When Tang San woke up, the back of his head still felt faintly numb, as though someone had rapped his skull with their knuckles like a club.
He opened his eyes to a canopy of dark green leaves.
Bracing himself against the ground, he sat up and looked around.
Everyone from Shrek Academy was still in the woods.
His eyelid twitched twice, and the thought in his mind sank heavier and heavier.
He silently cursed.
Shit.
An hour later, footsteps sounded from deep within the woods.
Two figures emerged from the shadows of the trees, walking side by side at an unhurried pace.
Yu Xiaogang and Liu Erlong held hands, their fingers interlaced. A smile Tang San had never seen before hung on Yu Xiaogang's lips.
They had gotten back together.
Tang San stared at their clasped hands, his jaw clenched.
He cursed inwardly.
"I can't believe I failed to stop them."
"Flender dragged me away like a dead dog. I'm fucking furious."
"Flender is the biggest lovesick fucking idiot of them all."
"He clearly loves Liu Erlong too, yet he still chose to help her get what she wanted."
"If you love her, help her get the man she loves, huh? Well, aren't you something."
Flender adjusted his glasses. He heard every word of Tang San's inner tirade and chuckled to himself.
He silently thought,
"Erlong and Xiaogang are the ones who truly love each other."
"Marry her just because I love her? I have neither power nor influence. Would I make her suffer with me in some run-down village out in the wilderness? Wouldn't that just hurt her?"
"I'm already content just to have Erlong call me Boss Fu."
He stepped forward to meet them.
"Good, good. My efforts weren't wasted."
Yu Xiaogang walked up to Flender and