Let Me Protect You (I)

Shang Ke peeked outside through the small crack between the supply boxes. There were six to seven figures not too far from them, gradually approaching in their search. The surroundings were filled with junk of varying sizes. There were empty boxes, discarded parts, and some disorderly trash.

Although the light was a bit murky at the moment, they would be spotted immediately if they ran out from behind the pile of junk. However, even if they continued to hide, they likely would still be unable to escape the fate of being caught.

Shang Ke needed to make sure that Feng Juan and him would not be caught before the police arrived. Otherwise, that group of people would be completely unmerciful. Although he knew martial arts, he had the body of a child. With his current height, power, speed, and so on, he was unable to contend with an adult. The only strength he could count on was his flexibility.

Watching the people coming closer and closer, Shang Ke whispered to the child in his arms, "Stay here and don't move. I'll draw those people away."

Feng Juan grasped Shang Ke's hand tightly. Even though he did not speak a single word, it was quite clear that he was refusing.

Shang Ke twisted his hand and easily broke free from Feng Juan's hold, repeating himself, "Stay here and don't move!" Then, he bent over and squeezed out of the box to go to the other side and hide. Halfway through, he "very uncarefully" kicked a bottle.

"Over there! Get him!" A deep voice shouted, followed by the sounds of footsteps.

Shang Ke didn't even look back, and just used his ears to make out the situation behind him.

One, two, three… there was a total of five people chasing him.

Five? Shang Ke's heart sank. There were seven people searching for them, so if only five of them were following him, then the remaining two… Shang Ke glanced back, and as expected, there were two hovering around the area Feng Juan that was hiding in.

Not good!

Shang Ke took a sharp turn and dodged a man who threw himself at him. He sprinted through the messy junk like a wildcat.

"There's another one here," A man said as he crudely picked Feng Juan up.

Feng Juan struggled nonstop, a small beast-like growl pouring from his throat.

"Damn it, this group of kids are so troublesome," Another man said as he raised the rod in his hand, striking down at Feng Juan's head.

Feng Juan's eyes were wide with fear and despair, along with a faint trace of unwillingness toward his fate.

Right at this moment of crisis, a small figure suddenly dashed out and smashed against the man with all his might, causing the man to stagger from the impact.

After Shang Ke landed, he did not pause before leaping powerfully, aiming straight at the wrist of the man who was holding Feng Juan.

The man released his grip in pain.

Feng Juan fell to the ground, and was seized and pulled up before he could come to his senses. Shang Ke dragged him, evading the traffickers as he ran for the exit.

Feng Juan's arm was almost pulled out of its socket as he followed in Shang Ke's crude escape. However, the valiant figure of the small person in front of him left a deep impression in his heart.

"This is the police, don't move!"

The saviors Shang Ke were waiting for had finally arrived! A large group of policemen quickly rushed over from the side.

"Sh*t!"

Someone cursed behind them, followed by a string of gunshots.

Shang Ke suddenly noticed that a couple bullets were clearly aiming for them, so he immediately dragged Feng Juan down. Unfortunately, he was still a step too slow, and his shoulder and right leg were shot. The bullet that went through his shoulder also hit Feng Juan's left arm.

The two of them fell to the ground together, their blood mixing.

"Rescue support please come here, there are two children who were hit by the bullets!"

A burst of clamor erupted from the side, and Shang Ke felt someone pick him up. Knowing that they were safe, he relaxed and lost consciousness.

Two days later, Shang Ke woke up to the distinct sterile scent of the hospital. His shoulder and leg were bandaged, while his hand was connected to an IV drip.

Turning his head, he saw Feng Juan lying on the hospital bed next to him. He was asleep deeply and did not appear to be seriously injured. They avoided his legs becoming disabled.

"These children are so pitiful, especially that older one. His body was so full of injuries, he must have been abused for at least four to five months." At this moment, a female voice could be heard from outside the room. She was speaking in English, which Shang Ke was rather proficient in it. After all, English was an essential language when trying to learn computer languages.

"How are their situations?" another woman asked.

"We still need to observe them for a couple of days, but they are stable for now."

The door to the sickroom was opened, a few people walking in. When they saw that Shang Ke was awake, they paused for a moment before immediately smiling in a comforting manner, and slowly approached his bed.

"Child, are you alright?" a somewhat older man greeted Shang Ke with a smile. He looked at Shang Ke's delicate features and clear eyes and secretly praised, He really is such a pretty child.

Shang Ke only stared at them, and did not speak.

The woman next to the man suddenly realized, "Detective Rowan, he isn't from the UK. He likely can't understand English."

"They should be Asian, but we don't know whether they're Chinese or Japanese." Rowan paused, before using some shoddy Chinese to say to Shang Ke, "Hello."

Shang Ke nodded toward him.

After finding out his nationality, Rowan immediately had the policewoman beside him go to find someone who knew Chinese.

They had been unable to catch the operation's mastermind this time, so they wanted to obtain some clues from the two children.

"Detective, they just experienced a disaster. I hope you guys will not frighten them," the female doctor reminded them.

"Of course," Rowan guaranteed. He had seen the two children's injuries with his own eyes, and he also felt quite a bit of sympathy. However, this matter was rather urgent. If they let the mastermind get away now, then it was unknown when they would get another chance to catch them.

After a moment, a middle-aged man in his forties entered the room. After greeting the other people in the room, he walked to Shang Ke's bed and gently asked him in Chinese, "Hello, I am Professor Ramson. What is your name?"

Shang Ke did not reply, but rather, he turned his head to look towards Feng Juan.

"Ah!" Feng Juan's breathing suddenly quickened in his sleep, and he appeared to be in a lot of pain.

The female doctor hurried over to check on his body's condition.

Feng Juan struggled for a while before waking up, his face pale and sweaty.

When everyone saw Feng Juan's reaction, they did not think that it was strange. Rather, looking back at Shang Ke, they now realized his anomaly. Wasn't this child too calm? From the time he had woken until now, he hadn't shown any confusion or fear.

Feng Juan looked around fearfully until he saw Shang Ke on the other bed. He relaxed a bit, before struggling to get out of the bed in order to go to Shang Ke.

The female doctor quickly stopped him so that he wouldn't himself more. She had thought that it would take more effort to stop him, but Feng Juan did not insist her and quickly calmed down. He merely stared vigilantly at them, so intensely that they became a bit fearful.

Rowan and the others were flabbergasted. They felt that the children they saved this time were both rather different from normal.

After confirming that their situation was stable, Professor Ramson began to speak, asking some simple questions. In the end, the result was that one remained silent and did not speak while the other one spoke but did not give details.

The female doctor pointed at Feng Juan and said, "This child's memory might have some holes due to the fright he received." Then she looked toward Shang Ke, hesitantly saying, "There is no problem with his ability to speak. It should just be a temporary loss of speech."

Rowan and the others all looked at each other, a trace of helplessness flashing through their eyes.

"Looks like we won't be able to get any clues from them," the policewoman said with a bitter smile.

Shang Ke looked at them. It wasn't that he didn't want to tell them, but in consideration of his small life, he temporarily could not talk to them about it.

According to the information supplied by the System, this underground organization was very large and powerful. Additionally, they had some moles in the police force. The group of people caught by the police was just some bait they had thrown out. They likely hadn't caught anyone who had any useful information.

Shang Ke did not know who the mole was, but he knew that the organization had been active for more than ten years until Feng Juan eventually came to power and thoroughly collapsed them.

If he leaked out even a bit of information, what would follow would likely be endless assassination attempts on his and Feng Juan's lives.

When the group had switched routes, they saw the big shot behind the scenes just once. Although it was just a glance, it left a deep impression in the original's memory. Even the fragments of information that the police could get from them would be enough for the organization to send someone to kill them.

The mission that the System released this time was to protect Feng Juan until he was twenty-two.

Shang Ke had previously thought it was just a normal nanny mission, and felt that he was really too naive…

The police were unable to get any information from the two children, nor were they able to find out their identities. As thus, they could only notify the embassy and have it investigate.

Shang Ke already knew that the final result of the investigation would be fruitless. They simply could not find out their identities.

The original Bruno was a child from a mountain village that was so small that even the population wasn't recorded. He had been mistreated by his father since he was young, and finally ran away from home when he couldn't take it anymore. He had wandered aimlessly until he was caught by the children traffickers.

On the other hand, Feng Juan was born into into a family with a serious internal power struggle. His older brother had been killed, and he himself had gone missing while being sent elsewhere. The political situation became worse after that, and with the Feng Family's greatly diminished strength they did not have energy to take care of other matters. They were only able to regroup after five years, but by then, they had completely lost any information on Feng Juan.

During the days that they stayed in the hospital to recover, Shang Ke and Feng Juan were treated well. There was a specialized doctor and psychiatrists, along with all sorts of entertainment for children.

Detective Rowan seemed to really like them, and although he was unable to obtain any clues from them, he still visited them frequently. Even though Feng Juan did not look kindly upon him, and Shang Ke remained silent the entire time, he was not discouraged.

Nothing strange happened during this period of time, so Shang Ke guessed that those people had probably relaxed their guard against them. However, he still did not take the risk to tell Detective Rowan any information, even though he knew that Detective Rowan would be the main person in charge when those people are eliminated in the future. It was a pity that he was too concerned about them and frequently got in contact with them, so it made it harder for Shang Ke to say anything.

After half a month of recovery, Feng Juan's injury had pretty much completely healed.

However, the injury on Shang Ke's left leg was somewhat inconvenient, and even after it completely healed, he would still be unable to do any strenuous actions. It just wouldn't hinder his everyday walking.

"Keke, don't worry, I will stay by your side forever." Feng Juan had lost his past memories, so the boy before him was now his only memory.

Shang Ke nodded with a kind smile. His hand held Feng Juan's right hand, and he softly brushed the mole on the hollow of his palm.

From here on they will know each other, and from now on, they will protect each other.

He hadn't been able to stay together with this person in his past three worlds. In this life, he did not want to give up again. There was still sixteen years until Feng Juan would be twenty-two. He had to protect him for sixteen years, which to him was a luxury.

By the time their injuries had finally healed, the embassy was still unable to find information on their identities. As such, the local government decided to send them to the social welfare center, and have them live their lives in this foreign country.

When they were finally checking out of the hospital, Detective Rowan personally came by to send them away. He spoke cheerfully the entire way, even though the two of them said nothing.

When they were at the entrance to the social welfare center, Rowan felt a bit reluctant to part with them.

Shang Ke wore the small bookbag he had given him, and suddenly used English to tell him, "Thank you."

He then turned and entered the social welfare center hand in hand with Feng Juan.

Rowan paused, staring as the two small figures walking away before finally realizing something. Not only could this child speak, he… could also understand English?

As such, his silence all this time had been on purpose?