Chapter 21 of Volume I: We Are Brothers

  The second checkpoint, in a field of farmland, had a special mark, hey, it was written on the side of a well, good thing, there's only one place around here that looks like it can be written on, easy to find. If it were written on the dirt wall, and then the villagers came to dig it up, that would be fun.

  Qū Míng Jùn suddenly thought of a question, does this count as scribbling nonsense? Haha, fortunately it's not some scenic spot, otherwise they would have been fined. As soon as he said this, Wáng Jìn and Mǎ Xiǎo Tiān both burst out laughing, never expecting that Qū Míng Jùn, who is usually quite aloof, would actually initiate joking with everyone.

  Actually, Qu Mingjun's usual cold and arrogant demeanor is just an 18-year-old young man. At first, everyone wasn't very familiar with each other, and it was normal to have some estrangement between them. Now that they've been together for almost half a year, their relationship has become much more harmonious.

  The third checkpoint was on the foundation of a house that looked like a power plant, um, quite conspicuous, but why is the foundation of the house in the ditch? Fortunately, I walked around the house for a circle, otherwise if

  It's really hard to find in the dark. The three of them were excited about this thrilling guessing game, shouting and running to the fourth checkpoint.

  At this time, people from other groups could already be seen on the road, either ahead or behind, all in a hurry. When they met, everyone would just greet each other and curse the instructor for being perverted before continuing on their separate ways.

  Qu Ming Jun carefully looked at his watch, it was almost four o'clock in the afternoon. According to the assessment regulations, they had to return to their team before dinner at six o'clock. The three of them had basically completed their task at the checkpoint and found the special marks for the three checkpoints.

  Going back directly is also possible, and it can also improve the score of this small group in terms of time.

  However, as mentioned earlier, Qu Mingjun is a person who pursues perfection. This perfection not only lies in his self-requirements but also reflects in his attitude towards doing things. He would never be satisfied with just 99% and would strive for 100%. Of course, sometimes others might think he's being too hard on himself, and this attitude might make him appear stubborn. But in most cases, based on his abilities, this pursuit of perfection has made Qu Mingjun stand out in various aspects. In just half a year, he became the top student among the new freshmen of Class 96 at Shimen Military Academy.

  "Now we can't walk together from now on." Qu Mingjun said, looking at Wang Jin and Ma Xiaotian.

  Wang Jin and Ma Xiaotian were somewhat puzzled, blinking their eyes as they looked at Qu Mingjun.

  "We don't have much time left. Starting now, you two go to the fourth checkpoint and I'll go to the fifth one." Qu Mingjun sat down, took out a map and began marking on it.

  "Look, in the direction of the fourth and fifth checkpoints towards the land institute, there is an intersection, which is exactly the intersection of National Highway 307 and Dache Village. Next, I'll take the map to the fifth checkpoint, you two will take the GPS to the fourth checkpoint, I'll calculate the latitude and longitude coordinates of this intersection for you, and then you'll follow the orienteering method, first go to the fourth checkpoint, and then wait for me at the Dache Village intersection. Got it?" Qu Mingjun said while writing.

  "Qu Ge, let's... still walk together." Ma Xiao Tian looked at Wang Jin and nodded.

  "I'm telling you again, we don't have time! In order to get back to the Lu Institute before the appointed time, we must split up and go separately, got it?" Qu Mingjun said word by word.

  Ma Xiaotian was about to say something, but Wang Jin pulled him back and said, "Alright, let's trust Qu Ge. With just a map, he'll be fine. What we need to do is find the fourth checkpoint as soon as possible and then quickly head to the intersection point to meet up with Qu Ge. As long as we don't hold Qu Ge back, that's all that matters."

  After finishing speaking with Ma Xiaotian, Wang Jin turned his head to look at Qu Mingjun, stretched out one hand and said: "Brother Qu, you also need to hurry up, we'll meet at the intersection, if not... we won't part!"

  "Alright! Let's meet again!" Qu Mingjun stretched out his hand and patted Wang Jin's hand.

  Qing Mingjun held the map and compass, quickly running forward along the road. He had no GPS, in order to save time, he couldn't stop to calculate his location in detail, and could only roughly judge where he was based on the map in his hand.

  You have to hurry, Qu Mingjun told himself. Wang Jian and Ma Xiaotian had GPS, so it shouldn't be a big problem for them to find the fourth checkpoint and the gathering point smoothly. On the other hand, he was having trouble because the terrain on the map differed from the actual terrain in some places, especially the villages. A small village that was supposed to be by the side of the road on the map had now become a large village spanning across the highway.

  No way, the map was drawn in the 1960s after all. The countryside has changed a lot over the years, and the surrounding mountains have also changed a lot due to limestone mining. Can't expect the Military Mapping Bureau to redraw an accurate military map for the students on the spot, can they? Haven't you heard what the instructors said?

  It's not that the terrain and map have a certain gap, the assessment should start from strictness and difficulty, giving students a map and a compass to complete the course of outdoor terrain analysis and advancement, what's the point of even issuing GPS?

  Qū Míng Jùn ran while using his hand to draw along the predetermined route on the folded map, occasionally correcting the direction. Damn it, what's going on?

  Qiu Mingjun suddenly stopped, and in front of him, two roads appeared. According to his previous calculations, there shouldn't be any roads here at all.

  Qiu Mingjun silently cursed to himself, and had no choice but to stop where he was. He used the intersection method to determine his standing point. After visually estimating the height and distance of several surrounding mountain peaks, he aligned the north-south direction on the map with the actual north-south direction, using a ruler and pen to draw lines for the identified mountain peaks. The intersection of these lines was his standing point.

  After confirming, Qu Mingjun became even more confused. It was roughly consistent with the initial prediction, but the roads and villages in the distance did not match. Had he misjudged the mountains from the beginning? Maybe he should go into the village to ask around.

  Qu Mingjun picked up his belongings and ran into a nearby village.

  "Ah, excuse me, sir, what's the name of this village?" Qu Mingjun saw an energetic old man sitting by the roadside basking in the sun as soon as he entered the village.

  "What? You mean this village?" The old man seemed to have pretty good hearing.

  "Really? What's this village called?" Qu Mingjun asked patiently.

  The old man chuckled and stroked his beard, saying: "Young fellow, are you lost?"

  "Hmm...". Qu Mingjun was speechless for a moment. You ask this old man anything, and he just says whatever, what's the point of bringing this up?

  "Hey young man, don't worry, I've seen many soldiers like you asking for directions every year. This village was originally on the other side of the mountain. Unfortunately, a few years ago, due to the excavation of that white stone, the mountain collapsed. Later, our whole village moved here." The old man said with a smile.

  So it was, Qu Mingjun quickly opened the map and found that on the other side of the mountain, there was a small village marked as Mengjiazhuang. It had moved to this side, so the two roads on this side of the village were connected to the old village on one side and the national highway on the other.

  "Let's go, young man!" The old man stood up with the help of his cane and beckoned to Qu Mingjun to follow him.

  "Old master, what is this? What's going on?" Qu Mingjun, a monk with a confused expression.

  "I said, you little doll, look at you constantly licking your lips, are you thirsty? Go home and have a drink of water!" The old man burst out laughing, "Don't look at me as an old man who is almost seventy, my ears aren't deaf and my eyes aren't blurry."

  "Thank you, sir, but I really can't go. I still have tasks to complete here." Qu Mingjun hastily declined, maintaining the necessary politeness.

  "What's wrong? Look down on me, an old man? Which year did your soldiers come to our village and I didn't send them water? Afraid of drinking a mouthful of water? Get out!" The old man's face turned red, and he still had some dignity.

  "Really, really, old sir, there's no time left, we have a scheduled return to the team." Qu Mingjun smiled wryly.

  "Is something really going on?" The old man hesitated for a moment, reached out to take Qu Mingjun's water bottle, and entered the nearest house. Two loud shouts came from inside the house, and a woman rushed out to take the water bottle and pour water into it.

  The old man himself went into the house and brought out two eggs, but it's unclear what relationship this family has with the old man. Seeing the old man about to put the eggs in Qu Mingjun's bag, Qu Mingjun was so scared that he quickly declined.

  "Just put it on, why are you being so stingy? (Note: It means being miserly) The old man was very dissatisfied and said: "It's just two boiled eggs, not some precious thing. If we hadn't started the fire yet and only had these two ready-made ones, I wouldn't have been embarrassed to give them to you. Back when our village relocated, it was your soldier comrades who helped us out. You're still young, but you've got a lot of bad habits."

  Qu Mingjun took a look and thought that if he continued to pull and drag, he would really waste time, so he could only smile bitterly and thank the old man, take over the kettle and bid farewell. On the way, after drinking water, he found that there was actually sugar in it.

  It's been a long time since this thing happened, but Qu Mingjun still thinks of that old man from time to time. This matter really made him see what the relationship between soldiers and civilians is like. At first, he was very resentful about the incident with the black shop owner, but it was because of the kindness of this old man towards the soldiers that he got great comfort.

  Qu Ming found the fifth checkpoint smoothly, copied down the special mark on the milestone, and rushed to the meeting point agreed with Wang Bin and Ma Xiaotian. When he arrived, Wang Bin and Ma Xiaotian had been waiting for him for several minutes.

  "How is it?" Both parties asked at the same time. Then everyone smiled simultaneously and took out their own special marks. Now, all five checkpoints are marked. What's left is to rush back to the Lu Institute as quickly as possible to hand in the papers to the instructor.

  Three people tightened their belongings and started sprinting along the road. Fortunately, they had been training well physically, but wearing too many clothes made them feel very cumbersome.

  "Ah yo!" While running, Qu Mingjun suddenly stepped on a stone, his ankle turned over, and it was sprained.

  Wang Jin and Ma Xiaotian ran over, sweating all over, to check on Qu Mingjun's condition. After some gentle exercise, it seemed okay, the bones were fine, but his ankle was starting to swell up obviously.

  Damn it, good things are always delayed. Qu Mingjun thought with a scowl.

  "Unless you want to go back and hand in your paper first, Wang Jin, I'll help Qu Ge walk back slowly?" Ma Xiao Tian said tentatively.

  "Impossible! A group of us have to go back and sign before we can submit our papers." Qu Mingjun shook his head, the instructor had made it clear before the exam.

  "What nonsense, we came together and of course we'll go back together." Wang Jin wiped his sweat with a camouflage hat.

  "I've dragged you all down." Qu Mingjun sighed.

  Wang Jin opened his eyes wide and said, "Qiu Ge, what are you talking about? Don't forget that we're brothers."

  Qū Míng Jùn's heart warmed up, brothers, we are brothers.

  Wang Jin called out to Ma Xiaotian, "Come on, let's two people support Qu Ge and walk, anyway it's not far."

  Three people had just walked a few steps away, and Ma Xiao Tian's sharp eyes said, "Qu Ge, look over there!"

  Qu Mingjun turned his head and saw that a small group from the third district team had just come out of the village over there, and was also running quickly towards the Lu Institute.

  This won't do, we've all worked hard to get this far, we can't lose to them. Qu Mingjun couldn't help but shout loudly, "Run, Ma Xiaotian, run, Wang Jin! Come on!"

  "Yī èr yī, yī èr yī......" Qu Mingjun shouted the rhythm, and three people with five legs started running in sync. Qu Mingjun gritted his teeth and bounced up and down.

  The road seemed to have no end, and the three of them shouted slogans and encouraged each other, not relaxing for a single step. Gradually, the group in front saw the situation behind them and slowed down, waiting for Qu Mingjun and the others to catch up, asking if they needed help, and after getting a negative response, followed behind them, also helping to shout slogans.

  Slowly, several small groups ran back, none of them surpassed them, and followed behind Qu Mingjun's three people. Everyone shouted slogans together, sang military songs, and encouraged each other to move forward.

  They finally saw the gate of Lu Institute, and when the three people slowly ran into the gate of Lu Institute, several guards saluted them with the officer on duty in unison!

  Qū Míng Jùn suddenly felt a sourness in the corner of his eyes, with an unspeakable power surging from the bottom of his heart, his whole body burning hot. He wanted to sing loudly, he wanted to shout loudly. At this moment, the only theme left between heaven and earth was: We are brothers! We are brothers who will never abandon each other!!!

  The military topography lesson final score, Qu Mingjun's group ranked first in the whole team. Although they didn't have an advantage in terms of time, they were the first to retrieve the special markers from all five checkpoints. Qu Mingjun and Wang Jin, who had sprained their feet, hugged each other tightly amidst everyone's applause...