"Can you tell how many kids my family has?"
Chen Ting grew interested and looked at Xue Daochao as he asked.
He wanted to see whether Xue Daochao was a fraud, using a Taoist's title to put on a ghostly act, or whether he really had some ability.
"Squad leader, you...?"
"Let me see your left hand."
"You don't need a tortoiseshell or anything to tell fortunes?"
Chen Ting asked in surprise, then held out his left hand to Xue Daochao.
He'd thought Xue Daochao would use those tools to tell fortunes, but it turned out he was going to read his palm instead.
"Squad leader, using a tortoiseshell to cast a divination costs too much. Besides, there's no need for that just to see how many kids you have."
"Squad leader, tell me your birth date and time."
As Xue Daochao asked Chen Ting for his birth details, a confident smile had already appeared on his face.
"I was born on December 30, 1985, at exactly 4:50 in the afternoon."
Chen Ting answered, still somewhat skeptical.
"All right, squad leader. I'm sure now."
"Your wife was born in the Year of the Monkey, and you have three kids—two girls and one boy."
"The boy is the youngest, your third child. Am I right, squad leader?"
Xue Daochao smiled, while Squad Leader Chen Ting stared at him in astonishment.
He was sure he'd never told Xue Daochao anything about his family, yet somehow Xue Daochao had figured it out!
He'd even worked out that the third child was a boy. This guy really knew his stuff!
"Not bad. Pack these tools away, and don't lose them."
Chen Ting patted Xue Daochao on the shoulder. Even the sternness in his voice had softened considerably.
He'd been a soldier for sixteen years, and this was the first time he'd encountered something so uncanny.
Sometimes, traditions handed down by the ancestors really were worth believing in.
The new recruits' inspections continued. Soon, everyone else had been checked, and it was Lü Qinglong's turn.
Everyone's eyes focused on his bag again. It was the bulkiest of all the new recruits' bags, which had piqued the others' curiosity.
"I didn't bring much, just the usual stuff."
As he spoke, Lü Qinglong bent down, picked up the black bag from the ground, and set it on his knees.
Being big had its downsides. If he squatted down, he might knock the recruit next to him clean out of the way with his butt.
"Four sets of camouflage uniforms, three pairs of size-65 shoes, my toiletries, and a set of civilian clothes."
Each time Lü Qinglong took something out of the black bag, he announced what it was, as if he were worried Squad Leader Chen Ting couldn't see it clearly.
After he'd taken out the basic items that nearly every recruit had brought, his large bag was still bulging.
"What else have you got in that bag? Why's it so full?"
Squad Leader Chen Ting seemed to think Lü Qinglong was taking things out too slowly, so he reached over to take the black bag himself.
But just as he was about to bring it closer, he realized something was off. The bag was heavy!
He paused, then walked over to Lü Qinglong, opened the bag, and started taking things out.
"You brought two big tubs of protein powder, pre-workout, and all these bottles and jars?"
"Yes, squad leader. I was worried I wouldn't get enough nutrition. I heard the training in the army is brutal, so I brought some extra supplements. These don't break the rules, do they?"
"They don't..."
Squad Leader Chen Ting's mouth twitched. Then he finally found the reason Lü Qinglong's bag was so heavy.
At the very bottom of the black bag was a thick layer of weight plates.
At a glance, they were all red, thirty-kilogram plates.
There were at least four of them, along with some smaller black plates. Altogether, they had to weigh more than two hundred kilograms!
"Look, the recruit company doesn't have a gym, but once you're assigned to a unit, every regular base will have one unless it's somewhere really remote."
"Bringing all these weight plates yourself really seems unnecessary, doesn't it?"
Squad Leader Chen Ting couldn't help asking.
Lü Qinglong was even harder on himself than his own brother was.
"Holy crap! Brother Long, you really are my big brother! You've got a whole bag full of weight plates?"
The recruit standing closest to Lü Qinglong couldn't resist trying to lift the bag with both hands. He strained for a while, but the black bag stayed planted on the ground as if it were embedded there.
"Damn!"
Ji Baichang couldn't help sucking in a sharp breath. So Lü Qinglong hadn't let him carry his luggage because it was too heavy!
The other recruits also looked at Lü Qinglong's ridiculously muscular arms and couldn't help trembling inside.
What a madman. He'd been running around with a two-hundred-kilogram bag in one hand?
"Squad leader, I was worried the running wouldn't be strenuous enough, so I brought them."
"Then, when we do physical training and go running, I can thread the plates onto the straps of my backpack and run with them on my back. Otherwise, I won't feel any challenge."
Lü Qinglong sounded completely sincere. The only response was silence from the entire squad.
After a long moment, Squad Leader Chen Ting finally spoke in a hollow voice.
"Then pack your bag. You can put the weight plates under my bed. That way, we won't have to go to the storage room to get them when we need them. It'd be too much trouble."
"Thanks, squad leader!"
Lü Qinglong smiled at Squad Leader Chen Ting.
His squad leader really was a good guy, always thinking of him.
From Chen Ting's perspective, Lü Qinglong's face looked so fierce that even when Lü Qinglong smiled at him, Chen Ting felt sure he wouldn't sleep well that night.
"All right, put your bags back in the storage room."
"Once you've put them away, you can go wash up."
Squad Leader Chen Ting waved them off, then lay back down on his bed. A little while later, he seemed to start a video call with his family, chatting and laughing with the person on the other end.
"Xue Daochao, you're something else! You figured out our squad leader has three kids? Why don't you read my fortune too?"
Ji Baichang had just dropped off his bag in the storage room. He immediately stopped Xue Daochao, who had an utterly ordinary appearance.
"I don't usually tell fortunes for just anyone. Today, fate brought us together."
"You want your fortune told? What do you want to know?"
Xue Daochao looked at Ji Baichang with interest.
The guy looked like someone destined for great wealth and status. There wasn't much he needed to ask about.
"It's fine. How much does fortune-telling cost? I'll transfer you the money. Money's the one thing I've got plenty of."
Ji Baichang waved a hand grandly.
"All right. Tell me what you want to know first, and I'll set a price."
"Tell me what my girlfriend's doing right now."
"That's all? Then send me ten thousand once we get our phones."
"All right, your girlfriend's playing poker with another guy right now."
Xue Daochao patted Ji Baichang on the shoulder.
"???"
"What's that supposed to mean? You're just making things up, aren't you?"
Ji Baichang didn't get angry. He looked at Xue Daochao with an amused expression.
"Come on, man. You can't just say someone's girlfriend is playing poker with another guy out of nowhere. That's way out of line."
The other recruits had overheard them and couldn't help speaking up for Ji Baichang.
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