Chapter 356 — Overplayed, and Hurt

No matter how splendid his act was, no matter how much the audience below wanted to watch, the school arts festival gala could not be a gala held for him alone; the host would surely come to end this performance.

You could not keep the following acts from going on, after all. So, thinking this, Yang Ce had to make a risky move. On the surface he continued to cooperate with Lin Yanhe catching the flying knives as if nothing were amiss, but his right hand gave a slight flick, and two flying needles dropped into his palm. Using these blood-quickly-dissolving needles on himself and Li Jiasheng was really doing them too much honor.

Such high-grade items Yang Ce had planned to save for a formidable enemy. But Zhang Zhishen's side had already brought in more of the plant material for making such flying needles from the Miao villages of Yunnan, so there was no fear of running out—only that making them was troublesome, requiring pure handwork.

Yang Juehuan's hand was hidden in his sleeve, and his gaze never turned toward Ren Jianren and Li Jiasheng.

Granted, this was only the school stage, with no formidable master about, yet Yang Ce still feared that a sharp-eyed person might spot something.

And now, with Yang Ce's hand hidden in his sleeve and his gaze not on Ren Jianren and Li Jiasheng, others could not possibly suspect him, Yang Juehuan.

At the instant Li Jiasheng was about to throw his flying knife, Yang Diao shot a needle at him, and at the same time shot another needle at Ren Jianren.

Li Jiasheng did not know what had come over him—his right leg suddenly went numb, his body pitched forward, the flying knife slipped from his hand and veered off course! Ren Jianren was startled, not knowing what Li Jiasheng meant to do. His brain hurriedly issued the command to dodge, yet somehow his body seemed to disobey, and the whole of him, bent at the waist, lunged forward to meet the flying knife.

And so tragedy struck: the blade flashed and plunged into Ren Jianren's cheek, piercing clean through the whole left side of his face! Blood came pouring down in streams.

With a howl, Ren Jianren clutched his left cheek and dropped to his knees on the ground, groaning in agony.

This turn of events happened in an instant. The audience below fell dead silent, and onstage Yang Ce and Lin Yanhe also stopped what they were doing, staring at Ren Jianren and Li Jiasheng with faces full of astonishment and bewilderment.

Of course, Yang Juehuan's astonishment was feigned; Lin Yanhe's was genuine. But Yang Ce had always been good at disguise, and no one could tell from his expression that it was an act.

"No way? He's actually bleeding?" Someone in the audience finally spoke up, having recovered from the shock, staring in utter horror at Ren Jianren onstage, whose face was now drenched in blood, making him look especially ghastly and terrifying.

Of course, no one knew what kind of act Li Jiasheng and Ren Jianren were putting on, but most of the students had already formed their own guesses in their hearts, because everyone had seen the movements of the two earlier, though it was only suspicion.

"No skill to speak of, yet he wants to copy Yang Ce and Lin Yanhe—well, that's done for, isn't it? Hurt himself, didn't he?" Tian Yan's loudspeaker started working again right on cue. Though he had not clearly seen why the two had fumbled, Tian Yan did his best to guess at the most malicious interpretation.

Most people were thinking much the same as Tian Yan, only they had not been certain enough to say it aloud. Now that Tian Yan had spoken, everyone nodded in deep agreement: "Exactly, no real ability, yet he wants to imitate others and play tricks? Well, look at him now—the trick failed, and he's crippled himself instead."

Those who had not thought so before now understood upon hearing everyone else's words and believed what was being said. So it turned out that Ren Jianren and Li Jiasheng, seeing Yang Ce and Lin Yanhe steal the spotlight, had felt displeased and wanted to imitate them! And so Li Jiasheng had thrown out a rather difficult flying knife, and Ren Jianren had tried to bend low and catch it like Yang Puqi—but little did he expect that without Yang Ce's skill, he failed to catch the knife and instead had his own face pierced through!

"What's going on? Where are the student council people? Go see what's happening!" The school leaders snapped out of their shock and hastily stood up, shouting toward the stage!

With such a thing happening at the school's arts festival gala, the school leaders were naturally anxious and quickly summoned the student council to take emergency measures! Xu Qianxing had still been smugly congratulating himself backstage on his foresight in going to great lengths to invite Yang Ce and Lin Yanhe to perform, which had produced an unprecedented sensation.

As for Ren Jianren and Li Jiasheng making fools of themselves onstage, Xu Qianxing could not be bothered. Although Ren Jianren's and Li Jiasheng's clubs belonged to the student council and by rights they were student council members too, this contest had been their own proposal, and now that they had disgraced themselves, there was nothing Xu Qianxing could do. Compared to the sensation this act had caused at the arts festival gala, Ren Jianren and Li Jiasheng could just be the small sacrifice.

But Xu Qianxing had barely finished gloating when he heard terrified screams coming from the audience seats below. Not knowing what had happened, he hurriedly pulled aside the curtain to look toward the stage and the audience, and what he saw gave him quite a fright!

He saw Ren Jianren clutching his own left cheek, blood spilling through his fingers and pooling across the floor—a truly horrifying sight! And Li Jiasheng was kneeling on the ground and could not get up; Xu Qianxing had no idea what was wrong with him.

It was not that Li Jiasheng did not want to get up—the wound on his leg simply hurt too much. His right leg had just gone weak a moment ago; though he was somewhat baffled, he assumed his old leg injury had acted up and he could no longer hold himself, which was why he had fallen to his knees.

But never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that the flying knife he had fumbled and thrown, Ren Jianren would actually try to catch by bending low like Yang Puqi! And the result was just great—the knife was not caught, and it pierced straight through Ren Jianren's face.