Chapter 473 — The Breakup Fee

"I ran them over and killed them." Wei Zhao explained it mildly, as if it were nothing at all.

"How can you just kill people like that?" As a police officer, Qiu Lingshan naturally found Wei Zhao's methods hard to stomach.

"They had guns on them. Was I supposed to sit and wait for them to shoot me dead instead of running them down?" Wei Zhao rolled his eyes. "The reason I left this to you was so you could handle it."

Qiu Lingshan nodded. Wei Zhao had a point — and besides, he had at least left her one alive to question, which pleased her no end.

She quickly took statements from Xiaofen, the beggar, and the cripple, then put them into the police car to be sent home in a while. Xiaofen, however, would be going with Wei Zhao.

The back seat of the Audi TT was cramped, but Kang Xiaobo and Xiaofen would simply have to squeeze in together back there.

Qiu Lingshan was left behind to clean up the scene, while Wei Zhao drove off in triumph.

On the way back, since there was nothing urgent, Wei Zhao eased off the accelerator — which rather displeased Feng Xiaoxiao. "Wei Zhao, why are you driving so slowly?"

"If you think it's slow, you drive," Wei Zhao said flatly.

"Then — then you'd better keep driving!" Feng Xiaoxiao was rather piqued. She had wanted another display of his flying-car driving, but that was clearly not going to happen.

Back in the classroom, Tang Yun mulled over the morning's events. At first she had told herself it was all a lie — yet the more she thought, the more uneasy and worried she became. Was Feng Xiaoxiao really involved with Wei Zhao?

The thought that Feng Xiaoxiao had suddenly transferred into No. 1 High School and planted herself right beside Wei Zhao irritated Tang Yun. If Feng Xiaoxiao had nothing to do with Wei Zhao, why should she cling to him every single day?

And knowing perfectly well that Wei Zhao's girlfriend was Tang Yun herself, she had still dared to say such things to him right in front of her — could everything she had said that morning really be true?

Otherwise, why would a girl drag her own good name through the mud, claiming she had already been with Wei Zhao, that she might be pregnant, and that he needed to take her to the hospital for a checkup?

Tang Yun reasoned that even if she herself and Wei Zhao had that kind of relationship, she would never broadcast it for all the world to know. Unless — unless she were threatened by something outside, desperate to announce her relationship with Wei Zhao, and forced to throw all caution to the wind. In that case, was this Feng Xiaoxiao's situation? If not for her relationship with Wei Zhao, she probably wouldn't have said those things, would she? And if she could say them with no regard at all for her own reputation, didn't that mean she really had done those things with Wei Zhao?

Tang Yun's head was filled with the scene from that morning. Though she was unwilling to believe Wei Zhao would shift his affections, Feng Xiaoxiao's words hinted that it was no shifting of affections at all — rather, he had been with Feng Xiaoxiao first, and only afterwards with her!

Otherwise, Tang Yun could not believe that Feng Xiaoxiao, having transferred in only days ago, could have fallen in love with Wei Zhao and gone that far with him. The only possibility was that Wei Zhao and Feng Xiaoxiao had known each other long before. And when she recalled how, upon being asked about his relationship with Feng Xiaoxiao, Wei Zhao had only vaguely said that she had once seen him drive and wanted to learn from him, her brow knit even tighter.

Learning to drive — just to learn to drive, she had gone to such lengths to transfer schools and land in Wei Zhao's class?

Tang Yun took out her phone and checked it: no missed calls, no text messages. Wei Zhao — why hadn't he come to explain himself?

In a haze of confusion she endured until the end of first period, and still there was no call from Wei Zhao, no message from Wei Zhao. She waited a long while in the classroom, and Wei Zhao never came to find her.

When they had parted that morning, Tang Yun had made Wei Zhao promise to come and explain things after first period. But the class bell rang, and Wei Zhao's figure never appeared.

Tang Yun's mind went blank with a boom. Could that scene from the morning be real? She began to regret it — had she known, she should have swallowed her pride that morning and kept listening to what Feng Xiaoxiao had to say.

But at the time she simply could not let go of her pride, and had walked off first. In second period, when the teacher called on her, she did not even react. She had no idea how she got through it either. When class ended, Tang Yun could hold back no longer.

How could Wei Zhao do this? Even if he was involved with Feng Xiaoxiao, he owed her an explanation. To not even say a word — what did he take her for?

Furious, Tang Yun summoned up her courage and went to the door of Wei Zhao's classroom. She pulled aside a fellow student and asked him to call Wei Zhao out for her. She wanted to ask him to his face just what he meant by this.

Almost the entire school knew about Wei Zhao and Tang Yun, so no one found it strange that she had come looking for him. The student glanced into the classroom, then told Tang Yun, "Wei Zhao isn't in."

"Oh?" Tang Yun was slightly taken aback. Without quite knowing why, she asked again, "Is Feng Xiaoxiao in?"

The student looked again, then shook his head at Tang Yun. "Feng Xiaoxiao isn't in either."

"Oh — thank you." A sting rose at the corner of Tang Yun's eyes, and she felt wronged enough to cry. Wei Zhao was not there, and Feng Xiaoxiao was not there either — how was it that the two of them happened to be absent at the very same time?

Had they really gone out together? At the thought, Tang Yun stumbled, nearly falling to the floor. She hurriedly caught hold of the corridor wall and steadied herself.

Having seen neither Wei Zhao nor Feng Xiaoxiao, Tang Yun — who had not quite believed there was anything between them — now had no choice but to grow all the more suspicious.

She thought of what Feng Xiaoxiao had said to her that morning, so solemn and earnest: "Didn't Wei Zhao give you a breakup fee? Wei Zhao and I have known each other for ages. I originally took pity on you and thought I'd let you be the mistress and share Wei Zhao with me, but since you don't know how to take a hint, I'll simply have to tell Wei Zhao to say goodbye to you!"

A wave of grievance washed over Tang Yun — wait. A breakup fee? It suddenly came back to her: that very morning, Wei Zhao seemed to have given her mother something. Could that be the so-called breakup fee Feng Xiaoxiao had spoken of?

At the possibility, Tang Yun dialed her mother's number outright, drew a deep breath, and asked, pretending to be calm, "Mom, where are you?"

"I'm at the bank —" Her mother blurted it out, rather excited. She was beside herself with joy; just before Tang Yun called, she had checked the bank card Wei Zhao had given her that morning, and there was actually half a million on it!

(To be continued) RA

Fastest updates — read with no pop-ups.