Insufficient balance

  "Hey, brother, have you discovered that using such a large shovel to stir-fry in the pot is also a very effective training method, which can strengthen the arms and muscles' endurance. If I practice like this for a year or so, who knows, maybe I'll be able to knock out a cow with one punch!"

  Chang Sun Ting stood in front of the stove, sweating profusely, the big ladle spinning like a blender blade, sometimes clockwise and sometimes counterclockwise, stirring frantically. The bacon and scallions in the pot had been thoroughly stirred into a pulp by him. Xiao Yang stood beside him, crying with laughter, anyway, no matter how he cooked it, the scallions that had been soaked in water would always be stir-fried into a mushy mess, but there was no great loss.

  "Ha! You call that little movement something? Look at my set of 18 loosening exercises, it can move every joint and ligament in the body, this is real self-cultivation!"

  I grasped a thick and large dough stick made of white flour with both hands, exerting all my strength to swing it wildly in the air. After gathering enough power, I would suddenly slam it onto the dough board. Every time the dough stick was heavily lifted, the half-foot-thick dough would jump violently, and the flour stuck to the board would fly up, drifting into everyone's nostrils and causing countless sneezes. At this rate, in less than half an hour, a hundred or more servings of delicious noodles for the whole regiment would be born under my hands.

  "Head of Zhang shouted in front of the cafeteria: 'There is no water in Er Hu's water bottle, you go get some water!'"

  Chang Sun-ting and I simultaneously dropped our work and shouted: "Let me do it!"

  At this time, Zhang Sun Ting's height and leg length advantage came into play. He took a big step forward and rushed to the water bucket position, stretched out his large hand and swept all four water buckets to his side, gave me a triumphant glance, then picked up the four large water buckets and whizzed away. A few minutes later, he returned with two buckets in each hand, amidst the cheers of the crowd.

  "Wow, my god! Leader Zhang, I'm more and more admiring you. How did you do the ideological work? You made them two work like crazy, now I don't even have room to intervene, instead I've become idle."

  Zhang looked at the two new recruits who were busy in the kitchen, each carrying a small notebook to record how much oil and salt to put in when stir-frying. He sighed after a long while: "People like them can actually meet up, complement each other and become great talents in the future!"

  The idle Er Hu stood beside the class leader, and after hearing his words, he nodded repeatedly with a half-understanding expression. "These two new comrades are really capable and hardworking. Looking at their spirit, I feel somewhat ashamed. From now on, I must learn from them."

  Zhang Bansheng smiled and patted Er Huizi's shoulder, saying: "You are different, but don't be discouraged, work hard, there will always be opportunities."

  The two Tigers looked at Zhang Class Leader with unclear eyes, but still nodded.

  "Alright, today's dishes include stir-fried onions with cured meat, sour bean sprouts, kimchi, and shredded potatoes with chili peppers. The main courses are congee, mantou, rice, noodles, and a seaweed shrimp skin soup!"

  After being busy for two whole hours, looking at the meal that I personally made which is enough for a hundred people to eat, I indeed feel a little proud of myself. Of course, when stir-frying, the salt and vinegar were added by Xiao Yang, and when steaming buns and cooking porridge, the timing was taken care of by Er Hu Zi. Even that big pot of purple vegetable soup was successfully rescued by Zhang Ban Zhang after I casually threw in a whole package of half a catty of purple vegetables and he managed to salvage four taels of the original material. But no matter what, this is the first meal that Chang Sun Ting and I personally made, and our first meal can fill the stomachs of over a hundred people at the same time. My brother and I are indeed extraordinary!

  Zhang Class Monitor picked up his chopsticks and tasted each dish, nodding in approval: "Hmm, the flavor is not bad. Although the dishes are slightly undercooked, they're stir-fried to perfection." He picked up a large ladle with a worn-out edge that had been polished to reveal its metallic luster again. Zhang Class Monitor chuckled and said, "I'm telling you, comrades, although our grades are good, if we keep going like this, I'm afraid our cooking class will have to change pots every month. And look at this chopping board - it's over half a foot thick and already has cracks in it. If our friend Xue continues to make noodles a few more times, I'm afraid it'll end up as firewood in our stove."

  "Don't worry!" Er Hu Zi said foolishly: "I used to be a carpenter in my hometown, I think there are still many wooden materials in our camp's warehouse, we can make thirty or fifty chopping boards, even if Fu Yan Xue is the nemesis of chopping boards, it will be enough for him."

  Dahou also chimed in, "I have a good relationship with the deputy director of the military supplies department. As long as we bring some delicious dishes made by our squad leader himself, it's no problem to exchange one pot for another every month. This way, our iron pot killer won't have to worry about his own stuff getting damaged and leaving the whole company brothers starving!"

  Everyone looked at each other and suddenly burst out laughing, so in the cooking class, I and Chang Sun Ting each had a nickname of our own, Mian'an Kexing (Flour Case Destroyer) and Tieguo Shashou (Iron Pot Killer), if we add the titles we got at first, it would be Bian Tai De Mian'an Kexing (Perverted Flour Case Destroyer) and Kuang Niu De Tieguo Shashou (Mad Cow Iron Pot Killer), not to mention that it sounds quite impressive.

  After lunch, after sweeping the dining hall, the next three hours were our cooking class's free time. I chatted with Zhang Sun Ting while wandering around the military camp. When we turned to a corner of the military camp wall, I quickly glanced around and asked in a low voice: "How long does it take you to climb such a wall?"

  Chang Sun Ting raised his head to look at the 3.5-meter-high camp wall, and the iron wire mesh inserted on top was more than two feet high. He slowly stretched out three fingers: "Three seconds, this kind of childish thing is enough for me in three seconds."

  "Cut the crap, let's go! See who's faster!" With my low shout, Chang Sun Ting retreated a few steps and suddenly charged forward. As he ran to the front of the wall, he pushed off with his legs, borrowed enough strength, stretched out his arm, and actually grabbed the top of the wall. Then, with a swing of his arms, he drew a beautiful curve in mid-air, effortlessly clearing the barbed wire and flipping over the wall.

  Damn it, having long legs and arms is just taking advantage. I climbed to the top of the wall and let out a cry of injustice, took a deep breath and became like a snake, tightly attached to the wall and drilled out from under the barbed wire. This special skill immediately made Changsuntian's eyes widen, patting his thigh and sighing repeatedly: "It's over, it's over! I thought my brother was a softie!"

  "Ugh! Haven't you ever seen a Thunderbolt Dance performance when you were younger? This is just a modified version that uses the momentum of sprinting to slide on the ground, I don't like yoga at all, it's only good for women trying to lose weight. Stop wasting words and go find suitable materials quickly."

  Outside the barracks were all mountains, and on the mountain slopes there were scattered rocks everywhere, most of which were hard dark green stones. Long Sunting and I took out the hammer and chisel that we had secretly "borrowed" from the engineering company, just like two geological explorers, climbing up the mountain slope while tapping and chiseling on the big rocks by the side of the road, and soon our bodies and hair were covered with a thin layer of stone dust.

  We climbed higher and higher along the mountain slope, when Chang Sun Ting suddenly shouted: "Brother, come take a look at this big bluestone! I've tried it out, its hardness is quite good, completely meeting our requirements!" Following his voice, I turned my head to look over, and saw Chang Sun Ting standing in front of an oval stone half as tall as a person, with a self-satisfied expression: "You see, it's round, we two brothers just need to use a bit of clever strength, and we can roll it straight down the mountain, no need to really lift it back to camp like two perverted mad cows. And when polishing it, we can also save quite a bit of effort."

  I walked over and compared its dimensions, nodding in agreement. "Yeah, it's really good! What are you waiting for? Get to work!"

  The two of us crouched in front of the stone, propped it up with our shoulders and then suddenly shouted in unison: "Rise!"

  Thousands of kilograms of boulders were suddenly shaken by our two raging bulls, and some parts that had been buried in the ground reappeared. I took a deep breath, raised my voice and shouted: "Listen to my command, when I count to three, brother, use all your strength to push with me!"

  "Good!"

  "One, two, three... charge!"

  The blue giant stone shook again, and the part buried underground was finally turned out by us. We made a little more effort, and the elliptical stone block rolled down along the 45-degree slope, making a loud noise, bringing up countless flying sand and stones, cutting through thorns and trees, looking quite impressive.

  Chang Sun Ting laughed triumphantly and said: "Look at how much energy we've saved, this is all thanks to me... I'm great, something big is not good!"

  Several hundred kilograms of heavy boulders rolled down the mountain slope, getting faster and faster, until they smashed through several thick tree trunks as wide as a bowl, and then suddenly took to the air, leaping over a low ridge under our gaze, and smashing straight into the three-meter-high camp wall.

  A large amount of dust was raised, and the military camp wall that could withstand repeated collisions with light tanks was no match for this celestial visitor. Not only did it collapse over 20 meters, but also triggered a chain reaction. The stone that caused the disaster still had momentum after collapsing the wall, and borrowed strength to jump again, unfortunately hitting a satellite communication vehicle parked in the camp.

  "Boom!" A burst of flames shot up into the sky.

  My god! The armored car loaded with hundreds of millions of satellite communications and command equipment just exploded like this, probably, possibly, should, must, certainly no one inside?

  I grabbed Long Sun-ting, who had fallen into a stupor, and shouted: "What are you still dazed for? Run quickly! If we're caught, my brother and I will be dead for sure!"

  The two brothers spread their legs and rushed down the mountain, even if we were far away from the military camp, we could still hear the sudden alarm ringing loudly, see soldiers rushing out of the barracks like ants, I believe that within three minutes, this small hill where we stayed would be surrounded by troops, and then thoroughly searched.