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

When Bai Ye woke up, the sky outside the window had already turned deep blue. Dusk comes late in the Gobi Desert but goes quickly; the last rays of sunset were fading through the gaps in the curtains, making the fluorescent lights in the infirmary appear exceptionally bright.

He propped himself up against the headboard, and when he turned his head, he saw Xuan Xiao.

Xuanxiao sat on a chair by the bed, surrounded by a pile of things in front of him—three insulated takeout containers, two insulated cups, four food storage bags, and a neatly folded stack of napkins.

The takeout containers were all open, steam rising from them, the aroma of the food mingling with the disinfectant smell of the medical room. There was braised pork ribs, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, blanched bok choy, a bowl of white rice, a bowl of millet porridge, a plate of sliced ​​fruit, a thermos containing warm milk, and another thermos containing brown sugar water.

Looking at the mess on the bed and table, Bai Ye was at a loss for words.

Xuan Xiao's eyes lit up when he saw that Bai Ye was awake. He jumped up from his chair, shoved a full lunchbox into Bai Ye's hands, and handed him chopsticks as well: "You're awake? Come on, come on, let's eat. I spent ages searching at the canteen's supply station to find this. I added brown sugar to the millet porridge; Dr. Wen said you need to replenish your sugar levels. The milk is also warm; have a couple of sips to fill your stomach before eating. Don't eat too much on an empty stomach, your stomach won't be able to handle it."

Bai Ye looked down at the lunchbox stuffed full in her hands, then looked up at Xuan Xiao, her expression indifferent: "So much, I can't finish it all."

"You have to eat, even if you can't finish!" Xuan Xiao plopped back into his chair, arms crossed, his expression shifting from eager to resolute seriousness. "Dr. Wen said your low blood sugar today is because you didn't eat enough. You're only sixteen, and your daily training intensity is even higher than mine. You only eat a few bites of food and a piece of candy for lunch—do you think you're a camel that can store up a tube of fat to last a week? If you faint again, I—"

He paused, his Adam's apple bobbed, and he swallowed the rest of his words.

He originally wanted to say "My heart can't take it," but he felt that it was too sentimental and didn't fit his usual style, so he changed his words: "I'll tie you to the bed and watch you eat three meals a day, not a single bite less."

Bai Ye glanced at him, placed the lunchbox on her lap, and didn't touch her chopsticks.

This is the second time you've threatened me today.

"This isn't a threat, it's a notification." Xuanxiao snatched the chopsticks from Baiye's hand, then tapped the back of his hand with the end of the chopsticks, the force as light as a feather. "Eat quickly, the ribs will solidify when they get cold, and then they won't taste good. If you don't like ribs, there's also scrambled eggs with tomatoes over here. Oh, and there's also blanched bok choy. Try this garlic sauce, I made it myself. My mom taught me how to make sauces, and her cooking is famous throughout the entire military compound—"

"Why do you talk so much?" Bai Ye picked up his chopsticks, took a piece of pork rib, and stuffed it into his mouth.

Xuanxiao immediately shut up, his eyes shining as he watched him chew, his expression as satisfied as a cat owner who had finally tricked a kitten that wouldn't eat into coming to its food bowl.

Xuanxiao watched from the side, his lips curling into an increasingly wider smile.

He took a bunch of grapes from the plastic bag, picked them one by one, placed them on the lid of the food container, and pushed it next to Bai Ye: "Eat these too, they'll help you get some sugar. Your face was as white as paper just now, but at least you have some color back. Do you know how scared everyone was when you collapsed? If you don't finish all this food, how can you face us?"

Bai Ye glanced up at him, her mouth still half full of rice, her cheeks puffed out, her expression still calm and indifferent, as if nothing mattered to her.

Xuanxiao was stunned for a moment when he saw the bulging cheek.

He resisted the urge to reach out and ruffle Bai Ye's hair—mainly because Li Mo was sitting on the examination bed at the other end of the infirmary, staring silently at the back of his head.

Xuanxiao obediently placed his hands on his knees and continued to say, "Eat more, I'll get more if you're not full."

Bai Ye took a bite of the bok choy without looking up: "You really talk a lot."

"Why are you watching me eat if I don't talk much? When I went to get takeout earlier, Brother Huai'an specifically told me that if you only eat a few bites and then stop, I should take you to him—he has a hundred ways to make you finish your meal obediently. Do you want to try?"

Bai Ye thought about Xie Huai'an's perpetually expressionless face and his eyes that could see through everything, and realized that being nagged by Xuan Xiao next to her wasn't so unbearable compared to being watched by Xie Huai'an as she ate spoonful by spoonful.

He finished the last piece of pork rib, took a couple of sips of millet porridge, and then poured himself a small half-cup of milk.

Xuanxiao watched him finish eating, his expression shifting from initial tension to relaxation, then to smugness, and finally to an almost intoxicating sense of satisfaction.

It's that kind of expression that says, "I finally managed to coax my cat, who refused to eat, into finishing the whole meal."

Bai Ye placed the empty lunchbox on the bedside table, wiped her mouth, looked up and saw Xuan Xiao's expression, her brows furrowing almost imperceptibly: "What are you laughing at?"

"I wasn't laughing." Xuan Xiao denied it outright, but the smile on his lips was impossible to suppress. "I just thought—you look quite cute when you eat."

Bai Ye picked up the lid of an empty food container from the bedside table and slapped it down on Xuan Xiao's head.

"Ouch—you hit me again! How could you repay kindness with enmity? I brought you food and you hit me, I massaged your legs and you kicked me, I called you 'Little Cabbage' and you wouldn't let me—are you targeting me?"

"Yes."

Xuan Xiao covered his forehead where he had been slapped, looked at Bai Ye's self-righteous expression, opened his mouth, but ultimately gave up on the idea of ​​reasoning with this person.

He bent down to pick up the lid of the food container that had fallen to the ground, muttering, "Fine, you're ruthless. But you still have to eat. I'll come and wake you up for breakfast tomorrow morning. Don't even think about sleeping in."

Bai Ye didn't reply to him. She leaned back against the headboard and pulled the thin blanket up to cover her shoulders.

After eating, he felt drowsy. He glanced out the window at the completely dark sky, then at Wen Yan, who was treating Lu Xiao's old leg injury in the infirmary, and at Li Mo, who was sitting on another bed with a new bandage on his right arm.

Li Mo was also looking at him. Their eyes met briefly in the air, and Li Mo nodded slightly to him, meaning, "Go to sleep, I'm here."

Bai Ye shrank her face further into the blanket and closed her eyes.

Xuanxiao was still packing up takeout boxes, muttering to himself about tomorrow's breakfast menu.