Chapter 455 — The Beginning of the Nightmare

"Don't they say you turn red when you keep company with red, and black with black?" Feng Xiaoxiao said with a smile. "It's fine if you won't teach me to drive. I'll just stay by your side. You'll influence me without even trying, and I'll become more and more like you—and then I'll be able to drive!"

"..." Wei Zhao was struck speechless by her reasoning. "Suit yourself, then. I'm going home." He turned and headed for the snack street behind the school, where he had parked his car, while Feng Xiaoxiao followed along beside him, unhurried.

Wei Zhao frowned, afraid that Tang Zhi and her mother would see them and get the wrong idea. "Can you follow me tomorrow instead?"

"Isn't it nice to let me walk you home?" Feng Xiaoxiao had made up her mind to follow Wei Zhao, so whatever he said, she answered softly.

"You're just going to leave your car?" Wei Zhao was at a loss for words. Her attitude left him genuinely unable to get angry. It would have been easy if she were as she used to be—he could just kick her aside—but now, kicking this delicate little thing was something he truly could not bring himself to do.

"I'll walk you home first, then take the bus back for it!" Feng Xiaoxiao said.

"Feng Xiaoxiao, can you act like a normal person?" Wei Zhao had truly reached his limit. "If you keep acting crazy like this, I won't come tomorrow!"

"Then I won't walk you home—just don't stop coming. I want to be by your side every day!" Feng Xiaoxiao shook her head in a hurry. "I won't go home with you, isn't that enough? I'll go on ahead by myself..."

Wei Zhao finally got rid of Feng Xiaoxiao and let out a breath of relief, patting his forehead. What on earth had gotten into her? "Keep company with red and you turn red"—he simply didn't believe such nonsense. There had to be something else going on that he didn't know about.

What Wei Zhao never expected was that his nightmare had only just begun...

"Who was that girl just now?" Though Wei Zhao had been in a hurry to send Feng Xiaoxiao off, Tang Zhi had still caught sight of her as she helped her mother at the barbecue stand.

In fact, Tang Zhi had spotted Wei Zhao the moment he arrived at the snack street, but when she saw the girl beside him, she had hesitated to call out and pretended not to see him, though she was tense inside.

Now that Feng Xiaoxiao was gone, Tang Zhi could not hold back her question.

"My deskmate. She just transferred here," Wei Zhao said.

"Then why was she following you?" Tang Zhi felt she was being a little petty asking so much, but petty be petty—Wei Zhao was getting better and better, and she was growing more and more afraid that he might give his heart to someone else.

"She doesn't know her way around. She parked her car somewhere and couldn't find it," Wei Zhao said offhandedly.

"I see... She drives to school too? Her family must be quite well off, then?" Tang Zhi was startled. If Feng Xiaoxiao really meant to compete with her, she feared she would not stand a chance.

"Who knows. But once by chance she saw me driving on the street, thought I was a good driver, and wanted me to teach her. I haven't had the time to bother with her," Wei Zhao said.

"Oh, is that so." Hearing this, Tang Zhi grew nervous again. So Feng Xiaoxiao had come for Wei Zhao? A faint sense of crisis crept over her. "Never mind her—how's your aunt's business been lately?" Wei Zhao did not want to talk about Feng Xiaoxiao in front of Tang Zhi, so he changed the subject.

"Not bad. We're making three or four times what we used to—by that count, over ten thousand a month.

" At this, Tang Zhi looked delighted. It was the first time her family had ever earned so much money.

"Mm. Then save up a bit and rent a storefront—open a barbecue restaurant, so you won't have to work so hard," Wei Zhao said with a nod. He could easily have put up another sum of money to open a shop for Tang Zhi's family, but knowing her character, she would probably never accept it.

"That's what I was thinking too. I don't want Mother out in the wind and sun anymore. But Mother says opening a shop is risky and she doesn't want to lose the money we've earned." At this, Tang Zhi blushed. "She said... she said she wants to save the money for my dowry..."

"Dowry?" Wei Zhao was taken aback, then gave an odd laugh. "Then let me have a word with your mother. I'm not short a dowry—tell her not to bother saving."

"You?" Tang Zhi was startled too, but then it dawned on her, and her face burned even redder. She pounded her little fist against Wei Zhao. "What nonsense are you spouting? I never said I was going to marry you!"

"Ha ha!" Wei Zhao took Tang Zhi's hand. "Auntie has already agreed."

After helping Tang Zhi and her mother busy themselves for a while, the students gradually thinned out. Wei Zhao helped Tang's mother push the barbecue cart to a nearby warehouse, then drove her and Tang Zhi toward the shantytown.

"Xiao Yi, I hear the shantytown is going to be demolished and redeveloped. Tell me, should we take the compensation money or the resettlement housing?" Tang's mother had been unable to make up her mind for days. The compensation, people said, could run to several hundred thousand per household, but the resettlement option offered an apartment roughly the same size as their current place, which seemed the better bargain.

"The resettlement housing is fine too. This sort of thing isn't really my forte—give me a few days and I'll find someone to ask for you." The person Wei Zhao had in mind was Fatty Lai. Wasn't real estate exactly his line? Ask him, and he was bound to know.

Still, knowing Fatty Lai's style, if he learned that Tang Zhi was Wei Zhao's girlfriend, he might well deliver a villa to their door the very next day. Only, in Wei Zhao's view, Tang Zhi would never accept it.

"That works too, but it's all just rumor—whether the demolition even happens is hard to say." Tang's mother sighed. "The last few times they talked about redeveloping, it always fell through in the end because the developer's compensation never matched what we were asking."

"No matter. When the time comes and you need anything, just tell me. I have a friend in real estate—he'll surely be able to help." Wei Zhao assured her.

After dropping Tang Zhi and her mother off at the shantytown, Wei Zhao did not get out of the car. He simply drove straight back to Gu Mengyao's villa.

As for Wei Zhao's habit of leaving early and returning late, Gu Mengyao no longer cared to say anything about it. She gave him one cold glance, then went back to watching TV with Shen Yushu.

"Why are you following me? Tang Zhi and I agreed to meet for a meal." Wei Zhao had not expected that little tagalong Feng Xiaoxiao to trail after him again.

"I'm going to eat too!" Feng Xiaoxiao blinked. "It's the perfect chance to meet your girlfriend—we'll be seeing a lot of each other from now on, after all."

"What do you mean by that? You plan on being there every time I go on a date?" Wei Zhao's face turned green on the spot.

"Yep!" Feng Xiaoxiao nodded very seriously.