Chapter 25 — Best Frenemies

"What do you mean, you won?" Gu Mengyao was baffled.

"I bet on Wei Zhao to win." When Shen Yushu looked at Wei Zhao, her face flushed despite herself. She was bolder by nature than Gu Mengyao, but the memory of what she had just seen still brought the color to her cheeks.

Gu Mengyao said nothing; clearly she had not yet recovered from what had happened.

"I didn't win. They just went off to change clothes." With that, Wei Zhao returned to his seat. He felt he had thoroughly disgraced himself today, letting two girls see ** — and that was his treasure, meant for his future wife's eyes alone, yet the two of them had gotten a look at it ahead of time.

All morning, Zhong Yongliang did not show his face again. Gao Xiaofu and Zhang Naipao had vanished along with him; presumably the three of them had gone off to shower and buy clothes, which was not the sort of thing that could be finished quickly.

At the noon break, a boy in glasses sitting in the seat in front of Wei Zhao turned around. "Hey, brother, where are you eating lunch?"

"I don't know yet. Does the school have a cafeteria?" Wei Zhao had been worrying about where to eat, and here someone was kindly striking up a conversation, so he asked at once.

"Sure it does. I'll take you there." The boy in glasses held out his hand in a friendly way. "Let's get acquainted. My name's Kang Xiaobo."

"Wei Zhao. Nice to meet you." Wei Zhao reached out and shook Kang Xiaobo's hand.

Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu had vanished the moment class ended, but at school Wei Zhao did not have to worry; there was basically no one who could harm them.

The two walked out of the classroom shoulder to shoulder, and it was plain that Kang Xiaobo loved to talk. "So, brother, what school did you go to before?"

"I came out of the mountains." Wei Zhao made no secret of his past. "You could say I never really went to school properly. It's poor out there — no proper schools."

"Whoa, then your grades must be excellent." Kang Xiaobo looked at Wei Zhao in surprise. After all, there were only two kinds of students who got into the city's No. 1 High: those who bought their way in, and those who got in on high scores. The first kind needed no explaining — as long as you were willing to pay, the school would take you. The second kind came in several grades as well, and the best of them had tuition and fees waived entirely, plus a stipend of a thousand yuan a month.

Since Wei Zhao said his hometown was poor, with not even a proper school, it had to be a truly impoverished, backward place. And judging by his clothes and the way he spoke, he did not seem to have any powerful backing, so he could hardly have bought his way in either. The only possibility left was that he had gotten in on his grades.

"So-so..." Wei Zhao said with a bitter smile. As for his own identity, he could hardly explain too much; let Kang Xiaobo think whatever he liked.

"Ha, brother, you're too modest." Kang Xiaobo had gotten into No. 1 High by examination himself, and in his heart he rather looked down on students like Zhong Yongliang who paid their way in to kill time. Finding that Wei Zhao had also gotten in on his grades, he warmed to him at once.

The two headed for the cafeteria together. Along the way, pretty young girls were everywhere, and Wei Zhao felt dazzled.

"Brother, so you're into that too." Seeing Wei Zhao's eyes roving, Kang Xiaobo gave a sly grin and said in a low voice, "But let me tell you, the ones at our school who really count as top-tier — there are only a few."

"Top-tier what?" Wei Zhao blinked and asked. He had glanced at a few of the girls just now, but mostly he had been looking at the school's facilities and surroundings.

"Hey, brother, still playing innocent with me?" Kang Xiaobo patted Wei Zhao on the shoulder. "At our age, it's normal to have thoughts about pretty girls. But looking is fine, and fantasizing in your head is fine too — actually going after them, though, and you'll just come away with a bloody nose."

Hearing this, Wei Zhao smiled bitterly. So the kid was a wolf in sheep's clothing — he looked so refined, with his glasses, but underneath he was a closet lecher.

Seeing that Wei Zhao said nothing, Kang Xiaobo thought he was unconvinced, so he went on: "Listen, brother, don't take it hard. The truth is, these days good grades aren't everything. Sure, that's one part of it, but what girls like most is a handsome, dashing guy — and most important of all, a pocket full of cash. Us? Forget about it."

"Heh, that theory of yours is pretty interesting." Wei Zhao laughed. Inwardly he disagreed: for girls like Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu, money had long since lost all meaning. Otherwise, with a family like Zhong Yongliang's, how could he possibly have failed to win her over?

"Of course. But theory alone is useless — the top few at our school have their standards set sky-high." Kang Xiaobo shook his head.

"Top-tier? Who are they?" Wei Zhao was getting a little gossipy himself. He had nothing better to do anyway, and since Kang Xiaobo was making friendly overtures, having one more friend at school was no bad thing.

"Ha, come on, brother, don't tell me you haven't noticed? Right in our class — two of the spots are taken." Kang Xiaobo looked rather pleased with himself here. The beauties had nothing to do with him, but they were in his class, and that alone was enough to make others envy him. Not for any other reason — just for the eye candy.

"You don't mean Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu, do you?" Those were the only two girls' names Wei Zhao knew. Besides, when he had first seen Gu Mengyao's file, he had learned that she was the school beauty, and her good friend Shen Yushu was naturally one in ten thousand as well.

"Holy crap, no way, brother — you've only been here one morning and you've already got their names?" Kang Xiaobo's mouth dropped into an "O" and his face filled with astonishment.

Seeing that expression, Wei Zhao understood that he had definitely been misunderstood. But there was no way to explain the odd, unclassifiable relationship between him and Gu Mengyao, so he had no choice but to accept the title of pervert in silence.

"You don't have to make that face. Actually, I'd bet eighty percent of the boys in our class dream about those two." Kang Xiaobo smiled and pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, which looked a little faded. "But the only one who dares to pursue them is Zhong Yongliang."

"Zhong Yongliang's family is very rich, I take it?" Wei Zhao knew that the feud between him and Zhong Yongliang was now set. As long as he kept working as Gu Mengyao's bodyguard, that feud could never be resolved — unless Zhong Yongliang gave up on pursuing Gu Mengyao himself.

So Wei Zhao meant to learn a thing or two about Zhong Yongliang from Kang Xiaobo.

"What, you don't know?" Kang Xiaobo was startled, then laughed. "Right, you're from the mountains — I forgot. Zhong Yongliang's family is loaded. His father, Zhong Sanguo, owns the Katy Grand Hotel, and he has several other businesses in the city too — Echo KTV, Kaka Disco, all of them belong to their family."

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