Chapter 232: Cup Brother Rushes to Get Promoted!

"I'm exhausted, finally finished copying!"

"My hands are about to break!"

The next day, dawn.

At the time meant for tidying the barracks, everyone in the Sixth Squad dormitory was hunched by the beds, copying as punishment.

Liu Ziqiang and Sun Chen wiggled their sore elbows, preparing to clean the assigned area.

Cheng Jun set down his pen and said to the two, "You two, while you're at it, also take care of Zhang Jiaheng's assigned area."

The two immediately protested, "Squad Leader, he should do his own work; why are we supposed to serve him?"

Zhang Jiaheng lifted his head, his expression blank and pitiful.

He was also copying as punishment, but because he made so many mistakes, the amount was larger.

He stayed up all night yesterday, still sporting dark circles, looking just like a giant panda.

Cheng Jun: "He still has to copy, there's no time to handle it; you two going over is just a side task, we're all in the same squad!"

"Oh…"

Although the two were reluctant, they complied.

Cheng Jun assigned the sanitation duties and led everyone out to clean.

In the Sixth Squad dormitory, only Chen Panpan and Zhang Jiaheng remained, still furiously copying.

But once everyone left, Zhang Jiaheng, who had been feigning pity, stopped pretending entirely.

He tossed his pen, stood up, stretched his neck and twisted his hips.

Chen Panpan, still writing, turned back in surprise and asked, "Are you completely done?"

Zhang Jiaheng replied in Jiujiang dialect, "Mao."

Chen Panpan switched to the dialect, asking bewildered, "Mao, you finished writing, why did you stop?"

Zhang Jiaheng shrugged, "Don't feel like writing, any problem?"

Chen Panpan frowned, "Then go clean the assigned area, don't let Liu Ziqiang and the others do it."

"Get lost," Zhang Jiaheng snapped, "We're fellow natives, same‑year soldiers. Can't you just accept me? What's wrong with them helping me with sanitation? The Squad Leader has no objection, why are you nagging?"

"......"

Chen Panpan fell silent, lowered her head, and continued copying the mistakes.

Zhang Jiaheng paced around the dormitory, then bent over to his side.

"Hey, Chen Panpan, can you do me a favor?"

"What for?"

"Get me a mobile phone, I want to make a call…"

"What call? Didn't you just get a phone yesterday?"

"Come on, don't ask so many questions. If you can help, do it; if not, pull a few favors."

"What's with that attitude?"

Chen Panpan was no longer the meek person she once was.

She wasn't even scared of the veteran, let alone a fellow same‑year soldier.

Besides, he was a guy who had made a mistake, was stripped of rank by the Military Police, and transferred here midway.

"This is my attitude, so what? Can't stand it, come hit me, right here?"

"Heh, I knew you had no guts. I'm really fed up with you!"

Zhang Jiaheng stopped pretending as well; after all, the dormitory only had Chen Panpan, a rookie fellow native.

Since arriving at the Sixth Company, he had been overly cautious, always keeping his tail tucked.

Training was grueling, plus exam penalty copying; it was hardly a life for a human.

When he finally got a brief release of his suppressed emotions, he no longer had to wear a mask.

Chen Panpan, furious, said, "You've had enough of us, and we've had enough of you! Using your Military Police status, you've picked fights with us many times!"

"Last time Lu Yang returned from the duel, you messed up the celebration banquet, making everyone unhappy!"

"This time too, you forced Lu Yang to drink, the alcohol test couldn't detect it, and you pretended to be a big wolf!"

Zhang Jiaheng hadn't expected this guy, usually a coward, to chatter nonstop when provoked.

"At that celebration banquet, you guys broke the schedule first!"

"Military schedule, duty, guard— all have explicit regulations. Hiding in the dorm to eat instant noodles is enough; having a private meal in the middle of the night is over the line!"

"Unit orders forbid any private meals; that night you broke several rules in a row. If I don't reprimand them, who will?"

"Back then, because I knew Lu Yang, I didn't hold a grudge. If I had taken it seriously, a single call could have shaken the whole squad; that night nobody would have been fine!"

"And this time, I asked Lu Yang myself; he admitted he drank beer! That proves I'm right and he's wrong!"

Chen Panpan thought he was being unreasonable and incorrigible.

Zhang Jiaheng thought the guy had no ideological awareness at all and didn't understand what steel discipline meant.

"Rules are rules; if everyone follows them and imitates, the unit would have no discipline left, and how could it develop strong combat power?"

"You're just twisting arguments; whether a mistake was made depends on your word alone. I could now say you're deliberately slacking, training lazily, not proactive…"

"So what? The final interpretive authority over regulations belongs to the Military Police. As long as you break the rules, we have the right to reprimand, punish or not at our discretion!"

Zhang Jiaheng sneered, lowering his voice: "Chen Panpan, I advise you to keep good relations with me, and speak well of me in front of everyone."

"I saw you two nights ago, secretly using an MP3 to read a novel, at one or two in the morning."

"You don't want this discovered by others, by Lu Yang, by the Company Commander, right?"

Chen Panpan's face changed dramatically; he had hidden that secret well, how did this guy find out?

Zhang Jiaheng sneered, "It's not just you; I've uncovered bits of other people's little secrets as well."

"The vast majority, when examined closely, are all violations of rules and discipline."

"Rest assured, if I wanted to betray you, I would have told them already."

"However, whether I will spill this matter later depends on your performance."

He pointed at the notebook and said, "I still have three big questions left, the text is a bit long and I don't want to copy it. You finish copying the rest, and I won't spread the matter?"

Chen Panpan's lungs were about to explode with anger.

He asked himself, he still took care of this fellow villager.

When others sneered and mocked, he never said anything unpleasant.

Moreover, Lu Yang had already spoken up, asking everyone not to make things difficult for him, and no one took any particularly outlandish actions.

At most, it's just a slip during training, getting scolded by the Squad Leader a couple of times, that's all.

Otherwise, it's basically no different from fresh recruits just out of the company, mainly relying on verbal instruction.

The reason Zhang Jiaheng finds this unbearable is simply that his previous training volume was too low, making it impossible to adapt to the training pace of the Iron Foot regiment.

He didn't expect that the guy wouldn't even get heated, and now is threatening him back, which Chen Panpan simply couldn't stand.

"Go ahead and report it, go on!"

"You think I wouldn't dare?"

"You think I'm some big shot and still want to threaten me? At worst I can just discard this MP3!"

In a fit of anger, Chen Panpan grabbed the MP3 her friend had given her from under the pillow and prepared to smash it hard onto the floor, a complete smash.

"What are you doing?!"

Coincidentally, Lu Yang came up looking for Cheng Jun, passed by and saw the scene.

He stopped Chen Panpan and took the MP3 from her hand, questioning sternly.

"What's going on, all this noise?"

Chen Panpan, eyes reddened, recounted the earlier incident.

Lu Yang frowned as he listened; he had overestimated this guy's character, daring to threaten the Sixth Company's standard measurement unit?

Lu Yang returned the item to Chen Panpan, soothing, "Keep it stored; except on Saturday night, try not to look at it at other times, as it could affect sleep and leave you out of shape for the next day's training."

"I only look at it on Saturday night; normally I never take it out. He says he'll go find you to file a complaint against me!"

"It's fine, fine; the Platoon Leader won't mention you, and the Company Commander won't say anything either."

Lu Yang told him to store the item properly, and glanced at Zhang Jiaheng standing there pretending to be innocent.

"You've become skilled, yet your training results are the worst in the whole company, and your exam scores the lowest; how dare you threaten others?"

"I was just joking with him..."

"Joking?"

Lu Yang sneered, "Then I'll joke with you too, okay?"

"Huh?"

"Chen Panpan, go out and close the door."

"Yes!"

Chen Panpan hurried out, glared at him before closing the door.

She stuck out a goofy face at him and said, "You're out of luck!"

Watching the angry Lu Yang, Zhang Jiaheng finally panicked, retreating to a corner: "Lu Yang, we're comrades from the New Recruit Company, you—don't act rashly, okay?"

Lu Yang clenched his fist and sneered, "Comrade? When you correct me, you take me as a comrade?"

"Our duties differ; when I correct you, that's work."

"Work? Heh, I'm now also fulfilling the duties of Acting Platoon Leader!"

Lu Yang grabbed his collar, pressed him against the wall, and gave him a rapid reprimand...