HCILH Ch. 6

Chapter 6: Military Training

While taking out the trash, Ran Shu grumbled, “That jerk is probably just messing with us, right?”

Sui Houyu recalled the earlier scene, his expression darkening as he replied quietly: “It’s probably true. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be so smug.”

“So what now? Should we stock up on medicine?” Ran Shu’s face scrunched up in frustration, like an old man squinting at his phone on the subway.

The two boys, being prideful, couldn’t help but imagine those student athletes lying in wait at the infirmary to mock them. If they went, they’d probably be bombarded with endless ridicule.

After standing in silence for a moment, Sui Houyu received a WeChat message from Su Anyi.

Su Aunty: I bought the medicine.

Su Anyi’s nickname sounded like “Aunty,” so everyone close to her called her that.

Among Sui Houyu’s friends, Su Anyi was the only girl, and everyone treated her with care. They wouldn’t let her do trivial tasks like taking out the trash.

Having overheard their conversation earlier, Su Anyi had gone to buy the medicine on her own.

Then, she sent a photo.

Su Aunty: I took a picture of the blacklist. The infirmary teachers make a note of every restaurant that causes problems for students. We ordered from one of the places on it. They’re still printing the handbooks and haven’t distributed them to the students yet.

Su Anyi was usually quiet, but she was never stingy with words around those she was close to.

Sui Houyu passed his phone to Ran Shu, who swore after seeing the message.

When they returned to the classroom, Ouyang Ge asked Sui Houyu to organize the afternoon cleaning.

After hearing the teacher’s request, Deng Yiheng, sitting next to Hou Mo, muttered: “We’re done for.”

Hou Mo, pretending to be calm, rubbed his face and said: “It was bound to happen sooner or later, but I didn’t expect it to be this soon.”

During the student cleanup, Ouyang Ge moved a chair and sat in front of the desk to write something.

He was clearly in a posture that gave off, “I’m here, don’t even think about making trouble.”

Ran Shu assigned the dirtiest and most exhausting tasks to the student athletes, with Hou Mo being given the equipment storage room, where every little detail was scrutinized.

Hou Mo put on a baseball cap and started sweeping the high shelves, only to knock down a dead rat. The rat landed right in front of him, just ten centimeters away, and he could distinctly hear the “splat” as it hit the ground.

How did it even get up there?

Hou Mo screamed in terror and cursed as he jumped away like a startled monkey.

After he retreated, he glanced back at the dead rat, his face contorting in disgust as he stomped his feet in place, trying to shake off the goosebumps. His frantic reaction was unexpectedly amusing.

Then, he heard a chuckle. When he turned, he saw Sui Houyu standing in the doorway, watching him.

Pointing at the rat, Hou Mo said, “Class monitor, I can’t do this.”

“Oh… So you just don’t want to participate in cleaning?”

“I’ll do something else, but not this…No, I don’t even want to be in this room.”

Clearly, assigning him to clean the storage room was just picking on him.

“How precious. So what can you do? Clean the toilets? Should I ask the class monitor from Class Sixteen to switch jobs? I know him.”

Hou Mo raised a finger to point at Sui Houyu, but after a long pause, he couldn’t say anything. “You…”

“Me? You think you can take me on?” Sui Houyu raised an eyebrow, his tone provocative.

“I’m not that desperate,” Hou Mo replied, stepping out of the equipment room. Standing in the hallway, he waited until someone came by to greet him.

Then, Hou Mo told that person to help him deal with the dead rat.

He then started to help Huo Mo clean up the storage room.

Turns out, he had good relationships with people.

After seeing Hou Mo get frightened by the dead rat, Sui Houyu was no longer angry and walked back to the classroom.

That night, both Sui Houyu and Ran Shu had stomach issues. Su Anyi only felt a bit unwell but recovered quickly after taking medicine, as she hadn’t eaten much.

Sui Houyu, on the other hand, had it worse, mainly because he had eaten a lot.

*

The next day, during military training, Sui Houyu’s stomach still wasn’t fully recovered, and he felt uncomfortable. 

However, he thought he could tough it out for a while.

The first task of the training was making the bed, which was relatively easy at this stage.

Ran Shu struggled the most. His bedding had been stuffed with a new, soft core, making it impossible to fold neatly. Frustrated, he tried pressing it down with his body, but it was no use.

In the end, Sui Houyu helped by placing a book inside the duvet cover to stiffen it up a bit.

The second task was lining up.

Class Seventeen had many tall student athletes. Sang Xian stood at 190 cm, and Hou Mo was 188 cm.

At 183 cm, Sui Houyu could only stand in the third row, while Ran Shu, at 178 cm, stood in the middle of the lineup.

As soon as the lineup was organized, Hou Mo suddenly called out, “Report.”

The instructor came over and stood in front of Hou Mo. “Speak.”

“I have albinism. I can’t be in the sun.”

The instructor looked at Hou Mo, who was indeed shockingly pale. The instructor lifted Hou Mo’s sleeve and examined his arm, which was several shades lighter than the instructor’s skin.

Then, the instructor looked at Hou Mo’s hair and asked, “Is your hair color natural?”

“Yes, it’s caused by albinism.”

“I’ll check with your homeroom teacher. No lying allowed.”

“I’m not lying,” Hou Mo replied without a trace of guilt.

The instructor believed him and allowed Hou Mo to leave the lineup, after which the group had to reorganize.

Several student athletes watched Hou Mo walk away with envy, grinding their teeth in frustration.

He doesn’t have albinism at all! He’s just naturally pale!

The instructor didn’t have time to verify Hou Mo’s claim that morning. Since Ouyang Ge, the homeroom teacher, was also the head of the moral education department, he was busy. The instructor decided on giving Hou Mo the chance to skip half a day of training.

With only five days of military training, missing half a day was quite the privilege.

Sui Houyu endured two hours before he couldn’t take it anymore and reported to the instructor.

Seeing Sui Houyu’s pale lips, the instructor didn’t ask many questions and told him to hurry to the bathroom.

Having diarrhea during military training was not something the average person could handle, but Sui Houyu, with his strong willpower, managed to hold out.

After leaving the restroom, Sui Houyu washed his hands and shook off the excess water from his hands. When he looked up, he saw Hou Mo sitting in the nearby rest area with his long legs draped over the armrest of a chair.

Hou Mo, tall with long legs, seemed to take up the entire seat.

He was holding a bottle of mineral water, which had been frozen solid, and tapping it against the chair’s armrest to break up the ice so it would melt faster.

Noticing someone coming out, Hou Mo looked up at Sui Houyu, smiled, and asked, “Did you escape too?”

Sui Houyu didn’t answer.

Hou Mo continued, “Remember to turn off your phone. As long as Gege can’t find you, he can’t do anything.”

Sui Houyu nodded, then pulled out his phone and recorded a short video of Hou Mo, sending it to Ouyang Ge. He added a message: “A student is faking illness to skip military training and is in the first floor of the main building.”

As class monitor, Sui Houyu had reluctantly added Ouyang Ge as a friend, and it came in handy at that moment. Reporting students who violated discipline was part of his job as class monitor.

After sending the message, Sui Houyu walked back to continue military training.

It didn’t take long for Hou Mo to realize something was wrong and start planning his escape. Maybe he could hide in one of the empty buildings? There seemed to be no security cameras there.

About half an hour after Sui Houyu rejoined the group, Ouyang Ge dragged Hou Mo back and assigned him to run ten laps around the field.

For a student athlete, running ten laps wasn’t a big deal. They did it every day.

But being made to run at eleven o’clock, under the scorching sun, was something else. By then, most of the squads had taken refuge in the shaded corridors.

Standing in the back row of the lineup, Sui Houyu turned around to see Hou Mo running around the field.

On his first lap, Hou Mo couldn’t tell who was who around him. After all, everyone was wearing the same clothes.

On his third lap, Hou Mo passed their class’s lineup and raised his middle finger, clearly aimed at Sui Houyu.

Standing right next to Sui Houyu was Deng Yiheng, one of Hou Mo’s close friends. Seeing this, Deng burst into laughter, making a sputtering sound as if he were stifling a fart, clearly enjoying the schadenfreude.

That afternoon, Hou Mo returned to join the training but was given extra attention by the instructor.

While others marched in a straight line, Hou Mo had to march twice as much.

While they were taking a break, Deng Yiheng sat next to Hou Mo and noticed Su Anyi spraying sunscreen on Sui Houyu and Ran Shu. He felt incredibly envious, like a big sour lemon.

With a long sigh, Deng Yiheng said: “They’ve got someone helping them with sunscreen.”

Hou Mo lazily replied: “You don’t need it. Your skin is fine as is.”

“Why is my skin good?”

“You can’t get any darker.”

“…”

After a moment, Deng Yiheng sighed again: “As long as Su Anyi’s around, we’re always going to lose, completely and utterly.”

Hou Mo didn’t quite understand. “Do girls really matter that much to you?”

“Senior Brother, we’re not like you. We actually like pretty girls, but we don’t have any around us! They do!”

Hou Mo, who was sweating a lot, stayed still, trying to “find coolness in calmness” and didn’t bother with Deng Yiheng.

Before long, Deng Yiheng, annoyed, started shaking Hou Mo. “Senior Brother! Look! Another pretty girl is talking to Sui Houyu! Why is he so popular with girls? Do they all like guys who are prettier than them?”

Hou Mo lazily opened his eyes and saw an awkward scene unfold.

A girl had come over, seemingly concerned about Sui Houyu’s condition, her expression gentle and cautious.

To be fair, the girl really was beautiful, gentle like flowing water, a stark contrast to Su Anyi’s cold demeanor.

But Sui Houyu ignored “Little Daiyu^[1]” completely, turning his head away.

Little Daiyu handed Sui Houyu a bottle of water, clearly just bought, with condensation covering the bottle and small ice chunks floating inside. It was the perfect half-water, half-ice drink everyone wanted during military training.

But Sui Houyu didn’t take it.

Ran Shu, seemingly unable to bear watching, reached out and placed the bottle on the table beside Sui Houyu.

However, Sui Houyu slapped it away forcefully, sending the bottle crashing to the ground, and cracking it open. Water gurgled out, wetting the dry ground and spreading across the stone cracks like claws.

Little Daiyu was clearly startled. After a moment of loss, she glanced at Sui Houyu with disappointment and quickly ran away.

Seeing this, Deng Yiheng was livid: “How could he treat such a pretty girl like that?! Doesn’t he know how many people would kill for that chance? Do you know how hard it is to queue up and buy water, especially with ice?! Scumbag! I’m gonna teach him a lesson today.”

With that, he began rolling up his sleeves, preparing for a fight.

“You can’t beat him.” Hou Mo said nonchalantly after taking a sip of water.

Deng Yiheng immediately quieted down.

“And besides, he doesn’t seem like a bad guy. Has he done anything to you recently?” Hou Mo asked.

Deng Yiheng shook his head.

“So don’t jump to conclusions. Maybe there’s some bad blood between him and Little Daiyu that we don’t know about, something that Sui Houyu can’t forgive.”

“Little Daiyu?”

“Uh… I meant the delicate one.”

Just then, Sui Houyu picked up the water bottle, walked a few steps, and threw it into the trash can.

Afterward, he stood still for a long time, lost in thought.