Episode 1 Section 3 Excellent

  At noon, the scorching sun was shining brightly. When Little Li led the pig breeder from this farm to the training ground, only the scorching sun was recklessly releasing high temperatures.

  Seeing Director Liu standing quietly beside a set of equipment used to train soldiers' physical strength, Little Li hastily pulled this historically most powerful pig breeder to Director Liu's side, stepped quickly, raised his eyebrows, and tried his best to prevent the sweat on his forehead from flowing into his eyes, loudly saying: "Report to the director! Chen Yang has been taken away..."

  Before he could finish speaking, he felt a strong chill, which did not come from the wind, but from Captain Liu's temples, where his hair was already slightly gray.

  Looking at Chen Yang, who was chewing gum and had earphones in his ears, Liu's face grew colder. After listening to Xiao Li's report, Liu signaled for Xiao Li to step aside, then coldly stared at the young man with a somewhat frivolous smile in front of him.

  "Uncle Liu, what did you call me here for?" As he spoke, Chen Yang cracked the gum in his mouth loudly.

  Little Li, standing beside him, was already drenched in sweat, but not because of the weather, rather it was due to Captain Liu's gaze. This calm and almost indifferent gaze he knew all too well; whenever this gaze appeared, it meant that Captain Liu was truly angry.

  Although Commander Liu is almost fifty years old, with some white hair on his temples, he was after all a soldier who participated in the Sino-Vietnamese War. The aura tempered in the hail of bullets and rain of shells at that moment imperceptibly seeped out. Those eyes, like those of a wolf staring at a lamb, made Li's skin crawl with goosebumps.

  But this comrade pig farmer seemed to have completely ignored it and continued to stand there as if nothing had happened.

  "Attention!" Captain Liu suddenly bellowed.

  It seemed to be an instinctive reaction, Chen Yang immediately stood up straight with his feet together. Then came Liu's almost eardrum-shattering roar: "Bastard! Tell me! Where is this place!"

  Chen Yang stared at Captain Liu's face as if he was looking at an idiot: "Uncle Liu, this is a military camp."

  "Shut up! You still know this is a military camp! I order you to answer me immediately, where is this?"

  The young man seemed to have thought of something and said loudly: "It's a military camp!"

  "Didn't expect Captain Liu's face to turn even colder: "Military camp? You still know this is a military camp? What are you chewing in your mouth? Spit it out! What's on your ears? Take them off! Now! Immediately!"

  "Yes!" Chen Yang seemed somewhat reluctant to spit out the chewing gum in his mouth and casually took off the earphones on his ears.

  "Bring it out!"

  Chen Yang hesitated and said, "Uncle Liu, it's so boring in the feeding ground that I'm about to die. Leave this one for me." As soon as Little Li heard this, his heart started racing. After all, although Captain Liu was approachable, once discipline was involved, he was notorious for being ruthless.

  "Lonely?" Captain Liu took the young soldier's earphones and a small MP3 player from his waist without warning, fiddling with it while coldly smiling at Chen Yang: "This thing is quite exquisite, how does it work?"

  Chen Yang's face clearly showed a hint of complacency, but his expression immediately froze. Captain Liu had already smashed the MP3 player connected to the earphones to the ground and then trampled it into a pile of wreckage.

  "Lonely? What do you think this place is? Your resort? Listen, kid, I'm only going to say this once. This is the army, people come here to defend their country, to defend their people. Look at yourself, are you even worthy of being called a soldier?"

  "Remember, this is a military unit, not your backyard. Here, you must follow discipline. If you can't, tell me and I'll send you home immediately. I didn't expect your father to be such a good soldier, yet he had a son like you. You're bringing shame to the Chen family! Get out of here, go feed pigs! If it weren't for your father's face, I would have kicked you out long ago. From now on, don't call me uncle, I don't have a nephew as useless as you. Scram!"

  "Uncle Liu, stop lecturing me. What you're saying is even worse than what the instructor says. What kind of soldier am I? I'm just a pig feeder. All I have to face every day are pigs oinking and snorting for food. Do you want me to march in front of them or salute them?"

  "What did you say?" Captain Liu's anger intensified: "Feeding pigs? Do you know what a soldier is? Feeding pigs? Don't you know who the pigs are being fed for? Without high-nutrition supplies, what can soldiers use to fight? Your comrades have been training hard, once they go into battle, they will be fighting with their lives..."

  "I'd rather die!" Chen Yang cut off Liu's words: "What am I now, am I a soldier? Feeding pigs, feeding pigs, that's all I do every day. Why can't I be like others who are also soldiers but don't have to feed pigs? Am I even considered a military personnel? You're really something, bringing up my dad again, letting your friend's son feed pigs? You've really thought this through, if you hadn't kept mentioning that you and my dad were comrades-in-arms, I'd think our family members are all your enemies, so you're just finding ways to torment me. I'm not doing this anymore!"

  When Chen Yang said this, Liu's eyes suddenly burst out a killing intent. Although it was only for an instant, the cold feeling still made Chen Yang's heart skip a beat. He had no idea what the three words "I'm not doing it" meant, but to Liu, they were just an excuse for desertion!

  Liu Team Leader could no longer hold back his anger, and with a loud slap, he slapped Chen Yang's face, roaring: "Get out! Our team doesn't need soldiers like you, go pack your things and get out of here!"

  After that, Captain Liu turned around and left. Little Li hesitated for a moment, seemingly wanting to say something to Chen Yang, but before he could even open his mouth, Captain Liu turned back and glared at Little Li. Immediately, Little Li followed silently behind Captain Liu, leaving the scorching training ground. Only a stunned Chen Yang was left standing there, as if only an empty shell of a body remained, with his soul sucked out.

  …………

  …………

  Hanging up the phone, Director Liu's anger had not dissipated, and he was still fuming with rage. Although he was the director, the decision to discharge a soldier wasn't his alone to make. However, if his "suggestion" were to be submitted, Chen Yang's forced discharge would be a done deal, leaving no room for appeal.

  In fact, the phone call just now was made to Chen Yang's father. Facing his old comrade's inquiry, he couldn't bring himself to say "Your son is a deserter, I'm going to make him drop out."

  Look at the sulky team leader, Little Li was beside him, rubbing his hands nervously. The sulky Team Leader Liu glared at him fiercely: "If you have something to say, just say it, you're not a bride-to-be, what's there to be nervous about." Little Li hesitated for a moment, then said hesitantly: "Team leader, Chen Yang is still just a kid, having such thoughts after raising pigs for so long is normal, I think we can educate him again, forcing him to retire from the army seems a bit too extreme..."

  "Is that being overly aggressive? What is a soldier? I think every one of you knows, a soldier's duty is to obey orders. This is just like feeding pigs, and he can say no more. Now ordering him to retire is for his own good. Once on the battlefield, when it's time to fight with all one's might, if he shrugs and says no more, what awaits him? A bullet, understand?"

  Xiao Li hesitated for a moment, then carefully said: "Captain, what you said is reasonable, but he's still young and has excellent skills. Feeding pigs in the breeding ground is indeed a bit of a waste of his talent, and some of his ideas are normal too. Why don't you give him another chance?"

  "Give him another chance? You little kid, what do you know? On the battlefield, a deserter can deal a huge blow to morale. No way, this matter is settled, you don't need to plead for him anymore. Even if our team ranks last in this selection, I won't allow this rotten shrimp to ruin the entire team's spirit."

  Xiao Li said: "That......that......"

  "Damn it!" Liu, with his two eyebrows raised vertically, grabbed the phone and dialed the same number several times in a row, but stopped every time just before pressing the last digit. After a long while, he let out a deep sigh: "Forget it, let him go feed pigs until he's discharged. If I bring him back like this, with his father's temper, he'll probably kill him right away..."

  Just then, the door was suddenly pushed open and Chen Yang appeared in front of Liu Tuanzhang with a furious face. In an instant, the eyes of Liu Tuanzhang and Chen Yang met, and unexpectedly, it seemed to Little Li that their eyes had sparked fire in the room...

  "What right do you have to make me retire?" Chen Yang stared at Captain Liu's face, angrily saying: "I don't accept it, I want to tell you, what right do you have to make me feed pigs, what right do you have to make me retire. You are using your power to deliberately suppress me."

  "Oppress you? What is it about you that's worth oppressing?"

  "Don't put on that disgusting face, isn't it oppression? Do you dare to say this with a clear conscience? Isn't sending the best warrior in the entire team to feed pigs oppressive?" A string of questions burst out from Chen Yang's mouth like a machine gun.

  "The best? In my eyes, you can't even be considered a soldier, how dare you say you're excellent, every single warrior in the army is stronger than you!"

  Chen Yang's eyes had already burst into sparks: "Looking at the whole team, who dares to say they are better than me? If there is one person in the team who surpasses me in military skills, then I won't say anything and leave here myself. If no one is stronger than me, then you owe me an apology."

  "Hmm..." Captain Liu looked at Chen Yang with a somewhat playful gaze, and his eyes seemed to be saying that this was all too familiar, especially the angry look in his eyes...

  Liu Team Leader suddenly smiled and said, "It seems you're very confident," ignoring Chen Yang's gaze, he flipped out a file from the office desk and placed it in front of Chen Yang: "If you can meet this standard, I'll transfer you out of the feeding ground. If not..."

  Chen Yang glanced at the documents with a slanted eye and said, "No big deal, as long as someone can do it, I can do it too."

  "You have one week."

  As Chen Yang took the documents and turned to leave, he was unaware that after he left, Security Guard Xiao Li looked tense and said to Captain Liu: "Captain, those assessment standards are too harsh, and the training is also too dangerous. If something goes wrong..."

  " Danger, there's no such thing as a risk-free endeavor. If he's not brave enough to undergo this training, then let him raise pigs instead. I'll have fulfilled my obligation to his father that way. This matter is now closed, and don't mention it in front of me again."

  Xiao Li said: "Yes, but... Captain, shouldn't we find someone to keep an eye on him? In case..."

  "No need, you go tell his officer that he can move freely for this week, and also give a call to the training ground, okay, you can go out now."

  Outside the window, the clouds drifting at the edge of the sky were painted with a dazzling fiery red by the setting sun. Liu Tuanzhang, who was quietly gazing at the light that seeped through the clouds while gently puffing out smoke rings, murmured: "Iron Egg, your son looks just like you, but I wonder if he can also remain calm in the face of danger like you..."