Chapter 7 — Sent Flying with a Single Kick

To spare Gu Mengyao worry, Gu Pengzhan had kept certain things from her, and had told Qing Bo to keep silent as well. Bringing Wei Zhao in was ostensibly to look after Gu Mengyao's studies and daily life, but in truth it carried a far deeper meaning, tied to a pact made by the older generation of the family...

But clearly, if he suddenly produced a live-in study companion out of nowhere, Gu Mengyao would never agree. As it happened, Gu Mengyao was worn out from fending off her suitors, so she had gone to Gu Pengzhan and asked him to hire a shield to help swat away the flies buzzing around her. Gu Pengzhan had therefore seized the chance, half coaxing and half deceiving, to recommend Wei Zhao to Gu Mengyao as that shield.

Yet... Qing Bo rather regretted not having taken Wei Zhao to a clothing store to smarten him up. Judging from his photograph, Wei Zhao had looked sharp enough, but his present getup was really too distinctive, quite out of place in these surroundings...

"Him?" Gu Mengyao could see nothing special about the man before her. Surely her father had not just picked up some migrant worker fresh from the countryside at the labor market?

The girl beside Gu Mengyao stifled a giggle behind her hand, for in that outfit Wei Zhao looked nothing like anyone who could serve as Gu Mengyao's shield.

"Xiao Shu, what are you laughing at?" Gu Mengyao was already furious at her father's perfunctory attitude, and to see her own best friend snickering only added fuel to the fire. She shot her a hard glare.

Scolded by Gu Mengyao, Shen Yushu quickly stuck out her tongue and shut her mouth, though her eyes remained fixed on Wei Zhao with great curiosity.

"Qing Bo, tell him to get out. I want someone else." Gu Mengyao frowned, unwilling to argue the matter any further.

"Miss, Mr. Gu said Mr. Wei Zhao is certainly up to the job, and the contract has already been signed..." The implication in Qing Bo's words was plain: like it or not, Gu Pengzhan had already decided for her, and the matter could not be changed.

"What?" Gu Mengyao blinked her pretty big eyes, nearly in tears. She had no idea what her father was thinking. If this was the alternative, she would rather not have any shield at all. Keeping such a man by her side would only make her a laughingstock.

Originally, if the shield had been decent-looking, Gu Mengyao had even thought of passing him off as her boyfriend, since that would be the best way to drive those flies away. Now, that was clearly out of the question.

Even if she claimed this bumpkin was her boyfriend, someone would have to believe it. Zhong Yongliang would probably laugh his teeth out.

Listening to them, Wei Zhao felt his head swell. A shield? Was this girl really looking for a boyfriend? No wonder Gu Pengzhan had sounded so odd when he spoke to him before. Could he really be recruiting a son-in-law?

"Fine. That boy over there just now would not stop pestering me. Go deal with him. If you handle it well, I will count you as passed." Gu Mengyao's eyes darted, and a plan came to mind. If the fellow could not handle it, she could have her father dismiss him on grounds of incompetence.

"Him?" Wei Zhao nodded, got out of the car, and strode quickly toward Zhong Yongliang.

"This Gu Mengyao turns me down every time I ask her out. Any other woman would have thrown herself into my arms long ago," Zhong Yongliang grumbled to his followers.

"Young Master Zhong, Gu Mengyao is not just any woman. She is the young miss of the Gu Group. Of course it is not easy," said Gao Xiaofu, one of Zhong Yongliang's lackeys.

"I know. Do I need you to tell me?" Zhong Yongliang waved his hand. "So you have to be persistent..." Before he could finish, he saw a young man in a yellowed white vest and khaki trousers striding toward them at full speed, and he froze.

Wei Zhao walked briskly up to Zhong Yongliang, and without a word lifted his leg and planted a kick square on his backside, sending Zhong Yongliang sprawling face-first into the dirt. Then Wei Zhao simply turned around and walked straight back to the car without looking back.

Zhong Yongliang was just warming up to deliver a grand speech on his reflections about pursuing Gu Mengyao. In the middle of his happy chatter, he felt a hard kick land on his buttocks, lost his balance, and tumbled to the ground.

"Who is it? Tired of living? How dare you kick me?" Zhong Yongliang struggled for a long time before scrambling up from the ground, covered in dust, cursing loudly.

"It was that migrant worker just now..." Gao Xiaofu said hurriedly.

"Then what are you standing around for? Go after him!" Zhong Yongliang roared in exasperation. "Catch him and beat him hard!"

"Young Master Zhong, he is gone..." When Zhong Yongliang had been kicked over by Wei Zhao, his men had all focused on whether he was hurt, and in the blink of an eye the migrant worker had vanished.

"Damn it!" Zhong Yongliang cursed. "I remember what he looks like. Tomorrow I will print posters and send men to every construction site to find him. A migrant worker dares to kick me? I will make it impossible for him to survive in Songshan City. Just you wait!"

"Yaoyao, who would have thought? This Wei Zhao is pretty fierce, daring to kick even Zhong Yongliang?" In the car, Shen Yushu stared wide-eyed, unable to believe what she had just seen.

"I think he is out of his mind," Gu Mengyao said. She had not expected Wei Zhao to pull such a move either, though it was rather original. But she had already decided not to keep him. No matter what he did, she would mark him as unqualified.

"Yaoyao, why not just keep him?" Shen Yushu suggested.

"Xiao Shu, whose side are you on?" Gu Mengyao glared at her and said oddly, "Don't tell me you are in heat and have taken a fancy to this migrant worker?"

"Pah!" Shen Yushu quickly shook her head. "Yaoyao, you are the one who fancies him!"

"If you don't fancy him, why keep him? To keep him around to embarrass us?" Gu Mengyao said, baffled.

"No, think about it. Zhong Yongliang lords it over our school and no one dares to provoke him. Now at last here is a greenhorn who is not afraid of him. There will be plenty of fun to watch," Shen Yushu said slyly. "If those two start fighting, Zhong Yongliang will have no time left to pester you, right?"

"Fighting? Do you think Zhong Yongliang is so easy to mess with?" Gu Mengyao hit the nail on the head. "With just him, a little migrant worker? Zhong Yongliang would beat him to death."

"Yaoyao, how can you be so dense? Even to beat a dog you have to consider its master. With you backing him up, what is there to fear from Zhong Yongliang?" Shen Yushu curled her lip in disdain. "Besides, there is still me, isn't there?"

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