Chapter 425 — Let's Go Shark Fishing

"Think about it, Liang. You could make a shaped tree and decorate it with Gu Mengyao's name. The moment she sees it she'll love it — every girl goes for that sort of frilly stuff!" Gao Xiaofu said. "Remember The Return of the Condor Heroes? When Guo Xiang had her birthday, Yang Guo gave her a fireworks display and she was so thrilled she practically pledged herself to him on the spot!"

"Pledged herself to him? I remember it as Guo Xiang becoming a nun." Zhong Yongliang blinked.

"Uh — right, so she became a nun. I don't remember exactly. Maybe I read fan fiction..." Gao Xiaofu said, a little embarrassed. "I figure she took the vows for love, too... Anyway, this trick is guaranteed to work!"

"So you mean I should set off some fireworks too?" Zhong Yongliang asked.

"Exactly, Liang! Haven't you heard the saying, 'trees of fire and flowers of silver, a night that never ends'? We'll give Gu Mengyao her own blazing night of silver flowers!" Gao Xiaofu said.

"All right, then it's settled! I'll go buy a sapling!" Zhong Yongliang thought this was a fine idea — much simpler than writing a letter in blood. At least this blazing night of silver flowers didn't require him to cut himself.

"The sapling has to be special too. Don't get the same kind as everyone else, or we won't be able to show off how unique we are," Gao Xiaofu said.

"Fine, I'll look into getting an imported sapling in a bit!" Zhong Yongliang was excited. He felt Gao Xiaofu had finally come up with a good idea.

"Liang, should we run this by Sister Xiaoxiao? She's the big boss of our class now, after all... If we're going to cause this much of a stir, we ought to give her a heads-up, don't you think?" Gao Xiaofu reminded him.

"True enough. We really should mention it — otherwise Sister Xiaoxiao might have her own plan for dealing with Wei Zhao, and it'd be bad if the two got in each other's way.

After school, Zhong Yongliang invited Feng Xiaoxiao to a corner of the campus by the playing field, intending to tell her what Gao Xiaofu had proposed.

Feng Xiaoxiao listened patiently to Gao Xiaofu's explanation. Whether Zhong Yongliang courted Gu Mengyao or not was of no interest to her; her target was Wei Zhao.

"This is what you wanted to talk about? What's it got to do with me?" Feng Xiaoxiao frowned. "I thought you'd come up with a way to humiliate Wei Zhao!"

"Humiliate Wei Zhao... Sister Xiaoxiao, weren't you going to teach him a lesson? Why humiliate him now?" Zhong Yongliang blinked. He had assumed there was a deep grudge between Feng Xiaoxiao and Wei Zhao, but apparently that wasn't it.

"What I'm going to do is none of your business," Feng Xiaoxiao said with a sniff. "I was humiliated beyond words today, and I mean to humiliate him right back!"

"Uh... if that's all, I might just have a way..." Gao Xiaofu said, his eyes lighting up.

"What plan?" Feng Xiaoxiao looked at this armchair strategist, wondering what great insight he could possibly produce.

"Aren't we putting on a blazing night of silver flowers? There'll have to be fireworks and firecrackers. We'll give you a string of firecrackers, and you sneak up and hang them on Wei Zhao's backside. Then when they're lit — Wei Zhao's backside... heh heh, just imagine how humiliated he'll be!" Gao Xiaofu was good for nothing else, but he could always come up with a nasty little trick.

"Oh?" Feng Xiaoxiao began seriously weighing the feasibility of this. If handled properly, it really could work: secretly hang the firecrackers behind Wei Zhao without him noticing, then, when Zhong Yongliang lit the blazing night of silver flowers, quietly set the firecrackers off as well, making it look as though they had been accidentally ignited by the display. Even if Wei Zhao wanted revenge, he probably wouldn't be able to find any proof.

"Sister Xiaoxiao, I think Xiaofu's idea is good!" Zhong Yongliang naturally loathed Wei Zhao to the bone, so the moment he heard a plan that could humiliate him, he immediately urged Feng Xiaoxiao to go through with it.

"Well... let me think it over..." Feng Xiaoxiao was not as quick to assume as Zhong Yongliang; she wanted to study the plan's feasibility carefully.

"Sister Yaoyao, are we going to plant trees tomorrow too?" Shen Yushu was quite looking forward to the tree-planting. In fact, she looked forward to anything novel.

"Of course we're going. Years from now, after we've all graduated, married, and had children, we'll bring them to visit our alma mater and tell them this is where their mother went to school — that ought to be very educational!" Gu Mengyao nodded and said this solemnly.

"Oh — then will our children have the same daddy?" Shen Yushu asked.

"Xiaoshu!" Gu Mengyao glared at Shen Yushu, wishing she could crack open her best friend's skull and see what peculiar structure lay inside. How could she turn something so serious into a farce with such a straight face?

"Hm?" Shen Yushu blinked.

"Open your mouth," Gu Mengyao ordered.

"No, absolutely not!" Shen Yushu shook her head.

"Why?" Gu Mengyao was taken aback. Shen Yushu had always done exactly as she was told.

"If you pull out my tongue, it'll hurt," Shen Yushu said.

"You knew it would hurt, and you still went and spouted all that nonsense?" Gu Mengyao snorted.

"Then I won't say that kind of thing next time," Shen Yushu promised.

"You always say next time. Next time after next time — how many next times will there be?" Gu Mengyao no longer believed a word out of Shen Yushu's mouth.

"Big Sister Yaoyao, the original wording of that saying is 'tomorrow after tomorrow, how many tomorrows there are,'" Shen Yushu said.

"Oh, so it's tomorrow, is it? Tomorrow, next time — it's all the same. Who cares about tomorrow... Xiaoshu, you've gone and changed the subject again!" Gu Mengyao was speechless; she had nearly let the little rascal bluff her way past it once more.

"Hee hee..." Shen Yushu stuck out her tongue. "Never mind all that. We still haven't gotten the saplings — shall we go out and buy some?"

"Fine..." Gu Mengyao forgave Shen Yushu for the moment. With a best friend like this, one simply had to learn tolerance — take a step back and the sea opens wide before you! Otherwise she would die of fury ten times a day. "Go call Wei Zhao and tell him to follow us in the car. Our car won't hold all the saplings."

"Okay! Chewing Gum Guy — Chewing Gum Guy —" Shen Yushu stretched her voice and hollered for Wei Zhao.

Wei Zhao, having watched Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu bicker earlier, had already gone back to his room; he was used to the way the two of them carried on and no longer found it strange. Hearing Shen Yushu's call, he came out of the room and asked, "What is it?"

"Chewing Gum Guy, I'm craving shark meat again!" Shen Yushu said.

Gu Mengyao nearly tumbled straight off the sofa onto the floor. Weren't they supposed to have him come along to buy saplings? How had the conversation veered off into shark meat?

"Oh, they don't sell that at the market. Why don't you go catch one yourself?" Wei Zhao was rather at a loss for words. Shark meat wasn't even all that tasty — what was it about this Chen girl that made her so fond of the stuff?

"Okay, okay, Big Sister Mengyao, shall we go to the seaside and catch a shark?" Shen Yushu suggested.