“Lin Feifan, if you come back now, we can talk. If you run, I’ll have to have a good chat with your regiment commander or company commander later.”
Zhao Yi’s confident voice reached Lin Feifan’s ears again, making his pupils constrict in disbelief:
“Impossible!”
“How is this possible?”
Lin Feifan was stunned. He kept replaying his conversation with Zhao Yi, certain that he hadn’t revealed his name during their talk.
Moreover, he was sure he had never met Zhao Yi; they were complete strangers.
Under these circumstances, how did Zhao Yi know his name?
Lin Feifan couldn’t figure it out, but one thing he understood clearly was that he had to go back the way he came, dejectedly, to face Zhao Yi.
If Zhao Yi didn’t know his name, he could have run. Zhao Yi likely wouldn’t find him and wouldn’t bother expending great effort to find a soldier who had only made a minor mistake.
But now that Zhao Yi knew his name, it was different.
Even if there were a few soldiers with the same name in the Military Region, finding him would be as easy as Zhang Fei eating bean sprouts—a piece of cake.
By then, with leaders at every level tracing it back, wouldn't his squad leader promote him to death?
Two and a half minutes later.
Zhao Yi leaned against the military vehicle, watching Lin Feifan walk back towards him with his head down, and couldn’t help but find it amusing.
“Commander, I admit defeat,” Lin Feifan said proactively, then asked the question he couldn’t understand, “Commander, we’ve never met, how did you know my name?”
“I happened to see your file in a recent work document. It included your photo, name, and unit number, among other things.”
Zhao Yi casually came up with an excuse; of course, he couldn't say he saw it on the system panel.
Zhao Yi crossed his arms, sizing up the young soldier in front of him, then chuckled lightly:
“I heard you like to smoke. Coincidentally, I have a few packs of cigarettes in my car.”
“Xiao Ma, get a pack from the car.”
“Yes, Instructor!”
Ma Ping’an followed the order, opened the car door, leaned half his body into the car to rummage around, and pulled out a pack of red-packaged cigarettes, handing it to Zhao Yi.
Zhao Yi took it casually and tossed it to Lin Feifan.
“Holy cow! Soft Zhonghua! Commander, what… what do you do?”
Lin Feifan took the cigarette pack and immediately showed a shocked expression.
In this era, brands like Hongtashan and Honghe were already considered good cigarettes, usually given as gifts at banquets.
And Soft Zhonghua was even better and more expensive than those two brands! Some military cadres and leaders Lin Feifan knew didn't even smoke this.
Not to mention, he was just an ordinary soldier and couldn't afford cigarettes of that caliber at all.
Lin Feifan was also a discerning soldier. He immediately took out two cigarettes from the pack, handed one to Zhao Yi, and pulled out his lighter to light Zhao Yi’s cigarette.
“You smoke it. I don’t smoke.”
Zhao Yi didn’t take the cigarette Lin Feifan offered.
Upon hearing this, Lin Feifan was even more surprised. The Zhao Yi in front of him didn’t smoke, yet he casually kept such good cigarettes in his car. This was not something an ordinary leader could do.
Seeing that Zhao Yi didn’t smoke, Lin Feifan didn’t act coy. He put the other cigarette in his mouth, skillfully lit it, and took a puff.
“I say, Lin Feifan, the Instructor gave you a cigarette, and you just smoke it like that?”
Ma Ping’an, standing beside Zhao Yi, couldn’t help but speak, feeling that Lin Feifan was too presumptuous in front of Zhao Yi.
Lin Feifan exhaled a smoke ring, looked at Ma Ping’an, who was a few years younger than him, and chuckled:
“Today, I’ve fallen into your Commander’s hands. From now on, whether I live or die depends entirely on the Commander’s mood.”
“If the Commander wants to protect me, it doesn’t matter if I smoke this cigarette or not. If the Commander wants to help the Military Police catch me, I’m dead whether I smoke this cigarette or not.”
“Since that’s the case, why not smoke it?”
After speaking, Lin Feifan took another deep puff, then sighed with emotion:
“The Commander’s cigarettes taste different. Smoking this one will make me savor it for three days.”
Hearing this, Ma Ping’an was momentarily speechless, unsure what to say.
Zhao Yi, however, chuckled lightly:
“You’re quite open-minded.”
“When you’re in your hands, you have to be open-minded whether you want to or not,” Lin Feifan said with a bitter smile. “Just tell me directly, Commander, how do you plan to deal with me? Let me live, live clearly, and die, die quickly.”
Zhao Yi didn’t speak directly; he just quietly looked at Lin Feifan, making Lin Feifan feel uneasy, and the taste of the cigarette in his hand no longer seemed so good.
He was just a young soldier; how could he truly reach a state of composure in any situation?
It wasn’t until the cigarette in Lin Feifan’s hand burned out that Zhao Yi slowly spoke:
“Lin Feifan, what you did today, to be honest, isn’t a big deal—just smoking a cigarette in the drying yard.”
To be honest, whether you soldiers smoke, and how many cigarettes you smoke a day, your squad leaders and platoon leaders know it like a mirror. As long as you’re not caught red-handed, they’ll turn a blind eye.”
“Today’s incident, I can pretend I didn’t see it. Even if the Military Police really do find you, I can help you sort it out.”
“Commander, there’s no free lunch in this world. If you help me like this, what’s the price?”
Lin Feifan spoke uneasily. He didn’t think Commander Zhao Yi would help him so much on their first meeting.
“You write an application to your regiment commander, applying to join the Special Forces I’m establishing. You don’t need to worry about the rest. I can assure you that no Military Police will dare to trouble you in the future.”
Zhao Yi chuckled lightly.
“Of course, you can refuse. In that case, as a company Instructor, I certainly can’t sit idly by when it comes to violations of military discipline.”
Lin Feifan understood. Zhao Yi was openly threatening him.
Either leave his original unit and join that Special Forces unit, or he would be severely ‘promoted.’
And as a soldier with deep affection for his unit in the Military Region, Lin Feifan naturally chose the lesser of two evils:
He chose the former.
Being a soldier in any unit is still being a soldier, right?
Getting beaten, however, was a real pain felt on his own body.
“Commander, I’ll join!”
Lin Feifan surrendered righteously!
Hearing this, Zhao Yi was momentarily stunned. He had thought he would need to spend more time explaining the benefits of the Special Forces to Lin Feifan.
He didn’t expect Lin Feifan to agree faster than he imagined.
However, this was naturally a good thing for Zhao Yi.
Another Special Forces reservist was recruited.
“Good, Lin Feifan, get in the car.”
…
Zhao Yi, with Xu Zhongxin from the Fierce Tiger Regiment and Lin Feifan, whom he picked up by the roadside, returned to Xiao Qingshan Training Base.
Xiao Qingshan Training Base was now significantly different from when Zhao Yi first arrived.
Besides the renovation and repair of various training grounds, the most important change was the popularity brought by Zhao Yi and the supporting personnel of the Special Forces, which brought this formerly semi-abandoned training base back to life.
Just as Ma Ping’an clumsily parked the car in the lot, a harsh truck horn suddenly blared.
Zhao Yi turned his head and saw that it was Xu Kunpeng, his old buddy, driving a military truck.