The Red Certificate and the Red Box

"Am I going to Yu Aircraft alone?"

Xu Feng had tasked him with going to Yu Aircraft to take delivery of four Jiaolong 10Bs. Yes, 10Bs, not the earlier A version.

"What, should I assign you a couple of guards too?"

Li Zhi: "..."

That wasn't what Li Zhi meant. Even Xu Feng wasn't entitled to guards, so how could Li Zhi possibly get any?

What he meant was, was he supposed to fly all four fighters back by himself? How many trips would that take?

"Two guards would be fine too!"

"Get lost! I don't even have any myself!"

Seeing Li Zhi's cheeky grin, Xu Feng gave him a kick. In the military, it seemed that when senior officers showed affection, they generally used their feet...

"Go take delivery first. Once Zeng Yuan and the others are free, they'll go fly them back!"

Xu Feng was worried that delays could lead to complications. Although Lei Hu had promised to give him priority, who could say for sure? Someone with good acting skills might talk Lei Hu into letting them have the fighters instead!

Besides, Xu Feng had already checked: this entire batch consisted of 10Bs, two versions ahead of the originally planned 10.

"How do I get there?"

There wasn't even a road connecting the base to the outside world. All supplies had to be transported by helicopter, so getting out was no easy matter.

"A supply helicopter is coming tonight. Just take it to division headquarters, and you can bring your merit medal back while you're at it!"

Xu Feng had considered all of this long ago, so Li Zhi's concerns were clearly unnecessary. But the merit medal had seized all of Li Zhi's attention.

A merit medal!

Since Xu Feng had called it a merit medal, it had to be at least a third-class merit award. This was his first merit medal in this life!

"Look at you, getting so excited over that. We're a combat unit with a relatively high security classification, so forget about any fanfare. Just be happy about it yourself!"

Seeing how pleased Li Zhi looked, Xu Feng knew what he was thinking.

Given the base's special nature and the importance of pilots, there was no chance of his merit medal being delivered to his home with fanfare. Even a commendation announced throughout the military region was unlikely.

After all, many of the reasons for awarding merit couldn't be made public. Take Li Zhi's predecessor, the hero who had collided with the Peacock fighter.

Although he had been awarded first-class merit, the outside world didn't even know his name. Few people knew about the incident at all!

Li Zhi wasn't particularly vain. He didn't care whether others knew, and because he was afraid his parents would worry, he would rather the matter not be publicized.

What made him happy was that the merit medal was recognition from the organization, recognition that he was a qualified pilot.

"All right. When you get back, we'll give you a special meal and celebrate among ourselves. Go get ready now. The helicopter will be here soon!"

That was how it was in a classified unit. It was quite possible that no one would ever know what you had done, even after you died, or know your name,

Yet countless admirable people continued to step forward, one after another.

Just after Li Zhi had put on his flight suit, the sound of rotors reached the dormitory.

The base wasn't very large, so whenever fighters took off or landed, or a supply helicopter arrived, there was no way to block out the noise completely. Nothing could be done about it.

It was the same helicopter that had brought Li Zhi here last time. It was probably assigned specifically to Chicken Coop Base.

After they finished unloading while Li Zhi stood by, he boarded the helicopter. As a pilot, he neither needed nor was allowed to help unload.

It wasn't a matter of being fussy. This was written into the pilot's manual. Not only that, pilots were forbidden from entering kitchens, whether at their unit or at home.

Any activity that might cause injury to a pilot was expressly forbidden!

At the same time, to protect their safety, pilots kept their guns on them even while on leave.

Li Zhi had to spend the night at division headquarters and take a vehicle from there to Yu Aircraft early the next morning.

To avoid the trouble of changing clothes back and forth, Li Zhi wore his flight suit straight there. He was only staying one night anyway.

But the moment he got off the helicopter, division commander Lei Hu's orderly came up to him. Lei Hu wanted to see him.

Knock, knock, knock~

"Division commander, Captain Li is here!"

The orderly brought Li Zhi to Lei Hu's office, then saluted and turned to leave.

"Ready for combat even this late at night. Good!"

Division Commander Lei had clearly misunderstood something, but it was a beautiful misunderstanding, and harmless enough.

"Sir, that's not..."

"That Xu Feng really judges others by his own petty standards. How could I go back on something I promised him?"

When your superior's superior criticized your superior, it was best to pretend you hadn't heard.

"You've done very well this past month, kid. Those two bottles of good liquor I gave weren't wasted! Ahem, ahem~~"

After criticizing Xu Feng, Lei Hu began praising Li Zhi. But he got so carried away that he nearly let something slip, so he quickly coughed twice and stopped himself.

Two bottles of good liquor?

Li Zhi was a little confused. He didn't remember anything about liquor, nor did he know that Lei Hu and Director Wang had "privately" decided where he would be assigned.

But since Lei Hu didn't say anything, it wasn't Li Zhi's place to ask. Lei Hu was a senior officer at division headquarters, after all, and Li Zhi didn't dare pry into things he didn't mention.

"Here's your medal and certificate, kid. I won't read out the commendation. You can look at it yourself when you get back!"

Lei Hu took a red certificate and a red box out of his drawer.

"You know what kind of unit we are. Although there's no need to keep your performance this time secret, those are our rules. We're all destined to be unsung heroes. I hope you can understand!"

Compared with the army, the air force had somewhat more opportunities to earn merit, but most of them couldn't be made public.

"Sir, I understand!"

Li Zhi had understood this very well in his previous life, but it hadn't stopped him from wanting to become an air force pilot.

"I'm glad you understand!"

Lei Hu came over and patted Li Zhi on the shoulder, moved. Li Zhi was still very young and highly talented, and Lei Hu didn't want him to take it to heart.

As a pilot who had only just graduated from the academy, Li Zhi had already earned merit twice in succession, while other pilots from his graduating class were only just flying solo.

And if not for various considerations regarding the previous occasion, Li Zhi would already have received two third-class merit medals by now!

Lei Hu had very high expectations for Li Zhi. He was a pilot with both talent and good luck, and most importantly, he was very young.

In a pilot's line of work, youth was an asset!

Setting aside the initial training period, a fighter pilot's career lasted around twenty years at most.

And within those twenty years, an ordinary pilot's prime lasted only a few years.

But for a naturally gifted pilot like Li Zhi, that prime could last ten years or even longer.

That was why Lei Hu was now very attentive to Li Zhi and had high expectations of him.

But he wouldn't try to rush Li Zhi's development, because that would harm him. On the contrary, he might even hold him back a little.

There were plenty of cases of geniuses who never recovered after suffering setbacks!