Chapter 141 — Old Buffon's Origins

"What? Me?" Sun Jie was taken aback at the sudden seriousness in Yang Ce's voice, then said: "You suspect me?"

"No." Yang Ce laughed again. "So I had someone give the fellow's little johnny a jolt with a stun baton, and at last he told the truth."

"You—you really are wicked," Sun Jie said, relieved. If Yang Ce had truly suspected her, she would have felt rather let down. "So who did it?"

"Yun Guangdu," Yang Ce told her truthfully.

"Him?" Sun Jie frowned. "He hasn't harassed me for a long time. I never thought he'd hold it in this long."

"But this move of his was vicious enough—sowing discord between us. Good thing our relationship is solid. Otherwise he really would have found a gap to exploit," Yang Yanzhou said.

"What do you plan to do?" Sun Jie asked.

"A minor character—why bother with him? I can kill him anytime I want," Yang Ce said. "I've sent Big Hou to deal with him."

"Big Hou?" Sun Jie asked, puzzled.

"Hou Lin," Yang Ce explained.

"By the way, Yang Ce, what exactly is the relationship between you and Hou Lin and Bao Lin?" Sun Jie asked after hearing this. "Are you hiding something from me?"

"I have plenty of secrets, but I can't just tell you any of them. We'll talk after you become my woman," Yang Yanzhou said.

"Aren't I already?" Sun Jie retorted.

"Your person is, but your heart isn't yet," Yang Ce said with a curl of his lip.

"Suit yourself. Don't say it then." Sun Jie said flatly, and hung up.

Yang Ce shook his head and thought nothing of it.

"By the way, Big Hou, how did that business with my uncle Yue Huacheng turn out?" Yang Yanchuan said.

"Yaoguang City's been renovated and reopened, and from what I can see, business is looking decent so far," Hou Lin reported. "We also bought out that sand quarry and handed it over to Mr. Yang." This "Mr. Yang" naturally referred to Yang Dashan.

"Good, as long as it's taken care of." Yang Yu nodded. "By the way, Da Hou, my dad's only just taken over as chairman, so there's a lot about operations he still doesn't understand. Find some time to help him out more, will you? I'm worried Uncle Feng and Xiao Wang won't be able to manage on their own."

"Wang Jinde will be fine. That kid's sharp as a tack—he's bound to be Uncle Yang's right-hand man," Hou Lin said with a laugh. "But the concert's coming up soon, and I'll need to help coordinate a few things there too."

"Mm, use your own judgment," Yang Ce instructed.

Amid all the busyness, he finally stole a moment of peace. Yang Ce leaned back against his bed, stroking a diary in his hand, his feelings a complicated tangle.

Sneaking a look at someone else's diary was a terribly impolite thing to do, but since Wang Xue had given it to him, that meant the diary must contain something related to him.

After hesitating again and again, Yang Ce decided to open it and read. Since he had already decided to accept Zhou Yanning, he ought to try to understand her. And a diary was the best way to understand a person's inner world and character.

To Heng, a master lockpicker, the little lock on the diary was basically decoration. Catching up a paperclip, Yang Ce popped the lock open.

The diary began in middle school. From the clumsy handwriting at the start to the graceful, practiced script later on, it marked a girl's journey from naive confusion to maturity. The sweetness and bitterness in between—what a precious treasure it all was.

Yang Ce decided to skim through it first, so he picked out the sections connected to his own name. Yang Juehuan's eyes were as good as a computer's search function, sweeping straight through the pages and easily locating the relevant passages. Still, this Zhou Yanning girl was quite amusing—Yang Ce noticed that his own name was almost always replaced with "him" or "y."

"June 14. Why is he always so gentle with Su Ya, but whenever he talks to me he looks annoyed?"

"He was talking to Su Ya in class, and I scolded him a couple of times as class monitor. I hadn't even meant to criticize him—I just wanted an excuse to talk to him a bit more. But it seems like it only annoyed him more, and he thinks I'm being a busybody."

Yang Jincong shook his head with a smile. Ah, they really had been laughably childish back then. Xiao Qing had called it exactly: Zhou Yanning always bossed him around as class monitor because she was interested in him. But at that age, who could ever have guessed such a thing?

Thinking of high school, Chen Shutang had often treated him the same way. Yang Ce suddenly understood.

He turned another page:

"June 18. Today the math competition results came out, and y actually got first prize. But what's surprising is that Su Ya actually placed too—she got a national second prize. I only got third.

So y likes smart girls. Starting today, I'm going to work hard. I'll work hard and learn math well."

He really had won first prize in that math competition, it seemed. Looking back, for a while afterward Zhou Yanning had indeed kept bringing him Olympiad problems to ask about. At the time, he'd thought she just had it in for him and was deliberately digging up the hardest problems from some question bank to stump him. So he'd misunderstood her.

"September 10. Today is Teachers' Day, and the school gave us a half day off. But my mood is terrible. When school let out, he actually walked off together with Su Ya.

They were actually holding hands. Are they already dating?

Then what am I supposed to do?"

Did holding hands mean they were dating? Yang Ce sighed. When you're that age, who can explain anything clearly?

"September 11. I told Teacher Wu about what I saw yesterday. Teacher Wu will definitely break him and Su Ya apart, right? That way I'll have a chance. It has to be that way.

I'm in a great mood today. Teacher Wu called Su Ya in for a private talk. She'll probably be moved to another seat soon."

Aren't you just being foolish? Yang Ce stared at Zhou Yanning's childish handwriting, momentarily speechless. That idea was far too naive—break me and Su Ya apart and I'll be with you?

Still, since you were young, I won't hold it against you. As for the past, Yang Ce couldn't be bothered to hold a grudge now. Besides, Zhou Yanning had been willing to give up even her life for him—these little faults weren't something Yang Shuoxuan intended to pursue.

"September 15. Did I do something wrong? Su Ya transferred schools. She actually transferred away.

I don't know why, but my mood has somehow gotten worse instead. By all logic, with Su Ya gone, my chances should be better, but I can't feel happy at all.

Su Ya, I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to. I never expected things would turn out this way."

So that was the price of being foolish. Still, seeing that Zhou Yanning had felt regret at the time, Yang Ce felt somewhat consoled.

"September 16. Today he didn't come to school either. Why? Could he have transferred schools too?

I didn't take in a single thing the teacher said. My mood is awful.

What should I do? Won't somebody tell me?"

Reading this, Yang Shuoxuan couldn't help but recall the events of those years. Su Ya leaving him—those had truly been hard days to endure. Back then, he had hated Zhou Yanning to the extreme, but looking at it now, this was merely a lovestruck little girl acting on impulse.

To be continued.

678. Past, Present

He remembered that he hadn't set foot in the school for nearly half a month back then, moping at home the whole time and listening to no one. And after it all, the first thing he did upon stepping back through the school gate was find a few delinquent girls to beat Zhou Yanning up. Thinking about it now, Yang Ce felt a touch of regret. "September 30. Today I got taught a lesson by a few tough girls from outside. I know he's the one who sent them. I'm not going to tell the teacher this time—consider it letting him vent his anger. As long as he doesn't resent me anymore, that's enough.