Chapter 21: Chapter 21

Hong Tao was slouched in the back row. He glanced at Zuo Tingyi who was sitting ramrod straight next to him, and said in amazement, “So, when did you start liking card shows?”

“Liking?” Zuo Tingyi shook his head, “I don’t like them.”

“But I see that you’re engrossed in it.” Hong Tao said with an odd look on his face.

With buttoned down front and sitting upright, Zuo Tingyi said indifferently, “You can’t only employ your skills to make your work look good, but if don’t have the skills to make your work look good, then your work will not be done well either, nine times out of ten.”

“What a sham!” Hong Tao yawned disdainfully. “In any case, I’m tired. I say, if you aren’t busy, you come to watch some card show, and if you like it then you buy one for yourself, and that’s that. You might just come here to join in the fun.”

“When we look at problems, we can’t just look at the surface. . . ”

Hong Tao interrupted him, and said impatiently, “Louder, say it a little louder!”

“I came for her.” Zuo Tingyi was very calm.

“Her? Which ‘her?'” Hong Tao looked like he didn’t understand.

Zuo Tingyi looked over toward the corner of the classroom, “Man Siying.”

Hong Tao had an expression as though he’d turned to stone. It was a whole half-minute before he came back to his wits, as though he had heard a piece of shocking news. “Man Siying? My heavens! Since when have you hooked up with her? I say, Tingyi, this just isn’t right, making me suffer in the dark, not even showing a hint. But then how could a stone man like you ever get it right . . .?”

Zuo Tingyi wasn’t paying attention to Hong Tao, but turned back to say, “I heard it said that ‘Allah’ Gong is interested in her.”

Hong Tao choked on that phrase, then after a long time, he slowly clipped off a question, “How did you know?”

Hong Tao suddenly realized that the way Zuo Tingyi was looking at him was as though he were looking at an idiot. Then he realized that his question really was was stupid. Zuo Tingyi was one of only two students in the school’s student disciplinary office – he had a lot of real authority in his hands, and news travels fast. Apart from the chief ringleader of the Taoist eight-trigrams society, Ceng Qiyi, he could probably be counted as having the sharpest ears in the entire school.

“What does that have to do with you?” Hong Tao was a little nonplussed looking at his good friend, sizing him up from top to bottom in a glance. “You’re looking, but it’s like you don’t see the person coming at you on the road with a knife.”

Sitting upright with proper collar, Zuo Ting Yi closed the book in his hand with a bang. The book, called An Overview of Card Theory, was as thick as a brick. Then he said with deadly severity, “According to what the school has recently decided, in order to welcome the exchange delegation from Star Academy when they arrive, any kind of inharmonious incident is forbidden from taking place on campus. Someone like me who is a key member of the disciplinary office, however unworthy, most certainly can’t sit on the sidelines as a spectator.”

Taking in Hong Tao’s stunned expression, Zuo Tingyi added on some more, “What’s important is that this school has given me a share of the responsibility.” His expression was a little impatient, though he quickly returned to normal, “In light of ‘Allah’ Gong’s recent activities, I’ve decided personally to monitor how things develop in his tracks.”

“It’s always been like this,” Hong Tao said dully, “why are you trying to pull me into this boring matter?”

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Zuo Tingyi shot Hong Tao a look, and then spat out two words, “hit man.”

The academic atmosphere at Eastern Wei Academy was open. Ordinarily, the school placed almost no restrictions on the students. Also, the students at the school were wealthy and respectable, and the school also didn’t wish to cause them offense. So, if there was a dispute between students, for the most part they opened one eye and closed the other, and in the end the students themselves sorted it out. The students were also unlikely to put the blame on the school. All of that could lead to some issues with public order within the school.

The reason Zuo Tingyi was able to enter the disciplinary office was partly because the teachers were very fond of him, but more directly because of his very powerful family background. The disciplinary office was basically where student offenses were taken, and since Zuo Tingyi was also a card master, the value of his power was incalculable.

But he was also a vicious person, and when he went home and personally asked for five top-notch card artisans from his old man, the extraordinary thing was that his mild-mannered father actually got completely behind the idea. Bringing along those five top-notch card artisans, Zuo Tingyi charged back again to the school to implement his grand rectification, and to put discipline back in shape with blood and steel. He struck hard against practically all the recalcitrant tough cases at that time. There was no lack of princelings among them, but what backed these princelings up wasn’t as tough as his family, and anyhow they wouldn’t be able to contend with the five card artisans under his command.

After a while, the behavioral atmosphere at Eastern Wei Academy made the school very happy, and the school administration thoroughly supported Zuo Tingyi.

And it was just while going through that fantastic tale that Zuo Tingyi established a notorious name for himself. From then on, those playboys saw that it wasn’t like a mouse seeing a cat anymore. And now that the teachers in the disciplinary office were rather afraid of Zuo Tingyi, he no longer needed to draw on the terrifying power of those five card artisans.

The other student in the disciplinary office was Ceng Xinyi, but she wasn’t at all interested in the work of the disciplinary office, but instead was completely caught up in the Taoist eight trigrams.

‘Allah’ Gong was the famous playboy of the school who left a trail of mischief behind him. But because of the grade-A wealth in his family, very few people could contend with him. And he had always been clever, so that in general, he didn’t run into the school’s barbed patches. The school had two sorts of people who couldn’t be touched; one sort was those whose backgrounds were as solid as his, and the other were those who had exceptional native strength, like Hong Tao.

‘Allah’ Gong especially took advantage of those without any particular family background; students who were comfortably well-off, like Man Siying. He was surrounded by a crowd of similarly well-off scions, not one of whom wasn’t the image of a playboy.

The school didn’t want any kind of negative news at that sensitive time. So Zuo Tingyi put his measures into action as soon as he got any news.

Coincidentally, Chen Mu and Copper were sitting behind him.

From the front of the classroom, there came the sound of a girl screaming, “What are you doing, you creep!”

That was followed by the sound of the crowds’ mocking laughter.

“Heya! Beautiful woman, don’t speak so recklessly. Creep? Am I creeping you out?”

A creepy glib slimy voice responded, and from all around him came cruel laughter that wouldn’t stop at anything. The one speaking was none other than ‘Allah’ Gong. ‘Allah Gong with a round head, fat face, and it looked like he’d gotten a fat belly, and short fat legs; overall looking like a person made of all different sized balls. His two little eyes looked so boorish.

“You . . . ” The girl’s angry face turned bright red, and she didn’t know what to say.

This episode disturbed the peace in the classroom, and quite a few students respectfully filed out.

Chen Mu was a little dumbfounded.

That voice . . .