There were three people standing in front of Zhou Heng.

Two men and a student. One of the men was shirtless, with black descending-tiger tattoos covering his back and arms. He held a small knife, slowly tracing it across the student’s face.

The other man was fully dressed, a cigarette between his lips as he smoked at his leisure. When he saw Zhou Heng approaching, he turned his head and raised an eyebrow at him.

The warning in that gesture couldn’t have been clearer.

Zhou Heng didn’t back down. He kept walking toward them.

The man with the cigarette laughed.

The man with the knife turned around, his cruel features twisting with anger as he spat out a venomous threat.

“Get lost…”

In the next instant, Zhou Heng vanished. The man with the knife felt a sharp pain in his stomach and doubled over.

The wind whistled past. Zhou Heng turned his head, and an iron bar just barely missed his ear.

“You little punk, you’re asking to die!”

The wind whistled again. Zhou Heng tracked the iron bar’s swing and raised his arm to shield his side. His forearm met the bar, just as expected. The dull pain didn’t make him cry out or clutch his arm and retreat. Zhou Heng had grown up around fights, and he knew how to tense his muscles and throw a punch.

As for taking a beating—and striking back afterward—he’d mastered that, too.

His fist slammed into the man with the cigarette’s chin. It was packed with nerves, so the blow didn’t need to be especially brutal. With enough force, it could knock a person unconscious.

The iron bar clanged against the ground, and the man collapsed.

Zhou Heng picked up the iron bar.

Across from him, the man who’d been stabbed in the stomach had recovered enough to stand. He hid the small knife behind his back.

Zhou Heng spoke in an unhurried voice.

“Do you believe I’d kill you?”

The tattooed man froze. Sweat broke out across his forehead.

It wasn’t that he was a coward. People his age might threaten and extort others, or beat them violently, but they wouldn’t go so far as to kill or seriously injure anyone.

He knew exactly what was and wasn’t worth doing.

Kids were different. More than once, he’d seen clueless children beat someone and then keep stabbing until the person was nearly dead, leaving all the old hands in the underworld staring in shock.

In a way, the man would rather pick a fight with the boss of this neighborhood than cross a kid who didn’t know when to stop.

Especially a strong kid.

Zhou Heng lowered the iron bar behind his back and nodded to the student.

The student followed Zhou Heng as he walked away.

The man with the knife thought it over for a moment, but in the end, he didn’t follow them.

They’d walked a long way before Zhou Heng finally tossed the iron bar aside.

Only then did Wang Ping let out a breath. Trembling, he said to Zhou Heng,

“Thanks…”

“No need to thank me. Classmates should help each other.”

As soon as he finished speaking, two figures darted up beside Zhou Heng and draped an arm over each of his shoulders.

Lu Yile, on his right, thumped Zhou Heng on the chest and said excitedly,

“See? I knew you were the best fighter, Zhou Heng. Those two punks were asking for it. They should’ve run the moment they saw you, but they had to wait until you threw a punch before they’d back down. What a couple of idiots.”

Zhang Xuan, on Zhou Heng’s left, copied Lu Yile’s tough-guy tone.

“You were amazing, Zhou Heng! That punch, that dodge—I almost popped my eyes out watching you!”

Zhou Heng snorted, shook his two friends’ arms off, and struck a bodybuilding pose. He wasn’t bragging: he’d trained his body since childhood. With his family’s breathing techniques and all kinds of fitness exercises, he’d never met anyone with a better physique than his.

“Look at this—see how strong I am? Check out these eight-pack abs, these bulging biceps, these iron-hard traps. A man ought to have a physique like this.”

After basking in his friends’ envy for long enough, Zhou Heng turned to check on Wang Ping, the student he’d just rescued. But he looked around and couldn’t find so much as a trace of him.

“That guy snuck off just now.”

The smile froze on Zhou Heng’s face.

He knew all too well that his reputation at school was awful. Fights, gang activity, extortion—anything involving gangsters or crime got pinned on Zhou Heng, even though he was actually a pretty law-abiding student.

Wang Ping had probably heard the rumors about Zhou Heng, too. Even though Zhou Heng had stepped in to save him, it hadn’t been enough to erase his dislike of him.

He’d waited until Zhou Heng wasn’t paying attention, then slipped away.

It was no big deal if he left. The real worry was that Wang Ping might run his mouth and twist the story of how Zhou Heng had saved him, making Zhou Heng’s already terrible reputation even worse.

This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened to Zhou Heng.

People’s words could be cruel. So could their hearts.

At first, when things like this happened, Zhou Heng would get furious. By now, he couldn’t be bothered to care about the shamelessness of people like that.

“Forget it. Let’s stop worrying about Wang Ping and get something to eat.”

What better way to drown your sorrows than barbecue, beer, and skewers?

They’d said they were going for skewers and barbecue, but with money to spare and a deal from an online app, Zhou Heng ended up choosing the buffet on the second floor of a three-star hotel.

It was 198 yuan per person at full price, but 99 at the discounted rate—and there was a buy-two-get-one-free deal. That brought it to less than 70 yuan each. All three boys, Zhou Heng included, thought it was a bargain.

Each of them went to get a plate of food they liked, then sat down and ate at their own pace.

Zhou Heng had a plate of cheese-baked lobster and was focused on eating it.

“Hey…”

Halfway through his meal, Zhang Xuan made a strange sound and tapped Zhou Heng. Reluctantly, Zhou Heng lifted his gaze from the cheese-baked lobster and looked where Zhang Xuan was pointing.

It was the entrance to the buffet restaurant.

“Isn’t this just the same old rich guy with a pretty girl routine? Zhang Xuan, you’re making a big deal out of nothing.”

What was so strange about a fat rich guy with his arms around a tall, aloof beauty?

“Wait, I think I know that woman.”

Lu Yile stroked the few wisps of facial hair on his chin—hardly enough to count as a beard—and put on a thoughtful expression.

Zhang Xuan snorted and reminded him,

“Of course you know her. She’s our classmate. I’ll give you a hint: her surname is Su.”

“Su Mo!”

Lu Yile clapped his hands in realization. As soon as he confirmed her name, his mind conjured up a stack of alarming dossiers: her name, age, home address, personal details—even her measurements.

Lu Yile might’ve been bad at school and useless in a fight, but when it came to gossip and the big names around campus, nobody knew more than he did.

“Su Mo? That sounds kind of familiar. I feel like I’ve heard that name somewhere.”

“Zhou Heng, are you an idiot? Su Mo’s the genius at our school who’s never been knocked off the top of the exam rankings. She gets nearly perfect scores in every subject. Compared to her, we’re all hopeless.”

Zhang Xuan spoke with admiration, but his eyes kept wandering over Su Mo’s ** skin in the distance. His gaze was so slick and greasy that even watching him was uncomfortable.

“The top student’s pretty cute, huh? She usually wears those adorable school uniforms, all covered up. Now that she’s dressed in something more **, you can see she’s got a great figure. Especially with that long black hair and that proud look on her face. Any guy would want to pin her down. If I were a rich guy, I’d definitely keep a cute girl like her.”

Zhou Heng frowned and scolded him.

“Watch your mouth, Zhang Xuan. Don’t talk about our classmate in such a disgusting way. Maybe Su Mo’s here with her father or another older relative. It’d be bad if we caused a misunderstanding.”

Lu Yile agreed with Zhou Heng and chimed in.

“True. The top student’s so serious, and she’s never even had a rumor about her at school. How could she possibly be doing compensated dating?”

Shameless as ever, Zhang Xuan immediately abandoned his earlier position.

“Exactly. I looked into the top student’s family. They’re at least upper-middle-class. Her father owns three properties alone, and he has at least five cars. Why would she need to do ** for money?”

Leaving Zhou Heng to work on his cheese-baked lobster, Zhang Xuan and Lu Yile exchanged a look and spoke in unison.

“It’s definitely a misunderstanding. Yeah, definitely a misunderstanding. The top student can’t be that kind of person.”

……

“Hey, where’d you get these three waiter uniforms? And how’d you get your hands on this cleaning cart?”

“Shut up! Zhou Heng, we’re in the middle of a life-or-death master plan. What if someone hears you talking so loudly?”

Zhang Xuan straightened his waiter uniform and stared straight at Su Mo as she and the rich man entered Room 305.

“Hey, even if Su Mo really is being kept by that guy, what’s it got to do with us? Her life is her business. Isn’t it wrong for you to meddle like this?”

“Zhou Heng, what do you know? Su Mo’s only seventeen. She’s at the age when a girl should be blossoming, but she’s already given herself to a rich, disgusting pig. We’re her classmates—we have to help her wake up before it’s too late. We can’t let a girl like her ruin her life over some momentary greed.”

“That all sounds nice, but who knows what you’re really thinking?”

“What? We’re only looking out for our classmate. We don’t have any dirty thoughts. Don’t believe me? Look into my eyes—they’re as clear as water.”

They both pointed at their own eyes.

Well, Zhang Xuan’s eyes said desire and jealousy, while one of Lu Yile’s said gossip and the other curiosity.

Sure enough, their eyes were clear as water—clear enough to reveal exactly what they were thinking.

“Okay, I get what you’re thinking. I’m not playing along. I haven’t even finished that cheese-baked lobster.”

Zhou Heng took off his waiter uniform.

Lu Yile immediately stopped him.

“You’re abandoning us?”

“I’m just not interested in this kind of indecent behavior.”

“You’re really going to let the two of us head into battle without any moral support?”

“Sounds to me like you just want another person to take the fall for you.”

“You’re my brother. I’ve always trusted you. Even though you’ve always looked down on me, I never thought you’d abandon me at the decisive moment.”

“Don’t put yourself in the weaker position just to get sympathy. And don’t make me sound like some useless deserter.”