Chapter 1: The Hidden Dragon of Zhonghai

Henry Carter was driving his Jetta, which he had picked up from a second-hand market, crawling unhurriedly through the traffic.

Late again?

Of course. It was already past nine when he got up...

But he didn’t care, because in the month since he started this job, he had basically never been on time.

Henry Carter reached over to the passenger seat, grabbed a bag of buns, tossed one into his mouth, savoring the delicious taste. Henry Carter squinted his eyes slightly, looking very content.

“Ding ding ding...”

The monotonous ringtone sounded. Henry Carter lazily picked up his phone, glanced at the number with no name attached, and a hint of a smile appeared in his eyes.

“Leonard, how come you have time to call me? Aren’t you guys on a mission in South Africa?”

“Boss, just missing you.” A cheeky voice came from the phone, and just from the sound, you could guess the guy on the other end had a roguish grin on his face: “It’s just a small mission, and there’s still some time before we head out. I’m bored to death... Boss, what are you up to?”

“On my way to work.” Henry Carter laughed heartily, but his expression suddenly turned unusually serious, and a sharp, blade-like glint flashed in his half-squinted eyes: “Don’t get careless just because the mission is simple. Any carelessness could cost you your life...”

In an instant, the previously lazy Henry Carter seemed to transform into an unsheathed sword, radiating sharpness, his whole being exuding a terrifying aura that made one’s heart race.

“Don’t worry, Boss, we know what we’re doing. We’ve never dared forget your teachings.”

Hearing Leonard call him by that familiar title, Henry Carter’s expression became momentarily dazed: “I’m not your Boss anymore...”

“Heh, even though you’ve left Hidden Dragon, Boss, in our hearts, you’ll always be our Boss. It’s just a pity we can’t fight alongside you anymore—it feels so wrong...”

Henry Carter fell silent, lost in his memories.

“Boss, I heard you got married. When can we meet our sister-in-law? She must be beautiful and virtuous, right?”

Sister-in-law?

A bitter smile appeared on Henry Carter’s face. Suddenly, the image of his wife Evelyn Clark’s cold face at their first meeting flashed through his mind, along with those eyes full of indifference and disdain. She was standing right in front of him, yet it felt like there was a distance of a thousand miles between them.

“Sure, whenever you guys have time to come to Zhonghai, you can meet her. She really is beautiful—quite famous in all of Zhonghai.” Henry Carter shook his head, pushing the image of his wife Evelyn Clark out of his mind, and laughed heartily.

“Woohoo!” Leonard cheered on the other end: “Boss, you said it, so you can’t go back on your word!”

Henry Carter laughed: “When have I ever gone back on my word?”

Leonard chuckled: “Good, when we get back, we’ll all head to Zhonghai together... Boss, are you getting used to your current life?”

There was a noticeable pause in Leonard’s last sentence, full of caution and even a bit of hesitation, as if he was unsure whether he should ask.

Henry Carter answered cheerfully: “Of course I’m used to it. If we could adapt to harsh environments like deserts and rainforests, how could I not get used to this peaceful nine-to-five life?”

It sounded like Leonard let out a long sigh of relief: “Heh, then we’re relieved. Alright, I’ll hang up now, gotta get ready for the mission.”

“Okay, be careful!” Henry Carter instinctively reminded him, then couldn’t help but laugh at himself. Every one of Leonard and the others had followed him through storms of bullets and mountains of corpses—did they really need his reminders? Besides, he was no longer the Boss of Hidden Dragon...

After hanging up, the smile on Henry Carter’s face slowly faded, and with it, the terrifying, beast-like aura disappeared, replaced by a wry smile.

Since childhood, he had been thrown by his grandfather into a special forces training camp, then selected for the most powerful organization in China, the mysterious Hidden Dragon directly under the top military leader. From his teens, he had been on all kinds of dangerous missions. After more than a decade of gunfire and bloodshed, fighting had become a way of life. Now, suddenly living a peaceful life—how could he really get used to it?

What he said just now was only to keep them from worrying.

The reason he came to Zhonghai was because his grandfather had found him a wife—the granddaughter of Mr. Carter’s close friend, now the famous young CEO of Jasmine Fragrance Company in Zhonghai, Evelyn Clark.