Chapter 94: It All Began with the School Badge

Whatever the case, the appointed hour was nearly upon them. Zhang Shen decided that, as for whether Meng Ran’s mouth could ever spit out ivory, he would not bother with it anymore. He would simply make careful preparations himself and see the beauty whose face he had failed to glimpse that night.

Just as Zhang Shen was about to leave, Meng Ran shouted after him again, “Brother Zhang, remember: safety first, and be sure to take proper precautions!”

Zhang Shen was utterly defeated by that fat slob’s words.

He had only meant to go to an appointment, yet from Meng Ran’s mouth it somehow sounded as though the matter had taken on a completely different flavor.

Zhang Shen shot Meng Ran a glare and strode out of the dormitory.

By the time Zhang Shen reached the school park, it was already about ten to eight. Watching the stream of people passing to and fro, he could not help thinking that he had joined the school a little too late; otherwise, it would have been nice to meet a few more long-legged girls.

At that thought, his grip on the envelope tightened unconsciously. Who on earth could have thought of writing a love letter? And if it truly were a classmate from the school, they surely would not be foolish enough to send it directly to the principal’s office desk!

At this moment, Zhang Shen’s curiosity about this mysterious person grew stronger by the second.

Before long, the sky had begun to darken, and the appointed time had already long passed. A different suspicion rose in Zhang Shen’s heart: could this be a prank?

Recalling Hao Lei’s unusual behavior that day, Zhang Shen kept feeling that something was off. Could a single love letter really be enough to make Hao Lei criticize him in front of the entire class? It all seemed far too strange.

But if it were true, why had the one who asked him to meet still not shown up? Thinking of this, Zhang Shen could not help taking out the envelope and examining it once more.

This time, he studied it even more carefully, unwilling to miss even the slightest clue.

After turning it over and over a dozen times, Zhang Shen finally confirmed that the only words on it were: “Eight tonight, meet at the school park. Remember to bring the item.”

After waiting in vain, Zhang Shen no longer wished to stand there stupidly any longer. He turned to leave the park.

Yet the moment he turned his head, something hard seemed to press against his back. Then, from behind him came a young woman’s voice.

“Don’t move. Did you bring what I asked for?”

Before Zhang Shen could even confirm the other party’s identity, he naturally played dumb and said, “Miss, I think you may have the wrong person. I don’t even know you, let alone what you want me to bring.”

“Cut the nonsense. If you don’t talk, believe me, I’ll stab you to death.”

The young woman’s tone was a little fierce, but Zhang Shen remained unfazed.

“Miss, grievances have their source and debts have their owners. At least tell me who you are!”

Zhang Shen was not frightened senseless by the dagger in the girl’s hand. Instead, he reasoned earnestly with her in a patient tone.

No one knew whether the girl had been baffled by Zhang Shen’s persistent coaxing, but her tone suddenly changed completely.

“Big brother, can you give me that golden card? It’s really important to me!”

Hearing this, Zhang Shen finally realized that the girl hiding behind him was the one who had handed him the black bag that night.

“You’re the one from that night...”

Before he could finish, the girl cut in directly. “Yes, it was me. I’m here to take back what belongs to me.”

“What belongs to you?”

Zhang Shen could not help questioning it inwardly. If it was really yours, then why had you that night been so frightened, like a mouse seeing a cat, wanting nothing more than to wash your hands of the whole thing and, for no reason at all, thrust the black bag into a stranger’s hands?

By now, Zhang Shen could clearly feel that the sharp object once pressed against his waist had been withdrawn. He turned around, wanting to see the girl’s face.

Standing before him was a young woman with delicate features. She did not possess Ye Qiong’s air of wealth, nor Jiang Muyun’s docility, nor Mu Qiao’s cool aloofness, yet she had a charm all her own.

“Are you from our school?”

Seeing her face, Zhang Shen felt certain he had never seen her around the school before, and so he could not help asking out of curiosity.

“No.”

“Oh, then that’s good!”

Zhang Shen answered instinctively, but the girl, upon hearing this, felt something entirely different.

Seeing the confusion in the girl’s eyes, Zhang Shen could only excuse himself with, “Nothing.” What she did not know was that, in his heart, he was simply thinking that this fine cabbage had thankfully not been ruined by the school’s pigs.

“Then I hope you can give me that golden card.”

Since she was asking a favor of him, and such a beauty besides, Zhang Shen’s playful nature naturally rose at once.

“Actually, it’s easy enough to give you the golden card. You have to answer a few questions first. Otherwise, how could I possibly hand it over to you with peace of mind?”

The girl said nothing at that. Although Zhang Shen had treated her like some kind of villain, as long as she told the truth, she should still be able to get the golden card without trouble.

“What is your name?”

“This... does that count as interrogating a criminal?”

The girl grew a little irritated at the intrusion into her private matters.

“This is just normal procedure. Think about it: even if you lost something, you’d still have to verify another person’s basic information before handing it over, wouldn’t you?”

The girl simply nodded. “Huang Wanting.”

“Then the second question is: since you’re not from our school, how did you get in?”

Hearing this, Huang Wanting looked rather flustered. After all, in Zhang Shen’s view, without a school ID card it was absolutely impossible to enter the school; he himself had learned that lesson firsthand from the principal’s move.

“You have to keep this a secret for me once I tell you.”

“Go on.” Zhang Shen merely thought that Huang Wanting surely could not have climbed over the wall to get in.

Yet the answer that came next truly left him dumbstruck.

“I originally came in through the school gate, but the security guard said I couldn’t enter without a school ID card. And I couldn’t think of any other way, so I had a duplicate made at a print shop nearby based on my memory.”

As she spoke, Huang Wanting took out the school ID card she had made that afternoon and handed it to Zhang Shen.

When Zhang Shen looked at it, he found that aside from the name and the photo being different, every other detail was exactly the same as his own.

“You had this carved out from mine as a model?”

Zhang Shen was somewhat astonished.

“Yes. It was just that I was in such a hurry that night that I had no time to remember it that carefully.”

In Zhang Shen’s view, to be able to remember so much from just one glance was already no easy feat. If this girl was a good person, he was confident he could train her into a master of medicine.

“No, that’s not right. My school ID card also has my class listed on it. Why didn’t you just send the letter directly to the class? Why did you have to deliver it to the principal’s office?”