Courtyard House: I Have Countless Bodyguards

Relying on the machine repair shop? The factory would never take on the enormous responsibility of "protecting someone with a questionable past" for the sake of a technician like her.

She finally understood completely that now she needed to exchange something by "making it happen"!

Ding Qiunan stayed awake all night until dawn. Fear, humiliation, and worry for her family gnawed at her heart like venomous snakes.

As dawn broke, she looked at her haggard reflection in the mirror, and a terrible, almost insane thought gradually became clear to her.

Since it's going to be a sacrifice no matter what, a sacrifice of the whole family and myself, why not... just sacrifice myself!

The next day at work, when she saw Liu Jianguo walk into the office building, she felt as if she were being pulled by an invisible thread, and she walked to his office door again and knocked. This time, her face showed an almost numb resolute expression.

"Please come in." Liu Jianguo's voice remained steady.

Ding Qiunan pushed open the door and entered. Liu Jianguo looked up and saw her, his face showing no surprise, and simply said, "Comrade Ding Qiunan, so early?"

After saying that, he stopped talking and just stared at her with a calm yet penetrating gaze, as if waiting for her to reveal her hand.

This silent gaze was more unsettling than any interrogation. Ding Qiunan felt a chill run down her spine as he stared at her, and the courage she had just mustered began to dissipate.

Ding Qiunan bit her lower lip tightly, her nails digging deep into her palms, and with all her might, she managed to squeeze out a broken sound from her throat:

"Director Liu... if... if I... marry you... can... can my... status problem be solved?" After saying this, she was almost exhausted.

Liu Jianguo was visibly taken aback; he truly hadn't expected Ding Qiunan to be so blatant in making such a naked deal.

He quickly regained his composure, hesitated for a moment, and then answered in an ambiguous, left-way tone, without giving a definitive answer:

"Personally, I have no plans to get married at the moment."

He then subtly changed the subject: "However, the 'method' you proposed... in theory, isn't entirely unworkable. But you need to think carefully about the costs and the form it takes."

The words "not completely unusable" were like a glimmer of light shining through the darkness.

Hearing that there was a glimmer of hope, Ding Qiunan was filled with grief and indignation! She was grief-stricken because she was ultimately headed down a dead end with an uncertain future.

She was furious at the injustice of the world. But thinking of her elderly parents and young siblings, she steeled her heart. Since her dignity had already been completely destroyed, she might as well fight for a complete and stable life for her family!

She raised her head, her eyes filled with a resolute determination, and her voice became somewhat steady:

"I...I don't want the title of marriage. But...I have a request."

Liu Jianguo did not answer immediately, but instead looked at her carefully for the first time.

In the morning light, Ding Qiunan was pale, with dark circles under her eyes, looking haggard from a sleepless night. But her cool and stubborn nature remained. Her features were delicate, her nose was straight, and her almond-shaped eyes shone brightly with despair and determination, giving her a unique and touching quality that made her seem pitiful.

She was slender, and even in her loose, old work clothes, her graceful figure was still evident. At that moment, a sense of brokenness and a desperate resilience were strangely mixed together.

He weighed the options in his mind; this was a very bold but also potentially "clean" solution. So he spoke, his voice low: "No official status? Then what do you want? Tell me."

Hearing him ask her to make a request, Ding Qiunan felt a mix of emotions.

What's heartbreaking is that she was in the prime of her youth, full of talent, yet she had to walk down this shameful path, her life completely ruined.

But a shameful sense of joy also rose at the same time—since the other party asked her to name her terms, it proved that there was indeed a possibility of a deal, and there might really be hope for a solution to her and her family's crisis! This hope was something she could exchange everything for.

Despite the humiliation, Ding Qiunan clearly stated the core condition she had long considered:

"Please find a way to clean up those inappropriate records in my father's file. Most importantly, we need a respected person who can stand up for my father and provide him with political guarantees and support at any time."

This was the only way she could think of to solve the family's hidden problems once and for all.

Liu Jianguo tapped his fingers lightly on the table, pondering for a moment.

Modifying the files was extremely risky, but not entirely impossible for him.

Providing a "political guarantee," while risky, offers more room for maneuver.

The girl was clever; her conditions hit the nail on the head. He raised his eyes, his gaze carrying a controlling scrutiny:

"Your request involves a lot of issues. But..."

He paused deliberately, his tone leaving no room for argument, "Cooperation requires sincerity. How do you intend to prove your...sincerity?"

Ding Qiunan was taken aback, then a blush of humiliation rose on her face: "Sincerity? You haven't even done the job yet, how could I... how could I possibly..."

She didn't finish her sentence, but the meaning was clear—she was unwilling and dared not pay the price first.

Liu Jianguo's lips curled into a faint, almost cold smile, his tone carrying a condescending, commanding air:

"I didn't ask you to do anything else. Come closer, lower your head."

The order was so abrupt and symbolic, filled with a sense of oppressive power imbalance.

Ding Qiunan's eyes widened instantly as she stared at him in disbelief, feeling as if all the blood in her body rushed to her head.

The air in the office seemed to freeze.

A few seconds later, under extreme humiliation and immense pressure to save her family, she moved step by step to the desk like a puppet whose soul had been taken away. She lowered her head slowly and laboriously, revealing her fair and fragile neck, and then gagged several times.

When she raised her head again, her voice was unusually hoarse from immense humiliation and the suppressed urge to cry:

"...Is this...okay...?"

The office door closed gently behind Ding Qiunan, and a faint trace of her presence seemed to linger in the air.

Liu Jianguo did not act immediately. He slowly sat back in his large office chair, leaned back, and tapped his fingertips on the smooth mahogany table surface, making a dull but rhythmic sound.

His gaze drifted out the window, where the towering chimneys of the steel mill were belching gray smoke, mirroring the swirling thoughts in his mind.

He needs more than just a woman; he needs someone he can completely control, someone whose lifeline he can hold in his hands—someone who is truly "one of his own."

Ding Qiunan's value lies in her own technical potential, but even more so in the inescapable vulnerability bestowed upon her by her father, whose "history is unclear."