Chapter 22 — Someone Wants a Word With Us

Wei Zhao read the note and dismissed it with a smile. He hardly believed Shen Yushu was trying to warn him out of kindness—this girl thrived on chaos. Her only aim in telling him was to make sure he kept on putting Zhong Yongliang and his lot in their place; she was probably fed up with Zhong Yongliang herself.

The physics teacher was a man in his fifties, but his scholarship was solid. Though Wei Zhao had already studied on his own everything the man taught, he still listened with relish.

"Naipao, what's the matter with you?" Zhong Yongliang glared at Zhang Naipao in irritation. "Didn't I tell you to give him a proper welcome? What were you even doing?"

"Don't even bring it up, Liang." Zhang Naipao's face was a picture of misery. "I'd just stuck my foot out to trip the bastard flat on his back, and the next thing I know he's brought his heel down on the back of my foot. Son of a bitch—hurt like hell. Still hurts."

"Did he catch you at it?" Zhong Yongliang frowned. He'd taken a kick from Wei Zhao just yesterday, so he knew exactly how much force the fellow packed. No doubt Zhang Naipao was hurting badly.

"Shouldn't have. He never even looked down." Zhang Naipao was rather perplexed about that himself.

"Damn. Can't believe we keep getting taken down by some country bumpkin, one after another. During the break, we'll corner him in the toilets—I want to teach him the difference between piss and beer." Zhong Yongliang spoke with venom. Ever since he'd enrolled, he'd been ranked one of the school's Four Great Young Villains, and he'd never once eaten this kind of humiliation.

"And let him learn the difference between shit and cake too," Gao Xiaofu added.

As the three were still talking, a man in black came toward them, a cigarette dangling from his lip. "So, Liang, what's all this? Holding a meeting or what?"

"Brother Ming!" Zhong Yongliang looked up and saw Zou Ruoming, second in rank among the school's Four Great Young Villains. The deeds this one had done were worse than his own, if anything. Rumor had it that back in middle school he'd dragged a girl from his own class into a grove and had his way with her by force.

Zou Ruoming nodded, thoroughly enjoying the "Brother Ming." His family background wasn't as good as Zhong Yongliang's, after all—it was just that he was more ruthless, and he had a big brother out in the real world who ran with the gangs. That was why he did so well for himself at school.

"Anything you need Brother Ming's help with?" Zou Ruoming asked.

"Nothing much. Just a country bumpkin of a transfer student. In a bit I'll show him who runs things around this school." Zhong Yongliang, naturally unwilling to lose face before Zou Ruoming, spoke as though it were nothing.

"You're holding a solemn meeting over a single country bumpkin?" Zou Ruoming lost interest the moment he heard it—he'd assumed there was something fun going on. He shook his head and left.

These past few days he'd had his eye on a girl in Senior Three, Class Nine, and was turning over how to make his move. The problem was that the cold beauty was rather aloof, so Zou Ruoming was wondering whether to simply take her by force.

The reason he called her a girl was that Zou Ruoming was enrolled in the college entrance exam prep class—the so-called "Grade Four." These were students who had failed to get into university. Zou Ruoming could have bought his way into a university whenever he liked; staying on in high school had actually been his own idea. This life, where every day a wave of his hand brought a crowd running, was something he savored deeply. He also understood that once he left for a university in another city, all of this would be gone.

University students and high school students saw the world in utterly different terms. And away from home, stripped of his family's sphere of influence, if he carried on as brazenly as he did now, he would die a miserable death.

So Zou Ruoming told his old man he wanted one more year, to sit the college entrance exam again the following year. Seeing that his son was willing to study, Zou's father gladly agreed—plainly unaware of all the little schemes turning in the boy's mind.

Wei Zhao passed three class periods in perfect comfort. Gu Mengyao acted as though she didn't know him at all and never once glanced his way; Shen Yushu, on the other hand, kept stealing sly looks in his direction.

Wei Zhao was hardly going to think Shen Yushu had taken a fancy to him. The girl was probably hoping to watch him and Zhong Yongliang go at it.

Since he sat in the very last row, no one leaving the classroom would have any reason to pass by his desk—so those three had undoubtedly come for him. And Wei Zhao knew as well that it was only a matter of time before they came looking for trouble.

"Yao Yao, look—that idiot Zhong Yongliang is going after Brother Arrowhead!" Shen Yushu had been keeping an eye on Zhong Yongliang and Wei Zhao all through those periods, and the moment she saw Zhong Yongliang finally move against Wei Zhao, she was thrilled.

She had long wanted to see Zhong Yongliang made a fool of; it was only out of deference to their elders that she hadn't done anything to him herself. Now someone was doing it for her, and naturally she was excited.

"Oh? Then let Zhong Yongliang teach that bastard a lesson." Gu Mengyao's anger had not yet subsided.

"No way, Yao Yao—why are you taking Zhong Yongliang's side?" Shen Yushu stared. "You don't actually like Zhong Yongliang, do you?"

"As if anyone would like him. If anything, I dislike Wei Zhao even more," Gu Mengyao sniffed. "Let's go. Forget him."

"Don't be like that. I want to watch. I want to see who wins." Shen Yushu tugged at Gu Mengyao's arm, holding her back.

"Fine. It just so happens I'd like to see that bastard get beaten—it'll soothe my hatred." That was what Gu Mengyao said, but for some reason she could not name, she did not want Wei Zhao to lose. All things considered, she still found Zhong Yongliang the more detestable of the two. Wei Zhao was awful, yes, but not awful to that degree.

And so the two curious creatures, hand in hand, hid themselves by the classroom door and watched the goings-on inside.

"Kid, do you know why we're looking for you?" Zhong Yongliang planted himself in front of Wei Zhao, cocky as could be, and jabbed a finger at him.

"I know. Because yesterday I kicked you in the backside and sent you sprawling on all fours like a dog." Wei Zhao spoke with perfect calm, as though it were nothing worth mentioning.

"What the hell—you knew, and you're still this cocky? You think you're tough?" Zhang Naipao's eyes bulged, and he reached out to grab Wei Zhao by the collar.

"Your foot doesn't hurt anymore, I take it?" Wei Zhao lightly brushed Zhang Naipao's paw aside and spoke with a hint of mockery.

Zhang Naipao's face went red in an instant. This was a humiliation he had buried deep in his heart—so Wei Zhao had done it on purpose after all.

"Kid, if you've got any guts, come take a trip to the toilets with us. This is a classroom, too many people around—if the dean of students sees, it won't do any of us any good." Zhong Yongliang, too, was fuming at Wei Zhao. Was this kid really stupid, or just playing dumb? How could he be so thick? Could he not tell that the three of them were about to teach him a lesson?