Chapter 25   - Bad Influence

“See, Yao Yao? I win!” Yushu exclaimed the moment Lin Yi appeared.

“What?” Mengyao looked at her, blinking.

“I bet on Lin Yi, remember?” A blush appeared on her face as Yushu recalled the scene from the washroom.

She may not be timid like Mengyao, but there were still things that even she would blush at.

Mengyao’s silence, on the other hand, made it clear that she hadn’t yet recovered from the experience.

Lin Yi interrupted the girls as he walked back to his seat. “I didn’t win or anything, they just went to change their clothes.”

Mengyao wasn’t the only one feeling down- Lin Yi was embarrassed as well. It was more than just a body part, it was something precious to him, something he was supposed to show to his wife! Great, now some random girls saw everything.

Zhong Pinliang never appeared again the whole morning, and his lackeys were missing as well. They had to shower and get themselves a change of clothes, after all. The process took time.

The lunch bell rang at noon, and a guy with glasses sitting in front of Lin Yi turned around. “Yo, where are you eating?”

“I dunno. Is there a canteen in this school?”

Lin Yi responded with a question of his own instantly, glad that the the guy was nice enough to offer eating with him- he was troubling over where to go for lunch just moments before the bell rang.

“Yeah, I’ll take you there!” The man said as he reached out a hand. “I’m Kang Xiaobo.”

“Lin Yi. Nice to meet you.” Lin Yi said as he shook hands with Xiaobo.

Mengyao and Yushu vanished the moment the bell rang, but Lin Yi wasn’t worried about them. They were safe in the school.

Xiaobo walked shoulder to shoulder with Lin Yi as they walked out of the classroom. He was quite friendly.

“Hey dude, which school did you come from?”

“I actually came from a mountain village.” Lin Yi replied, not trying to hide his background in the slightest. “Didn’t really go to school before. Well, there aren’t any back there- it’s a poor place.”

“Ah! I’m guessing you have really good grades?”

Kang Xiaobo looked at Lin Yi intently, aware that the student body was made of two types- those who got in with money, and those who got in with grades.

Needless to say, as long as one had enough money, entering Songshan’s First School wasn’t a problem at all.

Those with good grades were further split into more groups. There were those who got a thousand kuai a month from the scholarship program, not even required to pay for anything at all.

Lin Yi said that the village lacked even a proper school, and Xiaobo could also tell from his clothing that he didn’t have a strong family background. It clearly wasn’t money that got him into the school.

That only left him with good grades.

“I’m okay...” Lin Yi smiled bitterly- his situation was pretty complicated, and difficult to explain. He decided to just let Xiaobo make his own assumptions.

“You’re so humble, dude.”

Kang Xiaobo got in the school with grades as well, and had always looked down on people like Zhong Pinliang, who were only in the school because of their parents. The fact that they played around all day didn’t help, either.

It was only natural that Xiaobo would take a liking to Lin Yi, who was the same as him.

Young schoolgirls were everywhere, and Lin Yi couldn’t help but look as they made their way to the canteen.

“Ho... You seem pretty into that!” Xiaobo chuckled after seeing Lin Yi glance about. He leaned closer and whispered. “But you know, there’s really only a few gems in our school.”

“What gems?” Lin Yi did look at a couple of girls on the way, but he really was just taking in the school environment as well as the facilities.

“Heh heh, acting all innocent, are we? I’m talking about the rarities, the rare ones!!” Xiaobo teased as he patted Lin Yi’s shoulder. “We’re at that age, you know? There’s nothing unnatural about lusting a little over pretty girls here and there, but actually going after one... You’ll only find yourself disappointed!”

Lin Yi could only smile bitterly as he listened to Xiaobo. The guy was a freaking wolf!

He looked like a gentleman, glasses and all... but he was just a pervy-ass teen!

Seeing Lin Yi silent only gave Xiaobo reason to make more assumptions that Lin Yi didn’t agree with his what he said. “Hey, don’t get pissed off or anything, but it’s true! Grades these days don’t do much, in this regard, at least. Girls only want the sexy, the good looking, and most importantly... the ones with packed wallets. Dudes like you and me? Forget it.”

“Heh... That’s an interesting logic you have there.”

Lin Yi smiled, disagreeing with Xiaobo’s perspective. Girls like Chu Mengyao, or Chen Yushu? Money held no meaning at all to the rich of that calibre. Why else would someone like Zhong Pinliang get put off all the time, if it really was money rich girls were after?

“Of course, though logic won’t be getting us anywhere either. Those rare ones in our school have their gazes set high, I tell you!” Kang Xiaobo replied, shaking his head.

“Who are the rare ones?”

Lin Yi decided to gossip a bit with his new friend, since there wasn’t much to do anyway. Having someone close to talk to at school wasn’t bad at all.

“Dude, you serious? Did you not see the girls in our class? We have two of these gems in there!” Xiaobo started getting excited.

It was the same in any school- it didn’t matter if the girls had nothing to do with you- simply having them in your class was enough for the others to get envious.

“You’re not talking about Chu Mengyao and Chen Yushu, are you?”

Lin Yi only knew two names from his class, and he’d learned from Mengyao’s details that she was the school beauty. Her best friend, at the same time, happened to be Yushu. It was as good a guess as any.

“Shit, one morning’s enough for you to get your hands on their names?” Xiaobo’s jaws dropped with shock as he stared at Lin Yi.

Xiaobo’s surprise meant only one thing, and Lin Yi wasn’t about to waste time explaining the weird sort of relationship he had with Chu Mengyao. He didn’t want to be labelled a pervert hasty enough to get himself the school beauty’s name, but he admitted to the accusation with silence- there really wasn’t much he could do about it.

“Haha, you don’t have to look like that. To tell you the truth, I bet eighty percent of the boys in our class have a crush on either of the two.” Xiaobo smiled at Lin Yi’s expression, pushing his golden spectacles up, its colors faded from being worn out. “Zhong Pinliang’s the only one who’s actually going after her, though.”

“Right, that guy. He’s pretty rich, isn’t he?”

As troublesome as it was, it remained a fact that Lin Yi was now Zhong Pinliang’s enemy. As long as he was tasked with Mengyao’s protection, a clash with the guy was inevitable unless Pinliang suddenly decided to stop going after her.

Lin Yi thought he’d scout the opponent from Xiaobo a little bit.

“Oh, you don’t know?” Xiaobo smiled as he explained. “Right. You’re from a mountain, I forgot. Zhong Pinliang’s family isn’t just normal rich. His dad Zhong Sanguo is the boss of Kaidi Hotels, and even big scale businesses like Echo KTV and Kaka Pub.”