Chapter 456 - Why Are You Here
Cai Yuncheng didn’t sound surprised at his words. He giggled and said, “That is not worthy of a congratulations. Other than myself, no one will ever know the responsibilities I hold. I believe the general position of Yellow Flame Iron Brigade is definitely one of the most strenuous jobs in this world, while it’s returns do not reflect it’s difficulty.”
“I want to make this as brief as possible. I’ll do as you please, at your discretion. So, where and when will your training be held?” Yang Chen asked straightforwardly.
“It’s lunchtime now. We don’t have to meet immediately. Meet me at the area you so courteously destroyed at two in the afternoon,” Cai Yuncheng said.
Yang Chen hesitated for a bit before asking, “Are you referring to the nuclear aircraft carrier base, which isn’t actually an aircraft base?”
“That’s right. It has been remodelled to suit the purposes of a training ground.”
During the battle with Ares, they had unsealed their powers leaving a trail of disaster in their wake. It had been destroyed to the point where ruins would’ve been a better term for site. Yang Chen didn’t expect Yellow Flame Iron Brigade to have repurposed the place so quickly.
The base was located by a bay so the weather was rather erratic, while the waves were strong and violent, not forgetting the secrecy, all of which made it suitable for a training camp to be built there.
After talking with Cai Yuncheng, Yang Chen returned to the dining table and said to Lin Ruoxi and An Xin who were both silent, “I had something serious to deal with. Why weren’t you guys chatting while I was away? You could deepen your friendship eh.”
“And why must we?” Lin Ruoxi glanced at him fiercely.
An Xin pouted her mouth before she continued sipping on her lemon juice. She was really afraid of Lin Ruoxi after the events prior. Other than the obvious pressure of being a mistress, she feared the thought of being forced to compete with Lin Ruoxi in the doll-hitting game again. Despite being fearless, active, and wily, she couldn’t endure the burning-hot gaze Lin Ruoxi gave her when faced with the game.
An Xin felt that if Yang Chen hadn’t come to her rescue, Lin Ruoxi would’ve forced her to play the game for the remainder of the day!
An Xin was all the more resentful when she dared not piss Lin Ruoxi off, as if she had been pressured by Lin Ruoxi’s aura.
Yang Chen’s body stiffened a little. Smiling awkwardly, he said, “Look at you, why not we change the topic and not dwell on something so terrible when the people we are speaking about is in our company.”
“I was just being honest,” Lin Ruoxi said.
Seeing that Yang Chen was about to retort, An Xin quickly kicked him under the table lightly to signal him to shut his mouth.
Yang Chen was surprised at just how afraid An Xin was of Lin Ruoxi. Shrugging his shoulders, he switched the subject and said, “Ruoxi, send An Xin back later, I have something to deal with in the afternoon.”
Lin Ruoxi had noticed all the little interactions between An Xin and Yang Chen. She felt rather sour in her heart, because… she realized that she was much less intimate with her own husband than his lover. She had never had similar interactions with Yang Chen before.
Lin Ruoxi lost her appetite, having eaten only half of her steak.
“Are you done eating?” Lin Ruoxi suddenly asked An Xin with her ice-cold stare.
“Ah?” An Xin had her mouth half opened. She was about to eat a small piece of medium-rare steak, but dropped it after listening to Lin Ruoxi’s question and receiving her bone-penetrating gaze.
“I… I think i’ve had enough for now,” An Xin said as she put her knife down. She instantly understood the situation.
Yang Chen frowned. “Why are you suddenly full? Does it taste bad?”
An Xin smiled as she acted like everything was fine. “I have a small appetite and I have to appear on TV soon. Maintaining my figure right now, would be one of my top priorities.”
Lin Ruoxi stood up and took her white Gucci bag. “Let’s go if there’s nothing else then. I have a meeting later.”
“Oh…” An Xin instantly stood up and waved at Yang Chen before following Lin Ruoxi out of the restaurant.
Yang Chen was left seated on the table alone. He smiled as he shook his head. He had no clue what Lin Ruoxi had in mind. However, judging from the situation, it was best for him to act confused and go with the flow.
An Xin had at least interacted with Lin Ruoxi for a while. They would get along sooner or later as they got to know each other more, which would then change how they looked at each other.
Yang Chen placed the two leftover steaks on his plate and started chewing away…
At two o’clock, in his BMW, Yang Chen arrived at the place which he had promised to meet Cai Yuncheng at. It was nearby the entrance of the previous aircraft carrier base.
Following its reconstruction, a military base with a number of troops were situated there. One would not expect anything special there.
When Yang Chen came to the entrance outside the base, a black, huge Jeep arrived as well. The people who came down from the car were Molin and his female teammate Adeline.
“Your Majesty Pluto, why have you tasked us with such a boring job?” Molin scratched the back of his head, distressed. He then smiled and said to Yang Chen, “I think that I’d prefer staring at a screen, monitoring people all day, than training a bunch of people with poor foundation. It has more meaning.”
Yang Chen slapped the back of Molin’s head. “You haven’t even seen them yet.”
“Hehe,” Adeline chuckled. She wore a tight-fitting black leather jacket which revealed her alluring curves. “Leader Molin is just reluctant to leave his Chinese girlfriends at the bar.”
Molin coughed awkwardly. “That’s actually a small part of the reason. It’s mainly because I’ve seen the power levels of Dragon Group before. Even they are inferior to us, so what do you think I can infer from their recruits?”
“If you were at the same level as them, you’d be having a duel instead of providing training.” Yang Chen shook his head. “You find no interest in this task only because every member of Sea Eagles is a handpicked best-of-the-best elite from all over the world. You guys were already acknowledged as part of the top class before even having entered the team. But you need to know that not everyone has the chance to battle venomous scorpions in the Middle East deserts, and not everyone has experience in fighting wolf packs in the Northern European snowlands.”
Molin nodded. It was logical after all.
“Also, do you expect me to take care of them every day if you guys refuse to do so?” Yang Chen stared at Molin.
Molin immediately lowered his head. “I can’t let Your Majesty Pluto handle this alone after all. I’m more than willing to be of your service.”
At this moment, a dark-green, bullet-proof SUV came out from the military base. Cai Yuncheng and Tsunami from Dragon Group got off the car together.
Tsunami wore golden-framed spectacles as usual and was dressed like an office worker in his western suit. He even had a tie on his white shirt, causing him to look like an educated man instead of the leader of Dragon Group.
Cai Yuncheng was dressed similar to how Lin Zhiguo used to look. Since he had a larger build than Lin Zhiguo, while being much younger, he looked rather heroic.
“Haha! Welcome, welcome. These two must be the members of Sea Eagles that you mentioned,” Cai Yuncheng said as he shook hands with Yang Chen before doing so with Molin and Adeline.
Tsunami followed behind and nodded at Yang Chen with a smile as his form of greeting. Yang Chen had saved the entire Dragon Group after all. They were considered old acquaintances, but they hadn’t met in a long while.
Molin and Adeline also greeted Cai Yuncheng in Mandarin and introduced themselves.
“You don’t mind that I’m asking Sea Eagles to provide the training instead, do you?” Yang Chen asked with a smile.
“Of course not,” Cai Yuncheng answered. “Sea Eagles is one of the two strongest mercenary groups in the world. Every single member has been through combat and experienced more than any one of my recruits. Compared to fighting abilities, our new recruits lack experience more than anything. I’m glad that you’re selflessly asking Sea Eagles to help. Furthermore, your competence doesn’t make you a suitable trainer. There’s an overly large gap between you and the recruits. They’ll only get discouraged quicker this way.”
Cai Yuncheng managed to please Molin and Adeline with solely his speech, causing them to quickly develop some interest for this job.
Yang Chen too felt that this man had a way with words. Cai Yuncheng is indeed a lot different from Lin Zhiguo. He looks more like a diplomat than a general. His aura is also a lot more domineering than Lin Zhiguo, he thought.
After that, Tsunami led the way in front, while Yang Chen brought Molin and Adeline to discuss about the mission in detail with Cai Yuncheng while walking inside the base.
The aircraft carrier base had become a ruin after the destruction caused by the divine powers of Yang Chen and Ares. Thus, it was easy to clean up the aftermath. A portion of the trash was cleared and thrown into the ocean, forming a spacious empty land.
Concrete floors of different levels were built by the ocean waves crashing against the mountain, allowing different levels to performing their training on.
Since they didn’t have much time, most of the buildings were constructed with wood. It was a temporary training base after all. There shouldn’t be much else that they required.
There was a dedicated section with a shooting range for gun training, nearby a long stretch of the seaside, causing the place to be extremely suitable for field-battle training.
At this moment, Yang Chen and the two finally met the new recruits for the training. They were currently running over from the beach not far away.
There were two teams consisting of around twenty people in total. It was a lot less than most would expect taking account the fact that China has the largest population in the world.
“Don’t look so surprised. These twenty-three people stand out the most from a group of almost a thousand elites. Among them, the ones who can pass the final real-combat test will enter Dragon Group,” Cai Yuncheng explained. “The recent events made us realize just how much room of improvement there is for Dragon Group. Being the general of Yellow Flame Iron Brigade, I don’t want to see us being useless, although… we have a final trump card. So, after I took over the position, I made a reselection for the new recruits. From the original sixty or so people, I’ve expelled more than forty of them.”
Yang Chen smiled and said, “Ancient Rome wasn’t built in one day. It’s not good to be so impatient. Whether they’re great seedlings will have to be determined later.”
At this moment, the twenty-three recruits finally ran back to the training camp and lined up tidily, looking extremely energetic.
Most of them were male. When Yang Chen noticed the outermost member, he was instantly stunned. He opened his mouth and wanted to speak, but the words that were coming out got stuck in his throat. His expression also looked twisted.
“Why are you here?!”