Chapter 156 — Just What Kind of Man Are You? "Brother, all right, you've got your tricks," Wu Chengtian said, clapping Wei Zhao on the shoulder. "I've learned a thing or two today, my friend. We'll have plenty of time ahead of us."

"Heh..." Wei Zhao looked at Wu Chengtian, a faint, almost imperceptible smile flickering at the corner of his mouth. "I've got no end of tricks. You can take your time discovering them."

Sun Jingyan watched what Wu Chengtian was doing and frowned, wanting to warn Wei Zhao, though she was not quite sure of it. Besides, given the ties between the Sun and Wu families, she could hardly contradict Wu Chengtian in public; if word reached the elders, it would seem she was being childish, siding with an outsider... So Sun Jingyan was truly caught in a bind, unwilling to see Wei Zhao suffer any loss, yet unable to be certain whether Wu Chengtian had done something underhanded to him.

Wu Chengtian gave a cold humph, naturally taking Wei Zhao's words for mere face-saving talk. His goal was accomplished, and he had no reason to linger. He strode quickly out of the bar; he needed to have someone look into Wei Zhao's background first, to see just what this fellow's origins were before making any further decisions.

Once outside the bar door, Wu Chengtian relaxed and took a look, discovering there were only seven or eight hundred yuan inside, nothing else at all, not even an ID card.

Just a pauper, Wu Chengtian cursed inwardly. He had meant to check Wei Zhao's ID card, to look up his background from the address and number on it, but it seemed that idea could only be abandoned.

This shabby wallet, bought for a few yuan at some street stall, probably? Wu Chengtian examined its workmanship and material, somewhat speechless. With that family background, could Sun Jingyan really fancy him? Was there some mistake? Could he be a coworker or something dragged in at the last minute just to make up the numbers?

The wallet was of course Wei Zhao's. When Wu Chengtian was leaving, he had deliberately patted Wei Zhao and exchanged a few polite words, and it was while speaking that he had deftly lifted the wallet.

With the Wu family's iron-hand skill, lifting a wallet was effortless. The Wu family trained the speed of the hands; petty pickpocketing was all too simple for him—even a waste of talent.

"A tip for you." Wu Chengtian casually handed a small stack of bills from Wei Zhao's wallet to the doorman. "A reward for you. The name's Wei Zhao."

"Thank you, Brother Lin, you're really generous, Brother Lin." The doorman took the tip from Wu Chengtian's hand with some surprise. Though there was no shortage of wealthy people here, and some did tip the doormen, fifty or a hundred was already considered good. They were not like the beer girls or the private-room hostesses, who got larger tips; doormen like them got almost nothing.

For Wu Chengtian to give seven or eight hundred yuan at once was simply more than anyone could ask for, so the doorman bowed and scraped to him with boundless gratitude.

"Gah gah..." Wu Chengtian felt a wave of satisfaction. Wei Zhao, let's see how you pay the bill in a minute. You won't make the woman pay, will you? That would be far too humiliating for you. Gah gah...

At the thought of Wei Zhao about to be embarrassed, Wu Chengtian shook off his earlier gloom, hummed a little tune, and hailed a taxi. He had only just come to Songshan City and had not yet bought a car, so he took taxis everywhere.

He casually tossed Wei Zhao's shabby wallet to the ground. Naturally he did not care about such a trifling sum; it was only to make Wei Zhao lose face. As for the tip to the doorman, that was merely to satisfy his own perverse humor, to disgust Wei Zhao a little.

After Wu Chengtian had gone, Sun Jingyan looked at Wei Zhao apologetically. "Take a look, see if anything's missing..."

"Missing something?" Wei Zhao glanced at Sun Jingyan, thinking to himself that this girl's heart was not rotten to the core after all, since she knew to warn him. Still, he feigned ignorance. "What would be missing?"

"Your wallet and such," Sun Jingyan said. "Wu Chengtian is a rather petty man. When he left, he patted you. I can't be sure whether he did anything to you..."

"Oh? Then why didn't you warn me earlier?" Wei Zhao asked, smiling at Sun Jingyan.

"My family and his are old family friends... I couldn't contradict him in public, and it wouldn't sound good if it reached my parents." Sun Jingyan looked troubled. "But never mind. Whatever you've lost, I'll compensate you for it."

"Heh..." Wei Zhao found himself more and more convinced that Sun Jingyan's heart was not bad, at least she was willing to bear the loss on her own initiative. "Aren't you afraid I'll demand the moon?"

"That..." Sun Jingyan was somewhat discomfited by Wei Zhao's question. She was normally a strong, capable woman, yet today before Wei Zhao she had repeatedly come off worse, and the root cause was that she had discovered Wei Zhao seemed to ignore her charms. "You don't seem like that sort of person."

Sun Jingyan's embarrassment was only momentary; she quickly recovered her composure. Her big eyes flickered as she looked at Wei Zhao, very alluring.

"Congratulations, you guessed wrong." Wei Zhao shrugged.

"Huh?" Sun Jingyan was speechless, truly regretting today's choice. Had she run into someone even more difficult to deal with?

"But this time I haven't lost anything, so you needn't compensate me." Wei Zhao chuckled and produced a wallet that looked quite upscale, opening it. "Someone traded a big wallet for a small one... tsk tsk, there's even US dollars, quite a stack of bills, no? Oh, what's this? An ID card? Wu Chengtian? The photo looks like a memorial portrait—no wonder he's so unlucky..."

Sun Jingyan was slightly taken aback at Wei Zhao's words and was about to say something when she suddenly saw him produce a wallet, which startled her. By the time Wei Zhao mentioned swapping a large wallet for a small one, Sun Jingyan began to feel that something was off... Then Wei Zhao took out an ID card and called out Wu Chengtian's name... Only then did Sun Jingyan gasp and cover her mouth with her hand, staring at Wei Zhao in disbelief.

He had actually taken Wu Chengtian's wallet into his own hands? When? Was it when Wu Chengtian took his wallet? What kind of speed was that? She hadn't even seen it... Even more unbelievable, Wu Chengtian hadn't noticed either?

If Wu Chengtian had lifted Wei Zhao's wallet without Wei Zhao noticing, Sun Jingyan could believe that. But if Wei Zhao had lifted Wu Chengtian's wallet without Wu Chengtian noticing, that was something Sun Jingyan found hard to credit.

The Wu family's Iron Hands trained precisely for speed of hand; that he could lift Wei Zhao's wallet was no great matter... Yet from what Wei Zhao was saying now, it seemed he had known all along that Wu Chengtian had lifted his wallet, and had even taken Wu Chengtian's wallet along the way...

Sun Jingyan was somewhat speechless. Just who was this person sitting before her? Was he an ordinary man?

"Just who are you?" Sun Jingyan could not help but look at Wei Zhao squarely. She somewhat regretted dragging Wei Zhao into this matter. Now it seemed Wei Zhao was plainly no easy mark; this fellow had been playing the pig to eat the tiger all along.

"You're better off not knowing." Wei Zhao said quite seriously, "Give me a thousand yuan, and then you can go. Don't come to me about this business again. That kid is too foolish; there's no sense of accomplishment in playing him."