Transmigrating Into a Book, the Villain Becomes the White Moonlight!

123: Chapter 123 Mu Xue’s BodyguardThe Bald-headed Man swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down before he stammered out a continuation.

”It... it was a man on the phone, voice a bit hoarse, couldn’t tell the accent... really, Boss, I’m just a hired hand, only ever spoke to him that one time.”

He cautiously lifted his eyes, stealing a glance at Su Bai’s expression, beads of cold sweat from the earlier scare still clinging to his forehead.

Su Bai stood there, hands in the pockets of his expensive suit pants, his frame exuding the weariness of a long flight. Even his follow-up question carried a routine flatness. ”How did he find you?”

”Just... the day before yesterday afternoon,” the Bald-headed Man dared not delay, answering quickly. ”It was Club Wang who made the connection. We usually hang around that area, we just...”

Club?

Su Bai raised an eyebrow almost imperceptibly and asked no more.

He pulled out his phone, unlocked it with his fingerprint. The screen’s cold white light reflected his expressionless face.

His fingertip slid through his contacts, tapped on a name with a simple note, and sent a message: 「Send me a photo of yourself.」

Almost the second the message showed as delivered, a reply popped up.

No words, no questions, just a direct, close-up selfie.

In the photo, Chu Ci seemed to be in a brightly lit room, a hint of lingering confusion in her eyes. One side of her cheek was still swollen and red, but the lines of the other, intact side of her face were clear.

Her efficiency was surprisingly fast.

Su Bai thought idly, turning his phone screen towards the two uneasy men on the ground.

”Is it her?”

The two men hurriedly leaned in, squinting, almost pressing their faces against the screen, scrutinizing it carefully for a while.

Finally, the Bald-headed Man spoke with some uncertainty. ”The face shape... is a bit similar. But, but her face wasn’t this swollen. The surveillance photo the guy on the phone gave us was quite delicate-looking...”

”Look at the other side,” Su Bai’s tone held no inflection.

The Bald-headed Man froze for a second, then had a sudden realization. He used his finger to cover the swollen side of the face in the photo, revealing only Chu Ci’s intact right cheekbone and eye.

Now it matched. He quickly nodded like a woodpecker. ”Ah! Yes, yes! That’s the girl! Bro, looking at it this way... she’s quite pretty, huh.”

He tried to force a flattering smile, but under Su Bai’s cool gaze, the smile soon stiffened on his face.

Su Bai retrieved his phone, locked the screen, and casually slipped it back into his pocket.

He turned to Fu Bo, who had been standing quietly by the car like part of the scenery. His voice carried a hint of the weariness of finally being able to end this nuisance. ”Give them some money and send them on their way.”

”Yes, Young Master,” Fu Bo gave a slight bow, his posture respectful and efficient.

Without another glance at the two men, Su Bai pulled open the car door, sat down, and sank into the soft leather seat.

Only after seeing Su Bai into the car did Fu Bo turn back to the Bald-headed Man and his companion.

The gentle smile on his face was as perfectly measured as if drawn with a ruler, his voice steady. ”Enough for you to start some small business. Take it and leave. This line of work isn’t for you. You might not be so lucky next time.”

Were these two pure, innocent citizens?

Obviously not. But to call them ruthless, desperate criminals? Given their flustered, panicked behavior from start to finish, practically wearing ’rookie’ on their faces, they hardly qualified.

At best, they were a pair of bumbling fools blinded by petty gains.

Hearing Fu Bo’s words, the two exchanged a glance, seeing relief and a sense of having dodged a bullet in each other’s eyes.

After Fu Bo casually took a photo of the two of them, they hurriedly nodded vigorously, too flustered to speak clearly. Grabbing the money, they supported each other and stumbled towards their car.

”To Club,” Su Bai ordered with his eyes closed, his voice tinged with lingering fatigue. The sedan started smoothly, merging into the city’s evening traffic.

Not long after, it stopped in front of Club, which stood out conspicuously with its dazzling lights even as dusk was just falling.

Chu Ci was already waiting at the entrance, head slightly bowed. One side of her face, treated with an ice pack, still showed some unnatural redness and swelling, but her hair and makeup were neat, her posture submissive.

Seeing Su Bai’s car, she immediately stepped forward, personally opened the door, and guided Su Bai through the opulent yet slightly garish lobby into a secluded private room, shutting out the seductive music from outside.

Fu Bo silently showed Chu Ci the selfie on his phone.

Chu Ci gave it only a quick glance before confirming, ”I know them. Came to the city from the countryside a couple of years ago trying to make a living. No real connections, not enough guts to actually accomplish anything big. Been doing odd jobs around our area since, occasionally running errands or keeping watch on Club’s periphery.”

”They said they took a job the day before yesterday,” Su Bai said, sitting down on the spacious sofa and leaning back slightly. ”The target was to make me disappear, and it was the ’lethal’ kind.”

Chu Ci’s heart gave a violent jolt, a thin layer of cold sweat instantly breaking out on her back.

Just yesterday, she had narrowly escaped with her life from this young master. The burning pain on her face was a constant reminder of how dangerous the man before her was. How, after only one day, was she involved in something like this again?

She quickly ran through all possibilities in her mind, certain she hadn’t made another misstep.

”Young Master, I had absolutely no knowledge of this!” she said, speeding up her speech, her explanation clear and forceful. ”At Club, sometimes we just provide a... place to meet. The people below come from all walks of life, take on whatever side jobs. As long as they don’t cause trouble here, we usually don’t ask. This job those two took was definitely not Club’s intention, and it certainly didn’t go through me!”

”Why panic?” Su Bai lifted his eyelids, waving a hand dismissively. ”I didn’t say it was you.”

Chu Ci’s tense shoulders relaxed almost imperceptibly for a moment, her hanging heart settling slightly, but she didn’t dare fully let her guard down.

”I’m asking you to investigate,” Su Bai added, his gaze falling on an empty spot in the room, seeming somewhat listless. ”Find out who, and through which club connection, contacted these two.”

”Understood. I’ll ask immediately,” Chu Ci replied without hesitation, quickly taking out her phone, retreating to a corner of the room, and making a call in a hushed, urgent tone. She contacted several subordinates who specialized in information exchange in gray areas, her tone clipped and carrying undeniable pressure.

The efficiency was unexpectedly high. Not long after, Chu Ci hung up and turned back.

This also happened to confirm what she had said yesterday while begging for her life—keeping her was useful; she could handle these messy details Su Bai might not want to dirty his hands with personally.

Now was the time to prove it.

”I’ve found out,” Chu Ci reported, her tone cautious. ”It was a bodyguard who made the contact. According to the middleman, he’s from the Nangong Family. No photo, just a description: around twenty-seven or twenty-eight, about 1.75 meters tall, lean build. The middleman met him at a private auction the Nangong Family held last month. Later, the guy privately approached him and passed on this ’job’.”

”A bodyguard? A Nangong Family bodyguard?” Su Bai’s previously unfocused gaze sharpened slightly, his brow furrowing. His fingers resting on the sofa armrest tapped unconsciously.

Had his plan been exposed? Had they detected traces of his arrangements targeting the Nangong Family?

This thought had just surfaced when he suppressed it. Impossible.

”Yes, according to the middleman,” Chu Ci gave a slight nod, adding more specific information. ”That bodyguard is assigned to the young lady the Nangong Family recently acknowledged.”

Mu Xue’s bodyguard?

The furrow between Su Bai’s brows deepened slightly.

He turned his head, looking at Fu Bo, who stood by his side like a shadow. His tone held a trace of barely perceptible inquiry. ”When did Mu Xue get someone like that? Assigned by the Nangong Family?”

”It should be a recent arrangement by the Nangong Family, for security reasons. The specific details, I haven’t received word on yet,” Fu Bo replied with a slight bow.

Although he was Su Bai’s most capable right-hand man, nearly all-purpose, he wasn’t omniscient. Especially since he had just returned to the country with Su Bai, his attention to related developments would naturally lag.

Su Bai didn’t pursue it further. He stood up, casually patting the uninjured side of Chu Ci’s shoulder, the gesture as casual as brushing off dust. ”Keep this place in order.”

His instruction was brief, almost perfunctory. Before the words fully faded, he was already walking towards the door of the private room.

Fu Bo naturally followed closely behind. Soon, the two took a car and arrived at a suburban villa where the Nangong Family was currently staying.

As soon as the car stopped, they saw Mu Xue already waiting outside the ornate wrought-iron gate. She wore an elegant home dress with a cardigan casually thrown over it. Seeing Su Bai get out of the car, her face showed little surprise, instead holding a hint of mild annoyance at the disturbance.

”Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” she asked, taking two steps forward, a note of complaint in her tone.

Su Bai smiled, but the smile was superficial, not reaching his eyes. ”I informed Mr. Nangong,” he said, his tone ordinary, as if it were a matter of course. ”Doesn’t that count as telling you?”

As he spoke, his gaze had already swept seemingly casually over the villa’s front courtyard, driveway, and those standard-format bodyguards hidden in the shadows.

Then, his gaze fixed on the area beside the steps of the villa’s main entrance. There stood a man in an unremarkable black tracksuit, posture upright, standing out starkly from the Nangong Family bodyguards in suits and ties with communication earpieces.

Su Bai recognized him. It was the same man who had picked up Mu Xue and taken her back to the Nangong Family at Club entrance before.

”Who is that?” Su Bai withdrew his gaze, looking at Mu Xue, asking in a conversational tone as if it were just a passing remark.

Mu Xue glanced back in the direction he had just been looking and answered dismissively, ”Oh, a bodyguard. The family assigned him recently, said things are a bit unsettled outside lately.”

Her tone carried a hint of resignation towards this kind of over-protection.

Just as Su Bai was seemingly casually observing the man, the other was also looking his way.

From a distance, Su Bai could clearly sense the scrutiny and undisguised wariness in the other’s gaze. It wasn’t the routine attention of an ordinary bodyguard towards their employer’s guest, but more like a clearly targeted vigilance.

”What’s his name?” Su Bai continued to ask, his gaze still on the tracksuit-clad bodyguard.

”Brother Bufan,” Mu Xue answered, then looked at Su Bai somewhat strangely. ”Why are you asking about him? He’s just a bodyguard.”

”Are you familiar with him?” Su Bai didn’t answer her question, instead shifting angles, questions coming one after another.

”Not familiar,” Mu Xue replied bluntly, her brows lightly furrowing, increasingly puzzled by Su Bai’s persistent questioning about a bodyguard. ”I only met him about a month ago. Family arrangement.”

And, to be honest, she didn’t have much fondness for this bodyguard. Too talkative, too meddlesome, far from the silent, quiet demeanor of the other bodyguards.

Before, when she was just an ordinary person, Mu Xue had always felt somewhat distant and puzzled by this profession, thinking it existed only in movies or distant news reports.

She never imagined that a paternity test would thrust her into the position of the Nangong Family’s ”young lady,” turning every detail of her life upside down, including this 24/7 shadow-like ”protection.”

”But, the atmosphere in the Nangong Family has been a bit strange lately,” Mu Xue said, tucking a strand of wind-blown hair behind her ear, her voice lowering slightly with a touch of irritation. ”A while ago, I could still go out on my own. Lately, forget going out, I can’t even go back to my old home... anymore.”

The ”old home” she referred to was the one that had raised her for over twenty years, filled with ordinary life, completely different from the cold, imposing villa before her.

She paused, looking up at Su Bai, complex emotions swirling in her eyes. ”Once I figure out the situation here, I’ll tell you.”

Hearing this, Su Bai raised an eyebrow slightly, the corner of his mouth lifting in a faint, almost imperceptible smile. ”Why bother telling me specifically?”

His tone was aloof, carrying a note of detachment. ”You’re now the proper young lady of the Nangong Family. Your family matters, why should an outsider like me listen?”

Mu Xue looked at him. There was no arrogance of a young lady in her gaze, but rather a kind of penetrating understanding.

”Su Bai, don’t I know you?” she said calmly, yet hitting the mark. ”From the first day you returned to the country, you’ve been involved with the Nangong Family, openly and covertly. I don’t know exactly what you want to do, but at least I can see that the things you’re interested in are somewhat related to here.”

Her words couldn’t be clearer.

Her identity as the ”Nangong Family young lady” seemed glamorous on the surface, but inside, it was mixed with a sense of being somewhat forced, not entirely willing.

Being in the midst of it, her senses had actually become sharper. She clearly sensed that Su Bai coming to see her was mostly also for the Nangong Family.

Just then, Mr. Nangong walked out from inside. ”Aiyo, Su Bai, why are you still outside? Come in!”

”I’m chatting with Mu Xue for a moment,” Su Bai said, offering a smile to Mr. Nangong.

Mr. Nangong’s eyes held a deep smile. ”Alright, chat then. You were classmates before, take care of each other now.”

The meaning behind the words was clear. Both Su Bai and Mu Xue could understand what Mr. Nangong was really trying to say.

Pairing the daughter with the diamond from the auction the day before yesterday—wasn’t that a setup specifically targeting Su Bai?