Chapter 27: Destroying the Troops (4)

  "Hmm? You seem quite happy." said Ouyang Yuanye.

  "Reporting to seniors, I've long felt that drawing circles and aiming at them from the start was annoying. Now it's great, thinking of how to hit is how to hit, can't be excited?"

  "Then you draw a circle on the mountain?" After Xia Tianyu finished speaking, the soldiers skillfully set up the moving targets, as if they had been prepared long ago. This made Ouyang Yuanye somewhat curious.

  "Oh, is that for the people upstairs to see?"

  "Huh?"

  “#￥%……—*”

  Xiao Lie saw the 500 boxes of wooden-handled grenades in front of him. These grenades, produced in the 1980s of the previous world, were much older than Xiao Lie himself. Originally, these grenades should have exploded on enemy territory, but because they had passed their expiration date during peacetime, they must be destroyed.

  "After seeing it many times, I got used to it." Gaoyuan Mountain said: "I can handle it alone in a week."

  A box of hand grenades has fifty, five hundred boxes is twenty-five thousand, which is enough for a regiment to fight a battle. And they need to destroy them within a week. No wonder Wei Qidong once said that the amount of ammunition destroyed in these years was enough to fight a war.

  "Xiao Lie, you're in charge of disarming the hand grenade's fuse." Gao Yuanshan said: "Be careful."

  Xiao Lie nodded, placing the hand grenade on the disassembly device. The machine could then automatically remove the fuse from the grenade, and during this process, only one person was needed to watch from the side. Although this task was easy, it would become numb after a long time, and when numbness set in, carelessness would follow, and accidents would occur if not careful.

  For several days, Xiao Lie had been doing the same thing. As his actions became more and more familiar, he also became more mechanical. Sometimes, he even felt a sense of drowsiness. Now, Xiao Lie already felt that in this month, he was familiar with everything here. From being cautious at first to later becoming calm, and now feeling indifferent, some people had to repeat several times to learn the movements, but he only needed once. As for his memory and logical thinking, Xiao Lie was still quite satisfied.

  This was Xiao Lie's first time working alone on a single process, and at the beginning, Wei Qidong wasn't reassured. He would come over to take a look every now and then, and after looking several times, he found that not only did Xiao Lie not make any big mistakes, but also his mental state and actions were just like those of an old technician. This finally put him at ease. That day, when he was still making his usual rounds in the workshop, he came to Xiao Lie's position. When he saw Xiao Lie, he couldn't help but feel a surge of anger - this kid was actually dozing off! And yet, even as he slept, his hands didn't forget to move up and down, just like a machine.

  At this time, a hand grenade estimated to be years old had its fuse broken, and when it was put into the disassembly machine, the machine suddenly pulled out the fuse. The hand grenade suddenly emitted a burst of white smoke, but Xiao Ran, who was dozing off, did not realize that death had already arrived at his head. In an instant, Wei Qidong snatched the hand grenade from Xiao Ran's hand and threw it into a 10-meter-away explosion pit, which was designed to prevent the hand grenade from exploding if the fuse was pulled during operation. Then he pressed Xiao Ran to the ground.

  "Rumble!"

  The explosion sounded extremely piercing in the workshop, and many technicians were frightened. Usually, if such an explosion occurs in the workshop, the emergency plan will be activated immediately, some soldiers will evacuate from outside the workshop, and safety personnel will enter the workshop fully equipped.

  "Cough, cough!" Xiao Ran remembered that earlier when the explosion happened, some objects fell from the sky and now there was someone pressing down on him.

  "Monitor! Class!"

  Xiao Lie got up and saw that Wei Qidong's back had been scratched by a bullet, his clothes were torn with a hole, and fresh blood was flowing out. He gritted his teeth and frowned.

  "It's nothing," he said.

  At this time, a safety officer came in from outside and saw that Wei Qidong was injured. He immediately carried him into the medical room and then began to understand the accident.

  Xiao Ran knew that he had gotten into big trouble this time and knew what kind of punishment he would receive. When he returned to his dormitory, he stood at the door for several times, not knowing how to go in, and wandered around outside the door.

  "Hmm, what are you doing outside? Why don't you come in?" It was Gu Yu who opened the door.

  "I'm sorry."

  The six people in the room were stunned.

  "Uh, Xiao Ran, this is nothing, when you're a soldier, there's no such thing as not having an accident. Just be more careful next time." Tang Fei also didn't have his usual carefree attitude.

  "Don't worry about it. He's fine." Li Xiaoqiao said, he was the safety officer and also the first person to arrive at the scene today.

  The old soldiers comforted Xiao Ran one by one. For Xiao Ran, it would be more comfortable if they scolded him or beat him up. The less they said, the harder it was for Xiao Ran to bear.

  "What's the most effective way for a new recruit to become an old soldier?" asked Gaoyuan Shandao.

  "I don't know." Xiao Lie shook his head.

  "Give a new recruit a rifle and send him to the battlefield, when he learns how to kill and knows how to get hurt, then he is an old soldier." said Gao Yuanshan.

  "Hey, this is what our class leader said. When you first came here, I told you the same thing." Tang Fei said.

  "You're a veteran, why are you so petty and stingy? You have to get involved in every little thing, be careful not to eat too much or you'll get bloated." said Gao Yuanshan.

  "Otherwise, you can give me your rice from now on." Tang Fei smiled and said: "With a stick in hand - the old monkey dare not go down to the river again."

  The next day at noon when eating, Wei Qidong just came back. As soon as he returned, the new recruits swarmed around him, asking questions left and right.

  "Class monitor, I'm sorry, it's all my fault." Xiao Lie didn't know what to say, he found himself feeling extremely uncomfortable.

  "It's nothing, revolutionary work is not without injury, just be more careful next time." Wei Qidong said kindly. As he spoke, he saw a deep sense of self-blame in Xiao Lie's eyes. He knew that Xiao Ran had developed a knot in his heart over this matter, and such a knot could not be resolved with just one or two sentences. They needed to have a good talk to dissolve the knot.

  In the afternoon, Wei Qidong found a time to call Xiao Lie to the mountain behind the base. The mountain was where the soldiers in the base came out to relax when they had nothing to do. Here, it's more than 20 kilometers away from the nearest market town. When there's nothing going on, this is also the most popular place for soldiers to come.

  "Xiao Lie, don't you want to stay here? You must be very disappointed to have come here?" Wei Qi said as he walked.

  "Class monitor, no, I really like it here."

  "Haha, just listening to it and you know it's a lie. Everyone who joins the army thinks they'll be assigned to the best place with the best weapons, just like in the movies. But before they arrive, they don't know that there are many different types of soldiers in the army, and as modernization increases, the military needs more and more types of soldiers. Some go to grow vegetables, some raise pigs, some went to the cooking class, and others went to the railway, engineering, medical, and border defense units. Every man who joins the army thinks that one day they'll be able to charge into battle with a gun, dodging bullets left and right, unscathed, just like in the movies, or maybe even command thousands of soldiers and become a general. But some things aren't what you think they are? If everyone could do whatever they wanted, then it wouldn't be called an army anymore."

  "Monitor, I..."

  "There's nothing, just say it. Are you afraid I'll reveal your secrets? From the first day you arrived, I could tell from your eyes that you had something on your mind. You're not like other new recruits, even though they're not used to it at first, they get used to it after a few days. But you, your heart has never been here, speak up and share what's on your mind."

  As he looked at Wei Qidong's concerned gaze, Xiao Lie felt as if he had seen that familiar pair of eyes again. His heart sank, and then he slowly began to recount his family affairs, the first time he had exposed his innermost thoughts in front of an outsider for so long. In that unhurried tone, it was as if he had returned to that time, seeing Xiao Lanfang and Xiao Yang, but now, when speaking of them, his heart felt a wave of sourness.

  "I just want to find my brother, whether he's dead or alive. If he's alive, I want to see him; if he's dead, I want to see his body, even if it's just ashes. I know this is a small thing for the army and the country - just one more soldier sacrificed - but for me and my mother, we've lost a loved one. I don't know how to keep searching, even just a tiny bit of news about him would be something, but I can't ask because I won't get an answer. All I can do is rely on myself, making effort after effort until I have the qualifications." Xiao Lie's voice was a little hoarse.

  Wei Qidong was moved when he heard Xiao Lie's story, and he even felt heartache for all that Xiao Lie had endured. To speak of it, Xiao Lie wasn't very old, not even twenty years old yet, and in today's society, he could still be considered a young man. Is it wrong for a mother to miss her son? Is it wrong for someone to miss their brother? Is it wrong for someone to fulfill their mother's last wish?

  "When the base was established two years ago, a university student soldier came to the base. The reason why this university student came here is very simple, because he fell in love with a girl. The girl's father was a military man and had always hoped that his son would join the army, but as it turned out, he had a daughter instead. So he hoped that his son-in-law would also be a soldier. This university student loved the girl so much, and after learning about her father's requirements, he joined the army without hesitation. In the new recruit camp, no matter how tough the training was, he endured it all, hoping to be assigned to a better unit and become an officer. He wanted to dedicate his life to this army and thought that he could become a general."

  Yuan Nu's completed works include "Full Metal Species" and "Remnant Wings".