The moment Qi Yue finished speaking, he could sense the burning gaze emanating from the man before him. When he looked up, his eyes met with those of Shen Chengfeng.
Within the quiet room, the sound of Shen Chengfeng's fingers lightly tapping on the desk were amplified.
Qi Yue had no idea what brought about the solemn atmosphere, but in a bid to dispel the awkwardness, he covered his mouth and coughed lightly. "Don't get me wrong. It's not that I don't want to help the Xiao family, but the Special Command Unit isn't a charitable organization. Besides, the Xiao family has no lack of resources and would be more than capable of training Xiao Jing themselves. There is no need for an outsider to get involved."
"Since you don't think favorably of him, you won't have to continue training him any further," said Shen Chengfeng, as he rested his chin between his clasped hands. There was a deep and unfathomable look in his eyes as he stared at Qi Yue.
A trace of hesitation flashed across Qi Yue's face. When had the devil incarnate become so reasonable?
"I will train him personally," said Shen Chengfeng. He put on his military cap and walked out of the office without a second glance.
Qi Yue stood rooted to the spot, slowly digesting what Shen Chengfeng had just said to him. Had the devil incarnate just instructed him to give up on training the useless Xiao Jing, then told him that he would teach him personally?
At the sudden revelation, Qi Yue turned around to stare dumbfoundedly at the doorway, but Shen Chengfeng had long left the room, and there was nobody else in the room but him.
Shen Chengfeng walked into the drill grounds. The sun was scorching the earth, and waves of heat were rolling off the ground. The air was so still that there wasn't even a little bit of breeze.
Xiao Jing was drenched in sweat. In her peripheral vision, she could see the man who was leaning against the horizontal bar that was about three meters away from her.
Likewise, the rest of her teammates had seen Shen Chengfeng arrive, so everyone stopped what they were doing and gave him their full attention.
"You. Come down," Shen Chengfeng placed his hand on Xiao Jing's skinny frame.
Xiao Jing hesitantly jumped off the bar. Due to the heat, her fair complexion had been tinted a rosy red. She wiped away the beads of sweat from her forehead, walked up to Shen Chengfeng, and saluted. "Sir."
"Come with me," Shen Chengfeng turned around, and started walking towards the end of the field.
Xiao Jing quickly followed after him. A light breeze greeted her, and she could not help but rub her arm, which had started aching.
Shen Chengfeng paused before one of the stops in the hundred-meter obstacle course. It was an exclusive training ground for recruits, which meant that every obstacle had been designed with rookies in mind, with varying levels of difficulty. The course was about a hundred meters long and could be split into ten different obstacles, including uneven bars, balance beams, a wall with a height of three meters, and a muddy swamp.
Xiao Jing's brows furrowed, and she couldn't help but ask, "Why are we here, Commander?"
"Do you know what this is for?" questioned Shen Chengfeng, as he turned around and made eye contact with her.
Xiao Jing nodded. "This is where basic training is conducted."
"What you lack now is the most basic physical strength. After having had it easy at Regiment 525 for a couple of years, it will be impossible for you to make the cut unless you work ten times harder than the others. Otherwise, there is no room for you here, or even at the other camps, for a loser like you.
What had she done to him? Had she stolen his food or his wages? Who was she embarrassing? "It's not as if you're the one who would be embarrassed, so why should you care!" Xiao Jing thought to herself.
Shen Chengfeng's gaze darkened. "You don't seem to agree with what I have just said."
Xiao Jing kept her chin high and answered firmly, "No, sir. You're right. I have indeed fallen behind. I will make up for my shortcomings through hard work. If at first I don't succeed, I will try ten times harder. If that's still not enough, I will do it a hundred times. If a hundred times doesn't work, I'll —"
"Pack up and go home," Shen Chengfeng interrupted her righteous speech. "It's not that I don't believe in hard work. But a foolish person will still be foolish even after being given a hundred chances or having a lot of time and effort invested in training him. Wouldn't that be a waste of time?"
Xiao Jing coughed awkwardly.
Walking over to the uneven bars, Shen Chengfeng grabbed hold of them and leaped over them effortlessly. His attempt was textbook perfect.
"Did you see how I did it?" Shen Chengfeng turned to look at Xiao Jing with his sharp eyes.
Xiao Jing grabbed the low bar and executed what she thought was a perfect backflip, before knocking her head on the high bar.
With a loud crash, Xiao Jing landed in the muddy swamp, her forehead becoming red from the impact.
She lay on the ground in a daze, seeing stars before her eyes.
"Do it again," Shen Chengfeng commanded, as he looked down at the stationery body before him.
Xiao Jing scrambled to get up. Dusting off the dirt on her body, she grabbed hold of the low bar again, then held her breath as she leaped over the uneven bars.
The three-meter tall wall was Xiao Jing's Achilles heel. For one, she was much shorter than most of the men in the camp, who were, on average, 1.8 meters tall. There was a considerable disparity in their jumping abilities.
Shen Chengfeng stood in front of the wall and jumped from a standstill. He easily made it over the wall, and even executed a side somersault in mid-air, before making a perfect landing.
Xiao Jing gulped. Making it over the wall was one thing, but a somersault in the middle of the jump? Why didn't he ask her to fly? Did he know how stupid she would look if she fell from trying to execute a side somersault mid-air and how much soil she would end up ingesting?
"Do exactly as I did," Shen Chengfeng commanded.
Xiao Jing stood before the wall and happily bounced a few times on the spot as if she were Mario from Nintendo's Super Mario Brothers. If there were a box of coins above her head, she would have probably been even happier to jump.
"Jump up there," ordered Shen Chengfeng, as he supported Xiao Jing's waist to help her jump higher.
Feeling something on her waist, Xiao Jing instinctively reached down to touch whatever was holding her waist. There was a sudden pause, and Shen Chengfeng tossed her. Xiao Jing crashed into the wall with a loud thud, before falling backward.
Shen Chengfeng, with his sharp eyes and agile movements, quickly grabbed hold of her falling body.
"Bang!"
Their foreheads then collided, producing a resounding crash.
Xiao Jing stumbled backward, and shook her head, hoping to make the stars she was seeing disappear. But before she could do so, she tripped over her own feet and lost her balance.
A crazy gust of wind suddenly descended upon the drill ground, causing a small explosion of dust and soil.
"Commander?" Mu Xichi asked hesitantly, not sure whether he should walk up to them. He could not believe the sight in front of him and repeatedly rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things. The tall man who had cushioned the fall – Was that the unsmiling, clean freak Master Shen that he knew?