Chapter 65 — Do You Like Him

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Zou Ruoming was shaken just as deeply. The sight of Brother Black Panther — less than human, more than ghost, barely clinging to life — settled it for him: from now on he would keep his distance from that creature Wei Zhao. The thing was a madman, and Zou Ruoming had no wish to die.

True, the whole business was galling. He, the number two figure in the school, afraid of a transfer student — if word of it got out, he would lose every shred of face. But Zou Ruoming's reasoning was simple: as long as he and Wei Zhao kept to their own sides of the river, and he did not go provoking the fellow, surely none of it would splash onto him.

At that thought, Zou Ruoming felt a quiet glow of satisfaction. That Zhong Yongliang — what had possessed him to go picking a fight with a transfer student for no reason at all? The boy's background had not even been looked into, and there he was, asking for trouble. The man might as well have been tired of living.

"Hey, Yao Yao, do you think anything will happen to Wei Zhao? The way Qiu Lingshan was strutting about, it looked like she was deliberately trying to make trouble for him," Shen Yushu said in a low voice to Gu Mengyao, who was leafing through her English textbook.

"Who cares? Better if he gets arrested and sentenced — then he won't be around to pester me." Gu Mengyao gave a little huff. "And Daddy will save on the wages, too."

"You really don't care about him?" Shen Yushu watched Gu Mengyao with a half-smile.

"Xiao Shu, what kind of look is that?" Gu Mengyao frowned. "Why would I care about him? All right, enough about him — I have revision to do."

"Oh, fine then..." Shen Yushu pointed, smiling, at the English textbook in Gu Mengyao's hands. "Yao Yao, your English book is upside down. You've been staring at it all this time — that really is impressive."

"Ah!" Gu Mengyao flushed scarlet. She glanced at the book in her hands, then hurriedly, flustered, snapped it shut, shot a look at Shen Yushu beside her, and opened it again. Her little mouth puckered. "All right — I just don't want anything to happen to him because of me. When all's said and done, this whole thing started because of me; I was the one who told him to deal with Zhong Yongliang. I've already called Uncle Qing — he'll take care of it."

"Heh heh..." Shen Yushu laughed, though her expression was plainly full of doubt.

Gu Mengyao felt a little uncomfortable all over under that smile. She hunched her shoulders, and still it did not help; she could feel Shen Yushu's gaze burning into her. Then something occurred to her. "By the way — what about you, classmate Xiao Shu? You seem to care about Wei Zhao more than I do. Do you like him?"

"Me? Sure, I like him — so what?" Shen Yushu looked at Gu Mengyao with a grin, not in the least bit embarrassed. Hearing that Gu Mengyao had already contacted Uncle Qing, Shen Yushu breathed a sigh of relief; she knew well enough what Uncle Qing was capable of in Songshan City. She had even been thinking of calling her own grandfather...

"Huh?" Gu Mengyao's mouth fell open, and she stared at Shen Yushu in disbelief. "You... you like him?"

"Ha, I like him — what are you getting so flustered for? You can't even get your words out straight. Are you jealous?" Shen Yushu looked at her and burst out giggling.

"Jealous of what? If you like him, go chase him, then. I expect the kid will be so pleased his nose bubbles over," Gu Mengyao said, her expression turning dismissive.

"All right, then I'll go chase him — and don't you regret it later," Shen Yushu said, entirely straight-faced.

"Who'd regret it? Haha..." Gu Mengyao shook her head carelessly. But the moment the words left her mouth, her heart suddenly felt uncomfortable — she did not know why. It was an unsettling feeling.

"Just teasing you, haha." Seeing that she had failed to get a rise out of Gu Mengyao, Shen Yushu lost interest and did not press further. "I just can't stand Qiu Lingshan. She wants to touch one of ours? Not a chance."

"Right... Wei Zhao may be my follower, but he's still one of mine," Gu Mengyao said. For some reason, hearing Shen Yushu's explanation, she actually felt relieved.

This feeling, coming from nowhere, left her quite bewildered, but Gu Mengyao did not think much about it.

Though Zhong Yongliang had put on a calm front before Gao Xiaofu and Zhang Naipao, in truth he was more frightened than anyone — not of Wei Zhao's revenge, but of Brother Black Panther naming him once he was in the lockup.

If that happened, he would become the mastermind behind the whole affair. Who knew whether it would drag him in? And once it did, his father would certainly punish him severely — might even transfer him to another school over it.

Catching sight of Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu laughing and talking not far off, Zhong Yongliang grew all the more irritated. He was, after all, something of a celebrity at school, and yet he did not even have a girlfriend — it was positively laughable. Meanwhile Zou Ruoming, no less a campus tyrant than he, had already been through more girlfriends than anyone could count. Word was he was now setting his sights on Tang Zhi, the school's so-called commoner beauty.

To be honest, Zhong Yongliang had only started noticing Tang Zhi after hearing recently that Zou Ruoming meant to pursue her. She was a girl of clear, refined beauty; though she wore the school uniform, it could not hide the soft loveliness of her looks. Still, set beside little princesses like Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu, she came up a notch short.

Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu came from prominent families, chauffeured to and from school in luxury cars, while Tang Zhi, of comparatively ordinary origins, did not stand out so conspicuously. Were one to judge by looks alone, Tang Zhi was in no way inferior to Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu; her figure, indeed, was slightly the better of Gu Mengyao's.

Yet Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu occupied a lofty, untouchable station, carrying themselves each day with an air that warned strangers to keep their distance. Zhong Yongliang, for his part, was not afraid that some other fly might get there first, for in this school he was the only one who dared to court Gu Mengyao.

So Zhong Yongliang was in no hurry; he had patience enough to win Gu Mengyao over. But Wei Zhao's arrival shattered his original plan, and in a fit of rage he had summoned Brother Black Panther to the school without a thought for the consequences — and what he never anticipated was that Brother Black Panther would, with even less regard for consequences, draw a gun.

In that instant the whole nature of the affair changed: from thugs making trouble at a school to members of a gang committing armed violence on school grounds. Zhong Yongliang was terrified that Brother Black Panther, unable to hold out, would give him up as well — and then, never mind courting Gu Mengyao, whether he could even go on studying at the school would be another matter entirely.

Returning from Gu Pengzhan's place, Wei Zhao glanced at the time on his phone: it was already past eleven in the morning. If he went to school now, there would be no classes; and he was somewhat worried about Yang Huaijun's injury. He had come away in such haste that he had brought no books on traditional Chinese medicine. After a moment's hesitation, Wei Zhao flagged down a taxi and said to the driver, "Take me to the biggest bookstore in this city."

"Young man, the biggest bookstores in this city are Xinhua Bookstore and Xuehai Bookstore — they're about the same size. But what sort of books are you looking to buy?" the taxi driver asked after hearing him out.

"Oh? What's the difference between the two? I want to buy medical books." In the past, all of Wei Zhao's books had been brought back by the old man on his trips into town; he had never bought any himself.