Chapter 2439 — Those With Strength and Those Without

"Oh? All right..." Robber Number Four blinked, seeming to realize he had struck a little too hard. Kang Jinglong, knocked flat on the ground by his blow, was now covered head to face in blood — this did not fit their robbery plan at all!

At Robber Number Two's words, Robber Number Four drew his dagger, jabbed it into Kang Jinglong's backside, and said coldly, "You little bastard. If you don't have the goods, don't put on airs and play the hero saving the beauty! You're nothing but dog shit!"

The pain in his rear wrung another miserable scream from Kang Jinglong, and coupled with the robber's insulting words, his eyes rolled back and he nearly fainted from rage! What the hell kind of people had he hired?

The deal had been that he would take a knife to the arm protecting Wang Xinyan, and then these men would run off. But what had happened instead? Not only had they nearly kicked his balls to mush, they had beaten him black and blue, and in the end his backside had taken a blade too!

Of course, he could have swallowed all that suffering. It was those last words from Robber Number Four that were truly rotten — they had wiped out Kang Jinglong's heroic deed entirely! He had been wounded and beaten for nothing, and in the end he was made out to be a show-off who had merely forced himself forward.

Robber Number Four had thoroughly enjoyed beating Kang Jinglong, and in the process had clean forgotten about Wang Xinyan's jade pendant. Seeing the state he had left the man in, he feared he might have killed him, so he quickly got off the bus with the other three and went to find their next robbing target.

Watching the robbers leave, Leader Bai finally breathed a sigh of relief. While Kang Jinglong was being beaten, he had been utterly helpless; had he tried to intervene then, these men would likely have redoubled their beating of Kang Jinglong!

Still, Leader Bai found it strange. What business did Kang Jinglong have sticking his neck out? And since when had Wang Xinyan become his fiancée? There seemed to be something hidden in all this.

"Kang Jinglong, I never would have guessed — tsk, tsk, the way you put on that act. Truly unprecedented, and likely never to be equaled!" Wei Zhao glanced at Kang Jinglong and said mildly, "There's a saying that goes well: when a man with real strength puts on airs, that is putting on airs. When a man with no strength puts on airs, that is a fool."

"Wei Zhao, say a little less. Brother Kang only stepped forward so his classmates wouldn't be bullied!" Youpan Hu walked over and helped Kang Jinglong up, his heart uneasy. After all, he was the one who had brought these robbers here, and now that things had gone wrong, he could only hope Kang Jinglong would not vent his anger on the Youpan family!

The whole point had been to curry favor with the Kang family, yet in the blink of an eye Kang Jinglong had been beaten by his own men into a bloody gourd, his backside gushing blood — what kind of mess was this? Youpan Hu was speechless. That last stab, it seemed, had been dealt by the robbers only because of his own hint. How strange it all was.

"Sss..." Kang Jinglong stood up. Both his legs were trembling...

"Wei Zhao, are you even a man? When the robbers came, you didn't dare stand up yourself. Brother Kang stood up, and you mock him to his face — what kind of mentality is that?" Youpan Hu knew that in Leader Bai's class, with Leader Bai present, Wei Zhao could not do anything to him, so he naturally dared to taunt and needle Wei Zhao.

"Oh, who asked him to stick his nose in? If he hadn't, Xinyan would have just handed the jade pendant to the robber and that would have been the end of it," Wei Zhao said mildly.

"You... didn't you hear Wang Xinyan say that jade pendant is very important to her?" Youpan Hu said angrily. "What kind of thing is that to say?"

"Oh, if it's so important, then just take it back." Wei Zhao curled his lip indifferently, then, as if by magic, pulled a tablet computer from his clothes and handed it to Han Jingyi beside him. "This tablet is very important to Han Jingyi too. So I took it back for her!"

"Thank you, Brother Wei Zhao!" Han Jingyi was overjoyed. She had never imagined she would get her tablet back! As for her iPhone, she did not care — there was no important data on it, and she did not care about the cost of the phone either. The tablet was the one thing she truly treasured!

"It was nothing." Wei Zhao produced another item — his own wallet — weighed it in his hand, then stuffed it back into his pocket, and eyed Kang Jinglong sidelong. "Tell me, are you the type who goes looking for a beating when there's nothing wrong?"

Originally, the other classmates had thought Wei Zhao's mocking of Kang Jinglong a moment ago somewhat uncalled for. But now, seeing Wei Zhao miraculously recover Han Jingyi's tablet and his own wallet, they were full of admiration. So Wei Zhao had known what he was doing all along — he had been confident he could get the things back!

Seen that way, Kang Jinglong really had been meddling. Had he not appeared, Wei Zhao could have handled it easily; his intervention had only stirred up trouble and nearly made matters more complicated!

As for Wang Xinyan, when she first saw that Wei Zhao had not acted, she felt a faint disappointment and letdown. After all, the one her heart favored was Wei Zhao; even in a hero-saving-the-beauty scene, she would have wanted that hero to be Wei Zhao, not Kang Jinglong!

Moreover, though Wang Xinyan did not like Kang Jinglong, she did not want him beaten like this on her account. Feeling somewhat guilty, she resented Wei Zhao for quarreling with Kang Jinglong at such a moment. But then, seeing Wei Zhao's actions and hearing his words, Wang Xinyan immediately understood that she had misjudged him. It was not that Wei Zhao had refused to act — Kang Jinglong's appearance had ruined Wei Zhao's plan!

Wei Zhao could have solved the problem quietly and without fuss, but Kang Jinglong had insisted on complicating it. And Wei Zhao could hardly explain his plan to Kang Jinglong in front of the robbers — otherwise Han Jingyi's tablet would most likely have been snatched right back!

Wang Xinyan smiled wryly and shook her head. Suddenly she thought of the first time she had met Wei Zhao on the train. Had he not, even then, quietly taken back the money that should have gone to those swindlers and returned it to his own bag? He had even made off with the swindlers' money as well, and Wang Xinyan had never even seen how he did it. She had found it simply unbelievable!

Today, Wei Zhao had probably used the same trick. Thinking of Wei Zhao's skill and comparing it with Kang Jinglong's earlier recklessness, Wang Xinyan felt all the more certain that Kang Jinglong was no good. Set beside Wei Zhao, he fell far, far short!

Youpan Hu had never expected Wei Zhao to pull such a move. He froze on the spot as if struck by lightning, staring at the tablet in Han Jingyi's hands, unable to speak. It was a long while before he came back to his senses, and he nearly cursed aloud!

This plan had not only failed to please the Kang family and Kang Jinglong — it had not even succeeded in snatching Han Jingyi's tablet! This... this... what was going on? Had it all been for nothing? Had the Youpan family's Heaven-rank experts been sent out for nothing? RQ