Setting Off

"Lin Zhou do you have all the information recorded down?" Ling Xiao asked as he and Zhou headed to the team hall to meet with the other members. The briefing had taken two and a half hours in the end, an hour longer than Ling Xiao had anticipated.

"Yes I do, all we need to do is arrange with the others and we can immediately set off" he replied

"Good" Ling Xiao responded before going silent.

Lin zhou on the other hand kept shooting glances at Ling Xiao wanting to say something but kept swallowing the words once they reached his tongue.

After a minute of just going back and forth, Ling Xiao finally opened his mouth. "Just say what you want to say or I'll start thinking you have a crush on me with all those glances you keep giving me."

"What, cough cough the hell, don't say stuff like that you're giving goosebumps!" Lin Zhou cringed, his skin crawling just at the thought of it.

"Haha", Ling Xiao lightly chuckled "So what do you wanna ask? Just spit it out already"

"Did something happen between you and Major Han? You usually ignore him whenever he acts smart."

"Nothing happened, I just felt that that punk needed to be put back in his place lest he forgot he got here through connections and start thinking he was in charge. If his leash ain't tightened who knows what sort of trouble he might cause?" Ling Xiao responded.

"Oh, I see," Lin Zhou said dropping the topic, even though Ling Xiao had said all that, Lin Zhou could tell that there was something left unsaid just based on their relationship over the years, but since Ling Xiao didn't want to speak about it, he wouldn't force it.

After walking down the stairs and making a few turns the two finally arrived outside the team hall. Even from outside the two could already hear the ruckus going on inside. One could just imagine how noisy it was on the inside.

Luckily the team hall was kind of secluded for secret security so Ling Xiao didn't have to worry about someone laying down a complaint, but that of course didn't mean he wasn't going to complain himself.

With just a glimpse of Ling Xiao's quickly darkening face, Lin Zhou knew that those guys were in for it. To reduce their punishment by a bit he quickly moved forward to open the door so that those brats would quickly stop their nonsense if they saw them at the door, and just as he expected, with the sound of the door opening everything went silent. The music was cut off, the tv turned off and the only thing they could see once the door was fully opened were three soldiers all sitting up straight facing a black tv screen.

The moment Ling Xiao and Lin Zhou were visible to the three, they immediately stood up to give a salute from where they sat.

"Captain!" Three voices shouted in unison.

"mhm," Ling Xiao hummed after shooting them a look. Ling Xiao didn't wanna bother exposing them and their poor acting so he just walked in and headed to the table while Lin Zhou moved towards the podium.

The other three quickly sat down immediately after Ling Xiao had sat, their backs as straight as pine trees.

The black butterfly team consisted of five members.

The captain-Ling Xiao

Vice-captain and tech specialist Lin Zhou (Hawk)

Weapons and bomb specialist Su Chen (Blue Beaver)

Mechanic-Xiao Yuchen (Black Bear)

Terrain and map specialist Qin Yu (White Eagle)

To be admitted into this team, not only did your strength and personal skills need to be top-notch, but they also needed to be top-notch at a special skill. Even though these three tended to be quite childish and brash, no one in the military could deny their achievements. Everyone on this team was at the top of their game. It was because of their all-roundedness that their team's success rate was always so high.

"Oh, why do you look so stiff? Do you think we're going to eat you?" Lin Zhou asked as he plugged his tablet into the monitor.

"No, but the captain looks like he wants to eat us." Xiao Yuchen mumbled under his breath

Su Chen sitting next to him quickly stomped on his foot when he heard him.

"Oy! Why did you stomp on my foot?!" Xiao Yuchen shouted as his hands grabbed his leg under the table.

"Shut up you idiot!" Su Chen snarled. 'It was good enough that Captain hadn't said anything about all the noise but this brat didn't seem satisfied. If one didn't stop him, he would probably keep talking till they all got a punishment.'

"Weh who are you calling an idiot?!"

"The person who responded" Su Chen shot back, having become irritated now.

"Why you little...."

"Stop your nonsense." Ling Xiao said causing the two to immediately quiet down and sit up straight.

"Heh" Qin Yu snickered

"So Captain how was the move, did everything go well?" Qin Yu trying to rear the conversation elsewhere.

"Yes, fortunately, nothing went wrong. Everything went well." Ling Xiao responded

"How's the family? Haven't seen them since the wedding. Qin Yu continued.

"They are fine" He responded.

"Still can't believe the captain's married though?" Xiao Yuchen said softly."

"Yeah, I know right I always thought the captain was going to remain single his whole life." Su Chen whispered back.

"Eish, with that stone for a face I wonder how my sister-in-law ended up falling for him. I can just imagine the conversations, how can she handle him being so quiet all the time? So dreadful."

With every word coming from Xiao Yuchens mouth, Qin Yu's face darken just the slightest. Did these bastards not realise how loud their whispers were in this quiet room? They could hear every word he said. Taking a glance at Ling Xiao's blackened face, he completely gave up trying to save those two ungrateful bastards.

"Are the two of you done?" Ling Xiao's voice rang out.

Xiao Yuchen immediately closed his mouth while Lin Zhou softly laughed under his breath.

"Come on let's focus back on the mission." He quickly interjected, his equipment now ready.

"Have all the bags and equipment been packed already, according to the list I gave you?" Lin Zhou asked

"Yeah, we've already done that. Everything's in the car already." Su Chen responded.

"Okay so let's take a look at the plan." Lin Zhou said turning towards the screen.

"Our mission this time is to rescue a scientist by the name of Li Jiaren, mostly referred to as Professor Li. He is one of the country's most renowned scientists as well as the youngest, as he is only 30 years old. A genius you could say."

"While on a research trip into the mountains he was kidnapped by a team of Country M. After a week of searching, the guys in intelligence were finally able to locate him in a border city that sits between M Country and our country. What we need to do is to grab him back from the team that has him and safely deliver him back to the headquarters and we've got a week's deadline." Lin Zhou finished.

"So it's just a rescue mission that's going to be easy." Xiao Yuchen laughed.

"Don't be relaxed there might be some unexpected issues or ambushes. Don't let your guard down we cannot afford to have any mistakes. Silly mistakes especially" Ling Xiao shot Xiao Yuchen a sharp look as he said that.

"Haha okay I got it," he answered with nervous laughter. Even he could tell, that if he didn't start watching his mouth he'll probably get himself in trouble.

"Good so let's take a look at the map of the area and discuss a few things then we need to get going. We should be out of here by midnight latest." Ling Xiao said

"Yes," the other four said

Lin Zhou immediately began explaining to them all the details of the mission, and Qin Yu soon took over to talk about the route and terrain details. After about an hour the team had everything down and was ready to leave. Seeing as the self-service cafeteria was open, Ling xiao allowed them to go and get some food for the road before they set off.

At 11:30 the team gathered by the cars and began driving out. While on the intended route towards the aerodrome Ling Xiao suddenly told Qin Yu who was driving to turn the car around and head towards Blue Moon Hotel. The team was already confused when Ling Xiao suggested they do not use the planes of the base but head to a private aerodrome yet now he was telling them to turn around again.

Baffled, Qin Yu still followed the order and turned the car around. The other three also looked at each other confused but didn't say anything in the end. Anyway, the captain never made bad decisions or any choices that negatively impacted the missions so since there was nothing more they decided to keep quiet and just trust him.

It didn't really matter to them even if they wasted time since the deadline was not that short and it wouldn't take them forever to rescue the man. Some even thought that Ling Xiao might have been tired since he had just flown into the city, dealt with moving and then had to come straight to work. He probably hadn't yet had time to rest so they figured that was the issue. No one will say no to extra sleep anyway.

Once at the hotel, Ling Xiao asked Lin zhou to go and book a room while the rest of them waited for him in the car.

" Captain what type of room do you want?" Lin Zhou

"Anyone will do, we won't be staying for long anyway. Right, try to get two rooms. It doesn't matter if they're on two different floors. One should have space for all five of us and your PCs." Ling Xiao said after a little thought.

"Yes." He answered before he headed in.

10 minutes after he left Lin Zhou finally came back and the team, under orders took the bags from the car and headed up to the room. Once inside Ling Xiao ordered them to set up their computers and connect to the satellite. He wanted Lin Zhou to do a full sweep of the route they were going to use.

"I want you to make sure that there are no ambushes, traps or issues on the way. " Ling Xiao said.

Ling Xiao wasn't acting paranoid for no reason. In the last life one of the reasons this mission was dragged on for such a long time was that there was an ambush on the way and two of the members, Qin Yu and Lin Zhou, had gotten injured.

He wasn't going to make that mistake this time around. The only reason he didn't mention this while they were still at the base was that he feared that the conference room the team used was bugged. Seeing as he just got back not only did he not have time to clean up the room, but he also didn't want to startle the snake at such a critical time so he left it alone.

"Search for an alternative route out of the city while you are at it."