Chapter 27: Troublesome Matters

  After a long time in the fragrant room of elegant ladies, one no longer smells the fragrance; after a long time in the shop selling dried fish, one no longer smells the stench. Sun Xiao and Cao Tiancheng didn't know this saying before, but now they understand its meaning. After the dormitory was swept clean and new bedding was put on, only then did they feel that what Gao Yuan said about this place being like a pigsty wasn't an exaggeration. Now that people live inside, it's much fresher.

  However, the two of them can't relax now, as the big-headed soldiers in the house are eating and drinking to their heart's content, snoring loudly, while they sit around a dimly lit oil lamp, frowning and gritting their teeth, with painful expressions on their faces. The two are currently planning tomorrow's series of tasks, Sun Xiao is relatively easy-going, after all, it's just some military matters, but Cao Tiancheng is much more troublesome, with high expectations and responsibilities assigned to individuals, tasks packaged and delivered, at this moment he has a pen in his mouth, deeply thinking. This new soldier Cao is not someone who can be taken lightly, this point, Cao Tiancheng is well aware of.

  Cao Tiānchéng could recognize a few characters, which was extremely rare in the military. It was precisely because of this that this guy with very low combat value and an old good man could sit in the position of Du Tou. Although the few characters he wrote were like chicken claws, they were already precious in the grassroots army. This was also something Cao Tiānchéng took pride in.

  The names of people were scribbled on the paper in front of him, with notes on what each person should do. After a busy half-night, he finally had some outline. He handed the arrangement to Sun Xiao, "Can you help me take a look? Is there anything missing or needs to be added?"

  Sun Xiao stared at him with wide eyes, and Cao Tiancheng finally reacted, "Sorry, sorry, I'll read it to you, can you help me check?" Sun Xiao only recognized his own name because every time he received his salary, he had to sign on the military register, so he was familiar with the two characters of his name. As for other words, they could recognize Sun Xiao, but Sun Xiao couldn't recognize them.

  Cao Tiānchéng read the arrangement in a low voice, and Sūn Xiǎo didn't have much to say either. When it comes to this, Cao Tiānchéng is more meticulous than him."It's almost done, Old Cao, it's almost two watches of the night already, let's get some rest early too, tomorrow we still need to get up very early. There are a lot of things to take care of!"

  "Also!" No mention was better, but as soon as Sun Xiao mentioned it, Cao Tiancheng felt a surge of drowsiness and let out a yawn. He got up, shook open the bedding, and leaned against the wall with Sun Xiao, shoulder to shoulder. The two beds were both in the innermost position, which was a special privilege for the two leaders. Cao Tiancheng said in a low voice, "Sun Xiao, do you think this new soldier Cao will cause trouble by doing things his own way from the start? Won't the other two teams have opinions about it? This is an exception, and if we set this precedent, I'm afraid even County Magistrate Lu will find it hard to manage in the future. This isn't fair, what about the other two teams?"

  Sun Xiao rolled her eyes, "You're just a country bumpkin who doesn't know the ways of the world. This new soldier Cao is the nephew of County Magistrate Lu, so if anything happens, naturally the magistrate will take care of it. Didn't you hear what Soldier Cao said during the day? The money for our wages was borrowed by him personally and has nothing to do with the county magistrate. They want to compare themselves to us? With just one word from the magistrate, they'll be shut down! If you have the ability, go try borrowing some money yourself!"

  "You're right." Cao Tiancheng nodded, "County Master has indeed spent a lot of effort on this nephew. However, Beng Cao is also a person with real skills. Sun Xiao, you said you've been fighting for years, how can't you compare to Beng Cao?"

  As soon as this joke was brought up, Sun Xiao's face fell. "Old Cao, are you slapping me in the face or what?"

  "Hey, hey, I'm just strange, you guys can't even beat those few Xiongnu people, but one of our clerks can take them down, it's quite frightening." Cao Tiancheng hurriedly accompanied with a smile.

  As soon as this matter was brought up, Sun Xiao became unhappy and turned over to lie down, "I'm going to sleep, I don't want to talk about these annoying things anymore!"

  "Sleep, sleep!" Cao Tianding said with a smile, also lying down in his clothes.

  Cao Tiānchéng soon fell asleep, but Sūn Xiǎokě couldn't sleep. Her mind kept replaying the moves of Bái Tiān Gāo and others from that day. They looked so simple, yet she just couldn't do them herself? However, Gāo Bīng Cáo had said something good: losing once doesn't mean losing a lifetime. She was still young, after all, and there was plenty of time to turn things around.

  Thinking of those moves in her mind, Sun Xiao gradually became a bit dazed.

  The gate suddenly creaked loudly, Sun Xiao was startled, and quickly sat up, rubbing her eyes. Before she had fully woken up, a distant shout echoed from outside: "Everyone assemble!"

  Sun Xiao suddenly jumped out of bed and turned around to see Cao Tiancheng still sleeping like a pig. He couldn't help but rush over and slap his high-raised buttocks with a loud "Old Cao, get up quickly."

  After shouting loudly three times outside, he started counting, and Sun Xiao immediately understood the reason. He quickly put on his clothes, rushed out while shouting "Get up, get up!" and ran out while slapping each person along the way. The sound of slaps echoed in the house, and the sleepy big-headed soldiers woke up one after another.

  When Gao Yuan counted to ten, Sun Xiao had already appeared beside him. Looking at Sun Xiao, Gao Yuan nodded in approval but didn't speak, continuing to count. When he reached fifteen, it was unexpectedly Yan Haibo. Yan Haibo was young and not very big, usually doing errands and chores for the team as a junior member.

  When he counted to twenty, Cao Tiancheng also stumbled out, putting on his clothes while running, "What's wrong, what's going on, the Donghu people are coming!" Suddenly seeing Gao Yuan nailed here, counting and staring at him fiercely, he immediately shut up.

  It was at this moment that four or five barracks finally had soldiers rushing out.

  Gao Yuan has already counted up to fifty.

  Soldiers came running out one after another and stood in front of Gao Yuan, their appearances were bizarre, only a few people still looked neat and tidy, most of them were either shirtless or barefoot, and there was even a guy who was putting on his pants while running, jumping up and down like a frog.

  When he counted up to one hundred and fifty, he stopped.

  "Xiao Sun, Yan Haibo, bring all of them to the left side for now." Gao Yuan ordered in a stern voice. His gaze swept over the rows of people standing before him, about sixty or so, and his eyes were filled with disdain as he looked at them, thinking they were no better than trash.

  The weather in October was already quite cold, a hundred people stood outside, and couldn't help but feel some chill, especially those who hadn't had time to put on their clothes, were even more shivering with fear. But Gao Yuanhu stood there with a stern face, yet not a single person dared to speak or make a sound.

  After a short while, Gaoyuan waved his hand and said, "You all go to sleep!"

  Everyone's eyes widened in shock as Officer Cao suddenly roused everyone at midnight, just to take a look at their naked butts. The sixty or so people walked back and forth in confusion, glancing over at the more than thirty others standing off to the side, their eyes filled with schadenfreude.

  "Adjutant, who are these people?" Sun Xiao swallowed a mouthful of saliva and asked cautiously.

  "Everyone runs thirty laps around the barracks, Sun Xiao, you count, if anyone runs one lap less, I'll punish you to run ten more laps!" He threw down a sentence and strode away.

  Only thirty-odd big-headed soldiers were left standing in the cold wind.

  "Didn't you hear the squad leader's words? Start running, run for your life!" Sun Xiao kicked one of them in the butt with a loud "thud", and the guy let out a pained yelp as he took off running around the barracks.

  Sun Xiao turned back to look at the room that was still lit up by Gao Yuan, this new official really knew how to stir up trouble, it seemed like from now on he shouldn't sleep naked, if he accidentally became one of them, his face would be completely lost. And who knows what other new tricks they'll come up with in the future.