Chapter 144 — The Little Spy on His Tail

Wei Zhao stared in astonishment at Gu Mengyao's reply. The earlier line, "You don't need to report to me where you go," came as no surprise—that was pure Gu Mengyao, nothing out of the ordinary at all.

But the sentence that followed—"Still, be careful about stirring up trouble with girls; they're already coming to your door looking for you"—was baffling. What did she mean, be careful about stirring up trouble with girls? Who was already coming to his door? Whom had he stirred up? Who had come looking for him?

Puzzled, Wei Zhao texted back: "Who came looking for me?"

Reading his reply, Gu Mengyao frowned. Was he playing dumb, or did he genuinely not know? Tang, the great The Blossom Guardian, had come looking for him—how could such a big thing happen unless they had arranged it beforehand?

Still, that was only her assumption. Looked at another way, if they had arranged it, Wei Zhao couldn't possibly have failed to tell Tang Zhi that he wouldn't be at school that morning—so the two of them really didn't seem to have planned it in advance.

So Gu Mengyao couldn't say much more. She could only reply: "Tang Zhi came looking for you several times. Do you even know she's looking for you? And who is Xiaohei?"

Only after her anger had passed did she remember to ask who this "Xiaohei" mentioned in his text was. Why did it sound like a dog's name?

Tang Zhi? Wei Zhao was taken aback. Tang Zhi had come looking for him? From the way she had been sulking that morning, it had seemed she would never speak to him again—and now she had sought him out of her own accord?

Wei Zhao frowned, unable to make sense of why Tang Zhi would come looking for him. He texted Gu Mengyao back: "Xiaohei? That's Black Panther. What did Tang Zhi want with me?"

Gu Mengyao couldn't help but be amused at Wei Zhao's message. Xiaohei... was Black Panther? She had heard a thing or two about Black Panther's reputation. Zhong Yongliang had once bragged in class until the heavens rang—how he ruled the skies above and the earth below, how he led the underworld, how he could take on ten men at once. And a man so formidable, kicked to the ground by Wei Zhao, his face ground out of shape under his heel...

Heh... Gu Mengyao smiled faintly. But then Wei Zhao's question—"What did Tang Zhi want with me?"—irked her. He didn't know himself?

"How should I know? You made the trouble, you sort it out." Gu Mengyao sent the reply, then slipped her phone into her desk and prepared for class.

"Yao-yao jie, what did Arrow Brand Bro say?" Shen Yushu asked once Gu Mengyao had put the phone away in her desk.

"You were sitting right there peeking out of the corner of your eye—did you think I wouldn't notice?" Gu Mengyao was speechless at Shen Yushu's pretending not to know.

"Hehe..." Shen Yushu looked a little embarrassed. "I thought you'd be able to figure something out..."

"What do you take me for, a fortune-teller or a psychic? Figure something out?" Gu Mengyao snorted. "Besides, why would I bother figuring him out?"

"Oh." Seeing that Gu Mengyao's tone had turned sharp, Shen Yushu said no more and obediently got ready for class.

After class, Wei Zhao left the classroom and headed for Class Nine of Senior Year Three, where Tang Zhi was. Tang Zhi had no phone, so he couldn't call or text her—he would have to go find her himself.

Watching Wei Zhao's retreating back as he left the classroom, Gu Mengyao knew full well he was going to look for Tang Zhi, and it left her rather displeased.

"Yao-yao jie, want me to tail him?" Shen Yushu was up to her bad ideas again.

"Give me a break." Gu Mengyao's vision went black and several dark lines popped above her head. "You, tail him? You don't know how formidable that kid is, do you? You think you could tail him? If he caught you, he'd think I sent you."

"Oh, then I'll just march over there fair and square and say I was curious myself." Shen Yushu spoke as if it were nothing.

Gu Mengyao was truly speechless. "Then go yourself—but whatever you do, don't say I told you to."

"Oh, then I'm off. Don't worry, Yao-yao jie, I would never sell you out," Shen Yushu said solemnly.

"That's more like it... Eh?" Gu Mengyao started, then realized she had been talked into a corner by Shen Yushu. "What do you mean, sell me out? You're the one who wants to go—what does that have to do with me? You rotten girl!"

As she spoke, Gu Mengyao reached out to grab Shen Yushu and give her a lesson.

Shen Yushu giggled and darted quickly away, so that Gu Mengyao's hand caught nothing.

Wei Zhao had not gone more than a few steps before he felt as though someone were following him. It was a strange, elusive sensation—one might call it an aura, or the sixth sense.

The so-called sixth sense is a curious thing. When someone is watching you or staring at your back, you have no eyes behind you, yet if that person's gaze is unfriendly, an involuntary chill rises in you—what some would call killing intent.

Even without killing intent, being watched brings a certain discomfort, an unease at being spied upon. In truth this too is a kind of aura sensing.

The thing is mysterious, intangible and insubstantial, yet many people, when spied on or stared at, can indeed sense it keenly—and Wei Zhao was one of them.

Wei Zhao paid it no mind. This person bore him no killing intent, which proved he was no enemy; above all, the jade pendant had given no warning, so for the time being Wei Zhao could afford to ignore him.

Arriving at the door of Class Nine, Senior Year Three, Wei Zhao caught the reflection in the glass of the open classroom door and saw who was behind him. It was Shen Yushu. He smiled faintly. A curious little thing, to be sure—but let her be.

He walked on a few more steps to the vicinity of Tang Zhi's seat and rapped on the window facing the corridor. The window was shut tight at the moment, the curtain drawn within, so he could not tell whether Tang Zhi was inside; he was only trying his luck. Still, since he had come the moment class ended, Tang Zhi ought not to have left the room.

Hearing someone knock on the window beside her, Tang Zhi pulled back the curtain in some surprise and glanced outside. Seeing that it was Wei Zhao, she panicked at once and, by sheer reflex, dropped the curtain back into place...

But no sooner had she done so than she realized Wei Zhao might have come looking for her because a classmate had told him she had been searching for him that morning. She hurriedly drew the curtain back and opened the window.

"You... you came?" Tang Zhi was rather put out that Wei Zhao had been absent from school all morning, making her run back and forth for nothing.

"Ha, I had a few things to take care of this morning. After we parted at the school gate, I left." Wei Zhao smiled.

"What you went to do... you don't need to explain it to me..." Wei Zhao's words carried a certain ambiguity that made Tang Zhi shy. Parted at the school gate... it almost sounded as though the two of them had come to school together. So Tang Zhi hastily waved her hands, trying to draw a clear line between herself and Wei Zhao.

"All right. I heard you came looking for me this morning. Was there something you wanted?" Wei Zhao did not press the matter further, but turned to business.

Was there something she wanted? Looking at Wei Zhao's innocent expression, Tang Zhi felt like biting him. The man was simply hateful. Wasn't it you who said you would make up the formula for my mother? Have you changed your mind now and don't want to give it to me, or are you deliberately playing me for a fool?