Chapter 14, A Day with Flavor

Half an hour later.

Squad Nine stood in a row, their bodies tense.

The entire playground was very quiet, everyone standing still, adhering to the standard military posture taught by the squad leader.

"What does military posture express?"

Squad Leader Hao, with his hands behind his back, cheerfully asked everyone.

"Report! It expresses a soldier's stance!" shouted Lu Zexian, the soldier at the head of the column.

Hao Chengbin rolled his eyes, "I asked you to explain, not to translate!"

Yue Tao saw that the squad leader was not very serious and felt an opportunity to joke had come, so he said with a grin.

"Report, Squad Leader! It expresses the author's longing for home!"

"Hahaha..." The whole squad burst into laughter.

Hao Chengbin also laughed, but it was a sneer. After laughing, he walked behind Yue Tao and delivered a roundhouse kick to his buttocks.

"Military posture!"

"Represents!"

"A soldier!"

"Should have the!"

"Posture!"

Each sentence that came through Hao Chengbin's clenched teeth was accompanied by a kick.

Grinning with pain, Yue Tao hugged his buttocks. Being fortunate it was his thick-fleshed rear that took the punishment, he still had the mood to joke.

"Squad Leader! I was wrong!! Your roundhouse kick is even cooler than Squad Leader Pan's!"

Squad Leader Hao walked to the front of the formation, scoffed and said, "Yue Tao, if you keep goofing off in formation, next time I'll let you check out how handsome my front kick is!"

Fang Huai couldn't help but want to remind Yue Tao.

Squad Leader Hao's style of leading troops was a bit relaxed, probably because he didn't want everyone to be too strung up, but don't think the old soldiers won't mess with you.

Keep playing the fool, and the day you hit a minefield, you might just end up with a lifelong unforgettable memory.

The new recruits beside him didn't realize this and continued to watch cheerfully. The faster someone made a joke during training, the faster time seemed to pass. At the moment, only Fang Huai and Zhao Bing were still maintaining the military posture, while others were taking the opportunity to relax their arms and legs.

And Hao Chengbin made no adjustments.

After ten minutes.

Squad Leader Hao stood watching the outside scenery from beside the wall for a while but then turned around to find several people constantly shifting their legs, making small movements. He smiled and walked to the front of the column.

"I see your spirits aren't high when standing in military posture."

Here it comes. It's about to happen.

Fang Huai had a premonition.

"Standing seems to make it easy to slack off. To prevent slacking and stop wasting my time watching beauties... Alright then, lie down, get ready for push-ups!"

"Damn it, Sun Lianhai, Liu Yue! It's you two, wiggling around! Feels good, huh?" Yue Tao was annoyed.

Lu Zexian couldn't stand it anymore and turned to say,

"Yue Tao, you didn't move? I saw you fidgeting out of the corner of my eye!"

Squad Leader Hao glared, "Why the backtalk? Forgot what I said this morning? Want to be trash? When comrades make mistakes, you all have to take responsibility!"

"Report!" Lu Zexian shouted.

"Speak!"

"Yue Tao keeps fidgeting; as his comrade, I should remind him!"

"Formation discipline! Understand? Get down!"

Hao Chengbin went straight behind Lu Zexian, this time with no courtesy, kicking him hard on the thigh. Lu Zexian stumbled forward from the kick, tears welling up from the pain.

Fang Huai, standing beside him, saw clearly Lu Zexian's clenched fists and quickly stepped forward to pretend to help him up, grabbing his fist tightly.

"You made the choice to come here, no need for rash actions," Fang Huai whispered.

"You made the choice to come here," a phrase widely used in common speech to indicate all kinds of advisory actions, using "the difficulty of coming here" to overshadow the cost about to be paid.

Equally misleading phrases include "in the dead of winter," "not worth it," "when we don't see each other often," "do me a favor," "still a child," "life's not easy for anyone," and so on.

And finally, "when people die."

Lu Zexian's molars clenched tighter at the back of his mouth, but he let go of his fist.

People in adversity tend to be more receptive to advice.

As Fang Huai lay back down in formation, he felt somewhat excited.

He had been waiting all morning for a proper chance to lie down.

To his disappointment, Hao Chengbin's next words dashed his hopes.

"I'm not asking for much, just thirty standard push-ups! Do them properly! Keep your back straight, only your shoulder and elbow joints moving, forearm and upper arm creating a 90-degree angle, and don't cheat! If anyone tries to slack, we start over!... Fang Huai, you can do fewer!"

"No need, Squad Leader!" Fang Huai immediately responded.

"That's an order! You've been drained just a few hours ago, so do... twenty!" Hao Chengbin's tone was definitive.

Fang Huai was about to argue when several others were already staring at him with a pleading look.

If the conversation dragged on, it wasn't just push-ups—he was tired just from propping himself up on the ground.

"Watch my form closely! When I ask you to redo them, don't say I didn't demonstrate!"

As he spoke, Squad Leader Hao faced the formation sideways, lowered himself down and placed his hands on the ground to perform a standard push-up, pausing at the lowest point.

"Like this! That counts as one!"

After saying this, he touched the ground with his lower body, "Don't do this to me! If you like cheating so much, I'll let you stay down!"

A standard push-up requires the triceps, pectorals, latissimus dorsi, abdominal muscles, gluteus maximus, and leg muscles to work together!

Push-ups, sit-ups, and weighted squats are the three fundamental strength exercises in the troops, and you must do them properly!

Improper form not only fails to yield the proper effect but can also injure the spine!"

Fang Huai couldn't help but roll his eyes.

You start doing push-ups without even warming up or stretching; isn't getting a muscle cramp also an injury?