After receiving their equipment, they went straight to eat.
The food could hardly be called lavish, but there was plenty of it. The staple was large loaves of bread cut into sections, the soup was borscht, and there were big chunks of roast meat as well as roast chicken. There were also pickles. It was hard to say whether the baked potatoes counted as a dish or a staple. There were no leafy greens; the only vegetables were the green peppers and carrots served with the roast chicken. Bottled water was set off to the side.
The food did not taste especially good. The roast meat in particular had been cooked in advance; by now, it could only be considered not cold. But the portions were large and filling, and if you finished, you could just go get more.
Gao Fei took a table by himself and began to eat heartily. No matter where he was going or what he was going to do, filling his stomach came first.
At that moment, a man who looked to be in his thirties approached Gao Fei’s table. After hesitating for a moment, he sat down across from him.
“Hello.”
Gao Fei looked up. The man seemed to be one of the people who had gone in with him to receive weapons earlier. His complexion was a little dark, making him look somewhat different from the Russians.
Gao Fei raised his head and said, “Hello.”
“I’m Lebanese. Where are you from?”
Introducing himself before asking about someone else—this was someone who knew how to talk. Gao Fei had no intention of hiding his nationality, so he immediately said, “I’m from Huaxia.”
“Samir Beck. Nice to meet you.”
Samir held out his hand. Gao Fei immediately reached out and shook it. “Rex. Nice to meet you.”
“I asked around. Most of this batch of foreign mercenaries today are from Central Asia. They came together through an intermediary, so they’re difficult to deal with. And they don’t speak English, only Russian. Do you speak Russian?”
“I don’t speak Russian. That’s pretty troublesome.”
Humans were social animals. Samir was also alone. Since he could not find anyone he could communicate with, naturally he had come looking for Gao Fei, who could speak English.
Samir shrugged and said, “It’ll be better once we reach the front. They’ll assign us to the international battalion. Communication shouldn’t be a problem. But as for going to the front…”
Samir paused, then lowered his voice. “Don’t you think today’s screening process was far too simple? And they issued us weapons right here. According to usual practice, we should only receive weapons after reaching the front.”
“Yeah. That’s troublesome. It means the situation at the front is very tense and they’re extremely short on manpower, which is why they’ve fully equipped us with weapons already. For all we know, we might be thrown straight into battle as soon as we arrive.”
Gao Fei wanted to make himself look like a veteran, so he spoke his mind directly.
Samir curled his lip and let out a breath. “You’re right. That’s exactly what I’m worried about. Buddy, this is really not good news.”
Samir looked deeply worried and did not seem to have much appetite, but Gao Fei was still hungry at the moment. So he said what needed to be said, but when it was time to eat, his mouth showed no intention of staying idle.
Seeing Gao Fei wolfing down his food, Samir could not very well keep talking nonstop. After taking a few tasteless spoonfuls of soup, he suddenly stood up and went straight to the table where the water bottles were placed, bringing back several bottles in his arms.
Samir took six bottles of water. Gao Fei had no idea what he needed so much water for.
Samir picked up his own canteen, unscrewed it, then began pouring bottled water into the military canteen.
The canteen was made of aluminum and covered on the outside with EMR camouflage cloth. Its capacity was 750 milliliters. One bottle of water was not enough to fill it, but two bottles would not fit.
After filling his own canteen, Samir said in a low voice, “Give me your canteen.”
Gao Fei handed over his canteen. Samir opened a new bottle of water and began filling it for him.
“Once we reach the front, there won’t be bottled water. Try not to drink it now. We don’t have a unit designation. We should have been assigned directly to some unit, but we weren’t. That means we’ll be sent to the front as replacement manpower. Where is the fighting the fiercest right now?”
Samir unscrewed the second bottle. Before he could say it, Gao Fei said in a low voice, “Bakhmut.”
Where Russia had fought its way to, where the fighting was the fiercest, even where the casualties were the heaviest—none of this was a secret at all.
With a heavy expression, Samir nodded and sighed. “All right, you know too. Mm… good luck to you. Good luck to us.”
Samir handed the filled canteen to Gao Fei. Gao Fei took it, screwed the cap on himself, and said very seriously, “Thank you.”
“Eat. Eat more. Once we get to the front, we definitely won’t eat well.”
He urged Gao Fei to eat more, but Samir could not even get down the small piece of black bread in his hand. He only forced himself to gnaw two bites, while in the same amount of time, Gao Fei had already eaten two pieces.
Actually, the black bread did not taste bad. Although it was cold, it had not been out of the oven long and was still quite soft, with a slight sourness to it. Eaten together with the borscht, it was rather delicious.
“Put the water in your bag and hide it. You’re not allowed to take it, but no one cares.”
Samir was a pretty good person, just somewhat long-winded. But everything he said was valuable experience from a veteran, so Gao Fei certainly did not find it annoying. He only felt fortunate.
Gao Fei said in a low voice, “Did you work for Wagner before?”
Samir shook his head and said quietly, “I was in the Middle East before. A Syrian friend told me to come, but after I arrived in Moscow, I couldn’t contact him anymore. He’s in Kherson. I originally wanted to go to Kherson to look for him, and I made that very clear to the recruiters. But those bastards will definitely send me to Bakhmut instead of Kherson. Kherson has already been lost; they can’t possibly send people there. Now I’m even more worried that my friend might already be dead.”
Once the contract was signed, you no longer had any control over yourself. Gao Fei did not know what Samir had been thinking. His mouth was stuffed full of food, so he said indistinctly, “Don’t worry. Maybe you’ve just lost contact temporarily. Speaking of contact, do you have a phone?”
Samir shook his head and said in a low voice, “It was confiscated. Everyone is forbidden from carrying a phone. But those veterans at the front will definitely have some on them. I can only wait until I reach the front and then find a way to contact my friend. I hope he’s all right.”
At that moment, an old man in military uniform began shouting in the dining hall. It was in Russian, so Gao Fei could not understand.
But very soon, someone nearby shouted loudly in English, “You have five minutes to eat. Assemble outside in five minutes. Move fast, hurry up!”
Samir’s expression changed drastically. He looked at the food in front of him, then suddenly ran toward the place where the food was set out and came back with a pile of black bread.
Gao Fei was dumbfounded.
Samir piled the black bread on the table. Someone was scolding him in Russian, but Samir ignored him completely. He simply opened his backpack and desperately stuffed the bread inside.
The backpack had a capacity of thirty liters. After Samir filled his own bag, there was still half a bottle of water and almost one whole large loaf of bread left on the table. He immediately said to Gao Fei, “Open your bag! Pack the bread in. Hurry up. I’ll go get more water.”
Samir hurried off to get water, but after being scolded a few times, he returned awkwardly. Then, while seizing the time to stuff meat into his mouth, he said indistinctly, “Food and water are always the most important. My friend told me, don’t trust Russian logistics. Never trust them.”
“Yes, you’re right!”
Gao Fei could not agree more. He stuffed the things Samir had brought back into his own bag.
If there were better options, they could replace this black bread, or even simply throw the black bread away. But before they had reliable supplies—no, rather, before they had something else to fill the backpacks with—this black bread had to stay.
Gao Fei realized it was not that the others did not want to take any, but that they were too embarrassed to. Because after Samir ran over and brought back a pile of black bread, several people wanted to imitate him. It was just that they acted too late and were all scolded away.
Sure enough, it was the shameless who got to enjoy the world first.
Gao Fei hurriedly finished everything on his plate. As soon as the time was up, someone immediately shouted, “Everyone assemble! Assemble!”
It was shouted first in Russian, then in English.
After shouldering his bulging backpack and slinging the rifle over himself, Gao Fei let out a full burp and said, “Not understanding the language really is troublesome.”
“They’ll put the English speakers together. It’s over. We really are going to Bakhmut. We can’t even finish a meal in peace. It has to be Bakhmut.”
Samir looked extremely dejected, his face even several shades paler.
In truth, Gao Fei was also very afraid, because he knew the battlefield of Bakhmut was known as a meat grinder, with an extremely high mortality rate. But it was too late for him to say he was not going now, so he might as well face it calmly.
Another thing was that what one learned from paper always felt shallow in the end. Gao Fei knew war was terrifying, but as for just how terrifying it was, he could only imagine. So in the end, he would not be too afraid.
Gao Fei even felt a faint bit of anticipation.
They assembled in the courtyard. Gao Fei roughly counted only about eighty or so people in total, and then they were sent off by bus again.
This time, he had company when getting on the bus. Gao Fei sat side by side with Samir.
There were luggage racks on the bus, and most of the soldiers put their bags on the racks. But Samir was probably someone who lacked a sense of security. He held his backpack, which bulged much more than everyone else’s, in his arms.
Gao Fei felt it was better to stay consistent with Samir, so he also held his bag in his arms. But this made the bus seat, which had originally been fairly comfortable, not so comfortable anymore.
After the bus started moving, Samir said to Gao Fei in a low voice, “We’re friends, right? We’re already friends, aren’t we?”
Gao Fei nodded. “Yes, of course we’re friends. You’re the first friend I’ve made here.”
“In the army, you have to stick together, especially as mercenaries. If someone bullies you, I’ll definitely help you! Likewise, if someone tries to mess with me, you have to help me too. Buddy, brother, we have to support each other. Only then will we not be bullied. Two people are definitely better than one. Believe me, that’s how mercenaries are. We’re fighting for the Russians, but the Russians won’t treat us as their own. Brother, right now we can only rely on each other.”
“If something happens to you, I’ll definitely help. I promise!”
Gao Fei would not casually regard someone as a brother, nor would he keep the word “brother” hanging from his lips all the time. But judging by the things Samir had done, even if Samir had not said these words, Gao Fei would definitely step up if anything happened.
After all, Gao Fei truly was someone who valued loyalty.