My Little Poplar - Chap 40

In the winter in Xinjiang, the days and nights were freezing, the cooks had to get up earlier than the rest of the soldiers almost every day to prepare breakfast, when it was warm it was nothing, when it was cold, it was a real pain.

Bai Xinyu had to put on a thick cotton coat and a mackintosh to water the fields and feed the pigs, sometimes the water spilled on his feet, he could feel the chill through his boots. He used to make mistakes in the kitchen, Wu Qing gradually stopped letting him in, he was complacent but now it was freezing cold, he was envious to work in the warm kitchen. The pigs he fed were getting bigger and bigger, one sow was pregnant with a cub and the cooks had been working on it for days with a book to make sure the sow gave birth, they had a strict diet, they were more careful than the sick. Bai Xinyu was looking forward to getting away from the pigs but when one of his pigs was slaughtered, he felt a bit bad, he didn’t eat pork for a week. But his loss of appetite was probably also due to his recent preoccupation.

Bai Xinyu had been secretly thinking about something very important after his talk with Wu Qing that day, the meaning of life, it was too new and too heavy for him, as soon as he started to think about it, he kept thinking back to his old life, how much time he had wasted, how much he had failed to live up to, the process was a little bit of a struggle. The more he thought about it, the more he felt ashamed of his old self. But, he still didn’t know how he could do what Wu Qing had said, “be worthy of the bullets he had fired”, unless he could kill in battle or something but it was scary to think about, he was so young, he didn’t want to die yet, so he never came up with an answer to that question.

Life in the barracks was mostly boring, so when there was an event, everyone was excited, it was like having a sports day at school when you were a kid, it felt like a great feast, a way to get out of school and still have fun legally, so everyone was looking forward to the tournament with enthusiasm, whether they were in it or not. The whole battalion was busy preparing for the event and the cooks were busy receiving the leaders from the military district.

At this very busy time, Wu Qing gave Bai Xinyu three days off, Bai Xinyu was stunned when he heard, “Huh? A holiday? Why?”

Wu Qing said: “To give you time to practice, don’t be lazy when it’s cold.”

Bai Xinyu said happily: “Really, sergeant, thank you, sergeant.”

Wu Qing waved his hand and said, “Go on.”

Bai Xinyu went to apply for a gun and went to the range to practice, this time, he bumped into the Fourth Company Commander inspecting the Fourth Company’s training, the Fourth Company Commander recognised him at once and said, “Hey, isn’t that Bai, where’s your sergeant.”

“The sergeant is at work.”

The Fourth Company Commander looked at him, “You’re practicing by yourself?”

Bai Xinyu nodded, “I’m taking part in the shooting event, the sergeant has given me a few days off.”

“You’re going to shoot?” The Fourth Company Commander looked him over from the top and said, “Did your sergeant ask you to go?”

“No, I wanted to go myself.”

“How’s your training going?” The Fourth Company Commander patted him on the shoulder, “We’ve got a lot of good shooters in our company, although Sergeant Wu is a marksman, he doesn’t necessarily teach people, I’m just curious, how are you being trained by him?”

Bai Xinyu felt a little provocative in his tone, he grumbled, I’ll kill you all but outwardly he said modestly, “Just OK, the sergeant thinks, for regiment wide events like this, we should send someone from the Cook Squad to participate too.”