Chapter 393 - 320: 2nd Squadron, Changes are Coming

Second Squadron Microcomputer Room.

A bunch of old soldiers were playing Dota, smacking their lips as they remembered the special program that aired over 20 minutes ago.

"Fang Huai, honestly, you looked freaking cool on camera, man. CCTV photographers are just different, made you look like you were flying."

While saying this, Liu Jianfeng sneakily slipped into the enemy’s jungle.

Hao Chengbin was about to speak when he suddenly saw the signal Fang Huai made on the map, along with a message from a teammate.

He smirked and, while heading to the jungle, said:

"He Zhijun’s shots weren’t bad either."

Fang Huai and Hao Chengbin quickly regrouped behind the neutral creeps in the blind spot, where Fang Huai’s ward could see the enemy’s Liu Jianfeng stealing their jungle.

After marking the spot on the map, the two of them rounded up on Liu Jianfeng, laughing as they went:

"Squad Leader Liu, you sure were tongue-tied that day. Regretting it now, aren’t you? Should’ve said a few more words."

Liu Jianfeng was immediately distracted by the conversation, turning around and said, "Damn, when I heard it was CCTV, I was lucky to say anything. You saw Squad Leader Zhao... Hey, hey! What the hell are you doing?"

On the screen, his Swordsman was caught by Hao Chengbin’s entangling vines, and Fang Huai’s Na Jia came in for a chopping frenzy.

In three seconds, they had the kill.

"Hahaha..." The apprentice and master burst into laughter.

"Crap! You two sneaky bastards! Just you wait!" Liu Jianfeng cursed.

Zhao Jinchen burst into laughter: "Noob, still dare to talk about me? If I weren’t on your side, I’d have killed you already!"

Suddenly.

"Ding."

The alarm bell rang briefly.

At that moment, there was a clatter of chairs being moved as everyone hurriedly stood up, looking around, hearts nearly stopping.

Chen Zhenghai instinctively pressed the stopwatch quick button on his wrist, only to realize that the alarm wasn’t continuing; it had rung for just half a second. He then stopped his stopwatch, sighing in relief:

"Damn, didn’t they say we weren’t being dispatched these couple of days? Playing with my feelings? Why did the alarm go off?"

Everyone else was looking at each other.

Seeing his character respawn in the fountain, Liu Jianfeng, eager for revenge and seeing no further commotion, sat back down and resumed playing, again heading for the enemy’s jungle to steal some farm.

"Ah, must be the alarm bell malfunctioning, or the Detachment conducting some test."

Fang Huai stood for a while, thought about it, and said:

"Never mind, I’ll go check it out."

Liu Jianfeng got anxious: "Damn, where are you going? It’s nothing! The alarm is definitely busted!"

Fang Huai curled his lip: "Old Liu, better to be safe than sorry, what if it’s for real?"

With that, he started walking out.

Liu Jianfeng, with a face full of disbelief: "The Detachment already said there’s no dispatch. Why the fuss? Our vehicles aren’t even washed, what dispatch could there be? I’ll bet you! If it rings again, I’ll be your son! If it doesn’t, you’ll be my son!"

No sooner had he finished speaking.

"Ding..."

...

Downstairs.

"Ding..."

Right as the alarm fell silent, Old Teacher He slammed the alarm button twice more in frustration, then stepped out from the duty room, barking at Cao Yi and Ye Jiahong, who had rushed out:

"What’s with this alarm? Why won’t it ring properly?"

Cao Yi immediately responded, "Seems like it’s broken!"

Ye Jiahong looked somewhat speechless: "Instructor... next time you press the alarm, go easy on it. You always hit it so hard, it’s bound to break!"

Hearing this, Old Teacher He stepped forward, glared, and said: "So now it’s my fault, eh?"

Ye Jiahong hurriedly covered his behind.

At this moment, a burst of laughter came from upstairs.

"Fang Huai, looks like you’ve got yourself a son, Fang Jianfeng! Hahaha..."

A bunch of people were hopping down the stairs, turning around to rush toward the garage.

However, Fang Huai spotted Old Teacher He in the front yard with a single glance, his pupils constricted, and he hastened his steps, shouting:

"Training! Quick, training exercise!"

"Crap!"

A murmur passed through the crowd, and their movements suddenly quickened.

Even Old Teacher He was lost for words.

Training drills were taken seriously, live rounds and all. Even if they knew it was a drill, they had to treat it as a real dispatch to see how they’d fare in an actual rescue. He had never seen anyone boldly remind others in his presence that it was just a drill.

"Crap! Without putting on combat uniforms, assemble in the front yard!! Fang Huai, get your ass over here!" Old Teacher He bellowed, and everyone froze in their tracks.

They hesitated, unsure of what was happening outside.

Old Teacher He was known as the "Training Drill King"; he came up with dozens of new ideas every year. The alarm had sounded, and to go out without combat uniforms...

Could this be a deliberate ploy?

Seeing the confusion, Cao Yi took out a whistle from his bag.

"Toot-t-t-t."

After a series of short whistle blasts.

"Assemble downstairs!"

...

Two minutes later.

Old Teacher He stood by the flowerbed, facing everybody.

And Fang Huai stood behind him, on the 40-centimeter edge of the flowerbed.

In the lineup, everyone was struggling to hold back laughter.

Old Teacher He turned around, irately said:

"Blasting off! You planning to join the air rescue or what! Boss Wu personally ordered me to see if you could fly, and I was worried you might not take off, so I found you a high spot!"

Fang Huai replied speechlessly: "I was just... aspiring..."

"Aspiring?" Old Teacher He grumbled: "A rescue helicopter costs tens of millions! The General Office only has two! Let alone a Big Team, which whole corps can afford your aspirations?"

Fang Huai raised his eyebrows.

A rescue helicopter was still a rare term for firefighting, but as the nation’s power grew, it was bound to become more common.

Forest firefighting got helicopters in 2009.

BJ Firefighting in 2012, Shanghai Firefighting in 2014, Qingdao Brigade in 2015...

From 2016 on, as per the "Planning" jointly issued by Finance, Reform Development, and Forestry, building firefighting aviation capabilities officially became one of the Six Major Construction Tasks.