Beauty and the Bodyguard

_So just in case it wasn't clear in the comments- the rude voting calls were done jokingly, not the polite ones..._

“Here’s a hundred, keep the change…” Zou Ruoming said as he pulled a hundred kuai bill out, placing it on the table in front of Mrs Tang. He didn’t want to spend a single second longer than necessary in Lin Yi’s presence- the guy was watching him…

“Nono, that won’t do…” Mrs. Tang was about to prepare some change for the money when Zou Ruoming waved dismissively, smiling bitterly as he turned and left.

Mrs. Tang wasn’t expecting any payment from Zou Ruoming and his friends from the start. They’d ordered around fifty or sixty kuai’s worth of food, along with beer, as well- Mrs. Tang earned something like eighty or a hundred kuai every day she put her stand up, and Zou Ruoming freeloading almost half of that was no small matter to her. It was Zou Ruoming she was dealing with, however, and there wasn’t much she could do but sigh helplessly.

Yet one word from Lin Yi and Ruoming paid up without hesitation, just like that! He’d even paid a couple tens of kuai more, and Mrs. Tang couldn’t help but feel grateful towards Lin Yi for the gesture, contemplating how different princes could be. How did Lin Yi look like such a well-mannered boy, while the words thug and gangster were scrawled all over Zou Ruoming’s face?

Yet the thug left after getting slapped by the well-mannered guy, running away without so much as a single retort! With that in mind, Mrs. Tang started taking a liking to Lin Yi. She noticed her daughter glaring at Lin Yi and Kang Xiaobo, not quite understanding what she was doing. “Yin, what’re you doing? We have customers!”

Tang Yin wasn’t expecting the two to just sit their asses down at the stand and start ordering food- as far as she could see, this Xiaobo guy jumped out under Lin Yi’s orders… Lin Yi, without a doubt, harbored the same intentions toward her that Zou Ruoming had: she didn’t see any other reason for these princey boys to pay attention to her.

Lin Yi looked like a proper, nice guy, and didn’t even try flirting with Tang Yin or anything of the sort, but the act really turned her off- the guy was just violently slapping Zou Ruoming and Fatty across the face, what did he think he was doing after that, sitting there and acting like a good student for her mother to see? Tang Yin was especially irritated when she noticed her mom taking a liking to the guy, even telling her to go wait on them… The guy just helped her get a hundred kuai back, was that really enough for her to fall into his trap?!

Years of similar encounters had transformed Tang Yin into a bit of a porcupine- she’d always lock her heart up whenever boys started making a move on her. It was her natural state of self defense.

Although, she couldn’t really just disobey her mother like that. She walked over to the stand and grabbed two bottles of beer, placing them on Lin Yi and Xiaobo’s table before walking back to Mrs. Tang.

“Bottle opener…” Xiaobo asked carefully with a bitter smile- Tang Yin looked pretty displeased for some reason.

“Yin, what’s wrong with you today? Help open the beer bottles for your friends!” Mrs. Tang didn’t know what was going on- her daughter’s face was all cold all of a sudden… Didn’t she have her head lowered, all helpless and everything when Zou Ruoming was here? So it was fine to put on a face when it was a well-mannered Lin Yi, was it?

Tang Yin would have exploded with irritation were she to learn what sort of thoughts her mother was thinking- him, well-mannered?! Didn’t she see the guy slap the fatty off his feet? What was so well-mannered about that?!

“It’s fine.” Lin Yi said with a smile- he didn’t know what he’d done to piss this girl off, but Tang Yin’s displeased attitude towards him didn’t go unnoticed. He decided to leave her be. _Girls, I guess._

With that, Lin Yi put his thumb against the bottle lid, popping it open with a strong flick before doing the same to Xiaobo’s as well.

“Really, Yin! You should be grateful your friends aren’t like Zou Ruoming- he’d have thrashed the stand already if you did that to him!” Mrs. Tang eyed Tang Yin helplessly. “Are you helping out, or what? Go back to class if you’re not, I can manage the stand on my own!”

“I……” Tang Yin felt so wronged as her mom scolded her- what was she talking about, the guy was exactly like Zou Ruoming! He was a Big Four, a Big Four! Just like him! _You think he’s so well-mannered now, do you? He’s trying to chase me, don’t you get it!!_

Mrs. Tang sighed as she handed two tofu curl skewers to Tang Yin. “Here, the tofu curls are ready, serve it to them.”

“Sure…” Tang Yin took the skewers angrily as she marched slowly to where Lin Yi was- the more she looked at Lin Yi’s composed nice guy face, the more pissed off she got! She didn’t know where the courage came from, but Tang Yin planted her foot on Lin Yi’s shoe upon reaching him, acting as if she’d done it on accident.

_Hmph, well-mannered, right? Trying to please my mom so bad, huh? Let’s see how well-mannered you can get when I squeeze your foot down! Let’s see your true colors, nice guy!!_

Lin Yi blinked as he raised his head. _What the…_ Why was this lady stepping on his foot like that? The force was nowhere near painful, but Lin Yi wanted some sort of explanation- he didn’t want to just get stepped for no reason.

“Um……” A spark of excitement lit up in Tang Yin as Lin Yi opened his mouth. _Well-mannered, right?! Nice guy, right?! This is what you get for acting like that, remember it._ Tang Yin put on an apologetic smile as she looked at Lin Yi. “Sorry, stepped on you.”

“Oh… It’s okay…” Lin Yi didn’t know what else to say- the girl had apologized anyway. He only shook his head bitterly.

Although, Tang Yin’s foot seemed to still be on his foot… She didn’t leave it alone until after stepping on it two more times, a trace of glee flashing in her eyes as she put the skewers down and left.

“......” Lin Yi didn’t know what to say- the girl was clearly doing it on purpose! What was with these young ladies nowadays, did he look like an easy target for bullying or something?

It was Chen Yushu and Chu Mengyao before, but weird Miss Yushu had his ‘secret’ to threaten him with, and there wasn’t much he could do about it. Mengyao’s father was his employer, so there wasn’t much he could say in that regard, as well… But what was with this Tang Yin, taking the initiative to step on him like that…?

Lin Yi decided to let it go- people would burst out laughing if this spread out. _Eagle_ , getting pushed around by a couple of girls……

“Boss, doesn’t Tang Yin look a little angry with you? What did you do?” Xiaobo noticed the attitude as well- something was wrong. The girl was coming straight at Lin Yi.

“How am I supposed to know? I _just_ met her!” Lin Yi replied with a shake of his head.

“Maybe you did something to piss her off some time ago, without you realizing it?” Xiaobo didn’t understand how Lin Yi could have crossed Tang Yin- he’d just transferred to the school a couple of days ago, and it was the first time the two even met!

*[Long Taos]: side characters in Chinese operas who perform acrobatics and fight scenes

*[12.47 to 13.07]: don't ask me about the tree sap