Men's Most Confounding Behavior Awards

Although he had "sternly refused," Fang Huai was genuinely stunned by General Manager Han's sheer extravagance.

Although new recruits usually got chewed out for showing off their wealth, if you could casually give away a watch worth tens of thousands...

Fang here was willing to reluctantly be your friend!

And the Chief of Staff had definitely transferred this recruit not because of Jiang Peng, but because of Han Yong.

Judging by the Chief of Staff's conflicted expression, Han Yong's background was probably no small matter.

"Come on, Han Yong, have some water!" Fang Huai walked over to the thermos, picked up his small canteen, unscrewed the cup lid, and poured him a cup of water.

Each of them had been issued a small metal canteen that year. The lid was fairly large and could be turned upside down to serve as a cup.

"Thank you, Assistant Squad Leader!" Han Yong was quite polite, and he had clearly figured out Ninth Squad's internal conflicts from before.

"My name is Fang Huai! Don't call me that. Just call me by my name from now on!"

"Fang Huai... Jiang Peng really went to Eighth Squad?" Seeing that the squad leader had left, Yue Tao finally started asking questions.

Everyone had been curious earlier, but today's incident had been quite a big deal. The squad leader had only said, "Han Yong has been transferred to our squad," and nothing else. No one had dared to speak up.

"Isn't General Manager Han here already?" Fang Huai said with a smile.

Han Yong smiled awkwardly and placed his bag on the bedframe.

Peng Yingqirui leaned over, looking somewhat excited.

"Han Yong, can you do pull-ups on the horizontal bar?"

Han Yong shook his head.

"What about the Regulations and Ordinances? Can you memorize them?"

Han Yong shook his head.

"Drill formations..."

Han Yong immediately shook his head again and said helplessly, "I really can't! I can't do anything!"

"Hahahaha..." Peng Yingqirui laughed heartily.

"Great! I'm not last from the bottom anymore!"

Fang Huai could not help smiling. He took Han Yong's bag down and gently set it on the floor.

"Come on, Shorty. Pick up Han Yong's bag and put it on the top bunk one-handed, just like he did."

Shorty walked over in confusion and reached out.

His face instantly turned red from the strain. He had barely lifted it before his other hand went up too.

"Holy crap, what is this thing?"

Han Yong chuckled. "There are dumbbells my mom bought me inside. Each one is 7.5 kilograms."

Fang Huai stood with his hands behind his back. "This bag has thirty jin of dumbbells in it, plus some miscellaneous Protective Gear, leg wraps, sandbags, and stuff like that. It weighs at least close to fifty jin. I just hefted it one-handed and nearly killed myself. Who else wants to try?"

Everyone was stunned. Zhao Bing refused to believe it and stepped forward to heft the bag.

"Damn, it really is heavy. Han Yong, you're this strong, so why can't you handle the Parallel Bars and Horizontal Bar?"

Han Yong scratched his head, looking troubled. "I'm too fat! I weigh over 190 jin now. My family sent me here to lose weight!"

Well, damn.

Everyone else had come here to build a future. This guy treated the place like a weight-loss camp.

After that, Ninth Squad launched a boring activity called "proving you're a real man."

One by one, they took down Han Yong's bag and then put it back up one-handed.

Men's joy and self-respect were just that simple and plain.

You could be walking along, suddenly dribble an imaginary ball with empty hands and jump up for a shot, and instantly feel like a basketball superstar. Or spot a high tree branch by the roadside, leap up and brush its leaves with your fingertips, and feel as if you had touched the whole world.

After one round of competition, only half the men in Ninth Squad remained: Fang Huai, Zhao Bing, Chen Zhongqiang, Yue Tao, and Han Yong.

Even Lu Zexian, that tall guy, could not fling the bag up there despite putting his whole back into it.

Han Yong earned everyone's respect.

But seeing the stubborn looks in the other five men's eyes, Fang Huai knew Han Yong's bag would probably be taken down for practice every few days.

That evening, the whole company memorized the Regulations and Ordinances.

To Hao Chengbin's surprise, Chen Zhongqiang not only got cigarettes, but also a late-night snack.

Fang Huai worked like a laborer in the company office all night, and his efficiency was terrifying. In an hour and a half, he finished everything that had originally required overtime that evening. His familiarity with the software left the company commander and Squad Leader Huang, who were watching beside him, dumbfounded. On top of that, he was typing in Wubi, which neither of them could understand.

Both of them said that tonight had really opened their eyes.

At eight o'clock, they printed and bound a set of study materials for the new recruits. It contained the Firefighter Military Song and several important provisions from the Regulations and Ordinances that they had to know. Five pages per set, one set per person.

Fang Huai formatted the materials on the computer and made a suggestion: "Squad Leader Huang, don't trouble yourself. Call Chen Zhongqiang from our squad over. One of us can print while the other binds them, and we'll be done in an hour."

Without another word, Squad Leader Huang ran to the barracks to fetch him. Squad Leader Hao did not make things difficult either and let him go.

Chen Zhongqiang escaped the sea of suffering that was memorizing the Regulations and Ordinances.

After finishing the work, Fang Huai did not smoke a single cigarette and barely ate any meat. He let Chen Zhongqiang enjoy it all.

Before washing up, Chen Zhongqiang followed Fang Huai back to Ninth Squad in complete satisfaction.

Following Assistant Squad Leader Fang meant the company commander treated him to meat and Squad Leader Huang gave him cigarettes! What kind of life was this?

Neither of them had eaten or smoked. They had given everything to him.

Just two words: dependable!

After returning, Fang Huai took advantage of the recruits' wash-up time to privately apologize to Hao Chengbin. He candidly admitted that he should not have let Chen Zhongqiang smoke and eat a late-night snack, but he had promised him, so there was nothing he could do. He also promised that he would make sure Chen Zhongqiang trained properly.

Hao Chengbin was as tolerant as he could be about it. After all, Fang Huai had not done it for himself. Fang Huai was not even particularly close to Chen Zhongqiang. He had talked him into attending the late training session solely for the squad's training results.

There had been no selfish motive, so Hao Chengbin could not stay angry. He merely told Fang Huai that smoking and having a late-night snack were no big deal, so long as he kept everyone in line, made them perform well, and kept them from making mistakes.

Fang Huai thumped his chest and promised Hao Chengbin, "I'll make you proud!"

A junior leader's prestige was built on little things like daring to seek real benefits for his subordinates in front of higher-ranking leaders.

Chen Zhongqiang, who had always been self-centered, became Fang Huai's diehard supporter after that night.

On Saturday, the wake-up bugle was delayed by half an hour, so the new recruits did not get up until five.

Hao Chengbin had gone out the night before and returned very late. He simply did not get up either, only calling out to Fang Huai to keep an eye on the squad before rolling over and going back to sleep.

Everyone was quite sensible. They did not turn on the lights and all went out into the corridor to fold their quilts.

With the squad leader's order, Fang Huai finally found his footing as Assistant Squad Leader. He went out for a round, checking where his squad members were folding their quilts and whether anyone was slacking off or sleeping.

Seeing a whole corridor of new recruits squatting on the ground and rubbing their quilts with their elbows, he finally remembered something.

Damn, all those years of experience had gone to the dogs.

What was the biggest difference between humans and animals?

Using tools!

He carried his quilt outside and spread it by the door, then went back to the barracks to get his small stool and called over the people from his squad.

"Zhao Bing! Chen Zhongqiang, stop rubbing already. Help me hold the corners of the quilt! I'll show you how to do it!"

Zhao Bing and Chen Zhongqiang skeptically helped stretch the quilt out. Fang Huai took off his shoes, stepped onto the quilt, pressed both hands onto the stool, and slowly pushed it forward.

In two minutes, the quilt had been pressed over once.

Then he pressed it over again.

Once the quilt was firm, he folded it along the creases into four layers. This time, it was narrower, so things were much simpler. He took the stool and went over it several more times.

The two men's eyes grew brighter and brighter.

"Rubbing it like this is way faster than using your hands! Can we rub it a few more times before folding it?" Zhao Bing squatted beside him, sounding astonished.

Fang Huai rolled his eyes. "Isn't that obvious? Ideally, you rub it for half an hour before folding! But once you get to this stage, one person is enough. All right, leave my quilt here. Bring yours over, and we'll rub them together."

The reason Fang Huai had called the two of them over was that he wanted immediate results.

Zhao Bing and Chen Zhongqiang's quilts were already the strongest contenders in the squad. With a little proper care, they could easily become model quilts in the New Recruit Regiment.

There were ten men in a squad. As long as three quilts were model quilts and the rest looked decent enough, the whole squad's standing would shoot up instantly.

How could the squad possibly take first place by relying on him alone?

The New Recruit Regiment was only a temporary unit, and the squad leaders and company commanders had brought limited supplies. Otherwise, he really would have wanted to borrow an electric iron.

The methods for fixing quilts these days were far too simple. A few years later, people would come up with every trick imaginable.

When Fang Huai was a noncommissioned officer, some people even pressed their quilts under boards and drove a Fire Truck right over them.

After being rolled over like that, the quilt submitted in a single pass. It saved at least two months of work.

After mobile Taobao became popular, the tricks became even more ridiculous. People simply bought a quilt that had already been made perfectly neat and delivered to them.

Model quilts were hard and thin, ridiculously easy to fold, but terrible to sleep under. They felt stiff as a board, and the gamble was that the leaders inspecting them would never touch them.

Veterans would all have one quilt that was never unfolded. A thin wooden board was placed beneath it to keep it from coming apart when it was lifted. Every day when making the bed, they respectfully placed it under the bunk like an offering, then after sleeping, respectfully brought it back up.

That quilt was the military's Guan Erye.

But this was the New Recruit Regiment. Even after being assigned to regular units, first-year recruits were better off not pulling those fancy tricks.

Rubbing quilts and folding quilts were, frankly, meant to temper new recruits' patience. Veterans might get a scolding if they were caught taking shortcuts, but new recruits would get a real beating.

Fang Huai rubbed and felt the quilts as he explained.

"Chen Zhongqiang's quilt is clearly pressed better than Zhao Bing's. Look, the edges are firmer, but not very even. Your quilt will have nicer corners when folded, but the middle tends to bulge."

"Zhao Bing is better at trimming than Chen Zhongqiang. If you two balance each other out, you'll be fine. We'll fold them here. Once the quilts are done, I'll tell you some little tricks for fixing the edges and corners."

Fang Huai patiently guided the two men in a low voice in the area by the corridor.

Before long, Yue Tao came over to steal some tricks as well, watching while folding his own quilt alongside them.

By the time Fang Huai had finished folding his own quilt, he realized that this traditional military craft, used for so many years to test people, truly had not earned its reputation for nothing.

"Yue Tao, I've realized that sometimes a quilt can reflect a person's personality to a certain extent."

Yue Tao carefully tidied his quilt again, then spread his hands with a smug expression.

"Then what kind of personality do you see in my quilt?"

Fang Huai seriously inspected it from several angles, stroking his chin with a deeply contemplative look.

"Your quilt looks like Zhang Fei from afar and Li Kui up close. From different angles... it has different kinds of ugly. It's so ugly I want to hit something."

With that, under Yue Tao's stunned gaze, he calmly and slowly unfolded the quilt again.

"Start over, brother. Begin with rubbing the quilt and marking the creases. The harder you work on this quilt, the worse it gets."