Chapter 2436 — Youpan Hu Frowns

Memory cards were worth next to nothing; for the robbers to take them back would be pure chicken ribs, and besides, with those things inside the cameras and phones, the loot would be a pain to fence.

Youpan Hu, seated not far off, knit his brows. What sort of people had Grandfather sent him, anyway? A robbery was a robbery, so why put on such an act? Just take the cash and be done with it; what did they want with all this junk? What a waste of time!

Kang Zhaolong caught Youpan Hu's frown and guessed at his thoughts, so he offered some reassurance. "Brother You, your grandfather has thought this through very carefully. If these men come up and grab only cash, leaving the other valuables behind, would they still be robbers? This whole busload of students, even if they took only money, how much could they get? Otherwise, with Wei Zhao's sharpness, he'd surely notice something was off. When Heaven-Rank experts show up to commit a robbery, isn't that using a sledgehammer to crack a nut?"

"Hmm... I suppose you have a point..." Youpan Hu suddenly remembered that his real aim was Han Jingyi's tablet. If they didn't rob the others of their phones, cameras, and laptops first, how were they supposed to rob Han Jingyi of her tablet?

It seemed he had been a bit too impatient. Grandfather really was the cunning old fox! If they robbed only Han Jingyi, Wei Zhao would certainly grow suspicious, but if they robbed everyone, then Wei Zhao would never suspect a thing. The only thing that galled Kang Zhaolong was: was this so-called third robber brain-dead or what?

He actually had the students keep their memory cards and just wipe the data off their phones. What if, when the time came, Han Jingyi wiped the data off her tablet too? Wouldn't he have gone to all that trouble just to carry a piece of junk home?

On the face of it, this operation looked like the Hidden You family currying favor with the Kang family, helping Kang Zhaoming create an opportunity to play the hero and save the beauty. But what the Hidden You family had sent out were early-stage Heaven-Rank experts! The Hidden You family did keep several Heaven-Rank retainers, and Old Master You was himself a Heaven-Rank expert, but these Heaven-Rank retainers were not the Hidden You family's subordinates; they merely held the fort there for the sake of mutual benefit.

The Hidden You family supplied them with rare cultivation treasures or pills, and in return these people lent a hand when the You family ran into trouble. If not for the exorbitant price Wei Zhao demanded for his information, the man gobbling up all sorts of fine things like a bottomless pit, Old Master You would never have thought of seizing Han Jingyi's tablet under the guise of currying favor with Kang Zhaolong.

It was fair to say Old Master You was no fool. An opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, pleasing the Kang family while secretly lining his own pockets, was not something he would let slip. If it were merely to curry favor with the Kang family by sending out a Heaven-Rank expert, Old Master You would certainly never do it; that would be sheer idle foolishness.

Of course, Youpan Hu could not tell Kang Zhaolong about this incidental motive, and so Kang Zhaolong was deeply grateful to him.

"What are you two students muttering about back there?" The second robber shot Kang Zhaolong and Youpan Hu a glare and barked, "Shut your mouths and hand over the good stuff like good little lambs!"

"Oh..." Youpan Hu nodded. He's putting on quite the show, he thought. This way, no one would ever suspect these robbers had any connection to him!

Taking in the scene before her, Han Jingyi sighed in resignation and pulled out her tablet, preparing to wipe all the data from it. After all, it contained a great many of her alchemy notes and insights, and she did not want them circulating.

Out of the corner of his eye, Youpan Hu saw Han Jingyi take out her tablet and was instantly frantic. He nearly lunged forward to stop her, but reason told him he absolutely must not. If he did, Han Jingyi and Wei Zhao would surely grow suspicious. But if he did not stop her, the data would be gone, and that was hardly what Youpan Hu wanted!

Just as Youpan Hu was caught in a dilemma, Wei Zhao spoke up. "No need to delete anything. Those robbers wouldn't understand this stuff anyway."

"Oh..." Han Jingyi hesitated for a moment, but in the end she followed Wei Zhao's advice, closed the tablet, and set it aside.

Youpan Hu let out a long breath of relief. He truly wanted to run up and plant two kisses on Wei Zhao. He was so grateful. Thank you, thank you!

But just as Youpan Hu was cheering on his side, trouble broke out on the other!

The fourth robber was heard interrogating a male student in glasses. "How come you've got so little on you? Are you hiding something?"

"I... I'm not... I'm not hiding anything..." the bespectacled student stammered.

"Nothing?" The fourth robber's eyes bulged with fury. "Then why are you so nervous?"

With that, the fourth robber began to search the bespectacled student's person. Finding nothing, he started going through his backpack, and sure enough, inside he found a brand-new full-frame DSLR camera, an ultra-thin Apple laptop, and a latest-model handheld game console!

It had to be said, this boy was well stocked. Everything on him was high-end digital gear; these items alone were worth tens of thousands of yuan.

"You little brat, you dared to lie to me?" The fourth robber swung his fist and planted a solid punch right in the bespectacled student's face. His gold-rimmed glasses went flying, half his teeth were knocked loose, and several bloody bubbles welled up in his mouth...

Watching the scene unfold, the white-collar leader felt rather helpless. He knew the boy's family background: they ran a pharmaceutical factory and were filthy rich. The boy really was a cheapskate. To get beaten up over a few tens of thousands of yuan was truly not worth it!

But behind them, Youpan Hu frowned. He was secretly annoyed that the fourth robber was making far too much of a fuss. So the boy wouldn't hand it over, so what? Why resort to violence? If this drew Wei Zhao out to intervene and provoked a backlash from the other students, things would spiral out of control!

"Brother You, actually these men are just putting on a full show," Kang Zhaolong whispered. "Think about it. He's surely laying the groundwork for giving Wang Xinyan trouble in a moment. Right now he's only using the boy in glasses for practice. If he suddenly went after Wang Xinyan, everyone would find it very strange. But now that there's the precedent of the boy in glasses, what comes next will flow naturally..."

"You're right!" Youpan Hu nodded. He really had been too impatient. These men did everything by a set pattern; they were not acting at random.

Now that the boy in glasses had been made an example of for hiding his things and refusing to hand them over, none of the remaining students dared conceal anything anymore!

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