Chapter 26 - Commoner Beauty
Lin Yi nodded. Entertainment business, huh?
People managing businesses like KTVs or pubs, for most part, had more or less some sort of underworld connections. It wasn’t surprising at all, considering how places like these were subject to the most troublemakers. It wasn’t easy to survive without a strong enough background.
“Quite a big shot in the city, then.”
The information didn’t shake Lin Yi in the least. To him, no chairman or mafia boss matched up to the likes of that old guy back home.
There’d be nothing stopping Old Lin from doing whatever he pleased should Lin Yi somehow piss the old man off. He could flip Lin Yi over his legs and spank him, and he wouldn’t be able to fight back at all.
“Well, his family isn’t much compared to Chu Mengyao’s.” Xiaobo said with some disdain. Lin Yi could see that Zhong Pinliang didn’t rank very high in his likeability list. “Zhong Pinliang’s family only has a couple of local entertainment outlets, while the Chus have a real company, its branches spreading far and wide throughout the entire country!”
Lin Yi had his own share of info regarding Chu Pengzhan’s strength. If Pengzhan Industries was described as an aircraft carrier, then the businesses of the Zhong household could only be a mere couple of boats.
It was only natural, then, that Zhong Pinliang’s antics did nothing more than annoy Mengyao.
“You know a lot, don’t you!” Lin Yi smiled.
Xiaobo’s face reddened a little from the compliment. “Well, it’s Chu Mengyao, after all. Most of the boys here know at least that much about her. Chen Yushu’s a little more of a mystery.”
“How so?” Lin Yi was curious- he hadn’t met Yushu’s family before.
He thought Yushu was kinda following Mengyao around because of how powerful her family was, going home in Mengyao’s car and even eating at her home. Xiaobo’s words suggested otherwise, however.
“I heard that her brother’s a special ops soldier, the type you see in novels. He’s seriously pretty badass! There was this guy that couldn’t get Chen Yushu to be his girlfriend two years ago, and he tried to do something out of spite. Yushu’s brother found out a while later, and he beat the guy up so bad that he spent the next half year in the hospital! The thing here is how his parents kept quiet about the whole thing, even visiting the Chen house for an apology!”
Xiaobo continued explaining as he leaned in, his tone mysterious. “Just that alone proves how big a deal the Chen family is! Chen Yushu doesn’t go around causing trouble, though, so she’s still really popular. Tons of guys have a crush on her- it’s just that no one has the balls to try.”
Doesn’t go around causing trouble my ass. Lin Yi thought to himself, remembering the things Yushu had done to him.
She was always looking to have him fight Zhong Pinliang, and there was that secret she always threatened him with, too. Then there’s the washroom incident earlier! She even saw his thing… How did this qualify as not causing trouble?
Just thinking about it gave Lin Yi a headache. He wasn’t worried about Yushu’s brother coming after him- Yushu wasn’t an asshole that she’d just tell on him like that, he knew that much. She was way more open-minded than Mengyao, after all, and she wouldn’t make a fuss over it. Mengyao, on the other hand……
She probably loathed him even more. Sometimes Lin Yi felt that he’d rather be Yushu’s study companion instead of Mengyao’s- the Miss was a handful to deal with.
“Lin Yi, you’re not planning on going after them, are you?”
Xiaobo patted Lin Yi on the shoulder again when he went silent again.
Lin Yi shook his head, smiling bitterly. “Nah, I’m not.” She was his Miss, after all. It’d be like a servant in ancient times, running away with the lady.
“Heh heh, don't worry, there’s still one gem in this school that isn’t out of our reach!” Xiaobo whispered.
“Who?”
Lin Yi wasn’t particularly interested in who the girl was, but he did want to learn more about the school.
“Class nine’s Tang Yin.” Xiaobo answered, clearing his throat. “She’s the school’s commoner beauty. Really pretty, but she’s the same like us in terms of family background, always going to school in her uniform, doesn’t use any makeup… Yet even so, her natural beauty shines through.”
“Tang Yin?” Lin Yi liked the name, but wasn’t sure if she really was as amazing as Xiaobo described her to be.
“She’s not that special if we put her next to princesses like Chu Mengyao and Chen Yushu, though.” Lin Yi noticed the excitement in Xiaobo’s tone. “But well, she’s a little more within our reach.”
Songshan’s First was split into two parts- the rich and the poor. The rich always stuck together, chasing after pretty girls as they played their days away. Heaps of money would then be used after graduation to get them in their ideal colleges. Some even went overseas.
The poor always put their focus on their studies, working hard, aiming for their ideal colleges through sheer effort.
The poor, for the most part, didn’t bother with how the rich spent their schooldays, and the rich didn’t bother with how the poor spent their time buried in books.
The split wasn’t absolute, however- there were rich kids who studied, and there were poor kids who got in fights and even involved themselves with gangs.
But the same people stuck together. Zhong Pinliang’s lackeys, for example, had rich families just like him.
As a result, Kang Xiaobo believed Chu Mengyao and Chen Yushu to be leagues above their level- an unreachable dream.
The commoner beauty of the school, at least, was a realistic target.
Xiaobo’s smile had a hint of longing and expectation, and Lin Yi sighed softly.
Schools weren’t as straightforward and honest as he imagined them to be.
“You like her?” Lin Yi asked with a laugh.
“Hey, it’s not something I’m embarrassed about! I guarantee that many of the boys in our school have Tang Yin in their sights, too.” Xiaobo said with certainty. “You’ll see for yourself when you see her.”
Going after the commoner beauty? The notion was an interesting one… but Lin Yi shook it off. He was a study companion assigned to the Miss, he couldn’t just abandon her and go chasing after a girl.
Even if Chu Pengzhan didn’t say anything about it, the old man would.
Lin Yi wasn’t even sure what the deal with the chairman was, as well. It did seem like he wanted to get Lin Yi together with Mengyao, as things stood.
Indeed, that was as real a possibility as it got… He wasn’t related to the Miss at all, what other way was there to ‘give her some love’? It wasn’t far-fetched that he’d get fired if he went after some commoner beauty.
Three thousand per month wasn’t something Lin Yi was willing to risk losing!