Chapter 2497 — The Bug

"I... I'm the second young master of the hidden You family. If you lay a hand on me, you'll come to no good end!" There was nothing else You Panhu could do—he could only raise the banner of the You family, hoping Zhong Yongliang would take fright and back off.

"Hidden You family? Just some piddling hidden clan—what the hell is that worth? This daddy here is a badass under Patriarch Pure Yang of the Tomorrow After Tomorrow sect!" With that, Zhong Yongliang hoisted his dark-iron refined-steel rod and brought it crashing down on You Panhu...

You Panhu was dumbstruck. The Tomorrow After Tomorrow sect? What was one of their badasses doing at Donghai City Engineering University? What on earth was going on? But before he could figure it out, the iron rod Zhong Yongliang swung came down on him...

He fared even worse than Purple Hair and Yellow Hair. He was a pure alchemist, with no attack or defense skills to speak of, and no combat experience either. A howl of agony echoed through the whole corridor, and in no time You Panhu rolled his eyes back and collapsed to the floor, keeping Yellow Hair and Purple Hair company.

"Brother Liang, you're really something!" Gao Xiaofu came running out from who knew where at that moment and said smugly, "These people are nothing but a piece of cake for Brother Liang!"

"Damn right—have a look at who gave me this treasure!" Zhong Yongliang left the biology department teaching building with Gao Xiaofu and set off to find Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu again.

Neither Gu Mengyao nor Shen Yushu had expected Zhong Yongliang to come back so soon after leaving—in the blink of an eye, he had returned!

"Little Liangzi, you took care of that You Panhu?" Something told Shen Yushu this was bad. It seemed Zhong Yongliang really had gotten who knew how many times stronger than before.

"Ha, of course—look who did it!" Zhong Yongliang laughed. "That kid and his two lackeys were no good at all. Before me they're trash! Well? Do I qualify as Yaoyao's bodyguard now?"

"That..." Shen Yushu hesitated, then said, "No. Those guys are all small fry—Arrowhead Bro could take them out in a minute. If you want to be Sister Yaoyao's bodyguard, you've still got work to do!"

"Is that so..." Zhong Yongliang was a little disappointed, though on second thought it made sense. Wei Zhao was already a skilled Earth Rank fighter; beating those Mystic Rank and Yellow Rank ** was surely easy and pleasant for him. Zhong Yongliang had only proved he could fight too—he hadn't shown Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu just how formidable he really was. That was the problem.

"Right, so you still need to prove your strength!" Shen Yushu said.

"Then what's my next mission?" Zhong Yongliang asked at once.

"That, well, let me think about it. I can't come up with one off the top of my head, and I don't want to make things hard for you," Shen Yushu said. "How about this, Little Liangzi—go back and wait for my word. Oh, right, Sister Yaoyao says she's craving the spicy skewers from Songshan City's snack street. Go buy some and bring them back..."

"Oh, sure!" Zhong Yongliang nodded and said, "Spicy skewers? Then I'll go buy them right now..."

With that, Zhong Yongliang left with Gao Xiaofu. Gu Mengyao, however, was somewhat troubled. Shen Yushu had sent Zhong Yongliang away for the time being, but sooner or later he would come back to pester them—and now that he had real skill, he would be all the harder to get rid of...

"Xiaoshu, Zhong Yongliang is this formidable—what are we going to do? Should we tell Wei Zhao?" Gu Mengyao said after some thought.

"Yeah, we definitely have to tell Arrowhead Bro. But first we should figure out why Zhong Yongliang is this strong!" Shen Yushu said. "Only by knowing the enemy and ourselves can we win every battle!"

"Then how do we investigate him?" Gu Mengyao asked.

"I'm thinking of going to discuss it with Han Jingyi. She likes fiddling with high-tech gadgets—let's see if she's got a ** or something. If we plant one on Zhong Yongliang, we can eavesdrop on his secrets," Shen Yushu said.

"That works." Gu Mengyao nodded.

So, while Zhong Yongliang was off buying spicy skewers, Shen Yushu went to find Han Jingyi.

Han Jingyi didn't have such a thing on hand, but she knew where to buy one. That afternoon, Gu Mengyao drove Han Jingyi and Xiaoshu out to buy the **, and when they got back, Zhong Yongliang had just returned as well...

Gu Mengyao silently counted her blessings—if Zhong Yongliang had seen that they weren't at school, he might have grown suspicious.

In truth, this was purely a guilty conscience on Gu Mengyao's part. Even if she hadn't been at school, Zhong Yongliang couldn't have suspected anything. Xiaoshu, though, was perfectly natural. Holding the miniature ** in her hand, she walked up to Zhong Yongliang as if nothing were amiss, took the steaming hot spicy skewers from him, and said with a slight smile, "Little Liangzi, thank you!"

"Haha, no need to thank me—it's what I should do!" Zhong Yongliang said. "I'll just treat it as a rehearsal for what I'll do as Yaoyao's bodyguard!"

"Mm, not bad—still hot!" Shen Yushu patted Zhong Yongliang on the shoulder and, in the same motion, stuck the ** to his back. The ** was tiny, clinging to him like a shirt button; unless you looked closely, you'd absolutely never notice it. "Sister Yaoyao wanted me to encourage you a bit—keep it up! Little Liangzi, you know Sister Yaoyao likes brave people!"

"I know, I know!" Zhong Yongliang, patted on the shoulder by Shen Yushu, thought it was Gu Mengyao's instruction and was thrilled, his excitement boundless! After all, in the past Shen Yushu had mostly toyed with him—she had never patted his shoulder with such warmth!

That change was enough to show a change in Gu Mengyao's heart. If she were still as disgusted with him as before, she could never have hinted to Shen Yushu to come pat his shoulder and encourage him. In Zhong Yongliang's eyes, Shen Yushu had always looked down on him; she had never been so kind.

"Mm, good that you know." Shen Yushu nodded. "There are some things Sister Yaoyao is too embarrassed to say, so I'll pass them on for her. Want to hear?"

"Yes, yes, of course I want to hear!" Zhong Yongliang answered hastily.

"Good. Since you want to hear it, I'll say it. Right now we've only seen a part of what you can do—to put it precisely, we don't really know you yet. So, for the time being, do your best to challenge some formidable fighters and make a name and reputation for yourself. Only then will you have a shot at becoming Sister Yaoyao's bodyguard!" Shen Yushu said.