Chapter 33 — Are You Trying to Molest Us?

Only after Wei Zhao had climbed in did Uncle Qing start the engine. In the back seat Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu had fallen strangely silent, whether because of what they had seen Wei Zhao do in the restroom that day or because the scene on the rooftop had stunned them. In any case neither girl said much, and, remarkably, Gu Mengyao did not tattle to Uncle Qing or greet Wei Zhao with her usual sarcasm.

"Uncle Qing, stop at the bank up ahead. Xiaoshu and I are going to open an account," Gu Mengyao instructed Uncle Qing.

Her reminder jogged Wei Zhao's memory. The school had asked every student to get a bank card, saying tuition and fees would be deducted from it from now on.

Uncle Qing asked no questions and nodded, pulling up near a bank not far ahead. It happened to be rush hour and traffic was heavy on the road, and since this was the only twenty-four-hour bank in the area, customers had left their cars parked all over the entrance to do their business, throwing traffic into confusion.

Wei Zhao got out with Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu, and Gu Mengyao immediately frowned. "What are you following us for?"

"Don't forget, I am a student of the school too," Wei Zhao smiled.

Only then did Gu Mengyao remember that Wei Zhao had become a member of the school that very day, so naturally he needed a bank card as well. She said nothing more and walked into the bank hand in hand with Shen Yushu.

The instant Wei Zhao stepped into the bank, the jade pendant at his neck suddenly reacted, startling him. It was the same pendant he had brought out from the cave at the foot of Xixing Mountain, only he still had not figured out what it was for, or how to use it.

Yet every time something big was about to happen, the pendant always gave a subtle response, as if passing a message to Wei Zhao. Although he never knew what it was trying to say, whenever it acted up, something was sure to follow.

It had been like that time in North Africa, when he and the man he was protecting were trapped inside an enemy encirclement, yet thanks to the pendant's repeated advance warnings he had dodged the enemy's attacks again and again and survived to be rescued in the end.

Or the pendant would give a similar warning before something good happened, like the time he had helped Old Man Wei buy a scratch-off lottery ticket and won twenty yuan.

Either way, the pendant's reaction put every nerve in Wei Zhao's body on alert.

Inside the bank, Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu took numbers and sat down in the waiting area, and Wei Zhao took a number as well and sat down beside them.

With a proper sense of self-preservation he sat next to Shen Yushu, since Gu Mengyao still looked quite hostile toward him. Shen Yushu gave him a meaningful glance, the corner of her mouth lifting slightly.

While he waited for his number, Wei Zhao kept his mind in a state of high tension. Every time the pendant reacted, something happened, and he trusted this time would be no exception.

Suddenly his gaze fixed on a black Hyundai van outside the bank...

"Move!" Wei Zhao sprang to his feet, seized Shen Yushu by the hand, and said to her and Gu Mengyao.

"You... what are you doing?" Shen Yushu froze, staring at Wei Zhao in bewilderment, her small face flushing crimson in an instant. All her life she had held no young man's hand but her brother's, and with Wei Zhao suddenly gripping hers, she did not know what to do and sat there stunned.

"Get out of here now. There is no time to explain!" Wei Zhao was frantic with worry and tried to pull Shen Yushu to her feet.

"Smack!"

Gu Mengyao slapped Wei Zhao's hand, knocking his hand and Shen Yushu's apart. In truth it was more that Wei Zhao let go on instinct, for Gu Mengyao's slap alone could never have done it.

"Wei Zhao, what are you doing? Are you taking advantage of Xiaoshu?" Gu Mengyao glared at Wei Zhao, her eyes blazing with anger.

"I... ah, there is no time to explain all that. Come with me and get out of here!" Wei Zhao said anxiously, glancing through the bank's glass windows toward the street corner not far away.

Taking advantage? Wei Zhao was utterly dumbfounded. At a moment like this, who was thinking about that?

"Why should we?" Gu Mengyao snorted. "Who do you think you are? Are you out of your mind? If you want to leave, leave by yourself. We still have to get our cards!"

Shen Yushu was baffled too. What had gotten into Wei Zhao? He had seemed so steady, so why had he suddenly become so impulsive?

"Talk outside first!" This time Wei Zhao gave them no choice and grabbed both girls by the hand, Shen Yushu's in his left and Gu Mengyao's in his right, pulling them up together.

"Let go!" Gu Mengyao was going mad. She had never imagined that after molesting Shen Yushu, Wei Zhao would reach his wicked claws out to her as well, and she shook her arm desperately to break free of his grip.

"Yaoyao, let's go out with him first and sort it out later!" Shen Yushu, calmer than Gu Mengyao, had already recovered from her shock, and she could see no lecherous look on Wei Zhao's face, only anxiety in its place.

As for Wei Zhao the man, Shen Yushu knew him rather better than Gu Mengyao did. She knew he would never come to a bank for no reason to harass the two of them. If he had really wanted to take advantage of them, last night had been the perfect chance. Only a broken brain would pick a crowded bank for it.

Gu Mengyao froze, looking at Shen Yushu in surprise, unable to understand why she had suddenly sided with Wei Zhao.

Wei Zhao looked at the hesitating Gu Mengyao and sighed inwardly. It was too late, for he could already see several men in black trench coats pushing open the bank doors and walking in.

"Bang!" A sharp gunshot shattered the bank's orderly calm, and screams, a child's crying, and alarms all erupted at once.

"Nobody move! Anyone who moves dies!" The leader, a bald man in a black mask, raised a dark pistol and bellowed at everyone in the bank.

Wei Zhao sighed softly. In the moment he had been tussling with Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu, the best chance to escape had slipped away, and trying to run now seemed all but impossible.

Still, he did not blame Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu, for they could not have known danger was closing in. They had only done what they thought was normal...

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