Chapter Ninety-Six: A Pig Cannot Budge a Mountain (2.2)

At this moment there were at least several hundred people in the canteen. When the soldier shouted like that, heads turned all at once, and a few people immediately began to jeer and stir things up. Long Fei was standing alone in the girls’ section, and from a distance he really did look like a single patch of green in a sea of blossoms. Looking more closely, there was even a beauty beside him. Those who knew Long Fei and Liu Ruoyi did not care much, but those who did not know them were eager to make the matter bigger. It would be best if Long Fei were beaten into a pulp and then driven out of the barracks.

Long Fei really did stand up. Seeing that everyone seemed to be waiting for a show, he simply let go of his restraints and even laughed cheekily. “This comrade, uh, did you call me up for something?”

“I now order you to run twenty laps around the drill field at once. Otherwise, come with me to the office. This is outrageous. You are actually refusing to obey orders!” The young recruit flushed bright red.

Long Fei showed no sign of anger at all. In fact, several other sentries not far away were already hurrying over while shouting at the jeering students, “What are you yelling about? Anyone who keeps making noise will go run twenty laps like that fellow out there!”

The canteen fell silent at once.

By then, five or six soldiers had already gathered in front of Long Fei, each of them watching him like a hawk. Long Fei could not help laughing. “I say, comrade, have you got this wrong? You are not my instructor, so on what authority are you ordering me around? And where in this canteen does it say that boys are not allowed to eat at the same table as girls? Then why the hell are you standing over here among the girls on guard duty? Are you trying to use this chance to take advantage of people?”

Long Fei was so forceful that he actually left the soldiers momentarily speechless. Indeed, there was no explicit rule in the canteen forbidding boys and girls from eating together. But normally, when had there ever been girls here? There had naturally been no need to write such a rule.

Long Fei had caused such a commotion that the scene briefly went cold. Still, one of the five soldiers on the other side was quick-witted enough to react. “And now you’re even insulting people? That’s really too much. Come with us, now, move!”

Having seized what they thought was Long Fei’s weak point, the soldiers immediately grew a little arrogant and moved to grab him. Unexpectedly, Long Fei had been waiting for them to strike first. The moment one of them reached for his arm, Long Fei twisted his body and turned the move back on him, then drove out a simple kick. He did not use that vile, deadly groin kick this time, but even an ordinary kick was enough to send the first soldier crashing to the floor.

Liu Ruoyi had not expected Long Fei to actually fight back, and she gasped so hard that her mouth fell open. Yet she felt no dislike for his rough behavior; on the contrary, her heart was pounding violently. All she could think was that Long Fei had fought because he wanted to sit with her, and all she could think about now was how to help him out of this afterward. Of course, what she worried about most was whether Long Fei could actually beat these soldiers.

“Everyone saw it clearly, he made the first move!” Long Fei shouted. Immediately many students joined in the noise. “Serves him right!”

Although everyone did not have much affection for Long Fei, the lecher who wanted to sit alone among the girls and monopolize all the beauty, they still approved of and supported his daring to fight the soldiers they all regarded with a sort of sacred admiration. Freshmen in their first year had only just passed beyond the age of dreaming about martial heroes, and they were still somewhat enamored of force. As for Long Fei’s conduct, though most people would have thought it was simply inviting humiliation, each of them still could not help feeling excited.

The soldiers were instantly enraged. Usually, when they went into town to sing or play, they were the ones bullying other people. Who would have thought that today, in their own place, they would be beaten by a student? Even though the soldier who got hit had not been badly injured, he had lost face. Someone yelled, “Take him to the confinement room first!”

The remaining four rushed at Long Fei together. Their meaning was obvious: they were going to drag him to the confinement room. As for what would happen once he was locked inside, who knew? He might very well be beaten senseless.

Long Fei shouted again, “The soldiers are bullying people! Four of them are ganging up on one!”

With a grin, he sidestepped to an empty spot off to the side, picked out an opening in one soldier’s stance, and merely hooked out a foot. That soldier immediately went face-first to the ground like a starving dog pouncing on food.

The three soldiers who had missed their grab looked at one another. They could all see the warning in each other’s eyes. Watching Long Fei warily, they rushed at him again. This time they were no longer merely trying to surround him; they were striking for real.

These soldiers had only learned military combat boxing in ordinary training. The recruit who had first argued with Long Fei had only just begun to memorize the routine, so how could he possibly be Long Fei’s match? In just a few moves, they were all sent sprawling to the floor.

All the students were shouting in excitement, as though they themselves were the ones doing the beating. Only Liu Ruoyi walked over to Long Fei with some concern and whispered, “Long Fei, why did you really start fighting? What do we do now? You should leave quickly. Don’t stay here, or they’ll definitely come looking for trouble later!”

Long Fei was secretly amused. Who would dare come looking for trouble with him? Would Luo Hongli dare, perhaps? Probably not.

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Long Fei said with an easy smile. Seeing all the students gazing at him like he was a hero and clapping wildly, banging their plates, he felt almost as if he were sweating.

What was wrong with today’s college students? Why was their quality so poor? Was this a pig market or what? It was a good thing they had not set out a gong nearby. If they really had that kind of equipment, these fellows might even have played a full set of gongs and drums to celebrate.

After a burst of whistles, more than twenty soldiers came running in from outside. Glancing at the scene, they quickly surrounded Long Fei. Soldiers cared most about comradeship. Though they might usually bully recruits, that only went as far as their own people bullying their own people. In truth, this had become a tradition in the unit. To put it nicely, it was not bullying; it was simply a way of teaching the recruits some rules and making them respect their elders in the ranks. It was not quite the same as the underhanded customs of the entertainment world.

But if an outsider dared to bully one of their comrades, that was absolutely unacceptable. Seeing that their comrades had not been badly hurt but all looked grim, and hearing everyone cheering for Long Fei as if welcoming a hero, they quickly guessed what had happened. It was obvious that Long Fei had clashed with several soldiers, and to their surprise, he seemed to have gained the upper hand.

The twenty-odd men closed in on Long Fei with unfriendly expressions. Clearly, a great fight was about to erupt. The girls nearby hurried away with their trays, while the boys stood farther off, even more excited. Everyone had been tired all day, and nobody had expected that mealtime would offer such a real and thrilling fight. They treated it as entertainment to wash away the day’s fatigue. Some whistled, some banged their plates, some shouted encouragement. The scene was terrifying in scale and completely chaotic and out of control.

Long Fei frowned. He had not considered that things would become this serious. By rights, with such a huge disturbance, Wu Song should have appeared by now. Even if he did not show up, Luo Hongli ought to come and settle things for him. Surely those two bastards were not just standing in the shadows enjoying the spectacle, were they? If so, then they had better not blame him for being rude.

Having decided to make the matter even bigger, and believing that the larger and messier the trouble became, the more troublesome it would be for Luo Hongli, Long Fei cracked his knuckles and said, “Good, good. So you want to gang up on me, do you? Come on then. I am not afraid of numbers. No matter how many pigs there are, all they can do is root around in cabbage; they cannot topple a mountain. Come on!”

That line was so classic that even the girls nearby secretly gave him a thumbs-up.

Long Fei, well done!

The soldiers who had rushed over all had dark expressions and their eyes were wide with anger. Just as they were about to pounce, a stern roar finally came from the doorway. “All of you, stop at once!”

At last Luo Hongli appeared at the canteen entrance with a stiff face, Wu Song following behind him. Wu Song was staring at Long Fei’s side with obvious delight. A moment ago Long Fei had still been a little worked up, but then he suddenly thought of something and nearly laughed out loud.

Wu Song had most likely outsmarted himself.

Why was Wu Song looking at Long Fei with such obvious joy? And why did Long Fei think Wu Song had been too clever by half? The whole thing had to be traced back to a few minutes earlier.

Hearing the noisy uproar coming from the canteen, Wu Song rushed there at once. From outside, through the window, he saw Long Fei fighting with a recruit, so he stopped in his tracks. Just then more than twenty veteran soldiers stormed inside, and Wu Song felt even more strongly that the situation was serious. In his view, Long Fei was most likely going to be taught a lesson by those veterans. Even if he went in now, he would not be able to alter Long Fei’s fate, because he himself was only a veteran soldier with little rank or influence. So he thought of going to find the person Long Fei had called his nephew, namely his own immediate superior, Luo Hongli.

As for Luo Hongli, the division commander who had been transferred in not long ago, Wu Song both respected and feared him. Moreover, after hearing somewhere about Luo Hongli’s background and identity, and learning that he had come out of the compound of the capital’s military district, Wu Song had put in no small amount of effort trying to curry favor with this superior in hopes that one day he might rise smoothly through the ranks. Yet because of his overly upright nature, these thoughts had remained only thoughts; in any meaningful sense, he had never actually acted on them.

But today something unexpected had happened. No matter how reluctant he was, he still had to face it. Just as he reached the outside of Luo Hongli’s office, he was stopped by the guard. The fellow was in the middle of making a fiery phone call to some woman inside, sounding quite passionate, so how could he possibly have time to receive Wu Song? Thus Wu Song was blocked at the door.

Wu Song stayed outside Luo Hongli’s office for less than two minutes before he could no longer bear it. Thinking that Long Fei was Luo Hongli’s uncle, and that if anything truly happened, since he was Long Fei’s instructor, Luo Hongli would certainly be dissatisfied with him even if he said nothing openly. Then the application he had submitted last time would probably never be approved, and let alone continuing in the army.

But no matter how dryly Wu Song talked, the guard still would not let him in. It was not that the guard was especially heartless. He knew Wu Song. It was simply that he was Luo Hongli’s personal guard, and he was just as afraid of his own superior. He also knew Luo Hongli’s habits well: once he got on the phone with a woman, he could go on forever, and anyone who dared disturb him would be the first to be scolded. Scolding was the mild part; sometimes he even hit people, and when he did, he hit hard.

Seeing that the guard absolutely refused to let him enter, Wu Song had originally planned to pretend not to know about the connection between Long Fei and Luo Hongli. But now he had no choice but to explain the whole matter to the guard. As soon as he did, the guard panicked too. They had never imagined that a young man like Long Fei could actually be Luo Hongli’s uncle, despite Luo Hongli being nearly thirty. In a hurry, the guard went in to report to Luo Hongli that his uncle was fighting with some veteran soldiers in the canteen.

At first Luo Hongli did not even understand what he meant by uncle. Only after a moment did it finally click. He could not exactly say that this was Long Fei taking advantage of him; if he did, would that not make him look terribly foolish? So he could only curse the two men together and kick each of them twice. His excuse was rather fine: it was all because they had failed to report promptly.

Inwardly, however, Luo Hongli had already greeted Long Fei’s ancestors for eight generations. All he could do now was tacitly accept this joke and avoid becoming a laughingstock in front of his subordinates. Still, he did not rush to the canteen at once. Instead, after thoroughly berating the two of them, he sternly warned them not to reveal Long Fei’s relationship with him, or else they would be dealt with under military law.

Since Luo Hongli had already admitted it, the two men felt even more relieved in their hearts. If Long Fei was fine, then everything was fine. If anything happened to Long Fei, the two of them would truly be in serious trouble. Thus they grew even more attentive to Long Fei’s identity. Think about it: he was the division commander’s uncle, and the division commander had already acknowledged it. Who would dare provoke him now?

Though they had both been cursed at and kicked, Wu Song and Luo Hongli’s guard were still rather happy inside. Especially when they arrived at the canteen and saw that Long Fei was unharmed, the two of them felt almost as though they had just won a first-class combat merit award, with only their grins missing. They still did not know that Luo Hongli was grinding his teeth in hatred for them, already thinking of ways to make life a little difficult for both of them. If they ever learned the truth, they probably would not even have tears left to cry.

“What’s going on here?” Luo Hongli said, now wearing a completely serious expression, and he shot Long Fei a rather resentful glance.