After Becoming a Cannon-Fodder Lackey, I Swore to Protect the Young Lady to the Death - Chapter 29

Two minutes later, Lu Jiaoyue ran back, panting as she clutched two shovels. She shoved them into Li Gangjiao’s arms before hurriedly tying her hair back with a rubber band.

“What are you just standing there for? Start digging!”

Seeing Li Gangjiao dazed, Lu Jiaoyue’s temper flared even higher. She delivered a sharp kick to Li Gangjiao’s shin, making her double over instinctively from the pain.

Snapping back to reality and terrified of upsetting Jiao Jiao further, Li Gangjiao immediately shoveled a massive chunk of dirt. This only earned her another roar: “Who told you to dig under my swing?! Go dig a hole in the corner!”

If she hadn’t been biting down on the rubber band in her mouth, Lu Jiaoyue likely would have been tempted to actually bite this blockhead in her frustration.

Before the next scoop, Li Gangjiao stood in the corner and asked tentatively, “Is this okay?”

“Just dig!” Lu Jiaoyue was slightly less panicked now, but her patience was non-existent, and every sentence came out like a sharp jab.

Li Gangjiao didn’t dare say another word and began digging in earnest.

Once her hair was secured, Lu Jiaoyue picked up the other shovel leaning against the swing. She set the blade, stomped it down with her foot, and heaved. Large clumps of earth were unearthed, staining her white slippers with mud.

They dug and they dug, neither of them speaking.

Li Gangjiao wanted to speak but didn’t dare, so she buried herself in the work. Lu Jiaoyue was too angry to speak, so she did the same. Eventually, Lu Jiaoyue’s hands began to throb with a numb ache, and her legs grew leaden; her movements slowed to a crawl.

“Jiao Jiao… is this hole…?” Seeing that Lu Jiaoyue’s anger had cooled slightly, Li Gangjiao asked cautiously, not daring to slow her pace for a second.

“What else do you think it’s for? We’re burying a body!”

Exhausted, Lu Jiaoyue tossed her shovel aside and shot Li Gangjiao a fierce glare before sitting on the swing to sulk.

Li Gangjiao silently hopped over the wall. The man was lying face-down, his chest a mass of crimson, his breath long gone. To confirm her suspicions, she flipped him over. His face was a mess of mud, which she casually wiped away with her hand.

“I warned you last time. Don’t hide behind a tree. A guy your size can’t stay hidden for long, can he?”

It was the same dim-witted goon Gu Yan had sent to beat her up before. She checked for a pulse, then carefully observed his pupils. It were fixed and dilated. Finally, she emptied his pockets and pulled out a handgun.

“An Austrian Glock 17? These are pretty reliable. I almost want to keep this for you…” She toyed with it for a moment before shoving it back into his pocket. “Forget it. I won’t steal from a dead guy.”

Li Gangjiao looked at the wall, then back at the hulking man on the ground, wondering how to get him over the side. “This is a hassle. Should I take you apart first?” She patted his shoulder as if asking his opinion, though it was mostly a monologue.

“Li Gangjiao?”

Lu Jiaoyue’s voice drifted from the other side of the wall. It sounded muffled and heavy, with a faint trace of weakness underneath.

“What is it, Jiao Jiao? Why don’t you go back and sleep? I’ll have this finished in a bit!” Hearing her voice, Li Gangjiao’s first instinct was fear—not of the body, but of Lu Jiaoyue being angry again.

“Do we… do we need to boil it? I just searched it, and a lot of people say you’re supposed to boil it…”

Lu Jiaoyue was leaning against the wall, barely able to keep her balance. Anyone would be terrified in this situation.

“No, no! Just stay by the swing! I’ll jump back in for a sack and a kitchen knife!!”

The words had barely left her mouth when Li Gangjiao appeared atop the wall. With a sharp thud, she landed steadily on the ground. She ran so fast that Lu Jiaoyue only saw the flutter of her clothes. Lu Jiaoyue reached out to catch a piece of the fabric, but she was a second too late.

Lu Jiaoyue slowly withdrew her hand, her brow furrowed as she stared at the ground. She sat back down on the swing. Any mood for moon-gazing was gone; she simply stared into space, her hand clutching the bouquet. The flowers, unable to withstand her grip, snapped in half and fell to the ground.

Bright red blood began to seep from the gash on her palm, trickling down the lines of her hand and onto her skirt, but Lu Jiaoyue seemed to have lost all sensation. She tossed the mangled bouquet aside, her mud-stained sneakers ruthlessly grinding the delicate petals into the dirt. The darkness swallowed her expression as she stood there in total silence.

Li Gangjiao, meanwhile, grabbed her tools and slipped out the side gate to retrieve the “goods.” Constant wall-hopping was murder on her legs.

“Freshly caught…” Li Gangjiao muttered, holding the knife and wondering where to start. Suddenly, she remembered that bodies could be folded. “Should I try folding you first?”

When that failed, she resigned herself to the gruesome work—hacking, packing it into the bag, and hauling the sack back to be buried. Fearing the sight of blood would upset Lu Jiaoyue, she made sure to keep the sack behind her as she moved it into the hole.

“Make sure you don’t hide behind trees next time!” she whispered as she emptied the contents.

“He didn’t have a tracker on him, did he?”

Lu Jiaoyue’s voice was just loud enough for Li Gangjiao to hear clearly.

“I checked! Nothing! Just a gun and a few bags of drugs,” Li Gangjiao answered loudly. Once she was sure Lu Jiaoyue had heard her, she mumbled to herself, “…The guy was so gaunt he looked like he’d just come back from a three-day bender.”

Li Gangjiao, usually so casual, took the care to fold the burlap sack and place it near where the head would be. She then set the two halves of the shattered crystal pendant on top of the bag.

“This is the pendant you broke last time. I won’t make you pay me back; it’s a gift!”

With that, she began shoveling the dirt back in. The hole was deep, and there was plenty of soil. Seeing that the hole was level but a pile of dirt remained, she shot an inquiring look at Lu Jiaoyue.

“I’ll get some seeds. Pile the rest of the dirt on top of the pit.” Lu Jiaoyue bit her lip and headed toward the small garden shed.

The shed was used for indoor plants and tool storage. Lu Jiaoyue grabbed a random bag of seeds and returned. “Oh? I grabbed ‘Snow Rose’…” She realized she had grabbed a shrub variety.

“How much should I scatter?” Li Gangjiao asked, pointing at the bag.

“A handful is enough.”

Lu Jiaoyue took a handful and scattered them evenly. “Cover it with a few more layers of soil.” Before turning to leave, she added, “When you’re finished, get some sleep. I’ll have the housekeeper come water it with nutrient solution tomorrow.”

“Got it!”

Li Gangjiao nodded. After covering the site, she went to the bathroom for a bucket of water and a towel. She meticulously scrubbed every trace of blood from the outside of the wall, rinsed it down, and even used some travel-sized perfume she’d kept from a hotel to mask any lingering scent in the air.

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