Make a Deal

Cheng Xiaoyu felt his scalp go numb.

His mech had still been covered in armor at the time. How had Fu Junlin possibly seen through it?

Just as Cheng Xiaoyu was racking his brains without finding an answer,

several students practically carried Teacher Sun inside.

Teacher Sun had been helplessly "kidnapped" by them, and Cheng Xiaoyu hurried forward to plead for help.

"Teacher, you have to save me!"

Teacher Sun needed no explanation. At a glance, he spotted the crooked, misshapen mech.

His eyes immediately went wide, and he quickly stepped forward to inspect it.

"This is clearly a problem with your lumbar power structure system."

Teacher Sun frowned as he analyzed it for a while before reaching his conclusion.

"How do I fix it?" Cheng Xiaoyu asked urgently.

"It can't be fixed right now. You need to make a new balancer, and that'll take at least several hours, maybe over ten."

Teacher Sun reached inside the mech and felt around before shaking his head helplessly.

Cheng Xiaoyu was completely dumbfounded.

If that was the case, there was no need to fight the next two rounds. He had lost.

His old mech had already been dismantled into pieces, and all its impressive hardware had been incorporated into this one. Otherwise, where would the 2.4 Superalloy have come from?

"There's really no other way?" Cheng Xiaoyu asked in disbelief.

Teacher Sun looked at the mech and shook his head.

"Come on, you little brats, think of something yourselves. I still have friends over there, so I need to get back."

Teacher Sun waved his hand and scolded the people who had dragged him here. After all, he had no idea Cheng Xiaoyu had made a hundred-thousand-yuan bet with someone.

He thought it was merely ordinary rivalry between students. Wasn't that commonplace? Winning or losing should not have mattered much.

After scolding them, Teacher Sun ignored the frozen Cheng Xiaoyu and hurried off.

He had been chatting with his friends when these rude little punks had dragged him out. That was no way to treat a guest.

"How about asking Fu Junlin?"

A timid voice spoke up.

"Why ask him? That attention-seeking guy—his bad luck mouth was the one that cursed the mech into breaking!"

"That's right. If it weren't for his filthy mouth back then, how could we have been this unlucky? Maybe he was the one who damaged it!"

Someone had already begun sourly slinging mud.

They did not want Cheng Xiaoyu to think Fu Junlin had been right.

Besides, even Teacher Sun had no solution. How could Fu Junlin possibly have seen it back then? He must have just stumbled onto the right answer by blind luck.

Yet those words deeply moved Cheng Xiaoyu.

Right, Fu Junlin. He had spotted the mech's problem at a glance back then, so perhaps he had a solution.

More importantly, Cheng Xiaoyu had no other option now.

"Who has Fu Junlin's contact information?"

Recovering from his daze, Cheng Xiaoyu turned and asked the people around him blankly.

Everyone around him immediately shook their heads.

Then inspiration struck Cheng Xiaoyu. He abruptly pulled out his phone and dialed a number.

"Hello! Is this Sister Xiaoli? Yes, it's me. Help me look up the phone number of a member named Fu Junlin!"

He finally remembered that when he had gone upstairs that day, he seemed to have seen Fu Junlin together with Qiao Zishu. They were members of his family's gym.

Sure enough, the front desk quickly found a number and sent it to him.

Cheng Xiaoyu called it, and Fu Junlin's heavy, panting voice came from the other end.

"Hello! Huff... huff..."

"Uh... Brother Fu, if you're not free right now, I can call back later."

Cheng Xiaoyu had not expected to call at such a bad time, yet he was reluctant to hang up. He was in a hurry, after all. Five minutes had already passed, and the second round would begin in another ten.

"Who is this?" Fu Junlin asked after controlling his breathing.

"I'm Cheng Xiaoyu! Do you remember me? Two days ago, you said there was something wrong with my mech during Teacher Sun's mech specialization class!"

Cheng Xiaoyu spoke excitedly.

"Ah, I know. Young Master Cheng, right? I'm working out at your family's gym."

Fu Junlin wiped away his sweat as he panted.

"Oh, so you're working out."

Cheng Xiaoyu let out a huge sigh of relief. Mainly because his family's gym was in this very building, and the elevator ride up would be quick.

"Yeah, what did you think I was doing?" Fu Junlin asked in confusion.

"Haha, haha, I thought you were working out too."

Cheng Xiaoyu laughed awkwardly a few times, then hurriedly got to the point.

"Brother Fu, you said two days ago that there was something wrong with my mech. I regret not listening to you. Sure enough, something has gone wrong now. I failed to recognize your greatness back then. Could I ask you to lend a hand..."

He awkwardly trailed off.

After all, neither he nor the people around him had reacted well back then. They had avoided Fu Junlin as if he were a plague god and had even spoken rudely to him.

Yet now, he was asking him for help.

"Has the mech's lumbar power mechanism collapsed?" Fu Junlin asked directly.

"Yes!!" Cheng Xiaoyu hurriedly replied. Sure enough, Fu Junlin absolutely had not been guessing as everyone claimed.

He definitely knew exactly what was going on, perhaps even more clearly than Teacher Sun. Without even seeing it over the phone, Fu Junlin had already diagnosed it.

"Young Master Cheng, I'll be straightforward. I don't want to become one of your many bootlicking followers, so I want to make a deal with you."

Fu Junlin seemed to have expected this and got straight to the point.

"Go ahead!"

Cheng Xiaoyu's heart stirred. He felt conflicted, yet also somewhat relieved.

He was conflicted because he did not know what conditions Fu Junlin would demand. If they were too excessive, it would be difficult.

What pleased him was Fu Junlin's way of speaking. Most of the time, Cheng Xiaoyu actually hated having so many bootlickers following him around.

Instead, he appreciated Fu Junlin's desire for a fair deal. Even if Fu Junlin had planned it all along, Cheng Xiaoyu would accept it. After all, he was the one who had not listened to Fu Junlin's warning!

"Your family's gym has a Gravity Room. I'd like to use it. Of course, if it's inconvenient, I can go when the gym is less crowded."

Fu Junlin added that last sentence so it would not be too difficult for Cheng Xiaoyu.

"That's all?"

Cheng Xiaoyu was stunned.

No money, no gym membership card or anything like that—he just wanted to use the Gravity Room?

"Yeah, that's all," Fu Junlin replied.

"No problem. You can use my Black Card from now on. You don't need to care whether it's crowded or not. My card is your card!"

Cheng Xiaoyu declared with a grand wave of his hand.

The Black Card was the highest-tier card accepted at every branch of their gym. As long as it was a gym facility, it could be used regardless of level—the Gravity Room, sauna, swimming pool, space bike, and everything else could all be accessed with one card.

"It's a deal!"

Afraid that Cheng Xiaoyu might go back on his word, Fu Junlin immediately held him to it.

"Don't worry!"

"Good. Wait for me."

After saying that, Fu Junlin directly hung up.