Chapter 86 — Number Three's Underling: Mother Tang Had Not Understood What They Meant Until Tang Yun Arrived, but Hearing How They Addressed Her, She Grasped It All at Once

Mother Tang's heart sank at once. Could her daughter really be in love so young? Yet looking at her daughter's pale face, she could not tell whether it was fear of her finding out about this, or because Zou Ruoming had forced her to be his girlfriend.

But whatever the truth was, apart from a touch of sorrow, Mother Tang could summon no other thought! A young master like Zou Ruoming was not someone she could afford to provoke, and she knew her words would carry almost no weight!

Over the years, Mother Tang had seen too much of human coldness and the ways of the world, and she knew how tiny her own strength was! Take the electronics factory where her husband had once worked. A machine had injured his sciatic nerve, and now he lay paralyzed in bed, unable to care for himself, yet they had not gotten a single cent of compensation from the factory!

The owner of a small private electronics plant, merely because he had a few connections, left Mother Tang crying out to heaven and earth with no answer. The contract from back then had been tampered with, and she had nowhere even to file a complaint.

Just because she had gone to the factory a few times to ask for medicine money, the boss had threatened to make trouble for her family, to send men after her daughter and to burn down her house. Helpless, Mother Tang could only give up. Who had made her one of the weak?

The livelihood of the whole family fell entirely on Mother Tang's shoulders. Fortunately her daughter had fought hard and taken first place for the school year last term, which not only waived her tuition but brought a scholarship, and that let the family's life ease a little.

Today, hearing the news that her daughter actually had a boyfriend, Mother Tang froze on the spot. Even as anger at her daughter rose in her heart, she wondered whether Zou Ruoming had forced her. If he were sincere toward Tang Yun, that would be one thing. His family was plainly well off, and her daughter would lose nothing by being with him. She only feared he was playing around and would toss her aside once he tired of her.

Although Mother Tang did not know what the lives of those rich young masters were really like, she had heard bits and pieces on the street.

Tang Yun flushed red and wanted to argue back, but thinking of Zou Ruoming's reputation in school and those rumors, she felt afraid. She had heard that Zou Ruoming had once dragged a girl to the outdoor toilets and violated her, then paid the girl a sum of money and helped her transfer to another school to settle the matter.

Although it was only hearsay, the girl's transfer was a real fact, only her family had taken the benefit and naturally would not make it public. So Tang Yun feared that if she truly angered Zou Ruoming, there was nothing he would not do!

Though she would not, like that girl, take the money and fall silent, and would insist on justice, yet... what use would justice be?

Tang Yun lowered her head in silence, tears brimming in her eyes, full of grievance. She almost hated her mother for not driving Zou Ruoming away, but on second thought her mother was weak too, and perhaps even more helpless...

What was so good about this title of school beauty! Why was she so unlucky? She had always kept a low profile, never wore makeup, never wore anything but her school uniform, yet still she drew attention.

Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu were school beauties too, yet would Zou Ruoming dare treat them like this?

"What trash!" Kang Xiaobo had been feeling like a real man these past two days, and seeing Tang Yun bullied by Zou Ruoming, he truly could not stand it. His blood boiled as he clenched his fists and charged over!

Wei Zhao had not expected Kang Xiaobo to meddle in this business. He truly had not seen it coming. For the goddess in his heart, even a timid boy like Kang Xiaobo could have a moment of eruption.

"This day... really is nothing but trouble!" Wei Zhao had meant to keep a low profile for a few days, but now there was no way to stay low! Kang Xiaobo had already rushed in. How could he stand aside? Could he watch that bastard Zou Ruoming beat Kang Xiaobo up?

"Zou Ruoming! Are you even a man? You failed to win Tang Yun, so you stoop to such a rotten trick to force her to submit!" Kang Xiaobo rushed up and planted himself in front of Tang Yun.

Zou Ruoming was waiting for Tang Yun to make her choice. This was exactly the effect he wanted, to force Tang Yun until she had to choose! His coming here was itself a pose, and that pose was a threat! By standing at Mother Tang's barbecue stall, he was telling Tang Yun, if you do not agree today, neither you nor your mother will know peace again, and your damn barbecue stall will not stay open!

So Zou Ruoming was fifty percent sure that Tang Yun would agree to him and become his girlfriend under duress.

It was precisely because she had such fears that Tang Yun kept her head down and said nothing. On one hand she worried for her own safety, and on the other she worried about Mom's damn barbecue stall! She knew that if she broke with Zou Ruoming today, Mom's damn barbecue would never sell again. If Zou Ruoming and his followers came to make trouble every day, her family's livelihood would be cut off for good.

Just as Tang Yun stood at a loss, Kang Xiaobo suddenly charged over. Not only was Zou Ruoming stunned, Tang Yun was stunned too, thinking, who is this man? I do not even know him.

"Who the fuck are you?" Zou Ruoming had watched Tang Yun about to be forced into a choice when out of nowhere this intruder burst in, and he was furious. Pointing at Kang Xiaobo, his voice turned dark.

"I... I..." Under Zou Ruoming's vicious, man-eating stare, Kang Xiaobo lost all his earlier courage in an instant. His was only a sudden burst, and once it passed it was gone. He did not have Wei Zhao's strength. In a fight, he was no match for Zou Ruoming, and at this barked question his nerve faltered. Yet he knew he could not show weakness now. At worst, the boss was still behind him. If he got beaten, how could the boss stand by? So he stiffened his neck and said, "I am a man of Number Three of the Four Young Devils of the school!"

"The Four Young Devils of the school? Number Three? A man?" Zou Ruoming froze, muddled by Kang Xiaobo's words. "What the hell is this mess? Are you Zhong Yongliang's man? Fuck it, Zhong Yongliang already got fixed and still will not behave, and dares to meddle in my business?"

"Fuck off! Your boss would not even dare touch Brother Ming's business, so what the fuck are you?" The broad-faced fatty shoved Kang Xiaobo hard. "Go home and tell your boss I fuck his mother!"

The broad-faced fatty plainly took Kang Xiaobo for one of Zhong Yongliang's men, so he acted with utter abandon. Word had already spread that Zhong Yongliang had been fixed by the transfer student, and especially that Brother Black Panther had been taken into the station. This time he might well get several years, so Zhong Yongliang had lost both his backing and his face, and Zou Ruoming's men naturally gave him no respect.

"Whose mother did you just say you want to fuck?" A flat voice, yet edged with cold, sounded beside the broad-faced fatty's ear!