After finishing their meal, Yan Hao and Tao Feng returned to the classroom one after the other.
It was a little past one in the afternoon, and the classroom was already bustling with over half the students seated.
The afternoon sunlight slanted through the gaps in the curtains, casting diagonal beams of light, while tiny particles of dust floated in the air along with a faint murmur of voices.
Yan Hao sat down feeling a bit out of place, his fingers unconsciously pressing his phone screen on and off repeatedly.
The screen lit up and darkened over and over, reflecting his slightly awkward expression.
He looked around; classmates were gathered in small groups, chatting and laughing, but he still hadn’t found a topic he could naturally jump into.
His gaze inadvertently swept across Tao Feng’s phone screen.
The wallpaper displayed Captain Levi from Attack on Titan—a slender figure standing amidst ruins, his gaze sharp as a blade.
Yan Hao’s eyes lit up, as if he had grabbed onto a lifeline, and his heartbeat quickened.
He wanted to ask, “Do you watch anime too?”
But the words stuck in his throat, and he swallowed them back, unsure how to naturally start the conversation.
Just then, Tao Feng turned around, lazily leaning his back against the wall as he looked at him.
“Want to play a game? There’s nothing to do sitting here.”
“Oh, oh, sure,” Yan Hao quickly nodded.
“What do you want to play?”
“Take a look and see if you have any of the same games,” Tao Feng said with a smile, leaning in slightly and tilting his phone screen toward him.
Seizing the opportunity, Yan Hao finally asked the question that had been bothering him.
“Do you really like Captain Levi?”
“Hey! You watch Attack on Titan too!”
Tao Feng’s eyes instantly lit up, and his tone carried obvious excitement.
“I think Captain Levi is super cool. Have you seen the third season?” he pressed on, immediately opening up the conversation.
“Not many episodes are out yet, right? I want to wait until it’s all finished before binge-watching it all at once,” Yan Hao answered honestly, opening a common anime website where the third season of Attack on Titan, which he was following weekly, was indeed saved.
“Yeah, and I heard they’re splitting it into two parts. Right now, it just updated to where Hange and Eren are… ah, no spoilers, no spoilers, hahaha,” Tao Feng stopped himself just in time, waving his hand with a laugh.
“Do you watch anything else?”
“As for novels, TV shows, or anime… I think I’ve watched quite a lot,” Yan Hao said, fiddling with his own phone, his tone a bit uncertain.
“Have you watched Gintama or Neon Genesis Evangelion?”
“I’ve seen a bit of both… Gintama is way too long; I only watched about sixty-something episodes. And I only watched the TV version of EVA; I didn’t really understand it much,” Yan Hao admitted honestly.
He knew these were highly acclaimed classics, but he hadn’t really delved deep into them.
“Those two are also incredibly good! And The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Hunter x Hunter, Fullmetal Alchemist…”
When it came to Japanese anime, Tao Feng recited them like numbers, his eyes sparkling.
Yan Hao had seen all these names on various recommendation lists and rankings, but he hadn’t invested much time in anime.
He had only heard of many of these classic old shows.
In comparison, Tao Feng seemed like a seasoned “anime fan.”
“All the ones you mentioned seem pretty old… I’ve only seen The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya,” Yan Hao said a bit awkwardly.
He had just claimed to watch a lot, but now he couldn’t keep up with the conversation.
“Oh, so you don’t like watching old anime?”
Tao Feng looked at him, a hint of confusion in his eyes.
“It’s not that… I just didn’t have a phone before, so it wasn’t convenient to watch these. I usually just watched TV at home.”
“You can’t watch them on TV?”
“My TV at home still uses an old satellite dish. It only picks up a few channels, and at most I can watch the Children’s Channel and Golden Eagle Cartoon.”
“Oh, I know what you mean! One of my relatives has the same setup, with a big dish antenna on the roof,” Tao Feng nodded in sudden understanding.
“Then you probably don’t play computer games either, right? Like League of Legends or CrossFire?”
His tone carried a hint of disappointment.
“Yeah… I don’t have a computer at home. At most, I’ve played some 4399 Mini Games.”
“HAHAHAHA!”
Tao Feng burst out laughing, raising his hand to adjust the brim of his cap.
The two of them chatted away, and before they knew it, the time had slipped to two o’clock.
Just then, a man wearing thick glasses, with a slightly stocky build and dressed in a standard “teacher-style” polo shirt, walked up to the podium.
He looked to be around thirty years old.
He clapped his hand on the iron podium, producing a few sharp thud thud sounds that quieted the noise in the classroom.
“Alright, alright, everyone quiet down,” the man said, scanning the room.
Once the classroom was completely silent, he turned around and wrote two large characters on the blackboard—Pan Jie.
“I am the class teacher for Class 1807, which is our class. My name is Pan Jie,” he announced in a loud, clear voice, his self-introduction straightforward and concise.
Then, he directly organized a round of self-introductions for the class, starting with the first student in the first group by the door and proceeding one by one to the podium.
Yan Hao and Tao Feng were sitting on the inner side by the wall, so their turn came later.
Yan Hao wasn’t nervous at first; in fact, he was even somewhat interested in observing the introductions of the students ahead of him.
But when the previous student stepped down from the podium, he suddenly realized he was next, and his mind went completely blank.
When he got up there, he only managed to dryly state his name and the middle school he graduated from before hastily rushing back down.
After all the introductions were finished, the class teacher, Pan Jie, briefly explained the upcoming arrangements.
“Everyone, turn off your phones and hand them in first. Then, the boys will go to the back playground to pick up your military training uniforms. Bring them back to the classroom to distribute, then go to the dormitory to change. Be assembled on the front playground at three o’clock sharp to begin training. The training will last for one week. After it ends, you’ll have a break, and when you return to school, the opening exam will be held.”
Yan Hao looked out the window at the glaring sun.
He hadn’t expected the training to start today.
Beside him, Tao Feng nudged his arm and handed him his own phone.
Yan Hao took it, turned off both phones, and placed them together on the growing pile of phones on the podium.
Not long after, the boys followed the instructions to the back playground and brought back a stack of dark green military uniforms.
Yan Hao grabbed the smallest size and, together with Tao Feng, returned to the dormitory, which was temporarily converted from a first-floor classroom.
Although the dormitory was simple, being on the first floor was indeed a lot more convenient.
The training uniform consisted of long pants, a jacket, a cap, and a belt.
With time running short, the two quickly changed and headed to the main playground in front of the teaching building.
The sun at three in the afternoon was still blazing fiercely.
Heat waves shimmered off the playground’s surface, and the very air seemed warped by the scorching temperature.
After finding their class’s designated area, they stood under the scorching sun, waiting for the drill instructors to arrive.
Before long, a team of people ran in, all wearing identical uniforms, marching in perfect synchrony, their clothes slightly different from the students’ training gear.
The chief instructor led the other instructors to the front of the formation.
Every single instructor stood ramrod straight, their movements uniform and precise.
At the chief instructor’s command, they quickly dispersed to stand in front of their assigned classes.
Yan Hao was a little curious about where the school had found these instructors and secretly wondered how much they got paid for a week’s work.
The instructor in charge of their class looked barely over twenty years old, but his uniform and the distinct upright bearing of a soldier made him appear exceptionally sharp and imposing.
“My name is Yuan Hao, and I will be your drill instructor for the next seven days of training,” the man announced, his voice loud and powerful, cutting through the hot, stagnant air.
“From now on, this small group of ours is the Seventh Company!”
Upon hearing that name, Yan Hao was taken aback.
Standing next to him, Tao Feng also raised an eyebrow in surprise.
The two exchanged a stunned glance, sharing the same sense of disbelief in their eyes.
“Boys and girls, line up from left to right, from shortest to tallest, into four rows! Girls in the front, boys in the back. Move quickly!”
Under Yuan Hao’s clear and forceful commands, the formation quickly took initial shape.
He scanned the lines, made a few minor adjustments to a couple of people’s positions, and finally confirmed the formation.
Yan Hao stood second in the third row.
To his left was a slightly shorter boy with glasses, who had a refined look.
Tao Feng was fourth in the fourth row, positioned diagonally behind Yan Hao.
The content of high school military training wasn’t anything particularly new.
The real challenge was the relentless, final burning heat of the late summer sun.