Chapter 4

(T/N: Sorry, I mistakenly translated Su Linlin’s name into Su linyin…so after this, I will stick to Su linlin…)

After the dispersal, everyone returned to their dorms, washed up, and lay on their beds chatting.

Zhang Yue sat cross-legged on the bed, waved her hand, and declared domineeringly, “From now on, I’ve got your backs; the class monitor is covering for you all!”

Su Linlin and Li Jiao applauded in agreement, “Clap, clap, clap, clap.”

“Don’t worry,” Su Linlin patted her chest. “I, as the secretary committee member, have got your backs too.”

Li Jiao quietly extended her hand and said, “I’m just an entertainer, but if you need anything, I’ve got you covered.”

The three girls exchanged glances and laughed.

Su Linlin lay on her bed, looking at the ceiling, and sighed dreamily, “Jiao Jiao, I still think our instructor is so handsome.”

“I just don’t know his name.”

Li Jiao turned over, propped on her pillow, and looked at Su Linlin across the room.

“Instructor… seems like he didn’t want to reveal his name,” she said.

“Well, yeah, but at least tell us his last name; don’t say anything else…” Su Linlin muttered.

Zhang Yue covered herself with a blanket, lying down, and said, “In my eyes, he’s just a devil; being handsome is useless.”

Li Jiao nodded in agreement.

“Hey, have you heard?”

Su Linlin said it mysteriously.

“What?”

“I heard our instructor seems to be a retired military officer with a high rank, like a major.”

Li Jiao frowned. “Major? How high is that?”

She didn’t understand these things and didn’t know how high the rank of a major was.

Su Linlin couldn’t explain either. She got up and shouted to Zhang Yue on the other side of the room, “Boss, boss, do you know?”

“Boss, boss?”

The answer she received was Zhang Yue’s snoring. Su Linlin and Li Jiao helplessly exchanged glances.

“Well, let’s go to sleep too.”

“Good night.”

“Good night.”

After exchanging goodnight wishes, the two girls were ready to go to sleep.

Li Jiao glanced at the curtain next door, where the light was still on, and whispered, “Yuran, Yuran?”

She called twice, but there was no response.

On the opposite side, Su Linlin’s curtain was opened, and she gestured to Li Jiao, whispering, “Ignore her; let’s go to sleep early.”

Li Jiao nodded with some frustration, then closed the curtain, lay down, and kept her eyes open, staring at the dark bed curtain above.

There were four people in the dorm: herself, Su Linlin, Zhang Yue, and another named Tang Yuran.

Tang Yuran had a bad temper and didn’t get along with the three of them. When she entered, she was arrogant, ignored everyone, and didn’t respond to anyone who tried to talk to her.

This morning, Li Jiao brought breakfast, including a portion for Tang Yuran. However, Tang Yuran just said thank you without taking it. When Li Jiao felt awkward, it was Zhang Yue who accepted it, explaining that she eats a lot, so two portions are just right.

Li Jiao couldn’t understand why Tang Yuran didn’t want to get along with them.

Blinking her eyes and feeling a bit dry, Li Jiao yawned, turned over, and fell asleep in a daze.

Throughout the night, her dreams were filled with the voice of the instructor.

She dreamt that the instructor stood in front of her, expressionless, saying, “Your foot is turned the wrong way.”

“The last one in the first row, turn left!”

“Turn to the back!”

“Turn right!”

“…”

The next morning, Li Jiao woke up with faint dark circles under her eyes, and while rinsing her mouth, she looked at herself in the mirror.

“Instructor, please spare me. I can distinguish between left and right; I’m not foolish…”

Under the scorching sun, it felt like there was a gigantic, scorching fireball overhead, casting an intensely hot light.

The sky was a beautiful azure, but there wasn’t a single cloud in sight, and even the birds seemed to have disappeared.

The trees at the edge of the military training ground seemed sickly, with branches and leaves curling up lazily, displaying a lack of vitality, too lazy to even move.

However, the central area of the training ground was bustling with activity, various training sessions taking place in full swing.

Everywhere, the voices of instructors giving commands and shouting were incessant.

“Come on, everyone, march in step!”

“One, two, one, two!”

“Align your formation, formation!”

“Use your peripheral vision to align, align!”

“Everyone, run—walk!”

“One, two, one, two!”

“One… two… three… four!”

“One, two, three, four!”

“…”

In a corner of the training ground, which was the training area where Li Jiao and her friends were located, one instructor seemed on the verge of a breakdown.

“Oh my god, I told you to march in step, march in step!!”

“Not in a casual manner!!”

“One, two, one, two, can’t you get the rhythm?”

“Come on, step out with the left foot and right hand first, then the right foot and left hand.”

“One, two, one, two!”

“One is the left foot, left foot!”

“…”

That instructor seemed to be leading students for the first time, appearing quite young, at most around twenty-one or twenty-two, with a delicate and tall figure. Overall, his temper was relatively good; he was not prone to punishing people much.

Now, due to an issue with a male classmate’s improper marching, he was visibly flustered, his face turning completely red. Even his hometown dialect emerged, adding a touch of military-style accent to the charming Sichuanese speech.

It sounded quite amusing.

“Oh my god, you are swinging like a fish (?), can’t you distinguish left from right?”

“I told you, step out with the left… no, step out with the left foot, left foot!”

“Ah, dear, with you guys, my hair might just turn prematurely gray.”

“…”

“Pfft—”

“Hahaha…”

The surrounding students were all suppressing laughter, bursting into laughter. The instructor was truly hilarious.

Li Jiao’s class was currently on a break, lying on the ground one by one. Upon hearing the instructor from Class 2 next door speak in this unique Sichuanese style, they all burst into uncontrollable laughter.

Some students even rolled on the ground directly from laughter.

“Hahaha…”

Li Jiao’s class, that is, Class 1 of the 2019 level, listened to the Class 2 instructor’s breakdown and Sichuanese accent every day. It was extremely entertaining.

Sometimes during training, when they heard the Class 2 instructor’s frustrated Sichuanese, it was both amusing and uncomfortable. One time, a male student from their class couldn’t hold back his laughter and got a deadly glare from their own stern instructor, almost losing half his life.

Afterward, he was punished with forty push-ups. It was really tough.

Fortunately, their class was currently on a break, or they would have faced another round of penalties.

Class 2, just like them, was an art class. Today’s training content focused on the three main marching steps: the normal step, the quick step, and running.

Originally, the previous training, like standing at ease, marching in place, taking steps, and turning left and right, was manageable for the students. They learned it quite well.

At most, some students had trouble distinguishing left from right.

However, when it came to learning the marching steps now, problems arose.

It was still the group of students who couldn’t distinguish left from right. They still couldn’t figure out the directions.

But now, it wasn’t about turning in the wrong direction; it was about turning casually.

Talking about turning casually, every year during military training, there would be one or two students with particularly severe cases, not only turning casually themselves but occasionally dragging the instructor along for the casual turn.

Such students were akin to weapons of mass destruction on the military training ground!

The male student from Class 2 was one of them, turning casually for two days straight and still not correcting it. The instructor tried numerous methods, but none worked. No wonder he was so frustrated, even resorting to speaking in his hometown dialect.

“Oh my god, Jiaojiao, that instructor is really too hilarious.”

Su linlin laughed, collapsing onto Li Jiao, and wiped away the tears of laughter from the corners of her eyes.

Li Jiao couldn’t hold it in either, laughing so hard that she almost couldn’t catch her breath, and her stomach hurt.

Finally, after covering her stomach and trying to suppress the smile, those two small dimples just couldn’t disappear.

“I can’t hold it in; I need to hold it in.”

Saying this, she made an effort to regain her composure and suppress her laughter. However, her cheeks puffed up, and the soft, small rolls resembled a pouting white bun, which was incredibly cute.

When she finally managed to stabilize her laughter, she heard another line from the next door.

“Oh my god, are you marching or doing a catwalk?”

“Do you want me to bring you a red carpet?”

“Pfft—”

“Hahaha…”

Once again, laughter erupted like a tidal wave. This time, even their own class couldn’t hold back, lowering their heads and shaking their shoulders uncontrollably.

Behind Class 1 and Class 2 was Class 13.

Their class also heard the instructor’s words while they were practicing arm swinging. As a result, one student lost control, swung too hard, and directly hit the waist of a male classmate in front of him.

The male student, perhaps ticklish, immediately laughed and bounced out of the line.

“Hahaha…”

After launching himself, he fell to the ground, still convulsing with laughter.

This startled the instructors who were patrolling, and one of them walked over to check on the situation.

One had a bewildered expression, maintaining the arm-swinging pose, while the other was on the ground, laughing convulsively, resembling someone having a seizure.

The slightly chubby instructor kicked the guy on the ground and said, “What are you doing? Street dance?”

“Get up quickly!”

“Yes.”

The male student got up somewhat aggrieved and silently returned to the line, looking like a subdued young wife.

The chubby instructor took off his hat, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and looked in the direction of Class 2, where the sunlight was glaring.

Squinting, he shouted loudly, “Liuzi, what is your class doing?!”

The instructor from Class 2 turned around, extremely helpless.

“Casual turns; can’t distinguish left from right; want to come and teach?”

The chubby instructor waved his hand and laughed. “I don’t easily intervene. When I do, I always cause harm!”

The Class 2 instructor shook his head, clearly not buying it.

“Get lost!”

Then he turned back to continue teaching the student, who was turning casually.

The chubby instructor chuckled, his face full and round, resembling a laughing Maitreya. After turning around, he saw that his own students were also laughing.

(T/N: laughing Buddha)

He frowned and scolded, “Why are you all laughing?”

“Your teeth are so white; what toothpaste are you using!”

“Quickly, everyone, arm-swinging exercises!”

“One, two!”

“One, two!”

Class 13 continued their training, with the chubby instructor chanting slogans while glancing back at Li Jiao’s class, seeing that they were still on break.

He slightly frowned and glanced around.

Hey, where’s the instructor?

Su Linlin leaned against Li Jiao’s back, lowering her head, desperately trying to escape the sun. From the looks of it, she wished she could just burrow into the ground.

“Hey, Jiaojiao.”

“Yeah?”

“Where do you think our instructor went?”

“I don’t know,” Li Jiao shook her head, “Didn’t he take those two male students for separate training?”

There were students in their class who casually turned and had difficulty distinguishing left from right. However, instead of repeatedly training them, Zhang Jiuling took those two male students out for separate training during the break.

It had been more than ten minutes, and they hadn’t returned.

Li Jiao looked up and glanced in the direction they had left, but the glaring sunlight made her tear up, and she couldn’t see where they were. She had to give up.

Su Linlin sighed. “Although our instructor is strict, he’s really handsome.”

“I don’t know when they’ll be back,” she said, looking at the area outside the training ground. “Ah, after not seeing our instructor for a while, I’m starting to miss him.”

Saying this, she even wiped her eyes in a seemingly emotional way.

“…”

Drama queen, Li Jiao silently complained in her mind. She didn’t really want the instructor to come back; it would be even better if he came back later.

Their instructor was indeed very strict. A slight mistake meant either repeating the movement fifty times or doing fifty push-ups.

She couldn’t handle it.

In just half a morning, she had already done the turning motion a hundred times because of two wrong turns. Now, she had muscle memory; whenever the instructor shouted a command, she was definitely the fastest to turn.

However,speaking of the Yama, the Yama arrives.

From afar, Li Jiao could see a figure approaching the military training ground. Judging by the imposing and cold aura, it was undoubtedly their class’s stern-faced instructor.

As Zhang Jiuling rarely smiled and didn’t engage in casual conversations or jokes with them, earning a reputation for tough training and severe punishments, the class had given him a nickname: Cold-Faced Yama.

Some in the class also spotted him coming and hurriedly whispered.

“Yama is here; Yama is here!”

“Quick, get up, quick!”