"Oh, you actually got your hands on a Chimchar. You didn't steal it from somewhere, did you?"
Young Master Zhang Qiang's three lackeys looked at the pair with disdain, not taking Ye Qing or Wang Yao seriously at all.
"Ye Qing, hurry! Save us!"
By then, Wang Shuang, the class sports representative, had recovered enough to kneel on the ground and beg, tears and snot streaming down his face.
Ye Qing weighed both sides' fighting strength and had no choice but to change tactics.
"I'm warning you, we recorded everything! Young Master Zhang Qiang, if you don't want this blowing up, you'd better leave right now!"
Wang Yao's heart jolted at Ye Qing's confident declaration. But things had already reached this point, so he could only take out his powered-off phone to bluff them. They were too far away to see clearly anyway.
The trick worked. Young Master Zhang Qiang sneered, then angrily spat out a threat. "Fine, Ye Qing. You've got guts! Let's go."
With that, Young Master Zhang Qiang led his three lackeys toward the other end of the alley, making sure to kick Wang Shuang as he passed.
Once Young Master Zhang Qiang had left, Wang Shuang helped his girlfriend up and said hurriedly, "Thanks for today, both of you. I'll take her to the hospital first."
"Let's go."
Ye Qing patted Wang Yao's shoulder. He had no fondness for Wang Shuang, who had mocked him plenty of times. If they hadn't been bullying a woman, he wouldn't have bothered getting involved.
"You recorded everything, right?"
After leaving the alley, Ye Qing glanced at Wang Yao uneasily.
"My phone was off..."
Wang Yao spread his hands and gave Ye Qing an innocent look.
"For fuck's sake!"
A vein bulged on Ye Qing's forehead. He really wanted to give Wang Yao a hard flick on the head.
"Then you should've told me beforehand, man!"
"Woo-ah!"
Chimchar joined in, planting both hands on its hips and glaring at Wang Yao.
Wang Yao spread his hands innocently. "You can't blame me! I was in such a hurry to pick you up last night that I forgot to charge my phone."
"Forget it, forget it. Young Master Zhang Qiang was in the wrong here. Besides, he doesn't know we have no evidence, so he probably won't dare do anything for now.
"Let's wait until Wang Shuang and his girlfriend get back from the hospital, then ask what exactly happened."
Young Master Zhang Qiang and his lackeys emerged from the other end of the alley. A burly lackey behind him asked worriedly, "Young Master Zhang, are we going to be in trouble?"
Young Master Zhang Qiang frowned slightly. "Strategist, what do you think?"
The one called Strategist was rather scrawny and wore thick glasses.
He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and said expressionlessly, "Ordering a Pokémon to attack someone is indeed illegal. I warned you back then, but none of you listened.
"I think there's a good chance Ye Qing and his friend recorded us. We can take a two-pronged approach. First, send someone to give Wang Shuang and his girlfriend some money to placate them, then threaten them a little. With both the carrot and the stick, we should be fine."
After finishing, Strategist thought for a moment and added, "Young Master Zhang, see if you can get those two transferred to our class. That would give us some extra insurance."
Young Master Zhang Qiang frowned and considered it for a while, then clenched his fist. "Let's do that for now. That bastard Ye Qing actually dared to stick his nose into my business! Since you're getting in the way of my money, don't blame me for what happens next."
Ye Qing and Wang Yao walked into the academy side by side and borrowed a power bank from the shop. There were only a few people on the sports field at that point, each pulling a suitcase. No one else had come empty-handed like Wang Yao and Ye Qing.
Wang Yao nudged Ye Qing's shoulder and said quietly, "Did you hear? We're moving into the new campus on Back Mountain today. There'll be an exam this morning, and they'll assign our dorms based on the results."
Ye Qing frowned slightly. "Why make it so complicated? Aren't all the dorms the same? What's there to assign?"
Wang Yao rolled his eyes at him. "There's a huge difference! Our school has always emphasized survival of the fittest and a sense of collective honor. Of course talented people get extra resources."
Ye Qing's interest was piqued. "Then tell me what's different about these dorms."
Wang Yao straightened his collar. "There are six classes in our year. Since the dorms have limited space and facilities, they're divided into six areas too.
"The rooms in the first area have the best facilities and the most space. I heard they even have separate Pokémon training rooms. The sixth area, on the other hand, is miserable. Not only are there no Pokémon training rooms, you even have to share a room!"
Ye Qing rubbed his chin. If Wang Yao hadn't told him, he really wouldn't have known any of this.
Wang Yao grinned smugly. "Well? Your buddy's got all the details covered, right? Still, our class has no hope of coming first. With deadweight teammates like us dragging everyone down, we'd be lucky to grab third."
Ye Qing clapped Wang Yao on the chest and said in displeasure, "What are you talking about? My knowledge is on a whole different level now, you know?"
Wang Yao burst out laughing. "Oh, stop bragging. You think I don't know you? You happened to guess a few answers right last time, and now you're on a whole different level?"
Ye Qing rolled his eyes and couldn't be bothered to explain. After a while, more and more people gathered on the sports field.
After another half hour or so, almost everyone in their year had arrived. They formed six groups on the sports field and quietly waited for the assembly to begin.
Ye Qing looked around. The other classes' homeroom teachers had all arrived, but their own Old Liu was still nowhere to be seen.
"Where's our homeroom teacher? Why haven't we seen him?"
Wang Yao scratched his head. "Not sure, but I heard Old Liu's been sick lately."
"Bzz~"
Wang Yao's phone vibrated. He took it out and saw that the message was from Wang Shuang, the class sports representative.
Wang Shuang: "Thanks for today. We've decided not to pursue the matter."
"Ye Qing, take a look. If he's going to do this, didn't we help them for nothing?"
Wang Yao was a little stunned after reading it and hurriedly showed the phone to Ye Qing beside him.
Ye Qing also frowned slightly after reading it. "Forget it. They owed Young Master Zhang Qiang money to begin with. And since we pretended to have a recording, he was bound to take precautions. Wang Shuang may have screwed us over, but it's understandable."
Wang Yao sighed. "Then what do we do? Haven't we made an enemy for nothing?"
Ye Qing's brows shot up. "What's there to be afraid of? If I don't even dare stand up for what's right over something like this, what business do I have being a Pokémon Trainer?"
"Ye Qing, Wang Yao, what are you two talking about?"
Ye Qing had spoken a little too loudly, and Huo Mengyao, their class beauty, happened to hear him from nearby.
"Nothing, nothing..." Wang Yao hurriedly waved his hands.
"Well said!"
Just then, the clicking of high heels rang out. Ye Qing turned and saw a beautiful woman in her twenties with large, permed waves standing in front of their class.
The woman gave Ye Qing an approving look, then clapped her hands to get the whole class's attention and announced loudly, "Teacher Liu is unwell, so I'll be filling in as your homeroom teacher for now. My name is Zhao Xinran."
Before you continue