After Being Reborn, I became a firefighter again?

Chapter 576: Chapter 438: Arrival, Tianjin Base

In "The Big Bang Theory," Sheldon Cooper really likes trains.

Since he’s a stickler for rules, he likes to do everything strictly according to schedule, including peeing, pooping, and even sleeping with Amy.

Moreover, he likes how clean and spacious trains are.

First thing’s certain, he definitely hasn’t ridden on a train in China.

The whole corps isn’t like the Southwest Training Class with a Logistics Department; they couldn’t possibly overstep logistics standards to pamper these elites by buying them plane tickets.

Having a sleeper berth was already a boon.

Old Zhang, who was leading the team, was sly as a fox. The day before, he had paid for a flight to Tianjin out of his own pocket and arranged for Counselor Sun from the War Training Department to accompany them.

Trains these days are really f*cking dirty.

Not just the train, the floor, the toilets, but some people’s hearts are also somewhat dirty.

The trouble started with an old man who had purchased a standing ticket. He was standing near their row of sleeper berths. Seeing him tired and old, Lian Xu offered his seat on his own initiative.

The old man didn’t really want to sit because his stop was coming up soon, but after a couple of polite refusals, a bunch of people who wanted seats gathered around.

A large family was heading north to catch up with relatives. They were fairly young, around their forties or fifties, probably because the person who bought the tickets didn’t want to spend money on seated tickets for everyone, so they all ended up with standing tickets instead.

The relatives had been squatting in a corner long enough to start complaining about the cheapskate who bought the tickets, but the journey was long, and upgrading to seats was expensive, and no one wanted to pay for it themselves. When they heard that someone was voluntarily offering their seat—a sleeper berth no less—they swarmed over, each wanting to snag the free offer.

Upon seeing a line of people in military uniforms and realizing the group was about the same size as theirs, they stopped their internal squabble and started signaling each other, ready to cooperate.

"People’s Liberation Army soldiers are good people!"

"Oh dear, I’ve been squatting for two hours, my back is killing me. Little PLA brother, could you let me sit for a bit?"

"My legs are numb from squatting too! Comrade of the National Defense Army!"

The team’s sleeper berths were all next to each other, and with a few words from the surrounding crowd, everyone lying down for a rest had been propped up. They had no choice but to accommodate one person each. Fang Huai directly stood up to let a woman holding a child sit down.

The sleeper berths on the train are far from spacious. If one person sits down, another can’t lie down. In no time, the entire representative team had gotten up too and made their way to the rear car door to chat quietly while standing.

As a result, at the next station, the large family simply lay down.

When everyone returned, they saw a full-scale case of nests being overthrown and were already cursing in their hearts. But their military uniforms contained their righteous anger. They reluctantly stood outside for another two or three hours. When they couldn’t take it anymore and went back to their sleeper berths, they gently tapped them and asked them to sit up.

Hartly any of them got up, some pretending to be asleep, others making noises of discomfort.

"PLA soldiers, your bodies are strong. I really can’t sit with my back!" freeweɓnovel.cøm

Darn it, now sitting wasn’t enough; he wanted to lie down.

At this grumbling, those who were about to sit up relaxed back down instead, following the principle that "if others got an advantage and I didn’t, then I’m at a loss." They started complaining about their own discomforts. The scene resembled a group of determined ICU patients, each with a terminal illness, rushing to visit relatives.

Everyone was quite disheartened.

Fang Huai sent everyone to the front two carriages to wait and went to find the conductor himself.

It turns out, the conductor was badass.

Upon learning about the situation, they immediately called the train police to check tickets in the sleeping area. Soon after, it became noisy over there. The group loudly claimed the PLA soldiers had allowed them to sleep there. When they couldn’t find the soldiers, the commotion intensified until one of them started shoving the train police. Quickly, a group of train police arrived, took everyone away, and handed out warnings and fines—two hundred for causing a disturbance and five hundred for physical aggression.

As the train police escorted the group past them to the front carriages, upon seeing the soldiers, they immediately shouted for them to bear witness.

This time, the team kept silent.

Providing proof was useless; they had already violated the Public Security Administration Punishment Law.

Later, the large family came back, argued near them about the one who had scuffled with the police, causing everyone to get fined. Soon, family ties began to fray. Some paid to upgrade their tickets, while others simply got off the train, foregoing reuniting with relatives. When some approached the soldiers for an argument, they too gave tit for tat, feigning sleep with closed eyes.

After a tumultuous journey, when they disembarked at the platform the morning of the 14th.

Only after breathing air not tainted with the smell of stinky feet did everyone feel notably better. Gui Qiang, who had a bit of a fiery temper, slapped Lian Xu on the back of his head.

"That’s for f*cking offering your seat!"

The others also began to vent, even Counselor Sun from the team spoke up:

"The train is chaotic, and people’s intentions are mixed. When we head back, keep quiet and rest, don’t cause trouble for yourselves."

Lian Xu looked wronged.

Fang Huai smiled, "Serving the people, what’s wrong with that?"

At this, everyone laughed.

"Serving the people? You were the most ruthless!"

Fang Huai chuckled, "Those weren’t the people, they were troublemakers."

...

The Tianjin Fire Protection Training Base, next to the Beichen Jingjintang Expressway, resembles a school, and it is actually a major division-level unit, directly subordinate to the department, much larger than the regular regimental training base in Guizhou. Most of the national Grand Martial Arts Competitions from previous years were held here.

The Nanjing Non-commissioned Officer School, on the other hand, is another national level for assessing and patching up deficiencies in martial arts competitions. He visited in his past life when he was examining military academies. Compared to this place, that was much more run-down, and worse, their cafeteria didn’t have chili peppers, only sweet flavors; everyone from the examination class was driven mad by the oversweetness, collectively banging their bowls with chopsticks demanding spicy chili peppers.