Beauty and the Bodyguard

“Alright, I’ll get there at once……”

Lingshan’s heart sank- locating the main perpetrators was something worth celebrating, but…

Not when they were dead!

It only meant that things were much more complicated than they had thought- the two criminals must’ve been wiped out to tie off loose ends.

The case just turned much more complicated, as well. It’d be an absolute challenge for them to find out who the mastermind was.

Lingshan decided to bring some men to the scene, ignoring the pain in her head.

“Yao Yao, what’s wrong?” Yushu asked, evidently noticing the strange behavior Mengyao was displaying.

She’d assumed that Mengyao was behaving herself, being the good girl since Uncle Chu was right there and all, but… That didn’t seem to be the case.

“It’s nothing……”

Mengyao was pissed at Lin Yi for being a pervert, but she couldn’t just tell her best friend that she was jealous of her, could she?

“Oh. I really liked those fried mushrooms yesterday, what about you?” Yushu asked suddenly, nodding her head.

“......” Mengyao was speechless, but Yushu’s randomness cheered her up. “You’re really into food stands aren’t you, Shu…… You’ll be saving a lot of money for your husband some day……”

“Hehe, you’ll be marrying too if I get married you know? I’ll be saving money for you too…...” Yushu grinned playfully.

“Wha… huh?” Mengyao’s face reddened instantly upon realizing what Yushu was talking about. She raised her hand and hit Yushu a little, flushed. “Stop bringing that up, it was when we were little!”

“Heh heh, so what? We pinky promised!” Yushu said, blushing as well. She glanced at Lin Yi a little as she considered the likelihood of Uncle Chu choosing Lin Yi as his son in law.

“Hmph!” Mengyao turned her head away from Yushu, clearly a lot of stuff going on in her mind.

It was a secret between the two of them, a promise they’d made when they were younger. They never told anyone about it, but they did bring it up jokingly every once in a while after growing up.

It was six or seven years ago, when they were watching a drama about two besties- they wanted to be best friends forever so much that they married the same guy……

That idiot Yushu, naturally, suggested to her Yao Yao that the two of them could do the same thing when Mengyao got married, and be together forever……

It was a pretty good idea, Mengyao thought. She agreed, and the two girls hooked their pinkies together in promise…..

The idea turned out to be quite a ridiculous one as the two of them aged, but it was something funny to bring up every now and then…..

Especially that time when Yushu didn’t want to call Mengyao ‘Yao Yao Sis’ anymore, it looked like she was trying to act cute- they were in the same class, after all. (okay, ‘Yao Yao Sis’ is what Yushu calls Mengyao, while Mengyao calls Yushu ‘Little Shu’. I adjusted it for aesthetic purposes…)

Mengyao, however, threatened Yushu with the secret, telling her that she’d naturally have to call Mengyao ‘sis’ since she’d be the elder wife, and that she’d tell everyone their secret if she failed to comply……

Helpless, Yushu decided to just continue calling her Yao Yao Sis- it wasn’t long before it became a habit of hers.

Yushu _was_ younger than Mengyao by a few months, after all. Calling her sis wasn’t really inappropriate or anything.

Naturally, this secret was shared by the two girls exclusively- they were the only ones who knew about it.

Lin Yi only shook his head at the two girls- what the hell were they even talking about? He decided to leave it be, since the girls wouldn’t tell him even if he asked, anywyay.

Lin Yi then shut his eyes. He looked like he was resting, but was actually busying himself with something else.

“Elder Jiao, about that jade signal earlier……”

Lin Yi still didn’t know how the signals were sent out, and thought that it might’ve had something to do with Elder Jiao.

“Signal?” Yazi asked, clearly not understanding where this was coming from. “What’re you talking about, what signal?”

“You didn’t sense anything?” Lin Yi was surprised at the words. “That instant when the chandelier was about to drop, I felt a signal from the jade… Signal as in the signals the jade sends me every time something dangerous is about to happen…”

“Honestly, didn’t feel anything.” Yazi said, trying to remember anything noteworthy from earlier.

“Uh… something the jade just does, then? An ability it has?” Lin Yi asked, knowing that it was impossible for Elder Jiao to be lying to him.

“That’s possible. As I said, my master’s master left that jade, so I don’t know what other abilities it has. You’ll have to go discover them yourself- you’ll probably learn something new when you go to the cave the next time the doors open…” Yazi explained.

“I see.” Lin Yi said helplessly. It seemed that Elder Jiao didn’t know too much about the jade. The training space must be one of its abilities, as well.

The car stopped in front of the villa, and Li Fu drove off after dropping off Lin Yi, Mengyao, and Yushu. Pengzhan clearly had something else to attend to.

“Lin Yi!!” Mengyao exclaimed, turning her head towards Lin Yi abruptly.

“Huh?” Lin Yi blinked as he looked at the Miss.

“You’re not allowed to mess with girls when on duty from now on!!” Mengyao ordered. It was something she’d been thinking about the whole car trip, a concern she’d decided to address after gathering some courage.

“Uh, but I don’t..?” Lin Yi said. Was the Miss displeased that he’d been hitting on girls during work time?

“Don’t do it anymore if you were, and keep it that way if you don’t!” Mengyao continued, not very comfortable with mentioning the whole thing with Song Lingshan.

“Oh…… Okay.” Lin Yi nodded. “So only when on duty, right?”

“My dad’s paid a lot of money for your services, for you to be my twenty four hour shield! You’re with me all the time, you’re never off duty!” Mengyao concluded before walking off with Yushu.

“Ah…… Fuck.” Lin Yi smiled bitterly. “Jeez, even old slave masters don’t do that, right… I’m practically a slave, huh? This girl……”

“You were so cool back there, Yao Yao!” Yushu said excitedly.

“He’s gotta step away from all that flirting and playing with girls, he’s going overboard! How am I supposed to trick Zhong Pinliang if he goes and does all that?” Mengyao said, not understanding why she was even bothering with a justification.

“But Yao Yao, I don’t think Zhong Pinliang knows Shield Guy’s your boyfriend yet… I mean you don’t talk to Shield Guy at all, and you even let Zhong Pinliang have his way with him……” Yushu grinned. “Maybe I should go tell Pingy that Shield Guy’s your boyfriend tomorrow? I’ll also tell him about the two of you moving in together, heh… He’s so scared of Shield Guy that he’ll definitely piss himself if I tell him that……”

(might as well mention that Yushu actually calls him Shield Bro instead of Shield Guy. tell me if you’d like that changed)

*[Long Taos]: side characters in Chinese operas who perform acrobatics and fight scenes

*[12.47 to 13.07]: don't ask me about the tree sap