Chapter 129: The Teenager x Bullying x Studying Crazy (6)

Chapter 129: The Teenager x Bullying x Studying Crazy (6)

The Rolls-Royce did not speed away.

According to Keding's original plan, this would have been the moment to step on the gas and make a clean getaway, leaving those thugs fuming on the spot.

After locking the doors, he cracked the window open slightly, watching as the few of them looked like they were about to lose it.

As if afraid things weren’t chaotic enough, he opened the window even more, revealing the dark lens of a digital camera.

"Say, 'Cheese—'"

"Cheese your mom!" Zhang Tongquan cursed. "You poor bastard, where did you sell your ass to afford a ride like this?"

"Oh, by the way," the teenager said, covering his mouth as if just realizing something. "With your intelligence, you can't even handle middle school exams. In the future, you'll end up working at an electronics factory and won't even qualify as technicians. What a shame."

Dong Yuan lost it, raising his knife and charging forward. "I'm going to kill you—"

The Rolls-Royce sped off smoothly, leaving them in the dust.

Even though he couldn't catch up, Dong Yuan chased after the car for a few steps, still hurling insults.

"Think you're all that because you got a car? I'll blow you and your fancy car to bits!"

At that moment, he looked like a clown, and to make matters worse, he was doing it in front of his gang.

Humiliated and embarrassed, it was far from the majestic display he had imagined.

Zhang Tongquan, two years older than him, weighed the baseball bat in his hand and asked, "His family is just poor vegetable sellers. How could he possibly ride in such a nice car?"

The other lackeys were scared and voiced what they had seen.

"Dong Ge, his car—there was no one in the driver's seat."

"No one?" Dong Yuan turned and shouted back. "Are you tricking a ghost? If there's no driver, how did he drive? By remote control, idiot?"

Having barely completed any of their nine-year compulsory education, they couldn’t wrap their heads around self-driving cars and figured it must be some kind of ghost thing.

The younger thugs, who had been brought along for support, were getting scared and thinking about backing out.

"Dong Ge, what if he has some sort of magic power? He can mess with your bones and drive a ghost car..."

"Ghost your whole family! Shut up!" Dong Yuan barked. "Let's go, back to the base and find Boss Dao!"

The younger ones were reluctant, and the older ones were smoking and watching the spectacle, but they all followed him.

Dong Yuan's parents ran a brick and tile business. Over the years, with construction happening all over the province, the family had accumulated several properties.

The couple doted on their child, leaving him in the care of his grandmother in their hometown, and gave him ample pocket money, bordering on spoiling him.

Instead of buying video games, comics, or magazines, he spent all that money on other thugs.

To move up the ranks, he had to schmooze with the higher-ups, buying them cigarettes and drinks. To maintain his influence with the underlings, he had to keep them loyal.

Dong Yuan had always been pretty cocky. Even after losing face three times in a row, he still harbored some hope for a comeback.

As he headed back to the Jiuhai Gang’s base, Dong Yuan lit a cigarette, his face dark with anger, already thinking about how to spin things for the boss.

Tang Zhi, this is all your own doing.

At first, he thought Tang Zhi looked effeminate and wanted to grope him for a bit of fun, not that he had any real malice.

But this dumb bastard acted like some chaste and virtuous woman, going as far as to report to the disciplinary director and even calling a car to pick him up.

—Tang Zhi, you refused the olive branch, and now you’ll pay the price. Don’t come crying to me for mercy later.

What was called a base was actually a dive bar with a pool table.

The second floor was also an internet café run by Boss Dao, where they ran private servers for online games and made a lot of money every day.

Minors who had nothing better to do loved coming here to surf the internet. No ID was required, and there were even discounts. When city management officers came to inspect, someone would warn them, and they could escape through the back door, avoiding capture.

The unofficial base included a private gathering place on the basement floor.

Downstairs was also a pool hall, but most people preferred to drink, sing, and grope girls there.

At first, Dong Yuan wasn’t qualified to go downstairs, but after giving Boss Dao several cartons of cigarettes, he was finally acknowledged with a pat on the shoulder.

The underlings weren’t allowed to get tattoos; only the ten or so core members could receive the boss’s mark of honor and tattoo the tiger head and honor mark on their upper arm.

Dong Yuan had always been thinking of doing something fierce enough to use as a token of loyalty, to prove how ruthless he could be.

He had no desire to attend some lousy high school.

When the group of ten or so returned to the base, Boss Dao was playing mahjong in the basement and had just won several rounds, putting him in a good mood.

Before Dong Yuan could even speak, a quick-thinking lackey went over to report the incident with Tang Zhi and embellished the story, appearing very indignant.

When the earlier conflict was mentioned, Boss Dao didn’t react much until the underling brought up the silver-blue car.

“Car? What brand?”

“I’ve never seen it before, but it’s flashy, it can glow, and the body is as shiny as a mirror.”

Boss Dao impatiently pushed the underling aside and asked someone older, “What car?”

“I’ve really never seen it before,” said a seventeen or eighteen-year-old thug truthfully. “I haven’t seen anything like it in the provincial capital.”

“Silver-blue and can be remotely controlled? Were you all dreaming?” Boss Dao spat his cigarette on the ground impatiently. “Stop making up nonsense to fool me.”

“It’s real,” said the dealer, throwing a seven tile and smiling. “Bai Meng Nightclub, where Lan Yinghua works. You remember her, right?”

Boss Dao sneered, “She acts like she’s too good for anyone, and she won’t let me touch even a finger, but she’s just a whore.”

“Her mother is a high-ranking official in the province. Her background is really strong,” said the dealer. “I heard she got a luxury car from Shanghai or somewhere, also blue, and the inside is as beautiful as the galaxy. Ordinary people can’t even rent it no matter how much they pay. A lot of big shots have been sending her gifts lately.”

“A woman, a high-ranking official? In the province?” Boss Dao licked his lips suggestively with his tongue. “Can a woman really hold such a high office?”

The men all exchanged knowing looks and laughed heartily.

No matter how arrogant Dong Yuan was at school, around these older guys, he acted like a sycophantic lackey.

“Boss Dao, could it be that Tang Zhi has connections with Sister Lan, which is why he’s so arrogant?”

“That Lan woman is something else. A bunch of tough guys aren’t good enough for her, and she goes for such a small chick?”

The crowd laughed again, but no one paid attention to Dong Yuan, nor did they care about his repeated humiliations.

The latter gritted his teeth and signaled his close friends to help serve tea to these gentlemen, while he ran to Master Dao's shop to buy several packs of cigarettes, offering them to him with a smile.

"Look at this kid, always bringing gifts." Master Dao smiled happily as he noticed the markings from his own shop.

"We got a bingo! Let's play two more hands before we hit the night market!"

"I'll treat! I'll treat!" Dong Yuan hurriedly agreed, using his pubescent raspy voice to say, "Brother, I still need your guidance on how to handle this."

"Alright, it's not a big deal," Master Dao said lazily, "He's just a kid from a vegetable seller's family. If you can't catch him on the street, he'll eventually come home, right?"

He casually called over two henchmen to follow Dong Yuan.

"Don't play too harshly, know when to stop."

As soon as Dong Yuan realized he could command two burly adults, he was so excited he wished he could jump up on the spot, repeatedly thanking them.

"No worries, my uncle works at the station. If anything goes down, I can smooth it out!"

"Wow, you’ve got quite the connections, huh?" Master Dao joked, patting him on the shoulder. "I'll look for you when something comes up in the future."

Dong Yuan felt like he had just been given a royal decree, swelling with pride.

Students don’t have class on weekends, but the vegetable sellers still have to work.

Dong Yuan timed it perfectly, watching Tang Zhi come out to buy breakfast before signaling for his group to follow.

He had brought four adults today, two of them experienced henchmen rumored to have wolf head tattoos on their biceps.

As Tang Zhi reached the entrance of the old apartment building, a sinister voice called out from behind.

"Young master, the kid with the luxury car is having soy milk and fried dough sticks for breakfast?"

The teenager turned back in alarm, seeing Dong Yuan and his group surrounding him.

"What do you want?!"

"What do we want?" Dong Yuan whistled meaningfully. "We're here to settle the score with you."

"Don't come closer—" Tang Zhi said, trembling. "I've said it before, it has nothing to do with me, it never did!"

"You’re acting like a scared little rabbit," the system said.

"I can’t cry, so give me some red eyes or something," Ke Ding said with irritation.

Tang Zhi's nose tingled, and his eyes immediately turned red.

"I didn’t provoke any of you, why did you bring all these people?!"

Dong Yuan said with a smile, "You want to call for help? Go ahead, we dare to clash, we're not afraid."

"Even if you call everyone from the bar district, I've got plenty of people here!"

Seeing the situation was bad, Tang Zhi immediately bolted.

"After him!" Dong Yuan shouted. "Let's teach him a lesson today!"

"Daring to offend us, he's asking for death!"

Tang Zhi ran in a panic, leaving the door half-open, as the group of young thugs caught up, grabbing onto the handle of his security door without letting go.

"Let go!" Tang Zhi's voice cracked with sobs. "Please let go!"

One of the thugs let go, and Tang Zhi immediately fell to the ground, only for Dong Yuan to stomp on his chest.

"Look at this big shot, brought down to nothing!"

"I—I have money, please spare me, spare me!"

Dong Yuan sneered, calculating in his mind that he had already spent several thousand yuan paying his respects to his elder brother these past few days.

"What kind of money do you think you have?"

He Shangqiang, standing next to him, tapped the side of Tang Zhi's face with a baton. "A kid from a vegetable stand—how much could he possibly make? Don’t let us come up short!"

Tang Zhi screamed in fear. "My parents saved over 80,000 yuan! Please don't hit me, I'll give you all of it!"

"Big bro, don't fall for it," a kid in junior high school reminded. "What if he's just saying that to buy time and actually goes to grab a kitchen knife?!"

"He wouldn’t have the guts even if you gave him ten lives." Dong Yuan kicked Tang Zhi like a sack of potatoes. "Go get it, and don't even think about holding back a single penny!"

Tang Zhi shivered as he tried to get up, but He Shangqiang shoved him back down, pressing the baton against his throat.

"No way, you’ve got too many tricks. We can’t trust you."

"Tell us where the money is, and we’ll send Brother Zhang to get it."

Tang Zhi was sobbing uncontrollably, so scared he was about to pee his pants.

"Two thousand is hidden on top of a fruit box, wrapped in plastic."

"Another three thousand is in a tea box inside the TV cabinet, it should be over there..."

"And... I can't remember the rest..." He sobbed and hiccuped, begging. "Please, just let me go!"

"Boss, we found the 20,000! Let me count it!"

"Stop babbling," Dong Yuan scolded. "You damn lowlife, hurry up and finish!"

"Hiding such a small amount of money everywhere, it’s laughable!"

Suddenly, Tang Zhi stopped crying.

He looked at everyone present and spoke again in a voice cold enough to freeze the room.

"Do you even know that what you’re doing is a full-blown home invasion, a completed crime?"