.
Rosé’s words drew a trace on the hot-blood hidden deep in her bones.
###
Life in the new recruit’s training camp was dull and insipid.
Apart from the advanced training camp that Rosé told Lisa about, her life every day seemed to repeat for the rest of the time.
The army attached the most importance to discipline, so life was unchangingly rigid.
The only way they could relax was to use their cell phones, that was returned to them every weekend, and personal resting time.
If she could get special approval, she could even go back to Dayi City.
But new recruits like Lisa could not receive special approval.
Other than the instructors in charge interacting with them, most of the veteran soldiers did not like the new recruits. They would even have a teasing heart, so the new recruits did not like them very much. The dormitory floors of the recruits and the veterans were different, so there weren’t any conflicts between them that were heard of.
During the weekends, Lisa did not go out of the dormitory that much and did not look for the veteran Mr. Gu had said who presumably would look after her.
But it was a bit boring to be cooped up in the dormitory without any training activities.
After lunch, Lisa lay on her bed and took a nap.
In the cold winter, Lisa felt very warm as she snuggled inside her blanket.
Unconsciously, she thought back to her time in prison. Compared to those nightmarish days, what she had right now was considered as a piece of heaven.
It was just that she had thought too much about it—she even dreamt about her past.
Eunha’s beautiful face had been floating in front of Lisa, and this gave her an uncontrollable violent impulse. When she wanted to grab Eunha, she felt that she was facing a mass of air.
This repeated and Lisa seemed to be in a world of imbalance. Lisa’s body felt weightless and it suddenly made her panic.
She wanted someone to catch her and save her from this dark hell.
From that nightmare like prison.
'Whoosh!'
Lisa could not explain how she felt and suddenly opened her eyes.
She felt that her whole body was hot.
Because of the tension of her dream, she was sweating.
She rubbed her forehead and got up from the bed. As soon as she got up, her phone rang.
Lisa picked it up and saw that it was Rosé.
Rosé was different from the withdrawn Lisa. She had gotten familiar with a group of veterans and said that she would go hunting with them behind the mountain this morning. She must be having fun right now. She originally called Lisa to go with them, but Lisa did not want to go.
She did not expect Rosé to call her now.
“Hello?”
Because she had just woken up, Lisa’s voice was a little deep and lazy.
Rosé could hear it from her voice. “Are you sleeping? Lalisa, I’m a little cold now. Can you bring me extra clothing to Back Mountain Number Five?”
“Didn’t you put on enough warm clothes when you went out?”
Lisa said this and frowned slightly, but she still got out of bed.
“Help me bring one over. Take the first coat I folded in the wardrobe. I’ll wait for you here. Muah!”
With that, Rosé hung up.
After such a long time together, Lisa had now accepted Rosé as a friend. After all, it was so monotonous in the military camp. No matter how indifferent she was, Lisa was unable to resist when she met someone who was so warm and cheerful.
Of course, she could feel that Rosé did not mean any harm to her.
Taking out the clothes from the closet, Lisa put a sweater over her clothes and then put on a military jacket before going out.
After a week’s exercise, Lisa’s figure seemed the same. But at a closer look, her chubby and round face seemed more defined.
After all, it would be a miracle to find a fat soldier after such high-intensity training in the military.
Nobody wanted to be too fat.
Lisa’s weight was barely on the passing line.
She was not very clear why she was selected.
The winter afternoon was not very cold, and there were soldiers resting around the camp.
The military area of Dayi City was surrounded by mountains. These rolling mountain ranges were a majestic view. It would be a beautiful tourist attraction if it did not prohibit outsiders from entering.
The Back Mountain Number Five Rosé mentioned earlier, it was named that way all because the people in the military region found it a bother to name the different mountains one by one. Hence, they gave them nicknames.
Back Mountain Number Five was diagonally opposite the new recruits’ training camp. There were dense forests on the mountain and continued downwards. The trees were towering and there stood some thousand-year-old trees with a long history.
There were also many wild animals in the mountains, some of which were raised by the military itself, but there were regulations against hunting the wild animals.
But the veterans were a group of old foxes. There were often veterans who went to the mountain to catch pheasants to improve their meals. This rule was orally passed down and was not considered military rules, so the military turned a blind eye to it.
But the contradicting thing was that Back Mountain Number Five was close to the military region and the new recruits’ camp.
In fact, some people in the military region who hunted there were combat soldiers who were training. Even the veterans would stay in the new recruits’ training camp for three years. Only after three years would they be promoted to the military region.
Therefore, for Lisa and the others, they were veterans, but in the eyes of the people from the military region, they were also new recruits.
So, if the people from the military region catches the veterans bringing new recruits to hunt, they would be lectured.
Some veterans who wanted to show off might even report to the instructors of the new recruits.
Punishment would be unavoidable.
Lisa did not know the twists and turns in the military camp. If she did, she would not go to the mountain.
Of course, she did not know the way. She asked a female soldier for the way.
The female soldier was very friendly but was surprised to hear that Lisa was going there. She did not say anything and pointed the way for Lisa before going off to do her own things.
Lisa followed the route pointed by the female soldier and went to Back Mountain Number Five.
During weekends, there were also soldiers standing guard around. As for those relatively uncontrolled new recruits, they would not care about them as long as they did not go to where they were not supposed to.
Lisa arrived at the foot of Back Mountain Number Five. There were several paths that the soldiers had trampled out.
Rosé said that she was waiting for Lisa at the top of the mountain.
If it was the Lisa from before, she would definitely give up when she saw that she had to climb the mountain. But now, although she found it a little troublesome, she still found a path to climb up.
There was a dense forest at the top of the mountain and soldiers were walking around as well. Lisa was quite relieved, but she did not expect that as she walked, there was no road ahead as it was blocked by several tall trees.
When she looked carefully, she found that she had gone off the path as she was deep in thought.