Chapter 136: Battering Down the Door!

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Chapter 136: Crashing Through the Gate!

After breakfast, Tang Zhong arrived at the classroom with Hua Ming and was once again greeted by the cheers and teasing of his classmates.

They knew that Tang Zhong had been the real star of the previous evening, so most of their attention and curiosity was focused on him.

“Class monitor, you were quite the man of the hour last night. Come clean—when did you start dating the beauty of the International Trade Department?”

“Class monitor, you found yourself a beauty right at the start of the semester. Aren’t you going to treat us?”

“Class monitor, tell your brothers how to win over a younger girl. How to make them feel as though they’re in heaven and shed tears of emotion, how to make them go onstage and confess their love to us—brother, we’re practically dying of envy!”

Tang Zhong smiled and brushed them off, but he did not explain what had happened afterward between himself and Qiu Yihan.

If they could not end up together, what was the point of saying more about each other?

To Tang Zhong’s surprise, Jiao Nanxin really had not come to class that day.

Tang Zhong smiled bitterly. He did not know whether the girl had genuinely had something else to attend to or was simply sulking at him. Still, she seemed to be a woman who kept her word. If she said she would not come, then she simply did not—not even bothering to ask for leave.

After the first class ended, members of the student council began handing out questionnaires. Students were asked to choose their favorite language program or select the song they liked best. Hua Ming’s “I Am a Wolf from the North” was also on the list of choices.

Although Hua Ming kept insisting that he did not care in the slightest about the Campus Top Ten Singers competition, he dragged several boys from the class to the student-council staff and demanded questionnaires. He forced them to put check marks beside his name and crosses beside everyone else’s.

In truth, they could simply have ignored the other contestants altogether. But Hua Ming believed that taking such an extreme stance might lower the school’s overall impression of his competitors.

After all, in addition to the student questionnaires, there would also be professional evaluations from teachers in the music departments. Their scores accounted for a considerable proportion of the final result.

Perhaps this was exactly the sort of person the saying “gilding the lily” was meant to describe.

With Jiao Nanxin absent, no one in class argued with Tang Zhong until they were red in the face, forcing the teacher to step in and call a halt. After the two classes ended, Tang Zhong said goodbye to Hua Ming and took a car alone to the Purple Garden residential compound.

The concert was drawing closer by the day. Regardless of how they planned to resolve his vocal problem, there were several dance numbers he needed to learn from Lin Huiyin and Zhang Hepben.

As usual, Tang Zhong got out at the entrance to the Purple Garden villas, only to find a quarrel taking place ahead of him. Such a scene was exceedingly rare at the entrance to a high-end residential compound.

And one of the people involved was an acquaintance Tang Zhong knew only vaguely: Bai Su’s gambling-addicted foster father.

His opponent was a tall, corpulent man dressed from head to toe in light-gray Armani. Around his thick neck he had tied an Hermès scarf in imitation of an international fashion trendsetter, while a gold watch flashed dazzlingly on his wrist whenever he moved.

A yellow Lamborghini was parked not far away. A beautiful, large-breasted woman with straight hair sat inside, holding a small black dog and watching the quarrel with great interest.

The fat man pointed angrily at Old Bai, as though he had suffered some enormous injustice, and cursed loudly, “You rotten old country bumpkin, are you blind? Do you know what place this is? Do you know what place this is? You come smoking at the entrance to Purple Garden—what the hell, did a dog chew away half your brain? Who were you cursing just now? Who were you cursing? Try saying it again—go on, say it again!”

Old Bai shrank away, dodging the fat man’s slaps, and said with an ingratiating smile, “I wasn’t cursing you. I wasn’t cursing you…”

He pointed at the pair of seated qilin statues guarding the entrance and said in a low voice, “I was cursing that lion.”

“Who the hell told you that was a lion? It’s a qilin! You ancient corpse, do you know anything at all? They guard our homes and protect this place. What right do you have to curse at them? Even if it’s only a beast, it’s still worth far more than a worthless piece of trash like you!”

Tang Zhong frowned. He walked over to the security booth, knocked on the window, and said to the two guards inside—who were “deeply absorbed” in watching a video and paying no attention whatsoever to what was happening outside, “Gentlemen, there are people fighting outside. Aren’t you going to do something?”

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The two guards glanced at Tang Zhong. The older one waved his hand and said, “There’s nothing we can do about this.”

“Why not?” Tang Zhong asked. “This is Purple Garden. What kind of behavior is it to make such a racket at the entrance?”

The younger guard looked at Tang Zhong, then pointed toward a corner of the booth. “Take a look over there…”

Tang Zhong glanced over and saw that a large section of the protective metal sheeting on the outside of the booth had been dented inward. Part of the brick wall also showed traces of having been patched with fresh cement.

“That’s what he did the last time we meddled in his affairs,” the younger guard said, still shaken by the memory. “He was cursing at a girl who lives in this compound. I went over to stop him. He pointed at me and said he’d make sure I died horribly, then drove away. When we weren’t prepared, he came back in an SUV and rammed the security booth. He wanted to kill us! Who would dare interfere with Luo Yama?”

Tang Zhong had originally felt that his identity was sensitive, and since Purple Garden was so close to Tang Xin, it was inconvenient for him to involve himself. That was why he had hoped the guards would step in and mediate.

He had not expected the guards to be so terrified of the fat man. Meanwhile, the man grew even more arrogant, waving his hands as he chased Old Bai and repeatedly trying to slap him across the face.

Fortunately, Old Bai was nimble enough to evade every blow.

“You dare dodge? You dare dodge?” the fat man roared, striking wildly. “The more you dodge, the more I’m going to hit you. Let’s see if I can’t beat you to death!”

Suddenly, someone seized the fat man’s hand from behind.

He strained with all his might to pull free, but his arm could not budge from Tang Zhong’s grasp.

His body was too fat for him to turn around. With his back still facing Tang Zhong, he cursed furiously, “Who is it? Who the hell dares meddle in Luo Yeyong’s affairs? Do you want to die?”

Tang Zhong drove his foot hard into the back of his knee. Luo Yeyong lost his balance and fell backward onto the concrete ground.

Bang!

Tang Zhong stomped once more on his chest, punishment for the abuse the man had hurled at him.

Then he turned and walked toward the Purple Garden compound without looking back.

“Hey, hey—young brother!” Old Bai called from behind.

Tang Zhong pretended not to hear and quickened his pace, but Old Bai was stopped at the entrance to the security booth.

Seeing a bespectacled man knock her beloved fat man flat without saying a word, the long-haired beauty in the sports car was finally moved to action. Clutching her little dog, she ran over and cried out desperately, “Brother Luo! Brother Luo!”

“I’m going to kill him. I’m going to kill him,” Luo Yeyong snarled, clutching his icy, aching chest.

When Tang Zhong returned to the villa, Bai Su was the only person in the living room.

“Where are the others?” Tang Zhong asked.

“Upstairs practicing their dance.” Bai Su pointed toward the ceiling. “It’s their first concert. They’re a little nervous too.”

“Mm.” Tang Zhong nodded. “I saw your foster father at the entrance just now.”

He recounted what had happened outside. After listening, Bai Su said worriedly, “He called and said he wanted to see me. I thought I’d try what you suggested and act a little colder toward him first, so he wouldn’t fall back into his old ways. I didn’t expect something like this to happen. I’ll call him again.”

“There’s no need,” Tang Zhong said. “After something like this, if he has any sense, he’ll already be far away.”

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Bai Su sighed. “Sigh… When you think about it, he is a pitiful man.”

“Every pitiful person has something hateful about him,” Tang Zhong said. “If it weren’t for everything that happened before, and if you had treated him a little better, how could he have ended up in such a miserable state? He’s an adult. He has to pay the price for the mistakes he’s made.”

“Forget it. Let’s not talk about him anymore.” Bai Su said, “Why don’t you go upstairs and practice with them? It’s fortunate that you came. I was just about to call you.”

“What about my voice?” Tang Zhong pointed at his throat.

“Don’t worry.” Bai Su said, “A-Ken has already gone to America because of your situation. I believe he’ll find a solution soon—”

“That’s good,” Tang Zhong said. “If my voice can’t be fixed, then practicing the dances won’t be all that important anyway.”

“Go on, go on.” Bai Su pushed him by the shoulder. “I’ll wash some fruit for you all.”

Tang Zhong smiled and went upstairs to find Lin Huiyin and Zhang Hepben.

He pushed open the door to the dance studio and saw Lin Huiyin and Zhang Hepben, dressed in black leotards, practicing their splits.

One foot was braced against the wall, forming a straight line with the other leg. Their heads were bent forward, and the tight-fitting outfits displayed their full, shapely curves perfectly before Tang Zhong.

Neither of them seemed to notice him standing in the doorway. They were still speaking softly.

“Sister Huiyin, Tang Zhong is here.” That was Zhang Hepben’s voice.

“Mm.” Lin Huiyin’s head bobbed back and forth as she answered coldly.

“Why hasn’t he come up to dance yet? What a lazybones.” Zhang Hepben was clearly dissatisfied with Tang Zhong’s attitude toward work.

Lin Huiyin did not answer.

“When he comes up later, I’m going to give him a proper scolding,” Zhang Hepben said. After a pause, she added, “But you absolutely mustn’t tell him that I said he and A-Ken were a couple, all right? A-Ken even went all the way to America for him. Hmph, it’s really touching.”

Tang Zhong was speechless. He knocked on the door and said, “Isn’t it a little immoral to speak ill of people behind their backs?”

Zhang Hepben turned around and stared at Tang Zhong in surprise. Angrily, she said, “Isn’t it even more immoral to listen to people talking behind their backs?”

“I only happened to hear it,” Tang Zhong said.

“I only happened to say it,” Zhang Hepben shot back.

…

The two of them were in the middle of a cold war when a tremendous crash suddenly rang out from outside. It sounded like an earthquake, and the entire building trembled.

Tang Zhong hurried to the window. He saw the front end of a Hummer pressed hard against the electronic gate of the courtyard.