Free Web NovelChapter 257: Chapter 200: Is it more important to eliminate or to prevent?
The departure of the corps leadership allowed Fang Huai to let loose.
He didn’t rush to continue the competition; instead, he went to the foot of the training tower to observe everyone’s operational techniques in various subjects.
His ’Merit System’ had a feature for learning from others, and participating in the Corps Martial Arts Competition was a rare good opportunity.
A staff officer from the War Training Department with the surname Jiang silently followed him.
The only person brought by the corps agency’s leading cadre was Fang Huai.
By now, many people knew that such an oddity sent by the corps had joined the fray.
And this kid, after having had a cheerful conversation with a group of corps leaders, had their laughter echoing throughout the venue. As he moved about, none of the detachment leaders present dared to meddle.
"Fang Huai, you haven’t learned the hundred-meter hurdle yet, have you? Are you confident?"
While Fang Huai was watching someone climb a ladder, Cao Yi’s voice came from behind him. freeωebnovēl.c૦m
Fang Huai turned around, his face showing surprise:
"I k... Instructor Cao, how come you’re still here?!"
Cao Yi replied as if it were obvious: "It’s your first time competing, and your scores in the first two subjects were very good! I’ll give you some advice! Let’s aim for a good result!"
A twitch appeared at the corner of Fang Huai’s mouth.
You saw that I performed well, and now you’re preparing to show off and shine with me, huh?
What do you think I’m roaming around here for? Waiting for you to go back and supply me with ammunition!
Fang Huai’s expression immediately turned serious: "Instructor Cao, please go back! Who needs a staff officer? Advisor Jiang is here!"
I’ve already seen the referee’s scorebook, and the average score of our detachment doesn’t look too promising this time!
In the second half of the year, the Olympic Games start in August. There should be many provincial and municipal activities then, right? Security operations will take up most of our time!
And afterward, there really isn’t much time left!
If you calculate it all, there are just four months.
The Autumn Big Martial Arts Competition has many team events, and more slots for participants, right? Aren’t you worried?"
As Fang Huai said this, he was actually quite anxious himself.
Not only anxious about this current intensive training but also because the system hadn’t assigned him a task in a long time.
His current "source of income" depended entirely on the training of the seven conscripts in the Second Squadron.
Actually, it was quite fast. In just a month or so, he had obtained close to 90 points in Task Completion Degree, and every 10 points equaled one completed task.
Nine times, that’s three rewards.
But this task only had a three-month deadline, and there wasn’t much time left.
Before, he would push everyone as hard as he could, but now, as his abilities became stronger, the conscripts no longer dared to take him as their target.
Introducing a catfish into a sardine group improves vitality; this is known as the catfish effect.
Having a lead sheep in the herd, other sheep will follow wherever it goes; this is called the herd effect.
But now, pushed by Fang Huai, the conscripts had become wolves; however, they realized that the Fang Huai they were chasing was not a tiger, but a robot made entirely of steel, capable of emitting electricity and fire, with eyes that could "biubiubiu" shoot lasers, so they dared not chase anymore.
The catfish and lead sheep attributes of Fang Huai were gradually disappearing.
Useless, completely useless.
They had to rely on Cao Yi, the zookeeper, to add intensity to their lives.
I don’t care about skilled wolves, mountain-dominating tigers, far-seeing eagles; everyone has to join the anti-vice operation on General Hill every day, then soak their feet at night, cursing, ’those impassioned horses.’
After hearing Fang Huai’s words, Cao Yi’s face turned a bit dark:
"Just take care of your own business! I’ll arrange the training for the squadron! The five kilometers, run it with all you’ve got! Last time, it was 18 and a half minutes, right?
If you can’t run it under 18 minutes this time, when you come back next week, get ready to camp on General Hill!"
After assigning the task, without giving Fang Huai any chance to retort, he turned and walked away.
Fang Huai watched Cao Yi’s departing figure and chuckled.
Eighteen minutes, heh.
Leaving me with a ticking bomb, huh?
Four threes, you think that’s a high card?
Damn it, I have a cheat on, four aces!
...
Just before the morning was about to end, beneath the horizontal bar.
"Fifty-nine!"
"Sixty!"
"Damn, Gui Qiang is done for."
"Eh, why is he swaying his hips again? Referee, does that count?"
The referee, unamused, said, "Your Squadron’s Gui Qiang has been doing the last few like he’s dancing the twist, did I not count them anyway?
As long as the swing doesn’t exceed a five-degree angle, it counts!
His movements are already very standard! Many of you have been trying to cheat from the start!
If you’re not convinced, why don’t you go up there and compete with him?"
With that, those who had objections fell silent.
"Sixty-one!"
Upon hearing those numbers, Fang Huai reached upwards again, executing a standard maneuver over the bar before finally letting go and dismounting.
The referee began recording the score: "Number 163, from the Corps, Fang Huai, 61 reps!"
The people around seemed to be hearing this result for the first time and started to exclaim.
Three venues, one morning, and he had already kicked up dust in three areas.
Currently, Lian Xu surpassed him in the hook ladder event.
It’s said that upon reaching the hook ladder event and learning the first-place score was Fang Huai’s 14 seconds and 73 milliseconds from the corps, Lian Xu did two rounds of warm-up exercises at the foot of the tower before starting his attempt.
His first attempt scored 15 seconds and 25 milliseconds.
The second time, it took a while to prepare before entering the competition again, 14.48 seconds, and finally, Fang Huai was cut down from his horse.
But what everyone didn’t know was that Fang Huai still had one more chance.
And now Fang Huai’s 12-meter rope climb was like a lofty list of names hanging high, nailed to the wall of the fourth floor of the training tower.
Visible, but untouchable.
Let alone his score, even the second place’s 12.42 seconds remains unsurpassed to this day.
This time was the first to use the differential gear, and several of those who used to boast about climbing the tower in 10 seconds all stumbled.
When training in the squadron, they were used to someone giving them a hand on the safety rope, but this time, one of them didn’t use enough force when leaping through a window and almost got hung outside the fourth-floor window.
11.23 seconds, Fang Huai’s score, it was a chasm.
This time, he had also conquered the horizontal bar.
Head of the Corps Fang Huai, this special unit, coupled with his special accomplishments, had already made the name Fang Huai resound in the mouths of the old soldiers across half of the base’s playground.
Dark horse.
So black that it shone.
Soon, Brother Hei, Yang Yonghua, who was darker than Fang Huai, blew a whistle in the middle of the playground, signaling a break, and all detachments organized their way to the canteen for food.
Fang Huai and Chief of Staff Jiang walked towards the base canteen, chatting and laughing.
"Chief of Staff Jiang, you had a hard time this morning, accompanying me back and forth," said Fang Huai.
Chief of Staff Jiang laughed, "Hahaha... It’s my pleasure! Watching you win three championships this morning alongside you, I’m also happy! But I overheard a few non-commissioned officers discussing that your legs seemed a bit weak, how about it, are you confident in scoring in the leg-based events?"
Fang Huai opened the system to check and then smiled with a chuckle:
"Actually, my strongest event is slapping faces."
"Hahaha..."
Chief of Staff Jiang was right in the middle of laughing.
A figure approached.
"Slapping faces? My strongest event is smashing noggins!"
The person behind him said, and with a "smack," Fang Huai’s back of the head took a solid slap.
It was a sneak attack, and he hadn’t been on guard.
"Ah, shoot..."
Fang Huai turned his head, about to curse out loud, only to see a face as dark as a judge’s with the distinct features of Northwesterners.
"Chief of Staff..." Fang Huai said resentfully.
"Head of the Corps Fang Huai, now that you’ve made a name for yourself at headquarters, you don’t recognize me anymore? Seeing me, shouldn’t you take the initiative to come and report?"
Yang Yonghua stood with his hands behind his back, the epaulets on his shoulders now adorned with two stripes and two stars.
Fang Huai laughed sheepishly, "Chief of Staff, how could I dare! Speaking of fame, who in the whole corps doesn’t know you? It’s the stars on your shoulders that added one more, dazzling my eyes so much that I didn’t dare to approach!"
"I..." Yang Yonghua raised his hand.
Fang Huai, holding the back of his head, said with an embarrassed smile, "Chief of Staff, now that you’re here, wouldn’t it be appropriate to take us up to the second floor for a meal?"
To tell the truth, as the only revenue-generating detachment in the province, the food in the internal canteen on the second floor of the Training Base was truly the best in the province.
The Special Duty Squadron 2, that was, making the most of the limited mess budget, but here, with forty yuan per person per day for food, compared to the Special Duty’s 14.3 yuan, it was simply in a different class.
"Oh, you even know about the second-floor canteen of the base?" Yang Yonghua laughed, "Alright, I heard you’ve won several championships today, seeing your good performance, I’ll treat you to a meal!"
"Thanks to Brother Yang’s generosity!"
"You slick talker!"
...
Second floor of the canteen.
Braised pork ribs, deep-fried crabs, braised meatballs, steamed big prawns, sour long beans with minced pork, scrambled eggs with Chinese chives, garlic kai-lan, spicy tofu julienne, pumpkin cakes, and small steamed buns.
All loaded into a 30×25×20cm self-service dinner plate, the quantity of food: more than enough.
Fang Huai looked for a while, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and summarized in four words.
Damn, this trip isn’t a loss.
Even Jiang, Chief of Staff of the whole corps, was all "tsk tsk tsk" as he followed behind him in line, scooping up a full plate of food.
Yang Yonghua had brought him into the canteen and then left him to his own devices with only a "eat slowly" and didn’t even take any food himself, heading straight for the inside.
Fang Huai found a table without people and sat down, reassessing this place.
The playground not far outside still bore the lingering scent of the Martial Arts Competition in full swing, but here, it was like a cafeteria in a government agency.
Everyone entering and leaving was politely saying hello with continuous laughter, and occasionally there was the sound of leadership arranging work.
"Teacher Xi, in the afternoon, you need to call those 17 units to inform them about the second-stage entry-level firefighter training! If they don’t show up, we need to notify the local Big Team to fine them!"
"Leader Liu, there are still vacancies in the firefighter school’s student quota this year, the Head of the Corps has already instructed us over the phone, the recruitment brochure needs to be revised, we have to relax the admission requirements."
"The Public Relations Department of the Corps wants us to record more footage of this competition for them, to facilitate promotional editing. Little Zhang, Little Wang, the two of you, go make another trip in the afternoon."
Many people around were busy with things utterly unrelated to training.
These jobs were part of the "prevention" in firefighting, a totally different atmosphere from the "firefighting" aspect.
Fang Huai, in his previous life here, just felt that this agency was comfortable, but now, he had many thoughts.
Was firefighting or prevention more important?
In a force of over a hundred thousand firefighters, perhaps only a very small portion of people worked in "prevention," while the majority strived for the "firefighting" aspect.
But the motto of the firefighters has always been "prevention first, combined with firefighting."
Only by making every one of China’s over a billion citizens aware of the importance of preventing disasters, perhaps could firefighter safety, truly become safer.
Someday, when he had time to spare, write a book? A book of his own stories for those netizens to read.
Fang Huai thought.
It must be written interestingly because, damn, firefighting can be pretty dry.
