The current Jianwen seemed quite ridiculous to Mengyao- what did it matter to him what type of person Lin Yi was, that was her business! ‘Take a look’? Take a look for what, and as who?

“Wha- I thought you had some objective or something!” Lin Yi was speechless. “I shouldn’t have said yes then!”

“It’s good too, actually- you can go put him in his place tomorrow! He’s always been super annoying.” Yushu said as she raised her fist. “He thinks he’s such a big shot and everything for being a Songshan Young Master- he’s just rich, that’s all!”

“Shu, your brother’s the leader of those Young Masters!” Mengyao reminded, speechless.

“My bro, huh? I actually find s.h.i.+eld Bro more capable than him, he couldn’t even handle that Song Lingshan! Look at how Lin Yi did it, just one word from him and the woman’s a good girl all of a sudden……” Yushu was getting excited talking about Lingshan.

“.......Shu, why do I feel like Lin Yi’s your real brother instead of Chen Yutian?” Mengyao frowned. This Shu wasn’t really in love with Lin Yi, was she?? Always ‘Lin Yi’ this and ‘Lin Yi’ that, and even molested and seen by him in the nude, kissed, hugged… Everything! Worst of all, she didn’t seem to be against any of that at all! Shu hadn’t really fallen for him, had she?

“Heh, of course he’s my real brother- I admire him and everything, but he’s way too weak in front of women. You think that Song girl would have her head so high up if he were even a little more hardcore?!” Yushu said with a grin, not a care in the world.

“Shu, you’re a girl too… Are you gonna be one of those submissive wives when you grow up? Or are you a m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.t or something?” Mengyao wondered why Yushu was speaking up for men all the time when she herself was a girl.

“Come on, Yao Yao, I just want s.h.i.+eld Bro to punish that An Jianwen for being so c.o.c.ky!!” Yushu said. “Oh, wait, I mean Big Bro Jianwen…….”

“.......” Lin Yi decided to go back to his room. He yawned and left the two girls alone as he headed for bed.

“You have my support, s.h.i.+eld Bro! I’ll be waiting for your good news tomorrow night!” Yushu called out.

“You know the type of family An Jianwen is from, Shu…… You’re causing trouble for Lin Yi!” Mengyao frowned helplessly. “He’s not a Zhong Pinliang that Lin Yi can just wipe the floor with, okay! What if something happens to him, you can’t just throw him into a mess like that.”

Mengyao treated Lin Yi with indifference and was even irritated by him sometimes, but she wasn’t an unrealistic person. She didn’t even hate Lin Yi’s presence in the house anymore, too- she’d never want to cause him trouble.

“Heh heh, are you worried for him, Yao Yao?” Yushu’s lips stretched into a wide grin, her eyes narrowed as she looked at Mengyao.

“What?? Me, worried?!” Mengyao hmphed. “He’s our follower, and An Jianwen’s gonna come here if he p.i.s.ses him off, and then we’ll have to protect him! You sending him into trouble is the same as getting us in trouble!”

“Oh, that’s okay- I’ll handle it myself if Jianwen bro comes!” Yushu said reliably- she was pretty confident with dealing with Jianwen.

“Alright, let’s just go to bed first.” Mengyao yawned- it was really late- Jianwen had dragged on for more than an hour.

On the second day, Xiaobo greeted Lin Yi at school excitedly. “Boss, you’re back!! I was scared you wouldn’t be able to make it to the birthday feast!”

“Nah, I said I’d only be gone two days, right? It’s just Thursday today.” Lin Yi said. “By the way, is it Sat.u.r.day or Sunday?”

“Sunday, but it’s not taking place in this city so we’ll have to depart Sat.u.r.day. My second grandpa lives the provincial capital Donghai.” Xiaobo said.

“Alright, Sat.u.r.day then.” Lin Yi nodded. “How’s Fen?”

“Her body isn’t that weak from the lack of protein anymore, and she’s ready to leave the hospital. I was planning on doing the paperwork later this afternoon!” Xiaobo said. “My parents are coming with me this Sat.u.r.day, I still haven’t told them about Fen… I wonder if they’ll accept it.”

“I don’t think all that’s important- what’s important is you.” Lin Yi waved his hand. “Xiaobo- do you really like Fen?” 

“You want the truth?” Xiaobo hesitated.

“Why the h.e.l.l wouldn’t I?” Lin Yi glared.

“To be honest, when I first saw her photo… It touched me, that’s all- she’s a pretty girl, after all, it was normal I’d want to chase her……” Xiaobo scratched his head embarra.s.sedly. “Just like how I used to like Tang Yin, or Chu Mengyao, Chen Yushu…… But I always knew that those were just fantasies- none of them would ever like me. I probably wouldn’t even know Tang Yin now if it weren’t for you, boss!”

“Me liking Fen… It was actually more compa.s.sion at first, because of how tragic her life had been…… I just couldn’t help myself from wanting to give her care and protection. After visiting her at the hospital every day, talking with her, eating with her, and getting used to her…… I start to miss her whenever I don’t see her that day. So I think it’s settled- I like her!”

“Do you like her or love her?” Lin Yi asked.

“Is there a difference?” Xiaobo shook her head.

“Probably……” Lin Yi sighed- he’d liked a girl once, too, the like like type. Her name was Xiaoyi.

(big translation note at the bottom of the chapter)

Some say that you’d walk into into fire or go through a forest of blades for someone you love- Lin Yi thought that his feelings for Xiaoyi shouldn’t be considered love with that basis, but… Why would he think about her so often if it wasn’t love?

The inside rules of his industry limited him to just his profession… Or was that just an excuse for his lack of courage to take that first step?

Perhaps it was a little of both… Or perhaps it was because of his inability to provide for Xiaoyi the type of life she wanted… At least, it had been.

But what about now? Lin Yi shook his head. Running wasn’t a solution to the problem, but now that he’d chosen that route all these years there was no going back to taking that first step.

“Boss, I feel like the difference between liking someone and loving someone isn’t important- the point is what I should do about my parents!” Xiaobo was full of concern. “They never wanted me to get a girlfriend in the first place, and with the way Fen is… What do I do??”

(The chinese character ‘xiao’ is present in some people’s names, but it also means ‘little’. I think i talked about this before but in the case where ‘xiao’ isn’t in the actual name of the person but just means ‘little’ like Lil’ Jones, I take out the ‘little’ part and leave the name as, for example, Shu instead of Little Shu. There’s no way to know if it’s part of the real name or if it means ‘little’ whenever a new name shows up not in a full name form, so it gets confusing when translated into English sometimes. Since Xiaoyi’s name still hasn’t appeared in full name form I’ll just use Xiaoyi first instead of Yi and a.s.sume that Xiaoyi is her name minus her surname, like Xiaobo, since there’s a Yi in Lin Yi already.)

so guys I have to go through all the chapters starting from chapter one, and as you can imagine that's a lot of work, so... I wanted to take a quick break to deal with that but I took one already, so I'll just settle with leaving the four day break chapters behind... sorry. Chapters will still come out at the rate of two per day so no worries there. I'll be really hard pressed to add more chapters onto the early chapter pile, too, so it's gonna remain 35 for a while.

tough times ahead guys, tough times indeed.