Rebirth of a Mercenary: The Ace Mercenary Forced to Be the Beloved of the Group

Before lights out, the air pressure in Dormitory A was so low you could wring water out of it.

Xie Ran and Shen Zhuo were unusually quiet and didn't argue. One was lying on the top bunk flipping through old magazines, while the other was leaning against the headboard wiping his dagger. The two remained silent, about a meter apart, their eyes occasionally meeting before quickly looking away. They had reached a tacit agreement—neither of them should cause trouble tonight.

Wen Yan sat at the long table reading a book, her first-aid kit lying on her lap. Her fingertips unconsciously rubbed the edges of the pages, but she couldn't concentrate on a single word. Her gaze was on the paper, but her focus was completely scattered.

Xie Huai'an sat opposite him with a teacup in his hand. The tea had gone cold. He had picked up his correspondence journal for the third time, and put it down for the third time. The pen tip hovered above the paper, hesitant to fall, as if waiting for something.

Xuan Xiao sat on the edge of his bed, his fingers gripping the fabric of his knees, creating two deep creases. His gaze frequently drifted to the lower bunk in the corner of the dormitory, pausing for two or three seconds each time before abruptly pulling it back, only to drift back again a moment later.

Bai Ye had already snuggled into bed early, facing the wall, with the blanket pulled up to his shoulders, only revealing the back of his hairy head.

He remained in that position for a long time, motionless and without making a sound. He had been like this ever since he returned from training in the afternoon. He hadn't eaten dinner, and he didn't respond when people called him. Xie Ran stood by his bedside with a lunchbox for a while before finally taking it away.

When the dormitory door was pushed open, everyone looked up.

Li Mo walked in, his combat boots making a soft sound on the non-slip floor. He glanced around, his gaze lingering on everyone's faces for less than half a second, before heading straight for the lower bunk in the corner.

Li Mo walked to Bai Ye's bedside but didn't sit down. He squatted down at the head of the bed, propped one hand on the edge of the bed, and quietly watched the curled-up figure for a few seconds.

"noob."

no respond.

Li Mo waited a few seconds, then called out again, his voice softer than before, carrying a tone rarely heard from him, almost like coaxing: "Bai Ye, let's talk."

Bai Ye's shoulder twitched. After several seconds, he rolled over, facing away from the bed. The blanket slipped down to his chest, revealing the faded T-shirt underneath.

Looking at him like this, Li Mo sighed inwardly.

He rarely offered explanations. Having spent so many years in Pokong, he was used to giving the most direct and concise orders; his subordinates simply had to obey, without needing to understand the reasons behind them. But Bai Ye was different. Bai Ye was never his subordinate.

"What happened this afternoon was my fault." He began, speaking much slower than usual, as if carefully weighing the weight of each word. "I took too much care of you. After you were injured in basic training, I started to panic, always feeling like something bad was going to happen to you again. Today, when I saw your hand shaking, my nerves snapped. I shouldn't have pulled you like that in front of everyone, and I shouldn't have used your brother to pressure you."

"But can I explain this to you, please?" Li Mo said, his tone carrying a hint of pleading, something he rarely said. "When your brother left, he told me, 'Look after him for me, don't let him suffer.' I nodded then. Later, he disappeared without a trace. I've been thinking, if one day he comes back and sees me taking care of his brother, covered in injuries—what will he think? Will he think I ignored his request? Will he regret entrusting this to me?"

"But I've thought it through," Li Mo continued, her voice even lower than before, carrying a sense that something long suppressed was being slowly revealed. "What I said this afternoon—about your brother blaming me when he comes back, about how I promised him—was all just me trying to save face. What I'm afraid of is never how Bai Chen will see me when he comes back, but rather that I simply can't accept that you're hurt."

He paused, looking down at his hands propped up on the edge of the bed. There were several old scars on his knuckles, marks left over the years.

"I've been in the Sky Pier for many years. I've seen many people get injured, seen people fall in front of me, and seen teammates' bodies being carried back covered with white sheets. I thought I was used to it. It's normal for people to bleed during missions, and it's normal for teammates not to come back. When I train new recruits, I throw them, beat them, and push them to their limits without blinking, because I know that if I don't do this, they will die even faster when they go to the battlefield."

He raised his head and looked at Bai Ye again.

"But when your hands were shaking in front of me, I realized I wasn't used to it at all. I couldn't even stay calm; all I could think about was—he's cold, I have to warm him up. So I grabbed you. I didn't think about what you would think, I didn't think about whether you wanted to, I just grabbed you. It was my fault, I admit it."

Bai Ye finally raised his eyes.

"Bai Chen is your own brother," Li Mo said. "It's only right and proper for him to take care of you. I've been with you for so long, from basic training to now, and I've always treated you like a younger brother. It's not for anyone else's sake; it's my own choice. When I said I would take good care of you, it wasn't because I promised anyone; it's because I want to take care of you myself. I don't have much family left, and you're one of the few people I'm willing to risk my life to protect."

He paused for a moment, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down.

"I know you don't like being treated specially, and I know you want to rely on yourself. You've been proving that since the first day of recruit training—you practiced three times when others did it once, you trained until midnight when others ran ten kilometers, and you were still lying on the shooting range when others rested. I saw it all. I've never doubted your abilities; you're much stronger than most adults."

"I shouldn't have been so forceful this afternoon, I shouldn't have shut you down. I'll be more careful in the future—if you want to handle it yourself, I'll let you. But you have to promise me one thing: if you really can't hold on anymore, at least tell me, okay? I'm not asking you to give up, I just want me to know, so I can be there to watch you get through this. That's not too much to ask, is it?"

Bai Ye remained silent for a long time.

Finally, Bai Ye spoke, his voice lower than usual, carrying an awkward and somewhat unskilled apology: "I shouldn't have spoken to the captain like that this afternoon."

Li Mo looked at him but didn't reply.

Bai Ye pursed her lips: "...I shouldn't have spoken to you like that."

When he uttered the last word, his voice was softer than the previous one, but very clear. The word "brother" seemed to roll slowly from his throat, hesitant but not evasive.

Li Mo's eyebrows twitched almost imperceptibly. He didn't smile, but the lines at the corners of his mouth softened, and his entire aura softened. He squatted down and looked at Bai Ye for two seconds, then opened his arms: "Make up?"