Chapter 2: The Mysterious Millstone

  Qiu Mingjun and a group of young men wearing casual clothes were scattered around the entrance of the dormitory building of the 14th Regiment, squatting on the ground like they were going to the bathroom. Among them were some old soldiers wearing camouflage uniforms. Everyone was holding folding military shovels and seriously digging at the red brick floor. What were they doing? Were they creating ground art or digging holes?

  They are not, they are grinding bricks. Grinding bricks? What does that mean? When they first heard the order, even Qu Mingjun was confused, and none of them understood what it meant.

  "After having breakfast, comrades who haven't had a haircut yet, quickly find the clerk to shave your long hair off. You are all considered to have one foot in the army's door now, what kind of state are you in? After singing a song that was required before meals, the captain of the 14th squad, Yan Weidong, stood on the steps in front of the dining hall with his hands behind his back, facing the rows below which were barely standing in order. He said, "This morning, each class's backbone will lead their classmates to grind bricks according to the assigned areas. Remember, let things show their true nature! This thing was originally what kind of state, you must let it present that kind of state. Before lunch, each class monitor will check with me together, those who are unqualified will rework in the afternoon."

  "What's going on? What's the grinding brick?" King Jin stood behind Qu Mingjun, muttering to himself in a low voice. In fact, he was not the only one, except for those old soldiers who remained standing at attention and did not speak, those wearing casual clothes, as the team leader called them "quasi-soldiers", were all whispering to each other.

  The dormitory building of the student team is also a relatively old-fashioned building. Although it has been decorated internally and externally in recent years, its shape still reveals the simple and elegant characteristics of that era. The student dormitory building faces south and north, divided into two teams from the middle, with four floors. The first and second floors are living areas, where students' dormitories, toilets, and washing rooms are located. The third floor has a club, armory, warehouse, and two small classrooms for some professional courses. The first to third floors have a central corridor, with rooms on both sides in the same style, while the fourth floor is a large, transparent classroom that can accommodate all students for classes or reports and meetings. In front of the building are laundry areas and parking lots on both sides, and further south is a small road leading to the playground, called "Nourishing Road" by Instructor Jia Jie. At the southernmost end is a larger area with single and double bars and badminton courts for students' physical exercise.

  The cool clothes area and parking lot in front of the dormitory building are paved with red bricks, neatly arranged in rows. The two sides of the road are planted with evergreen flower beds, and the edges are also paved with red bricks at an angle, with each corner protruding like a standing spear, making them particularly sharp.

  Qū Míng Jùn and his friends were going to polish the area in front of the building paved with red bricks. After a summer of wind and rain, the originally crimson surface of the red bricks had become as if covered with a layer of moss, looking dull and black.

  So, on the first day of school, listening to the old students' teams going to class with "one, two, three, four" voices, the future elite officers of the Republic's reconnaissance department began to squat on the ground like a flock of sheep being herded, using folding military iron trowels to desperately scrape the surface of the red bricks, trying to grind away that layer of grayish-black color.

  Qiu Mingjun listened to the sound of "psst——ah" that came from beside his ear, a sound that could always reach into everyone's heart and make their teeth ache and stomach hurt, and he couldn't help but slightly furrow his brow.

  Wang Jin, oh, forgot to mention that this kid and Qu Mingjun really have a good affinity, they met by chance at the entrance of the dormitory and found out that not only were they in the same team, but also in the same class, and even assigned to the same bunk bed, Wang Jin on the lower bunk and Qu Mingjun on the upper bunk. According to their height, both of them were assigned to the second district team six class, there are twelve people in the class, except for four old soldiers, the other eight people are all high school graduates from all over the country.

  "Hey, Qu Ge." Wang Mi slipped to the side of Qu Mingjun, looked around to make sure no one was paying attention, and started chatting with Qu Mingjun in a low voice. Ever since that day when he saw the luxurious car fleet and private bodyguards, Wang Mi had been calling Qu Mingjun "Qu Ge" this and "Qu Ge" that, without even thinking of verifying their ages to decide on a title.

  "What's the point of this? We came here to be scouts, not to grind bricks! Good heavens, who would believe me if I wrote home about this? This is crazy!" Wang Jin was holding a trowel and scribbling randomly on the ground, a classic example of going through the motions.

  Qu Mingjun sighed, he couldn't understand either. Even if it was just labor and tidying up, why not just finish with that? Even if they had to practice folding the blankets into neat squares like old soldiers, so be it. Everyone knows that when you first join the army, you have to go through rigorous training, but who has ever heard of grinding bricks? And besides, these bricks will probably only last two days before turning grey and black again in the next rain, it's all just a formality, wasting human resources.

  "Hmph - new recruit, all talk and no action, thinks he can be a scout?" A sudden snicker came from beside the two.

  Wang Jin's face suddenly turned bright red, and without turning his head, he cursed loudly: "Damn it, who are you talking about?!"

  "Hey, I was talking about you, rookie! You don't obey orders!" A veteran soldier standing next to him in camouflage uniform shouted.

  Qu Mingjun recognized that this old soldier was also from the sixth squad. The sixth squad had a total of four old soldiers: Squad leader Guo Xiangyang, who was 1.7 meters tall and slightly thin but full of energy, spoke little but every sentence hit the point; Deputy squad leader Li Dongkuan, who was 1.75 meters tall with a standard triangular physique, had a square face with a pair of bright eyes that seemed to see everything; Old soldier Jiang Xiaoming, from Sichuan, was relatively short and thin, with narrow eyes always smiling, extremely enthusiastic towards his comrades, and when Qu Mingjun and the others first enlisted, they didn't know how to tidy up their quarters, it was Jiang Xiaoming who took the initiative to help them clean; Old soldier Cui Ze, who was the one who snickered at Wang Yin earlier, seemed to have practiced bodybuilding, with a muscular physique that was quite impressive, usually liked to exercise with dumbbells in the squad, but had no good face for Qu Mingjun and the others from the same place, always loved to ignore them, unexpectedly this time he directly clashed with Wang Yin.

  "Cui Ze, what are you doing!" Class monitor Guo Xiangyang noticed the conflict over here and hurriedly walked over to press Cui Ze down, "Quickly continue with your work!"

  Choi Ze hummed twice in his nose, which was considered giving face to the class leader, and squatted down.

  Wang Jin estimated that from a young age, he had never suffered such humiliation at home. His fists were clenched tightly, and his nose was exhaling heavily. In the end, he couldn't hold it in: "Bullshit! Just because you served as a soldier a few years earlier than me? So what if you ate military rations for a few years? Who the hell knows if you're wasting national food or not? You think you're someone just because you're a veteran?"

  Qu Mingjun heard that it was going to be a disaster, Wang Jin this kid spoke without thinking, the phrase "stupid big soldier" had already offended all the old soldiers present. Sure enough, the faces of the surrounding old soldiers, whether they were smiling and watching the joke or seriously grinding bricks, all turned gloomy.

  It's worth noting that in today's military, there is an emphasis on seniority, regardless of whether you're an officer or a soldier. When comparing yourself to someone with more years of service, you'll always have a certain level of respect for them. An old soldier, if his superior officer has less years of service than him and doesn't have the ability to command respect, can forget about getting any face from the old soldier. In the eyes of an old soldier, even if you're an officer, you're still just a rookie. So even if there are conflicts among the old soldiers themselves, once they encounter someone who dares to be disrespectful to them, they will immediately band together and teach the rookie what it means to respect their elders.

  Choi Ze's face darkened as he stood up again, holding the iron shovel upside down in his hand. The military folding iron shovel was only 67 cm long, with a wooden handle at one end and a two-in-one spade head that could be folded into a shovel and pickaxe at the other. Choi Ze grasped the spade head in his hand, with the wooden handle facing outwards, making it look like he was holding a wooden stick. He gazed coldly at Wang Jin, his words slow and deliberate, as if they were being squeezed out from between his teeth: "You little brat, repeat what you just said!"

  Class leader Guo Xiangyang's face didn't look good after being stimulated by Wang Jin's words, but he still didn't forget that he was the class leader. He pulled Cui Ze down and said in a low voice: "What do you want to do? Don't forget our identity, we are all new students who have just entered school. Do you want to be expelled like this? What does a new recruit know, are you going to argue with him?"

  Deputy class leader Li Dongkuan walked over with a smile, put his arm around Wang Jin's shoulder, and quietly separated Wang Jin from Cui Ze. He whispered to Wang Jin, "Be honest and get down to work, remember, don't say things you shouldn't say." After finishing speaking, he used force to press Wang Jin down.

  On the other side, Guo Xiangyang also pulled Cui Ze away. Then, Guo Xiangyang gave Li Dongkuan and Jiang Xiaoming a signal with his eyes. The three old soldiers were busy with their work, but their feet slowly moved to form an invisible isolation line between Wang Jin and Cui Ze. Qu Mingjun saw this and was slightly surprised in his heart, realizing that the positions of the three old soldiers made it clear that no matter who dared to make a move, two people could rush up to hold them down at any time.

  Chui Ze raised his head and muttered a sentence in his mouth: "Damn it, must you three form this formation?"

  Li Dongkuang pulled Wang Jiong, who was still angry and a bit frightened, pointing to the bricks on the ground: "There's not much time left, if you don't want to grind in the afternoon, speed up your movements."

  A storm was thus quietly dissipated into thin air, is that all there is to it?

  Obviously impossible.

  ;