The shouting crowd of onlookers stood in two rows to form a mezzanine, and it was probably the only entertainment of the month that people debated the merits of the competitors amid the cacophony. Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info Luo Deng heard many people praising "foreigners" and "flying fish", which couldn't help but make his heart tremble and feel nervous. But he feels that since leaving the varsity rowing team, his body has never been stronger, even though the competitor next to him has strong muscles honed by years of manual labor.

Looking left and right, Roden threw off his shoes. The rules of the game allow shoes, but he has to prove that he can compete with those who don't wear shoes for almost their entire lives.

The starter raised his pistol high, and Luo Deng didn't care about anything else, and with the "Ping-pong!" The game began.

Nine people shot out of the crowd of shouting and cheering on both sides like arrows from the string. Shirtless and wearing a pair of knee-length shorts, Roden ran through the man-made mecca, out of the playground, and onto the dirt road. There was some pain in the foot, but the others were as if they were running on a flat avenue, and Roden could bear it.

The end of the horizon is blocked by hills in the distance, and the path is lined with fields of crops. At the bend in the road, an officer stands and is responsible for giving directions to the runners. When he saw Roden running over, he bared his teeth, smiled wrinkledly, and waved his hand in a teasing gesture, as if to chase a lazy donkey.

Roden felt that this guy was thinking of his joke as a foreign devil, and his heart was stinging, and he wanted to catch up. Unexpectedly, his pace was a little faster than just now, which made him a lot easier. Although I felt pain in my feet with every step I took, the sense of rhythm came up, and the pain seemed to be lighter. He kept running, swinging arms and legs pushing him along the winding path, trees flashing past him. He ran out of the woods and returned to the sun.

A river appeared in front of me, rushing and roaring, rushing down between the high and steep embankments on both sides. The river is not wide, only about a hundred meters, but the current is rapid. Many of the runners were swept downstream, far beyond the width of the river bed itself.

One of the referees crouched by the river, smiling and pointing to a pile of prepared stakes next to him. Roden shook his head, he didn't need to cross the river with a stake, he had to swim over and catch up with time.

Wow, wow, Roden paddled again and again. Beware, don't force it. To follow the water, he kept admonishing himself. Several of the runners had already swam to the opposite shore and were climbing up the steep shore, climbing one step and two steps back, their feet slipping on the slippery mud, and some of them were washed downstream. The sight made the blood boil around Roden, and he threw his arms up and fought hard.

The riverbank is right in front of you. Roden leaned over and over again, and finally reached the top of the bank above the river. His fingers dug deep into the dirt like eagle talons. Climb hard. As he stood up on his feet, he saw several competitors waddling from a road to the west where wheels had rolled over. It was washed far away by the water and got ashore, and the others were still swimming in the river.

Now it was Roden's turn to laugh, and although his feet still hurt terribly, it was much easier to step on the erect dirt road than it had been before. The river had already taken him a long way. And he had to swim again when he returned, which gave him another chance to catch up.

Climbing a rocky mountain, Roden felt as if the part below his chest had become so numb that it didn't belong to him, and that only his breath was real on the entire mountain. Rounding the boulder at the turnaround point, Roden rushed down the mountain. A large cloud of rubble rose behind him. There were three other men in front, all of whom were running along a road heading south.

Plunging into the raging water, Roden felt as if he were riding on the back of a leaping beast, choking on the muddy water and coughing like a rookie who had just learned to swim. He struggled through the rapids and finally held onto a floating stake......

A large blue mass swaying on the ground a few hundred meters away came into view, and it was the people waiting for the results. A tall wooden frame was revealed above the crowd, from which ropes hung down.

Roden rushed into the man's gallery of the screamers, less than ten meters away from the man in front of him. However, he noticed that the guy was not slowing down, but was making a final sprint. Under the watchful eyes of the cheering people on both sides, the two people staggered and ran. Roden caught up a few more meters, but the two sturdy legs in front of him did not stop, they were also running forward, he left the ground, and Roden was a little deflated.

Grabbing the hemp rope, Roden climbed up with the last of his strength, he felt his arms tremble vigorously, and looked up to see that the length above was shrinking, ten meters, six meters......

"Good!" There was a thunderous cheer from the throats of hundreds of people, and Roden knew he had lost. He glanced to the left, and the man who had won the championship cast a tired gaze. Looking at each other, the man smiled weakly, and Luo Deng also smiled bitterly, and neither of them went down immediately, but reminisced about their pain, tiredness, and suffering on the rope.

"If the public wants to do what it wants, it should do its best." Roden suddenly remembered a sentence from the Bible, which his father liked to hang on his lips tirelessly.

……………

Although he lost, Roden was reluctant to think about it after a brief period of loss. Anyway, before he was put forward for the competition, he said to the brothers, "I can't afford it!" You are all stronger than me, and you are faster than me. If I lose, please bear with me! ”

He vividly remembered the astonished eyes of the brothers when he uttered these Chinese words, and then laughed out loud. And now, although he did not win the championship, he is second, and he is worthy of the promotion of the brothers.

Moreover, when Roden remembered to work hard and persevere, and then surpass one opponent after another, he suddenly felt a sense of pride in his heart. He knows where God is - in his own heart, so that he does not compromise or give up.

Click, click, click, Roden sharpened his dogleg knife hard, the sharp blade glistening coldly, reflecting on his focused face. This knife was his favorite, and he had taken it from Chen Wenqiang, who had seen how Chen Wenqiang had played with this murderous weapon, with extremely clean and powerful movements. Roden imagined that one day, he would be able to wield the knife and fight his enemies to the death with unparalleled courage. As for who the enemy was, he hadn't thought about it yet, he just had to sharpen the knife every day so that it remained awesomely razor-sharp.

When Roden looked up, he saw that the man who won the championship yesterday was walking this way. He looked curiously at the man, who had a scar on his face and a pair of boots on his feet—the prize of his victory.

Roden looked at his feet, drugged and clothed, and was able to walk, but for the time being he could only wear slippers. And this man's feet, which had run for fifteen kilometers on dirt roads and rocky mountains, were wearing a new pair of hard leather boots.

The man walked up to him, and Roden stood, a little taller than the man, but his shoulders were about the same. The two met cautious glances, looked at each other for a moment, and then smiled in a non-hostile smile. The man spoke first and said a typical Chinese humility: That is, yesterday's lucky victory, everyone can see clearly, foreigners are stronger than me, and they can run faster than me.

Roden also humbled himself a few words and praised his opponent again.

At the age of 14, Wen was tricked into planting tobacco in the Dutch colony of Nanyang, and three years later he was resold to work as a laborer in the tin mines of Perak (present-day Malaysia). Later, he once returned to China to join the army as a soldier. After 1903, he went to Perak to work in the tin mine again, joined the Revival Society in Perak in June 1904, and joined the trade group in Ya County, Qiongzhou in April 1905.

And a hot-blooded young man like Wen Shengcai, whether he entered the Shanghai Ziqiang Business Group or the Qiongzhou Business Group, knew very little, only knew that this was an organizational arrangement, it was to open up many joints, and he took this opportunity to learn military skills behind the back of the big boss Chen Wenqiang.

As an expeditionary project, the members of the Revival Society who entered the merchant group were secretly observed, not necessarily because of their outstanding military skills, but mainly because of their personal determination and perseverance. Is it able to endure hardships and stand hard work, is it foolish with other purposes, is it firm, is it obedient to orders...... Those who meet the standards will be secretly recruited and sent to a secret base in the Five Finger Mountains, where they will receive more formal and rigorous training and be educated at an officer school. Those who have gone through this set of procedures are qualified to be at least one platoon commander and can undertake the task of training at least thirty or fifty soldiers.

Next, in addition to the army formed, many of them may also be sent to various places, such as various ports in Nanyang, as well as various parts of the country, in the name of gymnastics, militia groups, fishing groups, merchant groups, etc., and then organize training and education of another group of young people.

And Wen Shengcai has already been connected to the organization and will be taken to a new place to be trained and tested. But he would be mistaken to think that this competition was an organizational selection, and that the top performers would be just like him. This foreign devil has something to admire, and he will also be his closer comrade-in-arms, who will live together in a new place. Although he can't reveal his identity yet, he feels that it is okay to be closer.

After telling each other their names, Wen Sheng noticed Luo Deng's knife, and with Luo Deng's consent, he took it and waved it a few times, and he also felt that it was very good.

The prize also included a two-day vacation, where Mr. Wen invited Roden to town for a drink, a non-alcoholic drinker who wanted to relax before another test. Roden hesitated for a moment, then nodded in agreement, envious of the life of the peasants in the fishing village, and the serenity of the scene, which seemed to be repeated day after day. Of course, he felt that what he might see was a façade, and he did not fully understand the peasants. (To be continued.) )