Chapter 51 - 24 Bring Joy to Your Squadron!

The whistle blew quickly, signaling the inspection of internal affairs and hygiene.

Not long after, the sound of a group of people talking could be heard coming from the corridor.

"Greetings, officer!" the new recruits also began to salute.

The public sinks were crammed full of recruits desperately trying to get clean at the last minute.

The Chief of Staff, wearing white gloves, went from squad to squad checking everywhere: under beds, beneath tables, inside bed frames, door cracks, window frame gaps, outside the windowsills, uncovering all the hygienic dead angles. Wherever his gloves touched, the traces of skiving off became evident.

The corps staff followed behind, recording and deducting points from each squad.

As the inspection proceeded, nearly every squad had points deducted. Word came from downstairs that a squad on the first floor had managed to blacken the Chief of Staff’s glove completely, which resulted in an explosive outburst of rage. He cursed them out loud and even smeared the dirty glove across the squad leader’s face.

Therefore, hearing the news, Wang Jian hurriedly told the squad leaders to rush back to their squads to re-clean everything.

In truth, everyone had cleaned up, but today the Chief of Staff was determined to enforce standards, so the inspection was inevitably stricter. Ordinary cleaning efforts were sure to fail.

Hearing the Chief of Staff’s voice, Hao Chengbin quickly got to his feet and went out the door to follow the inspection team.

There wasn’t enough time, nor the opportunity to plan carefully. Everyone frantically cleaned at the same time, and cleaning supplies were insufficient, so many dirty corners were found in each squad.

Squad One was criticized, so was Squad Two, Squad Three also took flak...

Until the Chief of Staff’s roaring could be heard from next door.

"Pan Zhaohui! Did your squad clean with a water gun? Everything is wet! Go buy a new pair of gloves to compensate me!"

"’Ridiculous Dragon,’ hard to describe!"

(ps. Ridiculous Dragon: means foolish and dumb. Extended usage: Ri Long Bao.)

The sound was getting closer.

"Your company is even worse than Fifth Company below! At least they knew to wipe the windows! I see that you guys..."

The door opened, and a scowling face appeared.

The new recruits of Squad Nine had already arranged themselves attentively, adjusting their beds for two seconds before collectively standing up and calling out loudly.

"Greetings, officer!"

The Chief of Staff noticed that there were no traces of mopping on the floor and was genuinely taken aback for a moment.

"So, Hao Chengbin, your squad didn’t even bother with a quick fix? You looking down on me, eh?"

From the firefighting team downwards, although there’s military severity, the leadership and old soldiers often didn’t stand on ceremony and would even make jokes with each other.

Hao Chengbin was a master at playing dumb, and immediately he responded with all seriousness.

"Fang Huai, didn’t I arrange for cleaning this morning? Didn’t our squad clean?"

Fang Huai was smoothly in tune: "Reporting to the squad leader! We clean every day!"

The message was clear: We maintain this standard at all times! Do we need to rush at the last minute?

Not at all!

The Chief of Staff, upon hearing this, was somewhat unconvinced.

He immediately changed into a new pair of gloves.

The implication was also clear: Don’t give me any excuses, this pair of gloves is new, and whatever dirt I find on them will be from your squad.

However, facts matter more than arguments.

As the Chief of Staff searched, he was surprised by the room that these ten people had rigorously cleaned together.

He even checked the inside of the bed frames twice, and apart from a bit of grease, there was hardly any dust.

Except for their fresh footprints on the floor, there were really no other notably dirty corners.

He also inspected the bedspreads.

At least the edges and corners showed signs of being arranged.

The Chief of Staff showed a smile: "Not bad, at least you didn’t completely disappoint me."

Wang Jian also felt a bit relieved.

At last, there was one squad that performed respectably.

As the Chief of Staff left with his hands behind his back, Wang Jian playfully punched Hao Chengbin in the chest.

"Not bad, Squad Leader Hao! You saw through the Chief of Staff’s diversionary tactic today? Why didn’t you give us a heads-up? I was just about to call a meeting with you guys to discuss morning training..."

Wang Jian glanced at the new recruits inside and then held back the rest of his words.

Hao Chengbin immediately spread his hands.

"How would I know? If I did, wouldn’t I have told you? He told us to hold a meeting to discuss new recruit education, just so he could catch us off guard with a demonstration of authority! Our squad... just got lucky today! I figured Old Black might drop by each squad, so I told them to clean up a bit. Didn’t expect it to actually be clean!"

With that, he smiled at the new recruits.

"Well done! You all did a good job today!"

Everyone chuckled, and Fang Huai also turned his head, ready to remain an unsung hero.

But Jiang Peng loudly said, "Squad leader, Company Leader, the Chief of Staff said he would come for an inspection this morning, so we hurried back and cleaned up well!... We all cleaned together!"

This statement sounded as if it was his idea, and although everyone contributed, it also seemed to be the truth, making it difficult for anyone to argue.

This goods, if he were to take a minor leadership position in any unit, would definitely be the type to outshine his subordinates.

However, he was thinking too much, as Lu Zexian didn’t indulge him at all.

"If Fang Huai hadn’t reminded us today and pointed out the hygiene blind spots and assigned tasks, how could we have cleaned so thoroughly? Jiang Peng, your bed frame was the dirtiest! If we hadn’t cleaned it just now, we would have definitely caught flak!"

Jiang Peng couldn’t maintain his facade anymore; in his mind, he was wondering where on earth he had offended Lu Zexian.

Meanwhile, Hao Chengbin and Wang Jian looked as if they finally understood.

So it was Fang Huai who made the difference.

That made sense.

...

The whistle for training blew at 9 o’clock, and Fang Huai’s prediction was on point once again.

The first drill of the morning for the entire regiment was running.

Their chants were in sync.

"Wasting is shameful, saving is honorable!"

This drill session was unusually long, with the powerful call and response echoing over the playground for quite a while.