Mercenary's War

Gao Yang peeked outside from the door, holding a gun in his right hand and a phone in his left, dialing Number Thirteen.

After it connected, Gao Yang whispered, "We’ve hit a bit of trouble."

"Let’s hear how bad it is."

Number Thirteen always had that calm tone. Gao Yang took a breath and whispered, "We’re surrounded. We don’t know how big the encirclement is, we don’t know how many people are out there looking for us. Basically, if we move just a few steps, we’ll run into the enemy, and then there’ll be gunfire. I can’t keep killing everyone I see like this, but it feels like we’re in a fog. We’re seriously lacking intelligence, so, I need your help."

"Understood. Tell me your location. We’ve been heading in your direction; we might be very close now."

Gao Yang turned to Justin and whispered, "Hey, buddy, ask what place this is, specifically."

Justin took off his old shoes, took a pair of mid-rise shoes out from a paper bag and started putting them on. After hearing Gao Yang’s words, he turned to the lady of the house and said, "Where is this, exact address, our colleague needs to get here quickly."

After getting an address and telling it to Gao Yang, Justin put on the second shoe, bent down to tie the laces, then stood up, took a few steps, and exclaimed with delight, "Hey, check out my new shoes! They’re really comfortable, perfect. This time I can run without worrying about these damned shoes falling off my feet. I’m telling you, wearing cheap leather shoes is a real pain."

Gao Yang looked at Justin’s new shoes, then frowned and said, "Someone I deeply respect, who’s influenced me greatly, once told me something, or rather gave me advice."

Gao Yang picked up a cup, filled it with water, gulped it down, and said with a puzzled look, "I used to firmly believe in this saying, but ever since Rafael started hanging out with me, I’ve realized Italians might not be so bad."

Justin frowned and said, "Italians? You mean Rafael? No, no, no, Rafael is Sicilian. Sicilians are different from Italians."

Gao Yang put down the cup, snapped his fingers, and said admiringly, "Exactly, Sicilians really are different from Italians. F**k, I truly should have listened to Fedor’s advice. It’s precious experience they’ve earned with blood, and I treated it like trash."

Justin scratched his head and asked, "What do you mean? What saying?"

Gao Yang exhaled and said, "If your enemy is an Arab, you’ve already won. If your comrade is Italian, you’ve already lost."

Justin was very dissatisfied and said, "Hey, you’re badmouthing Italians right in front of an Italian."

Gao Yang placed the gun on the table, spread his hands, and said, "Rabbit asked a question then; he said what if your comrade is Italian, and you’re fighting Arabs, what then? The elder I deeply respected said, you’ll find out that even after wiping out all the enemies, you’ll ultimately lose the war."

Justin immediately said, "Nonsense, ****, this is absolutely meaningless nonsense."

Gao Yang pointed at Justin and said, "Damn, look at you. I’m busy trying to kill the enemies, and you’re busy picking yourself a pair of fitting new shoes."

Justin pushed his hand and said seriously, "Buddy, imagine you’re running for your life with ill-fitting shoes, wouldn’t you want to switch to a comfortable pair before escaping? This is life or death; a good pair of shoes at least lets you run faster."

After speaking, Justin waved his hand and said, "As long as you’re alive, you’ve got to enjoy life. Life is short; you can’t waste your own life. And because life is short, you must treat yourself well. No one can take pizza and bread from an Italian’s table, and no one can take a comfortable handmade pair of leather shoes from an Italian’s feet. Buddy, you’re too stressed, you shouldn’t stress like this. Look at us now, isn’t the situation quite okay?" 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Gao Yang sighed helplessly and said, "You really carry that unique Italian optimism."

Justin pointed at himself and said, "You say you can’t have Italians as comrades. So what’s this now? We’ve been cooperating for a long time, haven’t we always succeeded?"

Gao Yang immediately gestured for a stop and said, "No, we’re not comrades, never have been. You’re an intelligence dealer; I’m a mercenary. We’re not the same kind of people; we just have business dealings, not comradeship. As for now, now you’re a burden whose life I’m racking my brains to protect, understand? Comrade, it’s easy to understand from the word itself; you must be able to fight alongside me to be called a comrade. But clearly, you can’t fight alongside me, so we can drop the ’war’ part and just keep ’friend.’"

After speaking, Gao Yang again motioned for Justin to stop talking and said, "Don’t say you’re a comrade anymore, it’s unlucky."

Justin shrugged casually and said, "Suit yourself then, buddy. Would you like a glass of wine? I think you need to relax; you’re too tense."

Gao Yang opened his mouth, wanting to say something but not knowing what to say. Reflecting on the Italian character and Justin’s actions, he realized his recent words were purely out of boredom.

Seeing Gao Yang with a dazed face, Justin pouted and said, "As we say, you can only sleep better at night if you rest well during the day. Anyway, nobody’s coming to kill us right now, is being tense useful? If lots of people come and you can’t handle it, is being tense useful? So take it easy; you should rest during this precious pause."

"Rest well during the day to sleep better at night, F**k, that really makes sense, I’m at a loss for words."

Gao Yang sat down, exhaled, and said, "We have to wait for Number Thirteen to come to pick us up. Just the two of us can’t break through, especially because we must bring you with us. Forget it, pretend I didn’t say anything, pour me a glass of wine."

Justin first sought the lady of the house’s approval before taking a half bottle of wine, holding two glasses in one hand and wine in the other. He poured for Gao Yang and pushed the glass in front of him, raising his own glass and smiling at Gao Yang, "Cheers."

Gao Yang picked up the wine and took a sip. Only then did Justin shake his glass, smiling and saying, "We don’t have time to wait for Number Thirteen to come. But as long as it’s not about me grabbing a gun and shooting at others, you’ll find I’m quite capable. I have a plan to get us out of here. Want to hear it?"