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

When Scorpion brought Bai Ye back to his room, Bai Ye's condition had already begun to deteriorate.

When he came out of Viper's place, he could still walk on his own, though a little slower than usual, but at least he was heading in the right direction. He briefly touched the wall as he crossed the corridor, then let go. When he reached the doorway, he paused for a moment, his hand resting on the doorframe, before Scorpion nudged his shoulder from behind, and he stepped inside.

The door closed behind him. Bai Ye took two steps, then his knees suddenly buckled, and he slumped to the side. Scorpion reached out and caught his arm, helping him to the bedside.

Bai Ye lay on the mattress, face up, her chest heaving faster than usual. The redness under her eyes hadn't faded, and her pupils were still somewhat unfocused.

Scorpion stood by the bed, looked down at him for a while, then turned around, poured a glass of water from the table, and brought it back to the bedside table.

"Do you need any help?" the scorpion asked.

Bai Ye stared at the glass of water for a few seconds, then slowly and laboriously raised his hand and grabbed Scorpion's sleeve. His fingers were weak, and he gripped the fabric very lightly, as if afraid that he would slip away if he exerted too much force.

He looked up at the scorpion, his voice hoarse and dry: "Help...me."

Scorpion looked down at his hand clutching her sleeve, and remained silent for a moment: "The detoxification is very painful. It hurts even more than the viper medicine."

"……Know."

"Can you handle it?"

Bai Ye did not answer the question. He tightened his grip on the scorpion-patterned sleeve by half an inch, using that gesture as a substitute for an answer.

Scorpion didn't ask any more questions. He gently pulled his sleeve, which Bai Ye was holding, turned around and walked to the cabinet in the corner of the room. He opened the cabinet door and took out a canvas bag from inside.

The bag wasn't big, but it contained quite a few things when the zipper was opened—a roll of gauze, several bottles of clear liquid, a syringe and needle, and a small bottle of dark medicine. He laid the items out on the table one by one, his movements swift and practiced, as if he had done this many times before.

Bai Ye lay on the bed, watching Scorpion fiddling with those things, his eyes following his every move. His gaze was still somewhat unfocused, but he was trying hard to stay awake.

"I'll help you get rid of what you just inhaled." Scorpion sat on the edge of the bed, pulled Bai Ye's left arm over, and looked for a vein on the inside of his elbow. "After it's all out, you'll feel like your body has been hollowed out, but it's better than leaving it inside. The stuff Viper made you inhale, you won't feel anything the first or second time, but after three or four times, you won't be able to live without it. At that point, when you want to do something, your mind won't be your own anymore."

Bai Ye tilted her head to look at him, her voice still hoarse: "You... used to do it too?"

Scorpion didn't stop moving. He soaked a cotton ball in alcohol and wiped Bai Ye's skin. The cool touch made Bai Ye's arm muscles twitch slightly: "Of course I've used it."

"So... how did you quit?"

The scorpion did not answer.

He inserted the needle into Bai Ye's vein with steady, quick movements, the needle piercing the skin almost without pause. He injected the medication at a moderate pace, the clear liquid slowly flowing into the vein through the syringe. Then he withdrew the needle and pressed a cotton ball against the puncture site.

"Wait," said the scorpion. "It starts in five minutes."

Bai Ye waited for five minutes. The drug took effect faster than expected—his body felt like a machine that had been forcibly shut down; his limbs first went weak, then his torso, and then his internal organs.

His stomach was cramping, his intestines were contracting violently, and every muscle in his body was trembling at different frequencies. Cold sweat seeped from his forehead, soaking the back and front of his T-shirt in just a few minutes.

Scorpion stood by the bed and, when the drug was at its most potent, turned him over onto his side. He pressed several acupoints on both sides of his spine, his pressure precise and steady, like loosening clips in sequence when disassembling a precision instrument.

The contents of Bai Ye's stomach surged uncontrollably, and Scorpion held his shoulders so he could vomit into the bucket next to the bed.

Then came the second round. And the third round.

Bai Ye's body was constantly being emptied out during the detoxification process, and then forced to start functioning again and again.

His consciousness kept switching between lucidity and confusion. For a moment, he felt so lucid that he could count the number of cracks in the ceiling, and the next moment he felt like he was floating on water, his body completely out of his control.

The whole process lasted almost a whole day. The light outside the window changed from bright white to dim yellow, and then from dim yellow to dark blue.

Bai Ye vomited seven or eight times, experiencing at least four episodes. During the last episode, his body was too weak to tremble; he simply lay on the bed, twitching slightly.

He changed his clothes twice and his bed sheets once. His whole body looked like a pile of parts that had been washed and reassembled.

After it was completely dark, Scorpion finished the final round of detoxification. He released his hand from Bai Ye's back, stood up to stretch his stiff fingers, and put the used gauze and needles into his canvas bag, zipping it up.

Bai Ye lay on her back on the bed, her eyes closed, her breathing shallow and slow, as if she had just been dragged out of a long storm.

His face was almost transparently pale, his eye sockets were sunken, his lips were dry and chapped, and he looked even smaller in that T-shirt that was two sizes too big.

He sat up, leaned against the wall, looked down at his arm where red marks had been pressed, and then glanced at the completely dark sky outside the window.

"What time is it?"

Scorpion glanced at his watch: "It's almost eight o'clock."

Bai Ye propped himself up on the edge of the bed, walked to the basin in the corner, and splashed a handful of cold water on his face.

He wiped the water off his face, turned around, and looked at the scorpion: "How many times did you let the viper suck your blood?"

Scorpion picked up the cigarette pack from the table, took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth, the lighter lighting up and then going out: "Three times. The first time was like you, I was forced to smoke. The next two times were voluntary, to make him believe I was completely hooked. After the third time, I spent about half a month cleaning my body. Later, when he let me touch him, I used something else to substitute, just to make it look like that for him."

Bai Ye was silent for a moment, then leaned against the wall, his gaze fixed on Scorpion's face: "Why didn't you tell me sooner that he would let me..."

Scorpion took the cigarette from his mouth, held it between his fingers, and looked at Bai Ye: "What could you have done if I'd told you earlier? Not smoke? He won't let you into the inner circle. You won't get what you want. Or do you think you're capable of turning on him and storming out right now?"

Bai Ye was leaning against the wall, processing all the information he had gathered that day, when he suddenly felt a light tap on the back of his neck. His body went limp, and Scorpion caught him and helped him to the bed.

"Go to sleep. Everything will be alright when you wake up." Scorpion pulled the thin blanket up to cover him, then walked back to his chair, sat down, and lit another cigarette.