Chapter 50: Ring Zero

Chapter 50: Zero Points

Having received a definite answer from Guan Yuqi, Xu Qiao actually smiled instead. "Squad Leader, does this mean I... helped our platoon out?"

Guan Yuqi gave her a helpless look. "I suppose so, but don't get cocky. And don't ever pull a stunt like this again."

Xu Qiao hurriedly smiled and promised, "Rest assured, I will never arbitrarily intercept intelligence again."

"However..." Xu Qiao hesitated slightly. "Since the regiment received the order, they must know more than we do. Why didn't they notify us?"

"At least give us a heads-up in advance. Take yesterday's emergency assembly, for instance. It was honestly... a bit humiliating."

Hearing this, Guan Yuqi also found it rather strange. Logically speaking, the people at the regiment headquarters should have favored them. Even without an official notice, they should have found a way to drop a hint. How could there be no sound at all?

Yet right now, there was nothing, as if they had received absolute silence.

"Let's ignore them for now." Seeing that pondering was useless, Guan Yuqi stated directly, "For now, we should just prepare ourselves."

With that, she looked at Xu Qiao. "Yesterday... your performance was considered quite good. Was it really because of the training with Squad Leader Wu?"

"Otherwise? You didn't give me any advance notice. Do you think I could have guessed that the platoon leader would call a midnight emergency assembly based on just that?"

Yang Xiaohan's expression instantly turned somewhat ugly. But after all, it was her own soldier who had scored a zero, so she had no grounds to stop people from laughing.

And the one who scored this zero was none other than Xu Yang, the person who had earlier dared to laugh at Xu Qiao to her face.

Having tossed and turned for most of the night, neither of them had washed up yet. Therefore, taking advantage of the time before breakfast, they hurried back to wash up and tidy their quarters.

Hearing this, everyone frowned, waiting for her next words. Seeing her pause, they couldn't help asking, "What kind of news is this? What does it have to do with us?"

Xu Qiao could now easily fold her quilt into a tofu-block shape, neat and straight with sharp edges, better than most of them.

As she spoke, she looked directly at Xu Qiao. "Was that you laughing?"

"Or... it's the instructors' group intention to catch us off guard."

"It's quite unlikely that they would give up on us, so there's only one other possibility: the instructor group intends to observe our real, unvarnished state."

As Xu Qiao spoke, her hands didn't stop for a second, and another neat tofu-block quilt took shape.

The others weren't fools; upon hearing her words, they immediately realized the implication.

---

"Squad Leader Yang, out so early!" Guan Yuqi didn't know about the prior incident and instinctively greeted her upon meeting.

Right at that moment, the target recorder loudly called out their scores.

"Target Number 1: 42 points. Target Number 2: 56 points. Target Number 3: 33 points. Target Number 4... zero points!"

Upon hearing this question, everyone's eyes instantly lit up.

With a muffled snort, someone behind them couldn't help laughing out loud.

Even while firing the shots, she had already had a bad premonition, but upon hearing the score was merely zero, her face instantly turned pale.

Before she could even open her mouth, Yang Xiaohan complained, "Look at them, one and by one, they can barely even hold their rifles steady."

Today they were supposed to assemble at the shooting range, and her squad was scheduled to start with marksmanship. However, when they arrived at the shooting range, they discovered the wire communication squad was already there.

Hearing that laugh again, she finally erupted. "What are you laughing at? What's so funny?"

Exchanging glances, they thought: "What are we waiting for? Let's train!"

Initially, she hadn't quite understood this training method, having never experienced it in her past life.

"What were you... talking about with the squad leader just now? Is it related to our training this time?" Han Yuqi asked, looking directly at her.

Xu Qiao smiled. "Instead of wasting energy pondering this, you'd be better off thinking about what to do next."

"What we're about to face is far more than just an emergency assembly. Marksmanship, hand-to-hand combat, and even the 400-meter obstacle course—none of these are easy."

Xu Qiao swept her gaze over them. "Can you all use your brains? Since the regiment headquarters knew the news yet gave us no word, either they've abandoned us, meaning whatever the subsequent rectification looks like is entirely our own problem..."

After all, her own marksmanship hadn't been much better when she first started learning.

"Alright, stop riling her up," Cheng Yifei interrupted the two of them. "We're all grasshoppers on the same rope now. None of us can run, and you can't escape either."

Han Yuqi hurriedly nodded. "Right, right. We definitely need to start training ourselves first."

Han Yuqi choked slightly. "You say that as if you're good at all of them."

"Do you have some other inside information?"

She completely failed to understand what folding quilts had to do with combat effectiveness.

---

Gunshots echoed as the first round of shooting concluded. Yang Xiaohan turned her head over, letting out a helpless sigh. "Squad Leader Guan, you guys are here for shooting practice too?"

"You might say that. Compared to people from field combat units, I'm certainly a bit lacking, but when compared to you guys in these events... I should be just fine," Xu Qiao said cheerfully, not the least bit angry.

Hearing her put it this way, coupled with Xu Qiao's open and calm expression, Guan Yuqi finally nodded.

Guan Yuqi nodded and instinctively glanced at the training schedule. It really was scheduled for two squads to shoot together.

Though she wasn't angry, her words made Han Yuqi roll her eyes in exasperation.

Yet, after enduring the day-to-day training in the cooking squad, she had come to understand that no training item in the military was practiced in vain.

Watching their movements, Xu Qiao smiled helplessly, put the finishing touches on her task, and prepared to head to the mess hall for breakfast.

Guan Yuqi looked at the female soldiers of the Second Squad who had just finished shooting; their state was practically indistinguishable from raw recruits.

An innocent bystander hit by stray fire, Xu Qiao felt entirely wronged. Though she found scoring a zero somewhat unbelievable, she didn't have the habit of mocking others.

"Extra information... I suppose you could say I have some," Xu Qiao said with a smile as she saw them all looking over. "The regiment headquarters knew the instructors' team was coming here, yet they didn't disclose it to us."

And this wire communication squad was none other than the squad led by Xu Yang, with whom Xu Qiao had nearly come into conflict earlier.

As she spoke, she actually jogged over to her own bed and quickly began tidying up as well.

Turning back to look at her own soldiers, Guan Yuqi couldn't spare the energy to mock the others—she had no idea what condition her own people were in yet.

While diligently folding her quilt, Xu Qiao saw the others walking over and couldn't help smiling as she looked up. "What's this? Want to wager on something again?"

Yet Xu Yang hadn't even bothered to verify the facts before charging directly at her. That made it impossible for Xu Qiao to hold back her temper. She retorted directly, "I really didn't expect that not only are your hands and eyes useless, but your ears are also half-deaf. I truly wonder how you manage as a communications soldier."

"Aside from being bad at shooting, you probably can't set up antenna lines properly either."

She paused as if suddenly remembering something. "Oh, I forgot you're in the wire squad, you don't need to set up antennas."