The Third Rebirth (REBIRTH)
Early the next morning, Ye Xiao was holding a cup of sweet milk when Jiang Cancan and Jian Lan mysteriously pulled him aside.
Jiang Cancan cleared his throat and began, "Little friend, Can Ye couldn't sleep last night, tossing and turning because my heart aches!"
Ye Xiao blinked as he did not quite understand.
Jian Lan took over as she got to the point, "Little friend, sister reminds you, you must stay away from that old man, understand?"
Jiang Cancan quickly added, "The old man refers to the Grand Commander of the Second Division, Comrade Ling Chen."
Jian Lan: "That's him! Little friend, you've just come of age, you'll meet many high-quality handsome men, tall and muscular men, radiantly smiling pretty boys, lively and cute little wolves, so, absolutely do not get involved with that old man so early and doing strange things!"
Jiang Cancan nodded vigorously, "Yes, yes, yes, although our Chen Ge has a bad temper and is quite irritable, he does surpass a crowd of pretty boys and little wolves, but little friend, you must absolutely not do strange things with him!"
Both were deeply concerned.
Ye Xiao focused on finishing the last sip of his milk, and with a ring of milk foam on his lips, asked seriously, "Strange things... what things?"
Jiang Cancan and Jian Lan exchanged glances before cautiously asking, "Last night, you went out in the middle of the night, Can Ye noticed! I got up to pee and found you weren't in the vehicle, what a disaster!"
Jian Lan interrupted, "Damn, Jiang Cancan, didn't you say your kidneys were good and you don't get up to pee in the middle of the night?"
"Don't interrupt, don't interrupt." Jiang Cancan waved his hand before carefully asking Ye Xiao, "What did you and Chen Ge do last night? Did he hug you?"
Ye Xiao's ears turned slightly red as he nodded, "He hugged me."
"Damn," Jiang Cancan stepped back, heartbroken, "That old beast is inhuman! He actually made a move! In the wilderness, without even a bottle of lubricant!"
Jian Lan also frowned, "And then?"
Ye Xiao answered truthfully, "After telling me a bedtime story, he carried me back."
Jiang Cancan: "..."
Jian Lan: "..."
A bedtime story? What kind of high-level operation is this?
Jiang Cancan leaned in again, somewhat unsettled, "...and then you came back?"
Ye Xiao, holding the empty milk cup, nodded, "Yes, we came back."
Jiang Cancan and Jian Lan truly realized the misunderstanding was huge, he lowered his voice and felt somewhat guilty, "Little friend, this morning's conversation, let's keep it as a little secret among our trio, don't tell Chen Ge, okay?"
"No."
Following the voice and seeing Ling Chen who had appeared behind them at some point, Jiang Cancan felt like dying, "Ha... ha, Chen Ge, good morning!"
So when Ye Xiao started seriously practicing drawing and sheathing his sword, Jiang Cancan and Jian Lan were punished to run circles around Ye Xiao.
Ling Chen stood by with his arms crossed and seeing Ye Xiao looking at him hesitantly, he approached, "What does Little Fuzzball want to ask?"
Ye Xiao didn't stop his movements but hesitated for two seconds, "Captain, I didn't quite understand what Can Can and the others were saying, what are strange things? What is lubricant?"
"Damn." Ling Chen thought, ‘this question is too damn hard’, so he prepared to use the universal trick, "When our Ye Xiao grows up, he'll naturally know."
Ye Xiao puffed out his cheeks in frustration and corrected, "I'm already eighteen years and four months old. I've grown up."
Ling Chen was at a loss for words. In his mind, he dragged Jiang Cancan and Jian Lan out for a beating again.
He then earnestly tried to placate Ye Xiao, "When the time is right, I'll definitely tell you."
At that moment, Ling Chen noticed Jiang Mu approaching and quickly diverted Ye Xiao's attention, "Look, Xiao Mu is coming over."
Ye Xiao followed his gaze.
Jiang Mu was holding a square display in his hand with the screen showing a three-dimensional grid map. He spoke up, "We should be able to reach the vicinity of the eighth coordinate point by 1 PM this afternoon."
Since taking over as the Grand Commander of the Second Division, Ling Chen had learned a bit of everything—not an expert, but enough to get by. He reached out and took the display, using two fingers to navigate the map on the screen. "On the side of a mountain? Such a remote location?"
He glanced at the surrounding terrain and didn't say anything more as he handed the display back. "We'll set off once Cancan and Jian Lan finish their ten-minute run."
As Jiang Mu had estimated, at around 1:10 PM, the armored vehicle stopped at the base of the target location. The surrounding geography was quite peculiar—towering cliffs with sparse vegetation clinging to the rock faces, exposing bare gray rocks and a desolate landscape.
They stood in a valley nestled between two mountains. The wind funneled in from one side of the valley, creating a chilling effect that cut straight to the bone.
Ling Chen helped Ye Xiao zip up his combat uniform jacket and instructed Jiang Mu, "Mark the exact location of the coordinate point."
Jiang Mu nodded while loading the marking bullets into the magazine. With a series of "bang" "bang" "bang", the marking bullets accurately hit the cliff face, leaving four faint red marks. "The midpoint of the line connecting these four points is the exact location of the coordinate."
"Good, your marksmanship hasn't slipped." Ling Chen remarked as he fastened his belt and pulled on a pair of black military combat gloves. From a black case at his feet, he retrieved a silver grappling hook gun.
The gun was equipped with a three-pronged arrowhead at the tip and a circular coil at the end. When the trigger was pulled, the gun produced a significant recoil, and the sharp three-pronged arrowhead that were attached to a metal cable, firmly embedded itself into the cliff face. Small rock fragments shattered and scattered upon impact.
The grappling hook's coil securely locked onto the silver metal buckle on his waist. Pressing a button, the coil began to retract. At the same time, Ling Chen, with gloved hands, tightly gripped the metal cable, leaned his body, and pushed off the cliff face with his feet before steadily ascending.
Jiang Cancan sat on the roof of the vehicle, looking up as Ling Chen gradually approached the target point. Unable to keep his mouth shut, he said, "You know, Chen Ge has been a bit unlucky lately. Last time, when we went to install a detector in the river, he accidentally ran into a jellyfish. Out here in the wilderness, we shouldn't run into any mini-monsters, right? If—"
Jiang Mu cut him off, "Are you jinxing it again?"
Jiang Cancan quickly covered his mouth with both hands and looking innocent, signaling that he wouldn't say another word.
At that moment, Ye Xiao, who had been sitting cross-legged on the vehicle's hood, suddenly stood up. Jiang Cancan looked up and asked, "Little friend, what—"
He stopped mid-sentence when he noticed the change in Ye Xiao's expression. His tone turned serious, "Something's up?"
After spending so much time together, they all knew that Ye Xiao's ability to sense danger was terrifying. With that question, Jian Lan, who had been leaning lazily on her heavy sniper rifle, also turned to look.
The wind brushed through the strands of hair on his forehead. Ye Xiao's eyes were closed and his brows furrowed. After nearly ten seconds, he finally opened his eyes and said, "There's movement. It doesn't seem like spawned mini-monsters. It feels more man-made, but there was only that one sound earlier, and then it went silent."
Everyone's expressions turned grim. Jiang Cancan whispered, "Damn, could it be an ambush? But who the hell knew we were coming here?"
Jian Lan's eyes sharpened. "Stop with the damn cursing. If the little friend says so, it's almost certainly an ambush. Everyone, stay alert!" She turned to Ye Xiao and asked, "Did you inform Chen Ge?
Ye Xiao raised his wrist, showing the communicator he was wearing. "I did."
At that moment, Ling Chen had just finished installing the detector and was preparing to descend from the cliff face. However, the ambushers clearly had no intention of letting him land safely.
A bullet, carried by the wind, shot straight toward Ling Chen's back!
Hanging from the rope with no reliable foothold, Ling Chen used the momentum from the rope to his advantage. With a burst of strength from his entire body, he forcefully shifted the metal cable to narrowly dodged to the side!
The bullet grazed his waist and embedded itself into the cliff face, sending shards of rock flying that left a few bloody scratches on Ling Chen's cheek.
Almost simultaneously, the moment the ambushers fired, Jian Lan pinpointed the source of the gunfire. Without wasting a single bullet, she unleashed a barrage of shots. The rocks behind the ambushers were riddled with holes, and the area fell silent.
Uncertain of the enemy's exact location, Jiang Cancan and the others weren't the type to sit idly by. Moreover, Ling Chen was still hanging on the cliff face, as exposed as a target and vulnerable to anyone taking a shot. They had to draw all the fire to give Ling Chen a chance to safely descend.
Given their ample supply of weapons, Jiang Cancan provided cover while quickly pulling a crate of grenades from the back of the vehicle with Jiang Mu. Jian Lan also boldly switched to armor-piercing bullets.
Handing five grenades to Ye Xiao, Jiang Cancan patted his shoulder and said, "Here, little friend, throw them wherever you want!"
For the next full minute, the surrounding rocks were obliterated by a dense barrage of grenades and armor-piercing explosive bullets, leaving the enemy with nowhere to hide and exposing their positions.
Jiang Mu called out the wind direction and bullet trajectory deviation. Jian Lan acknowledged with a "Got it.", before she reloaded her weapon, and pressed her eye to the scope. Her brow lifted slightly as she cursed, "Damn you for ambushing me! And daring to shoot at my comrades!" As soon as she finished speaking, a cloud of dust erupted from the shattered rocks, and an enemy who had just peeked out was instantly taken down by Jian Lan's shot.
She snapped her fingers, not moving an inch, and asked Ye Xiao, who was standing beside her, "Little friend, where else are they? Tell me."
Ye Xiao closed his eyes, filtering through the chaotic sounds around him. "Two o'clock position, moving, offset by 0.5... 0.6." As soon as he spoke, Jian Lan fired, and Ye Xiao confirmed, "Hit!"
From there, the group worked in perfect sync. The dust from the explosions obscured both sides' vision, but Ye Xiao, with his almost supernatural ability to pinpoint locations by sound, guided Jian Lan's shots. She took down one enemy after another with satisfying precision.
Then she was kicked by Ling Chen, who had just descended from the cliff.
"Didn't you see Little Fuzzball was drenched in cold sweat?" Ling Chen's tone was far from friendly.
Jian Lan shifted her eyes away from the scope and looked up, only to notice that Ye Xiao's face was pale, with fine beads of sweat not only on his forehead but also on the tip of his nose. It was evident that identifying positions through sound earlier had been a mentally and physically exhausting task.
She touched her nose, feeling a bit embarrassed, "Sorry about that, little friend."
Ye Xiao shook his head, "As long as I can help, it's fine."
Ling Chen reached out and ruffled his slightly damp hair, "Silly boy, you're not even getting paid by the military district!"
Ye Xiao just smiled, but suddenly, his smile froze, and he sniffed, "Captain, are you hurt?"
This little puppy nose!
Ling Chen cursed inwardly and quickly reassured, "The bullet just grazed me, so the wound is shallow, and it barely bled. You can check it later if you don't believe me!"
He was genuinely afraid of Ye Xiao looking at him with teary eyes!
However, the situation on the ground didn't give them much time to talk.
After realizing that their ambush had failed and they had lost quite a few men, the two sides finally clashed head-on.
Jiang Mu quickly identified the weapons in the enemy's hands, "DC07 models that were produced two years ago from underground factories and specifically supplied to the 'Red Hearts' and 'Queens' mercenary groups."
Ling Chen held his gun and sneered, "Those two charge a hefty price, don't they? Who's so generous to spend such a fortune to buy our lives?"
Jiang Cancan, holding the K57, chimed in with a grin, "That money is destined to go down the drain. My life is priceless!"
With towering cliffs on both sides and only two exits, there was no way to avoid the confrontation.
The two mercenary groups surrounded them from both ends and outnumbering Ling Chen's team by more than five times. However, with Ye Xiao darting around the battlefield like a lethal weapon, they were not at a disadvantage.
Ye Xiao swiftly raised his knife and killed a mercenary who was sneaking up on Jian Lan. Jian Lan gave him a victory sign, "Thanks, little bro!"
Ye Xiao mimicked her gesture and returned the victory sign.
Jiang Cancan bit off the fuse and threw a mini grenade far away. Hearing Jian Lan's words, he mocked, "You're almost thirty, and you still call him 'little bro'? Can you even say it without blushing?"
Jian Lan glared, "If it weren't for the battlefield rules against hitting comrades, I'd smack you with a tripod!" After saying that, she ignored Jiang Cancan and focused on a sniper duel.
Meanwhile, Ye Xiao had already moved to another spot at lightning speed.
He stepped on Ling Chen's shoulder with his body taut, and shot out like an arrow, with his blade slicing across the wrist of a burly mercenary, causing the man's gun to fall. Ling Chen, with perfect timing, fired a shot and took down another one.
As he reloaded, Ling Chen chuckled, "Hey, little bro, thanks."
Hearing Ling Chen's playful tone as he called him "little bro", Ye Xiao's ears turned bright red. He turned his back to Ling Chen and quickly went to support Jiang Mu.
After reloading, Ling Chen completely ignored the chaotic wind direction and the 70% bullet deviation rate, taking down one enemy with each shot. The image of Ye Xiao's red ears as he ran away flashed in his mind, and he clicked his tongue before muttering to himself, "Our little fuzzball is so adorable..."
Thanks to Ye Xiao's swift and powerful support across the battlefield, when the fight ended, Ling Chen was surprisingly the most injured among the five.
The valley fell silent once more, leaving only the howling wind.
The two mercenary groups had completely vanished, leaving behind scattered weapons, equipment, and rocks of various sizes in the field of vision.
Ling Chen holstered his gun and said, "Clean up the battlefield." As he turned his head, he noticed Ye Xiao standing beside him and staring intently at his waist.
Jiang Cancan burst into laughter nearby, "Chen Ge, we'll handle the battlefield cleanup. Don't make the little friend cry again!"
Ling Chen's lips curled into a smile as he pinched the bridge of his nose, chuckling. "Could you trouble our Ye Xiao to help the Captain with some medicine?"
Ye Xiao's eyes lit up, "No trouble at all!"
Ling Chen led Ye Xiao toward the armored vehicle but stopped by Jiang Mu to ask, "When was the last time we reported our mission progress to the command center?"
Jiang Mu remembered clearly, "Three days ago."
Jian Lan, who had been relaxing by flexing her fingers nearby, slowly straightened her back with her brow furrowed. "Chen Ge, are you suspecting—"
"Yes," Ling Chen replied with an impassive expression. "The installation coordinates for the detectors are only known to a few of us within D Zone. Outside D Zone, only the command center knows. So, how did these two mercenary groups manage to ambush us so precisely? And who exactly paid to have us killed?"
There was indeed a traitor.
Jian Lan pursed her lips as her grip on the heavy sniper rifle tightened unconsciously until her knuckles turned pale.
"Alright, let's clean up the battlefield first and replenish our weapon stock. We're about to reach the ninth coordinate point. If nothing unexpected happens, the Holy Judgement First Team should be waiting for us ahead."
Returning to the rear compartment of the vehicle, Ling Chen leaned casually against the wall with his gaze fixed on a point in the air and his fingers absentmindedly twitching.
Ye Xiao retrieved the medical supplies from the kit and stood in front of Ling Chen. "Captain, let me take a look at your wound."
Ling Chen snapped out of his thoughts, took off his jacket, and tossed it aside. He removed his black gloves and unfastened the heavy metal buckle at his waist before letting it fall to the ground with a clatter.
With his left hand, he lifted his black tank top, and with his right, he loosened his belt before pulling down the waistband of his pants with his thumb, revealing his well-defined abdominal muscles. A strong masculine scent, mixed with the smell of gunpowder, instantly filled the narrow compartment.
Leaning lazily against the wall, Ling Chen exposed his wound to Ye Xiao while raising an eyebrow with a smirk. "The Captain didn't lie to you, did he? The injury isn't serious. A bit of medicine should do the trick."
Ye Xiao knelt on one knee while silent and just carefully cleaning and disinfecting the wound. He occasionally glanced up at Ling Chen's expression, worried that he might be in pain.
Ling Chen's heartbeat quickened under Ye Xiao's moist, concerned gaze, and he instinctively averted his eyes. "The Captain isn't in pain. Do as you please."
Ye Xiao nodded slightly, "I'll be gentle."
Once the medicine was applied, Ye Xiao began wrapping the wound with a bandage roll. Ling Chen initially thought that such a minor injury would heal on its own in a couple of days. But seeing Ye Xiao's serious, focused expression, he decided to let him continue.
However, since the bandage needed to be wrapped around his waist to stay secure, Ye Xiao remained in a half-kneeling position and almost embraced Ling Chen's waist with both hands with his head nearly resting against Ling Chen's abdomen.
At this moment, Ling Chen felt the sensitivity of his sensitive area increase a thousandfold. Ye Xiao's breath brushed against his lower abdomen, sending waves of itchiness and heat downward.
The camouflage pants weren't thin, but Ling Chen was nervous. He shifted his hand holding the waistband to cover the crucial area, afraid of startling Little Fuzzball.
A jumble of thoughts flooded his mind. ‘Damn it, it must be because he had been sleeping next to Ye Xiao these past few nights and leaving no time for his hands to take care of business. Even with a bandage wrapped around, his willpower was so weak!’
He lowered his head to stare at the crown of Ye Xiao's hair. Seeing that the other was still diligently tying the knot, he randomly pulled out a self-criticism essay from his mind to recite. But the method wasn't very effective. That area was still throbbing and swelling, making the camouflage pants uncomfortably tight.
Every second felt like a year, a century. When Ye Xiao finally finished tying the knot and stepped back, Ling Chen finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Ye Xiao didn't notice anything unusual.
He pointed at the bandage on Ling Chen's waist and signaled for him to look.
Ling Chen lowered his head and saw a neat, perfectly tied bow on his waist, identical to the one he had tied on Ye Xiao's hand—a flawless replication.
"Good job, the knot is tied very well."
Ye Xiao smiled at him.
Ling Chen looked at Ye Xiao's smile and silently cursed himself in his heart—‘Ling Chen, you beast.’
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