American comic: From Beijing with Love, starting with a mutant.

Stephen Chow took out his cigarette case, pulled out a cigarette, and put it in his mouth.

He reached out and flicked the lighter; the flame danced.

He tilted his head to look at Captain Zhang, and the angle of his mouth...

He deserves a beating.

He's incredibly annoying.

"How's it going, Captain Zhang? Is this humanoid self-propelled bladeless exhaust fan working well?"

Captain Zhang ignored him, because he had already rushed to the rapids in three steps and grabbed the thin shoulders of the rapids with both hands.

The rapids were so frightened by him that they took a half step back.

"Young man!" Captain Zhang's voice boomed, his eyes red-rimmed. "What's your name?"

The torrent of words squeezed out a slightly accented Mandarin: "Jenos Quest."

"Genos!" Captain Zhang's voice boomed across the entire drill ground: "From today onwards, you're my vice-captain, Zhang Tiezhu's vice-captain!"

He turned and yelled at Old Chen next to him, "Old Chen! Prepare a separate dormitory room for me! The two-bedroom, one-living-room kind!"

Old Chen had just come down the escalator from the observation platform and almost tripped when he ran over.

"Captain, that's yours..."

"I don't want that place anymore! I'll leave it for him!"

"Also! Quickly pass on a message to Fatty Wang in the cafeteria: Comrade Genos will be providing five meals a day from now on!"

"Breakfast, lunch, dinner, plus afternoon tea! Just arrange what you want to eat! If it's not enough, I'll cover the rest myself!"

Stephen Chow raised his hand from behind: "Captain Zhang, um..."

"There's more!" Captain Zhang didn't hear him at all, continuing to grip the rapids' shoulders:

"Subsidies will be at the highest standard! Special post allowances, high-risk operation allowances, and technical allowances will all be maximized! Heatstroke prevention and cooling allowances will be issued according to frontline standards, and double the New Year's benefits!"

Stephen Chow raised his hand again.

No one cares about him.

Captain Zhang's voice began to tremble.

He became increasingly agitated as he spoke: "Do you know what? In a chemical fire like this, the standard procedure takes more than twenty minutes to remove the smoke and more than forty minutes to extinguish the fire, requiring at least three fire brigades!"

"In the end, there's no guarantee that someone won't get injured. Do you know how many firefighters die in the line of duty every year across the country? Among the soldiers I trained, three..."

Captain Zhang gritted his teeth.

"If this were a real chemical plant explosion, do you know how many lives you could save?"

"Oh crap, I failed!"

By the time Captain Zhang finished speaking, his voice was hoarse.

Jiliu looked at the man in his fifties with a voice so loud it was deafening, his red-rimmed eyes and his hands trembling slightly with excitement.

The X-Men called him a "dangerous element," while Stryker called him a "high-value experimental subject."

No one ever told him that he could save his life.

Jiliu pursed his lips and took a deep breath.

Then the man, who was as thin as a bamboo pole, straightened his back, put his feet together, and slowly raised his right hand to place it on his forehead.

A less-than-perfect military salute.

The angle of the palm is wrong, the elbow is too high, and the fingers are not close together.

But he was extremely respectful.

Stephen Chow nodded repeatedly as he watched this scene, but he didn't make any jokes, which was quite rare for him.

Captain Zhang paused for a second.

Then the firefighter, who was over fifty years old, snapped his boot heel back and returned a perfect military salute.

"Welcome to the team!"

Stephen Chow finally broke the silence.

"Alright, alright, that's the touching part. Let's talk about something practical."

He sidled up to Captain Zhang and chuckled.

"Captain Zhang, what you just mentioned about independent dormitories, five meals a day, maximum allowance, double New Year's gifts... you said all of this in front of the entire team of fifty or sixty people. Should I have Old Chen take some meeting minutes?"

Captain Zhang shoved his hand away.

"I keep my word! You don't need to remind me!"

"Alright! Now, as the person in charge of the overseas special talent introduction project, I have a few supplementary clauses..."

Captain Zhang looked at him warily.

Stephen Chow held up his finger: "First, Ah Ji's physical condition is poor, his nutrition is inadequate, and he weighs less than 120 pounds. Physical training is fine, but it can't be done according to the standards of your bulldozers."

"The first three months should focus on recovery training, proceeding gradually, so as not to injure myself."

Captain Zhang nodded.

"Secondly, his Chinese isn't very good yet, so please find him a daily translator or language partner. Ideally, someone patient, not someone who talks like a machine gun. Also, please don't have an accent, and you shouldn't do it yourself."

Captain Zhang's face darkened slightly, but he still nodded: "Okay."

"Third, and most importantly."

Stephen Chow's tone became more serious.

"His younger brother works in our bureau. The two brothers have relied on each other since they were young. During holidays—Spring Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Dragon Boat Festival—we must approve leave so they can reunite."

"middle!"

"OK!"

Stephen Chow clapped his hands: "Then I'm relieved. Ah Ji, this is your home from now on. Do a good job, don't embarrass our bureau!"

"The dormitory is a two-bedroom, one-living room room with a private bathroom. It used to be occupied by Captain Zhang. Remember to tidy up his personal belongings first, and don't go through his drawers."

Captain Zhang shouted from behind, "Stop trying to give me a hard time!"

Jiliu looked at Zhou Xingxing, opened his mouth, but in the end just squeezed his hand tightly.

The force was very strong.

Stephen Chow patted him on the shoulder and turned to leave.

"Hey, Xiao Zhou!" Captain Zhang called from behind.

"Um?"

"You left sunflower seed shells all over the floor, shouldn't you clean that up?"

Upon hearing this, Stephen Chow quickened his pace.

"That falls under the category of natural degradation of organic matter, which is not my responsibility. Besides, sunflower seed shells can be used for firefighters to practice foot comfort, killing two birds with one stone."

"Zhou Xingxing!"

"Goodbye, goodbye! I'm very busy with official business! I still have a stack of expense reports to process!"

The figure had already darted out the door.

Captain Zhang pointed in that direction, trembling with anger. He turned to Old Chen and said, "That guy, I'll have to beat him up sooner or later."

Old Chen thought for a moment: "Captain, I think he's from Bureau 749."

"What about Bureau 749? Does Bureau 749 not have to sweep the floors?"

Behind them, the firefighters surrounded the rushing water, asking all sorts of questions.

"Genos? I heard that guy call you Agi, can I call you that?"

"I heard you have special abilities? Can I become your apprentice?"

"Do you eat spicy food? The boiled fish in the cafeteria is especially good! They also have braised pork ribs as a snack on Fridays!"

The torrent was surrounded by a group of firefighters whose enthusiasm was almost frightening, leaving it somewhat at a loss.

Someone slipped a bottle of mineral water into his hand.

Someone asked him if he wanted to play basketball.

Another young man tried to add him on WeChat by saying "I don't have any Green Bubble yet," leaving him speechless.

"No bubbles? Let's add each other on the phone first!"

But he smiled more than he had in all those years in the United States combined.

Watching this scene from afar, Captain Zhang said to Old Chen, "Go tell Fatty Wang we're adding extra dishes tonight! Braised beef, pickled fish, garlic shrimp—a welcome dinner for our new deputy captain! No alcohol allowed! He's still recovering! Anyone who tries to force him to drink will get a beating!"