Chapter 135 — Who's Pestering Whom? Could It Be That Once She Tongued-Lashed Him but Once, He Was Supposed to Be Cured? Give Up on Making a Move on Her?

Still, that should be impossible. The key question was: how could Wei Zhao be on the bus? Didn't he have a private car and driver?

"You... did you get on this bus on purpose to ride with me?" Tang Zhi voiced the doubt in her heart.

"On purpose?" Wei Zhao smiled bitterly and rubbed his nose. "I got on first. How was I supposed to know you'd board in the shantytown? Can I predict the future?"

Heh, well now, funny she should say that. Wei Zhao unconsciously touched the jade pendant at his chest again. I really can predict... except the predictions aren't all that helpful. I never know the specific content, no helping it — can't read the signal, don't know what the hell this jade pendant means.

Hearing Wei Zhao's answer, Tang Zhi was slightly taken aback. True — she had boarded after him. How could he possibly have been sure she would get on? Even if he knew she took the No. 87 bus, it couldn't have been that much of a coincidence for them to end up on the same one. Besides, today she had been delayed a while because she had been trying to shake off that little thug...

Could that little thug have been sent by Wei Zhao, deliberately stalling for time, working with him to stage a whole hero-rescues-the-beauty act? The moment the thought surfaced, Tang Zhi found it laughable herself. From what she could tell, Wei Zhao was not that sort of idle, bored person. The man was arrogant; he should consider such tricks beneath him. And the little thug had been pestering her for a long time — back then Wei Zhao hadn't even transferred to this school yet. The possibility was practically nil!

"Oh..." Tang Zhi nodded, more or less accepting Wei Zhao's explanation: the two of them really had just run into each other by coincidence.

"Do you need something?" Wei Zhao saw Tang Zhi standing in front of him, showing no sign of leaving, and had no idea what she wanted.

Tang Zhi froze for a moment and looked at Wei Zhao in disbelief, mouth falling open in astonishment. "You're not going to pester me?"

Deep down, Tang Zhi was still a little afraid of Wei Zhao. On the bus, he had been shielding her the whole way; once off, she had no idea whether he would keep pestering her. Yet unexpectedly, Wei Zhao was asking whether she needed anything.

"What would I pester you for?" Wei Zhao was taken aback too, then smiled bitterly. "Say two more words and you'll be late..."

"Ah!" Tang Zhi glanced at her watch, stamped her foot in fury, shot Wei Zhao a hateful glare, and took off running toward the school... though her face burned with the flush of a sunset cloud. Just now, the way Wei Zhao put it, it was almost as if she were the one pestering him! Why had she lingered, if not out of fear?

Whatever faint goodwill toward Wei Zhao she had felt on the bus vanished without a trace, leaving only boundless annoyance.

Watching Tang Zhi's ponytail sway in the wind, Wei Zhao smiled faintly. Youth. How wonderful.

Tang Zhi ran panting to the school gate and nearly collided head-on with someone who was just coming out. She hurriedly skirted aside — and saw that the person emerging was Zou Ruoming!

"Mother of hell, who walks without eyes? Almost ran right into your daddy!" Zou Ruoming cursed on reflex. But as he finished, he made out Tang Zhi standing by the gate, a little flustered, and a grin instantly spread across his face. "Yun-yun! Sorry about that, I thought it was someone else. If I'd known it was you, I'd have welcomed you to bump right into me! How about it — shall we bump?"

Hearing Zou Ruoming's foul, flippant words, Tang Zhi's face darkened. "Zou Ruoming, don't talk nonsense."

"Hey, nonsense? I'm not talking nonsense at all!" Zou Ruoming leered all over his face. With crowds around during the day, he naturally wouldn't get too far out of line at school, but school-entry time had already passed and there was no one coming or going at the gate, so he could no longer hold himself back. "Yun-yun, made up your mind yet? Be my girl?"

"You... get out of the way..." Zou Ruoming was blocking the gate. Tang Zhi couldn't get in and could only tough it out and ask him to step aside.

"Say yes to me and I'll step aside." Zou Ruoming snickered, looking utterly shameless.

"You..." Seeing Zou Ruoming be such a scoundrel, Tang Zhi bit her lip in grievance... This thing was even more of a scoundrel than Wei Zhao! If it were Wei Zhao, he wouldn't push her like this. When she cried or looked hurt, Wei Zhao would surely leave... Or else, she could just stamp her foot down on his instep and see if he didn't move! Hmph... "What about you?" Zou Ruoming was now like the universe's ultimate invincible overbearing villain, displaying his evil nature to the fullest. "Your big brother here is very strong, you know!"

"You... if you don't step aside... I'll call Wei Zhao!" Tang Zhi really couldn't stand Zou Ruoming's lecherous eyes and words anymore. Somehow, Wei Zhao's name came blurting out of her mouth.

Zou Ruoming's lewd expression froze abruptly at the sound of the two words "Wei Zhao." He instinctively glanced around, and only after confirming there was no sign of Wei Zhao did he get cocky again!

Although these past few days he had been planning to get his big brother Zou Ruoguang to take care of Wei Zhao, until that happened he was still very much afraid of Wei Zhao. After all, that slap and that basketball had left him with a bit of psychological trauma.

"Damn it, quit trying to scare me with Wei Zhao. Who do you think he is, your knight in shining armor?" Zou Ruoming, seeing no Wei Zhao, turned arrogant again. "Where is he? Call him out then! Who do you think he is, your bodyguard or your personal protector? When he shows up, I'll **** him up!"

"Who the hell are you going to ****?" Wang Zhifeng, still savoring the afterglow of his time with his mistress, was making his rounds of the school in a fine mood when he heard someone at the gate bellowing something about "I'll **** him." His eyes flared with rage. Wasn't this a slap in the face? Uttering such words right before the dean of students was basically asking for death.

The sudden outburst gave Zou Ruoming a fright. He turned and saw Wang Zhifeng glaring his way with a dark, forbidding face, and his confidence deflated at once... To say he did not fear the dean of students was, of course, impossible.

Songshan City No. 1 High School was nothing like the schools he had passed through before. It was a private school with considerable backing, and its dean of students wielded the power to expel students outright. Zou Ruoming had no desire to find himself thrown out.

Tang Zhi saw Wang Zhifeng approaching and let out a breath of relief; otherwise, she dreaded to think how much longer Zou Ruoming would have gone on harassing her without letting up.

"Director Wang..." Zou Ruoming offered an ingratiating smile. "I was only shouting a few things off the top of my head... The study pressure has been brutal, you know. Just blowing off steam, that's all..."

"Blowing off steam? Why don't you go home and blow off steam on your old man?" Wang Zhifeng's brow furrowed. True, Zou Ruoming's father was a man of some standing, but Wang Zhifeng could not have cared less. The dean of students at No. 1 High School was a plum posting; he knew far too many people out there in the world, and whose family didn't have a child? No matter how formidable your parents might be, once you were inside the school gates, you still had to keep on good terms with the dean and the principal...

"Heh heh..." Zou Ruoming gave an awkward laugh. Go home? He wouldn't dare - wouldn't that just be inviting a beating? His older brother was street-hardened, and his father still harbored hopes that he would crack the university entrance exam and bring glory to the family...