Chapter 32 — Who Else but Those Two Graceful Figures?

Wei Zhao did not for a moment imagine that Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu had secretly fallen for him or anything of the sort. He could more or less guess why the two of them had come: it had to be that girl Shen Yushu, who loved a good spectacle, dragging Gu Mengyao along with her.

"Just here for the show," Wei Zhao said indifferently.

"Why do I have the feeling it was Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu from our class?" Kang Xiaobo said, rather excited. "Boss, don't tell me you've won the favor of two beauties?"

"You're thinking too much." Wei Zhao gave the back of Kang Xiaobo's head a helpless swat. "If I'd known you had this much to say, I'd have let Zhang Naipao's blow land on your skull and knock some sense into you."

"Heh heh..." Kang Xiaobo laughed heartily. Three years of high school, three years of being a doormat, and now, on the eve of graduation, he had actually gotten to strut a little. Looking at the three former school tyrants lying on the ground behind him, Kang Xiaobo felt an indescribable satisfaction.

"Brother Liang, are you all right?" Gao Xiaofu's injuries were the lighter ones; his belly no longer hurt so much. Once Wei Zhao had gone, he hurried to Zhong Yongliang's side and helped him up from the ground.

"I'm fine," Zhong Yongliang said, his face ashen. From the look of him, the words did not quite ring true.

"Brother Liang, what do we do about this? Just swallow it?" Gao Xiaofu asked, deeply aggrieved.

"Damn it all, we've really lost face today," Zhong Yongliang cursed viciously. "Who'd have thought that brat had a trick or two in him? He almost got me."

"It's all because I got careless for a moment." Seeing Zhong Yongliang's dark expression, Gao Xiaofu hurried to admit fault first, lest the man vent his anger on him.

"That's not on you." Zhong Yongliang waved a hand. He himself had been manhandled badly enough by Wei Zhao; there was no blaming anyone else. It simply meant they were no match for Wei Zhao. "With just the three of us, we don't seem to be a match for that brat. If we want to teach him a lesson, we'll have to call in outside help."

"How about we talk to Zou Ruoming and have him step in?" Gao Xiaofu suggested.

"Not him. If he finds out about this, we'll lose face completely, and there'll be no living it down at school." Zhong Yongliang waved a hand. "I'll go find someone on my dad's side."

...............

Wei Zhao and Kang Xiaobo made it back to the classroom safely, which let many classmates who had been worried for their safety breathe a sigh of relief. Most of the students loathed the arrogance and bullying of Zhong Yongliang and his lot, though a small few, taking a malicious delight in the spectacle, were faintly disappointed to see Wei Zhao and the others come to no harm.

But what puzzled them was that Zhong Yongliang, Gao Xiaofu, and Zhang Naipao did not return to the classroom. Even when the big lecture began, the three were nowhere to be seen, and that could only mean something...

Zhong Yongliang did not want Zou Ruoming to learn of this, and yet he ran into Zou Ruoming on the sports field all the same.

Gao Xiaofu, supporting Zhang Naipao, followed behind Zhong Yongliang. The three of them walked askew and unsteady, like deserters from a routed army.

"Zhong Yongliang, what's happened to you three?" Zou Ruoming was playing basketball on the field when he spotted three familiar-looking figures approaching from afar. A closer look showed them to be none other than Zhong Yongliang and his companions.

Zhong Yongliang cursed his bad luck under his breath. When fortune turned against a man, even cold water got stuck between his teeth. Why, of all times, did the man have to see him now? As one of the school's Four Young Devils, Zhong Yongliang cared greatly about his face. To be seen in such a sorry state by another of the devils, and for word to spread — that would be the end of his reputation.

"It's nothing..." Zhong Yongliang did not want to say much. He waved a hand and quickened his pace.

"Come on, Liangzi, you lot got beaten up, didn't you? Who did it? Tell Brother Ming and I'll fix him for you." Seeing the sorry state of these few, Zou Ruoming hardly needed to guess that they had lost a fight, and so he spoke with great ferocity.

Zhong Yongliang knew Zou Ruoming's skill well enough: the best fighter among the school's Four Young Devils, and one who had dealings with people in the underworld besides — a genuine tough who was no stranger to knives and guns.

But what had happened today was too humiliating, and Zhong Yongliang did not want too many people to know. So he waved a hand. "It's nothing. The few of us were just sparring, and things got a bit heavy-handed..."

Since Zhong Yongliang insisted on saying nothing, Zou Ruoming could hardly press him further. Watching the three recede into the distance, Zou Ruoming shook his head. "Ah, your own people beating your own people? Beating them half to death? Now why don't I believe that?"

"Boss, where do you live? Let's walk home together after school?" Kang Xiaobo was still in a state of high excitement, filled with heartfelt admiration for his new boss.

Wei Zhao's heart gave a jolt. The matter of him walking with Gu Mengyao in the evening absolutely could not be known to others. He himself did not care, but Gu Mengyao certainly would not want it.

At that thought, Wei Zhao said, "My home is very far. You go on ahead. I'll leave a bit later."

"Then I'll wait for you. We can at least walk together to the school gate." Kang Xiaobo was reluctant to part, wanting to talk with Wei Zhao a while longer. Never in his life had he imagined that Zhong Yongliang might one day be beaten so badly he could not get up.

"All right then..." Wei Zhao knew that if he put him off any further, it would rouse Kang Xiaobo's suspicions. In any case, they would only walk together to the school gate; once Kang Xiaobo had gone far enough, he could get into Uncle Qing's car.

Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu had long since packed up and left the classroom. Wei Zhao deliberately staggered his timing from theirs, dawdling a while before he shouldered his bag and walked out of the classroom with Kang Xiaobo.

"Boss, let me tell you a secret..." As they left the classroom, Kang Xiaobo suddenly lowered his voice and spoke in a whisper.

"What secret?" Wei Zhao looked at Kang Xiaobo, somewhat baffled. What was this kid being so mysterious about?

"I live very close to the commoner campus belle, Tang Yun..." Kang Xiaobo gave a sly grin, then said, "Actually, I often see her riding her bicycle home."

"Damn." Wei Zhao smacked the back of Kang Xiaobo's head. "What's with you, always thinking about that sort of thing? What kind of secret is that? So you live near her — what's that to me?"

"You really have no interest in her?" Kang Xiaobo asked, unconvinced.

"It's not that I have no interest; it's that I've never even seen what she looks like. You want me to be interested in someone who doesn't exist for me — that's impossible." Wei Zhao said, somewhat amused. "All right, hurry home. I need to go too."

"Okay, Boss. See you tomorrow." Kang Xiaobo waved to Wei Zhao and vanished into the stream of students leaving school...

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