Beauty and the Bodyguard

“Okay.” Lin Yi had just broken through the first stage after all these years- there was no second stage ready for him to train in just yet, but he was in high spirits nonetheless. It was a big boulder off his shoulders.

Yushu pulled out three bowls from the disinfector cabinet, and Lin Yi filled all three up swiftly with porridge. He took a look at the seats, and decided to settle with sitting on Yushu’s side. The girl was weird, but Lin Yi found her to be much more approachable than the Miss- there was a secret between them, after all. It was a secret Yushu threatened him with, and it was even a misunderstanding in the first place, but it did get the two closer to each other.

Mengyao and Yushu were gentle and quiet as they slurped their porridges, but Lin Yi didn’t care about stuff like that. He’d learned and practiced table manners before, but he didn’t really feel inclined for it back home. There wasn’t any time to be classy in the North African war jungles, as well- nobody had time to waste on that. Even the girls on the team finished their food with two or three gulps; there honestly was no telling when the next rocket launcher would be fired at them.

“Isn’t he worried about choking..?” Mengyao commented, curling her lips as Lin Yi finished two bowls in no time at all before walking back to his room.

“Well, boys, you know? They all eat fast.” Yushu said, not minding something like that at all. “My brother eats that fast too when he comes home.”

Mengyao nodded in understanding- the military wouldn’t let you be luxurious with your meal time, that was for sure; what if the enemy attacked when they were in a warzone? But Lin Yi wasn’t a soldier, what was with the haste?

Lin Yi, on the other hand, was occupied with some thoughts of his own, not bothering to listen to the two girls commenting on his eating speed. When should he send Huaijun the medicine?

He’d planned on doing so today, but that was obviously off the table with Yushu threatening him into going shopping with them. Lin Yi decided to save it for some other day- Huaijun wasn’t gonna die anytime soon, anyway. He did give him something to deal with the pain the last time they’d met, after all. The guy could take it.

Lin Yi took out the bank card Li Fu had prepared for him upon returning to his room. He was planning on getting himself a laptop- he’d have much more accessibility to medical information that way, and he wouldn’t need to go all the way to the library anymore.

Lin Yi applied some medicine he’d grinded up the other day before re-bandaging the wound. He didn’t think it was necessary to go back to the hospital anymore- the nurse from yesterday didn’t really sit well with him. His own medicine was much better than the ones the hospital provided him, too.

Lin Yi took a look around his room- there wasn’t anything else he needed to bring. With that, he walked out of the room and saw Yushu and Mengyao all dressed up. The two even had the exact same dresses and handbags, and their hairstyles were almost identical, as well. The two looked like complete sisters.

They had clearly put in more effort to make themselves prettier, compared to when they were in school- probably because of all the flies they were already attracting. The two were going out shopping on a weekend today, however, and they didn’t need to restrict themselves as much.

“Eh? You’re wearing that?” Yushu’s mouth opened wide in shock as she pointed at Lin Yi’s school uniform. She thought the guy was gonna change into some outing clothes when he got back to the room, not expecting Lin Yi to come out wearing school uniform again.

“Yeah, what’s wrong with that?” Lin Yi found the school uniform to be of very high quality, as expected of the best school in the city- there were quite a bit of luxury brand clothes that weren’t even a match.

“Don’t you think… that your outfit doesn’t match with ours at all?” Yushu put a hand over her mouth to contain her laughter at Lin Yi’s reaction- the guy was acting like it was normal to wear a school uniform outside during a weekend.

A thought crossed Mengyao’s mind. “Lin Yi, did Uncle Fu not give you any clothes other than the school uniforms?”

“Nope.” Lin Yi said with a shake of his head. “The only other one is the clothes I came wearing.”

“The clothes you came wearing?” Mengyao blinked as she recalled the image Lin Yi bore when they first met... … Yellowing singlet… muddy brown pants…… “It’s fine, just wear that one. You can just buy something more appropriate later- you’re my follower, you know! Look the part.”

Mengyao decided to buy him a couple sets of clothes later- the school uniform was weird, but it was way, way better than that other set the guy had.

“Kay. I’ll follow you guys from really far away- no one’s gonna tell that we’re together.” Lin Yi nodded compliantly.

“......” Mengyao didn’t know what to say. _No one said anything about following from far away… What’s the point of going out together then?_ Mengyao’s personality, naturally, disallowed her from saying something like that to Lin Yi. She didn’t understand- everything involving Lin Yi after he butted into her life was a total mess! It was indeed quite troubling.

Lin Yi didn’t see Li Fu’s Bentley anywhere upon exiting the villa. He was wondering how they’d get to the mall when Mengyao opened the garage door with a remote- there was a S5 Audi in there of the A5 variant, a little less eye-catching than the A5.

Lin Yi didn’t expect Mengyao to have her own car- he’d assumed that she didn’t even know how to drive, since it was Li Fu who drove her everywhere.

“You drive.” Mengyao said as she dropped the keys in Lin Yi’s hand.

“Me? But I don’t have a driver’s licence yet…....” Lin Yi always drove without a licence, but that was when he was on missions or out killing people… Not having a licence was the least of his concerns.

Mengyao frowned at the words. “Get Uncle Fu to prepare one for you- it’ll be really inconvenient for us whenever we go shopping again.”

“Haha, he’s working on it already.” Lin Yi replied with a smile. Mengyao was starting to accept him, it seemed, completely different from how violently she had reacted a few days ago. Her words implied that she expected Lin Yi around in the future, after all.

“Sit at the back then, I’ll drive.” Mengyao said, pointing to the back seat of the car.

The S5 was a car with only the front doors, and one had to get to the back through the front seats. It was inconvenient, but it was no trial at all for someone like Lin Yi. He jumped in smoothly after pushing the front seat a bit.

Mengyao didn’t add anything else as she got into the driver’s seat. Yushu got in through the other door, and the two fastened their seatbelts before Mengyao started the car. Lin Yi thought that the girls didn’t seem like rich kids who raced around for thrills.

big surprise tomorrow!

*[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