Tongcheng City, Sihai Group.
Li Qianqian, the chairman assistant, brought Lin Huai to the chairman’s office. She smiled professionally, “Mr. Lin, please have a seat first. The chairman will be back very soon.”
“If the chairman isn’t around, you can accompany me here.” Lin Huai assessed Li Qianqian all over with his gaze carried a hint of excitement. This Li Qianqian is in her twenties and wears a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. She is youthful yet gorgeous with a curvy figure. The business suit looks unexpectedly sexy on her. She really has an angelic face and a devilish body.
Li Qianqian smiled lightly. She had a pair of big and captivating eyes filled with charm, smile and seduction. She said coquettishly, “You have the guts to even flirt with the Sihai Group’s chairman assistant. Is everyone from the Dragon Shield Bodyguard Group so audacious?”
Li Qianqian’s voice was so soft that it could infatuate almost all men.
Lin Huai gulped and commended, “Not that I’m brave, it’s just that my mouth is to be blamed for always obeying my heart.”
Li Qianqian chuckled, “How old are you now, Mr. Lin?”
“Nineteen years old.”
“Oh, you’re much younger than me. I’m a big sister before you. You should be obedient, little boy.” Li Qianqian seemed to be around twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old.
Lin Huai smiled sneeringly, “My boy [1] isn’t little. Do you want to see it, young fair lady?”
Li Qianqian’s pretty face blushed. She stared at Lin Huai and grumbled coyly, “You’re getting lewder as you speak. However, I’m very curious. Sihai Group is regarded as the top three commercial company in Tongcheng and it should be Dragon Shield Bodyguard Group’s main client in anyway. Our chairman paid to hire an expert and he got a nineteen-year-old little boy like you?”
Lin Huai looked between his legs and said with a wicked smile, “I told you, I’m not little at all… If it weren’t for me being unoccupied these days, I’m afraid your chairman isn’t qualified to even hire me, though he plays an important role in Tongcheng’s business circle.”
Li Qianqian frowned slightly and her tone was somewhat unpleasant, “You’re too arrogant.”
“I’m just being true to the facts. Why’s your chairman not here yet? I’m too impatient to wait any longer.”
The office door was opened from the outside and Li Qianqian restored her seriousness. A thickly and powerfully built strong man walked in. The body of this strong man was covered with muscles and metallic radiance. He looked like an external martial art expert [2] at first glance. He was then followed by Wei Sihai which Lin Huai had seen the picture of this employer earlier.
Wei Sihai seemed to be in his forties. He had grey temples and a tired-looking face, but possessed swiftness and fierceness of a superior in between his eyes. He sat down directly on the office chair and crossed his fingers. There was a hint of astonishment in his eyes, “Mr. Lin Huai?”
“Yes!” Lin Huai crossed his legs. Facing the real deal, Lin Huai’s eyes became profound and unpredictable.
“You are so young.” Wei Sihai’s expression immediately returned to normal, “But this is better. The problem of age is now solved.”
Lin Huai said casually, “Pay me 60% of the remuneration first and the remaining 40% after the mission is completed.”
Wei Sihai clapped his hands and the strong man took out a small leather suitcase from under the table. He opened it on the table and it was full of banknotes.
“This is six hundred thousand yuan. The remaining four hundred thousand will be paid after the mission is completed.”
“No problem.” Lin Huai was ready to collect the money.
Wei Sihai nodded and said, “You’ve seen my sincerity and I’d like to see your strength too.”
The strong man raised a punch towards Lin Huai’s head out of a sudden. The strength of this punch was enough to crack a person’s head. Li Qianqian’s face darkened and thought, This punch is almost equivalent to murder!
The punch eventually stopped at a distance of a palm from Lin Huai’s face. It was exactly a distance of a palm because Tie Ta’s punch was wrapped within Lin Huai’s palm.
The strong man shouted ragingly, but he realised it was extremely difficult to withdraw his own punch from Lin Huai’s palm.
Lin Huai’s voice was full of fierceness. He punched back and said calmly, “It’s impolite to not return the favor!”
Tie Ta flew off and hit the wall on the opposite. The entire building quivered and a crack appeared in the wall!
Lin Huai knew that if he didn’t show his strength, it would be difficult for Wei Sihai to fully trust him just by relying on his age. Therefore, this punch was about thirty or forty percent of his strength. If he added another twenty percent of strength, Tie Ta wouldn’t be able to get out of bed for two months. When Lin Huai found out Wei Sihai and Li Qianqian were both appeared to be speechless, there was a faint smile at the corner of his mouth, “Has Chairman Wei see it this time?”
Wei Sihai looked horrified. Eventually, he let out a long breath and said respectfully, “I’ve seen it.”
The strong man patted his face with his two palms that were as big as cattail leaf fans [3], as though this would regain his consciousness. He then staggered up and stood behind Wei Sihai again. He looked at Lin Huai in awe and said, “Li Tie has met Mr. Lin.”
There was even a slight bit of terror in Li Tie’s voice.
Lin Huai smiled, “Li Tie [4]? Yes, your body is as tough as an iron, your strength is as strong as an ox. But you haven’t reached the acme of mastery.”
If this were said by someone else, Li Tie would definitely be unconvinced. But this strong man who was in his thirties listened obediently like a schoolkid when Lin Huai said it.
Wei Sihai gasped admiringly, “Mr. Lin Huai, your strength has broadened my horizon. Heroes indeed always emerge from the young. Bodyguard from the Dragon Shield Bodyguard Group is truly extraordinary. I was being disrespectful.”
Lin Huai said listlessly, “Now that my strength is checked out, let’s get straight into the mission. Your bodyguard’s strength is quite decent, why don’t you assign him to protect your daughter?”
Wei Sihai said, “I wish to make you a new student in her class. You’ll protect her within campus and my bodyguard will protect her outside campus. After all, my bodyguard isn’t suitable to be going in and out of school. Moreover, my daughter wouldn’t agree to have a bodyguard within campus, therefore you have to conceal your identity.”
Lin Huai looked at Wei Sihai astonishingly, “How many enemies have you offended that makes you concerned about your daughter’s safety?”
Wei Sihai scratched his hair miserably and hesitated for a few seconds. His voice was filled with distress and remorse, “I don’t have to worry about her safety if it was any other school. But she just happened to choose Yulan College. In fact, even if she couldn’t get into Peking University and Tsinghua University, she could definitely get into any other first-class universities in the country. She just happened to choose Yulan College…”
It was evident that Wei Sihai was deeply distressed by her daughter’s choice of Yulan College. Lin Huai couldn’t help but asked curiously, “Why can’t she go to Yulan College?”
Li Qianqian explained with her lovely voice, “Yulan College is a private vocational college. The original intention of the founder was that she doesn’t want too many students to drop out of school due to academic performance and family reasons. Therefore, the college has low requirements on the scores, yet provides teaching staff which is nearly as professionally competent as the ones in first-class universities. Other than that, students only have to pay a small amount of tuition fees each year as the founder will make a lot of subsidies.”
There was a hint of respect in Lin Huai’s eyes. He said solemnly, “The founder is very respectable.”
“What an idealistic dream but impractical in reality.” Li Qianqian sighed lightly, “The founder hopes to allow students with poor family conditions and failed results to be in a good university. However, they have long lost faith in learning. The gathering of large number of inferior students results in terrible discipline of the college. There are fights and scuffle every day and there was even a homicide in the previous year. Regardless from which point of view, Yulan College will not be an ideal place to go.”
Lin Huai was sorry to hear that. He thought, These students who are fortunate to enter college have obviously disappointed the founder. However, Lin Huai was still baffled and he asked, “Students are generally yearning for Harvard University or Peking University. Why does your daughter so persistent in Yulan College?”
Lin Huai’s words silenced Wei Sihai for a few seconds. Wei Sihai then said miserably, “It’s because the founder of this college was her late mother and it bears the weight of her mother’s ideal. Therefore, no matter how I stop her, she insisted on going!”
Lin Huai seemed to see a shadow of himself in this young lady…
Wei Sihai said solemnly, “My daughter has started school for about a month. I’ve previously sent someone into campus to secretly protect her, however, it attracted her suspicion. So, I’ll hand it over to you from now on. This one million yuan is the remuneration for your employment of two months. In the next half semester, I’ll persuade her to transfer. After you’ve become my daughter’s classmates, I hope you can also help persuade her to leave this dangerous school.”
Wei Sihai took a photo out of the drawer. Lin Huai glanced at the photo. Even though pretty women were common for Lin Huai, the crystal-clear eyes and unrivalled beauty of this beautiful girl had trembled his heart. Her skin was like a lovely lily that had just sprung into blossom from the water [5]; her gaze embodied clarity and intelligence. Lin Huai’s heart rippled with an unprecedented feeling besieged him. He involuntarily let out a faint sigh, “A lovely lily that springs into blossom from the water is naturally made and isn’t over-decorated.”
There was pride on Wei Sihai’s face, “This is my daughter. She is known as Wei Qimian, the princess of the Wei Family, to the outsiders.”
Lin Huai took a deep breath and restored his calmness. He arranged the following matters in a well-organised manner, “Firstly, have your daughter’s deskmate transferred school by tonight or switched to a different seat, in order to ensure that the only vacant seat in the class is next to your daughter. Secondly, have my identity forged appropriately in order to be flawless. I’ll be a poor student from the countryside who transferred to Yulan College from Tongcheng Music College as I couldn’t afford the tuition fees.”
Seeing Lin Huai was so well-organised and had planned everything adequately, Li Qianqian looked astonished whilst Wei Sihai smiled satisfyingly.
After both parties had talked over some details, Wei Sihai instructed Li Qianqian to send Lin Huai to the five-star hotel that he would be staying tonight, so that he could get some rest. As soon as Lin Huai had left, Wei Sihai immediately looked gloomily terrifying. There was a hint of struggle in his eyes.
Li Tie said cautiously, “Chairman, what are you worried about?”
“This Lin Huai has an unusual vigour within him. There’s a scary amount of awe-inspiring righteousness underneath his sloppiness… I’m afraid that he’ll mess up my plan once he got into the campus and provoke any mishap.” Wei Sihai sounded somewhat distraught, “However, he’s the best candidate to protect my daughter.”
Lie Tie said, “I don’t think he’ll affect anything. It’s just a two-month mission…”
“You’re right.” Wei Sihai also seemed to think that he had overthought. He exhaled softly, however, he reached for a pistol in the drawer and put it on the desk, “If he performs the missions normally, we’ll do our best to cooperate with him. However, if he affects everything that I’ve planned all these years, or he notices anything, you’ll use this pistol to kill him!”
The ice-cold muzzle emanated chilliness!
[1] A common slang in Chinese which meant either little brother or dick.
[2] External martial art: external style training methods prioritise muscular strength and physical athleticism whilst internal style training methods focus on internal energy (qi) cultivation. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styles_of_Chinese_martial_arts
[3] Picture as reference: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32574364959.html
[4] Li Tie: the literal definition of “Tie” (铁) is iron.
[5] A lovely lily that had just sprung into blossom from the water: a phrase used to praise a beautiful girl.