The First Book: Reborn from the Fire Chapter 26: Finding Joy in Suffering

  Time flies quickly, the hardships of training and difficult days can make a person, in the day-to-day training, all new recruits have undergone tremendous changes, tenacious face, calm eyes have already let us get used to facing any difficulties.

  From the first new recruit's emergency assembly every day, to now almost every day pulling two or three times, it has made us maintain extremely high vigilance even in our sleep, at least now 'Qiao Yan Wang' can no longer silently and quietly come to our bedside and randomly move our clothes or belts, as long as there is a slight movement around us, we will open our eyes and emit the cold light of a beast pouncing on its prey.

  Day and night training is terrifying, but the results are also extremely remarkable. From being left behind in the big team at first, to feeling like my lungs were empty every time I climbed a mountain, to now when Peng Zhuo and I can slowly keep up with the team, to now when we can run to the front of the troops when climbing mountains, our explosive power has grown under the strange method taught by 'Qiao Yan Wang', our military quality has made rapid progress.

  The super strong physical training has brought about a huge consumption of physical strength. From the time we just entered the new recruit squad to now, more than two months have passed, and the most direct reflection is that our food intake is growing terrifyingly.

  I remember when I first started, being a southerner, after arriving at the troops, most of the time we had to eat noodles, which made us extremely uncomfortable. Two or two big steamed buns, before eating three was already enough to be full, and because the taste was not right, Peng Zhuo and I sometimes only ate one or two per meal, and could get through the day by holding on.

  But now? Two steamed buns? Three steamed buns? Damn it, are you trying to starve us to death?

  The not-so-short 10-minute meal time has somehow become far from enough. Eight people sit at the dinner table, with a plate of four dishes and one soup that is so clean it doesn't even need to be washed, as the class leaders would say. Even the slightest bit of sauce is swept away by our bread, leaving it spotless.

  I don't look fat, but after two months of training in the army, my body has even developed muscle definition, and although I may not be able to participate in a beauty contest, I am definitely up to standard. However, with this physique, I can now eat 12 liang (about 720 grams) of mantou per meal, and if there's enough time, it wouldn't be impossible for me to eat 16 or 17 liang. This situation is simply beyond the realm of common sense. But the old squad leaders don't seem to find this strange at all. At least as our appetite has increased, we've never had a problem with not having enough food. It seems like they calculated our food intake in advance when preparing meals.

  "My goodness! Is that braised pork? And eggs? What is this? Could it be chicken meat? The heavens have finally opened their eyes!"

  Heaven have mercy, I've gotten used to eating a table of dishes with only one braised pork belly, even though I normally don't eat fatty meat. Now, even if it's a big piece of fat meat with hair on it, I'd swallow it in one bite, worried that if I'm too slow, the dish wouldn't be enough for us to finish and would become someone else's spoils. But then suddenly seeing such a sumptuous feast, Peng Ze next to me was already moved to tears.

  It's too happy, really want to cry, we actually got a day off and can have an extra meal, eating another delicious egg, which was my favorite for every meal when I was in the countryside. Now it's really getting better and better every day, is today a holiday? While devouring meat, our hearts involuntarily produce some anxiety.

  "Eat up, eat big mouthfuls, after today you'll have to suffer!"

  Another dish came up, and it was actually stir-fried sausage? Five dishes and one soup, I'm so touched! Our eyes sparkled with excitement, but why did the old classmate with a mischievous grin look at us with pity in his eyes? It's really chilling!

  But what's the use of being afraid? If fear could avoid suffering, then there would be too many happy things in this world. Even if we have to go to the execution ground, we should die with a full stomach, right? Peng and I exchanged a glance, but we couldn't care less about that now, let's first comfort our starving stomachs. We opened our mouths wide and started devouring the food on the table crazily.

  After having breakfast, the sky amazingly opened up its warm smile, and the winter sun was really too comfortable. Under this sunlight, we were like plants that had been parched for a long time, excitedly opening our arms, as if every cell in our body was stretching out lazily, happily interacting with the sun through photosynthesis. Even basking in the sun turned out to be such an enjoyable thing.

  Taking advantage of the rare free time, the new recruits felt as if there were countless ants crawling on their bodies and immediately rushed to the bathhouse that was rarely open to them. The intoxicating hot water poured over their bodies, and they could clearly see the black dirt sliding down their skin. The human body is truly amazing; I'm even more depressed about why my own body hasn't started to mold yet.

  Looking up and down, I took stock of myself, and only then did I realize that my body had completely changed. No matter where I looked from any part of my body, I could see all the way to my toes without any obstruction. There was not a single bit of fat on my body; the well-defined muscles told me what kind of hardships I had endured over the past two months.

  Take off the quilt cover on the military bed, take off the heavy training uniform with black and white stripes, the smell that can't be smelled tells us that they can already be thrown into the trash can, but in fact they are still very new, it's just that their fate is too tragic, fell to our hands of this group of new recruits, even if they were once of excellent quality, as long as they fall into our hands, they can't escape the fate of being ravaged.

  I recall that my pants had a strange legend, it was on a cold and dark night, because I was too tired, so I didn't put them in the right place, accidentally let them 'jump' down from the upper bunk, then I heard the brother on the lower bunk let out a miserable scream. You know, at midnight, a 'half-body person' standing by your bed is an extremely crazy thing.

  But all of this is actually true, because too much sweat soaked the poor training pants, and then the cold air froze them, along with the salt from many days' worth of sweat solidifying inside, which made it stand upright in front of my comrade's bed. This bizarre event was enough to be written into a ghost story, and also caused the legend of my pants to be passed down through generations of new recruits.

  "Now I just realized that taking a shower, washing clothes and wearing a clean suit is also an extremely happy thing!"

  The washing machine at the entrance of the dormitory was already crowded, and Peng Zhuo and I finally squeezed in with a big basin of clothes, feeling so moved that our eyes were filled with tears.

  "Enjoy the rare sunshine, don't say I didn't warn you, tomorrow... or maybe tonight, the new recruit physical enhancement week is coming, and the real hardship is about to begin!"

  Xie Jian smiled at us from the opposite side, this guy's face was swept away, but it was still spotless, it seems that his resistance to beating is very strong. Anyway, I know that my face has turned bronze now, and my poor little white face's days are gone forever! I couldn't help but despise him again.

  "What's it to him? Let's talk about it after today, at least we have a chance to clear our names, it's touching..."

  I gave him a glance, with a look of disdain all over my face, and one sentence made the new recruits on the scene laugh together.

  Alas! People in hardship, we have unknowingly learned what it means to find joy in suffering.