Free Web NovelChapter 144: Chapter 100 Quiet Roast Leg Moment
"Great!"
After a brief moment, applause erupted, and the non-commissioned officers began to voice their encouragement.
A soldier, a good soldier, is like a tiger descending the mountain, armed with the courage that thousands cannot rival.
A horizontal bar, a good bar, forged of steel, embodies an invincible and majestic stance.
Underneath the bar are all the fierce ones, but Fang Huai’s performance isn’t quite at a level to make the braves of the Special Duty Team bow in reverence.
But a new recruit symbolizes infinite potential.
Eighteen, compared to twenty-eight, is a world of difference. If each ten pull-ups were considered a hurdle, then there wouldn’t be many hurdles to the top.
Fang Huai was also smiling.
This third-class merit was well worth it.
The improvement in strength is most obvious when you exert your full effort; he felt as though Old man Huang of Goose City’s broken leg had somehow been mended while he was doing pull-ups.
Previously, when exhausted from pull-ups, the sensation of stretching in his back now felt like a solid support.
He was certain that his parallel bars improvement would be even greater.
The strength of limbs still needs to be combined with the trunk to achieve maximum benefits.
Just as Fang Huai was reveling in the applause, the voice that encouraged him before called out.
"Fang... what was it?"
Squad Leader Fang turned his head to ask the person next to him.
"Fang Huai," Xiong Jie said.
"Ah, right! Fang Huai, impressive! It seems that our squadron will have new talents this year!" Squad Leader Fang said, glancing toward the cadres nearby.
"Indeed! This kid, almost fiercer than I was back then!" Squad Leader Xiao Hei’s dark face flashed an unashamed grin, showing off his bright white teeth.
"Woof!"
Little White, sitting next to it, actually scooted away and glanced at Xiao Hei.
"Hahaha... Xiao Hei, even your brother can’t stand your bragging!" A burst of laughter came from the crowd.
Fang Huai, still catching his breath with his head down, was inwardly rolling his eyes.
How ironic.
Xiao Hei’s bragging aside, my old squad leader praised me but doesn’t even know my name! He called me out by asking for two more pull-ups, turns out he only remembered my last name, right?
The only one who seemed to show any sense was three-legged Little White!
But once Fang Huai calmed down and thought it over, he also realized something: now that he had achieved results, it was time to be modest.
Just look at the first-class soldiers below.
Qi Xiaohui’s face read "I shouldn’t be here," his head hung low, brows creased, eyes averted, afraid he might be chastised.
Zhang Yang was staring blankly ahead, lost in thought.
Meng Qiang... Meng Qiang seemed a bit happy, perhaps thinking that with Fang Huai’s excellent physical fitness, he probably wouldn’t be assigned to a communication officer position.
And there were a few young non-commissioned officers who had just struggled with the 30 pull-up mark, their faces showing some disappointment.
Three months into the service, he had nearly reached, even surpassed, the achievements that they had worked for years to attain.
That was too fierce.
Thus, the experienced old soldiers present used this humorous approach to release the pressure that he’d imposed on the young officers and first-class soldiers.
After all, many here were still in the phase of improving their physical capabilities.
There has to be pressure, of course, but it should be appropriate. Ideally, it should encourage healthy competition and collective progress.
In firefigthing, having just one strong person is almost zero gain.
Here, one person cannot complete team drills alone or handle a fire by themselves. ƒreewebɳovel.com
Special forces might secure victory in an exercise all by themselves, but in a firefighting drill, any single person, any single mistake, is a disaster for the entire team.
Team spirit is essential.
So Fang Huai glanced at the dining hall, showing a bit of urgency, and asked Xiong Jie:
"By the way! Squad Leader Xiong, what time is it?"
Xiong Jie, not wearing a watch and not wanting to pull out his phone, heard Cao Yi, who checked his wrist, say, "Five o’clock."
Fang Huai immediately said, "Oh no, we needed to help out in the kitchen at 4:50. Squad Leader Chang also has lamb legs to prepare today; he’s very busy! Instructor, I’ve finished with the pull-ups, may I go now?"
As Cao Yi was contemplating how to encourage everyone, he couldn’t help but laugh upon hearing this. His mind quickly shifted gears, and he spoke up loudly:
"Go ahead! Fang Huai, you’ve performed very well, and you have outstanding physical strength! You truly deserve the title of new recruit champion!
Tonight, I’ll leave the grilling of those two lamb legs to you!
Let everyone taste the champion’s lamb legs. From now on, in training, may you all draw on this vigor, improve together, and ensure that the fame of Special Service Squadron 2 resounds throughout the nation. Sound good?"
"Great!"
"The Instructor speaks wisely!"
Everyone was instantly invigorated, and their laughter thundered, their moods lifted by the prospect of a sumptuous meal and a promising future.
Fang Huai stood at attention, answered "Yes" loudly, and ran towards the dining hall.
Hey, after putting on a good show, now I have to do the hard labor, roasting lamb legs!
Champion’s lamb legs... what a masterstroke. Whoever came up with that idea really outdid themselves. Why not just roast my legs too?
Roasting champion’s legs would be even more festive.
...
Upon entering the dining hall, he could hear the "tap tap tap" of the cutting board. Chang Ming had a pair of earphones extending from his pocket, one side on his ear, his slightly chubby body moving rhythmically to the tempo of chopping garlic, humming:
"The scent of his cologne is on you, it’s the sin of my nose..."
The mood inside and outside the dining hall was like two different worlds.
"Squad Leader Chang?"
Chang Ming subconsciously pulled out his earphones, stashing them in his pocket, and turned his head.
Seeing it was Fang Huai, his expression didn’t relax. He walked out of the kitchen and peeked through the dining hall window toward the horizontal bar area, puzzled:
"How come you’re here alone? Did the cadres send you to call me? I’ll have you know, I’m pretty busy right now!"
Fang Huai couldn’t help but laugh inwardly at his flustered demeanor.
Chang Ming was probably afraid that the cadres would make him do pull-ups.
With a body like his, going to the pull-up bars today would probably make him Qi Xiaohui’s savior. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm
"No, Squad Leader, I finished my pull-ups and was told to help in the kitchen, so the Instructor sent me over."
Only then did Chang Ming sweep a suspicious glance over him, and taking another look at the pull-up bars and noticing that others were still on them, he folded his arms behind his back and said with a somewhat instructive tone:
"It’s your first assessment as a new recruit, and you just did one set of pull-ups? Didn’t feel like doing two more sets on your own initiative?
I’m telling you! Missing kitchen duty because of training is no problem! The times I set for kitchen duty, that’s when there’s no police dispatch or training!
You didn’t specially find an excuse to come here and slack off in the kitchen, did you? How many did you do?"
Fang Huai’s heart winced.
Bro, if you hadn’t said all that before, I might have believed you.
But he still replied with a smile, "Squad Leader, I wasn’t slacking off, I did twenty-eight."
"Twenty-eight? ...How many sets, three?" Chang Ming asked in disbelief.
Fang Huai kept smiling, "One set, so the Instructor didn’t make me do a second."
"What?" Chang Ming exclaimed in shock.
"You could do twenty-eight in one set?"
Fang Huai nodded with a smile, "Yeah, Squad Leader, let’s not hold things up, besides lunch, we still have to roast a leg of lamb today! The Instructor asked me to do the roasting, you’ll have to teach me!"
"How many did Zhang Yang do?"
Chang Ming couldn’t quite believe it and wondered if there was some new technique that had boosted everyone’s scores.
"Thirty-two!" Fang Huai said as he entered the kitchen, looking around for where the lamb legs were.
Truth be told, he too was feeling greedy.
In the new recruit group, to get a taste of roast lamb leg was a stretch unless the entire New Training Building burned down, and he happened to be the guy who put the fire out.
Chang Ming had always been at odds with Zhang Yang, and hearing "28" and "32" made him furrow his brows and mutter:
"That Zhang Yang... how come he’s made no progress at all?"
The first year and the second year, the gap was just too small.
Fang Huai couldn’t hold back and teased, "Squad Leader, how many can you pull?"
"Hmph!" Chang Ming immediately cleared his throat and said in a seasoned manner, "The squad leader has been in the kitchen for too long and got fat! In the past... I could pull quite a few too!"
After saying that, without giving him another chance to speak, he opened the back door, went outside, and pointing to a barbecue stove, said:
"From now on, the squad leader will teach you to cook! It’s a skill you’ve got to learn in the troops, for future holidays, New Year’s and such, when I need to rest, and everyone in the squadron has to take turns cooking!
As for that leg of lamb, I’ve already marinated it and started roasting it! It still needs two to three hours of roasting!
If the Instructor sent you to roast, then come here, I’ll teach you, you man the stove! You won’t be needed in the kitchen today!"
...
After more than half an hour, the afternoon meal was ready, and people were still taking turns on the pull-up bars, with Han Yong’s shouts of "report" audible from afar, accompanied by occasional scolding from a group of old soldiers.
It was exactly the kind of chaos in the squad that Fang Huai had imagined.
Zhang Yang, who had kept a low profile earlier, was now shouting the loudest, clearly revived with full energy.
In Fang Huai’s absence, he had finally reclaimed some of the authority of a first-class soldier.
Chang Ming and Fang Huai sat quietly by the stove, silently watching the lamb legs sizzle under the heat.
Throughout the day, the new recruits had their most brutal and, at the same time, the most tranquil and serene moments.
Fang Huai was the new recruit; over at the pull-up bars were "they."
He couldn’t manage them anymore. During training, he really couldn’t manage them; he was in a state of willing blindness now.
"Sizzle... Sizzle..."
The lamb leg oozed with oil.
Life is a quest for food, a spoonful of rice, a dish of food, gives rise to the seven-foot stove, the worldly flavor of home.
The lamb presented by Liu Lao Er’s Villa for moral support did look genuinely top-notch, the leg neither too fat nor too lean, and just the half-cooked color alone made Fang Huai’s mouth water.
"Squad Leader, if that villa catches fire, shouldn’t we pump an extra couple of tons of water to help them out?" Fang Huai joked.
"Hey!" Chang Ming smacked Fang Huai abruptly:
"You better watch your words and gather some good karma! We firefighters hope not to work a single day all year, that everyone’s safe, that’s the best."
Fang Huai snickered cheekily, "Heh, that’d be great; by the end of the year, the squadron’s training results would increase by at least thirty percent."
Chang Ming folded his arms behind his back, and the "crackle" of the burning firewood combined with the tranquil atmosphere made him reveal a bit of true feeling.
"Ah, if I had your physical condition when I joined the squad, who would want to stay in the kitchen?"
Words of a slacker.
Fang Huai silently judged him, then suddenly realized he really had become a lot more diligent without even noticing it, not like before at all.
"Hey, whose dog is that?" Fang Huai suddenly asked curiously, pointing at the "dog squad leader" who was barking every now and then at the pull-up bars.
"Little White? The Logistics Officer keeps it, Squad Leader Zhou Yong is in charge of feeding it, you guys don’t have to worry about it."
"I noticed its leg is broken."
Chang Ming, clearly bored, picked up a couple of broken pieces of charcoal from the ground and tossed them into the fire, lifting his eyebrows to say, "It got run over by the Logistics Officer."
"The Logistics Officer ran over it?!"
"Yeah, Little White was just a puppy back then, and Squad Leader Zhou Yong, who was a new recruit at the time, was following the Logistics Officer to buy groceries. Right as they left the squadron, there was a little dog lying by the road. The Logistics Officer didn’t see it and ran over its back legs.
The Logistics Officer picked it up, treated it and kept it. Squad Leader Zhou Yong said he’d feed it, and that’s how it grew up.
I heard that before last year when Squad Leader Zhou Yong was considering being discharged, it was Little White that convinced him to stay. They’re really close, and when we were new recruits, we used to call it Squad Leader White for a while."
"Little White can convince people?" Fang Huai asked, astonished.
Chang Ming chuckled, "Heh, why not? Sometimes dogs understand human nature better than humans. You’ll find out in time; Little White is really smart!"
