Chapter 2: I Demand a Physical Fitness Test

The squad leader, Steven Good, paused for two seconds and introduced the bespectacled man. This is Mr. Don Maclean from the academy’s administrative office, in charge of handling enrollment and departure matters for foreign students. You will pack up at once and then go with Mr. Don Maclean to complete your withdrawal procedures. The school has already arranged your ship ticket back to China in two days.

You! Lieutenant Jonas Hansen, the instructor, addressed the Asian-looking cadet. After Zhou leaves, this bed will be yours.

When Lieutenant Jonas Hansen spoke, he did not even look at Zhou Zihan. This was the worst student he had ever trained since becoming an instructor, and in a sense, his greatest failure.

Yes, sir!

The Asian cadet straightened his back as he answered Lieutenant Jonas Hansen, then swept Zhou Zihan with a contemptuous glance.

Clearly, the new student knew Zhou Zihan was Chinese. The corners of his mouth lifted, and he wore the expression of a victor.

Lieutenant Jonas Hansen habitually flicked his riding crop. What was your name again?

Ryuunosuke Sakamoto, sir!

Jonas Hansen nodded. Very well. Remember, a soldier’s bedding must be kept clean and tidy. Don’t let it look like a chicken coop, filthy and in disarray.

Zhou Zihan frowned. Ryuunosuke Sakamoto? Japanese?

Mr. Don Maclean glanced at the sock hanging limply from the head of Zhou Zihan’s bed and frowned. I’ll wait for you outside. Zhou, hurry up. I have other matters to attend to. With that, he turned and walked out.

Ryuunosuke Sakamoto stepped forward a few paces, set the mesh bag containing his shoes onto Zhou Zihan’s bed, and wore the look of someone telling him to leave at once, because this bed belonged to him now.

Sir! Who said I have to leave? The school has no reason to send me away.

Instead, Zhou Zihan plopped down on the bed. He picked up his own sock and draped it over the handle of Sakamoto’s mesh bag, then pinched the bag through the sock with two fingers and tossed it to the floor.

Damn it... Seeing several stiff, hard lumps of socks protruding from a small pouch beneath Zhou Zihan’s pillow, Sergeant Jink White, the dormitory supervisor, muttered under his breath. The moment he entered, he had felt that the room smelled wrong.

Zhou Zihan lifted the pillow and covered that little pouch again. Classmate Sakamoto, did your mother never teach you manners? Or is it that you Japanese lack breeding and know nothing of respect for your seniors?

At those words, everyone present froze at once.

Lieutenant Jonas Hansen and Steven Good both looked at Zhou Zihan, and in that instant they felt strangely unfamiliar with him. This Chinese foreign student’s attitude was rather unusual.

Ryuunosuke Sakamoto had not expected Zhou Zihan to pull such a stunt, daring to humiliate him in public with stinky socks. Though anger rose in him, he could not lose his temper in front of the instructors and the others. After all, he had indeed been the one to show disrespect first, violating the school rules. The other man had not even left yet, and he had already put his shoes on the bed. That was, in truth, rather lacking in grace.

From the moment he overheard the conversation, he had understood that Zhou Zihan was a Chinese good-for-nothing being forced out because he failed to meet the academy’s standards in every respect. So he had immediately looked down on him.

A good-for-nothing—anyone with power could bully him. That was an immutable truth from ancient times.

The sick man of East Asia was born a head shorter before the citizens of the Great Japanese Empire.

Hearing Zhou Zihan’s words, Mr. Don Maclean, who had reached the doorway, stopped and turned back. He removed the cigarette holder from his mouth. West Point is famous throughout the world. It does not dismiss students lightly, nor does it deliberately force anyone out. I will not ask whether you remember West Point’s twenty-two regulations. I will ask only whether you remember the three school mottos.

Nation, honor, duty!

Good. Mr. Don Maclean stepped forward a few paces. Since you know West Point’s rules, have you ever considered why your country sent you here? Have you fought for your country’s honor, for the academy’s honor? Have you fully borne the responsibilities you were meant to bear?

Zhou Zihan held his breath for several seconds. Yes, sir! he said. Saying it, he felt a twinge of shame. The former owner of this body truly was a good-for-nothing, and had indeed disappointed everyone’s expectations.

Yes? Mr. Don Maclean laughed in fury. Your physical fitness scores are all below standard. You do not meet West Point’s requirements, so you can only withdraw. This is not aimed at you alone. All students who fail to meet the standards after arriving at West Point are treated equally and asked to leave.

Because you are a foreign student, our school has already made an exception and given you another chance. But you did not cherish it. You were idle, unmotivated, skipped morning drills, did not train, and wandered outside every day. West Point does not need a student like you.

Zhou Zihan straightened his back. Mr. Don Maclean, I greatly appreciate the opportunity the school has given me. But sir, where was the opportunity? Without even testing my physical abilities, the school is sending me straight back to my country. Is that fair?

Mr. Don Maclean was taken aback.

Indeed, everyone in the administrative office had assumed that this Chinese student could never possibly pass the physical fitness standard, so no one had suggested giving Zhou Zihan a fitness test. Instead, once the deadline arrived, they had simply let him go.

Everyone knew Zhou Zihan slept late every day, skipped morning drills, and did no training. How could such a person possibly pass West Point’s grueling physical test?

But sending him away without a physical assessment was indeed unfair.

For a moment, Mr. Don Maclean was at a loss for words.

Zhou! Sergeant Jink White, the dormitory supervisor, stepped forward to smooth things over. When you first came here, your training and daily life were more or less normal, but you have never improved, and that has been plain for all to see.

Lately, you have been leaving early and returning late, completely neglecting training. The administrative office did not have you take a physical test, after all, for your own good, to preserve some dignity.

Everyone knows that Chinese people are slight of build, and you in particular look frail and easily blown over. How could you possibly get through West Point’s highly demanding physical test?

Hearing this, Zhou Zihan frowned. Damn it, you’re judging people through tinted glasses.

Sergeant! Zhou Zihan said to Sergeant Jink White. My not taking part in regular training lately does not mean I cannot complete those training tasks, and even less does it mean I cannot pass a physical test.

The reason I have not been training is that I feel the academy’s training intensity is not enough, the methods are too simple and unoriginal, and it all seems dull and uninspiring. I have no motivation. I would rather sleep in the dormitory.

His meaning could not have been clearer. Sergeant Jink White, didn’t you say we Chinese are slight and weak? Sorry, but in my eyes, the training volume and methods West Point considers world-leading are too simple and too dull.

It sounded wildly arrogant.

Yet Jink White and Mr. Don Maclean both wore expressions of open contempt.

They had seen plenty of cadets like Zhou Zihan who were being forced out.

Almost every cadet dismissed in this way would say something like that when leaving, merely to imply that West Point was not worthy of him, that he was actually the one too good to remain there. It made it seem not that he was unworthy of West Point, but that West Point could not keep him and did not deserve him.

The sick man of East Asia only knows how to win with words.

Ryuunosuke Sakamoto, still nursing resentment over being humiliated by the stinky socks, muttered in halting Chinese. His voice was low, but enough for Zhou Zihan to hear. Among everyone here, aside from him and Zhou Zihan, probably no one else understood Chinese.

Zhou Zihan did not grow angry; instead, he smiled and said to Sakamoto in Chinese, Remember this: every Japanese who has said that has come to a bad end.

Sakamoto sneered. He was half fluent in Chinese and understood what was said. He was determined to make this Chinese foreign student look good and hard.

Ryuunosuke Sakamoto was a Japanese foreign student.

At this time, Japan remained closely tied to the United States in both military and economic matters. Every year, nearly a hundred foreign students graduated from various American military academies and returned home. In American society, they enjoyed a far higher standing than foreign students from other Asian countries.

Since the Meiji Restoration, Japan had increasingly emphasized the cultivation of talent. Every year it sent large numbers of students to the leading Western powers to study the latest military concepts and military as well as civilian technologies.

Japanese who had deeply studied China understood that the Qing dynasty’s collapse had been caused in large part by self-imposed isolation. Only through all-around exchange with the Western powers could a nation grow strong.

West Point was prestigious and also one of America’s golden calling cards. Each year it admitted many elite foreign students from around the world, a highly effective way to raise a country’s international profile.

The academy gathered elite cadets from many nations, among them numerous Japanese students. They studied the latest military theories, tactics, and techniques, then returned home to exchange knowledge with domestic military elites, rapidly improving the army’s tactical and combat capabilities.

Both China and Japan knew full well that war between the two countries was only a matter of time.

Japan was making full preparations for a war of aggression against China, while the Nationalist government, since the Northern Expedition, had been plagued by warlords of every size and stripe, each with hidden ambitions and private calculations, preserving their strength behind a façade of unity. In truth, they were a house of loose sand.

Having crossed over for half a month now, Zhou Zihan had still been following the former owner’s timid habits, proceeding with extreme caution and fearing any hint that might expose him as a traveler from another world. Even now, the people here did not yet know what crossing over meant.

But caution keeps the ship afloat for ten thousand years. If, immediately after crossing over, he displayed training and habits completely unlike those of the former owner, it would easily arouse suspicion.

Otherwise, he would already have relied on his own ability to return to Randolph Air Force Academy.

Now was the time to lay all his cards on the table and show his edge.

What good is a cheat code for, if not to show off?

Sir! I request a physical fitness test!

With his chin slightly raised, Zhou Zihan looked utterly confident of victory.

It was a reasonable request.

So reasonable that, aside from Ryuunosuke Sakamoto, Don Maclean and the others immediately nodded in agreement.

Half an hour later, Zhou Zihan appeared on one of the parade grounds of West Point’s Army Academy.