Beauty and the Bodyguard

Lin Yi, naturally, didn’t give much thought to the kiddos back there- they weren’t any different from the likes of Zhong Pinliang and Zou Ruoming, after all. Lin Yi may have been a high school student, but the immaturity these people displayed was quite ridiculous to him.

“Hey, I’ll get Uncle Fu to wrap up the procedures for your licence when we get back- get you another car, too, so you can drive us the next time we go out, alright?” Mengyao said as she glaced at Lin Yi from the rear view mirror.

“……” Lin Yi was currently deep in thought, too occupied to notice Mengyao’s words, assuming that she was talking to Yushu instead.

Mengyao wasn’t very happy at Lin Yi ignoring her. “Hey, I’m talking to you.”

“Hm? Me?” Lin Yi blinked as he looked at Mengyao. “Miss, you called?”

“Yes I called! Of course it’s you- who else? Shu?” Mengyao had her eyes on the road at the moment, unable to turn around to glare at Lin Yi. (The way Mengyao says this in the original sounds like she’s suggesting to call Lin Yi ‘uncle’… couldn’t think of a way to translate that joke in)

“Oh, I wouldn’t mind if you called me ‘uncle’.” Lin Yi said with a grin.

“Huh?” Mengyao paused for a bit before understanding what Lin Yi had meant. She slammed her foot down on the brake in a fit of rage.

“Aah-!!” Shu cried out, almost thrown out through the windshield. “Yao Yao, what the hell!”

“Ah… Sorry…” Mengyao only got even more irritated as she realized how completely unaffected Lin Yi was- she’d planned on shaking him up a bit with the brake, but almost got Yushu hurt instead.

“Lin Yi!!” Mengyao said with an angry glare as she turned around. “Did you hear what I said?”

“What?” Lin Yi asked, having missed Mengyao’s words to him earlier.

“Nevermind……” Mengyao decided to leave it at that, not very keen on bullshitting with Lin Yi anymore. My dad hired you, so you have to do what I say anyway- I don’t have to negotiate with you.

“Oh.” Lin Yi said, not thinking much of it. The Miss was probably just doing what misses did, getting pissed at trivial stuff again.

Mengyao was still upset about the whole incident as she pulled Yushu upstairs with her. She decided that Lin Yi was a jerk after all, acting so nonchalant and relaxed when her dad had hired him as Mengyao’s follower!

Lin Yi, naturally, didn’t dwell on it. This was just how young misses were, he supposed- it’d actually be quite out of place if she were kind to him, as a matter of fact.

He got into bed excitedly after brushing his teeth and washing up- he’d planned to chat a bit with Jiao Yazi, hoping to learn more about the things he could do with energy. He’d never thought that he’d be able to transfer energy before Yazi had told him, after all.

“You’ve come?” Yazi said, quietly standing in the training space within the jade.

“Elder Jiao!” Lin Yi said excitedly upon seeing the old man. “Elder Jiao, so what’s up with the energy inside me? How come I’m able to share it with people?”

“All living things have some level of energy within them, it’s just something we need to survive. How we absorb said energy, though- that’s what differs. Humans and animals, for example, gain energy through consuming food, while plants get it from sucking up the nutrients and water from the soil… What you do, on the other hand, is you suck in the energy from your surroundings.” Yazi explained. “The energy you absorb is a bit different from the other energy I mentioned, and it gets complicated from there, but they’re not too different in essence. You suck that in and your body changes it, turning it into a form another creature can receive. Naturally, this energy you absorb works on you as much as it does on other people, except you’re the only one who gets to transform the energy.”

“So you’re saying I can transfer the energy inside me to other people whenever I want?” Lin Yi asked excitedly. The way the explanation was going, it seemed like other people would be able to absorb the energy he shared with them without even training at all.

“Well, of course not.” Elder Jiao said, a little speechless at Lin Yi’s statement. “At least not from what I’ve learned about the first stage. Its impossibility is a certainty there, but I don’t know if the same rule applies to the other stages. I haven’t seen the scroll, after all, so I can’t say for sure.”

“Then about what I did today……” Lin Yi continued, a little disappointed.

“Didn’t I just explain that- what happened today happened only because of the deficit of energy inside the man’s body. He didn’t have enough to support his basic bodily functions, and it’s only during special cases like that where you’d be able to send your energy inside of him.” Elder Jiao explained. “A healthily functioning body won’t accept the energy you’re offering simply because it doesn’t need it. Although, keep in mind that I’m explaining this without full knowledge on the Art of Dragon Mastery- it’s something my master’s master left behind, after all.”

Elder Jiao’s explanation was a bit complicated, but Lin Yi caught the gist of it. His energy could only be sent to someone else’s body only when it was an emergency; it wouldn’t work on a normal body with no problems whatsoever.

“So basically a person needs to have some sort of problem with their body for me to be able to send energy into them?” Lin Yi asked.

“You can say that, but think of the effects from the energy infusion as something like maintenance- meaning it wouldn’t be doing anything like restoring a damaged organ to its original state.” Yazi continued. “I said this earlier, as well- you can stabilize and save the old guy all you want, but curing his disease… It’s just impossible.”

“Well, I do actually have other ways to cure illnesses, through acupuncture needles and herbal soups in Eastern medicine- I can still help someone recover gradually.” Lin Yi said, not as disappointed anymore. Just saving someone from the brink of death in an emergency was amazing enough- he could always start curing the problem after keeping the patient alive.

There was no reason for him to offer a service like that to the old man, however- the two were completely unrelated, and passionately overextending would result in negative results: people would think he harbored other intentions.

Having had his questions answered, Lin Yi then went on to calm his heart down before he entered a training posture.

“I say, young man Lin- what’re you planning to do?” Elder Jiao interrupted abruptly.

“Uh, training.” Lin Yi answered, perplexed. Couldn’t Elder Jiao tell what he was doing, with his posture and everything?

“Why would you train the first stage again? You don’t have the scroll for the second stage, and the energy you’d absorb wouldn’t react very well if you didn’t have the proper chant- meaning it’s pretty easy for your body to overflow and explode with energy if you stuff too much into yourself!” Elder Jiao said with a glare, as if wondering whether or not Lin Yi were an idiot for setting himself up for an explosion.

“Uh……” Lin Yi wasn’t expecting something like that- it really was fortunate for him to have established a connection with Elder Jiao before he tried something like this. He’d be screwed if he continued the training after somehow breaking through the first stage one day.

“But… Didn’t I waste a bit of energy to heal the old guy today?” Lin Yi asked a little awkwardly. “Don’t I have to replenish that or something?”

“It’ll recover itself on its own after one night’s sleep, you don’t need any training for that.” Elder Jiao said with a roll of his eyes, speechless. This reckless kid has no idea what he’s doing at all!

where’s the voting link?!

*[Long Taos]: side characters in Chinese operas who perform acrobatics and fight scenes

*[12.47 to 13.07]: don’t ask me about the tree sap