Defend the Carrot (Part 1)

The contents of the document were more or less slapdash-even more so than the business card Gu Jiuge had given him.

Su Bai's mouth twitched. Whose carrot was worth that much? One hundred thousand yuan to protect it for three days? Was it a red carrot or a white radish? Could it be a mutant carrot?

"It's not what you think." Lin Luo put a wooden straw into his coconut and took a gentle sip before saying unhurriedly:

"The target is a female celebrity who's been hugely popular online lately. Her real name is Wang Cuihua, her stage name is Wang Mengluo, and her codename is 'Carrot.' A few days ago, she discovered someone was following her, and then she received several threatening letters one after another. She was scared, so she wanted to find some capable people to protect her for a few days."

"Then why not go to the police or hire a detective? How did she end up contacting Section Seven?"

Lin Luo nodded. "Right. When I first got the file, I asked Sister Yan the same thing. Then she took out her ID card."

Su Bai froze and lowered his voice. "That exciting?"

"Exciting?" Lin Luo frowned slightly. Once he understood, he gave Su Bai a light kick. "Sister Yan's surname is Wang. Wang Cuishan."

Wang Cuishan, Wang Cuihua.

Su Bai realized what he meant. "They're... sisters?"

"Yeah, blood sisters. That's why Sister Yan said the target's identity was sensitive. She transferred me here two days early and raised the mission's confidentiality level because she was worried I'd refuse once I knew the truth... If I'd known a few days ago, of course I would've refused."

Lin Luo let out a long breath. Resting his head on his hands, he gazed up at the azure sky and said calmly:

"Su Bai, remember this: our responsibility and duty as Grave Keepers is to protect the social order of all Great Xia, never to protect an individual. In many people's eyes, the trolley problem has no solution, but in the eyes of the Grave Keepers, there's never any need to hesitate, not even for a second. Trading one person's life for many lives is itself a decision of considerable value.

"Everyone can call us cold-blooded, indifferent, heartless, and selfish, but only cold-blooded, indifferent, heartless, and selfish people like us can deal with the supernatural and sacrifice ourselves at any time, without hesitation, to maintain Great Xia's social order.

"What I mean is, Grave Keepers should do what Grave Keepers are supposed to do, not become tools in the hands of some individual or faction. I hate this feeling of being put to use for someone's personal gain.

"Heh... Protect an ordinary person? If that ordinary person were facing a supernatural creature, I'd step forward regardless of the consequences. But kidnapping, extortion, stalking-forget it. I don't have the energy, and I'm not that righteous."

In all the time Su Bai had known Lin Luo, this was the first time he had heard him say so much.

In Su Bai's impression, Lin Luo had always been a man of few words, indifferent by nature but with a bit of a hidden wild side. Only today did Su Bai realize that what Lin Luo carried on his shoulders was all of Great Xia.

If Chu Ning was a madman, then Lin Luo was a calm madman.

They were so pure.

The goofy Gu Jiuge and Li Ming, who was often spaced out, might have a side that was just as pure.

Yes, we are Grave Keepers.

Those three words were not merely three words, but a rather weighty responsibility.

Faced with someone as pure as Lin Luo, Su Bai felt ashamed of his own inferiority, even wishing he could find a hole to crawl into. "Since you're not planning to accept the mission, when are we going back to Suzhou?"

Lin Luo glanced at Su Bai. "Back to Suzhou? Of course I'm taking the mission! Captain Li said anyone who passes up a chance to make money is a bastard!"

Su Bai nearly coughed up a mouthful of old blood. The respect he had just begun to feel for Lin Luo vanished like smoke into thin air, and black lines covered his forehead. "Bro, if you were going to take the mission anyway, why say all that high-minded stuff? Are you trying to fool an idiot?"

"Nothing supernatural has happened in Suzhou for the time being anyway, so there's no rush to go back. Although I'm a man of principle..." Lin Luo set his coconut back on the table and tilted his chin toward Su Bai. "There's still you, isn't there?"

What the hell? Su Bai thought. "You mean you want me to protect this red carrot? Then who's going to protect me? What did I come to Sanya for? There's still a bounty on my head!"

Lin Luo pointed at Su Bai, then at himself, and said leisurely, "You protect Carrot, and I protect you. There's no conflict."

Su Bai let out a long sigh. "Do you want to listen to yourself?"

Lin Luo rubbed his chin and pondered. "I hear Carrot is very pretty, and she sings beautifully too."

Su Bai flew into a rage and slammed the table. "Am I that shallow!?"

Lin Luo continued, "When the mission's over, we'll split the money fifty-fifty."

Su Bai quickly pulled back his hand. "You said it, so no going back on your word. Deal!"

At three that afternoon, Carrot arrived at the Sanya villa under the escort of a group of bodyguards. Only then did Su Bai learn that this little carrot was the owner of the villa.

It had to be said that Carrot was indeed very pretty, a quintessential Oriental beauty.

She wore a strapless, form-fitting evening gown that showed off her shapely figure to perfection. Her long, silky black hair fell past her shoulders, and her eyes were clear as a spring. She had an air of natural fragility about her, and her beautiful face went without saying. These days, the actresses who made it to the top tier all had faces that were one in a hundred.

Holding photos of Su Bai and Lin Luo, Carrot studied them for a moment before asking timidly, "Are you two the people my sister hired to protect me?"

Su Bai was still weighing his words and hadn't answered when he heard Lin Luo say coldly, "He's here to protect you. I'm not."

Carrot nodded, looked at Lin Luo, and asked, "Then you are?"

Lin Luo pointed at Su Bai. "I'm here to protect him."

"..."

A bodyguard protected by a bodyguard could actually be someone else's bodyguard and protect someone else?

Sorry, there was nothing wrong with the logic there; the wording was just a little muddled and needed sorting out.

Carrot brushed her long hair aside slightly and joked, "Mr. Lin Luo, if I protected you, wouldn't the three of us form a closed loop?"

Lin Luo's gaze was cold. "For a man to need someone else's protection is a tremendous insult, a trampling of his dignity!"

Hey, hey, hey, what exactly are you trying to imply?

Su Bai's mouth twitched. "Can we stop discussing the closed loop for now and talk business? Miss Red Carrot-ah, no, um... Miss Wang Luobo, c-can I take a look at the threatening letters you received?"

"Of course, Mr. Su Carrot." Carrot beckoned, and a bodyguard standing outside the door took two small posters from the briefcase he carried and handed them to her. Carrot spread them on the table and said to Su Bai, "My name is Wang Mengluo. You can just call me Mengluo."

Although the young woman looked fragile, she wasn't one to let herself be taken advantage of.

"All right, Miss Wang Luobo," Su Bai replied absentmindedly. It wasn't that he had done it on purpose; rather, his attention had been entirely captured by the two small posters.

The posters were only the size of A4 paper, with a photo of Carrot at a fashion show as the background. More than a dozen large red characters had been pasted onto each one, their edges uneven, as though they had been cut out of a newspaper.

The two newspaper sheets read, respectively:

I'M COMING TO FIND YOU, AND I'M GOING TO DIE WITH YOU!!!

MY LOVE FOR YOU IS THICKER THAN BLOOD!!!

Su Bai frowned slightly. "Miss Carrot, forgive me for speaking bluntly, but although the words on these are unpleasant to look at, surely it's normal for a top-tier celebrity to receive letters from crazed fans? You just have to ignore them. You get used to it with time, after all. Why are you scared?"

Although his words were somewhat irresponsible, he wasn't wrong.

If public figures with a substantial number of fans paid too much attention to their fans' behavior, they would probably have gone mad long ago.

Hearing this, Carrot couldn't help trembling. She lowered her head and said softly, "Because... these two posters appeared out of thin air."

Su Bai was stunned. "Out of thin air?"

After hesitating for a long while, Carrot said:

"Five days ago, I was soaking in the bath when I saw these two posters appear in the bathroom out of thin air with my own eyes. I was scared stiff and didn't dare move for ages. Later, I worked up the courage to take a look, and that was when I saw the threats on them.

"I went to the police, but they didn't believe me. I went to my manager, but she said I was trying to drum up publicity and didn't believe me either. With no other choice, I went to my sister, who works in a special department, and hoped she could send some capable people to protect me."

Su Bai's frown gradually eased, and he turned to look at Lin Luo.

Lin Luo leaned forward slightly, his eyes cold and sharp, and said slowly, "Miss Wang Luobo, if what you say is true, then I can protect you. And I won't charge you."