Chapter 540: Brother Yang

"Brother Yang!"

"I missed you to death!"

Tu Hongwei jogged over and gave Lu Yang a big hug.

Xu Ce, Jiang Dahai and the others also wore excited faces; they couldn't hide their joy.

Lu Yang laughed, patting them: "Long time no see, you all look much sturdier; seems Jiao Long's meals really nourish people."

"The food nourishes us, and the training load is huge; after you left, we haven't had a decent day all day."

"Hahaha, I can't be blamed for that; that place was never meant for ordinary people."

"Yeah, I even regret joining the selection and entering Special Operations."

"It's fine, Special Operations can't keep you; come to me, I'm comfortable here."

When Lu Yang began to dig at the wall's foot, Lao Mao's eyes bulged.

"You think I'm no longer any good? I'm still here!"

"What are you doing here, who pays attention to you?"

"Hahahahaha......"

Lu Yang and Lao Mao are of the same rank and almost became colleagues, so he simply ignored him.

Xu Ce and the others who train behind Lao Mao rarely get to see Lao Mao embarrassed; now they're all laughing hysterically.

Lao Mao also knew he couldn't control Lu Yang, so he just pursed his lips and walked away: "Remember, you owe me a pack of cigarettes!"

Lu Yang was driven away by Lao Mao's anger, and Xu Ce and the others chatted even more freely.

"Brother Yang, how have you been lately? After returning to the grassroots unit, are you having a blast?"

"I heard last month you defused an aerial bomb, even the Explosive Ordnance Disposal squad wouldn't touch it; when did you learn that skill, teach us tomorrow?"

"Those were your comrades? Must've been your first real combat, looking not bad; none of them wet their pants, much better than us back then."

"Your flattery, can you stop being so forced? Back then, none of us wet our pants, except Xu Ce, who got so scared on the boat his legs went weak."

"Hahahaha......"

Lu Yang's side, laughter kept going.

Seeing how intimately Lu Yang got along with these Jiao Long Special Operations members, each calling him "Brother Yang" one after another, the Raptor Team members were completely stunned.

A few of them kept glancing at each other, their faces showing only shock and a mountain of question marks.

"What's going on, how did the instructor get involved with the Special Forces?"

"Incredible, Brother Yang's connections are literally god‑level!"

"I originally thought that just getting connections to the Military Police was already the limit; I didn't expect that was only the limit of my imagination—people in a place like Jiao Long also have connections!"

Kang Changyi looked at the pack of cigarettes in his hand, swallowed hard and said: "How good do your connections have to be to get a whole pack of cigarettes handed to you at once? If it's someone I'm not familiar with, even a single cigarette they'd hand me, I'd have to light it myself."

Ding Tengfei pulled one out, lit it with a lighter: "Getting a cigarette is nothing; didn't you see Brother Yang even got the lighter handed to him? A lighter is far more valuable than a cigarette—that's the difference."

Ding Tengfei took a deep drag and exhaled.

He felt the tension in his body and the huge mental pressure ease a bit.

Others also gradually lit up; Chen Panpan didn't smoke and started coughing from the irritation.

Ding Tengfei taught him: take a puff, hold it in the mouth, then exhale, but not into the lungs.

In fact, Lu Yang's intention was to use smoking to divert everyone's attention.

The bitterness of nicotine itself has a certain nerve‑numbing effect, helping people relieve massive mental stress.

"My hand is shaking, what's going on?"

When Ding Tengfei pinched the cigarette with his fingers, he found his fingers trembling uncontrollably like Parkinson's.

He quickly grabbed it with his other hand, which slightly eased the symptom.

"Me too."

Zhou Kaidong tried as much as possible to use willpower to counter his inner fear.

Now recalling the scene just now in the woods, he still finds it crazy.

"Just now, I teamed up with Guo Yongwen and almost actually strangled an enemy to death."

"He was behind, gripping the guy's arms tightly, the poor fellow couldn't breathe, his legs flailed, his arms waved wildly."

"I pinned his legs, both hands clamped his throat; watching his face change from red to purple, then to white, his eyes gradually filling with blood."

Lines of white smoke rose upward; the others seemed frozen, cigarettes in hand but no desire to smoke, just watching Zhou Kaidong recount the earlier events.

Zhou Kaidong closed his eyes and exhaled a big cloud: "The first time I realized that when a person is on the brink of death, they struggle that fiercely."

Guo Yongwen added: "Life force is also extremely tenacious; we thought we had killed him by choking, at least we had knocked him out; but when we let go, the guy suddenly revived as if from a corpse."

"Thinking of that scene now, my heart still races a bit—so damn scary, I don't know if it's a lingering afterimage."

Chen Panpan pressed: "Then how did you deal with him afterwards?"

Zhou Kaidong gave a wry smile: "Lu Yang's finishing slash, right at that spot, drove in; blood spurted from the chest cavity, splashing onto both our faces, warm and hot… just like slaughtering a pig."

"The other, while he was urinating, was ambushed from behind, a knife forced into his throat while he covered his mouth; not a single sound could escape, and that was his death."

Zhou Kaidong's tone was very calm, yet everyone felt a chill down their spines and their scalp tighten.

Although most people here knew that Lu Yang had previously killed several bandits in the mountains, they didn't know the specifics.

But this time was different; all of them took part in the fight, saw the enemy corpses with their own eyes, and witnessed Lu Yang's decisive, lethal strike.

While everyone was still haunted by psychological shadows, Lu Yang could chat and laugh with others, completely unaffected—that's the difference.

"What are you talking about, so immersed?"

Lu Yang led Xu Ce and the others up.

"Let me introduce you: these three are the elite of Jiao Long."

"Ah, we don't dare claim to be elite, we don't dare; in front of you, we're just a bunch of elementary school kids."

He's still especially humble, elite.

Lu Yang says: "Over there looking for me, I have something to do; you can sit down, get to know each other, exchange and share combat experience."

After saying that, he waved to his Bai Yuan at the mountaintop and walked over there.

After Lu Yang left, Ding Tengfei and the others looked at each other, obviously somewhat restrained and unable to relax.

On the contrary, Xu Ce and his two companions gave a generous salute and introduced themselves.

Xu Ce, graduate of the Army Command Academy's Optoelectronic Information specialty, is now an assault team member of the Jiaolong Special Operations.

Tu Hongwei, graduate of the Naval Engineering University, comes from a certain sharp‑knife reconnaissance battalion of the 1st Brigade, and is currently a sniper.

I'm Jiang Dahai, formerly from the elite Army unit of the Southern Theater Command, the 702nd Mechanized Infantry Regiment; I once won first place in two consecutive army‑wide martial arts shooting competitions, but now I'm an observer.

In any grassroots unit, the three of their resumes are as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.

Indeed, in a place like the Jiaolong, only the elite of the elite, the top of the top, have a chance to get in.

Their self‑introductions seem to be deliberately raising the bar, but in reality, in the Jiaolong they are just average—there are plenty better than them.

Yet they didn't realize that, unintentionally, they added considerable pressure to the grassroots troops, leaving the Raptor Team members unable to open their mouths, really not knowing where to start introducing themselves.

The vast majority of them never attended a military academy, nor won such high placements in the army‑wide martial arts competitions; their resumes are really something they can't show off.

Seeing that others were embarrassed to speak, Kang Changyi glanced left and right, then immediately puffed out his chest with pride.

He seemed to think he was a cut above, that only someone like him could strike up a conversation with those top‑notch experts.

But just as he was about to speak and introduce himself as a graduate of the National University of Defense Technology's Light Infantry Command specialty, someone beat him to it.

I'm Zhou Kaidong...... the old squad leader who brought Lu Yang all the way from the New Recruit Company.

So it's Squad Leader Zhou—my apologies, I've long heard of your great name!

The three of them smiled and reached out their hands, warmly shaking Zhou Kaidong's hand.

Guo Yongwen immediately got to the point and said: "Guo Yongwen, I was Lu Yang's company commander in the training detachment; I taught him his marksmanship."

Tu Hongwei hastily pulled out a cigarette from his pocket, his smile very earnest: "So Brother Yang's marksmanship was taught by you—come, have a smoke, it's not anything special, don't complain."

Ding Tengfei followed suit: "I'm from the same hometown as Lu Yang!"

And then?

Um...... that watch of his was a gift from me.

Good eye, good eye—that watch really is beautiful; he treasures it to death! As the saying goes, when fellow townsfolk meet, tears well up—your relationship with Brother Yang must be very good!

Of course, we're friends who've been through life and death together!

What a coincidence, we're the same too—hahahaha...

Kang Changyi stood aside like an invisible person, nobody paying him any attention, and he simply couldn't find a chance to jump in and introduce himself.