Beauty and the Bodyguard

The words coming out of Mr. Kang’s mouth might be harsh, but the tone surprisingly wasn’t.

There was a time when Mr. Kang himself was at Xiaobo’s age, looking into the far horizon all the same and seeing his second uncle’s prosperous days… Unwilling to submit to that, he decided that he’d fight and birth a business as well…

But the years of tough living had long since dulled his blade- his fire to make a successful business was now reduced to just carefully and cautiously managing his little restaurant, turning him into a good guy who had to please everyone from all sides, risking pissing somebody off with just one misstep!

He didn’t want his son to experience that transition from hope to disappointment, and so he had to make things clear- Having these thoughts was good and all, but actually executing them required practicality; it was realistically a difficult thing to do!

He took a mouthful of tea before continuing. “I think you should focus on your studies, put the business stuff aside first. It won’t be too late to pick them back up when a big company does ask for you…”

“I wouldn’t be buying these management books if it were a small company…” Xiaobo smiled bitterly. “Boss is investing in a big one! He’s planning on starting a medicine company with Miracle Doctor Guan Xuemin, putting in an initial hundred million for the early stage…”

“Pfft-!!” Mr. Kang spat the tea water right out of his mouth. “Gack… What? Guan Xuemin? Hundred million??”

“Yeah, dad- why’d you think I’m so stressed out! Sending a newbie like me to help manage a company that big, of course I need to study and prepare!” Xiaobo found his dad’s reaction to be quite amusing, but it pleased him as well. Didn’t his dad say that his son wasn’t much? That didn’t matter if he followed a boss that _was_ something!

“Oh my god, one hundred million? How much is that??” Mrs. Tang’s eyes were wide open as well. “That restaurant of your dad’s is at most a couple million, including the house!”

Mr. Tang eyed his wife. “A hundred million may be a lot to you, but it’s not much at all in my second uncle’s eyes! Their family business is at least worth one billion at this point. But, one hundred million in the initial stage… That’s a big company for sure. Xiaobo, don’t chew on something you can’t swallow if you really can’t do it- what if you mess up and lose all that money, what would you do then?”

“That second uncle of yours? Why don’t you remember what kind of attitude he took with our Xiaobo today, what was that?!” Mrs. Tang reminded. “Xiaobo, you have mom’s support- since your boss trusts you so much, you have to repay him in full! Make the business into a success, and show your second grandpa what you’re made of!”

“Yeah! I know!” Xiaobo held a fist. “Boss said that to me, too!”

There wasn’t much Mr. Kang could say at this point- he could only give his son mental support and his blessings now. “Xiaobo, since you’ve decided on this, you need to see it to the end! Don’t disappoint us!”

“Yes! I’ll go back to my room then, with all that’s happened to me today I need some time to digest the impact… Feel like I’m not even conscious anymore!” Xiaobo said a little embarrassedly.

Mr. Kang nodded, a bitter smile on his face. Of course it’d be big news for the kid, a man who’d experienced the waves of life like himself was taken aback by the news, almost dropping the teacup from the shock…

Mrs. Tang’s face was full of excitement after Xiaobo left. “See, I told you our son’s something! Look, we can make a comeback now! We’ll see if that second uncle of you gets to look down on us then!! Miracle Doctor Guan Xuemin, he’s a way better miracle doctor than that fake miracle doctor!”

“It hasn’t even started yet, why’re you talking about all that? Also, you can support and encourage him but don’t praise him! Kids get swayed by that sort of stuff easily, so if you pump him full of ego it’ll actually mess him up!” Mr. Kang said solemnly. “Don’t talk about this in the future anymore- our role is to watch silently!”

“Alright, you’re the boss.” Mrs. Kang nodded, naturally understanding the point. “Old Kang, why didn’t you bring up that stuff with the Fen girl? You need to talk about that with your son, at least ask him what’s going on!”

“We’re not accepting or rejecting that relationship, so why bother so much?” Mr. Kang shook his head. “Think about it, I bet half of Xiaobo’s momentum and drive is because of that girl! Why should we intrude on that stuff? If Xiaobo really does succeed then Fen’s the hero, and at that point we can’t let Xiaobo break up with her even if he wants to! On the other hand, if she’s a weight in Xiaobo’s journey, then we’ll have to split them up at all costs!”

“You’re making sense, as always- you’re right, you’re right.” Mrs. Kang nodded. “We’ll keep quiet, then!”

It was nighttime when Kang Zhaoming made an amazing discovery- he started to have diarrhea and vomiting problems, horrifying the Kangs, who thought he’d gotten poisoned!

“Dad, I told you that Kang Xiaobo's up to nothing good, he’s sent us poison!” Cuipu’s eyes were red as he watched his son suffer, filled with an urge to go murder Xiaobo that instant.

Miracle Doctor Kang frowned as he looked at Zhaoming in bed, confused. Had Xiaobo really thrown all considerations out the window and just walked up with poison disguised as a medicine gift?

“Zhaoming, how do you feel? Do you need to go to the hospital?” Miracle Doctor Kang asked, not unworried. He didn’t love this younger grandson as much as the elder one, but he was still his grandson! It was only natural for the doctor to feel pain as Zhaoming suffered.

“Grandpa…” Zhaoming squeezed out a smile on his pale face. “...I feel like… My body’s not mine anymore… Like it’s floating… If I die today… Would I be considered the Kang house’s hero..?”

“You can’t die- you’re already a hero of the family!!” Miracle Doctor Kang exclaimed, moved. “Whether or not this medicine proves effective I’ll still reward you with a five percent share of the family business!!”

“Thanks grandpa… But I might not need it anymore… Give it to my dad…” Zhaoming’s sentences weren’t connected anymore.

“Don’t scare me, Zhaoming! What use are shares if you’re dead?!” Cuipu was nothing but frightened by the words- he pounced onto Zhaoming the next second. “Zhaoming, let’s go to the hospital! We can’t let you go on like this!”

Zhaoming only blinked at Cuipu’s panic. “No… I can’t… If I go to the hospital people will know… I can’t let them know about… How we picked Kang Xiaobo’s pill back from the trash… They’ll laugh at us… I can’t go to the hospital… Even if I die… We can’t… The Kang family can’t be humiliated like that…”

Zhaoming was actually feeling pretty uncomfortable, but he understood that he wasn’t in any serious trouble at all- he felt like his body was floating, but the floating was actually a different kind, a pleasant one, as if the dirty stuff inside him had been expelled from his body… It was a refreshing sort of floating!

5 percent shares, what the fuck

fluctuating around 2350