Chapter 638 - 456 What’s the Use of This?_2

The stack of books weighing heavily in his hands actually made Fang Huai a bit anxious.

Damn it, time is too tight. It’s easy to pass the assessment, but hard to excel. Vice Bureau Chief Yu wanted him to get full marks in every subject, and although it was said in jest, since his rebirth, he’d always held himself to the highest standards. Striving just for passes felt like he was allowing himself too much slack.

A few incidents had happened recently, and he’d saved up some military merit value, but getting a ladies’ hairstyle cost him 5 points, leaving him with 68.3.

Military merit value was becoming increasingly important, and he had many plans that required it, so he couldn’t squander it carelessly.

Study, study hard.

Since there weren’t many people in the promotion class, Jin Guotao didn’t have many confidants. He’d perhaps been a bit too open just now, but seeing Fang Huai wasn’t talking anymore, he didn’t say anything else.

The outside of the Teaching Building was quite spacious, several buildings connected together, but actually, it was a circular design inside, with wings on both sides that made it feel even bigger once you stepped inside.

The rooms were densely packed, reminiscent of Pigsty Alley from "Kung Fu".

Their district team had two study rooms, side by side.

However, the desks and benches in there were so rudimentary they reminded him of his primary school days back in the 90s.

In the rear row, there was even one of those long, backless wooden benches where if you sat too close to the edge, the other side would lift up.

When Fang Huai chose a spot and sat down in the classroom, he had a feeling.

Maybe when I have money, I’ll get the old man to donate some to Kunzhi.

In China, it’s not just the rural areas that need poverty alleviation.

The study room of Squadron Eight was filled with guys who watched books without even bringing paper; their book-holding hands were shaking, and they were all basically reading humanities books. With their educational levels, they couldn’t understand science.

At least Fang Huai knew the key to studying was doing questions, so when he picked up a book, he did so with confidence. The books he chose were the forbidden areas of this study room—physics and chemistry.

But not 10 minutes later, he lifted his head and looked at the white wall in front of him, sighing.

Were there any bookstores nearby when I came here?

Damn, no matter how good my memory is, I can’t remember the courses that went by in my sleep!

Change it, change the book.

Fang Huai riffled through the pile of books, saw one with a cover featuring three soldiers wearing different colored helmets, frowned, seemed to recall something, and while pondering, pulled out the book.

...

Time during evening self-study passed quickly. When the bell rang, everyone packed their books onto the desks and stood up as if fleeing.

"Fang Huai, let’s go."

Jin Guotao worried that Fang Huai didn’t understand the rules and specially called out to him.

Fang Huai, flipping through a book and scribbling notes, answered leisurely:

"Oh... okay. We don’t need to march back in formation, right?"

"If you want to extend self-study time, you need to tell the squadron captain."

Fang Huai finally turned his head, "Can you tell the captain for me? I’ll return after one more class period, I know the way."

As soon as these words came out, Squad Nine was collectively curious.

They were all slackers, and the most unbearable thing for them was attending class and reading. If it weren’t for the military’s discipline forcing them to come to self-study and sit through it, they certainly wouldn’t be here.

How could someone possibly enjoy reading so much that they want extra time?

Jin Guotao slung his bag over his shoulder and slowly approached, with the other five trailing behind him to Fang Huai.

To their surprise, Fang Huai was flipping through a military command book, taking notes on a case of the Kosovo conflict.

On a white sheet of paper, he wrote "resources", "information", "limited emergency rescue", with circles and lines connecting to "chemical and radiological decontamination", "handling sudden incidents", "protecting key targets", "preventing secondary disasters", and linked these to "improving organizational efficiency", "ensuring firefighting combat effectiveness".

The content on the paper wound around in complex patterns, like the outline of a novel’s plot.

Everyone thought it seemed pretty awesome, yet pretty useless.

"Damn, you’re reading military books? Are you transferring to the People’s Liberation Army?" Jin Guotao smacked his lips first.

Fang Huai raised his eyebrows and tapped on two large characters in the middle of the paper with his pen, looking up and saying speechlessly:

"Don’t you recognize these two characters? ’Xi’ as in ’west’, ’cao’ as in ’grass’, ’fu’ as in ’apply generously’, ’fang’ as in ’protect’."

Jin Guotao’s mouth twitched: "I recognize only these two characters, what’s all the rest?"

Fang Huai replied without emotion: "Don’t you know some of this stuff written up here? The wartime duties of firefighting, we memorized them when we were new recruits, didn’t you know?"

Jin Guotao looked bewildered: "I haven’t led new recruits for years, how would I know?"

After saying that, he turned to someone who looked the oldest.

"Man, you know this?"

"...There seems to be something, I don’t really remember."

Another person who understood some of it said: "This looks like domestic stability operations, right? Our firefighters can’t go abroad. All this is a moot point for you, who could possibly attack our territory? If they really came, we’d be in deep trouble, just drop atomic and hydrogen bombs on them."

Fang Huai finally heard someone with a clear understanding and couldn’t help leaning back, laughing while rubbing the back of his head:

"The machinations of the state don’t work the way you think. Every possible scenario must be considered. To put it that way, half of the People’s Armed Police’s existence would be unnecessary. The People’s Armed Police are domestically oriented, dealing with a couple of terrorists, fugitives, guarding prisons. Do we need to maintain several hundred thousand troops? If we increased the special police force, everything could be resolved.

"Don’t even talk about warfare. Covert invasions, organized terrorist sabotage, premeditated and supported anti-government armed forces—all these are possible and have already happened."

This speech left the group puzzled, unsure of how to respond, only admitting they’d never considered it that way.