Chapter 182 — A Wake-Up Call

None of it was of the slightest use to Wei Zhao. He closed the page and turned his search to the "Divine Doctor Kang." Since Wei Zhao meant to make a name for himself in the pharmaceutical trade, he had to know about this Divine Doctor Kang. What he had not expected was that the man should turn out to be Kang Xiaofeng's grand-uncle... A rather neat coincidence, that.

A man cannot do without money. The old man at home might be harsh with him, but Wei Zhao had never once complained. For a single job, a few dozen yuan, a few hundred yuan in pay... not even as much as the job's own expense money.

His master was not a stingy man. For each job, apart from the share the organization was obliged to hold back, the rest of the payment ought to have gone into the old man's account.

But what the old man handed over each time was only a few dozen or a few hundred. Wei Zhao could not be bothered to argue. The only explanation was that the old man had pocketed the rest. Yet to Wei Zhao the old man was near enough his father, who had raised him from a child; if the man pocketed it, then let him pocket it. Wei Zhao had no choice but to pretend he did not know. He had food and clothes enough, after all...

What Wei Zhao could not understand was this: the old man took the money, so why was he still so miserly? Was he some modern-day Grandet?

These days he was drawing Gu Pengzhan's salary, but Wei Zhao had no income of his own, and it still left him uneasy. Who knew what this assignment really was? Even now Wei Zhao could make neither head nor tail of it. A man had to keep a card or two up his sleeve...

What if he lost his job? The truth was that Wei Zhao had fallen in love with his present life, like any other high-school student, to school and home each day, with good brothers of his own, and a girl he secretly adored...

From what the internet said, Divine Doctor Kang's reputation was rather good; it was only that his medicine sold too well, or was too scarce, and hard to come by, which had produced a situation of price without market. Yet the more this was so, the more it proved how wondrous the medicine was.

Wei Zhao had never seen what Divine Doctor Kang's Golden Wound Medicine actually looked like, but he was confident that his own old man's prescription would be no whit inferior. If it were put on the market, the market would likely split clean in two.

The next day, having nothing to do, Wei Zhao naturally did not drive himself to school again. Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu came yawning down the stairs; plainly they had stayed up late watching the concert. Wei Zhao did not think the big star had the least charm. True, she seemed a little prettier than Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu, but that was makeup and stagecraft. Judged on essentials, Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu did not yield to the star by so much as a hair. So Wei Zhao reckoned that watching the big star's performance was not half so good as watching these two girls of his own household...

"The live broadcast of last night's concert was so good! I wonder when little Han will come to Songzhi and give a concert?" Shen Yushu was still lingering over the previous night's television show.

"Hey, Songshan isn't even a provincial capital," nor a special economic zone. I reckon it'd be a bit difficult," said Gu Mengyao. "I absolutely have to buy a Blu-ray of the concert to keep. Last night wasn't nearly enough."

"Yes, yes, let's go buy one at noon, see if the shops near school have it," Shen Yushu nodded. "Though there don't seem to be many selling the genuine article near school. If we want the real thing, we'll have to go to the bookstore..."

"Wei Zhao!" Gu Mengyao called to Wei Zhao, who was idling nearby. "You've got nothing to do at noon, so go buy us a Blu-ray of Xu Shilan's concert, the first one was a month ago, they must be on sale by now."

"Uh... all right." Wei Zhao looked at the two star-chasers, each talking over the other, and nodded. It was a trifling matter, buying a disc; Wei Zhao thought nothing of it.

"Ha, Sister Yao Yao, you're so clever. Now that we've got Arrowhead Bro to run errands, the two of us don't have to walk so far!" Shen Yushu had been grumbling a little that the bookstore was a good distance away, about a kilometer, and it was awkward to trouble Uncle Qing to come at noon. Seeing Gu Mengyao hand the whole thing straight to Wei Zhao, she was instantly delighted.

"I'm paying him to come here, not to chase girls. Of course I'll put him to work!" Gu Mengyao pursed her lips and shot Wei Zhao a glare.

"Heh." Wei Zhao gave a wry smile. Him, chasing girls? That was hardly any business of hers, surely? So long as he did not steal the young lady away... A follower had to have a love life too...

When Uncle Qing's car drove into the shantytown, Wei Zhao deliberately looked out the window and saw Tang Zhi standing safe and sound on the platform waiting for the bus. Wei Zhao breathed a sigh of relief; it seemed the little rogue had not pestered Tang Zhi today...

Gao Ruoming was furious! Yes, furious beyond all measure! Wei Zhao and Tang Zhi had actually ended up together?

The news that Wei Zhao had confessed his feelings to Tang Zhi and that Tang Zhi had shyly accepted had naturally reached Gao Ruoming as well. A campus is only so big; how could the second of the campus's Four Young Devils fail to hear what everyone else knew?

Originally Gao Ruoming had planned it all out neatly: he would force Tang Zhi's hand there at her mother's place, creating the false impression that Tang Zhi was his, Gao Ruoming's, girlfriend, and let the whole school know it as fact. Backed into a corner, Tang Zhi might then have agreed to go out with him!

But plans cannot keep pace with change. Gao Ruoming had never expected Wei Zhao to come crashing in out of nowhere like a Cheng Yaojin, wrecking his scheme and, what was more, slapping him across the face and making him a laughingstock!

This left Gao Ruoming deeply humiliated and hating Wei Zhao into the bargain. He meant to have his elder brother, Gao Ruoguang, step forward and teach Wei Zhao a lesson. But because of what had just happened with Brother Black Panther, Gao Ruoming did not dare to have his brother come to the school and rough someone up so openly. He could only wait for a fitting chance, or for this whole business to blow over.

After all, even Brother Black Panther had been hauled into the station and was said to be facing a prison term. Though the affair had been hushed up by Zhong Yongliang's father and Zhong Yongliang himself had not been implicated, the fact that Zhong Yongliang's father, Zhong Fabai, for all his clout, had been unable to spring the man proved just how big this thing had grown!

In truth, Songshan No. 1 High School was no ordinary high school, but a private institution with powerful backers! Qie Ruoming could well imagine that if Zhong Yongliang's uncle had not been one of the school's board members, anyone else caught up in this affair would have been expelled long ago.

So Qie Ruoming could only grit his teeth and endure it for now. But before that opportunity ever came, yesterday's rumor, which had swept through the school like wildfire, struck him like a blow to the head and left him dazed!

Tang Zhi had actually accepted Wei Zhao's confession? What the hell, was there some mistake? That brat Wei Zhao did not look like he was any better than himself, equally arrogant, equally a spoiled rich kid, equally notorious. So how had Tang Zhi taken a fancy to him?