Chapter 141 - A Little Bit Maybe

Would the members of House Liu feel regret, if they'd learned that, a few minutes sooner, and they would've been able to meet the person they'd been looking for so direly? Regret was something one had to deal with in life… The Liu family, at the moment, was still unaware of the close brush they'd just had with the miracle doctor……

Lin Yi, on the other hand, had an additional purpose other than thanks in mind when he'd acquainted himself with Guan Xuemin. He hadn't thought much of the story about Miracle Doctor Kang the first time he'd heard about it, but the family feud Xiaobo told him gave Lin Yi an idea…

Medicine recipes sold insanely well, and Lin Yi had quite a couple of those with him! He hadn't too much time for stuff like that, however, and he needed an appropriate business partner for the whole thing to work out.

The ideal partner would obviously be Chu Pengzhan- Pengzhan Industries was known throughout the country, after all. The insider problem still remained unsolved, however, and Lin Yi didn't want to be cooperating with a company during a time like that. Risking the recipe's exposure was disadvantageous to everybody.

The next candidate would then be Guan Xuemin, a renowned figure in the medical world with fame on par with even Miracle Doctor Kang's. The miracle doctor only got his name from the success of Golden Creation alone- none of the other products Doctor Kang's company made saw much success, with all of them being common Eastern medicine without much uniqueness to them; Golden Creation was the only one that attributed to the doctor's widespread fame.

Guan Xuemin, on the other hand, was an Eastern medicine specialist, with a name built on solid foundations. 'Miracle Doctor Guan' would most definitely be on par with the name of 'Miracle Doctor Kang', needless to say.

If he were to publish this recipe himself, on the other hand…… People wouldn't be as willing to approve of him, that was for sure. There would even be quite the number of skeptics, suspecting Lin Yi of his origins. 'Miracle Doctor Lin'? People would definitely be wondering if he were copying Miracle Doctor Kang.

After all, Guan Xuemin was already regarded as a miracle doctor.

It was why Lin Yi decided to interact with Xuemin a little today- it turned out that the guy was a trustworthy and just man. A couple more meetings and Lin Yi planned on working with him, giving the man a couple of his more basic recipes to advertise first, see how that'd work out.

A man couldn't just rely on a woman for living expenses, certainly? It was Chu Pengzhan's money, but it didn't look very proper for him to be playing house with Chu Mengyao every day…

(fun fact, a guy's 'eating soft rice' in Chinese when the woman's the breadwinner)

Naturally, Lin Yi was still just beginning to observe the doctor. From what he'd seen so far, he ascertained that Xuemin was a good man, with genuine obsession in regards to Eastern medicine instead of fame or wealth. Letting him sell the recipes might just work out perfectly, but there was still Xuemins' sons and daughters to consider… Lin Yi decided that he'd forget about the partners.h.i.+p if they weren't good people.

Tang Yin was troubled, very troubled indeed!!

It was all Lin Yi's fault that she'd forgotten all about the sauce recipe- now she had to go look for him in his cla.s.s, of all things! As unwilling as she was, however, she'd made the promise to her mother- she had little choice but to make her way to cla.s.s five before the afternoon cla.s.ses started.

Chu Mengyao and Chen Yushu were leaving the cla.s.sroom for a walk when they met Tang Yin face-to-face. Mengyao knew the girl- she was a school beauty much like Yushu and her, albeit a more popular one who'd been dubbed as the commoner beauty.

Mengyao, however, never cared much for that sort of thing. She'd be better off less popular- she wouldn't have to deal with boys she didn't like bothering her, after all.

Tang Yin was quite surprised to be meeting the two big school beauties here- she didn't know a lot of people from cla.s.s five, save for Lin Yi and the tyrannical Zhong Pinliang she'd heard about… She decided to ask Mengyao and Yushu for a favor now that she'd b.u.mped into them.

"Hey, excuse me… Can I ask you for something?" Tang Yin was a school beauty with Mengyao, but that was just something other people thought of- she never considered herself to be on the same level with princess Mengyao, and couldn't help but feel pressured. The girl was like a G.o.ddess, a royal beauty… Tang Yin was but a child of a poor home, albeit a pretty looking child……

"Oh, what's up?" Mengyao liked Tang Yin- they were both pretty girls, after all, and it was nice to look at pretty people. Mengyao was beautiful enough as it is, so getting jealous over someone else being pretty was just stupid.

"Can you help me call someone from your cla.s.s out…… I'm looking for…… Lin...Yi…" Tang Yin bit her lip as she shyly forced the name out. She was a girl taking the initiative to go looking for a boy in another cla.s.s, after all… It was no surprise that she'd be embarra.s.sed.

"Lin Yi?" Mengyao blinked uncomfortably as she looked at the 'shy' looking Tang Yin. What was her relations.h.i.+p with Lin Yi? Did the guy get his hands on the commoner beauty as well, in the span of just a couple of days?!

Song Lingshan, business district lady, and now Tang Yin?

The shyness Tang Yin was showing, in actuality, was not the type of 'shy' Mengyao had misunderstood it to be. It was more of a 'rageful shy'...

Tang Yin nodded immediately at Mengyao's question.

"Don't know him!!" Mengyao didn't know what was up with her today, but she turned her head away and left after blurting the three words out at Tang Yin.

"Ah..?" Tang Yin blinked curiously at Mengyao's retreating figure- what was going on? Weren't they cool just a while ago, what was she getting p.i.s.sed off for?

Yushu only shrugged at Tang Yin, putting on a helpless expression before turning to catch up to Mengyao. "Yao Yao, what's wrong? Are you getting jealous or something?"

"Jealous? No way!" Mengyao said with a curl of her lips. Jealous? That was a simple impossibility, a joke, a big, fat, joke! Ha ha. But her heart was hurting all the same, as if something rightfully hers were being eyed by someone else…

"Hehe, Yao Yao… Are you starting to like s.h.i.+eld Bro?" Yushu whispered.

"I'm not!" Mengyao retorted decisively.

"A little bit maybe? A tiny bit?" Yushu continued.

"No. Shu, will you please stop?" Mengyao said as she started to panic. "I'll ignore you if you continue."

"Hehe, alright, I'll shut up. Don't ignore me……" Yushu said, putting a hand over her mouth as she glanced sneakily at Mengyao...

Chapter 142 - Came For Nothing Again

Tang Yin stood in front of cla.s.s five, confused- she didn't know why Chu Mengyao's personality flipped all of a sudden, but thought that it might've been Lin Yi at work again… Could the a.s.shole have teased or bothered her before, resulting in Mengyao leaving angrily at the mere mention of the a.s.shole's name?

But the a.s.shole was quite a daredevil, it seemed, laying his hands on even Chu Mengyao! That had to be a first- no one had ever dared to lay his hands on Mengyao, as far as she knew!

Cla.s.s was starting soon, and Tang Yin decided to return to her cla.s.sroom first, thinking that she'd come by after that. The three school beauties together attracted quite a bit of attention, too, and Tang Yin didn't want people suspecting her of anything…

Mengyao and Yushu looked at the view outside from the end of the hallway before making their way back to cla.s.s at the ring of the bell. Tang Yin was no longer there.

"Tang Yin's gone, Yao Yao." Yushu commented.

"I see that…… Shu, why'd you think she was looking for Lin Yi?" Mengyao had been trying to figure out the girl's attention the whole time she enjoyed the scenery.

"Probably wanted to borrow some money, I guess." Yushu bulls.h.i.+tted. How was she supposed to know?

"Borrow money?" Mengyao's eyes widened at the reply- Tang Yin was asking Lin Yi for money?

"I dunno." Yushu grinned.

"You-!" Mengyao flicked at Yushu's forehead. "Whatever, let's just stop thinking about it. Let's go."

"Maybe I'll help ask her when she comes by later?" Yushu blinked. "Or maybe I can go to her cla.s.s to ask?"

"You may not!" Mengyao said with a glare. "Are you doing this on purpose, Shu?"

"Hehe……" Yushu smiled wordlessly.

Second period ended, and Tang Yin gathered her courage to face cla.s.s five's door once more. She didn't dare to ask anyone anymore- it'd be a waste of breath if everyone in the cla.s.s hated Lin Yi for his tyrannical young master ways.

With that in mind, Tang Yin stood outside cla.s.s five's door and peeked her head in sneakily. A lot of people inside turned to stare at her, and she pulled her head back shyly.

There were already people paying attention to Tang Yin during her first visit- she was the commoner beauty, after all, much more approachable and down-to-earth than the two beauties in cla.s.s five.

People wondered what Tang Yin was doing in front of cla.s.s five, but it started getting suspicious with her second appearance.

Yushu raised her head just in time to catch Tang Yin pulling her head away from the door. Was she looking for Lin Yi again? Yushu glanced at Mengyao, who was focused on her book… She got up from her chair, and tiptoed outside the cla.s.sroom.

"Hey!" Yushu said, waving her hand in front of the girl's frightened and lowered face.

"Ah-!" Tang Yin jumped with a startle as she raised her head- it was Chen Yushu. "W-what's up?"

"Tang Yin, right? I'm Chen Yushu." Yushu introduced, even though the girl knew her name already. "You're looking for Lin Yi again, right?"

"I……" Tang Yin didn't know why Yushu was asking that- did this girl have negative feelings towards Lin Yi? She decided to just go with a nod. "Yeah……"

"Oh. Lin Yi's not here. He hasn't been here since morning." Yushu said. "What do you need? I'll help pa.s.s the message for you. It's the student committee's responsibility and duty to help a fellow student out."

"He's… not here?" Tang Yin blinked curiously at Yushu. She couldn't be lying to her, could she? She'd just took the bus with him earlier that morning, and the guy even took advantage of her… Was it all an illusion?

"Yep." Yushu nodded. "You can go look yourself if you don't believe me. He sits at the last spot in the second row- there's no one there right now."

"Oh……" Tang Yin didn't doubt Yushu's words, now that she put it that way, especially when she said she was part of the student committee. Tang Yin was part of the student committee as well, and she felt quite a bit closer to Yushu because of that.

"Right? So… anything else?" Yushu didn't care if Lin Yi was there, and she wasn't actually trying to help a fellow student out… The main concern here was why Tang Yin was even looking for Lin Yi.

"I…… It's nothing…… I'll come by later when he gets here……" Tang Yin said after some hesitation. It was a bit tricky to talk about the whole thing with the recipe, and Tang Yin decided that she'd ask Lin Yi in person herself.

"Oh." Yushu said, a little disappointed. "Then I guess you can come again in the afternoon……"

"Yeah, thanks……" Tang Yin said, a little disappointed as well. So Lin Yi wasn't there the whole time- he wasn't even at school! What was that guy doing, didn't he arrive by bus with her?

Yushu returned to the cla.s.sroom only to see Mengyao glaring sharply at her, her book on the table. Yushu felt like gulping. "Yao Yao, what're you looking at me for?"

"What did you do, Shu?" Mengyao had noticed that Yushu was gone not long after she left, and followed the gazes of her cla.s.smates only to find that the girl actually ran out the cla.s.sroom to talk to Tang Yin! She only got p.i.s.sed off at the scene- what happened to not going, why was Yushu doing this? Lin Yi might very well a.s.sume she cared for him if he found out…

Yet even Mengyao was curious as to what Yushu had found out. Sneaky little Yushu would probably mess with her instead of giving a proper answer, however, and Mengyao decided that she'd pretend to be p.i.s.sed off… As expected, the girl took the bait.

"I just asked her why she was looking for s.h.i.+eld Bro……" Yushu pouted. "But she didn't tell me, so I just let her know that s.h.i.+eld Bro isn't here, and told her to come back in the afternoon."

"Oh……" Mengyao nodded. "That Lin Yi, what's he up to anyway, leaving with just a note on the table! What's with that att.i.tude, he's skipping work isn't he! My dad's wasting his money!"

"Yao Yao, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you say that it'd be best if he stayed away from you? What's with this change of mind, hm?" Yushu prodded playfully.

"Ah… Uhm…… It's dad's hard earned money, you know? I can't just waste the salary he's giving to Lin Yi, now can I?" Mengyao said as she threw the poorly patched up excuse out on the table, one even she herself wouldn't believe. To have her admit that she didn't hate Lin Yi that much anymore, however… It simply couldn't be done!

"Is that so. Then I'll tell s.h.i.+eld Bro to be a bit more professional later." Yushu nodded, as if believing what Mengyao had just thrown at her.

"......" Mengyao didn't know what to say- Yushu believed that? She glanced quietly at Yushu, who was making preparations for the next cla.s.s. Mengyao didn't understand, but she noticed a faint trace of worry and sadness on the girl's face...