I enlisted four times! My former unit blacklisted me.

Zhao Yihang moved his legs incredibly fast, running even faster than he did in yesterday's five-kilometer armed sprint.

More than a hundred people on the playground turned their heads in unison.

What the hell?

baby?

Chinese New Year?

Red bricks?!

Zhao Peng, from the Second Squadron standing at the front of the line, rubbed his eyes and turned to Zhang Hai next to him, asking, "What did he just shout? Is it New Year's?"

Zhang Hai also looked bewildered: "It seems so. He even called it 'baby'... He called that pile of bricks 'baby'?"

Are red bricks treasures?

"Perhaps... they're more scarce in the Third Regiment?"

"Scarce my foot! Which unit lacks red bricks? We have piles of them half a person high next to the pigsty in our company, and they've been raining for three years and are covered in moss!"

"That soldier's name is Zhao Yihang, right? I remember he ran the 5-kilometer armed run quite easily yesterday, and he was even chatting with people."

"Yes, that's him. He's from the Third Regiment, a one-year veteran."

"A soldier who's only been in service for a year acts like he's seen his own father when he sees a brick? What kind of logic is that?"

"Who knows what kind of 'gods' the Third Regiment has sent this time..."

It's no wonder they can't understand it.

To the ordinary trainees, that pile of red bricks was a genuine instrument of torture.

One brick weighs one kilogram, with sharp edges. Stuffed into a backpack against the back, every time you run, the corner of the brick will hit your spine.

After running five kilometers, a row of red marks would appear on my back.

Carrying a 25-kilogram load is basically equivalent to tying yourself to a chopping board and carrying bricks while running.

Who wouldn't avoid them if they saw them?

But Zhao Yihang's posture didn't look like he was going to move instruments of torture at all.

He rushed to the flower bed, his feet carving two shallow furrows in the ground, and bent down to dig into the pile of bricks.

His hands were like motors, grabbing one piece with each hand, then using his knee to brace them together, freeing up half a hand to grab another piece.

The movements were fluid and graceful, giving the impression of someone grabbing discounted eggs during a supermarket sale.

"Fifteen yuan! Fifteen yuan! I need at least fifteen yuan!" Zhao Yihang shouted back as he rummaged through his pockets for bricks, "Don't steal mine! I saw it first!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than Qian Kun arrived.

Qian Kun's legs were short to begin with, and he was left half a body length behind by Zhao Yihang after only a few steps.

Seeing that Zhao Yihang had already carried five or six pieces, he was so anxious that his facial features scrunched up.

"Old Zhao! You have no sportsmanship! We agreed to arrive together, why the hell didn't you sprint?!"

He pounced on the pile of bricks like a hungry tiger, his movements even more exaggerated than Zhao Yihang's.

His buttocks were sticking up high, his upper body was almost buried in the pile of bricks, and his arms were pulling in like a bulldozer.

"I want fifteen yuan too! I want fifteen yuan! Don't try to take it from me!"

Before he finished speaking, Ma Teng and Sun Dawei arrived.

Ma Teng was tall and thin with long arms and legs. He cut into the battlefield from the side and scooped up three pieces with both hands.

He tucked the brick under his armpit, then turned to the side and used his hip to push away the brick that Zhao Yihang had just touched.

"Old Zhao, you've got six yuan already, leave some soup for your brother!"

"Ma Teng, get lost! I touched this first!"

"Just because you stumbled upon it doesn't mean it's yours! Do you think this is like finding a gold ring on the street? Whoever grabs it keeps it!"

Sun Dawei's tactics were completely different.

He doesn't steal.

He spread his arms wide and pounced on the pile of bricks, using his 1.85-meter-tall, 80-kilogram frame to completely cover a large section of bricks beneath him.

"These are mine." Sun Dawei lay on the pile of bricks, raised his head, and smiled憨厚ly. "I'm tall and heavy, carrying a few more bricks is no problem."

"Dawei, are you here to steal bricks or to hustle?! Is all that stuff under your body yours? Can you even carry twenty bricks?!"

"Sure," Sun Dawei nodded seriously. "I can carry it."

"You think you can carry that?! You think you're a mule?!"

"A mule has four legs, I have two. But my back is wider than a mule's."

"Besides, Brother Feng said that if you believe in yourself, you can create miracles."

"Brother Feng didn't say that!"

"That's what I'll say in the future," Sun Dawei chuckled, continuing to lie down.

The other trainees on the playground were completely dumbfounded.

They saw Zhao Yihang holding a brick, humming a little tune.

I saw Qian Kun kneeling beside the pile of bricks, holding several bricks in his arms, with a happy smile on his face.

I saw Ma Teng carrying two bricks in his hands, weighing them as if he were picking out watermelons, judging their quality.

I saw a big guy lying on a pile of bricks, covered in red brick dust, laughing like a fool.

"Hey guys," Zhao Peng from the second squadron swallowed hard, "those are red bricks, right? I'm not seeing things, am I? It's not chocolate, is it?"

"Go up and try taking a bite."

"Why would I chew on that stuff! I'm afraid I'll break my teeth!"

"What's so great about that stuff? The peak-level class only needs 25 kilograms; ten bricks would be enough. But this pile has at least a hundred bricks; what are they fighting over?"

"Could it be... that the bricks have other uses in the training camp? Like, they can be used as pillows at night?"

"You use a red brick as a pillow? You try it, and if your neck isn't ruined the next day, I'll change my surname to yours."

"Then why would they steal it?"

No one can answer that.

Because Zhao Yihang had already returned carrying bricks.

He stuffed the bricks from his arms into his backpack one by one, one, two, three...

When he stuffed in the fifteenth piece, he stopped, weighed the backpack, and nodded in satisfaction.

"Great quality, good color, absorbed some water, each piece must weigh over a kilogram. Twenty-five kilograms is more than enough. I'm in for a treat today!"

The surrounding students looked at each other in bewilderment.

Cool?

You call carrying fifteen red bricks for ten kilometers a cool thing?

We felt like our spines were going to break carrying 15 kilograms of gear!

Just then, Wu Hanfeng slowly walked over.

But the moment he walked up to the pile of bricks, everyone's attention was drawn to him.

Sun Dawei was still lying on the pile of bricks when he saw Wu Hanfeng coming over. He quickly got up from the pile and made room for the bricks he was under: "Brother Feng, I've saved these for you. They're all good bricks, perfectly square!"

Wu Hanfeng looked down at Sun Dawei, then looked up at his honest face: "You got a good spot. But the dust on you... go back and wash it off."

"yes!"

Wu Hanfeng squatted down and reached out to pick up the bricks.

He stuffed the pieces into his backpack one by one without even looking at them.

Others carefully select those with smooth edges and regular shapes.

He, on the other hand, just stuffed it in with his eyes closed, like stuffing potatoes into a bag.

Ten yuan.

Twelve pieces.

Fifteen pieces.

Eighteen pieces.

The backpack grew increasingly bulging and heavy.

But he kept stuffing it in.

Nineteen yuan, twenty yuan...

Zhao Yihang, standing next to him, widened his eyes: "Brother Feng, how much did you stuff in?"

"A little over twenty yuan," Wu Hanfeng replied without changing his expression, his hands still moving. "Thirty, I guess."