Twelfth: Reunion and Farewell

  The whole military training team's formation and parade training has basically passed, all the exams have ended, which means that the military training is about to end. Therefore, the military training team decided to hold a party on the last night, with each class and squad performing programs. So in the last week of military training, everyone was busy arranging and practicing their performances during their free time at night.

  The ninth class was originally practicing a small chorus "Katyusha", but later heard that many classes were singing songs and were rejected; wanted to arrange dance, but no one in the class had learned to dance, didn't know how to choreograph, and there were no costumes or music, so it was also rejected. Later, Lin Fanghua came up with an idea - perform a cappella "Female Soldier". Ten girls formed a team, singing while doing marching steps, changing formations, simple movements, as long as they were neat and powerful, accompanied by three girls blowing whistles on the side of the stage to keep the beat, so that everyone in the class could participate.

  When the girls in Class 9 heard Lin Fanghua humming "Female Soldier", they all felt that this program was a joke, so everyone's enthusiasm was mobilized. Not only did they quickly learn this military song that they had never heard of before (note: This is a collective creation of female soldiers from a certain unit in Beijing several years later, and Lin Fanghua just watched the MV on TV without knowing the background of the creation, so she didn't know she was infringing on rights), but everyone also came up with plans for arranging the team's movements. The participants were quickly determined, and the three girls who were not good at team movements specially practiced blowing whistles and beating rhythms.

  At 7:00 pm on Friday, September 28th, the grand gathering began on time in the Great Hall of the troops.

  It started with the leader's speech, mainly summarizing and praising. Then it was the commendation meeting. The third row and two other brother units won the collective third-class merit, and Class 9 also won the excellent class title along with seven other classes, which is the highest honor in the collective; Lin Fanghua personally also won the military training model soldier title and personal award once, which is the highest honor that can be obtained by an individual. Lin Fanghua had never received such awards before, no matter what, this was still a result of his own hard work, so even if the reborn Lin Fanghua didn't care about fame and fortune, he was still happy to get recognition from others.

  After the awards ceremony, the cultural performances began. It's worth mentioning that among these college students, there are indeed hidden dragons and crouching tigers - not only do they have good grades, but also a wealth of artistic talent. In the first row, a short male student performed a Sichuan dialect comedy sketch, with witty language and hilarious actions that left everyone in stitches, comparable to professional performances on stage. The second row had two Beijing students performing crosstalk, which was also of high standard. And in the third row, a male student even brought his guitar and performed a song-and-dance routine, surprisingly playing Cui Jian's rock song "Nothing at All", leaving the audience's blood boiling. In the fourth row, four classes, including Lin Fanghua's classmate, put on a program where three male students sang and danced to the Little Tigers' hit songs "Green Apple Paradise" and "Love". What was rare was that these three boys looked similar in height, with handsome features, bearing some resemblance to the Little Tigers.

  Listening to the familiar melody and lyrics - "String your heart with mine, string a lucky clover, string a concentric circle; Let all the calls for the future, take youth as a companion...", Lin Fanghua couldn't help but think of the scene where Xiao Hu Dui reunited and sang on the 2010 Tiger Year Spring Festival Gala. Although the three little tigers from back then have become "old tigers", their youth is no longer, but the feeling that their songs bring to people is still so moving. My past self, seeing this, recalls my own departed youthful years, and can't help but be misty-eyed with tears. My current self, although still in the prime of youth, has already experienced many hardships and become conservative and weak-willed. Others listening to this lively youth melody only feel excitement and joy, but I always have a faint sense of sadness that cannot be shaken off.

  "Next is us, let's go backstage!" Lin Fanghua, who was still in a daze, was pulled up by Guo Ling and pushed towards the backstage. Suddenly sobered up, she quickly gathered her thoughts and concentrated on recalling the dance moves of the upcoming performance in her mind. As the leader of the team, she couldn't afford to make any mistakes.

  As the host's voice fell, the venue quieted down. Suddenly, several loud and neat whistles with a strong sense of rhythm sounded like drumbeats. "Tweet!——Tweet tweet!——Tweet!——Tweet tweet!——Tweet!——Tweet tweet!——Tweet tweet tweet!——" Then came the clear and crisp female voices, "One!——Two!——Three!——Four!——One two three four!——", followed by a team of female soldiers with neat footsteps walking onto the stage. They changed formations several times in sync with the whistles, then lined up neatly on the stage, facing the audience and began to sing:

  "Female soldier, female soldier, female soldier!"

  An ordinary soldier yet extraordinary

  Gather under the military flag

  Like countless shining stars.

  Our smiles stay with spring.

  Our voices echo across the clear sky.

  Vigorous, strong, proud, glorious

  Like sisters, affection fills the barracks!

  Although there was no band accompaniment, the female soldiers sang along with the bugle call and it had an even more military song flavor. After one segment of singing, the formation changed again with the change in the bugle call, and they also performed a segment of goose-stepping to simulate a parade scene. Lin Fanghua shouted "Right face - Attention!" at the head of the formation, raised her hand in salute, looked straight ahead, and the rest of the team members turned their heads 45 degrees towards her. Their self-compiled parade moves were not standard, but they still had a lot of momentum on stage. When the salute move was made, the whole team marched through the center of the stage in goose-step, and there was thunderous applause from below the stage.

  The girls were inspired, and the subsequent actions became more powerful and elegant, completely beyond their level. They returned to the center of the stage and finished singing the second verse. This time, the audience below gave them applause and beat out a rhythm, creating a very lively atmosphere. Finally, after finishing the song, the ten people stood in a line, gave a uniform salute, and the applause from the audience was so enthusiastic that it almost blew off the roof.

  It was a success! After stepping down, all thirteen girls in the class couldn't help but hug each other and burst into laughter. Lin Fanghua remembered that although the girls in her previous life's class got along well, they didn't seem to have such intimate moments before - could it be the butterfly effect caused by herself?

  The little bear class leader smiled and came over, letting the girls sit down to continue watching the show. Jiang Pai Zhang also slowly walked over, with a serious expression saying: "Class 9 performed well, let's give them a round of applause!" Then he was shooed away by the girls' "shh" sounds.

  The next program was also wonderful. For example, the Tibetan class's folk dance was truly authentic and their self-made Tibetan robes were stunningly beautiful, opening people's eyes wide. And the Tibetan class's chorus "Yesterday's Sun" quickly became popular throughout the grade, almost everyone could hum a sentence "Yesterday's sun belongs to yesterday, oh! Tomorrow's day has another new look".

  The most stunning one should be Jiang Lu's solo dance "Bamboo in the Moonlight". It is said that Jiang Lu received formal dance training at the Youth Palace when she was a child, and her basic skills are solid. What's rare is that in the military camp, she made a Dai ethnic tube skirt with several skirts contributed by female students, and the music accompaniment was played by Lu Heng, a male student in the same class who blew the flute, and this person can also be considered a professional-level flute player. Jiang Lu's beautiful and affectionate dance posture on the central stage, and Lu Heng's clear and gentle flute sound on the side of the stage, brought everyone a pure and beautiful feeling. These two people became popular overnight, Jiang Lu became the recognized class flower of this grade, and Lu Heng also had many admirers among the female students.

  The gala is not only a stage for university students to show off their talents, but also for the military officers. Among them, Officer Sun's hard qigong performance was a highlight of the military camp, and the fourth company commander sang an Italian folk song "My Sunshine" which amazed everyone. Meanwhile, Company Commander Zhu Mingzhi from the Little Pig Squad even performed a Shandong quick book, which made everyone admire his multiple talents.

  In short, the whole party was a huge success and left everyone with wonderful memories. That night, the lights-out time was delayed by an hour and a half, and someone started it, classmates took out their notebooks to ask the class leaders and instructors to sign their names as souvenirs.

  Lin Fanghua saw that there were too many people gathered at the dormitory of her class, so she didn't join in the commotion. She took advantage of the fact that no one was around to go to the bathroom and wash up first. When everyone else returned one after another, she calmly went to sign her name with her diary in hand. To say that keeping a diary was something she only started doing after rebirth. Perhaps it was only after rebirth that she realized how many people and things had been forgotten in the past, as well as emotions, so when given the chance to relive life once more, every day became precious, and thus developed the habit of keeping a diary. Moreover, Lin Fanghua often found herself having thoughts triggered by memories colliding after rebirth, or recalling important events for fear of forgetting them again, so she would record these thoughts or events in her diary using symbols and codes, just in case.

  When Lin Fanghua arrived at Jiang Pai's room, there were only a few people left in the house. She patiently waited until the last one and asked Pai to leave a message. Jiang Tao took over the diary and looked at her saying: "Little Lin, you are the most outstanding female soldier I have ever met. You are born to be a soldier, if you were a man, I would definitely find a way to get you into military school. Alas..."

  Lin Fanghua knew that Jiang Paichang was a genuine person, and being appreciated by such an excellent soldier made her feel proud of herself. She felt grateful to Jiang Paichang: "Thank you, Captain! Your affirmation means a lot to me!"

  Jiang Tao shook his head while writing and said: "What's the use of being meaningful to you, if you come to our troops, it's only meaningful to our troops!"

  Lin Fanghua was sweating profusely: What Jiang Paichang said is too exaggerated!

  While speaking, Jiang Piao Long had already written the message. Lin Fang Hua took a look and it was brief and to the point: The green military camp is beautiful because of your youthful beauty, and your youth is also magnificent because of the experience in the military camp! Military training team leader Jiang Tao.

  Lin Fanghua thanked him and was about to leave. Jiang Pai Chang took out another small airplane made of a bullet shell from the drawer, which was only as big as a palm. It was exquisite and delicate. Jiang Tao said with an air of nonchalance, "Here, I'll give you this little thing as a keepsake! But don't let others see it, I only have one!"

  Lin Fanghua did not expect to have this unexpected gain. At that time, she saw Jiang Pai's tank model was very big and exquisite, although she envied it but didn't dare to ask for it. I guess at that time Jiang Pai had already seen that she liked bullet shell crafts, so he specially made a small airplane as a souvenir for her, thank you so much!

  Jiang Tao seemed to be unaccustomed to others thanking him, so he started to shoo them away: "Alright, take your stuff and hurry back, it's almost lights out! Oh, if you really want to thank me, come join the army in the future. If that doesn't work out, just marry a soldier!"

  Finally, with this sentence, Lin Fanghua fled in disarray. Running far away, it seemed that Jiang Pailang's low and muffled laughter could still be heard.

  The next day after breakfast, the military vehicle drove into the playground, and the final moment of farewell to the military camp had finally arrived.

  The students carried their luggage, gathered in formation, and bid farewell to their class leaders for the last time.

  Jiang Tao looked at the female soldiers in front of him, his eyes scanning over each girl's face. A month ago, most of them had fair and delicate skin, but now they all had a dark complexion like roasted ducks. He thought about the simple living conditions in the dormitory, the dining hall without tables and chairs, and the unbearable condition for the girls was probably the lack of hot water for bathing, which made them wash with cold water in the bathroom for a month.

  "Classmates, today your military training has come to an end. You will soon be boarding the military vehicles over there and returning to your school. And after today, I will no longer be your platoon leader. During this month of military training, on the surface it seemed like I was training you, but in fact, I also learned a lot from all of you. On the first day when I received you, my impression of you was not very good. I thought you were just a group of spoiled girls who came to the military camp just for show, and I would definitely make you cry out loud. (The female students chuckled lightly) But what I didn't expect was that you used facts to educate me thoroughly. In this month of military training, I saw so many excellent soldiers emerge from among you, and I never expected that our female soldier platoon could win so many collective honors. So, thank you! If during the training I was too strict with everyone and caused any inconvenience, please forgive me! (Several female students choked back tears and said "No hard feelings") Thank you for your understanding and support! Female university students of the new era! In this short month of shared training life with all of you, I felt your spirit of not being afraid of hardship or fatigue, persevering and never giving up. I believe that when you return to school, you will continue to carry forward this spirit! Finally, I wish you all a safe journey home and progress in your studies!"

  After finishing, Jiang and the three class leaders behind him saluted the girls together. Several girls couldn't hold back their tears and burst into sobs; more and more girls joined in, until all of them were sobbing, including Lin Fanghua. Jiang and the class leaders tried to comfort them, but everyone was crying, and it was impossible to calm them down. In the end, even their eyes turned red, but as men, they didn't let tears fall.

  The boys in the adjacent row also had a considerable number of people with red eyes, and they let out soft sobbing sounds. Lian Zhang rushed over to tell the girls not to cry, but the girls still couldn't control themselves. Lian Zhang had no choice but to order the girls' row to board the bus immediately and leave first. So Jiang led the class leaders and shook hands with each of the girls one by one, sending them onto the bus.

  At last, Lin Fanghua left the military camp amidst a sea of tears and sobbing eyes. This brief but unforgettable period of military training had come to an end, and true campus life was about to begin.

  (Evening breeze whispers: The campus storyline is about to unfold, but to be honest, I haven't sorted out the threads yet. It seems like there's a lot I want to write, but it feels like it'll be chaotic if I just write it out like this. Guess my writing skills are still lacking! So, updates might be slower from now on. Please forgive me, everyone!)