From Fear of the Waves to Charging Toward the Blue: One Soldier's Transformation on the Maritime Training Course
On the eastern Shandong coast, the air was thick with the smell of salt and damp. Only at night, lying in his tent listening to the roar of the waves, did Lin Yuan truly feel that he was at a maritime training site. For the past week, his daily training had consisted of "belly grinding" (磨肚皮). "Belly grinding" means one person, one folding stool: lined up in a row on ground scorched by the sun, everyone lying prone on their stools, simulating swimming strokes in the water, letting the stool dig into their chest and abdomen. "Pull in, flip, kick, squeeze—the movements must be fluid, stretch out like a frog!" Squad leader Wu Bin stood at the front, his commands ringing out. Lin Yuan followed the commands, working through the key points of each movement over and over, sweat dripping from his chin. Life at maritime training was nothing like the wave-cleaving adventure he had imagined—only the tedium of day-after-day practice and the aching soreness in his limbs. He had already dreamed several times of swimming freely in the open sea. Deep blue water churning with snow-white surf, fish playing around him……
A few days later, Lin Yuan went ahead with the squad leaders to set up the maritime training site. Along the way, Lin Yuan quietly listened as the squad leaders swapped stories about amusing incidents from past maritime training. At some point, the conversation turned to Wu Bin.
"The first time the whole company went into the sea, Wu Bin had barely set out when he swallowed water. Fortunately the company commander spotted him in time and pulled him onto the assault boat," said the second-squad leader.
The fourth-squad leader continued: "After that, he trained even harder. He eventually became the battalion's swimming champion."
They reached their destination, and the sight before him left Lin Yuan dumbstruck: how was this sea nothing like what he had imagined? The nearshore water was a murky yellow-brown, like an overturned bucket of muddy water. Only by straining his gaze to the horizon could he make out a ribbon of deep blue where sea met sky.
Lin Yuan froze on the spot. Every instinct in him recoiled, but he steeled himself and followed the squad leader into the water.
The icy seawater closed around him; a salty, bitter taste shot straight into his nostrils and forced its way into his mouth. In the instant his mind went blank, a wave struck without warning. Lin Yuan felt everything go dark before his eyes as he was slammed violently down into the murky water below. He had no memory of how he got back to shore—he later learned the squad leader had dragged him back. That time, he had managed to swim barely a hundred meters.
On the way back, Lin Yuan felt his body strangely heavy, his mind mechanically repeating the basic swimming movements. But that suffocating terror, mixed with the salt and bitterness of the seawater, surged over him again and again.
Back in the squad bay, his eyes darted away, unable to meet the squad leader's concerned gaze. That evening, the squad leader came to find him. Lin Yuan lowered his head and said quietly: "Squad leader, I trained so long, and I still couldn't hold out past a hundred meters."
To his surprise, the squad leader laughed: "Everyone is like this the first time they go into the sea. But even after swallowing enough bitter water, we have to press forward with courage and challenge the sea again!"
Wu Bin led Lin Yuan through a final warm-up on the beach. The thunder of waves breaking on shore came in one surge after another. Wu Bin turned and reminded him: "In a moment I'll still be out front breaking the waves—stay close behind me."
Stepping back into the water, the cold, murky surge came rolling in, and Lin Yuan's heart clenched tight. He fixed his gaze on Wu Bin's back cutting through the waves ahead and forced his rigid body to keep pace.
One stroke, two strokes…… in the struggle, his body quietly found its rhythm. He felt the current sliding across his skin, felt the thrust generated by each kick and squeeze.
Suddenly, a few blurred shapes flashed at the corner of his eye. A school of small fish! He did not know how long he had been swimming when he lifted his head again to breathe and looked hard ahead—Wu Bin's powerful figure was cresting a wave. Beyond that wave, the churning water revealed a deep, profound blue.
Lin Yuan put his head down, his arms pulling faster, his legs kicking with greater force. He swam on and on, swimming into that expanse of blue that grew ever wider, ever more pure.