Chapter 142 — Back Again

Still, that scoundrel really has some nerve, daring even to harass Gu Mengyao! I have never heard of anyone harassing Gu Mengyao before!

Seeing that half the break was already gone and class was about to start, Tang Zhi had no choice but to head back to her classroom first—she would come again after this period. Just now the three campus beauties standing together had drawn a great many sidelong glances. Tang Zhi did not want to stand there and invite suspicion, so she hurried back to her own classroom...

Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu had gone to the end of the corridor to look at the scenery for a while. When the bell rang, the two turned back, and saw that Tang Zhi was no longer there.

"Sister Yaoyao, Tang Zhi's gone," Shen Yushu said.

"I saw her... Xiaoshu, what do you think she came looking for Wei Zhao about?" Gu Mengyao had been pondering this question the whole time she was looking at the scenery.

"My guess is, maybe she wanted to borrow money," Shen Yushu said carelessly, for how could she possibly know?

"Borrow money?" Gu Mengyao's eyes went wide. Tang Zhi looking for Wei Zhao to borrow money?

"I'm just guessing," Shen Yushu said with a sly grin.

"You're awful!" Gu Mengyao gave Shen Yushu a rap on the head. "Forget it, never mind. Let's go back."

"Or how about, when she comes again, I ask her for you?" Shen Yushu blinked. "Or I could go to her class and find her?"

"Don't you dare!" Gu Mengyao glared at Shen Yushu. "Xiaoshu, are you doing this on purpose?"

"Hee hee..." Shen Yushu smiled and said nothing.

And so Tang Zhi stood at the doorway of Class Five's classroom, secretly peeking inside. She poked her head in, found that she had attracted a great deal of attention, and bashfully shrank back at once.

At the time, everyone was speculating about what Tang Zhi had come for. Then, when the second period ended, Tang Zhi came again—and that was a little strange.

Shen Yushu looked up and just happened to catch Tang Zhi shrinking back. That struck her as rather odd. Could she be looking for Wei Zhao again? Glancing at Gu Mengyao beside her, who was absorbed in her book, Shen Yushu rose quietly to her feet and slipped out of the classroom.

"Hey!" Shen Yushu saw Tang Zhi standing to one side with her head lowered, looking flustered, and walked over, waving a hand in front of her face.

"Ah..." Tang Zhi jumped in fright. She looked up and saw that it was Shen Yushu. "W-what is it?"

"You're Tang Zhi, right? I'm Shen Yushu," Shen Yushu introduced herself, though Tang Zhi surely already knew her name. "You've come looking for Wei Zhao again, haven't you?"

"I..." Tang Zhi did not know why Shen Yushu was asking, nor whether she bore Wei Zhao any ill will, but she nodded all the same. "Mm..."

"Oh. Wei Zhao isn't here, he hasn't been since this morning..." Shen Yushu said. "If there's something you need, shall I pass it on for you? I'm the study committee member, you know. Helping classmates is my duty and responsibility."

"He, he didn't come?" Tang Zhi looked at Shen Yushu in astonishment. She couldn't be lying to her, could she? She had ridden the same bus to school with Wei Zhao this morning, and he had taken advantage of her the whole way—could all of that have been her imagination?

"He didn't come," Shen Yushu said with a nod. "If you don't believe me, you can look for yourself. He sits in the last seat of the second row. See, there's no one there now."

"Oh." Since Shen Yushu had put it that way, Tang Zhi no longer doubted that she was lying to her—especially after she said she was the study committee member. A class officer surely wouldn't lie to people casually, would she? Tang Zhi was the study committee member of Class Nine herself, and so she felt considerably closer to Shen Yushu.

"Right? So is there something you need?" Shen Yushu did not much care whether Wei Zhao came or not, nor was she so kindhearted that she simply had to help a classmate. The key was that she too was curious about what Tang Zhi had come to Wei Zhao for, what business she had.

"I... it's nothing... then I'll just wait for him to come back, and come again," Tang Zhi said after a moment's hesitation. The matter of the formula was not something easily passed on to someone else; better to say it in person.

"Oh." Shen Yushu was a little disappointed, but she could hardly press Tang Zhi further. "Then come back and check this afternoon..."

"Mm, thank you..." Tang Zhi turned and headed back to her classroom, disappointed as well. Twice now she had come, and Wei Zhao was nowhere to be found — he hadn't even shown up at school! What on earth was that fellow playing at? She had clearly gotten off the bus together with him, hadn't she?

When Shen Yushu returned to the classroom, she found that Gu Mengyao had already set down the book in her hands and was fixing her with a sharp stare. Shen Yushu quailed a little. "Sister Yao, why are you looking at me like that?"

"Xiao Shu, where did you go?" Gu Mengyao had looked up a moment ago to find Shen Yushu gone, and following the gazes of their classmates, she had searched until she spotted the little minx out at the classroom door, chatting with Tang Zhi. She was furious. Hadn't she been told not to go making overtures? Why wouldn't she listen? If Wei Zhao got wind of it, he would think she cared about him far more than she did...

But think it though she might, Gu Mengyao still badly wanted to know what Shen Yushu had managed to dig up! If she asked nicely, in a reasonable, discussable way, that slippery little Xiao Shu might well not answer properly — so Gu Mengyao put on a show of being angry, and sure enough, Shen Yushu confessed everything.

"I was just asking her what she wanted with Arrowbrand Bro..." Shen Yushu pursed her lips. "But she wouldn't tell me either, so I could only tell her Arrowbrand Bro wasn't here and that she should come back this afternoon."

"Oh..." Gu Mengyao nodded. "Who knows what that Wei Zhao is up to. He left a note this morning and took off — what kind of attitude is that? My daddy is paying good money to hire him, and this is him playing truant!"

"Sister Yao, as I recall, you used to think the farther away he stayed, the better. How did you change your mind so fast?" Shen Yushu asked teasingly.

"Mm, mm, it's not easy for Daddy to earn money, and I have to be worthy of the salary he pays, don't I?" Gu Mengyao hemmed and hawed, dredging up a flimsy excuse that even she scarcely believed. Yet to admit that she no longer found Wei Zhao quite so detestable — that she could not bring herself to say.

"So that's how it is. Then I'll tell Arrowbrand Bro to be a bit more dedicated to his work," Shen Yushu said with a nod, looking thoroughly convinced.

"..." Gu Mengyao was speechless. She would believe even that? Looking at Shen Yushu, who was quietly getting ready for the next class, Gu Mengyao thought she caught a faint trace of melancholy flickering between her brows...