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

Lu Xiao placed his hand on the doorknob, glanced back at Bai Ye and Xuan Xiao, and smiled enigmatically. "Be prepared, the dorms for Group A are a bit different from those in basic training."

Then he pushed open the door.

Bai Ye stood at the door, taking about three seconds to recalibrate her understanding of the word "dormitory".

The room was extremely deep, at least twice the length of a normal dormitory room from the door to the innermost window. It was more like a small, redesigned command center than a living space.

The fluorescent lights on the ceiling were all on, illuminating the entire room in perfect detail. The walls were covered with various items—tactical maps, terrain profiles, and exploded structural diagrams of target buildings. Each map was densely marked with markers and pencils, and in some places, the paper had worn down from repeated corrections.

In the center of the room was a long table with several satellite maps pieced together on it, the corners weighed down by bullet casings. Scattered around the maps were several laptops, a half-open box of energy bars, and a communication terminal that was charging, the signal light on the screen flashing green on and off.

Four bunk beds were placed against the wall, each covered with a dark gray standard sheet, but apart from that, each bed was in a completely different condition.

The upper and lower bunks on the left, closest to the window, are so clearly separated that they resemble two different ecosystems.

The lower bunk was Xie Huai'an's bed. The sheets were pulled up without a single wrinkle, the quilt was folded into a perfect square, the pillow was placed in the middle, and on the bedside table were neatly arranged a water glass, a notebook, and three pencils arranged by color. Even the wiring of the charging cable was so neat that it looked as if it had been measured with a ruler.

The upper bunk belonged to Xie Ran. The quilt was crumpled up in the corner, the pillow was tilted at a 45-degree angle, a pair of noise-canceling headphones and a pair of unwashed training socks were hanging on the headboard, and there was a note on the edge of the bed that read "If you move again, my quilt will explode," with the handwriting so wild that it looked like a fight had been fought on the paper.

The bunk beds opposite each other had the same layout—the lower bunk was neat, and the upper bunk was messy, but each had its own style.

The occupant of the lower bunk was clearly a very particular person, even the angle of the pillows was exactly the same as Xie Huai'an's, but there was an extra small reading lamp and several thick medical journals on the bedside table.

The upper bunk was piled with all sorts of strange things—a Rubik's Cube, a half-opened pack of cookies, a military novel with curled edges, and the corner of a deck of cards under the pillow.

To the left of the door are Li Mo and Lu Xiao's beds.

Li Mo's lower bunk was as simple as ever, almost austere—a blanket, a pillow, a water glass on the bedside table, and nothing else. Lu Xiao's upper bunk was relatively tidy; at least the blanket was folded, if you ignored the unwashed coat hanging at the foot of the bed.

The bunk beds on the right side of the door were completely empty, with the two bed boards exposed, without blankets or pillows, and a thin layer of dust on the dark gray bed boards.

A man is standing with his back to the door in front of a tactical map by the window, writing next to a coordinate point on the map with a pencil in his hand.

He was wearing a black training uniform, with the cuffs buttoned up neatly, the hem of his shirt tucked into his waistband, and the metal buckle on his belt polished to a shine, creating an understated contrast with the tactical markings covering the walls and the energy bars scattered on the table.

"Huai'an, we're back." Lu Xiao called out to them, his tone casual, like that of an old friend.

Xie Huai'an turned around. His gaze swept over Lu Xiao, then landed on Bai Ye—and stopped. The pencil slipped from his hand, bounced crisply on the concrete floor, and rolled to Lu Xiao's feet.

His lips parted slightly, his pupils contracted, and his Adam's apple bobbed noticeably.

"Bai Chen?"

Bai Ye blinked, then shook his head.

Lu Xiao bent down to pick up the pencil, walked over to Xie Huai'an, and shoved it back into his hand. "Have you been out of your mind these past few days? Bai Chen has been missing for so many years. Look again—this is Bai Chen's younger brother, Bai Ye. Have you forgotten?"

Xie Huai'an took the pencil, his gaze lingering on Bai Ye's face for a moment. Then he raised his hand and pinched the space between his eyebrows with great force, as if trying to squeeze some vague illusion out of his mind.

He rubbed his brow several times with his fingers before putting them down, his voice low and hoarse: "Sorry. I've been too tired lately."

But his gaze remained fixed on Bai Ye's face. The scrutiny wasn't that of someone appraising a stranger; it was a comparison—a meticulous comparison between a face from his memory and the one before him. His brow furrowed slightly, and the vertical line between his eyebrows deepened a bit.

"It's so similar," he said softly, his tone carrying a restrained daze, "exactly like his brother when he was young."

The dormitory was quiet for a moment.

Almost as soon as Xie Huai'an finished speaking, Lu Xiao took a step forward, patted him on the shoulder, and his voice was slightly more cheerful than usual: "Alright, alright, come on, let me introduce you to the new team members. These two—Bai Ye and Xuan Xiao—will be assigned to Group A starting today. Old Li personally picked them out."

Xie Huai'an shifted his gaze from Bai Ye to Xuan Xiao.

"By the way," Lu Xiao changed the subject, "where did the others go? Why are you alone in the dorm?"

Xie Huai'an composed himself as quickly as a radio station changing stations, and when he spoke again, it was his usual calm and steady voice.

He turned around, picked up the kettle from the table, took a sip, and said with a sense of helplessness, "I don't really want to explain, but I can't not say it." "Xie Ran and Shen Zhuo have come up with another bad idea."

"What is it this time?"

"They held a nighttime tracking competition in the woods behind the shooting range, trying to prove that their stealth skills were better than the other's. As a result, they crawled into each other's hiding places, and when they discovered each other at the same time, they were startled at the same time, made noises at the same time, and were discovered by the patrol dog owned by the second captain at the same time. The second captain chased them for most of the shooting range, and each of them was punished by running fifteen laps and writing a two-thousand-word self-criticism. They should still be counting laps on the training ground now."

"Where is Dr. Wen?" Lu Xiao asked again.

"He's on a mission and will be back next week. The border defenses have an urgent need for a medic. He volunteered, saying he's been at the base too long and wants to get out and about."

Lu Xiao nodded, then stepped aside to make way for Xuan Xiao behind him. He gestured to Xie Huai'an, his smile both bright and cunning, "By the way, let me formally introduce you. This is Xuan Xiao, the eldest young master of the Xuan family."

Xie Huai'an was drinking water when he heard this and choked. He coughed twice, put down the kettle, turned to look at Lu Xiao, and his lips twitched. "You kidnapped the Xuan family's brat? Do you know who his grandfather is? Last year on that mission at the border, the Xuan family almost detained our informant."

Lu Xiao waved his hand with a smile, his tone as relaxed as if he had eaten an extra bowl of rice at noon that day. "He came by himself. We asked him if he wanted to come with us, and he said yes himself. He volunteered, we didn't kidnap him. It was consensual, legal and compliant."

Xie Huai'an turned his gaze to Xuan Xiao, his lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he just sighed, raised his hand to rub his temples, his expression as if he were looking at a hidden danger that might erupt at any time.

Just then, I heard the sound of a doorknob turning behind me.

Li Mo pushed the door open and came in. His training boots made no extra sound as they stepped on the non-slip floor.

"Have you finished introducing yourselves?"