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

The news of the suicide spread like wildfire through the camp faster than any order could be delivered.

The lines for food in the canteen were much quieter than usual. No one cut in line, no one talked or laughed, and no one even noticed that the cooks had given an extra spoonful of braised pork today.

At 2 PM, Company Commander Zhou's orderly knocked on the doors of all the platoon leaders, squad leaders, and deputy squad leaders, announcing an emergency meeting to be held in the conference room on the third floor of the administration building. The announcement was brief, but the orderly's expression made everyone who received it realize that this meeting wasn't for reports, but for being scolded.

The meeting room wasn't large, containing a long table, a dozen or so folding chairs, a faded military flag, and a slightly inaccurate clock hanging on the wall. The attendees gradually arrived; the platoon leader sat in the first two rows, while the squad leaders and deputy squad leaders sat in the folding chairs at the back. Li Mo and Lu Xiao sat side-by-side by the window.

Li Mo hadn't spoken since he sat down, his hands clasped on the table, his knuckles occasionally tightening. Lu Xiao leaned back in his chair, his face expressionless—that in itself was enough to tell his state of mind.

At exactly two o'clock, Company Commander Zhou strode into the conference room. He carried no documents, no teacup, only a black notebook, which he slammed onto the table.

The sound of the laptop slamming onto the table made everyone in the conference room straighten their backs by three centimeters.

"Third Squad Leader." Company Commander Zhou's voice wasn't loud, but every word seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth.

The squad leader of the third squad stood up. He was a sergeant in his early thirties, known for his strict leadership, loud voice, and fiery temper. At this moment, he stood in the conference room, head down, chin almost touching his chest.

"One of your men, in your platoon, jumped from the third floor." Company Commander Zhou said, emphasizing each word. "Do you have anything to say?"

The third class monitor's lips moved.

What could he say?

The recruit stayed under his command for a month. Every day, he yelled at him, scolded him, made him run laps as punishment, and berated him for his unsteady rifle grip. But he never asked the recruit why he was unsteady with his rifle, why he always ate alone, or why his physical fitness test scores kept dropping. He couldn't even remember the recruit's name—he only knew that he was in the third platoon, had a low student ID, was at the bottom of the class, and was the kind of student who would be eliminated sooner or later.

"It was my fault," he said, his voice hoarse.

"Dereliction of duty?" Company Commander Zhou repeated the two words, his voice suddenly rising. "You think this is dereliction of duty?! This is a life lost! Your man was standing by the window about to jump! If it weren't for that recruit named Bai Ye from the first squad catching him below, this afternoon you wouldn't be facing me, but the police and a military court investigation team! You wouldn't need to take off your uniform; your prison food would be served straight to you! And you're talking to me about dereliction of duty?!"

The conference room was so quiet that you could hear the creaking of the wall clock.

The squad leader of the third squad stood there, his fists pressed tightly against his trouser seams, looking like a telephone pole struck by lightning.

Company Commander Zhou didn't ask him to sit down. He turned around and scanned the faces of everyone in the conference room.

"Everyone of you—everyone—listen to me!" His voice softened, but it was even louder than when he had been yelling. "Three months in basic training, what have you all cared about? Whether you can hold your rifle properly, how fast you can assemble and disassemble it, whether you pass the physical fitness test. Has any of you asked your own platoon—are they scared? Are they tired? Can they hold on?"

No one answered.

"They're new recruits! Eighteen or nineteen years old, away from home for a month, training harder every day than any other job outside. They get yelled at, punished, thrown around, and beaten. Do you think they don't understand? Do you think they won't break down?" Company Commander Zhou's voice had the rough texture of sandpaper scraping against a steel plate. "This soldier in the third squad is at the bottom of the physical fitness rankings, his rifle grip is unsteady, and he's always at the bottom in every assessment. You all know he's a problem soldier. But has any of you asked him even one question—why? What happened to his family? What's wrong with his health? Or is he just mentally unable to cope?"

"You all know Bai Ye, right?" Company Commander Zhou glanced around the conference room, his gaze lingering briefly on Li Mo and Lu Xiao before moving away. "He's first in the platoon in rifle handling, first in disassembly and assembly, and he fires ten shots with the same hole. His training indicators are among the best of all the new recruits in his cohort. He's standing downstairs today too—he's just a recruit himself, but at least he knows where he's supposed to stand and what he's supposed to do. What about you?"

The silence in the meeting room was so thick it could be wrung out.

Company Commander Zhou took a deep breath and opened the notebook on the table. Inside was a wound report he had obtained from the military doctor—Bai Ye's wound report. He glanced at the words on the paper and closed the notebook again.

"Bai Ye suffered an open fracture of his right arm, a comminuted fracture of the midshaft of the radius, with the bone piercing through the skin. The military doctor said it would take at least two to three months to recover." He read these words out one by one, as if reciting a list of accountability. "This soldier was the best in the recruit company. His injury was not due to training, not due to performing a mission, but due to our dereliction of duty. It's not just one person's dereliction of duty, it's the dereliction of duty of all of us."

Some people in the conference room lowered their heads.

"Starting today," Company Commander Zhou tapped the table, his tone shifting from anger to a heavy command, "Squad leaders and platoon leaders, go back and talk to each of the new recruits in your squads. Not a sergeant call, not a group lecture, but sitting down, face-to-face, one by one. Who has family difficulties, who can't handle the physical strain, who's under psychological pressure, who can cope, who's on the verge of collapse. You must understand everyone's situation clearly, write a report, and submit it to my desk. If you can't finish, just write a resignation letter; my desk is big enough to hold it all."

He paused for five seconds, giving everyone present enough time to weigh the weight of his words.

"And one more thing." He flipped to another page in his notebook, glanced at it, and said, "We're adding psychological counseling classes to the recruit training camp, once a week, with a psychologist from the headquarters hospital coming over. The classes will start next week." He closed the notebook, looked up at everyone in the meeting room, his voice softening slightly but not losing its force, "Remember, during these three months of recruit training, the top priority isn't producing elite soldiers, it's safely getting each and every one of them into the army. You're not taking in a hundred soldiers, you're taking in a hundred families. If a soldier is ruined, a family is ruined. Do you understand?"

"Understood!" Everyone stood up, feet together, and answered at attention.

Meeting adjourned.

The meeting room door was pushed open, and platoon leaders and squad leaders filed out.

Lu Xiao patted Li Mo on the shoulder.

"Let's go. Let's go back and talk to those kids in the class." He strode downstairs. "Qian Duoduo and Zhao Xiaohu were probably terrified when they saw Bai Ye's arm covered in blood today."