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

At one o'clock in the morning, the lights in the base's conference room were still on.

Li Mo sat at the head of the conference table, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed. The bandage on his right arm, which Wen Yan had re-bandaged, was faintly visible under his sleeve. A mission briefing lay open in front of him, but he hadn't turned a page in quite some time.

Shen Zhuo nestled in his chair, zipping up his training uniform to his chin, his eyelids practically glued shut with sleep. He let out a long yawn, his voice muffled: "Captain, why did you call us here in the middle of the night instead of sleeping? I was examined by Dr. Wen three times today, three times—he even opened up my gums to look at them. All I want to do now is sleep."

Xie Ran sat next to him, yawning incessantly, his chin resting on the table, looking like a lump of melted asphalt: "I'm sleepy too. I ran so many laps this afternoon, and then Dr. Wen tortured me from start to finish. My body is completely drained."

"If you two complain again, you'll have to run an extra ten kilometers tomorrow." Li Mo's voice wasn't loud, but it instantly dispelled half of the drowsiness in the meeting room. Xie Ran and Shen Zhuo sat up straight at the same time, their backs ramrod straight.

Lu Xiao stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray, picked up his teacup, and took a sip of strong tea. He was unusually serious, his smile much less pronounced than usual, and his fingers unconsciously traced the rim of the teacup.

"I called you all here to discuss something," Li Mo began. His voice was as steady as ever, but every word seemed to have been pulled from ice water, carrying a weight that sent chills down one's spine. "It's about Bai Ye."

Shen Zhuo and Xie Ran exchanged a glance, and the lingering drowsiness on their faces completely disappeared.

"What's wrong with Bai Ye?" Shen Zhuo's voice rose half an octave. "Is his low blood sugar acting up again? I'll go get him—"

"He's sleeping in his dorm." Li Mo's gaze swept across everyone present from left to right, lingering on each face for a moment. Then he pulled his hands out of his crossed arms, rested them on the edge of the conference table, and leaned forward slightly. "From now on, everyone must keep a close eye on Bai Ye. Injuries on the training field are normal, I don't care. But outside of training, at any time and in any place, he absolutely cannot get hurt. Absolutely not."

His tone left no room for negotiation.

Shen Zhu blinked, looked at Xie Ran, then at Li Mo, and asked cautiously, "Captain, we know Bai Ye is from our Group A, and we'll definitely protect him—but you woke us up in the middle of the night just to say this?"

Li Mo didn't answer immediately. He was silent for a few seconds, then said something.

"Brother Chen has been missing for three years."

The air in the conference room suddenly froze.

Bai Chen.

The name, like a grenade with its pin pulled, rests quietly in the center of the conference table.

"He trained you all." Li Mo's gaze swept over every face present. His voice wasn't loud, but every word seemed to be chilled by a cold wind. "Xie Huai'an, he taught you communication encryption techniques step by step. Lu Xiao, he meticulously crafted your close combat skills move by move. Wen Yan, he secured your spot for military medical training. Xie Ran, Shen Zhuo, he led your first team to the battlefield. Without him, you would be buried in the minefield on the border by now."

No one speaks.

"He disappeared three years ago while on a mission overseas, and there has been no clear information about his whereabouts since." Li Mo's voice remained calm and detached, but he paused for a moment when he said "disappeared." "I don't know if he's dead or alive. None of us here know either."

His hands, which were bracing themselves on the edge of the table, tightened, and his knuckles turned white.

"But what if he doesn't die? And what if he comes back one day and finds Bai Ye injured in the Void Breaker—" Li Mo raised his eyes, his gaze like two icy blades, slowly sweeping across every face present, "What do you think he would do?"

The meeting room was silent for a full five seconds.

Xie Ran unconsciously started touching his arms, from his wrist all the way to his elbow, as if to confirm that his arms were still attached to his body.

He recalled the scene when Bai Chen led the team back then—that man's smile was like a gentle breeze, and when he didn't smile, it made people want to kneel down and write their wills.

He also remembered a mission where a foreign mercenary slashed Lu Xiao's arm with a dagger. Lu Xiao was not even twenty years old at the time. Bai Chen didn't say anything, but just walked over and crushed the mercenary's wrist inch by inch.

The mercenary's screams echoed through the rainforest for a full three minutes, and Bai Chen's expression didn't change at all. Then he turned to Lu Xiao and smiled, saying, "Be careful to parry next time."

Lu Xiao swallowed hard. He had clearly remembered the same thing.

Xie Huai'an pushed up his glasses, his voice unusually tinged with uncertainty: "If Brother Chen is still alive... and knows that we let his brother get injured right under our noses..."

"He'll skin us all alive." Lu Xiao finished his sentence for him, his tone carrying a resigned calm. "It's not a metaphor. It's a real skinning. When he dealt with the traitors back then, Huai'an and I were there, and I had nightmares about that scene for half a year."

"So," Li Mo steered the conversation back on track, his tone regaining its usual calm, "protecting Bai Ye isn't just because he's our teammate—he's like a younger brother to everyone in Team A of Breaking the Void. With Bai Chen gone, we're his older brothers."

His gaze lingered on every face.

"I don't care about training injuries. Let him train, let him fall, let him bleed. Bai Ye isn't a flower grown in a greenhouse, and he won't allow anyone to treat him like one." Li Mo's voice regained its composure and strength. "But outside of training—if something like last night happens again, if someone sneaks into the base in the middle of the night and attacks him, if he's stabbed multiple times and we have no idea—"

He paused for a moment.

"I will not punish you. Because if Bai Chen were still alive, he would come in person."

After those words were spoken, the conference room became so quiet that the faint hum of the fluorescent light ballasts could be heard.

Wen Yan coughed softly, breaking the silence.

He placed the teacup back on the table, his voice returning to its usual gentle tone, but with a clear intention to change the subject: "Alright, everyone understands now. Bai Ye is all of us's younger brother, and protecting him is our duty. There's another matter I feel needs to mention tonight."

All eyes turned to him.

Wen Yan slowly picked up the teacup, took a sip, and then put the teacup back on the saucer, the porcelain clinking together with a crisp, light sound.

He looked up, his gaze sweeping around behind his glasses, a faint smile curving his lips: "Have you guys noticed that Xuan Xiao's attitude towards Bai Ye—isn't it a little off?"