Chapter 427 - 346 How Difficult It Is to Be Down-to-Earth

The factory, I endured a long night shift.

These seven words, when expanded upon, detail tens of thousands of words worth of staggering operational content.

There was the crafting of scaffolds, vertical demolition to breach the factory’s third floor, slope rescues, and horizontal confined space rescues...

There was a late-night snack, and also a bout of rain.

Rain manually arranged by the Director Group.

In June, when the weather is fickle and the night brings a significant temperature drop to just over ten degrees, the Director Group at the coldest time around two or three in the morning, churned out three guns—water guns in a mist setting—that soaked us all like drenched chickens.

Several female soldiers, unable to return to their respective Detachments, volunteered to play the role of combatants in the rain. The leadership of the Director Group agreed, on the condition that after they finished, they must sing a couple of songs to boost morale for the comrades inside the Factory Area.

For some reason, one of the guns kept misfiring a bit and it drenched Fang Huai through and through, earning everyone two chorus performances in return.

"Blue Lotus" and "Life Blooming in Fury".

Female soldiers are different. Everyone can rock out to two songs without even donning leather pants.

When the singing started, all activity inside ceased, and a bunch of unaware soldiers started asking around. Upon discovering it was female soldiers both raining on them and singing outside, they sparked a grand sing-along.

What followed was a surge of even stronger determination.

It was the kind of zeal you’d have storming Taiwan and capturing Jian Yushan alive.

...

The next day.

The confrontation between the Director’s department and the grassroots squadrons ended ahead of schedule.

It’s just that man plans and God laughs; within the Firefighting forces, there are truly some exceptional individuals.

In the morning, the underground first-level rescue had everyone at their wits’ end, feeling as though there were people everywhere. Due to basement compartmentalization, many areas were needlessly broken into and found empty, with solid ground beneath, wasting a lot of time.

A Non-commissioned officer from the Southwest Guizhou Detachment suddenly remembered the old movie "Railroad Guerillas", mentioning how in the past, to intercept Japanese supplies, guerillas would lie on the ground and listen. This sparked a light bulb moment!

Immediately someone responded, boasting extremely sharp hearing. Back home, before his dad reached downstairs, he could already hear him coming, and he could lie on the floor and hear people walking in a whole building.

Initially, not many believed this could work, but it was worth a try.

And just like that, the gates to a new world were flung open.

Dozens of firefighters, with their butts in the air and firefighter axes in hand, crouked on the ground, knocking and listening.

After several trials and errors, someone actually learned to distinguish whether there was a space beneath the thick concrete slabs.

It’s not as simple as depicted in dramas, where a tap and a listen with your fingers would reveal a secret passage. The concrete slabs are really thick, and even a thud with iron tools reveals only minute differences. If it were that easy, we would have started knocking ages ago.

Most couldn’t discern the differences, so they congregated the few with sharper ears and more accurate judgment, sticking their butts out as they searched in a row.

The spectacle was so daunting, even search dogs felt anxious about job security.

When Fang Huai saw this, he suddenly thought it was a neat trick and quickly dragged Little White over for a round of steel-pick probing, hoping it could give listening a try.

A dog’s hearing is at least a dozen times better than a human’s.

But, Fang Huai’s expectations were too high; asking Little White to discern whether people were beneath the surface, and how many people, was too complicated, even for a dog that understood human speech. Eventually, with language proved ineffective, Fang Huai settled for less: Little White was simply to bark at the presence of any sort of space below.

After communicating with hand signs back and forth for quite some time, Little White indeed began barking.

Next to it, a section being demolished had something—really something.

Firefighters who led search dogs heard this and rushed in to see Fang Huai directing Little White, and were utterly flabbergasted.

They asked in a rush, what kind of dog is this?

For a dog to hear was not surprising.

But to execute commands through speech and hand signs?

They undergo thousands of training sessions to get a search dog to carry out a new and complex command correctly!

At this rate, would it be the search dogs or the trainers who are out of work?

Fang Huai chuckled while hugging Little White, saying:

"This isn’t just any dog, this is my brother! A search dog is a search dog, but Little White is Little White!"

Little White turned its head away in disdain and walked off.

Little White knew Fang Huai’s true nature, just as Fang Huai understood Little White’s temperament.

If there’s a matter, we’re as close as Zhong Wuyan; if not, I’m as indifferent as Xia Yingchun. If you can discern, you’re my brother; if not, we’re strangers.

Around them, everyone was astounded—was it really that miraculous?

They immediately wanted to borrow Little White.

Fang Huai didn’t refuse; although he wasn’t part of the rescue forces in this exercise, Little White was.

He respected the rules.

Of course, Little White didn’t want to work, but seeing its passivity causing the soldiers some trouble, Fang Huai feared that this "brother" might tarnish his reputation, so he warned Little White a few times:

You’re eating from the official roster, got it?

A public service dog, do you understand? Without this status, how could La Duo possibly take you seriously?

Little White barked in protest.

Just a few moments later.

The firefighters started digging furiously.

Perhaps there were also pounds of sweat shed.

As evening fell, a loud cry resonated: "There’s still someone down there! There’s someone below!"

The soldiers finally found the hidden compartment lied out in the leadership’s exercise material.

The leaders of the Director Group glanced at the time and then revealed smiles of satisfaction.

They finished several hours earlier than anticipated.

Quickly, the team for narrow and deep cave rescues descended.

Shouting and demolition continued until 11 o’clock, when cheer after cheer came from inside.

"Four! The fourth one is out!"

As the voice was heard, the door of the command car opened, and the leaders on the car reluctantly took their last sip of Baihao Silver Needle.

Captain Zhang stuck his head out and bellowed:

"All gather! Review!"

The soldiers who hadn’t slept for two days and a night were finally certain that the last one had come out.

Two or three seconds of silence, then there was a huge cheer, caps thrown into the air as if it were graduation.

Fang Huai by the door of the command car also heaved a sigh of relief.

This darn day has turned to the 24th, Tuesday night, and I have things to do when I get back tomorrow morning.

One by one, the leaders got out of the car with smiles all over their faces.

"Captain Zhang, your tea is really tasty."

"Haha, this wasn’t brought for us to drink, it was for the leaders! We’re just enjoying the leaders’ good fortune here!"

"Ah, I haven’t had enough!"

Fang Huai’s tea had the leaders running to the car every chance they got over the past two days.

Zhang Zhongting held a small tea caddy, shook it, and said irritably, "Not had enough? There’s less than half a box left!"

Then, he slammed the tea caddy down onto the table and got out of the car.

Seeing Fang Huai sitting on a folding chair by the door, he immediately cleared his throat. "We’re out of tea!"

Heh.

Fang Huai coldly chuckled so hard his whole body shook, and then, he shut his mouth and looked up at the sky.

The supreme Elder Deng.

I knocked on your door several times, and you ignored me. Now that there’s no tea, you remember me?

Yesterday’s me, you ignored. Today’s me, you can’t afford to reach!

...

"Let’s go!"

"Let’s go!"

The exercise officially ended at twelve, and everyone was saying goodbye to acquaintances.

"Fang Huai, you are so awesome! I heard Captain say, next time I see you, you might well be a cadre!"

Yue Tao stood in front of Fang Huai gesticulating wildly; six months of military service seemed not to have changed him at all.

But the fact that he didn’t leave the troop to find Fang Huai to boast in these two days and nights showed that the four months since dropping out had indeed taught him about discipline.

Of course, it might also be because Wang Jian was too fierce.

From Fang Huai’s observations over the past two days, this new recruit group’s nice guy was really strict with his own troop, nothing like the nonchalant attitude towards being the old three or four back then, always benchmarking the Special Duty Team, often bringing his brothers from the development zone to the Second Squadron to study. Observing his performance over these two days, his pride was actually no less than the former instructor Liang Longhui.

It’s just that the new recruit group was a temporary unit and it didn’t matter.

There are many cadres like Wang Jian who are casual in everyday life but become extremely serious once they enter a real work state.

Fang Huai actually got along better with the current Wang Jian; the former was perhaps a bit too lax.

However, how such cadres should be utilized and where they should be used are questions worth reflecting on. Fang Huai also observed some behaviors and attitudes of the grassroots commanders and the spirit of their troops during these two days, noticing some patterns. It was both a study and a summary.

Over time, it turned into experience.

This state of constant thought felt quite good; he thought more in a month than he used to in a year. The biggest benefit the System gave him was his memory. Having a wealth of things to remember made his analysis more acute, far surpassing his past life.

What came with it was confidence.

"You two, learn something in the squadron. I talked to Wang Lian, and he thinks highly of you. Next year when you become non-commissioned officers, come to our squadron for training, I’ll take you under my wing."

Fang Huai smiled and gave Yue Tao and Zhao Bing a hug each.

"As long as Wang Lian lets me stay, I’ll definitely stay! I’ll only be 18 next year! I want to be the youngest sergeant in the whole corps!"

Having said that, Yue Tao wrapped his arms around Fang Huai’s shoulders, bragging to his own squadron, "Squad Leader Zhang! Did you see that? Fang Huai and I are tight! Wasn’t bragging!"

The non-commissioned officer just smiled at Fang Huai without saying a word.

Han Yong came over at that moment and slapped Yue Tao hard on the back, even more arrogantly asserting, "You better train well! You brag about doing a dozen pull-ups? Watch Elder Han crush you next year!"

Yue Tao’s face instantly soured as he incredulously turned to Fang Huai, "Can he really do 23 pull-ups and run five kilometers with an empty call in 22 minutes?"

Fang Huai’s mouth twisted, "He can only show off outside. In our squadron, among the five new first-year guys, he’s the last. Just push yourself, you can surpass him."

"Ah, the sky is bigger in your squadron." Zhao Bing exclaimed, "I’ll definitely come to your squadron next year... to study hard."

Fang Huai patted Zhao Bing on the shoulder, "No one is extraordinarily talented; it’s all the result of hard training. If you want to come, train well. Sign up with the detachment next year; there are 30 spots, you qualify. Don’t be shy, good soldiers won’t always stay in the same squadron. You should travel and see different places, learn more."

Zhao Bing, who seemed more stable than Yue Tao, pondered for a while and smiled,

"...Our squadron is also quite good. I think it’s also nice here, I can learn a lot. But I really envy you guys. I’ll work hard to catch up with you."

Fang Huai smiled and nodded in approval.

Zhao Bing saying this must have found the real meaning of being a soldier.

Originally, Zhao Bing had joined the army out of a sense of passion, filled with expectations of heroism.

But what really benefits a lifetime from serving in the military is learning to grasp enlightenment and grow in any position and environment, to learn how to be truly diligent in one’s duties. The army, this great school, really opened up a new life for him.

Diligence is not easy to achieve.

It’s the perseverance in face of difficulties, a trace of composure when eager for success, tranquility through the long years, a full-speed run toward the horizon while still remaining calm and unrushed.

When you run with all your might, the earth will tremble, the sky will crack, common folks will transform, and you will finally see the end of that brilliant road, then put on the champion’s laurel that belongs to you.

"Keep it up."

Without another word, Fang Huai turned and walked away with a smile.