When Lei Yu pushed open the front door, she was met with a floor strewn entirely with shards of shattered glass, the entire space reduced to a scene of utter disarray.
Against the nearby wall sat a large, grimy duffel bag, one that clearly did not belong in the pristine elegance of the apartment.
"Xiaoting, look what I've bought you." Lei Yu's gaze drifted a short distance away, to where a fashionably dressed young woman stood facing Uncle Li.
"I couldn't care less." The young woman shot Lei Yu an icy glare, then turned her gaze back to Uncle Li before her—only for her eyes to fall on Fang Yu, who was just stepping into the house. In an instant, her face turned a sickly shade of green.
Seemingly on the brink of a full-blown meltdown, Yan Ting rounded on Fang Yu, her finger jabbing furiously in his direction, before she whirled back to Uncle Li and shrieked, "Uncle Li! This is the handsome, unbeatable bodyguard you told me about?"
"Er… yes, it's him." Uncle Li's face flushed with awkwardness. He turned slightly, just in time to see Fang Yu set his bulging bags and bundles down on the floor, and his own brows furrowed faintly in dismay.
"You call this handsome? What the hell, have you got no taste at all? Even Brother Sharp wouldn't be caught dead in these hideous rags." Yan Ting screamed, her hysteria mounting. She planted one hand on her hip, the other still jabbing at Fang Yu, and yelled, "You! No matter what, you're out of here today. And take that filthy bag in the corner with you when you go."
"Er." Fang Yu was utterly dumbfounded. He hadn't said a single word since stepping through the door, yet this young woman before him had flown into a full-blown fit, ranting and raving at him nonstop.
His gaze flicked over Yan Ting, and he realized at once that this was the woman he'd been hired to protect. Though with her fiery, shrewish temper, he rather doubted anyone would dare lay a finger on her in the first place.
"Get out of here right now, or I'll let Xiaoqin out to bite you." Seeing that Fang Yu was paying her no mind whatsoever, Yan Ting's face darkened with rage.
"Who's Xiaoqin? A little dog you keep?" Fang Yu stared at the shrewish young woman before him with a look of wide-eyed innocence, putting on his best guileless country boy act. Even so, a cold sweat was breaking out across his back. It seemed Lei Yu had been right all along. This girl was going to be a handful and a half.
"Ahhh! How dare you call my Xiaoqin a dog! You're dead meat." Yan Ting's hysteria boiled over at his words, yet when he still stood there, utterly unflappable, she finally spun around, flopped down onto the nearby sofa, crossed her arms over her chest, and fumed in indignant silence.
"Young miss, the master only has your best interests at heart. Have you forgotten what happened last time?" Uncle Li could do nothing but sigh in helpless exasperation at the young woman's willful tantrum.
Of course, setting aside his appearance and everything else, Fang Yu's martial prowess was undeniable. His strikes were underhanded and brutal, to be sure—his groin still ached fiercely from that knee strike earlier, after all. Yet it was precisely that fearsome skill that made him the perfect candidate for the job. In all his years, he had never met another martial artist who could take down a dozen highly trained bodyguards in the blink of an eye.
Even so, the man's appearance and mannerisms were, to put it mildly, utterly unrefined and ill-suited for polite society.
The young miss was a stickler for cleanliness, and this boy looked positively unkempt and grubby. He could barely stand the sight of him himself, let alone the young miss.
Just then, Lei Yu, who had not spoken a word since entering the house, slipped away quietly, returning with a broom to sweep up the shards of broken glass littering the floor.
"Come now, Xiaoting, that's enough. Your father only wants to keep you safe…" Seeing Yan Ting still fuming with rage, Lei Yu hurried to pull out the gift she'd bought at the mall, setting it down in front of the young woman.
"Don't you dare stand there pretending to be some kind saint in front of me." Yan Ting snatched the gift from Lei Yu's hand with a frigid glare, hurled it to the floor, then shot to her feet and stomped viciously on the garment beneath her heel.