Taking Off My Uniform, I Look Back on the Past

Now approaching middle age, Lu Jun is caught up in office reports and overtime, living a dull life of everyday routines. Whenever he drifts back into the past in his dreams, he finds himself in that winter of 2010: in desert camouflage, surrounded by a noisy bunch of brothers, reliving a military life both passionate and absurd. The brash Fang Kun charges headlong after his special forces dream, while the steady Jin Shuai marches alongside him, keeping his troubles to himself. A fleeting glimpse by the shooting range makes Lin Xiaoke the gentlest light in their years of camouflage. Polishing their boots, standing at attention, gun smoke on the range, the warmth of New Year’s Eve dinner: those days of laughter and tears, those bonds forged in life and death, those tender feelings hidden beneath military regulations, all became treasures of the past. Years after hanging up his uniform, when he looks back on his time in the barracks, it remains the most passionate chapter of his life.