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

When Li Mo pushed the door open, Xie Huai'an was putting the kettle back on the table. Hearing the door open, he looked up and saw Li Mo. His expression seamlessly switched from his earlier disdain for Lu Xiao to the proper respect a subordinate should show to their captain.

"Captain, you're back."

Li Mo nodded, his gaze sweeping around the room.

Lu Xiao looked at Xie Huai'an in disbelief, spread his hands, and said in a tone of exaggerated hurt: "Why don't you even acknowledge me when I come back? You only glanced at me when I called your name at the door, but you stood up and called me 'Captain' when Lao Li opened the door—Huai'an, there has to be a limit to preferential treatment, right?"

Xie Huai'an turned to face him, his expression sincere and calm: "You come back every week."

"So I'm not welcome?"

"You deserve it," Xie Huai'an nodded seriously, his tone as if he were completing a routine task he had to do. "Welcome back."

Li Mo didn't participate in this elementary school-level bickering. He stood in front of the long table, his gaze fixed on Bai Ye and Xuan Xiao, and spoke in the exact same tone as during roll call in basic training: "Finished your self-introductions?"

Xie Huai'an shook his head.

He placed the pencil on the pen holder below the map, turned to face Bai Ye and Xuan Xiao, stood ramrod straight, and spoke formally but not harshly: "Xie Huai'an, communications officer for Breaking the Void A Group. Responsible for communications encryption, intelligence analysis, tactical map drawing, and rear support during operations. I have reviewed all your performance reports from basic training—Bai Ye, first in the entire company in rifle stability, perfect score in 400 meters, 18 pull-ups with one hand. Xuan Xiao, 37 pull-ups, 65 meters grenade throw, perfect score in shooting. Impressive stats."

"Wow, that's cool." Xuanxiao grinned, leaning forward slightly, his tone laced with familiar admiration. "Isn't a communications officer the kind of person who sits in the command center wearing headphones, strategizing and planning? Like in the movies, saying to the screen, 'Target has entered the designated area, assault team prepare to move'—the kind?"

Xie Huai'an glanced at him but didn't say anything.

Xuan Xiao's outgoing nature met with a rebuff in the face of Xie Huai'an's silence, but he wasn't embarrassed. He shrugged and retreated to Bai Ye's side.

Then Xie Huai'an walked up to Bai Ye.

Bai Ye was puzzled by his gaze and looked up at him. He was certain that he hadn't done or said anything inappropriate since he entered the room. He hadn't even started introducing himself yet.

"You're too thin," Xie Huai'an said, his voice much lower than when he introduced himself. A deeper emotion suppressed the formality and restraint in his tone. "He definitely didn't eat well in basic training. Vice-captain, didn't you give him extra food in basic training?"

Lu Xiao raised his hands in surrender, his tone innocent but lacking confidence: "I added it! I bought him two months' worth of snacks, and sent boxes of fruit candy to the infirmary—Old Li went even further, running to town to buy him a blueberry cake, a round trip of sixteen kilometers, just so he could eat a few more bites. What can I do if he doesn't gain weight? Look at the intensity of his training, squatting for forty minutes at a time while holding a rifle, practicing disassembly and assembly until he can easily beat other recruits with one hand. No matter how much he eats, it's not enough to burn off the energy."

Xie Huai'an reached into his training uniform pocket and pulled out something—a small, individually packaged bag containing several handmade cookies. The bag had no label, only a handwritten label in the corner with neat and elegant handwriting that read "Oatmeal Cranberry".

He stuffed the cookie into Bai Ye's hand.

"I asked Lao Zhou to bake this separately. It's low in sugar and high in protein, suitable for replenishing before and after training. You can come here to pick up a portion after training every day."

Bai Ye looked down at the bag of cookies in his hand that said "Oatmeal Cranberry." The handmade label on the packaging was neatly taped on, with even the four corners cut to the same size. He looked up at Xie Huai'an, blinked, and after several seconds spoke, "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Xie Huai'an patted his shoulder lightly, his hand lingering on Bai Ye's thin shoulder for only a moment before withdrawing. "Just call me Brother Huai'an from now on."

Before Bai Ye could answer, the dormitory door was suddenly pushed open.

Two figures squeezed into the doorway one after the other, cursing at each other as they did so.

"Shen Zhuo, are you an idiot?! You stepped on my foot three times while we were running laps! Three times! Are your eyes on the back of your head or something?!"

"Shouldn't you first reflect on why you've been consistently blocking my path?! I was running normally and you suddenly changed lanes—why did you even bother changing lanes?!"

"The second team leader has already released his patrol dogs. Am I supposed to just stand there and wait to be bitten if I don't change lanes?!"

Xie Ran and Shen Zhuo. The machine gunner and assault soldier of Group A, and also the culprits who had run fifteen laps around the playground and blamed each other the whole way.

Xie Ran pushed away Shen Zhuo's hand that was on his shoulder, straightened up, and was about to continue calculating the accounts when his gaze swept across the room and suddenly stopped.

He saw Bai Ye standing beside the long table.

Shen Zhuo followed his gaze and saw Bai Ye as well.

His reaction was a beat slower than Xie Ran's, but he couldn't suppress the smile on his face either.

"Little Baiye!" Xie Ran strode over, the fatigue from running laps on the parade ground seemingly wiped away in an instant. His voice was so loud it could shake the tactical map hanging on the wall. "Finally here! We've been waiting outside the recruit training camp for three months, and the vice-captain absolutely refused to let us in to see you—how's your arm? Is the fracture healed? I said I was going to rush in and beat that kid up, but they stopped me—"

"Quiet down." Shen Zhuo patted the back of his head from behind, the force was light but precise, then squeezed in front of Bai Ye, smiling as she bent down to look him in the eye. "Don't listen to his nonsense. Is your arm really okay? Let me see."

Surrounded by two people, Bai Ye listened to their back-and-forth conversation, his expression remaining calm and indifferent.

"My name is Xie Ran, machine gunner in Team A. Suppression is my job. Just call me when you need fire support, don't worry about saving bullets." Xie Ran patted his chest, then pointed to the red-haired youth next to him, "This guy is Shen Zhuo, assault soldier. Close-quarters combat and indoor clearing are his responsibility. He's not always the brightest, but his marksmanship is pretty good."

"My marksmanship is alright, isn't it? Last week in the simulation, I was the fastest in the group at clearing out enemies, and you still have the nerve to say that—" Shen Zhuo said, then suddenly turned to Bai Ye, his smile so bright it was as if he hadn't heard Xie Ran's earlier slander. "Anyway, we're teammates from now on. If you don't understand anything during training, just ask us—no, you're better than all of us, so we should be asking you. Anyway—welcome to the team, Bai Ye."

He almost said "Welcome back to the team," but the word lingered on his tongue before he swallowed it back down, because Bai Ye had never officially joined Po Kong before.

Bai Ye nodded. His expression remained calm, but his voice wasn't as cold as usual when he answered: "Mm."