"Clap! Clap! Clap!"
The squad leader stopped clapping and spoke righteously: "Renee Morgan is absolutely right. Compared to camaraderie, brotherhood on the battlefield, a temporary accommodation is nothing."
The others followed along, clapping and riding that surge of adrenaline.
Wendy Aldridge’s face was overflowing with a sweet smile. She clapped while saying, "Wow, Renee, you’re so amazing and loyal! I’m sure you’ll achieve even greater things and go further. I’m really looking forward to your success."
It was just short of saying outright: You’re really packaging yourself as this high and mighty figure, but I hope you keep it up. Otherwise, what you did today is just deceiving everyone—the higher you stand today, the harder you’ll fall someday.
Renee Morgan was already used to Wendy Aldridge’s tea girl routine. Hearing her "praise," she replied flawlessly, "I’m just an ordinary person with an actor’s dream. That’s why I stand before everyone. What I did isn’t really great. As a public figure, I think I have a responsibility to set a good example."
After hearing Renee Morgan’s witty lines all night, netizens’ hearts were practically numb.
[My Sasha, Renee Morgan, is the embodiment of clarity in this world.]
[Sasha Renee Morgan, world’s sober queen—my Sasha Ren.]
[...]
Wendy Aldridge’s smile even stiffened, totally didn’t expect Renee to be so meticulous—you couldn’t catch even a single slip-up. She reluctantly nodded and said, "Yeah... Renee’s right."
"..."
The squad leader asked everyone one by one. After finishing, he told everyone to go rest, with a reminder: pay attention to the whistle tonight, there might be an emergency gathering.
The day had already worn everyone out. No one really took the squad leader’s reminder to heart; they each went back to their dorms to rest.
Renee Morgan knew this kind of emergency night assembly was a routine during the early phase of training. Probably around one or two in the morning, and it was roughly ten now. They still had at least two hours of solid sleep.
To make it easier during the night drill, Renee Morgan prepped before sleeping—tidied her shoelaces, placed clothes and socks within reach, kept her hair tie on her wrist, so she could tie up her hair into a ponytail in seconds if needed, and even opened the window so she’d hear the whistle right away.
Once everything was set, Renee finally lay down to sleep.
No shame in hustling—so long as this show airs smoothly and doesn’t affect her future acting career, she’ll give it everything she’s got.
The moment the whistle blew, Renee Morgan happened to turn over, nearly rolling off the bed in shock. Wide awake, she leapt up to get dressed, put on her shoes, grabbed the hair tie from her wrist and tied up her ponytail, then ran toward the training ground.
Passing the hallway, she yelled loud enough for everyone: "Emergency assembly! Emergency assembly! Get up, now!"
There were all sorts of frantic noises behind her, but Renee had no time to care and ran quickly downstairs.
The night sky was extremely bright, surroundings quiet, with just a hint of distant commotion.
The instructor stood at the training ground, arms behind his back, posture straight as a pine tree.
The first to arrive were two squad leaders; second was Renee Morgan; after that, a few scattered teammates from Class One; then Gael Prescott and Lynn Miller from Class Two.
About a minute later, Class One’s team was all there. The remaining Class Two members—Wendy Aldridge, Miles Yates, Kyle Beckett, Zara Chapman, and Lionel Lincoln—finally came running from afar, flustered.
The instructor started announcing the arrival times for both teams.
Class One: 1 minute, 51 seconds.
Class Two: 4 minutes, 25 seconds.
Wendy Aldridge, Miles Yates, and the others were already drenched in sweat. Now it was pouring off them as they closed their eyes in regret.
The instructor explained the importance of emergency assembly again, emphasizing readiness and how critical it is to normalize it.
The Class One members, who’d arrived first, could return to rest and prepare for tomorrow’s training. Class Two stayed behind.
Class Two members’ nerves were shot.
The instructor gave the command coldly: "Class Two squad leader, lead your whole team on a three-kilometer run. Start!"
Renee Morgan: "!!!"
Lynn Miller and Gael Prescott looked totally dumbfounded—they didn’t arrive early either. They had to run too?
Zara Chapman and Lionel Lincoln nearly couldn’t help but let out a wail—even their little disturbance caught the instructor’s attention.
"What, don’t want to run?" The instructor’s sharp gaze swept over them, basically saying: If you dare say no, nobody’s sleeping tonight.
Everyone quickly shook their heads.
"Answer me loudly—any problems?" The instructor’s deep voice rang out.
Hearing him, everyone’s bodies jolted. They straightened their backs and replied forcefully, "Reporting to instructor—no problems!"
The instructor took back his sharp gaze and ordered the Class Two squad leader to lead them for a run around the mountain.
Class Two’s squad leader said goodbye to the instructor, walked to the group, and explained that the area behind the mountain was all part of the training base. Running around the mountain was exactly three kilometers.
If it were daytime, everyone would be amazed—if this area was just their training ground, then how big was the whole base? But right now, just woken from sleep and totally exhausted, they’d rather collapse and keep sleeping than bother with that.
"Let’s run. Finish up and go back to catch up on sleep. Tomorrow’s another day of training." The squad leader looked at the slow-reacting group and sighed silently.
He looked at Renee Morgan, Gael Prescott, and Lynn Miller: "You three start first—finish quickly, then head back to rest."
Gael Prescott looked at Miles Yates and said, worried, "I’ll run with Miles, just in case we need to look out for each other."
Lynn Miller chimed in, "Let’s stick together then."
Renee Morgan stayed quiet but didn’t start running either—her answer was obvious.
The squad leader came up with an idea: "Let’s sing while we run. Three kilometers isn’t that far—a song and you’ll be done."
Everyone looked at the goofy smile on the squad leader’s face—couldn’t help laughing. The others perked up and picked a song everyone knew and fit the mood: ’Strong Army Battle Song.’
The squad leader told Renee Morgan to run in front and lead the singing.
Renee Morgan hesitated: "Shouldn’t you be leading instead?"
The squad leader gave her a shy look and replied seriously, "My singing is terrible."
Renee Morgan: "..."
Lynn Miller was amused for a second by the squad leader’s expression, then put her smile away.
She dashed up front and yelled with passion: "I’ll start! Listen up..."
Renee Morgan followed behind, singing along.
The team, once demoralized, instantly soared—racing into the night wind, their singing echoed down the mountain.
Renee Morgan noticed the PD staff huffing and puffing, lugging their camera while running. She felt a bit bad: "It’s not even live right now—why are you still recording?"
The PD guy didn’t expect Renee to suddenly talk to him, scratched his head awkwardly and replied shyly, "Director said this can be used as a replay for the livestream."
The show was super popular now—even just a behind-the-scenes clip could get hundreds of millions of views. Those who missed the late-night streaming would definitely catch the replay tomorrow.