For most soldiers, getting selected for the Dragon Division is the end goal.
The organization rarely appears in public, operates under layers of secrecy, and carries a reputation that has only grown over the years. Stories about it circulate through military circles constantly, though very few people know how much of those stories are actually true.
Xu Cheng never paid much attention to rumors.
He preferred training, completing assignments, and focusing on the next objective. After years of service, he had every reason to believe he was moving in the right direction. Then a single incident disrupted those plans and left him facing a future that looked nothing like the one he had imagined.
Returning home was supposed to be temporary.
Instead, Xu Cheng finds himself adjusting to a completely different pace of life. Family expectations, old acquaintances, and everyday problems replace military routines that had become second nature to him. The change is frustrating at times, especially for someone who has spent years working toward a goal that suddenly feels much farther away.
Not that Xu Cheng is particularly good at giving up.
Life outside the military proves more troublesome than Xu Cheng expected. Just when he starts getting used to being home, old connections begin resurfacing one after another, some welcome, some not. At the same time, a marriage that existed mostly in name suddenly becomes impossible to ignore. The woman involved is far different from the image most people know, and dealing with her turns out to be every bit as challenging as dealing with the problems already piling up around him.
The more time passes, the harder it becomes to ignore a simple fact.
The world outside military bases is not nearly as peaceful as it looks.
There are organizations that rarely appear in official reports, individuals operating far beyond the reach of ordinary people, and conflicts that most citizens never realize are taking place. Xu Cheng keeps running into them with surprising frequency.
Whether that is good luck or bad luck remains open to debate.
What starts as a period of adjustment gradually turns into something else entirely, pulling him back toward the sort of life he thought he had left behind. The destination may still be uncertain, but Xu Cheng has no intention of spending the rest of his life wondering what might have happened if he had stopped moving forward.
