Time to Split the Money (Seventh Seventh!)

During the long recovery period, besides putting on some extra weight, the fatigue brought by prolonged forced marches and intense tension gradually faded away.

Polica did not seem to mind that Li Changjiang and his men were freeloading on his ship. Not only that, but he even provided them with the best conditions for physical training and recuperation.

"Mom, don't worry, I'm calling you from our company commander's office right now! If you don't believe me, listen!"

With that, he brought the receiver of the satellite phone close to the computer's speaker.

Inside the cabin, Li Changjiang began to talk nonsense with his eyes wide open. The open laptop was blaring the cadence, "One-two-one! One-two-one!"—clearly something searched from the internet.

However, Liu Fen on the other end of the line bought it completely.

Naturally, only in the military would people shout such slogans. Neither she nor Li Lin doubted the fact that their son Li Changjiang was a soldier in the army, but both of them overlooked a detail they knew nothing about: the phone number.

"All right, I get it! Mom, I have to go, my company commander is calling me!"

Just as he was about to hang up, Liu Fen suddenly uttered a name that almost left Li Changjiang dumbfounded.

Meng Yao!

"Mom, what did you say? You said Meng Yao came to see you?"

Liu Fen started chattering away on the other end of the line!

However, apart from the sentence, "When did you brat find such a gorgeous daughter-in-law," Li Changjiang didn't catch a single word of what else she said.

Meng Yao went to find him!

Meng Yao went to find him!

And she told his parents that she was his girlfriend!

His mind went blank.

Li Changjiang was not a particularly emotional person; in fact, he was somewhat straightforward, or rather, slow on the uptake.

He knew very well that Meng Yao had feelings for him that went beyond friendship, but the two of them had never broken that barrier. Therefore, upon hearing his mother Liu Fen say that Meng Yao had gone to his home and even openly admitted to being his girlfriend, Li Changjiang felt a sudden, irrepressible surge of elation that he struggled to keep under wraps.

It wasn't until the call ended.

Li Changjiang reached out several times to dial that number, but every time he reached the very last digit, he gave up.

It wasn't out of fear.

Rather, he understood very well that there was no need to cause worry for a girl who had already given him her entire heart.

Libya was no pleasant place!

And being a mercenary was hardly an honorable profession!

That was all.

After a full week of rest, the time was now approaching late July. The Mediterranean summer was far hotter than expected, and Li Changjiang could never bring himself to sunbathe bare-chested like the Old Russian.

A day ago, Polica had transported all of them to an estate near the port of Marseille in France. However, this wasn't for a vacation, but to execute a mission that looked easy yet gave Polica quite a headache.

In a sense, this was the first mission undertaken since the establishment of the Hunters Mercenary Group.

That bastard Polica certainly wouldn't provide them with free helicopter services, food, and lodging out of the goodness of his heart, so this mission became the transaction by which Li Changjiang and his men would repay their debts.

Previously, the Hunters Mercenary Group had been officially registered. While Li Changjiang served as the leader of the mercenary group, he also held the position of the first sniper, with the Old Russian serving as the second sniper.

Tank had left the cargo ship alone for Germany a few days ago, leaving no news other than an uncertain date of return. Therefore, the role of the primary assault specialist of the mercenary group had to be filled by William, Killer, Tim, and Medic. There were actually a fifth and sixth member, but Shi Junqiang and Jin were still recuperating quietly, so they were not currently counted in the combat lineup.

Bob and Angel were responsible for demolition work, while Keyboard provided supporting fire and was mainly responsible for communications and external intelligence for the entire team.

As for Alyssa.

Li Changjiang had no intention of letting her join the Hunters, but that son of a bitch Polica had actually roped Alyssa in to learn how to be the liaison for the Hunters—in effect, the spokesperson for the mercenary group.

Clients could issue missions to the Hunters Mercenary Group through Alyssa, and what Alyssa had to do was determine the mission objectives and the bounty, which was essentially the job of an agent.

If she hadn't brought it up herself, Li Changjiang might even have forgotten that Alyssa was a Cambridge graduate, unlike scum scholars like him who hadn't even passed the college entrance examination.

"Boss, do you really think that woman isn't better-looking than Alyssa? Look at the shape of her chest, absolutely the most exaggerated I've ever seen. God, I can't take it, I'm going to get a nosebleed."

"F*ck, shut your mouth!"

"Damn, she's coming over. She's looking at me, she's waving at me!"

"Hi!"

However, it was obvious that the woman with slightly curled blonde hair, wrapped in barely a few patches of cloth, was not waving at them.

"Hello, Mr. Larson!"

"Hello, Your Grace. I have a package here, can you help me deliver it to this place?"

Li Changjiang did not take the sticky note from the man wrapped in cloth, but shook his head.

"Sorry, Mr. Larson, we are only responsible for your personal safety. Anything else, including mailing packages, is outside our mission scope. I believe you can call a courier instead of having us deliver mail."

The middle-aged man did not get angry; he simply looked Li Changjiang up and down for a moment, then put away what was in his hand.

"Okay. It seems Your Grace is very principled."

"Thank you for the compliment! I just want to ensure your safety."

Li Changjiang was not lying.

This was the first employment mission accepted by the Hunters Mercenary Group. Even without a bounty, Li Changjiang did not want to mess it up, which was crucial for a newly established mercenary group.

Who Larson was didn't matter; what mattered was that their objective was to ensure this American encountered no safety issues during his month in France.

As France's second-largest city and largest port, Marseille had a population of over 1.6 million, making it a very large-scale city by Western standards.

The estate where Li Changjiang and his men were staying was a slightly aged building not far from downtown Marseille, covering an immense area.

Apart from Li Changjiang and the other members of the Hunters, there were security guards brought by Larson himself, though compared to the men of the Hunters, these guys looked much more inexperienced.

Larson certainly understood this, so he did not impose any operational restrictions on Li Changjiang's men, and even arranged for Li Changjiang, along with Keyboard and Killer, to protect him at close range.

This arrangement continued until early August, when Larson's mission finally concluded.

Li Changjiang and all the members of the Hunters were also granted a three-day break during which they could move about freely, but the very first thing Li Changjiang and the Old Russian planned to do was split the money.