Chapter Sixteen: No Fight, No Deal

  "Kill!"

  After a loud roar, Yan Weidong's gun remained steady in its thrusting state, the bayonet stopping just inches from Feng Shaoyun's body. Feng Shaoyun was caught off guard and retreated five or six steps in disarray, his face flushing bright red.

  Yan Weidong took the gun, stepped forward with his right foot, and arrived in front of Li Dongkuan. With a similar "kill" cry, he stabbed forward with the same gun, and Li Dongkuan also retreated. However, possibly because Feng Shaojun was in front, he had some mental preparation and retreated fewer steps. Nevertheless, Li Dongkuan's face also turned bright red.

  Similarly, in order, the first few people in the queue also left with red faces.

  It was finally Qu Mingjun's turn, but Yan Weidong didn't rush forward with a loud "kill" like the previous few people. Instead, he held his gun in hand and sized up Qu Mingjun with an ambiguous smile on his face, causing Qu Mingjun to involuntarily hold his breath.

  "Kill!" A loud shout, and Yan Weidong suddenly thrust forward, the gleaming bayonet wrapped in the biting cold wind of winter, and Yan Weidong's soaring killing intent simultaneously rushed towards him. Qu Mingjun felt a chill run down his spine all at once, as if his heart had been grasped by a large hand, and the air he had just taken in was stuck in his stomach. Although he had mentally prepared himself beforehand, when he saw the bayonet rushing towards him, Qu Mingjun's eyelids still involuntarily twitched wildly for a moment, and his right foot unconsciously retreated backwards. Qu Mingjun originally held his rifle with one hand, and made a defensive gesture, only to suddenly realize that he had also withdrawn from the formation.

  Qu Mingjun's face was also flushed red, but this was not due to any regret or resentment. It was purely because of Yan Weidong's murderous aura that he had been holding his breath and finally let it out. Qu Mingjun was okay, taking only one step back, while others, even the last person in the entire formation who had the longest preparation time, took more than one step back.

  "Attention!" The twenty people with flushed faces quickly stood at attention, then at ease, looking at their captain Yan Weidong in front of them.

  "Now you know, right?" Yan Weidong smiled, but the smile looked like schadenfreude to Qu Mingjun, who couldn't help but think that he had ulterior motives.

  "You may have performed the actions perfectly and to standard, but you still haven't faced real-life bayonet combat. At the end of the day, it's all just empty showmanship." Yan Weidong said with a serious expression on his face, "The reason I called out twenty of you this time is mainly because I hope you can form a small team for bayonet combat and engage in face-to-face combat drills. As a specific team, you will also perform at the second classroom assembly. However, your performance just now was not good enough, it's still not up to par. You need to strengthen your mindset."

  This is simply nonsense, Qu Mingjun muttered to himself. They're already holding knives and almost at each other's throats, with no protection, real blades and real guns, if it were you, wouldn't you dodge? But earlier was a bit too much, especially when they had mental preparation and still ended up in such disarray, sigh, embarrassing!

  Yan Weidong spoke as he had someone bring over a pile of wooden guns and protective gear for practicing stabbing, and began to instruct everyone on how to put them on. Qu Mingjun looked at the protective gear and couldn't help but feel that it looked like the kind of protective clothing worn by Japanese martial artists in movies when they practiced knife fighting.

  Everyone was young, laughing and joking as they put on their protective gear, which had been washed clean but still emitted a musty smell. It seemed that these things had been stored in the warehouse for who knows how long, but were now being taken out by Yan Weidong. Qu Mingjun patted his hand on it a few times, and it was indeed very sturdy, the captain wouldn't joke about this.

  Qu Mingjun's opponent was Choi Jae, which made both of them feel a bit strange. Qu Mingjun had always felt that Choi Jae's attitude towards him was somewhat unfriendly, while Choi Jae had always thought that Qu Mingjun, as a new recruit, was too independent and arrogant, and he couldn't stand him. Especially with Qu Mingjun's excellent physical fitness, not only in the sixth class but also in the entire team, he could be considered one of the top players, which made Choi Jae even more dissatisfied.

  Choi Jae is a competitive person who always strives to be the best. Before joining the army, he was always one step ahead of others in everything he did at home. He also values brotherhood and camaraderie, but later got into fights and injured someone because of his so-called "brothers". Although his family managed to avoid legal responsibility through compensation and apologies, Choi Jae was still expelled from school.

  Finally, Cui Ze knew that he had been deceived by his so-called brother. At this time, the disaster had already occurred and there was no way to think about it. His family was also disappointed with him to the extreme. In a fit of anger, Cui Ze ran out and joined the army. However, his competitive personality could not be changed. In the army, Cui Ze devoted himself to how to stand out and soon became the training elite in the eyes of the company commander, battalion commander, and even the regimental commander. Then he obtained the quota for the troops to send him to study.

  After arriving at Shimen Military Academy, Cui Ze made up his mind to strive for excellence and let his family see that even though he was forced to drop out of school, today he is a genuine military academy student, and he is also the top student among them.

  Unfortunately, there is a student in the same class named Qu Mingjun, who is a new recruit from a local area. He has some unknown skills that make him stronger than himself in every aspect. If he were a veteran soldier like Feng Shaojun, Cui Ze would have acknowledged it. But this kid is just a rookie. His dazzling aura overshadows his own abilities, making them go unnoticed. In Class 6, the most eye-catching person now is Qu Mingjun, not him, Cui Ze. Cui Ze can't help but sigh, "When there's Yu, why should there be Liang?"

  Qu Mingjun didn't quite understand Choi Tae's mixed feelings of jealousy and discontent towards him. Anyway, he just felt that Choi Tae's attitude towards him wasn't friendly enough. Since that was the case, how could a proud young master like Qu possibly humble himself to seek friendship from others? This time, when the two clashed, it would be interesting to see what happened.

  After Yan Weidong's simple explanation, everyone was free to play. According to the initial grouping, everyone was eager to try. After all, as a soldier, the good fighting spirit in his bones could not be taken away. Qu Mingjun calmly observed Cui Ze across the face guardrail, and Cui Ze also carefully watched Qu Mingjun's movements.

  However, Qu Mingjun had an advantage in that he had practiced traditional martial arts techniques, and had a wealth of experience with the human body's power generation and various preparatory movements. Finally, Choi Jae couldn't hold back anymore, and launched a swift and fierce frontal thrust, but unfortunately, Qu Mingjun saw Choi Jae's shoulder movement and reacted ahead of time. A defensive uppercut, quickly followed by a right-hand strike, the rifle butt heavily smashing into Choi Jae's shoulder, this was still the result of Qu Mingjun hesitating for a moment, otherwise if it had hit his head, even with protective gear, he would have likely suffered some minor injuries.

  Chui Ze dodged to the right, his shoulder feeling a bit numb at first, and then a sharp pain followed. However, this pain unexpectedly brought out Chui Ze's ferocity, and he moved his left shoulder, his eyes seeming to devour people as he pounced forward with a loud shout.

  The two of you came and went, even if Qu Ming was quick-witted and quick-handed, dodging left and right, he still got hit by Cui Ze a few times. As for Cui Ze, it's even more unbearable, although he was wearing a full set of protective gear, the various parts of his body that were hit were all aching vaguely, if it were a real assassination, he would have died seventeen or eighteen times already.

  Choi Jae-woo was more courageous after each setback, and every time he made a slight move, he rushed over. After Qu Ming-jun used another sudden thrust to push Choi Jae-woo away, he finally heard the captain's order to rest.

  Qu Mingjun couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. This guy, if he continued to mess around like this, wouldn't even know if he could still keep his hands intact. If he got hurt in a critical spot, it really wouldn't be funny. And if he was injured, it would be even more humiliating when he got home.

  Choi Jae-ho ripped off his armor, seemingly only now feeling the pain all over his body. His arms felt like they wouldn't bend at all. This armor was really hard to take off in one go.

  In Qu Mingjun's view, if one is not as skilled as others, there's no need to fight to the death. At worst, they can always come back another day. As the saying goes, "A gentleman takes revenge, ten years later." Cui Ze's attitude of knowingly being inferior yet stubbornly fighting on may be undesirable, but from a different perspective, it also shows an unyielding spirit that is quite admirable. Thinking this way, Qu Mingjun rubbed his left rib, which had been poked by Cui Ze, and walked over to help him take off his protective gear.

  Choi Ze gritted his teeth and glared at Gu Mingjun, who was actively showing goodwill, and wanted to slap him. Unexpectedly, as soon as he moved his arm, "Ah" sounded, and Choi Ze only then realized that his arm hurt so much that he couldn't lift it up. Gu Mingjun smiled, handed over the equipment, and supported Choi Ze back to the classroom.

  "Hey, kid, you hit me a bit too hard!" Cui Ze took off his clothes and looked at the bruises on his body, he couldn't help but curse. Guo Xiangyang smiled and handed him a bottle of red flower oil, gesturing for him to rub it in well.

  Qiu Mingjun said helplessly, "With your ferocious appetite, how dare I hold back? Yet you're still getting more and more aggressive."

  Chui Ze stared for half a day, suddenly let out a breath, picked up the red flower oil and shook it, saying: "I think I also poked you several times, do you want to put some red flower oil on too?"

  Wow, Cui Ze actually took the initiative to care about Qu Ming Jun. This is a fresh thing, and the curious eyes in the class all looked over. Right, it seemed that Qu Ming Jun was the one who helped Cui Ze back before. Did these two people have a fight? Although it was an assassination battle arranged by the captain, it can be considered as a fight, how to say, they actually got along well? Is this the legendary "no fight no friendship"?

  "Uh, nothing big here, no need." Qu Mingjun felt a bit embarrassed and scratched the back of his head.

  "Hey, you think my skills are not good enough? You think I'm too soft? Just wait and see next time! Geez, this is so embarrassing!" Cui Ze said with a scowl, then started wiping the oil off his hands while making "aiyo aiyo" noises, causing the whole class to burst into laughter again.

  After several weeks, during the New Year's Day period, the entire college held a second classroom report performance. The 14th Middle School's bayonet drill performance won thunderous applause from everyone in the college, from the principal to ordinary soldiers. After the bayonet drill ended, the knife fighting performance by Qu Mingjun and twenty others also received thunderous applause, stunning the audience.