Chapter 52 — Brother Black Panther: Starting Today, Five Updates a Day, Begging for Recommendation Votes, Begging for Collections

...

By the time Wei Zhao entered the classroom, the lesson was already more than half over. Soon the bell rang for the end of class, and Teacher Liu assigned the homework before leaving the room.

Kang Xiaobo turned around and looked at Wei Zhao, complaining a little: "I say, Boss, you scared me to death. I thought you weren't coming today."

"What? Afraid Zhong Yongliang and those three will come after you? They didn't show up either, did they?" Wei Zhao laughed. Indeed, if Kang Xiaobo had been alone, he could never have dealt with Zhong Yongliang and his crew, so his worry was only natural.

"What do you mean they didn't show up? They came this morning. Zhang Naipao still had band-aids plastered on his face," Kang Xiaobo said. "But for some reason they just took a turn around and left. You don't suppose they left because they saw you weren't here?"

"Oh? They came?" That was somewhat beyond Wei Zhao's expectations. But whether they came or not, or came and then left, made no difference to him. "Let them do as they please."

"That's true, they're no match for you, Boss. But what worries me is that they might go looking for someone," Kang Xiaobo said with some concern.

"Looking for someone? What do you mean?" Wei Zhao did not quite understand.

"I mean, when they can't beat someone themselves, they go find help from the underworld," Kang Xiaobo explained. "Boss, you had better be careful."

"They have connections with people like that?" Wei Zhao frowned when he heard this. As he saw it, however arrogant Zhong Yongliang might be, he was still just a student, and his ways of doing things were confined to the schoolyard. Yet from what Kang Xiaobo was saying, these people had ties to the underworld, and when they could not win a fight they called in outside help.

"Of course they do. Zou Ruoming, one of the four great young thugs of our school, has a brother who runs with the underworld," Kang Xiaobo said. "Last time he fought the boss of No. 2 Middle School, he brought his brother along. Damn, his brother was stripped to the waist, a real brute, covered in tattoos, and his men were all carrying steel pipes and machetes. The boss of No. 2 hadn't even started fighting before he was scared shitless, kneeling on the ground begging for mercy."

The more Wei Zhao heard, the more he frowned. He had not imagined these students could be so brazen; it was somewhat beyond his expectations. Had yesterday's lesson been a little too light?

"Let's go, time for the break exercises. We can talk on the way." Kang Xiaobo waited until most of the people in the classroom had left, then stood up and said to Wei Zhao.

He and Wei Zhao sat at the back of the class, so they had to wait until almost everyone else had gone before they stood up and walked out of the classroom.

"What do the break exercises here consist of?" Wei Zhao asked. Yesterday during the break exercises he had been summoned to the toilet by Zhong Yongliang, so he had not taken part.

"You didn't go yesterday... oh, right, I don't think I saw you yesterday." Kang Xiaobo thought for a moment. "The break exercises are a set of radio calisthenics the school made up itself. Very simple, you'll learn it in one go. There's a PE teacher up front leading."

After leaving the classroom, Kang Xiaobo led Wei Zhao quickly to their class's spot. Kang Xiaobo was tall, so he stood at the very back; Wei Zhao was not short either, and stood beside him.

At last, at the school gate, Zhong Yongliang met Brother Black Panther.

A burly, bald man jumped down from a white Nissan van, followed by two thugs of similar build.

"Young Master Zhong." This bald man was Brother Black Panther.

Zhong Yongliang nodded and said to his two underlings, "Hurry up and greet Brother Black Panther."

"Brother Black Panther," Gao Xiaofu and Zhang Naipao hurriedly said in greeting.

"Young Master Zhong, where's the guy? Let me settle him quick so I can get back to the club. If the boss finds out I came to fight for you, I'm finished." The boss in Brother Black Panther's mouth was, of course, Zhong Yongliang's father. Brother Black Panther also knew that the boss did not like Zhong Yongliang stirring up trouble, which was why he had put it off for so long before coming.

"He's inside, doing the break exercises right now," Zhong Yongliang said.

Brother Black Panther nodded, a cigarette dangling cockily from his lips, and walked toward the school. He had just reached the gate when the old gatekeeper stopped him: "Hey, what are you here for? This is a school, you can't just walk in."

Brother Black Panther turned his head with disdain, glanced at the old man, and blew a smoke ring in his face: "Old thing, if you don't want to die, stay put."

The old gatekeeper took one look at Brother Black Panther and shrank back. These underworld types were not something an old man like him could afford to cross, so he could only pretend he had not seen them and let them in. Anyway, the school was in the middle of break exercises; the teachers would see them and drive them off.

The whole school was doing break exercises. Six utterly incongruous figures came walking from the school gate toward the sports field. Three of them were all right, at least: Zhong Yongliang, Gao Xiaofu, and Zhang Naipao still looked more or less like students. But Brother Black Panther and the others behind them clearly did not look like good people.

Brother Black Panther walked across the field without a care, utterly indifferent to the strange looks thrown his way.

"Where is he?" Brother Black Panther asked.

"Over there, that's our class. Wei Zhao must have come out for the exercises too." Though it was too far to see clearly, Zhong Yongliang guessed that Wei Zhao would certainly have come out.

"Boss, it's Zhong Yongliang and the others. They've brought help." Their group was so conspicuous that Kang Xiaobo spotted them at a glance.

Before Kang Xiaobo spoke, Wei Zhao had already seen Zhong Yongliang and the rest. After all, at a time like this, appearing on the school field, they could be seen by practically the whole school.

Soon Zhong Yongliang and Brother Black Panther arrived in front of the line of Class Five, Senior Three, and Zhong Yongliang spotted Wei Zhao at once, standing at the very back of the class line. He pointed at Wei Zhao and said to Brother Black Panther, "That's him, at the very back of this row, the one in the school uniform."

Brother Black Panther nodded and walked quickly toward Wei Zhao. From a distance, Wei Zhao did look quite ordinary, tall and thin, not at all like someone who could fight. So Brother Black Panther was rather puzzled: was this one man really worth him handling personally?

Apart from being a bit handsome, Brother Black Panther found no merit in Wei Zhao at all. He looked like nothing but a poor student, not the sort who could fight.

But since the young master had given the order, Brother Black Panther prepared to end the fight as quickly as possible and hurry back to the nightclub.

"You're Wei Zhao?" Brother Black Panther walked up to Wei Zhao, cigarette clamped in his teeth, and asked with a sidelong glance.

"Yes," Wei Zhao said flatly.

"Do you know what I've come to find you for?" Seeing that Wei Zhao was indeed rather cocky, Brother Black Panther asked with an unfriendly look.

"No." Wei Zhao frowned and said with some impatience, "Don't block my view. I'm trying to learn the exercises from the people in front, and with you shuffling around in front of me I can't see a thing."

Fastest updates; for pop-up-free reading, please visit.