After Becoming a Cannon-Fodder Lackey, I Swore to Protect the Young Lady to the Death - Chapter 10

Li Gangjiao didn’t crawl into bed until five in the morning.

Meanwhile, Lu Jiaoyue headed to the florist in the five-star hotel early that day. The clerk, who was just opening up, looked at her in surprise.

“Are you looking to buy flowers?”

“Yes.”

“We have pre-arranged bouquets, or you can pick out individual stems and I’ll wrap them for you.” The clerk gestured toward the vibrant displays and then toward the various buckets on the floor.

Lu Jiaoyue didn’t know what color Li Gangjiao preferred, so she chose several pink Eustomas for their beautiful symbolism, adding a few filler flowers to round out the bouquet.

Eternal and unchanging love.

The Language of Eustomas:

Lu Jiaoyue’s online research into “confession strategies” had stressed the importance of putting one’s heart into the bouquet. The shop had a selection of postcards, and after a long search, she chose one featuring a serene beach.

Watching her write, the clerk asked with a smile, “Getting ready to confess to someone?”

“Yes,” Lu Jiaoyue replied, her eyes bright with a warmth that wouldn’t fade.

“Why not add a few sprigs of chamomile? They’re very popular right now,” the clerk suggested.

“Alright,” Lu Jiaoyue agreed after a brief look. I hope she likes them.

******

Sunlight spilled across the hotel’s floor-to-ceiling windows, but Li Gangjiao showed no sign of waking. She was sprawled across the bed in a total starfish pose, occasionally letting out a soft snore.

Knock, knock, knock—

The tapping on the door grew louder with each attempt. Li Gangjiao rolled over, ready to dive back into her dreams, until she recognized Lu Jiaoyue’s voice. After a three-second internal struggle, she cruelly abandoned her blankets and stumbled to the door.

She was met with a vibrant, stunning bouquet and a small postcard tucked among the petals. Li Gangjiao was wide awake in an instant.

“So… can you give me an answer to yesterday’s question now?” Lu Jiaoyue asked. She offered a radiant smile, and despite the flicker of nerves in her eyes, she looked as bold and bright as ever.

“Yes! A thousand times yes!” Li Gangjiao replied. Looking at the elegantly dressed Lu Jiaoyue, she had to suppress the urge to go into full “fan-girl” mode.

Aaah! Why is Jiao Jiao so gorgeous today?! And she bought me flowers! I’m so in love!

And just like that, the two were officially a couple.

Lu Jiaoyue had sent a brief, efficient message home: I’ll be back in a week. Her family, having heard from the driver that she was traveling with Assistant Li’s daughter, didn’t pry and simply handled the school leave for them.

While they were away, however, City A was descending into chaos.

Gu Yan was not a man to let a slight go unpunished. He moved quickly to retaliate against the Lu family, first using his connections to scrub the trending news and then launching a massive smear campaign against the Lu Corporation.

Lu Jiaoyue’s father, Lu Ming, was a veteran of the business world. He wasn’t particularly bothered by these amateurish tactics. What he didn’t expect, however, was that Gu Yan would be insane enough to tamper with his car.

Lu Ming had intended to drive to the office as usual, but Lu Jiaoyue called him out of the blue. Over the last two days, Lu Ming’s anger over her offending Gu Yan had mostly cooled.

“What is it?” he asked.

“You should be careful lately,” Lu Jiaoyue said, her voice eerily calm. “Gu Yan might try to tamper with your vehicle.”

She knew Gu Yan’s methods better than anyone. She had died by those methods countless times in past loops, and she had watched her loved ones die by them just as often.

Lu Ming shared a close bond with his only daughter and trusted her instincts. He ordered a thorough inspection of his usual fleet before heading out. The mechanics found that the engines of two cars had been sabotaged. To make matters worse, the surveillance footage in the underground garage had “glitched,” leaving no record of the intruder.

Lu Ming frowned. For the first time, he realized just how far a lunatic like Gu Yan was willing to go. No one tolerates an attempt on their life, especially not a man of Lu Ming’s stature. As a top-tier businessman, his sharp intuition told him there was a mole in his inner circle. He immediately began investigating the recent movements of everyone around him.

******

In another part of the city, Su Momo returned to the villa, her face a mask of practiced numbness. She forced a hollow smile.

“Gu Yan, I’m home.”

She spoke gently to the silhouette on the sofa. But when her eyes landed on the notebook sitting on the coffee table, her expression froze. Oh no! I forgot to burn it…

“Heh. You’re quite good at hiding things, aren’t you, Su Momo?” Gu Yan’s voice was like ice, his eyes filled with an infinite, chilling void.

Su Momo’s instinct was to run, but her feet stayed rooted to the spot, her hands clenched into tight fists. I can’t run… there’s nowhere to go…

Suddenly, a wave of suffocation hit her. Gu Yan’s hand was clamped firmly around her throat.

“You dared to lie to me?!” He was like a feral lion, his grip tightening until Su Momo was on the verge of blacking out. Only then did he let go.

“Starting tomorrow, you aren’t going to school,” Gu Yan declared cruelly, not lifting a finger to help her as she collapsed to the floor. “Since you like that Shen Nanshu so much, I’ll have his body turned into a specimen. I’ll give it to you as a gift.”

Tears flooded Su Momo’s eyes. It’s happening again… why is it always like this? Nanshu, I’m so sorry. I’ve hurt you again.

Su Momo was a regressor.

In her past life, she had rejected Gu Yan’s confession, only to discover he was a psychopath who would stop at nothing to keep her. After he found out about her feelings for her childhood friend, Shen Nanshu, he used Nanshu’s life as a permanent leash.

At first, she had tried to resist, to escape the twisted monster. But then… they broke Nanshu’s legs.

In her memory, Shen Nanshu was the gentle older brother, the kind senior, the embodiment of her innocent first love. In the hospital, he had been terrifyingly quiet. Even then, he had smiled at her, patting her head as if nothing were wrong. In that moment, Su Momo felt utterly cowardly. She didn’t dare tell him that he was in that bed because of her.

That was the last time she saw him. Terrified and broken, she surrendered. She married Gu Yan. She married the madman. At the wedding, she smiled throughout the ceremony, though she didn’t know why. She spent a “happy” lifetime with him.

Only in death did she find freedom.

Heaven seemed to have heard her soul’s weeping, allowing her to return to the day she started school. This time, she had been careful to please Gu Yan, doing everything possible to hide Nanshu’s existence.

But that diary, the one she had kept at her own home was now sitting in the Gu family villa.

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