Chapter 57: Six-Yuan Happiness and Satisfaction!

"Good, I didn't hear any of you arguing outside.
Well? Have all your rifles been properly maintained?"

The door to Squad Four's dormitory was pushed open, and Old Wang walked in holding a notebook, a wide smile on his face.

Two months had passed. When the squads were first formed, smiles were a rare sight on his face, but now, as everyone grew more familiar with one another, the smiles grew increasingly frequent.

"All maintained and ready!" Chu An stood up to answer.

"Good!" Wang Qinghe nodded, then walked over to his own bed and sat down.

"Come over here, form a line! Your good day has finally arrived!"

"Huh?"

The members of Squad Four in the dormitory were momentarily stunned.

What did he mean by "your good day has arrived"?

But soon, they understood what he was talking about.

They watched as he reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope.

Then he opened it.

Revealing stacks of currency inside—banknotes that Chu An had never even seen in his future life.

"Come on, Chu An, this is yours. Twelve yuan in total, your allowance for the past two months. Sign here once you've received it!"

Old Wang handed over a ten-yuan Great Unity banknote and a two-yuan machinery worker banknote.

"Thank you, Squad Leader!" Chu An accepted them with a smile.

After finishing his signature on the side, Chu An stepped back and looked at his comrades, who were all watching eagerly with eyes full of excitement.

To be honest, at that moment, he felt a slight pang of sorrow.

He looked down at the two banknotes in his hand.

Brand new.

Yet they amounted to only twelve yuan in total, and this twelve yuan was the sum of his allowance for two whole months.

Six yuan a month!

Who in the later generations could ever imagine that an amount like six yuan could be settled on a monthly basis?

Even considering that money in this era possessed far greater purchasing power than in the future, a single washbasin cost two yuan and fifty cents; a month's allowance couldn't even buy three washbasins.

If someone's monthly salary in the future couldn't afford three washbasins, wouldn't people smash their cooking pots in fury?

Yet right now...

All Chu An saw on everyone's faces was utter satisfaction and happiness.

Oh, the times!

Chu An could only sigh inwardly.

"Alright, I'm giving you all a two-hour break this noon. Those who want to buy things at the canteen can go, but as someone who has been through this, and as your squad leader, I sincerely advise you: money is scarce, so spend it sparingly. It's best if you think about your parents and family back home.
You have your food and lodging provided here in the military; at most, you only need to buy a few daily necessities!"

Old Wang spoke with earnest sincerity. Having served as a soldier for five years, he had seen some recruits spend their entire allowance the moment it arrived, and many others who constantly had to borrow money just to get by because their funds fell short.

Yet he had also seen many who kept their families in mind, leaving behind only a yuan or two whenever their allowance was issued, saving the rest until they had ten or twenty yuan to mail back home.

As a squad leader, he naturally hoped that the soldiers under his command would be filial.

"Squad Leader, I... I understand. I'll go buy stamps and writing paper right away, and mail them back along with the money!"

"Right, I'll just keep two yuan for myself!"

Several recruits chimed in one after another, though some remained silent.

Perhaps they would send money too, but they hadn't spoken of it yet. Regardless, Old Wang had said all he could; whatever happened next was beyond his control.

After all, he was only their squad leader, not their father or mother.

Pocketing his money, Chu An went along with the others to the canteen.

He only bought two bars of soap, a bag of laundry powder, an envelope, and a postage stamp.

In addition, he spent twenty cents on some fruit-drop candies.

Life was too bitter, and seeing the candies at the canteen, he decided to buy a few.

Even with such meager consumption, he was still planning to send ten yuan home.

Although he was a time traveler,

having integrated and inherited this current identity, he was now the Chu An of this era.

His parents and family were his own, and he would acknowledge them and continue to show filial piety to the elderly couple.

"Squad Leader, not buying a bottle? Want me to treat you?"

Outside the canteen, Dong Fang walked over with a broad grin, holding a can of fruit.

"No thanks, you go ahead and eat it!"

The canned fruit this fellow was eating now was an absolute luxury.

Fifty cents a can, and that was the price without keeping the jar; if you wanted to keep the glass jar, you had to pay another fifty cents.

In other words, he was already holding a full yuan in his hand, and if he wanted his remaining fifty cents back, he would have to finish eating and return the jar.

"Then take a piece, Squad Leader! It's really good, super sweet!"

Using a small wooden spoon, he scooped out a piece of pear!

Looking at him, Chu An smiled and didn't refuse: "Alright, then let me treat you to some candy!"

Chu An reached out, grabbed a few candies, stuffed them into Dong Fang's pocket, and then tasted the canned fruit he had offered.

"Hehe, I bought some of these candies too!"

Dong Fang laughed cheerfully, leaving Chu An slightly speechless. This guy really loved to splurge the moment he got his money.

Still, Chu An didn't say anything; whether to send money home or not was his own business.

Besides, he hadn't spent it all—he was just treating himself to a luxury, buying a single can of fruit simply to broaden his horizons.

Soon, the entire squad had finished their shopping at the canteen.

Some bought washbasins, while others bought various other items.

Back in the dormitory, Old Wang was gone again.

Nobody paid him any mind, and everyone set about writing their letters, getting them ready to hand over to the squad leader later so he could help mail them.

Chu An did the same, writing a letter describing life in the military and telling his family not to worry. Once finished, he slipped the ten-yuan Great Unity banknote inside the envelope along with the letter.

He affixed the stamp, and when Old Wang returned, he handed it over to him along with the others' letters.

......

"Hurry, hurry, hurry! Don't you know that time is life?
You don't want the advanced title anymore, do you?
Do you want to keep getting up at five o'clock tomorrow morning to fold your quilts!"

At the rear mountain of the recruit camp, Old Wang was roaring continuously.

The brief period of happiness brought by the arrival of the allowance was truly short-lived.

As soon as the afternoon training session began, everyone was once again plunged into tense and agonizing training.

It was the weekly tactical competition.

Today's contest was the construction of individual foxholes.

All ten members of Squad Four were currently gripping small green shovels, sending earth flying in every direction.

The rule of the competition was timed based on the last person in the squad to complete a qualified foxhole.

The most outstanding squad would be awarded the banner of excellence.

By this point, having entered a state of quasi-combat training, the recruit camp had drastically reduced the time allotted for quilt-folding and parade-drill training, and the standards for those tasks were no longer as stringent.

Yet as long as they remained within the camp area, folding quilts was still a daily ritual.

Furthermore, Old Wang used quilt-folding as a tool to motivate everyone.

If they won the banner for the advanced squad, they could sleep in until the normal time of six o'clock the following week; otherwise, they could prepare to get up at five o'clock to fold quilts!

"Comrades, push through! I'm almost done, I'll come help you in a second!"

In the weekly competitions, sometimes assistance was forbidden under the guise of cultivating individual capabilities, but other times it was permitted under the banner of fostering team spirit.

In truth, the right of final interpretation belonged entirely to the company commander and the battalion commander—whatever they said went.

Today's competition rules allowed for assistance.

Therefore, Chu An, being the squad's model activist and physical powerhouse, naturally had to demonstrate that his full meals over the past two months hadn't gone to waste.

Indeed, Chu An's physique had grown noticeably bulkier compared to when he first enlisted.

His physical strength and other bodily attributes had multiplied manifold compared to before he joined the army.

True to form, Chu An was soon on the verge of completing his foxhole.

Stopping his excavation,

Chu An nimbly climbed out.

"Here, go finish mine over there, let's swap!"

Every squad had one or two members whose physical endurance lagged behind.

Xu Ji'an, the slacker of Squad Four—though his performance had improved somewhat after that smoking session, and he was no longer as eccentric and rebellious, becoming much more obedient—

still lagged severely behind in various training exercises. Especially when it came to heavy manual labor like this, he was invariably the last person in the squad.

That was why, upon learning that assistance was permitted, Chu An had intentionally arranged for Xu Ji'an to dig right next to him.

His goal was to be able to help him out at the earliest possible moment and secure that advanced title for the squad.

Chu An didn't fully grasp the notion that "the honor in the squad leader's mouth is my very life."

But he knew one thing clearly: if they didn't win this advanced squad title, the miserable job of waking everyone else up at five o'clock every morning would definitely fall to him.

That was an agonizing task.

In an era without alarm clocks, waking up right on the dot relied entirely on startling awake in the middle of the night to check one's watch time and again.

.......