Chapter 34: The Hero's Notice (Part 2)

  "Brother Gou's eyes widened: 'I want to kill the devils! To avenge my sister!'"

  "So you're saying your sister..." Zhu Yongsheng put down his pen.

  "After being insulted by the Japanese devils, she couldn't bear to live on... " Gou Hao wiped away tears: "She jumped into the river and drowned... She was only fifteen years old... Fifteen years old..."

  Dong Li Mao stood up again, walked to Gou Hao's side, gently patted his shoulder and said: "You are now a soldier of the Special Operations Brigade. In the future, there will be plenty of opportunities for you to avenge your sister by killing devils."

  Gu Hao hugged Dong Limao's thigh and burst into loud sobs, making Dong Limao feel a pang of heartache.

  "Report!" Suddenly, a voice reported at the door.

  Gou Hao suddenly stopped crying and wiped away his tears with his sleeve.

  "Come in!" Dong Li Mao shouted as he turned his head back.

  Seeing a young officer wearing glasses walk in, Dong Li Mao thought that he was sent by the regimental headquarters to deliver some documents.

  "Excuse me... is this the place where Task Force recruits heroes?" Lieutenant Glasses asked, pushing his glasses up with his hand.

  Gu Hao stood up and bowed to Dong Li Mao and Zhu Yong Sheng before turning around and walking out the door.

  "This is it." Dong Li Mao looked up and down at the bespectacled lieutenant, who hadn't even considered coming to sign up because the person in front of him didn't look like someone who could go onto a battlefield and kill enemies: "What's your business?"

  "I have come to enlist in the Special Forces unit." The bespectacled lieutenant stood at attention and replied.

  "You..." Dong Li Mao walked to the lieutenant's side, carefully sizing him up from head to toe, shaking his head and saying: "What we need here are heroes who can go onto the battlefield and kill devils, not some company clerk."

  The lieutenant's face turned red, and he pushed his glasses up again, muttering to himself in a low voice: "No wonder nobody came to sign up..."

  "What did you say?!" Dong Li Mao had heard, he was furious that no one had signed up and finally found a target to vent his anger on. He grabbed the glasses-wearing lieutenant by the collar, his face almost touching the lieutenant's, spitting as he spoke: "Even if not a single person comes to sign up! I won't want someone like you who's such a weakling!" After finishing speaking, he suddenly pushed the glasses-wearing lieutenant with one palm: "Get out of my sight!"

  The young lieutenant was knocked to the ground by Dong Li Mao, but he wasn't afraid. Instead, he loudly retorted: "You can't eliminate the devils just with the bravery of a lone warrior!"

  Dong Li Mao was taken aback, rolled his eyes a few times, and thought: This kid really said it right.

  Zhu Yongsheng stepped forward: "Comrade Commander, let's hear what he has to say first."

  Dong Li Mao stood with his legs apart like interrogating a prisoner: "How long have you been in the army?"

  The lieutenant slowly stood up, pushed his glasses, patted his butt, and then replied: "More than two years."

  "Have you ever been on a battlefield and killed someone?" Dong Li Mao thought this one question was enough to make him give up his intention of joining the special forces.

  "Don't you think you're already on the battlefield, Lieutenant Dong Lianchang?" The lieutenant's mouth curled up into a faint, almost imperceptible sneer.

  Dong Li Mao was taken aback again, thinking: This kid has some guts.

  "Why must you be a soldier?" Dong Li Mao asked again.

  "If I answer that it's for the sake of defending our country and home, would you believe me, Captain Dong?" The bespectacled lieutenant still responded to Commissar Dong's question with a counter-question.

  "So you're saying you came here for yourself?"

  "If Captain Dong's entire family was also killed by the Japanese devils, what would you do?" The lieutenant's eyes, hidden behind his glasses, shone with hatred.

  "Where are you from?" Dong Li Mao thought: Another one seeking revenge.

  Nanjing people.

  Dong Li Mao thought of the Nanjing Massacre in 1937: "Your whole family..." He couldn't bring himself to ask what came next, not wanting his question to touch on someone else's painful scars.

  "That's right. I'm fighting for the family that was killed." The lieutenant's words were low, but they cut like a sharp knife.

  "Please sit down." Dong Li Mao no longer underestimated him and politely asked the bespectacled lieutenant to take a seat: "What's your name?"

  "Liu Xingyu." The lieutenant with glasses sat down and pushed his glasses frame before answering.

  "What are you doing now? Which department do you belong to?" Dong Li Mao also sat back in his chair.

  "I served as a Japanese translator at the Military Intelligence Bureau." Liu Xingyu replied.

  "Oh, a translator." Dong Li Mao nodded and asked after a moment of silence: "Have you thought about it? Once you join the special forces, you may die in battle at any time?"

  "Death! Hmph... When living is more painful than death, who can stop him from dying? Liu Xingyu pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose again and continued: "I have to face those who killed my parents every day, listening to their clamor, but I couldn't avenge my deceased family members. Dong Lianchang, if you were in my position, what would you think?"

  "Lao Zhu, count him in." How could Dong Li Mao refuse someone who was ready to fight the Japanese devils at any time?

  "But he..." Zhu Yongsheng knew what a special agent team was, and he didn't want to join the team as a non-combatant personnel like Liu Xingyu, who would drag down the team in the future.

  "What's the purpose of forming a special task force? Isn't it to kill devils?! This brother has such a great hatred for his family, why don't we give him an opportunity?! You don't need to say anything more, I've decided on him!" Dong Li Mao impatiently interrupted Zhu Yong Sheng's words.

  "Don't worry, Director Dong. I won't hold anyone back. I've learned marksmanship and with just one gun, I can charge in whenever you want me to." Liu Xingyu said excitedly.

  "No, remember this, at any time, there is nothing more precious than human life. Now that you are a member of the Special Forces, as your commander, I have the right to order you to prioritize your own safety above all else at all times. War is not about going out to die, but about living better. From now on, you will continue to work as an interpreter, and the task of charging into battle is not for you to undertake..." Before he could finish speaking, a neat row of footsteps echoed from outside the courtyard, followed by someone shouting loudly:

  "Attention......" The word "attention" was followed by a long, drawn-out tail sound, and then came the voice: "Reporting to Company Commander! Gu Hou leads his brothers here to register!"

  "It's Gu Hao!" Dong Li Mao looked at Zhu Yong Sheng with a puzzled expression and quickly ran to the door.

  Dong Li Mao was stunned, in the courtyard stood four rows of soldiers, each row with thirty people, every one spirited and standing upright, only to hear Gou Hao shout: "Salute!" He and all the people behind him raised their right hands in unison to salute Dong Li Mao.

  "Gao Hao, what's going on..." Dong Li Mao couldn't understand for a moment.

  "Report to Commander! These brothers all volunteered to join the Special Forces!" Gu Hao stood at attention and replied.

  An inferior soldier, with one hundred and twenty people standing behind him. Each of them is higher in rank than him, but everyone seems willing to follow his command.

  "Are you saying that these people have all come to sign up?" Dong Li Mao walked closer to Gou Hao's side, asking in a disbelieving and hushed tone: "How did you mobilize them to sign up?"

  "Hmm... Among them, there are a few who were my apprentices, learning from me for a few days. I was the one who sent them to mobilize their comrades around them... Commander Dong, please rest assured that except for me who has never been on the battlefield, all the others have survived nine deaths and one life from the battlefield. I dare to vouch for each of them, every single one is a brave warrior who can take on ten enemies alone." Gu Hao replied in a low voice.

  Dong Li Mao patted Gou Hao's shoulder, his eyes moistened, facing the 120 people, he wanted to say a few words of encouragement or morale-boosting words, but in the end, he only said: "You are all heroes!" Six words.

  Collect! Xiongqi will not let you down!