Chapter 50
Chapter 50 – Classmate Lin Lin (Part 1)
Early morning quickly went by while the students survived through the bumps on the road during the whole journey. They also used military tents, sleeping bags, kettles and other things, which were all military supplies, but only of temporary usage.
Fortunately, the army was very generous to the young freshmen and supplied them with ne equipment. Once they were done with them, they could be reused by being handed over to the young soldiers.
The army paid special attention to efficiency. It only took 20 minutes to pack everything. 20 minutes later, they had breakfast and started the morning training.
The training period wasn’t completely determined by one’s major, and boys and girls were trained separately. In Lin Mumu’s group, there were their two girls from the religious studies department, several liberal arts girls from the preparatory class, and some students from the Chinese Language Department. Every group had more than 40 people.
“Hello, everyone. My name is Wang Chong, I will be your military training instructor during this period. We’ll now begin the roll call.” Afterwards, they took care of all the procedures, and although it was a novelty, it quickly became somewhat boring.
After calling more than a dozen names, Wang clashed suddenly shouted, “Lin Lin, which one of you is Lin Lin? In the end, is there no classmate Lin Lin?”
No one replied.
Instructor Wang Chong shouted again: “Classmate Lin Lin from the Religious Studies Department?”
“My name is Lin Mumu.” Lin Mumu had no choice but to make a sound.
The list that the instructor was holding was printed and not handwritten. There was an empty space left between each of the three characters composing every name. There was such a clear distinction between the two ‘tree’ characters behind the ‘forest’ character. To read it as Lin Lin instead of Lin Mumu, the instructor was either deliberately picking fault, or she had a brain problem.
“You should have answered my earlier call by saying ‘Reporting’. Why didn’t you answer to the roll call?” The instructor’s authority was challenged and she instantly got angry.
(TN: Here’s a little Chinese lesson: this 木 means tree and is read ‘Mu’, while this 林 means forest or wood and is read ‘Lin’. You’ll notice the forest character looks like two tree characters stuck together. The name on the list was written like this ‘林 木 木’ but the instructor read it as if the 2 tree characters were stuck together like this ‘林 林’ Which is read as Lin Lin. She completely ignored such a big blanck space, no wonder Mumu called her and idiot.)
Chapter 50 – Classmate Lin Lin (Part 2)
However, Lin Mumu felt like the instructor was somewhat purposely looking for trouble because the fault didn’t even lay on her. Even if the instructor wasn’t wrong, Lin Mumu wasn’t wrong either. At most, it would be a simple misunderstanding, why did she need to be this fierce?
But the worst had yet to come.
“Classmate Lin Lin, get out of the ranks.”
Lin Mumu didn’t obey, but kindly reminded her again: “My name is Lin Mumu.”
“It’s precisely you, Lin Mumu, step out of the ranks!” The instructor’s voice got even louder and there was a faint scent of gunpowder in the air. (TN: It means it smelled like someone was picking a fight, they would make a bloody scene later.)
Lin Mumu stepped out of the ranks and didn’t think much about it.
Then, the instructor asked Lin Mumu to stand there while she continued her roll call until she got through all the students.
Afterwards, the instructor began to explain the essentials of the military posture, and then ordered them all to stand at attention in the way she explained.
While she explained, she used Lin Mumu who was standing out from the crowd as a subject to demonstrate the military posture and point out the essential points they should pay attention to.
However, Lin Mumu’s posture was perfectly straight, grand and powerful, so much that even instructor Wang Chong couldn’t pick any fault and somewhat felt like she lost face.
Taking into consideration the weaker physical ability of the girls, instructor Wang Chong still acted rather humane. She only made them stand that way for half an hour before calling for a break.
Yet, she specifically added: “Classmate Lin Mumu, continue standing!”
“Instructor, look at her, she’s so thin she could even be blown away by the wind. Please let her rest, Lin Mumu already knows her mistake.” Chen Fangya pleaded leniency for her friend.
However, the instructor righteously said: “In the army, we pay particular attention to discipline and obedience. You are now my soldiers, so you must listen to me. If I made her stand, even if she’s tired to death, she still has to stand!”
Lin Mumu always felt like this instructor was flaring up in a baffling way for inexplicable and forced reasons, as if she was deliberately targeting her.
But now, she had no other choice but to keep standing. She couldn’t go find Lin Tianlang for such a trivial matter.
Fortunately, even if Lin Mumu appeared weak, her foundation was very good.
Later in the morning, when the other people had already stopped training, she was still standing in military posture.
Yun Ruoshan and Su Xinlan also mockingly told Chen Fangya: “Lin Mumu is so relaxed. Our instructor plays with us and makes us turn left and right like monkeys, yet, she just needs to obediently stand by the side.”