Los Angeles, North Hollywood district.
In a rather unremarkable residential area, there's a commercial property building where Gao Guang worked and lived.
Gao Guang now lived in a small room inside the company headquarters, roughly ten square meters, with nothing more than a mattress, a chair, and not even a table. There wasn't even a private bathroom; to use the toilet, he had to go to the communal restroom, and while he could take showers, he had to use the communal showers. Fortunately, aside from Gao Guang, no one else took baths at the company, so his living conditions were still manageable.
Yet to fully adjust to the time difference, Gao Guang woke up a bit early. He got up at four in the morning and, finding it utterly dull to stay in his room, began to wander around the company.
The wall of the reception area, which also served as the lobby, had a golden crown emblem, and beneath it, there was a line of text.
King's Defense Company.
King's Defense was the name of the company, and below it, in smaller letters, was a slogan.
"Treat our clients like royalty."
The logo was quite eye-catching, and the slogan quite loud, but the office conditions and facilities of the company were quite average. There were only seven or eight rooms in total, amounting to about three hundred square meters, and office furniture was chosen for simplicity and practicality. All things considered, King's Defense didn't appear to be a very wealthy company.
Considering that Captain and his team could earn a mere one hundred and fifty or two hundred thousand US dollars for rescuing a hostage, their earning capacity didn't seem strong compared to what's described in novels.
However, Gao Guang also knew that the hundreds of millions of dollars mentioned in novels were exaggerated, so one hundred thousand dollars was still an astronomical figure to him. The income level of Captain and his team was still a goal that he aspired to achieve.
Walking through the lobby and turning on the lights in the corridor, after passing two offices and a monitoring room, Gao Guang arrived at the gym.
Calling it a gym was a bit of a stretch, with only a treadmill, several sets of dumbbells, a barbell, and a punching bag. Beyond that, there was nothing else, which made the space of the gym appear quite large.
Gao Guang was looking for the gym. After clearing some space in the middle of the room, he began with stretching and high kicks as a warm-up, followed by a set of martial arts routines with a crisp snap.
Although he wasn't trained professionally in martial arts, he had practiced since he was young. Gao Guang's movements were characterized by their elegance. When he practiced his routines, there was only one word to describe it: cool!
Thirty minutes of martial arts practice every morning had been Gao Guang's routine for over a decade. It was a shame that he had no martial arts swords or staffs, so he could only practice his punching techniques.
After finishing his routine, he took a shower, feeling refreshed, and returned to his small room to start browsing his smartphone. Thus began another beautiful day.
Next to his pillow were two smartphones, one was a Redmi Note 4 that Gao Guang had been using for two years. It was normal for Sanchez not to recognize the brand, while the other smartphone was the one Frank had given to Gao Guang.
That was a Samsung S8, which, although a 2017 model, still looked very new, but Frank had casually gifted it to Gao Guang.
Gao Guang felt that Captain must have wanted to reassure him, after all, the phone held his leverage. But now that the video was deleted, and Captain had said the phone was his, maybe he should start using this phone from now on.
To say he wasn't tempted would be a lie, but just as he was about to start using this smartphone, Gao Guang always felt a bit uneasy about it.
Perhaps for Captain and the others, killing a kidnapper or drug trafficker was no big deal, but for Gao Guang, it was not just a serious matter, it was also a thorn in his side.
If he started using this smartphone and it got lost or stolen, what if someone were to recover the video from inside? That would be disastrous.
So no matter how nice the phone was, Gao Guang simply felt he couldn't use it.
In the end, picking up his own phone with a cracked screen, Gao Guang hadn't been playing for even an hour when he heard someone seem to come in.
Putting away his phone, Gao Guang went outside, and then he saw Frank.
It wasn't even seven o'clock yet; Frank was early, and given that he was the boss, Gao Guang greeted him respectfully, "Good morning, Mr. Moray."
"Good morning, you're up early. Didn't you sleep well last night?"
"I slept very well, I'm just used to waking up early."
Frank nodded and smiled, "Come to my office for a moment."
Gao Guang followed Frank into the general manager's office, where Frank placed a briefcase on the desk and sat down behind it. After gesturing for Gao Guang to sit down, he spoke very directly, "You can't stay in the company forever, but you can wait until you find a suitable place before moving out. Let's have you start today. Have John familiarize you with the work content and processes. That's all. Do you have anything you want to say?"
Gao Guang hesitated for a moment, appearing somewhat reluctant.
Frank said at ease, "Is there something difficult to say? Look, Gao, we've just met not long ago, and the place we met was quite special, so we're not very familiar with each other yet, but that's okay. If there's something you haven't been able to discuss before, or if there's something difficult you're dealing with, you can tell me now. The worst outcome would be that it's not convenient for you to stay and work here, but if you hide something, that would be... not so good."
Gao Guang let out a sigh and then took out the Samsung phone from his pocket, speaking softly, "Mr. Moray, is this phone really given to me?"
Frank was taken aback, then he laughed and said, "Of course, I said that the phone is yours."
Gao Guang cautiously asked, "I just want to confirm, so I can do whatever I want with this phone, right?"
"Hmm, of course. Just out of curiosity, how do you plan to deal with it?"
"I want to smash it to pieces and then burn it..."
Frank was startled for a moment and then said, "Uh, that phone cost me over eight hundred US dollars, and I've used it for less than a month. Couldn't you just delete that video?"
"It can be recovered after deletion. I'm not sure how to ensure it can't be restored, so I think physically crushing it would be better..."
Gao Guang said this somewhat awkwardly, feeling that his actions displayed distrust, but Frank nodded and said, "Makes sense. Then smash it. I told you, the phone's yours, you decide how to handle it."
Gao Guang smiled sheepishly, "Do you have anything else? If not, I won't disturb you further."
"I'm good. How are you planning to destroy the phone?"
"There are dumbbells in the gym, I was thinking..."
"Let's go. I've never done something like smashing a phone. I'll come with you."
Gao Guang was a bit stunned but still went to the gym, grabbed a dumbbell, and wrapped the phone in the cheapest T-shirt they could find. Then, in the grass behind the company, he smashed the phone to smithereens.
He wrapped the phone in the T-shirt to avoid scattering glass shards everywhere and then threw the shirt with the shattered remains directly into the trash bin. This act seemed to completely rid Gao Guang of a burden.
Frank just watched for a bit before returning to his own office. Without an office of his own and not wanting to wander aimlessly, Gao Guang had no choice but to return to his small room.
Gao Guang still didn't know what his job entailed. He could only wait for John to guide him. Work started at nine, so he had to wait a bit longer.
But before seven-thirty, John arrived, and Rubber and Joey almost immediately followed him to the company.
After the four convened in Frank's office, Rubber, looking exhausted, said, "I found a Type 97 rifle, basically the same as Huaxia's Type 95 rifle. There are AK rifles on the shooting range. With these, we can determine his background. I've booked the range for nine, we can leave now."
Frank waved his hand dismissively, then spoke softly, "The kid destroyed the phone I gave him, utterly. I could see he really didn't want to smash it, but he did anyway."
John responded with surprise, "That doesn't seem like his style. He's very... frugal."
Joey was also taken aback, "Why would he destroy the phone? Oh, I get it, it had the video you recorded."
Frank whispered, "So he is very cautious, very careful. Honestly, not many young people are as careful as he is. I certainly wouldn't have done that at his age."
John frowned, "Being cautious is good; it won't bring trouble to us."
Frank nodded, then said earnestly, "I asked him if there was anything he needed to tell me, but he didn't say anything. So, we must confirm whether he has previous military experience. If he does, then he's hiding something from us. He doesn't trust us. I like smart people, but not someone who is too calculating and hostile towards us."
"What if he truly has never fired a gun before?" John seemed torn, shrugging subconsciously, "What if he really is a shooting prodigy?"
"If he really is a genius, what's there to say? Ambitious but not greedy, brave but not reckless, smart but very cautious, and a shooting prodigy. Why wait to bring such talent on board? You don't seriously think I wanted him just to be a translator, do you?"
After speaking disdainfully to John, Frank gestured with his hand and said, "Let's go. Take him to shoot with a rifle. We'll all go, observe closely, and see if he's hiding something or if he's a true genius."