The girl surrounded by delinquents

Chapter 36: The girl surrounded by delinquents

To cultivators from sects, Song Shuhang joining a sect at his age was like an illiterate ninety-year-old man with one foot in the grave suddenly wanting to attend elementary school. Even if the old man pulled strings to get admitted, how much could he learn? What could he accomplish? He did not even have a future—who knew whether a ninety-year-old might drop dead tomorrow?

Even if Song Shuhang successfully established his foundation, advancing afterward would take him far more time and resources than it would those youngsters who established their foundations at four or five.

On one side were gifted disciples who would advance quickly, consume fewer resources, and have limitless prospects.

On the other was Song Shuhang, who would struggle to advance, consume more resources, and have little hope for the future.

As long as the sect's leaders had any sense, they would not waste too much time, teaching manpower, or precious cultivation resources on Song Shuhang.

And even if the fellow Daoist from the Nine Provinces Group who introduced Song Shuhang to a sect could look after him for a while, they could not look after him for a lifetime!

Copper Trigram Immortal Master had no answer. He had not thought as far ahead as Northern River's Loose Cultivator. He had only considered the immense hardships of an independent cultivator, without realizing that joining a sect would not be much better for Song Shuhang.

"So whether he joins a sect or becomes an independent cultivator, there isn't much difference for Song Shuhang. That being the case, letting him choose for himself is the best approach. Even if his choice is wrong, he won't have anyone else to blame," Northern River's Loose Cultivator said calmly.

As his seniors among independent cultivators, all they could do was try their best to lend Song Shuhang a hand whenever he needed it.

Jiangnan University Town, in the dormitory.

Song Shuhang leaned back in his chair and looked at a small sealed cup beside his computer desk. It held the remaining Body Tempering Liquid. Taking it in conjunction with the Basic Meditation Method and fist technique Medicine Master had taught him would make better use of its medicinal effects.

Just then, a pleasant melody rang out. It was his phone's ringtone.

Song Shuhang answered, and Tubo's voice came through. "Shuhang, have you finished sorting out those two big boxes? If you're done, come over. Yangde's settled on an apartment! Come take a look, then we can all go out for a good meal."

"Sure, I'll head over right away. Send me the address," Song Shuhang replied.

"I'll text it to you." Tubo hung up.

After the call ended, Song Shuhang put down his phone and looked through the window, beyond the balcony.

Perhaps he needed to rent a place off campus, just like Yangde.

He would not have to live there, but he needed somewhere he would not be disturbed when he occasionally wanted to refine pills or practice cultivation in the future.

"If I want to rent a place, should I get a part-time job?" Song Shuhang was just an ordinary student. Without computer skills like Li Yangde's, getting a part-time job was probably his only way to earn money.

Come to think of it, how did the seniors in the Nine Provinces Number One Group make money? They were not isolated from the world, so they should need money in their daily lives, right? At the very least, they had to pay for electricity, internet access, and things like that.

As his thoughts wandered, Tubo texted him the address.

Apartment 602, Building 221D, Great Fortune District.

It was a neighborhood very close to the university town.

"Good location, and it's close to campus. Yangde found himself a nice place." Song Shuhang checked the map on his phone as he followed the address Tubo had sent him.

The Great Fortune District was an old residential neighborhood. Since there had been no planning when it was built, the houses came in all sorts of shapes and sizes, with narrow alleys crisscrossing between them. From a distance, it looked rather chaotic.

"I should be able to take a shortcut here and save quite a bit of time." With that thought, Song Shuhang ducked into an alley, weaving through the narrow lanes like a nimble fish.

These secluded alleys had always been gathering spots for the university's delinquents.

Speaking of delinquents, the ones who had been wiped out as a group two days earlier deserved a mention.

Those delinquents, who had been taken down in an instant and beaten beyond recognition, finally woke up after being unconscious for two days and two nights.

Afterward, members of the university's news department had been assigned to ask them how they had lost consciousness.

Strangely, however, no matter how hard the delinquents racked their brains, not one could recall what had happened. That part of the day was missing from their memories, and they did not even know why they were in the hospital. As far as they remembered, one moment they had been smoking and showing off in an alley, and the next they had woken up in the hospital. Every one of them was utterly bewildered.

The hospital could not determine the cause either. They could only chalk it up to collective amnesia and leave the matter at that.

The incident had already become one of Jiangnan University Town's new "unexplained mysteries."

Clearly, someone tampered with their memories, Song Shuhang thought.

If only one or two people had hazy memories, it could have been attributed to blows to the head. But eighty or ninety people all having hazy memories, all forgetting how they had been taken down that day? There was no such coincidence in the world.

Thanks to the incident, the delinquents who gathered in the deep alleys near the university town had become much more restrained lately. Those alleys had originally been their hangouts, and delinquents used to be everywhere in them. Over the past few days, their numbers had plummeted.

As a result, the neighborhood had become much safer.

There was a saying: speak of the devil, and screw him!

Oh, no, it was: speak of the devil, and he appears.

The word "delinquent" had barely crossed Song Shuhang's mind when a group of them appeared straight ahead, clustered together and smoking.

There were seven in all, each with long hair dyed in all sorts of colors. Ear studs, lip studs, nose rings—they had the lot. With cigarettes dangling from their mouths, all they lacked were the words "I'm a rebellious teenager. I'm a delinquent" carved into their foreheads.

Naturally, the seven delinquents were not targeting a tall, sturdy guy like Song Shuhang. Even delinquents rarely picked fights with students like him, who looked as though they could handle themselves.

At the moment, the delinquents were wearing lecherous grins as they surrounded a girl. One of them, about 172 centimeters tall, had cornered her against a wall with one hand braced beside her.

"Hey, beautiful, aren't you lonely here all by yourself? Want to have some fun with us?"

"It's free, you know. All kinds of fun."

"It'll feel really good."

"We'll all keep you company."

"There's a nice little place nearby. Not far at all. We guarantee you'll want more afterward."

They bombarded her with crude remarks and suggestive taunts.

Song Shuhang looked at the girl pinned against the wall.

She was around 150 centimeters tall, with short hair and a pretty face even without makeup. Her petite build made her look like a high school student, though she might actually have been a little older.

A girl both cute and pretty, alone in an alley—it would have been strange if she had not attracted these delinquents. That was why girls should not go alone to deserted places.

At that moment, the girl frowned, her disgust plainly visible.

Even that expression looked cute on her small face.

"Aw, you're cute even when you're angry. How about letting me give you some tender loving care?" The blond delinquent cornering her curled his lips into a domineering CEO-style smirk. Keeping one hand braced against the wall, he reached toward her face with the other.

Song Shuhang sighed. He really could not watch this any longer.

He flexed his fists and strode forward.

Having just been strengthened by the Body Tempering Liquid, Song Shuhang could not quite control his speed. He exerted just a little force, and shot forward with a whoosh.

The delinquents harassing the girl saw a blur. Then Song Shuhang, who had clearly been seven or eight meters behind them, suddenly appeared at their side.

Song Shuhang reached out, spreading his fingers, and clamped his broad hand around the back of the blond delinquent's head.

The blond delinquent was around 172 centimeters tall, and Song Shuhang was only a little taller.

"Hey... can't you tell she doesn't want to play with you?" Song Shuhang applied a little pressure and actually lifted the blond delinquent off the ground by his head.

Holy shit! Even Song Shuhang startled himself. He knew the Body Tempering Liquid had greatly increased his strength, but he had never imagined that lifting a person who weighed over fifty kilograms would be as easy as picking up a stick.