Chapter 88 - Well-Mannered
So just in case it wasn"t clear in the comments- the rude voting calls were done jokingly, not the polite ones...
"Here"s a hundred, keep the change…" Zou Ruoming said as he pulled a hundred kuai bill out, placing it on the table in front of Mrs Tang. He didn"t want to spend a single second longer than necessary in Lin Yi"s presence- the guy was watching him…
"Nono, that won"t do…" Mrs. Tang was about to prepare some change for the money when Zou Ruoming waved dismissively, smiling bitterly as he turned and left.
Mrs. Tang wasn"t expecting any payment from Zou Ruoming and his friends from the start. They"d ordered around fifty or sixty kuai"s worth of food, along with beer, as well- Mrs. Tang earned something like eighty or a hundred kuai every day she put her stand up, and Zou Ruoming freeloading almost half of that was no small matter to her. It was Zou Ruoming she was dealing with, however, and there wasn"t much she could do but sigh helplessly.
Yet one word from Lin Yi and Ruoming paid up without hesitation, just like that! He"d even paid a couple tens of kuai more, and Mrs. Tang couldn"t help but feel grateful towards Lin Yi for the gesture, contemplating how different princes could be. How did Lin Yi look like such a well-mannered boy, while the words thug and gangster were scrawled all over Zou Ruoming"s face?
Yet the thug left after getting slapped by the well-mannered guy, running away without so much as a single retort! With that in mind, Mrs. Tang started taking a liking to Lin Yi. She noticed her daughter glaring at Lin Yi and Kang Xiaobo, not quite understanding what she was doing. "Yin, what"re you doing? We have customers!"
Tang Yin wasn"t expecting the two to just sit their a.s.ses down at the stand and start ordering food- as far as she could see, this Xiaobo guy jumped out under Lin Yi"s orders… Lin Yi, without a doubt, harbored the same intentions toward her that Zou Ruoming had: she didn"t see any other reason for these princey boys to pay attention to her.
Lin Yi looked like a proper, nice guy, and didn"t even try flirting with Tang Yin or anything of the sort, but the act really turned her off- the guy was just violently slapping Zou Ruoming and Fatty across the face, what did he think he was doing after that, sitting there and acting like a good student for her mother to see? Tang Yin was especially irritated when she noticed her mom taking a liking to the guy, even telling her to go wait on them… The guy just helped her get a hundred kuai back, was that really enough for her to fall into his trap?!
Years of similar encounters had transformed Tang Yin into a bit of a porcupine- she"d always lock her heart up whenever boys started making a move on her. It was her natural state of self defense.
Although, she couldn"t really just disobey her mother like that. She walked over to the stand and grabbed two bottles of beer, placing them on Lin Yi and Xiaobo"s table before walking back to Mrs. Tang.
"Bottle opener…" Xiaobo asked carefully with a bitter smile- Tang Yin looked pretty displeased for some reason.
"Yin, what"s wrong with you today? Help open the beer bottles for your friends!" Mrs. Tang didn"t know what was going on- her daughter"s face was all cold all of a sudden… Didn"t she have her head lowered, all helpless and everything when Zou Ruoming was here? So it was fine to put on a face when it was a well-mannered Lin Yi, was it?
Tang Yin would have exploded with irritation were she to learn what sort of thoughts her mother was thinking- him, well-mannered?! Didn"t she see the guy slap the fatty off his feet? What was so well-mannered about that?!
"It"s fine." Lin Yi said with a smile- he didn"t know what he"d done to p.i.s.s this girl off, but Tang Yin"s displeased att.i.tude towards him didn"t go unnoticed. He decided to leave her be. Girls, I guess.
With that, Lin Yi put his thumb against the bottle lid, popping it open with a strong flick before doing the same to Xiaobo"s as well.
"Really, Yin! You should be grateful your friends aren"t like Zou Ruoming- he"d have thrashed the stand already if you did that to him!" Mrs. Tang eyed Tang Yin helplessly. "Are you helping out, or what? Go back to cla.s.s if you"re not, I can manage the stand on my own!"
"I……" Tang Yin felt so wronged as her mom scolded her- what was she talking about, the guy was exactly like Zou Ruoming! He was a Big Four, a Big Four! Just like him! You think he"s so well-mannered now, do you? He"s trying to chase me, don"t you get it!!
Mrs. Tang sighed as she handed two tofu curl skewers to Tang Yin. "Here, the tofu curls are ready, serve it to them."
"Sure…" Tang Yin took the skewers angrily as she marched slowly to where Lin Yi was- the more she looked at Lin Yi"s composed nice guy face, the more p.i.s.sed off she got! She didn"t know where the courage came from, but Tang Yin planted her foot on Lin Yi"s shoe upon reaching him, acting as if she"d done it on accident.
Hmph, well-mannered, right? Trying to please my mom so bad, huh? Let"s see how well-mannered you can get when I squeeze your foot down! Let"s see your true colors, nice guy!!
Lin Yi blinked as he raised his head. What the… Why was this lady stepping on his foot like that? The force was nowhere near painful, but Lin Yi wanted some sort of explanation- he didn"t want to just get stepped for no reason.
"Um……" A spark of excitement lit up in Tang Yin as Lin Yi opened his mouth. Well-mannered, right?! Nice guy, right?! This is what you get for acting like that, remember it. Tang Yin put on an apologetic smile as she looked at Lin Yi. "Sorry, stepped on you."
"Oh… It"s okay…" Lin Yi didn"t know what else to say- the girl had apologized anyway. He only shook his head bitterly.
Although, Tang Yin"s foot seemed to still be on his foot… She didn"t leave it alone until after stepping on it two more times, a trace of glee flashing in her eyes as she put the skewers down and left.
"......" Lin Yi didn"t know what to say- the girl was clearly doing it on purpose! What was with these young ladies nowadays, did he look like an easy target for bullying or something?
It was Chen Yushu and Chu Mengyao before, but weird Miss Yushu had his "secret" to threaten him with, and there wasn"t much he could do about it. Mengyao"s father was his employer, so there wasn"t much he could say in that regard, as well… But what was with this Tang Yin, taking the initiative to step on him like that…?
Lin Yi decided to let it go- people would burst out laughing if this spread out. Eagle, getting pushed around by a couple of girls……
"Boss, doesn"t Tang Yin look a little angry with you? What did you do?" Xiaobo noticed the att.i.tude as well- something was wrong. The girl was coming straight at Lin Yi.
"How am I supposed to know? I just met her!" Lin Yi replied with a shake of his head.
"Maybe you did something to p.i.s.s her off some time ago, without you realizing it?" Xiaobo didn"t understand how Lin Yi could have crossed Tang Yin- he"d just transferred to the school a couple of days ago, and it was the first time the two even met!
"You think I"d forget someone with a face like that? I wouldn"t say she"s the prettiest girl I"ve met, but she"s gotta be in like the top three or something." Lin Yi said innocently with a shrug.
"That"s true." Xiaobo nodded in agreement upon hearing Lin Yi"s words. Tang Yin"s radiant beauty wasn"t something one could simply forget- boys wouldn"t be falling for her with just one look at her, if that were the case.
"Let"s not talk about that- I"m starving!" Lin Yi said as he picked a tofu curl skewer up and started eating. "Not bad, it"s pretty good!"
"Heh heh, of course it is- don"t forget whose mom made that." Xiaobo grinned pleasantly at Lin Yi"s praise.
"......" Lin Yi looked at Xiaobo silently, not quite sure what to say. "Dude, why"re you acting like she"s your mom..?"
Xiaobo cleared his throat awkwardly in response. "Let"s eat, let"s eat! Come on, boss- a toast!" Xiaobo said with a raise of his beer.
Lin Yi raised his drink as well, tapping it against Xiaobo"s bottle with a smile.
It wasn"t long before the rest of the food arrived one by one, but Tang Yin didn"t seem to be done with Lin Yi- she"d either slam the skewers on the table or b.u.mp into Lin Yi on purpose…
Lin Yi found it a little intriguing as he looked at the p.i.s.sed off Tang Yin- she seemed to want Lin Yi gone from the stand!
There was still a big cla.s.s left at night, and both Lin Yi and Xiaobo refrained from too much drinking. Xiaobo stood up after finishing his beer and food with Lin Yi. "Aunty, how much for the food?"
"Ah, Yin! Go take a look at what their orders were!" Mrs. Tang said, currently occupied with other tables.
"Eighty!" Tang Yin said with a glare at Lin Yi. Why don"t you show me some of your well-mannered personality after eating some overpriced skewers?
"Hah?" Xiaobo paused at the number- there was no way what they"d ordered would go that high, it had to be around the forty kuai mark, so how the h.e.l.l did it add up to eighty? One look at the vocal Tang Yin, however, and Xiaobo decided to just comply- he didn"t want to be arguing with his G.o.ddess, after all. He was just about to hand a hundred kuai bill to her when Lin Yi spoke up.
"Wait. Isn"t it a bit off? I"ve calculated it a bit earlier- twenty mutton skewers should be twenty kuai, the mutton steak skewers eight, two kuai for the tofu curls, and four kuai for the chicken necks and beers each right? Shouldn"t that be thirty eight kuai?"
"Uh…" Tang Yin wasn"t expecting Lin Yi to have calculated the whole thing so meticulously, and she wasn"t sure how to handle the situation she"d gotten herself into. She wasn"t greedy or anything, only saying it was eighty kuai because of how frustrated Lin Yi"s act made her… Yet the guy didn"t seem to react to her taunts at all! She"d decided to just blow off a final burst of steam after failing to expose Lin Yi, since the guy was so committed to the role and all…
"Yin, what"re are you doing, seriously?" Mrs Tang was busy preparing food for the other customers, but Lin Yi"s table wasn"t far enough from her to go unnoticed. Tang Yin just throwing a wrong number out like that upsetted her.
Tang Yin was p.i.s.sed enough at Lin Yi as it was- her mother"s scolding finally pushed her over the edge. She pouted her lips and raised her head to throw a hateful glare at Lin Yi, her eyes virtually popping out with the urge to burn the guy alive. "You don"t have to pay anymore, just go! It"s my treat, just go- I don"t ever wanna see you again!!"
Tang Yin"s voice got wobbly at the end, and her eyes were on the verge of tearing up. She didn"t wait for Lin Yi to say anything in response before darting away to the school, a hand over her face.
Lin Yi blinked in surprise- he wasn"t expecting Tang Yin to have this side to her.
"Oh, this Yin!" Mrs. Tang didn"t know what had gotten into her daughter today, but this man had just saved her from Zou Rouming"s clutches moments ago! Why would she be showing him att.i.tude instead of some grat.i.tude? She turned to Lin Yi apologetically. "Young man, Tang Yin isn"t usually like that, I don"t know what"s gotten into her… I"m really sorry… It"ll be my treat this time, treat it as an apology as well as a thank you!"
"No no, I"ll pay." Lin Yi said with a smile. He searched about in his pockets and found two coincidental twenty kuai notes in there, handing them to Mrs. Tang directly. "Here"s forty- I"m a bit thirsty, I"ll grab two bottles of water before going, so keep the change."
Lin Yi then proceeded to pull two bottles out of the cooler, handing one to Xiaobo before Mrs. Tang could say anything.
Xiaobo blinked as he woke up from the scene that had just taken place- he was watching bewildered at Tang Yin running off, regaining his senses only after Lin Yi handed a bottle of water to him. "Boss, come on, didn"t I say it was my treat?"
"Haha, it"s the same, isn"t it? It"ll be your treat next time!" Lin Yi was already making his way back to school, and Xiaobo followed after waving goodbye to Mrs. Tang.
"Come again!" Mrs. Tang called out pa.s.sionately with a nod.
"We will!" Xiaobo called back.
Mrs. Tang contemplated on how mature this Lin Yi kid was, sighing as she remembered her own daughter. What had gotten into her? It"d be bad if these two customers decided not to return because of Tang Yin"s abrupt behaviour.
"Boss, wasn"t it really strange back there?" Xiaobo asked as he caught up to Lin Yi. Tang Yin was already out of sight as the two walked back to the school.
"Strange? What"s so strange?" Lin Yi said, evidently not thinking much about it. "By the way, you gotta be careful from now on- Zou Ruoming might even be coming after you now."
"Ah!" Lin Yi"s words snapped Xiaobo into alert as he remembered what he did in front of Zou Ruoming and his gang. "Boss, don"t scare me like that- I just p.i.s.sed Zhong Pinliang off, I"m not gonna survive another Big Four Zou Ruoming!!"
"Don"t worry, I"m always with you anyway. They won"t do anything." Lin Yi said.
"That"s true… But Boss, that slap you gave Zou Ruoming"s probably being spread all around the school now! You"ll probably go up to the Second spot soon!" Xiaobo grinned.
"Why do you think that"s a good thing?" Lin Yi glared. "You"re the guy responsible for all this s.h.i.t today, and now I have to suffer being a Big Four member?"
"Come on, Boss- you weren"t gonna just watch Tang Yin get bullied like that, were you?" Xiaobo said with a smile.
"Bullied? Didn"t you see her bullying me just now?" Lin Yi cursed. f.u.c.k, this Miss Tang- avoiding the strong and preying on the weak!