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

The meeting room was on the third floor, with an east-facing window overlooking the playground. Morning light streamed in through the glass, casting a pale golden glow on the table.

Li Mo sat at one end of the long table, a cup of tea that had gone cold in front of him, and a pen twirling in his hand. His expression was calm, as calm as the sea before a storm.

Lu Xiao pushed open the door and came in, taking out two sheets of paper from his pocket and sitting down opposite him. He placed the papers on the table, smoothed the edges with his fingers, then placed his hands on the table, sitting upright like an observer ready to watch a court hearing.

Li Mo reached out and picked up the first one.

Qian Duoduo's self-criticism.

The letter paper was torn from a notebook, with rough edges. The handwriting wasn't very neat, but it was written with great force, each stroke like it was carved into stone, and you could feel the raised marks of the strokes on the back of the paper.

He unfolded the letter and began to read.

"Letter of self-criticism"

The three characters were written at the top of the first line, in very large characters, with two horizontal lines added below them.

"Dear Squad Leader Li: This morning at four o'clock, you taught us how to fold blankets. The blankets you folded were square and neat, like a green brick. The blankets I folded were soft and floppy, like a green rag."

Li Mo's eye twitched.

Lu Xiao's lips began to curl upwards. He quickly lowered his head, pretending to adjust his cuffs.

"You made us practice five times. The first time, I folded the blanket backwards. The second time, I folded it crookedly. The third time, the blanket slipped out halfway through folding, taking me forward with me, and my forehead collided with Zhao Xiaohu's forehead. Our heads hit each other with a thud, like two bowling balls colliding on the lane."

Lu Xiao let out a short, sharp sound from his nose, then immediately covered his mouth with his hand, pretending to cough.

Li Mo looked up at him.

"Cough cough—my throat hurts. Please continue."

Li Mo withdrew his gaze and continued reading.

"On the fourth take, I saw Zhao Xiaohu throw the blanket off. The blanket rose from the ground into the air like a large green bird spreading its wings, drawing a graceful arc in the air."

Lu Xiao moved his hand from his mouth to his chin, pinching his jaw with his thumb and forefinger so hard that his knuckles turned white.

"The endpoint of that arc is your face."

Li Mo's breath hitched.

"The moment the blanket fell on your head, your expression was obscured, so I couldn't see it. But I saw the expression on your face after you took the blanket off. Your expression reminded me of a water buffalo I saw at my grandmother's house in the countryside when I was a child. The water buffalo was quietly grazing on the edge of the field when a frog jumped onto its face. After the water buffalo shook the frog off its face, it stared at the frog for a long time. It wasn't angry, but the frog was still frightened and jumped away."

Lu Xiao turned his face toward the window. The morning light shone in from outside, illuminating his entire face, including the bulging vein at the corner of his eye caused by extreme restraint.

"I'm not saying you're like a water buffalo. Water buffaloes are very hardworking animals; the water buffalo at my grandmother's house could pull very heavy plows. Your majesty is much greater than that of a water buffalo. If that water buffalo were you, the frog wouldn't dare to jump onto it at all."

Li Mo put the letter down.

He picked up the glass of cold tea on the table and took a sip. He held the tea in his mouth for a long time before swallowing, as if using this action to digest what he had just read.

"Lu Xiao".

Lu Xiao turned his head, his expression now relatively normal.

"exist."

"If you laugh, I'll make you write an 800-word self-criticism."

Lu Xiao's lips twitched visibly, then he forcefully suppressed it. He sat up straighter, his hands flat on the table, fingers interlaced, his posture as upright as a new recruit undergoing a military uniform inspection.

I didn't laugh.

Li Mo glanced at him and picked up Qian Duoduo's self-criticism again.

"I hadn't even started practicing for the fifth time when I laughed at Zhao Xiaohu's blanket being stuck in your face, and I ended up losing my own blanket too. My blanket slid down from my knees and along the ground to your feet. At that moment, I felt like it wasn't a blanket that slid past, but my entire career."

"I was wrong. I shouldn't have laughed at Zhao Xiaohu. I shouldn't have knocked my blanket off. And I especially shouldn't have thought that when I saw the blanket over your head, it looked like a martial arts master covered by a white cloth in a movie. Although it does look a bit like that."

Lu Xiao moved his hands from the tabletop to under it. His left hand was digging into his thigh, his nails sinking into his flesh through the fabric of his military uniform.

"I promise to practice folding blankets properly from now on, and strive to fold them into neat squares as soon as possible, so as not to embarrass my class, not to embarrass my class monitor, and not to let my blankets look like rags anymore."

"Yours sincerely."

"Money galore."

Li Mo placed the letter on the table, pressed his fingertips against the paper, and remained silent for a moment.

"When he wrote his self-criticism, did he feel like he was writing an essay?"

A cough, forcibly suppressed, rolled down Lu Xiao's throat.

"What about Zhao Xiaohu's share?"

Lu Xiao took another piece of paper out of his pocket and placed it in front of Li Mo. His movements were very gentle, as if he were placing a fragile item.

"Here it is."

"Leave it for now."

Aren't you going to watch?

Li Mo picked up the teacup, only to find that the tea had gone cold, so he put it down again.

"Let me take a break first."

The smile that Lu Xiao had just suppressed surged up from deep within his chest again, like a ball being pushed into water—the deeper it was pushed, the more violently it bounced back. He bit his lip and turned his face toward the internal affairs inspection standards posted on the wall, pretending to study the scoring details.

Li Mo took a deep breath and reached out to pick up Zhao Xiaohu's self-criticism.

Lu Xiao immediately leaned closer.