It didn’t matter that he couldn’t remember now. Before long, Zhou Heng would reveal everything to Chu Ji, bit by bit, again and again—who he was, and why he’d come here.

Zhou Heng couldn’t wait to see the look of panic on Chu Ji’s face after this pampered young master was treated violently.

A bottle of Assam milk tea suddenly landed beside Chu Ji. He tilted his head and thanked the person standing outside Zhou Heng’s line of sight.

Zhou Heng quickly shifted his gaze away.

He saw someone—or, no, a knife.

In all his life, Zhou Heng had never seen anyone with such a razor-sharp gaze.

Even just meeting that person’s eyes sent a sensation through him like a blade scraping against bone.

A master!!!

And there was more than one.

Zhou Heng narrowed his eyes as another man approached Chu Ji from behind. He was solid muscle from head to toe, and even his oversized school uniform strained against his bulging muscles.

As if sensing an outsider approaching, the man looked up and sized Zhou Heng up.

This guy’s gaze wasn’t as sharp and bone-chilling as the first man’s, but his eyes moved with practiced ease over several of Zhou Heng’s vulnerable joints.

Six eyes met. As Zhou Heng drew closer, a surging undercurrent stirred in the silence between them.

When that undercurrent finally broke the surface, the sharp-eyed student spoke.

“Please…”

The two masters tensed their muscles, their imposing presence crashing down like a mountainside and spreading over everything.

Zhou Heng’s heart tightened. He made a quick turn and headed away from Chu Ji.

There’s no shame in running when you can’t win.

Seeing Zhou Heng leave,

the muscular student frowned, then angrily snapped at the sharp-eyed student.

“All you do is glare at people with those dog eyes of yours! A cute girl like that might’ve been here to confess to the young master, and you glared her right off. What’s the big idea?”

The sharp-eyed student turned and shot back angrily,

“Oh, that’s rich! The second you showed up, you were checking that beauty out from head to toe, too. If I’ve got dog eyes, then you’ve got cat eyes, damn it. We’re both the same, so don’t act like you’re any better.”

Chu Ji raised a hand and asked, puzzled,

“A cute girl? Wasn’t that person a boy?”

The two arguing students froze.

The muscular student was the first to laugh.

“The young master’s such a joker. How could a boy be that cute?”

The sharp-eyed student chimed in, too.

“Exactly, exactly! If the young master weren’t here and I weren’t stuck on duty, I nearly went over there to get on my knees and beg him to date me.”

The muscular student bristled.

“Hey, if I said I was into that hottie too, would you try to steal him from me?”

The sharp-eyed student didn’t back down.

“What, you wanna see what I can do?”

The muscular student cracked his knuckles.

“A beauty belongs with the strong.”

Chu Ji glanced at his two bodyguards and classmates, who were ready to tear into each other. He seemed used to this sort of thing, and just shook his head without saying a word.

Meanwhile,

Zhou Heng returned to the patch of shadow where Zhang Xuan and Lu Yile were waiting.

His two close friends stared at him, baffled that he’d come back empty-handed.

“Zhou Heng, why’d you turn back halfway?”

“Yeah, yeah! You’d already gotten close to Chu Ji. Even if someone showed up, you could’ve made up an excuse and taken him away. Then you could’ve followed the whole plan and gotten everything out of him.”

Zhou Heng punched Zhang Xuan and Lu Yile once each. Both close friends grimaced in pain.

“What the hell do you know? Those two are definitely Chu Ji’s bodyguards. The moment they saw me approach him, their hair practically stood on end. Damn, they were so hostile I almost dropped to my knees.”

Still shaken, Zhou Heng looked toward Chu Ji.

The original plan had counted on Chu Ji being alone, with no one accompanying him. That way, they could pressure him into giving in.

But with bodyguards around, everything changed. Just looking at those two, it was obvious they weren’t ordinary people. They might be able to scare Chu Ji, but that didn’t mean they could scare his bodyguards. And if the negotiation went badly and things turned ugly, Zhou Heng couldn’t beat the two of them working together.

With the initiative and the upper hand both in the enemy’s hands, there wasn’t much point in negotiating.

“But Zhou Heng, do you have any other choice?”

Holding the spot where Zhou Heng had hit him, Lu Yile looked at Zhou Heng helplessly.

“We don’t have the leverage to go toe-to-toe with Chu Ji. If you don’t go to him now, are you planning to wait until he’s alone and grab him then? We’ve only got one day.”

Zhou Heng sighed.

There was always another way. It was just a question of how far Zhou Heng was willing to go. His chances of succeeding on his own were slim, so he’d have to ask someone for help.

Zhou Heng spread his hands helplessly.

“Things didn’t go as planned. We’ll put the original plan on hold and switch to another one.”

“I really don’t want to use this plan, but we’re out of options.”