Beauty and the Bodyguard

Lin Yi knocked on the door, and some footsteps sounded a while later, followed by Tang Yin’s voice. “Who is it?”

“It’s me……” Lin Yi said.

A clear silence ensued for a while before the door opened with a creak. Tang Yin poked her pretty face out, a cold face with no smile on it. “Please enter.”

Lin Yi blinked at the response- Tang Yin had never had a good attitude towards him, but there was at least a directness to her, a headstrongness. She was also passionately pissed enough to step on his shoes and stuff, but there was only coldness in her eyes today…

Xiaobo, on the other hand, hadn’t picked up that little detail. He followed Lin Yi into the yard and looked at all the messy stuff there, surprised when he saw a peach tree. “Boss, look! There’s a peach tree here?”

Flat-houses usually included small yards, where the inhabitants planted stuff. It was a practice Lin Yi’s old neighbours did- it wasn’t anything surprising for him.

But Xiaobo grew up in the city, and it was only natural for him to get curious and excited at stuff like that.

“Are your friends here, Yin?” Mrs. Tang’s voice sounded from inside the house, an old-looking brick structure made of red bricks. There wasn’t cement in the building, and the windows were made out of old, rusted boards.

A beaten-up environment, where the radiant school beauty lived.

“Yeah…” Tang Yin replied faintly, her tone no longer angry or frustrated towards Lin Yi- it was like the two of them were strangers…

“Lin Yi’s here! Please, come in!” Mrs. Tang said happily, spotting Lin Yi and Xiaobo as he walked out the house.

“Aunty.” Lin Yi greeted before walking in with Xiaobo. The place was a classic, old-fashioned room, with a small walled-off kitchen and other rooms. There was a small one in the kitchen, most likely Tang Yin’s.

“Here, sit, sit!” Mrs. Tang said passionately as she led the boys inside. “Yin, you chat with your classmates a bit first, I’ll go prepare some barbeque!”

“Oh……” Tang Yin nodded, seating herself in the chair opposite to Lin Yi. There wasn’t much space on the sofa, and Tang Yin didn’t want to be squeezed up with Lin Yi.

Mrs. Tang left the room, and Tang Yin put her chin on her hands as she looked at the ground, not uttering a word.

Lin Yi, on the other hand, wondered what was up with Tang Yin today- she had been acting odd ever since he first came in, as if they didn’t know each other or something. Just sitting around awkwardly wasn’t a good plan, however, and Lin Yi tried to start a conversation. “Is uncle at home?”

Lin Yi had heard some noises coming from inside the house. The door was closed, but Lin Yi had sensitive ears.

“My dad’s injured from work. He can’t get down from bed.” Tang Yin explained.

“Injury? Is it serious?” Lin Yi said. He’d considered the possible situations the family was in, but he never expected her father to be bedridden from an injury.

“We’re saving up, planning to get him a surgery sometime around the second half of this year. He’ll be able to recover if the surgery works.” Tang Yin explained faintly, as if talking to a stranger.

“Why aren’t you getting compensated then, if it’s an injury from work?” Xiaobo asked.

“The factory owner’s not taking the responsibility- what can we do?” Tang Yin said, having accepted their fate alraedy. Her rage had long been replaced by helplessness regarding the matter.

“I’ll pay Uncle Tang a visit?” Lin Yi said, standing up before Tang Yin stopped him.

“My dad’s resting, you shouldn’t.” Tang Yin didn’t want any other things happening between her and Lin Yi- she wouldn’t know what to do if she owed Lin Yi yet another favor again.

Tang Yin knew how the world worked- she’d seen enough of cold reality after what had happened to his father.

After all, what was Lin Yi incentive for helping her family out? To Lin Yi, what was there of value in the Tang family, other than her? It could only end one way if the debts stacked up to the point where they couldn’t repay him back anymore- Tang Yin would have to use her body to repay them.

Lin Yi had only wanted to take a look at the kind of injury Mr. Tang had, see if there were simpler methods than surgery… Tang Yin had stopped him, but Lin Yi didn’t see the need to rush.

Xiaobo didn’t want to be the lightbulb around these two, and he walked to a side as he looked at the decorations in the house, his eyes stopping at a picture frame on a bookcase.

There were three girls in the picture. There were two other girls other than Tang Yin, one of them being her soulmate, who Xiaobo remembered as Liu Xinwen, from the same school, and another girl who Xiaobo’s eyes lit up at…

It was without a doubt that Tang Yin was the prettiest out of the three, but the last girl wasn’t too far off from Tang Yin in terms of looks- she had that ‘fragile’ look to her, too, the soft, cute, likeable type…

Who was this girl? Xiaobo’s heart started working up as he thought about his chances with the girl- he’d utterly given up on Tang Yin, and he’d be satisfied if just Lin Yi managed to get with her… This other girl, however…

“This… picture?” Xiaobo asked, unable to hold himself back.

Tang Yin followed Xiaobo’s gaze, and saw the picture he was referring to. “Those are my two good friends.”

“I know Liu Xinwen, she’s from our school… But her……” Xiaobo asked after some hesitation- it was a little rude, but he didn’t want to give up on this chance.

“She’s Lan Fen, a close friend I grew up with……” Tang Yin answered, evidently not very keen on talking about her, leaving it at that with just a simple introduction.

Xiaobo replied with an ‘oh’ as he memorized the name. _Lan Fen… Nice name…_ Xiaobo wondered which school this girl went to- it couldn’t have been Songshan’s First, Xiaobo would’ve known about her if that were the case.

Lan Fen wouldn’t be able to stand side by side with the three school beauties, but she’d definitely be a popular character in the school, somewhere in the top ten prettiest students, most likely.

He wanted to know more about Lan Fen, but Tang Yin didn’t seem willing to talk about her. Xiaobo only shrugged internally.

At the same time, Mrs. Tang walked in with freshly-made chicken wings, with an aroma filling the entire room… Tang Yin helped her mother set the table up before speaking to Lin Yi coldly. “Let’s eat……”