After Being Reborn, I became a firefighter again?

Chapter 45: Chapter 22 A Stumble Triggered Bloodshed

The next day.

It was bitterly cold outside.

But Squad Leader Hao announced that lights could only be turned on in the squad room at 5:30 a.m. The sky was still dim at that hour, so before then, the new recruits could only fold their blankets in the corridor.

As nearby chickens crowed and the lights came on in the squad room, the new recruits quickly grabbed their blankets and started tidying up inside.

"Damn!"

A loud exclamation came from the corridor.

Not half a minute later, the door to Squad Nine was pushed open.

Wang Jian, carrying a military coat, and Yue Tao, with a frustrated look on his face, stood at the doorway.

"Old Hao, your new recruit sleeping in the corridor is one thing, but wrapping himself up like a ball and sleeping on the stairway corner—that could trip someone. Whose fault would that be if it happens?"

Wang Jian had tripped and was fuming, but as a cadre, he refrained from physical punishment and left it to Hao Chengbin to handle.

Hao Chengbin, who was leaning on a bed supervising the folding of blankets, was taken aback at his words.

He knew two recruits had yet to return from blanket folding, but he didn’t expect Yue Tao had gone out to sleep.

Without responding to Wang Jian, Hao Chengbin just snorted coldly, got up, grabbed Yue Tao by the collar, and flung him into the squad room. freewebnoveℓ.com

He literally flung him in.

Hao Chengbin’s strength was significant; Yue Tao stumbled several times, banged into two bed frames and also into Zhao Bing, who was sitting on a stool. Zhao Bing raised his hand to block, and Yue Tao tripped and fell to the floor.

Seeing Hao Chengbin’s temper flare, Wang Jian didn’t say anything more, turned, and left, thoughtfully closing the door behind him.

The new recruits in the squad were seeing this spectacle for the first time and didn’t dare to even breathe loudly, all standing up from their stools and stepping aside.

Fang Huai hurriedly dodged to avoid becoming a target himself.

No matter how much the squad leader favored him, speaking up now would be a death wish.

"Squad Leader, I know I was wrong!" Yue Tao was quick to react, bowing on the ground and holding his head.

"Heh, you’re not wrong, I am. I’ve been too lenient with you all, sleeping outside wrapped in a coat, you think you can ascend to heaven!"

After speaking, Hao Chengbin scanned the room and, noticing that Peng Yingqirui also hadn’t returned, silently turned and left.

Fang Huai shook his head in silence.

Peng Yingqirui was in danger.

Not two minutes later, Peng Yingqirui entered the squad room, one hand covering his flushed face and the other clutching a messy blanket.

His expression was even more aggrieved than Yue Tao’s just moments ago.

Hao Chengbin appeared behind him and lifted a foot.

With a yelp, Peng Yingqirui hurried forward, eventually collapsing on top of Yue Tao.

Holding Yue Tao’s blanket, Hao Chengbin pointed at Peng Yingqirui on the ground.

"You’re even better at sleeping than Yue Tao, huh? At least his blanket was folded, yours, you wrapped around yourself!"

Hao Chengbin tossed Yue Tao’s blanket onto a bunk and sat down on his own bed, gesturing in front of himself.

"Everyone, stand over here! Line up!"

The new recruits’ worldviews had already undergone a collapse and rebuilding, and they were once again reminded of the hierarchical gap between themselves and the squad leader.

So, he was actually going to hit someone!

Two were still lying on the floor, and the atmosphere in the room was thick with the anticipation of a beating.

Lu Zexian watched Yue Tao with a slight chuckle.

This guy never followed rules, and now he’s finally caught up in trouble.

Jiang Peng glanced at his neatly folded blanket, figuring that, given how well he’d done, he wouldn’t be lumped in with the wrongdoers.

The two on the ground got up, extremely anxious.

After more than a minute of dawdling, ten new recruits finally lined up in order of height.

Hao Chengbin stood up, starting with the shortest, Sun Lianhai.

A backhand.

A slap in the face for each person, and not gently.

The two most fragile of the group, Peng Yingqirui and Yue Tao, who had already been hit outside, now had evenly marked faces, while Sun Lianhai’s tears were swirling in his eyes.

Everyone else had a uniform motion, hand covering face.

Their silence was deafening, and the room seemed to spin.

Fang Huai felt the hit wasn’t too hard, surmising that Hao Chengbin had pulled his punches on him. He quickly lowered his hand and straightened up.

This was nothing.

In his previous life, his former squadron was said to be able to turn murderers into docile children. Each weekend, the new recruits would gather in the equipment room, the door shut, plunged into darkness where you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face—except for a few glowing cigarette ends and indistinct faces.

The squad leader would ask each person if they had done anything wrong.

Without specifying the error, it was expected you’d know; after all, the squad leader kept a comprehensive list of mistakes you’d made that week.

Smoking in secret at the training tower, finding places to sleep in the morning, being late for assembly, not cleaning the vegetables well, fighting with same-year soldiers...

He may have overlooked things during the week, but he’d settle the total score on the weekend.

If you didn’t confess, you could expect to leave the room not knowing to whom the size 42 shoeprint on your body belonged.

Of course, even if you confessed, leniency was not an option.

Later, the squad leader would come to you with a smile, wanting to have a heart-to-heart talk.

His main trick was to use virtue to win people over.

If someone had made a serious mistake, it could also be: a display of virtue, to win people over.

The stand-out bird, the battle-hardened wolf? They were all warning examples.

"What are you crying for? You lot, you are the worst soldiers I’ve ever trained!"

Hao Chengbin, with his hands behind his back, surveyed every face, looking for any dissent.

The standout soon made his presence known.

"Squad Leader, I got up at four-thirty this morning to fold my blanket..."

Smack.

Within three meters, both precise and swift, Hao Chengbin took a step across and landed a targeted hit.

Jiang Peng received a double dose.

"Did I give you permission to talk?! Did you forget what I said yesterday? One person makes a mistake, the whole squad is punished!"

Hao Chengbin turned and sat on the edge of his bed, crossing his legs.

"Yesterday was hands, today it’s legs. Each of you, a hundred squats, shouting as you do it, ’Squad Leader, I was wrong!’ Whoever is the slowest, fifty more!"