（The new book is making waves on a hot summer day, twisting shirtless and rolling, asking for collections and votes, wondering when a proper message will appear in the comments section, tears streaming down my face.）
During the lunch break, the shredding room of the Southeast Military District in Hua Country was empty, with thousands of rejected job applications still laid out on the table. Every year at this time, the influx of job application letters always gave the soldiers responsible for destruction a headache.
In the narrow corridor, the sound of hard-soled military boots moving echoed as a man with a school-level military rank walked in. He appeared slightly anxious as he searched around the shredding room, finally focusing on the tabletop beside the temporarily halted shredder.
"One application..." The man, who looked like an officer, pulled out several applications. Not until he had taken ten did the anxious look on his face ease somewhat.
"Almost forgot, the last three spots are for female soldiers. Women just need to handle clerical work, experiencing the battlefield? What a joke." The man couldn't help but curse, but still began searching for qualified women among the few remaining job applications.
Hands unaccustomed to handling documents pulled out one, the very last one.
The officer picked up the application from the floor and glanced at it: Xia You, female, twenty-two years old, unmarried, from Bazhou City, graduated from the prestigious University C. Major: Secretarial studies, certified with LCC International Secretarial qualification, holds a top grade in Mandarin, participated several times in city marathon races.
"Marathon? Seems quite impressive, let's hope your luck is as enduring as your stamina to last till the end," the officer remarked, looking at the photo of the female applicant pasted in the upper-right corner of the resume, a delicate and clean face, with a pair of determined eyes that didn't seem to match her gentle features.
When the duty soldier returned, he didn't notice that ten job applications had disappeared from the shredding room. These ten applications vanished silently and the truth about them only spread within the military region two months later. Before that, the existence of nearly five hundred selected individuals, including Xia You, was treated as a secret of the Hua Country military.
Three days later, one evening, when Xia You had lost hope in her job application to the Southeast Military District, she, a graduate of University C, received a call. The call content was straightforward: congratulating her on becoming a member of the Southern Military District. All selected personnel were to be sent directly by the East China Military District to Rand Military District for special training at seven o'clock the next morning.
When the military personnel on the call mentioned the "Rand Military District," these four words struck her like thunder, almost causing Xia You to drop the phone.
Hua Country's highest military district, the pilgrimage site for all soldiers, Rand. Hanging up the phone, Xia You felt like she was dreaming, even her dinner tasted like wax. She had secretly submitted a resume to the records department of the Southeast Military District without her mother's knowledge, and unexpectedly, she, with no work experience, was selected.
The two-month international company internship training was the excuse Xia You came up with to placate her mother and younger sister Maggie. Her mother would never agree to Xia You becoming a soldier, but Xia You had already made up her mind to become a soldier, one who stood above police and underworld forces to protect her mother and Maggie.
The helplessness in her mother's eyes at that time was the sole reason for Xia You's determination to join the Southeast Military District. Armed with a firm belief to become a military worker, Xia You, along with the other nine chosen individuals, boarded the military aircraft.
Upon their arrival, when the aircraft's cabin doors opened, everyone was stunned. Outside the plane was an endless expanse of flat ground, under bright searchlights were rows of neat barracks, parked military vehicles, and patrolling troops moving around.
The joy of reaching Rand Military District hadn't yet spread when "bang, bang, bang" a series of gunshots erupted, and the dust kicked up by bullets choked the air, yet no one dared to cough.
"I only have two things to say. First: Welcome to Rand. Second: In Rand, without a superior's orders, you are as powerless as the dust on the ground," said the officer appearing on the Rand tarmac. His words, like a sharpened knife, sent shivers down everyone's spine.
His gunshots and words served as an effective double warning. During the journey that followed, no one asked questions about what they were here to do.
Unlike the others, upon hearing the gunshots, Xia You's heart beat violently. Not out of fear, but because of an unprecedented excitement that surged through her blood, rushing to her heart as if she was about to start a long-lasting marathon. To build her physical stamina, Xia You had participated in marathons starting four years ago, and no matter the difficulties in the upcoming special training, she firmly believed she could endure it all.