Chapter 287 — You Go Stop Him

"Xiaoshu, you mustn't say things like that anymore. How can you bring that up so casually? If the boys heard, it would be mortifying." Gu Mengyao said to Shen Yushu with forced patience.

"Oh, I don't think it's a big deal. Anyway, we're out of sanitary pads at home—I was thinking of sending Brother Chewing Gum to buy some." Shen Yushu was completely unconcerned.

"No way. How can you ask a man to buy something that private for you?" Gu Mengyao shot her a glare. "I'll call Uncle Qing in a bit and have him go buy them."

"Uh…" Shen Yushu blinked. "Yao Yao, isn't Uncle Qing a man too…?"

Shen Yushu felt terribly sorry for Uncle Qing, poor thing—Gu Mengyao had sent him into the palace several times over… She wondered what he would think if he ever found out.

"That's different. Uncle Qing is an elder." Gu Mengyao also felt she had gone a bit too far; Uncle Qing had already been stripped of his manhood several times now…

"Oh, all right then." Shen Yushu nodded, half understanding. "Then let Uncle Qing go buy them."

"That's better… Oh, right—how do we stop Zhong Yongliang from writing that blood letter or whatever? Just hearing about it is creepy. I don't want to receive a blood letter—I'd have nightmares at night." Gu Mengyao said.

"For that, you'll have to find Brother Chewing Gum. Let him handle it." Shen Yushu now lived by the philosophy of "When in trouble, find Wei Zhao."

"Fine, then you go tell Wei Zhao to take care of it." Gu Mengyao nodded, agreeing that Xiaoshu's idea was the only way—they really could only turn to Wei Zhao.

Wei Zhao stared at the little note Shen Yushu had passed him, somewhat speechless: Yao Yao wants you to stop Zhong Yongliang from writing the blood letter. It's all up to you now.

Giving Zhong Yongliang a beating—that he could do. But stopping him from writing a blood letter? That seemed a bit beyond his jurisdiction, didn't it? And he had no reason to interfere. Was he supposed to just march up and warn Zhong Yongliang, 'Don't write Gu Mengyao a blood letter, or I'll beat you up'?

But in what capacity would he do it? Wei Zhao had a bit of a headache. Still, since the eldest Miss Chu had given her orders, Wei Zhao got to his feet and shuffled unsteadily toward Zhong Yongliang.

At that moment, Zhong Yongliang was holding a carving knife, hesitating over whether to cut his own finger. He wasn't afraid of pain, but cutting his own finger—that was still a little too frightening, wasn't it?

"Xiaofu, come help me out. I can't bring myself to do it." Zhong Yongliang handed the carving knife to Gao Xiaofu.

"Oh." Gao Xiaofu was not the least bit hesitant—after all, it wasn't his hand being cut. "Then here I go, Brother Liang. Bear with it."

"All right… hiss…" Zhong Yongliang flinched, and blood welled up from his fingertip. There were no major vessels at the tip of a finger, so it didn't gush like a fountain.

"Brother Liang, hurry up and write. Otherwise the blood'll dry in a bit and you'll have to start over." Gao Xiaofu said.

"Oh, right." Zhong Yongliang hastily began writing on the blank sheet of paper he had prepared in advance…

He had just finished writing the character "Yao" when Wei Zhao silently appeared before Zhong Yongliang. Sensing someone suddenly there in front of him, Zhong Yongliang instinctively looked up and saw Wei Zhao. "You… what do you want?"

Zhong Yongliang was startled. What was Wei Zhao doing here? Was this guy looking to make trouble for him again?

"Oh, nothing. Just came to see what you're up to." Wei Zhao lowered his head and glanced at the blood letter Zhong Yongliang was writing.

"Writing a blood letter—what else would I be doing? Wei Zhao, I haven't provoked you, so you'd better not mess around." Zhong Yongliang was somewhat afraid of Wei Zhao.

"Oh, not bad. I admire your courage—pretty impressive." Wei Zhao casually patted Zhong Yongliang twice on the shoulder. "I just came to see if you really went through with it. You didn't disappoint me. I've got high hopes for you."

With that, giving Zhong Yongliang no chance to reply, Wei Zhao turned and walked off, leaving Zhong Yongliang staring blankly after him. This guy hadn't come to make trouble? Instead he'd offered a few words of encouragement—what was that about?

"Ah!" Gao Xiaofu suddenly let out a shriek that nearly scared Zhong Yongliang out of his wits.

Somewhat annoyed, Zhong Yongliang said, "Xiaofu, what are you screaming for?"

"Brother Liang, your hand... your hand..." Gao Xiaofu's eyes were wide as saucers as he pointed at Zhong Yongliang's hand. "Brother Liang, what happened to you?"

Puzzled, Zhong Yongliang lowered his head—and what a sight met him. He gave a start himself. His cut right index finger was spraying blood like a water pistol, and the white paper on the desk was already stained a deep crimson, the blood running everywhere...

"Aah—" Zhong Yongliang let out a miserable cry too, nearly fainting from fright. Blood had been spurting from his hand the whole time without his noticing. That was the thing about a wound: all you felt was the pain. How much blood you had lost was very hard to tell unless you looked.

There is a famous experiment about a man who was blindfolded, had his wrist cut, and was locked in a room with the sound of dripping water. Hearing the drips, he took them for the sound of his own blood, and in the end he was frightened to death.

Which proves that ordinary people are in fact quite poor at judging how much blood they have lost.

Zhong Yongliang was no exception. When he saw his finger jetting blood like a crimson sword, he was scared half out of his mind. What kind of bleeding was this? It was exactly like the water pistols he had played with as a child. Zhong Yongliang had no doubt that if he raised his hand, the blood would squirt clear across the room...

"Am I going to die? Xiaofu, get me to the hospital, quick!" Writing in blood was the last thing on his mind now. Zhong Yongliang was so frightened his legs had gone weak and he could not even stand up. Panicking, he shouted at the top of his voice, "Quick, Xiaofu, call my dad and have him come get me..."

The classmates in the room all stared at Zhong Yongliang in astonishment. When they saw that finger pouring blood, they clapped their hands over their mouths in shock. A cut finger could bleed like that?

"Yaoyao, look, Zhong Yongliang's hand has turned into a squirt gun..." Shen Yushu said, watching Zhong Yongliang with a kind of fascinated curiosity.

Gu Mengyao was rather alarmed at the sight. "Wei Zhao wouldn't have done that, would he?"

"I don't know, maybe. Arrow-Brand Bro is really something—he can even kill a shark, never mind Zhong Yongliang," Shen Yushu said.

If Zhong Yongliang knew that Shen Yushu had mentioned him in the same breath as a shark, one wondered whether he would be flattered or feel like crying.

Sitting at his desk, Wei Zhao glanced at the frantically panicking Zhong Yongliang out of the corner of his eye and curled his lip. He had merely pressed a few acupoints to speed up the man's blood circulation a little... No hospital needed, really. A little blood like that would not kill anyone; things would return to normal in a while...