Chapter 3 The Battle for the Pork Ribs
Yuan Gang stood on the platform. Taking a step forward, he looked at the group of recruits, shook his head, and let out a heavy sigh.
“You all really disappoint me. Look at the state of you now. Some of you haven’t even touched a corner of the Phoenix Squad’s clothes. And with just this, you want to end the training camp early? It’s good enough if you don’t go out and embarrass yourselves.”
Listening to this, Li Riyue gnawed off the last bite of his Jianbing Guozi, chewing it in his mouth. He glanced at the dormitory building that had been destroyed beyond recognition, and gently snapped his fingers.
A giant clock appeared at the location of the teaching building. Its hands ticked clockwise, began to slow to a stop, and then moved counterclockwise, picking up speed, until the dormitory building was completely restored.
The group of recruits watched, dumbfounded. Xia Simeng gave Li Riyue a thumbs-up and spoke.
“Brother Liming! Your skills are as good as ever!”
“I’m hungry. I need Elder Sun to feed me before I can recover my energy.”
“Didn’t you just finish eating?!”
“Elder Sun’s cooking is good. I wait for the annual recruit training camp just to freeload some meals.”
“Hearing you say that makes me hungry too. After eating, we have to run around again. I want a vacation. Brother Liming, help me ask the Commander for a leave of absence! Just say that we consumed too much energy and need a long rest!”
“No chance. I have to cry, beg, and act pitiful just to get a single day off. Do you know how hard it is for me?”
Xia Simeng lowered her head in frustration. Less than a second later, she slapped Li Riyue hard on the back.
“Let’s go eat! This time, I’m going to snatch back that last piece of pork rib I missed out on!”
“Elder Sun only starts cooking tomorrow. Tonight, we can only go hungry. What I just ate was my last Jianbing Guozi. So hateful! Why couldn’t he give me an extra crispy cracker? He actually said one crispy cracker costs one yuan. So vicious! The most vicious thing I’ve heard in my life is paying money for an extra crispy cracker.”
Xia Simeng looked at Li Riyue, unable to fully understand him, and led her team members away to rest.
Li Riyue lamented for a while, when a piece of compressed biscuit suddenly appeared in his hand. He looked in confusion at the person who had handed it to him.
“What for?”
“Didn’t you say you were hungry?”
“I just simply wanted to eat Elder Sun’s cooking.”
“Then give it back. I haven’t eaten either.”
“Once you give something to me, there’s no reason to ask for it back.”
Saying that, Li Riyue tore open the packaging, broke off half, and handed the remaining half back to the other party.
“Half and half.”
The man took it, and the two sat on the edge of the platform, eating.
“Are you an instructor too?”
“I’m not. I’m just staying for a while and then leaving. All in all, I’m just here to freeload food and drinks.”
“Freeloading? You just used time reversal, right? That doesn’t look like freeloading at all.”
“Don’t overthink it. I just felt that freeloading without doing anything is a bit impolite, so I thought I’d help out a bit.”
“Are you also a proxy of the God of Time, Chronos?”
“I’m not a Divine Proxy. Don’t go prying into it. Thanks for the biscuit, I’m going to sleep. For the sake of your biscuit, I’ll tell you this: the moment you hear the whistle, you’d better run down and stand right here, otherwise you’ll be miserable.”
“Does this mean my bribe was successful?”
“Hey! You can’t say that. Just pretend I didn’t say anything and be a good boy and go to sleep.”
After speaking, Li Riyue quickly ran toward the instructors’ dormitories, acting as if someone was chasing him.
The man sitting in place looked in the direction Li Riyue left, then at the small half of the biscuit remaining in his hand. He couldn’t eat anymore, so he simply stuffed it into his pocket and returned to the dorm to sleep.
However, because of Li Riyue’s reminder, the man didn’t take off his training uniform to sleep; instead, he got under the covers wearing it.
At 3:00 AM the next day, the whistle blew. The man jolted awake, glanced at the time, remembered Li Riyue’s words, and decisively grabbed his still-groggy roommate and ran downstairs.
Perhaps because he saw him wearing the training uniform, his roommate hadn’t taken his off either, also sleeping in it.
When they came down, they were indeed the first ones. Li Riyue was standing at the very back with his head lowered, seemingly dozing off.
But, could someone really fall asleep standing up?
As the recruits gathered, the instructor checked the time and began the lecturing segment.
Li Riyue was startled by Yuan Gang’s voice. He rubbed his temples and decisively found a spot where no one could see him to catch a quick nap.
Following that was the lap-running segment for the recruits who were more than three minutes late. They were only dismissed to go back to sleep after everyone finished running.
One of the boys walked over to Li Riyue, who was sleeping behind the platform.
His roommate originally planned to go back and catch up on sleep, but seeing that he didn’t go back, he decided not to go back either.
But what they didn’t expect was that just as they sat down, the whistle blew again, forcing them to go assemble.
Yuan Gang also didn’t expect that someone would hide behind the platform waiting. He was a bit surprised, but after seeing clearly who it was, he nodded in gratification.
In three minutes, all the recruits had gathered. Yuan Gang looked at the orderly recruits, said a few casual words, and gave them twenty minutes to eat.
As soon as he finished speaking, Li Riyue ran off in first place, his earlier sleepy appearance completely swept away.
Xia Simeng brought her teammates over as well. Seeing that Li Riyue was already sitting there eating, they immediately joined the battlefield.
While they were eating well over here, the recruits were suffering. They stared at the rock-hard mantou and pitifully small portion of pickled vegetables, paired with raw beef that reeked of blood.
Hearing the recruits’ complaints, Li Riyue decisively acted faster than Xia Simeng, snagging the last piece of pork rib. He swallowed it in one bite and spat out a bone. Watching this, Xia Simeng gritted her teeth in anger and slammed her chopsticks down.
“Liming! Can’t you yield to us a bit?”
“I refuse. Eating is a skill of the mouth. Whoever eats the most wins; those who eat little go hungry.”
“Spit that rib back out for me!”
“I won’t. I’ve already eaten it; it’s already been digested by my gastric acid!”
“Damn it!”
“Little Mengmeng, you are a big girl now. You shouldn’t fight with the elderly for food, got it?”
“If I’m to respect the old, you should also cherish the young!”
“I do cherish you; otherwise, did you think you could have eaten the big bones?”
“Damn it! Next training camp, I will definitely take back everything I’ve lost!”
“Take care, I won’t see you off.”
“Li Riyue, I’m definitely going to file a complaint against you!”
“Bring it on. I’m a puppy if I’m scared of you.”
Kong Shang rubbed his forehead, shook his head, bowed to Li Riyue, and said.
“Brother Li, I really suspect you like our Captain. Why are you always bickering with her?”
“Don’t slander me. I have absolutely no interest in this Ultimate Tyrannosaurus. I only like the gentle and virtuous type.”
Xia Simeng’s footsteps paused. She delivered a flying kick. Li Riyue ducked to dodge it, looking at Kong Shang as he spoke.
“Look at her! Only you could tolerate someone with such a fiery temper. If it were me, I would’ve slit my own throat long ago.”
“I am going to tear that mouth of yours off today!”
The two of them ran out of the cafeteria one after the other. Xia Simeng’s bloodline and her identity as Athena’s proxy were no joke. She forcefully blasted several craters into the training ground before she finally stopped.
Li Riyue patted his scorched clothes, blowing on them with an aching heart.
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