Chapter 354 — Yang Ce the Mighty
Years of Heartflutter · Page 2 of 3
Seeing the students below now regarding Ren Jianren as a villain of the deepest dye, a sworn enemy, Yang Ce smiled faintly. Of course he wouldn't let the commotion drag on; quitting while one was ahead was the right path. The school officials were sitting right there—Tian Yan might not fear them, but Yang Ce had to think about Zhang Bin, and if this kept up, there'd be no need for the flying-knife contest at all.
"Fellow students, all right then. Whether Ren Jianren is grandstanding or just showing off, now isn't the time to discuss it. Don't you all want to see the flying-knife performance?" Yang Ce smiled as he looked down at the students and spoke into the microphone. "Yeah, forget Ren Jianren—we want to see the show!" "Yang Ce! Yang Ce! Yang Ce! Yang Ce!" "Lin Yanhe! Lin Yanhe! Lin Yanhe! Lin Yanhe!"
Chants for Yang Ce and Lin Yanhe rose again from below the stage. Ren Jianren watched from the side, his expression dark. He had racked his brains to stage such a moving scene, and it had been dismantled so easily—and instead he'd been branded a foreign-worshipping grandstander!
If he'd known it would turn out this way, why had he gone to such lengths? He'd brought it entirely on himself. He might as well have come straight up and challenged Yan. Now look: his popularity had sunk even lower, plummeting to rock bottom. "All right, President Ren Jianren, shall we begin?" Yang Ce turned to Ren Jianren and asked amiably.
But to Ren Jianren, Yang Ce's smile was like a sharp sword, leaving him with nowhere to hide his shame. He had only himself to blame. But who else could he blame? Who had told him to ask for trouble?
Ren Jianren looked at Yang Ce, then at Lin Yanhe beside him, and his eyes suddenly lit up—at last he had found an excuse to attack Yang Ce. "Didn't we agree that each of us would bring one helper to throw knives at the apple on our head, and whoever lands the most hits wins? Isn't that right?"
"That's right." Yang Ce nodded, confirming Ren Jianren's words, though he wondered why Ren Jianren would ask. The host had already explained the rules when announcing the event—what new trick was Ren Jianren up to now? "Heh heh, then may I ask: you've brought this beautiful campus belle up on stage—is she going to throw knives at you, or are you going to throw knives at her?" Ren Jianren asked smugly, as though he had caught Yang Ce red-handed in some enormous blunder.
In Ren Jianren's view, how could Lin Yanhe possibly throw a knife? Had it been some other girl he didn't know, Ren Jianren might still have been on his guard—she could well be some martial arts expert Yang Ce had found somewhere. So to guard against exactly that, Ren Jianren had specifically instructed student council president Xu Qianxing to restrict the rules for participating in the arts festival performances!
Only current students of the university were eligible to take part in the arts festival performances; outside help was strictly barred from the stage. That way, Yang Ce was prevented from bringing in a helper from outside.
But even with that restriction, Ren Jianren still feared Yang Ce might dig up some hidden martial arts master from among the students to pit against him. Yet now, looking at it, Yang Ce had actually brought a beautiful campus belle on stage!
Ren Jianren assumed Yang Ce had deliberately brought Lin Yanhe along to draw the eyes of the student audience, and that in doing so, the knife-thrower became Yang Ce rather than Lin Yanhe—he refused to believe Lin Yanhe could throw a knife at all.
And if Yang Ce was the one throwing, then that violated the rules they had agreed on beforehand! Because they had already agreed that he and Yan—that is, Yang Ce—would be the one to face the knife as it flew toward the apple on his head.
Silence! Utter silence! The student audience below was stunned! The school officials were stunned! On stage, Ren Jianren and Li Jiasheng were stunned too!