CHAPTER 46 ♦ PERFORMANCE PREPARATION

Qin Ke Xuan’s actions of chopping off her hair without even twitching her brows had her onlookers’ hearts panging—the majority of guys liked females with long hair.

Xiao Xie Lieutenant lightly coughed. “Ahem, come out and introduce yourself to everyone.” He was also a young adult a little over twenty years old, and so, he understood these recruits’ feelings. It couldn’t be helped that they were excited about meeting a female recruit after being cooped up in this dull SF every day. This appropriate relaxation also was able to elevate their enthusiasm towards their intensity training.

Qin Ke Xuan stood before everyone, and said: “I’m Qin Ke Xuan.” Z L T

“…That’s it?” In the end, Xiao Xie Lieutenant couldn’t help but ask after waiting for a while. Z L T

Qin Ke Xuan nodded her head. IAAK IS HOSTED @ ZHAN LAN

Everyone was a little disappointed. They’d originally thought she’d be a Lin mei meidropping from the sky*. However, this Lin mei mei that had proceeded to slap paint on her face and bunched her hair to chop it off very forcibly swerved herself down the lane towards a Lin di di*. That aside, why was it that this Lin mei mei had a temperament more manly than the soldiers them! Freaking hell! It’s all those famous X guys that’s had the current generation of girls poisoned into thinking that appearing gender-neutral was the new definition of looking cool and hot! Was it easy for them to be a soldier?! Their superiors were male, their subordinates were male, those that flew in the sky were male, those that swam underwater were male, even the goddamn chicken on their dinner table was a rooster! Freaking hell, did they even know how long they’ve been deprived of seeing a female?! Freaking hell, why was it that they had to go around worshipping those X guys?! Freaking hell, was their aesthetic standards still normal?! Was it?! Freaking hell, did they think it’s easy for us to be soldiers?! Did they?!

* 天上掉下个林妹妹 = a Lin mei mei dropping from the sky; this is a reference to Jia Bao Yu’s lyrics in “Dreams of the Red Chamber” book, 《红楼梦》, where the “Lin mei mei” is referring to “Lin Dai Yu”: the first time Jia Bao Yu had met Lin Dai Yu was when she first stepped into the Jia Mansion. At that time, Jia Bao Yu had thought Lin Dai Yu was as pretty as a goddess/an immortal descended from heaven/an unparalleled beauty, and so, he said it as “a Lin mei mei dropping from the sky”.

* 弟弟 = di di; younger brother Z L T

Xiao Xie Lieutenant looked at the disappointed expressions colouring the recruits’ faces, and couldn’t help but say, with awe-inspiring righteousness, to Qin Ke Xuan: “Try not to use too much oil paint, the chemicals are bad for your skin.” Frankly, he himself was, too, feeling as those his heart had been scratched. Wasn’t her fair skin all good and pretty, why the heck did she colour on the oil paint?! Would she lose a piece of meat if these females-deprived soldier boys looked at her too much?!

Qin Ke Xuan asked in suspicion: “You’ll grow pimples?” Z L T

“Hah! Pimples’ not the problem, you’ll even get wrinkles, freckles…” Before Xiao Xie Lieutenant even started, the recruits started gabbling all at once about the disadvantages of using oil paint. The SF high-quality oil paint-specialised manufacturer would definitely vomit blood if they heard them.

Even though Qin Ke Xuan wasn’t the most concerned about meaningless things like her appearance, she would still be unable to accept it if she were to walk around with a grandma face at her young age. Hence, she decided not to use too much of this oil paint unless it was necessary.

Xiao Xie Lieutenant nonchalantly overlooked the thumbs-up the new soldiers were secretly giving him and became serious. “Alright! Lunch’s starting soon, 200 push-ups. The earlier you finish, the earlier you can lunch!”

“Yes, sir!” IAAK IS HOSTED @ ZHAN LAN

After washing off her oil paint and walking into the large canteen, everyone’s gaze turned to look at her uniformly. Their gazes had even the normally cool and calm and hard-to-be-disturbed Qin Ke Xuan who’d endured through even the trials of death since young feeling rattled.

“Xiao Qin, here!” A dozen over group of people sitting around a table near the corner raised their hands to wave at Qin Ke Xuan. That was the soldier boys from her platoon.

Qin Ke Xuan walked over quickly and sat down in the seat they reserved for her. The gazes of jealousy from the soldiers seated at the other tables had them feeling very satisfied.

Hé Company Commander walked into the canteen holding a fly swatter as he bellowed at the soldiers. “Just look at yourselves! Aren’t you ashamed?! What’s with your unsightly dazzling gazes! Stop looking! We’ll contact the Art Troupe people next time and have them come down for a performance! You guys can watch to your heart’s content then!” 

“Ohhh!!!” The soldiers were immediately excited. Z L T

“Now shut it and eat your food!” IAAK IS HOSTED @ ZHAN LAN

As Qin Ke Xuan was the only female in the SF, they couldn’t possibly have her room with the other soldiers. Hence, they opened up the storeroom by their dormitories and had Qin Ke Xuan use it as her dorm. Following that, Wu Lieutenant Colonel had even laid an injunction that no one other than Qin Ke Xuan herself was allowed to near the storeroom. All who violate this would receive a demerit.

The training, aka demonic training, for the SF soldiers was very tough. (A/N: demonic training regime is extracted from Baidu)

In the beginning, everyone had thought that Qin Ke Xuan would not be able to pull through. However… it turned out that it was the recruits themselves that were unable to endure it. Qin Ke Xuan, on the other hand, found pleasure in it. In fact, not once had they seen her complaining about it being too hard. She was able to complete the tasks easily every time to the extent that even they were embarrassed to complain any more.

Xiao Xie Lieutenant at seeing that became even happier. He’d never known training new soldier would be so easy. Whenever they had something to say about the training, he’d say, chilly: “And you call yourselves manly? Have you ever seen Xiao Qin complaining?” After that, he’d ask again: “Xiao Qin, do you have anything to say about the following training?”

“No.” At times like these, Qin Ke Xuan would always reply very cooperatively. Z L T

The recruits would then collectively howl in anguish. Qin Ke Xuan, you’re actually a friggin’ superwoman with the appearance of a lolita right!

Facts had proved that Qin Ke Xuan was indeed a false lolita with a lolita facade. Her delicate frame was not at all able to adapt to such training that tested the tenacity of one’s skin and body. Very quickly, Qin Ke Xuan became bruised all over. These bruises however were all covered by her clothes so no one could see them.

It was only until the day it snowed badly and Xiao Xie Lieutenant had them remove their outer jacket to scrub themselves with snow, and Qin Ke Xuan appeared before everyone wearing only a black t-shirt and pants did they discover her arms and legs were covered in terrible bruises. Now that they think about it, the person who would expressionlessly finish all the tasks during their training, who otherwise should have been spoiled by her parents instead of scrubbing snow on her skin in the dead of the winter with only a thin shirt on, training her endurance against the cold, was just a little girl.

Xiao Xie Lieutenant looked at Qin Ke Xuan in worry, asking: “Is it serious? You should go to the infirmary to have it checked.”

Qin Ke Xuan grabbed some snow and slapped it on, scrubbing it on her elbows as she said blandly: “It’s nothing, it’ll be gone after some scrubbing.” ♢

The person standing beside Qin Ke Xuan was Number 12 (these recruits all used numbers as their codenames) urged her: “Xiao Qin, it’s better you have it checked. It wouldn’t properly heal if you dress it improperly.” Even though Qin Ke Xuan’s codename was Number 13, everyone called her Xiao Qin instead of her number out of habit.

The other recruits too started urging her. Though Qin Ke Xuan was normally sparing in speech and talked less than the real men themselves, she was still very valiant during the training. Even so, everyone still treated her like a mei mei. They’d leave her the tastiest stuff when eating, have her follow behind during training, help her block the cold winter wind… Upon seeing her limbs that otherwise should have been fair as snow in its current state, their hearts ached for her.

Qin Ke Xuan couldn’t stand up against the bunch of guys, who only had their pants on, circling her urging non-stop. Hence, she shrugged on her outer pants and jacket and went to the infirmary. The medical personnel helped Qin Ke Xuan disinfect the places where her skin broke, and gave her a bottle of medicinal liquor to bring back to rub for her bruises.

At night after they tidied the field and returned to their dorms, the recruits each held a bottle of medicinal liquor and surrounded two metres from dormitory entrance at the “38th parallel*”, shouting for Qin Ke Xuan. This “38th parallel” was drawn by Hé Company Commander. He very clearly put it down that if anyone wanted to look for her, they must stand behind this red line to shout for her. They were not allowed to cross this red line, and so, this line later jokingly nicknamed the “38th parallel”.

* 三八线 = 38th parallel; 38th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 38 degrees north of the Earth’s equatorial plane; the 38th parallel north formed the border between North and South Korea prior to the Korean War.

“Xiao Qin! Come out for a bit, we want to talk to you about something!” Z L T

“Say, can the people behind not push?!” The person standing in the first line yelled at the people jostling behind. If they were pushed into the restricted area, they were going be earn a demerit! Earning a demerit in the military was very serious!

“Then you guys squat lower! You’re blocking us!” Z L T

This strange scene—a bunch of people with those in front bending their butts to prevent themselves from stepping across the red line into the restricted area and the those behind trying to push their way forward—was what Qin Ke Xuan witnessed when she walked out of the dormitory.

“What is it you’re looking for me for?” Qin Ke Xuan asked. Z L T

“Xiao Qin, we’re here to give you some medicine.” Z L T

“Medicine?” Qin Ke Xuan noticed the little bottle they were holding in their hands and said blandly: “Thank you, but I’ve already gotten a bottle of medicinal liquor from the infirmary.”

“Xiao Qin, my medicine’s our family’s secret recipe, its effectiveness is tippity-top notched and so magical it leaves no scars. I’d actually wanted to give it to a female soldier who I fall in love at first sight with, but in this male-dominated location where there isn’t even a hen to lay her eggs, where would I be able to find a female soldier, much less a female soldier I fall in love at first sight with. Since you’re our platoon’s only female soldier, I’ll give you my medicine.” Number 12 located in the front rows stretched his hand and held the bottle in front of Qin Ke Xuan.

“Haha, just admit that you like Xiao Qin.” The rest of the people guffawed. 

“What’re you so anxious about, isn’t the Arts Troupe coming over in a while? You can find a female soldier you fall in love at first sight with then, 12.”

“Now that we’re talking about Arts Troupe, don’t we recruits need to put up a performance as well? Anyone’s come up with anything on that yet?”

“…” IAAK IS HOSTED @ ZHAN LAN

Qin Ke Xuan looked in resignation at the bunch of guys that were gabbling away and swerved the topic of conversation from delivering medicine to what performance to put up before it rounded a corner and hooked her into the equation. “Why don’t we let Xiao Qin do the performance this time!” She was their platoon’s only flower, so she should naturally be included in the performance.

Qin Ke Xuan was floored. They wanted her to go on stage to sing and dance? It’ll be more delightful for her to kill a person instead. Or, did they want her to display her various ways of killing a person?

“Then it’s settled! Xiao Qin, we’re depending on you for the recruits’ performance!” Before they heard Qin Ke Xuan’s opinion, the bunch of them collectively and self-initiative-ly settled on the plan.

Qin Ke Xuan held the pile of medicine bottle they’d forcibly stuffed at her, not knowing whether to laugh or cry as she watched them return to their dorms. Following which, she proactively decided she had not heard a single thing about what they’d said earlier.

It was only until the day the Arts Troupe came and the recruits asked her excitedly about how her prep for the performance was doing did she reply: “I didn’t prepare.”

“You’re kidding right?! The performance’s tonight!” Everyone freaked out. 

“Why don’t we sing a song or something.” Someone suggested. “Xiao Qin, can you sing?”Z L T

Qin Ke Xuan looked at the pairs of eyes that were sparkling with anticipation, her pink lips moving: “I’ve never sang a single song before.” Her light and bland reply had crushed the masses’ hope like the thin ice in winter, shattering all over the floor.