Chapter 212 — A Ghost Taps at the Window at Midnight

"What?!" Gu Mengyao was startled. Who would have thought that in the few seconds between picking up the phone and speaking, Shen Yushu could have already tipped Wei Zhao off... That little wretch! So the whole scene before had been an act between the two of them? At that thought, Gu Mengyao glared at Shen Yushu: "Xiaoshu!"

"Oh... I've already owned up to my mistake, so don't be angry, Sister Yaoyao..." Shen Yushu was startled and hurried off into the room.

Gu Mengyao did not know whether to laugh or cry, but she said nothing more. In truth, this outcome was already quite perfect, was it not? They had played a little too wildly today...

......

That night, Zhong Yongliang was sitting in his own room on the second floor of his family's villa, watching a horror movie on his computer with rapt attention. As it happened, Zhong Yongliang was a very timid person — at eight he was still wetting the bed, at ten he still dared not sleep alone, and at twelve he still dared not go out alone at night...

This hardly matched the domineering image he had always cut at school, and so Zhong Yongliang had hit upon a masterstroke: whenever the night was deep and still, he would shut himself alone in his room and watch horror movies...

At first he had been frightened out of his wits, but by now he had slowly built up some nerve — at the very least, he dared to sleep by himself and walk the night roads alone.

Even so, while watching a horror film, Zhong Yongliang was still rather afraid and did not dare turn off the lights; every lamp in the room had to be blazing bright... Tonight the film he was watching was about a child living alone in a villa — a horror film in which, every time midnight came, he could hear the sound of someone tapping on the window.

How could anything be this frightening? Zhong Yongliang shuddered... Tonight both his parents were away — surely nothing would come tapping at his own window?

Just as Zhong Yongliang was watching the movie with rapt attention, a black shadow suddenly leaped up onto the ledge outside his window...

"Tap, tap, tap... tap, tap, tap..." A few knocks on the glass...

"Ah—" Zhong Yongliang let out a shriek, and at once his bladder gave way... he plopped down onto the floor: "Who? Who is it? Who's there?"

"Tap, tap, tap... tap, tap, tap..." Another few knocks on the glass...

Zhong Yongliang was frightened, but he still forced down his fear and looked toward the window... Surely he could not be that unlucky? He had only been watching a movie — had it summoned something that ought never to have come?

"Huh?" When Zhong Yongliang made out the face of the man outside the window, he let out a breath of relief and at the same time grew puzzled — why had this one come here? Forgetting the stinking mess in his trousers, Zhong Yongliang hurried to the window ledge and opened the window: "Brother Black Panther, why are you here?"

The newcomer was none other than Brother Black Panther, who had fled from the police car earlier that day. Under cover of night he had slipped into Zhong Yongliang's room, meaning to get a little getaway money and discuss the matter of revenge.

"Young Master Zhong, on the way to the detention house today, I beat up a few of them and escaped from the police car!" Black Panther vaulted into the room, his agility making Zhong Yongliang click his tongue in wonder.

"Brother Black Panther... how did you get up here?" Zhong Yongliang knew the structure of his own villa well enough: the outside was clad in smooth mosaic tiles, without a single crack to set foot in. To climb up was absolutely impossible; to jump up was even more so! Nearly ten meters high — that was no joke.

"I jumped up," Black Panther said flatly. "Young Master Zhong, I am no longer the Black Panther I once was. I now possess the strength of the peak of the late Yellow Rank!"

"The peak of the late Yellow Rank? What kind of strength is that?" Zhong Yongliang was none too clear on how strength was ranked in jianghu circles.

"It means being a bit stronger than an ordinary special forces soldier!" Black Panther said. "That Song girl from the squad is only at the middle Yellow Rank!"

"Oh, oh..." Zhong Yongliang was utterly bewildered. "Brother Black Panther, how did you suddenly become so strong?"

Earlier, when Brother Black Panther had been beaten bloody by Wei Zhao, he had seemed very weak; but now, as he himself said, even Qiu Lingshan from the squad was no match for him, and judging by his nimble movements at this moment, he did not appear to be lying.

Presumably his strength had suddenly shot up. If only he had been this formidable back when he fought Wei Zhao — Zhong Yongliang thought with some regret.

"Hmph. In my early years I was taken into a mysterious jianghu sect. In that sect there was a very formidable martial arts manual, and one of its chapters used the consumption of one's lifespan to raise one's strength to its utmost limit!" Black Panther made no secret of it. "But because I broke the sect's rules, I was expelled. When I left, I copied down that chapter on rapidly boosting one's strength..."

Zhong Yongliang was baffled by what he heard, but he nodded all the same. He was no fool, either: "Then this so-called method of rapidly boosting strength — it has a flaw, doesn't it?"

"Yes. Not only does it have a flaw, the flaw is enormous. First, it costs you five years of your lifespan. Second, the strength gained so quickly can only be sustained for about a month, after which you become an ordinary man again, and your principal meridians are damaged besides — you can never practice martial arts again as long as you live!" Black Panther said. "But weighed against the punishment I am about to face, that sacrifice is worth it!"

The reason Black Panther had to flee was that he knew full well the crimes he had committed this time were no small matter! Illegal possession of firearms, picking quarrels and provoking trouble, intentional injury — and on top of that, he already had a record at the police station from before he ever got into trouble; dredged up all together this time, and sentenced as a combined punishment for multiple crimes, he would face at least ten years or more behind bars. Black Panther truly could not afford to wait, and so he had risked everything.

Ten years in prison — for a man like Black Panther, who craved pleasure and comfort, he would rather be dead! He had escaped to accomplish two things. The first was to find Wei Zhao and settle his score! This bastard had not only landed him in the station, but half his face still had not healed, and the wound on his hand from the gun's bursting still throbbed with pain. That was the greatest humiliation Black Panther had suffered since he first made his name!

"Oh... Brother Black Panther, so you came here to..." Zhong Yongliang asked cautiously. After all, Brother Black Panther's going to prison had a great deal to do with him — had he not invited the man, he would not have come to this. So Zhong Yongliang was very careful, afraid that Brother Black Panther would vent his anger on him.