Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

"Hmph." Seeing the two of them still playing off each other, Fan Ce was seized with rage. "A pair of trust-fund brats living off your families—if you've got the ability, invite a girl out without using your family's money!"

"You—" This hit Tang Jiaqian right on his sore spot. True, the money he was spending now was all his family's, but he saw nothing wrong with that—wasn't his family's money his? Still, from Fan Ce's tone he took the meaning to be that he was incompetent and unreliable, and he was instantly furious: "When I was a kid helping my dad sell meat, you didn't even know where you were playing in the mud!"

"Sister Xiao Qing, shall we have lunch together?" Sun Jie, however, stood up and, as if nothing had happened, waved to Xiao Qing.

"How many times have I told you? In class you have to call me Teacher Xiao." Xiao Qing said helplessly, yet there was nothing she could do about Sun Jie.

"Teacher Xiao it is, then." Sun Jie gave a sly smile, shook off the three young men, and came over to Xiao Qing's side. Leaning close to her ear, she said, "Later, in the hotel, I'll call you Teacher Xiao too."

"Ah—" Xiao Qing's face flushed bright red at once. This Sun Jie, a real little vixen, actually said such shocking things—just like that lecherous Yan, and perhaps even worse.

Xiao Qing coughed twice and said, "Call me whatever you like."

Seeing how well Sun Jie knew Teacher Xiao, the three boys were immediately disappointed when the two women went off to eat together—though none of them dared snatch someone away from a teacher. They knew exactly who Xiao Qing was: the chair of the computer science department. To provoke Xiao Qing would be to kiss goodbye to any hope of a decent life at school.

So they had no choice but to give up on Sun Jie for the time being and turn their attention to Zhao Ying. Fan Ce had just opened his mouth to speak when Sun Jie turned her head and called out, "Come on, Zhao Ying, join us."

Zhao Ying had been nursing a headache over these three flies, so when Sun Jie called her, she happily ran over. Spotting Xiao Qing, she said with a touch of shyness, "Teacher Xiao."

"Zhao Ying, let me introduce you—this is Sister Xiao Qing. We're very close in private," Sun Jie said with a grin, glancing at Xiao Qing.

"Very close in private"—the words sent another flush to Xiao Qing's face.

"You must be Zhao Ying. Since you're Xiao Jie's friend, just call me Sister Xiao Qing in private, like she does. I'm not much older than the two of you." Helpless, Xiao Qing simply had Zhao Ying call her Sister Xiao Qing as well.

"Sister Xiao Qing," Zhao Ying called sweetly.

The three of them left the classroom together, leaving behind three leering wolves drooling inside. All three had failed; there was no point in competing any further. They sighed, returned to their seats, and began packing up their things.

Over on Yang Ce's side, there was nothing much to do after collecting the new textbooks. He had meant to call Chen Shutang and arrange to have lunch together, but Chen Shutang said her roommates and Zhao Sisi hadn't seen each other in ages and were planning a meal together, so she wouldn't be joining Yan at noon. Lin Yanhe had naturally been dragged along by Chen Shutang as well, so Yang Ce had to let it go.

To be continued

1058. Sun Zhiwei's Idea

Wang Xue and Tian Yan, however, both felt guilty toward Zhou Yanning and Yan, and after the registration meeting ended, they wanted to treat Yang Ce to a meal by way of apology. Zhou Yanning was not the sort to press an advantage, and since the business with Su Ya, she had grown broad-minded and easygoing; she no longer wished to be the kind of sour, venomous person everyone resented.

Zhou Yanning gladly accepted Wang Xue's invitation. Though she had been mildly startled to hear from Yang Yanzhou that Wang Xue was Wang Lin's half-sister, she quickly recovered herself and showed nothing out of the ordinary.

True, it was Wang Pu who had shot her and left her gravely wounded, but Wang Pu had met the punishment he deserved. Though he had appealed, the court had upheld the death sentence, and any further appeal would likely meet the same fate—any one of his charges was enough to kill him several times over, and there was almost no chance of commutation.

And yes, Wang Pu had shot Zhou Yanning, but by the same token it was precisely because of that that the relationship between Zhou Yanning and Yan had made a genuine leap forward.

Not only had she moved into Yang Juehuan's home, but Yang Shuoxuan had promised her a grand, romantic love affair—something Zhou Yanning had never dared dream of before, and now it had come true. It had to be said that all of this was thanks to Wang Pu, and so, in this way, Zhou Yanning no longer held such a grudge against him.

And though Wang Xue was Wang Lin's half-sister, when you came right down to it she probably had little to do with the Wang family. In the feud between herself and Wang Lin, Wang Xue might have played some part, but certainly not a decisive one.

Zhou Yanning knew that Yang Ce was a thoroughly domineering man who repaid his enemies in full—one need only look at how he had once set the little delinquent girls on her. The fact that Yang Ce had done nothing to Wang Xue now meant Wang Xue had little to do with the matter, and that Yang Shuoxuan had forgiven her; so naturally Zhou Yanning would not make much of it.

The four of them walked out of the classroom together, while Sun Zhiwei watched their retreating backs with cold eyes and curled his lip. He felt thoroughly unhappy about Heng, but several times he had tried to get back at Yang Puqi and failed. The two of them now kept to their own sides of the river, yet even so Sun Zhiwei was unwilling to accept it. He was the class monitor, after all—what gave Yang Ce the right to go his own way? Was he not even a member of this class? What galled him most was that Xie Yongqiang took such a permissive attitude toward Heng; reporting him was as good as not reporting at all.

Especially around the New Year, when he actually heard that his uncle thought highly of Yang Ce and even intended to betroth his cousin Sun Jie to Yang Cenbin—that nearly drove Sun Zhiwei mad.

An enemy becoming his brother-in-law—that was something Sun Zhiwei could not stomach. When he learned of it, his lungs nearly burst with rage. He could not control Yang Ce as it was; if Yang Ce became his brother-in-law, it would no longer be a question of him leading Yang Juehuan—Yang Ce would be leading him.

So Sun Zhiwei felt he had to do something to keep this from coming to pass. Fortunately, he was Yang Juehuan's class monitor and knew Yang Ce's comings and goings like the back of his hand. Yang Ce was a philanderer; if he simply told Sun Jie that, then Sun Jie would surely never be with Yan, and in that way he would achieve his aim of revenge on Yang Juehuan.

With this in mind, Sun Zhiwei trailed after Yang Juehuan, wanting to see just what the relationship between him and Zhou Yanning really was. Though last semester Sun Zhiwei had thought Yang Ce and Zhou Yanning seemed quite close, there had been nothing improper about their behavior, so he could not easily determine what their relationship was.

What was more, Sun Zhiwei had once heard Wang Lin tell him that Yang Moyi had a girlfriend named Chen Shutang—whether she was the one he had seen at Shu Ya's concert, he could not say. But Sun Zhiwei had no solid proof and dared not speak recklessly in front of Sun Jie; if Sun Jie did not believe him and gave him a scolding besides, he would lose more than he gained. So Sun Zhiwei had to get evidence—evidence of Yang Ce's philandering—before he could go to Sun Jie.

A philandering turnip like that—surely his cousin would have no interest in him. Sun Zhiwei chuckled to himself. Yang Ce, if you think you can climb to wealth and glory through my cousin, you've miscalculated badly.