The Beautiful CEO’s Close Bodyguard

On Gourd Island, Chu Ge was searching for the entrance together with the Old Gang Leader. As they drew closer to the Volcano, the temperature grew higher and higher, and sweat was already running down Chu Ge’s forehead.

If the light were bright enough, you could even see that the Old Gang Leader’s back had been soaked through.

"Old Gang Leader, I keep feeling something’s not quite right." All along the way, Chu Ge had felt something was off.

"Not right? What’s not right?" The Old Gang Leader stopped in his tracks and looked at him in puzzlement.

"It feels like we’ve been going around in circles. Don’t tell me we’re lost?" Chu Ge voiced his objection. He kept feeling this place looked like somewhere they had just passed. But the night was too dark, one torch didn’t light up far ahead, and he couldn’t see any distinct marks around them.

"Now that you say it, I do feel something’s a bit strange. It’s like we really are going around in circles."

The Old Gang Leader was baffled. "Back when I came here before, I remember we walked exactly this way. Just keep going forward from here, and once you reach the Volcano, there’s a cave not far off to the side."

He carefully recalled, then nodded firmly. "That’s right, it’s here. We just go straight from here."

The Old Gang Leader had just started to move when Chu Ge grabbed his arm. "Wait a moment."

Chu Ge took a dagger from his breast, then squatted beside a rock. "Let’s carve some characters on this, just in case."

The Old Gang Leader chuckled. "You, you’re always this cautious when you do things. Come on, you’re just too nervous."

Chu Ge said nothing. After carving the characters, he followed the Old Gang Leader away. After walking for quite a while, even the Old Gang Leader felt something was off.

"From afar this island doesn’t look big at all. How come we’ve been walking this long and still haven’t reached the Volcano?" The Old Gang Leader scratched his head in puzzlement; he was starting to feel something was wrong. "No, no, no, no, something’s off."

"What’s off?" Chu Ge looked at him in confusion.

"Didn’t we pass this place just now?" As the Old Gang Leader spoke, he lowered his head and began searching for something.

"What are you looking for?"

"The mark you made earlier."

The Old Gang Leader searched around in a circle but found no trace of Chu Ge’s mark. Yet he just felt that something around here was off, that something was strange, though he couldn’t say exactly what.

"Chu Ge, where’s your dagger?"

"Here."

Chu Ge handed the dagger to the Old Gang Leader, and watched him carve some more marks onto a rock. After he finished, he stood up, clapped his hands, and said, "Let’s keep moving forward and keep making marks along the way. I really feel something’s wrong with this place."

"Alright." He’d wanted to say he’d already found this place strange earlier, but the words hadn’t left his mouth.

They hadn’t gone far when Chu Ge suddenly halted. The Old Gang Leader looked at him in puzzlement. "What is it? Did you notice something too?"

Chu Ge frowned. He took the torch from the Old Gang Leader’s hand and shone it around at random. Sure enough, on a rock nearby, he found the mark he had just carved when he squatted down.

"Look." Chu Ge said, "We’ve been circling in place."

"What’s going on?" The Old Gang Leader crouched down. He stared at the mark, his brows knitting tighter. "Chu Ge, looks like we’ve run into trouble."

Chu Ge saw the Old Gang Leader’s face grow very grave. "It’s night, the light’s bad to begin with. I think we’d better wait until daytime and come back to take a look."

"That’s all we can do. But during the day we can’t both come. Only one of us can come over, otherwise it’ll draw attention."

Chu Ge nodded. "Then shall we head back now?"

"Let’s retrace our steps and see if we can get back."

The Old Gang Leader was a bit worried. If going forward kept them circling in place, would going back still get them out?

"We can just fly straight out. Even if there is an Array here, it can’t cover the whole sky. There’ll always be some blind spot we can use to get out."

"No." The Old Gang Leader shook his head. "This isn’t an Array. If I’m not mistaken, this should be a trap Wei Yongxiang left behind back when he departed."

"A trap?" Chu Ge was puzzled. "But we haven’t suffered any kind of attack so far?"

"We haven’t suffered any attack because we haven’t triggered the mechanism."

The Old Gang Leader gave a cold snort. "That Wei Yongxiang is a wily old fox with a vicious heart. The traps he designs are fine as long as you don’t touch them, but once you do, it’ll be a volley of ten thousand arrows, ten thousand swords through the heart!"

"Is it that serious?" Chu Ge stood up and glanced around. The temperature was still very high, and there wasn’t the slightest bit of Wind.

"Let’s try heading back. Be careful. If you see anything oddly shaped, don’t touch it." The Old Gang Leader warned.

Chu Ge nodded. He handed the torch back to the Old Gang Leader, letting him take the lead and light the way.

It wasn’t that he was afraid; it was just that the Old Gang Leader was more familiar with the terrain here than he was.

As the two were walking, they suddenly heard a dull horn sounding from far off. The Old Gang Leader looked toward the direction of the military camp, where the lights were burning even brighter.

"Did something happen in the camp?" Chu Ge asked in doubt. Blowing the horn in the middle of the night was not normal.

"That’s the emergency horn. Something’s happened in the camp." The Old Gang Leader was worried. He really hoped it wasn’t trouble stirred up by Feng Luo.

"Let’s hurry back. Feng Luo’s there alone—I really can’t quite set my mind at ease."

"Alright, let’s go."

Strangely enough, when the two retraced their steps, they easily returned to where they had first come from, and along the way they didn’t see any strange mechanisms.

But at this moment Chu Ge and the Old Gang Leader weren’t in the mood to puzzle it out. They rushed back in a hurry, and from a distance they could see that everyone in the camp was already assembled.

"With this kind of formation, could it be they’re about to go to war?" the Old Gang Leader muttered. He and Chu Ge pushed through the crowd to the front, and there they saw Feng Luo tied up, standing beside the Prince.

The Old Gang Leader raised a hand and patted his own forehead. You really fear whatever comes. He’d just been muttering that he hoped it wasn’t trouble caused by Feng Luo, and now here she was, tied up.

"Your Highness." The Old Gang Leader hurried forward to pay his respects. "I don’t know what mistake this girl Feng Luo has made for you to mobilize everyone like this?"

Chu Ge followed behind the Old Gang Leader. He cast Feng Luo a sidelong glance and saw her face calm and composed, without the least trace of panic or nervousness. She didn’t look like someone who’d done something wrong at all.

"Your Highness."

Chu Ge inclined his head, counting it as a greeting to the Prince.

The Prince ignored Chu Ge. His gaze fell on the Old Gang Leader as he said, "Miss Feng Luo says that in my camp there is a so-called Three Baptisms, and that this Three Baptisms is unfair to the Beggar Sect Disciples. So I gathered everyone here especially to ask and verify the matter."

The Old Gang Leader turned his head to look at Feng Luo, only to see her flashing him a triumphant grin.

Hey! This girl, she’s already brought disaster down on herself, death practically at her door, and she still has the face to smile!