Chapter 70 — I've Avenged You

Neither Gu Mengyao nor Shen Yushu, both girls, could eat much. Back before Wei Zhao showed up, more than three-quarters of the food always went to waste. Still, for the sake of balanced nutrition, Uncle Qing kept to four dishes and a soup every day—or at the very least, three dishes and a soup.

Even the most accomplished chef could not make a single dish in too small a portion. For one thing, the heat would be hard to control; for another, the seasoning would be hard to balance. So to keep the flavor true, the portions were always the normal size.

After a few bites, Gu Mengyao found the food flat and tasteless. Before Wei Zhao arrived, she and Shen Yushu would chat about all sorts of amusing things as they ate, and a single meal could stretch past half an hour. Today, for some reason, her mind kept drifting back to the scene of Wei Zhao stepping forward last night at the bank.

Was the man a fool, or was he genuinely serious about his work? For the sake of a few tens of thousands of yuan, was there any need to stake his life on it? Gu Mengyao had no idea where her father had dug this fellow up, but her distaste for Wei Zhao seemed to have faded a good deal.

Was it simply because he had saved her yesterday? Fine, then—for the time being, she would keep him at her side. Having him around as a hired fist was a fine arrangement anyway.

"I'm full." The thought occurred to her that her attitude toward Wei Zhao had been rather despicable—having him eat only the leftovers really was too much.

"What's wrong? Yaoyao, why are you eating so little?" Shen Yushu looked at Gu Mengyao in surprise. She had barely touched her chopsticks—and only to the greens right in front of her.

"Nothing. I'm probably just a little tired." Gu Mengyao shook her head. "I'm going upstairs. You call Wei Zhao to come eat with you."

"Huh?" Shen Yushu blinked, caught off guard. What was Gu Mengyao playing at?

Gu Mengyao felt a restless irritation churning inside her. The person she loathed beyond anything had saved her yesterday—and when she had finally managed to scrape together a bit of goodwill toward him, he had turned all high and mighty. Hmph. Fine, if he wouldn't eat, then neither would she. Let him eat or not as he pleased.

Shen Yushu watched Gu Mengyao's somewhat haggard and weary back, blinking in confusion. Had last night's incident frightened her? No, that didn't make sense—a whole day and night had passed. That would be an awfully slow nervous reaction.

Shen Yushu set down her chopsticks and ran to the door of Wei Zhao's room. She knocked. "Hey, Mr. Arrow-Shield, come out and eat."

Wei Zhao opened the door and looked at Shen Yushu. "You called me?"

"Would I call Yaoyao 'Mr. Arrow-Shield'? In this whole villa, you seem to be the only one who qualifies as a 'Mister.'" Shen Yushu slapped her forehead. "Oh, that's right—there's also General Mighty and Brother Big Dog..."

"..." Wei Zhao was speechless. Comparing him to a dog?

"Come on, time to eat. I'm starving to death here." With that, Shen Yushu headed toward the dining room.

Wei Zhao glanced toward the dining room but did not see Gu Mengyao. Puzzled, he followed Shen Yushu in. "Where's the young lady?"

"You mean Yaoyao? She said she wasn't hungry—had a couple of bites and went upstairs." Shen Yushu pointed to the seat Gu Mengyao had just vacated. "Sit. Hurry up and eat, your rice is already served."

"Oh." Wei Zhao looked at the table and, sure enough, a bowl of rice had been set out in front of his place. Since Gu Mengyao had gone upstairs, there was no need for ceremony. Shen Yushu might be a bit of an odd, quirky thing, but at least she didn't make a fuss over every little thing.

Heh heh. Shen Yushu watched with wicked delight as Wei Zhao picked up his chopsticks, took a bite of food, put it in his bowl, and shoveled it into his mouth together with the rice. Her heart burst into bloom, and beneath the table she clenched her fist.

Yes! In a moment she would go tell Yaoyao that she had gotten revenge on her behalf. Yesterday Yaoyao had swallowed Wei Zhao's spit; today Wei Zhao was using the chopsticks she had used, eating the rice she had taken a bite of and left behind—so Wei Zhao had swallowed her spit too. Now they were even.

"Eat slowly—here, have something to drink." Shen Yushu handed Wei Zhao the bottle of orange juice from earlier.

"Oh, thanks." Put that way by Shen Yushu, Wei Zhao realized he really was a bit choked. He took the orange juice and drank a couple of mouthfuls—then suddenly sensed something was off. "This orange juice..."

"Oh, Gu Mengyao took a couple of sips just now and then left. I didn't want it to go to waste, so I gave it to you." Shen Yushu looked at Wei Zhao with an utterly innocent expression. "By the way, you're not going to despise her for it, are you? You're not going to go rinse your mouth out and throw up, are you?"

"Oh." Wei Zhao responded flatly. He knew perfectly well that Shen Yushu had done it on purpose, but to him it was nothing at all. Back in the primeval forest, every piece of iron on their bodies had basically been turned into weapons—all except one set of tableware that everyone shared in turn. Wei Zhao had long since cultivated that kind of fortitude.

Besides... a beauty's saliva is not something just anyone gets to taste. Who knows, Gu Mengyao could spit, and that fool Zhong Yongliang would probably lick it up. Wei Zhao thought wickedly.

Seeing that Wei Zhao had no particular reaction, Shen Yushu felt a little disappointed. But then a thought struck her: she had taken a sip from that orange juice earlier herself, so didn't that mean... At this, Shen Yushu could not help but blush.

Still, after being diluted by Gu Mengyao's saliva, there should be nothing of hers left on it, right? Shen Yushu consoled herself. Yes, it had to be so.

"Hey, Mr. Arrow-Shield, I'm thirsty. Pour me a glass of plain water," said Shen Yushu, who had eaten something a bit too salty, giving Wei Zhao her orders.

"Get it yourself." Wei Zhao did not even lift his eyes, and kept on eating.

"Toilet paper... television..." Shen Yushu coughed twice.

Wei Zhao rolled his eyes. Had that become some kind of code word? Somewhat helplessly he rose to pour Shen Yushu water. Thinking that Shen Yushu had been fairly decent to him, and had not forgotten him when eating, Wei Zhao put up with it.

If Yang Huaijun knew he spent his days waiting on two young ladies, he would probably split his sides laughing.

He poured Shen Yushu a glass of water. He had learned that morning that hers was the pink cup, so Wei Zhao went about it with practiced ease.

"Thank you, Mr. Arrow-Shield." Shen Yushu took the cup Wei Zhao handed her and said sweetly.

Wei Zhao said nothing and went on eating. Shen Yushu had thought that if she acted a little coy, Wei Zhao might be more willing, but her coyness was wasted on a blind man. In Wei Zhao's eyes, apparently, the braised chicken on the table was more appealing than she was.

In truth, Wei Zhao was not blind. With a beauty before his eyes, how could his heart not stir? But he was here on a mission. To put it plainly, this was only a brief encounter. Once the mission was over, each would go their separate ways, and perhaps they would never meet again in this life. Wei Zhao did not want to leave behind too many emotional entanglements.

What was more, he had been sent by Gu Pengzhan to accompany Gu Mengyao to school. If he went and got involved with Gu Mengyao's closest girlfriend, what kind of mess would that be? A man could not be that much of a bastard.

Although to this day Wei Zhao still had not understood what Gu Pengzhan wanted him to do at Gu Mengyao's side. If he wanted a study companion or a bodyguard, there was no need to bring him from thousands of miles away; anyone could have filled the role. The opponents he dealt with were all low-intelligence types like Baldy, plus idiots like Zhong Yongliang, which left Wei Zhao speechless.