Chapter 209: Before Becoming a Soldier, First Learn to Be a Person

After a rain, today finally cooled down!

That's why they say, timely rain, timely rain!

It would be great if it could rain a few more days.

No, I don't want to run all soaked, with my underwear wedged in my butt, it's unbearable.

Just don't wear them, then?

Not wear? Not wearing them would be uncomfortable, swinging around, wouldn't it be unpleasant?

It's not uncomfortable.

Oh my, you're experienced—you wouldn't have gone commando, would you? Come on, let me take a look, don't be shy!

Damn it, where are you reaching with those chopsticks? Keep messing around and I'll turn on you—I really will!

In the evening cafeteria, the soldiers sitting around the tables eating started to horse around under the table.

Being a soldier is tough; the most anticipated thing each day is eating, or else going to bed to sleep.

Days stacked on days, training stacked on training—almost every day is a state of high repetition.

Occasionally horsing around and telling some off-color jokes also became a seasoning of camp life.

The Sixth Squad's table was near the door; just as Sun Chen and Liu Ziqiang were competing with chopsticks to grab a piece of chicken, Chen Panpan suddenly nudged one of them.

Look outside, look outside!

What's happening outside?

The two turned their heads and looked toward the cafeteria doorway.

All they saw was a man standing at the bottom of the steps, soaked through, his complexion deathly pale and weak.

Behind him, two backpack straps pulled a tire inner tube, making him look like a drowned ghost dragged from the river, crawling back to demand his due.

Kang Changyi untied the backpack straps, climbed the steps, stepping with squelching, sticky footsteps, his expression numb as he walked toward the cafeteria door.

His eyes fixed on the rice, steamed buns, and various dishes on the Sixth Squad's table.

His throat felt like a flood, constantly swallowing saliva.

He was so hungry he couldn't muster a shred of strength, truly stomach-to-back.

In the morning he was relieved of his duties, putting him in a bad mood, and he barely ate breakfast.

At noon he was targeted by Lu Yang, and still couldn't eat his morning meal.

In the afternoon a heavy rain drained almost all his stamina.

No one called him for dinner, yet from afar he smelled the food and was literally drawn by the scent to this place.

Kang Changyi just wanted a bite of hot food; now he's so hungry he could chew up a table and swallow it.

But just as he was about to step into the cafeteria, two figures stood like door gods, blocking his way.

Liu Ziqiang shoved hard, nearly knocking the limp Kang Changyi over: 'What are you doing? Who let you in?'

After steadying himself, Kang Changyi swallowed and said, 'I, I want to eat.'

Go beg for food elsewhere!

Sun Chen crossed his arms, being even more rude.

Facing the aggressive duo, Kang Changyi truly felt like a tiger fallen to flat ground, bullied by dogs.

Once, he was a heaven‑favored graduate of the military academy, a lieutenant who led the First Platoon.

He had just been relieved of his duties, just been demoted to a private, and now he couldn't even enter the cafeteria.

I, I have no strength left to argue or quarrel with you—just move aside...

Kang Changyi tried to go in again, reaching to push them aside, but they jointly shoved him back out.

This time he stumbled back hard, his heel not catching the step, causing Kang Changyi to stagger and fall backward.

His butt landed squarely in the tire inner tube, wedged tightly.

Hey, hey hey hey, this isn't my fault—you fell because you couldn't keep your balance.

Liu Ziqiang spread his hands, indicating this had nothing to do with him—don't try to blame him.

Sun Chen snorted with a laugh: 'Honestly, that tire inner tube suits you pretty well—Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.'

Kang Changyi, flushed with shame and anger, tried to rise from the tube but found his butt stuck fast.

Plus, his limbs were weak from hunger, so for a moment he really couldn't get up.

It felt like wherever he fell, he just stayed seated there.

You're bullying people too much!

Even if I'm no longer platoon leader, we're still comrades—I just want a bite of food; what right do you have to stop me?

Even a mud Buddha would have three points of anger; the unable-to-rise Kang Changyi simply stayed seated, pointing at the two and demanding angrily.

Liu Ziqiang sneered: 'We're bullying people? Who's actually relying on being an officer, looking down on us grunt soldiers, judging people with his nose all day?'

"Comrades?" Sun Chen spat: "Since you joined the Sixth Company, have you ever properly looked at us, treated us as comrades? In your eyes, we're all uneducated, uncultured rookies."

Usually you order us around, treat us as errand boys; you make people carry your gun on runs, have newbies wash your dirty clothes—what kind of comrade are you?

In drills you greedily seek merit, recklessly advance, defensive blunders, misjudging the battlefield and getting so many killed—doesn't your conscience hurt?

Kang Changyi's face flushed red from the rebuke, yet he still tried to defend himself with his old excuses.

In war people die; sacrifice is unavoidable—I was just......

If you can say that, it shows you're utterly unfit to be a commander!

Chen Panpan bit into her steamed bun, also stepped out from the doorway, glaring at him with indignation.

Older brother Yang would never say something like that!

Your life is a life—aren't the lives of us ordinary soldiers lives too?

What do you mean 'people die in war, sacrifice is inevitable'? If it needn't die, why must we go up to be sacrificed?

My parents, my grandparents are waiting at home for me to return for a reunion, but you insist we die! Just because we are low-ranking on the battlefield, we don't even have a chance to refuse!

You should be made to starve, you should be made to be a tortoise; in my view, Yang Ge has already gone easy on you—only twelve circles total is too lenient for you. From daylight to dark, even I could grit my teeth and finish it!

The truth is always the most hurtful.

What kind of mind could Chen Panpan have? What kind of malicious intent could she have?

He's just speaking his heartfelt truth, just saying what everyone wants to say.

Kang Changyi can't refute despite a hundred mouths, his inner heart continually taking critical hits, that mouth harder than a dead duck's finally loosens a bit.

Maybe, I, I have made some mistakes in command, indeed I'm not fit to lead troops. I apologize, I admit fault, I am also being punished now.

I just want to eat a meal, I'm really hungry, I'm practically starving to death. Please, please let me in, even if it's just the leftovers from your meal, give me a bite.

Kang Changyi pulled himself out from inside the tire's inner ring, looking at the three people before him with an almost pleading gaze.

Cheng Jun and Zhou Kaidong also walked out of the cafeteria at this moment, looking at his drenched, dirty, pitiable appearance.

This is what they call: the pitiful must have something hateful about them!

Cheng Jun's tone was relatively gentle: "It's not that we won't let you eat; it's that you promised Lu Yang, the platoon leader, that you would definitely complete the training task."

I, I have completed it!

Kang Changyi hurriedly responded, saying he had already finished the twelve-circle tactical maneuver.

Zhou Kaidong snorted coldly, staring at him: "Do you dare to guarantee with your uniform and your soldier's honor that you haven't missed a single circle, that you have completed the training task exactly as required?"

Kang Changyi's gaze began to dart away, he felt guilty to the extreme.

Then his eyes reddened, and he pleaded pitifully: "I've crawled ten circles, exactly ten circles, my elbows are rubbed raw. Let me eat something; after I eat, I can immediately finish the remaining two circles."

Please, let me go in to eat something. If you think I'm unlucky, give me a steamed bun; I can eat it outside as well.

"You can't even finish the remaining two circles?" Zhou Kaidong gave a heh heh laugh, couldn't be bothered to look at him another glance, turned and went back to the cafeteria.

"Trash!" Liu Ziqiang cursed, then also went back.

"Incompetent soldier!" Sun Chen immediately cursed as well.

You're not even as good as me!

Chen Panpan also looked down on this lying scoundrel from the bottom of her heart.

In his view, a soldier shouldn't have any flaw in character, no matter how poor the training or how weak the physical ability.

Clearly he made a mistake, voluntarily accepted punishment, and the penalty isn't even that severe.

Moreover, it rained in the afternoon, making the drill field slippery, so the tactical crawl became even easier.

Even under these circumstances, he could still give up halfway, still lie and deceive people; he truly looks down on him.

As for Kang Changyi's claim of almost starving to death, all his miserable-acting, who would believe that?

He had breakfast this morning, it's only five or six in the afternoon, just a few hours without food—could that really starve someone to death?

Cheng Jun looked at Kang Changyi, who stood like a soulless person at the bottom of the steps, hesitated several times, then still spoke up to offer advice.

"Although I'm not in the First Platoon, but in the Sixth Company I have the longest service time and the earliest enlistment."

"Consider this advice: before joining the army, learn to be a person; if you can't even be a person, how can you be a good soldier?"

"The more people look down on you, the more you should fight for your breath; if you can't even endure this slight grievance, then you shouldn't be a soldier—go ahead and file a report to discharge early."

"Lu Yang isn't targeting you, neither are we; it's just you who can't get past yourself. Go finish the remaining two circles, and we'll give you food."