Chapter 147 — News Travels Fast Around Campus

"Did you hear? Wei Zhao, one of the new Four Great Young Tyrants, wrote Tang Zhi a love letter."

"Did you hear? Wei Zhao, one of the new Four Great Young Tyrants — Wei Zhao is courting Tang Zhi."

"Did you hear? Wei Zhao, one of the new Four Great Young Tyrants — Wei Zhao and Tang Zhi are going out."

"Did you hear? Wei Zhao, one of the new Four Great Young Tyrants — that Zou Ruoming, another of the Four Great Young Tyrants, went and harassed his girlfriend Tang Zhi, and Wei Zhao beat his face to a pulp..."

The two protagonists themselves — Young Master Lin and the The Blossom Guardian Tang — still had no idea that rumors about them had already spread through the entire school...

Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu had watched Wei Zhao run out empty-handed and come back empty-handed, and they had no idea what he had actually given Tang Zhi. They hadn't even seen him take anything out with him, had they?

She wanted to ask, but was too embarrassed to, so Gu Mengyao could only give up and look at Shen Yushu. That girl was no good — she had no sense of loyalty to speak of. Sending her to ask would be worse than asking herself; she'd sell you out the moment you turned your back.

After the last small period ended, during the break before the big evening self-study session.

Tang Zhi walked hand in hand with a girl in glasses on the sports field. This was Tang Zhi's close friend at school, Liu Xinlan, from Class Ten, Senior Three. The two families lived very close to each other, and they both knew that rather pitiful girl, Xiaofen.

Liu Xinlan was not much to look at, though, so naturally she never drew the attention of the little hoodlums and street toughs, still less the favor of any young gentlemen. Ordinarily, she had a rather peaceful time of it.

"Yunyun, you're not really with Wei Zhao, are you..." Liu Xinlan asked in a low voice.

"Me? As if." Tang Zhi had not expected her close friend to say such a thing, and her face flushed at once. "What nonsense are you talking?" she spat. "How could there possibly be anything between him and me?"

"No way? Yunyun, you didn't know? It's already all over our class — they say Wei Zhao handed you a love letter today, and you accepted it all shy and flustered, and in your panic you nearly knocked over our homeroom teacher, Teacher Song," Liu Xinlan said.

"What?" Tang Zhi had never imagined that Wei Zhao giving her a barbecue recipe would be spotted by someone with an eye for gossip, and then twisted into such a shape. Truly, tongues are a fearsome thing.

"What, you really didn't know?" Seeing how baffled Tang Zhi looked, Liu Xinlan was puzzled too. Could Tang Zhi really not know?

"Wenwen, tell me, what on earth is going on?" Tang Zhi grew a little frantic and shook Liu Xinlan's hand. "How do I not know a thing about this?"

"It was this afternoon. Someone saw Wei Zhao give you a love letter and confess his feelings to you, and then you accepted shyly and went back to class..." Liu Xinlan summarized a relatively reliable and credible version and told it to Tang Zhi.

"Huh?" Tang Zhi's eyes went wide. "He gave me a love letter? Confessed to me?"

"That's right, that's what everyone's saying..." Liu Xinlan thought to herself that there were even more fantastical versions she hadn't mentioned. If she told those, Tang Zhi would see just how outrageous it had gotten.

"Wenwen, don't you believe me? How could I possibly get into a romance this early?" Tang Zhi was at her wit's end, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

"Hee, who knows? You're eighteen already — who's to say your heart isn't stirring?" Liu Xinlan laughed. "Besides, you're about to graduate from senior year and go off to university any day now. Maybe you just can't hold back anymore?"

"I'll pound you to death." Tang Zhi, flushed crimson with embarrassment at Liu Xinlan's teasing, reached out and swung at her, and Liu Xinlan dodged away with a giggle.

"Yunyun, honestly now — do you like Wei Zhao or not?" Her laughter finished, Liu Xinlan put on a perfectly serious expression.

"I... how would I like him? Isn't he the one pestering me?" Tang Zhi pursed her lips, somewhat vexed.

"Is that the truth?" Liu Xinlan said. "Yunyun, let me tell you, you must be careful, don't let yourself be fooled. Xiaofen is a lesson to us all. Sure, you're a little prettier than most, but you've got nothing else to fall back on. Don't be taken in, or you'll regret it when it's too late."

"Wenwen, do you still not believe me... It's that villain Wei Zhao who keeps pestering me... How could I ever accept his confession?" Tang Zhi said. "You... who did you hear it from?"

"Oh, then that's good..." Liu Xinlan nodded. "Who did I hear it from... that's really hard to say. Everyone's saying it, and I don't know who started it, but now the rumor's getting more and more outrageous. They all say you and Wei Zhao are already together..."

"Ugh." Tang Zhi gave a bitter smile and stamped her foot, a little vexed. "What am I supposed to do? Wenwen, tell me, what am I supposed to do?"

"How about I go and talk to him? How can he act like that? You're afraid of him, but I'm not." Liu Xinlan was famously fierce; her mother was a regular termagant too, and Liu Xinlan had inherited her mother's fine tradition from an early age. At twelve she had gone with her mother to sell vegetables in the market, and could scare off protection-racket thugs with a cleaver in hand...

"Forget it... You don't know. He's formidable — he does whatever he pleases, and he beat up both Zhong Yongliang and Zou Ruoming, and neither of them dared say a word... Don't you go." Tang Zhi did not want anything to happen to Liu Xinlan. This was not the sort of thing that mere fierceness could handle.

"Ugh..." Liu Xinlan had heard a few things about Wei Zhao's exploits. Young Master Lin was no longer merely a matter of deep connections — he was utterly unrestrained and tyrannical. Of the four great campus villains, he had beaten two within a few days of transferring in, and nothing had come of it...

Liu Xinlan privately judged that she was no match for him, and that going would gain her nothing but trouble, so she said indignantly: "The way I see it, this is almost certainly Wei Zhao's doing — he's the one spreading it."

"Huh?" Tang Zhi was startled and looked at Liu Xinlan in some confusion.

"Don't you get it? He failed to win you over, so he seized the chance to stir things up, to make your relationship an established fact. By then everyone will know you're his girlfriend, and you'll have no choice but to accept your fate." Liu Xinlan's conjecture was malicious.

"I don't think he would... He... shouldn't be that kind of person, should he?" Tang Zhi frowned. From the impression Wei Zhao had left her these past few days, he was detestable, yes, but she did not think he was the sort to spread rumors behind someone's back. In her view, Wei Zhao deliberately disguised himself as a courteous gentleman; even after she had seen through him, he would not stoop to such despicable tricks, for that would only make her detest him all the more.

"Why wouldn't he? Huh? Yunyun, why are you still speaking up for him? 'He shouldn't be that kind of person'? What, have you actually started to fall for him?" Liu Xinlan sensed something off in Tang Zhi's words, as if she were somewhat defending Wei Zhao.

Could this girl really have developed some feelings for Wei Zhao? At the thought, Liu Xinlan's face turned grave, and an ominous notion welled up from the bottom of her heart... Could it be that Yunyun's heart was about to fall?

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