The First Book: Reborn from the Fire Chapter 32: Dignity and Rights

  The change in 'Qiao Yanwang's' attitude towards us seems to indicate that our days of hardship are finally coming to an end.

  After surviving the physical strengthening week, having endured that utterly maddening torture, especially after passing the assessment and gaining unanimous recognition from the old soldiers and company cadres, our days as new recruits finally have a taste of sweetness after bitterness.

  In the following days, our training intensity gradually decreased significantly. Apart from the routine of two 10km cross-country runs every day, plus a few rounds of 400m hurdles and physical training, we got a lot of rest time. We even picked up our pens to write letters home during our free time after training. If the weather was good outside, we could also go out in groups of three or five to sunbathe and enjoy the fun of sunbathing.

  Although 'Qiao Yan Wang' still doesn't have much of a smile on his rigid face, he is obviously not as strict with us as before, and sometimes when he sees us new recruits chatting and joking around, he will even pretend not to notice.

  What surprised me even more was that 'Qiao Yan Wang' seemed to have changed his ways, and the change was so drastic that it left us speechless. To the point where when he suddenly squeezed out a smile at us, someone next to me had once been scared to the point of falling onto their butt.

  In his words, seeing a tiger show you its smiling face is far more terrifying than seeing a tiger come at you with a fierce roar. He would rather watch himself being eaten than die without knowing why, because as soon as he sees that smiling face, he can't help but think of the tragic story of the wolf and Little Red Riding Hood.

  But in fact, the little devil was not eaten away, and since then we rarely heard the terrifying roar, it's also hard to hear 'Qiao Yan Wang' scolding us loudly. Even when we were feeling a bit uneasy, we found that the curses that 'Qiao Yan Wang' often spat out had decreased significantly.

  It's really a blessing from heaven. After nearly three months in the new army, we finally found out that we also have dignity and the right to speak and express our happiness and sadness.

  The old soldiers in the hospital sometimes also chat with us about family matters, their faces no longer have a scornful smile, and they even pay extra attention to us so-called elite soldiers, and when communicating, they seem especially close.

  It was absolutely a stunning thing, the starting time, this kind of thing would often leave me and Peng Zuoyi at a loss, even excitedly inexplicable. However, after a period of time, we slowly got used to it, and gradually, we also chatted with the old comrades-in-arms, like brothers, laughing and talking loudly. After gaining recognition from the old comrades, we seemed to be slowly integrating into this military camp.

  These things make me and Peng Zhuo feel deeply emotional, to put it in Xiao Gui's words, we've been messing around for half a day, and it turns out that the military camp and local gangs are just the same. In a man's world, it's always about who has the bigger fist, and whoever does is the strong one who commands respect! The only difference is that one is protecting the country and family, while the other is harming the country and its people!

  Although the little devil's words were crude, I still deeply resonated with them. From that moment on, I understood a truth: the rights that belong to you are not something you should have by birth; they also require your own efforts to obtain. In fact, dignity and freedom are in your own hands.

  "Lin Dahan!"

  "Arrived!"

  "Peng Zhuo!"

  "Arrived!"

  As Peng Zhuo and I responded to the above words, both of our faces turned pale, and we were terrified in our hearts, because we saw 'Qiao Yan Wang' slowly walking into the dormitory door, and unfortunately, he happened to see me and Xie Jian pressing Peng Zhuo on the bed.

  What a surprise! This is absolutely a beautiful surprise.

  First of all, I want to declare with Xie Jian that our sexual orientation is absolutely normal and we will never have any obscene thoughts. We absolutely do not have the idea of disrespecting someone, nor do we have any interest in destroying the flowers of our motherland for personal gain.

  It's not that he shouldn't have a thousand, but Peng Zhen this kid has a stubborn mind, and to this day he refuses to hand over his private stash. We're 'torturing' him to see where he hid those two packs of Chinese cigarettes, why won't he take them out to comfort the brothers? But this unexpected result is something that Yan Wang Ye doesn't want to see.

  It's absolutely a sin that can be sent to the 18th level of hell! Our hearts are racing uncontrollably, and we dare not make a sound as we watch 'Judge Bao' with bated breath.

  "You two go out to the 400-meter hurdle track, Coach Wang is waiting for you!"

  After saying all of this in a soft tone, 'Qiao Yan Wang' threw out a sentence: "Clean up the bedding and internal affairs!"

  Good heavens! Because we messed up the bedding, and because we were fooling around during training hours, normally such reckless behavior would have 'Coach Wang' making us three suffer the agony of inhumane treatment, and it would definitely be an unforgettable experience. But his reaction was a huge shock to us.

  Then, he just left, leaving extremely naturally, as if it was supposed to be like this, unaware that all the comrades who saw this in the dormitory would look at each other with extremely suspicious eyes, wondering what kind of sacred being this guy who looks like 'Qiao Feng Wang' is.

  "Don't doubt anything, he's still that 'Jiang Wang', it's just that his troops are like this!"

  Xie Jian, who has been in the army for a long time and has a lot of say, smiled and answered our questions: "Once our performance is recognized by them, and we have the ability to be a qualified soldier, we will also get all the rights we deserve."

  "Then... can we go to the 400-meter hurdles now?"

  Peng Zheng stared at the door, as if he was afraid that the next moment he would see 'Qiao Yan Wang' rushing towards us with a loud roar, and then ruthlessly give us a fatal blow, sending us to a place where we would never be able to turn over again. He looked somewhat timid, even his speech was stuttering.

  "Alright, you two little rascals get going!"

  Xie Jian's eyes flashed with a hint of melancholy, but he forced a smile and said:

  "I'm fine, but you guys... hehe, still have to wait for a long and arduous training session. I really want to see how you guys get tortured!"

  "Go die!"

  Of course, his jealousy is understandable, but... Peng Zhen and I still gave him the middle finger.

  But as I left, Peng Jue and I comforted each other by patting each other on the shoulder, and we walked past the 400-meter hurdle track with complex eyes from our dormitory comrades.