The guard opened the office door and saluted with a snap.
Jiang Ye and Cen Yemeng rose and waited at the doorway.
Cen Zi appeared, not in formal attire, but in a very casual off-the-shoulder knit top and a knee-length skirt. Her skin was fair and clean, as beautiful as a fashion model.
"Meng Jie, Brother-in-law!" Cen Zi greeted happily.
"You're finally here. I've been looking forward to you visiting all this time. I've been too busy with work to come over. Let me hug my little Fatty!" Cen Yemeng, her face beaming with joy, stepped forward and gave Cen Zi a big hug.
The sisters embraced, laughing, their deep affection evident.
Jiang Ye observed, secretly marveling at how alike the sisters were. From certain angles, they looked almost identical.
"Your muscles are quite strong. You can't tell just by looking at you," Cen Yemeng said, pulling Cen Zi to sit down. "Your brother-in-law mentioned you've been in the military all these years? You joined the army at a very young age?"
"Yes, I started as a carrier-based aircraft technician, working on maintenance, which means repairing aircraft and directing their takeoff and landing. Later, I passed an exam and became an officer, and then I was promoted repeatedly through battles," Cen Zi explained. "I used to be frail and weak, but military service built me up."
"Was it tough serving on Saluxing?" Cen Yemeng asked.
"It was quite tough, but it was manageable once I got used to it."
"Tell us about your experiences as a carrier-based aircraft technician. Your brother-in-law and I are planning to expand our forces and want to reference the models of different planetary armies," Cen Yemeng said. "How did you train and select recruits, what was the treatment like, what was daily life like, and what was it like during combat?"
"Then I'll start from the beginning," Cen Zi said. "Saluxing recruits based on two criteria: education level and long-distance running performance. These criteria change depending on the period. For example, during times of intense conflict and troop shortages, a high school education or above is required. When there's less conflict, a junior college education or above is required. The reason for requiring education is that Saluxing has a very high illiteracy rate. I met quite a few illiterate people in basic training; they could listen and speak, but had difficulty reading and writing."
"To get into basic training, you need at least a high school education, and yet some can't write?" Cen Yemeng asked.
"Some people just can't write. Their high school diplomas are usually bought. They can get a high school graduation certificate for a few thousand yuan from some fly-by-night schools in remote areas. Saluxing has a lot of black market industries in this regard," Cen Zi said. "The recruitment officers see that graduation certificate and know it's a fake from a dubious school. But each recruitment officer gets a commission for every soldier they enlist, so the more they recruit, the more they earn. Therefore, recruitment officers turn a blind eye."
"To prevent these illiterate soldiers from enlisting, the military sets up an exam at the beginning and end of basic training. The exam is out of a hundred points, and scoring thirty or above is considered passing. I scored 88 that year, which was second place in the entire recruit camp."
"Impressive. What did the exam cover?"
"It's been too long; I don't remember clearly. They were all simple general knowledge questions from various subjects. There was a final essay asking for the reason for enlisting, mainly to assess expression ability," Cen Zi nodded. "As long as you're not illiterate, you'll definitely pass that exam. But some illiterate individuals can barely recognize a few characters, scoring in the single digits."
"Basic training was incredibly brutal. Every day was spent on physical conditioning and repeatedly practicing with various weapons. Moreover, the physical assessment standards for male and female soldiers were the same. After