Chapter 59: This is how steel is forged

  Fang Xiaotong never believed that there was anyone in this world who could keep a secret forever. "There is only one kind of person who will keep secrets forever, and that's the dead." She had read it before, and she deeply believed it. But she couldn't do anything, didn't dare to do anything, and could only watch as Lin Ruolan disappeared at the end of the corridor. Outside, the sun was shining brightly and the weather was scorching hot, but she trembled like a fallen leaf in an autumn breeze.

  Qiyun Fei narrowed his eyes and asked from behind her, "Don't you want her to tell anyone?"

  Fang Xiaotong glared at him fiercely and quickly walked into the specimen room, slamming the door shut with a "bang". Qi Yunfei looked at the locked door thoughtfully, staring in the direction where Lin Ruolan had disappeared, stroking his chin as if lost in thought.

  There was still a team of students who had not returned, and Xu Mingliang personally took several instructors to go out and search for them. In the afternoon, there was no training again, and Ma Xiangdong announced to the students that except for not being allowed to leave the camp, playing ball, taking baths, and sleeping were up to them.

  Most of the students were playing basketball on the playground, but Qi Yunfei didn't like to play basketball. He thought this sport couldn't show his personal style. Recently, as training became smoother, his innate sense of heroism began to emerge again. He sat at the edge of the playground, chewing on a grass root and watching his teammates run around on the court. Suddenly, he saw Lin Ruolan following behind Jin Huang and Chen Jianfeng, who had just come out of the instructor building.

  Jin Hao and Chen Jianfeng walked while arguing about something, apparently heading to the shooting range across the entire playground. Behind them, a short distance away, were Cheng Xiaopeng and several instructors, smiling and holding 7 or 8 different types of sniper rifles.

  Qi Yunfei, who had been sitting on the playground, was now very close to Lin Ruolan. He turned his eyes and a thought suddenly flashed into his mind: "Feel her weight." He suddenly stood up and rushed towards Lin Ruolan for several steps. The instructor, who was walking behind Lin Ruolan, shouted loudly: "19th, what are you doing?"

  Zi Yunfei suddenly threw a punch, and the fierce fist wind almost instantly reached Lin Ruolan's face.

  "Ah……" Lin Ruolan's cry had not yet escaped her lips when she heard Jin Huang's loud roar: "Bastard!" Her waist was suddenly tightened, and she was already in a familiar embrace. Immediately after was a dizzying spin that made her close her eyes tightly, the wind whistling past her ears, making her feel like she was being lifted off the ground by Jin Huang. She heard many people's cries of surprise, the sound of heavy objects falling to the ground, and pained yelps, as if someone had been kicked to the ground.

  When the sound of the wind in her ear stopped, Lin Ruolan secretly opened a slit of her eye and saw that she was being held in Jin Huan's arms, with a circle of people surrounding them.

  "Who allowed you to hit a woman?" Chen Jianfeng's furious rebuke echoed in his ear: "Did you learn your skills just to bully women?"

  Zi Yunfei had already been picked up from the ground by several instructors, he rubbed his aching chest and lower back, saying in a low voice: "I saw her wearing the leopard arm badge, I thought she was special forces, so I wanted to try her out."

  Zi Yunfei never thought that with just one punch, he would invite the pincer attack of Jin Huang and Chen Jianfeng from both front and back.

  Jin Huang and Chen Jianfeng were walking in front of Lin Ruolan, originally with their backs to him. However, just as he threw a punch, the corner of his eye caught Jin Huang suddenly turning around, passing by him at an incredibly fast speed, hugging Lin Ruolan, and using the "旱地拔葱" move to lift her body into the air. Then, a whirlwind kick was aimed at his chest. He didn't have time to dodge, and his chest was heavily kicked. Before that, his lower back had already been kicked by Chen Jianfeng's flying foot, and he was completely unable to dodge.

  What he didn't expect was that Jin Huan, who was holding a big living person in his arms, could actually kick him while his body was floating in the air, and then rotate 360 degrees before landing steadily.

  The only thing that made Ziyun Fei understand was that the martial arts, which took strengthening the body as its goal and fully mobilized the flexibility and coordination of the whole body, were simply worlds apart from the battlefield melee techniques that sought to defeat the enemy with the simplest moves. Only then did he realize how insignificant and flawed his proud fighting skills were in front of Jin Huang and Chen Jianfeng, who had truly experienced the test of war.

  "Qinggong? Can the captain really do qinggong?" someone whispered in the crowd, and instantly, the students looked at Jin Huang with eyes of worship.

  "Lin, are you injured? Do you want to go to the infirmary for a check-up?" Hearing this, Ma Xiangdong rushed out of the instructor building, his face pale and covered in sweat. He was well aware of just how ruthless his students were when it came to fighting.

  "He shook his head and said, 'She's fine.' He put Lin Ruolan on the ground, adjusted her clothes for her. He arrived before Qi Yunfei's fist wind swept over, so he was very certain that Lin Ruolan was not injured."

  Ma Dong took a deep breath, turned his head and stared at Qi Yunfei fiercely, then swept all the trainees with a glance: "Lin Canmou can wear the cheetah armband because she has made special contributions in translating foreign military materials. She was promoted to captain at such a young age because although she hasn't undergone training, she dared to risk her life on the battlefield for national interests! Do you understand?"

  "Understood, instructor!" The cadets replied with their chests out and heads held high.

  Chen Jianfeng glared at Qi Yunfei, wanting to kick him again. But he remained calm and asked Jin Huang, "How should we deal with him?"

  Zi Yunfei was so frightened that he forgot the pain in his chest and lower back, and instinctively stood up straight like a javelin, "Reporting to the leader, I won't dare again! Don't eliminate me!"

  Jin Hao had suppressed his anger, but didn't speak. His gaze fell on the corner of Qi Yunfei's mouth, where a blade of grass was still stuck, forgotten to be spat out. After a while, his cold, hard and severe voice entered Qi Yunfei's ears:

  "A soldier, especially one who wants to be a special forces operative, must learn the first thing is that he absolutely cannot leave any traces of his personality and habits in any situation!" Jin Hao stared at Qi Yunfei's eyes, "The fact that you can still hold onto this grass at this time shows that you have a good psychological quality of being bold and not taking any danger seriously. To put it nicely, this is called determination, to put it harshly, this is called impulsiveness."

  "And you, who occasionally pluck a blade of grass and put it in your mouth while looking around during long-distance training, this habit of yours further proves that you have not experienced the battlefield, nor have you suffered true setbacks. You don't understand the significance of perseverance and stability for a special forces soldier! You also don't understand the significance of wearing this military uniform, it means you are no longer someone who can act recklessly and do whatever you want, but rather a soldier with a sense of responsibility and mission!"

  Zi Yunfei was stunned, he thought he would be met with a scolding, but instead Jin Huan spoke calmly and said such words. His mouth slightly opened, wanting to say something, but his mind was blank, only Jin Huan's previous words kept echoing over and over again.

  Jin Hao no longer looked at him, turned his head to face Ma Dong, who was staring angrily at Qi Yunfei, and said: "Dare to attack a superior officer, I think he has too much energy. Tonight, don't sleep, go get your gear and run 80 laps! After running, lock up for three days. As for the punishment, you can discuss it among yourselves in the training camp." He patted Chen Jianfeng on the back, then turned around to pull Lin Ruolan along, "Let's go, to the shooting range."

  Ma Xiangdong shouted at Qi Yunfei who was stunned: "Don't you thank the captain, if it were me, I would have expelled this moron!"

  When Ziyun flew towards Jinhao's back and saluted, the students who had formed a circle all lowered their heads in contemplation, each carefully recalling to see if they had any habitual small movements that needed to be overcome. For a long, long time, no one moved a step.

  At last, Zhan Peng puffed out his chest and took a deep breath. He admitted that he was deeply shocked by this seemingly simple truth.

  The first long-distance training has ended, and there are still 30 students left in the training camp.

  After a two-day rest, the training returned to normal. On Friday, it was the regular sniper course, and Zhan Peng and the remaining four aspiring snipers took their sniper rifles to the shooting range as usual, only to find that waiting for them were not only the sniper instructors but also Chen Jianfeng.

  The instructor had them form up in a line, but instead of immediately ordering them to take up sniper positions for training, he saluted Chen Jianfeng and stepped aside.

  Unexpectedly, Chen Jianfeng did not order the snipers to enter the shooting range. Instead, he asked them a question: "Who can tell me what is a sniper?"

  "Report!" Zhang Peng shouted.

  Chen Jianfeng nodded to him, and he replied loudly: "A sniper is a soldier who first ensures his own survival on the battlefield and then uses his weapon to effectively destroy the target."

  Chen Jianfeng gave Zhan Peng a glance, just a very calm and collected one, but the sharp gaze was like an unsheathed sword that instantly made Zhan Peng's clothes soaked with cold sweat. He felt a kind of about-to-erupt... icy killing aura in Chen Jianfeng's eyes!

  Chen Jianfeng's tone was very gentle, and there was even a smile on his face: "What you said is indeed the definition of a sniper in the textbook, but if you do it according to this definition, then the greatest achievement in this life can only be limited to being a seasoned sniper with good marksmanship, good physical skills, and combat experience."

  Five aspiring snipers looked at each other in dismay, unable to comprehend that there was any other definition of a sniper besides this one.

  "After a long time, Chen Jianfeng said in a low voice: 'Remember, snipers are often the key factor that plays a decisive role in special combat operations. It can even be said that an excellent sniper himself may be the entire special operation at one moment. In an instant, he must seize the decisive victory with lightning speed.'"

  "The sniper deployed in the special operations team is often the 'guardian angel' of the entire team. When the squad is under long-range enemy fire and cannot get assistance for a while, the sniper should immediately conduct enemy fire observation and enter a favorable shooting position to shoot and kill the most threatening enemies one by one. At the same time, the sniper should also be an expert in selecting retreat routes. He has the obligation to provide the commander with the best retreat route and cover the entire process. When necessary, the sniper must also play the role of a lone hero, attracting enemy fire to himself to cover the team's transfer."

  The snipers for the first time knew that sniping had so many important uses, they excitedly exchanged glances with each other, their faces showing a eager-to-try expression.

  Chen Jianfeng signaled everyone to keep quiet, "In special combat missions, the most important thing is to have an excellent sniper covering the entire squad's attack from behind. But how can one become an excellent sniper?" He pointed to his own head: "Remember, a true sniper uses this to aim at targets, not just eyes and hands!"

  "Does everyone understand why I'm saying this? Because the enemy is alive! To become an excellent sniper, you must be able to independently complete outdoor observation and tracking, map reading, intelligence gathering and analysis, entry and exit route planning, and combat plan formulation. No matter how accurate your analysis of the target's possible escape routes, without this analytical ability and understanding of human nature, even if you can hit every shot on the shooting range, you're nothing more than a shooting range champion."

  "Comrades, you have chosen a lonely and long road." Chen Jianfeng's serious gaze swept across the faces of each candidate sniper. "These five words can be considered a vivid summary of all snipers. Snipers cannot know when the enemy will appear, so for snipers, every minute and every second of silent waiting is filled with an atmosphere of thrilling tension, and this thrilling tension suddenly erupts in an instant, and then returns to calm after a few seconds! This strong contrast between length and brevity, loneliness and intensity, can no longer be met by simply physical and technical preparation. It requires the sniper's mental quality to be beyond that of ordinary people. I don't know who among you can persist until the end."

  "Report!" "Report!" "Report!" The marksmen shouted in a hurry to speak.

  But Chen Jianfeng waved his hand to stop them. "If you want to show your determination, save it for later. Now I ask you to unbutton your shirts."

  Five probationary snipers looked at each other in confusion, but they still obeyed immediately. Chen Jianfeng smiled as he looked at their muscular yet smooth and unblemished shoulders, and then he unbuttoned his own shirt.

  On his right shoulder, there was a deep indentation mark, and the surrounding ancient copper-colored plump muscles grew thick calluses. That was an inevitable mark left by the impact of the gun holder billions of times in the high-intensity shooting training day after day, year after year.

  The snipers were shocked, they had no idea that becoming a great sniper would come at such a cost.

  Chen Jianfeng fastened his shirt buttons, smiled and said: "No need to be surprised, if you have also fired hundreds of millions of bullets, you will also have such marks. This requires time and patience, but now, I want to show you what real sniping and counter-sniping tactics are."

  His eyes were as black as a starless midnight, and his gaze was sharp as a knife sweeping towards the snipers. He raised his hand, and the sniper instructor standing beside him immediately handed him a smoke bomb, which the snipers also put on.

  "The rules of the game are simple, enter your respective sniper positions, take me as the target, and carry out a sniper attack within 400 meters. I will counterattack, if I get hit or all of you get hit, the game ends." After Chen Jianfeng announced the rules of the game, he walked towards the open shooting range with an 88-style sniper rifle, his eyes filled with endless confidence and pride.