Chapter Three Hundred and Sixty: The Girls' Squad

In the side courtyard were rows of rooms. The structure and furnishings of the rooms were similar to what Lu Cheng had lived in at the quarantine camp, except that each room only housed eight people—a far cry from the large rooms of more than twenty people in the quarantine camp. Since there were only six girls among the more than forty trainees, they were all arranged in one dormitory.

Everyone had experience living in dormitories at the quarantine camp and had long been trained. As soon as they put down their backpacks, they quickly organized their personal belongings: arranging their cups, hanging their towels, making their beds and folding their quilts. Then they elected a dormitory leader—no one wanted this position, which was full of responsibility and had no benefits, so Lu Cheng, the only one who was not from Bairen Commune, became the dormitory leader.

The other girls in the dormitory were all from Bairen Commune. In fact, in this recruitment, only Bairen Commune had female applicants besides her.

The members of Bairen Commune were the earliest natives to submit to the Transmigrator Group, whether they were local people or immigrants from outside. They were also the most deeply influenced by the Transmigrator Group, so it was not surprising that they were at the forefront of new trends.

Lu Cheng felt that these girls looked down on her a little. When they heard that she was from the newly established Jialai Commune, their tone of voice became much more arrogant.

“What’s there to be arrogant about,” Lu Cheng thought to herself. Then the girls from Bairen began to discuss which fragrance of the latest soap sold by the cooperative smelled better, jasmine or rose. One girl even proudly said that she had used transparent soap.

Lu Cheng felt that she was indeed very rustic. She didn’t understand what these girls were talking about at all. She knew about soap—sometimes the commune would assign the women to wash quilts, and they would be given large bars of soap to use, but she had never heard of scented soap, let alone transparent soap.

Then a girl took out a few paper-wrapped candy balls from her pocket and gave them to everyone. This girl’s name was Yao Yulan. Her parents worked in the food factory and were the technical backbone of the bean products workshop. Their income was high, so naturally, their consumption level was also superior.

“It’s the highest-grade fruit candy!” Yao Yulan gave Lu Cheng a piece with great arrogance.

Lu Cheng didn’t know what fruit candy was. She imitated the others and peeled off the paper. Lu Cheng had never seen such a beautiful candy. It was a sparkling, crystal-clear yellow candy.

“Eat it!” Yao Yulan was very satisfied with her reaction and said triumphantly.

The fruit candy was indeed delicious. It was not only sweet but also had a pleasant sour taste and a faint fruity fragrance. Lu Cheng couldn’t help but say, “Delicious.”

The girls all laughed, and Lu Cheng, being easy-going, also laughed along with them, and the feeling of alienation was much less. Among the six girls, Yao Yulan was the only non-indentured servant—her family had originally opened a small tofu shop in Foshan. Later, during the war in Liaodong, the price of beans rose sharply, and the business was about to fail. It just so happened that Liu San and his party went to Foshan to recruit craftsmen to go to Lingao, with preferential treatment. Yao Yulan’s father was tempted and accepted the offer. After arriving in Lingao, he found that life was good, so he quickly moved his family and the rest of his property to Lingao.

Because of this, coupled with her good family conditions and her loose-handedness, Yao Yulan usually looked down on everyone.

There was also a girl named Yang Cao, who was the oldest. Everyone was surprised when she said she was 23 years old—a woman of this age was either a widow or it was unlikely that she was not yet married.

However, looking at her appearance: she had a plump figure and no fine hair between her eyebrows, so she was obviously not a virgin.

This immediately aroused everyone’s interest. Under the pressure of the other girls, Yang Cao finally admitted hesitantly that she was originally an actress who had been sold to a theater troupe since she was a child. The troupe leader would not let her get married at all.

“To make money for him—” Yang Cao said in a dull voice, “if I get married, I can’t make money for him anymore.” Yao Yulan clamored for her to talk about things in the theater troupe, but Yang Cao completely ignored her and silently organized the things in the backpack issued by the government.

Lu Cheng honestly followed the instructions of the resident policeman and brought nothing but the clothes on her back. But Yao Yulan brought a small satchel. The satchel was old and had been mended, but Yao Yulan treasured it—Lu Cheng knew that this was exclusive to the “cadres.” She had seen it on the resident policeman in her village, and the village chief and militia captain also wore this bag proudly when they went to meetings.

Because of the special nature of this bag, it became a status symbol. Some people specially collected discarded old goods to use for themselves, which became a fashion.

This bag was probably also discarded by some cadre. Lu Cheng knew that those who could get this kind of bag either had family or relatives who were cadres, or they were people who were particularly “well-connected” and had some spare money.

Most of the girls brought some private goods, such as candies, scented soap, rouge, handkerchiefs, combs, and other small things that girls liked.

For a while, the dormitory was chattering like an exhibition. The girls were all showing off their things. Lu Cheng had nothing, so she could only stand aside blankly. She was very envious of other people’s things. Everything was so exquisite and beautiful. Her family’s income was not low, but they were cutting expenses drastically for her brother’s marriage. Moreover, there were no shops selling these things in Jialai Commune. She felt a little sad in her heart. Especially Yao Yulan, who was just a “tofu beauty”! She herself had once been considered the young lady of a cloth shop.

After a while, a female cadre came to the dormitory. Her clothes were neatly ironed, but she looked very childish, as if she were younger than all the girls in the dormitory. Lu Cheng knew that this female cadre was a native and not a chief—after all, female chiefs were a rare existence. Lu Cheng had seen a female chief who came to inspect the quarantine camp. She was a tall woman, looked particularly strong, and had very fair skin. She felt that she looked a little different from the women of the Ming Dynasty.

“Attention!” she shouted. The girls quickly stood up and automatically formed a line.

“I am He Chun,” the female cadre introduced herself. Although she spoke loudly, it was obvious that she was very nervous. “Political security non-commissioned officer student, and also your student captain.” Her eyes swept over them. “Who is the dormitory leader?”

“I am—” Lu Cheng quickly raised her hand.

“Why didn’t you shout ‘attention’ when you saw me come in?”

Lu Cheng was at a loss for a moment and didn’t know what to say.

“I am your student captain now!” He Chun tried her best to show her “official prestige.” In fact, she had been scolded by Zhou Dongtian again before she was transferred to be the student captain—Zhou Dongtian thought she was too thin-skinned and couldn’t do pre-trial at all, so he kicked her back to wait for a new internship position.

Being returned for reassignment was a very serious matter for an intern. It meant that there would be a comment of “incompetent for the job” on her performance evaluation. He Chun was a political security non-commissioned officer student and understood the importance of comments to a person more deeply than others. She regarded this arrangement as the student captain as a good opportunity to turn things around. He Chun fully recalled everything she had seen, heard, and experienced as a refugee and a student. She also went to the army’s training camp to learn from their experience. It was conceivable what these girls would encounter.

“You are now the trainees of the first term of the General Political Security Bureau’s short-term training class!” He Chun tried her best to put on a majestic appearance, and rephrased the words she had heard during her training. “Leave your common people’s habits behind. This is not a place for you to become cadres. This is a place for you to be reborn! This is a job that requires a high degree of discipline and self-sacrifice. From now on, all actions must be under command—first of all, my command! Now, inspect the personal belongings!”

Then she began to inspect the personal belongings. She unceremoniously emptied everyone’s bags, and the things were scattered all over the bed. The private items that did not meet the regulations were thrown directly on the floor by her. A handkerchief that Yao Yulan had brought was not only thrown on the floor but also deliberately stepped on by her, which made Yao Yulan cry with anger.

The next day, the training officially began. The training class was still led by the military and political school. Zhao Manxiong listed the learning content for each class and personally supervised its implementation. Each short-term training class focused on a certain business for intensive training. Although the training time was short, the training was very strict, even harsh.

“To the left—turn!”

More than forty trainees were constantly doing simple and repetitive movements on the training ground: turning left and right, marking time, stepping forward… Every ten people had a corporal in charge. He kept his eyes wide open, holding a rattan stick, and walked back and forth in the ranks. A wrong turn or a wrong move would be met with a blow from the corporal’s stick or a direct kick to the ground.

“Idiot! Fool!” Besides the commands, the corporals were constantly shouting such swear words.

Lu Cheng was holding a fake gun with an iron bar—this was a training gun, 20% heavier than the standard Minie rifle used by the army. It was not easy for a man to hold it, let alone a woman. Her arms were so sore and numb that she was about to lose feeling, but she still stood straight, trying her best to hold the gun—if the gun was crooked, Yang Cao, who was crying and trying to get up at her feet, was the best example.

It was still early spring, but the sweat had already soaked their blue training uniforms black.

The first training item of the training class was military training. The girls’ squad received no preferential treatment, including the training guns used, the training time, and the content. The only preferential treatment was that He Chun, as a young girl, was too embarrassed to shout the smooth swear words of the corporals, but instead, she used the rattan stick more frequently. Lu Cheng’s buttocks and thighs were burning with pain. She didn’t know how many times she had been hit, but she was still better off than Yao Yulan—she was already lying on the ground and couldn’t move. No matter how He Chun’s stick hit her, she wouldn’t get up. She was directly dragged to the side and a bucket of cold water was poured over her head.