Chapter 241 - You Sure You Want Half?

"It's about Fen……" Xiaobo said.

"What, have you made your mind up?" Lin Yi wasn't expecting it to be that fast.

"No, that's not it…." Xiaobo shook his head, a little embarra.s.sed. "This kind of thing is a big deal. I need to consider it carefully and spend some time with her first… I want to make some money for Fen to be treated!"

'You wanna make money for Fen's medical fees?" Lin Yi blinked- Xiaobo was willing to do that before he even confirmed his feelings for her? Was he this great a guy?

Lin Yi had, since a young age, learned to keep out of things that weren't his business- his environment and the ways his two mentors trained him gave him a cold personality. He wouldn't bother if it didn't concern his friends or himself.

"Yeah…" Xiaobo nodded. "Boss, you know anywhere I can work a job?"

"It's gaokao soon, how're you gonna work?" Lin Yi said, not quite sure what to think of Xiaobo's decision.

"Gaokao… It's actually not that important. As long as there's money I'll be able to get in college- a lot of them are a.s.sociated with high schools." Xiaobo said with a sigh. "Boss, with my grades, it's pretty much impossible for me to get into a better college. I won't have very good job opportunities if I graduate from a bad college."

Lin Yi nodded- Xiaobo was making sense, but not everything he said was right…

"But, that job isn't gonna get you enough at all- you won't even be able to use that to get into an a.s.sociated college, let alone pay for Fen's bills!" Lin Yi wasn't trying to discourage him, but that's how it was- even two to three thousand kuai a month was considered a high alary.

Xiaobo was a bit disappointed and disheartened from the words, but Lin Yi was right- it wasn't enough. "My grandfather's just too old fas.h.i.+oned- if he'd opened a medicine factory as well then things wouldn't be like this! That recipe's registered under my second grandfather's name now, I can't sell it even if I wanted to now!"

"Ah……" Lin Yi didn't say anything, but a plan started brewing inside his head.

He was eating lunch with Xiaobo in the canteen when Jingyi called him again.

"Lin Yi, have you decided? Can you help me?" Jingyi's voice was a little rushed- it had to be quite a pressing matter for her to have called again so soon.

"Miss Sun, shouldn't you be the one deciding? Have you agreed to my terms?" Lin Yi responded with a question.

"Your terms….." Jingyi remembered Lin Yi asking for half of what the opposing party was demanding- she'd thought of it as a joke, but it seemed like Lin Yi was serious. "You… sure about this?"

"Absolutely! I'm sure!!" Lin Yi said. "That's the rule for us Grand Thieves, it's what I've been taught. If you can't accept my terms then let's stop here- I still need to get back to lunch!"

"Wait, Lin Yi- where are you? I'll treat you to lunch, let's talk about this!" Jinyi said quickly, afraid that Lin Yi would hang up on her again.

"Oh. Then wait for me at the food street behind Songshan's First School- I'm there." Lin Yi, naturally, wouldn't turn down money delivered to him.

"Alright, I'll leave right now- be there in ten minutes." With that, Jingyi hung up.

"You have something to do, boss?" Xiaobo asked, not understanding Lin Yi's conversation with Jingyi.

"Yeah. You eat first- there's something I need to do." Lin Yi said as he walked out of the canteen.

Ten minutes later and Lin Yi spotted Jingyi, who came in a red Audi A41. He wasn't expecting Jingyi to have her own car- he remembered her arriving at the bar in a cab.

Thinking about it, no one went to a bar in their own car- how'd they get home if they got drunk?

Lin Yi wasn't wearing his school uniform today- it was with Tang Yin. Jingyi, as a result, wouldn't think that Lin Yi was a student here- she just a.s.sumed that he happened to be having lunch there.

"Get in!" Jingyi said with a wave of her hand, to which Lin Yi responded by getting into the co-driver seat.

He sized Sun Jingyi up- she was looking more elegant than she had been in the bar, and more dignified in her white collar s.h.i.+rt.

"Where are we eating?" Jingyi had noticed Lin Yi's gaze, but didn't really mind- she was actually feeling pretty proud over it. "What's wrong, little handsome? Like what you see? Maybe help this big sis out then?"

"You're not over twenty." Lin Yi said faintly. "You think pulling your hair up makes you a big sis?"

"......" Jingyi almost crashed her car into a wall. "How… How did you know?"

"You're making yourself look older for the sake of talking business, right…" Lin Yi said, dodging the question. As someone adept in Eastern medicine, Lin Yi was able to estimate a person's age by looking at the details in the neck and face, for example.

"Alright then- but you have to admit, I'm still older than you!" Jingyi said, not dwelling on the topic- talking to this man would only be disadvantageous to her, and she had to readjust herself.

"Older than me by two years? They say that doesn't count- you have to be at least three years older." Lin Yi shook his head. "Man, your age is a bit in that weird spot- the spot I just happened to not have any interest in….."

Jingyi's eyes were wide open- was this guy trying to p.i.s.s everyone off when he talked? What was he even talking about, not having interest in her because she was two years older instead of three?

"Tell me- what do I have to do for you to help me?" Jingyi said through gritted teeth- she'd have kicked him out the car if she didn't need his help.

"Help you? It's simple, I gave you my terms. It just depends on if you agree or not." Lin Yi adjusted his seat into a more comfortable position- Jingyi must not have had a lot of men in her car- the gap for the legs wasn't very big.

"You know what their chairman's terms are?" Jingyi asked, not quite sure if she should be laughing or crying.

"They've gotta be a lot harder to accept than just hiring me with a huge compensation to steal their stuff. I don't know what kind of units they're going by, so how am I supposed to know if your compensation's high or not?" Lin Yi repsonded with a question of his own.

"Then you sure you want half of what they're asking for?" A nice little plan came up as she blinked her eyes like a sly fox.

"I'm sure. It's my mentor's rule." Lin Yi nodded, looking pretty serious and solemn as he did so.

('mentor' here has the same characters as 'mentor's mentor', which i translated as grand mentor last time.. The meaning here doesn't mean mentor's mentor, but more like uncle sifu instead of main sifu)

"Your mentor's a grand thief as well?" Jingyi asked curiously. "Then what about your sifu?"

"My mentor's a world cla.s.s master thief, the best there is, but my sifu doesn't steal stuff." Lin Yi said faintly.

Chapter 242 - Missed Something

Sun Jingyi curled her lips, evidently not believing Lin Yi.

Lin Yi was good- he'd proven that by beating an iron fist user of the Wu house at hand speed.

But Jingyi didn't believe what Lin Yi had said about his mentor- world cla.s.s? The best there was? Why would Lin Yi be holed up in a small city like Songshan, if that were the case… He even accepted that job where she paid him a thousand kuai for- wasn't he a bit cheap?

World cla.s.s thief- how rich would a thief of that caliber be?

And why was his mentor a master thief, but not his sifu? What was up with them?

Jingyi, as a result, subconsciously labeled Lin Yi's words as bulls.h.i.+t.

"Alright then, if you're sure half of their demands is what you want, then it's a deal." Jingyi said. "But you better not regret it!"

Lin Yi frowned- this girl had that weird expression on her face, and he couldn't help but get suspicious… Was something up?

Yet there really didn't seem like anything could go wrong… Was what they were asking for not worth much? That couldn't be the case- why would Jingyi go out of her way to hire him if so?

He felt that something was amiss, but couldn't quite pin it down.

"Hey, so what's it gonna be?" Jingyi rushed. "You're younger than me, but you're still a man! You're not gonna go back on your word, are you, handsome?"

"Ah…. Fine, I won't regret it! I'll take half of what they're asking for!" Lin Yi said, helpless- he did announce to her that he'd accept half of their demands…

"Alright, don't forget what you said!" Jingyi was getting a little excited- Lin Yi actually said yes. "Let's go eat first, I'll bring you to someplace good!"

Lin Yi's heart dropped at Jingyi's excited face- something really was up!! What did he miss..? He decided to stop thinking about it after straining his brain for a bit- what was the worst that could happen? Stealing some doc.u.ments wasn't a hard task- so be it if he wasn't going to get paid for it; it wasn't a big deal.

Jingyi's 'someplace good' turned out to be a food stall in a food street, much to Lin YI's surprise and speechlessness. He'd thought that the girl was bringing him to some high-end restaurant.

Jingyi parked her car by the roadside and got out of the car with Lin Yi. "We're here! They have genuine spicy skewers here, they're really good!"

"........" Lin Yi didn't know what to say, but it was true that he personally preferred food like that.

"Boss, gimme a pot!" Jingyi was evidently quite familiar with the practice as she asked for a pot from the stall owner- she started picking some skewers out from his cart before turning to Lin Yi. "Take what you want- we'll add up the price from the skewer sticks later."

Lin Yi smiled, and started picking skewers out and putting them in the pot as well.

The two then found themselves a vacant table and seated themselves as Jinyi started adding seasoning onto the skewers.

"Pay up, pay up!!" Lin Yi and Jingyi were just about to start eating when a couple of tough-looking men came walking over to the stall owner.

"Scar Bro… Didn't I just pay you a few days ago……" The stall owner's face paled before he put on a smile to greet the men with.

"Few days ago? It was Cow Bro's mom's birthday a few days ago, that money was an offering to her! Today's when you pay up the protection fee!" A man in a singlet said impatiently- there was a scar on his face.

"Uhh……" The stall owner knew that these guys might be lying about the whole thing, but he was in their territory…

Scarface here was a gangster in the area- he specialized in collecting 'protection money' from the stall owners here.

"Hurry up! You wanna go out of business or what??" Scarface threatened as he took a skewer from Lin Yi's table, throwing the stick back after finis.h.i.+ng.

"Hey, don't throw your stick back here- we're gonna have to pay for that." Lin Yi frowned.

"Hm?" Scarface paused- he'd never thought that there'd be a customer b.a.l.l.sy enough to be talking to him like that. He was about to start yelling when he noticed Jingyi, his eyes widening and a pervy smile forming on his face. "Ah, is that so! Don't worry about it, big bro here's gonna treat ya. You guys, come over- we'll eat together!"

With that, Scarface seated his a.s.s on the chair beside Jingyi's, his eyes fixed on her. "Hey there, girl- order what you want, big bro's buying! Want some beer?"

Jingyi brows tightened- she hadn't expected Lin Yi to be this good at attracting trouble. These people were only here for the protection money, and they'd leave right after collecting it… The stall owner wouldn't even charge Lin Yi for that skewer stick in the first place, he saw what had happened! Why did Lin Yi have to say something like that?

"Did I say you could sit here? Do I know you?" Lin Yi wasn't too pleased at this jerk trying to hit on Jingyi- the girl was his employer at the moment! How dare he do this right in front of him?

Lin Yi didn't like to b.u.t.t into other people's business, but this concerned him directly- Scarface had sat down because of what he'd said, after all.

"The f.u.c.k you think you are, you son of a b.i.t.c.h?" Scarface turned to push at Lin Yi- the guy was a hindrance already, and this was a good time to get rid of him.

What answered Scarface was a slap- His hand hadn't been quite satisfied with hitting Ruoming's face earlier, and there were other people watching, too, the dean included.. He had to hold back a lot.

Yet there was no need for that here, and Scarface's face bulged up like a dumpling.

"I hate people who talk about my mother like that!" Lin Yi had been motherless since a young age, and curses that involved her was a big taboo for him.

"You… You hit me?" Scarface stared at Lin Yi in disbelief as he tried to comprehend what had just happened- he was a tyrant here in this food street, and no one even dared raise their voice at him! Lin Yi's slap didn't seem real at all!

"Scram." Lin Yi said with a disdainful look at Scarface- this was the type of person he looked down on the most, messing with women even on top of his protection money collecting.

"You wanna die? You don't have enough p.u.b.es for this s.h.i.+t!" Scarface was so p.i.s.sed that the whole thing amused him. He picked a bottle of beer on the next table and threw it at Lin Yi. "We aren't playing games here- this is how you do it!!"