Chapter 7: First Encounter with Old Zhao

  The story in the dormitory was unfolding with great enthusiasm, but Chen Bin and Sun Qifan were quietly lying on the hospital bed, sleeping soundly.

  Until the door of the infirmary was suddenly opened, the dull creaking sound directly woke Chen Bin from his sleep. However, the wound on his body had only healed superficially, and with just a slight movement, Chen Bin still felt a sharp pain in his chest, so he dared only to lift his head and look towards the door.

  Jian Zhe was a flying shark student. Chen Bin couldn't help but ask the medical officer Tang Zhenglong, "What's going on?"

  Tang Zhenglong smiled and said, "Sun Lao Da called an emergency assembly, but some people didn't show up, so the others had to do 300 push-ups." Shaking his head in dismay, Tang Zhenglong chuckled and continued, "These young officers who only went through the motions in school can't handle Sun Lao Da's pranks. They did less than 50 push-ups before collapsing."

  When Tang Zhenglong said this, Chen Bin also smiled and turned his head to look at Sun Qifan who was sleeping on another bed, saying: "So to speak, this kid is still lucky, and he actually escaped a disaster."

  Tang Zhenglong looked at Sun Qifan as he walked to the medicine cabinet to find glucose injection, smiling and saying: "This is not a good person to mess with, have you forgotten how you ended up lying here?"

  "How is that possible!" Tang Zhenglong's words suddenly made Chen Bin somewhat annoyed, "Wait until I'm healed, I must make him pay me back."

  "Let's just have a try now."

  Sun Qifan's sudden words startled Tang Zhenglong so much that his hand holding the medicine trembled slightly.

  As soon as the words fell, Sun Qifan also turned over and stared at Chen Bin with cold eyes: "Don't look at my hands still bound by plaster now, but just with these two feet of mine, I think it's enough for you to drink a pot."

  "Kid, this is the rhythm of bragging without making a draft."

  Sun Qifan sneered and sat up. "Let's not talk about anything else, just look at the present situation - I can move around freely, how about you? Can you stand up?" As he spoke, Sun Qifan got down from the hospital bed again, walked to Chen Bin's side, and continued, "If you want to, you can remember the way I'm looking at you now... it's condescending!"

  Contemptuous words, Chen Bin was so angry that he wanted to get out of bed and teach Sun Qifan a lesson. Unfortunately, Chen Bin couldn't even sit up halfway, and immediately started coughing nonstop, and was persuaded by Tang Zhenglong to lie back down.

  Sun Qifan didn't say anything more, just smiled lightly and went back to bed, closing his eyes and falling asleep.

  I don't know when I fell asleep, but when Sun Qifan woke up from the soreness in his arm, the infirmary was already pitch black. Tang Zhenglong had long since gone, and Chen Bin's snores sounded especially loud in the quiet infirmary.

  Slowly sitting up halfway, Sun Qifan leaned against the headboard and couldn't help but look down at his own arms.

  It's been said that it takes a hundred days to recover from a severe injury, but only a few hours have passed and you're already walking around casually. If Sun Qifan didn't want to be looked down upon by Chen Bin and Tang Si, he wouldn't have forced himself to get up, enduring the pain just to show off in front of Chen Bin. Now it's even more painful than before.

  Waking up in pain, anyway, it would be a while before he could fall asleep again. Sun Qifan had no choice but to sit on the edge of the bed, gazing out the window at the starry sky outside.

  Thoughts couldn't help but go back to a month ago, when Sun Qifan was just a national defense student about to graduate from university, and Sun Fan was just the director of the National Defense Student Selection and Training Office stationed at the university. But at that time, Sun Fan was kind, and Sun Qifan wasn't as rebellious as he is now.

  But such a relationship was completely changed at the moment when Sun Qifan received the appointment notice.

  Hurried footsteps echoed in the university at the foot of Jinyun Mountain, the sound of rustling and slapping, from Sun Qifan's dormitory all the way to the outside of Sun Fan's office. In June, Chongqing was in the midst of a scorching heat wave, the cicadas were silent, and Sun Qifan couldn't help but wipe the sweat from his face, he simply pulled at the corner of his 07 summer military uniform, took a deep breath, and then knocked on the door of Sun Fan's office.

  "Report!"

  "Come in!"

  Responding to the voice, Sun Qifan pushed open the door. At this time, Sun Fan was quietly sitting in front of the computer, looking at the appointment notice issued by the headquarters, which included one about Sun Qifan.

  Coming to Sun Fu, Sun Qifan did not salute as usual, but instead pressed his hands on the table and asked Sun Fu in a tone of accusation: "What's going on with my appointment notice?"

  "Comrade Sun Qifan, you are now a quasi-military personnel, you should understand how much you lack manners and discipline." Sun Fan said, without lifting his head to look at Sun Qifan.

  Upon hearing his uncle's words, Sun Qifan's eyes involuntarily narrowed slightly, but he still forced a smile and stood at attention, saluting and saying: "Reporting to Director Sun, Sun Qifan, a 2016 graduate of the Psychology Department of Southwest University and a national defense student, has something that requires your guidance."

  Sun Fan heard the indignation in his nephew's words, but still seemed very calm and replied without lifting his head: "Speak."

  "I filled out a graduation application to go to the Shennong Bay border guard station, why did it become going to the South Sea Fleet to become a Flying Shark carrier-based aircraft student?"

  "Filling out a volunteer form does not represent the final job assignment." Sun Feng's response was particularly cold, and he still didn't look at Sun Qifan.

  "As far as I know, the troops select pilots from the top students of the Aviation Academy, but my university major is psychology, with no flight technical theory knowledge at all. I am not suitable to go to the South Sea Fleet for flight training!"

  "This time, from over a hundred universities nationwide, 25 outstanding national defense students were selected to go to the South Sea Fleet for professional flight training. Firstly, national defense students are professionally qualified officers nurtured by higher educational institutions. Secondly, you all have good learning and receiving abilities, even if starting from scratch, you will quickly get the hang of it. Moreover, is it necessary for you to question how the country arranges things?"

  Before his words had even fallen, Sun Fu finally raised his eyes to look at Sun Qifan, but there was no friendliness in his gaze, only a reprimand for disobedience.

  Sun Qifan didn't know how to respond to his uncle's words, but the sense of grievance in his heart was crystal clear.

  Seeing Sun Qifan not speaking, Sun Fan stood up and said to him: "As an excellent student of psychology with four national first-class scholarships, I don't want these honors to be just the result of your hard reading."

  "But I have my own dreams!"

  "Your own dream? Isn't your dream just wearing this olive green and dedicating strength to the cause of national defense?"

  "The naval uniform is not olive green, it's deep sea blue!" Sun Qifan finally couldn't hold back the grievances in his heart and shouted at Sun Fan.

  Being shouted at by Sun Qifan like that, Sun Fu was also furious and immediately slapped his palm on the table.

  "But that's also a uniform you must respect, and you are still an officer of the People's Liberation Army of the People's Republic of China!"

  "But I think..."

  "A soldier's duty is to obey orders! That's an order!" With that, Sun Fu slapped his palm heavily on the table again, immediately stopping Sun Qifan from continuing his sly argument.

  Sun Qifan didn't say anything else and reluctantly replied with a "yes" before turning around and leaving the office.

  As the office door slammed shut with a "bang!", Sun Fan was also stunned and sat back in his chair, pressing his hand to his temples. He opened the computer screen that had automatically closed and looked at his nephew Sun Qifan's application form, where the reason for filling out the form stared out at him, and Sun Fan couldn't help but sigh.

  But let the flying general of Long City be, and do not teach the barbarian horse to cross the Yin Mountains!

  "What a great line! But let the Flying General of Long City soar, and don't let the barbarian horse cross the Yin Mountains! Young one, why are you still awake so late, standing by the window and sighing about something?"

  The stranger's words suddenly brought Sun Qifan back to his senses from his nostalgic thoughts. Sun Qifan turned around and saw a middle-aged man with a buzz cut, wearing summer training clothes, who looked like he was in his mid-40s at first glance.

  Sun Qifan smiled and pointed at the middle-aged man's slippers, saying: "Aren't you afraid that when the inspection team comes, they'll catch you and give you a demerit?"

  The man smiled and said: "What's there to be afraid of? Anyway, you'll be with me to suffer the punishment together."

  Not knowing how to respond, Sun Qifan could only helplessly shake his head and turn around to walk towards the hospital bed. He had only taken two steps when he was stopped by the man, "Youngster, what's your name?"

  "Sun Qifan", Sun Qifan smiled and responded to the man, then asked back to the man: "What about you, uncle?"

  "What about me? I don't know either, anyway people here all like to call me Old Zhao, you can also call me that."

  Sun Qifan found it somewhat laughable and smiled, "You don't even know your own name. What are you doing here?" Sun Qifan thought that since they were chatting anyway, he might as well ask more questions. At least this guy called Old Zhao could be considered his first friend in the South Sea Fleet.

  Lao Zhao thought for a moment before responding: "The officers here sometimes ask me for help with odd jobs."

  "Professional technician?"

  "I suppose so."

  "Four stars or five?"

  Lao Zhao thought for a moment and said, "Let's count it as level five."

  "What's the calculation?" Sun Qifan found it funny and burst out laughing. At this moment, the flashing lights in the distance made the two of them alert, "The inspectors are coming, I have to hurry up." Old Zhao said, and then accompanied by the sound of slippers tapping on the cement floor, he quickly disappeared from Sun Qifan's line of sight, while Sun Qifan also hurriedly slipped back onto his bed.

  Just as he lay down, he still heard the voice of Old Zhao being questioned after being caught outside the window.

  Sun Qifan couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief, thinking that he was lucky to have escaped quickly and not been caught. Otherwise, something bad would have happened. However, after feeling a little smug for a moment, he felt like he had missed the opportunity to leave this place. After being indecisive for half a day, Sun Qifan couldn't come up with any better results except for letting out a long sigh and a faint smile. He could only shake his head, lie down on the bed and fall asleep, perhaps in the following days, the chance to leave... still existed.