Beauty and the Bodyguard

It certainly made Lin Yi feel uncomfortable. Even more so for Tang Yin, who wondered why the hell there was an admirer sitting at their table and staring at Lin Yi when he was her boyfriend! Could she not eat in peace?

“Aren’t you eating, Feng Xiaoxiao?” Tang Yin asked, unable to take it anymore. She couldn’t really kick her from the table, but she also couldn’t just let her watch Lin Yi like this, could she?

“Nope! Watching Lin Yi eat makes me happier than personally eating,” Xiaoxiao murmured.

“You…” Tang Yin didn’t know what to say anymore.

After finally getting the awkward lunch over with, Lin Yi pulled Tang Yin away and outside the cafeteria.

“Can you please stop her from following you next time?” Tang Yin couldn’t take it anymore. “It’s so weird with her around. I even lost my appetite.”

“You think I want her to be following me?” Lin Yi smiled bitterly.

Tang Yin made an unhappy face, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. She opened her mouth to say something, but was worried that Lin Yi would find her petty. Tang Yin was troubled to see that she’d gotten more timid recently. Where had her courage and bravery gone?

She used to mock Lin Yi before, without a care in the world. She even stomped on his feet!

Yet she always thought about it before doing anything now. Was she really that worried that Xiaoxiao would come and take Lin Yi away from her?

What am I even thinking? Tang Yin reprimanded herself a little, feeling shy as she tried to push the frustrating thoughts away. There were only a couple of months until the college entrance exams, and she’d only finished revising the eleventh grade’s curriculum. There was still the twelfth grade’s one she needed to go through! She wouldn’t make it at this rate.

She rushed back to her classroom and quickly pulled out her studying materials, putting aside her previous thoughts about Xiaoxiao and Lin Yi.

Xiaoxiao got a drink for Lin Yi when she returned to her class. “Lin Yi! This is a new fruit juice. It looks good. You want one? I bought two.”

“What exactly are you thinking, Feng Xiaoxiao?” Lin Yi took the drink Xiaoxiao offered, but put it aside instead of drinking it.

“What? I just want to be by your side, that’s all,” Xiaoxiao said seriously. “I won’t pull anything on you anymore, don’t worry.”

Lin Yi realized from what Xiaoxiao said that continuing this conversation would be useless. He decided to just ignore her.

He thought that Xiaoxiao would only be doing this for a day or two, that if he ignored her she’d be unable to start the second stage of the plan, that she’d get tired and back off. But the girl kept it up for a couple days in a row, following Lin Yi wherever he went!

She waited outside the restroom when Lin Yi went, and she was always there when Lin Yi was with Tang Yin! Tang Yin almost gnashed her teeth at her constant appearances, and even started suspecting Xiaoxiao’s intentions herself.

***

Pinliang actually managed to contact somebody in the Fun City staff and got himself a private seaplane. It was extremely expensive, costing around twenty thousand for just one flight. It wasn’t much to Pinliang, and it was way better than straight up purchasing a plane. He’d get to win Mengyao’s favor too, so spending a bit of money was fine with him.

It wasn’t big, but there was more than enough space to seat the forty students in his class. Pinliang decided that he’d skip the trouble of getting a bus, since it was the same price for renting the plane regardless of how many people he put in there.

The class started getting excited once more when Pinliang announced that they were going to Fun City in a private seaplane.

“But everybody, please pay attention to the things you bring on the plane. No flammables are allowed…” Mr. Liu started reading out the safety regulations.

The security procedures for a private plane weren’t as strict as a public one, but there were still basic rules that prevented dangerous items from going aboard the plane. Mr. Liu had to inform the students about all that to avoid any trouble.

Most students didn’t have any dangerous items to bring in the first place, so they didn’t really mind what Mr. Liu was saying about those items.

Pinliang, on the other hand, had to make some adjustments to his plan.

He had wanted to bring a barbecue grill and some charcoal for an open barbecue on the beach, but since fire sources weren’t allowed on board the plane, Pinliang couldn’t bring the materials.

“Xiaofu, looks like we can’t do the barbecue plan anymore. How am I supposed to get Chu Mengyao and Chen Yushu barbecued shark meat without a grill?” Pinliang asked.

“Liang Bro, I heard that there’s a new, solar powered barbecue grill now. Maybe we can get one of those?” Xiaofu suggested. “I think it’s not that expensive either, just a couple hundred dollars.”

“Really? That’s nice. You go buy one then. I’ll leave it to you!” Pinliang said, relieved that there was a solution to the problem.

Saturday morning, Pinliang and Xiaofu arrived at school with a lot of luggage. Everyone was already gathered at the school gates, prepared to head out to the airport.

Pinliang had wanted to drive there, but Mengyao and Yushu were both taking the bus. He didn’t want to stand out that way. He told his father’s chauffeur to leave upon driving him to school so he could get on the bus with his classmates.

Xiaoxiao was wearing sunglasses and a panama hat, looking like a vacationing girl with her little backpack, cute and charming. Everyone was glancing at her, and she shared the burden of being looked at alongside Mengyao and Yushu, who, before her appearance, were the only targets for those glances.

Xiaoxiao stood beside Lin Yi, much to everybody’s envy and jealousy. Lin Yi’s indifference to her being with him made many of these boys want to swap places with Lin Yi.

“Lin Yi, I brought a lot of snacks!” Xiaoxiao leaned in, her face red with excitement and joy.

“Oh,” Lin Yi muttered.

“I don’t know how to swim, so can you teach me later?” Xiaoxiao wasn’t lying this time. She really didn’t know how to swim.

“Oh, really?” Lin Yi said neutrally. “I don’t know either.”

“You…” Xiaoxiao was getting irritated. It didn’t matter what she said. Lin Yi never seemed to care! Was he blind? She had even put on makeup just so Lin Yi would pay her more attention, but… he didn’t even look at her once! What a waste of effort!