I enlisted four times! My former unit blacklisted me.

Around 5 PM, on Kangzhuang Avenue.

Zhao Yihang and Qian Kun squatted on the curb, with seven or eight shopping bags piled up haphazardly at their feet.

There were newly released noise-canceling headphones, portable game consoles, and braised snacks and sodas that Qian Kun had brought to the class—all of which he had bought from the electronics market, filling half a row.

Qian Kun, with a nearly melted popsicle stick dangling from his mouth, kept looking around. "Why aren't Feng and the other guy here yet? If we dawdle any longer, we won't have enough of what we bought to freeze."

Zhao Yihang leaned against a utility pole, fanning himself slowly with a shopping bag in hand: "What's the rush? Who knows, we might get caught by a few old soldiers with disheveled appearances on the way, which will just delay us a bit."

"Instead of worrying about the food, you should worry about Ma Teng. I doubt he'll even be able to get back to the team on time tonight."

The moment Ma Teng was mentioned, Qian Kun perked up instantly.

"Hey, that's exactly what I was thinking! Do you think Lao Ma will even step out of his hotel room this afternoon?"

"I reckon they probably didn't even leave the room, just spent the whole afternoon doing *hehehe*!"

"Come on, this young girl came all this way, shouldn't she at least go shopping and see a movie?"

Zhao Yihang kicked him as he spoke, "You have such filthy thoughts, your mind is full of indecent things."

"What do you mean by 'filthy'? This is just human nature." Qian Kun continued with a lewd look, "I bet you, if he makes it back to the camp on time tonight, I'll wash his socks for a month next week, and even clean his training shoes."

Zhao Yihang snorted, "Then you're doomed. Old Ma may seem quiet, but he's got a good head on his shoulders. He wouldn't dare stay late. If the sentry really marks him, Brother Feng can make him run fifty laps around the track, plus two hundred meters of low crawling."

Qian Kun rolled his eyes: "Forget it, fifty laps? He'll be lucky if he can even get up tomorrow."

"After an afternoon of high-intensity 'exercise,' his legs are so weak. He'll have to carry himself through a five-kilometer run tomorrow morning, holding onto trees for support!"

"Our class will drag us down again, and Brother Feng will definitely punish us too. Let me tell you, if he can't run, we're not going to carry his gun, because he prioritizes women over friends."

"You're such a jinx," Zhao Yihang said with a laugh. "Just hope for the best. Besides, if you really can't run anymore, don't you, the rich young master, still have to help you out? You've already booked a 3,000 yuan suite for him, so what's wrong with carrying a gun for him a couple of times?"

"How can that be the same!" Qian Kun scoffed. "The suite is for welcoming your sister-in-law, carrying a gun is for punishment training, they're two different things. If his legs really give way, fine, just buy me a week's worth of sausages, and I'll carry them for him."

The two were teasing Ma Teng, one after the other.

Suddenly, a heart-wrenching cry came from the middle of the road, followed by the screeching of brakes and the blaring of horns.

The two looked up abruptly and saw a little boy, about five or six years old, wearing a blue short-sleeved shirt with dinosaur prints, crying and running across the street with his arms outstretched.

Several private cars in the left and right lanes braked suddenly.

The outermost small truck was carrying goods and had a long braking distance; it looked like it was about to graz the child and hit him.

"Holy crap!"

Qian Kun reacted quickly, shoving the shopping bag in his arms into Zhao Yihang's arms and then leaping out.

He darted to the middle of the road, grabbed the child by the back of the collar, pulled him back, and rolled him on the road, barely managing to avoid the small truck.

The smell of burning tires wafted over as they scraped the ground. The truck driver stuck his head out and cursed something, but neither of them could hear him.

Qian Kun, carrying the child, rolled to the side of the road. His elbow was scraped raw, but he didn't bother to rub it. He first helped the child up and checked him over: "Are you alright? Did you get hurt? Do your arms and legs hurt?"

The little boy had never experienced anything like this before, and he cried even harder, his face covered in tears and snot, his mouth agape and wailing, unable to say anything but sob.

Qian Kun couldn't stand a child crying more than anything in his life. He was instantly overwhelmed and stood there helplessly.

I raised my hand to pat the child's back, but I was afraid of patting too hard. It felt like touching a hot porcelain doll; I didn't know where to put my hand.

"Hey, hey, don't cry, don't cry, everything's alright, okay?"

He tried to coax the child clumsily, but the more he tried, the louder the child cried, making his eardrums ring.

Zhao Yihang also rushed over and was at his wits' end looking at the child who was crying so hard.

They were both eighteen or nineteen-year-old kids, barely out of their own lives, how could they possibly know how to coax a five or six-year-old brat?

"Whose child is this? Why is he running around in the road all by himself? Don't the adults keep an eye on him?"

Zhao Yihang frowned, squatted down, and asked, "Little friend, what's your name? Where are your parents? Why did you come out by yourself?"

The little boy cried loudly, tears streaming down his face: "My name is Liu Lele, I want to find my mom... I want my dad..."

She wouldn't say anything when asked, she just closed her eyes and wailed, crying so hard she almost passed out, attracting the attention of passersby who pointed and whispered.

Qian Kun's head was throbbing from crying: "My little darling, please stop crying. What's your name? Where do you live?"

"Tell your brother, how about I take you home by taxi? If a taxi isn't enough, I'll call you a private car, the kind with a child safety seat!"

The child ignored him completely and continued crying.

"No, no, I can't take it anymore." Qian Kun surrendered, covering his ears. "Zhao Yihang, do you have a solution? If you keep crying, I'm going to cry too. This thing is more grueling than running ten kilometers."

Zhao Yihang also had a headache. He looked around and saw a toy stall across the intersection with a bunch of bubble machines and plastic knives and guns in all sorts of colors.

"Got it!"

"Kids love playing with toys. I'll go buy one to cheer him up; maybe that will stop his crying. You stay here and keep an eye on him, make sure he doesn't run into the street again!"

"Okay, okay, hurry up! Run there!" Qian Kun was overjoyed and urged him quickly, "Buy...buy a gun! Little boys all love those! The kind that makes a bang!"

"Got it!" Zhao Yihang replied and took off running across the street.

Qian Kun was left alone with the crying child, which annoyed him so much that he took out his phone to call the police.

As soon as the call connected, he shouted:

"Hello! Is this the police?"

As soon as Xiao Lin, the 110 operator on the other end of the phone, heard a child crying heartbreakingly, her heart skipped a beat.

She has been a dispatcher for almost three years and has seen all kinds of police calls. Calls with a child crying usually indicate a serious matter.

"Hello, how can I help you?"

Qian Kun was already anxious, and with the child crying loudly beside him, his mind was a complete mess. He blurted out in a rapid-fire voice, "I kidnapped a child."

Xiaolin's expression tightened.

They kidnapped a child?!

She suspected she had misheard and subconsciously asked again, but the background noise on the other end was too loud, and the child's crying was too loud, so she only vaguely heard the word "robbery".

Did the robbers call the police on their own initiative?

That's outrageous!