Chapter 640 — Zhong Yongliang's Mission

Though the deed was against the law, Zhong Yongliang carried not the slightest trace of a guilty conscience. To his mind, the more vicious a thing was, the more exhilarating it became to carry it out; causing some stir at the school was something he would gladly see.

His uncle was no longer a shareholder of the school, so naturally it would be best if something happened there! Toward Gu Mengyao he had gone from love to hatred, and toward Wei Zhao the same!

With a ruthless rival like An Liwen in the way, Zhong Yongliang dared not entertain any lingering notions about Gu Mengyao—but not pursuing Gu Mengyao did not mean he did not hate her! This time, he would ruin Gu Pengzhan financially and make Gu Mengyao know what it felt like to fall from a lofty little princess straight into the life of a penniless Cinderella!

Only a great upheaval can make a man see the truth; and at this moment Zhong Yongliang understood completely that Gu Mengyao had merely been playing him all along, that she had never liked him, and that even if she had not done it herself, she had tacitly permitted Shen Yushu to do so!

Those two girls—and Wei Zhao—he would never let them off! And An Liwen too: when Zhang Naipao descended the mountain, that would be their death day!

Zhong Yongliang's wounds had healed. Through the Medicine King, Zhong Fabai had obtained some of Divine Physician Kang's golden wound medicine, so apart from missing a kidney, Zhong Yongliang suffered no other discomfort.

But though he had returned to school, Zhong Yongliang found that his classmates looked at him oddly. He did not know whether he was being oversensitive, or whether everyone was mocking him for having only one kidney left—in any case, Zhong Yongliang was in an exceedingly foul mood.

These humiliations would be washed away sooner or later!

The Zhong Yongliang of this moment was no longer the Zhong Yongliang of before. Having gone through this upheaval, he had matured, grown steadier, and grasped one truth: to take revenge, one must have absolute strength, and before one has absolute strength, one must never clash head-on with the likes of Wei Zhao!

Of course, that did not mean letting Wei Zhao off; it meant playing dirty. He refused to believe that if he kept at it, he would not drive Wei Zhao and Gu Pengzhan to a breakdown.

Before the last class of the morning, Zhong Yongliang skipped class together with Gao Xiaofu. He had not kept the matter from Gao Xiaofu: as another of his trusted confidants, Gao Xiaofu had joined him in plenty of wicked deeds, so there was no chance he would betray him.

"Brother Liang, when the time comes we just split up and sprinkle this stuff into the cafeteria's food tubs, right?" Gao Xiaofu looked at the little bottles in his hand and asked.

"Right. I'll do four and you do three, and we scatter them separately so we don't draw anyone's attention!" Zhong Yongliang nodded and said.

"But does this stuff really work, Brother Liang?" Gao Xiaofu did not quite believe that these little bottles, each harmless on its own, would turn into a deadly poison once mixed.

"Of course it does. You don't know—this poison was compounded by a legendary recluse of great skill. It's called the Seven-Herb Death Powder, made from seven herbs; colorless and tasteless, any single herb on its own has no toxicity whatsoever. Only when the seven are taken together does it become deadly. It's wonderfully covert—the indispensable wonder drug for murder and robbery!" Zhong Yongliang said smugly.

"My God, that's impressive. So this time, any student who eats the seven dishes together is bound to drop dead?" Gao Xiaofu marveled.

"That's right. And when the forensic examiners come, they won't be able to spot a thing, because if you take a single dish away to test it, there's no poison in it. Even if those students are sent to the hospital, there's no antidote—they can only lie there waiting to die!" Zhong Yongliang nodded and said.

"But if the forensic examiners can't detect it, then we won't achieve our aim of harming Gu Pengzhan either, will we? By then the hospital will have tested everything, all the food will be clean, and the students' poisoning will have nothing to do with the school!" Gao Xiaofu felt something was off, so he asked.

"Idiot! Don't you know what the most terrifying thing in the world is?" Zhong Yongliang said with a touch of contempt. "The unknown. Only the unknown is truly terrifying. Why do people fear ghosts? Because a ghost is something unknown—no one has ever seen what one looks like, so everyone is afraid. In the same way, even if the hospital discovers that the students were poisoned by eating food that had been tampered with, how much damage would that do to Gu Pengzhan? He'd be a victim too, someone poisoned by another's hand. If he just pays out some compensation, public opinion might even call him a good man, a victim himself! But what happens if there's no poison in the food?"

"Right!" Gao Xiaofu's mind suddenly cleared. "If there's no poison in the food, and yet the students are poisoned—that's even more terrifying!"

"Exactly. So until this puzzle is solved, which parent would dare send their child back to school? What if they're poisoned again? If all the parents band together and make a fuss, and pull their children out, Gu Pengzhan will have more than he can handle!" Zhong Yongliang said. "And for those students who die of poisoning, if the hospital can't determine the cause, then Gu Pengzhan bears an inescapable responsibility, because the students were poisoned on school grounds—who else would the parents go after but Gu Pengzhan? He'll have plenty to pay out then! Gahaha!"

"You're right. Seems I'm still not as thorough as you, Brother Liang!" Gao Xiaofu said, conceding his inferiority.

"All right, let's go poison them right away—the cafeteria should have the food ready by now!" Having heard Gao Xiaofu's words, Zhong Yongliang said with pride in his heart.

Before Jin Gubang's gloomy departure, Zhong Yongliang had been a regular at the cafeteria, and had often come early to eat.

He often skipped class, so there was no need to wait for the last class to end before going to the cafeteria; and being the nephew of a school director, even the cafeteria manager did not quite dare to offend him. In any case, Zhong Yongliang paid for his food like anyone else—serving him a little early cost the man nothing.

As usual, Zhong Yongliang arrived at the cafeteria entrance with Gao Xiaofu in tow. The cafeteria had not yet opened for business. Zhong Yongliang knocked on the door, and in no time a worker came running out. Seeing that it was Zhong Yongliang, he hurriedly opened the main door and let him in.

Although Jin Gubang had already left his post, that was something only a few senior figures knew about; even the cafeteria manager might not have gotten the news right away, so the cafeteria staff naturally knew even less. They still believed Zhong Yongliang had the backing of a school board member behind him, and so they did not dare offend him.

"Young Master Zhong, you're here! It's been a while since you last came to the cafeteria!" the cafeteria worker said with a rather fawning tone. These laborers toiling at the very bottom of the school naturally wanted to curry favor with a rich second-generation heir like Zhong Yongliang, hoping they might get a chance to be pulled up along with him.