Beauty and the Bodyguard

“Probably. I don’t know what he’s doing, acting like a child at that age,” Xuemin said with a smile. “He didn’t mean what he said about me losing my wits. That’s why he came back with the documents I asked for so quickly. He doesn’t have anything against you; he was just saying that to me, to vent some of that dissatisfaction with me! Yi, he involved for no reason. It would’ve been the same for anyone.”

“I see, I see.” Lin Yi nodded, enlightened. “But Uncle Guan seems to be doing rather well? He doesn’t rely on the family anymore?”

“Not really, not after last time.” Xuemin shook his head and gave a wry smile. “But, Xiaoxiang’s lucky. He found a sponsor even more powerful, and now he’s doing very well. He does come visit once in a while to prove how he doesn’t need me to succeed.”

“Haha, I didn’t think Uncle Guan had that side to him.” Lin Yi smiled. “He probably knows you did what you did for his sake. It’s just that he hasn’t gotten over it yet.”

“He knows. You’re right, he just hasn’t gotten over it,” Xuemin said. “Alright, let’s stop talking about him. I’ve gotten used to it after all these years. He looks apathetic around me, but he still cares.”

“Wonder who _my_ parents are…. Haha,” Lin Yi said, a little emotional. He’d only understood what it meant to have parents after growing up, but he never managed to get over thinking about how his parents had abandoned him. Fortunately for him, he had two mentors who loved him. It was enough of a replacement for parental love.

Xuemin paused. He’d made some guesses at Lin Yi’s background and even thought that he was the descendant of the man who’d given him some pointers. It was one of the reasons why he trusted Lin Yi unconditionally, but he just never asked the question aloud.

Lin Yi never talked about it, so he didn't think it was appropriate to just mention it out of nowhere. He was also worried that it might be meant to be secret, and Lin Yi not being able to answer his question would only make things awkward.

“You… don’t know who your parents are?” Xuemin looked at Lin Yi, surprised.

“Haha, I have two mentors. They treat me nice, like I’m their son. They’re a little strict, but they do it for my sake.” Lin Yi wouldn’t hide that information intentionally. There wasn’t much to hide anyway.

“It’s good you think that way. As long as it’s someone who treats you well, it doesn’t matter if they’re your real parents or not. You can always treat them as so, right?” Xuemin smiled. “Shifu, shifu, that means a fatherlike teacher!”1

“Yeah, that’s right. I didn’t really miss out on my childhood, so my mentality’s pretty normal.” Lin Yi nodded seriously.

“Did your _shifu_ teach you medicine?” Xuemin asked after some hesitation.

“Yeah. One taught me martial arts, and the other taught me medicine. There’s a bad shifu too. He teaches me how to steal and gamble,” Lin Yi said with a wry smile.

“I see.” Xuemin felt his head aching a little from the complexity of Lin Yi’s relationships with his _shifu_. “If your medical skills are this good, then your _shifu_ —”

“Haha, that’s not something I can tell you, Grandpa Guan. Both my old man _shifu_ and my martial arts _shifu_ have a bit of a special case going on with their identities. So, sorry, but I need to keep it a secret until I get their permission.” Lin Yi didn’t want to hide too much from Xuemin, but these sensitive matters should only be discussed with their permission.

Matters like these were kept unclear even to people close to him, like Huaijun.

“It’s alright, I was just asking.” Xuemin was a little disappointed, but understood where Lin Yi was coming from. He wasn’t wrong to keep that information hidden. “Let’s talk about the company then. For the initial stage, only the painkillers and injury medications can be released. There’s no formulas for the other types, so I can’t make any decision there.”

“Haha, I do have other formulas for those types, but I wonder which ones will sell better?” Lin Yi wasn’t well-versed in the business side.

“Well, as long as it’s effective, anything sells,” Xuemin said. “Common cold medicine, for example, will sell well if you add a couple of side effects to it! But medicines like that have old, stable brands and companies already. It’s a little pointless to go into that competition now.”

“Cold medicine formulas are set already. Even if I improve them there won’t be too much of a difference. Our best bet is using acupuncture or cupping, but unless we’re in a clinic, it’s impractical. We can’t just mark acupuncture needles and cups as common medicine people buy, right?” Lin Yi nodded with a smile.

“Actually, I’m not an expert myself in business. It’s just my personal opinion,” Xuemin said. “You should hire an expert to manage the company.”

“True, but it’s not easy to just find a manager.” Lin Yi understood what Xuemin was saying. “There’s the matter of trust, and the matter of ability…. Whether or not the medicine company starts with a bang depends on the manager’s competence.”

“That’s a question for Mr. Lai. He’s been in the business industry for a long time; he’s experienced. Asking him to locate a manager shouldn’t be difficult at all!” Xuemin said. “At least it’s much easier than if we do it.”

“That’s true.” Lin Yi nodded.

Fatty Lai came rushing back after around half an hour, a couple of bags of medicine in his hands as he burst into Xuemin’s study. “Miracle Doctor Lin, I bought them! I bought them all!”

With that, Fatty Lai put the bags in front of Lin Yi on the coffee table.

Lin Yi looked at how many bags there were on the table. How come there were so many? Even if he’d asked for one gram per medicinal item, there shouldn’t be this many!

Lin Yi opened the first bag to check the number of medicinal reagents inside. It was according to his list, five ounces of items. Lin Yi didn’t understand. “This is all we need. What’s with the other bags?”

“The other bags have the same contents, but from different places!” Fatty Lai panted. “There’s a lot of scammers nowadays, so I was worried that some stores would sell fake medicine. I thought that it’d be safer to visit other stores.”

Lin Yi didn’t know what to say. These weren’t cheap. Fatty Lai sure didn’t mind spending money! He remembered how he’d gifted him an entire skyscraper to please him…. This didn’t seem like much compared to that.

* * *

1. Literal translation of the characters _shi_ and _fu_ means teacher and father, respectively.

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