After dozing through noon, just as Wu Liuyi had said earlier, everyone was given paper and pens to write letters. Those with telephones at home were also taken away to call their families.
Although Wang Yan's parents had died once again, he still wrote a letter—only, it was addressed to some friends back in his hometown. He had a complete life history; aside from his parents, relatives, and close family being gone, he still had ordinary friends and childhood companions.
After writing their letters, they studied the rules and regulations, all sorts of discipline, had dinner, listened to Gao Cheng speak again, and then the squad leaders chatted with the recruits—a round of ideological indoctrination.
After all that, they had dinner, then started tidying their quarters and folding blankets. At nine-thirty that night, the lights-out bugle sounded. The recruits finally ended their day of novelty and went to bed.
But they did not sleep. The room still buzzed with conversation. The veteran squad leaders on night duty did not interfere. They had only just arrived, after all; they were not tired yet. It was understandable. Tomorrow would be different...
Early the next morning, Wang Yan did not get up early to exercise. He was already here to be a soldier—why would he need to deliberately work out? Life in the barracks meant constant activity every day. There was no need to rise early for it.
He lay quietly in bed until six. The wake-up call sounded through the camp, and he immediately got up and dressed.
He patted the upper bunk and called to Xu Sanduo, "Get up, get up."
Then he repeated the motion, waking the other recruits in the squad.
Most of them had gone to sleep very late the previous night. They were not used to the