I enlisted four times! My former unit blacklisted me.

"Enough?" He Yong was almost in tears. "Just because we stole a few pieces of his beef, the four of us have to squat here writing until dawn? He's holding a grudge way too much!"

"This is nothing like his usual nonchalant self! During the day, I thought he was quite easy to get along with, always speaking politely, and never getting angry no matter how much drill training went on—"

"You call that easy to get along with?" Liu Zhen sneered. "He's a smiling tiger! He smiles as he offers you cigarettes, smiles as he talks to you, smiles as he watches you jump into the pit, and then smiles as he buries you!"

"He didn't even lose his temper once from beginning to end, and the four of us are already squatting here! That's the scariest part!"

He Yong shrank his neck.

Cao Meng sighed and said, "Write it, write it. Save your energy by saying less. It's ten thousand words; we might not finish it even if we write until dawn."

He Yong asked curiously, "He just said that if we can't train him to death during the day, we'll torture him to death at night—is he serious? Are we really going to train him like crazy starting tomorrow?"

Liu Zhen said in a deep voice, "Train. Train like crazy. Didn't he tell us not to go easy on him? Then don't blame me for being impolite. A 10,000-word self-criticism in exchange for three months of training like crazy, I want to see how long he can hold out."

"Doesn't he like running? Starting tomorrow, his cross-country weight will double, and his time will be halved. Isn't his marching form impeccable?"

"Make him the drill demonstration for the entire company, leading thirty men in marching until his legs cramped up."

As Song Yizhou wrote, he said, "He said he doesn't care if we test his bottom line. He said it doesn't matter how we test him, it's our right, and it's also the rule of the game, which he will abide by."

"So what?" He Yong didn't react.

"So we tested him for a day – we gave him an extra five-kilometer run with the same price, and we made sure to give him the dirtiest outhouse. During the drill training, Du Hong walked around him ten times but couldn't find anything wrong with him."

"At lunchtime, his plates were so polished they looked like mirrors, and his blankets were folded like they'd been cut by a machine tool. Think about it carefully, which one of them did he fail to do?"

The three of them fell silent.

Song Yizhou continued, "Someone who can do everything perfectly without leaving any room for criticism, tell me, how hard do you plan to train him?"

"Add weight to his load? He can run and chat. Add more subjects to his curriculum? How about a perfect score on the outhouse?"

"Punish him by making him stand in line? His movements are more precise than any instructional video."

"So, what other tricks do you have up your sleeve?"

This analysis is far more impactful than Liu Zhen's earlier statement, "If you can't train to death, then you'll be tortured to death."

The three of them looked at each other, their faces showing a deep sense of helplessness.

They suddenly realized a terrifying fact: Wu Hanfeng dared to utter that harsh statement, "If you don't train me to death, I'll torture you to death," not because he was crazy, but because he really had the confidence to do so.

His confidence stemmed not from the police warrant, but from who he was.

Even without a military police badge, he was a soldier who was impeccable.

"So we can't do anything about him?" He Yong said indignantly.

He looked down at the crooked, less than two hundred words of his paper, then at the pale streetlights overhead, and suddenly realized that he wasn't writing a self-criticism, but an epitaph.

Liu Zhen said, "Whether there's a way or not, let's practice first!"

"He won't let us have an easy time, and we'll never let him have an easy time!"

………………

Wu Hanfeng checked the time and then glanced at the four unlucky guys on the playground.

They were huddled around the lamppost, their backsides sticking out as they wrote furiously.

He turned to Zhao Yihang and said, "Yihang, you stay here and keep watch."

"Write down who slacks off and who whispers to each other."

Zhao Yihang snapped to attention.

"Yes! Don't worry, Brother Feng! I'll time them when they go to the bathroom!"

Wu Hanfeng nodded and adjusted his helmet.

He turned and walked towards the dormitory building.

Zhao Yihang watched Feng Ge disappear at the building entrance and took a deep breath.

Then he turned around, put his hands behind his back, and stood with his feet straddling.

He stared at the four people under the lamppost with what he considered his most intimidating gaze.

Liu Zhen looked up at him and asked, "What are you looking at?"

Zhao Yihang slightly raised his chin: "On official business, please cooperate, Captain Liu."

Liu Zhen: "..."

Cao Meng squeezed out a few words through gritted teeth: "Just like his master."

Zhao Yihang, with his sharp ears, immediately said, "Captain Cao, I have the right to write down your insults towards the disciplinary officers."

Cao Meng's face turned green on the spot, and he lowered his head to continue writing.

He Yong nudged Song Yizhou with his elbow and said in a low voice, "When one person attains enlightenment, even their chickens and dogs benefit."

Song Yizhou said irritably, "Stop talking and hurry up and write."

At the same time, Wu Hanfeng entered the dormitory building.

The hallway was pitch black, but a motion-activated light came on at his feet.

The dim yellow light reflected off the silver-gray helmet, casting a long shadow on the wall.

He did not stay on the first or second floor.

These two floors are student dormitories; all the contraband was handed in today.

If you're going to investigate, investigate the third and fourth floors.

The third floor is the class monitor's dormitory, two people per room.

The fourth floor has single rooms for the captain and battalion commander.

They had just arrived today when the squad leaders and captains set out more than a dozen rules for them.

No lying in bed, no making noise, and no exceeding the allotted time for using the toilet.

They're very good at managing others, but they're quite lax when it comes to managing themselves.

Wu Hanfeng's lips curled into a smile.

He went up to the third floor.

The corridor was shorter than the student floor, with eight rooms on each side.

It's almost one in the morning, and it's so quiet you can hear snoring.

He didn't go to the first room.

That was Song Yizhou and He Yong's dormitory; the two were writing self-criticisms downstairs.

He stopped at the door of the second room.

The nameplates on the doors read: Class 1, Zhou Ming; Class 2, Cheng Lin.

Wu Hanfeng suddenly stopped in his tracks.

His radar detected a faint signal.

A sliver of light shone through the crack in the door, then suddenly went out.

Wu Hanfeng raised an eyebrow.

He scanned the room with radar.

The sensory feedback penetrates the walls, transmitting back a clear image.

The person on the bed by the window was breathing evenly; they were definitely sleeping.

The bed closest to the door was completely covered by the blanket.

Deep inside the blankets, there was a source of heat.

Its temperature and shape make it look exactly like a phone that's charging.

Wu Hanfeng raised his hand, grabbed the doorknob, and twisted it.

The door wasn't locked.

He pushed the door open and entered.

The corridor lights flooded into the room, cutting a bright strip of light across the floor.

Squad leader Cheng Lin was fast asleep on the bed by the window.

The bed closest to the door was wrapped up in blankets like a rice dumpling, with not a single hair showing.

Wu Hanfeng walked to the bedside.

He stretched out two fingers, pinched a corner of the blanket, and suddenly yanked it off.

The blanket flew up.

He revealed a startled face.