A Young Woman's Heart

Chapter Sixty-One: Crushing the Stone Slabs

The rain was pattering softly.

Under the rain shelter, students were marching in formation.

It's the kind of marching style used when raising the national flag.

Because the space inside the canopy was not large enough, the students felt somewhat restricted and could only walk about ten steps before reaching the end, forcing them to turn back and start over.

Or they could simply stand still and march in place.

But it seems that walking in place is even more difficult.

"Walk faster! One, two, three, four!" Instructor Huang shouted. "Didn't any of you eat breakfast?!"

“Yes—” the students answered matter-of-factly.

"I forgot you guys really didn't have breakfast." Huang Gou peeked out and then turned back to say, "Alright, alright, the battalion commander's gone, you guys get some rest."

"Great!"

"Long live the instructors!"

The students sat down one after another.

We've been training for an hour now, around 6:30.

Most people usually get up around this time.

Those who live nearby, or those who have a tendency to procrastinate, may get up even later.

Even just watching without doing anything made Mo Xueyao feel a little hungry, let alone the students who had been exercising for an hour.

They must be starving by now.

"Sister—I'm so hungry..." Mo Zhuyou mumbled lazily as she lay on Mo Xiaoxiao's lap.

"Breakfast should be ready soon," Mo Xiaoxiao said, gently stroking her head to comfort her.

"Instructor, when is breakfast? I'm starving!" Gao Yuan raised his hand and asked loudly.

"You think you're starving? Look how fat you are, you should really lose some weight!"

"Ah—I'm just bloated, I have no weight, it's all water..." Gao Yuan tried to explain himself.

"If you're bloated, then who's really fat?" Zhou Yong asked jokingly from the side.

"That must be Tian Xinnan, she's the really fat one."

"You fatso, who are you talking about!" Tian Xinnan's voice rang out, and she looked like she was about to have a sumo wrestling match with Gao Yuan.

Although both of them were fat, they were not in the same weight class.

Gao Yuan weighs around 130 pounds and is about 1.6 meters tall.

Tian Xinnan is nearly 1.8 meters tall and weighs about 200 kilograms, truly the kind of person who could crush a person to death if pressed down on.

"Damn it, someone fatter than me actually called me fat!" Gao Yuan's frustrated expression made the students burst into laughter.

"You can line up now to go to the cafeteria and get ready for breakfast." Just then, the head of student affairs, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, walked over holding a pure black umbrella.

She was issuing notices to each class one by one.

"Okay, let's go, I'm starving! Let's go get breakfast!" Huang Gou was the first to jump up, seemingly more enthusiastic than the students.

So everyone lined up neatly, and Mo Xueyao also returned to the line and went to have breakfast with everyone.

We still had to sing during breakfast, this time the national anthem. We could only sit down after the song was over.

The breakfast was very simple, consisting mainly of cornbread and millet porridge.

One of the small iron bowls contained peanuts, pickled vegetables, and roasted gluten.

The only dish that could barely be considered meat was a boiled egg for each person.

At the very front of the cafeteria, there are steamed buns and more cornbread available for you to take yourself, and you can also get more millet porridge if you're not full.

The food was simple, but the students, who had been exercising for an hour, were so hungry they were almost dizzy. At that point, they didn't care about breakfast; they just stuffed whatever they could eat into their mouths.

"I've never had a breakfast without meat at home," Gao Yuan muttered under his breath, but he still ate a lot because vegetarian dishes were nowhere near as filling as meat dishes.

Having learned from yesterday's experience, the students remained absolutely quiet today, waiting until they finished eating and went outside to say anything.

Mo Xueyao didn't eat much, since she hadn't been exercising; she just ate her usual amount.

I just added an extra bowl of millet porridge.

The main thing is that drinking warm millet porridge makes my stomach feel warm and comfortable.

"Little Yaoyao~" As soon as she stepped outside and opened her umbrella, Hua Yinyin gently patted her shoulder, always following behind her like a little shadow. "Here, take this~"

"What?" Mo Xueyao looked at what Hua Yinyin was holding in her hands with a puzzled expression. Because it was wrapped up so tightly, she couldn't see what it was at all.

"An egg." Hua Yinyin chuckled and stuffed the boiled egg from breakfast into Mo Xueyao's hand.

The egg was still warm, seemingly carrying the warmth of Hua Yinyin's palm.

"Uh...why are you giving this to me..."

"I don't want to eat it. I'm so tired of eating it at home. It's a waste to throw it away. Don't you like it either? Uh... then I'll give it to someone else..."

"Um... I didn't say I didn't like it..." Mo Xueyao said in a slightly embarrassed voice, then quickly peeled the egg and took a bite, as if afraid that Hua Yinyin would snatch it back.

"Hmm, eating eggs during your period seems to help relieve menstrual cramps," Hua Yinyin said, scratching Mo Xueyao's chin.

The gesture was like scratching a cat...

Mo Xueyao's family rarely eats eggs.

After all, eggs aren't exactly cheap.

I probably only eat boiled eggs once or twice a week to supplement my nutrition.

She doesn't actually like boiled eggs that much, because they make her mouth very dry.

But I can't bear to part with the nutrients in it.

Although she doesn't like egg yolks, she really enjoys egg whites, especially tea eggs.

After breakfast, the students returned to their respective classrooms' training grounds, and after a short rest, military training resumed.

Today's difficulty was much higher than yesterday's; just standing at attention increased from five minutes to fifteen minutes.

Fortunately, Huang Gou's requirements weren't that strict; otherwise, it would have been quite good if even one or two people in the class could have persevered.

Even so, most of the people were already staggering and unable to stand up after ten minutes.

At this moment, Mo Xueyao was not feeling fortunate, but was wondering how long she could have lasted if it were her.

"Mo Xueyao, come sit down, I'm going to stretch a bit~" Ye Wen stretched and stood up from the bench.

"Oh...okay...thank you." Mo Xueyao came back to her senses, a little embarrassed, and slowly sat down.

The main concern is that sitting too fast might cause some things to be missed during the test.

Although I brought four pairs of underwear, it would be a problem if they didn't dry in the rain these next few days.

So it's better to be careful.

After standing at attention, there was the usual rest period, followed by practice of marching in place.

Gao Yuan made a mistake again and was immediately pulled to the front of the line to walk with the girls.

"One, two, three, four!" Huang Gou shouted, "Everyone here has already eaten breakfast, so get moving! Don't be lazy!"

"Start chanting slogans too, but why am I the only one doing it? Where's your class's sports representative?"

“This.” Li Hongran weakly raised her hand.

"Shout louder! One, two, three, four! Shout! You lead the way!"

"Yes—!" Li Hongran quickly took the lead and shouted.

The other boys, as if competing with each other, shouted along with all their might.

The girls, on the other hand, were happy to have it easy; all they had to do was open their mouths and make up some nonsense.

Anyway, Huang Gou is generally only for men.

Sitting on the ground, Mo Xueyao felt the floorboards thumping as if there was a slight earthquake, which showed just how hard the boys were pushing.

Zhou Yong was the most energetic among them. His shouts were even louder than Li Hongran's, and he stomped with all his might, as if he wanted to crush the ground.

And he did succeed.

"Bang! Crack!" With a loud noise, everyone stopped instinctively.

Zhou Yong looked down at his right leg, somewhat bewildered.

There, he stepped on a stone slab and broke it.

"Amazing..." Mo Xueyao exclaimed, her mouth agape.

He definitely couldn't do it if it were him.

Zhou Yong's movements may not be perfect, but he is certainly strong.

Of course, it's also because the stone slabs here were already somewhat old; otherwise, it would be unlikely that they would break underfoot.

Even so, the results were quite astonishing.

"You're something else, kid! Hmm?" Huang Gou patted Zhou Yong on the shoulder and gave him a thumbs up. "You even managed to break a stone slab. How's your foot? Is it hurt?"

"It seems like nothing's wrong..." Zhou Yong came to his senses and shook his right leg. "It's just that the soles of my feet feel a little cold?"

"Of course! You've worn out the soles of your shoes, I'm impressed," Huang Gou said admiringly. "Did you bring any spare shoes?"

"Yes, it is, but it's in the dormitory."

"Why don't you find someone to go with you to change your shoes before you come back? And don't use so much force later."

"Didn't you tell us to use more force?" Zhou Yong said straightforwardly, though he was actually quite proud of himself.

"You're so cocky, kid." Huang Gou laughed and slapped him on the head. "You can choose your own people."

"Oh, I choose..."