The Invincible Bodyguard Starting by Escorting the Doomsday Imperial Princess Chapter 83 : Chapter 83

Chapter 83: Erasure!

Luo Li turned at once and saw an elderly man standing on the field ridge, walking straight toward them.

It was as though he could not see Chen Guan at all. His eyes fell directly on Luo Li, and he grinned, showing a mouthful of yellow teeth as he asked cheerfully, “I... I’m from out of town,” Luo Li answered, tense but unwillingly all the sa.

“Ai, look at these old arms and legs of mine...” The old man pounded his lower back, pain appearing on his face.

“I twisted my back by accident just now.”

He looked at her expectantly and said, “Girl, could you... perhaps do this old man a favor?”

“So it really is carrying rice...” Luo Li wailed inwardly.

Pouting in resignation, she nodded.

“Aiya! Then thank you so much!” The old farr imdiately broke into delighted laughter. “I could tell at a glance that you’re a warmhearted good girl. In the future, you’re bound to marry into a good family! Co, co, this way!”

As he continued chattering on with his praise, he led Luo Li deeper along the field ridge.

“Young lady, co. Just help carry this bundle back ho.”

Luo Li pouted helplessly, then turned back to look once at Chen Guan, who stood there without moving an inch.

Seeing that he had absolutely no intention of helping, she could only grit her teeth and laboriously hoist the rice bundle the old man pointed out onto her slender shoulder.

Then she followed him, one step at a ti, toward the town.

Though she could barely manage to carry the rice bundle, it also happened to rest precisely at the limit of her strength.

Before long, her beautiful face was flushed red with exhaustion, and fragrant sweat stread constantly from the corners of her hair.

Fortunately, the road was not too long.

Just as she felt she was about to collapse, they finally reached a little farmhouse courtyard at the edge of town.

The mont she entered, Luo Li could not wait to dump the bundle of rice off her back. She looked half dead with exhaustion.

“Young lady, I never expected you to be this capable at work. You’ve truly done a trendous favor!”

The old man looked at the golden grain already threshed in the courtyard, thanked her profusely, then changed the subject and rubbed his hands together again.

“Well... young lady, could you... could you help with one more thing?”

Luo Li instinctively looked at Chen Guan. When she saw him give a slight nod, she imdiately agreed. “All right.”

“That’s wonderful!” The wrinkles on the old man’s face crinkled like a chrysanthemum. “You see, this back of mine... really won’t do. I can’t carry these filled sacks.”

“If you would be so kind once again, could you help carry this sack of threshed grain to the granary at the east end of town and sell it?”

Chen Guan was delighted, but he betrayed none of it. He simply gave Luo Li a subtle look.

Luo Li understood at once and nodded.

After that, she and the old man, one before and one behind, worked together to carry the grain sack—which weighed well over a hundred jin—and made their unsteady way toward the eastern end of the town.

After passing through two familiar alleys, rows of tall, ancient granaries ca into view.

“Good.” Chen Guan looked at those granaries and thought to himself, “These granaries are the lifeline of this town’s rules.”

“If this is such a long cycle, then these lifelike ‘villagers’ must of course need food to maintain their ‘survival,’ and money to maintain their ‘operation.’”

And the most direct way to break the rules was their food supply!

If their source of food was cut off, this vast structure of rules would naturally be unable to keep running!

After Chen Guan and Luo Li delivered that sack of grain to the granary, an old granny leaning on a walking stick approached them with a smile.

Her cloudy eyes examined Luo Li as she asked kindly, “What a pretty little girl. Whose daughter might you be?”

“Greetings, Granny. I’m from out of town,” Luo Li answered directly.

“Oh, I see!”

The old granny nodded in understanding, then rubbed her aching lower back and sighed.

“Ai, it’s already late, and this old woman’s eyesight is poor. I still have a great deal of work left unfinished.”

“Young lady, you have a kind heart. Could you help sweep up all the spilled grain outside this granary?”

“Mhm!”

By now, Luo Li had already vaguely sensed sothing.

She took the half-worn broom directly from the old granny’s hand and began seriously sweeping up the broken grain scattered across the ground.

It took her another half hour or so to finally clean it all up.

Straightening her sore back, she suddenly asked Chen Guan beside her in confusion, “Brother Chen, I’ve noticed sothing... Why is it that the jobs I’m doing keep taking longer and longer?”

“Yes. That is precisely the special feature of the rules here.”

Chen Guan nodded and explained, “If you keep going, not only will the amount of ti required for each task increase, but the things you do will also beco increasingly important to this town.”

Luo Li suddenly understood. “The more I help them, the more trust I gain, and only then can I co into contact with more central matters.”

“That’s just human nature, and also part of the rules?”

“However...” Chen Guan abruptly shifted his tone and said coldly, “This is not trust. It is them pushing you step by step into an endless abyss.”

“And that endless abyss is the core of these rules—erasure.”

“These tasks progress from simple to difficult, from trivial to important. The more important the matter, the more difficult it becos. And the more difficult it is, the more dangerous it is.”

“In other words, starting from the mont you helped that old man carry the rice, the tasks will continue until you fail at sothing impossible to complete. And the mont you fail, the rules will erase you completely.”

“That is what Ten Thousand Deaths, No Retreat ans.”

“At the sa ti, it is also another way to break the rules. Complete ten thousand tasks without dying, and you can leave as well.”

When Luo Li heard that, her heart lurched. “So that’s how it is...”

She had thought that as long as she obediently worked inside this place, she could safely continue along in accordance with the rules.

She had never expected that behind these seemingly simple tasks lay a deathly abyss that pushed people closer and closer to their doom!

“The point where we break the deadlock lies in the next task.”

Chen Guan’s gaze sharpened, and he warned her sternly, “Rember this. Watch my signals and cooperate with properly!”

“Mhm!” Luo Li nodded hard.

“Co. Follow .”

Chen Guan gave her a aningful look, then led her straight toward the deeper parts of the granaries.

This chain of tasks was a trap leading to death, but viewed from the other direction, it was also the quickest path toward trust.

After all, the more dangerous the task, the closer it had to be to the true core of these strange rules.

They had not gone more than a few steps before a middle-aged man wearing a long saber at his waist approached them head-on.

The man had a sturdy build and a stern face, and the front of his robes bore a rough embroidered character reading “Granary.”

This man was the granary official of the town, neither high nor low in rank, but responsible for guarding the grain stores here.

“Hm? Which family’s girl are you? How did you end up here?”

The mont he saw Luo Li, a trace of confusion flashed through his eyes, and he strode over.

But before Luo Li could speak, Chen Guan stepped forward and cupped his fists toward the man, saying loudly, “Officer, this is my little sister. She just helped Uncle Li from the town deliver so grain here. Out of curiosity, she ended up wandering around in this place.”

The granary official gave a startled jump at that sudden voice.

He turned his head to look at Chen Guan, confusion in his eyes.

Then he froze stiffly in place, completely motionless, as if he were processing so lagging information. Only after a long mont did he suddenly nod in understanding.

“Oh... oh, I see! So you’re this young lady’s elder brother.”

“Yes, yes!” the granary official nodded, then scratched his forehead as though he were trying to straighten out thoughts that had sohow short-circuited.

Luo Li looked at Chen Guan, then at the granary official, and suddenly thought of sothing. She stared at Chen Guan in astonishnt.

Could it be... that these “people” had never been able to see Brother Chen at all?

The more she thought about it, the more certain she beca.

Otherwise, why was it that those people always assigned the tasks to her, while turning a blind eye to the grown man standing right beside her?

A mont later, the granary official suddenly smiled and said kindly to Luo Li, “Young lady, I have an urgent matter at ho to take care of. Could you... could you please watch over this granary for one day? Just one day. Until this sa ti tomorrow.”