Chapter 288 — A Meeting of Minds

"Hey, Leader, what's Zhong Yongliang doing? Performing acrobatics? Why do I feel like his hand's been practicing the Six Meridians Divine Sword? It's actually spraying blood?" Kang Xiaofeng watched Zhong Yongliang with sympathy. How could this guy be so unlucky? He couldn't even write a blood letter without bleeding nonstop.

"Heh, who knows? They say when a person gets agitated, it speeds up their blood circulation. That's probably it," Wei Zhao said with a shrug, looking utterly innocent.

And so the Zhong Yongliang blood-letter incident turned into a farce, and word of it spread until everyone knew. It seemed that Zhong Yongliang's finger being able to spray blood was drawing far more attention than the original news that he intended to write a blood letter.

"What the hell kind of rotten idea was that? I haven't even finished my blood letter, and pretty soon I'll bleed out and die!" Zhong Yongliang felt his head going light and dizzy, his steps unsteady, and he nearly took a face-first tumble into the dirt.

"Brother Liang, you just cut a little nick in your hand, and on a finger at that. By all rights it shouldn't be a problem at all!" Gao Xiaofu sounded aggrieved. "Brother Liang, back when we used to get into fights, it wasn't like we never busted our hands. We've had worse wounds than this, but when has it ever bled nonstop like today?"

"That's true..." Stirred by Gao Xiaofu's words, Zhong Yongliang thought it over, and it did make sense. He'd cut his hands plenty of times before—countless times, growing up—and had far worse wounds than this, yet never had it bled outward like this... And where was the bleeding? It was practically spraying!

"Brother Liang, that brat Wei Zhao came by earlier. Could he have done something?" Gao Xiaofu said suspiciously.

"Wei Zhao... But no matter how capable that kid is, he can't control my bleeding, can he?" Zhong Yongliang shook his head, not quite believing Wei Zhao had that kind of ability. If someone could control the blood inside another person's body, would they even still be human?

"True..." Gao Xiaofu shook his head too, mocking himself for being so jittery. Was he really that afraid of Wei Zhao? Afraid to the point that he'd suspect him of something this bizarre?

"Forget it. Let's just get to the hospital. If we don't go now, I won't be able to walk soon!" Zhong Yongliang shook his head, forcing himself not to think about Wei Zhao. That guy was practically his nemesis—every time he saw him, something bad happened!

Zhong Yongliang didn't believe Wei Zhao had the power to make his hand spray blood, but he did feel that it was because Wei Zhao had, by some unlucky coincidence, come over to look at him and brought him bad luck!

"Huh? Brother Liang, your hand seems to have stopped bleeding..." Gao Xiaofu looked down and was startled to find that at some point, Zhong Yongliang's hand had stopped spraying blood and returned to normal.

"Hm?" Zhong Yongliang was stunned too. He looked at his finger, which had somehow already dried, and blinked. "It's better?"

"Looks like it..." Gao Xiaofu nodded.

"No way?" Zhong Yongliang raised his hand dubiously and examined his finger, but no matter how he looked at it, there was nothing wrong. He could only shake his head helplessly. "It really is better! I don't know what was going on just now. Maybe it was excess nutrition—too much blood in my body, so it just automatically let some out!"

That was the only explanation Zhong Yongliang could come up with, because he had no other way to explain it.

"Brother Liang, so are we still going to the hospital?" Gao Xiaofu asked.

"The hell we are. So people can laugh at us?" Zhong Yongliang shook his head. "Come on, let's go back!"

Though Zhong Yongliang had gone and come back quickly, his farce had still spread through the school, and it made him feel thoroughly humiliated. But there was nothing to be done about it—he'd already been humiliated plenty of times, so one more didn't matter.

At noon, Wei Zhao and Kang Xiaofeng came out of the classroom together. "Leader, Liu Xinlan and I have already arranged it—for a while now, every noon and after school, we're going to the hospital together to look after Xiaofen. You coming?"

"I'll pass," Wei Zhao said, thinking of his date with Tang Zhi. This little girl was inviting him out to eat for the first time! Of course, Tang's mother's earlier invitation didn't count.

"Oh... Huh? Leader, Tang Zhi's coming too?" Kang Xiaofeng arrived at the usual spot where he and Liu Xinlan agreed to meet each day, only to see Liu Xinlan and Tang Zhi standing together.

Wei Zhao was taken aback for a moment as well. He walked over and said, "Tang Zhi, weren't you looking for me? Why are you going to the hospital too?"

"I... I braised some chicken wings and brought them for you all to try... Let's eat them together at the hospital..." Tang Zhi blushed a little. In truth, she had made them especially for Wei Zhao, but thinking that Xiaofen was still in the hospital, she hadn't wanted to keep them all to herself, so she'd decided to bring them along and share with everyone.

"No way? What a coincidence! Leader brought shark meat too!" Kang Xiaofeng was startled and held up the lunchbox in his hand.

"Shark meat?" Liu Xinlan and Tang Zhi were both taken aback. "Where did shark meat come from?"

"Oh, I bought it yesterday and grilled some of it. There's shark fin too," Wei Zhao explained. "I'd originally split it into two boxes, one for Kang Xiaofeng to take to the hospital, and the other for Tang Zhi. But since we're all going to the hospital anyway, let's just eat it together."

"This one box is already plenty," Kang Xiaofeng said, shaking the box in his hand. "Chief, why don't you have your box taken home for Sister-in-law? The five of us can't possibly finish that much!"

"That works too. Tang Zhi, you take it home and let your aunt and uncle have a taste," Wei Zhao said, handing the lunchbox in his hand to Tang Zhi.

Tang Zhi felt a little embarrassed at being called "Sister-in-law" by Kang Xiaofeng. She took the lunchbox Wei Zhao handed her with a shy, fidgeting motion, secretly delighted. What a coincidence, she thought. She had made something delicious thinking of him, and he had been thinking of her too. Did that count as a meeting of minds?

A girl in love always clings to such lovely fantasies. What was a casual gesture on Wei Zhao's part made Tang Zhi exceedingly happy. Especially when she heard there was shark fin in it... That was something very expensive, wasn't it? Her father and mother had probably never tasted it. It would be just right to take it home and let them try some...

The four of them happened to flag down a taxi. Given Tang Zhi's and Liu Xinlan's natures, they were naturally reluctant to spend the money, but Wei Zhao insisted and explained things, so they stopped refusing.

Wei Zhao's explanation was simple. From the school to the hospital, the bus cost two yuan per person. A taxi, that is, the car fare, was only about ten yuan. It was just two yuan more, so why bother with the bus?

Tang Zhi and Liu Xinlan blushed at this. It seemed both of them were so used to being poor that they were a little petty, unable to work out even the simplest bit of arithmetic.