The next morning, the members began to pack their things. Only Shan Ming didn’t have to do anything. He delegated all the trivial tasks to Shen Changze while he leisurely dismantled and assembled his weapons.
Jobb could not help but be envious, “You not only picked up a son, but also picked up a little manservant.”
Shan Ming proudly raised his chin.
The child was listening by the side and pouted with discontent. He secretly squeezed the strawberry jam that he had put in his pocket during breakfast into Shan Ming’s shoes.
After packing up all the large weapons, Shan Ming took out several thick English books and threw them in front of the child. “We’ll be on the road for the next few days and won’t have time for you to train, so just memorize English words instead. 500 words a day, and your error rate cannot exceed 5%.”
The child picked up the books and gave him an indifferent look.
Shan Ming ruffled his soft hair and said, “Hey, your temper’s getting worse and worse, you don’t want to eat anymore?”
The child slapped away his hand, he said with a serious expression on his little face, “I will complete the task. You have no reason to punish me.”
Shan Ming revealed a sinister smile and said, “Then you better pray that I’m reasonable.”
The child pursed his lips. After spending some time with Shan Ming, he had come to understand Shan Ming’s unpredictable moods. He had already prepared himself mentally for the possibility of going without food.
Shan Ming secured the luggage rack and then got into the vehicle. The child also quickly hopped in after him.
Their custom military Hummer did not have any side steps. Two months ago, the child, who was only just over one meter tall, had to use both his hands and feet to climb up the vehicle that was 40-plus-centimeter distance from the ground. But now, he was able to jump up while holding books in one hand and using the seat to support himself with his other hand. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
The grueling training over the past two months may not have resulted in the most prominent physical changes, but for the child, the most significant transformation was that he had come to accept reality. He no longer begged Shan Ming to take him home with naive sincerity, nor did he attempt to move anyone with his tears. He also no longer panicked and begged for mercy when he was too hungry to complete his tasks, because he knew it was all useless.
His foster father was a cold-blooded devil with no hint of mercy in his heart. This man did things based solely on his own liking. Today he might be giving the child bread, but tomorrow he might also kill him. The child knew he had to work hard to stay alive and grow up, so he could have a chance to escape from Shan Ming’s devil claws and return to his parents.
Once he was forced to psychologically accept his situation, he resigned himself to fate. He could only grit his teeth and accept everything Shan Ming arranged for him. At the same time, his rebellious mentality toward Shan Ming became more and more severe.
Shan Ming always taught him that only the strong can do what they want, and the weak only deserve to be dominated. The child often thought that if he could defeat Shan Ming someday, he could turn the tables and dominate him. He could refuse to feed Shan Ming, make him do many difficult training, and even make him wash his dirty shoes and smelly socks. Besides returning home, bullying Shan Ming the way Shan Ming had bullied him became another pillar in the child’s heart.
This time, their mercenary group came with nearly thirty people, and after deducting the three who died in the previous mission, the remaining people filled exactly eight cars. In addition to Shen Changze, the car that Shan Ming was in also had Jobb, Dino, and Pelle.
When Jobb was driving, the others had nothing to do, so they supervised the child’s studies.
Their off-road convoy was quite conspicuous because they didn’t follow normal paths and instead chose paths with fewer people and rougher terrains. Sometimes, they could only travel on very bumpy dirt roads. After a whole day of driving like this, people sitting in the cars all felt as if their bones were about to crumble apart.
Among everyone, only Shen Changze felt the most comfortable. He was held by Pelle almost the entire day. A woman’s soft body was the best cushion. Jobb and Dino were both very jealous of him.
It was the first time the child was so close to Pelle without the cold, frightening corpses and the boring, difficult-to-understand knowledge. This feeling made him feel novel. Growing up, he had never been in contact with such a woman of rich feminine qualities. Even the only female servant around him was strong and powerful. His mother was completely opposite to Pelle, she always kept her hair short and looked like a man.
Although his mother wasn’t very motherly, although he only saw her a few times a year, he still missed her every day and night. He often dreamed of that night when many people in green uniforms rushed into his home with guns and big shields. His mother, with reddened eyes, shoved him onto a plane and told the uncle flying the plane to take him away, never to come back again.
He really didn’t understand how he had fallen from being the little young master who was held high up in the sky to mingling among these people in merely a few short months. He didn’t even know what these people were doing, only that many of them were as frightening as Shan Ming. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
Compared to rough men like Shan Ming, Pelle was clearly much gentler in the child’s eyes.
When they were setting up the tents at night, the child bashfully told Pelle that he wanted to sleep with her.
Pelle was stunned for a moment, then laughed.
Shan Ming immediately became unhappy. He grabbed the child by the collar and lifted him up. “All the men here want to sleep with Pelle, who do you think you are?” In fact, he didn’t care who slept with Pelle, he cared more about not having the child as a mosquito repellent at night, how unbearable that would be.
When Shan Ming said these words, he spoke in English, which made everyone burst into laughter. The child’s face turned red with embarrassment, and he angrily glared at Shan Ming, waving his little fists and shouting, “I don’t want to sleep with you! You snore and you always roll over and crush me.”
Shan Ming flashed his white teeth as he laughed, “Do you have the right to choose? You have to sleep with me.” After he said this, he took the child into his tent.
Since it was just a temporary camp, many tents were crowded with three or four grown men each. Apart from Pelle, only Shan Ming and Ayer had their own tents. Although Shan Ming didn’t have an official position in the mercenary group, he had a high status due to his strength and his brotherly relationship with Ayer.
The child had never experienced the discomfort of squeezing into a small tent with three or four other men, so he didn’t know how fortunate he was to be able to sleep with Shan Ming, even if he never thought of it that way.
Shan Ming’s sleeping habits were very poor. He snored at night and was restless. The child often found himself having difficulty breathing in the middle of the night. When he woke up, he would find Shan Ming’s arms and legs on top of him. Sometimes he would be pushed to the edge of the bed or even kicked off the bed. If the child tried to push Shan Ming away or resist, he’ll often receive a gun pointed at his head by the suddenly awakened Shan Ming.
For the child, being able to sleep peacefully through the night was a matter of luck. Fortunately, he was small enough to fit into any available space to sleep at the moment. But what about when he grows up? He felt more than just worried.
They spent the next two days peacefully. According to the plan, they will be entering the forest area in the late afternoon of the third day. By then, the road will be very difficult to travel on, and the weather conditions weren’t exactly ideal. They can only decide when they get there, whether to camp outside the forest or venture deeper and stay inside for the night.