Beauty and the Bodyguard

Childhood Playmate

Lin Yi dialed the village head’s phone to get to Widow Wang back at the village.

“Hello? Starwest Village here, who are you looking for?” Widow Wang’s reminiscent voice sounded from the other end of the phone.

“Aunt Wang, I’m Lin Yi from Old Lin’s house, can you help me get Er Goudan on the phone?” Lin Yi said.

“Ah? Old Lin’s Lil’ Yi! Stay there, I’ll go get him.” Widow Wang put the phone down after the reply.

Starwest Village was a small place, and everyone practically knew each other. They were all patrons of Widow Wang’s food, too, so she didn’t mind helping other people receive their phone calls.

The village was right beside Widow Wang’s eatery, and she had a loudspeaker there for calling out to people-people in the village basically yelled for each other-it was loud enough to wake those who were asleep.

“Er Goudan, it’s your Aunt Wang! A phone call for you!” Widow Wang yelled into the megaphone before walking back to her eatery.

A man as strong as an ox came charging into the eatery a while later. He was Er Goudan, who was 185 centimeters tall, standing in the front of the door to the restaurant like a wall. “Did someone call me, Widow Wang?”

Er, Goudan’s house was a kilometer away from the restaurant, yet, despite running here, the man didn’t show any signs of panting or fatigue. It was clear that he had a strong build.

“It’s Yi, hurry up! It’s a long distance call he’s making, those aren’t cheap!” Widow Wang said as she pointed at the phone on the table.

“Lin Yi Bro?” Goudan rubbed his hands together excitedly upon hearing the name. He picked it up. “I’m Er Goudan!”

“Ha… Er Goudan.” Lin Yi smiled. “How’s the family?”

“We’re fine, planted some crops a while back and we’re giving the soil some nutrients. There’ll probably be a really good harvest this year!” Goudan said.

“Not bad. Do you have a girlfriend yet?” Lin Yi asked with a laugh.

“No one’s gonna have any interest in me, right?” Goudan said with a laugh. “I’m poor, and I’m not handsome, either- looks like I’ll be single until I die!”

“Well, if you have time, why don’t you go to my house. My old man has my current address, and we can meet if you help me deliver something.” Lin Yi smiled.

“Ah? Really? That’s great!” Goudan was ecstatic upon learning that Lin Yi was asking him to go to the city and see the world. “Then I’ll finish up the work here and get going. But, Lin Yi Bro, my family hasn’t made the harvest yet, so we don’t have much money for travel”

Goudan and Lin Yi grew up together, so he didn’t need to feel shameful over something like that. If you didn’t have money, then you didn’t. There was nothing to be embarrassed about.

“Haha, my old man will give you the money. If you need anything just tell me before you leave.” Lin Yi smiled. “No need to hold back.”

“Of course I won’t hold back, you’re my Lin Yi Bro!” Goudan had always been like that, listening to Lin Yi the way he listened to his dad.

To him, Lin Yi wasn’t much different from his dad. It was only natural if Lin Yi gave him money.

“Hahaha…” Lin Yi started laughing. He didn’t know how many years it’d been since the last time he played with Goudan. The days they spent catching fish and prawns had faded away.

Lin Yi was immersed in his childhood memories until he hung up. If he had to pick, there would be three periods in his life that he thought were the best.

The first was when he was small. At that age he hadn’t done any assignments yet, still learning medicine from his old man and training his body. He didn’t need to perform that many tasks and the free time he had spent with Goudan messing around were a time with no worries.

The second period was his time in training, where he was a captain and had teammates. He’d fought through hell with his six allies until they finally broke through. Those were tough times, but very fulfilling days.

Those days seemed tense, but there wasn’t any real danger during missions- there was only trust and friendship between the teammates! My seven brothers and sisters. Where were they now? Were they happy? Were they still busy, running around the world carrying out missions?

Lin Yi shook his head. After he’d left the training camp, all his teammates went their separate ways, never meeting each other again.

The third period of happy times would be Lin Yi’s current life in Songshan. While he didn’t know who the enemy was yet, and had to occasionally deal with some slight trouble, it was a carefree life Lin Yi felt truly happy living. He wished it’d never end!

Naturally, there were many painful moments during these three happy periods. One of which wasn’t exactly painful. To put it more accurately, it was a bittersweet memory that was worth remembering… He’d met Huaijun, Armadillo, and his other team members during that time, including Ning…

It was because of Ning that Lin Yi had forcibly pushed the memory away. He’d chosen to run when he first met Huaijun in Songshan because of this reason as well.

Even until now, Lin Yi still wasn’t quite sure why he’d so decisively rejected Ning. Was it really because of that overwhelming power backing her, or was it because he couldn’t give her a proper, stable life?

Lin Yi at that time had never considered that he’d be able to retire one day, especially not when he was still so young! He didn’t know what his old man was planning at all, suddenly throwing him into Songshan to carry out some mission that’d allegedly set him up for life. It seemed like there weren’t any drawbacks at all.

Song Lingshan was flipping through the case files on her desk. The kidney-collecting organization had started laying low recently, getting cautious after that one time they’d been busted.

But their crimes continued, and they’d moved their focus to the village areas outside the city!

There’d already been two farmer families who’d fallen prey to this organization the past week, using the same methods, save for an added element of unpredictability. One of the victims was a villager from the eastern Yazi village, and the other was from the western Shenbu village. They were tens of kilometers apart! There wasn’t any pattern at all.

Even if they sent out police officers to ambush these criminals, they wouldn’t be able to postmen on the few hundred villages surrounding the city! It didn’t even matter if they did or did not have enough officers for something like this, they couldn’t just stop all work in the city and have all police staff camping for these criminals, could they?

Song Lingshan felt terrible. She’d solved a couple of big cases and had received praise from the state leader, but Lingshan herself knew what had happened. She couldn’t speak the truth about how the cases were solved.

Lingshan could only blush whenever someone would praise her. She wasn’t someone who liked to lie and boast, so it was only natural that she’d feel uncomfortable whenever people gave her credit, especially when she couldn’t explain anything.