Late at night.
Inside a luxurious villa in XN City.
Smack!
Zhang Nanguo slapped Qian Er hard across the face.
"Qian Er, do you know where you went wrong? You only brought Xu San back and left my son in Nan City! Qin Yi was the one who called and told me to go to Nan City to pick him up myself!"
Zhang Nanguo glared fiercely at Qian Er, then shifted his gaze to Zhang Fang lying on the bed. His brows were tightly knitted, and cold light flashed repeatedly in his eyes.
"His bones are displaced in multiple places, and his meridians are essentially severed. He'll never be able to practice martial arts again in this lifetime. The displaced bones can be put back into place, but with severed meridians, he's basically a cripple, worse off than an ordinary person."
The old man taking Zhang Fang's pulse raised his head and glanced at Zhang Nanguo.
"Third Uncle, I'll make a trip to the Medicine King Family and ask Chen Qian for a Mending Pill. As for Zhang Fang, sorry for the trouble, but I'll leave his external injuries in your care for now." Zhang Nanguo took a deep breath and answered the old man, then turned to Qian Er. "Now, you and your junior brother get the hell back to the Eagle Claw Sect! Tell Xu Hongfei that however badly my son suffered, that Chen Zheng has to suffer just as badly! Understood?"
"Yes... Master Zhang... I understand... I understand..."
Qian Er nodded tremblingly.
"Chen Zheng... his surname is Chen..." The old man addressed as Third Uncle suddenly frowned. After a moment's thought, he looked at Zhang Nanguo. "This Chen Zheng... Qian Er said he crippled Xu San with a single kick. His martial arts are far from ordinary. Could he have some connection to the Medicine King Family?"
"Chen Qian only has one daughter. That's long been common knowledge. We've already investigated that Chen Zheng thoroughly. He's a Nan City native and has nothing to do with the Medicine King Family!" Zhang Nanguo raised his brows, then his face twisted into an utterly savage expression. "Even if Chen Zheng is connected to the Medicine King Family, I'll cripple him even if it costs me my life!"
"Let's hope this Chen Zheng has no connection to the Medicine King Family. Though they aren't the foremost family in the ancient martial arts world, their network of connections runs too deep, and their foundations are too strong. Our Zhang Family truly can't afford to provoke a colossus like that."
The old man sighed.
Nan City.
Chen Zhi and Jiang Rou had returned to Nan University and arranged to meet Chen Zheng.
The location was the same as always: the South Wind Coffee House outside the Nan University campus.
"Chen Zheng, I was browsing the Nan University forum recently and saw someone post that you'd hooked up with a sexy new foreign teacher. Catherine, I think her name was. I wonder if it's true."
Jiang Rou fixed her bright eyes on Chen Zheng and suddenly brought it up.
"Ms. Catherine's background is a little unusual."
Su Cheng, sitting to Chen Zheng's left, spoke.
"Hooking up with a sexy foreign teacher isn't all Chen Zheng's been doing. Didn't you know? He's been filming lately, too. He filmed not just a kissing scene but a bed scene with that pretty actress Yanran. He's having the time of his life!"
An Jing, sitting to Chen Zheng's right, spoke up as well.
"Filming?"
Jiang Rou blinked at that, somewhat confused.
"Yanran?" Hearing that name, Chen Zhi suddenly recalled a few things. With a slight frown, she looked at Chen Zheng. "Brother, that Yanran seems to belong to the Red Dust Pavilion. The women of the Red Dust Pavilion... supposedly choose a man during their lifetime to temper their hearts... Anyway, the women of the Red Dust Pavilion aren't very good. Brother, you'd better not get too close to that Yanran."
"The Red Dust Pavilion? No wonder I felt there was far more to Yanran than met the eye when I first saw her. So she's from that sect. Isn't bewitching men what that sect does best? Chen Zheng, watch out, or that woman might suck all your cultivation dry!"
At that, An Jing gave Chen Zheng a meaningful look.
"The Red Dust Pavilion... a hidden sect. To think Yanran is actually one of their members. No wonder she's so beautiful."
Surprise flashed in Su Cheng's eyes when she heard Chen Zhi reveal Yanran's origins.
In China's ancient martial arts world, besides the familiar ancient martial arts sects and factions, there were also hidden sects. One thing universally acknowledged about those hidden sects was that they were mysterious and powerful.
The Red Dust Pavilion was one of them. The impression it gave people was that it only accepted female successors, and every generation's successor was an exceptional beauty. They supposedly even possessed miraculous arts for preserving their looks, keeping their skin as soft as a young girl's even past fifty.
In short, it was very mysterious.
"Say something."
Seeing that Chen Zheng merely smiled faintly without saying a word, An Jing poked his arm.
"Someone's brought a cartload of roses outside. There should be nine hundred and ninety-nine of them. Which of you two is he courting?"
Chen Zheng glanced out the window and asked Chen Zhi and Jiang Rou.
Only two or three tables were occupied in the South Wind Coffee House at the moment. Apart from his table, the others some distance away were mostly couples, and their looks were far too ordinary, so the cartload of roses outside was probably from someone courting Jiang Rou or Chen Zhi.
"Definitely not me!"
Chen Zhi immediately shook her head.
The other women's gazes promptly focused on Jiang Rou's face.
"Then it's probably me. I went to XN City with Chen Zhi this time and caught the eye of a narcissist. I didn't expect him to follow me all the way to Nan City." Jiang Rou looked out the window and saw a fellow outside waving to her. She couldn't help shaking her head, then stood and offered Chen Zheng her hand. Blinking, she said, "Chen Zheng, you don't mind being my boyfriend for a few minutes, do you? There are perks."
"Sure."
Chen Zheng nodded.
"Hmph! That trick again!"
An Jing was a little annoyed.
Hearing that, Su Cheng inwardly shook her head. She recalled that An Jing had used the very same trick last time, so even if anyone had grounds to complain, it hardly seemed that Sister An should be the one complaining.
"Let the perks begin!"
Jiang Rou hugged Chen Zheng's arm, pressing her whole body against him. She even deliberately rose slightly onto her toes and whispered in his ear, then planted a kiss right on his cheek!
She deliberately glanced at An Jing before pulling Chen Zheng outside.
"What's a kiss on the cheek worth? French kiss him if you've got the guts!"
An Jing smiled disdainfully.
And in the very next second, at the entrance to the South Wind Coffee House.
"Jiang..."
Just as the young master pursuing Jiang Rou greeted her with complete confidence, roses in his hands, and prepared to make a grand presentation of over nine hundred and ninety roses, he was utterly dumbfounded!
The onlookers let out screams!
A French kiss!
Jiang Rou pulled Chen Zheng outside and, without a word, went straight into a French kiss with him!
The onlookers had been ready to watch the young master woo a beauty with nine hundred and ninety roses. They hadn't expected the scene to turn so quickly. That beauty seemed completely uninterested in his nine hundred and ninety roses and had simply brought a man outside to perform a French-kissing scene!
"Jiang Rou! What are you doing!"
The young master holding the roses trembled all over and suddenly roared in fury!
At that moment, he felt humiliated, humiliated by a woman!
"Nothing. What's wrong with kissing my boyfriend? Bai Ye, please stop pestering me, all right? He's the only man I'll ever love!"
Jiang Rou's pretty face was flushed. She gave the young master a cold look, then, driven by that wondrous sensation inside her, kissed Chen Zheng again in front of everyone!
"Shit! Are young girls this direct nowadays?!"
Inside the coffee house, An Jing couldn't help swearing at the sight. At that moment, she began doubting herself, wondering whether the step-by-step plan she'd devised to win Chen Zheng over was a little too drawn-out, whether its timeline was a little too long.
It seemed... it seemed it wasn't even as effective as this young girl Jiang Rou's approach of kissing him in the middle of talking!