Chapter 26
“This is a mess! Look at what you’re folding. We’ll have to work overtime today!” The inspection of the blankets was terrible, and even though the objective reason was that the blankets were new, Ye Sanshi didn’t care. Instead, he used it as a means to torment the recruits.
In Ye Sanshi’s view, how could a new recruit learn discipline without being pushed to their limits? He believed in grinding and pushing recruits to their limits through reprimands, overtime work, and strict inspections of even the smallest details like the folding of blankets.
This was the essence of his training methods.
Although Wang Ye’s situation was unexpected, the final result did not change much. On the contrary, he even set a target for the other recruits in the class. By using Wang Ye as a benchmark, some recruits were motivated to surpass his performance.
While this might have caused some disharmony in the class and even placed a target on Wang Ye’s back, Ye Sanshi was not concerned about it. He believed that if Wang Ye’s performance inspired the others to chase after him and improve their overall training results, then it was a good thing.
The recruits looked bitter, but Ye Sanshi didn’t give them a chance to speak.
“Alright, bring your toiletries and follow me,” he ordered. He picked up his small yellow basin first, then went over to get the cup, toothbrush, and other toiletries. After the recruits gathered their belongings, he led them out of the dormitory.
There was no washroom in the dormitory of the recruit company, so the recruits had to wash up at the sink outside. Fortunately, the area was spacious, and although the tap was limited, it was easy to wash up in the morning. The yellow basin they had used the night before to soak their feet could be used to fill water and wash his face and brush his teeth in the drain by the side.
A few minutes later, they returned to the dormitory. Everyone began to clean up carefully under Ye Sanshi’s various instructions.
“I’ve never mopped the floor like this at home!”
“Sigh, isn’t that so? When I was studying in school, I always ran first when I was cleaning, but now…”
After Ye Sanshi came back to the dormitory, he gave everyone some cleaning tips before leaving with a notebook and pen. He didn’t disclose where he was going, but someone had shouted downstairs just now, and everyone knew that the class monitors had come down for a meeting.
Without the class monitor in class five, everyone was much more relaxed.
“Sigh, I must have lost my mind by joining the army! Brothers, I’m starting to regret it!” Deng Hai exclaimed as he flung the cloth and pulled out a small stool from under the bed. He sat down with a vexed look.
“Doesn’t your girlfriend like soldiers? You’re doing this for love!” someone laughed.
Deng Hai looked over and sighed, “That’s right! But now, I feel like I was too impulsive. If I had known that the army was like this, I wouldn’t have come even if we broke up.”
“Are you willing to break up?” someone joked. “By the way, bro, what does your girlfriend look like? Do you have a photo? Let everyone see.”
“Yes, but I’m not going to show it to you, you bunch of lecherous men,” Deng Hai said, taking the initiative to change the topic. “Hey, what do you think happened to the brother who ran away earlier?”
“What else could it be? It’s obvious that he failed to escape and was persuaded to come back!”
“Then do you think he will be punished?”
“I don’t think so. Didn’t we see it just now? There’s nothing unusual about that brother. However, I reckon that his class monitor will definitely not like him in the future. He might even make things difficult for him!”
….
The group of recruits was not being supervised by their squad leader, so they were a bit slow in their work and were mostly focused on chatting. Wang Ye, on the other hand, didn’t participate in the conversation. He realized that he seemed to be isolated as everyone deliberately avoided looking at him, except for one person -Wan Baojiang, whom Wang Ye had helped before.
“Brother, I support you to be the vice-class monitor,” Wan Baojiang said in a low voice as he approached Wang Ye with a rag in his hand.
As soon as Wan Baojiang spoke, all the recruits who were previously chatting stopped talking at the same time. Despite the small size of the dormitory, everyone could hear him clearly. All eyes were now on Wang Ye and their ears were perked up, curious about what would happen next.
Being the vice-captain was the first chance for advancement in the army. If Wang Ye refused, it would just be a verbal statement. As young people, who wouldn’t want to stand out? Even those who didn’t want to come to the army would still want to excel.
If Wang Ye performed well, he could brag to his family when he called home. From the looks of it, Wang Ye had indeed performed better than the others, though some may have been holding back or thought he was showing off.
Regardless, everyone was interested in what Wan Baojiang had said and wanted to hear Wang Ye’s thoughts. After looking at Wan Baojiang and then at the others, Wang Ye smiled and said, “Thank you!”
He then looked at everyone else and said, “I don’t like to hide things. I came to the army to do my best.”
After a brief pause, Wang Ye continued, “Being the vice-class monitor is just the first step and I will give it my all. If you have any ideas, express them directly, and we can compete openly. Anything is possible. I’m just saying that I won’t go easy on you.”
“Wang Ye, your words are straightforward. Everyone is competing fairly. Although I feel that my chances are slim, I still want to give it a try!” Gu Yingnan said.
As soon as Gu Yingnan finished speaking, others followed suit.
Deng Hai, who had a lively personality, said with a smile, “Actually, I wanted to be the one too, but I don’t think I have a chance. Blackface Ye seems to have a problem with me, but I’ll still give it a try. Who knows, maybe I’ll be the one who gets the position in the end. That way, my girlfriend and I can brag about it.” It seemed that he had changed his mind since earlier, even giving Ye Sanshi a nickname.
“I definitely won’t have the chance, but I will learn from you!” Zhang Ping’an said with a silly smile.
…..
Almost everyone in the dormitory had expressed their stance. Wang Ye then said, “Let’s compete fairly. No matter what the final result is, we have to keep doing what we’re doing now.”
He then flashed the rag in his hand and said, “You don’t want to lose to me in the internal affairs department, right?”
Deng Hai smiled and stood up from the bench, and the others also seemed to be excited all of a sudden, working extra hard when wiping the floor, especially when wiping their own bed frame.
Wan Baojiang was still standing beside Wang Ye, and he reached out to give him a thumbs up. “You’re really suitable to be the vice-class monitor,” he said.
Wang Ye looked at him speechlessly. He knew that Wan Baojiang was straightforward, but there were some things that you didn’t have to say directly, even if they were true. Now everyone was looking over.
“Good luck, everyone!” Wang Ye smiled and didn’t answer Wan Baojiang. He then squatted down and continued to clean under the bed.
For Wang Ye, what he did today could be considered a showdown. It was important to get along with others, and Wang Ye, an old fox with social experience, knew this very well. He didn’t want to be ostracised, and he wanted to show that he was capable of being the vice-class monitor.
….