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

The next morning, as soon as the fluorescent lights in Group A's dormitory were turned on, Wen Yan and Xie Huai'an pushed open the door and came in carrying two large boxes.

Wen Yan placed the box on the long table, opened the lid, and inside were neatly arranged various bottles and jars—foundation, concealer, contour palette, hairpieces, and several fine makeup brushes that he usually only used for surgery, the bristles gleaming softly under the light.

Xie Huai'an's box was even more outrageous, filled with documents, old photos, forged ID card copies, and a stack of Southeast Asian maps with curled edges.

Bai Ye sat on a chair in front of the long table. He looked at the two boxes in front of him, then at the concealer that Wen Yan had already unscrewed. His expression was calm, but his brow twitched very slightly.

Wen Yan squeezed concealer onto the back of her hand and spread it with her fingertips. With her other hand, she pinched Bai Ye's chin and lifted his face slightly to allow her to observe the contours of his face from below.

"Don't move." Wen Yan's voice was soft, but her hands had already begun to move. Her fingertips, dabbing at the prepared concealer, began to apply it from below Bai Ye's cheekbones. "Your face is too striking. Your skin is as white as porcelain, and your features are so delicate they're almost unreal. If you go to Viper's territory like this, you'll be locked up in some room in less than three days. At that point, forget about doing missions; you won't even be able to leave the house."

Bai Ye blinked. He didn't pull away from Wen Yan's hand, but the wrinkles between his brows deepened slightly: "Why lock him up?"

Wen Yan paused for a moment, then turned to look at Xie Huai'an standing beside her.

Xie Huai'an was flipping through the stack of forged documents when he heard Bai Ye's question. Without even looking up, he replied, "You don't need to know."

Bai Ye frowned, about to ask further, when Wen Yan pressed a finger against his brow, the pressure gentle but just right, smoothing out his furrowed brow.

"Don't frown, your foundation will crack." Wen Yan switched to a foundation three shades darker and began spreading it from her jawline down to her neck. "You just need to know that your current face is problematic in that area. If I make you look a little plainer, less attractive, you'll be safer. Understand?"

Bai Ye thought for a moment and nodded.

Wen Yan's hands were very steady; she was indeed a surgeon.

Bai Ye's skin tone changed from cool white to the warm yellow common in Southeast Asia. His cheekbones were narrowed slightly by contouring powder, and the angles of his jawline were softened by contouring. The height of his nose bridge was adjusted slightly by highlighting, and even the curve of his brow bone was changed to a gentler direction with an eyebrow pencil.

Wen Yan took two steps back to look, then came back and dotted a tiny mole below Bai Ye's left eye, then used his finger to blend the edges to make it look natural. He then stuck a small ear piercing patch on Bai Ye's right earlobe—no piercing, just a silver dot, looking like a mark from a long time ago when the ear piercing had closed up.

"All done." Wen Yan put down the last makeup brush, patted the powder off her hands, and examined her finished work.

Bai Ye stared at the unfamiliar face in the mirror for a few seconds: "Okay."

Wen Yan breathed a sigh of relief. Xie Huai'an picked up a stack of documents from the table, walked up to Bai Ye, and handed him the top ID card.

"New identity. From now on, you are called Lin Mo. A Wa State native from Myanmar, orphaned at sixteen, sold to human traffickers by relatives, you were towed for over half a year before escaping from a dock along the Mekong River. You then headed south and stumbled into Viper's territory. All the details in the records are verifiable—this child's name is on the real list of missing children belonging to the human traffickers, and the photo has been replaced with your current face."

"Once you arrive in Viper's territory, you must seek refuge in the areas he controls as a runaway teenager. You will have nowhere to go and nowhere to go. You must act pitiful enough, helpless enough, and easily subdued enough so that Viper thinks you are blank material that can be brainwashed."

Bai Ye put her ID card into her pocket, looked up at him, and said, "Okay."

Xie Huai'an placed the remaining stack of documents on the long table, then rummaged through the box and pulled out a faded old shirt and a pair of trousers with worn-out knees, folding them neatly and placing them beside Bai Ye: "After you change your clothes, someone will take you to the border. Once you get there, you can't bring any space-breaking equipment, communicators, or weapons. After you arrive in Viper's territory, you'll have to rely on yourself for everything. The intelligence team will deliver supplies to the vicinity of the stronghold every now and then, and you can use this opportunity to pass on information. But the frequency can't be too high, at most once every two weeks."

"clear."

Xie Huai'an looked at him, his lips moved as if he wanted to say something more, but in the end he just nodded and stepped aside.

"There's something I need to say." Bai Ye stood beside the dressing mirror, her back to everyone, her voice as calm as ever, "Don't tell Xuan Xiao where I went."

Wen Yan frowned: "Why? He'll find out sooner or later."

"We'll see when the time comes." Bai Ye turned to look at them. "If he finds out now, he'll try to stop me, he'll make a scene, he'll throw a tantrum. You can't stop him, and neither can I. By the time he finds out, I'll be gone, and his tantrums will be useless."

"Fine. We won't tell. But you need to think this through. If he finds out we've kept it from him, he might just tear this whole dorm building down."

"He won't dismantle it."

"Are you so sure?"

Bai Ye thought for a moment: "He'll only be arguing for three days at most. He'll be fine after three days."

Looking at his "I already predicted this" expression, Wen Yan was unsure whether to say that this child knew Xuan Xiao too well or underestimated him. But since Bai Ye had already put things this way, he didn't insist any further.

Xie Huai'an put the last document into the box, straightened up, glanced at the already bright sky outside the window, and said, "The people over there are already waiting for you. After you leave the base, a vehicle disguised as a civilian vehicle will pick you up and take you to the border. From now on, you're on your own." He paused, his voice lower than usual, "Take care."

Bai Ye put on the old shirt and took one last look at herself in the mirror.

The person in the mirror was no longer recognizable as Bai Ye.

An ordinary sixteen-year-old boy on the streets of Southeast Asia, with a lingering fear and helplessness in his eyes after being worn down by life—this was the effect Wen Yan had just created by applying a very light touch of eyeshadow powder, making his eyes look less calm and sharp than before.

"I'm leaving." After saying these two words, Bai Ye opened the door and walked out.

The winter morning light streamed in from the far end of the corridor, casting a thin layer of gold on his shoulders. Footsteps faded into the distance, eventually disappearing at the top of the stairs.