Chapter 22
If you think about military training quickly, a morning can pass in the blink of an eye just by standing at attention; but if you think about it slowly, you can pinpoint the exact second it takes for sweat to drip down.
The training uniforms bounced back and forth between wet and dry. The boys were okay, but some girls had their long hair tied up in their hats, which made their scalps feel stuffy and itchy. Standing for a long time made their hair buns feel heavy and their scalps hurt even more.
Perhaps it was the class's timely attitude in correcting their mistakes that made the instructor's face less stern, and he became more tolerant.
He finally nodded when he heard Chen Chen's request for a ten-minute break.
The students immediately cheered loudly, and several boys shouted that Chen Chen was their godfather. After shouting, they chased each other to get some shade.
Most of the girls went to the restroom in groups. Bai Nan, whose tofu pudding was a bit salty that morning, was busy drinking water to soothe her parched throat.
She drank half a bottle of water before she felt better.
"Xiao Di, do you still want some water? I'm out of water." Huang Wang plopped down next to Bai Nan and casually tossed the empty plastic bottle into the nearby trash can.
Bai Nan was unscrewing the bottle cap when she heard this and paused for a moment: "I... I misread it. How about I go to the convenience store over there and buy you a bottle?"
Huang Wang's face was flushed, but his lips were pale, and large beads of sweat were sliding down his neck, which looked like the beginning of heatstroke.
Bai Nan didn't dare to delay. She dropped her water bottle and ran to the convenience store, which was a bit far from their military training location. She had to hurry.
After Bai Nan left, Huang Wang wiped his sweat from his brow and casually glanced at the spot where she had just been sitting.
The half-empty bottle of water that Bai Nan had left behind was sitting there all alone.
She ran very fast.
Having trained twice, she learned a lot from Li Ling about how to slack off under the instructor's nose.
So I still had plenty of energy on the first day.
On the contrary, she was a little worried about Huang Wang's condition. He was too much like her former self. He might be timid and self-conscious in front of outsiders, but deep down he had high self-esteem and was even a little stubborn.
People like them can accept being looked down upon by others, but they cannot allow themselves to look down on themselves. If it is something they are determined to do, even if they fall and get hurt, even if others advise them to give up, they will stubbornly stick to it to the end.
Therefore, she was afraid that even if Huang Wang's body could not take it anymore, his strong sense of self-respect would not allow him to give up, and he would definitely not listen to her advice and take the initiative to ask the instructor for leave.
In situations like this, going along with him and letting him crash and bleed might make him feel a little better.
Bai Nan timed it perfectly and ran very fast, passing many military training classes along the way.
She only dared to stop and catch her breath when she was about 100 meters away from the convenience store, and then quickly walked towards it again.
A class that was very close to the convenience store was dismissed for a break by the instructor, and a large number of students headed there as well.
One of the tall and slender figures noticed Bai Nan by chance, hesitated for a moment, and then walked towards her.
"Boss, do you have Huoxiang Zhengqi Liquid?"
Bai Nan, holding two bottles of water, one ice water and one room temperature water, searched the shelf for a long time but couldn't find Huoxiang Zhengqi Liquid, so he asked the shopkeeper.
But by then, more and more students had arrived, and the noise was deafening. The owner was busy scanning codes behind the counter and didn't notice her.
Bai Nan sighed and prepared to search again from left to right. If he ran fast enough before the meeting time, he would still have time.
She squeezed back from the far right shelf to the far left, which was also the shelf closest to the door and the most crowded, where there were some snacks like instant noodles and jelly.
"Smack!" There were too many people, and when she turned around, she accidentally knocked the large jelly off the shelf.
She transferred the two bottles of water to one hand and bent down to pick them up.
Just then, a hand picked up the large jelly faster than her. She looked up, about to say thank you, but froze on the spot the moment she looked up.
"Who is it for?"
Xu Xin glanced at the water bottle in her hand, his tone indifferent, and casually put the large jelly back on the shelf as he spoke, as if it were just a casual question.
Bai Nan quickly looked away, but the surroundings were too crowded, and she would accidentally make eye contact with someone. So she had no choice but to focus her gaze on the large jelly that had just fallen.
This is a pure yellow peach jelly, bouncy and juicy...
"Huang Wang..." Bai Nan had barely finished speaking when she instinctively wanted to add something, but before she could say "he has a bit of heatstroke," Xu Xin interrupted her.
"Oh." He seemed to lose interest all of a sudden, nodded and prepared to leave, but for some reason, Bai Nan's hand reached out as if it were not under her brain's control, and she caught a cold sensation.
"He's got heatstroke... I came to buy some Huoxiang Zhengqi Liquid..."
She seemed inexplicably lacking in confidence, and her voice grew softer and softer as she spoke.
Xu Xin: "Really?"
Sensing his confusion, she immediately looked up and said with a very serious expression, "Well, the boss is busy. I've looked all over but can't find it. Could you help me out?"
She became more and more confident as she spoke, until finally she had no more apprehension left.
Xu Xin nodded, and Ren Bainan pulled his wrist to squeeze out of the crowd, and a moment later squeezed into the next wave of people.
"I've looked through all these shelves, only those two corners are left to look for, there are too many people."
Time was running out, and Bai Nan was getting a little anxious.
Seeing the anxiety in her eyes, Xu Xin paused for a moment, then used a bit of force to break free from her hand. While she was still in a daze, he grabbed her shoulder and used his body to push through the crowd.
He was tall and had exceptionally strong arms. He led her against the flow of people to the corner shelf.
Bai Nan quickly scanned the goods on the shelves and finally found what she was looking for on the bottom shelf.
"Found it!" She turned around with the box in her hand and said happily to Xu Xin, her light-colored eyes shining.
She was very grateful to Xu Xin, knowing that he hated being close to others. When walking, if someone was too close, he would either stride forward or stop and wait a while; in short, he didn't want to be near others.
When she returned with a box of Huoxiang Zhengqi Liquid and two bottles of water, the instructor was blowing his whistle.
She quickly ran to Huang Wang's side, pulling out a bottle of Huoxiang Zhengqi Liquid from the box as she ran, and handed the glass bottle to him.
"Drink it quickly, it won't be bitter if you drink it all in one go."
She unscrewed a bottle of ice water and gulped it down. If she hadn't been in such a hurry, she would have wanted to drink it halfway there.
Huang Wang downed the Huoxiang Zhengqi Liquid in one gulp, and after finishing it, his eyes sparkled as he stared at Bai Nan: "It's not bitter, it's sweet!"
Bai Nan shook his head upon hearing this, saying that the child had suffered heatstroke and become mentally impaired.
When I was a child, I was sleeping on the roof one summer. When I woke up, I felt dizzy and nauseous. My grandmother brought me a whole bowl of Huoxiang Zhengqi Water (a traditional Chinese medicine for relieving nausea and vomiting) and forced it into my mouth. It was so bitter that I couldn't eat anything for three days.
Grandma said the same thing to her: "Nannan, it won't be bitter if you drink it all in one go, hurry up and gulp it down."
"Beep beep beep—"
The whistle blew again, and the two quickly dropped into the water and ran to regroup.
As noon approached, the sun grew even more intense.
They stood under the blazing sun, following the instructors' commands and performing different actions one by one; some were sluggish, while others were disciplined.
In the grass beside the tree-lined path, a transparent plastic bottle reflects a blinding light under the direct sunlight.
The bottle was empty.
Once the evening breeze had soaked through their training uniforms and their skin had gradually cooled, the day's military training came to an end.
"What the hell! I have to suffer like this for four more days?!"
"Some deity, please descend to earth and take me away! I really don't want to stay in the mortal realm anymore!"
Chen Shu was complaining on the side, and the girls around her nodded in agreement, especially the fair-skinned girls who were applying aloe vera gel and complaining, "Damn military training, my skin got a shade darker!"
"I'm not afraid of getting tanned, I'm just afraid of getting sunburned and peeling, it will sting and hurt!"
Bai Nan rubbed some sunscreen off the girl next to her during her break, but by the end of the day, the back of her neck was still itchy and itchy.
She raised her hand and scratched a few times, some skin flakes came off with her fingernails. Her skin was peeling after only one day?
Bai Di's skin is even more delicate than mine.
Huang Wang walked beside her, and the two of them were slowly squeezing through the crowd to the cafeteria. However, everyone was exhausted after a long day, so no one was running, and it was quite orderly.
He peeked at Bai Nan's neck and said, "Bai Di, stop scratching. It's getting a bit sunburnt and the skin is peeling. When you get back to the dorm, put some aloe vera gel on it, otherwise it will be itchy and painful tonight."
Bai Nan nodded. She knew it was best not to scratch, but the itchiness was so bad that she couldn't control herself.
The two followed the crowd into the cafeteria. The classes that lived closer to the cafeteria had almost finished eating, and there were very few people still queuing at the food stalls.
So there weren't many dishes left. Bai Nan and Huang Wang grabbed a little something and prepared to find a seat.
"Xiao Di! Huang Wang! Over here!"
Li Ling sat in the corner waving at them, with Bai Di and Bai Lu beside her. Xu Xin was nowhere to be seen for some reason.
The two of them had crossed mountains and rivers, and finally managed to squeeze through and sit down while protecting their plates, both of them exhausted and covered in sweat.
The cafeteria was crowded and the food was hot, so sitting inside felt like having a giant steamer lid on their heads.
Li Ling pointed to her plate and said, "Xiao Di, you're not eating enough!"
She ordered the most rice from Bai Nan, followed by two vegetarian dishes. The remaining dishes at the main stall were all too oily; she couldn't stomach them.
After Li Ling finished speaking, she took a piece of chicken from her plate and gave it to her. "You're still growing, so you need to eat more. Even if you don't have an appetite, you have to eat. The intensity of military training will increase dramatically in the next few days. If you don't eat enough, you'll faint on the ground."
Bai Nan silently put the chicken into his mouth. It did feel greasy at first, but after chewing a couple of times, the meaty aroma came out, and he was able to eat it.
Li Ling watched her eat and nodded with satisfaction.
She didn't know why, but at first she really disliked Bai Di, not only because he bullied Bai Nan, but also because, due to the family's preference for sons over daughters, she naturally had a negative attitude towards boys in such families.
But after spending the last two days together, she felt that 'Bai Di' wasn't so bad after all. She turned to look at 'Bai Nan' beside her, but it was Bai Nan who she couldn't quite understand.
When Huang Wang was serving the food, he advised Bai Nan to order more meat dishes. When he saw that Li Ling had eaten the chicken she had given him, he immediately put a piece of meat on her plate as well.
"That's enough, I can't eat anymore." Bai Nan quickly stopped her. She didn't like eating meat in the hot weather, always feeling that it was greasy and caused heartburn, making her body feel even more agitated.
"Listen to Sister Ling, you need to eat more meat, otherwise you won't be able to handle it."
Huang Wang picked up another piece of meat for her and turned on the water bottle on the table for her: "If you feel greasy, drink some water."
Seeing how nice the two of them were to Bai Di, Bai Lu immediately rolled his eyes. "Hmph, if you knew the bastard things he did to Bai Nan, you wouldn't be so nice to him anymore."
As if to antagonize him, he also put a few pieces of meat on Bai Di's plate. This kid had always liked to bully Sister Nan since he was little, and he would often make Sister Nan take the blame and fight with the thugs outside the school for him. He was definitely a troublemaker.
Ugh! — He simply couldn't bear to look.
Bai Lu decided to stop watching their disgusting interaction and turned his head to look elsewhere. What he saw startled him.
"Brother Xin! When did you arrive?"
Xu Xin stood in the aisle two or three tables away from them, holding a plate in one hand and something else in the other, which was not clearly visible.
Several girls at the next table were secretly watching him, and no one knew how long he had been standing there.
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