Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

Unfortunately, when Yang Ce pushed open the door of the school dormitory, he found Tian Dongguang sitting in the living room, chatting with Tian Yan and Zhang Bin. Yang Ce had already come back—to leave again now would be a bit too awkward—so he could only force a dry smile and say, "Well, if it isn't Tian Dongguang. You're here."

Earlier, when Yang Ce had been in Donghai, he had been mistaken for Sun Zhiwei, and ended up in a fight with Tian Dongguang. Afterward this fellow learned who he was from Tian Yan, and through Tian Yan conveyed his wish to take Yang Ce as his master.

Yang Duoran would never agree to that, and had Tian Yan reject him outright. But unexpectedly, the boy was stubborn and unyielding—he had gotten hold of Yang Ce's phone number from somewhere and kept calling to express his wish to become a disciple. In the end Yang Ce had no choice but to add his number to the call firewall's blacklist.

Yet who would have thought he would come knocking again—with this kind of pestering, soft and hard alike, Yang Ce would give in sooner or later.

This pestering tactic was naturally learned from Sun Zhiwei. After Yang Ce beat Tian Dongguang into submission, Tian came to understand that there is always a bigger fish in the sea. Later, when he actually met Sun Zhiwei, his hostility was not so great; both were highly conceited, and their temperaments matched well enough that they became friends. Hearing that Sun Zhiwei and Yan were classmates, Tian Dongguang got Yang Juehuan's phone number from him.

Of course, Tian Dongguang understood that there seemed to be some bad blood between Yang Ce and Sun Zhiwei, so he did not tell Sun Zhiwei about his plan to take Yang Ce as his master; otherwise, given Sun Zhiwei's personality, he would certainly have tried to obstruct it.

However, Tian Dongguang did ask Sun Zhiwei one question: if he wanted someone to agree to a request of his, how could he make it happen?

Sun Zhiwei answered without a second thought: pester them endlessly. Don't worry about being a nuisance—just go to them again and again, tirelessly, and sooner or later they will agree. Isn't there a saying, where there's a will there's a way? With enough perseverance, an iron rod can be ground into a needle.

Sun Zhiwei often had his eye on some fine thing he could not afford, and would then nag Sun Jie about it. Sometimes Sun Jie, nagged to the point of having no way out, would give in and agree.

Hearing Sun Zhiwei's method, Tian Dongguang thought it made perfect sense, and so he began calling Yang Ce again and again, tirelessly, asking to take him as his master. In the end, the calls actually stopped going through.

At first, Tian Dongguang thought something was wrong with Yang Juehuan's phone, but during the New Year, he discovered that his brother Tian Yan could call Yang Ce to wish him a happy New Year with absolutely no trouble at all. Tian Dongguang immediately returned to his room and dialed Yang Juehuan's number, and what came through the line was still the busy tone. Only then did Tian Dongguang realize that Yang Ce had blocked his number. With no other choice, he thought of a new method: after the semester started, he would use the excuse of wanting to inspect the learning environment at Songjiang Engineering University to go visit Tian Yan's school, and while there, stay in his brother's dormitory, so as to petition Yang Ce to take him as a disciple.

"Master, you're back." Tian Dongguang stood up and immediately snapped to attention, straight as a board, saying with a fair imitation of solemn respect.

Yang Ce broke out in a sweat. "Tian Dongguang, welcome to Songjiang for a visit. But where is this master of yours? I don't see anyone else here."

"That's right, you are my master. Master, you're not going to abandon me, are you?" Tian Dongguang said with a perfectly straight face, as if it were really so.

"Tian Dongguang, your family must have plenty of martial arts coaches, right? Why not learn from them? Why must you keep pestering me and join in the fun?" Yang Ce sighed and said helplessly, "I really don't have any time to teach you anything. Look at me—I'm run off my feet all day."

"That's fine. Just tell me the key points and that's enough. Isn't there a saying, the master opens the door and the cultivation is up to the individual? If I can't learn it, that's because I'm stupid. I won't blame you," Tian Dongguang said.

"Let's not talk about this today. I'm a bit tired. I'm going to sleep first." Yang Ce was truly at a loss for words. This Tian Dongguang was a little too good at pestering.

Yang Ce fled back to his own room, leaving only Zhang Bin and Tian Yan snickering behind him.

"Even the boss has times when he's afraid," Zhang Bin said.

"Haha, Yang Cenbin has run into trouble this time. That kid Tian Dongguang has been stubborn as an ox since he was little. This time I don't think he'll give up until he gets what he wants," Tian Yan said with a laugh.

Hearing the two of them, Tian Dongguang grew even more confident. "I've made up my mind. I'm going to stay here for a while."

As time passed, Chen Fei's heart grew heavier and heavier. It was just as Yang Ce had said: all the way until evening, none of the robbers' accomplices came to collect the money. Around three in the morning was when the sanitation workers cleaned the gutters every day. If the robbers' accomplices had not come by then, the matter could be considered certain.

One o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock—right up until the sanitation workers walked over this way, still no accomplices of the robbers appeared. There was not even a suspicious person anywhere nearby.

The identities of the sanitation workers had already been confirmed; there was nothing suspicious about them. They were old workers who had been responsible for cleaning this area for years. Even after the sanitation workers began their work and dug that bag of money out of the drain, nothing else happened. Chen Fei had no choice but to take the money away, and the others also packed up and withdrew.

Still, no matter what was said, being able to recover the stolen money within a few hours of the crime was no small achievement for Chen Fei. As for the suspects in the robbery and murder, there was no rushing that; they could only be hunted down slowly.

But Yang Jiyan had a feeling that these people would not be caught by the police so easily, because their methods were simply too professional.

In fact, the reason Yang Ce had taken the initiative to help with the case this time was also because of Chen Fei's position. Otherwise, Yang Ce would not have lifted a finger so easily. Even Xia Yan had no right to demand that Yang Ce do anything. Yang Ce had joined the mysterious investigation bureau and helped Xia Donghai entirely because of Xia Xue's sake. If not for wanting to earn this girl a bit more credit, Yang Ce would have been too lazy to bother with such idle matters.

Admittedly, this was a little selfish, but one does not seek office beyond one's station. Yang Juehuan's identity was that of a student, so apart from attending school, everything else was outside his proper concerns.

And this time, his intervention was also to give Chen Fei a hand. Otherwise, once this case came out, the pressure on Chen Fei would certainly be enormous. By any measure of feeling or reason, Yang Ce could not stand by and watch Chen Fei struggle. After all, the man was his father-in-law; Yang Duoran would do whatever was within his power.

However, as for the appearances of those robbers, there was no need for Yang Ce to tell Chen Fei. Other than Xia Yan, Yang Yongjin did not want anyone else to know just what his special ability was.