Chapter 160: A Sudden Burst of Popularity

Old Jiao knocked gently on the door, and the two people inside looked somewhat more spirited upon seeing a visitor.

Long Er had not even managed to cut the apple peel in one continuous strip, but the final result looked quite decent as he held it out toward Old Jiao.

With a gentle expression, Old Jiao accepted the apple and said, "Thank you."

He then turned his gaze to Mofei: "And thank you for all the efforts you put into this incident. The more than eleven hundred people rescued from the ship will gain a new lease on life because of it."

Mofei blushed deeply from the praise, stammering, "They were the ones who did all the work, it has nothing to do with me."

With a crisp snap, Mofei and Old Jiao turned their heads simultaneously.

The fruit knife in Long Er's hand had broken into two pieces.

Placing the broken blade on the bedside table, he said calmly, "The quality is too poor."

Whether the quality of the knife was poor or not was something only the blade and the user could know, but his posture clearly radiated displeasure.

Old Jiao could understand.

A serious matter, when described by this young man, sounded just like committing a heinous crime; anyone would feel annoyed hearing it.

"My main purpose in coming today is to check on you," Old Jiao said, gathering his thoughts. "Your cooperation played a huge role in securing the vessel on the high seas. There will be some necessary procedures to follow, and I hope we can count on your understanding and support."

Mofei nodded repeatedly. "That's only right, of course. It's just that I have other work arrangements coming up..."

"I am aware of that." Old Jiao smiled again, looking as gentle as an elder. "I've watched the movies you've acted in. Your adaptability is very strong, and you stay completely in character."

This wave of praise made Mofei's ears turn red again.

"Mr. Mo's upcoming work assignment is in half a month. We will try our best to complete the work requiring your cooperation before then. Should any follow-up assistance be needed later, we kindly ask for your understanding."

Old Jiao's words were so polite and humble that it was impossible to find a reason to refuse.

Mofei kept nodding without stop. "Easily done, easily done."

"That's good." Old Jiao glanced at Long Er. "You haven't processed your immigration formalities since returning from the sea yet. It's best to go to the Exit-Entry Administration Bureau to update them in the next few days. Just make sure to bring all your documents."

Long Er's expression remained unchanged as he gave a slight nod to indicate he understood.

"Then I won't disturb you any longer. I'll come check on you again in a few days. Get some rest."

With that, Old Jiao picked up the apple and left. Mofei even noticed him take a bite out of it as he walked out the door, leaving them with zero pressure.

"This guy is actually pretty nice, isn't he?" Mofei had a very favorable impression of Old Jiao.

Long Er resumed peeling another apple. "Nice? He was able to mention that you have work in half a month right off the bat, which means they've already investigated you. They only put on a nice attitude after confirming everything was fine."

He was extremely sensitive to changes in people's emotions. Old Jiao had shown no issues when looking at Mofei, maintaining a calm expression and an approachable aura.

However, when looking at Long Er, a bit of vigilance and scrutiny had crept in.

Mofei was not the only one under investigation; the Long siblings and the three novice mercenaries were certainly included as well.

Right now, their files were probably sitting right on someone's desk.

If not for the fact that they had helped out with the operation this time, would Old Jiao have given them such pleasant expressions?

The country has never been welcoming to mercenaries.

"Well, I really *don't* have any problems anyway." A sudden thought struck Mofei, and he bolted straight up from the bed. "Oh crap! My phone! Sister Lü!"

His phone had fallen out during the bombardment, and subsequent events had unfolded in rapid succession. Lacking any internet addiction, he hadn't even realized it.

Lü Chunqiu must be worried sick by now since he hadn't checked in with her for so long!

Long Er realized the issue as well and handed over his own phone. "Use mine for now."

Mofei opened the dialing interface, pressed the number 1, and then froze, hesitating for a long time before proceeding further.

After a moment of bewildered realization, Long Er said, "You haven't memorized her number."

Mofei offered an embarrassed, apologetic smile.

He barely used a phone normally, so how could he possibly memorize someone else's number?

He hadn't even memorized his own number.

"I'll do it." Long Er took back the phone and called Director Wang.

He didn't save anyone's number on his phone, and he deleted call logs immediately after finishing a call.

His contact list relied purely on memory.

While that was secure, Mofei always felt that if Long Er ever lost his phone one day, anyone wanting to return it probably wouldn't even be able to figure out how.

The call to Director Wang not only secured Lü Chunqiu's contact information, but also served to report that they were safe and sound.

Upon receiving the call, Director Wang, amidst his busy schedule, still took the time to ask how his actors' experience had been and whether they were okay.

Long Er pondered for a moment. Explaining the whole story would take too long, and having already told it once, he didn't really feel like repeating it. So he kept it short and sweet: "Extremely smooth."

Though those events seemed bizarrely supernatural in Long Er's eyes, they had also unfolded with bizarre smoothness.

Under normal circumstances, two people sneaking onto a medical ship wouldn't have met a good end, but as luck would have it, they coincidentally ran into the three rookies sent to protect Mofei, right while Myanmar was engulfed in fighting and unable to spare attention for them.

Even as someone who didn't believe in fate, Long Er had to admit that he truly had no idea whether Mofei was bizarrely unlucky or bizarrely lucky.

Anyway, the end result was good, and that was all that mattered.

Director Wang was thrilled to hear Long Er's response.

He had said all along that having elite protection meant there wouldn't be any problems.

Everything was smooth sailing with Director Wang, but when Mofei dialed Lü Chunqiu's number, he was, entirely as expected, chewed out thoroughly.

The moment he revealed his identity, the howling from the other end of the line forced him to pull the phone far away from his ear.

He hadn't turned on speakerphone, yet it sounded even louder than one.

Although Lü Chunqiu was anxious, she quickly calmed down. After asking for their current location, she didn't even have time to wonder why they had suddenly jumped from Yuncheng to Jiangcheng thousands of miles away; her mind was entirely set on rushing over to rendezvous with Mofei.

This guy simply could not be let out of sight; he was the type to vanish the moment you let go.

After the call ended, Mofei stared blankly at the hospital bed. "Why do I feel like once she gets here and sees this scene, things are going to be even worse for me?"

You reap what you sow.

Long Er handed over another apple. "Eat more."

Get better soon so you can take a beating.

Deflated, Mofei nibbled on the apple while playing with Long Er's phone to escape reality.

The hospital signal was poor, and only Long Er's phone allowed for seamless internet browsing.

He searched for Director Wang's battle-royale film.

Online reception was quite good, performing better than Director Wang's previous works. Most discussions still focused on the male lead, Wu Miao, though a scattered few comments mentioned that the psychotic fifth male lead didn't look like he was acting and suggested a thorough investigation.

The funniest part was that an official police social media account had chimed in below, replying with a meme made from a photo of several police officers surrounding Mofei during a bomb disposal operation. Bold characters spanned across it—*Warm-hearted Citizen Mr. Mo*—accompanied by the caption: *Mr. Mo, cooperating with the police, is also very handsome.*

A long chain of "hahaha" followed in the replies.

This response contrasted so sharply with Mofei's persona in the movie that it instantly became a viral meme, even spawning a trending topic: *Warm-hearted Citizen Pierces Your Heart*.

In this context, "pierces your heart" was not an adjective, but a verb.