Qian Ren's injured waist [Photo by Lai Qiaoquan]

Qian Ren, private, first class. She was diagnosed with the protrusion of the lumbar intervertebral disci between L4 and L5.

Qian Ren, who used to swim at the provincial sports school, was a national Level-2 athlete before joining the army. When the boot camp training was over, she was allocated to the female squad for special operations in the "Third Company".

At the beginning of this year, she was diagnosed with the protrusion of the lumbar intervertebral disci, a problem that made her unfit for high intensity exercises. However, during the marine training in July, she insisted to be the "Wave Breaking Pioneer" of her company to participate in the swimming test.

It was said that all the other soldiers fought very hard with high fighting morale as they saw her leading the way. Once again, they won the champion. When the test was over, Qian Ren came back to lie down on the floor straight away, with no intention to move at all.

According to Zha Hongshuai, squad leader of male soldiers, after the test on that day, she was shouting slogans with the rest of the team on their way back, behaving just like a normal person. It was not until the day of the interview that he found out about her injury.

"You knew that you had the protrusion of the lumbar intervertebral disci, why did you still want to join in the swimming test?"

"I believed I could handle that and I wanted to be one of them."

"It would not have really changed anything even if you were not there."

"I considered it as my specialty and I could play my role."

"Did it hurt?"

"No."

I asked if it was fine with her to allow me to have a close-up of her waist. She immediately said yes. When shooting the close-up, I noticed that there was something stuck in her waist. She told me that since her waist was a little sore, she had placed a plaster to make her more comfortable.