Chapter 424 — Feng Xiaoxiao Wants Revenge: Not Yet Sure How to Deal with Wei Zhao, She Was Nonetheless Too Embarrassed to Face Him After Being Drenched Like a Drowned Rat at Noon

Never in all her life had she met with anything so humiliating — and this time she had actually fallen right into Wei Zhao's hands.

What Feng Xiaoxiao did not expect, however, was that when she returned to the classroom Wei Zhao was nowhere in sight, and that detail let her breathe a sigh of relief.

"Hey... beautiful girl, do you know my boss?" Kang Xiaobo turned his head around. He was rather curious about Feng Xiaoxiao's identity — clearly she had come here for Wei Zhao — but he could not very well press Wei Zhao about it himself. Now that Wei Zhao was out of the classroom, this was the perfect moment to ask Feng Xiaoxiao.

"Wei Zhao is your boss?" Feng Xiaoxiao, for her part, had been wanting to find someone who knew Wei Zhao well, so she could learn about him from the side.

"That's right — I'm his underling!" Kang Xiaobo declared, beaming with pride, as though being Wei Zhao's underling were something glorious.

"Oh..." Feng Xiaoxiao's eyes shifted slyly and an idea came to her. She said to Kang Xiaobo, "Let me tell you something in secret. You won't tell anyone, okay? Including your boss, Wei Zhao."

"Well..." Kang Xiaobo wavered at once. He did want to hear what Feng Xiaoxiao had to say, yet keeping it from Wei Zhao hardly seemed right.

"If you won't agree, then I won't say it." Seeing Kang Xiaobo hesitate, Feng Xiaoxiao promptly put a rather weighty chip on the table: "It's about why I came looking for your boss..."

Sure enough, Kang Xiaobo's interest was piqued the moment he heard that. He scratched at his ears and cheeks for a good while, wavering. "Then... then tell me. I just won't say anything to the boss!"

"Whatever you do, don't tell — otherwise I'll be mortified!" Feng Xiaoxiao fixed Kang Xiaobo with a look and put on a pitiful, woebegone face.

"Don't worry — I do what I say. I swear I won't tell the boss!" Kang Xiaobo thumped his chest to guarantee it. Still, Kang Xiaobo was no fool: he had promised Feng Xiaoxiao not to tell Wei Zhao, but he had said nothing about not telling Tang Yun. When the time came he could tell Tang Yun directly, and Tang Yun could pass it along to Wei Zhao, and that would have nothing to do with him.

"Actually... I like Wei Zhao. I transferred schools for his sake." Feng Xiaoxiao blushed and told Kang Xiaobo in a low voice.

"Ah?!?" Kang Xiaobo's eyes went wide the instant he heard it. "You... you have a crush on my boss?"

"Mm..." Feng Xiaoxiao nodded. "You absolutely must not tell anyone..."

"That... don't worry, I promised..." Kang Xiaobo was in a spot now, too. This sort of thing really was awkward to pass on to Tang Yun — it sounded awfully gossipy.

"Hey, can you tell me some things about Wei Zhao? I'd like to know him better..." In Feng Xiaoxiao's view, everything Zou Ruoming and Zhong Yongliang had told her was secondhand; only Kang Xiaobo, who was with Wei Zhao day in and day out, could be believed.

"But you know — the boss already has a girlfriend. Your chances are awfully slim..." Kang Xiaobo sighed, secretly thinking that the boss was truly blessed: every girl who fell for him was as pretty and sweet as could be.

"It doesn't matter, I don't mind. I don't care about status or title — I only want to stay quietly at his side. I won't fight over anything." Feng Xiaoxiao shook her head and spoke with a pitiful, wounded air.

"Huh?!" Kang Xiaobo froze. Were there still girls like that these days? By rights, with Feng Xiaoxiao's qualities, she could have had any boyfriend she pleased — and yet she would take Wei Zhao without even caring about status?

The boss was certainly outstanding, but Kang Xiaobo still envied him for it, and he began to feel a little sorry for Feng Xiaoxiao: "So what you mean is, you want to stay quietly at his side, giving everything and asking nothing in return?"

"Mm..." Feng Xiaoxiao nodded.

"The boss is here — we'll talk about it next time..." Kang Xiaobo raised his head and saw Wei Zhao walk into the classroom, and he hastily shut his mouth.

Wei Zhao drove Tang Yun back to school. Although there had been no traffic along the way, he was still a little late, and did not walk onto the campus until after the first afternoon class had let out. What astonished Wei Zhao was that Feng Xiaoxiao, having changed into a fresh set of clothes, seemed to have forgotten all about what had happened in the restroom at noon. She gave him no trouble at all — she did not even raise the matter.

What Wei Zhao found even more unbelievable was that the whole afternoon passed in perfect peace, with Feng Xiaoxiao saying nothing further to him.

What did strike Wei Zhao as odd was the rather strange look Kang Xiaobo kept giving him.

It was not that Feng Xiaoxiao had nothing to say — she had simply not yet found a strategy for dealing with Wei Zhao. She was not about to let him off so easily. Being drenched head to foot with his urine was nothing short of a lifelong humiliation; she had never been made to look so ridiculous in all her days!

But for the time being, Feng Xiaoxiao could find no angle from which to strike back at Wei Zhao. On the one hand, she wanted him to teach her to drive, so she could not afford to offend him too severely.

That brain-dead suggestion of Zou Ruoming's, for instance — she absolutely could not accept it. If anything were done to Tang Yun, Wei Zhao and she would truly become mortal enemies, and that would defeat her original purpose entirely.

Ideally, Wei Zhao would be taught a lesson without suffering any real loss — simply humiliated, made as mortified as she herself had been at noon, and that would be enough...

As the school day was drawing to a close, the homeroom teacher, Teacher Liu, came into the classroom and stepped up to the lectern: "Everyone quiet down, please — I have an announcement! Tomorrow our graduating class will hold a tree-planting activity. Behind the school there is an open lot, the place where every graduating class before you has planted trees. We are about to graduate and scatter to the four winds, and so that we can leave some memento at our alma mater, everyone may plant a tree in this lot. Years from now, when you return to your alma mater, it will mean something quite special."

Teacher Liu's words were met with a burst of applause from the class. Senior year was dull and repetitive — almost every day was the same cycle of reading, doing problem sets, and taking tests. With an activity like this suddenly on offer, everyone naturally raised their hands in welcome.

"There is no restriction on the kind of sapling. The flower-and-bird market not far from the school sells them, at prices ranging from a few yuan to several hundred, according to one's means. Anyone in genuine difficulty can be funded out of the class fund for a sapling costing only a few yuan," Teacher Liu said. Though there were no poor students in his class, custom required him to say it all the same.

Everyone voiced enthusiastic support. Leaving some memento at their alma mater before graduation was what most of the students wanted. After all, they would soon be leaving; years from now, returning to the school and finding the little sapling they had planted with their own hands already grown tall would stir a feeling quite unlike any other.

"Brother Liang, I think this is a great opportunity!" Gao Xiaofu said, having listened to Teacher Liu's announcement, and he offered the suggestion to Zhong Yongliang.