Beauty and the Bodyguard

“Hm?” Mrs. Tang’s eyes lit up as she listened to her daughter. “What’s that, Yin? Lin Yi’s girlfriend doesn’t mind letting you be the mistress?”

Tang Yin blinked before realizing what her mother was talking about. She furrowed her eyebrows. “Mom, you’re not thinking of letting me be a mistress, are you? If so, don’t even think about it. There’s no way I’d ever bring myself to do something so embarrassing!”

Mrs. Tang didn’t really want to say anything anymore after that display of will. She patted Tang Yin’s shoulder. “Alright, Yin, cheer up. Who knows, Lin Yi might come back to you one day.”

“Who needs him to come back! I won’t even look at him!” Tang YIn stomped her feet, making up her mind. “I’m gonna go study. I was just too dumb and trusted him! It’ll never happen again!”

With that, Tang Yin ran into her room, feeling a lot better after letting that out to her mom. She didn’t feel as rejected and pressured.

Mrs. Tang looked at her daughter run off before shaking her head in regret, sighing to herself. Yin, you just don’t know how tough life is yet. You’ll know how hard it is without money once you’re my age….

She remembered all her classmates who weren’t even as pretty as she was when they were young.

But they were in rich families now, all taking care of their skin and face! She, on the other hand, had lost her school beauty’s looks to the passage of time!

Her daughter liked a man who also liked her. Even if she wasn’t the main girl, there wasn’t any shame in that! There was a classmate of hers she met at a reunion who got a divorce and became the mistress of a huge CEO, always showing off to everyone. No one looked down on her! They were actually quite envious of her, even experiencing what it was like inside her BMW before she left!

People judge you based on your wealth, a truth about the hopelessness of society, a truth people didn’t like to hear.

***

Xiaoxiao went through the blood extraction numbly before getting the CT scan. It was a battery of tests and checkups, same as always. The result would always be the same.

Xiaoxiao yawned as she laid on the hospital bed bored to death. Tianlong walked in and looked at his daughter. “What do you want to eat tonight, Xiaoxiao? I’ll take you, I took two days off. We can spend some time together!”

“It’s okay, you have work to do.” Xiaoxiao shook her head as she stared blankly at the cars outside the window, her tone indifferent. “Are the results out yet? When can I leave?”

Xiaoxiao only asked if the results were out and if she could leave. It was clear that she’d long since given up hope on getting cured. All she wanted now was for the whole thing to finish so she could leave.

She would’ve stayed in the hospital if it were curable.

“Not yet, but Doctor Zheng is an expert on hereditary diseases. He should know what to do!” Tianlong comforted.

“You don’t need to try and make me feel better. Even that first generation miracle doctor Lin Dongfang couldn’t do anything about Mom’s sickness. How are other doctors supposed to fix me?” Xiaoxiao said with a grimace. She’d lost all hope, wishing only to be able to do the things she wanted without restraint in the last stages of her life so she’d die without regret.

“Miracle Doctor Lin said that he could heal you. There’s just some circumstances that haven’t been fulfilled,” Tianlong said helplessly. “Miracle Doctor Lin said that given five years, he might be able to find a cure, but your mom couldn’t wait five years…”

“Isn’t he just making excuses for his incompetence?” Xiaoxiao harrumphed. “Who knows if he can actually cure me or not? He’s probably worried about his reputation.”

“That’s not it. Miracle Doctor Lin kept researching the special composition of your mom’s blood after her death. It’s just that he’s gone into isolation after our last meeting,” Tianlong said, feeling helpless.

“Yeah, he went into hiding because he couldn’t cure her!” Xiaoxiao didn’t care much for him. “That’s just what miracle doctors are! That stupid Miracle Doctor Kang too. What did he do, he just made a Golden Creation medicine! What else does he know? Miracle Doctor? What a joke!”

“You’re still young, you don’t know of the type of person Miracle Doctor Lin is. He’s a man with determination! He put himself at risk by going out and doing solitary research on poison.” Tianlong couldn’t bring himself to scold her daughter, but he did put on a lecturing tone. “You can’t disrespect him!”

“Fine, fine.” Xiaoxiao waved her hand. “If he has such determination, how come he’s in hiding?”

“Your mom’s sickness isn’t child’s play, it’s a really serious disease.” Tianlong smiled bitterly. “I tried to get into contact with him recently, but I couldn’t get ahold on him. Captain Yang, the man who brought me on a mission that year, has some involvement with Miracle Doctor Lin, but he’s gone into hiding as well…. ”

“Why did you bring me here for the checkups if you know how hard it is?” Xiaoxiao frowned.

“There’s still a couple days for the tests. I’ll walk you around Yanjing for a bit, get some fresh air,” Tianlong said, avoiding the question. Naturally, he, too, understood that there wasn’t much hope in the checkups this time around either, but it was better than nothing.

“Okay,” Xiaoxiao said quietly, not saying yes or no, evidently not very interested.

“Someone gave me some tickets to an auction. Are you interested?” Tianlong said, remembering the Yu’s auction. He’d received an invitation as well.

Tianlong’s division was the secret investigaion department, a secretive special ops team. They were very close with House Yu, and the Yu’s would always send many invitation tickets to the people of that department, despite the majority of them not having the time to actually participate. It was more of a gesture than anything.

“Auction? Let’s go take a look then!” Xiaoxiao hadn’t been to an auction in her life, so it actually interested her. She’d like to see one before she died. It’d suck if she died without knowing what it was like!

“But I won’t have the money for it if something catches your eye,” Tianlong said regrettably. “I have a high paying salary, but I can’t bid on items worth millions and ten millions….”

“Haha.” Xiaoxiao finally smiled and laughed. This was what she’d wanted, the feeling of having fun with her father. Whether or not they could buy anything was the least of her concerns.

She’d heard her dad tell her that they’d take a walk more times than she could count, and it’d always end in her father leaving for an unexpected mission, skipping out on her. He couldn’t do that if he got invited to this auction! “You need to commit this time!”

Tianlong was overjoyed to see the smile on his daughter’s face. “I won’t! There’s three auctions, I can at least stay with you for one!”

“Okay.” Xiaoxaio was more than satisfied with that. It was more than enough for her.