Beauty and the Bodyguard

Yushu couldn’t believe what she was seeing, and a gasp escaped her lips as Mengyao desecrated the test paper. _Seriously, isn’t that a little too much?!_ Yushu, however, started giggling as she pictured Lin Yi’s face upon hearing his grade.

Lin Yi, on the other hand, was completely oblivious to what Mengyao was doing to his paper- he’d only assumed that Yushu wanted to mess with him a little by giving him Mengyao’s test paper. He didn’t really mind, anyway.

“Boss, whose test did you get?” Xiaobo asked, turning his head back at Lin Yi.

“Um… Chu Mengyao’s…” Lin Yi replied a little awkwardly.

“Woah, seriously?!!” Xiaobo’s eyes flashed wide open as he stared at the name on the test paper Lin Yi got. “Jesus, seriously? How’d this end up here, don’t he two girls always switch with each other?”

“How am I supposed to know, Chen Yushu was the one who put it on my desk!” Lin Yi said with a shrug.

“It’s gotta be a mistake!” Xiaobo exclaimed, evidently excited again. “Boss, you’re really lucky, you know? Do you know how much these other guys longed for a chance to be grading Chu Mengyao’s test paper?”

Lin Yi only smiled in response, not bothering to explain… How would he even begin to go about it, telling Xiaobo that Yushu did it on purpose? Xiaobo would undoubtedly follow up by asking why Yushu would do that… Lin Yi didn’t want to put his weird relationship with Mengyao in any risk of exposure.

Lin Yi made sure to treat Mengyao’s test paper seriously, however. The girl was pretty mean, but Lin Yi had begun to understood that she didn’t really mean the stuff she said- she had a good heart, as could be seen from how she asked Yushu to invite Lin Yi to the dinner table that other day. Though, the girl did have some princess-mentality problems.

Mengyao had pretty good grades, but naturally made mistakes on tests as well. Lin Yi went the extra mile to list all her wrong answers at the back of the test paper, adding detailed explanations and correct answers for her viewing- it was even more thorough that what the teacher offered.

Lin Yi blinked in surprise as he got to the last question- Mengyao had solved it correctly, her method completely matching the one their teacher was currently giving. So the girl was pretty hardworking, it seemed!

Yet Lin Yi had another way of solving the problem. He didn’t know if the teacher had missed it, or if she thought that the basics sufficed, but She didn’t give the students Lin Yi’s shortcut style answer to the problem.

The students, naturally, didn’t make any objections- these bonus questions were usually harder, and there weren’t a lot of people who could solve it in the first place.

Lin Yi decided to jot down his other solution as well before turning the test paper back to the front page. He calculated how much Mengyao got: it was a high 139.

Practice tests were usually made harder than the Gaokao (ultimate Chinese examinations at the end of high school), and these were practice tests produced for the elite class- the stress and pressure would raise the average bar of the entire class.

Ms. Liu then asked everyone to write their names on the paper they graded before asking for them to be gathered. This was also done in case some of the students went about the grading half-heartedly.

Mengyao took a look at the big zero on Lin Yi’s paper before flipping to the back, signing her name on it with a hmph. Lin Yi wouldn’t do anything to her, anyway!

Yushu grinned as she got to Lin Yi’s test paper during the announcement. “Lin Yi, zero.”

“Eh?” Ms. Liu paused, along with the other students who were listening. Zero? It was definitely a first- it wasn’t very possible to get a zero no matter how bad you were, anyway! Only those who got caught cheating get zeros on their test!

“Who did the grading?” Ms. Liu frowned.

“Chu Mengyao.” Yushu said with a suppressed smile.

Ms. Liu only nodded in response. She wasn’t unaware about Chu Pengzhan backing Lin Yi up, and it wasn’t a stretch to think that the kid had some sort of relationship with Chu Pengzhan’s daughter. The two seemed to treat each other as strangers, but who knew what Lin Yi even transferred to this school for, in the first place?

The drama about Zhong Pinliang chasing after Chu Mengyao got complicated right after Lin Yi transferred in, as well- this sort of thing between young masters and young ladies were the most difficult to contain, and Ms. Liu had no intention to be troubling herself with stuff like that.

She didn’t say anything else after learning it was Mengyao who graded the test paper, as a result.

Yushu’s voice wasn’t loud, but everyone was paying attention at that point, after the zero was announced. They looked at Lin Yi with pity, and the boys were all wondering what Lin Yi had done to piss Miss Chu so much that she’d give him a zero like that.

The girls weren’t very happy about what Mengyao decided to do to Lin Yi, on the other hand- the guy looked pretty well-mannered, and had the aura of something out of a school life drama. Naturally, however, none of these thoughts were voiced out, not when they were right in front of Mengyao.

Lin Yi, on the other hand, was the most surprised of all- his expression was indescribable when the zero hit him, but realized that it wasn’t that surprising, not when it was someone like Chu Mengyao grading his test.

There was just no way he’d get a zero, even if he did answer a couple of the questions wrong on purpose. He then noticed Chen Yushu grinning evilly, speechless at how excited the girl was. Was him getting a zero really that exciting news for her?

Xiaobo knew that Lin Yi was grading Mengyao’s test, but Lin Yi’s test paper landing on Mengyao’s desk was not something he was prepared to hear! His mouth formed a big “0” shape in disbelief, just like Lin Yi’s test grade.

There was something about these two! There was no way something like this could happen out of coincidence! Xiaobo spun his head around to look at Lin Yi questioningly- Mengyao did give Lin Yi a zero, but it was exactly something like that that announced a connection between the two! What was their relationship? Why would Chu Mengyao do something like that to Lin Yi if they didn’t know each other?

Lin Yi only shook his hands with a bitter smile, showing that he had no idea what was going on as Xiaobo eyed him suspiciously.

Xiaobo didn’t know what to think- Lin YI’s face told him he was innocent! He continued thinking about it, and realized that it was indeed a bit of a stretch to think the two were in some sort of relationship. Lin Yi only transferred to the school for a couple days, and the two hadn’t even talked to each other yet!

Was it really a mere coincidence?

Xiaobo shook his head as he turned back to the front. Lin Yi’s zero was astonishing, but the shock factor didn’t last long. Soon enough, everyone else stopped paying attention to Lin Yi as well.

Cant give a link caz my comp cant access gt for some reason, using my ph, so... if u dont mind

*[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