Beauty and the Bodyguard

“Isn’t that Bro Chengtian? How are you? Why the long face?” The guy talking was Xiao Ji’s son, Xiao Wangba.1 Xiao Wangba knew House Xiao was in a dire state, he would by all means interact with other houses to get some connections. He rushed forward when he saw Chengtian walking out of the auction hall unhappy. It was his golden opportunity.

Wangba and Chengtian were considered friends back in the day, drinking and picking up girls together in bars. Chengtian was feeling miserable when he spotted Wangba walking over. He didn’t turn away because they were still friends, and he had someone to listen his complaints. “Don’t mention it. I met a bastard who tried to steal my girl and my grandpa didn’t stand up for me. He even pulled me away from the fight. What’s so great about that bastard? I have no idea why my grandpa wasn’t standing up for me. Miracle Doctor Guan was his only ally, that’s all!”

“Yeah, Miracle Doctor Guan, my ass, Miracle Doctor Kang is so much better!” said Xiao Wangdao,2 Wangba’s younger brother and Xiao Ben’s son. House Xiao and House Kang had arranged a marriage, so they would obviously curry favor with Miracle Doctor Kang.

“I know, right!” Chengtian felt that the Xiao brothers were right and decided to treat them to drinks. “Do you guys have anything to do? Drink with me if you guys are free!” Chengtian felt pretty uncomfortable and wanted to vent his frustration.

The Xiao brothers’ eyes lit up with excitement. They had only wanted to interact with Chengtian, hoping to get something out from him, and here was Chengtian asking them out. Of course they would be glad to join him at no cost!

“Of course! But since you’re our big bro, let us to treat you. How can we afford to let our big bro waste his money on us?” Wangba said.

“Since you guys are calling me big bro, I definitely can’t let you guys treat me, can I? Big brothers treating little brothers is a very common thing!” After listening to the Xiao brothers’ flattery, Chengtian’s frustration went away some.

“OK, but, Big Bro, please wait for a while. Miracle Doctor Kang’s son, Zhaolong, and his fiancée, who’s my cousin, are on their way here. Let’s go for drinks together!” Wangba said as he nodded.

“Oh, Zhaolong is here?” Chengtian was a little surprised. “I know him and have met with him. Let’s go together then!”

After waiting for a bit, a Nissan Quest slowly drove up. The car belonged to the Xiao Family, and although they were impoverished, they hadn’t sold the car yet. This type of car was expensive to buy, but selling it would result in huge losses. So it was better to own it to keep up appearances.

House Xiao and Miracle Doctor Kang had wanted both Zhaolong and Xinyan to attend the auction so they could bond a little, but Xinyan refused to join no matter what, leaving Zhaolong no choice but to stay in the house with her.

All afternoon, Xinyan sat quietly on the sofa listening to her MP3 player while reading ebooks on her phone. No matter how Zhaolong tried to communicate with her, he received disinterested replies like “oh.” Zhaolong couldn’t get angry at her.

When night finally fell and the auction finished, Xinyan’s parents urged her to join them for dinner. She couldn’t say no since her parents had accepted the invitation before her agreement, leaving her with no choice but to entertain them. Her parents asked her to just go along with it. If things couldn’t be resolved, she could return to Songshan and cancel the engagement after dinner anyway. So she reluctantly accompanied Zhaolong to the auction hall.

“Bro Chengtian, do you have a car?” Wangba asked when he spotted his family’s car.

Chengtian came with his grandfather, but because he had been angry his grandfather didn’t stick up for him, he didn’t leave with his grandfather and sulked instead. So Gonggao went to meet up with his friends.

“Let’s go, I’ll follow you guys.” Chengtian didn’t feel embarrassed at the thought of people assuming he didn’t own a car because he was from House Wu. No people would believe it.

“OK, even better. After you!” Wangba had Chengtian enter the car first, then got in with Wangdao.

“Oh, isn’t that Bro Chengtian? Hello there! We’ve met!” Zhaolong smiled as put out his hand. “This is my fiancée, Wang Xinyan! Xinyan, meet Bro Chengtian, the leader of the youngest generation of the Iron Fist Wus, our idol!”

“Hey, that’s overstating things.” Chengtian was flattered by Zhaolong’s compliment. “Zhaolong, your choice of words was great. Let’s drink a lot later!”

“No problem!” Zhaolong happily agreed. Just because he did well in school didn’t mean he was a nerd. In fact, he was a manipulative and cunning person. He knew that he was supposed to please Chengtian.

On the other hand, Xinyan sat quietly listening to her MP3 player, not giving a care in the world to her surroundings.

Zhaolong was helpless to change Xinyan’s attitude, but Chengtian seem not to mind. He started talking to Wangba.

***

Lin Yi had just finished filling up the twenty “deluxe” bottles with the special edition injury medicine and delivered them to Fatty Lai’s room. Fatty Laid was startled. He never expected his boss to finish so quickly and felt even smarter for the choice he made of following Lin Yi. “Boss, what price should we make it?”

“You can handle the price.” Lin Yi didn’t feel like involving himself in pricing for auction since the auction was chockful of self-centered, rich assholes. Making their wallets bleed a little wouldn’t hurt.

“Got it!” Fatty Lai felt that it was easier for him to set the initial auction price after getting full authority from Lin Yi. “Um… Boss, can I join the bidding for this injury medicine?” Fatty Lai asked after some hesitation.

“You need it?” Lin Yi looked at Fatty Lai curiously. This medicine wasn’t supposed to attract the attention of men. Even Lin Yi himself got a few scars during battle and he didn't find it necessary to remove the scars.

“Hehe, it’s my wife. She had her appendix removed a few years back, and the scars still remain,” Fatty Lai said, then paused shyly. “Every time we make love, I see the scars and get uncomfortable. Besides, my wife is a woman; she wants to remain beautiful and wear revealing clothes during the summer….”

“Enough, I understand.” Lin Yi stopped Fatty Lai and swept his arm out. “There’s a little left in my room. I was thinking of throwing it away but you can have them if you want!”

“What? Throwing it away?” Fatty Lai almost fainted. “Boss, that’s money, how can you just throw them away! It’s like throwing money away!.

“I made extra, and there aren’t any bottles left. Leaving them on my bed is taking up space. I need a space to sleep, y’know.” Lin Yi didn’t seem to care about the value of the medicine, since to him it was just some cheap herbs.

“I’ve got space here, I ain’t sleeping!” Fatty Lai charged out his room and ran to Lin Yi’s room. If he was too late, whatever was left would be gone for good!

* * *

1. Wang means king and ba means tyrannical or overbearing. Taken together, they mean rule by might.

2. As I mentioned earlier, wang means king and dao means moral or rules.